Arquivo para a ‘Noosfera’ Categoria
Human consciousness and machinic sentience
27
Jan
Consciousness involves human spiritual aspects (in the idealist philosophy called subjectivity)
and that which makes man have a true ascesis that elevates his character, his attitudes and his morals in a progressive learning scale, where the error is admitted, but corrected in a humane way .
Sentience is the fact that we have a conscious perception of our feelings, it is the ability of beings (humans, because we do not believe that even a sophisticated machine can have this asceticism), and in beings it begins to feel sensations and feelings consciously.
The less we manage to be aware of our feelings, the less we have sentience and the less ability to understand our feelings, the attempt to translate sensations (types of laughter, happiness, sadness, etc. to the machine), will always be subject to algorithms, even that are very sophisticated, and that is why I call it machinic sentience, since machinic consciousness is described in different ways by different authors.
The picture representation in XVII century, um dos primeiros estudos foi do matemático inglês Robert Fludd (1574–1637).
True human consciousness is thus that which allows us to reach levels of asceticism in different ways: altruism, putting ourselves in the other’s shoes, living a just life and appreciating justice, in short, a true spirituality that elevates us as humans, and is also that which is within reach of those who suffer from human injustice and barbarism.
For Christians, what makes us achieve true asceticism is described in the so-called beatitudes (Mt 5,1-12) which speak of the poor, the afflicted, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for justice, those who have the capacity of forgiving and deceitful with the clarity of the desire for peace: “Blessed are those who promote peace, for they will be called children of God”, so in all circumstances that one lives in dark days, it is necessary to promote peace.
The contours of intolerance and violence, not only in the war in Ukraine, but in almost the entire planet should worry those who defend peace.
One year of war and three of pandemic
23
Jan
On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was alerted about cases of
pneumonia in the city of Wuhan in China, in Brazil although there were cases without a precise diagnosis, I remember a case that was reported in Minas Gerais, only in On March 11th, when the WHO characterized the situation as a “pandemic”, it started a combat process in Brazil.
Accurate data is lacking, however WHO continues to talk about advancing numbers and the Kraken variant (other is Othrus, CH.1.1, appear in England) and China has had records of infections.
For those who don’t remember, March 11, 2011 was also the date of a tsunami that affected the Fukushima plant (in the photo the tsunami in Minamisoma, Japan), just to remind you that both natural disasters and those of a war can affect the 447 reactors nuclear weapons in operation in 30 countries (according to data from the WNA, World Nuclear Association), in addition to the nuclear weapons that are growing all over the world.
In a meeting at the Ramstein military air base in Germany, members of the EU, Canada, Japan, USA, and among Latin American countries, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, signed their support for Ukraine. Brazil did not sign.
The request for sending Leopard tanks, the most advanced and manufactured in Germany, has not been decided, Finland will be able to send 200 units that it has of this type of military vehicle, the next meeting will include the sending of 4th fighters. Generation, Russia has the powerful MIg-31 with strike and aircraft intercept capability in combat.
The warnings should be seriously discussed by those who claim to fight for life and peace, the use of rhetoric no longer works due to social media, at all times election campaign lies and populist statements are confronted with an increasingly warlike reality.
New way for civilization
20
Jan
Both Zizek and Dalrymple advance in the diagnosis of a Western culture in crisis, they only 
struggle with what secularization and the Western ideological struggle have destroyed, they refute any possibility of a new moral and ethical level, but Zizek’s question remains: “How can we find a way out of this confusing situation? “ (p. 41), it will certainly no longer be the tried and tested models gestated at the center of European culture, to appeal to Descartes (Darlymple in his chapter on Relativism and the epistemological problem, “come back Descartes we need you”) or Hegel which occupies a central role in Zizek’s readings along with the New Hegelianism of “Marx” about which Zizek himself points out contradictions.
They blame the moral values of Christianity or Islam, which have little or no influence on contemporary European society, even though because of immigration there are more Arabs or Christians coming from countries with less development, they will always be inferior and subordinate layers in European thought, there is no space for the new, it has to resemble the old theories of European development, culture and morality, the crisis scenario evolves into one of confrontation and hatred.
