Arquivo para a ‘Linguagens’ Categoria
Post-truth time or hermeneutics
19
Jun
Hermeneutics is one that allows a worldview and an interpretation of different
facts, it does not mean manipulation of the truth, but exactly the unveiling of what ideologies and non-practical theories hide (there is no phronesis, practical wisdom).
What happens is that the search for the absolute spirit, the establishment of total truths was actually totalitarian, that is, they did not admit a different worldview, the dialog was simply linked to a pre-established truth, so there were truths a priori .
Knowledge for Immanuel Kant begins with experience, and reason would organize this matter according to its own forms, with the existing structures in knowledge, so information would be a way to organize the matter that comes from experience.
Although “a priori” is generally referred to as an adjective of knowledge, it is also used as an adjective to modify nouns, such as truth, so there would be truth a priori, and this is one of the tenets of idealism.
But the truth for centuries has remained veiled, it has always been established by certain forms of power, but this is the time when the truths begin to be revealed, not by journalists and controlled groups that are part of fans, but the armed crowd of photos and cell phones , cameras present in many surveillance places, but the big leap is awareness.
It is no coincidence that this is the great current topic, from philosophical hermeneutics, the question of historical consciousness that is no longer deterministic, romantic or dogmatic to the question of whether intelligent machines can be aware and ultimately “imitate” man .
For Christian culture this can go to another point, a time when the truth is revealed, according to the evangelist Matthew 10: 26-29:
“Do not be afraid of men, because there is nothing covered up that is not revealed, and there is nothing of hidden that is not known. What I say to you in the darkness, say it in the light of day; what you hear at the ear, proclaim it over the roofs! Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul! On the contrary, fear the one who can destroy the soul and the body in hell! ”.
Philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, who is not a Christian, said that the pandemic put us “all on our knees”, I would say that not everyone still has those who do not admit the mystery beyond our ability to understand and among the religious those who are not yet knees, at least out of compassion for those who suffer.
Pandemic and power
15
May
A catastrophe situation is faced with solidarity, compassion with those who suffer
it directly, support for those who must face it head on, and especially with all the support of those who can and must give conditions to face the catastrophe.
It is also a new situation, which requires everyone to review actions, concepts and the lifestyle itself can and must change, those who behave trying to avoid the new routine, hinder the coping of the catastrophe and worsen it personally and socially.
All of this involves power, central powers and micro-powers, the philosopher Foucault developed the concept of biopower, that is, the control of collective phenomena from the processes of birth, longevity, mortality and fertility, already in recent philosophy Byung Chul Han created the concept of psychopower, one that through the media and communication controls the social environment.
The pandemic seems to have combined the two, and even more deeply human anthropology on its return home, uses both the issue of mortality control and communication, especially digital, for tasks, shopping and work at home, as well as the control by power.
State institutions are mobilized as soon as the Modern State enters the scene, to sympathize or to open its contradictions to the social environment, hospitals, educational institutions and mass media are all mobilized by the forces of power.
The more fraternal and more hostile faces of the idealistic model appear, in an eagerness to replace the health and power of the family’s intrinsically fraternal solidarity, spirituality and the common good. It may point to a way out or put the whole of life in check. .
Religious power is also in check, with the temples closed or they give serious and concentrated responses or they stay in the spiritual subjectivism of known phrases and buzzwords that do not explain or solve anything, the subjectivism / objectivism dualism collapses and asks for a transcendent.
In the Christian reading of John (Jn 15,15) you can read: “I no longer call you servants, but friends because the servant does not know what his Lord is doing”, and this is fundamental in a pandemic, and generates solidarity.
And for those who go beyond friendship and generate brotherly love, there is a divine promise that consoles and strengthens us at this moment (Jn 14,21): “Now whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and I will manifest myself to him ”, and they will have inner peace to face the external war that the pandemic generated.
Beyond idealism, new logic and pandemic
29
Apr
Kant’s simplification led to abstract formulations so complicated that it would
be inappropriate to call them complex since he intended the opposite, but the attempt to reduce 12 categories and three central ideas: the psychological (soul), the cosmological (the world as a whole) ) and the theological (of God).
This will produce an ingenious, rational but very complicated construct, which are the three judgments that would link Subject (A) to predicates (B), the judgments: analytical, synthetic a priori and a posteriori, the idea of a priori judgments was the most controversial because it sees the mind as having a natural memory.
