Arquivo para a ‘Linguagens’ Categoria
The intermittents of death
31
Aug
José Saramago (1922-2010), in addition to his famous book
Essay on Blindness, written in 1995 and which later became a film directed by Brazilian Fernando Meirelles and scripted by Don McKellar, wrote many other novels: O memorial do convento (adapted from an opera), The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Essay on lucidity, and many others, I highlight here As Intermitências da Morte (2005).
In 1998, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature, but two works seem prophetic for today: The essay on blindness, which we have already posted, and the Intermitências da Morte.
Skeptical and ironic, Saramago did not fail to notice the dramas of our time, but the unexpected way it ends. Lucidity, I would say using the Heideggerian metaphor that clearing is possible if we penetrate the existential drama of life.
In The Intermittencies of Death, he penetrates into the existential dramas of life, as a religious skeptic, he will also mock the outputs with an answer “from above”, that is, transfer to “another world” our permanently mundane dramas, among them, what it’s life itself.
He says in a passage on page 123: “It is possible that only a painstaking education, one of those that is already becoming rare, along, perhaps, with the more or less superstitious respect that in timid souls the written word usually instills, has led readers, although they were not lacking in reasons to manifest explicit signs of ill contained impatience, not to interrupt what we have been reporting so profusely and to want to be told what it is that, in the meantime, death has been doing since the fatal night when it announced the your return.” (in the photo a picture of Gustav Klimt’s painting).
After inquiring in every book about life, something unusual these days, because all you want is a return to frivolity, the normality of emptiness, the absence of life, consumption and false joys, the author will say in end of the book that death is normality, said like this:
“He stayed in his room all day, had lunch and dinner at the hotel. Watched television until late. Then he got into bed and turned off the light. Didn’t sleep. Death never sleeps.” (Saramago, 2005, p. 189).
And he concludes that his common irony in times when the pandemic was not even dreamed of (his pandemic was The Essay on Blindness), he says about death: “(…) I don’t understand anything, talking to you is the same as having fallen into a labyrinth without doors, Now that’s an excellent definition of life, You’re not life, I’m much less complicated than it, (…)” (Saramago, 2005, p. 198). Oh what a pity, a pity even that Saramago had never believed in a true life, this disbelief is also in all his work, especially “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ” (1991), but at least he was not indifferent to the theme, something “bothered him”.
SARAMAGO, José. (2005) The intermittence of death. Brazil, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Modern sophistry and the crisis of democracy
19
Aug
Through the posts we develop the crisis of thought and modern
sophisms, no longer based on justifications of power, but to promote new neo-authoritarian models of power, it is psychopolitics as developed by Byung Chul Han, which is beyond Foucault’s biopolitics.
On the reform of thought Edgar Morin developed an extensive work that is summarized in his book “The well-made head: rethinking the reform, reforming thought”, with two important aspects, in addition to the reformed thought itself: ecological thinking and overcoming of the mechanistic model.
A century after the triumph of quantum physics, the model of our thinking is still Newtonian, mechanistic and dualistic, the quantum model admits a third excluded, in which matter pulsates and there is a third state between one point of matter and another, called na In tunneling effect physics, he enshrines Werner Heisenberg’s initial view of the uncertainty principle and rediscovers the wave nature of matter and not just light, which is also massless matter.
Edgar Morin uses this concept of uncertainty to reform reform, that change we all want but which is still focused on two poles, and induces much of modern thought towards fundamentalisms that admit reforms neither an excluded third nor a third way.
These strands make the planet move towards an unprecedented political crisis of democracy, neo-authoritarian governments, such as Myanmar and now in Afghanistan, and planet dictatorships already almost consolidated throughout the West, threatening the emergence of new and even more radical ones.
Edgar Morin says in his book: “An intelligence incapable of perceiving the context and the planetary complex becomes blind, unconscious and irresponsible” (Morin, 2014) and will later say: ““[…] a way of thinking, capable of uniting and solidarize separate knowledge, it is capable of unfolding in an ethics of union and solidarity among humans. A thought capable of not being confined to the place and the particular, but of conceiving the sets … would be able to favor a sense of responsibility and citizenship” (Morin, 2014).
See “would be able to” in Morin´s phrase, possible but difficult in the current stage.
MORIN, Edgar (2014) A cabeça bem-feita: repensar a reforma, reformar o pensamento. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil.
The agnostic version of heaven’s bread
06
Aug
Ignoring poetic language is not just ignoring metaphor, analogies
do have a metaphysical limitation, but metaphor goes beyond analogy and there are assumptions in it that have yet to be verified by science as truth.
