Assessment of marine debris ingestion by sea turtles is important, especially to ensure their survival. From January to December 2011, 23 specimens of five species of sea turtleswere found dead or dying after being rehabilitated, along the coast of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To detect the presence of marine debris in the digestive tract of these turtles, we conducted a postmortemexamination from the esophagus until the distal portion of the large intestine for each specimen. Of the total (...) number of turtles, 39% had ingested marine debris such as soft plastic, hard plastic, metal, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle caps, human hair, tampons, and latex condoms. Five of the seven sea turtles species are found along the Brazilian coast, where they feed and breed. A large number of animals are exposed to various kinds of threats, including debris ingestion. (shrink)

Sumário: 1. El caso del método científico, Alberto Oliva; 2. Un capítulo de la prehistoria de las ciencias humanas: la defensa por Vico de la tópica, Jorge Alberto Molina; 3. La figura de lo cognoscible y los mundos, Pablo Vélez León; 4. Lebenswelt de Husserl y las neurociencias, Vanessa Fontana; 5. El uso estético del concepto de mundos posibles, Jairo Dias Carvalho; 6. Realismo normativo no naturalista y mundos morales imposibles, Alcino Eduardo Bonella; 7. En la lógica de pragmatismo, (...) Hércules de Araujo Feitosa, Luiz Henrique da Cruz Silvestrini; 8 La lógica, el tiempo y el lenguaje natural: un sistema formal para tiempos de portugués, Carlos Luciano Manholi. / Temas em filosofia contemporânea II / Jonas Rafael Becker Arenhart, Jaimir Conte, Cezar Augusto Mortari (orgs.) – Florianópolis : NEL/UFSC, 2016. 167 p. : tabs. - (Rumos da epistemologia ; v. 14); ISBN 978-85-87253-27-9 (papel); ISBN 978-85-87253-26-2 (e-book). (shrink)

Neste texto, apresento e examino as principais ideias que animam a abordagem ecológica da percepção. Primeiro, na Seção 2, apresento a visão instantânea da percepção, contra a qual Gibson articula e propõe a abordagem ecológica. Em seguida, na Seção 3, apresento e discuto a noção de informação ecológica. Nas seções 4 e 5 articulo a teoria das affordances e discuto a aprendizagem perceptiva. Por fim, na Seção 6, exponho e discuto a possibilidade de estender a teoria das affordances para explicar (...) a cognição social. (shrink)

In our everyday interactions we easily and effortlessly perceive emotions in others’ facial expressions and bodily behavior. How do we do that? Philosophers and psychologists have long argued about the fundamentals of emotion perception and the debate is far from settled. While some insist on the sufficiency of the morphological information contained in facial expressions, others construe the objects of emotion perception as more complex, comprising multimodal information such as touch, tone of voice, body postures, and so on. Others, in (...) turn, have gone so far as to deny that there is a pre-given object in emotion perception in the first place, so that processes of emotion perception must be conceptualized as emergent and co-constructed phenomena in contexts of social interaction. The purpose of this paper is to argue that John Dewey’s pragmatist theory of emotions can help us make significant theoretical advancements in the understanding of emotion perception, according to which emotions are coordinated modes of behavior that we enact with others in the contexts of social interactions. In this picture, perceiving emotions is a matter of participating in a joint activity of socio- affective coordination. This theory allows us to apprehend important insights about emotion perception that appear in these contemporary debates, while at the same time avoiding their pitfalls. (shrink)

Rob Withagen has rendered the distinction between affordances and invitations more radical in two aspects: (i) affordances do not explain behavior anymore, invitations do; (ii) invitations do not boil down to affectively charged affordances, they also encompass affectively charged misperceptions. I argue that Withagen went too far. If we understand affordances as a relation between the abilities of an individual organism and its environment, then we already have sufficient resources to incorporate affectivity in the ecological approach. Affective states constitute perceptual (...) abilities and modulate their exercise, in that every perception of affordance is affectively charged. Affective states are crucial for guiding our attention to the possibilities of action relevant to the activities in which we are engaged and for providing a sense of the quality of our relationship with the environment. (shrink)

