This paper establishes a Kantian duty against screen overexposure. After defining screen exposure, I adopt a Kantian approach to its morality on the ground that Kant’s notion of duties to oneself easily captures wrongdoing in absence of harm or wrong to others. Then, I draw specifically on Kant’s ‘duties to oneself as an animal being’ to introduce a duty of self-government. This duty is based on the negative causal impact of the activities it regulates on a human being’s mental and (...) physical powers, and, ultimately, on the moral employment of these powers. After doing so, I argue that the duty against screen overexposure is an instance of the duty of self-government. Finally, I consider some objections. (shrink)

These comments raise two main points based on Walschots’s response to Kleingeld’s ‘volitional’ interpretation of the contradiction involved in Kant’s Formula of Universal Law. The first concerns Walschots’s claim that, contrary to Kleingeld’s own account, her interpretation must in fact assume at least one essential purpose of the will, namely happiness. While Walschots characterises happiness as a necessary end of all rational beings, I clarify on textual grounds that, for Kant, happiness can be safely assumed as an actual end of (...) all rational finite beings. The second point regards Walschots’s claim that Kleingeld’s interpretation should be clearer on the two ways in which a volitional self-contradiction can arise. Drawing on Walschots’s instructive discussion, and on Timmermann’s conservative defence of a more traditional interpretation of the Formula against Kleingeld’s innovative proposal, I cautiously suggest that Kleingeld might end up having to accommodate three contradictions: the traditional contradictions in conception and in the will, and her volitional self-contradiction. (shrink)

In Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason Kant speaks of an ethical state of nature and of an ethico-civil condition, with explicit reference to the juridical state of nature and the juridico-civil condition he discusses at length in his legal-political writings. Given that the Religion is the only work where Kant introduces a parallel between these concepts, one might think that this is only a loose analogy, serving a merely illustrative function. The paper provides a first outline of the (...) similarities and the differences between the state of nature and the civil condition in Right and in ethics. The comparison points to a deeper, structural relation between the two pairs of concepts. By doing so, it makes room for developing a unitary conception of the state of nature and of the civil condition, which would underlie both the ethical and the juridical version. (shrink)

The paper lays the foundations for a duty of sustainable property use based on Kant’s Doctrine of Right. In doing so, it contributes to the project of extending the application of Kant’s philosophy to environmental issues so as to include his legal-political philosophy. After providing some context, focusing in particular on Kant’s property argument, I present and critically evaluate a recent argument for a duty of sustainable property use, put forward by Attila Ataner. Then, I draw on Reinhard Brandt’s and (...) Katrin Flikschuh’s interpretation of Kant’s permissive law in order to develop my own argument. According to my account, the duty of sustainable property use is rooted in Kant’s property argument, it is best construed in terms of interpersonal freedom, and it has a structure resembling that of duties of distributive justice. Unlike Ataner’s, my argument proceeds entirely within the domain of interpersonal freedom; it focuses clearly on the normative sense of usability; it does not overgenerate obligations; and it categorises the duty of sustainable property use within Kant’s taxonomy of duties. It thus constitutes a promising starting point to further investigate the connection between sustainability, Kant’s property argument and its use of a permissive law, and the Universal Principle of Right. (shrink)

In his ‘Pricing Carbon for Climate Justice’, Alexandre Sayegh develops the connections between climate justice and climate economics. More specifically, the paper focuses on how ‘market-based instr...

The Expanse does not provide an easy answer to the vexing question on making a decision when competing, but considering conflicts of values on the show can help us reason about tough choices in real life. Sometimes, scientific progress conflicts with the prudential value of self‐preservation. This chapter explains three ways of understanding value conflicts: as situations in which every option is forbidden, situations in which every option is permissible, or situations in which some options are obligatory and some options (...) are forbidden. The idea that all these different kinds of value can be traded with a common currency is tempting. But contra Keats, beauty is not truth; and it certainly is not goodness, as Tolstoy says. Epistemic, moral, prudential, and aesthetic values are very different. (shrink)