Paul Ricoeur clarifies: “what remains remarkable for us who come after the Kantian critique of this type of ontology is the way in which the thinker behaves in relation to the difficulties internal to his own solution…. of the categorical problem is resumed in its broad lines” (Ricoeur, 2005, p. 419).
This is not only linked to the idea of the analogy that was re-elaborated by Thomism, but the main source of all the difficulties “is due to the need to support the analogical predication by an ontology of participation” (p. 420), this analogy is in the level of names and predicates, thus “it is of the conceptual order” (p. 421).
The attack on metaphor and metaphysics reached modernity, he stated “Thought looks listening and listens while looking” (Heidegger apud Ricoeur, 2005, p. 436), and Jean Greisch says that this “leap” places language in “the ´there is´ es gibt [has], there is no possible transition” and this would be the deviation.
Ricoeur himself replies that what makes this enunciation as a metaphor is the harmony (einklang) between ist and Grund in the “nothing is without reason”, it is necessary to understand the metaphor-statement.
Remember the biblical passage about Pharisaism unable to understand the divine transcendence (Jn 6:42), “Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph? Don’t we know your father and mother? How then can you say that you came down from heaven?”, and that is why they cannot understand the bread of heaven, the divine food, because they are trapped in material food alone.
There is indeed a metaphor-statement that links material food to divine food, but harmony is not being tied to one by submitting it to another, as explained in the previous post, this was the great Thomist argument to overcome the Aristotelian analogy: science divine is to God, what human science is to the created” (Ricoeur, 2005, p. 423), quoting Aquino’s De Veritate.
Of course, the problem of metaphor and poetics is not limited to divine knowledge, but it does not prevent it.
Metaphor and Metaphysics
04
Aug
The peak and decline of Aristotle’s metaphysics, in Paul Ricoeur’s 
analysis, is “in the non-scientific characteristics of analogy, taken without its terminal meaning, regroup in his eyes in an argument against analogy” (Ricoeur, 2005, p. 414), and as the analogy was linked to the question of being, ontological questions are submerged with it.
However, Ricoeur clarifies, “it is because the ‘investigation’ of a non-generic connection of being remains a task for thought, even after the failure of Aristotle, that the problem of the ‘conducting thread’ will continue to be presented even in modern philosophy. ” (RICOEUR, 2005, p. 415).
For the author, while “the first gesture continues to be the conquest of a difference between transcendental analogy and poetic similarity” (Ricoeur, 2005, p. 416), which he explains and will not be extended here, the second “counter- example” of the “discontinuity of speculative discourse and poetic discourse” is much more serious, and it ranges from Kant’s discourse to Heidegger.
He explains that this was done in a mixed discourse that the doctrine of analogy entis reached in its full development and that was called ontotheology, due to the pretension of linking divine transcendence to Being, but ignoring the Thomistic discourse, which is “an inestimable testimony”.
What Aquinas does is “establish theological discourse at the level of a science and thus completely subtract it from the poetic forms of religious discourse, even at the price of a rupture between the science of God and biblical hermeneutics” (p. 417) .
However, the problem is more complex “than that of the regulated diversity of the categories of being of Aristotle”, “to speak rationally of the creator God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. The bet is to be able to extend to the question of divine names the problematic of the analogy raised by the equivocal notion of being” (p. 417), remember here the battle between nominalists and medieval realists.
Explaining that the doctrine of the analogy of being was born “from this ambition to involve in a single doctrine the horizontal relation of categories to substance and the vertical relation of created things to the creator” (p. 419), now this was exactly the project of an ontotheology .
Thus, the Thomistic discourse “rediscovers a similar alternative: to invoke a discourse common to God and creatures would be to ruin divine transcendence, to assume a total incommunicability of the meanings from one plane to the other would be, in compensation, to condemn oneself to the most complete agnosticism” (p. 418), he takes up the categorical problem “in its broad lines” and “it is the very concept of analogy that must be constantly re-elaborated” (p. 420).
A question remains to be answered, wouldn’t this be a “return from metaphysics to poetry, through a dishonorable recourse to metaphor, according to the argument that Aristotle opposed to Platonism?” (p. 421).
Man will not live on bread alone
30
Jul
We wrote in last week’s post, we are the “multiplication of loaves”,
which undoubtedly has the aspect of sharing, but that the supernatural aspect was forgotten by many, reducing something “ineffable” to a situation of solidarity, and this is what we are developing around lack of spirituality, and or de-spiritualized ascesis, the term is from Peter Sloterdijk, of course.