The initial problem which motivated the writing of this thesis arose from reading of Emile by Rousseau. In this work, it was possible to detect the influence of different theoretical approaches, such as rationalism and empiricism, inspiring the development of the educational plan designed by Rousseau for his imaginary student (Emile). The very core question of the present thesis regards to whether there was a theory of knowledge pertaining to Rousseau’s philosophical thinking and, if so, how it was related to (...) his theories of education. In the set of his oeuvre, Rousseau’s affiliation to authors like Descartes, Leibniz, Locke and Malebranche, as well as Condillac, Diderot, D’Holbach and Helvétius was discovered. As the reading of the great philosophical work of Rousseau progressed, an original knowledge theory was discovered, of the kind which accepts the coexistence of opposite thoughts. Pedagogy, in the context of (the work) Emile, arose out of the miscellany of such theories and also for the intense philosophical maturing process on the core of Rousseau’s thinking. This study intended, therefore, to understand the origin and development of Rousseau’s theory of knowledge, and also to figure out how the philosopher formulated his theories on Education, especially in Emile. The object of this research, materialized through the extensive bibliography of the Swiss philosopher, was intensively read and analyzed. The methodology used was that of comparative, descriptive and critical documentary research of the mentioned authors. This research is divided into three sections: the first one intends to investigate the philosophical influence from different authors on the foundations of Rousseau’s epistemology; the second section addresses Rousseau’s theories of Education; the third and final part investigates the link between theory of knowledge and Education within Rousseau’s philosophical thought. -/- . (shrink)

This paper intends to validate the hermeneutic relevance of three core theses: José Matias (i) is demonstrably an “open work”, (ii) it constitutes a philosophical short story and (iii) it illustrates the failure of panlogism. With regard to the first thesis, it is necessary to concede up front that this interpretation of José Matias does not purport to be unique nor does it encompass the richness of the work’s content. Yet, given the second thesis, the paper intends to defy the (...) common notion among critics that the philosophical references that pervade the Queirozian text fulfill a merely rhetorical function, in the pejorative sense of this expression. Finally, the third thesis seeks to bring the reader to realize that after all, in this narrative, we have a subtle literary incarnation of the nineteenth-century crisis of reason, of which ‘scientism’, far from a cure, was nothing but a symptom. (shrink)

Resumo Neste artigo, procura-se analisar os fatores envolvidos na determinação da natureza substancial do organismo vivo, em Aristóteles. Tais fatores seriam, por um lado, a forte unidade e coesão interna composicional e, por outro, o elevado caráter de independência quanto às propriedades essenciais ou formais, relativamente às propriedades dos componentes materiais, por meio dos quais o organismo vivo vem a ser formado, ou com referência aos outros tipos de particularidades de seres. Com esta análise, pretende-se mostrar, ao mesmo tempo, que (...) a unidade do composto orgânico-animado, de um modo geral, é constituída por um complexo arranjo de camadas estratificadas, no qual as camadas ou os tipos de composições materiais apresentam, entre si, um forte grau de interdependência. Tal interdependência entre as partes materiais, que formam uma rede composicional complexa e bem-articulada, faz com que as propriedades essenciais ou formais do todo orgânico se diferenciem sobremaneira das propriedades essenciais dos tipos de componentes que integram esse todo, caracterizando, assim, o caráter substancial da composição orgânica.In this paper, I will try to analyze the factors involved in determining the substantial nature of the living organism in Aristotle. Such factors would be, on the one hand, the strong unity and compositional internal cohesion and, on the other hand, the high character of independence as regards the essential or formal properties, relative to the proper properties of the material components through which the living organism comes to be formed, or relative to other types of particularities of beings. With this analysis, it is intended at the same time to show that, in a general way, the unity of the organic-animate compound is constituted by a complex arrangement of stratified layers, in which the layers or types of material compositions have a strong degree of interdependence among themselves. Such interdependence between the material parts, which form a complex and well-articulated compositional network, makes the essential or formal properties of the organic whole very different from the essential properties of the types of components that make up the whole, thus characterizing the substantial character of organic composition. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that the ecological approach to perception provides resources to overcome the causal argument against disjunctivism. According to the causal argument, since the brain states that proximally cause the perceptual experience and the corresponding hallucinatory one can be of the same type, there would be no good reason to reject that the perceptual experience and the corresponding hallucinatory experience have fundamentally the same nature. Disjunctivism concerning the nature of the experience would then be false. I identify (...) three assumptions that support the causal argument: the indistinguishability assumption, the linearity assumption, and the duplication assumption. According to the ecological approach to disjunctivism, these assumptions should be rejected, opening up room for a version of disjunctivism that I call 'Ecological Disjunctivism'. Perceptual episodes are extended over time and are supervenient to the organism-environment system. They can be distinguished from the 'corresponding' hallucinations because the former results from a controlled process of attunement to the environment, whereas hallucinations are passive and insensible to the exploratory activities of the perceptual system. Finally, ecological disjunctivism, since it is immune to the causal argument, is more advantageous than negative and positive disjunctivism. (shrink)

