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Spirit what is
23
May
In Greek origin the word is pneuma meaning “breath, seeing, air” in translation
into religious “divine breath, spirit” or “Holy Spirit”, in analysis of the theme that we developed in the previous topic it means a consequence of true asceticism, a “assistance” of the Holy Spirit in everyday matters.
In the Hebrew translation the word is “ruah” (or ruach), meaning something like “breath, air”, but distances itself from the Christian idea of the Holy Spirit as a person.
The Hebrew word ruah also has the meaning of “breeze” or “breath”, in Genesis for example: “They entered the ark with Noah, two by two of all flesh in which there was the spirit of life”, in Hebrew.
The Hebrew word ruach also has the meaning of “breeze” or “breath”, in Genesis for example: “And of all flesh, in which the spirit of life was, two by two entered Noah into the ark”, the translation in this case This seems out of place in philosophy or even contemporary ideas, but since the Greeks: Plato, Plotinus and more recently the Hegelians have explored several meanings close to this of absolute spirit, truth or life. the Hebrew word “ruach” is more than that.
This spirit, which is the Supreme Good of Plato and Aristotle, will be articulated in medieval philosophy and will reach Kant’s practical philosophy, to describe the greater good that human beings should seek, but in this case it is confused with Eudaimonia, which means ethics of happiness (in a sense not always “supreme”).
Plotinum (205-207 AD) is particularly important for having received influence from Plato and having influenced: Christians, Islamic, Jewish and Gnostic Enneads through his book, his influence particularly on Augustine of Hippo is quite strong, on the nature of the Intellect and on the “beyond the Intellect”, that is, the One, although it can be classified as having a metaphysical thought, it is in the articulation of the intellect with the soul, where the One can encompass both.
This idea was developed in Augustine of Hippo, for whom it is the dichotomous separation between good and evil (Augustine was a Manichaean) that makes the intellect distant would justify the episode of the Fall of the primordial couple? Augustine’s answer is for the insufficiency of good, that is, the absence of good gives rise to evil.
So it seems more correct in a broader sense, the idea of Spirit of Truth, of Wisdom and a category “superior” to the world of substantiality.ce itself from the soul, thus raising the question of how the Supreme Good would consent to the prevailing manifestation of the evil in the world? What would justify the episode of the Fall of the primordial couple? Augustine’s answer is for the insufficiency of good, that is, the absence of good gives rise to evil.
So it seems more correct in a broader sense, the idea of Spirit of Truth, of Wisdom and a category “superior” to the world of substantiality.
The Examined Life in Love
24
Mar
We can examine that an examined life is according to the great deeds, names that went down
in history, the recent revisions show that it is not quite like that, also tyrants, colonizers and not so honest people can have earthly glories, but fleeting.
The life examined according to Socrates, and also Kurosawa’s assumption in his film Ikiru (Life) is about what was built for the love of others, and this makes a life “well lived”, for this reason Socrates will inspire the creation of the Greek polis, a society at the service of all citizens, even if the concept of citizenship was restricted.
One can always look around and see something good and fair that can be done, many men have done small or large deeds for the public good without receiving any recognition, the old man who dies in the park he helped build in Kurosawa’s film he is happy even in the face of death.
I call this type of clearing of conscience enlightenment, it cannot be made of appearances or subterfuges, it must be done in front of the mirror and of conscience itself, the phenomenon that I believe to be possible, perhaps one day for all humanity (if it is which is not done at the time of death), would make men better because they would lose the masks of their narratives.
There are two Lazarus in the Bible who are misfortunes, the miserable one who stays at the door of a rich man’s house, who waits at the door for alms and leftovers, and Lazaro, friend of Jesus, who, even knowing his death, only goes to visit him 4 days later and he resuscitates him, he doesn’t just do it out of compassion, he also does it out of a pedagogical attitude, after the feat some Jews believed in him for such an accomplishment.
The Reading of John 11: 41-42 says: “Then they took away the stone. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: ‘Father, I thank you for listening to me. I know you always listen to me. But I say this for the sake of the people around me, so that they may believe that you sent me.”
