Arquivo para a ‘Cognition’ Categoria
Arbitrary power and socialization
17
Apr
In his book “In the swarm: a digital perspective” Byung Chul-Han 
clarifies that only a relationship is symmetrical (both sides have the same power or the same power) respect, if respect is lacking there is always an arbitrary exercise of power , but let’s look at other definitions.
A widely used one is that of Norberto Bobbio: “… every probability of imposing one’s will in a social relationship, even against resistance, whatever the basis of this probability (Weber, 1994, p.33), there is always the possibility of “manipulation”, use of reward, threat of punishment and other forms of asymmetry that favors force.
Generalizing the different forms of power, and contrary to Foucault (see the previous post), Lebrun says that power and domination go hand in hand, a person has power when the other is deprived of it, he puts them in the same boat: m Marx, Nietzsche, Weber , Raymond Aron, Wright Mills and others.
This conception comes from North American sociology known as “Zero Sum Theory”, a theory that dates back to Hobbes, which defined the power of the “sovereign” or the State, as being “one against all” and “in favor of all at the same time”. time”, but from top to bottom.
Thus, this power is simply applied as an obligation or prohibition to the dominated, passing through them and through them, in the same way, the dominated also use it and rely on it, but the dominated have subjectivity (in the ontological relationship it is dasein), and they produce new knowledge about power relations and also empower themselves. In this sense, it is important to relate power to potency, or capacity for action.
The concept of act and power in Thomas Aquinas is, however, more complete, because it is also related to truth, not temporal, but ontological, present in Being:
“[…]some things may be, although they are not, while others actually are. What can be (illud quod potest esse) is called potential being; what already is (illud quod iam est) is called being in act. However, being is double: the essential or substantial being of the thing, like being a man, is simply being; the other is being accidental, like the man being white; and that is being other.” (AQUINO, T, 1976, p. 39.)
Thus power is seen in another way, which is also matter and being complete, for Aquinas all are basic components of the substance, the notion of being complete is attributed both to the form that signifies the first act, the actuality, that the form possesses by itself and not by a mediator, when this first act is attributed to matter there will be an actuality, that which today is confused with virtuality (the potency or possibility of being), because in this way every being is in potency, in this way everyone can have power in order to realize its full potential.
This means that it is necessary to empower man, society and recover the disempowered, so re-education, resocialization and even those who are socialized are always possible.
Power, if exercised without arbitrariness and with the dimension of everyone, can and should serve the common good, justice and freedom.
AQUINO, T. (1976) De principiis naturae ad fratrem Sylvestrum, [ed. H.F. Dondaine]. Ed. Leon., t.XLIII, Opuscula, vol.IV. Roma [Santa Sabina]: Editori di san Tommaso.
LEBRUN, G.(1999) O que é poder. Brazil, São Paulo: Brasiliense.
WEBER, M. (1994) Economia e Sociedade. Brazil, Brasília – DF: Editora da Universidade de Brasília, 1994.
Power in Foucault and Chul-Han
16
Apr
Michel Foucault broke with the classical
conceptions of the term power and defined it as a network of relationships where all individuals are involved, and we understand the network here with the modern sense of network, although it was vague in his time, individuals are both generators and recipients of power. movement of these relationships, however he identifies them as biopower, while Chul-Han identifies them as psychopower, and in a way adds the media to this.
State ideology, born from Hegel, is the basis of every history of contemporary power, authoritarianism and modern wars were born from a new idea of imperialism and colonialism, in which stronger states control power not only through weapons, but rather through biopower and now psychopower.
Foucault’s biopower, the state is the first level of power (he calls it a sector), the market is the second level, and the third is civil society, the idea of 4th. The power of the press comes from there.
He studied power not to develop a theory about it, but to identify aspects of subjectivity (in ontology it would be the question of Being), that is, subject over other subjects.
This is important to differentiate him from Chul-Han, who starts from the ontological relationships between beings and identifies the action of media and media structures that act on the psychology of power, so his idea of power (What is power) is like a domination technique that stabilizes and reproduces the dominated system through programming and psychological control.
Foucault sees biopower, as in the body as a training machine, since biopolitics, in the middle of the 18th century, was focused on regulatory controls on the population, the idea being that it was the population increase that caused misery and hunger.
Peter Sloterdijk, who supervised Chul-Han’s doctoral thesis on Heidegger, argues that this “training” process failed and thus, the control process develops towards the fourth power, which Chul-Han focuses excessively on the media, forgetting the 4th. power of the press, TV and cinema that had an enormous influence.