Why is gauge symmetry so important in modern physics, given that one must eliminate it when interpreting what the theory represents? In this paper we discuss the sense in which gauge symmetry can be fruitfully applied to constrain the space of possible dynamical models in such a way that forces and charges are appropriately coupled. We review the most well-known application of this kind, known as the 'gauge argument' or 'gauge principle', discuss its difficulties, and then reconstruct the gauge argument (...) as a valid theorem in quantum theory. We then present what we take to be a better and more general gauge argument, based on Noether's second theorem in classical Lagrangian field theory, and argue that this provides a more appropriate framework for understanding how gauge symmetry helps to constrain the dynamics of physical theories. (shrink)

In this paper, I explore and examine different ways in which affectivity is related to perception within ecological psychology. I assess whether some of those ways compromise the realist and direct aspects of traditional ecological perception. I sustain that they don’t. Affectivity, at least in some cases, turns the perception of fine-grained affordances possible. For an engaged perceiver, affectivity is not optional.

A interrogação que preside a este ensaio não busca, à maneira heideggeriana, o impensado esquecimento de um certo desenvolvimento historial, mas há de apenas delimitar o estado da arte da visão cartesiana do mundo. Para o efeito, no entanto, não vai além do horizonte epistêmico da Filosofia da Biologia, porque o seu principal objectivo consiste em diagnosticar a “crise de identidade” da Biologia, cujo sucesso experimental não deve camuflar a sua “depressão epistemológica”. Na verdade, trata‑se de uma disciplina que, entre (...) física e metafísica, ainda não encontrou o seu espaço teórico. Ora, é possível remontar tal dificuldade à raiz filosófica da Modernidade. Assim sendo, impõe‑se uma avaliação da mutação paradigmática que Descartes introduz na ordem do saber, de acordo com a qual a investigação racional passa a ter por destino o domínio da Natureza. (shrink)

Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar as principais abordagens em que a psicologia social clássica norte-americana teorizou sobre o preconceito racial, o racismo e o antirracismo e, a partir delas, trazer os estudos críticos da branquitude como possibilidades para superar os limites identificados nessa corrente, que ora apresenta um indivíduo fora da estrutura, ora a estrutura sem indivíduos. Para isto, neste artigo definimos três abordagens propostas pela psicologia social norte-americana: teste de associação implícita (Greenwald & Banaji 2013); teoria do contato (...) intergrupal e racismo aversivo (Pettigrew 1997, Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986); e emoções específicas (Leach et al., 2002). A partir daí mostramos como os estudos críticos da branquitude se apresentam como uma síntese entre essas duas posições opostas, que oscilam entre o indivíduo e a estrutura. Nesta perspectiva, a estrutura se manifesta na própria experiência subjetiva do indivíduo, que se torna capaz de identificá-la em seu próprio campo experiencial. (shrink)

In this paper, I defend an account of how perceptual experience can bear rational relation to our empirical thought. In the first part, I elaborate two claims that are central for the justificational role of perceptual experience, namely, the claim that perception and belief share the same kind of content, and the claim that perception is independent from belief. At first sight, these claims seem not to be compatible, since the first one seems to require the truth of content conceptualism, (...) while the second one seems to require its falsity. In the second part, based on Alva Noë's actionist theory of perception, I argue in favor of a less intellectualist interpretation of the first claim, uncommitted to content conceptualism, and then I show how it can be reconciled with the second claim. Finally, I explain how perception holds rational relationships with our empirical thought through the exercise of observational concepts. These concepts link what I propose to call 'space of actions' to the logical space of reasons. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that hinge propositions are ways of acting that constitute abilities or skills. My starting point is Moyal-Sharrock's account of hinge propositions. However, Moyal-Sharrock's account leaves gaps to be filled, as it does not offer a unified explanation of the origin of our ungrounded grounds. Her account also lacks resources to respond to the issue of demarcation, since it does not provide a criterion for distinguishing ways of acting that can legitimately fulfill the role of ungrounded (...) grounds from those that cannot. Without an answer to this issue, the relativistic threat is serious. I then propose that by narrowing the ways of acting to those that are constitutive of abilities, we can deal with the relativistic threat. I provide an ecological approach to abilities through which I explain why abilities are reality-soaked and therefore why the ways of acting that constitute them are legitimate ungrounded grounds. Based on that approach, I provide an answer to the issue of demarcation that defuses the relativistic threat. (shrink)