The text says that Jesus wept, so evangelical love is not devoid of feeling, nor is it pure feeling, there is a reason to believe: to believe that love gives dignity to human life.
The electronic narrative
02
Mar
The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence, after a serious crisis towards the end of the
millennium, brings a mystifying aspect to the scenario of scientific dissemination and sometimes even to scientific research itself, which sees it beyond the real possibilities or below what it is able.
That is why we pointed out in the previous post the real evolution and sophistication of Machine Learning algorithms and the growth of Deep Learning technology, this is the current rapid evolution, the evolution of electronic assistants (several of them are already on the market such as Siri and Alexa) is still limited and we commented in a post about the LaMBDA machine that it would have “sentient” capability.
Sentient is different from consciousness, because it is the ability of beings to perceive sensations and feelings through the senses, this would mean in the case of machines having something “subjective” (we have already spoken about the limitation of the term and its difference from the soul), although they are capable of of narratives.
This narrative, however complex it may be, is an electronic narrative, an algorithmic one, with the interaction of man and machine through “deep learning”, it is possible that it confuses and even surprises the human being with narratives and elaborations of speeches, however it will depend on always from the human narratives from which they are fed and create an electronic narrative.
I cite an example of the chatGPT that excites the mystifying discourse and creates an alarm in the technophobic discourse and creates speculations even about the transhuman limits of the machine.
A list of films considered extraordinary, exemplifies the limit of electronic storytelling, due to its human power, the list gave the following films: “Citizen Kane” (1941), “The Godfather” (1972), “Back to the Future ” (1985), “Casablanca” (1942), “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001), “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), ” Psycho” (1960), “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) and “Pulp Fiction” (1994).
No mention of the Japanese Akira Kurosawa, the German Werner Herzog or the Italian Frederico Felini, just to name a few, about fiction would not leave out of the list Blade Runner – the hunter of androids, well connected to the technologies of “open AI” or the historic Metropolis (from 1927 by the Austrian Fritz Lang).
The electronic narrative has the limitation of what feeds it, which is the human narrative, even if it is made by the wisest human, it will have contextual and historical limitations.
What is artificial intelligence and what ethics is needed
25
Jan
Usually AI has been characterized as “doing the kind of things the mind is capable of doing”
(Boden, 2020, p. 13), but this dimension does not have a single dimension and we can approach “a structured space with different abilities to process information” (idem).
Current development adds “virtual reality avatars and the promising emotional pattern development for robots ‘for personal accompaniment’” (Boden, pg. 14), what has been called personal assistants such as Siri, Cortana and ChatGTP dialog which is open source and already requires special regulation, for example, the City of New York prohibited its use in the initial levels of schooling.
Chatbots have been known for some time, but they are much simpler, ChatGPT (Generative pre-Trained Transformer) is a simple and intuitive tool, which the user uses and trains from the AI concepts of Machine Learning, machine learning and therefore grows in complexity and user interaction capabilities as it is used.
The influence in philosophy is also sensitive, especially in the cognitive areas where attempts are made to explain the human mind, in this field a recent controversy was the fact that a Google engineer stated that the AI platform LAMBDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), was sentient (which is different from conscious), we already published a post and did not develop it here due to the complexity of the topic.
The topic has already begun to be discussed in the Federal Chamber of Brazil and is about to be discussed in the Federal Senate, through bill Law Project PL 20/21, which, among other things, establishes a legal framework for the development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by government, companies, various entities and individuals, renowned jurists and specialists in the area are being heard.
Another worrying area that should be taken care of is the use of AI in the creation of “artificial life”, “which develops computational models of the different characteristics of living organisms”, in this area the development of genetic algorithms (GA) stands out. (Boden, 2020, p. 15).
BODEN, Margaret A. (2020) Inteligência Artificial: uma brevíssima introdução (Artificial Intelligence: a very brief introduction). Brazil, SP: Ed. UNESP.
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.
