While the agricultural knowledges and practices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and women have shaped agriculture in the US, these knowledges have been colonized, exploited, and appropriated, cleaving space for the presently dominant white male agricultural narrative. Simultaneously, these knowledges and practices have been transformed to fit within a society that values individualism, production, efficiency, and profit. The authors use a decolonial Feminist Political Ecology framework to highlight the ways in which the knowledges of Indigenous, Black, and women (...) farmers have been and are being colonized; a tradition that makes alternative agriculture a predominantly white space. The authors interviewed 10 BIPOC and women farmers in Colorado to understand what values and knowledges were shaping their often-appropriated agricultural practices. Three themes emerged: people, place, and patterns. By centering these values, farmers create relational agricultural practices that support the well-being of human and more-than-human beings. To support the widespread implementation of these practices, food systems practitioners must elevate the voices and knowledges of historically excluded farmers. Only then can truly just and equitable alternative agricultural practices be realized in the US. (shrink)

This paper concerns late 1920 s attempts to construct unitary theories of gravity and electromagnetism. A first attempt using a non-standard connection—with torsion and zero-curvature—was carried out by Albert Einstein in a number of publications that appeared between 1928 and 1931. In 1929, Tullio Levi-Civita discussed Einstein’s geometric structure and deduced a new system of differential equations in a Riemannian manifold endowed with what is nowadays known as Levi-Civita connection. He attained an important result: Maxwell’s electromagnetic equations and the gravitational (...) equations were obtained exactly, while Einstein had deduced them only as a first order approximation. A main feature of Levi-Civita’s theory is the essential use of the Ricci’s rotation coefficients, introduced by Gregorio Ricci Curbastro many years before. We trace the history of Ricci’s coefficients that are still used today, and highlight their geometric and mechanical meaning. (shrink)

In this paper, the theories of the civitas maxima (universal state) in the work of Christian Wolff (1679–1754) and Michael Christoph Hanov (1695–1773) are investigated. Topics are the layers of international law, the concept and constitution of the universal state, utopian elements, the ontological status of the universal state, conversion of other states, and migration. As a critical counterpart, the idea of nation is explored in these authors as well as in the political theories of romanticism, namely in Adam (...) Müller (1779–1829) and Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834). (shrink)

An attempt to discover a guiding principle in public affairs.--An attempt to show how the past has led to the present position in world affairs.--An attempt to apply the guiding principle suggested in book I to the world position as stated in book II.

Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The paper focuses on the philosophical challenges of governance over trustless ledgers, namely Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions in El Salvador. Blockchain adoption in El Salvador is an example of policy based on a ‘frontier epistemology’ (Nickles 2009 ), creating a situation where “facts are uncertain, values are in dispute, stakes are high, and decisions are urgent” (Funtowicz and Ravetz 1993 ). Trustless ledgers play a role of such ‘frontiers’ of knowledge and governance that support a variety of technocratic, heuristic, and (...) experimental policy approaches. They challenge the traditional knowledge frameworks and governance processes responsible for attempts to embed (align) predetermined ideologies (values and stakes) into the technology over standards. Instead, as amalgams of social, political, legal, and economic interventions, ledgers function simultaneously as a contract, a monetary system, a political value commitment, and a governance structure. By integrating facts, values, and stakes into algorithms, they define the frontiers of epistemology and governance in two opposing ways. On the one hand, trustless ledgers embody Augustine’s Civitas Dei (the City of God) as a new design (novum consilium) that promises a future world (futurum saeculum) (Augustine 1968 ). With a promise of a system, where everyone is ‘free’ to not being able to ‘sin’ (non posse peccare - delet the res non peccare), social agency is reduced to a code of a trustless infrastructure. On the other hand, ledgers support experimental (Sabel and Zeitlin 2012 ) and heuristic policymaking (Nickles 2009 ) that saves social agency and cuts ‘through traditional discovery/justification and descriptive/ normative distinctions’ (Nickles 2009 ). The distributed ledgers as governance experiments then redefine Civitas Terrena’s governance as a challenge of ‘heuristic appraisal’ (Nickles 2009 ), ‘directly deliberative polyarchy’ (Cohen and Sabel 1997 ), and ‘experimentalist governance’ (Sabel and Zeitlin 2012 ). To elaborate on the blockchain governance experiments, we will use two Bitcoin initiatives in El Salvador (Bitcoin City and Bitcoin Beach) and discuss them in the context of a broader adoption of blockchain in South America. (shrink)

