Contemporary theories of consciousness are based on widely different concepts of its nature, most or all of which probably embody aspects of the truth about it. Starting with a concept of consciousness indicated by the phrase “the feeling of what happens” (the title of a book by Antonio Damásio), we attempt to build a framework capable of supporting and resolving divergent views. We picture consciousness in terms of Reality experiencing itself from the perspective of cognitive agents. Each conscious experience is (...) regarded as composed of momentary feeling events that are combined by recognition and evaluation into extended conscious episodes that bind cognitive contents with a wide range of apparent durations (0.1 secs to 2 or more secs, for us humans, depending on circumstances and context). Three necessary conditions for the existence of consciousness are identified: a) a ground of Reality, envisaged as an universal field of potentiality encompassing all possible manifestations, whether material or 'mental'; b) a transitional zone, leading to; c) a manifest world with its fundamental divisions into material, 'informational' and quale-endowed aspects. We explore ideas about the nature of these necessary conditions, how they may relate to one another and whether our suggestions have empirical implications. (shrink)

Par le biais d'un glossaire "de nos fiertés et de nos insatisfactions", Edgard Pisani fait l'inventaire des causes que sa génération a défendues, des combats qu'elle a menés, mais aussi des innombrables questions laissées sans réponse par imprévoyance, insuffisance, repli sur soi, hésitation. A un impossible récit chronologique, Edgard Pisani a préféré l'énumération alphabétique "des idées que nous avons taquinées". Trois générations, à qui tout semblait possible et dont les survivants d'aujourd'hui craignent les lendemains, se succèdent dans cet (...) ouvrage. Une sorte de testament politique qui redonne confiance. (shrink)

Civilisation.--Simplicité.--L'instinct.--La science et la politique.--La crise.--La syumpathie.--Les sociétés animales.--Intelligence et phénomènes d'adaptation.--La mémoire, l'intelligence et la raison.--La valeur de la science.--L'intuition.--L'attention et la distraction.--Phénomènes de télépathie.--L'inspiration.--La science et la croyance.--Mysticisme.--L'âme et la mémoire.--De la vie à la mort.--La sensation.--La subconsience.--La loi de Ribot.--La fin de l'univers envisagée par les matérialistes.--L'intuition et la guerre.

In his proposal of an ethics for the technologic civilization, Hans Jonas criticizes Kant’s ethics whereas incorporates some of its fundamental concepts. This paper intends to scrutinize Jonas’ critique, arguing that the Kantian moral philosophy is justifiable in face of it and also able to overcome certain difficulties that may affect the pillars of Jonas’ ethics of future. Moreover, in a concise way, this work will discuss the matter of a possible conciliation between the material character of Jonas’ ethics and (...) the alleged categorical character of its principle and examine Jonas’ essay to present a metaphysical groundwork to his ethics. As both that groundwork and that conciliation seem to be problematic, a critical return to the groundwork to the Kantian ethics is suggested, once one can find in it valuable heuristic arguments that allow some ground for rethinking the foundations of Jonas’ ethics of future. (shrink)

O objetivo desse texto é levantar algumas questões sobre as raízes do judaísmo de Paulo, ou dos referenciais judaicos que sustentam a sua visão de mundo - no decorrer de suas jornadas após a visão da estrada de Damasco. Há elementos para afirmar que além do seu farisaísmo assumido, Paulo recolheu concepções teóricas de outros movimentos judaicos do período. Tendo lido ou conhecido elementos das principais tendências do pensamento apocalíptico. Utilizou esses conceitos no sentido de atuar não só junto aos (...) judeus influenciados pelo farisaísmo como também junto àqueles outros inseridos na tradição apocalíptica. Acreditamos que Paulo expressa, além do mais, a culminância de uma tradição judaica consistente. Tradição que vinha, literariamente, do terceiro Isaías e que culminou, talvez, no Livro dos Jubileus, que defendia a necessária universalização messiânica da experiência religiosa judaica. Paulo ultima essa tradição e a transforma de experiência meramente teórica em prática concreta realizada numa perspectiva messiânica. (shrink)

