Una reseña mía sobre el clásico libro de Kojeve.

In this introductory paper, I discuss the second-personal approach to ethics and the theory of recognition as two accounts of the fundamental sociality of the human form of life. The first section delineates the deep affinities between the two approaches. They both put a reciprocal social constellation front and center from which they derive the fundamental norms of moral and social life and a social conception of freedom. The second section discusses three points of contrast between the two approaches: The (...) accounts differ in that the second-personal approach opts for a narrower conception of recognition focusing on mutual moral accountability, whereas recognition theory suggests a broader conception including relations of love, respect, and esteem. Secondly, the accounts differ as to how they conceive of the interrelation of the I-thou and the I-We relationship. Finally, they differ with regard to the way they think of struggles for recognition. Whereas the second-personal approach suggests that we can understand struggles on the basis of a transcendental infrastructure of second-personal address, the theory of recognition considers norms of recognition as themselves constituted by dialectical social struggles. The paper closes with a reflection on the ways in which both approaches can help us understand the social vulnerability of the human form of life. (shrink)

En este texto se trata la relación entre el principio de subjetividad y el principio de soberanía que emerge de la obra Filosofía del derecho de G. W. F. Hegel. Esta correspondencia se establece dentro del marco de la Eticidad [Die Sittlichkeit], que se expone en la tercera parte de la Filosofía del Derecho. Para el autor mencionado, la libertad del individuo, como rasgo característico del Estado moderno, supone una dialéctica entre derechos y deberes que es la base fundamental en (...) la que se presenta la relación entre subjetividad y soberanía. De esta manera, a partir del cumplimiento de los deberes y la exigencia de derechos, los individuos de la sociedad moderna alcanzan su libertad sin dejar de lado la de los demás, entendiendo que el deber es derecho y el derecho es deber. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to present and analyze the relationship between the concept of State (Staat) and the concept of freedom (Freiheit) as expounded by the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) in his Lectures on Philosophy of History (Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Geschichte), published posthumously for the first time in 1837. The article’s exposition will generally follow the second chapter of the work in question – called the Determination of the Spirit in Universal History (Bestimmung (...) der Geistes in der Weltgeschichte) – and more precisely, the subchapter The form of its realization (Die Gestalt dieser Realisierung). (shrink)

La época moderna como es sabido modificó el sentido de la autoridad, porque venía a impugnar la auctoritas y la potestas de la todopoderosa Iglesia de Roma y, con ello, se quería sustituir la autoridad del papa por la de la conciencia de cada uno, es decir, la razón individual o subjetiva se constituye en la nueva autoridad. Fue Hegel quien, en su filosofía política, da un lugar central a la noción de Estado, constituyendo la culminación del pensamiento moderno y (...) fuente de gran parte de la crítica de la modernidad y del pensamiento contemporáneo en general, en sus vertientes ideológicas de izquierda, centro y derecha. (shrink)

Eine der frühesten Schriften des jungen Karl Marx — die Dissertationsschrift „Differenz der demokritischen und epikureischen Naturphilosophie“ — legt wichtige Fundamente für das gesamte Marx’sche Denken. In der Dissertationsschrift versucht Marx anhand des Vergleichs der antiken Naturphilosophien Demokrits und Epikurs grundlegende Erkenntnisse der theoretischen und praktischen Philosophie in einem komplexen, von Hegel inspirierten ontologischen System zu verbinden. Aus dieser kritischen Synthese antiker Naturphilosophien entsteht so eine auf Hegelschen Begriffen basierende, aber gleichzeitig reformierte Idee der Praxis. Auf diesen Grundlagen sowie mit (...) Hilfe des über die Kritik an Epikur und Hegel gewonnenen Begriffs der Entfremdung entwickelt Marx den dialektischen Materialismus der Naturphilosophie. Dem inhaltlichen Aufbau der Dissertationsschrift folgend wird in dem Aufsatz die Marx’sche Naturphilosophie diskutiert. Dabei werden die wichtigsten Begriffe des Marx‘schen Denkens, wie etwa Materialismus, Dialektik, Entfremdung oder Einheit von Theorie und Praxis in der Dissertationsschrift von Karl Marx ausgearbeitet. (shrink)