At all times there were minorities who pointed out ways out, the group of philosophers around Plato did not enjoy great prestige, and as we say this week, Western culture is just a “footnote” of classical culture, Aristotle gained notoriety for being a tutor of Alexander, but it must be said that he taught him and his companions not the art of war, but teachings on medicine, philosophy, morals, logical religion and art, and gave him a copy that Alexander took on his campaigns of conquest.
A new thought will not be anything like what has already aged, and even if it must be read and analyzed, the new one will sprout from poorly explored and forgotten paths, from clearings that can open new poles of real humanism in the midst of the culture of war and hatred, there can be no hope in it and all that is expected is a civilizing crisis, whose heavy clouds can already be seen on the horizon.
In biblical reading, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Bethany are always remembered where Jesus rested, but Capernaum is the real place where Jesus took his first steps in his mission, near there was Peter’s house and as it was close to the Sea, in fact the edge of the lake of Gennesaret, is remembered as the “way to the sea” and the path where he found his first disciples, his preaching and his miracles.
In biblical reading, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Bethany are always remembered where Jesus rested, but Capernaum is the real place where Jesus took his first steps in his mission, near there was Peter’s house and as it was close to the Sea, in fact the edge of the Lake of Gennesaret, is remembered as the “way to the sea”, where Zabulon and Nefatali are located, and it was the path where Jesus met his first disciples, his preaching and his miracles.
Capernaum is close to Zabulon and Naphtali, of which the prophet Isaiah said: “Land of Zabulon, land of Naphtali, way of the sea, region across the river Jordan, Galilee of the heathen” (Mt 4,15), so it is likely that a new Capernaum will not be a “religious” land in the sense of dominating Christian or Islamic culture, but a hidden place where a new civilization will emerge.
Waiting for a modern Capernaum, or an Athens, where a new conception of citizenship will sprout, the beginning of Plato’s book “The Republic” is about the just and the unjust and their reputations in society.
The reduction of transcendence to subjectivity
17
Jan
The idea of an absolutizing and unique thought has pursued humanity since classical
antiquity, the One will appear in almost all texts, but an almost hidden concept coming from Socrates (clearly through “All philosophy is just a footnote to Plato and Aristotle” phrase by Alfred Whitehead, in fact one could extend it to Socrates, in fact Dalrymple himself does not include Aristotle (see p. 67).
However, in addition to the problem of translation, few know Greek, and every translation is a betrayal, because we know that language is the expression of Being, and even for science we know that there is no formal truth and we have already posted using Darlymple’s texts , that there are two forms of relativism: the abstract and the empirical, so just to enter a new text, we depend on thought, although abstract dichotomies are also found in it, such as that of formal logic that is valid for mathematics and empirical logic that is valid for science of nature in general and with certain restrictions for social ones as well.
This way we can enter the text of Slavoj Zizek on “The year we think dangerously”, he is talking about 2011 both in the various occupation movements (in Europe in Wall Street) and in the Arab spring, which afterwards the absolutizing thoughts tried to reduce to misunderstandings and ironies, but there was something new and uncomfortable in those movements, and this introduces what Zizek thinks.
And without a doubt a reading more to the left than Dalrymple, but what is interesting is both the search for new paths, the fact that we return to Byzantine socialism and pre-colonial neoliberalism indicates that we are going in circles, and some thinkers look for the new in the midst to populism and polarization.
Zizek’s first important clarification to avoid footnote readings is a quote he makes from Hegel: “if reality does not correspond to the concept, worse for reality” (Zizek, 2012, p. 10), to say that all left-wing thought with Hegelian affiliation, and this includes the orthodox Marxists, are more attached to the theory of thinking, and although they wish to be heirs only to Aristotle who would be more “realistic”, there is also in Plato the idea of the sensible world separated from the world of ideas, but Careful, the eidos of antiquity has little or nothing to do with Kantian idealism, in a word eidos in Greek is image.
