Political Philosophy

The prevailing belief, dating from Adam Smith, that the balance- of-trade was the dominant facet of English economic policy since the time of Thomas Mun, is questioned. It is argued that Samuel Fortrey is a more likely "founder" for this doctrine and that the influence of the balance-of-trade is due almost entirely to politics. THE POLITICAL BALANCE OF TRADE . . . ? ? "Before they learn there Is a God to be worshipped they learn there are Frenchmen to be detested," Fougebert de Montbron, quoted by Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century * It is well-known that concern for the Balance-of-Trade is the distinguishing mark of the economic thought of the century prior to Adam Smith. No one would deny that the balance-of-trade is one impor- tant aspect of trade. What is striking is the enormous importance attached to the Balance-of-Trade under the Mercantile System. Was the almost hysterical stress laid upon the Balance-of-Trade a sign of demented economic thought or was the hysteria a cover for some noneconomic objectives of the pamphleteers? Adam Smith attributed the Balance-of-Trade doctrinea phase I shall use throughout to indicate the near exclusive emphasis given to this concept -to a failure to distinguish real from nominal wealth and suggested that the doctrine originated with Thomas Mun In the 1620s. In this paper, I shall try to focus more precisely on the rise of the Balance-of-Trade (interpreted in the extreme sense noted above) in order to suggest that Thomas Mun had very little to do with the rise of this doctrine. Rather, Samuel Fortrey appears to have been the most influential figure in arousing popular concern. This suggests that the doctrine of the Balance-of-Trade may have been a cover for discussing the non- economic dangers of the Anglo-French Trade and, if the conjecture is reasonable, it would require a substantial change in our view about "Mercantilism." A long-established tradition in the history of economic thought credits the East India merchant, Thomas Mun, with being the chief

'Today the fight for life, the fight for Eros, is the political fight', claimed Herbert Marcuse dramatically in Eros and Civilization (1974, p. xxv). He went on to argue that 'formerly autonomous and identifiable psychical processes are being absorbed by the function of the individual in the stateby his public existence. Psychological problems therefore turn into political ones' (Marcuse, 1974, p. xxvii). The flamboyance of Marcuse's rhetoric obscures something crucial: that he got the diagnosis right and the cure wrong. That is, Marcuse (insisting equally on Nietzsche as on Freud and Marx) perceived that his contemporaries had come to understand structural political problems on profoundly psychological terms. Yet, for all that this diagnosis still rings true of contemporary western politics, Marcuse's later insistence on a politics of desublimation, and thus the call to reinfuse political structures with instinctive desire, quickly fizzled. The coincidence of psychological and political seemed too glib and neat. I share those doubts. Although generalizations about political events on psychological terms may be useful to allegorize, parse and frame shifting trends, they are not the only (or always the most useful) ways to draw on psychoanalytic resources for politics. Instead, with these remarks I will suggest that psychoanalysis is most useful for political theory in two moments: first, when its clinical work prompts us to rethink the practices that undo figurations of subjectivity. And second, when we scrutinize those 'injuries' or 'traumas' that stretch disjunctively across multiple cultures and polities, and search out the conditions of possibility for politics and life to be otherwise. Facing up to both moments requires thinking through the disruptions and possibilities they provoke within the clinical and cultural space of interpretations. For some time now, political theory had become so used to the drumbeat of 'is Freud wrong?' that it forgot that Freud and psychoanalysis were once commonplace in the American academy and even in political science. In part, this more recent skepticism was an outgrowth of an American turn towards behavioral psychologya turn itself inspired by the initial enthusiasm for psychoanalysis that prompted Freud to say 'America is a mistake; a gigantic mistake' (see Jones, 1974, p. 270).

[...]
Ora, para que isso ocorra, como visto, é preciso que a dispersão de
desejos, por meio da lei do bem maior e do mal menor, bem como da imitação
dos afetos, venha a ser multidão, isto é, desejos alinhados no sentido do
comum. Essa mesma multidão transfere potência (direito) ao poder soberano
para que este dê à cidade e seus membros suas leis. Tais leis também se
sustentam pela potência da multidão. Por isso as leis da cidade, criadas pelo
poder soberano, devem forjar um imaginário nas mentes dos homens que seja
de futuro-em-forma-de-esperança-e-segurança, ou seja, manifestações de
afetos alegres. Caso as leis forjadas pelo soberano não sejam capazes de criar
este imaginário nas mentes dos homens, elas perdem potência e a cidade
pode se dissolver. A tensão positiva poder soberano versus multidão vem a ser,
neste caso, conflito. Aí passam a existir desejos em confronto, direitos naturais
em contraste. Portanto, potência em torno de um grau zero em cada homem,
direitos naturais como abstração (TP II 15 p. 19), dispersão da cidade, fim da
positividade da tensão multidão versus poder soberano e união, por meio do
afeto indignação em face do soberano, da multidão, o que leva ao fim do
corpo político. Trata-se, neste caso, da morte de um específico corpo político.[...]