Drama is a relatively unexplored tool in academic science education. This paper addresses in what way the use of drama may allow science students to deepen their understanding of recent developments in the emerging and controversial field of neuro-enhancement, by means of a case study approach. First, we emphasise the congruency between drama and science, notably the dramatic dimension of experimental research. Subsequently, we draw on educational literature to elaborate the potential of using drama as a teaching modality, specifically focusing (...) on the ethical and moral dimensions of future techno-scientific innovations. Our case study consisted of a drama experiment as a module in a philosophy course on human enhancement. Twenty-two students from various science disciplines performed multiple roles, as authors, actors, audience and reviewers. Qualitative data were collected on the educational process and student performance during the course, i.e. observations and video recordings of class discussions, group work and plays, interviews and questionnaires. Our drama experiment proved to be effective in enabling students to explore and relate to a future life world affected by enhancement technologies. It allowed them to deepen their awareness of social and ethical implications of neuro-technologies and of the different viewpoints people may have on this issue in academic, professional or everyday settings. Moreover, drama allowed them to develop a reflexive position of their own in the neuro-enhancement debate by enacting a moral dilemma in front of an audience. Our results confirm the potential of drama as a tool for exploring techno-scientific futures in science education. (shrink)

This monograph contributes to the scientific misconduct debate from an oblique perspective, by analysing seven novels devoted to this issue, namely: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (1925), The affair by C.P. Snow (1960), Cantor’s Dilemma by Carl Djerassi (1989), Perlmann’s Silence by Pascal Mercier (1995), Intuition by Allegra Goodman (2006), Solar by Ian McEwan (2010) and Derailment by Diederik Stapel (2012). Scientific misconduct, i.e. fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, but also other questionable research practices, have become a focus of concern for academic communities (...) worldwide, but also for managers, funders and publishers of research. The aforementioned novels offer intriguing windows into integrity challenges emerging in contemporary research practices. They are analysed from a continental philosophical perspective, providing a stage where various voices, positions and modes of discourse are mutually exposed to one another, so that they critically address and question one another. They force us to start from the admission that we do not really know what misconduct is. Subsequently, by providing case histories of misconduct, they address integrity challenges not only in terms of individual deviance but also in terms of systemic crisis, due to current transformations in the ways in which knowledge is produced. Rather than functioning as moral vignettes, the author argues that misconduct novels challenge us to reconsider some of the basic conceptual building blocks of integrity discourse. (shrink)

In 1968, Jürgen Habermas claimed that, in an advanced technological society, the emancipatory force of knowledge can only be regained by actively recovering the ‘forgotten experience of reflection’. In this article, we argue that, in the contemporary situation, critical reflection requires a deliberative ambiance, a process of mutual learning, a consciously organised process of deliberative and distributed reflection. And this especially applies, we argue, to critical reflection concerning a specific subset of technologies which are actually oriented towards optimising human cognition. (...) In order to create a deliberative ambiance, fostering critical upstream reflection on emerging technologies, we developed the concept of a mutual learning exercise. Building on a number of case studies, we analyse what an MLE involves, both practically and conceptually, focussing on key aspects such as ambiance and expertise, the role of ‘genres of the imagination’ and the profiles of various ‘subcultures of debate’. Ideally, an MLE becomes a contemporary version of the Socratic agora, providing a stage where multiple and sometimes unexpected voices and perspectives mutually challenge each other, in order to strength-en the societal robustness and responsiveness of emerg-ing technologies. (shrink)