The divergence between Plato and Aristotle is in the representation of the real: in Plato the extromission (the image projected into us and which converges to the intelligible world) while in Aristotle coffee the intrusion, where the idea comes from the “world of contingent phenomena” and that emit copies of themselves into our interior, and are interpreted by an innate or acquired knowledge.
Differing from this original conception of Kantian principles, he points out his divergence with Frederic Jameson, and states that in Marx’s thought both the objective and subjective dimensions, not admitting the objective dimensions as ideological, “a description devoid of any subjective involvement” ( pg. 10), but both are not subject to any form of transcendence, what Zizek discusses with Kant and about what he considers “the public space of ‘world civil society’ designates the paradox of universal singularity, of a singular subject who, in a kind of short-[circuit, he bypasses the mediation of the particular and participates directly in the Universal” (pg 11), just as Kant and Hegel do not break away from the objectivity/subjectivity dichotomy to reach a truly universal transcendence.
The absence of an ascesis that reduces man to the merely human, or to use an “too human” philosophical expression, a book by Nietzsche that abandons transcendence, to try later to find it again in the eastern philosophy of Zarathustra, a path taken by many previous contemporary philosophers to the new types of transcendence that we have already mentioned from Theodore Dalrymple.
The analysis of 2011 and its revolts are important for the analysis that he makes of Hard and Negri “Crowd” and the analysis that he makes of the utopias of 2011 are important, if not the only ones, of dreams postponed, since the Prague spring, the revolts of Paris, the movements of the hippies and opposition to the Vietnam War in 1968, if the political consequences were not what was expected, they moved the cultural world for years, and we believe they can also move the scarce political ideas and universal theories about peace between peoples, with the springs of 2011, there is a lack of models of real emancipation, and realism has to do with ideas (eidos) and they are not just “practical” options because they themselves have their theoretical ideals, although rarely examined, Zizek does.
The return to the Greek Eidos, which are what we produce as images, whether from the inside to the outside (extromission) or from the outside to the inside (intromission), is important to review the ideas of our time, where did it get lost or perhaps find the treasure wanted.
ZIZEK, Slavoj (2012). O ano que sonhamos perigosamente (The Year We Dreamed Dangerously), trans. Rogerio Bettoni. Brazil, São Paulo: Boitempo.
Transcendence and reality
13
Jan
Of the seven chapters of “why are we like this” in Theodore Dalrymple’s book,
I started with the second in the previous post, because in my view, different from the time the book was written, this theme is more central than that of freedom in connection with religion, which is for him the first topic.
Speaking of freedom, he begins by discussing the motto “it is forbidden to forbid” and the idea that religion limits human freedom, and that life without religious transcendence (he claims that most Europeans do), is all that one has, but the fact “ is that most people fear not only the prospect of death (which philosophers believe is not entirely irrational), but also the emptiness of death itself” (Dalrymple, p. 89), but in an earlier paragraph he makes a statement important: “For better or worse, God is dead in Europe, and I don’t see much chance of a return, except in the wake of a calamity.” (pg. 89), far from an apocalyptic narrative, in the process of growth, there is something rotten as the author says and we said in the first post on the subject.
The order of the day is to enjoy life to the fullest, and this even breaks many norms of rational coexistence among humans, the cause of the environment draws a lot of attention, hunger and misery a little, but what stands out is what is characteristic of this discourse: individualism, but a theme not touched on by the author, the focus on objects and not on subjects is a consequence of the dualism of objectivity x subjectivity.
When speaking of a pagan transcendence, the one that goes in search of “saviors of the human race” (pg 92), of the transcendence of small causes; “nationalism, animal rights or feminism” (p. 93) mentions the reappearance of Scottish nationalism stimulated by the film Braveheart, but it is present in almost all over the world, now in Latin America and, in particular, in Brazil and , there is also the transcendence of anti-nationalism, such as the European project and who knows in the near future, that of Latin America, and makes an important sentence, we are “the necessity and immutability of the nation-state” (p. 97).
He analyzes the artificiality of African nation-states, which disregarded ethnic aggregations under a single nation (pp. 100-101), but without mentioning the serious problem of colonialism.