Disinformation is a growing epistemic threat, yet its connection to understanding remains underexplored. In this paper, I argue that understanding-specifically, understanding how things work and why they work the way they do-can, all else being equal, shield individuals from disinformation campaigns. Conversely, a lack of such understanding makes one particularly vulnerable. Drawing on Simion's (2023) characterization of disinformation as content that has a disposition to generate or increase ignorance, I propose that disinformation frequently exploits a pre-existing lack of understanding. I consider an important objection-that since understanding is typically difficult to acquire, we might rely on deferring to experts. However, I argue that in epistemically polluted environments, where expertise is systematically mimicked, deference alone provides no reliable safeguard. I conclude by briefly reflecting on strategies for addressing these challenges, emphasizing both the need for promoting understanding and for cleaning up the epistemic environment.

espanolEste articulo contiene un analisis de tres libros libros sobre America del Sur que representan la literatura de viajes contemporanea de Alemania. La teoria basica utilizada para este analisis es la geopoetica. En el articulo se discutiran algunos aspectos geopoeticos seleccionados en los tres libros analizados. En primer lugar, las caracteristicas espaciales generales de los viajes sudamericanos de los autores. Por otra parte, se analizara el contexto de la literatura que aparece en dichos libros. Como “contexto literario“ entendemos diversas referencias textuales a la literatura. Estas referencias pueden ser divididas en tres grupos: a) las referencias intencionales, a escritores o trabajos literarios, b) encuentros accidentales, no intencionales con obras literarias y c) asi llamados “viajes literarios“. Los tres grupos juntos forman un “mapa del contexto literario“ en los libros analizados. El mapa es una parte integral de los aspectos geopoeticos de estos libros. espanolD...

Identifying research gaps and priorities is paramount to advance sustainability science and contribute to a sustainable future. This editorial contributes to this effort by contemplating the sustainability science research agenda and aligning it with recent changes in global dynamics. Drawing on consultations with the editorial board members of the Sustainability Science journal and a review of relevant literature, we identified 12 key research topics. These topics are interpreted within a strategic framework encompassing three key themes: (1) goals that drive sustainability science, (2) approaches to attain these goals, and (3) tools to advance sustainability science research. In so doing, this editorial emphasizes a sustainable development agenda extending beyond 2030, fostering equity and justice, and tackling issues related to power dynamics and geopolitical conflicts. It underscores the significance of research approaches to attaining sustainability goals, in particular, theorizing, coproduction of knowledge and action, attaining clarity in conceptual descriptions, and developing systems-oriented analytical frameworks. Additionally, it highlights the value of place-based approaches, learning from significant systemic shocks, and nurturing inner transformations. It also underlines the need to explore emerging technologies and data-intensive methodologies as a tool to address sustainability concerns. The systematic contemplation of the sustainability science research agenda presented in this editorial piece aims to invoke further discussion among researchers and practitioners about a fresh and relevant agenda that promotes the sustainable integration of nature and society.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-024-01586-3#article-info

Jan Assmann's Achsenzeit: Eine Archäologie der Moderne (2018) is the most thorough presentation of thinkers who reflected on the Axial Age available today. Although the label "Axial Age" was coined by Karl Jaspers in 1946, other scholars had touched on the issue as early as 1771. From the beginning, socio-historical analyses rested on a presentist framework according to which the Axial Age was interpreted as a positive historical legacy that could be exploited to make up for the deficiencies of the present. Achsenzeit excels in the discussions covering the time span from Anquetil-Duperron to Vögelin (1975), but it disappoints in relation to current debates. Unfortunately, Assmann's book ignores contemporary gene-culture co-evolutionary perspectives, as well as current research which argues for the convergent evolution of axial-age societies based on increased affluence, enhanced urbanization processes, and higher population density. These criticisms aside, the book is indispensable for the necessary knowledge of the pre-2000s discussion on the topic, and it is a highly pleasurable read.

The history of mankind is replete with tales of injustice which have occurred in various forms. While the state battles against other forms of injustice, a particular type-the injustice perpetrated by the mighty-has not received the kind of attention that is commensurate with the harm it produces. The subjugation of the weak by the strong, powerful and influential persons, corporate organizations, and nations is atrocious, despicable, morally shocking. As horrendous as the injustice by the mighty is, the perpetrators are rarely apprehended or held accountable. It is so because of their possession of enormous power, finance, and influence with which they control the state, manoeuvre their ways and shield themselves from the punishment they deserve. In effect they are rarely and inadequately punished for the wrong things they do. This paper is an attempt to find a way of curbing the injustice by the mighty and its accompanying menaces. Hence, we posit the Golden Rule Principle as a veritable panacea. Using the qualitative research model the paper critically examines the subject matter and argues for the Golden Rule to be universalized. The Golden Rule-treat others as you would want them to treat you-requires the mighty to test the plausibility or implausibility of their actions by putting themselves in the position of those they oppress, subjugate and despise. The human person, possessing conscience and integrity, will curtail his doing of harm to others if he detests being harmed.

While normative theories of participatory democracy and practical experiences of participatory research share a common democratic commitment, the two fields have emerged and to date exist in isolation from each other. This article bridges this divide and asks what participatory democracy and participatory research can learn from one another. It argues that participatory democracy can learn how to realize its own democratic ideals within its research practice and participatory research can deepen its normative commitment by connecting its practices to a larger participatory vision. The article illustrates this by engaging with three examples in which participatory democracy researchers conduct participatory research projects. It finally reflects critically on how the shared participatory commitments of both fields can be realized within the neoliberal university embedded in competitive market economies.