Sloterdijk’s definition is clear: “As an exercise I define any operation that preserves or improves the actor’s qualification to perform the same operation next time, whether it is declared as an exercise or not” (Sloterdijk, 2009, p. 14), and if applies our interpretation because he speaks and personal trainers, but they can also be eloquent preachers, media philosophers or any other type that does “exercises” to motivate and pull people out of sameness, but it’s only momentary.
He announces in his book an anthropotechnic turn, and what we are here is to demonstrate an ontoanthropotechnic clearing, that is, that it is not incompatible with the ontology of Being, here in the sense of asceticism and spirituality, it is explained here by a passage biblical
Let’s go back to biblical hermeneutics, after the biblical one that is in the synoptic gospels (Mt 14:13-21, Mk 6:31-44, Lk 9:10-17 and John 6:5-15), Jesus wants to get away from the crowd because they wanted to make him a human “king” (it’s in the passages), the crowd comes back and goes after him, and the Master inquires (John, 26-27):
“Verily, verily, I say to you: you are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate bread and were satisfied. Strive not for the food that is lost, but for the food that lasts until eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For this is who the Father marked with his seal”.
There is no condemnation because they wanted to eat, but Jesus asks for an “ascesis”, an effort for food that is not lost, and this is “who the Father marked the seal”, ascesis finds spirituality, it demands more food: “the bread of heaven,” that which nourishes the soul.
If only a human and earthly interpretation was possible in the passage of the multiplication of the loaves, now the pedagogy of Jesus performs the necessary hermeneutics to understand it.
SLOTERDIJK, Peter. (2009) Du musst Dein Leben ändern. Über Antropotechnik Frankfurt, Suhrkamp.
Spirituality and ascesis
29
Jul
There is no deep spirituality without an ascesis and true
spiritual elevation takes time and training, the Buddhist master Dalai Lama stated: “Developing strength, courage and inner peace takes time. Don’t expect quick and immediate results under the pretext that you’ve decided to change. Every action you take allows that decision to become effective within your heart.”
It is therefore necessary to develop a virtuous circle where some sacrifices and abstinence are necessary, it does not mean abandoning material issues, but the balanced and conscious use of what is being desired, whether it is a simple inner peace or a high degree of religiosity, the detachment of affections must be done in steps and with balance.
Communication with the transcendent Being is also a good relationship with human beings who go through our lives, from the most complicated to the most generous, all are our neighbors.
Meditation, physical and mental balance, harmony of the environment in which we live, can and should be simple, sensible and daily communication of what we want to donate as our thinking, the study and research of great masters of thought and spirituality and finally what is the highest desire of a spirituality: the ascesis to the divine, the supernatural and the Whole.
Ascesis is a path like this, not without falls and never without difficulties, if it is without difficulties, the great spiritual masters teach, perhaps it is not a true ascesis (Picture of Rembrandt´s Frame).
Finally, there can be ascesis without spirituality, they can improve health, enrich and beautify the environment around us, but they do not really mean an elevation of the soul.
Praying, meditating and dialoguing with everyone and everything around us, it is not crazy to dialog with nature, with animals and with the universe, everything is divine creation and everything “speaks” of the divine.
Between spirit and spirituality
28
Jul
Henri Bergson was looking for a new philosophy of life, one
that goes beyond what intelligence can meet, the psychological and creative dimension of evolution, complementing this philosophy with Teilhard Chardin’s idea of the noosphere, it is not a simple collage, but convergence between philosophy, religion and a spirituality that fosters a dialogue with cultural worldviews.
The different theories of life intend to reach knowledge through categories developed by intelligence, wisdom and intuition can go further, what Bergson says, intelligence itself is a product of evolution, we know more than primitive man knew.
The intelligence created by the needs of life to act on objects, nature, acting itself and the wisdom necessary for this, was initially based on matter, but when replacing the whole with the part, it became illegitimate, to understand life and the direction of evolution, a new method of thinking is needed that understands the natural sense of intelligence, with the help of intuition, is not contradictory with the wisdom present in various worldviews.
For Bergson, what characterizes intelligence is what he calls “duration”, starting from their own existence as living beings, to learn what life is as a perpetual and continuous variation of our spirit, then raises the duration of the universe that is formed incessantly, and in every minimal form that he reveals his creative impulse, this state of change goes beyond mathematics and physics that can only model each change in a short “duration”.
Teilhard de Chardin, when characterizing the “human phenomenon” sees it as a complexification of matter, then unlike Bergson he will not separate what he calls inert “matter”, and for Teilhard de Chardin it is a “living” body of everything that exists , for which he was accused of pantheism, and sees in the existence of the Universe like Bergson something that cannot be separated from a creative evolution, which changes forms and mechanisms of interaction, “wisdom” also evolves.
