In recent years, online “involuntary celibate” or “incel” communities have been linked to various deadly attacks targeting women. Why do these men react to romantic rejection with not just disappointment, but murderous rage? Feminists have claimed this is because incels desire women as objects or, alternatively, because they feel entitled to women’s attention. I argue that both of these explanatory models are insufficient. They fail to account for incels’ distinctive ambivalence toward women—for their oscillation between obsessive desire and violent hatred. (...) I propose instead that what incels want is a Beauvoirian “Other.” For Beauvoir, when men conceive of women as Others, they represent them as simultaneously human subjects and embodiments of the natural world. Women function then as sui generis entities through which men can experience themselves as praiseworthy heroes, regardless of the quality of their actions. I go on to give an illustrative analysis of Elliot Rodger’s autobiographical manifesto, “My Twisted World.” I show how this Beauvoirian model sheds light on Rodger’s racist and classist attitudes and gives us a better understanding of his ambivalence toward women. It therefore constitutes a powerful and overlooked theoretical alternative to accounts centered on objectification and entitlement. (shrink)

One of the key insights of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex is the idea that gender-based subordination is not just something done to women, but also something women do to themselves. This raises a question about ethical responsibility: if women are complicit, or actively implicated in their own oppression, are they at fault? Recent Beauvoir scholarship remains divided on this point. Here, I argue that Beauvoir did, in fact, ethically criticize many women for their complicity, as a sign of (...) what she called “bad faith”. I challenge recent accounts by Nancy Bauer and Manon Garcia, who both read Beauvoir as exonerating complicit women. According to this reading, women emerge as human “freedoms” within a social world where a “destiny” of inferiority is already prepared for them. Their self-subordination is then an inevitable product of acting in a patriarchal world. I argue, however, that this interpretation generates a crucial tension, leading Bauer and Garcia to call on women to stop being complicit, while also claiming they cannot avoid complicity. I propose instead a different interpretation, on which feminine complicity is often fueled by criticizable ethical attitudes that are far from inevitable. By revisiting Beauvoir’s notion of “bad faith”, I show that this account is compatible with recognizing the limitations imposed on women’s agency and I show that this feminist ethical criticism is itself an important part of a collective project of social transformation. (shrink)

This article considers two alternative responses to the question of the motivation behind the suspensive argumentation developed by the Pyrrhonic version of the ancient scepticism and also shows their respective difficulties: a) the therapeutic motivation, that takes the suspension of assent for the condition to reach not only a state of mental tranquillity concerning matters of opinion but also a moderate attitude towards passions; b) the epistemic motivation, which states that the suspension corresponds to the unique possibility to preserve philosophical (...) life in the absence of rational criteria to decide among competing philosophical theories. The latter kind of motivation, which consists in creating propitious conditions for the search for the truth, has nothing to do with the methodic motivation characterizing the modern reception of ancient scepticism. Although this motivation was not present in the Pyrrhonic scepticism, it could not be unknown to the academic sceptics because of their Socratic origins. (shrink)

The first part of my paper offers a brief characterization of what I call the non-hegemonic tradition of interpretation of Nietzsche's metaphilosophical program. In the second part, I suggest some small adjustments in the main argument of this tradition of interpretation. In general terms, the non-hegemonic tradition can be characterised by the claim that Nietzsche is a legitimate heir of the metaphilosophical programme first formulated by Friedrich Albert Lange in his ˜History of Materialism and Critique of its Significance for the (...) Present". None of the main interpreters of Nietzsche that I affiliate with this tradition of interpretation has formulated this claim quite explicitly, but I do not think that this characterization is inappropriate and I submit they could all accept it in the terms put forward in the present article. The main thesis states that Lange provides Nietzsche not so much with substantive theses as with the formal aspects of a philosophical programme whose content is drawn from other sources. This is the case, for example, in the attempt (in his early works) to mobilise Schopenhauer's metaphysics without committing himself to his epistemic claims. The attempt to execute this programme is surrounded by tensions that result not so much from Lange's sceptical theses as from what ultimately motivates them: the imperative of intellectual consciousness. This conflict remains unresolved as long as Nietzsche remains committed to the thesis of practical idealism according to which it is up to philosophy to satisfy certain metaphysical needs that are anthropologically unavoidable. The commitment to this anthropological thesis is what effectively places the young Nietzsche in the company of Kant, Schopenhauer and Lange. As soon as Nietzsche has abandoned this youthful commitment, he is prepared to revise his metaphilosophical convictions. (shrink)

This paper discusses two theses about Plato that Nietzsche defends in his lectures on the Athenian philosopher offered by him at the University of Basel during the 1870s. Nietzsche’s first claim concerns Plato’s philosophy: relying on Aristotle, Nietzsche holds that Plato was initially brought to a metaphysically motivated version of scepticism as a result of his affiliation to the Cratilian interpretation of Heraclitus. Although the Socratic method of defining and testing concepts as well as its metaphysical complement, the theory of (...) Forms, has allowed Plato to overcome this kind of metaphysically motivated scepticism, Nietzsche argues that such an overcoming is only provisional if one needs to accept the authenticity of Parmenides, then the arguments displayed in this later dialogue lead to a sceptical conclusion regarding the theory of Forms. The second claim advanced by Nietzsche in his lectures concerns Plato’s philosophical character, which is identified with the figures of the legislator and the political reformer. According to Nietzsche, all of Plato’s philosophical commitments must ultimately be interpreted in the light of his political project, for here there is no place for scepticism anymore. (shrink)

