Search

Edição Completa (n. 15).

In his 1965 work on Freud, Paul Ricoeur states and reasons that the hermeneutic field, as a space of interpretations, is constitutively fragmented and is, at the same time, a structure for hosting differ-ent interpretations formed in language, as a place where different human perspectives on the nature of reality converge. This justifica-tion emerges from epistemological and ontological conditions. On the one hand, it is based on the idea of a real that is always surplus, which makes it inaccessible to a total knowledge, and that the topics of evil and time are paradigmatic figures in Ricoeur’s thought..., Critical Hermeneutics, 2019: Path to the Hermeneutic Field [Special Issue]

EnglishThis article explores the ambiguous attitude of Robert Burton towards the Jesuits, focusing on his peculiar reading of the Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu. After a contextualization of the detraction of the Society of Jesus in Philosophaster, a lengthy teatral play, I will pass in review the Scholar’s references to the articulation of melancholy in the Coimbra textbooks throughout the Anatomy of Melancholy. In order to recognize and understand the specificities of Burton’s reading, marked by selective adaptations and imprecisions, I will essay a presentation of the Conimbricenses’ doctrine on the temperaments. I argue that, despite its richness, whose echoes in Burton’s famous work are a fainted testimony, Manuel de Gois approach remained an obliterated episode in the medical and intellectual history of melancholy. This path will enable an understanding of therapeutic and organizational framework that underlies (and supplements) the Coimbran teaching. As it will become clear, this valences and applications of the Commentarii were largely ignored by Burton. Ironically, a significant part of his knowledge of distant lands, his travelling by “map and card” and his socioeconomic views on China, essential for the transition from an observation of melancholy into a melancholic observation, as reflected on the resort to satire and utopia as therapeutic means, benefited from the Jesuit’s mobilization of their pedagogic formation in overseas missions. francaisCet article explore l’attitude ambigue de Robert Burton envers les jesuites, en se concentrant sur sa lecture particuliere du Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu. Apres une mise en contexte de la degradation de la Compagnie de Jesus dans Philosophaster, une longue piece theâtrale, je passerai en revue les references du savant a l’articulation de la melancolie dans les manuels de Coimbra tout au long de l’Anatomie de la melancolie. Afin de reconnaitre et de comprendre les specificites de la lecture de Burton, marquee par des adaptations selectives et des imprecisions, je vais essayer une presentation de la doctrine des Conimbricenses sur les temperaments. Je soutiens que, malgre sa richesse, dont les echos dans le celebre travail de Burton sont un temoignage evanoui, l’approche de Manuel de Gois est restee un episode oblitere dans l’histoire medicale et intellectuelle de la melancolie. Ce parcours permettra de comprendre le cadre therapeutique et organisationnel qui sous‑ tend (et complete) l’enseignement de Coimbra. Comme cela deviendra clair, ces valences et applications des Commentarii ont ete largement ignorees par Burton. Ironiquement, une part importante de sa connaissance des contrees lointaines, de ses voyages par «mappe et carte» et de ses vues socio‑ economiques sur la Chine, essentielles pour la transition d’une observation de la melancolie a une observation melancolique, comme le reflete le recours a la satire et a l'utopie comme voie therapeutique, a beneficie de la mobilisation des jesuites de leur formation pedagogique dans les missions a l’etranger. portuguesO presente artigo explora a attitude ambigua de Robert Burton face aos Jesuitas, centrando‑ se na sua leitura dos Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Iesu. Depois de contextualizar a sua detraccao da Companhia de Jesus em Philosophaster, uma longa peca teatral, passo em revista as referencias do academico a articulacao da melancolia nos manuais do curso conimbricense ao longo da Anatomia da Melancolia. Por forma a identificar e compreender as especificidades da sua leitura, pautada por adaptacoes selectivas e imprecisoes, empreenderei uma apresentacao da doutrina dos temperamentos dos Conimbricenses. Sustento que, apesar da sua riqueza, da qual os ecos na obra de Burton dao testemunho esmaecido, a abordagem de Manuel de Gois permaneceu como um episodio obliterado na historia medica e intelectual da melancolia. Este percurso permitira uma compreensao das perspectivas terapeutica e organizacional subjacentes ao (e complementares do) ensino conimbricense. Trata‑ se, como se tornara evidente, de valencias e aplicacoes dos Commentarii que Burton ignora. Ironicamente, uma parte significativa do seu conhecimento das terras distantes, as suas viagens por “mapa e carta” e as suas perspectivas socioeconomicas sobre a China, aspectos centrais da transicao de uma observacao da melancolia para uma observacao melancolica, bem patente no recurso a satira e a utopia como vias terapeuticas, beneficia da articulacao entre as capacidade formativa e a organizacao das missoes jesuiticas.

EnglishA translation into Portuguese of the initial pages of G.W.F. Hegel's new biography by Klaus Vieweg is presented. In these pages, Vieweg presents an overview of Hegel’s life, as well as the interpretative keys that allow to relate Hegel’s life and work in a coherent and detailed review of the philosopher's bio-bibliographic path. His insertion in his time, as well as a very general outline of Hegel's reception, both by his contemporaries and today is exposed. Some prejudices and gross errors of interpretation that have been repeated in the last two centuries on the philosopher of Stuttgart are also refuted. portuguesApresenta-se a traducao para o portugues das paginas iniciais da nova biografia de G. W. F. Hegel, da autoria de Klaus Vieweg. Nestas paginas, Vieweg expoe um panorama geral da vida de Hegel, bem como as chaves interpretativas que permitem relacionar a vida com a obra. Apresenta-se, assim, uma visao coerente e pormenorizada do percurso bio-bibliografico do filosofo, da sua insercao na sua epoca, assim como um esboco muito geral da recepcao de Hegel, tanto pelos seus contemporâneos como na atualidade. Desmontam-se alem disso diversos preconceitos e erros, por vezes grosseiros, de interpretacao que se repetiram nos ultimos dois seculos sobre o filosofo de Estugarda. DeutschDer Text ist die portugiesische Ubersetzung der ersten Seiten der neuen Biographie von G.W.F. Hegel von Klaus Vieweg. Auf diesen Seiten bietet Vieweg dem Leser einen Uberblick uber Hegels Leben sowie die interpretativen Schlussel, die es ermoglichen, den Zusammenhang zwischen Leben und Werk des Philosophen zu verstehen. Vieweg prasentiert einen koharenten Einblick in den biobibliografischen Pfad des Philosophen, dessen Verflechtung in seine Zeit sowie einen allgemeinen Uberblick uber die Rezeption Hegels, von seinen Zeitgenossen bis heute. Einige, teils grobe Vorurteile und Irrtumer der Interpretation, die sich dem Stuttgarter Philosophen gegenuber in den letzten zwei Jahrhunderten wiederholt haben, werden ebenfalls abgebaut.