L‘article étudie la notion de démocratie chez John Dewey en la mettant en rapport avec les idées radicales de gauche passées et contemporaines . L‘article souligne les points de vue épistémologiques, anthropologiques et politiques communs à ces théories. Le rejet ou la sous-estimation de la démocratie politique ainsi que l‘accent mis sur la vie démocratique dans le but de créer une nouvelle société, complètement différente de toutes celles qui existent, relèvent d‘une importance particulière. L‘article est composé de trois parties. La (...) première explore la perception de la démocratie en tant que phénomène apolitique et synonyme d‘une nouvelle forme d‘existence humaine chez le jeune Marx, puis les regards ultérieurs de Marx et de Lénine sur la démocratie comme « hypocrisie ». La deuxième partie analyse le concept de démocratie selon Dewey en tant que « mode de vie connecté » et attire l‘attention sur quelques analogies significatives, tout comme sur les différences par rapport aux idées du jeune Marx. La troisième considère la perception de la société démocratique comme identique à la société globale dans laquelle la communication entre les hommes n‘est pas limitée par les frontières politiques. Sur cette question, on reconnaît des analogies significatives dans les pensées de Marx, Dewey et quelques penseurs contemporains . En conclusion, la démocratie politique et la société démocratique sont compatibles, mais l‘idée d‘une société apolitique démocratique autre que celle de la société globale est considérée comme irréaliste. (shrink)

Hegel’s Philosophy of Law deals in theLaw section of the categories: person, property and contract. Research critically reconstructs this theory from a Marxist perspective. In the concept of person, first of all, the singular will is reduced to a solipsist will unrelated to intersubjectivity. Then, the concept of Hegelian property bases the private appropriation of property as the externalization of the singular will. This legal property guarantees the maintenance and reproduction of private property, that is, it will guarantee the private (...) accumulation of capital, Marx will say. Anyway, the theory of the contract would link the autonomy of the contracting wills, however, it is a mere appearance, because, in fact, the owners’ wills are under the domination of the capitalist market, as it is explained in Marx’s Capital. The theoretical deficit of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law in general is that the legal concepts of person and property correspond to the abstract will. Hegel describes the juridical description of the legal system of the modern state as the development of free will that legitimizes the asymmetry of civil society in its socioeconomic inequalities. (shrink)

Practical philosophy in the classical German tradition from Kant to Hegel seems to be moralistic and even ascetic. The core of its moral and legal philosophy is a concept of freedom as independence from any longing for pleasure and happiness. Tracing the development of Hegel’s philosophy of subjective, objective and absolute spirit, however, exhibits a deep systematic connection between the forms of freedom and happiness in all their traditional and modern meanings. Many of them can be compared with modern conceptions, (...) but others have to be saved from oblivion and defended against reductive conceptions of freedom and happiness in modern philosophy. (shrink)

‘Social media’ like Facebook or Twitter have become tremendously popular in recent years. Their popularity provides new opportunities for data collection by state and private companies, which requires a critical and theoretical focus on social media surveillance. The task of this paper is to outline a theoretical framework for defining social media surveillance in the context of contemporary society, identifying its principal characteristics, and understanding its broader societal implications. Social media surveillance is a form of surveillance in which different forms (...) of sociality and individuals different social roles converge, so that surveillance becomes a monitoring of different activities in different social roles with the help of profiles that hold a complex networked multitude of data about humans. (shrink)

This article elaborates a relational phenomenology of violence. Firstly, it explores the constitution of all sense in its intrinsic relation with our embodiment and intercorporality. Secondly, it shows how this relational conception of sense and constitution paves the path for an integrative understanding of the bodily and symbolic constituents of violence. Thirdly, the author addresses the overall consequences of these reflections, thereby identifying the main characteristics of a relational phenomenology of violence. In the final part, the paper provides an exemplification (...) of the outlined conception with regard to a concrete phenomenon of violence, i.e., slapping, and a concluding reflection upon its overall significance for research on violence. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to show how two different paths of elaborating the negativity of self-consciousness in Schelling and Hegel create a particular mirror effect that can no longer be understood within the realm of dialectics or any conceptual image, but rather can be resolved through what I will characterize as the image of self-consciousness. I argue that these two different perspectives, despite exhausting dialectics and negativity, can be brought together, each in its own way, through the (...) images of reflection, desire, and death as presented in the mythic narratives of Narcissus and Orpheus. I attempt to show that the death of Narcissus and the loss of Eurydice can lay equal claims to being about the birth of self-consciousness. (shrink)