At the end of 2017, Kristen Roupenian’s short story, Cat Person, went viral. Published at the height of the #MeToo movement, it depicted a ‘toxic date’ and a disturbing sexual encounter between Margot, a college student, and Robert, an older man she meets at work. The story was widely viewed as a relatable denunciation of women’s powerlessness and routine victimization. In this paper, I push against this common reading. I propose an alternative feminist interpretation through the lens of Simone de (...) Beauvoir’s notion of narcissism: a form of alienation that consists in making oneself both the subject and the ultimate project of one’s life. Framing Margot as a narcissist casts her as engaging, not in subtly coerced, undesired sex, but rather in sex that is desired in a tragically alienated way. I argue that Beauvoir’s notion of narcissism is an important tool for feminists today – well beyond the interpretation of Cat Person. It presses us to see systematic subordination not just as something done to women, but also as something women do to themselves. This in turn highlights the neglected role of self-transformation as a key aspect of feminist political resistance. (shrink)

Cognitive representations are typically analysed in terms of content, vehicle and format. While current work on formats appeals to intuitions about external representations, such as words and maps, in this paper we develop a computational view of formats that does not rely on intuitions. In our view, formats are individuated by the computational profiles of vehicles, i.e., the set of constraints that fix the computational transformations vehicles can undergo. The resulting picture is strongly pluralistic, it makes space for a variety (...) of different formats, and is intimately tied to the computational approach to cognition in cognitive science and artificial intelligence. (shrink)

A detailed discussion of Corbanezi's book, entitled "Perspectivismo e Relativismo na Filosofia de Nietzsc he," published in 2021 by the Collection Sendas & Veredas [Ensaios] in a partnership between the Unifesp Publisher and GEN (Grup de Estudos Nietzsche). The book aims to answer a very specific question: to what extent does Nietzsche's perspectivism incur in relativism? To answer this main question, Corbanezi mobilizes some of the main concepts of Nietzsche's theoretical philosophy, competently displaying their internal articulations (world conception, will to (...) power, forces, perspective, interpretation, relation, impulses, values). In making this choice, he goes against a certain current preference for exploring more peripheral themes of the German philosopher's work. The main and extended argument of the book consists in showing, against the hegemonic reading in the secondary literature, that the question does not bear a univocal negative answer, and this means: if on the one hand, Nietzsche's perspectivism refuses and combats relativism, on the other hand, he actually admits it and even radicalizes it. How is it possible to defend such a conclusion? To some extent, we can say that Corbanezi arrives at this seemingly counterintuitive result by mobilising the resources of Nietzschean philosophy itself, that is, by perspectivising the question. The present discussion reconstructs the author's main arguments in defence of his nuanced position and assesses to what extent such arguments are convincing and supported by defensible methodological choices. (shrink)

The aim of the present article is to display and debate the main interpretive and philosophical claims defended by Simon Robertson in his Nietzsche and Contemporary Ethics. Robertson presents innovative and stimulating arguments that might interest primarily readers willing to better understand the Nietzschean moral theory and researchers interested in broader issues of contemporary moral theory, particularly in the analytic tradition. The author covers the main debates in the area, taking sides in disputes going on in normative theory, metaethics, moral (...) psychology and Nietzschean studies. Robertson mobilizes a set of interpretive and (purely) philosophical arguments, which deliver to the reader a final picture of Nietzsche’s perfectionist ideal. It is a theoretically consistent ideal that can be endorsed as a relevant alternative in the contemporary landscape of ethical theories. This alternative involves a powerful critique of the normative authority of morality, a sentimentalist moral psychology, a conception of the good life that combines the goods of excellence and flourishing, a modest conception of normativity that brings together internalist and externalist elements, and, finally, an irrealist metaethics that differs both from realism (which presupposes ontologically robust normative properties)and from reformist views (such as fictionalism and non-cognitivism). The article reconstructs Robertson's main arguments in favour of this set of claims, seeking to assess (1) to what extent they are convincing, both in their philosophical and interpretive ambitions and (2) how capable his methodological choices are to address critical challenges. (shrink)

The present thesis intends the reconstruction of Nietzsche’s dialogue with the history of scepticism through the identification of his main sources. Such dialogue is constantly mediated by texts from authors contemporary to Nietzsche, therefore the reconstruction of the sources could not remain exclusively inside the sceptical tradition, but included frequently some post-Kantian authors. The fundamental claims of the present thesis are: Nietzsche was deeply acquainted with the history of scepticism; his work assumes this tradition in a very innovative manner; Nietzsche (...) not only associated himself instrumentally to scepticism, but tried to incorporate some of the essential commitments of the sceptical life to his understanding of philosophical life. (shrink)

