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The article raises a point concerning the rehabilitation of some gnostic motives in the works of Nietzsche, especially in the latest ones: Daybreak, Ecce Homo, and Antichrist. What makes sense of this point is the statement that the Creator is a Usurper who does not care about the human fate, sorrows, and desires. In fact, the gnostic “cruel daddy,” announced by Nietzsche, is the other side of his Dionysian religion, a hidden steam engine of the modern times self-actualization. Nietzsche turned out to be the most influential gnostic of the XIX century due to his devotion of thought and heart to preaching a new gospel of the modern man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the different approaches to the relation between law, state and economy in the works of Hans Kelsen, Carl Schmitt and Evgeny Pashukanis. It begins with Kelsen's depiction of law as a dynamic and 'self-regulating' system of norms, founded on his rejection of 'dualist' separations of state and law, before turning to Schmitt and Pashukanis's respective critiques. For all their differences, both agree Kelsen ignores the historical basis of the law – for Schmitt, the sovereign power of 'the political', for Pashukanis, the social relations of commodity exchange. The article responds to these criticisms in a most un-Kelsenian manner, drawing upon historical sociological literature on early modern state formation to cast doubt on both Schmitt and Pashukanis's historical accounts. It argues that the forms of political power and commodity exchange upon which Schmitt and Pashukanis's theories rely were historically specific possibilities opened up by the same process of generalisation and depersonalisation of power relations that allowed for an autonomous 'public' system of legal norms. Thus, rather than the fixed causal ground for the development of modern law, 'the political' and exchange between equals exist in a relation of 'difference-in-unity' with the law. The article concludes that Kelsen's notion of the Grundnorm is best explained as an attempt to capture the new possibilities and responsibilities opened up a normative system whose ultimate justification now lies only within itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that Machiavelli's chapters on the Decemvirate (D 1.35, 1.40-45) advance an internal critique of the juridical discourse of sovereignty. I first contextualize these chapters in relation to several of Machiavelli's potential sources, including Livy's Ab urbe condita, Dionysius of Halicarnassus's Roman Antiquities, and the antiquarian writings of Andrea Fiocchi and Giulio Pomponio Leto. I then analyze Machiavelli's claim that the decemvirs held "absolute authority" (autorità assoluta)—an authority that was unconstrained by either laws or countervailing magistrates. I proceed to argue that Machiavelli's account of the decemvirs' election contains a web of allusions to the lex regia, the "royal law" by which the Roman people were thought to have conveyed their sovereign power to an emperor. By modeling the decemvirs' election on the lex regia, Machiavelli reveals the political limitations of the doctrine of popular sovereignty; moreover, he illustrates that even free and fair elections can easily give rise to tyranny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the Indo-European principle of trifunctionality and on the medieval Three Estates imagery provide researchers with precious resources for investigating the ways and means through which social representations become loaded with sacredness, and sacredness progressively transferred from one set of social representations to another. This article focuses on the transformations undergone by the Three Estates religious substratum, first at the time of the birth of Absolutism, and second during and after the French Revolution. In the case of France (and with openings towards other contexts), it shows how trifunctionality has been attributed, alternatively or conjointly, to the bourgeoisie and to the nation. Triune imagery has thus contributed to shape rituals and symbols proper to civil religion in France. Additionally, this contribution draws lessons from our case study for assessing both the resilience and the power of metamorphosis proper to symbolic references once the latter are organized into patterns that nurture a community's cohesiveness by the putting into motion of images, narratives and ritual practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central core and goal of Gadamer's hermeneutics is philosophical reflection on the nature of understanding and explaining how to achieve it. Given the understanding that historicity, linguisticality and playfulness are its indicators and that it is revealed in the context of human existence (tradition, history, culture), this article focuses on the determining factors mentioned by Gadamer, aiming to examine Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics in the mirror of deontological ethics and consequentialism, and in the context of this review, to verify the divergence of deontological ethics and the convergence of consequentialism with Gadamer's hermeneutic approach. From the perspective of Gadamer's philosophy, every action (ethical-political) occurs in a hermeneutic situation. This means that ethical knowledge is consistent with Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, which, in opposition to absolutism, includes the existential and historical essence of the agent. In this way, consequentialist ethical knowledge is the knowledge that provides the possibility of this ethical action for the agent and on the opposite point, deontological ethical knowledge based on absolutism will deny this possibility and reduce ethical action to the level of mere reproductive action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Relevance. The increasing processes of glocalization in the modern world lead to the emphasis on the uniqueness of each national‐state community that actualizes the appeal to the ways of strengthening self‐ identity. Methods. Historical‐cultural and historical‐philosophical approaches, methodology of interpretation and reconstruction of cultural phenomena as actualizations of mental core of this culture. Aim. To identify the main mechanisms of the crystallization of Russian identity. Results. The article shows that the main mechanism for strengthening national identity is the relevance of actions in the "challenge–response" system in the space of intercultural and interstate interaction. The latter is based on the prohibition of irony over fundamental spiritual, moral and state values, on comprehension the role of the mental dominants of understanding, absolutism, conciliarity, kindness as system‐forming Russian and, subsequently, sovereign Russian culture, on the awareness of their relative variability in civilizational change, their functioning as filters that set the degree of perception and transformation of cultural‐civilizational phenomena in the space of interaction between the states‐cultures. Another mechanism for strengthening national dignity is a clear realization of the greatness of our centuries‐old history, the role of Orthodoxy as the basis of national self‐identity and statehood, implemented in accordance with the following logic: one faith – one people – one land – one state.