Also the problem of duration here Bergson distances himself from science, at least from the current one that sees time not as a “duration” but as a “fold”, Chardin is closer to Science when he sees in evolution the approximation of creation and the complexity of the universe, nature and man the approximation of the Creator and eternity.
Bergson’s evolution then moves towards the evolution of the life of consciousness, thus returning to subjectivism and the abstract consciousness of the idealists, for Chardin, when he called man a “human phenomenon” (it is not contradictory with the fact that the “likeness” of God goes along for eternity), says what kind of consciousness is the human, the consciousness of its physical existence that does not separate from the spiritual.
BERGSON, Henri. (2005) A evolução criativa (The Creative Evolution). Brazil: SP: Martins Fontes.
CHARDIN, Teilhard. (2001) O fenômeno humano (The human phenomenon). Trans. Armando Pereira da Silva. Brazil,SP: Cultrix.
The ineffable and the interpretation
23
Jul
Before making today’s post, we can’t fail to register the 
Tokyo Olympics, whose opening takes place today and some protests: five teams: United States, Sweden, Chile, New Zealand and, surprisingly, the United Kingdom, knelt before their football matches in anti-racist protest, Australia’s women’s players have embraced, remembering the Aboriginal nation that lives there and signifying national unity.
But perhaps the most important demonstration was relegated to the background, the protesters are called “ultranationalists”, which is not true, as 43% of the population was in favor of postponing the Olympics, 40% were against it and only 14% are favorable.
The Pandemic was ineffable and it is there still showing signs of resistance despite the struggle of science for vaccines and their overcoming, exactly the most resilient people did not renounce an event, and this is also of course a problem of interpretation of what actually occurs right now.
Something ineffable that is not subject to interpretation and even metaphors would be little to try to explain them are the great questions of humanity: what we are in the universe, where we are going and now more than ever: where we are going.
There are many cosmogonies that try to give an eschatological interpretation to these issues, what is certain is that we exist and not because we think (I think, therefore I am), but we exist and this allows us to think and language (I am, therefore I think) and with it interpretation is possible.
Christian cosmogony, there are many others in different cultures, is the one whose metaphor of the seed grain transforms into life: the seed that falls among thorns, that falls on shallow soil and that falls by the wayside, the good soil will make it germinate and bear fruit, is an interpretation of the ineffable.
The biblical text of the multiplication of the loaves, whose earthly interpretation only sees the distribution of goods (Mk 6,1-15), does not observe the ineffable interpretation because it is Jesus who asks Philip (Mk 6,5): “Jesus told Philip : “Where are we going to buy bread so they can eat?”, and after multiplying the 5 barley loaves and two fish.
The ineffable divine, men wanted to give him an earthly power and the reading says (Mk 6,15) : “But when he noticed that they were trying to take him to proclaim him king, Jesus withdrew again, alone, to the mountain.”, is a divine interpretation made by the Master himself.
Language beyond logic
21
Jul
In the entire history of philosophy and even science, there
are three concepts that surpass in many aspects the concepts of logic, among them, the truth, the good and the justice are the most common, already in
Plato go beyond being logical principles, they embody cosmological principles and as such must resort to metaphysics, analogy and metaphor.
Thus, in Book VI of the Republic, the great metaphysical analogy falls on the idea of good, homonymous to justice and truth: the sun is the son and progeny of good itself, and is still its visible analogue, there it is placed in the shadows of shapes in the cave, the contrast with the real and perfect world of shapes and the analogy of the sun to “lighten” objects.
In the absence of knowledge, they confuse mere shadows with reality, and philosophy is for Plato the pedagogical bridge that serves to pass from complete obscurity to the light of knowledge.
The use of language can also be only logical, in the 1930s, Wittgenstein said that as we know that in language there are only propositions, and surprises only occur in the world, so there are no surprises in mathematics: mathematics is totally “grammatical”, right -se-ia today is just syntactic.
In the context of semantics, and of meaning, language acquires other properties and in them that the metaphor makes sense, when saying José is brave as a lion, the analogy serves to increase what it means brave, giving new semantics to the syntax: José is very angry.
But the metaphor is also contextual, the beautiful poem by Fernando Pessoa “The poet is a pretender” is only understood if we know that “rope train” refers to a child’s play in the 20s and 30s of the last century and that “wheel rails” refer to the tracks, there:
And so on the wheel rails
It turns, to entertain the reason,
that rope train
Which is called the heart.
There is also the penetration of the metaphor into the mystery, the ineffable as we have already posted, and being able to affirm it.