Although he cited the funerary saying of the Church of England (I’ve heard it from English atheists or from other religions), death is part of life, but his own discussion of transcendence is within the limits of Kantism (subjectivity x objectivity): “I don’t It concerns us here to discuss whether this perspective is philosophically justifiable: if God exists, and if He does, if He is interested in our actions and more concerned with our well-being than He would be with the actions and well-being of an ant, for example” (p. 85), which reveals an agnosticism that hints at religion, but without asceticism or at least religious sincerity.
Although it discusses secularization as a sub-item, pointing the Church itself to blame for the repudiation it suffers, with cases of “pedophilia”, “hypocrisy” and many other sins, which we all know is not specific to a religious, political or national category , is present in all of humanity, and in the same percentages, and if in fact a good part opts for obscurantism and anti-progress, he cites the case of Ireland, the English and colonial oppression in these countries whose religions still find public and breath. ]
In addition to the root in Western thought of isolation between subjects and objects, which are united by a “transcendence” of knowledge, making the very act of knowing a transcendence, they do not admit what is today discussed by countless philosophers, thinkers and scientists: there is something beyond the scientific and human finality of life, since life and the universe continue to infinity and regardless of human will, even if man chooses the end of his race and civilization, for “sincere” political or social reasons, which is a contradiction with the desire for a full life and happiness. There are many reasons for different types of religiosity, but for Christians nothing is more significant than what John proclaimed after the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River (Jn 1:34): “I have seen and testify: This is the Son of God. ”, and thus we do not speak only of a transcendent and distant God, but of his presence in life and in human history, in an objective and historical way, even if one wants to deny this historical fact.
Dalrymple, Theodore (2016). A nova síndrome de Vicky: porque os intelectuais europeus se rendem ao barbarismo. Transl. Maurício G. Righi. Brazil, São Paulo: É realizações, original english 2010.
Success and joy
06
Jan
Anselm Grün begins this chapter making a counterpoint, as both the German
Jewish philosopher Martin Buber who said “Success is not a term from God”, and the famous psychologist Carl Jung who said that success is the greatest enemy of the transformation of the human being is a life full of successes, the monk ends by saying that “success is part of life” and we should be happy about it (Grün, 2014, p. 73).
He considers that we can “enjoy the moment”, a joy of gratitude, a “free gift, not a merit, it is something that I perceive and am happy knowing that it happens and passes” (Grùn, 2014, p. 74).
Then he corrects and says that joy is mainly associated with creativity, quoting Aristotle and Erich Fromm, “we are satisfied with a job well done and when we realize that we have accomplished something today” (p. 75), and completes that artists are “great connoisseurs of this joy”.
Thus, there is a difference between Euphoria and true Joy, what is sought today at concerts, gyms and beauty clinics is a fleeting, fleeting success, especially when one is not looking for health and well-being. this joy that remains, I would call joy.
Recognition is also important, but it will not come from the powerful, greedy or vain, they look for spotlights and committed or even purchased success, it is not wrapped in true joy because it arises from ephemeral values and truths and therefore, that pass, but that wise minds and hearts know how to find.
In the biblical passage, the birth of Jesus, in a humble place in a small town of Bethlehem, and the recognition first by humble shepherds from the countryside and later by “kings” from the east, a clear allusion to distant peoples and of other beliefs, which announces a real joy, a jubilation and what we should remember at Christmas and the year that begins, this that can give us real joy.
This day is Christmas in Russia and declare stop war for this days.
Grün, Alselm (2014) Viver com Alegria (Life with joy). Brazil, Petrópolis: Vozes.
Obstacles to joy
05
Jan
Certainly the opposite of joy is sadness, but the problem is not the certainty that
we will have many difficulties and sadness in life, the problem is not knowing how to deal with it.
Several psychologists point out that the problem with current family education is not letting the children or relatives or even aggregates that make up the contemporary family circle learn to deal with the loss, obstacles and sadness of life, I remember my father who on his deathbed death asked about a son who had not yet come to see him, only later left in peace.