Hobbes's theory of authorisation poses numerous puzzles to scholars. The weightiest of these conundrums is a supposed contradiction between chapter 17 of Leviathan, that calls for unconditional submission to the sovereign, and chapter 21, that defends the liberties of the subject. This article offers a fresh perspective on the theory's consistency, function and addressees. While existing research doubts the theory's consistency, focuses on its immunisation function and on the subjects as the theory's main addresses, the paper argues that Hobbes's theory of authorisation is consistent with the doctrine of the liberty of subjects, and that it serves the dual purpose of immunising the sovereign against criticism and disciplining the sovereign via a counsel of memento mori: A hitherto underexplored element of authorisation theory is a reminder of the mortality of sovereignty directed at the sovereign to convince him to make restricted use of his absolute right to rule. Hobbes's theory of authorisation can thus be read as part of a complex argumentative strategy for peace, rooted in a 'liberal absolutism' which is not as paradoxical as it sounds, and which is reflected in the frontispiece by the friendly smile of the sovereign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In What Is Enlightenment ? and What Does It Mean to Orient Oneself in Thinking ? Kant champions the right of all citizens to make public use of their reason and condemns any form of state censorship. However, according to the prevalent reading, in The Conflict of the Faculties , Kant seems to adjust to absolutism by reserving the public use of reason for university teachers and subjecting all other citizens to state censorship. In contrast to this reading, I argue that the concessions to absolutism that Kant makes are aimed at defying absolutism on its own ground and that the public use of reason is fully reaffirmed in its scope, requirements, and function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the Early Modern debate concerning absolute and relative space and motion often ignore the significance of the concept of true motion in this debate. Even philosophers who denied the existence of absolute space maintained that true motions could be distinguished from merely apparent ones. In this paper, I examine Berkeley's endorsement of this distinction and the problems it raises. First, Berkeley's endorsement raises a problem of consistency with his other philosophical commitments, namely his idealism. Second, Berkeley's endorsement raises a problem of adequacy , namely whether Berkeley can provide an adequate account of what grounds the distinction between true and merely apparent motion. In this paper, I argue that sensitivity to Berkeley's distinction between what is true in the metaphysical, scientific, and vulgar domains can address both the consistency and the adequacy problems. I argue that Berkeley only accepts true motion in the scientific and vulgar domains, and not the metaphysical. There is thus no inconsistency between his endorsement of true motion in science and ordinary language, and his metaphysical idealism. Further, I suggest that sensitivity to these three domains shows that Berkeley possesses resources to give an adequate account of how true motions are discovered in natural science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Western Europe, with a specific focus on the process of primitive accumulation during France’s absolutism, from the 14th to the 17th century. Drawing on Regulation Theory and Marxism and supported by archival research, the article aims to demonstrate that France and England followed different paths in their journey toward capitalism. Due to the premodern structure of the state and the process of political accumulation, a small fraction of the state bourgeoisie amassed wealth, facilitated by war and by levying taxes. Officeholders could thus extract surplus labour, primarily from the peasantry. The transition to an economy where markets became a compulsory stage for tax payment and the resurgence of the state established a regime of rent-exploitation and relationships of indirect, collective exploitation. In France, the state and public finances played a pivotal role in separating the peasantry from its land and means of production. This paper offers new insights into the role of absolutism in Marxist historiography. It argues that absolutism constitutes a distinct social formation from feudalism, paving the way for the transition to capitalism by proletarianizing a part of the French peasantry.

