Arquivo para a ‘Information Science’ Categoria
Spirit, World and unit
08
Jul
There is something in our consciousness that we can not define exactly what it is, a spirit,
a mechanism of decision, a “vision of the world,” the certain thing is that what we call interiority has a deep layer that the philosophers of classical antiquity have called of “anima”, that which gives life, that animates and that is ultimately also a vision of the world.
Whether we like it or not, we have in the interior an “anima”, already the pre-Socratic philosopher Pythagoras (580-496 BC) believed in the metempsychosis that was the transmigration of the soul from one body to the other after death, and so in his worldview he believed in immortality of the soul.
Plutarch was also the author of “Consumption of the Flesh”, a theme that not only speaks of the soul, but initiates a separation between the body of the flesh and the immortal soul.
The theme is deepened by Plato in The Republic, his anima mundi (“soul of the world, from ancient Latin had another sense that was the” psyché tou pantós “), has the worldview of a shared soul or regent force of the universe by which the divine thought can manifest itself in laws that affect matter, so there is an immaterial force, which is at the same time inseparable from matter, which provides form and movement.
His doctrine was not endorsed by Aristotle, who in his work De anima, approaches more knowledge or active intellect, from which reflect from the Stoic and Neoplatonic schools, so the indirect link between Plotinus and Plato passes through Aristotle.
Plotinus will be a rare philosopher of antiquity attempting a non-dualistic concept of soul, the soul described in his work Eleades, part of the concept of the hypostasis that proceeds from the creative power, which is actually a third hypostase, a nous that generates the soul of the world.
Among the medieval thinkers who maintained the ideas of the anima mundi are Ficino, Pico dela Mirandola and Giordano Bruno with hermetic teachings, Cambridge pioneers, German vitalists Angelus Silesius, Goethe and Schelling, who had great influence on Bergson and through him Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin.
Schelling wrote The Soul of the World (1798), although idealist influence guarded a worldview trying to unite organic and inorganic nature by connecting it to a continuum.
The noosphere here is the idea that a “soul-world” can cooperate with the contemporary world and a totalizing vision, the world view of the planet as a “common house” and that has a “soul-world” present and can not sustain a citizenship. Roger Scruton (75 years) is a contemporary author who tackles controversially the theme.
The noosphere here is the idea that a “soul-world” can cooperate with the contemporary world and a totalizing vision, the world view of the planet as a “common house” and that has a “soul-world” present and can not sustain a citizenship. Roger Scruton (75 years) is a contemporary author who tackles controversially the theme.
Democracy or identity politics
01
Jul
As soon as the term, initially identity politics, that of the genres, races and cultures
that seek some respect and rights was popularized, there was not lacking those who hurriedly already throw themselves on the subject and did not deepen the question Among those who deepen the subject is the American political scientist and thinker.
Mark Lilla, whose specialty is the history of intellectuality, since speaking in philosophy is no more common, a professor at New York University, has one of the most read articles on theme, and has a video of his participation in the Frontiers of Thought.
asks three essential questions: What is democracy today? How do young people see their ideals? How did solidarity become a radical defense of individuality?
The latter seems strange but it is not, we post countless comments on idealism and its profound influence on contemporary culture, the intellectual history of Mark Lilla goes another way, but does not stop touching this essential issue: individualism. struggle for equality has won rights and has transformed society in a commendable and unquestionable way.
Until something changed. The search for a better world became the struggle for the world to recognize me. Mark Lilla explains the changes generated by this new paradigm.
What is democracy today? How do young people see their ideals? How did solidarity become a radical defense of individuality? His most read article last year in the New York Times, emphasizes that identities and flags of minority groups, the so-called identity politics embraced by the Demortal Party, are the primary responsible for the continued defeats of the left in the United States, would it be right? if we look at the Brazilian elections, I think that’s right.
First and foremost, it is not a question of abandoning these just flags, but of rethinking them to make the progress of humanity possible again and to avoid a setback. Follow the video of Mark Lilla, remembering that subtitles can be activated:
Gratitude, the question of science and common sense
22
Jan
A person may be grateful without understanding the goals of gratitude, but
they will not understand the goals if they do not know the true motivations of gratitude, that is, remaining in gratitude can be free of knowledge, but have gratitude (make it a habit healthy) requires going beyond the simple gratuitous act, knowing it and cultivating it to work in society.
Thus, it is necessary to separate appreciable common sense from objective knowledge, which is to dissect the object of knowledge that can be done both inductively and intuitively, both paths are valid, so it is not necessary conventional but intentional science.
To talk about science we need to talk about Karl Popper, he also speculated about being things, said about common sense is valid, but upholding the truths of it is something bigger. But objective knowledge, he said, was an eternal pursuit of his life, in his words: “The essays in this book break with a tradition that can be traced back to Aristotle – the tradition of this common sense theory of knowledge.