The heroic figure is a human fiction of the wholly singular. In the hero, discourses about ideals and exemplariness, extra-ordinariness and exceptionalness, agonality, transgressivity, or good and evil become condensed into a single individual. Thus, the hero is the opposite of the masses. As it is argued in this article, the answer to the question of what distinguishes a hero lies in the supererogatory moment, the reference to the hero’s quality of more than can be expected: the heroic figure does (...) more than he or she has to, more than duty requires of an ordinary person, and this is the reason they are heroized. However, this also points to a dialectic moment of the heroic in which the opposition between the hero and the many seems to be suspended. Following Niklas Luhmann, the hero represents the paradox of conformity through deviance, because through the example of their abnormality they produce in others a desire to imitate them. In the end, there is a collective appeal of the heroic that affects even the conceptual complement of the hero: the crowd which is characterized by the disappearance of the individual within it. Inspired by Luhmann’s sociological reflections on the heroic as well as Elias Canetti’s anthropological perspectives on the phenomena of the crowd, this article traces the rhetoric of the hero along its path from the singular to the plural. Against the backdrop of the analysis of the heroic in revolutionary Iran, a generalizable typology is proposed that distinguishes between the hero, the collective of heroes, the heroic collective, and collective heroism. This order reflects a progression that is analogous to the conjunction of the one and the many, moving qualitatively from the distinct figure of the hero to the indistinguishable masses. (shrink)

Gender greatly impacts access to opportunities, potential, and success in corporate leadership roles. We begin with a general presentation of why such discussion is necessary for basic considerations of justice and fairness in gender equality and how the issues we raise must impact any ethical perspective on gender in the corporate workplace. We continue with a breakdown of the central categories affecting the success of women in corporate leadership roles. The first of these includes gender-influenced behavioral factors, such as the (...) requirements and expectations of gendered verbal and nonverbal communication styles as well as appearance. We move on to address the impact of family on corporate leadership opportunities and success, discussing the asymmetrical evaluation of an individual’s potential, authority, and competence based on gender stereotypes of familial obligations and expectations. Finally, we address how gender impacts access to networking and sponsorship opportunities and the long-term effects of systematic limitations on women’s inclusion in the upper echelons of corporate leadership. We conclude with a summary of the questions and issues raised by our discussion and direct individuals to consider how different ethical systems and moral requirements might influence their interpretations of gender and leadership in the corporate workplace. (shrink)

Since the beginning of its history philosophy deals with the question for the meaning of war. This question, however, was always understood as the question for the causes of war: Why is there war? Where does it come from? The article presupposes that only this question and the attempts to respond to it can shed light onto the interpretation of the historical reality of war, which is finally the only reason to reflect on its causation. The article refers to a (...) set of notions and texts, which belong to a discourse on war unfolding through the centuries of European thinking. These notions are: contradictions, body, justice, nature, right, politics, and morals. Even if this sequence is only one possible sequence of the philosophical reflection on warfare, I consider it to be one of greater importance. We see, how a plurality of causes creates a context, in which we could try to analyze actual events: For it is evident that no war has only one reason. And the article has finally one other intention, namely to show that probably every possible sequence of causes of war will have the same consequence. This con-sequence will be the final destruction of the world, the coming of the ash. (shrink)

