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This paper tracks de concept of ability in Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy, as well as the transition to this period, to reconstruct its uses and its effects in subsequent philosophical discussions, particularly in the way in which the universal rational subject has been conceived. The effects derived from this analysis will be contrasted with some critical perspectives on (dis)ability and ableism to question the Kantian views and exhibit the productivity of an anachronistic approach that brings together the history of Western philosophy and the problematic present we inhabit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the current state of neoliberal capitalism, understood as an achievement subjectivity (synthesis of discipline [Foucault] and control [Deleuze and Guattari] that is catalyzed by digitality [Han, Berardi, Fisher, among others]), focuses on exercising a colonization over time as a structural and fundamental concept of human existence in order to deploy a whole system of psychopolitical devices that allow its systemic reproduction. To achieve this objective, the research has three moments; the first, which exposes the passage from the spatial domain of Fordist capitalism to the current temporal nature of neoliberalism, which produces a time dyssynchrony. The second focuses on explaining the defactification of the world as the loss of the human link with reality, directly disturbing the state of mind of the subjects by using a nihilistic weight. Finally, psychopolitics is exposed as a concept that starts from both dyssynchrony and defactification to position a suggestive dominion of the human psyche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at reconstructing the ontological conception of truth in Republic v-vi in the light of the predicative conceptualization of truth developed in the Sophist. My interpretative hypothesis is that in both dialogues Plato distinguishes truth from its conditions of possibility, in particular, its ontological basis. I will try to show that the ontological and the predicative conceptions of truth in the platonic thought are incompatible, due to their different ontological bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I will show how a deconstruction of the body proper from the perspective of tactuality and self-affection (haptocentrism) must be completed by a deconstruction of aptocentrism, that is, the understanding of the body proper as a body I make use of. Both haptocentrism and aptocentrism understand the body proper as that which can be eminently appropriated by the living being, an understanding explicated in the Stoic concept of oikeiosis. Through a reading of Stocisim, Condillac, Maine de Biran, Rosmini, Husserl, Bergson, Marcel, Merleau-Ponty, and Michel Henry, I aim at showing how these different discourses are motivated by the ideal of life as autarchy. Hence, I argue that the idea of self-affection must be interpreted within the broader scheme of living beings as selfappropriated bodies. This paradigm of self-appropriation finds, however, its aporetic place in the body proper, for the body cannot be fully appropriated and represents the element of resistance and expropriation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This writing approaches the experience of suicide by use of Emmanuel Lévinas's concepts of the saying and the said, in order to show that the suicidal person is an invisible victim. The suicidal person needs not to be excluded nor measured in objective terms. They need to be cared for by someone who helps them to stay alive through philosophical reflection. Thus, the suicidal person will find in Philosophy a place to treat their soul. In order to build this approach, this paper in divided into three parts that follow a brief introduction: first, the relationships between suicide, subjectivity, and intersubjectivity are addressed, so as to show the importance of classifying suicide in the realm of the saying and not of the said, and putting forward the struggle of the suicidal person to be heard in the world of the saying, so that the care of the other prevails both subjectively and intersubjectively; then, the encounter between the saying and the said is addressed through the presentation of the notions of trace, wound, and the foreign experience; and finally, it is proposed that philosophy, when practiced as an embrace "among others", is a way to understand and to approach the Other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between community and reparations is crucial to deal with violence. In this regard, to repair means to stabilize the social, moral, and political bonds that were damaged because of violence. Therefore, testimony is of great importance: it constitutes a biopolitical and institutional act to guarantee the rights to truth, justice, and reparations. However, concepts such as community, reparations and testimony have taken a new meaning in contemporary French philosophy, especially in the works of Emmanuel Lévinas, Maurice Blanchot y Jean-Luc Nancy. This new meaning rejects the sovereign and biopolitical community. Taking into account such a change of perspective, this paper examines, from a philosophical standpoint, the aforementioned concepts found in Nancy's, Blanchot's and Lévinas's studies on community, vulnerability, and metaphor. On that basis, the following thesis is sustained: the use of metaphors of damage in the testimonies of violence constitutes a speech of the irreparable (the wounded vulnerability) that reveals and creates an anarchic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the misgivings of some specialists, Avicenna is an unavoidable point of reference in the history of intentionality. This paper sets out to determine the way in which the intellect takes a position with respect to the reality of the objects with which it enters into