¿Qué significa exactamente la frase aparentemente inocua “das Selbst” (el sí mismo) en la ontología fundamental de Heidegger? ¿Tiene Heidegger realmente una “teoría del yo” de la misma manera que, digamos, Descartes, Locke o Husserl? Esto es lo que a menudo han concluido muchos intérpretes de Ser y tiempo, y es precisamente esa tesis la que el presente artículo intenta criticar. Heidegger no solo rechaza la suposición de un yo sustancial, en la línea de la concepción de Descartes, sino que también refuta cualquier “yo” entendido como simple presencia, cualquier núcleo interno del Dasein, e insiste en la conexión intrínseca entre las “egologías”, de Descartes a Husserl, y la “ontología tradicional”. Lo que parece estar en juego en el planteamiento ontológico fundamental de la Selbstheit y del Selbstsein (ser-sí-mismo) es más bien un cambio de paradigma completo, ya que ambos conceptos se refieren a “modos de ser” o “modos de existir” del Dasein, y de ninguna manera a un ser idéntico a sí mismo o a una condición de su identidad consigo mismo. Al tratar de investigar la economía de los conceptos existenciales relacionados entre sí de Jemeinigkeit, Selbstheit y Man-selbst, este artículo afirma que la ruptura de Heidegger con las “egologías” clásicas es mucho más profunda de lo que a menudo se ha pensado, y que el fenomenólogo de Messkirch, en lugar de intentar dar una nueva respuesta a viejas cuestiones, plantea una pregunta completamente nueva.

En el presente trabajo se intenta una aproximación al concepto de «sí-mismo» desarrollado por Heidegger en la analítica existencial de Ser y Tiempo y en las lecciones en torno a ese período. Para lograr tal cometido primero se esclarecen diferencias importantes entre los conceptos de «existencia» y «subjetividad». En base a esa importante diferencia se desarrolla la descripción de la noción heideggeriana de «sí-mismo» en tres partes: (i) se establece la bidimensionalidad como el marco de comprensión de tal fenómeno; (ii) se establece la propiedad como acceso metódico a la finitud, y esta última como ámbito en que el sí-mismo se muestra como fundamento; (iii) se establece la forma del sí-mismo como autoafección en base a su esencia temporal. Lo anterior permite comprender que el sí-mismo no es algo real como el sujeto o la consciencia, sino el carácter de unidad fundamental de la apertura bidimensional.

La cuestión del método en la filosofía temprana de Martin Heidegger ha sido objeto de estudio de varios trabajos académicos importantes. A pesar de un análisis profundo de su procedencia, operatividad, sentido, etc., la literatura académica no ha logrado destacar un aspecto fundamental de este método, a saber, su potencial filosófico independiente, esto es, su capacidad de ser usado para una reflexión filosófica que no se compromete con las investigaciones concretas realizadas por su autor. En este contexto, el presente artículo persigue dos objetivos. Por un lado, se procura describir de manera clara y ordenada los aspectos metódicos de la fenomenología hermenéutica a partir de las motivaciones propias que le dan forma y, por otro lado, se busca fundamentar la posibilidad de un uso filosófico de este método para investigaciones independientes.

El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar el lugar que ocupa San Agustín en el desarrollo de la fenomenología del sí mismo que se halla incoada en la descripción de la vida fáctica que hace Heidegger en Grundprobleme der Phänomenologie (GA 58). Para ello, en primer lugar, caracteriza la fenomenología de la vida como aquella que requiere del mundo para manifestarse y, por ello, como aquello que ha de ser comprendido como vida fáctica. En segundo lugar, el artículo dilucida los rasgos de una fenomenología del sí mismo como descripción de ese mundo propio [Selbstwelt] que está imbricado en el mundo circundante [Umwelt] y en el mundo compartido [Mitwelt]. Y, por último, expone el lugar de las Confesiones de San Agustín en esa fenomenología del sí mismo a partir de lo que entraña la quaestio mihi factus sum.

The Journal of Scientific Exploration is retracting this article because of multiple instances of plagiarism, with no attribution (no quotation marks used, no text citations). The first source is not cited and does not appear in the References. The second source is cited once but not related to the plagiarized text, and it does appear in the References list.

Erlendur Haraldsson, a prolific researcher who made a number of major contributions in various areas of parapsychology and survival research, died in Reykjavik on November 22, 2020 at the age of 89. Born near Reykjavik, Erlendur studied philosophy in college, but his interest in understanding more about the world began before that. When he was 15, he had an experience during a heavy storm when the sun suddenly shone through the clouds and lit up pebbles on the banks of the nearby shore. As the light reflected off the pebbles, Erlendur sensed being filled with light himself in a way that was immense and beyond words. In an interview with Michael Tymn (2015), he said that a vivid trace of that feeling stayed with him forever and that after that, he never doubted that there was a superior reality. Following college, he worked for three years, mostly as a journalist, before returning to school to study psychology, eventually earning a PhD under Hans Bender in Freiburg. After that, he spent a year working at J. B. Rhine’s parapsychology center in Durham, North Carolina, followed by an internship in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia, where he met Ian Stevenson. He and Stevenson studied an Icelandic medium together, introducing Erlendur to the topic of mediumship which he would return to in subsequent decades. Following his internship, he entered the field with a bang. Karlis Osis, the director of research of the American Society for Psychical Research, invited Erlendur to join him in a large study of deathbed visions. They surveyed hundreds of doctors and nurses in both the United States and India about events they had witnessed in their patients. What resulted was a landmark study, one that exemplified the best the field has to offer—detailed statistical analysis along with compelling individual reports. One striking example involved a two-and-a-half year old boy whose mother had died six months before. The respondent wrote, “He was lying there very quiet. He just sat himself up, and he put his arms out and said, ‘Mama,’ and fell back [dead]” (Osis and Haraldsson, 1977, p. 53). Osis and Haraldsson found that the data did not support known medical or psychological causes of hallucinations. Likewise, the influences of religious or other cultural factors could not be used to explain away the phenomena.