O último livro escrito por Nietzsche, Ecce homo: como alguém se torna o que se é, é uma de suas obras mais controversas, tendo sido tomada como sinal de prepotência, como autoexposição egocêntrica e como prenúncio do colapso que interrompeu sua trajetória intelectual em janeiro de 1889. As controvérsias foram alimentadas, em parte, pela peculiar narrativa encontrada no livro – ele conta a si sua vida e obra em tom elogioso e hiperbólico –, em parte, pelo fato de que a (...) tardia publicação de Ecce homo, ocorrida apenas em 1908, favoreceu o contraste com o apócrifo A vontade de poder – reunião de anotações publicada em 1901 como ‘obra principal’ de Nietzsche. Nosso propósito neste artigo é refletir sobre as possíveis contribuições do teor ‘autobiográfico’ e ‘autocrítico’ de Ecce homo para o caminho de pensamento do filósofo alemão. Nossa hipótese é que a narrativa experimentada no livro possui uma íntima relação com temas precedentes da obra nietzschiana e com a tarefa da transvaloração de todos os valores. Por meio de uma autoencenação, da colocação de um certo ‘Nietzsche’ em cena, o filósofo avança em sua crítica à metafísica – e à sua versão popular, a moral cristã – enquanto realça a mundanidade de sua perspectiva, seu caráter contingente e seu condicionamento pelas “pequenas coisas”, decisão que nos parece carregar uma relevante dimensão filosófica: Nietzsche assume a parcialidade e explicita o interesse envolvido em sua tomada de posição no seio da cultura. (shrink)

Feminists have always been concerned with how the clothes women wear can reinforce and reproduce gender hierarchy. However, they have strongly disagreed about what to do in response: some have suggested that the key to feminist liberation is to stop caring about how one dresses; others have replied that the solution is to give women increased choices. In this paper, we argue that neither of these dominant approaches is satisfactory and that, ultimately, they have led to an impasse that pervades (...) the contemporary feminist debate. The problem is that both sides of the debate understand women’s complicity in patriarchal subordination as a matter of what women wear and do. Instead, we propose a phenomenological analysis that understands complicity as based in our relations to our clothes. Starting from this phenomenological perspective, we sketch a new relational feminist ethics of dressing. This alternative ethical paradigm cannot yield a simple recipe for how to dress or tell us what garments are off-limits. But it can offer a way to make critical feminist judgements about clothes without veering into a stifling new prescriptivism. (shrink)

The notion of intelligence is relevant to several fields of research, including cognitive and comparative psychology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and philosophy, among others. However, there is little agreement within and across these fields on how to characterise and explain intelligence. I put forward a behavioural, operational characterisation of intelligence that can play an integrative role in the sciences of intelligence, as well as preserve the distinctive explanatory value of the notion, setting it apart from the related concepts of cognition and (...) rationality. Finally, I examine a popular hypothesis about the underpinnings of intelligence: the capacity to manipulate internal representations of the environment. I argue that the hypothesis needs refinement, and that so refined, it applies only to some forms of intelligence. (shrink)

In this paper I intend to identify the kind of Amoralism Nietzsche is arguing for in his writings of the middle period. In the first part of the paper, I focus on the presuppositions as well as on the motivation underlying this version of the amoralist position. Nietzsche diagnoses a normative conflict between intellectual integrity and the metaphysical presuppositions of our moral vocabulary and practices. This diagnosis leads him to the conclusion that we should reform a substantive part of our (...) moral intuitions. However, this first critique of morality, one that we could label an internal critique, is not all that Nietzsche has to say about normativity, even if we consider only the works of the middle period. According to my interpretation, Nietzsche is committed to a position that could be described as normative Minimalism. By developing this position, Nietzsche was clearly influenced by Montaigne´s reception of both Epicureanism and Pyrrhonism. The kind of human life Nietzsche associated with this position is identified by him with the life of the free spirits, conceived as both a genuine heir and an emulator of the ascetic types made possible by the Christian culture, paradigmatically exemplified by Pascal and the French Jansenists. In the second part of this paper, I contrast this kind of normative Minimalism with Nietzsche´s defence of Perfectionism in his later works. I conclude my paper by calling attention to some argumentative advantages of normative Minimalism and to some argumentative difficulties that Perfectionism cannot preclude (from a genuine Nietzschean perspective). (shrink)

How does microbiota research impact our understanding of biological individuality? We summarize the interdisciplinary summer school on "Microbiota, Symbiosis and Individuality: Conceptual and Philosophical Issues" (July 2019), which was supported by a European Research Council starting grant project "Immunity, DEvelopment, and the Microbiota" (IDEM). The summer school centered around interdisciplinary group work on four facets of microbiota research: holobionts, individuality, causation, and human health. The conceptual discussion of cutting-edge empirical research provided new insights into microbiota and highlights the value of (...) incorporating into meetings experts from other disciplines, such as philosophy and history of science. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo perscrutar a tarefa nietzschiana de ver a arte com a ótica da vida, apresentada pelo filósofo, em 1886, como signo da unidade de sua obra. Para tanto, realizamos uma leitura panorâmica das reflexões de Nietzsche sobre a arte, buscando salientar – em meio às tensões próprias de um pensamento assistemático – os elementos que permitem que o filósofo afirme a existência de uma coerência interna a seus escritos. Nossa hipótese é que a mesma pode (...) ser vista em algumas relações entre fisiologia e estética estabelecidas por ele ao longo de sua trajetória, principalmente, na interpretação da arte e da cultura em geral como expressões de um certo sentido – como direção ascendente ou decadente – da vida. Interessa-nos o fato dessa perspectiva fazer-se presente no período final de sua produção intelectual na ideia de fisiologia da arte, com a distinção entre criação na abundância e no empobrecimento. Além de sintetizar a problemática presente no pensamento nietzschiano desde seus escritos dos anos setenta, tal distinção é importante, sobretudo, por possibilitar que o filósofo apresente-se como alguém capaz de ver, através das expressões culturais, vida forte e fraca, ascendente e decadente, abundante e empobrecida. E é notável – como sugerimos no encerramento do trabalho – que, para fazê-lo, Nietzsche autoencena-se como um décadent que foi capaz de cura e, por isso, conquistou olhos para distinguir, o que pode ser interpretado como estratégia vinculada a seu empreendimento de crítica e transformação da cultura. (shrink)

