Arquivo para a ‘Information ethics’ Categoria
Repentance, start over and grace
06
Oct
Repentance is not the same as remorse, it is linked to the past
and prevents a positive start, there is no awareness of guilt and a new state of grace is not achieved.
Grace is living life to the full, with the limits that life imposes on everyone, however repentant, you can compress the past strictly to what it was: a mistake, and live well the present and the future by overcoming an anguish that is inalienable responsibility for the fault or error committed.
To repent is to live intensely and truly in the present, even if some suffering or mark remains from the past, whoever took a step after that managed to start over.
Ludwig Feuerbach, best known for Marx’s Theses against his Hegelianism, called old Hegelianism, in his maturity wrote about remorse, his reading is important for the confrontation he makes both with Schopenhauer and with Kant.
Feuerbach recognizes the originality of the subject and proposes it in a broader scope of freedom, examining remorse and regret as conditions of imputability of an act,
In opposition to Schopenhauer, Feuerbach will affirm that the character of a man is not innate, nor unchangeable, that is why the death penalty is wrong, and here too, the discussion about the right of the Modern State on human life, an always controversial topic is important.
Against Schopenhauer, Feuerbach argues that man’s character is neither innate nor unchangeable, so the death penalty is mistaken.
The foundation of freedom is the self that acts in the game of passions and is essentially the relationship with the Other, which is widely explored in modern literature by Paul Ricoeur, Lèvinas and other authors, there is a phenomenological resumption of this issue.
The suggestions in the moral and legal field are essentially in relation to this relationship with others, and the suggestions in these fields are particularly interesting, but ethical questions remain, such as that of the absolute foundation of moral obligation, which is posed in Kant in the explanation of the which is moral conscience.
This discussion expands in some authors to the field of sensitivity (SERRAO, 2007) and mysticism (TOMASONI, 2010), where the issue of grace can be included more broadly, adding the recognition of grace where there is repentance and a new beginning.
References:
Adriana Veríssimo SERRÃO (2007). Pensar a sensibilidade. Baumgarten – Kant – Feuerbach, Lisboa, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa, PT: Lisbon.
TOMASONI, Francesco (2010). Tra misticismo e scienza: l’uomo e la sua ‘sensibilità’ nell’Eklektik, in: L’umanesimo scientifico dal Rinascimento all’Illuminismo, a cura di Lorenzo Bianchi e Gianni Paganini, IT: Napoli.
Russian Roulette: The Atomic Peril
03
Oct
Russian and NATO rhetoric grows as Russia retreats from
the Ukraine war, the forces of this country arrived in Lymann, a city within the Oblast (extado) of Donetsk, where contested plebiscites were held there and also in Luhansk, and Announcement of annexation to Russia.
The advance towards the Donetsk Oblast actually looks like a retreat of Russian troops, we warned last week that Russia would not react peacefully in a loss of the war, the annexation announcement demonstrates this, but the call-up of reservists seems to warn of something greater .
The call volume of 300,000 reservists doesn’t seem to be just a function of the Ukraine war, the nuclear threat from both Russia and the US government’s response don’t seem like bluffs, Putin himself said it wasn’t a bluff, and Western analysts say that Russian TV even mentions in its war news, Armageddon, alluding to the battle at the end of the world.
Only nine countries in the world have nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the two main powers in the conflict the United States and Russia, together have 12,853 nuclear warheads on the planet, of course what is known, and this is 90% of the total, China for example has only 350 warheads, North Korea makes a big deal out of less at 100, warheads are explosive charges having a cylindrical nuclear capsule placed inside a rocket, missile or projectile. India is fifth member.
Nuclear power plants should also be considered in this account, which once bombed can have even more devastating effects than warheads, but it is thought that at an early stage weapons considered “tactical” would be used, but it is evident that this would happen in a domino effect.
This whole scenario is terrifying, negotiation is always possible, China has already spoken out harshly warning of this possible spillover, but the preparation and tension between NATO and Russia seem to put at risk at the highest alert level.