Las críticas a la concepción foucaultiana del poder se sucedieron prontamente, apenas el autor francés formulara dicha concepción en diversos textos de la segunda mitad de la década del '70. Sin embargo, nadie parece haber sido tan crítico sobre dicha concepción como el propio Foucault, según lo desarrolla en cursos, entrevistas y conferencias de los años '80, y escasamente en su obra publicada. Esta crítica no siempre es explícita, y en ocasiones debe ser deducida a partir de transformaciones intelectuales sutiles en dichos trabajos en curso. En el presente artículo mostramos cómo Foucault abandona progresivamente su interés en las "relaciones de poder" como productoras de subjetividad, para pensar la constitución del sujeto a partir de un doble movimiento: a) la relación del sujeto consigo mismo; b) la relación del sujeto con la verdad. Postulamos hacia el final la idea de "escritura de sí" como extensión plausible del concepto de epimeleia heautou que Foucault desarrolla en los años '80.

Protagoras is widely recognized as the first and greatest of the sophists in classical Athens. However, very little remains of his authentic writings. His political philosophy may be discerned from the influence he exercised over his contemporaries. This chapter presents a case for considering Prometheus Bound, and the trilogy to which it belonged, as essentially a mythological presentation of the thought of Protagoras. In the process, the philosophical humanism of Protagoras, rooted in philanthropy and the intellectual's responsibility to society, is revealed in its full complexity.

There is a story that a Cambridge economics tutor, on reading one of Samuel Brittan's undergraduate essays, exclaimed that it was the first time he had ever understood the subject it discussed. Readers of Brittan's published work will no doubt share the same experience. Brittan has the knack of turning complex, technical problems into lucid and insightful prose, not only in economics, where one might expect him to exercise his journalist's skill of exposition, but also in the logical and metaphysical subtleties involved in political and moral philosophy. Moreover, he deploys these expository skills in advancing a particular version of liberal political philosophy. The publication of his latest major work, A Restatement of Economic Liberalism, itself a revised version of the earlier Capitalism and the Permissive Society, provides an opportunity to assess the plausibility and coherence of this statement of a political creed.' An occupational hazard for journalists is that their work will be read in a casual way. In the present case this hazard has two consequences. The first is to underestimate the skill with which technical issues are transformed into something digestible. As a non-economist I am simply the beneficiary of Brittan's efforts in explaining the intricacies of the dismal science to the laity; as a political philosopher I can testify to the extent of his skill. The second consequence is the tendency to misinterpret Brittan's message. I have heard even intelligent people categorize him as the acceptable voice of Thatcherism. No careful reading of his writings could sustain this interpretation. In economic policy he is telling in his indictment of Mrs Thatcher's obstinacy in vetoing membership of the EMS in 1985, when the country had a chance of locking itself into a mechanism that would have decisively aided the control of inflation. He castigates the puritanism that led the government to instigate new forms of censorship, in the guise of the Broadcasting Standards Authority. And he has written the best critique of the patriotic hysteria over the Falklands war that can be imagined in the space of a few hundred words.'

One of the main discussions related to the topic of the "human-made world" is the physisnomos debate. The historical roots of this debate can be traced back to the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. many philosophers, historians, and authors revealed different ideas about this subject. Some of them considered physis to be superior to nomos, while others considered nomos to be superior to physis. The main problem that arises in this discussion is the inclination to stabilize the tension between these two concepts by drawing thick boundaries between them. In this respect, we need to ask two significant philosophical questions. Firstly, is it possible to say that physis and nomos have definite conceptual schemes? The second question is connected to the first one and it deals with whether the tension between physis and nomos can be handled in a fixed manner or not. This paper discusses these questions from the perspectives of the Sophists and contemporary thinkers involved in the physis-nomos debate. It will be based on the idea of how human beings think while constituting the world, and it will evaluate how physis and nomos ought to be related.

Esta segunda parte, define el modelo dominado por las plataformas digitales que se nutre de aquellas operaciones características del capital, que extraen valor: la logística, la extracción y la financiarización. Una logística, que coordina la producción global extrayendo valor mediante flujos espaciales (cadenas de suministro transnacionales). Un extractivismo (extracción), que extrae valor del flujo de los datos, las subjetividades y la cooperación social, como modernas modalidades de explotación. Una financiarización que extrae valor del trabajo futuro comprometido para honrar la deuda. Estas operaciones del capital se inscriben en dinámicas espacio-temporales con resultados impredecibles, generando formaciones capitalistas histórica y geográficamente diferenciadas. El mercado mundial se reconfigura con cadenas de valor transnacionales y plataformas digitales, el trabajo se precariza (uberización) y la extracción de datos reemplaza la acumulación industrial clásica. Asistimos a un reordenamiento de la soberanía estatal, al desacople entre estado y territorialidad que autonomiza el territorio del estado-nación. Fenómeno que cuestiona la validez del imperialismo como tal, y rescata un capitalismo multipolar donde empresas como Amazon y Google actúan como poderes globales, desplazando a los Estados. EE.UU. pierde liderazgo sin que China lo reemplace plenamente, generando un sistema multipolar caótico

The article examines the issues related to the Western strategy for solving the Ukrainian problem over a long historical period, including the present. Emphasis is placed on the consistency and insidiousness of the methods and forms of influence used to introduce imperial narratives directed against Ukrainian identity. According to the researchers, this was largely due to complacency of democratic countries with the liberal democracy achievements, the existing confidence in the benefits of the acquired economic stability and the inexpediency of major wars in modern conditions. It points out the interest of Western politicians at different times in supporting the national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people, preserving an independent national tradition, and establishing an independent state. The authors conclude that the modern Ukrainian nation, which was finally formed during the revolutionary transformations of the twenty-first century, is now defending not only its own country but the entire democratic world. It is creating a new geopolitical order in which it will be able to play an important political role.
The genocidal war launched by Russia against Ukraine has changed the vector of European development strategies and set new priorities in shaping the domestic and foreign policies of all countries in the world without exception. The confrontation between the new Ukrainian democracy and the imperial Russian autocracy helped to consolidate the Western world's approach to the global problems of our time. This article discusses the crucial importance of preserving the historical tradition of support for Ukraine in the context of preserving political initiatives for EU and NATO membership. Attention is drawn to the formation of a strategy for a new leadership configuration, a European defense initiative in which our country will play a leading role. This will help to significantly reduce the existing threat of a new world war on the European continent. In turn, it will release Ukraine's political and economic potential for the restoration and development of a democratic society.
Keywords
Russian imperial policy, sovereignty, Ukrainian statehood, democratic values, European politics, Western world.