relation. We address the intentional relation, focusing on the nexus between logic and ontology, and emphasizing the role of conceptualization and estimation in determining what is real and actually exists. The exploration of the structure of intention leads us to identify the relevance of the doctrine of essences as a fundamental presupposition for conceptualization and truth. The importance of Avicenna's theory of intentionality lies in the description of the reference to the object and in the description of knowledge as a process that advances from the known to the unknown, the various phases of which form the itinerary of essences. From this point of view, reality and existence are accidents that happen to essences. Esteem, conceptualization and assent are the capacities of the soul that make intentional reference possible. Finally, we identify some points of convergence between two doctrines of essences, that of Avicenna and that of Husserl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question concerning the nature of "true philosophy" is a constant in Hume's philosophical enquiry. The present paper revisits the Conclusion of Book i of the Treatise of Human Nature, a crucial piece of writing to understand his answer to that question. In this dramatic section, the author narrates the crisis he suffered after confronting his science of human nature with sceptical arguments. I interpret Hume's narrative as a phenomenological description of the flux of passions, dispositions, and transformers which, after reflection, determine the transit from false to true philosophy, that will be justified by sceptical motives. Hume's voyage shouldn't be read only as an autobiographical experience since it represents the desired turn that should be followed by anyone who feels inclined towards philosophy, in order to discover both the utility and the pleasure derived from its practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to articulate the way in which Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jan Patočka revisit the figure of Socrates as a way of overcoming what they view as the "crisis of philosophy", discussing both their points of convergence and divergence. To this end, the paper unfolds in three sections. The first section will address the general sense of historical crisis in which the said crisis of philosophy arises. The second section turns around Merleau-Ponty's proposal of a return to Socrates as a way out of this crisis, a solution based on the understanding that philosophy is actually fulfilled in a living relationship with men, and far from its reduction into a comprehensive system of thought. The third section will revolve around the Patočkian characterization of Socrates as a model of "spiritual man" and such characterization will be worked out through the existential dialectic that constitutes the "movement of life". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts a renewed understanding of the concept of poetic reason, key in María Zambrano's philosophical writings, from a hermeneutical approach. Poetic reason might be seen in this light as a gateway to a different kind of rationality, one that might help to enrich its ontological and anthropological implications, and overcome the hubris that has been historically ingrained in this concept. The paper is structured in three parts: in the first one, an attempt will be made to show a reform of the understanding, which involves human life integrally, in such a way that reason transcends and makes it possible to understand the historical complexity of man and the urgent need to return to oneself. In the second, special attention will be focused on Zambrano's new humanism, based on poetic and merciful reason, as an antidote to the ghost of war. And the third section delves in the work Claros del bosque to point to the reader the three hermeneutical moments that they will possibly face when trying to understand the realm of poetic reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we provide some keys for understanding the cryptic essay "Karl Kraus" by Walter Benjamin. For this purpose, we highlight Kraus's importance for the journalistic and political criticism that Benjamin was interested in, we introduce the reader to the three parts of the essay and we make a brief reflection on the construction of the concept of critique in Benjamin based on the work of Kraus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of event is shown as fundamental in contemporary philosophy, but it opens up a problematic field as well. The purpose of this paper is to clarify and discuss the main characteristics of the notion of event, anchored in Heidegger's theoretical stance, and to develop the difficulties that this notion entails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of boundaries in the broader discussion about material composition. According to nihilism, two or more objects can never compose a further one. In this view, ordinary material objects and their boundaries (surfaces) would be fiat entities, while simple objects (partless) and their sharp boundaries are the only bona fide components of the world. However, if there are reasons to postulate the existence of a bona fide boundary that separates a collection of objects from their spatial surroundings, then there are reasons to postulate the existence of a bona fide composite object too. If there exists a boundary, given its ontological dependence, there must exist an object it belongs to. The emergence of a boundary of a three-dimensional material object instantiates properties which are irreducible to the properties of their parts. Nonetheless, once that boundaries are introduced in the world, the presence of the ontological vagueness in modal terms becomes unavoidable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose a representation of a fragment of Thompson's statistical syllogistic by using Sommers's term logic. The