James Matlock’s book, Signs of Reincarnation, is a recent addition to a seemingly endless stream of confused or superficial works on the topic of survival. Admittedly (and as one would expect), the case material is often of genuine interest. But when Matlock tries to make sense of that material, he demonstrates little grasp of the current state of the debate. Even worse, he seems unaware of the intellectually responsible strategies for challenging and criticizing positions opposed to his own. Since Matlock criticizes what he says are my views throughout his book, and because this issue of the JSE features two comprehensive reviews of that book, I’ll focus only on the principal respects in which Matlock misdescribes my position and ignores the extended discussions I’ve provided, not only in Immortal Remains (Braude, 2003), but elsewhere (e.g., Braude, 2005a, 2005b, 2014a, 2014b, 2020), explaining the problems with the tired and flawed lines of reasoning he endorses.

Resumen: ¿Qué nos dicen, hoy en día, los trabajos del laboratorio político conocido como “Colegio de Sociología”? Examinando las influencias respectivas de dos de sus pensadores claves, Roger Caillois y Georges Bataille, este artículo se propone mostrar que el diálogo que los unió, y que acabaría separándolos, hunde sus raíces en los debates filosóficos del siglo XIX. Considerando un horizonte teórico mayor a modo de trama de fondo del Colegio de Sociología, este artículo pretende también ofrecer una lectura acerca de por qué se cruzaron ahí intereses tan eclécticos. Este examen se realiza siguiendo la pregunta que, a nuestro parecer, motivó el debate Caillois/Bataille: ¿Qué institución podía subvertir el motor del devenir teleológico de la modernidad? En definitiva, a través del estudio de los encuentros y desencuentros de dos de sus miembros, lo que quiere subrayar este artículo son algunos límites que llevaron a la disolución del Colegio de Sociología. Abstract: What do the works that were discussed during the sessions of the “College of Sociology” tell us today? By examining the respective influences of Roger Caillois and Georges Bataille, this article aims to show that the dialogue that brought them together, and that would eventually separate them, is rooted in nineteenth-century philosophical debates. Considering a broader theoretical horizon as a framework for the College of Sociology, this article also aims to offer a reading of why such eclectic interests crossed paths during its sessions. This analysis is carried out following the question that, in our opinion, motivated the Caillois/Bataille debate: what institution could subvert the principle of the teleological progress of modernity? In short, through the study of the Caillois/Bataille discussions and disagreements, this article aims to underline some limits that led to the dissolution of the College of Sociology.

Resumen: El compromiso cívico favorece la integración y la cohesión social, pero el modo en que esto ocurre y el papel que la responsabilidad juega en estos procesos requiere un detenido análisis. A partir de los comentarios críticos de Arendt sobre el vínculo entre la ciudadanía y los derechos, la concepción de Weil de las obligaciones hacia el ser humano y, la reflexión de Zambrano sobre Europa, se sostiene que es preciso promover la cooperación y no solo las obligaciones. Una forma posible es revalorizar el papel de la empatía en su importante función social, ya que refuerza las relaciones sociales; pero no es suficiente. Se afirma que es necesario asumir nuevos paradigmas políticos y sociales, como el de la solidaridad o la fraternidad, para forjar un nuevo pacto social que promueva el compromiso cívico en los espacios sociales, económicos y políticos. Abstract: Civic engagement favours integration and social cohesion, but the way in but how this happens and the role that responsibility represents in the process requires careful analysis. From Arendt’s critical comments on the link between citizenship and rights, Weil’s conception of obligations towards the human being, and Zambrano’s reflection about Europe, it is maintained that co-operation and not just obligations must be promoted. One possible way is to revalue the role of empathy in its important social function since it strengthens social relations, but this is not enough. It is stated that it is necessary to assume new political and social paradigms, such as that of solidarity or fraternity, to forge a new social covenant that promotes civic commitment in social, economic and political spaces.

espanolEl presente trabajo plantea que el desarrollo de la filosofia del Derecho de Fichte contradice aquello que este filosofo presento como el fundamento metafisico de su sistema, a saber: la moralidad como busqueda racional y practica del Yo de superar las trabas de la realidad e identificarse consigo mismo. Entonces se exhibe la imposibilidad de conciliar dos textos: Grundlage der gesamtenWissenschaftslehre (GWL) y Grundlage des Naturrechts (GNR). En este ultimo se expone la doctrina del Derecho y del Estado como medios para que el individuo alcance su telos, lo cual coarta la consistencia del sistema. Si bien el trabajo se inserta en una linea hermeneutica con antecedentes, resulta novedoso en cuanto demarca problematicas argumentativas fichteanas ya al interior de sus textos de Jena.Tambien se toma en consideracion la obra: Einige Vorlesungen uber die Bestimmung des Gelehrten (BG), en la cual Fichte incorpora aspectos de GWL y de GNR que ayudan a pensar el tema en cuestion. EnglishThe present article states that the development of Fichte’s philosophy of Right stands in contradiction with the way that he founded the metaphysical ground of his system: morality as I’s rational and practical search to overcome the check of reality and to unify with itself. Thus, the paper exposes the impossibility to reconcile two texts: Grundlage der gesamtenWissenschaftslehre (GWL) and Grundlage des Naturrechts (GNR). In the latter, Fichte presents the Doctrine of Right and the State as mediums for the individual to reach its telos. But this affects the consistency of his thought. Although there is a hermeneutic background for this idea, it is groundbreaking as it exhibits Fichtean argumentative problems within Jena’s works. The article also takes into consideration the text: Einige Vorlesungen uber die Bestimmung des Gelehrten (BG). Here Fichte incor-porates several aspects from GWL and GNR that help to think on those contradictions.

