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“Religion or Life’s Encounter with Itself”. This paper attempts to offer a comprehensive approach to the religious phenomenon, considering that religion— understood as the attitude that each life has towards the brute fact of life—constitutes an anthropological universal. I claim that there are three emotional places or types of vital pathos that allow sketching three basic modes of articulating the religious: the pathos of disenchantment, the tragic pathos, and the pathos of wonder. After discussing the dialogues, tensions, and transitions between these, the paper concludes with a vindication of wonder as the genuine experience of a strictly religious life—that is, a life reconciled with totality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Univocity and Intuitive Science in Spinoza”. This paper seeks to investigate the Spinozist theory of knowledge. The starting point of my argument is a reading hypothesis that connects the univocity of the real with intuitive science. The aim is to demonstrate that the cognoscitive access provided by the third genre of knowledge is the only means to attain knowledge of the totality of Nature. Accordingly, the paper shows, on the one side, that both imagination and reason provide us only with incomplete and biased knowledge of the real. On the other side, it shows that—notwithstanding their shortfalls—these cognoscitive perspectives are authentic and true, and are present in the third genre of knowledge. Finally, the paper shows the coherence of the Spinozist system and its proposal of intuitive science—knowledge of the unity underlying all perspectives—as the human ethical destiny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“‘The Spectre of Marburg’ wanders around the Operative Aesthetics. Luis Juan Guerrero, ‘Evolutive’ Reader of Heidegger”. This paper aims to analyse the reading of Martin Heidegger’s thought offered by Luis Juan Guerrero in his Operative Aesthetics. I claim that “The Origin of the Work of Art” plays a central role in the work of the Argentinian philosopher. However, this does not mean that Guerrero is not an original author or that he is a mere commentator of the German philosopher. On the contrary: the Argentinian philosopher offers a productive reading of Heidegger which allows him to build his own and authentic philosophy. By focusing on Heidegger’s essay on art and on the first volume of the Operative Aesthetics, this paper analyses three essential issues: the concept of tool, the world-earth relationship, and the bond between history and truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Phenomenological Analysis of Children's Playing as a Modality of Perceptual Phantasy". The experience of playing is not unknown to anyone of us. As children we have all entered the world opened by phantasy and toys. This paper makes explicit --from a phenomenological perspective-- how this particular mixture of perception and phantasy takes place. To avoid confusing this experience with a hallucination or a mere simulation, I claim that playing can be analysed as a particular modality of perceptual phantasy in the "as if" mode. This modality, based on the neutralisation of a perceptual apprehension, enables the opening of the world of phantasy that is deployed in playing. Accordingly, this paper is divided in 3 parts: First, I present a general description of phantasy consciousness; then, I propose an analysis of perceptual phantasy in the experience of theatre; third, I describe the specificity of this modality of phantasy consciousness --called perceptual phantasy-- in the intentional structure proper of children's playing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“The Relationship between Intuition and Invention in Mathematics: A Consideration from the Points of View of Henri Bergson and Henri Poincaré”. The French authors Henri Bergson and Henri Poincaré call attention upon intuition and its relationship to mathematical invention. Both authors believe that intuition is an intellectual process that requires individual experience both physical and mathematical. They also claim that the results of intuition are to be observed in the surface of consciousness, i.e. in mathematical language. Additionally, both authors believe that intuition is necessary for mathematical invention. This paper shows the coincidences between Bergson and Poincaré concerning the relationship between intuition and invention. It investigates how its definition leads to the understanding of intuition as a process and, finally, how the idea of a dynamic scheme—introduced by Bergson to explain invention—is implicitly present in Poincaré’s thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“David Hume on Materialism”. During the 17th and 18th centuries, an intense debate concerning materialism took place. This paper aims to describe David Hume’s position within this debate. I claim that, even though Hume rejects substantialist metaphysics to focus on the study of perceptions, he defends a position concerning the relationship between mind and matter. However, this position is rather complex to reconstruct since it is not explicitly stated in the texts edited during Hume’s life. I propose to define it as a restricted materialism since, regarding the nature of mind, Hume discards both the materialist and the immaterialist positions; although concerning the causes of thought he comes close to materialist positions by using arguments based on experience and the analogy with nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“On Four Immanent Ontologies in Gilles Deleuze at the Crosspoint between The Movement Image and Difference and Repetition”. By serially arranging Difference and Repetition (1968) and The Movement Image (1983) this paper sketches four trails in Gilles Deleuze’s divergent ontology, showing how each of the montage schools of classical cinema implies a determinate inversion in relation to four facets of the philosophical