English translation, with Chinese source text, of a seminal Chinese classic.

In A Philosophical Defense of Culture, Shuchen Xiang draws on the Confucian philosophy of "culture" and Ernst Cassirer's philosophy of symbolic forms to argue for the importance of "culture" as a philosophic paradigm. A defining ideal of Confucian-Chinese civilization, culture (wen) spans everything from natural patterns and the individual units that make up Chinese writing to literature and other refining vocations of the human being. Wen is thus the soul of Confucian-Chinese philosophy. Similarly, as a philosopher who bridged the classical (...) age of German humanism and postwar modernity, Cassirer implored his and future generations to think of humankind in terms of their culture and to think of the human being as a "symbolic animal." The philosophies of culture of these two traditions, very much compatible, are of urgent relevance to our contemporary epoch. Xiang describes the similarity of their projects by way of their conception of the human being, her relationship to nature, the relationship of human culture to nature, the importance of cultural pluralism, and the role of the arts in human life, as well as the metaphysical frameworks that gave rise to such conceptions. Combining textual exegesis in classical Chinese texts and an exposition of Cassirer's most important insights against the backdrop of post-Kantian philosophy, this book is philosophy written in a cosmopolitan mode, arguing for the contemporary philosophical relevance of "culture" by drawing on and bringing together two different but strikingly similar streams in our world tradition. (shrink)

Resumo: Pedro Hispano define os sincategoremas como expressões que revelam de que maneira os sujeitos e os predicados estão de fato relacionados nas proposições, contribuindo assim para o estabelecer o que elas significam e fixar as condições de verdade e as formas lógicas correspondentes. Entre as expressões que ele julga serem sincategoremáticas, ‘não’, ‘e’, ‘ou’, ‘se’, ‘todo’ e ‘necessário’ se destacam atualmente como constantes lógicas. Todavia, opondo-se a grande parte dos lógicos contemporâneos para quem tais expressões possuem um significado fixo (...) na medida em que integram as formas lógicas das respectivas proposições, Pedro Hispano admite que seu significado pode ser modificado quando a expressões do mesmo tipo credita a capacidade de atuarem em determinados contextos como categoremas. Além disso, ao defender que as expressões ora em questão explicitam as formas lógicas das proposições mediante a articulação dos categoremas a elas associados, ele também demonstra divergir dos principais critérios de demarcação das constantes lógicas atualmente vigentes que não preveem a atribuição de tal comportamento a expressões desse tipo. Portanto, não resta dúvida de que a teoria de Pedro Hispano sobre os sincategoremas enriquece a nossa compreensão ainda insuficiente da natureza das constantes lógicas e contribui para a resolução do problema da demarcação de tais expressões.: According to Petrus Hispanus, syncategoremata are expressions that determine how subjects and predicates are actually related in propositions. They contribute to establishing what the categoremata mean and to specifying the truth conditions of the corresponding logical forms. Among the expressions Peter of Spain thinks of as syncategorematic, ‘not’, ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘if’, ‘all, and ‘necessary’ are nowadays considered to be logical operators. But unlike the contemporary logicians who argue that these expressions have fixed meanings because they belong to the logical forms of the corresponding propositions, Peter of Spain allows that their meanings can be modified, attributing to them the ability to act in certain contexts as categoremata. In addition, he argues that these expressions make explicit the logical forms through the articulation of corresponding propositions’ categoremata; thus he also diverges from the main contemporary criteria of demarcation of logical constants, which does not allow that these expressions have such behavior. Therefore, there is no doubt that Hispanus’ theory of the syncategoremata enriches our still insufficient understanding of the logical constants and contributes to the resolution of the problem of the demarcation of such expressions. (shrink)

A performance appraisal system forms an integral part of any developed management concept. The efficiency of such an appraisal system is fostered in institutions which prioritise quality and continuous improvement, and where innovationfriendly actions are joined by those that build confidence. An efficient appraisal system is characterised as follows: it is systemic in character, regular, universal, flexible, concrete, transparent and simple in application. When implementing a modern appraisal system, care should be taken to adhere to ethically sound principles such as (...) fairness, objectivity, goodness and truthfulness. (shrink)