Aesthetic hedonism is the view that to be aesthetically good is to please. For most aesthetic hedonists, aesthetic normativity is hedonic normativity. This paper argues that Kant's third critique contains resources for a non-hedonic account of aesthetic normativity as sourced in autonomy as self-legislation. A case is made that the account is also Kant's because it ties his aesthetics into a key theme of his larger philosophy.

The formal and empirical-generative perspectives of computation are demonstrated to be inadequate to secure the goals of simulation in the social sciences. Simulation does not resemble formal demonstrations or generative mechanisms that deductively explain how certain models are sufficient to generate emergent macrostructures of interest. The description of scientific practice implies additional epistemic conceptions of scientific knowledge. Three kinds of knowledge that account for a comprehensive description of the discipline were identified: formal, empirical and intentional knowledge. The use of formal (...) conceptions of computation for describing simulation is refuted; the roles of programming languages according to intentional accounts of computation are identified; and the roles of iconographic programming languages and aesthetic machines in simulation are characterized. The roles that simulation and intentional decision making may be able to play in a participative information society are also discussed. (shrink)

Este artigo tem como objetivo fornecer uma visão ampla acerca da complexidade do xenotransplante, técnica que consiste no uso de animais não-humanos como fornecedores de órgãos para seres humanos. Nesse sentido, pretende-se auxiliar na análise ética dos potenciais benefícios da técnica, à luz dos questionamentos inerentes à sua pesquisa e possível implementação. Por um lado, o xenotransplante apresenta o potencial de solucionar a escassez crônica de órgãos humanos para transplantes, reduzindo as mortes decorrentes da falta de órgãos e as filas (...) de espera. Por outro lado, levanta várias questões que devem ser amplamente analisadas e democraticamente debatidas pela sociedade, tais como: o risco de xenozoonoses, o uso de animais não-humanos, a limitação da privacidade dos receptores de órgãos de origem animal, os protocolos de captação do consentimento livre e informado e o uso de pacientes com morte cerebral em experimentos. Desse modo, conclui-se que, mesmo que no futuro sejam superados os obstáculos clínicos e seja possível realizar xenotransplantes de órgãos com sucesso, é imprescindível avaliar cuidadosamente os prós e contras antes de decidirmos sobre sua continuidade. (shrink)

Este artigo objetiva discutir o tema da autoficção e apresentar a possibilidade de utilizá-lo para a interpretação de obras filosóficas, destacadamente o livro Ecce homo de Friedrich Nietzsche e, secundariamente, Testo junkie de Paul B. Preciado. Para tanto, primeiro, abordarei a relação entre filosofia e literatura no contexto que alguns pensadores contemporâneos têm nomeado cultura literária. Em um segundo momento, traçarei uma breve história da formação da noção de autoficção e da consolidação do termo para demarcar um subgênero literário. Em (...) seguida, apresentarei elementos de Ecce homo que me parecem permitir enquadrá- lo no campo da autoficção. Na última parte, serão retomadas as articulações entre literatura e filosofia, analisando- se brevemente um exemplar de autoficção no pensamento contemporâneo, Testo junkie, para sugerir que a aproximação de tal subgênero contribui para a compreensão tanto do lugar da filosofia na cultura literária quanto aspectos de nosso tempo. (shrink)

The importance of The Origin of The Work of Art in Heidegger’s path of thought is notorious. Besides adding to the framework of the thematization of the question of being a reflection on art, the conference is considered a landmark of the displacement from the existential analytic of Dasein to the problem of history of being. Divided in three parts, this paper connects such a displacement to the relationship between art and truth established in the conference. In the first part, (...) it indicates how the criticism of aesthetic tradition is inserted in the project of overcoming metaphysics through the problematization of subjectivism. The second is dedicated to the theme of the origin of the work of art in its nexus to the notions of history and institution. In the third part, it discusses the idea of art as a setting-itself-into-work of truth as alétheia, bound to the tension between world and earth that would expose itself in art. In the final remarks, I suggest that, going beyond the Greek paradigm and Heidegger’s hesitations, the association between art and alétheia also applies to the experience offered by modern and contemporary works. (shrink)