Peace is always the path to the civilizing process, it has social and political nuances of course, but the defense of life and civilization must prevail over insanity, we hope.
The moments are of high tension and October will be very decisive for the conflict.
Wisdom and Love
29
Sep
*The previous text is wrong, because I had some security problem with my blog.
Perhaps the greatest of paradigms and thus the most susceptible to human
errors is Love, one can speak of the Greek classification: eros, philia and agape, but I want to link it here to wisdom in the sense of full happiness, not the one that produces utilitarian but spiritual fruits.
There is a book “The shadow of love, on the concept of love in Heidegger” and another that was Hannah Arendt’s thesis, they do not seem to be but are linked, because it was during the thesis period that Heidegger and Arendt had a romance and so she began to be mentored by Karl Jaspers.
The great scientific theory of our time, both for Karl Popper and for Thomas Kuhn, two great philosophers of science, is the possibility that there will always be a course correction in scientific methods and theories so that man knows more about himself and nature that surrounds it.
Heidegger’s text, which is a compilation of letters, only exists in French, so let’s return to the German concept of “Dasein” now to re-signify it and give it a connotation linked to Love:
“In the usual meaning, however, it means, for example: the chair ‘is there’; the uncle “is there”, he arrived and is present; hence: presence” (Heidegger, 1994b, p. 300).
It may seem like a simple literary maneuver, but it is not, other authors (Fernandes, 2011) also make this allusion and even compare it with “parousia” and “adventus”, which acquire a more religious connotation, here it is not necessary.
Thus, it is a presence of an absence, but love also passes through language and thinking, so “thinking is, therefore, to found, in the human, the “medium” to give oneself to the truth of being. It is, therefore, to co-found the human as presence: to be the there-in-being. In this sense, the fundamental ontology is a rush towards the passage, to pack itself for the leap, a first movement in favor of the foundation of the truth of being in the human as presence. This entails a transformation of the human from the lord of beings into the shepherd of Being”.
And this is Sloterdijk’s main contestation in Heidegger, the failure of this human domestication, or what in Heidegger is “care” and that modernity has not been able to resolve.
Heidegger’s main idea about Love is its presence in an Absence, to which we can add what we developed in previous topics: working with uncertainty and errors, that is, knowing how to live and work in the face of the natural difficulties of life.
Quantum physics, for example, has its beginnings in the enunciation of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, which stated that it was not possible to know exactly what the position of the particles of an atom was with exactitude, Planck who did not agree, it is his statement “I do not agree may God play dice”, went to the laboratory to prove this principle.
NASA (in the photo the crash of the spacecraft colliding with Dimorphos) has just made a scientific feat which is to hit a satellite of a small meteor, which does not pose any danger of collision with Earth, just to prove that it is possible to change course some celestial body, and with that, in case of danger to Earth, change its route.
The DART project is a test for a possible future mission to deflect an asteroid from colliding with Earth, for cosmic dimensions Dimorphos is small (160 m) and orbits another larger asteroid (780 m) called Didymos and form a binary system, the spacecraft that hit it was traveling at 22.015 km/h and the image seen from a telescope in Hawaii on Monday night (26/09) shows that the impact produced many fragments, the deviation from the route, however, is small.
Changing route is wise, when you admit the mistake, but it requires two steps: admitting the mistake and then having the humility to change route.
Reference:
HEIDEGGER, M. (1994). Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann
Fernandes, M. (2011) A. O cuidado como amor em Heidegger. Rev. Abordagem Gestalt. Vol. 1, n. 2, Brazil, Goiânia.
The gap between rich and poor
23
Sep
The most varied studies, we commented on some in this week’s
posts, point to a practically stable separation between rich and poor when not growing in some countries, this model can never guarantee sustainable social human development, wars and pandemics increase this gap even more.
The most serious problem that is extreme poverty, we have already analyzed and published in February this year an analysis of global poverty, and also, in another post, the social problem after covid 19.
The sustainability of human economic and social development depends not only on increasing wealth and social production, it is necessary to find a balance where both social mobility of classes and ethnic mobility provide sustainability and overcome inequalities.