In The Deep History of Ourselves, Joseph LeDoux distinguishes between behavioral and physiological responses caused by the activation of defense circuits, and the emotion of fear. Although the former is found in nearly all bilateral animals, the latter is supposedly a unique human adaptation that requires language, reflective self-awareness, among other cognitive capacities. In this picture, fear is an autonoetic conscious experience that happens when defense circuit activation is integrated into self-awareness and the experience labeled with the “fear” concept. In (...) this commentary I will propose a different view, in which fear is a skillful activity that we coordinate with others as our social interactions unfold in time. If this is true, two important conclusions will follow. Firstly, the relevant brain circuits we should be looking for in our theory of emotions are those involved in affective social learning, social cognition, embodied intersubjectivity, and so on. Secondly, emotions may not be uniquely human, and may be present in any creature with the right kinds of social skills required for affective enactments. Therefore, although LeDoux is right to hold that emotions are not as deep as defense circuits, they are not as shallow as other cognitively sophisticated human capacities. (shrink)

Niche construction theory highlights the active role of organisms in modifying their environment. A subset of these modifications is the developmental niche, which concerns ecological, epistemic, social and symbolic legacies inherited by organisms as resources that scaffold their developmental processes. Since in this theory development is a situated process that takes place in a culturally structured environment, we may reasonably ask if implicit cultural biases may, in some cases, be responsible for maladaptive developmental niches. In this paper we wish to (...) argue for an affirmative answer. In order to do so, we first propose to conceptualize implicit bias as embodied perceptual habits, and then proceed to show that these habits are at least partially responsible for maladaptive developmental niches of children with Down syndrome and autism. With this framework we thus hope to bring together two fields of research that haven’t been explicitly connected: implicit bias and niche construction theory. Linking these two theories may bring benefits both to implicit bias researchers, who can extend this concept to characterize other sets of processes as biased, as well as to niche construction theorists, who will have a useful theoretical tool to diagnose maladaptive features of niches brought about by sociocultural biases. (shrink)

The Letter from Pero Vaz de Caminha to the King of Portugal, Manuel I, is a unique document because its account of first contact with a people unknown in Europe up to that time may be regarded as evidence of the anthropological impossibility of a neutral gaze. This is an asymmetric testimony, as we do not possess (for obvious reasons) the Amerindian counterpart of European discourse. Although the letter’s author is someone who fully assumes the objectivity claim, we must not (...) neglect the rhetorical framework of this assumption. Hence the need for textual analysis that seeks to somehow discern the boundaries between fiction and reality. It is not as an ethnographic document, indeed, that we should value the Letter. In fact, it is necessary to recognize that this is a beautiful piece of literature whose architectural weave owes everything to the classical mechanisms of Rhetoric. (shrink)

What is it like to perceive a feared object? According to a popular neo-Gibsonian theory in psychology, fear biases our perceptions of objects so as to encourage particular kinds of actions: when we are afraid, spiders may be perceived as physically closer than they are in order to promote fleeing. Firestone mounted severe criticisms against this view, arguing that these cases are better explained by non-perceptual biases that operate on accurate perceptions of the external environment. In this paper I will (...) argue that fear might indeed distort our perceptions of the world, but not in the way neo-Gibsonians suppose. In the view I favor, perceptual distortions occur as by-products of fearful attention, a special mode of attention that is part of an orchestrated defensive response that prepares the organism to deal effectively with a threat. To argue for this view I will rely on empirical evidence that fearful attention narrows down the focus of attention and favors processing of local rather than global features of stimuli, which may jointly explain why perceptual distortions might occur in fearful object seeing. This view has consequences not only for empirical investigations in fearful perceptual distortions, but also for an explanation of the intentionality of fear and the phenomenal integration of bodily and intentional elements in fear episodes. (shrink)

Com este artigo, pretendo examinar a maneira pela qual ocorreria a necessidade natural, em seus diversos aspectos, nos distintos processos gerativos composicionais em Aristóteles. Em um caso, a necessidade natural se daria de um modo "sem mais", ou de um modo absoluto, por meio da qual se geram os agregados. Em outro, a necessidade natural se realizaria a partir de um princípio anterior regulativo ou determinante, que Aristóteles denomina de necessidade ex hupoteseos, com relação aos processos envolvidos na constituição dos (...) corpos homogêneos inanimados e, dos organismos vivos. No entanto, haveria uma diferença essencial relativamente ao acabamento composicional associado, por um lado, aos corpos homogêneos inanimados e, por outro, aos organismos vivos. Enquanto que o acabamento constituinte das composições homogêneas inanimadas se restringiria apenas ao todo composicional e suas propriedades características, o acabamento dos organismos vivos corresponderia ao todo composicional e as suas propriedades características, bem como este acabamento em vista da realização das atividades orgânico-funcionais, ou vitais. (shrink)