In Resp. 509c7 and 9 Socrates declares that he has omitted many things in the exposition of the analogy between the supreme Good and the sun. In fact Socrates’ exposition leaves some questions open which are seminal with regard to the interpretation of the aforesaid analogy : 1) Why Plato designates the sun as analogon of the Good? 2) Why the original manifestation of the Good consists in a plurality of intelligible beings? 3) Why the original manifestation of the Good (...) consists not only in a purely objective intelligible being, but also in an intellect, that is in a form of consciousness? 4) How can be explained the fact that Plato perceives the Good as origin not only of intelligible, but also of physical reality? While the first question can be simply answered by referring to the infinite manifestativity of the Good, the other three questions require a significant effort in the field of speculation. Basing on some clues given by Plato in the exposition of the analogy between the Good and the sun, this article attempts to answer these questions by conjecturing that Plato could have presupposed the image of an infinite sphere consisting in intelligible light. This image, which could have already been presupposed by Parmenides, would offer a conceptual background capable of explaining on the one hand the unity of intelligibility and intellect characterizing the original manifestation of the Good, on the other hand why in Plato’s perspective the Good can be perceived as origin not only of intelligible, but also of physical light. (shrink)

In the past decade, scholars such as Samuel Freeman, Martin O’Neill, Alan Thomas and others have argued that no matter how widely Rawls’s theory of justice (TJ) was understood as a defence of the welfare state (WS), the socio-economic system Rawls defends and always defended is property-owing democracy (POD). In this article I present the argument that Rawls did not defend POD in TJ. However, while the claim that it was POD the socio-economic system implied by the principle of difference (...) generated heated reactions by defenders of the WS, the argument I raise differs from most of them. In the article I maintain that, for Rawls, principles of justice underdetermine the choice of social systems, and that although this is true of both principles, it is especially true of the difference principle, whose ability to arbitrate between different social and economic policies is limited. I show how the attempt to uniquely determine the set of social and economic policies authorized by the difference principle clashes with what Rawls explicitly states in TJ and contrasts with central aspects of his sociological and political conception of socio-economic decision-making. Although my aim is to show that the difference principle itself does not discriminate among socio-economic systems, this does not preclude that additional reasons can help in narrowing the range of socio-economic systems allowed. With reference to the ideal of social union that Rawls expounds in the third part of TJ, I argue that TJ does, in fact, offer additional reasons to appraise the WS as preferable to POD. I maintain that the centrality Rawls attributes to the social unity of a just society provides the basis for an understanding of Rawls’s position towards POD after TJ. (shrink)

The Winter 2010 issue of Telos has clearly highlighted the relevance of Carl Schmitt's Hamlet or Hecuba to both the interpretation of Schmitt's political theory and Shakespearean criticism. The main thesis concerning Schmitt's intrusion into the literary field deals with the structural relationships between historical context and tragic dimension, between politics and aesthetics; the tragic drama can be properly understood only in relation to the historical context to which it refers and the concrete situation that it aims to re-present. The (...) historical reality that can be glimpsed by focusing on the tragic masks against the light of their contexts represents…. (shrink)

To celebrate his 80th birthday, the Roman universities of Roma Tre and the Pontifical Athenaeum S. Anselmo organised in May 2016 a conference entitled Around Gianni Vattimo. Friends, students and young researchers gathered for a moment of 'conversation' with one of the most important figures in contemporary Italian philosophy to retrace together some of the paths that Vattimo himself traced and opened up during his long academic and political career. Among the various themes of his thought, hermeneutics, Christianity and politics (...) were those privileged by the interventions of these memorable days: these in fact constitute the essential axes of the present volume that makes us re-read the fundamental knots of his philosophy. This work takes place under the banner of a new way of understanding philosophical research, no longer as the conquest of a unique and definitive knowledge, but as an infinite interpretative task, just as Heidegger and Nietzsche, the main authors of reference of the father of 'weak thought', now allow him to understand the search for Being that is given in language. (shrink)

Les auteurs du présent ouvrage nous proposent une manière originale de se réapproprier l'histoire de la philosophie. Par le dialogue, les philosophes de la tradition semblent revivre pour faire le point sur leur cheminement. Socrate, Kant, Marx, Arendt et bien d'autres répondent aux questions de Laure Becdelièvre, Laurence Hansen-Löve et Fabien Lamouche. Au fil de ces conversations imaginaires, nous découvrons comment l'esprit de résistance a pu s'incarner à travers les figures de penseurs aussi profonds que subtils et aussi novateurs qu'insoumis."--Résumé (...) de l'éditeur. (shrink)

Author's hypothesis about Yin yang theory.