result is a terministic interpretation of statistical syllogistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the conquerors arrived in the Valley of Mexico, they were amazed at the creations of the culture inherited from the Toltec tradition. With the prurpose of acknowledging this culture, this paper points out that words such as truth, thinking, and doubt have a very different connotation in modern European philosophy, to the Anahuac culture, which flourished in the Valley of Mexico between the 9th and 16th centuries. This writing presents a comparison of the process to obtain true knowledge according to the rationality of the Nahua world of the 16th century and three authors of European modernity: Descartes, Kant and Hegel. Modernity is found to present a dominant and egocentric subject with self-referential thinking. In the Nahua culture the ideal is the man with a "heart of stone" and a "wise face" who seeks what is true, what has roots, and expresses it through poetry, "the flower and the song". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances the analysis of the concept of Umwelt in Jakob von Uexküll's work, by examining its different formulations, and highlighting the successive redefinitions of its two components: the perception world (Merkwelt) and the effect world (Wirkungswelt, Wirkwelt). Considering the significant impact that the concept of Umwelt had on continental philosophy, the purpose of this study is to reconstruct its meaning through a historical-conceptual analysis, to illuminate some aspects that are not usually thematized in literature--in particular, those related to the effect world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to clarifying Deleuze's theory of the Idea by a commentary on its technical definition: "a defined, continuous, n-dimensional multiplicity", presented in chapter IV of Difference and Repetition (1968). This definition implicitly intertwines Deleuze's own metaphysical view of the Idea as a virtual problem with a series of notions taken from the differential geometry developed by the German mathematician Georg B. Riemann. To clarify this influence, we will reconstruct the fundamental elements of the Riemannian notions used by Deleuze, and show how these elements are presupposed in Deleuze's concept of Idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that there is a thread in the philosophy of E. Tugendhat binding together his moral and justice theories with his conceptual analysis. Oriented by the thesis that a conceptual analysis is necessary to explain what justice is, this paper reconstructs some aspects of Tugendhat's philosophy. It is divided in four sections: First, I delve into the author's definition and use of conceptual analysis. Second, I describe some features of Tugendhat's moral theory of contractualism. Third, I examine his theory of justice. Fourth, I conclude by framing my analysis within the debate between Rawls's and Tugendhat's theories of justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1836, at 19 years of age, Colombian philosopher José Eusebio Caro wrote a sociological and anthropological treatise titled Mecánica social (Social Mechanics) that illustrates in context the reception of French philosophy (sensualism, ideology, physiology) in 19th-century Colombian philosophical thought. The purpose of this paper is to present critically Caro's theory of the will and to bring to light the philosophical sources from which he draw, especially physiology and its role as theoretical basis for both ideology and a new "scientific" anthropology that could, in turn, provide support for a science of morals and legislation, a major goal of French radical liberal thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the figure of the intellectual in Michel Foucault and Maurice Blanchot, from three distinct perspectives: 1) The affirmation of the anonymity of language; 2) the critical approach against power; and 3) the ethics of thinking and writing. The intellectual is thus characterized as an anonymous voice among anonymous voices; as someone who holds power accountable; as a solidary guard for the anonymous--and his writing as the exercise of a specific kind of responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European reception of Nicolás Gómez Dávila owes greatly to the reading and diffusion of his work prompted by Franco Volpi. This paper examines the way in which Volpi shaped the interpretations of the Colombian in light of his practical philosophy and critique of Modernity, emphasizing the vitality and the provocative character of Gómez Davila's thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the influence of John Duns Scotus's thought in Gilles Deleuze's Difference and Repetition is outlined, centering the analysis in the concepts of "univocal being" and "intrinsic mode". The novelty of this work lies on its effort to accurately locate the thesis of the univocity of being and the theory of intrinsic mode that goes along with it in the work of Duns Scotus. Subsequently, an attempt is made to determine the horizon of appropriation and the conceptual displacement operated by Gilles Deleuze in his own work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I shall address the connections between Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy and Caribbean thought. However, I will only focus on Antonio Benítez Rojo's essay The Repeating Island (1998), since I have found in it the presence--or expression--of some key deleuzian and deleuzo-guattarian concepts. I will use the deleuzian concept of repetition to defend this stance, as well as to argue that one may find some of the most interesting readings of Deleuze's texts in the work of Caribbean authors such as Benítez Rojo, not only in spite of their relative understanding and lack of exegetical rigour, but rather thanks to the fact that this is, in no case, their main intention. The angle I