In French post-structuralism, »decentering« signifies the criticism of any metaphysical »centre« which is supposed to reign the development and the logic of discourse, and hence of thinking. In particular, anthropology and the recourse to humanism were suspected to miss the plurality and the self-differing nature of discursive practices. This article presents Dewey’s philosophy as an alternative to this criticism. Dewey is comparably sceptical of any attempt to treat the human being as a metaphysical essence. Nevertheless, he develops an explicit humanism (...) which defends the central values of freedom, openness, and growth. This paradoxical humanism is rendered possible by developing a concept of nature, and the human being, which,decenters‘ the specific human capacities by consequently treating them as an integral part of nature. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo consiste en dialogar con los discursos universitarios de Peter Hans Kolvenbach, superior general de la Compañía de Jesús entre 1983 y 2008. En particular analizamos la dimensión “iustitia” como elemento distintivo del paradigma de la educación superior jesuita y todo ello lo contextualizamos, a la vez, en su tradición histórica. La apuesta por la promoción de la justicia social, en el entramado universitario de la orden de Ignacio de Loyola, responde asimismo a las opciones que (...) la Compañía de Jesús ha tomado, a raíz del Concilio Vaticano II, y se posiciona como una alternativa a la óptica utilitarista. (shrink)

The article investigates how the problem of reference is treated in the theology of two pupils of Gilbert of Poitiers by means of suppo* terms. Supposition is for Gilbert an action performed by a speaker, not a property of terms, and he considers language as a system for communication between human beings: key notions are the ‘sense in the author’s mind’ and the ‘interpreter’s understanding’. In contrast, the two Porretans tend to objectify language as a formal system of terms. Suppositio (...) becomes in the Summa Zwettlensis the name itself as subject term in a proposition, and is divided into many kinds; formal rules are described which govern the influence of the predicate on the subject term’s denotation. In Everard of Ypres’ Dialogus Ratii et Everardi, supponere is a function of the name, and ‘human is a species of individuals’ is, as in some logical treatises and differently from Gilbert, a case of rhetorical transfer. (shrink)

A historical understanding of the virtue of consolation, as contrasted to empathy, compassion, or sympathy, is developed. Recent findings from neuroscience are presented which support and affirm this understanding. These findings are related to palliative care and its current practice in bioethics.

This essay engages with Heidegger’s attempt to re-think the human being. It shows that Heidegger re-thinks the human being by challenging the way the human being has been thought, and the mode of thinking traditionally used to think about the human being. I spend significant time discussing Heidegger’s attempt before, in the final section, asking some critical questions of Heidegger’s endeavour and pointing out how his analysis can re-invigorate contemporary attempts to understand the human being.

Kvalitný život ľudí v spoločnostiach značne závisí od ekonomiky, pričom vzhľadom na zabezpečenie humánneho a sociálno-ekonomického rozvoja ľudí a ľudskej spoločnosti súčasnú ekonomiku je potrebné humanizovať. V tejto súvislosti sa štúdia zameriava na dva dôležité predpoklady – renesanciu hlavného cieľa ekonomiky a humánny prístup k ľudským zdrojom, ktoré sa v súčasnej ekonomike zameranej na zisk a ekonomickú prosperitu, čoraz viac dostávajú do úzadia. Opiera sa o názory ekonóma L. von Mises, ale načrtáva aj názory súčasných ekonómov a predstaviteľov sociálno-humanitných vied, (...) ktoré sa stávajú podnetmi pre zamyslenie sa nad skutočnými dôvodmi pre renesanciu základného cieľa ekonomiky a tiež pre zabezpečenie humánnych prístupov k ľudským zdrojom, a napokon pre zreformovanie celej ekonomiky v prospech človeka. Tak, aby sa aspoň čiastočne priblížila k morálnemu ideálu, ktorý predstavuje model humanistickej ekonomiky. (shrink)