In his debut book, The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche presents what he understands as a metaphysics of art or metaphysics of the artist. As it becomes clear throughout the argument developed in the work, his aim is to favor a justification of the world and of existence as an aesthetic phenomenon. The path to his metaphysics passes through the interaction with Kantian and, mostly, Schopenhauerian formulations, and through a deep dialogue with Greek culture in general and, indirectly, with Pre-Socratic thought. (...) The objective of this article is to delimit the retentions and displacements of the critical tradition in his book from 1872, and highlight the importance of the interlocution with the Greek cultural repertoire in the conformation of his metaphysics of the artist. In particular, the working hypothesis is that Nietzsche, in these approaches and appropriations of critical and archaic philosophical tradition, finds the possibility of an immanent metaphysics in the post-Kantian context, conceived as a physiology (in the antique sense) of aesthetic bias. (shrink)

ENSAIO DISPONIBILIZADO NA REVISTA GUARU (2021): A luz adentra as cavernas e mostra imagens nas pedras. A mera aparência, quimera. Vemos no fundo perfis da verdadeira experiência da necessidade da caça em uma natureza vivida na nudez de seus ciclos e humores, sem controle. Nossos olhos aterram-se em javalis, búfalos-anões, bisões, cavalos, humanos-bichos, contornos de mãos – rastros de animais mágicos cujo vigor permanece nos traços gravados em pigmentos pretos e avermelhados. Temos diante de nós a descoberta de uma forma (...) de expressão a perdurar nas paredes que guardam o exercício nascido antes das coisas terem nomes, exercício agora chamado arte rupestre. No janeiro de um ano em que uma humanidade recolhida entre suas paredes finas experimenta a dureza de uma natureza alheia – a colocar no espelho a hostilidade secular a ela imposta –, tomamos ciência do encontro das mais antigas expressões figurativas produzidas por nossos antepassados em uma caverna na Indonésia. Em meio à perplexidade, apenas de posse de uma tecnologia que já não apazigua a ausência de controle, descobrimos na ilha de Sulawesi, na caverna de Leang Tedongnge, pinturas de cerca de 45 mil anos que fazem a história da arte deslocar-se e recuar. (shrink)

Simônides de Ceos foi um poeta lírico grego cuja obra é marcada pela atenção à problemática da existência humana e cuja distinção é a visão do fazer poético como atividade propriamente humana. Nietzsche nutria grande admiração por Simônides desde o tempo de sua formação intelectual, como revela sua correspondência dos anos sessenta. Além disso, em seus cadernos e em dois aforismos de sua obra publicada, o filósofo apresenta interessantes reflexões sobre o poeta. Em uma delas, afirma que Simônides aconselhava os (...) gregos a tomarem a vida como um jogo. Tal compreensão é um dos temas abordados neste ensaio. O outro tema é a discussão sobre certa proximidade entre as concepções de Simônides e Nietzsche acerca da arte como ofício, derivadas da interlocução crítica deles, respectivamente, com a tradição poética arcaica e a tradição estética e filosófica. A convergência de ambos sobre tais temas liga-se a um traço comum: o enraizamento da existência humana na aparência. (shrink)

De uma perspectiva comportamentalista radical, o eu é um repertório verbal complexo, que, como tal, tem uma gênese social. O reconhecimento da origem social do “eu” abre caminho para uma análise política, incluindo uma discussão do pa- pel das relações de poder na constituição do eu. Entretanto, uma concepção radicalmente social do “eu”, como a proposta pelo comportamentalismo, suscita um problema político: se o eu é integralmente produto do ambiente social, de onde viria uma eventual “vontade” de romper com esse (...) sistema? Parece que para reconhecer a possibilidade de ação política transformadora seria preciso preservar uma noção descontextualizada de “eu”. Considerando essa dificuldade, o objetivo deste artigo é propor uma interpretação política da constituição do “eu” no âmbito do comportamentalismo radical, mantendo no horizonte a possibilidade de uma ação política transformadora. Para tanto, destacamos como “eus” oprimidos são tornados submissos, mas também como de certas contingências podem emergir “eus” subversivos, que se opõem a um sistema social opressivo. Esse “eu” subversivo é caracterizado por um repertório de autoconhecimento mais amplo, que inclui a discriminação do papel das relações de poder e do controle promovido por instituições. Concluímos, com isso, que um “eu” socialmente constituído pode ser politicamente ativo. (shrink)

The representations of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are formed from generalizing similarities and abstracting from differences in the manner of the empiricist theory of abstraction (Buckner, Synthese 195:5339–5372, 2018). The empiricist theory of abstraction is well understood to entail infinite regress and circularity in content constitution (Husserl, Logical Investigations. Routledge, 2001). This paper argues these entailments hold a fortiori for deep CNNs. Two theses result: deep CNNs require supplementation by Quine’s “apparatus of identity and quantification” in order to (1) (...) achieve concepts, and (2) represent objects, as opposed to “half-entities” corresponding to similarity amalgams (Quine, Quintessence, Cambridge, 2004, p. 107). Similarity amalgams are also called “approximate meaning[s]” (Marcus & Davis, Rebooting AI, Pantheon, 2019, p. 132). Although Husserl inferred the “complete abandonment of the empiricist theory of abstraction” (a fortiori deep CNNs) due to the infinite regress and circularity arguments examined in this paper, I argue that the statistical learning of deep CNNs may be incorporated into a Fodorian hybrid account that supports Quine’s “sortal predicates, negation, plurals, identity, pronouns, and quantifiers” which are representationally necessary to overcome the regress/circularity in content constitution and achieve objective (as opposed to similarity-subjective) representation (Burge, Origins of Objectivity. Oxford, 2010, p. 238). I base myself initially on Yoshimi’s (New Frontiers in Psychology, 2011) attempt to explain Husserlian phenomenology with neural networks but depart from him due to the arguments and consequently propose a two-system view which converges with Weiskopf’s proposal (“Observational Concepts.” The Conceptual Mind. MIT, 2015. 223–248). (shrink)