Resumo Este estudo desenvolve uma análise do desenvolvimento do papel dos sonhos e das visões na literatura bíblica. Busca apontar as diferentes abordagens do tema segundo os diversos redatores bíblicos e seus os momentos históricos específicos. Pondo em relevo, principalmente, o papel da literatura profética e das ações do Estado como introdutores de uma relativização do caráter dos sonhos como elementos justificadores teológicos. Discutimos, a seguir, a recepção desse material pelos rabinos, autores do Talmude. Apontamos que a discussão rabínica sobre (...) o tema segue a perspectiva literária mais ampla, mas aprofunda as preocupações gerais com o império das visões sobre o olhar religioso. Provavelmente por conta das trágicas experiências políticas derivadas do pensamento apocalíptico e sua inclinação geral às revelações oníricas. De uma forma geral os rabinos do Talmude procuram resolver o problema do papel instabilizador dos sonhos através do simultâneo reconhecimento de sua importância e redução ou delimitação de sua relevância enquanto experiência de revelação religiosa. Palavras-chave: Judaísmo; Teologia judaica; Talmude; Sonhos na Bíblia; Sonhos no Talmude.This paper focuses on the development of the role of dreams and visions in biblical literature, presenting different approaches to the theme according to the various biblical authors and their specific historical moments. It emphasizes the influence of prophetic literature and State actions in the relativization of the nature of dreams as theological justifications. It then analyzes the reception of this material by the rabbis who wrote the Talmud. We sustain that the rabbis follow the wider literary mainstream but express a general concern for the empire of visions within the religious scope. That is maybe due to tragic political experiences derived from their apocalyptic thought and to their natural tendency to oniric revelation. We conclude that the Talmud rabbis tried to solve the problem of the destabilizing role of dreams by simultaneously recognizing their importance and reducing or limiting their relevance as a religious revelation experience. Key words: Judaism; Jewish theology; Talmud; Dreams in the Bible; Dreams in the Talmud. (shrink)

Uma vida que conjuga pensamento e ação. Desse modo conciso podemos definir a biografia de Bolívar Lamounier, estudioso das dinâmicas da política e da sociedade brasileiras. Em "De onde, para onde", o cientista político revisita sua própria história, partindo da infância na mineira Dores do Indaiá, onde se envolveu no negócio de sua família, e começou, talvez inconscientemente, a moldar sua visão luminosa acerca dos elementos estruturantes de nossa república. Os projetos para o Brasil que nos acostumamos a ver (...) Lamounier explanar com rara clarividência em seus artigos e participações em programas de TV e rádio têm suas raízes formativas expostas neste relato inspirador. "De onde, para onde" visa conduzir o leitor a melhor compreender diversos paradigmas de nossa história recente através dos olhos de um fino observador dos caminhos da nação. (shrink)

Por um lado, perseguido pela direita, que o levou à prisão política. Por outro, patrulhado pela esquerda. Apesar disso, Bolívar Lamounier sempre manteve a independência intelectual. Neste novo livro, o sociólogo reflete sobre o conflito entre a democracia liberal, o marxismo e o fascismo. Comprovando sua destreza com as palavras, ele enfrenta com coragem os temas mais espinhosos do debate acadêmico brasileiro como o silêncio das esquerdas acerca dos resultados fracassados das revoluções socialistas. Ao final, o livro traz ainda (...) uma valiosa bibliografia comentada, que conta com títulos de nomes como Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jean-Paul Sartre, Max Weber e Montesquieu. (shrink)

I explain why, from the perspective of knowledge-centric anti-luck epistemology, objective act consequentialist theories of ethics imply skepticism about the moral status of our prospective actions and also tend to be self-defeating, undermining the justification of consequentialist theories themselves. For according to knowledge-centric anti-luck epistemology there are modal anti-luck demands on both knowledge and justification, and it turns out that our beliefs about the moral status of our prospective actions are almost never able to satisfy these demands if objective act (...) consequentialism is true. This kind of applied moral skepticism introduces problematic limits on our ability to use objective act consequentialism’s explanatory power as evidence for its truth. This is, in part, a product of higher-order defeat as I explain in the final section. There is, however, a silver lining for objective act consequentialists. For there is at least one type of objective act consequentialism, prior existence consequentialism, that is poised to avoid at least some of the epistemic problems discussed in this paper. (shrink)

Neste artigo abordaremos como a inspeção do espírito ocorre tratando a percepção da cera como um poder intelectual de conhecer, em vista da natureza do ego cogitans, na medida que a faculdade do entendimento e a faculdade da vontade operam por complementaridade. Para tanto, abordaremos a Meditação Segunda, sobretudo a segunda parte desta meditação, com complementos explicativos de outras meditações e obras do filósofo, de forma a mostrarmos que a questão da correção dos sentidos, diante do impasse epistêmico ocasional na (...) apreensão dos dados sensíveis, remete implicitamente ao jogo operativo da teoria cartesiana das faculdades. (shrink)

A proposta do presente artigo é discutir alguns apontamentos de Heidegger acerca da questão do cogito como sujeito em Descartes, tendo em vista a compreensão cartesiana do cogito interpretado como representação ou como presença, e as possíveis contribuições que a interpretação heideggeriana pode trazer acerca da questão da subjetividade no pensamento de Descartes.