The subject of Herod and Mariamne has enjoyed considerable success in France since the time of the Catholic League, in the context of the debate on the legitimacy of resistance to tyranny. Starting with the names and fates of Caussin’s and Tristan L’Hermite’s characters of Maria(m)ne as a possible allusion to the Jesuit Juan de Mariana, a defender of a political alternative to absolutism, silenced after the assassination of Henri IV, this article examines the representations of the character in two texts from the 1640s. In this context, this article proposes to read Mariamne’s speech in the Scudérys’ Femmes illustres as a fictional reconstruction of a buried historical perspective. Mariamne’s reflection on the image of herself circulated after her death, which elicits sympathy everywhere and horror at Herod’s tyranny, may thus be related to heroic opposition to Richelieu. If the harangue of Scudéry’s Mariamne represents the survival of alternative forms of collective memory and power, the reappearance of the character in Le Moyne’s Gallerie can in turn be understood in this context as part of a discursive strategy by which the Jesuit attempts to refute the accusations of a tyrannical usurpation of absolute power that had to justify the Parliament’s resistance to the regency of Anne of Austria and Mazarin. On the contrary, Anne appears as a reincarnation of the virtuous Mariamne, who thus becomes a figure legitimizing the regency, associated by Le Moyne with a classical republican vocabulary.

This article uses the methods that Locke advocated in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding to evaluate manuscript evidence from five different schemes and two drafts of the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, to thereby determine what role, if any, John Locke had in writing it, and in advocating for slavery and absolutism. It focuses on the influential claims put forward by David Armitage 20 years ago, that Locke was responsible for actively promoting slavery in Carolina’s Fundamental Constitutions. It enables the reader to view, and judge, the relevant evidence. The author concludes, and invites the reader to conclude, that Armitage’s main claims lack foundation in the manuscript evidence. That evidence instead points towards the legal power of those who owned Carolina, the Lords Proprietors, and to the crown, which granted Carolina’s charter, and to the logic of a different theory of government, patriarchalism, for the rationale behind both slavery and absolutism. The central ideas behind slavery and colonization were epitomized, as Locke understood, by Sir Robert Filmer, who wrote the book to which Locke responded in his Two Treatises of Government. Filmer’s ally, Sir Henry Spelman, like Filmer a deeply committed royalist who believed in the king’s unlimited prerogatives, composed the original 1629 Carolina charter that shaped the Fundamental Constitutions. Misattributing the authorship of particular clauses to Locke is a symptom of a larger failure to distinguish the impact of momentous debates over authority and race in the seventeenth century. Locke’s theories did, in practice as well as principle, reject the theory of domination put forward by Filmer, and argued instead for human rights and democracy that were inclusive and capacious. The manuscript evidence has the potential to reshape how modern democratic theory is understood in the present.