I am a great admirer of common sense, which I claim is essentially self-critical ”, But to uphold it as truth requires more: “… if I am willing to uphold to the end the essential truth of common sense realism, I regard the common sense theory of knowledge as a subjectivist blunder.
This blunder has dominated Western philosophy, ”as understood by feelings, passions, and even sustaining nonobjective questions.
He goes on: “I have been trying to eradicate it and replace it with an objective theory of knowledge, essentially conjectural. This may be a bold claim, but I do not apologize for it ” (Popper, 1975, p. 07).
Popper’s division into three worlds shows a weakness in his theory by separating knowledge into three worlds: P1 the world of nature (or physical in the sense of physis), the world of minds (World 2) and the world of ideas (World 3), prioritizes the latter.
In a solution to a problem, people can attack or accept the solution found, but not the person who presented it, so it gives a greater value than the world of ideas (World 3) has to Popper, rather than the World of minds (World 2) who developed them.
Gratitude is just the opposite, because the minds that develop solutions to the problem (World 2) are more important than the ideas that drive them (World 3), although subjectivism, which is proper to the subject, may also have weaknesses.
What embraces these three distinct aspects: Nature, Knowledge and Ideas, are ontological aspects, for the three are proper to Being, gratitude is one of these aspects.
In times of a pandemic vaccine, it is good to remember Popper because he said that what can be refuted is scientific, and what we today is an “affirmation” or “denial” about vaccine, both is anti-scientific, the longer tests is need.
Popper, K. (1975) Conhecimento objetivo (Objective Knowledge). Brazil, São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo.
Digital´s aporetic and maieutic
10
Dec
In the time of the pre-Socratics, philosophy called the sophist had as a presupposition to
create discourses to favor the rulers and this soon led to Greek democracy to languish and a moral relativism, Socrates who lived in the century. IV a.C. proposed a method to address this which was to develop the maieutic, a method of asking which developed the logos.
But the aporetic state that lived was necessary more than to ask, an interlocutor had to abandon its preconceptions and the relativism of the opinions demanded something more than just to ask, something that would make a birth in the new thought, hence the maiuêutica name that was the the art of giving birth, so it was not a matter of “creating” knowledge, but of giving birth.
There is no doubt that the digital medium became twisted of “opinions”, the doxa as the Greeks called them, but can one parturize and inquire in the digital medium? a digital maieutic is possible, the case is not just how twisted (claques in Portugal) are organized, but how they are manipulated by sophisms, now updated as”fake news”.
The sophistry exists in history, never left or will cease to exist, in digital times the problem is the viral process, but the publishing groups through newspapers and TV channels have already done this and there has always been a maieutic that opposed manipulation to the facts.
Let us return to the method of Socrates, he did not initially know any, did not make his judgments according to tradition, customs, opinions, nor had an episteme, or an elaborate method, just asked, the problem today is that the questions are and modernity has already created “organized” knowledge (in the systematic sense rather than the truth), but we can use this for a new digital maieutic, repelling wrong speeches.
I think it’s not by chance that Artificial Intelligence is evolving, but practical intelligence, phronesis coupled with techné and praxis itself (which is therefore a part of the practice) may help, so Martha Nussbaum’s speech makes a lot of sense.
Many people talk aboutmaintaining “focus” (but it may be wrong) or emotional intelligence, which, disconnected from practical wisdom (phronesis), can fall into paralysis or alienation.
All we have today is not due to the digital world, it affect its, is a means and so it is incorret to see it as the final or initial cause, not even was the industrial revolution that caused it, but the set of values and feelings built in modern society, which is nothing more than a forma of being-in-the-world, a Dasein as Heidegger writed and explained.
Digital resources seem welcome, but we still have the barrier of preconceptions, an elaborate human hermeneutics is necessary
Disruption, do you know the most used words?
04
Dec
The year 2018 will be marked by several disruptions, among them the artificial intelligence
that has come to stay, you may think that it is long, but where there is more code is neither on the phone in facebook, but in the car, so it is a disruption.
The second is the use of words in Instagram that have become common and not everyone knows, the hashtag #instagood should be used only for the best photos, but users ended up using it so much that it is the second most used word in Instagram (with number of use of 574.190.28, below just #love that went from 1 billion.
The third one in Instagram is also little known and long: #photooftheday, but if you read it correctly you will see that it is simple: the photo of the day, more than 407 million if it is joined to another word used in the same way # picoftheday would probably be the second .
It will be a bit difficult to know what the word “fashionable” was in 2018, but in Portugal because of a humorous program “Gato Fedorento”, the word “esmiuçar” known to Brazilians, here it came into fashion in 2009, because of excellent mood Ricardo de Araújo Pereira, I promised to read it last year (see my post) and I did not regret it.