У статті досліджено питання, пов’язані із західною стратегією щодо розв’язання українського питання протягом тривалого історичного періоду, включно із сьогоденням. Акцент зроблено на послідовність і підступність використання методів і форм впливу в запровадженні імперських наративів, спрямованих проти української ідентичності. На думку дослідників, багато в чому це відбулося через заспокоєність західного світу досягненнями ліберальної демократії, наявною впевненістю у перевагах набутої економічної стабільності, недоцільністю великих війн в сучасних умовах. Звернено увагу на зацікавленість західним політикумом за різних часів у підтримці національно-визвольних змагань українського народу, збереженні самостійної національної традиції, утворенні незалежної держави. Автори доходять висновку, що сучасна українська нація, яка остаточно сформувалася за часів революційних перетворень ХХІ століття, сьогодні своїми діями на захист не тільки власної країни, але й усього демократичного світу формує новий геополітичний порядок, в якому буде спроможна відігравати важливу політичну роль.
Розпочата Росією проти України геноцидальна війна змінила вектор європейських стратегій розвитку, заклавши нові пріоритети у формуванні внутрішньої і зовнішньої політики усіх без винятку країн світу. Протистояння нової української демократії та імперської російської автократії сприяло більш визначеній консолідації західного світу відносно розв’язання глобальних проблем сучасності. Вирішальне значення, про що йдеться в статті, має збереження історичної традиції підтримки України в контексті збереження політичних ініціатив щодо членства в ЄС та НАТО, формування стратегії нової конфігурації лідерства, європейської оборонної ініціативи, в якій наша держава буде відігравати одну з провідних ролей. Це сприятиме значною мірою стриманню існуючих загроз розв’язання нової світової війни на європейському континенті, що, в свою чергу, звільнить політичний та економічний потенціал України на користь відновлення і розбудови демократичного суспільства.

Ключові слова
російська імперська політика, суверенітет, українська державність, демократичні цінності, європейська політика, західний світ.

In the spirit of global governance, Karl Christian Friedrich Krause saw the
Masonic Brotherhood as the first historical seed for the realization of a global, participatory,
Human League; to establish and maintain a state of true humanity. And he saw the most
excellent sign of this connection between Freemasonry and cosmopolitan civil society in
the allegory of the “Great General Lodge”. However, in order to be able to do justice to
its historical task of establishing the Human League, according to Krause, Freemasonry
needs to reform itself according to its original ideal, overcome its pupal stage caused by the
caterpillar status of medieval construction huts, and grow into a butterfly.

The Preface of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right contains one of the most famous, and even more so, infamous aphorisms in the history of philosophy:

„What is rational is real
And what is real is rational.“

„Was vernünftig ist, das ist wirklich;
Und was wirklich ist, das ist vernünftig.“

The aim of this paper is to move beyond the facade created by a one-dimensional reception of this aphorism to uncover its critical significance. At its core, the argument proposed is quite straightforward: That the clasped identity between rationality and reality expressed in the aphorism—which I will refer to as a chiasmus—must be the starting point of a theory and praxis of liberation and thus holds immense socio-critical potential that has largely been overlooked in previous interpretations.

RESUMO:

Uma das agudezas de Espinosa consiste em fazer uso de termos da tradição e dar
a eles novas cores, subvertendo-os. Com efeito, Deus, conceito-chave em seu sistema, equivale
a natureza ou substância. Não ato puro e transcendente, como em Tomás de Aquino, mas
imanente. Direito, por seu turno, é o mesmo que potentia, derivado da potência absoluta da
substância ou natureza. Tese que, importa sublinhar, estiola por completo a divisão estanque
direito natural versus direito positivo, visto que todo direito é por definição potência, sendo,
por esta razão, o direito natural em estado de natureza mera opinião, como escreve no Tratado
político. O mesmo se dá com outros conceitos, tais como liberdade e afetos. O objetivo do artigo
é tratar de um conceito menos frequentado pelos comentadores, mas que, hipótese que será
defendida, é igualmente reconceitualizado por Espinosa. Trata-se do conceito de justiça. O foco
inicial será Tomás de Aquino, como autor paradigmático da tradição que analisa o conceito de
justiça. Isto para, por contraste, explicitar em quê Espinosa modifica a definição. Com este
objetivo, o escólio 2 da Proposição 37 da Parte IV da Ética será analisado à luz do sistema
espinosano. Isso implica que outras partes do corpus serão movimentadas para a compreensão
deste excerto central da Ética quanto ao tema da justiça. A questão-chave que norteará a
exposição será a seguinte: Espinosa possui um conceito de justiça? Se sim, ele se distancia da
tradição, aqui representada por Tomás de Aquino? Por fim, trata-se de investigar se há um, e
apenas um, conceito de justiça espinosano.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Espinosa; Tomás de Aquino; reconceitualização; justiça; cidade.