La philosophie tragique a eu comme lieu de naissance la pensée nietzschéenne. L'intention de Nietzsche fut d'extraire le terme du tragique du contexte du théâtre pour construire avec lui une réflexion au service de la vie. Notre intention dans cet ouvrage est de comprendre comment la pensée de Rosset suit celle de Nietzsche et à quel moment elle s'éloigne pour écrire sa propre version de la philosophie tragique. Sur ce point nous tentons de répondre : quel est l'apport de Rosset (...) à la lignée de la philosophie tragique? Ou bien quel est l'avantage de suivre une philosophie tragique sans tomber dans la simplicité de l'optimisme? On peut voir que ces questions lient complètement la philosophie et l'éthique et invitent à échapper au sens amer et fataliste qu'habituellement on concède au terme du tragique pour l'ouvrir à la célébration de la vie. Enfin, on insiste sur la question : Rosset est-il vraiment un continuateur de Nietzsche et parvient-il à resémantiser le terme de philosophie tragique pour l'enrichir et l'amplifier, pour le singulariser avec sa propre réflexion? (shrink)

La investigación clínica, entendida como la búsqueda de soluciones para los problemas que acechan a la salud es, por su objetivo, una de las actividades de mayor trascendencia para el ser humano. Esta obra colectiva, como su propio título indica, explora no solo lo mucho que de positivo (las luces) tiene la investigación clínica, cómo se realiza, qué problemas encuentra y qué soluciones se plantean, sino también algunos aspectos negativos (las sombras) que la comunidad científica ha sido, hasta la fecha, (...) incapaz de impedir que se produzcan. (shrink)

La science du bien et du mal n'a jamais existé, et si Platon s'en désolait, nous avons cessé, nous, les Modernes, de nous en offusquer. Et pourtant, des questions d'ordre éthique nous sont incessamment posées aujourd'hui, ni plus ni moins que par le passé: quelles valeurs morales devons-nous promouvoir à l'école? Est-il acceptable d'abandonner à leur sort les familles de migrants fuyant la guerre? Notre pays, la France, doit-il intervenir militairement contre tel ou tel État dit "terroriste"?, etc. Face à (...) de telles interrogations, nous ne pouvons nous contenter de suspendre notre jugement sous couvert de relativisme ("À chacun sa conception du bien et du mal"). Prenant appui sur les réflexions de grands philosophes et théologiens face au défi du mal, tout en interrogeant la montée de nouvelles formes de violences au XXIe siècle, Laurence Hansen-Love pose la question: le bien et le mal sont-ils vraiment des notions obsolètes? Une fois récusée la fausse évidence d'une symétrie entre le bien et le mal, il est possible de prendre acte de la préséance du mal sur le bien. Dès lors, la certitude du mal, posée comme un fait, cesse de contredire l'incertitude du bien, à laquelle il apparaît sage de se résoudre."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

En este artículo se analiza el proceso que llevó a algunos jóvenes italianos, aparentemente alejados de todo vínculo con el terrorismo, a militar en organizaciones armadas entre los años setenta y ochenta, es decir en la época que se llamó “años de plomo”. Se hace especial hincapié en las dinámicas que favorecieron esa radicalización, centrándose exclusivamente en las organizaciones de extrema izquierda. Tras un análisis de los elementos de la radicalización terrorista a nivel macro, meso y micro, el estudio se (...) focaliza en el caso italiano identificando pautas y patrones recurrentes en el proceso de radicalización hacia el terrorismo. (shrink)

What comes after "postmodernism"?

La découverte de l'oeuvre de Benjamin fut, pour Michael Löwy, une émotion qui a ébranlé bien des convictions et dont l'onde de choc s'est ressentie pendant plus de quarante années dans toute sa recherche sur les formes hétérodoxes du marxisme en Europe ou en Amérique latine. A la vision d'une révolution comme "locomotive de l'histoire" roulant inexorablement dans le sens du progrès, décrite par Marx dans La lutte des classes en France, Benjamin propose une version de la révolution comme "frein (...) d'urgence", annonçant très tôt une critique du progrès et de la croissance, qui se développera plus tard dans la pensée critique et l'écologie radicale. Les essais rassemblés ici se concentrent sur la dimension révolutionnaire de l'oeuvre de Benjamin, où s'imbriquent et se confondent une approche inspirée d'un matérialisme historique, évidemment non orthodoxe, et des conceptions issues du messianisme juif, repensé à l'aune de son "amitié stellaire" avec son complice Gershom Scholem. (shrink)