tradition represented by Hume, Spinoza, Hegel and Descartes. The taxonomy of the cinema studies opens clear paths in Deleuze’s obscure ontology. The book of 1968 reveals the philosophical load implicit in the cinematographic developments; at the same time, it shows the divergencies and incompatibilities that growl under the apparent neatness of the classification of cinematographic images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Materialism and Art in Walter Benjamin". This paper analyses the issue of materialism and its relationship with art in Walter Benjamin's thought. This is a controversial issue in the debates around Benjamin. The article examines in detail Benjamin's two fundamental texts on this topic: The Author as Producer and The Work of Art in the Era of Mechanical Reproduction. Before this, the paper puts the problem into context, considering the times and, in particular, Benjamin's relationship with Brecht, which was seen as one of the key elements to understand Benjamin's material turn. This fact disturbed some of his colleagues --like Adorno, Horkheimer and Karplus-- who saw Brecht as an excessively orthodox materialist. This paper argues, however, that, although Benjamin turned towards materialist positions throughout the decade of the 30s, his materialism was not like the one defended by the Marxist orthodoxy of the time, though, indeed, it went beyond Adorno's modernist approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Kant's Aesthetics and the Problem of Aesthetic Judgement in Music". This paper reconstructs the place of music in the division of the arts proposed by Kant in his third Critique, focusing on the aspects that make music an art difficult to characterise. For this purpose, it exposes the foundations that allow situating music at the highest levels of Kant's incipient system of the arts, as well as the reasons that allow placing it on the lowest ones. In addition, the paper approaches the problem of the pendular place of music as a beautiful art and as an agreeable art, recovering and contrasting different passages of Kant's Critique of Judgement. To complement this last aim, readings from different thinkers are reviewed, considering, on the one hand, those who claim that Kant characterises music as a beautiful art, and, on the other hand, those who claim that he characterises it as a mere agreeable art. Finally, this paper presents the conclusions that allow to understand that music's double possibility, as a beautiful and as agreeable art, depends on the ways in which the subject relates to music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Marx and the Critical-Philosophical Foundations of the Public Sphere". This paper presents the presuppositions that enable a critical reflection on the public sphere from a Marxist perspective. It begins by considering the context of recent discussions concerning Marx's political ideas, and the relevance of the concept of public sphere in order to show the importance of some of Marx's critical concepts for political philosophy. The text is the result of a research project aimed at constructing a conceptual framework to develop a critical analysis of the public sphere today. This research has already established that some key issues, linked to the concepts of language and experience, were present in Marx's work. In this sense, the paper presents a novel reflection to the extent that it deals with the actuality of Marx's thought through the analysis of a contemporary political problem that allows to highlight the critical and radical implications that Marx's philosophical-critical foundations have for contemporary discourse and political institutions such as the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The alētheia of Cats. Balthus, Rilke and the Problem of the 'Open'". This paper takes as a starting point the artistic collaboration between Rainer Maria Rilke and Balthazar Klossowski -Balthus-, which took the form of a book entitled Mitsou. Story of a Cat, illustrated by the young painter and foreworded by the poet. This case study serves as a guiding thread running through a deep analysis of the problem of the "Open", a noumenic concept coined by Rilke in his creative exchange with Balthus. This concept was specifically discussed by Martin Heidegger. Thus, the present paper attempts to address the implications of affinity and confrontation between Rilke and Heidegger and to explore the metaphorical figure of the cat as the expression of certain animality within the unveiling that takes place in the Da-sein. For this purpose, it will also be necessary to explore theoretical key approaches taken from Ortega y Gasset and Schopenhauer, as well as critical positions particularly relevant in this field defended by Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Derrida, which tend towards an animalistic ontology of alētheia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Practices of Friendliness: An Interpretation of Byung-Chul Han's Thought". This paper analyses the philosophical-political postulates present in Byung-Chul Han's work, in order to propose, through an exegesis of his thought, the concept of the practice of friendliness as an ethical-political project focused on developing what the author calls a "praxis of delay". Such a praxis should revitalize the vita contemplativa, in opposition to the digital neoliberal rationality that dominates reality sustained by a model of society based on performance and competition. The paper is divided into three parts: first I conceptually delimit the performance society; next I present Han's rebellion approach, taking as a starting point the concept of the revolution of time; finally I develop the practical approach of his idea of systemic subversion. All of this is done based on an analytical systematization of his work, for which the bibliographic-documentary research method is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Enlightenment as a Challenge for Our Present: Some