The problem of sustainability is not secondary, many models distribute wealth but impoverish the country as a whole, this is because the investment aspects and safer strategies of economic models are only thought of around income distribution, the opposite where there is only an increase without distribution is less sustainable.
For this model, the biblical parable of Lazarus and the Rich man, the poor man who lived on the margins and when the rich see himself condemned, here the parable is valid both personally and socially, asks that he be allowed to warn his relatives of this risk, but says the biblical prophets already said and you didn’t listen, how many people and political actions have already denounced the serious social gap.
For those who don’t know, the biblical parable says (Lk 16:19-24): “At that time, Jesus said to the Pharisees: 19 “There was a rich man, who dressed in fine and elegant clothes and held splendid parties every day. A poor man named Lazarus, full of wounds, was on the ground, at the rich man’s door. He wanted to satisfy his hunger with the leftovers that fell from the rich man’s table. And besides, the dogs came to lick their wounds. When the poor man died, the angels took him to Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In the region of the dead, in the midst of torments, the rich man lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham from afar, with Lazarus by his side. Then he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Tell Lazarus to wet the tip of his finger to cool my tongue, because I suffer a lot in these flames”.
The rich man also asked to warn the living relatives, and he was reminded that they had (and have) the prophets.
Be fair in the little things
16
Sep
Money is in history and in life just a symbol of exchanges and
goods that must circulate socially so that everyone has a dignified and fair life, dealing with it is something that should be treated with the same respect that people socially deserve.
A fair person is also fair in small things, social injustice does not start with big robberies, they are an indication that those people do or will one day do greater social injustices.
The public sphere is corrupted when those who determine social justice: rulers, judges and legislators have lost the notion and values that small thefts and injustices can lead to big ones and make the whole society corrupt, then everyone will say this is normal.
When these values start to become dubious, it means that morally society as a whole is shrouded in corruption, immorality and a great lack of ethics, everything that is public begins to fall apart and there appear profiteers and opportunists who will make use of public corruption.
The biblical reading (Lk 16,1-13) which speaks of a manager who, seeing that he was going to be fired, starts to negotiate with the debtors of a rich man, and calls the debtors and begins to reduce the debts, so it is not a smart but dishonest administrator.
The parable seems strange if it has not been read to the end, because when he begins to relieve his debts to save himself, he reveals his true character, which was to squander the master’s goods, says the reading in verses Lk 16, 10-11: “Whoever is not faithful in small things will not be faithful in great things either, and if you are not faithful in the use of unjust money, who will entrust you with true good?”.
The true good is nothing other than a full life, not only eternal life for those who believe, but also an earthly life, difficult perhaps, but serene for those who have not included in their daily life, in the “little things”, deviation, the theft and corruption of other people’s things or public goods.
Small vices lead to big ones, and they cannot lead to a full life, but increasingly troubled, more greed and lack of control of consumption and of life itself, it is the bad administrator who squandered the rich man’s goods, that is, we throw the real riches of life outside because of greed and consumerism.
Money, morals and ethics
15
Sep
As we established in the previous post, whatever the form of 
exchanges, in our current context bank cards, although bitcoin digital money has appeared in this scenario, which is controversial, at the basis of every relationship is the exchange of goods in markets.
So it is not money, but markets that can be corrupted by the practices of setting prices for products, and this is what can be ethical and moral or not, including practices that lead to corruption, favoring exchanges and market positions with some illegal rewards that are paid to people in decision-making positions.
Thus, markets are not limited to distributing goods, they also express and promote certain attitudes in relation to exchanged products: favoring reading in children, auctioning vacancies in educational institutions that are key to high positions and even hiring foreign mercenaries in wars.
Also the payment of professionals for fair values and consistent with the minimum standard of living and what is already a practically global issue: the levels of social security that guarantee everyone a minimum level of income for a healthy and dignified life.
As for moral values, countless examples can also be given, perhaps the clearest is a friend for whom you pay is not the same as a friend for whom you have a free friendship.