In Anselm Grün’s book he recommends reading “Happy John” (Hans im Glünck) by the Grimm Tales (Cinderella, The Little Thumb, Hansel and Gretel, etc.) where the character expresses that he does not need gold, strength or despite the success of the work, when he lost the stones he was sharpening scissors in a well, the last thing he had left, he jumped for joy and thanked God for the grace to get rid of those stones.
My second annual purpose book “The new Vicky syndrome” by Theodore Dalrymple, which talks about European barbarism, also points to a cultural background of unhappiness, now social, in readings he does on dating sites, they arose because people are trapped in small universes, although they are in crowds at concerts, parties and nightclubs (note that it is not specific to the virtual world, as some authors indicate), they will eagerly look for a way out of the illusion on social networking sites.
Among several essays, the author cites two cases of Muslims, a man and a woman who, when describing the type of people they are, say this: “I am a distracted and relaxed guy. I’m quite sarcastic and I have a great sense of humor. Sometimes I’m a child, but I know when I have to be serious. I believe we have our ups and downs, but we should try to see the best in people… I like to get in my car and go… Keep up with the changes in the world. I like eating out, going to the cinema, bowling, pool and cricket” (Dalrymple, p. 42), trying to be a Muslim, “trying to become a five a day” (Muslims pray 5 times a day) ), according to the author, in the United Kingdom many declare themselves religious, it is still a synonym of reliability.
Another case that he cites, on the next page, is that of a Muslim woman, who says on the website: “Hi, guys, I am a woman who likes to have fun, I have my feet on the ground and I don’t judge people”, as if I had already excuse for the posture of some Muslims of judging people (“the infidels”), but what the author wants to point out is that everyone wants to apologize for something, they are trying something and rarely define themselves, the fact of being Muslim is just an example could be any other religion, or in the case of political polarization, any ideology.
The theme of doctor and psychologist Anthony Daniels (Dalrymple is a pseudonym) is the malaise of culture and the adherence of intellectuals to a certain type of barbarism, which we will make some notes on next week, but I will link here the theme of joy, which must be and it can only be something interior at this moment in history, since a civilizing crisis reigns externally and we try to explain its reasons and foundations.
It is possible, in the midst of an individual or social crisis, to find reasons and motives to maintain joy and help humanity to find paths that lead to truth and happiness.
Dalrymple, Theodore (2016). A Nova syndrome de Vicky (The new Vicky syndrome – why European intellectuals surrender to barbarism). Trans. Maurício G. Righi. Brazil, São Paulo: É Realizações.
The nature of joy
04
Jan
This is the name of the second chapter of the book “live with joy” by Anselm
Grün, the idea of something physical (nature) of joy seemed strange, but from the beginning the author quotes Aristotle, who sees in joy the fullness of life, as “an energy that drives and awakens life in people”, and thus “those who feel inner joy in what they do, this one obtains, at work, the joy of life” (page 15).
Thus he removes the purely spiritual alveolus to incarnate it “it is the expression of a life in which we deal with the difficulties that arise and develop all the capacities that God has given us” (p. 16).
Psychologist Verena Kast mentions that she defines it as an “elevated emotion”, textually “animates us, stimulates us, gives us a certain lightness, and also generates unity between people” (pgs. 16-17).
Psychologist Verena observed this in many therapies, and in her I found a definitive vision of nature, according to Verena the decisive condition for joy is “to be absorbed in an act, in an activity, in a moment” (p. 17).
After developing the state of joy, as something that “we don’t even realize”, she observes that joy has a healing power: “the question is to know why we tend to pay more attention to the sadness than to the joys we have” (page 18), and points out that one of the factors may be the excessive attention given by parents as children, so we are saddened to “get attention”.
Finally, remember that it is healthy and sensible to assume positive attitudes, both remembering past joys and obtaining them in our life here and now.
Laughing even in difficult situations is not an alienated attitude, but a proactive one.
Grün, Alselm (2014) Viver com Alegria (Life with joy). Brazil, Petrópolis: Vozes.
Joy in hard times
03
Jan
It seems counterintuitive to have joy in difficult times, many have difficulty, the
Pandemic depressed and the world situation does not help, it is not even about alienation much less irony, it is about spirituality.