From 1959 until 1969, Heidegger lectured to psychiatrists and psychiatry students at the University of Zurich Psychiatric Clinic and in Zollikon. The transcriptions of these lectures were published as the Zollikon Seminars. In these seminars Heidegger is highly critical of psychoanalysis, because of its causal and objectifying approach to the human being. In general, Heidegger considers it an objectification or even an elimination of the human being to approach a patient from a causal perspective. In our view Heidegger has overlooked (...) the peculiar nature and complexity of psychotherapy and psychiatry, namely that psychiatry is not just a discipline that combines a hermeneutical approach and a natural science approach on a theoretical level, but it also deals with psychopathology in practice. We argue, also referring to Strawson and Gadamer, that in psychiatric practice causal explanation and hermeneutic understanding are no mutually exclusive approaches. We conclude that the encounter of philosophy and psychiatry in matters of causality and motivation could be particularly fruitful when the practical situation is addressed, recognizing the special character of psychopathology. (shrink)

Europe is facing a wave of refugees and migrants. To solve the many inherent problems is primarily a practical political task. However, there are existential experiences, democratic values, human attitudes, and political principles involved, and I am going to look particularly to the following three aspects of the refugee crisis, 1) the existential, 2) the political, and 3) the legal. Finally, I will make a concluding remark on education’s task.

The goal of this article is to present the issues of secrecy and transparency in the context of information security and autonomy of information in the information society. It describes the role of information and its significance in the functioning of the state, as well as needs and threats in the field of information security. The second part of the article discusses aspects of citizens’ rights to secrecy, protection of privacy and sensitive data. It also characterises changes in the concept (...) of autonomy of information, the public sphere and the private sphere. The third part discusses the issue of relations between state and citizen in the context of collection, storage and use of information. (shrink)

In his Questions on Aristotle’s De anima, John Buridan faced the problem, whether it follows from the definition of the term ‘animal’ that all quantitative parts of an animal are to be called animals. His solution was that parts of the animal are to be called animals, though in a extraordinary, non-connotative, sense of the term. The problem variously discussed by some later Buridanian authors from Erfurt. Bartholomaeus Arnoldi de Usingen ends up to deny the use of such terms as (...) ‘animal’ and ‘human being’ as connotative terms. Jodocus Trutfetter, however, uses the distinction between the absolute and connotative senses of these terms without reservation. (shrink)

Many fourteenth-century logicians took affirmative propositions to maintain that the subject term and the predicate term stand or supposit for the same. This is called the identity theory of predication by historians and praedicatio identica by Paul of Venice and others. The identity theory of predication was an important part of early fourteenth-century Trinitarian discussions as well, but what was called praedicatio identica by Duns Scotus and his followers in this context was something different. After some remarks on Scotus’s view (...) and its background, I shall analyse Adam Wodeham’s explanation of Scotus’s praedicatio identica and how he understood the assumptions pertaining to supposition in the Scotist approach. I also describe Wodeham’s own solution to Trinitarian sophisms, which did not deviate from the identity theory of predication. (shrink)

Resumen El respeto interpersonal es un valor social reconocido por todo tipo de culturas, pero cuyas características pueden diferir, no solo entre lenguas, sino también entre comunidades culturales dentro de una lengua. El presente trabajo se propone estudiar este valor social en situaciones comunicativas de consulta médica dentro de la comunidad cultural de Galicia (España), con el objetivo de profundizar en sus características, funciones sociales y manifestaciones comunicativas. La finalidad es obtener una caracterización ajustada al contexto sociocultural que pueda utilizarse (...) en el análisis de las actividades de imagen producidas durante la interacción hablada. Para ello, se ha recurrido a un cuestionario de hábitos sociales a los pacientes, entrevistas a los médicos y al análisis de una consulta médica. Los resultados muestran que, como en otras comunidades de habla y de práctica, el respeto se asocia con la amabilidad, pero también presenta características propias, como es, por parte del paciente, la consideración y aceptación a la autoridad científica del médico, y, por parte del médico, la consideración por el paciente al escucharle, hablarle con sinceridad, preocuparse por él/ella y ayudarle. (shrink)

This paper sets out as its objective the exploration of some of the key passages and most relevant theoretical plexuses of the Grundzüge des gegenwärtigen Zeitalters by Johann Gottlieb Fichte devoted to the theme of historical narrative and, more generally, of historiography. In particular, we will first of all aim to show the specific status of Historie. Secondly, we will try to outline the differences that Grundzüge establishes between the functions of Wissenschaftslehrer and those of Historiker, in an attempt to (...) show, at the same time, the nexus linking the two and the activities they perform. (shrink)