The author- following his own research on the subject- argues that Wittgenstein ignores argumentation theory and in general, the problems of rhetoric and argumentation. From this point of view, he frames Stephen Toulmin’s reading of Wittgenstein, arguing that the British philosopher- who was a student of the Austrian- advocates precisely the same thesis. He explains that this happens in a very peculiar (rhetorical) context on Toulmin’s part; a context in which, in essence, Wittgenstein’s philosophy is being rehabilitated.

As far as the relationship between The Society of the Spectacle (1967) and Commentaries on the Society of the Spectacle (1988) is concerned, one either acknowledges Guy Debord's self interpretation, according to which these books complement each other, or one is forced to concede, on the contrary, the existence of an "epistemological cut", undermining, therefore, the revolutionary unity of Debord’s work. According to the first hypothesis, Machiavelli and Marx will eventually be linked up in a Situationist project to overthrow spectacular (...) society. However, the second hypothesis involves dismissing political economy analysis, whose field is apparently occupied by police logic. Because Debord’s interpretation seems to us to be more plausible, even though its defence is not an easy task, we will endorse his point of view. (shrink)

Neste artigo, mapeio o terreno da discussão em torno das teorias da conspiração, destacando o problema de como defini-las, os fatores que levam à crença nas teorias da conspiração, os seus potenciais prejuízos e como devemos reagir a elas. Defendo que devemos avaliar as consequências da crença em uma teoria da conspiração para determinar se ela deve ser levada a serio ou não. Em bloco, as teorias da conspiração ameaçam a capacidade coletiva de produção de conhecimento e devemos nos preocupar (...) com a sua difusão. (shrink)

In this paper, I will focus on the nature of the Situationist concept of everyday life, in order to highlight not only its objective content but also its ambiguity. Moreover, I will demonstrate that there is, from the perspective of a poetics of everyday life, and in spite of the diversity of development stages of the Situationist International, an undeniable unity of its revolutionary program.

Durante vários anos, Jean Héring (1890-1966) foi professor de teologia na Université de Strasbourg. Um fato pessoal que o marcou definitivamente, foi o privilégio de ter sido discípulo de Husserl, em Göttingen. Nesta oportunidade, também teve contato com outros representantes da fenomenologia, como Edith Stein, Adolf Reinach e Alexandre Koyré. No breve texto a seguir, datado de 1939, um ano antes da morte de Husserl, Héring relembra a sua chegada em Göttingen, no ano de 1909 e o modo como Husserl (...) impressionava os seus discípulos, pelo seu brilhantismo. Fato este que acompanhou Héring durante todo o restante de sua vida, impactando decisivamente em sua obra. (shrink)

Satisfying the demand of questioning the contemporary condition implies, first of all, a criticism of present times. From this point of view, it becomes clear that art and revolution whilst practices of creative disruption are undoubtedly in crisis. Hence, it is imperative to re-read Guy Debord, who not only refused the aestheticization of politics, but also the politicization of aesthetics. For the hermeneutics of contemporary, his work is, of course, essential. Proving it is, in short, the purpose of this paper.

O presente artigo pretende explorar a máxima contida em Os irmãos Karamázov (se não há Deus, tudo é permitido?) à luz do pensamento de Immanuel Kant. Para tanto, se vale do pensamento de Dostoiévski apenas na medida em que ele serve como auxílio na apresentação da ideia de Deus e de sua relação com a posição do ateu. Tendo em vista a filosofia kantiana, buscamos não apenas a apresentação dessa ideia, mas também sua relação com o ato moral e com (...) a própria condição desse ato. Isso, portanto, resultará em Kant, uma resposta duplamente negativa à pergunta que reflete a posição ateísta de Ivan Karamazov. Pois Kant ao distinguir o ato moral por dever e conforme o dever, defende que recorrer a algo externo à razão (Deus) constituiria uma vontade meramente heterônoma. Portanto, o ato moral por excelência ocorre quando a ação é realizada de um modo unicamente guiado pela razão, com base num interesse puro, e isso conduz, por sua vez, à reprovação por parte de Kant da referida máxima presente na obra de Dostoiévski. (shrink)