have chosen does not intend to point out consistencies or inconsistencies in Benítez Rojo's "appropriations" or "rewritings" of Deleuze and Guattari, for this would only keep us within the logic of the copy versus the original. Instead, this reading tries to destabilize the boundaries between philosophy and literature as well as between French ("Western", central, from the North) and Caribbean thought (supposedly non-Western, peripheral, and from the South). The undoing of these types of distinction intends to produce a new theatre of thought, a theatre of repetition, not of representation, in order to set up the scene for a contrapunteo (counterpointing: debate, quarrel, improvised versed duel) between two images of thought: one deleuzian, the other Caribbean. Thus, we embark upon this journey hoping to have an encounter that promises yet another becoming to Deleuze's philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the ontology of problems in Deleuze's magnum opus, Difference and Repetition (1968). By ontology of problems I refer to the conceptualization of problems as a fundamentally ontological--not epistemological--subject. This problematic-being is the object of Ideas, which are at the core of Deleuzian ontology, as shown in the actualization of the virtual and its four aspects: differentiation [différentiation], individuation, dramatization, and differentiation [différenciation]. For this reason, a deeper comprehension of the ontology of problems serves as the most adequate prelude for a sound approach to all of Deleuzian ontology. In addition, this article highlights the philosophical and scientific sources upon which Deleuze draws in order to build his ontology of problems. Of special note are his references to several metaphysicians of differential calculus (Bordas-Demoulin, Maïmon, Hoëne-Wronski) and prominent mathematicians (Carnot, Abel, Galois, Riemann, Lautman) of the 19th and 20th centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes the claim that the overall structure of Plato's Laws follows the principle of indirect access to the knowledge of human soul, which consists in the understanding that a philosophical approach to the soul is only possible initially through an image of it. The structure of the Laws can be interpreted as a movement towards the soul's interior, beginning with the famous image of the puppet. According to this image, the movement opens with the analysis of the non-rational elements of the soul, which are capable of an harmonic relation with the rational element, and advances bit to bit to the rational or epistemic element. The political necessity of undertaking the dialectical investigation in order to attain a philosophical knowledge of the human soul and its specific excellence appears only at the end of the dialogue. In this way, the structure of the Laws dramatizes the progressive birth of philosophy, conceived as the dialectical investigation of the unity of virtue, starting from the initial understanding of the human soul contained in the myth of the puppet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the idea of tragedy in Marx. A comparison between Capital and Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1884 is proposed, in order to assert that what happens to the human being goes through the understanding of his tragic condition in the bosom of capitalist production. It maintains that tragedy is the conflict in whose development the human being sacrifices his essential forces with the intention of producing new contents of life for him. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Divine Names explores the different names and metaphoric expressions used in the Bible to refer to God. Dionysius the Areopagite is known as an exponent of positive theology, in the sense that he offers an argumentative and explicit account of the nature of God, relying on the Scripture as a source of knowledge and truth, in contrast to the declared inability of apophatic or negative theology to communicate any knowledge of the divine. Indeed, the Areopagite resorts to the study of biblical terms and to the coinage of hapax, neologisms often derived of known terms with added privative prefixes, in order to refer in some way to the sacred. Our research aims at showing that, for Dionysius, the purpose of pursuing the knowledge of God is not only to grasp the order of the different spheres of existence--present across the Corpus Dionysiacum--but also to connect with Him in hénosis, a living experience of permanent tension towards the Supreme. By focusing in the study of the names of God through exegesis, this paper aims at clarifying eutony, a constant tension towards God, as the central theme of the Byzantine theologian's thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses Hannah Arendt's approach in “Truth and Politics" to the use of lies in the public and political spheres. Considering Derrida's review in his lecture History of the Lie: Prolegomena, we will attempt to resolve questions of greater importance: How can a lie be politically effective? What does that efficiency imply? We will see that in politics lies do not consist, as Arendt and her tradition have argued, in the intentionality of the message or in self-deception (psychological idea of lie); but rather that lying produces “effects of truth", generating, producing and sustaining new truths and realities by virtue of the speech acts themselves. However, just as not every performative utterance is mendacious, we will also see in what sense the effectiveness of the political lie is deeply related to who is the agent of that saying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite of the extraordinary variety of studies on Kierkegaard's philosophy, his concept of modesty has not received enough attention. My paper aims to present and analyze Kierkegaard's concept of modesty, as it is developed in The Concept of Anxiety (1844) by his