Charles Griswold has written a comprehensive philosophical study of Smith's moral and political thought. Griswold sets Smith's work in the context of the Enlightenment and relates it to current discussions in moral and political philosophy. Smith's appropriation as well as criticism of ancient philosophy, and his carefully balanced defence of a liberal and humane moral and political outlook, are also explored. This 1999 book is a major philosophical and historical reassessment of a key figure in the Enlightenment that will be (...) of particular interest to philosophers and political and legal theorists, as well as historians of ideas, rhetoric, and political economy. (shrink)

In earlier work, the author has studied the economic role of planning horizons in making a case for complementarity as the predominant feature of social interdependence. This paper compares the different choice strategies implied by substitution, opposition and conflicts of interest in an economics of fear with those arising from horizon effects, economic complementarity and concerts of interest in an economics based on love. The contrasting implications of a psychological literature on negative vs. positive emotions and their health effects, along (...) with the findings in neurophysiological research about how humans are hard-wired for empathy and compassion leads to some fundamental changes in how we might address and revise social problems through economic analysis. The aim of this paper is to extend a horizonal case for complementarity in the author's previous work into its psychological links to research findings on healthy cognitive function and its emotional basis. An economics of substitution yields quite different conclusions about optimal institutional forms and how we address and frame social relations than are implied by an explicitly horizonal economics of complementary social relations. Recent psychological and neurophysiological studies support a horizonal case for complementarity in social relations, showing that our orthodox substitution assumptions and models of competitive equilibrium should be rejected for a renewed economic analysis based on horizonal models of complementarity and cooperation as a means to achieve greater social well-being in a healthier and more integrative form of social organization. The issues to be explored are not entertained within the currently existing frame of orthodox economics, so we must step beyond our standard habitual assumptions. (shrink)

Interpreting Figurative Meaning critically evaluates the recent empirical work from psycholinguistics and neuroscience examining the successes and difficulties associated with interpreting figurative language. There is now a huge, often contradictory literature on how people understand figures of speech. Gibbs and Colston argue that there may not be a single theory or model that adequately explains both the processes and products of figurative meaning experience. Experimental research may ultimately be unable to simply adjudicate between current models in psychology, linguistics and philosophy (...) of how figurative meaning is interpreted. Alternatively, the authors advance a broad theoretical framework, motivated by ideas from 'dynamical systems theory', that describes the multiple, interacting influences which shape people's experiences of figurative meaning in discourse. This book details past research and theory, offers a critical assessment of this work and sets the stage for a new vision of figurative experience in human life. (shrink)

Expressions of the form 'S is aware of the fact that p' are commonplace. This book provides a systematic exploration of the relation between knowledge and factual awareness, arguing that knowledge is but one species of factual awareness and that we can understand the possession of objective reasons, the normativity of knowledge, and the nature of knowledge in terms of factual awareness. In this way, the state of factual awareness is, structurally and substantively, a more basic type of state than (...) knowledge. If correct, this undermines a number of ways in which knowledge has been regarded as ‘first’ in recent epistemology. (shrink)

_Addresses of the Mississippi Philosophical Association_ is a collection of presidential and invited addresses from the members of the Mississippi Philosophical Association (MPA). Papers date from the inception of the association in the mid-1940s and continue through 1999. The common thread in these addresses is the authors' service to or leadership in the MPA. The content and methods in the chapters are diverse, including addresses on ethics, political philosophy, history of philosophy, epistemology, aesthetics, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, philosophy (...) of science, and philosophical theology. Some unique features of this book are a history of the MPA, biographical sketches and photographs of each contributor, and the inclusion of the unpublished 1988 Dunbar Lectures from Millsaps College and the unpublished 1992 Akin Lecture from Mississippi College. These essays and lectures reveal the vitality of philosophy in the colleges and universities of Mississippi. As part of the special series, Histories and Addresses of Philosophical Societies in the larger Value Inquiry Book Series, this book documents - in a unique historical format - the value and vitality of a state philosophical organization. “There has been no attempt to mold these addresses into a unity; rather, the addresses offer a glimpse of the pluralistic philosophical reflection among the philosophical faculties of the private colleges and public universities in the state of Mississippi. To the surprise of some people, philosophy is alive, well, diverse, and flourishing in Mississippi!” (from the Preface). (shrink)

When a belief is self-fulfilling, having it guarantees its truth. When a belief is self-defeating, having it guarantees its falsity. These are the cases of “self-impacting” beliefs to be examined below. Scenarios of self-defeating beliefs can yield apparently dilemmatic situations in which we seem to lack sufficient reason to have any belief whatsoever. Scenarios of self-fulfilling beliefs can yield apparently dilemmatic situations in which we seem to lack reason to have any one belief over another. Both scenarios have been used (...) independently to challenge Evidentialism, on which what we may rationally believe is all and only what fits our current evidence. Here we tie the two scenarios together and explore what a knowledge-sensitive evidentialist approach to one implies for the other. (shrink)

The most expressive account of explanations in neuroscience is currently the causal-mechanistic model formulated by Carl Craver. According to him, explanations in neuroscience describe mechanisms, in other words, it points out how parts organize themselves and interact to engender the phenomenon. Furthermore, neuroscience is unified as scientists from different areas that compose it work together to develop mechanisms. This model was extensively discussed in the last years and several criticisms were raised towards it. Still, it remains as the soundest model (...) for explanations in neuroscience nowadays. This paper is presented as a review of this model, as well as the critiques worked out against it and finishes with a brief consideration of the problem of explanation in neuroscience. (shrink)