The relations of friendship and respect that we maintain towards all other people, whether in our circle or not, whether our political, religious or ethnic preference or not, signify a higher moral value than those values, that money “pays for”. and for which one has “respect”.
Byung Chul Han explains that where respect is gone, the public sphere goes into decline, and this is the root of the deep civilizational crisis they are experiencing, the social, economic and political effects are just a consequence, when laws must prevent disrespect is sign of decadence and serious crisis in the public sphere.
Doctors are for the sick
12
Sep
Number of cases and studies of studies falling for a perception
that the pandemic would have come to an end, it is from a certain number of studies as in cases, but as much as studies of studies scientists continue to advance in future treatments
Diseases were little known and medicine at the time was too expensive to have no purchasing power, even the fact that a paralytic was placed in the presence of Jesus descending through the ceiling, has a mistaken interpretation, they would not let him pass.
It is a fact that we already have chairs and seats in the queues for elders, pregnant women and the sick, but there is still a mentality of the community of the pure, the saints or the perfect, after all, efficiency cannot come from those who are not physically prepared for it.
This was how the pandemic was dealt with, many said that the sick isolate themselves and society will continue its rhythm, but what we saw was society as a whole losing its rhythm, and the result of this pressure gradually turned into many psychic diseases. , even for those who made them.
Treating and working with imperfection, illness and purity is only to promote the social integration of people, the idea of being a “model” for others is a Kantian idea of ethics, which can lead to an ethics and a partial view of sociability and what is imperfect.
In terms of religious culture, it leads to isolation, the formation of a bubble in which values are reaffirmed, but many are excluded and are not invited to participate and live with differences, this is one of the main religious paradigms that Jesus broke in his time.
Talking to women, leaving space for children, healing lepers and cripples broke the Pharisaic concept of what was considered “unclean”, went against sinners and the sick.
It is true that the blind cannot guide the blind, but doctors are for the sick, says the biblical passage (Lk 15:1-3): “At that time, publicans and sinners came to Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees, however, and the teachers of the Law criticized Jesus. “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” , then Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep and then the prodigal son.
The Pharisaic mentality not only does not cure the sick, it becomes a social disease itself.
The idolatry of perfection
07
Sep
Myths and idols were created precisely to divert the understanding
of human nature, they change according to the contexts and the evolution of languages, but they have always been present in the history of humanity and thus they themselves must have human considerations.
Nietzsche warned us about the risks of living fed by idols (or ideas, which for him were synonymous), showed that by dominating our mind and conditioning our thinking, feeling and acting in the world, we become strict with our life and that of others, claimed to be a monstrous force, as a myth it can be said that its maximum expression is Narcissus (image) and this led to sameness, the lack of originality and diversity, the demand for the same.
In the name of some idealism, and in modernity it itself became a philosophy after Kant, people are capable of hurting and reaching the other who is outside their model, and even not allowing to build in life what they allowed themselves to be conquered by Is it over there.
The model of efficiency, productivity and social rigor is also a model of perfection.
This happens because the idealist model formulates that there is an ideal model to follow and reality is always imperfect and thus they prefer to follow the perfection of ideas and reach the absurdity of submitting others to their model of perfection, they believe that there is a top to be hit.
So it is not possible to formulate a human model to be followed, of course it is possible if we understand human imperfection as part of a process of hominization and civilization in which all other humans must have the same possibility of living and sharing the common environment.
Edgar Morin called this “planetary citizenship”, many political and religious models speak of solidarity, of rejection of hatred, but it is necessary to observe if they do not build something that excludes.
Today is the day of the Brazilian nation, so diverse and rich in races and ethnicities, any model that does not support the other is the type of idolatry of perfection that must be rejected, does not lead to solidarity.
Spinozian Ethics, a strong counterpoint to idealist ethics, formulated that reality is always equal to perfection, because perfection only makes sense when it is reality not something imagined or thought, so perfection is reality to the same extent that reality is perfect.
Without love and respect for the Other, for diversity and tolerance, every ideal model is imperfect.