The peace and salvation
03
Sep
Contrary to what common sense thinks, the afflicted are not among the unfortunate, but among the wronged, so it is necessary to think about the life of the just and their salvation.
As we wrote earlier: “Blessed are the afflicted, for they shall be comforted, blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth”, and verse 9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” and these are the righteous and suffer affliction.
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 launching into the “infinite” which is where salvation is.
So it must be that the calculation we make when we face injustice is between an account that only in the face of infinity and consequences can it be defined, and as we put the fall in reverse, we could place the biblical passages of the new testament the beatitudes in Mt. 5:1-12, verse 5: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”.
Thus it must be understood that this calculation is made when referring to the calculation of salvation made in Luke 14:28-30: “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if have enough to finish? Otherwise, he will lay the foundation and will not be able to finish. And everyone who sees it will begin to mock, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’
This peace is different from the “perpetual peace” proposed by Kant and by idealism, it resulted in two big wars and in the belief in the state as a mediator of conflicts.
Covid-19 and future care
29
Aug
Covid 19 leaves some lessons, one of them is not to underestimate viruses, they
can have a greater mutation capacity than expected and can complicate immunity results, in the field of social policy, governments and administrative bodies need to respect life and sometimes you have to sacrifice efficiency and performance for the greater good.
Aspects of social life, there is still a lot to learn and even the results in a near end of covid, are still to be evaluated: anxieties, depressions and irritations are aspects that should not be underestimated and also need to be seen as public health.
In the field of viruses, there is now a debate about an immunity deficit” caused by the period of social isolation, in all age groups, but especially in children, this has favored diseases such as hepatitis and other viruses more intensely.
Last week we said studies that indicate a possibility of pandemic “evolution” for bacteria and fungi, I looked for some reports and studies about it and found that there is indeed a possibility.
According to a French study, in which one of the co-authors is a French doctor François Angouvalnt, the fact that some people did not catch so many viruses in the months of the pandemic was a relief on average from the tragedies of Covid-19 peaks, but it left the immune systems without training to face common pathologies and created population groups more vulnerable to some viruses and bacteria that are normally treated and resolved as simple cases.
The study followed some evolutions of these diseases since 2020 and observed the evolution in the population of Paris and caused apprehension a greater vulnerability.
Particularly in Brazil, the number of deaths from covid is around 70 daily deaths and falling, while the number of infections below 10 thousand, everything indicates an end of the pandemic by the end of the year, but with a new wave of cold in the country. south and southeast care must be maintained.
Political, educational and moral virtue
18
Aug
The three distinct phases of the Greek polis can be simplified
in the political arete practiced by the sophists and which justified only the rhetorical capacity (something close to today’s narratives), the educational areté, the Platonic ideal that means a good relationship between nature and education. , but here we are interested in moral areté, the overcoming between the antagonisms of passion and reason.
We give in to the passions, so politics is a kind of twist, the passions are all free and so there is no opposition to the contradictory impulses of the soul, and these forms already existed in the classical period, but they were believed to be “domesticated” using a term from Sloterdijk.
The domestication project failed, Sloterdijk’s finding that it predates the pandemic and the war was already present and scandalized philosophers who soon refuted it under serious accusations.
There is no more room for moral virtue, even theft and verbal and “symbolic” violence already seem to be liberated, any attempt to build a solid morality is fought on the contrary.
So it’s not about the war that is the apex of this moral barbarism, killing has justifications as insane as it seems, it has twisted and even fatalists who say it was inevitable, at the limit, we hope they don’t say the erosion of civilization is also inevitable , after all, defending life is the last moral appeal we have left and even he seemed in crisis with the pandemic.
Public morality, use of public goods as a service to the community, social morality, use of empathy and tolerance as forms of dialogue and public relationship, direct opposition and contradictory, are all moral principles that seem to be in recess.
What are the sociability, representativeness and policy proposals put on the table, just the denial of moral values, disregard for public affairs and a vague defense of what public goods and the interests of the most fragile population are in fact? at the limit of security.