He develops pathologies of self-centeredness (narcissism), emotional instability (borderline) as responses to the demands of a society intoxicated with demands for efficiency, appearance and disciplinary coercion, wrote the author):
“The violence of decapitation is inherent to the pre-modern society of sovereignty; its medium is blood. Modern disciplinary society is, to a large extent, a society of negativity, being governed and dominated by disciplinary coercion, that is, by ‘social orthopedics’. Its form of violence is deformation. But neither decapitation nor deformation are capable of describing the postmodern performance society. It is dominated by a violence of positivity, which confuses freedom and coercion. Its pathological manifestation is depression” (Han 2018, pp. 183-184).
HAN, Byung-Chul. (2018) Psicopolítica: o neoliberalismo e as novas técnicas de poder. Brazil, Belo Horizonte: Âyiné.
Happiness, fear and serenity
10
Apr
Among the main guests of “Fronteiras do
Pensamento” is Luc Ferry, still little known in Brazil, and already with a certain exponent in Europe he also spoke about fear, one of our themes this week.
He defends a secular spirituality, which for me and other Christians is fragile, but some of his reasoning and comments are important, for example about happiness: “… it does not exist, we have moments of joy, but there is no permanent state of satisfaction… What we can hope for is serenity, something completely different. Serenity can only be achieved by overcoming fear” (interview with Fronteiras do Pensamento).
It classifies fear into three types: shyness (arises depending on the environment and society), phobia (fear of the dark, insects, being trapped in an elevator), in our view it is the only one that really encompasses itself within what the author works mainly: psychology, and the third is the fear of death (of the people we love and of our own death), in our view this necessarily refers to the finitude of life and man, it is only possible to transcend with a spirituality not secular.
He cites an important author, Hans Jonas, and his book The Principle of Responsibility, where there is a chapter called Heuristics of Fear, described as a positive and useful passion.
Through reading this author gives a positive reading: “Ecology inverts this philosophical tradition by maintaining that fear is the beginning of a new wisdom and that, thanks to fear, human beings will become aware of the dangers that exist on the planet. Fear is no longer seen as something childish, but as the first step on the path to wisdom.”
If we are not afraid of war, of an atomic catastrophe, of a desertified planet, of the hunger already present in poor people and countries, we will not have social responsibility, most of us (who do not experience these fears) imagine that they will never be affected, however it’s not like this.
He recognizes that religion also addresses this issue, but his secular spirituality states that: “except that the great philosophies are doctrines of salvation without God and without faith”, so the question remains how to overcome finitude and death, and whether the resurrection of Jesus is true?
Of course it is a question based on faith, but the men of that time saw, witnessed and gave testimony, so why not bet on faith as Pascal proposed, what would you lose with this “bet”, of course it is important to go further, but it could be a first step.
What do I gain today with this bet, is a simple answer, more peace and more conviction of the possibility of peace, of not needing to destroy to discover that we chose death and fear?
Luc Ferry – A boa vida – YouTube
Fear, society and hope
09
Apr
Fear is not something of these days and perhaps
of contemporary society, it is not, however, something transitory or even impossible to be overcome.
In different societies and thoughts they were elaborated, in ancient classical thought
It is a mistake to think that tiredness, pressure and fear are current problems, they have been present in our society for some time: competition and the demand for perfection are present in the history of humanity.
Heidegger (1889-1976) stated this way (not literal here): fear invites us
living in impropriety, we don’t attribute meaning, we let others and circumstances attribute it, we alienate ourselves from ourselves, we always live on the run, with our schedules full of distractions that occupy us.
For some, it is a more phenomenological and practical way of seeing fear, as Pascal and Kierkegaard would have a more theological fear, but there is a theological mistake “fear of God” is not necessarily a fear, but rather respect, after all the first Christian commandment is to love God above all things.
So seeing fear as a “thing”, the phenomenological sense of Heidegger and others does not suppress the theological vision, a thought limited to man will also limit his existence to this world being a limited intellect.
Kierkegaard’s work “The Concept of Anguish”, remembering that we made a post about this, has a demand for questions, many are asked in relation to the “fear of death”, which in a certain sense is a fragile theological issue, whereas Pascal’s work There is also a tendency to “take a chance on God”, when thinking about the soul.
The philosopher says: “The immortality of the soul is something that worries us so much, that touches us so deeply, that we must have lost all feeling to remain indifferent before it.”, he does not, therefore, affirm its immortality, but rather in the face of doubt.