pseudonym Vigilius Haufniensis. First, I will try to provide an understanding of some of the major themes of Haufniensis's book (spirit, task, anxiety). Second, I examine what the psychological phenomenon of modesty reveals about the subjective structure of the human being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the recent challenges faced by universities in teaching, research and outreach. A hermeneutical standpoint is proposed to perform a political analysis of emotions with the aim of revealing how pathological behaviors emerge in academic communities dealing with extreme social pressures. The discussion is developed in two parts: first, the concept of paranoia is characterized; second, appealing to the concept of psychological potentials, the institutional conditions in which paranoia emerges are discussed. The main conclusion of the article is that in conditions of competition and hierarchy, human beings experience negative emotions and a diminished potential for capabilities development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show that truth is neutral with respect to metaphysics and epistemology. In other words, the paper states that in order to make an analysis about our daily use of truth discourse, it is not necessary to refer to neither the nature of the world nor the nature of our epistemic capacities. The text is composed by three sections. In the first one, it makes explicit the common-sense intuitions which seem to bring truth to either metaphysics or epistemology. In the second one, the text analyzes the role of the predicate «is true» in our natural languages. In the third section, the intuitions aforementioned are considered with the purpose of examining its intuitive status and its alleged relationship with both metaphysics and epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show that truth is neutral with respect to metaphysics and epistemology. In other words, the paper states that in order to make an analysis about our daily use of truth discourse, it is not necessary to refer to neither the nature of the world nor the nature of our epistemic capacities. The text is composed by three sections. In the first one, it makes explicit the common-sense intuitions which seem to bring truth to either metaphysics or epistemology. In the second one, the text analyzes the role of the predicate «is true» in our natural languages. In the third section, the intuitions aforementioned are considered with the purpose of examining its intuitive status and its alleged relationship with both metaphysics and epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Levinas's work is explicitly placed within the heritage of the Phenomenological school. Nevertheless, he repeatedly uses notions drawn from the religious tradition, especially Jewish, up to the point of stating that Judaism is a "category of being". This paper analyses the role of Judaism as a category, beginning with a reconstruction of this notion in the most influential authors within Levinas's philosophy. Finally, the role and meaning that this categorial structure take on in Levinas will be shown, through the examination of four main components: the exposition of alterity as separation and glory; the relationship of responsibility as election and substitution; the understanding of temporality as creation and redemption; and the prophetical understanding of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Idea of Phenomenology is the result of the first course in which Husserl presented disciplinary developments after the transcendental turn occurred around 1905. It is therefore not only an important document of this turning, but also a high-impact work on the subsequent phenomenological tradition. In this paper we study three aspects of the category of enigma (Rätsel): the way in which it characterizes transcendence, the figure of objectors and the issue of donation and its modes. This analysis will highlight unexplored aspects of transcendental phenomenology at its early stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an outline of some ways that lead us to think about the necessity of memory, inherent to the experience of the present. We will work around three thematic lines within the field of philosophy of history: first, the relation between the past and our present; second, the problem of the personal disposition of the subject of historical knowledge and his inevitable belonging to the present at the level of action; and the sense of a possible historical experience where the individual and the collective intersect each other, in relation to the question of establishing whether it is appropriate to make an exhaustive remembrance of those who died because of the armed conflict in Colombia. With this purpose, we will point out to a series of elements drawn from Benjamin's philosophy of memory so as to rehearse some possible connections with the philosophies of forgetfulness, remembrance and memory proposed by Nietzsche and Bergson. Thus, we seek to establish the reality of the past that is based on the virtual existence of recollection and, from there, to determine the ability of the latter to be updated in the form of vital forces, committed to making a future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a reflection on subjectivity in the context of consumer society, discussing two alternative approaches: on the one hand, the identification between subject and commodity, traceable, among others, to Bauman, and, on the other hand, Žižek's interpretation of subjectivity as an emerging surplus of the conflict within the symbolic order. The resulting exchange between these alternatives shows the constitutive relations of the subject of consumption in the dimension of desire, in the margin of freedom, and in the role of reflexivity. Finally, the understanding of the relationship between the subject and the material world is proposed as a constructive