A ideia de que a ciência — ou ao menos as atividades científicas que são consideradas as mais essenciais para a ciência — deve ser livre de valores é bastante difundida. Neste capítulo, vou discutir essa tese, normalmente entendida como um ideal de ciência. Na primeira seção, introduzo alguns conceitos e distinções que são importantes para entender essa tese, como a diferença entre valores cognitivos e não-cognitivos. Na segunda seção, discuto o papel dos valores na seleção de problemas e na (...) metodologia científica. Na terceira seção, apresento dois argumentos canônicos contra o ideal da ciência como livre de valores: o argumento da lacuna explicativa, de Helen Longino (1990), e o argumento do risco indutivo, de Heather Douglas (2009). Na quarta seção, discuto algumas respostas a esses argumentos. Por fim, na última seção, a partir da abordagem ecológica, exploro e sustendo a ideia de que a reconcepção da ciência como uma atividade social situada e adaptativa supera a dicotomia entre fato e valor que subjaz a discussão. Essa nova concepção de ciência nos permite acomodar melhor os resultados dos argumentos apresentados na terceira seção. (shrink)

Tradução de um artigo do discípulo de Husserl, Paul Landsberg, publicado em 1939, onde o autor tece algumas considerações sobre a ideia que Husserl tinha da filosofia.

No capítulo, O conceito de possibilidade objetiva como uma operação científica para correção de erros na metodologia weberiana, examinamos a maneira pela qual, para Max Weber, o juízo de possibilidade objetiva permite avaliar a possibilidade de uma causa beneficiar ou não o surgimento de um fato real. Após essa análise, o argumento se concentra na explicação do propósito lógico-metodológico da conexão de sentido causal, construída a partir do conceito de possibilidade objetiva. Propomos que esse quadro teórico é utilizado por Weber (...) como um instrumento metodológico para a correção de erros do compreender interpretativamente. (shrink)

The history of the interpretation of Psalm 46 has been articulated around the search for its context. Some commentators have sought to pin its historical circumstance to certain events in Israel's past, such as the siege of Sennacherib's army over Judah or a major geological event such as an earthquake. Others have asserted that the author of the Psalm did not have in mind a past event, but a future one, namely, a time of peace and cessation of wars. But (...) is this search for the context of the author's day really essential for the modern reader? Shouldn't the diligent reading of any text culminate in merging the past with the present?And, finally, shouldn't the reader's horizons be called into question when interpreting a text? This research will seek to analyze these questions from the dialogue with authors such as Franz Delitzsch, Hermann Gunkel, Hans Georg Gadamer, G. Heinrich Ewald and Arie Folger; authors who contributed to the reflection of this research. -/- . (shrink)

Kant clearly endorses some version of the ‘old formula of the schools’, according to which all volition is sub ratione boni. There has been a debate whether he holds this only for morally good actions. I argue that a closer look at the distinction between the good and the agreeable does not support this conclusion. Considering Kant’s account of the detrimental and the correct use of this thesis, I argue that rational beings always will sub ratione boni, even when they (...) act immorally, because they act on principles. I argue that Kant’s accounts of self-love and self-conceit support this view. (shrink)

This article aims to examine Johann Gottlieb Fichte's lectures on the destination of the erudite, in particular his contributions to thinking about ethics. In this writing, the philosopher makes a series of reflections on the role of each individual in society, and states that each one has a vocation to be freely chosen, and therefore exercised. Since human beings are essentially dignified, they are allowed to use only things and not their fellow human beings: as a result, they are their (...) own ends. The erudite, in particular, has the vocation to contribute directly to the ultimate goal of the human being, and this goal includes the moral improvement of each individual who makes up society. (shrink)

A tradução a seguir tem como pretensão demonstrar o modo como Gaston Berger (1896-1960) em seu texto Husserl et Hume, promove uma articulação entre a fenomenologia de Edmund Husserl e o empirismo de David Hume. No texto, o autor apresenta a maneira como a fenomenologia ao valorizar a experiência (tendo-a como imprescindível) se aproxima da filosofia de Hume, e ao tratá-la como insuficiente por si mesma, acaba por estabelecer uma estreita relação com o idealismo transcendental kantiano. O fato é que (...) por mais que Husserl acredite ter superado a imediaticidade dos fatos empíricos vindo a construir um novo sistema de idealismo transcendental, a sua fenomenologia jamais deixou de clara fazer referência a Hume. (shrink)