For Heidegger, it is more than a psychological and ontic phenomenon; it has an ontological dimension, as it refers us to the totality of existence as being-in-the-world, but anguish man only exists if he can have an understanding of Being, although he does not say so, it is a reality beyond “thing”, Hannah Arendt, his disciple, will say beyond the vitta activa.
The contemplative vitta (see also Byung-Chul Han) leads us to awareness of the Being, it is a path to overcoming fear and anguish.
What contemporary ontology is not
20
Mar
Based on the works of social psychology, 
where Franz Brentano worked on two categories of Thomism: consciousness and intention, modern phenomenology was derived from Husserl and then from Heidegger, a deviation towards an ontology called continental, from Nicolai Hartmann and with it a well-known doctrine emerged. as ontic structural realism (OSR).
What seemed like an unveiling, an appropriate term used by Heidegger to infer his clearing, becomes confusing again, because OSR not only gained prominence but was subdivided into three doctrines: OSR1, which is the view that relations are ontologically primitive, but objects and properties are not; OSR2, which is the view that objects and relations are ontologically primitive, but properties are not; OSR3, which is the view that properties and relations are ontologically primitive, but objects are not.
Central to Heidegger’s ontology, as we said in the previous post, is the notion of ontological difference: the difference between being as such and specific entities, the error of current philosophy is beyond forgetting being, understanding being as such as a kind of ultimate entity, for example, as “idea, energy, substance, monad or will to power”, the first linked to contemporary “natural” philosophy and the last two to the social and power vision.
This error even had to be rectified in its “fundamental ontology”, focusing on the meaning of being, a project similar to contemporary meta-ontology, read the works of Michael Inwood (fundamental ontology) and Peter Van Inwagen, ( meta-ontology).
And all this seems essentially theoretical, but it is not, we are discussing ontic things and non-things (Byung Chul Han has an essay) and strategies and logics of power, which forget being.
Nicolai Hartmann is a 20th century philosopher, although his perspective is “continental”, he clarifies that the relative modalities of the senses depend on the absolute modalities and proposes this reality on four levels: inanimate, biological, psychological and spiritual, which form a hierarchy, even though its development is excessively schematic, there is the question of being, from which contemporary man escapes and puts not only these levels in check, but civilization itself.
The forgetfulness of being is fundamental to understanding the lack of temper and the crisis of meaning in life that is present in all human spheres, from politics, education to the spiritual.
Inwood, Michael (1999). «Ontology and fundamental ontology» A Heidegger Dictionary. [S.l.]: Wiley-Blackwell
Inwagen, Peter Van (1998). «Meta-Ontology». Erkenntnis. 48 (2–3): 233-50, 1998.
Ladyman, J. (1998) What is structural realism? Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science.
True asceticism
13
Feb
There are no clear definitions, neither in
psychology, nor in sociology or morals, of what constitutes true balanced joy, or it deviates towards euphoria which involves maintaining joy at high levels, which is not possible all the time, or its compensation, which is to decrease to nostalgic and low levels that cannot be more than contentment.
Also in philosophy he spoke about joy and euphoria, derived from the Greek (euphoria) which means to easily sustain what is carried (phoros), but the term appears in modern terms in 1875 to refer to the contentment experienced by morphine addicts, being also characteristic of what is called bipolar disorder.
Everything depends on the desire for human elevation to a stage where being higher is sustainable (charged – self + phoros), so an ascent, an ascesis, can be assumed.
Peter Sloterdijk conceptualized current society as having a despiritualized asceticism, of course its spirituality does not refer to a cult or defined belief, but he questions that this climb today is without spiritual support, without a true asceticism.
The metaphor that Sloterdijk uses of the spheres, once again with explicit allusions to Heidegger, referring to the constructions of the intimate and immunological spheres, is that of the house (Haus or Gehäuse), it is not only a place that offers protection, but also constitutes a psychic, spiritual and intellectual sphere for this “ascesis”.
There is no climb without effort, and often without sacrifices, and there is no climb if it is not going to the top, so asceticism is not an exercise or training, but a practical life of ascending.
Therefore, joy without effort for life, for daily bread, for human and not just material progress is false asceticism, it has no support, it collapses after “exercise” and if it can be compared to climbing a mountain, you must remember to support it at the top when descending.
Speeches, apotheoses and vertigo are almost endless pursuits these days, catchphrases do not produce life, they do not give people joy and lasting peace, possession of false wisdom, false joy and elevation, because they collapse the next day in the face of reality.