This article has two purposes. First, it aims to present a detailed analysis of the argument of “recognition” or even of the “fight for recognition”, which Hegel uses in his fragments from Jena treating of the system of philosophy, especially of the philosophy of spirit. It will be necessary to determine precedently by means of an exact interpretation the content of that expressions, in order to criticize and to compare, his original significance in Hegel with the theoretical application made by (...) Honneth. The special aim hereby is to correct and to explain the function of the “fight for recognition”, even in its sharpening significance as a “fight for life and death”, with relation to the genesis of the state of right. Second, the figure of “recognition” is related to Hegel’s Philosophy of right in the version of 1820. In this work, recognition participates in the theory of “institutions” which is analyzed by Honneth as well. Apart from the merits gained through the endeavour to introduce a classic philosophical theory into a conception of justice in society, we feel obliged to state an error in Honneth‘s interpretation in so far as he understands an institution as a simple social community of communication. For that reason, a conclusion based on a critical commentary can only include a negative recommendation, that means, not to follow those traces of interpretation but rather to defend and to consult the texts originally composed by Hegel. (shrink)

I deal with the relation between phenomenology and realism while examining Ingarden’s critique towards Husserl. I exhibit the empiricist nucleus of Husserl’s phenomenology, according to which the real is what can be sensuously experienced. On this basis, I argue that Husserl’s phenomenology is not idealistic, in opposition to the realistic phenomenology, according to which reality consists in entities which cannot be sensuously experienced and are thus ideal. Finally I attempt to show that the idealistic elements of Husserl’s thinking do not (...) originate from the transcendental turn, but from a remainder of psychologism that contradicts his empiricism. (shrink)

Solidarität wird in Krisenzeiten sowie bei Ungerechtigkeit und Marginalisierung gefordert. Sie tritt dabei in unterschiedlichen Reichweiten und Akteurskonstellationen auf und basiert auf verschiedenen Motiven und Ausgangslagen. Julia Masurkewitz-Möller nimmt sich dieser Vielfalt an und erarbeitet eine Systematisierung der Solidarität, die Ordnung in den begrifflichen Dschungel des Konzepts bringt. Sie zeigt, dass verschiedene Solidaritätsformen trotz ihrer Unterschiede einen gemeinsamen Kern und eine Beziehung zueinander haben - und damit die Transformationen von Solidaritätsformen möglich machen.

En este artículo se examinarán algunas intersecciones entre el pensamiento de Ricoeur y de Hegel en torno a temas vinculados con la voluntad, la razón práctica y el reconocimiento. Se mostrará que, tras una etapa inicial de reticencia a ocuparse con la filosofía de Hegel, esta se convierte para Ricoeur a mediados de los años 60 en una referencia ineludible en su confrontación con Freud, hasta el punto de llegar a experimentarla como una tentación, de la que parece querer desprenderse, (...) sobre todo en su reflexión sobre lo trágico y la historia en los años 80, pero que reaparece con fuerza en la última década del siglo pasado, hasta culminar con la teoría del reconocimiento, para la cual Hegel constituye una fuente principal, aunque no exclusiva. This article is about some intersecting points between Ricoeur's and Hegel's thought around issues related to free will, practical reason and recognition. After an initial stage of reluctance to deal with the philosophy of Hegel, it becomes for Ricoeur, in the mid-60s, an essential reference in his confrontation with Freud, feeling his influence as a temptation, which he wants to avoid, especially in his reflection about tragedy and history in the 80s. But this influence appears again notoriously, in the last decade of the 20thcentury, culminating with the theory of recognition, to which Hegel constitutes a major source, but not an exclusive one. (shrink)

In Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing (Malabou 2010), Catherine Malabou looks back over her earlier intellectual trajectory and attempts to clarify the precise relationship between her own philosophical investigations and the crucial sources on which she has principally drawn, namely Hegelian dialectic, Heidegger’s ‘destruction’ of the history of ontology, and Derrida’s project of deconstruction. In this process, she also undertakes to take a step beyond the complex constellation of these three sources, arguing for a philosophy of plasticity which can (...) at once take up and transform the practices of dialectic, destruction, and deconstruction in what she describes as a ‘plastic reading’. (shrink)