There is still no elected word, the initiative in Portugal is from Porto Editora, there are polls on the site www.palavradoano.pt until December 31, so only in the new year will we know.
In English I read on websites that fit the perfect “perf” and “lineswoman”, our English line judge would be the referee of American football, I think it can mean women decided or make a decision.
In Brazil, fake news was widely used, besides the electoral uses of # elenão and #mito, nothing more depoliticized, gave in what gave, not even the future government has a clear future ahead.
The evolution of situations of religious fundamentalism throughout the world, and perhaps now also in Brazil, may create a new word, but there is undoubtedly a return to nationalism and religious foundations unprecedented in history, until peaceful Buddhism is affected.
What word was used for this other than fundamentalism? Not yet. What word was used for the return to nationalism, even in Europe? None, so my conclusion in my posts, there is a diagnostic problem, the word would be thought night, then use a Greek word: APORIA.
The case of the birth of Jesus
03
Dec
It is Christian dogma that Jesus was God, and indeed he was resurrected the era, 
but the fact that was born is not dogma, although controversial in the biblical text of Luke (2: 1-5):
“In those days there appeared an edict of Caesar Augustus, and ordered a census of the whole inhabited world.” This census was the first while Quirinus was Governor of Syria, and they were all enrolled, each in his own city. Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, in the city of David, called Bethlehem, for being of the house and of the family of David, to sign up with his wife Mary, who was with child.
But the controversy is not the Census and the birth of a boy named Jesus, but the fact that when Quirinus was prefect of Syria and Herod king of Judea, remember that Herod wanted to kill the boy who would be “king” thinking that he would steal his throne, and then he does a very infantile one, it happens that this is not simultaneous with Quirino in Syria, but it is only a quarrel.
The fact is that it was not easy either, first they had to go to Bethlehem, José’s homeland a census imposition, and they did not find a house, then they had to flee to Egypt due to the death of the children that Herod sent for not knowing who it was the boy-king.
At last the times were not easy, compared to our time we can say that it is Christmas Yes, although the date is imprecise, for us Christians, those who do not believe also celebrate, it is a time to have hope, to want the “clearing” and to fight for a better future.
False Christianity forgives us, but those who persecuted, who killed and tortured were the Roman empire, the Christians and the simple people, the children killed by Herod, were innocent.
Serenity, diagnosis and education
29
Nov
The apparent cause of our day-to-day problems seems to be the latest advances,
innovations, social life, social media “media” and human work in many areas, we embark on the easy discourse of liquidity, hypercommunication, and excess information, this diagnosis is correct.
With the wrong diagnosis, we prescribe the wrong medicine, put more exercise into our lives, an exercise life, Sloterdijk would say, more natural food and more active life for it, fault of diagnosis error and absence of a clear future.
The clearing can only come from the thought, the appeal to practice is the worst remedy we have not have a weekend of rest and recreational activities because there are matters “urgent.”
The diagnosis of this current drama was already in Nietzsche (1834-1900), wrote in Human too Human: “For lack of rest our civilization is headed for a new barbarism. At no other time did the assets, that is, the restless ones, avail so much. Thus it belongs to the necessary corrections to be made as to the character of humanity to greatly strengthen the contemplative element, ‘a clear indication of the date of the present problem.
It may even be earlier, Kierkegaard (1813-1855) wrote: “the remedy for anxiety is to be as we truly are,” pointing out at the beginning of modernity the ontological problem of which humanity suffers a great deal, wanting to be what one is not , even if the daring and the search for new horizons is good, it must be done in solidarity with the Other.
The diagnosis, said Priest Manuel Antunes, whose birth celebrated 100 years on November 3, is to counter the homo mechanicus, the fruit of modernity, which created what the Portuguese wise man called “foam man”: light, without consistency, without fidelity and without strong convictions.
The education that must follow must be highly dialogic, comprehensive and transdisciplinary, defended Father Manuel Antunes, defend Edgar Morin, Basarab Nicolescu and so many others, however a method is necessary so that it does not stop in the speech.
The method proposed by Gadamer in his reading of Heidegger is the hermeneutic circle, the possibility that from preconceptions we arrive at a fusion of horizons and a greater possibility of re-reading of the present time, outlining ways for the future.
Phronesis and serenity
28
Nov
It is no coincidence that Gadamer adopts Phronesis as one of the key elements
in his discourse on Truth and Method, incompletely translated as prudence, the term actually to be confused with “wisdom” practice of serenity, free translation.
This is because in our view, Gadamer is a rehabilitator of practical philosophy, those who call for practicality, objectivity (sic! Idealist), are impractical for lack of wisdom, impulsive and active, typical of the society of fatigue.
In the Greek sense, ethics is added, but it is not a private knowledge in the moral sense, but public and social, which aims to minimize exacerbations of ego self-impulsiveness, when placed in a perspective of the work of art reaches a level of universal principle.