Nietzsche mobiliza recursos retóricos de natureza heterogênea em sua obra, que podem ser distribuídos em pelo menos quatro grandes rubricas: elementos que (1) incidem sobre a materialidade sonora e rítmica da linguagem (dimensão expressiva associada à prova ética); (2) orientam a adoção de um conjunto de estratégias argumentativas que variam conforme as necessidades filosóficas do momento (dimensão argumentativa ou dialética); (3) dizem respeito a escolhas relativas à forma de apresentação dos argumentos, ou à sua inserção no interior de diferentes gêneros (...) literários (aqui vale a tese do pluralismo defendida por Nehamas, pois Nietzsche explora as potencialidades de diferentes formas de apresentação para as suas ideias, sendo a principal delas um gênero híbrido que incorpora elementos do aforismo e do ensaio); finalmente, (4) retomam aspectos relativos à invenção (dimensão heurística do paradigma indiciário, com a valorização da inferência abdutiva). Neste artigo pretendo mostrar, através de uma caracterização sumária da prática discursiva de Nietzsche, assim como de uma rápida retomada de sua tematização da retórica, como essas diversas dimensões (expressiva, inventiva, argumentativa e expositiva) se integram em seu projeto filosófico, tornando-se uma parte constitutiva do mesmo. Essa leitura se contrapõe a uma tradição que nega relevância filosófica à dimensão retórica da obra de Nietzsche, relegando-a a uma suposta dimensão exotérica de seus escritos. Há formas implícitas e explícitas pelas quais um intérprete pode chegar a esse resultado. Dentre as formas implícitas de contornar o desafio retórico posto pela filosofia de Nietzsche, a mais célebre é a de Heidegger. Ela se funda em sua decisão filologicamente controversa, no limite indefensável, de conferir primazia aos póstumos em detrimento dos livros publicados pelo filósofo, que deveriam, segundo ele, ser tomados como fachada. Paul de Man representa a forma explícita dessa recusa, mas com resultados curiosamente próximos aos de Heidegger, ainda que movido por intenções filosóficas distintas. No presente ensaio recuso ambas as estratégias de evasão e procuro mostrar que os diversos aspectos retóricos presentes na obra de Nietzsche se integram de forma relativamente harmônica ao seu projeto filosófico de cunho perfeccionista. (shrink)

Entrevista concedida a partir da presença da filósofa em encontro realizado no dia 12 de dezembro de 2020 a convite do Grupo de Pesquisa, Ensino e Extensão em Ética Animal da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia para apresentação e discussão de sua obra “Galactolaria: mau deleite” (2012). Em nome da Revista Primordium, os discentes do curso de graduação e pós-graduação em Filosofia da UFU, Laís Oliveira Rios e Gustavo Henrique de Freitas Coelho, prepararam e conduziram a entrevista.

This essay examines the possibility that phenomenological laws might be implemented by a computational mechanism by carefully analyzing key passages from the Prolegomena to Pure Logic. Part I examines the famous Denkmaschine passage as evidence for the view that intuitions of evidence are causally produced by computational means. Part II connects the less famous criticism of Avenarius & Mach on thought-economy with Husserl's 1891 essay 'On the Logic of Signs (Semiotic).' Husserl is shown to reaffirm his earlier opposition to associationist (...) (Humean) and adaptationist (Darwinian) explanations of our thought-machine on the ground that they cannot reconstruct the notion of truth and its syntactic mental preservation in symbolic thought-trains. Part III reveals Husserl's interesting commitment to the idea that descriptive sciences necessarily transform into explanatory sciences on pain of contradicting the essence of science as a rational ideal. Since explanation in relation to phenomenology means causal explanation, and causal explanation in the form of the Denkmaschine accounts for phenomenological intuition, it is inferred that the rationally compelling ideal of explanatory science requires a computationalist reading of the subsequent logical investigations. (shrink)

A partir de datos brasileños y españoles, este artículo aborda aspectos relevantes de la donación y el trasplante de órganos, como la relación entre oferta y demanda, la legislación vigente, los costos y las posibles estrategias para aumentar las tasas de donación y mejorar de forma general el proceso de trasplante. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar datos empíricos actuales que incrementen el conocimiento relevante para la evaluación bioética. Los dos países se destacan: Brasil, por poseer el mayor sistema (...) público de trasplante de órganos del mundo; España, por mantener desde hace décadas el mayor índice de donadores efectivos por cada millón de personas. Un análisis inicial de los datos sugiere la necesidad de lidiar más abiertamente con los intereses de los afectados y con la opinión pública, creando una articulación sistémica entre legislación, políticas públicas basadas en evidencias e investigación. (shrink)