The assimilation of the architectural sign to the linguistic one, is the way that allow us to analyze the architectural element of the city, according to the symbolic and conventional way, but giving to the architectural sign an iconic value that we could read through reconstruction of city in films. It is possible if we consider city as artwork seen according to the definition of Lynch. There is a temporal and special dimension, the urban dimension, which would otherwise not be (...) ‘visible’ to the naked eye or perceivable with hearing. City as an artwork can be read for more reasons, through the cinema in the translation of an architectural semiotics that finds a double correspondence of Urbs and Civitas, in the real building of the city and in its re-construction. In this contest, some Italian movies of Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni, for example, beyond the traditional interpretations, can give us indications about the moments and ‘points’ of collapse that we can find in ‘signs’ and ‘singular points’. It’s in these points that we found the signs of evolution, breakdown and collapse of relationship between Urbs and Civitas. (shrink)

This article studies the reception of Christian Wolff's theory of the civitas maxima by Hermann Friedrich Kahrel (1719-1787) and Michael Hanov (1695-1773). According to his previous work mentioned in the article (n. 2), the author considers the concept of civitas maxima as a methodological innovation. It is the normative fiction of a presumed rational consensus of mankind and of the states. As the article tries to show, this concept was misunderstood, not only by the enemies of Wolff but (...) also by his followers. Kahrel considered the consensus of mankind and of the states a tacit factual consensus. The innovative idea of a presumed normative consensus was thereby lost. Hanov interpreted the civitas maxima as a civitas dei in the sense of Leibniz. He transformed the normative idea of a presumed consensus into a fact of metaphysics and natural theology. Nevertheless, he introduced a diachrone dimension into the concept of civitas maxima which he sees as an infinite sequence of all generations of mankind. This anticipates Kant's integration of cosmopolitanism in a certain concept of history. Kahrel and Hanov however misconceived Wolff's idea of a normative fiction of reason by its reduction to a factual reality, be it natural or metaphysical. They thereby are representative for a common misunderstanding of Wolff's theory that also leads to an inadequate critique. (shrink)

Comment la cité grecque s'installe-t-elle dans le rôle du berceau de la civilisation européenne? Cela devient possible dès lors que la civilisation se définit comme un processus historique homogène et irréversible, autrement dit, dès lors qu'elle est appelée à illustrer historiquement le progrès de l'Europe. Telle est la tâche du XIXe siècle. Or, à l'époque prérévolutionnaire, l'idée de civilisation renvoie plutôt à une multitude de processus historiques, pour autant qu'elle permet d'observer le cheminement vers l'état policé des divers peuples de (...) l'Antiquité et de l'époque moderne. La civilisation opère ici comme un concept de différenciation: elle permet de distinguer les Anciens d'avec les Anciens, les Modernes d'avec les Modernes et, dans leur ensemble, l'Antiquité de la modernité. Il s'agit d'analyser les enjeux de cette intégration en deux temps de la Grèce dans l'histoire de la civilisation européenne. (shrink)

Article aims to explore Augustine's "two cities" theory. First, a brief discussion of the "City of God" writing background and the main structure; Secondly, in both religious and secular aspects of life on the analysis of the "City of God" on the "two cities" of the main points; again, three perspectives of the "two cities" theory of history and ideological background. Although the "two cities" doctrine embodies a form with two points tend to think, but both different from the ontological (...) dualism and the dualism of body and soul, but also avoids the complex social reality for too absolute two points. The focus of this study is Augustine's doctrine of the "Two Cities." The first part treats the background and the structure of the City of God. In the second and the third part, the essay examines both the religious and the temporal aspect of this doctrine. Finally, the historical and intellectual background of the doctrine is discussed. The author argues that even though the doctrine of the "Two Cities" manifests a dualistic tendency in the thought of Augustine, it can hardly be labeled as a dualism. (shrink)