In this essay I argue that the notion of religious transcendence was a latecomer in human evolution. It did not appear before the Axial Age, and in its extreme form as a realm of ultimate meanings beyond human reach it had only a locally and temporally bounded existence. Once it appeared, however, the idea of religious transcendence set an evolutionary dynamic in motion, which soon led to various forms of “immanent transcendence,” starting from the “Papal Revolution” and continuing with the (...) Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Kantian notion of the transcendental and its Hegelian and Habermasian modifications. In my conclusion I briefly discuss two alternative versions of modern immanent transcendence—cognitive and exemplary—and their consequences for political philosophy. (shrink)

The prospect of germ-line genetic engineering, the ability to engineer genetic changes that can be passed on to subsequent generations, raises a wide range of moral and public policy questions. One of the most provocative questions is, simply put: Are there moral reasons that can be articulated in general secular terms for accepting human nature as we find it? Or, at least in terms of general secular moral restraints, may we reshape human nature better to meet our own interests, as (...) we define them? This question in turn raises the further question of whether human nature as it now exists has a moral standing akin to sacredness that can be understood in nonreligious terms. This essay will take as a given that it is not possible to show in general secular moral terms that human nature has a sanctity or special moral standing that should guide secular health-care policy. In addition, as this essay shows, it is not possible through appeals to considerations of authorizing consent or beneficence toward others to remedy this failure to establish a sanctity or special moral standing for human nature. Absent a religious or culturally normative understanding of human nature and given the availability of germline genetic engineering, there is a plurality of possibilities for refashioning our nature. The unavailability of substantive secular moral constraints on germ-line genetic engineering discloses a secularly licit plurality of possibilities for human nature. The likelihood that we will be able to refashion our human nature reveals how few general secular moral constraints there are to guide us. Paradoxically, the more we are able to reengineer our human nature, the less guidance is available. The plurality of possible conceptions of human well-being that can be pursued through germ-line genetic engineering challenges our self-understanding as humans. Given human freedom, and in the absence of taken-for-granted religious or cultural moral constraints, the likelihood of germ-line genetic engineering opens the possibility of human nature in the plural. (shrink)

Le monumental répertoire de techniques de gouvernement que développe Castillo de Bobadilla permet de situer la politique à partir de l’art de gouverner entre le réalisme cynique et l’utopie. S’efforcer de concilier dans l’action politique la pratique empirique, le donné de l’expérience vécue avec le souci du bien commun et l’espoir de perfectionnement humain qu’il présuppose, ne peut pour Castillo de Bobadilla qu’amener à reconnaître le caractère conflictuel interne à tout exercice du politique.

The Aristotelian and Thomistic conception of magnanimity (magnanimitas) has grown on the grounds of the philosophical understanding of high culture in man. It was preceded by the appearance of such concepts as paidéia and kalokagathía. Having ethical excellence (kalokagathía) is an indispensable condition for self-worth and justified pride, called by Aristotle magnanimity. For Aristotle, magnanimity was a typical virtue of the group of valor, in which striving for the good connected with difficulties is significant. Greek culture in antiquity, whose ideals (...) were focused on the term paidéia, had a significant impact on the thought and culture of early Christianity, which grew on Hellenistic grounds. We will see St. Thomas’ conception of magnanimity by analyzing his reflections on virtue as he listed it among the ingredients of the virtue of valor. Considerations of magnanimity can be combined with the explanation of what is high culture in man. The realistic concept of a person revealed that—because of transcendence—the ultimate goal, the end of human cognition and love is perfection. Such an understanding of holiness is synonymous with the highest development of the human person, meaning the state of man that is fully perfect. Man reaches the peak of his development potential, the highest level of culture, when he is united with God. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to show my research in the Graduation Program in Comparative History from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro whose essential set of problems is the analysis of the making of imperial landscape into the city of Augusta Emerita as a roman imperial domain’s representation.