A partir de dados brasileiros e espanhóis, este artigo aborda aspectos relevantes da doação e transplantes de órgãos, como a relação entre oferta e demanda, legislação vigente, custos e possíveis estratégias para aumentar taxas de doação e melhorar de forma geral o processo de transplantes. O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar dados empíricos atuais que incrementem o conhecimento relevante para a avaliação bioética. Os dois países se destacam: o Brasil por ter o maior sistema público de transplantes de órgãos do (...) mundo, e a Espanha por manter há décadas o maior índice de doadores efetivos por milhão de pessoas. Análise inicial dos dados sugere a necessidade de lidar mais abertamente com os interesses dos afetados e a opinião pública, criando articulação sistêmica entre legislação, políticas públicas baseadas em evidências e pesquisa. (shrink)

A partir da obra Teogonia, poema atribuído a Hesíodo, analisaremos neste artigo como os processos de geração e reprodução dos deuses, assim como os casos de incesto e parricídio entre eles, influenciaram a disputa pelo poder que instaurou três gerações divinas. Para tanto, após breve consideração a respeito da constituição da poesia mítica em Hesíodo, acompanharemos a narrativa principal do mito a partir da união amorosa entre as divindades Terra e Céu, e a subsequente sucessão no poder cósmico: Céu, Crono, (...) Zeus. (shrink)

This essay, based on data referring to Brazil and Spain, addresses aspects relevant to the scenario of organ donation and transplantation, such as the relationship between supply and demand, current legislation, costs, and possible improvements to increase donation rates and performance in the transplantation process as a whole. The objective is to present current empirical data that increase the relevant empirical knowledge for the bioethical evaluation in an organized way. The two countries stand out when it comes to transplants, Brazil, (...) because it has the largest public system of organ transplants in the world; Spain, for decades the highest rate of effective donor per million inhabitants. Our initial data analyses suggest the need to deal more explicitly with the interests of those affected and with the public opinion, within a systemic articulation between legislation, evidence-based public policies, and research. (shrink)

Este trabalho pretende defender a necessidade de se trabalhar conteúdos relacionados a ética animal nos ambientes escolares, visando descontruir a visão antropocêntrica predominante nas sociedades ocidentais. Assim como evoluímos no combate ao racismo e ao sexismo, é necessário avançarmos para a superação do especismo. Por isso, considerando o papel da escola na formação de práticas e costumes em nossa sociedade, temos a responsabilidade de conduzir nossas crianças e jovens a uma compreensão mais justa e inclusiva de sociedade. Se faz necessário, (...) assim, uma reestruturação das práticas curriculares vigentes, elevando o ensino a um novo paradigma de educação integral, justa, inclusiva e igualitária, possível apenas por meio de uma educação não-especista. Começamos apresentando alguns conceitos importantes sobre ética animal, seguidos de uma argumentação a favor da superação do especismo. Por fim, discutimos as possibilidades de um conteúdo programático crítico, que propague a ética animal de modo transversal e interdisciplinar. (shrink)

Yoshimi has attempted to defuse my argument concerning the identification of network abstraction with empiricist abstraction - thus entailing psychologism - by claiming that the argument does not generalize from the example of simple feed-forward networks. I show that the particular details of networks are logically irrelevant to the nature of the abstractive process they employ. This is ultimately because deep artificial neural networks (ANNs) and dynamical systems theory applied to the mind (DST) are both associationisms - that is, empiricist (...) theories that derive the principles of thought from the causal history of the organism/system. On this basis, I put forward a new aspect of the old argument by noting that ANNs & DST are the causal bases of the phenomena of passive synthesis, whereas the language of thought hypothesis (LOT) and the symbolic computational theory of mind (CTM) are the causal bases of the phenomena of active synthesis. If the phenomena of active synthesis are not distinct in kind from and are thus reducible to those of passive synthesis, psychologism results. Yoshimi’s program, insofar as it denies this fundamental phenomenological distinction, is revealed to be the true anti-pluralist program, by essentially denying the causal efficacy of the mechanistic foundations of active synthesis by referring phenomenology exclusively to associationism for its causal foundation. (shrink)

Nietzsche apresenta, no decorrer de sua obra, um persistente interesse pelo problema da linguagem, abordando sua origem terrena e sua dimensão demasiado humana, sua ligação ao âmbito instintivo de uma espécie animal e seu caráter artificial e plástico. O objetivo deste artigo é sugerir que tal tema relaciona-se à tentativa nietzschiana de superação da metafísica, em duas frentes. Negativamente, no reconhecimento dos limites da linguagem e da influência de certas seduções gramaticais em nossas concepções do que seria a estrutura fundamental (...) do mundo. Positivamente, na elaboração de uma sintomatologia e de sua arte do estilo, elementos importantes de sua crítica da cultura e postura filosófica. Pretendemos, assim, indicar que a tematização e uso nietzschiano da linguagem possui papel central na elaboração de sua tarefa filosófica de intervenção cultural. (shrink)