Resumen: En el presente trabajo nos interesa analizar cómo Aristóteles formula los principios de la física a partir de la noción de generación. Nuestra tesis es que Física I 7 es el “momento” de euporía que cierra un proceso que se inicia en 1-2 con la problematización acerca de la naturaleza y número de los principios. Para demostrar esto, dividiremos el trabajo en dos partes. En la primera intentaremos establecer por qué Aristóteles emprende esta investigación y cuál es el contexto argumentativo a partir del cual postula sus principios. En la segunda parte, analizaremos los supuestos con base en los cuales sostiene que materia, forma y privación son los tres principios buscados. Abstract: In the present work we are interested in analyzing how Aristotle formulates the principles of physics from the notion of generation. Our thesis is that Physics I 7 is the “moment” of euporia that closes a process beginning in 1-2 with the problematization about the nature and number of the principles. To prove this, we will divide the work into two parts. In the first we will try to establish the argumentative context from which he postulates his principles. In the second part, we will analyze the assumptions on the basis of which it maintains that matter, form and deprivation are the three principles sought.

Resumen: El presente trabajo se centra en la aparente inversión de valoración del discurso verdadero en los planteos de Michel Foucault entre principios de los años setenta y sus últimos cursos en los cuales presenta positivamente el decir veraz de la parrhesía. Reconstruyendo las contraposiciones entre el discurso filosófico y el sofístico, y entre la parrhesía socrática y la retórica que presenta en cada momento, proponemos abordar la cuestión como el problema de la operación del discurso verdadero en el campo de las prácticas sociales. Considerando las condiciones y efectos, tanto éticos como políticos, de la techné retórica y la téchne filosófica del discurso, planteamos que entre las tareas de “retorizar la filosofía” y la “ontología de la veridicción” que Foucault enuncia en cada ocasión, no se trataría de una inversión de la perspectiva sino de una especificación de la práctica del decir veraz que, frente a otros discursos indiferentes a la verdad, manifiesta una preocupación y apuesta por una construcción situada y relacional del ethos y la vida en común. Abstract: This paper aims to analyze the alleged inversion of truth discourse´s appraisal in Michel Foucault’s works between the early seventies and his last lectures of the eighties. We propose that, by reconstructing the contraposition between philosophical discourse and sophistical practice and the dispute between Socrates’s parrhesia and rhetoric presented in each moment, the question can be treated as the problem of truth discourse’s operation on the field of social practices. Considering the ethical and political stipulations and effects of both the rhetorical techné and the philosophical techné of discourse, we understand that between the “rhetorization of philosophy” and the “ontology of veridiction” that Foucault introduces in each occasion, there is not an inversion of perspective. Instead, there is a specification of the philosophical truth-telling as a practice that, confronted with other discourses indifferent to the truth, manifests a deep concern and commitment with a situated and relational construction of the ethos and the life in common.

espanolLa aceptacion de la esclavitud es una de las cuestiones donde la Antiguedad muestra un mayor rezago en relacion con el mundo contemporaneo; esto suele aducirse para criticar la filosofia griega. En este articulo se examina hasta que punto el pensamiento de Platon en las Leyes puede caer bajo esta imputacion o sustraerse a ella. Se plantea que en el autor se encuentra una dialectica del esclavo, que consiste en mantener, por un lado, la funcion de la esclavitud dentro de la estructura social y politica propuesta, mientras que, por el otro lado, se cuestiona la existencia del esclavo como tal. Asi, se hace primero una presentacion general de la esclavitud en las Leyes y de la funcion que dicha institucion cumple en la comprension filosofica del propio dialogo y, despues, se adelanta un examen detenido del pasaje central de 6.777d5-7. Se concluye que si bien, en clave historica, Platon no logra eludir la tension de esta dialectica, en clave filosofica ofrece su resolucion en el obrar del hombre verdaderamente justo. EnglishThe acceptance of slavery is one of the issues where Antiquity shows a greater lag in relation to the contemporary world; this is often adduced to criticize Greek philoso-phy. This paper examines the extent to which Plato’s thought in Laws can fall under or escape this imputation. It is suggested that we can find in the author a dialectic of the slave, which consists in maintaining, on the one hand, the function of slavery within the proposed social and political structure, while, on the other hand, the existence of the slave as such is questioned. Thus, it is first made a general presentation of slavery in the Laws and of the role that this institution plays in the philosophical under-standing of the dialogue itself, and then a careful examination of the central passage of 6.777d5-7 is carried out. It is concluded that although, in a historical key, Plato fails to avoid the tension of this dialectic, in a philosophical key he offers its resolution in the doings of the truly just person.

In Part 2 of “Astrology and Science: A Precarious Relationship”, the results of a population survey are first presented to reveal definitory problems in determining astrology. When investigating "astrology", of crucial importance are which concepts and practices to include. After definitional clarification, the anomalistic aspects of astrology or astrological practice are attended to with a distinction made between the above-below-theorem as the traditional basic assumption of astrology and possible psi phenomena that can occur in astrological counseling practice. Further sections describe problems in scientific studies on the validity of astrology. Such problems could have led to the failure of these efforts. Furthermore, specific methodological problems in the investigation of the above-below-theorem and in matching tests are addressed. In a final step, various scientific approaches to astrology are listed with their respective specific questions, methodological approaches and relevance for the scientific world view or astrological practice.

This two-part essay illuminates the difficult relationship between astrology and science from different perspectives. While the first part provides a historical review of developments in the 20th century in German-speaking countries, the second part (in the next issue) concerns theoretical and methodological considerations for empirical investigations of the validity of astrology. During the 20th century, astrology in the German-speaking world was influenced by a few people who pursued a special quest for connectivity with scientific findings and models as well as a natural philosophical foundation. The astrologer Thomas Ring developed an elaborate astrological anthropology, the "revised astrology", which claimed to be compatible to other scientific disciplines like biology and psychology. Hans Bender, who was willing to carry out experiments in order to test astrology, became an interested counterpart to Ring. This openness to scientific scrutiny combined with the desire to replace old concepts based on magical-analogical thinking with concepts more compatible with scientific models, met the criticism of several astrologers in the 1990s. The critics found the psychological-scientific aspiration represented too restrictive. This led, besides general socio-cultural developments, to a change in the "astrology scene", which is described, among other things, on the basis of some expert interviews at the end of the first part.