En los últimos años se han desarrollado diversas soluciones subestructurales a las paradojas semánticas. En particular, se han postulado teorías no transitivas, no contractivas, no reflexivas y, recientemente, no monotónicas. Sin embargo, cuando dichas soluciones son presentadas mediante cálculos de secuentes surge el problema de la dependencia. En pocas palabras, este problema consiste en que no es posible separar las reglas estructurales de la formulación de las otras reglas del cálculo. En este artículo, presentaré este problema y mostraré que, de (...) hecho, es posible construir un cálculo que no contiene ninguna regla estructural de manera explícita y que, sin embargo, resulta trivial al agregarle un predicado veritativo transparente con ciertos axiomas. Luego, delimitaré los alcances de dicho problema, concluyendo que la metodología correcta para seleccionar una solución subestructural a las paradojas semánticas debe basarse en argumentos filosóficos y, tal vez, en un estudio empírico sobre el fenómeno de la paradojicidad y no en la comparación de derivaciones en cálculos particulares. (shrink)

In ‘Justice and Nature’, Thomas Nagel claims that social institutions are not responsible for inequalities caused primarily by nature, as opposed to socially caused inequalities. I evaluate this claim. To do so, I distinguish causal responsibility from substantive responsibility. I argue that Nagel rightly identifies conditions in virtue of which social institutions are not substantively responsible for an inequality, but the causal responsibility of nature is irrelevant for that assessment. The natural/social distinction is, I hold, misleading, and I offer two (...) pragmatic reasons to stop using it. Besides, past criticisms to the natural/social distinction have questioned whether identifying the causal responsability of nature for an inequality is descriptively meaningful, epistemically possible, and morally relevant. My reconstruction of Nagel’s view avoids these criticisms, I explain, by depriving the causal responsibility of nature of any role to identify an inequality as naturally caused. Moreover, I show that my reconstruction of Nagel’s view, purged of the natural/social distinction, helps to justify the asymmetrical treatment of class-based inequalities and inequalities among people with different native endowments in the Rawlsian principle of fair equality of opportunity. (shrink)

Dentro del conjunto de las lógicas no clásicas, las lógicas paraconsistentes han suscitado de manera particular el interés de diversos filósofos. Además de las definiciones tradicionales, en los últimos años, se han propuesto nuevas maneras de caracterizar a la paraconsistencia. Lo que tienen en común todas estas definiciones es que alguna forma de la regla o de la metarregla de explosión debe ser rechazada. En este artículo, presentaré dichas definiciones y evaluaré el rol que juegan la negación y la transitividad (...) en ellas. Finalmente, propondré una nueva caracterización de la paraconsistencia, la que llamaré paraconsistencia pura y mostraré que la regla de monotonía juega un rol crucial en todas las presentaciones de dicho concepto. (shrink)

Building on literature in political CSR and corporate political activity (CPA) as well as responsible innovation and responsible lobbying, we introduce a framework to assess the legitimacy status of corporate political activity. We focus on the fact that companies frequently face sharp regulatory backlash after penetrating markets with their innovations. In response to regulatory backlash, big tech companies often employ an arsenal of corporate political activities to (re-)shape national and local regulatory environments, which raises the important questions about the legitimacy (...) of CPA tactics that we address. To develop and apply this framework, we briefly survey and then assess Uber’s corporate political activities in its 2015 New York City political campaign. (shrink)

This article analyzes the evolution of the land ethic re-presented by J. Baird Callicott over the last two decades under pressure from the charge of misanthropy and ecofascism. It also traces the development of Callicott?s own ethical system, and examines its most current phase both in itself and in relation to his other theoretical commitments, including his particular version of moral monism, and his communitarian critique of egalitarianism. It concludes that Callicott?s communitarianism is by itself insufficient to fund an adequate (...) environmental ethic, and that for the sake of self-consistency he should either discard his moral monism or else further revise his ethical system. (shrink)