Promises of earthly paradise, enrichment and consumer goods are nothing more than euphoria, false asceticism, the possession of a good does not necessarily mean happiness and inner peace, which all men desire, even more so these days, a little bit of lasting peace and joy is only possible with true asceticism, without giving up the goods of life and mutual respect.
Joy will pass and an Ash Wednesday will come and then let us face the difficulties with courage and determination, a true ascetic knows every step they must take.
There is an inner Being
07
Feb
The philosopher Hannah Arendt had already
developed the theme of Vita Contemplativa, and the Korean-German essayist Byung Chul-Han expands on this theme in his book with the same name, but we will only point out the new features there, including what he takes from Heidegger that It’s the disposition.
In Being and Time, Heidegger works on the verb stimmen, using the conjugation stimmung (which is translated as disposition) and also uses Gestiment-Sein (to be willing), but which in German is something like being in tune, being in tune with something and This modifies the concept of intention.
Literally disposition, a state of mind precedes any intentionality referred to objects: “Disposition has already opened up, however, being-in-the-world as a whole, and makes primarily possible a direction towards [something]” (Heidegger apud Han, 2023, p. 66).
Thus, the relationship with the external world, with objects, with beings and with everything that comes from outside the Being, means that we are disposed, says the text: “Disposition opens up to us the space only in which we confront ourselves with a entity. It reveals the Being” (Han, idem).
This vision transforms what we are and what we think, in spiritual terms, what the soul is disposed to and what it is directed towards from interiority, says the text: “The contemplative dimension that inhabits it transforms it into a correspondence. It corresponds to what “addresses us as the voice [Stimme] of being”, by allowing itself to be defined by it” (Han, 2023, p. 67).
Thus thinking becomes something other than logical articulation or narrative discourse: “Thinking means “opening our ears”; that is, listen and listen carefully. Speaking presupposes listening and responding. “Philosophia is the truly consummate correspondence that speaks attentively to the call of the being of beings. The correspondent hears the voice of the call […]” (Han, 2023, pgs. 67-68).
All of this seems excessively philosophical and in fact it is, but it means, as the author states, that something defined, and we have many pre-arranged definitions, is something that is condensed in our mind and our thoughts “in the pre-reflective scope”, I mean inside us.
So it is what we have inside, in our interiority that helps or limits us, says the author quoting Heidegger again: “If the fundamental disposition is left out, then everything is a forced cluster of concepts and shells of words” (Heiddeger apud Han, p. 68).
Thus, it is not the outside and what we take outside of ourselves that defines us, but what we have inside and that is why interiority is fundamental for any analysis.
HAN, Byung-Chul. (2023) Vita contemplativa: ou sobre a inatividade. Trad. Lucas Machado. Brazil, Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes.
Power and respect
02
Feb
Byung Chul-Han in his book The Swarm, clarifies
that only respect has symmetry, that is, it can make the relationship one of mutual respect and recognition of what is good for everyone.
This is one of the greatest values of social action, solidarity with those who for some reason made a mistake or had a deviation in their behavioral action, being allowed to return to social life and the hope of a new life.
It is necessary to experience something new, to resume a respectful relationship with the Other, and to social reintegration. This does not mean tolerating what is unacceptable, whether morally or socially, but having a new life experience of resocialization and reorganization of life. guys.
Power, when exercised only to repress and combat what is socially and morally reprehensible, should not be absent, it would be an omission and disorganization, but every human being and every person can and should be allowed their resocialization and social reinsertion.
Social life has deteriorated not because people make mistakes, this is typical of social and human life, but because resuming a respectful relationship, being patient in listening to the Other and allowing them to change is giving them hope and conditions to have a new experience. and respect.
The culture of exclusion, hatred and lack of forgiveness leads to a hostile society, the end of fair social relations and the path that provides the possibility for greater equity and justice for all. Exclusion thickens the broth of marginality, the culture of disrespect and gives rise to all types of polarization and confrontation.
A society without a return to a balanced social life, fair in all senses, including moral and economic, makes the development of a culture of peace and fraternity possible.
There is no way back, just imposing rules and concepts, often dubious and without an adequate practical reason (the Greek phronesis), becomes an ideological direction that is as hostile as what it condemns: authoritarianism and ignorance.
There is a lack of common sense, practical reason in all areas of society, from political to religious, the practice of distrust, discredit and disrespect for different thoughts, makes the field of authoritarianism increasingly present and the field of democracy and equality distant.