The “epistemic climate” of a classroom can be thought of as a major determinant of classroom procedures and the learning outcome. The present ethnographic case study involved the investigation of the epistemic orientation of the instructional materials, teacher, and students of an online tenth -grade high school English language classroom in Iran, regarding the core dimensions of their L2 learning -specific epistemologies: beliefs about the nature of L2 knowledge’s simplicity, certainty, source, and justification. The researcher’s observation and reflective notes paired with semi -structured interview data were qualitatively analyzed. Nine epistemology -related themes were extracted from the interview data. The results showed the predominantly absolutist orientation of the materials and students; the teacher, on the other hand, subscribed herself to a view of L2 knowledge as context -contingent and integrated, obtainable from multiple sources and subject to contextual evaluatism; however, there was a conspicuous incongruence between her beliefs and the epistemological orientation of her teaching practice, materials, and students. She attributed this observation to the mandatory instructional materials and stakeholders’ conceptions of L2 achievement. The findings reveal the significance of investigating the epistemic orientation of L2 teaching and learning in order to better facilitate students’ epistemological development and enhance their recognition of the context-contingency of L2 knowledge and knowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this reflective essay, the author shares some thoughts on how his attitude to ethics changed radically during his years as a member and one of the cochairs of the International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA) Ethics Committee. Being certified in both the psychotherapy and the organizational fields had already started him thinking in a new way about analyzing from a combination of the individual perspective and the systemic. Today, for him ethics is no longer about judging an individual's errors but about understanding the thinking, feeling, and acting of (all) the people involved in an undesirable outcome. The author suggests that we need to do whatever it takes to see through, defuse, and fix the causes of ethical missteps. We need to understand what is not going well in a broader context in order to provide an adequate response. Only in this way can all those involved learn and the system within which the error was committed improve. A brief history of ethical thought and some TA perspectives are followed by reflections on the work of the ethics committee, and the essay ends with a summary of the work of Dekker, a forerunner in innovative thinking about ethics. (For the record: This reflection mainly contains the author's view on recent developments and not necessarily the view of all members of the ITAA Ethics Committee.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Slagmark is the property of Aarhus University, Department of Philosophy & History of Ideas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many philosophers think that given the choice between saving the life of an innocent person and averting any number of minor ailments or inconveniences, it would be better to save the life. How, then, should one compare the risk of an innocent person's life to such minor ailments and inconveniences? If lives are infinitely more important than insignificant factors then any risk cannot be outweighed, and that is untenable. An alternative approach seems more promising: let the values of such insignificant factors be bounded, as then there will be well-behaved tradeoffs between insignificant things and the risk to an innocent life. We argue, however, that bounding the values of insignificant factors poses myriad problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an edition of a memorandum on the duties of peasants presented by Emperor Joseph II to Maria Theresia in February 1774. It is entitled „Proposal for the Delimitation of Duties of Subjects“ and it was meant as a contribution by the co-regent to the issue of urbarial reform. It was drafted at a time when the radical reformer Franz Anton von Blanc was proposing a general rule, whereas the Bohemian Estates argued that there should be only local regulations. Emperor Joseph II supported the view of the Bohemian Estates. He drew on the theory of the utility of luxury and argued that the nobility needed to make a profit in order to be able to make some contribution to the circulation of money. This circulation was beneficial even for artisans and journeymen. Even within the frameworks of taxation, the interests of nobility, burghers and peasants were interconnected because the financial inability of one of these classes would pull down all the others. In his opinion it was impossible to issue a „general Cynossur“ (i.e. a general rule), and the Hofkanzlei, which sought to prove the impracticability of the Estates’ plan, proved only that it would be difficult to carry out. Emperor Joseph II believed that the destinies of the landlords and the subjects were interconnected, and that the regulation should bring about something positive for both of them. Based on these reflections, he preferred to support the Estates’ plan. The memorandum was addressed to his mother, Maria Theresia, who then issued the Instruction for new Urbaria, entitled Unterricht. This followed the opinions of Joseph II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Beytulhikme: An International Journal of Philosophy is the property of Beytulhikme: An International Journal of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article is an attempt to consider the analogues of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Empress Anna Ioannovna (17301740) among the higher bodies of state administration in the XVIXVIII centuries. The relevance of this issue is due to the fact that historians, when searching for analogues of the Cabinet, rarely go beyond the limits of the Russian state. On the basis of the analysis of higher state institutions of some European countries in XVIXVIII centuries the author determined that such institutions secret councils had characteristic features. It is revealed that such state institutions were characterized by a narrow composition, uncertainty of competence, beginnings of specialization in the sphere of management. The article suggests that the emergence of secret councils reflected the growth of absolute power of the monarch. It is analyzed that the origins of such institutions are in the early Middle Ages, when the monarch had deliberative councils, the high role in which was played by the aristocracy. In the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, these institutions were transformed the aristocracy was gradually replaced by specially trained officials under the control of the monarch. On the basis of the involved materials it is investigated that in different states the situation developed in a heterogeneous way. The author suggests that, unlike the Supreme Privy Council, usually referred to by historians as the prototype of the Cabinet, the supreme body of power under Anna Ioannovna did not seek to fully replace the monarch, but was a convenient tool in his hands. The author concludes that on a number of features the Cabinet of Anna Ioannovna can be defined as a typical institution within the classical absolutist model of the state.

The article examines the role and function of the father figure in the libretti of Pietro Metastasio, focusing on the representations of the tyrannous rather than the benevolent father. The bulk of his oeuvre written for the Viennese court, Metastasio’s libretti took an active role in propagating the reigning and intertwining social–political systems of absolutist monarchy and patriarchy. The tyrannous father figure served to heighten the usual tension of the contradictory duties of public and private lives, highlighting the dilemma of how far the paterfamilias should be obeyed and his mistreatment towards his child be suffered, analyzed here through the example of Artabano in Artaserse, also pointing out the differing relationship dynamic and dramatic treatment of father–son and father–daughter relationships. Through Astiage in Ciro riconosciuto, the article examines the role of the tyrant, the political ‘bad father’, and how his figure ultimately serves to reinforce the absolutist system and the claim of the divine right of kings.