Notes on the Enlightenment in Germany". This paper develops a historiographic approach to the development of Enlightenment in Germany, considering its specific traits in comparison to England and France, as well as its different stages. I also present the typology of its main ideas developed by Norbert Hinske, and discuss the possible relevance and significance of these ideas for our current times, specially analysing the idea of a universal human reason and the vocation of human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Gnoseological Properties and Antecedents of Modern and Contemporary Gnosticism. A Critical Analysis based on Eric Voegelin's Thought". The gnostic presence denounced by Voegelin at the end of the last century --a presence which has seen its more faithful expression in contemporary ideologies-- has mutated into several manifestations denounced by contemporary thinkers, not only because of their immanent nature, but also due to their gnoseological inconsistency. Thus, this paper aims to offer a deeper study of the fundamental properties and characteristics of modern and contemporary Gnosticism, as well as of its gnoseological antecedents. In order to do this, I focus, first, on a critical analysis of the characteristics of gnostic thought, taking mainly Vogelin's ideas as a starting point. After this I analyse the antecedents of gnostic thought in the theological reflections of Joachim of Fiore and the nominalism of William of Ockham. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Echeverría and Unamuno, Baroque and Antagonism. An Articulation of the Baroque Ethos and the Tragic Ethos". This paper seeks to sketch a possible articulation of the tragic ethos and the baroque ethos. The starting point is Echeverría's hypothesis concerning the baroque character of Unamuno's Quijote. I argue that such a baroque ethos --an attitude, a behaviour, and a vital strategy-- as defined by the Ecuadorian philosopher, goes beyond Unamuno's Quijote, and is linked to the tragic ethos of Unamuno's agonism. I follow Saéz Rueda's hypothesis that, on the one side, Unamuno's agonism is closely related to the baroque attitude and, on the other side, that there are at least two unifying bonds between the Baroque and the tragic. I propose that it is possible to add two more bonds. The first one has to do with the understanding of action shared by Echevarría and Unamuno, the choice of a third that cannot be. The second bond considers that such a community of attitude, of ethos, between the tragic and the Baroque can be established from the moral pedagogic function of the tragic and baroque works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Animality's Problematic Place in Ortega's Philosophy". This paper discusses a problem of great actuality in contemporary philosophy: the understanding of animal being and its relationship with human being. It analyses, specifically, the way in which this problem is addressed by the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset, one of the first authors who deals with this issue as a specific and recurring theme in the context of his own thought. I show how Ortega arrives to this problem, which intellectual influences are behind his approach to the cluster of difficulties around the animal, and what place does this issue have in the context of Ortega's general philosophical proposal. As a conclusion, I suggest that Ortega's thought --as it is the case with many of the most relevant authors of the 20th Century-- is marked by his considerations on animals; and that his ideas could still be fruitful when studying important problems concerning the status and the significance of the animal condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Fiat cura, et pereat mundus. Husserl's Phenomenology of Care and Commitment". The present paper explores "the importance of what we care about" from a phenomenological angle in the spirit of Frankfurt's seminal essay. I shall reflect upon a few of its central concepts and issues within a Husserlian frame of analysis. My overarching claim is that Frankfurt's threefold distinction - knowing, ethical conduct, caring - is equally central to Husserl's phenomenology of reason and, more directly, underlies Husserl's phenomenological ethics of values and vocation in his Freiburg manuscripts of the 1920s and 1930s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Steadfastness and Da-sein. The Thinking of Ereignis and Transcendental Philosophy". This paper attempts to trace and identify Heidegger's attacks against transcendental philosophy, as they appear in his posthumous texts of the 1930s and 1940s, that is, the so-called treatises on Ereignis, and in the last volumes of the Gesamtausgabe. I will focus especially on volume 82, published in 2018, which includes a series of Heidegger's annotations and re-readings concerning his own published work--this volume has not drawn a lot of attention in recent research. This way of proceeding will allow to show the author's own critiques of his treatise Being and Time, and why he questions it a posteriori as a work of transcendental philosophy. After presenting the critique against all transcendental philosophy and transcendental subjects, it will be possible to describe the other possibility found in these posthumous works: the idea of steadfastness or "standing within" (Inständigkeit) in Being. Finally I will point out some difficulties and limitations implicit within the will to overcome our modern philosophical tradition, as it is shown by the project of a history of Be-ing (Geschichte des Seyns) as another beginning (andere Anfang) of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Leibnizian Perspectivism in Baumgarten. Notes on the Influence of the Concept of petites perceptions in Baumgartian Aesthetics". In 1735 Baumgarten published his Philosophical Reflections on Poetry. There he develops for the first time the idea of a science of sensibility capable of apprehending the idea of beauty in art; a