Edmund Husserl and Gottlob Frége, who had a strong arithmetical logic formation, looked at this Kantian theme, imagining that logic could not be reformulated based on action, that is, we do not change our mind because our way of acting changes, this is based on all who seeing the change in the logic of everyday life caused by the pandemic, they imagine that the mind does not change.
Husserl’s departure from mathematical logic to the world of experiences, under the strong influence of Franz Brentano who worked on intentionality (see the previous post, the other eidos), made him formulate a new world of experiences, from human emotions to total life of the world (Lebenswelt).
While the Logical Investigations date back to 1900 and 1901, their idea of intentionality formulated in their phenomenology as the return to things themselves, or how they appear to consciousness through phenomenological reduction, their epoché, which is to place our concepts and thoughts in parentheses, a clear disagreement with the Cartesian cogito.
On its return to the Greek eidos, it will promote eidetic variation, which can be explained as from the phenomenological epoché (putting concepts in parentheses) it produces an eidetic variation on the idea we had of the thing (concepts, thoughts or objects) and it can produce in the end new “horizons”, a fundamental category for the dialogue about the new.
Our pandemic phenomenon produced an “colletive” epoché, a new look at a deadly virus, we had to produce an eidetic variation, what we think of this “little flu”, and this should produce new “horizons” about the concepts of how to live the day to day: attitudes health, economic solidarity and total reformulation of family life: spaces, time, food and relationships and the use of technology.
Idealists continue to imagine that everything will be as it was before, they did not do the epoché pandemic.
Simplification, idealism and pandemic
28
Apr
The idea that we can simplify phenomena that are complex seems a good way,
but to simplify what is by nature complex is to ignore the set of phenomena and interpretations that are within the phenomenon you want to analyze, whatever the nature.
It is very different from the search for essence, the pre-Socratics sought to define what was the essential element of nature: fire, air, atoms, numbers, the Being, and thus defined the main pre-Socratic schools, when realizing that it was a broader phenomenon Socrates, which is read by Plato divides into two worlds: the world of Ideas and the sensitive world, however any attentive reader will not say that his school has simplified, it only paved the way for greater complexity.
The eidos of Plato and the pre-Socratic Parmenides is different from modern idealism, because in it there is so much the concept of form, for example, a chair whatever form it has its Being as being made to sit.
The Greek eidos from which the etymology of the word idea comes, has two accepted meanings, one that is a synonym for concept, but in a broader sense it is thought of as an expression, with the implicit principle of the idea of intentionality (*), and this concept it was only taken up in modern philosophy by Franz Brentano and later in Husserl’s phenomenology, who was his student.
Modern idealism, whose fundamental basis is Kant, although it has a common part to the Greek eidos, which is the idea that when studying the thing we have a projection of knowledge on it, reducing the idea that this study would be what characterizes the object of study (objectivity), and thus introduces a specific type of subjectivity, abstracting it from Being, this abstraction has in Hegel the apex.
Kant came to think that it would be possible to reduce all thought to a few concepts, it would be a great facilitator for study and thought, but his thinking resulted in an even greater complexity, and his simplicity fell into the subject x object dualism, which we suffer.
Every simplification leads to some kind of subjectivism or objectivism, even in religious terms, when studying The Human Phenomenon, Teilhard Chardin declared that Man is the complexification of nature, difficult for theologians and exegetes to accept, but I ask you the question: why did Jesus use of parables to explain things that apparently could be simple¬, because it isn’t.
Idealism is basically a “doctrine” that contains the belief that it is thought and not the physical world that is at the origin of all things, that is, the objective world, which we discover with the pandemic, and physics quantum already knew and actual cosmology is deepening, is that uncertainty is part of knowledge, and we are faced every day with a new phenomenon.
After all, one of the assumptions of Kantian idealism was the submission of nature, she rebelled.
This is the original novelty that idealists do not accept, and this novelty should give us back the humility, proclaimed by all, but as idealism gets stuck in duality, the error is the others, we knew the truth, not even science, nor faith could imagine the complexity of the phenomenon that all humanity lives, the first step to face the pandemic is this: I depend on the step of the Other, and that we can take steps together, it still seems difficult.
*Encyclopædia Britannica, Available in: https://www.britannica.com/topic/idea , Access in: 04/26/2020.