Between affliction and peace, the infinite and the eternal
01
Sep
Many seek happiness at any price, so we reflect 
empathy early in the week, then reflect on the anguish and distress that are axes of growth and suffering, but it is they that understandably lead us to real happiness, built peace.
Kierkegaard’s “Concept of Anguish” (1884) shows multiple forms: the anguish of freedom or nothingness, there is a personal choice of this that the author calls the choice of oneself, the anguish of goodness and obstinacy, the anguish of sexuality, that of tomorrow and that of the finite, it is prior to faith.
At this point it is possible to link to a phenomenological view, and still to link it to the interpretation of the biblical passage of man’s fall into sin (Genesis 3), ignoring the Enlightenment / Idealist culture, which is the anguish of freedom or choice that occupies a essential role for the Self.
According to Kierkegaard man is called, as spirit (addition and mind), to place the relation between the elements that characterize him structurally, likewise those that can conflict with each other (body and soul, temporality and eternity), choosing a form of existence among the innumerable ones historically presented to him, here the phenomenology.
Although innumerable, Kierkegaard pedagogically lists some choices that are choices in three life styles (or “stages”): the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious, is reductive but interesting.
The openness I see (in it is only existence but could be essence as Being) is that anguish is therefore “nothingness” that each person in his indeterminacy “is” at the moment of establishing synthesis to the point of being. give yourself an “identity”, a controversial theme in idealism, here that I think is possible to connect it to Heidegger’s “being in the world”, although different concepts.
Contrary to the fall the biblical passages of the New Testament could be placed on the beatitudes in Mt 5: 1-12, we highlight two that were dealt with in these days, verses 4 and 5: “Blessed are the afflicted, for they shall be comforted, blessed. the meek, for they shall possess the earth, ”and verse 9,” Blessed are they that bring peace, for they shall be called the children of God.”
But Kierkegaard’s fundamental help is on the question of identity, definitions as being-in-itself and being-in-the-world, and the concept of the eternal which is a launch into the “infinite.”
The position of power and symmetry
25
Aug
As we elaborated in the previous post, power is always a hierarchical
position and so the final decision and the instruments of oppression are the positions only of those who occupy the highest positions in the hierarchy and what remains at the base of the pyramid is rebellion or resignation.
If power is necessary, it is up to those in the post to exercise it with discernment and generosity, the ideal would be that they were in fact at the service, but with rare exceptions, most use the post, and in general all those who who sophism with power.
The Platonic and Aristotelian model assumed that the polis could be governed by those who were well prepared and for this they created instruments for the formation of the citizen of the polis, the politician par excellence.
The evolution of this model reached the Enlightenment, and practically all current models (there are some exceptions in Africa and in Asian countries) this is the model of power of most nations, by force, by vote or by what Byung Chul Han called psychopolitics, deceiving peoples.
But it is important to remember that there is power disseminated throughout the social structure, and also that there are networks (they may or may not use media) and through them each one can exercise their action for a better, more symmetrical world with greater reciprocity between co-citizens.
Sloterdijk created the model of co-immunity, but they presuppose that some “evil” always prevails, something like the “discontent of humanity”, what we call here the civilizational crisis, the absence of a real model to oppose the prevailing dictatorial models. or on an increasing scale, there is a return to the crises of the beginning of the century, precisely because there was no opposition to the root of the model: the Enlightenment and the idealist.
The economic reasons are consequences and not the root of these models, as Edgar Morin intended when emphasizing that there is no way to change without changing the roots of thought, Heidegger also says that abandoning the revolution in thought is not allowing real change in society, and that it is basically the reason why we reverted to the theses before the first war, that is, we repeated history.
Symmetry, reciprocity, understanding of human diversity and respect for it are almost always ignored by the models of the beginning of the last century, returning to them is nothing but a foreshadowing of a greater tragedy: the civilizational crisis with deeper roots than the previous ones. .
Who will suffer the most will be the base of the pyramid of power, but the volume of military power can lead to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, only solidarity, fraternity and reciprocity can avoid and redirect this crisis.