We indicate the book of the German monk Anselm Grün: Living with Joy (Vozes, 2014) he indicates in the introduction his intentions: “My goal is to draw your attention to many situations that we can rejoice” (p. 9) … ” I’m talking about getting in touch with the joy we all have in the depths of our souls” (p. 9).]
He clarifies that many people think that there are few reasons in life to rejoice: “thus they tend to regret themselves and life itself, in which they see no reason to rejoice” (idem).
He is convinced that this negative posture hides a great yearning and clarifies what was also the reason for choosing this book: “in the conjuncture in which we live, there are more reasons for sadness” (p. 10), although he speaks of a personal conjuncture it is possible to extend it to the social.
Thus, it invites us to observe “life in a different light”, in my case I operated on both eyes, to change glasses, not only to see more deeply, but from the perspective of other values and motivations.
It says in the introduction that it is a decision: “consciously choosing joy or regret in the face of difficulties”, it does not eliminate the negative aspects of life, but it avoids groping in the dark, light is created.
Even a small beam of light is enough to eliminate total pitch.
Grün, Alselm (2014) Viver com Alegria (Life with joy). Brazil, Petrópolis: Vozes.
Violence and power
28
Dec
All contemporary Western literature leads to the reading of two things that are
apparently not opposed, but are frontally opposed: love and power.
Violence has been a common theme since man has been a man, the confrontation was initially aimed, like animals, at the domination of a territory, the demarcation of countries, it does not always mean nation and its culture, it is imposed by the dominating power, thus the first Babylonian empires were born , Persian, Roman in its decadent stage, the medieval monarchies, the Mongol empire and later the Turkish-Ottoman one.
Since the discussions of Thomas Hobbes, David Hume and John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, the so-called contractualists, who disagreed about the violent origin of man: man is bad, man is good and it is society that corrupts him and man natural is good, the so-called good savage, what is certain is that the modern state, unlike the Greek polis, is the one that has the right to violence.
In Plato’s Republic it was not like that, the idea of this philosophical school was to educate man to be a politician, he should have wisdom and virtues (aretê), wisdom being the greatest of virtues, but it is necessary to remember the polarity between Athens, city of the wise and Sparta, city of warriors, so the idea of violence remained in everyday life, and Aristotle not only walked in this direction but also became tutor of Alexander the Great, Emperor of Macedonia.
Thus, Plato’s idea remained influential in Greece, and the attempted alliance between Greeks and Macedonians to defeat the Persian empire did not happen, even so the empire extends throughout Asia Minor, reaching India, but not the conquest, without heirs and with disputes between his generals the empire splits and weakens, soon in the following period the Roman Empire begins to form.
Modern violence before the wars was concentrated in the division of kingdoms, with the Protestant reform and also the Anglican one in the United Kingdom, until the Peace of Westphalia was established.
The great theory about the modern State and power will be elaborated by Hegel, it is dominant today regardless of ideological positions, after all Karl Marx was also Hegelian (news, as he called himself), but it is the modern state that holds the power to cause Peace, Pax Eterna as Kant intended, but which resulted in two wars and we are on the verge of a third, which we hope will not happen.
However, looking at the current literature, a good part of it deals with barbarism, the two books that I indicated and will read next year go in this direction, although with opposite political tendencies, Zizek and Dalrymple focused on the theme, but there are many others: “Anger and time” by Peter Sloterdijk, “Violence” by Slavov Zizek and “Nonviolent Communication” by Marshall Rosemberg among others.
I remember Byung Chul Han’s quote from his book No Enxame, which analyzes the violence of new media, where he states that only respect is symmetrical, that is, both sides are non-violent.
The novel/fiction by Gabriel Garcia Márquez “Love in the Time of Cholera” risked a happy ending, unlike other books he wanted to make happiness possible, creating a kind of modern fable or a desperate hope, where “a utopia of life , where love is indeed true and happiness possible” (Márquez, 2005).
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia (2005). Love in the Time of Cholera. Rio de Janeiro, ed. Record, Brazil. (in portuguese)