The guild reforms introduced from the 1730s to the 1750s comprise various regulatory documents issued by Charles VI and his daughter Maria Theresa, the most obvious manifestation of which was the issuance of the General Guild Patent of 1731 and the General Guild Order of 1739. In the Czech and Austrian lands, the reforms in the mid-18th century were conceived primarily as a means of „liberalizing“ economic legislation, with an emphasis on restricting the power of the guilds. At least for the reign of Charles VI and his successor Maria Theresa, however, the opposite is true. While the feudal decrees certainly mention the need to purge the guild system of various abuses and faults, this does not mean that the aim of the reforms was to significantly weaken the economic and, in particular, the social role of these guild organizations. Rather, craftsmen in the Czech lands welcomed the issuance of the general guild patent and the subsequent general guild rules, especially in the question of non-guild craftsmen and the discipline of journeymen.

The study of the conflict opposing the Florentine company Martelli of Lyon and the merchant native of Alba Giampietro Dusio between 1567 and 1574, with its judicial and extrajudicial aspects, enables understanding the ability of merchants to involve and to take advantage of a multiplicity of institutions and relationship networks. The search for an acceptable solution to the conflict ends up taking precedence over the search for the truth.

AbstractExperimentalism’s newfound prominence in relation to climate-change action invites questions—integral to this special issue—about whether it is capable of meeting the transformational challenges that societies face. Answers require greater clarity regarding what experimentalism is, and is not. To address this, I first conceptualize the available alternatives. Drawing from John Dewey’s influential account, these alternatives can appropriately be understood as “absolutist.” I argue that both policy insiders’ plans for carbon pricing and trading schemes and outsiders’ radical vanguardist visions fit here, each offering the false promise of a singular correct criteria by which to formulate and evaluate strategies for change. By contrast, experimentalism can be understood as a rich and promising method. While critics often characterize it as modeled on voluntary lifestyle initiatives, which can readily co-exist within a larger unsustainable order, an understanding of experimentalism ought not be limited to individualized or depoliticized projects. Properly understood, I argue that it includes approaches that can be scalable and political in ways that might foster systemic change.

On November, 11th, 1630, Queen Marie de' Medici demanded, in vain, that her son, King Louis XIII, dismiss Richelieu as Principal Minister. Historians agree that this crisis known as the Journée des Dupes (the Day of the Dupes) was the true foundation stone of French "absolutism", but they disagree about whether the decision made by the Queen was rational. We analyze the historical setting of the crisis from a game theory viewpoint where the King and the Queen are two players. We consider two assumptions regarding the King and the Queen's cognitive skills. On the one hand, we assume that both the King and the Queen are perfectly rational. On the other hand, we assume that they both have limited cognitive skills (that is, they are level- k players). In this last case we propose a definition of naivety and we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the Queen to be naive. We then study the Nash equilibrium when both the King and the Queen are perfectly rational as well as the behavioral theoretical solution of the game when they have limited cognitive skills. We rely on this study to propose an analytical narrative of the Journées des Dupes. We conclude that what we know of the historical facts does not allow us to reject the assumption that the Queen was perfectly rational, or, if she was not, that she had not been naive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Fundamentalism has been widely reckoned as one among many other watchful social phenomena currently. There are two general approaches to it. The first is from those who perceive fundamentalism as a movement of militant piety found almost in any religion, and therefore fundamentalism cannot necessarily be identified with a violent movement. The second is from those who categorize fundamentalism as a political movement with an objective of worldly power, and therefore it is susceptible to turning into a violent movement. In investigating the two views closely, I attempt to put forward a couple of hypothetical inquiries. Is fundamentalism a common phenomenon and common feature found in almost any religion? The answer is yes. Is fundamentalism identical to violent movement? The answer is no. Is fundamentalism then impossibly and utterly unrelated to violent movements? The answer is no. If fundamentalism is unidentical with violent movements but not a few fundamentalists can also turn to be perpetrators of what is called religious violence or violence in the name of religion, then what arguments can be set forth to ensure that fundamentalism cannot be overlooked anymore as one among many other major social problems of our age? This article aims to examine fundamentalism through epistemological and axiological criticism, and to investigate that to a certain range fundamentalism is a form of religious cognitive and behavioral bias, and both as a militant piety and as a political movement fundamentalism should at best be approached from their interplayed relation.