Los esfuerzos por demostrar la influencia de la filosofía nominalista en la teoría política de Marsího de Padua no han tenido éxito. Otras corrientes de pensamiento y escuelas filosóficas, como el aristotelismo heterodoxo, el corporativismo medieval e incluso la concepción orgánica de la sociedad tienen más influencia en el Defensor pacis, concebido y escrito varios años antes de ser compañero de Ockham en la Corte imperial de Luis de Baviera. El artículo examina los textos en los que se ha basado (...) la interpretación nominalista del pensamiento de Marsilio. La conclusión es que la teoría de la civitas que expone Marsilio no está basada en la concepción nominalista de la sociedad. En su lucha contra la plenitud o potestatis del Papado, Marsihio construye una civitas, en la que no cabe el poder eclesiástico diferente del secular. El resultado son dos modelos de sociedad distintos: dualista el de Ockham; mucho más monolítico el de Marsilio, que no reconoce a los ciudadanos individuales ni a las partes de la civitas capacidad para actuar autónomamente. (shrink)

The argument developed in this article originates from the reflection that what constitutes a city or what is meant by urban are differently understood in different parts of the world and by different scholars. Thus, I first address the problematic of incommensurability. I argue that this key issue in the philosophy of science is central to how the debate on urban anthropology has developed. Then I ask whether this problematic extends to cross-disciplinary debate among the contemporary social sciences and what (...) relevance the resulting understanding of the city has outside the academic world. I maintain that social analysis should endeavour to bring out the political, economic, and socio-cultural complexity of urban life. Having carried out research in urban Europe, I offer an analysis of the city that encompasses the meaning of urbs, polis, and civitas. Finally, I discuss the epistemological significance of urban ethnography, drawing on my field research in Brindisi, a South-Italian city. (shrink)

Baseado no princípio ontológico da vera justitia, ou da “divina ordem”, segundo a qual é justo que se “subordinem as coisas somente às dignas, as corporais às espirituais, as inferiores às superiores, as temporais às sempiternas” (Ep., 140), o que resulta, na prática, na subordinação dos governados aos governantes, Agostinho introduz em sua doutrina ético-política o conceito de força coercitiva, como instrumento prático garantidor da ordinata concordia ou pax temporalis, na civitas, de forma que, punido pelo reto castigo, o (...) pecador possa retornar à ordem e assim alcançar a vida eterna. Em Agostinho, todas as formas de castigos por ele admitidos não têm um caráter de perseguição, vingança ou sadismo, mas de correção e reintegração do pecador na ordem, por isso devem ser guiados pela caridade. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Força coercitiva. Castigo. Justiça. Ordem. Paz. Caridade. ABSTRACT With basis on the ontological principle of Vera justitia, or of “divine order”, according to which it is fair to “subordinate things only to the worthy ones, the corporal to the spiritual, the inferior to the superior, the temporal to the sempiternal” (Ep. 140), this results, in practice, in the subordination of the governees to the governators, Augustine introduces in his ethical-political doctrine the concept of coercitive force, as the practical instrument that warrants the ordinata concordia or pax temporalis, in civitas, in such a manner, that punished by the straight punishment, the sinner may return to order and so reach eternal life. In Augustine, all forms of punishment by him admitted do not take a character of persecution, revenge or sadism, but of correction and reintegration of the sinner in the order, and, for this reason, punishment must be guided by charity. KEY WORDS – Coercitive force. Punishment. Justice. Peace. Charity. (shrink)

The argument developed in this article originates from the reflection that what constitutes a city or what is meant by urban are differently understood in different parts of the world and by differ...