In his sixth seminar, Desire and Its Interpretation (1956–1957), Lacan patiently elaborates his theory of the ‘phantasm’ ($◊a), in which the object of desire (object small a) is ascribed a constitutive role in the architecture of the libidinal subject. In that seminar, Lacan shows his fascination for an aphorism of the twentieth century Christian mystic Simone Weil in her assertion: “to ascertain exactly what the miser whose treasure was stolen lost: thus we would learn much.” This is why, in his (...) theory, Lacan conceptualizes the object of desire as the unconsumed treasure—and, in that sense, the “nothing”—on which the miser’s desire is focused. But the more Lacan develops his new object theory, the more he realizes how close it is to Christian mysticism in locating the ultimate object of desire in God, in a sevenfold “nothing” (to quote the famous last step in the ascent of the Mount Carmel as described by John of the Cross). An analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet allows Lacan to escape the Christian logic and to rearticulate the object of desire in an ‘unchristian’ tragic grammar. When he replaces the miser by the lover as paradigm of the subject’s relation to its object of desire, he substitutes a strictly Greek kind of love—eros, not agape—for the miser’s relationship to his treasure. Even when, in the late Lacan, “love” becomes a proper concept, its structure remains deeply “tragic.”. (shrink)

This work tries to show that the metapoetic meditation developed by Ramos Rosa throughout his very extensive poetic work not only did not condemn his poetry to a cold cloister in the textual plane, but also contributed decisively to the opening to the real, to the effect of evidence and to the sense of communion that would become increasingly sensitive in his writing. To this end, we propose to clarify the thread that, under the aegis of the poetic lucidity consecrated (...) by the author, leads us from his metapoetic meditation to a poetic meditation of an ontophenomenological and sapiential nature, that is, from his metapoetry to a poetry whose wisdom provides a set of intuitions with a sapiential and philosophical accent. It is our intention to contribute, in this way, to the understanding of the (cognitive and ontological) demand and scope of Rosa’s poetic path, as well as, collaterally, to the debate around topics such as poetic (self-)reference, the ontological status of the poetic text or the philosophy-literature relationship. (shrink)

I argue that religion knows rapture and philosophy doesn't.

The “post-truth” phenomenon is not primarily a cognitive problem, but a moral or existential problem, a problem of self-deception. But what does this mean? In order to clarify that, two things need to be discussed. First, if the conception of belief is rejected according to which a belief has sense in isolation from the roles it, and the holding of it, plays in our lives, then the problem of self-deception needs to be met as a problem of life. Second, a (...) problem of life is not something that individuals get into all by themselves. In other words, ways of living can be self-deceptive. The task of the text is hence to discuss some of the ways in which truth, belief and self-deception unfold on this non-individual level, specifically on the political one. Keywords: post-truth, self-deception, belief, democracy, Simone Weil. (shrink)

Resumen En este artículo queremos desarrollar las nociones que Simone Weil tiene del trabajo humano a lo largo de su obra. Comenzaremos con una revisión de sus primeros escritos políticos y sociales sobre la condición obrera y luego ahondaremos en sus obras influenciadas por la experiencia cristiana. Revisaremos su permanente deseo de poder conjugar el trabajo manual con el trabajo intelectual y las negativas consecuencias que ella ve en su separación, además de su análisis de la condición obrera antes y (...) después de su experiencia de trabajo en las fábricas. Finalmente, intentaremos responder cuál es la postura metafísica y antropológica que reside tras esta propuesta weiliana y las posibilidades de proponer en propiedad la tesis de la filósofa francesa como una noción cristiana del trabajo. Concluiremos resaltando lo que, a nuestro modo de ver, son los principales aportes de la filósofa a una doctrina del trabajo liberador para la condición humana.In this article we want to develop the notions that Simone Weil has of human labor through-out his work. We begin with a review of his early political and social writings on the working condition and then delve into his works influenced by the Christian experience. We will review her permanent desire to be able to combine manual labor with intellectual work and the negative consequences she sees in her separation, as weil as her analysis of the working class before and after her experience of working in factories. Finally, we will try to answer what is the metaphysical and anthropological posture that resides behind this weilian proposal and the possibilities of proposing in property the thesis of the french philosopher as a Christian notion of the work. We will conclude by highlighting what, in our view, are the main contributions of the philosopher to a doctrine of liberating work for the human condition. (shrink)

Educating the gaze is easily understood as becoming conscious about what is 'really' happening in the world and becoming aware of the way our gaze is itself bound to a perspective and particular position. However, the paper explores a different idea. It understands educating the gaze not in the sense of 'educare' (teaching) but of 'e-ducere' as leading out, reaching out. E-ducating the gaze is not about getting at a liberated or critical view, but about liberating or displacing our view. (...) It is not about becoming conscious or aware , but about becoming attentive , about paying attention . E-ducating the gaze, then, is not depending on method, but relying on discipline; it does not require a rich methodology, but asks for a poor pedagogy, i.e. for practices which allow to expose ourselves. One example of such practice is that of walking. Consequently e-ducating the gaze could be about an invitation to go walking. This idea is explored b way of a comment on two quotations, one by Walter Benjamin and one by Michel Foucault. (shrink)

A partir de nuestra interpretación de la obra de Simone Weil proponemos dos líneas de lectura para entender su concepción de la identidad individual: primero, mostramos que para la filósofa el hombre construye, a través de su trabajo, la imagen de sí mismo que él busca ser. Mostraremos que esta búsqueda está habitada por un problema fundamental: la repetición de un mecanismo ligado al deseo de expansión del yo, en el que apenas se alcanza el instante de contacto con la (...) imagen proyectada, esta se ve remodelada y vuelta a lanzar al horizonte inalcanzable del deseo. Así, veremos en segundo lugar que en oposición a ese camino de construcción de la identidad que emana de la labor, aparece en la última época weiliana una búsqueda de destrucción del impulso de identificación, que implica una disciplina consciente de control de la expansión del yo y del deseo de poder que le es inherente. From our interpretation of Simone Weil's works, we propose two lecture lines to understand her conception of individual identity: first, we show that, according to Weil, man builds, through his work, the image of himself that he attempts to be. We will show that, behind this search, there is a structural problem: the repetition of an mechanism related to the self's desire of expansion, where, as soon as the instant of contact with the projected image is reached, this image is remodeled and launched forward until the unreachable horizon of desire. And secondly, we will see that in opposition to this path of identity's construction which arises from work, in the last weilian period it appears a search of destruction of the identification momentum, that implies a conscious discipline of control of the self's expansion and the desire of power which is related. (shrink)

Against the background of the many attacks on the school as being outdated, alienating, ineffective and reproducing inequalities we offer a morphological understanding of the school as distinguished from functionalist understandings and idealistic understandings. Our educational morphology approaches the school as a particular scholastic ‘form of gathering’ i.e. a particular time–space–matter arrangement that deals in a specific way with the new generation, allows for a particular relation to the world, and for a particular experience of potentiality and of commonality. We (...) elucidate how this form performs particular operations of suspension, profanation and formation of attention and how these operations imply a slowing down and an opening of future. Finally, we emphasise the potenti.. (shrink)