Some early reference works about psychic phenomena have included bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and general overview books. A particularly useful one, and the focus of the present article, is Nandor Fodor’s Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science (n.d., ca. 1933 or 1934). The encyclopedia has more than 900 alphabetically arranged entries. These cover phenomena such as apparitions, auras, automatic writing, clairvoyance, hauntings, materialization, poltergeists, premonitions, psychometry, and telepathy, but also mediums and psychics, researchers and writers, magazines and journals, organizations, theoretical ideas, and other topics. In addition to the content of this work, and some information about its author, it is argued that the Encyclopaedia is a good reference work for the study of developments before its publication, even though it has some omissions and bibliographical problems. Keywords: Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science; Nandor Fodor; psychical research reference works; history of psychical research

Telepathy is one of the most commonly reported psi-type experiences and represents the idea that one person can acquire information relating to the thoughts/feelings/intentions of another from a distance via a non-usual route. Typically the procedure involves a Sender and a Receiver who are physically separated whilst the former attempts to relay target information to the latter. Refinements to this paradigm have included placing the Receiver in sensory isolation in an effort to enhance the signal to noise ratio of the signal, as seen in the ganzfeld research. Here the aim was to immerse the Sender in a virtual reality (VR) environment in an effort to boost the transmission of the target whilst keeping the Receiver in partial sensory isolation. Using such a paradigm we tested eleven pairs of participants, each acting as Sender and Receiver across five trials. In each trial the Sender was immersed in a VR environment depicting a positive arousing experience (e.g., skiing downhill, driving a racing car). The Receiver’s task was to identify the correct target image from a set of 5 (i.e., 20% chance) matched for mean valence and arousal. Initial analysis of Receiver performance showed hit rates that did not differ significantly from chance. However, a post-hoc analysis comparing participants top two choices to chance showed a mean hit rate of 52% which was significantly greater than chance (at 40%). Examination of possible associations between hit rate and belief in psi as well as the subjectively rated strength of the relationship between Sender-Receiver pairings only showed a correlation with the psi sub-scale of the RPB. Hence, we argue that participant hit rate is more suggestive than conclusive of a telepathic effect. In addition, we outline a number of methodological refinements which we think could help to improve the viability and effectiveness of using VR.

This is a short note presenting examples of mention of distortion of mediumistic communications published by early spiritualists. it is argued that spiritualists were pioneers in discussing this issue, something that should be recognized.

The number $\pi/(2\cdot6^3)$, suggested as the value of the fine structure constant $\alpha$ by Werner Heisenberg in 1935, is modified by "quantizing" $\pi$. This obtains, by empirical discovery, a new number which is much closer to the current measured value of the fine structure constant and within the range of variation of the fine structure constant reported by astronomers from their observation of the spectra of distant quasars. The expression of the reciprocal of this number in base 6 arithmetic yields further evidence for the surprising connection between the number 137 and Kabbalah first noted by Gershom Scholem in the 1950s. The results are interpreted in the hermeneutic tradition of the Pauli-Jung collaboration (relating, in particular, tothe World Clock dream) and Pythagorean mysticism. Some connections of the number $137$ to the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence are also explored.

Lost Civilizations is at once intriguing but also challenging to all conventional wisdom. Perhaps that is as it should be and Willis certainly created an interesting compendium of mysterious archeological events combined with a generous exploration of mythology. Readers of the SSE Journal should know I am not a fan of the “Out of Africa” theory. There have been too many recent discoveries made to support the notion that human life began in a single remote location. We can think of the discovery of the Denisovan that interbred with hominids that did migrate from Africa. What Willis repeatedly points to is apparent DNA anomalies in which samples indicate connections between groups for which there is no logical explanation. As an example, there are traces in Australia that are commensurate with those from South America that must have occurred long before any known contact had happened. While Willis would agree, Lost Civilizations suggests the timelines may be off by many thousands of years, a concept that is hard to integrate into demonstrable history. If somebody built things, where did such previously unknown groups come from? It is in questioning that Willis adds significant value. What do we mean by “lost civilizations” is basic to the book? But more fundamentally he asks how is “civilization” defined? There are multiple definitions and he states that what it means to be civilized does not equate to the organization of villages or cities. Further, if civilizations were “lost” where did they come from and where did they go? How did seemingly thriving communities suddenly cease to exist? Then, why is it that some societies not only physically disappear, but also seem to be erased from the memories of survivors or other groups that may have interacted with them. His examples of lost groups abound and signal a warning to modern society. If previous complex organizations disappeared, often with no immediate trace, could the same thing happen to our current civilization.

The Paranormal Surrounds Us is a tied-together collection of essays by Richard Reichbart, a practicing psychoanalyst whose several strong interests and lifelong love for the mystery of psi, and sense of adventure and ethical sensibility, give the collection several points of focus. In addition to his current analytic practice of many decades, he has also been a student of literature, a playwright, a Yale-trained attorney, and an activist for Native American and African American rights. The book is as scattered as he has been, but it is so full of insights and pleasing prose, that it doesn’t lose much for that. In this time when we prefer our intellectual material in bite-sized chunks, like sparky TED Talks and internet articles, this may feel especially friendly to many. If there is an implicit, underlying focus to the work, it may be implicitly biographical: one curious man’s study of, to paraphrase Freud, the vicissitudes of psi – its expression in our finest literature, in our private and shared unconscious processes, in our different subcultures, in the deepest privacy of intensive psychotherapy, and in the legal and cultural presumptions that implicitly structure our thinking and behavior. There are three main sections to the book: Psi Phenomena in Western Literature, Psi Phenomena and Psychoanalysis, and Psi Phenomena and Culture.