Academics have the impression that human nature is good advocate Confucianism, Christianity should make the evil human nature. So when Matteo Ricci and other missionaries to China, agree that people are basically good in the Chinese writings of contemporary scholars do not think that Ricci would have just done for the purpose of mission compromise and will be attached. This article do not support this view. Through on Aquinas' Summa Theologica, "read the relevant chapter and" Mencius "rigorous analysis, I believe (...) that Ricci received" basically good "proposition has its theology support, and closer to Mencius, human nature is good on. However, the era of Matteo Ricci in China is also the era of the popular theory of Wang Yangming. In this article, by a large number of text analysis, pointed out that Wang's human nature is good and Mencius on human nature is good vary widely. Thus, while certainly human nature is good Matteo Ricci, the other critics' re the first, "said, has its theoretical basis. In fact, this return to Mencius Ricci, resist the neo-Confucian practice, is the common position of the Qing Dynasty Han scholars. In this paper, Dai Zhen and Chen Li as an example to illustrate how they both certainly Mencius on human nature is good, but criticized the excessive expansion of human nature is good Song learning theory. Therefore, the Ricci's human nature is good, unexpectedly affected the development of Confucianism in the Qing Dynasty. A large number of contemporary Chinese somehow got the impression that whereas the key tenet of Confucianism is the Thesis of the Innate Goodness of Human Nature, the key tenet of Christianity is the opposite, viz., The Thesis of the Innate Evilness of Human Nature. When Matteo Ricci and his fellow Jesuit missionaries came to China and learnt Chinese culture, Ricci endorses the Thesis of the Innate Goodness of Human Nature in his Chinese book The True Meaning of The Lord of Heaven. Some contemporary Chinese scholars find this endorsement unreasonable and argue that Ricci's endorsement strains the interpretation of Christian doctrine for the appeasement of Confucian literati. This article argues that such contemporary Chinese assessments are based on a misunderstanding of Christian thought. A meticulous reading of relevant sections of Summa Theologiae by Thomas Aquinas shows that there is no conflict between Catholic theological anthropology and the theory of human nature according to Menzi. However, Ricci and his company came to China when the thought of Wang Yangming, one major school of neo-Confucianism, was very influential. Ostensibly Wang also endorses the Innate Goodness of Human Nature, but a careful reading of his works indicates that there is a tremendous difference his thesis and that of Menzi. The latter advocates only that there is a "sprout of goodness" in human nature whereas the former advocates the fill presence of supreme goodness in human nature. Accordingly, it is legitimate for Ricci to endorse the Thesis of the Innate Goodness of Human Nature in the sense of Menzi and simultaneously reject the Thesis of Uncovering the Supreme Goodness in Human Nature of the neo-Confucians. In fact, Ricci's stance of aligning with Menzi in opposition to Song-Ming neo-Confucianism is a common stance of most Qing Confucian scholars. For example, among his fierce criticisms, one of Dai Zhen's critiques is against the neo-Confucian Thesis of Uncovering the Supreme Goodness in Human Nature. He argues that Mengzi's view of "developing the good inclinations" is conducive to the cultivation of virtues whereas neo-Confucians' view of "uncovering our original supreme goodness," misled by Buddhism and Daoism, is not. Very recent historical scholarship in mainland China articulates a view that Dai Zhen has carefully read Ricci's book The True Meaning of The Lord of Heaven and borrows views from it. In fact, according to these historians, Dai Zhen and a closed circle of court scholars who are in charge of compiling the Siku quanshu have read all the works of the Jesuit missionaries and admire their scholarship. Hence the first encounter between Christian civilization and Confucian civilization helped develop the Han School of Learning in opposition to the Song School of Learning in the early Qing Dynasty. (shrink)

The prepositional ‘in’ and possessive pronouns, e.g., ‘my’ and ‘mine,’ in the context of attributions of mental states, such as “in my mind” or “in your mind,” threaten to confuse attempts to account for knowledge of other minds. This paper distinguishes proper from improper uses of such expressions. I will argue that proper use of the prepositional ‘in’ and possessive pronouns in the context of mental state attributions presupposes capacities to properly track and attribute what are really, in a sense (...) to be specified, intersubjectively articulated and inferentially interrelated normative statuses. What we call “mental states” or “minds,” in as far as primarily cognitive states such as beliefs are concerned, are intersubjectively constituted. As opposed to being inner and private, something we must learn to intersubjectively discover, minds and mental states are intersubjectively articulated and we learn to attribute them as inner and private. A scorekeeping-model is used to illustrate how the privacy of mind presupposes intersubjectivity. Using that model, I argue that the traditional problem of knowing other minds can be re-framed as a problem of learning how to pursue intersubjective practices of acknowledging, attributing and undertaking mental states. (shrink)