This article demonstrates the ways in which Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s reflections on the dialectic of the domination of nature shed new light on recent discussions about the concept of the Anthropocene. A central motif is the fear of nature, which, according to Adorno, prevailed at the beginning of its mastery by humans in prehistoric times. Harnessing external nature enabled the stabilisation of internal nature and social relations. This link between nature’s relative stability and social relations was characteristic of the Holocene. (...) In the Anthropocene, capitalist domination destabilises nature, which in turn destabilises social life. The natural terror of nature returns in the face of the socially produced climate catastrophe, adding a new aspect to Adorno’s and Horkheimer’s diagnosis of the domination of nature. The article concludes by suggesting a changed relationship to nature, which no longer would understand it as a mere object, but as a “subject in its own right”. (shrink)

Detrás del velo del derecho positivo. Sobre Il diritto contro se stesso. Saggio sul positivismo giuridico e la sua crisi, por Massimo La Torre En su última obra –Il diritto contro se stesso. Saggio sul positivismo giuridico e la sua crisi-– Massimo La Torre sostiene una tesis muy precisa: si no queremos que el derecho sea sólo violencia organizada, es oportuno distanciarse del positivismo jurídico. El riesgo, sin embargo, es que el antipositivismo acabe “tirando el bebé con el agua de (...) la bañera”. El derecho moderno, de hecho, toma forma en la dialéctica entre la moral y el poder, entre lo que se decide y quién decide, en términos habermasianos: entre la “legitimidad” y la “positividad”. No es en absoluto seguro que esta dialéctica pueda conciliarse practicando únicamente el positivismo jurídico, sobre todo si esto aplasta la “legitimidad” sobre la “positividad”. Pero incluso un antipositivismo que se incline demasiado por la moral, por lo que se decide, en definitiva por la “legitimidad" solamente, acabaría cayendo en un error exactamente igual y opuesto al del positivismo. (shrink)

У цій статті йде мова про проблему обґрунтування зовнішньої легітимності держави, яка тісно пов’язана із принципами, що застосовуються в оцінці внутрішньої політики держави з боку інших суб’єктів. Тут йдеться як про дотримання прав людини, порушення яких призводить до дефіциту внутрішньої легітимності держави, так і про повагу до принципів зовнішньополітичної діяльності. Часто зовнішня легітимність держави обумовлюється наявністю або відсутністю міжнародного визнання, що може тягнути за собою певні політичні наслідки, такі як занурення держави в політичну ізоляцію або забуття у «політичному небутті», та (...) навпаки. (shrink)

Članak razmatra pojam demokracije Johna Deweya u odnosu na ranije i suvremene radikalno ljevičarske ideje. Ističu se slična epistemološka, antropološka i politička stajališta u ovim teorijama. Vrlo je važno odbacivanje ili podcjenjivanje političke demokracije i naglasak na demokratskom životu s ciljem stvaranja novog društva, posve drukčijeg od postojećih društava. Članak je podijeljen u tri dijela. Prvi dio istražuje razumijevanje demokracije kao nepolitičkog fenomena i kao sinonima za novi oblik ljudske egzistencije u mladog Marxa te kasnijim stavovima Marxa i Lenjina o (...) demokraciji kao »hipokriziji«. Drugi dio analizira Deweyev pojam demokracije kao »načina povezanog življenja« i skreće pozornost na neke značajne podudarnosti i, također, razlike spram Marxovih ranih ideja. Treći dio razmatra razumijevanje demokratskog društva kao identičnog s globalnim društvom u kojem komunikacija među ljudima nije ograničena političkim granicama. U ovom se pitanju također prepoznaju značajne podudarnosti u mišljenju Marxa, Deweya i nekih suvremenih mislilaca . Zaključak je da su politička demokracija i demokratsko društvo kompatibilni, no ideja neke vrste novog nepolitičkog demokratskog društva osim globalnog društva se smatra nerealističnom. (shrink)