Introduction to O que nos faz pensar vol. 29, no. 46

espanolEl libro de Jorge Giraldo que es objeto de este comentario presenta una coleccion de textos publicados en diversos espacios academicos en los ultimos diecinueve anos. El autor estructura esta reedicion de sus trabajos en dos partes bien definidas. La primera se refiere a algunos conceptos de Karl Marx que siempre han estado presentes en el nucleo de los estudios sobre este pensador: politica, trabajo, critica y educacion. En la segunda parte, el autor pretende explorar las posibilidades de la relacion entre Marx y el liberalismo, mas precisamente entre el pensamiento de este ultimo y los de Immanuel Kant y John Rawls. Ademas de ello, el libro termina con un breve comentario sobre el periplo del autor por algunos lugares vinculados a la biografia de Marx. EnglishBook review: Giraldo, J. (2019). Marx despues del marxismo. Medellin: Editorial Universidad de Antioquia.

In this paper, I examine the problem of the emergence of non-existential phenomena in the field of historical existence. According to hermeneutic ontological pluralism outlined in the fundamental ontology of Being and Time, life and existence are two autonomous and irreducible modes of being. Based on the results of the recent science of sleep, I will emphasize the relevance of a formal indication, formulated by Heidegger in the Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, to explain the ontological commitments entailed by the interpretation of a special kind of phenomenal experience in the stage of deep dreamless sleep. Based on the concepts of existential feeling and bodily feeling, I will present the interpretation of the experience in dreamless sleep as the feeling of being alive. This interpretation leads to the conclusion that the ontological commitments involved in dreamless sleep reach the metaontological level, suggesting the need to elaborate a dynamic mereology of modes of being.

Resumen. En este artículo reviso las diversas elaboraciones del concepto de totalidad social que podemos encontrar en diferentes momentos de la obra del filósofo marxista Georg Lukács y destaco las concepciones de la praxis de los agentes sociales asociadas a cada una de ellas. Comienzo por analizar este concepto en la obra del joven Lukács, para luego presentar un radical cambio de postura entre las formulaciones que hallamos en Historia y conciencia de clase y Para una ontología del ser social. Mi argumento es que este cambio de perspectiva se asocia a la necesidad teórica de posibilitar una práctica subjetiva que no se encuentre indefectiblemente alienada, tal como parece desprenderse del modelo teórico de la obra lukácsiana de juventud. Finalmente concluyo que esta nueva concepción de la totalidad social habilita un nuevo tipo de práctica emancipatoria, alejada de los dogmatismos partidarios que caracterizaron a buena parte del socialismo del siglo XX. Abstract. In this paper I revisit the different elaborations of the concept of social totality that we can find through various moments of the work of the Marxist philosopher Georg Lukács, focusing on the understanding of the praxis of social agents tied to each of them. I begin with the analysis of this concept in his youth works and then I highlight a radical change of view between the characterizations found in History and class consciousness and Ontology of social being. My argument is that this reconsideration is associated with the theoretical necessity of conceiving a subjective praxis that could avoid alienation, as it seems to occur in the theoretical model of Lukács’ youth work. Finally, I conclude that this new conception of the social totality enables a new kind of emancipatory praxis, far from the party dogmatisms that typify a great part of the twentieth century socialism.

This article aims to discuss bodily distancing, a step recommended by public health agencies facing COVID 19, in the perspective of hermeneutic solidarity. Seeking to understand social distance in solidarity terms, not only deepening its sense during the pandemic but visualizing it as an opportunity to philosophically resignify the sense of health promoted by entities and in the engagement of communities affected by the disease. Such discussion, although located in a pandemic moment, allows both a review of the reach of social health promotion processes, going beyond the biomedical protocols of individual and collective care, as advocated by WHO, as the practical awareness of the need of a healthy common environment, as Gadamer claims.

Would Philosophy be just one more discipline in curriculum or an original choice? This paper debates Foucault’s allegations in 70’s, especially in interviews, in which he defines philosophy, philosopher and the relations between them in society, i.e., what are politics of philosophy. For such, we draw on many author’s improvisations on the subject: the program of philosophy appears as fantastically dreamed by a “Chinese Borges”; an innovative graduation in it on Vincennes University would be a “trap”; there would be philosophers, but not philosophy; it would have lost its subversive power or its original choice character in some determined societies. Debating the ways of this bracing reflection, we suggest how Foucault runs from many traps out and emphasizes the importance of thinking politically what philosophy is. In the end, we hope to get forward with our reading less in the direction of a full definition of philosophy than defending its practice as an autonomous activity, sui generis, responsible for the social resistance of the art of reflecting.

This paper proposes a bibliographical review of the theme of grief in the work of Judith Butler, taking as its central argument the idea that grief is the concept around which she organizes her philosophy. By the claim of the right to public mourning, criticism of state violence, dispossession and interdependence, Butler draws an ethical proposition from the condition of grief, given since the beginning of life. The condition of grief in lives is unequally framed and, in this sense, Butler seeks to reveal the pictures that sustain the condition of possibility of maintaining certain lives as precarious. In the course of the text, I articulate the theme of grief in Butler with the notions of biopolitics (Foucault), necropolitics (Mbembe) and state of exception (Agamben) in order to reflect how the covid-19 pandemic exposes us to a condition of global vulnerability and, at the same time, accentuates inequalities between precarious lives.

This article aims at exploring different dimensions of our digital moment. The Covid-19 crisis has allowed us to experiment with images on an unprecedented level. Taking that as a point of departure, and building upon a number of philosophical references, I ask whether virtual meetings are opposed to an “experience” that we so often conceive in Benjaminian terms. If two people sit in silence in front of connected computers, are they together? This simple question triggers a series of reflections on the very nature of images and what we call presence. Even though my final take on the current expanded digital experience is positive, the questions it allows us to raise are many. At the core of my argument is the presence of the body and the social implications of the digitization of the world, as well as the remote teaching experience.

The article points out how the pandemic of the new coronavírus interrupted the illusion that prevailed in the western civilizing project of dominance over nature. We were surprised by how a microorganism paralyzed the organization of the world. Through philosophy and art, the article explains the origin of that illusion in the anthropocentrism and humanism that gave man centrality in the universe, with the aim of showing that our actions on nature led to a new unpredictability. We are, therefore, in a moment of rediscovery of nature in its untamed potency.