The following paper argues that issues in paradigmatic proposals for solving the new demarcation problem stem from absolutist assumptions about judgments of value legitimacy. Both the problem of uninformativeness (Larroulet Philippi 2020; Fernandez-Pinto 2014, 2015) and the problem of ambiguous judgments of cases (Hicks 2014; Intemann 2017) are explained by an absolutist pretension contained in one of the main aims of these proposals: providing criteria for differentiating legitimate from illegitimate uses of values, without qualification. After presenting the problems and showing how they stem from that common source, we will sketch a way forward, inspired mainly by Joseph Rouse’s Beyond Epistemic Sovereignty (1996), advancing routes that can allow philosophers of science to evade these pitfalls and engage with scientific practice in a more salutary manner.

In this article, I will discuss how the information state provides a new way of understanding the absolute Danish-Norwegian state (1660–1814). Following recent research about the role of communication in the Danish-Norwegian state, I will argue for an understanding of the information state that stresses the population as a formative part of state building. The studies favour a communicative approach, which includes circulation of information as an integral part. My contribution to the discussion of the information state emphasises that exchange of information between state and population implies negotiations and the use of genre systems in a trading zone. The meeting between ideology and everyday practices and cultures is a negotiation that shows how ideologies, purposes, and ideas are sifted and negotiated through concrete practices that are formed by but also shape technologies and materialities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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First published in 1652–1654 and then in a new edition in 1666, the Discours politiques of the académicien Daniel de Priézac (1590–1662) have been characterized as a statement of Aristotelian politics in the service of absolutism. The aspect of interest in this article is Priézac's hitherto unnoticed practice of quoting from La Boétie's La Servitude volontaire. It may seem strange that a treatise so often associated with anti-tyrannical literature should be used in a work of political thought defending the monarchy and the state. Priézac's attempt to exploit it takes place against the background of the Fronde. Priézac was also a protégé of Séguier, to whom the Discours were dedicated; and Séguier owned an (extant) manuscript of La Boétie's treatise. Through a combination of close reading and historical contextualization, this article will elucidate this absolutist turn in the reception of La Boétie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the role and function of the father figure in the libretti of Pietro Metastasio, focusing on the representations of the tyrannous rather than the benevolent father. The bulk of his oeuvre written for the Viennese court, Metastasio's libretti took an active role in propagating the reigning and intertwining social-political systems of absolutist monarchy and patriarchy. The tyrannous father figure served to heighten the usual tension of the contradictory duties of public and private lives, highlighting the dilemma of how far the paterfamilias should be obeyed and his mistreatment towards his child be suffered, analyzed here through the example of Artabano in Artaserse, also pointing out the differing relationship dynamic and dramatic treatment of father-son and father-daughter relationships. Through Astiage in Ciro riconosciuto, the article examines the role of the tyrant, the political 'bad father', and how his figure ultimately serves to reinforce the absolutist system and the claim of the divine right of kings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent article in this journal, Stump argues that pragmatism distances itself from absolutism due to its assent to fallibilism while it rejects relativism at the same time because of its insistence on experience. Therefore, pragmatism can provide a third position between relativism and absolutism. I argue in this note that his argument is profoundly inadequate for both claims. Fallibilism is compatible with both relativism and absolutism, and accordingly cannot be considered as the middle ground. Furthermore, the experience itself and the way it is inferred from is the subject of the relativists' debates, not a response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambiguity tolerance is an individual trait indicating low aversion to ambiguity that is closely related to creativity. Appreciation and discussion of art are known to improve ambiguity tolerance, but the effects of appreciation and discussion have not been studied separately. In this study, we used haiku poetry with the characteristic of ambiguity to confirm the effect of appreciation by separating it from the discussion. Additionally, we conducted haiku creation to examine the effect of creation. To this end, 137 participants answered the ambiguity tolerance scale at five time points: before and after haiku appreciation and creation, and 1 week later. We also used the Multidimensional Attitude toward Ambiguity Scale, which organizes ambiguity tolerance into three subfactors. These subfactors are discomfort with ambiguity, absolutism, and the need for complexity and novelty, which correspond to the affective, cognitive, and epistemic aspects of ambiguity attitudes, respectively. The results showed that absolutism, which is the cognitive aspect of ambiguity tolerance, decreased after the appreciation and creation of haiku, and this effect persisted after 1 week. This result indicates that cognitive changes such as the acceptance of ambiguity can occur through the appreciation and creation of haiku, which require various interpretations and choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]