performativity of subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to reconstruct how the category of aesthetic experience has become central in contemporary aesthetics. Drawing from the contribution of different theorists and philosophers of art we approach the potential and limits of this category, paying attention to both proposals that defend it, and to criticisms that accuse it of having become a new form of ideology. Apparently, the concept of work of art has become obsolete, and the understanding of contemporary art has been channeled through the concept of aesthetic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beyond the stereotypes and simplifications of René Girard's work, this paper defends the critical, independent and complex character of his thought. One year after his death and in the 25th anniversary of his dialogue with several liberation theologians, we come back to the proceedings of the meeting. In this volume we can recognize the richness and nuances of Girard's thinking, exemplified in his perspective on the Christ's Passion, that he originally regarded as a non-sacrificial narrative, and then accepted as sacrificial, but keeping his own denunciation of the logic of sacrifice and agreeing with the theologians present at the meeting about its relation with the persistence of poverty, exclusion, and indifference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The figure of angels is present in Jewish biblical tradition and in Jewish intertestamental literature. Even though researchers speculate on the lack of a "Jewish angelology," the angel figure plays a leading role in the administration of Heaven and Earth. From the characterization of the figure of the angels in Maimonides, this paper seeks to understand why he attempts to rationalize the angelology and the political-theological implications of that rationalization. Specifically, we are going to analyze the role of angels in the administration of the universe and their relationship with men, as well as their dispute with the heavenly power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two central issues: the first one briefly presents two stages of anthropological development of Paul Ricœur's anthropologic deployment, as an effort to think human being with a renewed logic. The second one states that in such philosophical journey a plus of meaning is inserted into the language of faith which accompanies the anthropological development itself and, in turn, exceeds and contains the philosophical specific task, and also makes clear how such an assignment exceeds the explicit aims of the French author. In other words, this paper only seeks to outline a 'gesture of openness' in contemporary philosophy, accepting its heritage, and assuming renewed hues, deeps and scopes, allowing the philosophical work and human being go beyond themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main thesis of this paper is that for Socrates political virtue is accomplished exclusively in the sphere of pure language or gesture. The argument consists of three parts. First, following on from the lectures entitled What is Called Thinking?, I examine Heidegger's interpretation of the figure of Socrates in relation to the themes of language and gesture. Following on from this analysis, I remark that Heidegger overlooks important aspects of Socrates' understanding of the relation between political virtue and speech. Subsequently, based on the analysis of a central passage from Plato's Apology, I argue that virtue requires the public communicability of speech, and that it imposes itself over language and gestures as a principle of action that precedes and exceeds conceptual knowledge. Finally, I conclude by stating that political power is restricted to the medium of language, to what language itself does or says. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the author reflects upon the past, the present and the future of philosophical education within the framework of a democratic mode of living, integrating three levels of argumentation: an autobiographic level, triggered by the encounter with an old school notebook that belonged to the author's father; a conceptual level, in which the author recalls John Dewey's pragmatist approach to philosophy; and a descriptive and proactive level, in which the author examines recent developments concerning the teaching of philosophy and proposes a perspective on philosophical education in tune with these. The author underscores the importance of different displacements and transformations undergone by the practice of teaching philosophy during the last century, and sets up a contrast between the old practices, intended to provide a "correct view of the world", and the urge for philosophy to provide a critique of society and knowledge. In this way, the author draws on Dewey's ideal, according to which philosophy should carry out both a critique and a reconstruction of present experience. Finally, the author sets forth ten challenges for future philosophical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the relation between discourse, knowledge and institutions, in the context of the teachings of the French philosopher Michel Foucault. The question about discourse leads Foucault to inquire about the relation between knowledge and power. The imbrication of knowledge and power that his analysis uncovers sets in motion a powerful and multiple production technology that extends with positive effects to all society and institutions. An example of this is the institution of school and in its particular rediscovery of disciplines. We briefly review the writings of humanists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as examples of the positive effects of the idea of educating men and women in intellectual tasks through the study of school disciplines, indispensable to achieve critical thought, the core of the positive and productive effect of school learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a summary of the idea of natural education and its meaning in Emile or On Education, and addresses Rousseau's view on the progressive appearance of fundamental dispositions in human growth and development. It deals, too, with Rousseau's stance on moral and religious education, and his criticism of skepticism that led him to trust his own inner voice as his main spiritual beacon, principle of faith and direct link to God [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the foundations of Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism and the main criticisms to this doctrine, especially those which deem it incompatible with unconditional respect of human rights. Bentham's Panopticon, his proposal on prison reform published in the late eighteenth century, is discussed. Based on the analysis of the Panopticon -which is a consistent application of Bentham utilitarianism-, the author concludes that a) this doctrine promotes a humanitarian approach, although b) human rights are not guaranteed, but conditioned to the provided level of collective benefit; and c) Bentham's utilitarianism questions the universality and irrevocability of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the different relationships that bond the concept of auctoritas with the concept of potestas as essential notions of positive law, which are expressed in two areas: as sources of creation and protection of the legal and institutional order and as sources of denial and destruction of human life. Auctoritas considerably increases potestas when protection of order is required and, therefore, radically increases the power of destruction of human life. Law and life, then, are the foundation and the ultimate object of this intimate and complex link between auctoritas and potestas, objectified in the preservation of the law and, in turn, saturating the legal and political dimensions of human life, reducing it to bare life, that is, to a worthless object that can be managed, administered and eventually eliminated. Upon these premises, this paper aims to address the relations between auctoritas and potestas, and between them and the bare life, from the various analyzes and historical, political and legal outcomes. These analyzes allow us to state either the supremacy of the link between authority and power to ensure the validity of the legal and institutional order, or the supremacy of human life, free from this excessive link. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, some of the most important concepts and principles of Cornelio Fabro's work are addressed, in order to weigh the scope, originality and consistency of his speculative position on the notion of freedom. In the first part, the intellectual and scientific itinerary of Cornelio Fabro is presented. In the second part, the metaphysical and existential ground of freedom is examined and a fast tour around the most representative philosophical authors of modernity involved in his thinking is done. In the third part, some brief final considerations are made in which the central topics developed in this work are delimited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is usual to claim that Descartes' epistemological project is such that its main objective (overturning the doubts of the sceptics) and the means to attain it (the method of doubt) are incompatible, so that Descartes necessarily blocks his own project. In this paper I argue that the above opinion comes from a blindness of sorts that prevents us from appreciating both the therapeutical nature of Descartes' method and the specific procedures that he uses to work himself into a position from which radical sceptical hypotheses no longer make sense. Far from obsolete, Descartes' strategy fares much better in terms of overcoming radical scepticism than contemporary rival approaches, whether they are overriding strategies or undercutting procedures that, stressing the groundless character of our basic beliefs, fall prey to the bewitchment of scepticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to introduce a possible reading of Hegel's notion of forgiveness in the light of his reflections in the Spirit of Christianity and its Fate and in the Phenomenology of Spirit. Traditional readings of the notion of forgiveness tend to address the subject as a relationship between two. The attempt here, however, will be to introduce Hegel's notion of forgiveness in relationship to his reflections on being in common and the wounds that lie in its grounds. Following this thread, forgiveness will be understood as a decision or an act that addresses both a community's claim for memory and the urgency of a new beginning as an attempt to restore life in common. The paper will also suggest a possible dialogue between Hegel's thought and contemporary reflections on politics of transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is knowledge-how a hidden knowledge-that, and therefore also a relation between an epistemic subject and a proposition? What is the connection between knowledgehow and knowledge-that? I will deal with both questions in the course of my paper. In the first part, I argue that the term 'knowledge-how' is an ambiguous term in a semantic pragmatic sense, blending two distinct meanings: 'knowledgehow' in the sense of knowledge-that, and 'knowledge-how' in the sense of an ability. In the second part of my paper, I construe five alternative ways of correlating knowledge-that and knowledge-how in the sense of an ability. I will argue in favour of one of them. I will show that knowledge-how is not a species of knowledge-that but rather that knowledge-that is a species of knowledge-how. More specifically, dispositional knowledge-how is at the core of propositional knowledge that and accordingly should be understood to be at the center of epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]