science which he denominates aesthetics. This quest to determine what beauty is and what the status of aesthetic experience within the edifice of knowledge is seems to be more related to the Leibnizian approaches to sensitivity than to the Wolffian gnoseological framework, not only because of the way in which it deals with the concepts of perfection, beauty and truth, but mainly due to the fact that, in the development of Baumgarten's research on sensitivity, mechanisms of subjectivation similar to the ones presented by Leibniz seem to be deployed --mechanisms characterized by a strong perspectival background. In view of this, this paper investigates the Leibnizian influence on Baumgartian philosophy, and specifically the question about how the concept of petites perceptions, as a central element of Leibniz's perspectivist conception, influences the notion of aesthetics developed by Baumgarten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Meaning of the Philosophical Calling according to Socrates and Heidegger". According to the allegory of the cave and the experience of the liberation of the prisoner described there, philosophy implies a redirection of human life. This redirection is not subject to the will of the person who experiments it; therefore, it cannot be self-procured, but rather occurs through the violent action of another. This violence highlights that philosophy arises from a relationship between one who provokes this experience and another who experiences it; and, in addition, that this experience entails a transformation of existence. This experience seems to come close to the one discussed by Heidegger in his analysis of the existential modification from the They-Self to the authentic Self. Additionally, a relationship and a certain attitude that suggest --insofar they are provoked violently-- the unavailability of the philosophical experience come here to the foreground. The following paper attempts to outline the meaning of the philosophical calling according to Socrates and Heidegger, and to understand to what extent the transformation that is generated here sets in motion not only two different ways of philosophising, but also two ways of being that seem conciliable to some degree, though they turn out to be ultimately incompatible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Psychology, politics and poetry in Republic IV and X". In this paper, I argue that in the Republic the possibility of a good koinōnia is hindered by the emotional potency and psychological perversion of mimetic-pleasurable poetry, which stimulates and strengthens the irrational part of the soul of its recipients through the imitation of characters linked to desire and anger. To this end, I examine, first, some of the passages in Republic IV in which it is possible to subscribe to the priority of the psychic tripartition over the political tripartition. Secondly, I point out some of the central features of the psychological critique of mimetic-pleasurable poetry in Republic X. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As it is well known, throughout Being and Time Heidegger distinguishes between an ontic (Entdecken) and an ontological (Erschlossenheit) sense of truth. Whereas the first one involves truth, insofar as a way in which the Dasein can be concerning beings, the second one corresponds to the manner in which the Dasein opens and comprehends their being. In this paper, we will focus on developing the phenomenological aspect of the second sense of truth and its relation with the first one. We will recreate, first and foremost, Heidegger's characterization of the ontological sense. Then, we will make use of the asymmetry between both kinds of senses to inquire about the problem of normativity presupposed in his work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the close similarities between Husserl's, Scheler's and Stein's concept of the person as an absolute value that exercises itself in position-takings. Ethics, for the classical phenomenologists, Husserl, Scheler, and Stein, concerns the whole person, including the affective and rational dimensions, intellect and the heart, as well as volition. Persons are distinctive for their free agency, capacity to recognize norms, and ability to interact responsibly with other personal agents in the context of the communal and historical life-world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to reconstruct the spinozian theory of individuation as presented by Deleuze in his works about Spinoza, relating it to his ontology in Difference and Repetition (his main ontological work), with the purpose of elaborating a critical reading on the ambiguities that emerge concerning the spinozian-deleuzian notion of joy. The latter occur, for example, when an excessive value is given to the series of stages in the course of learning that leads to the spinozian salvation, reason why the approach is reduced to an accumulative, end-oriented race towards maximizing joy, an accumulation of joyful passions considered an end in itself. I think that fracturing the image of "Deleuze's Spinoza" is one way to highlight and delve in the question on the place of negativity in deleuzian philosophy. This will also allow us to free it from those readings that aim to make it an ideological ally of neoliberalism, contributing, instead, to the formulation of an ethics of intensive quantities -this being the ethical approach in Difference and Repetition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the social, political and theological implications proposed by Giordano Bruno, based on his proposal for an infinite universe. For this, the concepts of emptiness and plurality, that allow the understanding of the infinite universe model, explained in a second moment, will be analyzed in order to offer an analysis of the relationship of this proposal with a revolutionary thought in the social, political and theological field of the 16th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]