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar uno de los ejemplos más notorios de reduccionismo biológico del siglo XIX: la Antropología Criminal, una teoría cuya influencia se hizo notar en ámbitos muy diversos. Sin embargo, fue en el derecho penal donde la influencia de Lombroso resultó más duradera, ya que sus propuestas se materializaron en los códigos penales de varios países. Se tratará de entender la influencia de Darwin y de la idea Haeckeliana de recapitulación sobre Lombroso, y también que (...) factores presentes en la época favorecieron la credibilidad que tuvo esta teoría en su momento.The main objective of this research is to analyze one of the most notorious examples of the XIX century biological reductionism: the Criminal Anthropology, a theory which had a major influence on different areas. Nevertheless, it was the penal law where Lombroso’s influence remained longer, as his ideas were materialized in the penal codes of several countries. We’ll try to enlighten Lombroso’s thoughts under the influence of Darwin’s theory and the Haeckelian idea of recapitulation, and finally the factors which favoured this theory credibility at its time. (shrink)

If the history of metaphysics is, as Heidegger suggests, essentially humanist, the questions that have been addressed to humanism, united under the label of posthumanism, face the challenge of establishing a rupture with a bimillenary hegemony of the human against the non-human. This paper will be interested in problematizing the way in which the humanist model has attributed to man the privilege of being the only being capable of acting and shaping the world. The objective will be to explore an (...) expanded perspective of agency towards the animal, vegetable and material world. From the proliferation of the possibilities of agency we will discover, in turn, different ways of forming and inhabiting worlds: the world as a totalizing sphere, as a set of surrounding worlds and as a mixture of material agencies. Finally, this perspective tending towards the de-hierarchization of human agency will be contrasted with the difficulties posed by the notion of the Anthropocene. Man's responsibility for the geological scope of his activity re-emphasizes the centrality of his capacity for agency, thus showing the contradictions that arise in attempts to go beyond humanism. (shrink)

Selected research articles on business ethics in Mongolia.

Cet ouvrage donne la parole à cinq philosophes marxistes français de renommée internationale - Main Badiou, Étienne Balibar, Jacques Bidet, Michael Löwy, Lucien Sève - qui présentent l'évolution de leur rapport à Marx, à la philosophie et à la politique, depuis les années 1950 jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Dans ces entretiens, chacun à son tour, les auteurs ont répondu aux questions posées par deux philosophes de générations différentes, Alexis Cukier et Isabelle Garo : comment avez-vous rencontré la pensée de Marx, et comment (...) avez-vous commencé à en faire usage? Dans quel contexte théorique et politique, pour répondre à quelle urgence et à quel problème, en rapport avec quels engagements militants? Quelle a été l'évolution de votre conception du communisme et que devraient être une action ou une organisation politique communiste aujourd'hui? Que retenez-vous d'essentiel de la pensée de Marx pour penser la période politique présente? Au fil des réponses à ces questions, les auteurs analysent les rapports entre philosophie et politique, reviennent sur la trajectoire du marxisme en France et abordent la signification du communisme aujourd'hui. L'introduction, complétée d'une bibliographie étendue, présente les coordonnées théoriques et politiques complexes de ces trajectoires singulières, leurs convergences et leurs divergences, qui éclairent le renouvellement en cours de la philosophie marxiste ainsi que de l'engagement communiste."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Presenta las microagencias colectivas que engendran formas de resistir los estándares establecidos, forjando nuevas formas de (re)existir y “ver, oír, pensar” en las escuelas, problematizando: ¿Cómo crean posibilidades las vidas cotidianas escolares, insertadas en una lucha micropolítica, con diferentes intensidades e impulsos de vida? Sostiene que la vida escolar diaria contribuye a los movimientos de lucha y resistencia a través de la creación de otros modos de (re)existencia.