This paper compares Nietzsche ́s views on the relationship between philosophical reflection and empirical sciences against the background of some of the debates in the so-called transcendental tradition, in order to characterize his position in terms of a liberal kind of methodological naturalism. Initially, it will be shown that there are some similarities between the debates in the German academic philosophy of the second half of the nineteenth century and the Postquinean contemporary debates on naturalism. I discuss subsequently F. A. (...) Lange ́s historical views concerning the emergence of methodical discipline within the materialistic tradition, as well as Nietzsche ́s reception of them. Next, I present Spir ́s arguments against the naturalizing programs of his time, as well as Nietzsche ́s response to him. In the last section, I discuss the meaning of Nietzsche ́s orientation to a speculative philosophy of the will to power in his late works and whether it is compatible or not with his more liberal conception of naturalism mainly supported in his middle period works. (shrink)

The literature has indicated some approximations between Skinner’s and Wittgenstein’s proposals, such as a critical standpoint on traditional psychological language conceptions. For Wittgenstein, the critique refers to the impossibility of a private language. On the other hand, Skinner’s critique culminates in defense of the concept of private events. However, this concept seems inconsistent with Wittgenstein’s proposal. Based on this assumption, this paper aims to reevaluate the role of the concept of ‘private events’ in Skinnerian behaviorism in the light of Wittgenstein’s (...) critical discussions. For this, Wittgenstein’s and Skinner’s proposals were systematically compared. It is concluded that the concept of private events is not to escape Wittgenstein’s criticisms of the traditional psychological language. (shrink)

Ao longo da trajetória intelectual de Merleau-Ponty, as reflexões sobre arte cumprem um papel crucial em sua preocupação de restituir o espetáculo do mundo, através da volta ao brotamento do sentido do ser na experiência antepredicativa do ser humano dada na percepção. Um sinal disso é que, em cada um dos momentos de seu pensamento, ele escreveu um ensaio no qual o tema central é a contribuição da expressão artística para uma reflexão filosófica interessada na abertura humana corporal no mundo. (...) Este artigo tem como propósito realizar uma aproximação de tais ensaios – recorrendo a uma abordagem cronológica – com vistas a demarcar como eles auxiliam no reconhecimento de certas nuances e articulações de seu pensamento, enfatizando a constante ontológica presente em suas discussões sobre arte. Assim, o trabalho realiza uma visão horizontal sobre o percurso merleau-pontiano de pensamento – transitando da fenomenologia da percepção à ontologia da carne –, com incursões verticais sobre as relações entre percepção, expressão e instituição nos ensaios. A hipótese é que tais temas fornecem a base para a compreensão da arte como experiência de fundação do ser. (shrink)

O presente texto tem por simples objectivo o comentário sistemático ao capítulo 2 do Livro V da Metafísica de Aristóteles, onde o autor apresenta uma sistematização sobre o chamado modelo das quatro causas. Teremos também no horizonte de análise o famoso capítulo 3 do Livro I do mesmo tratado, onde Aristóteles inicia a crítica à tradição precedente justamente à luz deste modelo de causalidade. O objectivo é apenas comentar e esclarecer o texto original, cujas hesitantes formulações podem levantar alguns obstáculos (...) de interpretação. (shrink)

One question that leads us into aesthetics is: why does beauty matter? Or, what do aesthetic goods bring to my life, to make it a life that goes well? Or, how does beauty deserve the place we have evidently made for it in our lives? A theory of aesthetic value states what beauty is so as to equip us to answer this question. According to aesthetic hedonism, aesthetic values are properties of items that stand in constitutive relation to pleasure. Contemporary (...) versions of aesthetic hedonism don’t explain what makes aesthetic values aesthetic, but they do explain what makes them normative, stating what makes it the case that aesthetic value facts lend weight to what an agent should do, for the fact that acting yields pleasure is always a reason to act. This book introduces and defends an alternative to aesthetic hedonism. According to the network theory, aesthetic value facts lend weight to its being an achievement for an agent to act. Since agents achieve by acting in coordination with one another, the theory takes seriously the sociality of aesthetic activity. The main argument for the network theory is that it better explains six facts about aesthetic activity than does aesthetic hedonism. The book also discusses the relationship between aesthetic value and pleasure, the point and distinctive character of aesthetic discourse, and the metaphysics of aesthetic value. Two final chapters use the network theory to shed light on how aesthetic value matters to us as individuals and as members of collectives. (shrink)

This paper discusses two theses about Plato that Nietzsche defends in his lectures on the Athenian philosopher offered by him at the University of Basel during the 1870s. Nietzsche’s first claim concerns Plato’s philosophy: relying on Aristotle, Nietzsche holds that Plato was initially brought to a metaphysically motivated version of scepticism as a result of his affiliation to the Cratilian interpretation of Heraclitus. Although the Socratic method of defining and testing concepts as well as its metaphysical complement, the theory of (...) Forms, has allowed Plato to overcome this kind of metaphysically motivated scepticism, Nietzsche argues that such an overcoming is only provisional if one needs to accept the authenticity of Parmenides, then the arguments displayed in this later dialogue lead to a sceptical conclusion regarding the theory of Forms. The second claim advanced by Nietzsche in his lectures concerns Plato’s philosophical character, which is identified with the figures of the legislator and the political reformer. According to Nietzsche, all of Plato’s philosophical commitments must ultimately be interpreted in the light of his political project, for here there is no place for scepticism anymore. (shrink)