No capítulo, o autor tem por objetivo apresentar a concepção de determinados ordenamentos metodológicos na teoria weberiana que impeçam a identificação dos fatos estudados com possíveis juízos de valor do pesquisador. Esse modo de construção de conceitos, formado como tipo ideal e aplicado como padrão de medida, será utilizado em seu cotejo com os dados para descobrir a natureza da variação na cadeia causal dos eventos analisados. Passando por textos centrais do pensamento teórico-metodológico weberiano, o autor procura relê-los a partir (...) de contribuições atuais, para avaliar em que medida eles podem iluminar a pesquisa científica nos dias de hoje. (shrink)

O presente artigo almeja demonstrar que em Einleitung in die Logik und Erkenntnistheorie, de 1906/07, por meio de uma crítica ao ceticismo, Husserl promove uma mudança que será significativa no desenvolvimento posterior de sua filosofia: a introdução da εποχή. Ao contrário do ceticismo grego, tal conceito em Husserl, ao suspender o juízo, busca um dado indubitável: o ego. Isso proporciona com que Husserl supere o ceticismo, tanto em sua face dogmática (negação de possibilidade de todo o conhecimento), quanto crítica (suspensão (...) do juízo perante o alcance do conhecimento). Com isso, pode-se perceber que ao retomar um conceito cético da filosofia antiga, e opor-se ao relativismo, Husserl inaugura o seu primeiro esboço de uma filosofia pura, que adiante será concretizada, em sua última fase, como idealismo fenomenológico-transcendental. (shrink)

O propósito deste artigo é analisar sobre a maneira pela qual, na metodologia weberiana, o grau de evidência poderá ser construído por meio dos padrões teóricos de deliberação imputados idealmente à ação subjetivamente visada pelo agente. Para Max Weber, a evidência da interpretação é baseada em procedimentos lógico-metodológicos que permitem ao cientista conceber conexões de sentido na ação empírica do agente. Portanto, será mediante certa caracterização promovida pelo pesquisador, a partir dos dados da pesquisa, que se produzirá em pensamento a (...) evidência da interpretação. Assim, o grau de evidência, metodologicamente, é construído a partir de padrões teóricos de deliberação concebidos idealmente como meios auxiliares puramente lógicos, utilizados para o isolamento e ordenamento conceitual de um fragmento da complexidade do empírico. Em vista disso, examinaremos como, na metodologia weberiana, a interpretação da ação do agente torna-se possível, se for feita uma referência explícita ao sentido visado da ação. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo refletir acerca do modo como na crítica do conhecimento, Husserl passa da suspensão do juízo à afixação de um dado apodítico, revelado através do cogito. Para tal, através da análise de alguns elementos presentes em Die Idee der Phänomenologie, de 1907, almeja-se demonstrar que o dado apodítico encontrado por Husserl está envolvido na pergunta sobre a legitimidade do conhecimento. Deste modo, a fenomenologia husserliana se apresenta como a doutrina universal da essência, uma proposta que (...) tem em vista apresentar os fundamentos seguros à teoria do conhecimento. -/- . (shrink)

Para Max Weber, a sociedade não pode ser compreendida em sua totalidade. Max Weber tem como referência uma realidade infinita e complexa, analisada a partir de um determinado ponto de vista. O problema da seleção da realidade nas ciências histórico-sociais, abordado por Max Weber no início da segunda seção dos Estudos críticos sobre a lógica das ciências da cultura, é fundamental para a estrutura de sua metodologia científica. Este momento pré-científico da metodologia é que permitirá a construção de uma possível (...) constelação causal. É o investigador que, dotado de interesse, seleciona a realidade e dá sentido a ela. Demonstra, agindo desta maneira, o que merece ser para ele conhecido no fluxo infinito da realidade. Argumenta Max Weber que a “relação com os valores” permite ao cientista o recorte e ordenação do objeto, conferindo sentido a esta parte da realidade que detém significação geral para o pesquisador. Assim, o argumento principal aqui exposto estabelece a importância do interesse cognitivo para Max Weber, já que em sua metodologia o conhecimento seria sempre fruto de um recorte particular, da seleção de um conjunto específico de problemas. Essa seleção ou recorte particular seria, necessariamente, feito a partir das referências do cientista. (shrink)

Na tentativa de resolver problemas concretos para a ciência, Max Weber toma por objeto de estudo o trabalho histórico, em especial o de um renomado historiador, Eduard Meyer. Para demonstrar e fundamentar o trabalho histórico, Eduard Meyer torna-se um exemplo para Weber da confusão lógica em que se encontram as ciências especializadas. Partindo deste fato, este artigo pretende mostrar como Max Weber fundamenta os conceitos lógico metodológicos que o auxiliam na construção da objetividade das ciências histórico-sociais. Nosso objetivo é demonstrar (...) como, através das operações lógicas, a metodologia weberiana distingue a conexão entre aqueles elementos “essenciais” da cadeia causal e outros elementos “acidentais” que se situam entre os infinitos momentos que compõem a determinação de um evento. (shrink)