Cabinet speeches are dissociated from reality, demagoguery and populism are the great instruments of political propaganda, the seriousness of what is proposed does not give in to the slightest examination of the reality of the facts, and talking about fake news should be addressed to practically everyone. .
The campaign has just begun and from the non-dialogue present in the speeches, we can only think that morality has succumbed to lying moralism and fallacious populism.
Vanity and true treasures
29
Jul
For many the world, history and even personal happiness develops
around wealth, false treasures and some public recognition, in fact, everything is vanity and a large part of human energies are consumed in it, without finding true joy, not that euphoria, frenzy or catharsis, but that of gaudio and inner peace.
Socially, it means collaborating so that all the good around us spreads and everyone can be happy not with big undertakings, big parties or even other fleeting joys, all this is gathering false treasures.
There is a joy in the true perennials, that as a biblical verse says “where moth and rust corrode and where thieves break through and steal” (Mt 6,19), but those that exist in the bonds between good people, as Aristotle defined for the kind of true friendship.
Accumulating true values, true friendships and true goods that are not those that only material wealth confers, means more than having a virtuous life, it is a path that leads to inner peace and a balanced happiness that is beyond what happens and for this reason it tastes like eternity.
In times of wars, hatreds and false polarizations (these are not poles between what is eternally true and false, but temporal rivalries), they experience only the taste of a fleeting, narcotic happiness and a fleeting and short-lived intoxication.
It is better to cultivate values and feelings that are durable, and they need love and dedication to spiritual asceticism, than to cling to the passenger who will later demand a more difficult and painful kind of renunciation precisely because it doesn’t taste like eternal.
Wise men, saints and great philosophers sought this type of gaudio (a more balanced and lasting happiness) but it is impossible to achieve it with temporal attachments: vanity, greed, oppression and feelings of low morality because they cannot have durability precisely for what they represent: its limitation in a time lapse.
In a society of performance, activism and low or little ability to perceive, live and contemplate what is really beautiful and eternal, only those who go beyond vanity and temporal pleasure can achieve this kind of joy, he precious jewels of eternal life.
Friendship and espirituality
22
Jul
Idealist philosophy places amgio and friendship in an ideal 
philosophical relationship, Aristotle nevertheless warns: “the friend is made quickly, while friendship [is a fruit that matures slowly”, the same can be said of spirituality, recognizing that we have a part spiritual and that it is part human, requires an exercise in spirituality.
It was Sloterdijk, one of the great thinkers of Germany today, who warned that we live in an “exercise society”, but warns that it is de-spiritualized.
High spirituality, before reaching the divine, must go through previous stages in the relationship with the Other, the one who is not a mirror, who does not have the same values as us and this relationship can evolve or obstruct, being more difficult when there is an obstruction to maintain a relationship of respect and cordiality, as friendship and love are more distant.
It is possible to love those who obstruct everything, yes, it is possible first to maintain respect, then separate what are values and real exercises in spirituality and what is just interest.
At this point, friendship has a very close relationship with the spiritual, it can be said that there is, in addition to friendship, reciprocity, a continuous flow of relationship between good people, what Aristotle defined as true friendship, for this you need good men.
There is no just society without just men, there are no friends without friendship exercises, and only on the basis of true reciprocity can friendship reach the spiritual level.
Only with good men can society be saved, says a curious biblical passage about Sodom (Gn 18,20-32) in which Abraham asks God if with a small number of just men society would be saved, and he reduces the number because he knows that there are few.
For those who believe the biblical verse, the teacher explains this question (Lk 1:5-8): “If one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine has come on a trip and I have nothing to offer him,’ and if the other replies from within, ‘Don’t bother me! I have already locked the door, and my children and I are already in bed; I cannot get up to give you the loaves’; 8I tell you that even if the other does not get up to give them because he is your friend, he will get up at least because of his impertinence and give him whatever he needs.”
If one wants to achieve reciprocity, he must first take steps in respect and friendship, and the highest spirituality is to be able to love and respect enemies..