This includes the work of art because it was the excessive centralization in the self that reduced the relation of ethics to aesthetics, public amorality, slavery is not a new aesthetic, not even the negativity sometimes necessary to art, is its absence by lack of relationship with ethics and the training process.
Gadamer retrieves phronesis from Aristotle’s proposal in the Nicomachean Ethics, where he seeks to establish the articulation between the universal and the particular, still more between the individual and society, within historical forms of life, but with a common ethos.
One can thus establish a relationship with education, at a time when one talks about a school without a party, one has to think that there is another, without wanting neutrality because it will be an illusion, we explore in a post to follow.
We need to establish the relation of the phonesis with the techné and the episteme, which is the theoretical knowledge and know-how of techné, which is etymologically linked to art (τέχνη) and to crafts.
The harmony between the three forms of wisdom results in practical wisdom, praxis
Pause time: can we
26
Nov
There is still a remnant of November and December already appearing on the horizon,
everyone is waiting for something we should always do: pause, wait and meet with friends and family, the question is: do we succeed?
Looking at the world, the dark signs continue, bigger than liquids, because if something were really changed from the solid to the liquid, it would even be desirable because something is moving, but it seems like the sameness, everything is going to look the same.
The protests against Macron and his taxes, is not so different from Portugal or Brazil, the state is huge and weighs on society, who will pay the bills, and the retirees will be the ones who will pay the bill? uncertainties and a single thing really clear: crisis of time.
There are signs of a revival, a word used by the philosopher Martha Nussbaum, I would say yes, but just where the heaviest criticism falls: the globalized world, the internet and the “solid” state that is taking a darker, dangers right.
I participated in a 100 year event of Priest Manuel Antunes, this transdisciplinary man, was the theme of a lecture written with a friend in his work Repensar Portugal, said that it was necessary to seek in politics, the “temperate zones” where human nature is more comfortable, but the 2018 sample is from more radicalized regions, in the bad sense of the term.
It is necessary to pause, even when forced and in discomfort, to look at the future so that it is possible to have hope, peace and a closer approach of the peoples, the national radicalism is perverse, Europe sews a possible agreement for the exit of England from the block , the so-called Brexit.
The US ends the end of the year with the dreamed Trump Wall, and Mexicans pushing across the wall, proving that it was not a solution but the announcement of a crisis.
New governments to the right in Brazil and Colombia, the left in Mexico wins after many years of a party monopolizing power, while Nicaragua and Venezuela parade catastrophic left-wing governments, Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay are in temperate zones.
Thinking about a more integrated world, climate issue and income distribution has become more difficult, what can be expected is a vigorous reaction of human thought, man has always been able to face the challenges that have appeared, perhaps the retreat is a resumption
The Truth Beyond Practice and Action
22
Nov
The truth of the so-called post truth must be read not from fake news, from
editorial groups that are almost always polarized and full of the “doxa” (private opinion), but from a teleological search for truth beyond cultures, intolerances and ideologies.
The interpretation of how Gadamer sees this issue relating violence / non-violence comes from the lessons given by Heidegger in the 1920s in Aristotle’s Phenomenological Interpretations (Heidegger, 1992), where he penetrates the dialogical structure of Phronesis, which is practical-oriented wisdom in Greek philosophy it is distinguished from
episteme and techné.
I open a parenthesis, because this is important and what is the relationship with a policy increasingly subject to the “practical” direction of action and a certain type of violence, because even the perspective of change can not distance itself from what Jacques Ranciere calls Engagment, I would say being more direct, that there is a lack of prudence and tact with practice.
It lacks a notion of mutuality, a fundamental notion in Gadamer’s thought, which emphasizes the dialogical and
practical trait present in his project of philosophical hermeneutics, which may seem a distancing from praxis in the pure sense of engagment, but it is not, in his own words Gadamer is a practice that turns to itself without realizing its
fundamentals and without understanding it as the fruit of reflection and therefore of theory.
Whether it is the work of art or the field of education, or even the domain of relations with economic questions, engagment can rob the essence of artistic, pedagogical or economic doing, and this does not mean art, education or dehumanized economy.
According to Heidegger’s lectures and the Aristotelian philosophy of rhetoric, in addition to phronesis (practice), there are two other features of ethos: appeals to arete (virtue) and eunoia, that is, good thinking or goodwill that cultivates others to receive it.
Thus the practical action without the necessary acceptance of the others, then enters the Other without the virtue can become hypocrisy or unreliable, without the sympathy of the listener can become a disgusting speech without appeal, even with kind and sweet words.
HEIDEGGER, Martin. Phenomenological Interpretations with Respect to Aristotle: Indication of the Hermeneutical Situation. Trad. scored by Michael Baur. In Man and World, 25, p. 355-393, 1992.