Y at -il une dinde au dîner du chancelier Bismarck ? 1 Alain SERVANTIE 1. L'arrivée des dindons en Europe Le Président Erdoğan a demandé que la Turquie en anglais ne soit plus appelée « Turkey » mais « Turkiye ». Paradoxalement, ceci ne concerne que la langue anglaise, la seule désignant ainsi ce que nous appelons un dindon en français. Pour mémoire, le coq et la poule d'Inde, aujourd'hui connus sous les noms de dindon et de dinde, rapportés d'Amérique figurent en bonne place sur les tables de Charles Quint, de François I er ou de Henri VIII, dans le deuxième quart du 16 ème siècle. En 1570, un banquet comportant douze dindes est offert à Charles IX à Amiens. Rabelais, en 1548, sert sur la table de Grandgousier, coq et poule d'Inde. Les dindons ont très rapidement été élevés en Europe ; Olivier de Serres, dans son Théâtre d'agriculture, publié en 1600, leur consacre quatre pages. Le mot « dinde » est répandu dans plusieurs langues européennes (polonais, turc : hind tavuğu), même si l'espagnol, comme le terme scientifique, a gardé le mot pavo, paon, par allusion à la roue que font ses plumes, et le portugais peru. Le néerlandais calcoen provient de ce que les marchands portugais apportaient à Anvers tant des épices des Indes orientales (Calicut) que des produits du Brésil (Indes occidentales), d'où calicut-hoen (poule de Calicut), passé aussi en suédois (kalkon), en allemand, chez Gessner, comme Kalckutischerhan (aujourd'hui Truthahn, ou Pute) 2. . Gessner Belon Dès le 16 ème siècle, le dindon entre dans l'art : tableaux du paradis terrestre de Jan Brueghel, une sculpture de dindon sur la chaire de la cathédrale d'Anvers, tapisseries (cf. cidessous au musée de Wavel, à Cracovie).

Bu çalışmanı amacı 17. yüzyılı derinden etkileyen filozof Thomas Hobbes ile 20. yüzyılın önemli bir filozofu olan John Rawls'un adalet teorilerindeki insanın doğa durumu ve toplumsal sözleşme düşüncelerini karşılaştırıp benzerlik ve farklılıklarını ortaya koymaktır. Karşılaştırma yapılırken Hobbes'un Leviathan adlı kitabı ile Rawls'un Bir Adalet Teorisi adlı kitabı kullanılmıştır. Çalışma toplam üç bölümden meydana gelmiştir. Çalışmanın birinci bölümünde Hobbes'un siyaset felsefesi, devlet anlayışı, insan doğasına ilişkin fikirleri ve sözleşme teorisi açıklanmıştır. Çalışmanın ikinci bölümünde J.Rawls'un "Hakkaniyet Olarak Adalet" adını verdiği adalet teorisi, başlangıç durumu ve hakkaniyet olarak adaletin ilkeleri açıklanmıştır. Çalışmanın üçüncü bölümünde iki düşünürün sözleşme teorileri ve doğa durumunda insan doğasının benzer ve farklı yönleri karşılaştırılmıştır. Sonuç bölümünde ise ortaya çıkan bulgular yorumlanmıştır.

Cos'è la rivoluzione? Qual è la differenza tra rivoluzione sociale e politica e quali i rapporti? Ritratto di un filosofo rivoluzionario europeo nella controrivoluzione neoliberale dagli anni 80 a oggi: Nicola Massima De Feo. Maestro, fine filosofo, comunista, militante. Un saggio di controstoria della filosofia politica oggi: quello di De Feo è un profilo interessantissimo

Today, when the cult of force without concern for justice ("winners are not judged") has taken hold of many nations on the planet, as a result of which the number of wars is growing, with the threat of one of them turning into a global nuclear war, it is especially important to understand the issue of justice in general and in specific wars in particular. This article analyzes the issue of justice in the war between Russia and Ukraine and, using its example, the issue of justice in general.

In this essay, I analyze the definition of tyranny proposed by Pascal: “Tyranny is wanting to have by one means what can only be had by another.” The definition of tyranny depends on a basic thesis of Pascalian philosophy, according to which there are different ‘orders’ that structure reality. I propose to trace the evidence of Pascal's legacy in Montesquieu’s use of tyranny. The components of the spirit of nations in Montesquieu’s Esprit des lois -laws, mores and manners- have the characteristics of Pascalian orders, that is, they are systems governed by specific ends and means that are not transferable to another system. Like Pascal, Montesquieu employs the notion of tyranny to indicate the use in one system of tools specific to another system.

This is an AI-generated translation of my paper into English.

This article analyzes the conceptualizations of human life in the tradition of Western philosophical thought, with the purpose of offering interpretative tools in the face of the pandemic reality of covid-19. The classical and modern paradigms on life are reviewed in order to understand Michel Foucault's biopolitical proposal, whose inadequacy to explain the systematic destruction of certain lives during the pandemic is evident in the analysis. To overcome these limitations, a mar-xist perspective is proposed that unravels how capitalist logic reifies human lives, exposing them to exploitation and destruction. This research focuses on a fundamental contradiction in our society: how does power, instituted to protect life, at the same time legitimize its capacity to administer death?