The practice of daily attitudes of good, of patient listening is the path for those who truly desire a more fraternal and supportive world, the practice of aggression and hatred does not lead to a real possibility of returning to the path of war and confrontation.
Those who say they follow Love and solidarity need to get out of words and into actions.
Happy 2024 and blog line
31
Dec
It is difficult to make a positive assessment of 2023,
we expected some positive reaction from humanity in the post-pandemic where many died as a result of the worsening of collateral diseases caused by the coronavirus, we expected more solidarity and respect for human life.
Ukraine will start the year with a day of mourning due to the massive attack carried out by Russia that killed 39 people and injured 159 others, most of them civilians, the UN declared the attack “unacceptable” and the United States admits direct intervention in war through its troops, this would in practice represent the beginning of a 3rd. World War.
In addition to this crisis, there is the scourge of war in the Gaza strip and tension between Venezuela and Guyana.
The year is not yet over and this month the blog broke its record number of hits with more than 32 thousand and the new line where we delve deeper into the issue of the noosphere, based on Teilhard Chardin who coined the term, also the crisis of thought (we see that the philosophy is also experiencing a crisis) and which is the origin of the current civilizational crisis and Cyberculture, with ethical and social aspects that are deepened in readings of both the emergence of new technologies (ChatGPT, Bard, Azure, etc.) that enter the Era of Generative AI, in the LLM (Large Language Model) model.
The complex scenario requires reading a few authors who detect the golden thread of the current crisis, the idealistic model that comes from the dualism of Ancient Greece (being is and non-being is not), the centralizing and monopolizing state model (even the liberal model that grows in some countries continues to dictate centralized theories and models) and whose crisis affects the social body, culture and even religion where there is no shortage of false prophets, soothsayers and apocalypticists, this appeal grows depending on the severity of the time.
We leave a breath of hope, of certainty that it is possible to emerge from a crisis with balance, responsibility and a dispassionate look at problems, passion for life yes, but not that of fanatics and saviors of the country who contribute little or nothing to humanitarian and responsible for the human future.
Inform, symbol and connect
15
Nov
What was missing in the text of Crisis of Narration,
there is also something wrong in “Infocracy: digitalization and the crisis of democracy in philosophy” (2022) of Byung-Chul, the idea that information is in itself incomplete, is present in another book entitled Vita Contemplativa (ed. Vozes, 2023) because there, returning to being, one can find how form becomes narration within being, and becomes in-form.
An excerpt from this book says: “The loss of shared feeling accentuates the lack of being. The community is a symbolically mediated totality. The symbolic narrative void leads to the fragmentation and erosion of society.” (HAN, 2023, p. 91-92). (emphasis added)
Thus recognizing this aspect of the need for being as a symbolic void, which the contemporary narrative in general does not contemplate due to its informational vices, at the same time the author states: “The human being, as a symbolon, longs for a sacred and restorative totality” (page 92).
The term symbolon appears prominently because the author uses it based on a reading of Plato’s Banquet, where Aristophanes remembers that this broken piece of being, which for him was initially spherical and was broken, has this broken piece with a “symbol”.
Now if symbol is a part, united to another part we form a totality, not just in a community, but in every “sacred and restorative totality”, where there are men united for a good and just cause.
Narrative and information in this context, where the part is united, as an important principle defended by Edgar Morin said: “It is necessary to replace a thought that isolates and separates with a thought that unites and distinguishes”, thus the union of distinct “symbols” and that are part of contemporary cultures and peoples.
Thus, the ontological information (proper to being) linked to the context of the narration in its time and the object of thoughts within a diversity, are not a reason for fragmentation but rather for a universe that unites us and makes us more “whole” within our lives. communities.
Contemporary hyperactivity, which not only but also the digital world can lead us to, is itself a world that rejects internalization, meditation and thus, narration itself.
The author writes about this interiority: “Active life, with its pathos of action, blocks access to religion” (page 154), action is part of religious life as much as lay life, what differentiates is that in addition to prudence, our reflections from last week, can lead to a different, fair action that leads to happiness and fulfillment different from pure “action”.
Pathos, to clarify, is part of the Greek triad “ethos, pathos and logos”, while ethos persuades us through character, or by whoever narrates, if this is worthy of faith, logos persuades us through logical (broad) reason and pathos by feelings caused by sadness or joy, love or hate, and so often without going through reason and ethics.
HAN, Byung-Chul. (2023) Vita Contemplativa or about inactivity. Trans. Lucas Machado. Brazil, Petrópolis: Vozes.