Two global events took place in the transition from 2019 to 2020: the pandemic of COVID-19 and a profusion of texts about it. This article is part of the current effort to understand the pandemic, but it enquires likewise how one may address its unique event among us. In Brazil, more than in any other country, the pandemic was subordinated to politics. This text follows another path that can be summarized in two questions addressed to its possible readers: does the possibility of mourning our dead depend on something as unexpected as written texts? Could it be that in order to honor them, the distance yielded by poetry would be more meaningful than the immediacy of politics?

Cet article cherche à analyser les modes de composition de la phénoménologie dite dialectique, proposée par Herbert Marcuse en 1928. C'est l'un de ses premiers écrits, dans lequel l'auteur cherche à penser une théorie de l'action dont le point de départ sont les analyses historiques dérivées du matérialisme historique de Marx et Engels, orchestrées avec l'analytique existentielle fournie par "Être et Temps", de Heidegger. Afin d'interpréter cette architecture philosophique pionnière, (1) nous montrerons d'abord comment la méthode marcusienne établit la compréhension d'une situation historique. (2) Dans la deuxième partie, nous analysons comment Marcuse interprète les aspects ontologiques du Dasein. (3) Dans la dernière partie, il s'agit de montrer comment Marcuse opère une jonction des deux analyses afin d'argumenter la nécessité d'une action transformatrice sur l'aliénation sociale dévoilée. Ensemble, ces trois mouvements cherchent à souligner la préoccupation sociale qui a toujours occupé les réflexions philosophiques d'Herbert Marcuse. This article seeks to analyze the modes of composition of the so-called dialectical phenomenology, proposed by Herbert Marcuse in 1928. It is one of his first writings, in which the author seeks to think of a theory of action whose starting point are the historical analyses derived from the historical materialism of Marx and Engels, orchestrated with the existential analytic provided by Being and Time, by Heidegger. In order to interpret this pioneering philosophical architecture, (1) we will first show how Marcusean method establishes the understanding of a historical situation. (2) In the second section, we analyze how Marcuse interprets, in a very original way, the ontological aspects of Dasein. (3) In the last part, it is about showing how Marcuse operates a junction of both analyses in order to argue the need for a transforming action on the unveiled social alienation. Together, these three movements seek to emphasize the social concern that has always occupied Herbert Marcuse’s philosophical reflections.

La película de Jean-Luc Godard Alphaville (1965) propone, en clave poética, una crítica cultural de la modernidad capitalista. Sin separar el contenido de la crítica de la forma creada para expresarla, la película subvierte la clasificación establecida de los “géneros” cinematográficos y, por lo mismo, de los lenguajes cinematográficos. Reuniendo elementos de la imaginación distópica, de la ciencia ficción, del filme romántico y de otros “géneros” cinematográficos, la obra constituye un lenguaje original que integra referentes tanto filosóficos (Nietzsche, Bergson) como poéticos (Éluard, Borges...) y altera las fronteras establecidas entre lo futuro y lo presente así como entre lo de aquí y lo de allá. A diferencia de las distopías de Orwell y Huxley, muestra una forma de totalitarismo más profunda, insidiosa, invisible y eficaz, que invade el presente de las sociedades llamadas “democráticas”. Se trata del totalitarismo de una configuración del mundo dominada por una racionalidad meramente instrumental y por la hegemonía de la tecno-ciencia, que expulsan fuera de lo real el arte y el imaginario, lo poético y lo posible, la emoción, los sentimientos y la gratuidad. El presente estudio analiza la construcción de esta forma original, cuyo contenido crítico es interpretado en la perspectiva de Godard del pensamiento como ejercicio de mirar y como saber mirar.

I start with two questions about the Covid-19 pandemic. What does it reveal about us and the reality that surrounds us? How does it transform our forms of life and the world we live in? The multiple interpretations of this crisis, oscillating between optimism and pessimism, emerge from how one intersects the answers to these two questions. In this article, my goal is to map these responses (in dialogue with authors such as Žižek, Butler, Latour, Klein, Badiou, Nancy, among others) while also searching for an untimely way of articulating the two questions. My hypothesis, drastically put, is that the pandemic is not the event. The event is the transformation of the forms of life (or the “twist of the senses”, as I call it elsewhere) that the pandemic already precipitates before one has the opportunity to draw any conclusions, practically or theoretically, about what the pandemic reveals about the world.

Against the background of the contemporary debate about financialisation, the paper conceptualises the capitalist labour economy as fundamentally a monetary system. It argues that money is not a capitalist means of organising its labour economy but that it is rather a capitalist end. The argument examines and finds wanting conceptions of money in political economy, including Keynesianism and neoliberalism, and argues that the debate about financialisation is fundamentally based on the propositions of political economy. It holds that Marx’s critique of political economy conceives of money as the form of value and expounds money-making as the purpose of the capital labour economy. Thus, the labour theory of value is fundamentally a monetary theory of value, labour is the means of valorisation, and that is, of money in process, and as such capital. Making money out of money is capital as its most rational. In the form of credit, money posits wealth as a claim on future surplus value. Resumen En el contexto del debate contemporáneo sobre la financiarización, el artículo conceptualiza la economía del trabajo capitalista como un sistema fundamentalmente monetario. Se sostiene que el dinero no es un medio capitalista para organizar su economía del trabajo, sino que es más bien un fin capitalista. El argumento examina críticamente concepciones deficientes del dinero en la economía política, como el keynesianismo y el neoliberalismo, y afirma que el debate sobre la finaciarización se basa fundamentalmente en las proposiciones de la economía política. El artículo sostiene que la crítica de Marx a la economía política concibe el dinero como la forma de valor y la generación del dinero como el propósito de la economía del trabajo de capital. Así, la teoría del valor-trabajo es fundamentalmente una teoría monetaria del valor, el trabajo es el medio de valorización, es decir, del dinero en proceso y, como tal, del capital. Hacer dinero con dinero es el capital en su forma más racional. En forma de crédito, el dinero presenta la riqueza como una demanda sobre la plusvalía futura.