It is well-known that the project inaugurated by Immanuel Kant hinges upon what he called his own Copernican revolution, a concept that was meant to address a particularly vexing onto-epistemic dilemma that had up to then come to characterize modern European thought. This is the problem of how to reconcile the gap separating subjects and objects, i.e. the gap that generates the possibility of both knowledge and ignorance, and by extension the problem of how to reconcile the spontaneous freedom of the subject with the necessity that is seemingly proper to nature or vice-versa. Writing in his Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Kant famously notes that Copernicus’s main idea was to restructure scientific perspective concerning the alleged movements of the constellations [die Himmelsbewegungen, das Sternenheer], such that now it is not the stars that move but rather the perspective of the one who observes the stars that moves or circulates [sich drehen] and thus determines how and what appears as an object of experience.  Conversely, Kant writes, what is needed now for the suturing of the onto-epistemic gap opened in the wake of empiricist and rationalist thinkers is a way to understand how knowledge of objects are possible, but not on the basis of ceding priority to the particular characteristics of objects [Beschaffenheit der Gegenstände].

Indeed, this option must be foreclosed on the basis of rendering a priori, i.e. prior to empirical experience (redundant but colloquially correct), knowledge of the world impossible. Against this, it is rather the task of Kant’s thinking to resituate the ‘motion’ of cognition around the ways by which objects, as objects of sensibility [der Gegenstand als Objekt der Sinne], correspond to the characteristics of our capacity for intuition [nach der Beschaffenheit unseres Anschauungsvermögens]. This is to say that Kant seeks to demonstrate how experience corresponds to the laws given in empirical experience by the subject, or understanding, such that a priori knowledge ‘of’ objects and the expression of said knowledge by way of concepts are made possible [Erfahrung … die Verstand erfordert, dessen Regel ich in mir, noch ehe mir Gegenstände gegeben werden, mithin a priori voraussetzen muß, welche in Begriffen a priori ausgedrückt wird, nach denen sich also alle Gegenstände der Erfahrung notwendig richten und mit ihnen übereinstimmen müssen].  It is within this general schematization that Kant moves in the remainder of the first Kritik, wherein Kant will provide the transcendental ontology that underpins this inverted Copernican turn, and in his subsequent texts, wherein Kant will attempt to systematically unpack concepts such as  nature, beauty, the ethics, God and the sublime, all of which in the first Kritik are held to be, perhaps unexpectedly, beyond the confines of conceptual determination, because presuppositions (not demonstrable or cognizable objective things) of the activity of reason itself.

In this paper, I trace just one of Kant’s attempts to develop this system of thought on the basis of his initial insights concerning not only the contingency of cognition upon the concepts of the understanding, but so too the excessive quality of those ideals that the understanding does not organize – namely, his notion of reflective judgement, which I will treat by looking at his understanding aesthetic judgment [Geschmacksurteil] and judgements concerning beauty in particular. By aesthetic judgement, Kant means a kind of judgement grounded in the subjective, non-logical or cognitive (nicht logisch, sondern ästhetisch…nicht anders als subjektiv) sense.  Following Knut Berner’s analysis, I understand Kant’s notion of beauty as a judgment that defies determination by any given concept or set of concepts in the way of an object of sense of experience. Consequently, as Berner argues, because Kant also divorces his sense of the beautiful from any of the Beschaffenheiten of a given object, dovetailing as such determination would with that given by concepts, Kant thereby relinquishes any concern with the ontological status of an object of aesthetic judgement.  And it is here, writes Berner, that the reader encounters the notion of a ‘sense’ that is enjoyable, i.e. Wohlgefallen, where sensibility is not restricted to any one or discrete set of concepts that would determine the ontological status of an object of experience, but rather where there is a ‘sense’ of an object or state of affairs whose meaning is not reducible to the same sort of discrete significance, i.e. signification, that is proper to cognition, but rather proper to the domain of the will, i.e. reflective judgement.

With Kristi Sweet, I argue that what happens in aesthetic judgement is an exercise of a sphere of the human will that grounds both speculative rationality and the humane ‘sense’ of that upon which cognitions are contingent, i.e. nature or das Ding an sich. Said otherwise, and herein lays my main argument, what Kant’s appeal to reflective judgement reveals is a notion of sense as self-affection, a notion of sense, or pleasure in the case of judgements of beauty,  that is both within, because conditioning, and thus without (außer, one may say) speculative rationality (i.e. the understanding) that in turn grounds a notion of universality that, because running beyond the confines of cognition and purely speculative rationality, is akin to the regulative ideals of God and freedom, i.e. that to which Kristi Sweet refers as hope. Crucially, this is a notion of the ‘self’ that is glimpsed in the earlier Kritiken, a notion of the self that is less a conscious than pre-cognitive, affectively attuned, consciousness; thus, it is to the first Kritik that I now turn, ahead of my treatment of Kant’s notion of aesthetic judgement in the third.