The aim of this article is to provide a philosophical conceptual framework to understand the theoretical roots and political implications of the interpretations of Plato’s work in Jaeger’s Third Humanism and Krieck’s völkisch-racist pedagogy and anthropology. This article will seek to characterize, as figures of localitas, their conceptions of the individual, community, corporeality, identity, and the State that both authors developed departing from Platonic political philosophy. My main hypothesis is that Jaeger’s and Krieck’s interpretations of Platonic paideía shared several core-elements (...) based on a modern conception of State sovereignty and human will, whose fundamental ground is the subjectivist-technical metaphysics. The “production” of a human type (spiritual and/or racial) and a unitary State political community appears in both authors mediated by a theory of political education, that I define as «State typohumanism», that sought its sustenance in Plato’s political philosophy, mainly by means of a distorted understanding of the notions of týpos and ē̂thos, and that, I argue, played a key role in the intellectual legitimization of völkisch-racism. This would be broadly translated into a programmatic and literal understanding of the Platonic Republic which assumes that the inherent function of any State is to produce subjectivities based on national identities grounded on homogeneous characteristics. In these varied characterizations similar appropriations of humanitas have been expressed both in Jaeger and in Krieck. (shrink)

In § 60 of the Critique of Judgment, entitled ‘On the doctrine of method of taste,’ Kant suggests that the study of so-called humaniora (ancient Roman and Greek literature) will help one to become a good artist. I will argue that a proper, namely emotional, engagement with humaniora will further the two components of humanity in ourselves: the feeling of sympathy and the ability to communicate feelings. I will discuss two options of how a strengthening of these two components might (...) contribute to the creation of good artworks: it will help one to create artworks that arouse the universal communicable pleasure in the beautiful, or it will help one to create artworks that arouse sympathetic feelings. Siding with the latter option, I will argue that emotions can contribute to the enlivening of aesthetic ideas and, thus, to good art. (shrink)

Les défenseurs d'Ion Antonescu considèrent l'acte du roi Mihai I comme une erreur tragique ou une « grave erreur politique », affirmant que le roi aurait dû attendre encore un mois ou deux pour que le Maréc lui-même exige un armistice. L'historien Neagu Djuvara a déclaré que ces « conditions plus faciles » qu'aurait obtenues Ion Antonescu « sont de pures fables », en réalité Antonescu avait l'intention de donner aux Allemands une pause pour quitter la Roumanie. Entre le 24 (...) et le 26 août, l'armée roumaine a vaincu les derniers points de résistance allemande, avec l'aide de volontaires civils. Jusqu'au 28 août, il n'y avait plus de troupes allemandes à Bucarest et ses environs, et jusqu'au 31 août, toutes les troupes allemandes du pays étaient expulsées. Le 10 février 1947 a lieu la cérémonie de signature du Traité de paix de Paris entre les puissances alliées et associées et la Roumanie. Les Alliés n'ont pas reconnu la Roumanie comme une nation co-belligérante, la considérant comme une « alliée de l'Allemagne hitlérienne ». La frontière avec l'URSS et la Bulgarie a été fixée dans son état en janvier 1941, mais la Roumanie a repris le nord de la Transylvanie, suite à la reconnaissance que la Roumanie « a agi dans l'intérêt de toutes les Nations Unies » après le 23 août 1944. -/- DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.32483.02086. (shrink)

De l'entre-deux-guerres jusqu'à la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la Roumanie s'est trouvée dans une sorte de labyrinthe géopolitique, dans lequel elle semblait avoir de multiples possibilités, mais elles allaient toutes dans le même sens : l'alliance avec l'Allemagne au début de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l'acte du 23 août 1944 tel qu'il se présentait et le statut établi par la suite par le traité de Paris. Tout au long de cette période, l'armée roumaine a joué un rôle majeur (...) à travers ses dirigeants et le sacrifice des soldats roumains, et l'acte du 23 août 1944 a été un acte légitime et légal, dans lequel le roi Mihai I et l'armée ont été les principaux décideurs. Après une présentation du contexte de l'entrée de la Roumanie dans la Seconde Guerre mondiale, suit la description de l'évolution de la Roumanie pendant la guerre, en mettant l'accent sur les tentatives de conclure un armistice avec les Alliés occidentaux et le rôle de l'armée pendant cette période. L'acte du 23 août 1944 est ensuite détaillé à part, soulignant la diversité des opinions sur cet événement. La dernière section présente les implications de cet acte sur la Roumanie, après la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. -/- TABLE DES MATIÈRES: -/- Résumé 1. Le contexte de l'entrée de la Roumanie dans la Seconde Guerre mondiale 2. La Seconde Guerre mondiale 3. L'acte du 23 août 1944 4. Les implications de l'acte du 23 août 1944 Bibliographie Notes -/- DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.17016.52482, ISBN 978-606-033-713-3. (shrink)