The text interrogates the relations between life and death in the Brazilian politics, departing from the idea that the main philosophical task is to think the present, i.e, the effects of the pandemics in the country. I propose the hypothesis that the arrival of the coronavirus pandemics to Brazil has not only rendered explicit a set of different power technologies already put in action in the country, but also made evident a certain shift in the way biopolitics, neoliberalism and necropolitics articulate themselves among us. With the advent of the pandemics, biopolitical and neoliberal technologies did not disappear but were encumbered by necropolitics, which assumed prevalence under the motto of making to die and letting to die, which seems to inspire the Brazilian government’s actions and omissions. The shift towards necropolitics in Brazil is best revealed by the infamous expression according to which the Brazilian president has indistinctively referred to all those who have died from the new virus: “So what?” Finally, I argue that the Arendtian notion about the totalitarian ideology is of importance to explain the phenomenon of political fanaticism in the country.

This essay explores the original political significance of the posters of May ’68 as a critique of capitalism, as well as extending this approach to a critique of contemporary capitalism in 2020. The slogans of ’68 are deceptively simple and we look to the importance of the political ideas expressed aesthetically as having immediate impact in the late 1960s, but also the underlying Situationist philosophy which influenced them. We also explore the contemporary significance of Situationist theory, especially in the context of the renewal of Marxist thought in the 21st century. This renewed Leftist critique of capitalism emerges as articulated through newer social and political movements of the current times, particularly through the political philosophy of Slavoj Žižek and his auto-critique of the former Yugoslavia. Resumen Este ensayo explora el significado político original de los carteles de mayo del 68 como una crítica del capitalismo, y también extiende este enfoque a una crítica del capitalismo contemporáneo en 2020. Los lemas del 68 son engañosamente simples; en este texto se muestra la importancia de las ideas políticas expresadas estéticamente y la manera en que tuvieron un impacto inmediato a fines de la década de 1960, pero también la filosofía situacionista subyacente que las influyó. También exploramos el significado contemporáneo de la teoría situacionista, especialmente en el contexto de la renovación del pensamiento marxista en el siglo XXI. Esta renovada crítica izquierdista del capitalismo surge articulada a través de los nuevos movimientos sociales y políticos de la actualidad, particularmente a través de la filosofía política de Slavoj Žižek y su autocrítica de la ex Yugoslavia.

Reviewed book:: BORGES-DUARTE, Irene. Arte e técnica em Heidegger. Rio de Janeiro: Via Verita, 2019. 238p.

The article highlights the Bergsonian concept of perception in Matter and Memory, in order to stress the present reduction of our possible actions and its consequences. It discusses some effects of the isolation and social distance that jeopardize the porosity of the skin and the openness of the body to the world and develops the notion of a teflon-skin. All those issues are then articulated with Heinrich Von Kleist’s essay Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Reden (“On the gradual construction of thoughts during speech”). In this essay Kleist examines the intricate intertwining of thought, speech and the atmospheric changes of the Gemüt. Also explored in Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, Kleist’s discussion of the lively production and exchange of ideas helps us to evaluate some relevant implications of the situation of isolation and confinement due to the pandemy.

This article aims to analyze the articulation between the historical philosophy practiced by Nietzsche from 1876 and the genealogy of morality. For this, it is desired to emphasize how the philosopher passes from the task of analyzing the history of moral feelings, characteristic of Human, all too human, to that which leads to place the value of values (i.e., moral itself) in check, in Genealogy of morality. Finally, this requires analyzing the importance of the relationship between life and work in order to identify its results: a valuation of individual experiences and the affirmation of innocence.

In this paper, I propose a philosophical approach on the current situation of pandemic and confinement, using as a trigger some of the texts published by the philosopher Paul B. Preciado during the period. Despite disagreeing with some of his formulations, I argue that he adopts a performative discourse as a political strategy, and I develop his provocations about two central issues: the possibility of circumventing the state of surveillance and the ability to collectively imagine a revolutionary alternative.

In line with the ambiguity inherent in any relevant work of philosophy –something that is proved thanks to the example of the two editions of the Critique of Pure Reason and its internal difference–, the contribution raises two separate meanings of “the ambiguity” of Being and Time: on the one hand, the one that refers to the role played by the Introduction to the work, which defines a project that ended up being independent from the work actually written (there would thus be two Being and Time: the projected and failed one, exposed in the Introduction, and the finally written one, which gained autonomy from the project); on the other hand, the one related to the attempt to expose the un-exposable (the sense of Being), which starts from a previous impossibility that at the same time it has to overcome: “The exposition of the question about the sense of Being” would become in this case the “failure of the exposition of the question of Being”.

Uno de los ámbitos de investigación de Ramón Rodríguez es la historicidad de la filosofía que, pensada al modo de Heidegger, supone un modo de eludir las filosofías de la historia que han sido tan importantes durante el siglo XX y que aún perduran, bajo nuevas formas, en el XXI. Lo que aquí propongo es someter a interrogación cómo ha podido configurarse y perseverar la idea, dominante en el seno de la tradición marxista, de que la filosofía es capaz de proporcionar un conocimiento de la sociedad superior al que proporcionan las ciencias sociales. Para entenderlo presento un paralelismo con lo sucedido con la metafísica durante el período histórico de construcción de las ciencias de la naturaleza, que dio lugar al tipo de confusión entre ciencia y filosofía al que puso fin la Crítica de la razón pura. Algo semejante parece haber ocurrido durante el período histórico de construcción de las ciencias sociales, cuyo primer gran paradigma fue la historiografía científica.

El trabajo considera la fundamentación de un deber en relación con una situación moral vivida por Ramón Rodriguez, y destaca la interpretación husserliana de un caso análogo. El análisis presentado en la Segunda Parte de Fenómeno e interpretación sobre el “ser por mor de sí” del Dasein como condición de posibilidad de una personalidad moral tiene el gran mérito de ofrecer una sólida base y una fuerte motivación para esclarecer la relación entre Heidegger y Husserl. Esta posibilidad se presenta en razón de que se ha destacado con mucha claridad la diferencia entre la pregunta por el modo de ser de un ente que es fin por sí mismo y la cuestión del comportamiento moral en que ese modo de ser se manifiesta. La distinción establecida entre los dos problemas ofrece la oportunidad para mostrar una semejanza y una diferencia entre ambos pensadores porque convergen en el primer punto y se separan en el segundo.