El extravío del socialismo en tiempos de radicalización derechista En el actual estado de cosas, la metáfora de izquierda y derecha sigue sirviendo para designar posiciones relativas en torno al capital, el Estado, el orden y la justicia. FABIÁN BUSTAMANTE OLGUÍN | JAVIER ROMERO OCAMPO | 13 de mayo de 2025 EN LOS ÚLTIMOS AÑOS, SE HA VUELTO HABITUAL REFERIRSE al ascenso, y en algunos casos el protagonismo, de la derecha radical-o extrema derecha, según diversas denominaciones-como uno de los fenómenos políticos más significativos del escenario global. En Europa, Estados Unidos y otras regiones del mundo, este tipo de derecha ha ido ganando terreno, articulando discursos y programas que combinan autoritarismo, nativismo y populismo, en los términos propuestos por el politólogo neerlandés Cas Mudde, que se pregunta acerca del poder de la extrema derecha de imponer discusiones que incluso ponen en entredicho al sistema democrático. La expansión de esta corriente de pensamiento ha renovado el interés por la eficacia simbólica y práctica de la tradicional metáfora espacial de «izquierda» y «derecha» en política, una distinción que algunos consideran obsoleta, pero que sigue siendo útil para mapear las coordenadas ideológicas en un tiempo caracterizado por la fragmentación del campo político y la disputa por los ejes que constituyen los pilares que distinguen a quienes se identifican con la derecha o la izquierda.

El presente documento pretende contribuir a la comprensión del problema perenne de la relación entre teoría y práctica. Para ello, se propone una reconstrucción del antiguo tema del conflicto entre el filósofo y la polis. La reconstrucción de esta relación tiene por eje las figuras de Sócrates y Platón. Interesa dar a ver, a través de ellas, los modos en que la filosofía política, en sus orígenes, lidió con el carácter y situación política de su propia práctica. Esta reconstrucción es articulada por medio de una reposición de la manera en que algunos pensadores contemporáneos problematizan aquel conflicto y dan a ver los modos en que esa disputa persiste y trabaja en nuestra contemporaneidad. Es así que, a partir de las reflexiones de Michel Foucault, Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, Jacques Rancière y Roberto Esposito, los capítulos que integran este documento elaboran la pregunta por los sentidos y la actualidad del persistente conflicto entre hombres de pensamiento y de acción, en vis...

Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss were contemporary with each other; they shared courses, readings and taught at the same universities. Their lives were also affected by the same historical events, both tried to understand the crisis of Modernity, and the same thinkers and philosophical ideas influenced their works. However, their conclusions differ completely and understanding both their coincidences and their differences can illuminate not only the specificities of two of the most important works of political thought of last century, but also some of the political and theoretical alternatives of our time. Thus, this work aims to show some of the most significant coincidences and differences of Arendt and Strauss, particularly those related to their understandings of the crisis of their time and its consequences.

espanolHannah Arendt y Leo Strauss fueron contemporaneos, compartieron cursos, lecturas y ensenaron en las mismas universidades. Sus destinos estuvieron tambien marcados por los mismos acontecimientos historicos y sus perspectivas de analisis se nutren y discuten con autores comunes. Ambos intentan pensar y escribir sobre la crisis de su tiempo, observan las sociedades contemporaneas con inquietud y buscan en la tradicion maneras de articular esta preocupacion. Sin embargo, sus conclusiones difieren radicalmente y entender tanto sus coincidencias como sus diferencias puede iluminar no solo las especificidades de dos de las obras mas relevantes del pensamiento politico del ultimo siglo, sino tambien algunas de las alternativas politicas y teoricas de nuestra era. Asi, este trabajo se propone mostrar algunos de los puntos de confluencia y divergencia de Arendt y Strauss, en particular aquellos que conciernen a las comprensiones que los autores presentan sobre la crisis de su tiempo y ...

La pregunta acerca de la funcion politica de los saberes es central en los debates contemporaneos de teoria politica. Puestas en duda en nuestro tiempo las fuentes de autoridad y certeza, el conocimiento se vuelve problematico y resurge entonces un interrogante presente desde el origen de la tradicion occidental: ?Que relacion puede establecerse entre filosofia, ciencia o academia y el debate publico o la practica politica? Este trabajo analiza el modo en que Leo Strauss entiende que se desarrolla este problema en la modernidad y busca demostrar que la obra del autor senala en nuestro tiempo un movimiento pendular, que oscila entre omnipotencia y la impotencia, entre la confianza desmedida en la posibilidad de servir a las comunidades politicas con los saberes producidos por la nueva ciencia, y un relativismo que considera imposible que ninguna reflexion, teoria o descubrimiento sea capaz de generar algun bien para los seres humanos.

Resumo:

O artigo pretende tratar do tema dos humores em Maquiavel, alinhavando-o aos conceitos de desejo e apetites. Intenta, igualmente, trabalhar a hipótese de que é passional e dinâmico o fundamento da divisão civil entre grandes e povo na cidade. Quanto aos humores, há simples apropriação especular da tradição médica antiga ou o florentino a reconceitualiza à sua maneira? Nas diferenças entre os humores do povo e dos grandes, existe apenas negatividade no humor do povo ou se lhe pode atribuir positividade? O artigo, além de tratar das questões acima, pretende mostrar que tais conceitos - desejo, apetite, humores - possuem alguma variância semântica e são substituídos uns pelos outros no correr da obra, e até mesmo nos mesmos livros e capítulos de algumas delas. O mesmo ocorre com os termos grandes/povo e correlatos. Em outra chave, trata-se de mostrar que, mesmo com tal variância semântica, tais conceitos são fundamentais para a compreensão da filosofia política do autor, além de darem fundamentação e clareza às interpretações acerca da divisão civil na cidade. Uma hipótese que se analisa acerca deste último ponto é a de que apenas se compreende bem a tese da divisão civil sob a luz de seu fundamento eminentemente dinâmico e passional. O giro interpretativo, portanto, passa pelo reconhecimento da divisão civil não como constatação sociológica de esferas estáticas contrapostas, mas como resultante da dinâmica afetiva.

Palavras-chave: desejo, humores, apetites, divisão civil, cidade.