The pandemic and the Other
17
Apr
Although the so-called horizontal isolation received the name (in the Brazilian case)
of “social isolation”, a name that would be more proper and less aggressive would be families retreat, in other countries also called confinement, as in France.
The recognition of the Other in the family also leads to an improvement in the social relationship, except in cases of families where the family relationship was already in a situation of extreme conflict, the tendency will be to practice acts of solidarity and tolerance.
This is necessary for a good social interaction, and to find the face of the Other, which is not the same, a term widely used in philosophy, Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Lévinas, Habermas, Agamben and Byung Chul Han, I certainly forget several since the theme it is present in current philosophy. The self-defense instinct, which must be coupled with a change in social behavior, can make the virus a catalyst for cultural change, that of thought is ongoing and the religious one essentially depends on what those who proclaim the faith think and who should to move from the sacredness of your thoughts to the substantiality of the world.
We will have to help people in order to help companies, work and education itself, worldwide EaD (Distance Education) tools, video conferences and chats, which from families can be re-educated, are being widely used, Brazil had an unprecedented meeting of the Federal Supreme Court by Skype, condominium meetings, etc.
Some countries like Denmark and Finland are already announcing the reopening of primary schools, but with some parents having restraint and fear of sending their children, adults will be able to cope with forms of distance education, at least for now.
As will be the religious re-education with closed temples, one pastor played sax for his faithful, another one put photos of the parishioners in his celebration, but an even bigger step needs to be taken for faith to appear beyond social solidarity (many food campaigns for the poorest) which is the act of mercy, the only one capable of showing the face of the Other without prejudice and “social isolation” from those who have a new different view of religion.
The golden book
11
Mar
Written in 1962 and considered one of the great novels of the 20th century, the 
Golden Book (O Caderno Dourado in Spanish, in the photo), tells the story of Anna Wulf, a writer immersed in a personal crisis who decides to tell her story, from the black book for his literary life when he lived in South Africa, the red book on his left-wing political activism, the yellow his emotional life and the blue his daily life.
Doris Lessing, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature at the age of 85 (2007) when she expected nothing more, herself made a joke about it, but the recognition was deserved and little is known today of this consequent feminist and who refused to adhere to fashions and conjunctures followed his struggle.
Themes such as friendship, motherhood and sexuality have much deeper tones and outlines in this author, in novels such as “As grandmothers” (2007) where old age is seen in a different light, especially for women, or about politics in its book “The sweetest dream” that she suggests as an autobiographical one, and that reflects deeply on her humanitarian vision.
But if I had to highlight a novel by her, my favorite of the youth “Prisons we choose to live in” (1987), it attacks in a subtle and extraordinary way the question of political rhetoric (or what was decided to be politically correct) where it instigates individuals to come out of social constraints and build a better world, in fact and above everyday fashion.
He does not fail to attack in this novel ignorance and the lack of personal responsibility in the desire for applause and mere repetition of mottos, how current his speech would be, anticipating the times, because it was precisely because of the excess of rhetoric and the absence of concrete acts that we fell into pitfalls and we help contemporary ignorance and demagogy.
His sentence that seems to sum up his thinking was: “I cannot and will not hurt my conscience just to adhere to the fashion of the day”, and he said this not for conservatives, but for the apparently advanced positions of his time that were not directed towards attitudes concrete.
Ascent and asceticism
06
Mar
Asceticism then means a virtuous process by which through steps and 
exercises one can acquire a spirituality by placing the soul in the face of obstacles and situations where it can overcome itself and follow a path of ascension.
Some cases in which there are psychological barriers, self-help can be a panacea or even be contrary to the creation of a true asceticism, creating superstitions and new problems and new vices entering a vicious cycle that will need some professional help.
Moments of crisis and depression favor these cycles, but true asceticism is another way in which we feel that we are taking ever higher steps and we are able to overcome the natural and or imposed obstacles caused by life, serious illnesses, economic situations, etc.
The appeal for a magical solution to these problems does not mean spirituality or religiosity, but an opportunism with the person who suffers some short-term life problem, can in many cases even constitute crimes of extortion and personal or moral harassment.
Asceticism is a necessary human effort, the daily life demands a way of living well and that puts the soul in a necessary comfort for the solution of daily problems, so it is not just about religiosity or mere virtuosity, life asks us for ways to live well.