Aquinas’ famous comments in his early Scriptum on the Sentences (In I Sent., d. 38, q. 1, a. 3) regarding the intellect’s apprehension of essence and esse have traditionally been interpreted as grounding Aquinas’ doctrine on the judgment of esse. For Aquinas, it appears, what the intellect apprehends in a simple concept is essence. Since esse, for him, is not an essence, it cannot, on the received view, be the object of conceptualization. Therefore, esse is grasped by the intellect only (...) in judgment. The claim that no genuine concept of esse is possible, however, is inconsistent with Aquinas’ theory of signification. A term’s signification is constituted, at least in part, in its “signing relation” with some “concept” in the mind. If, as on the traditional reading, there is no concept of esse, the term ‘esse’ is left without signification. To respond that the term ‘esse’ signs, not a concept, but the judgment in which esse is apprehended is in direct conflict with Aquinas’ claim elsewhere that no term, including ‘ens’ and ‘esse’, signifies a judgment. I propose an alternative interpretation to In I Sent., d. 38, q. 1, a. 3, one that allows for the possibility of a conceptual apprehension of esse. The alternative reading explains Aquinas’ remarks there in light of the theoretical context of the discussion, in particular the theory of propositions and their objects. I show how and why Aquinas develops a distinctive theory of the object of the proposition, that it is concerned with “the esse of a thing” as a complex. Although this complex includes the simple act of being, as for the traditional position (contrary to its major critics), it cannot be reduced to anything simple. Despite the Sentences’ affirmation of a real distinction between a thing’s esse and essence, to which correspond two different operations of the intellect, it does not follow that the human intellect cannot conceive esse, just as it conceives essences, in a simple conception. (shrink)

In this essay Ernst Cassirer addresses two currents of the philosophical reflection about man and culture that emerged at the end of the 18th century. Th e naturalistic one, conceives of man and culture as an outcome of the processes that takes place beyond the reach of human will and consciousness. Among such naturalistically oriented philosophies Cassirer includes Hegel’s idealism, Taine’s positivism and Spengler’s psychologism. All of them imply a characteristic kind of historical fatalism. In opposition to such a deterministic (...) vision of human development stands a philosophy that emphasizes the importance of individual decision and responsibility for the course of history. Cassirer names it “humanistic” as it places man in the very middle of its research. The initiators of this tradition were Johann Gottfried Herder and Wilhelm von Humboldt, foremost representatives of the German romantic movement. The philosopher who took up their humanistic thought and elevated it to the importance of a distinct knowledge was Wilhelm Dilthey. While bearing in mind who is the real creator of culture all these thinkers pay special attention to the question of man’s responsibility for culture as well as for himself. The problem of human responsibility that totally escaped the attention of naturalistically oriented philosophers is somehow a distinguishing characteristic of all humanistic philosophies of culture. (shrink)

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GESCHÉ, Adolphe. Deus para pensar o ser humano. Victor René Villavicencio Matienzo GALANTINO, Nunzio. Dizer o homem hoje: novos caminhos da antropologia filosófica. Victor René Villavicencio Matienzo LIBÂNIO, J. B. Qual o caminho entre o crer e o amar? Victor René Villavicencio Matienzo IBARRONDO, Xabier Pikaza. Monoteísmo e globalização: Moisés, Jesus, Muhammad. Wellington Teodoro da Silva MARTINS, Iris Mesquita. Felicidade na velhice. Iris Mesquita Martins.