• Η επιλογή ονομάτων με αρετές (Αρμονία, Σοφία, Υπομονή, Φιλοτιμία, Συνεργασία) είναι συχνή σε νέους οικισμούς και συνοικισμούς προσφύγων, καθώς στόχος ήταν η δημιουργία μιας νέας συλλογικής ταυτότητας και η ενίσχυση της ελπίδας και της ενότητας μετά το τραύμα του 1974. • Η Λεωφόρος Δημοκρατίας και η Λεωφόρος Ανεξαρτησίας στη Λακατάμεια δηλώνουν τις θεμελιώδεις πολιτειακές αξίες του κράτους. • Το γεγονός ότι η Οδός Σοφίας και η Οδός Συνεργασίας (και πάλι στη Λακαταμεια) είναι αδιέξοδα, ενώ άλλες αρετές οδηγούν σε διασταυρώσεις, φαίνεται να έχει συμβολικό χαρακτήρα (ίσως και ασυνείδητο): • Μήπως η σοφία και η συνεργασία συχνά μένουν "αδιέξοδες" στην κοινωνική πραγματικότητα; • Μήπως η αρμονία και η μάθηση είναι πιο "διαβατές" αρετές, ενώ η σοφία απαιτεί προσωπικό δρόμο που δεν οδηγεί πάντα κάπου αλλού;

This paper examines the nature of the relationship between the Secretary of State and the Permanent Secretary, with particular focus on determining how policy delivery can be enhanced. The review of the literature offers insights into the role and tasks of the Secretary of State and Permanent Secretary, concluding that the quality of their relationship is central to effective policy delivery. The study reported in this paper surfaces the considerable attention given by public officials to understanding the Secretary of State in order to ensure for better engagement with their political masters. Towards this end, civil servants report that appreciating the Minister's propensity for drawing on evidence (soft or hard data) and their level of personal confidence (feeling secure or insecure) provides for the necessary insights to 'get on to the Minister's wavelength'. Officials report the extent of their flexibility to position arguments in order to win the Minister's attention and approval. The paper concludes that the appropriate (or inappropriate) reading of the Minister is fundamental to enhancing (or damaging) policy delivery. The lengths officials go to so that the Secretary of State can, and can be seen to, appropriately deliver policy seemingly goes unrecognized by the Minister.

The ongoing war in Gaza has generated extensive polemic among scholars and the general public. Some have described this conflict as a novel form of warfare. The deeply asymmetric character of this war and the vast number of Palestinian civilian casualties have prompted some analysts to described Gaza as a “new urban warfare.” Others have used similar descriptions such as “new war of attrition” or “Israel’s new wars,” while Kaldor argues that her theory of “new wars” is fully applicable to the violent conflict in Gaza...

From a planetary perspective, industrialized humans have become unvirtuous and holistically destructive in comparison to 99% of human genus existence. Why? This paper draws a transdisciplinary explanation. Humans are social mammals who are born particularly immature with a lengthy, decades-long maturational schedule and thus evolved an intensive nest for the young (soothing perinatal experience, responsive care, extensive breastfeeding, multiple responsive caregivers, positive social support, self-directed free play with multi-aged mates in the natural world). Neurosciences show that evolved nest components support normal development at all levels (e.g., neurobiological, social, psychological), laying the foundations for virtue. Nest components are degraded in industrialized societies. Studies and accounts of societies that provide the nest, particularly nomadic foragers, the type of society in which humanity spent 99% of its genus history, indicate a more virtuous human nature than that industrialized societies think is normal or possible. Nest-supported human nature displays Darwin's moral sense whereas unnested individuals show dysregulation and a degraded moral sense-a species-atypical human nature. Original virtue is about flourishing-of self, human community and the more than human community-within all circles of life, based in a deep awareness of humanity's dependence on the rest of nature to survive. The pillars of original virtue include relational attunement (engagement ethic), communal imagination, and respectful partnership with the natural world. All are apparent in human societies that provide the nest to their young, fostering connectedness throughout life. They maintain communal imagination through cultural practices that enhance ecological attachment and receptive intelligence to the natural world.

Within the broad spectrum of infrastructure and sustainable development, NDB’s operation focus on a range of key areas: clean energy and energy efficiency, transport infrastructure, water and sanitation, digital infrastructure, environmental protection and social infrastructure
Hence Ethiopia could benefit greatly from these facilities to promote its transition into an African industrial hub in addition to the support it receives from other multilateral and bilateral sources,

Cet article se propose de revenir au concept de propriété en faisant droit à l’intuition marxiste selon laquelle « la propriété organise le passage du pouvoir sur les choses au pouvoir sur les êtres ». Il s’agit ainsi de rouvrir les questions occultées par l’assimilation de la propriété à la propriété privée et de saisir l’occasion pour analyser la structure même du concept de propriété. Nous en proposerons une définition triadique, attentive à la nature de l’entité appropriante (a), à celle de l’entité appropriée (b), et surtout à la manière dont la relation de propriété(c) qui se noue entre (a) et (b) dépend des entités qui les occupent. Cette analyse nous permettra de mettre en avant les multiples manières qu’a la propriété de façonner le monde social et ses indénombrables enjeux. Comme l’avait bien pressenti Marx, la propriété configure davantage que les seuls rapports des hommes aux choses. Elle configure aussi un certain type de rapport à autrui, à soi, au vivant, et charrie chaque fois des affects qui sont propres aux différents types d’institutions propriétaires.