In any form of thought or culture, emptying yourself to elevate yourself is necessary for the smooth progress of perfect asceticism, the Greek epoché was nothing but this initial process to acquire new thoughts and allow the elevation of consciousness, intelligence and spirituality.
In Christianity, one of the biblical passages, which speaks in particular of the asceticism of Jesus, is the one he takes with him Peter, James, John and takes them to “a place apart”, says the evangelist Matthew Mt 17,1-4 : “And he was transfigured before them: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. In this, Moses and Elijah appeared, talking to Jesus.
Then Peter took the floor and said, “Lord, it is good for us to stay here. If you want, I will make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah,” wanting to stay on this ascent.
The fact is that afterwards they “descend” from Mount Tabor (photo above), that is, they do not always remain in a high spirit, but there is another important thing in this asceticism that is the fact of the presence of Moses and Elias, of course both had already died for a long time, however, the presence of “men” with Jesus.
Between phenomenological reduction and eidetic variation
04
Mar
Asking about Husserl consciousness will propose a radical method to “search”
the phenomenon, recovering and modifying a Greek concept that is the phenomenological reduction (epoché).
Epoché is suspension means in ancient Greek, that we do not erase from our conscience the judgment we have about things, but the Husserlian perspective is “in brackets” which is more realistic, because we cannot erase, at least completely, the memory, however forget what we think about what we learn about the experiential world.
Thus Husserl manages not to do a high attitude, like the Cartesian cogito that does not erase the ego, but a “natural attitude” to review how we relate to the things of the world. So learning something means capturing them as they are, so phenomenology seeks to focus the phenomenon in the sense of how it appears to us, without using what we already knew before and its applications of how it has already been seen, with the aim of reaching its!
Originality !, its “purity” of phenomenon, It means leaving aside all prejudices, theories, definitions and trying to acquire a new concept about concepts, without prejudices about the “thing”.
Epoché does not intend to doubt the existence of the world, nor, even less, to suppress it. The world around presents itself only in consciousness.
For Husserl, the objects of the world are already placed for us in different perspectives and we almost immediately adopt a meaning for it, in general what we do not know we attribute an essence and it should remain unchanged because we gave this object its original meaning.
Husserl’s second fundamental concept is eidetic variation, precisely what differentiates his view of eidos from contemporary idealistic culture, where he calls noema what is of the object itself, what is the thing, which the ancients call quality, while it calls of Greek noesis νόησις, it means the immediate apprehension that may not have the necessary dianóia, that is to say, to think about the thing that links it to the noema.
So the fixation on objects and the misunderstanding of their meaning on the other hand, is part of the contemporary world, this desynchrony between noema and noese.
Self-help, spirituality and psychology
02
Mar
The difference is quite large, but for many, including bookstores, these issues are in
the same session, making a joke I would say that the first one gives the idea that you alone resolve yourself (self-help) and the second you need a professional, so it is more expensive. However, the issue is deeper and more serious.
Self-help has created a series of popular beliefs, for example, Rich Dad, poor son, so self-help suggests Rich Son, or Retired Young and Rich or Poor Father for young people, anyway the list is immense, if it were true everyone would say the same, but life does not have these magic formulas.
So, the objective of every self-knowledge process, including psychology is one, can be effective if it is based on real experiences and facts of a person’s life, so it cannot have a general formula, and this is as old as epistemic thinking “Know yourself”, but this must not be a doxa, that is, a mere unfounded opinion.
Clinical psychology, just to give an example, has found that our symptoms, our problems, our suffering arise and grow from unconscious sources, this means that there is a layer that we consciously have little access to, that give rise to what we are.
However, today there is an even more serious problem where charlatans and false promises of self-help reside, spirituality without a personal and social context, “unspiritualized asceticism” as stated by Peter Sloterdijk, a kind of catharsis or self-help that leads to fanaticism without spirituality.
Even to call it spirituality is a mistake, it is self-help with a manipulated religion and unfounded beliefs, but true spirituality exists, and it is a way of providing balance and helping us with unconscious sources of problems or even solutions.
Anyway, it would be good to separate the three fields, personal, social and work self-help formulas, clinical treatment of psychological problems and true spirituality that does not co-exist in all three, a form of personal or community asceticism that leads to improved relationships and greater happiness conviviality.