O presente artigo almeja refletir sobre a problemática enfrentada por Husserl em seu projeto de construção de uma ciência rigorosa. Em Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft, obra na qual o pensador ilustra com mais detalhes a sua pretensão, há dois obstáculos a serem superados, segundo Husserl, expressos na forma do historicismo e do naturalismo. Ambos os conceitos por relativizar a verdade e reduzi-la a uma compreensão material, estão destinados ao ceticismo. Disso resulta que uma fenomenologia pura, que reúne as condições de (...) tornar a filosofia uma ciência rigorosa, não pode ficar presa aos fatos empíricos. Para tal, Husserl promove uma distinção entre fenômenos físicos e psíquicos, entre a realidade material e a verdade ideal. Portanto, a fenomenologia sendo uma ciência das essências, cujo objeto de estudo é a verdade ideal, busca superar a mera materialidade e afirmar-se como uma doutrina pura, cujo objeto central é o fenômeno puro, despido de toda a materialidade, revelado em sua condição ideal, universal. (shrink)

This paper aims to show how Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics, namely in the specificity of the Conflict of interpretations category, is a fruitful resource in the constitution of Women's Studies as well as to legitimize the need for its full integration in the canons of humanistic knowledge. In general, they continue to ignore the immense body of knowledge and perspectives that Women's Studies have produced in recent decades. In this sense, it begins by presenting the general features of the hermeneutic problematic (...) and the theme of Conflict of Interpretations, and then showing its proven contribution to the development of Women's Studies and defending its possible contribution to enhancing their integration into canons. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that hinge propositions are ways of acting that constitute abilities or skills. My starting point is Moyal-Sharrock's account of hinge propositions. However, Moyal-Sharrock's account leaves gaps to be filled, as it does not offer a unified explanation of the origin of our ungrounded grounds. Her account also lacks resources to respond to the issue of demarcation, since it does not provide a criterion for distinguishing ways of acting that can legitimately fulfill the role of ungrounded (...) grounds from those that cannot. Without an answer to this issue, the relativistic threat is serious. I then propose that by narrowing the ways of acting to those that are constitutive of abilities, we can deal with the relativistic threat. I provide an ecological approach to abilities through which I explain why abilities are reality-soaked and therefore why the ways of acting that constitute them are legitimate ungrounded grounds. Based on that approach, I provide an answer to the issue of demarcation that defuses the relativistic threat. (shrink)

Information is a central notion for cognitive sciences and neurosciences, but there is no agreement on what it means for a cognitive system to acquire information about its surroundings. In this paper, we approximate three influential views on information: the one at play in ecological psychology, which is sometimes called information for action; the notion of information as covariance as developed by some enactivists, and the idea of information as minimization of uncertainty as presented by Shannon. Our main thesis is (...) that information for action can be construed as covariant information, and that learning to perceive covariant information is a matter of minimizing uncertainty through skilled performance. We argue that the agent’s cognitive system conveys information for acting in an environment by minimizing uncertainty about how to achieve her intended goals in that environment. We conclude by reviewing empirical findings that support our view and by showing how direct learning, seen as instance of ecological rationality at work, is how mere possibilities for action are turned into embodied know-how. Finally, we indicate the affinity between direct learning and sense-making activity. (shrink)

Este é o Capítulo XVI do meu livro A Marcha dos Abismos. A Dupla Tragédia da Utopia, que ainda não pude terminar para publicação. Redigido em 2017, este é um dos inumeráveis escritos e gravações de aulas que provam, para suprema decepção de Ninguéns e ninguemzistas, a insuperável distância crítica que me separa de todo “perenialismo” guénoniano-schuoniano.

In this paper I claim that perceptual discriminatory skills rely on a suitable type of environment as an enabling condition for their exercise. This is because of the constitutive connection between environment and perceptual discriminatory skills, inasmuch as such connection is construed from an ecological approach. The exercise of a discriminatory skill yields knowledge of affordances of objects, properties, or events in the surrounding environment. This is practical knowledge in the first-person perspective. An organism learns to perceive an object by (...) becoming sensitized to its affordances. I call this position ecological disjunctivism. A corollary of this position is that a case of perception and its corresponding case of hallucination—which is similar to the former only in some respects—are different in nature. I show then how the distinguishability problem is addressed by ecological disjunctivism. (shrink)