Arquivo para July, 2022
International Day of Friendship
30
Jul
The date of International Friendship Day was established by the
UN to remember solidarity between peoples, respect for diversity and I make a special repost of content from this blog in this regard:
The philosopher Plato defined friendship as “the reciprocal predisposition that makes
two beings equally jealous of each other’s happiness”, Augustine of Hippo affirmed that “being a friend merges us in the friendship of being; friends are one soul” and Aristotle seems to merge the two thoughts: “friendship is a soul with two bodies”.
It was Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics dedicated two books to the study of philia and friendship, who defined friendship in three types: for interest, that for pleasure, for interest and true friendship, the first is easy to identify because it is the pursuit of mutual pleasure, the second because they are useful to each other, and the third, it is possible between good men because they desire good for its own sake and do not place pleasure or interest above friendship.
In chapter IXI the Peripatetic philosopher states:
“Perhaps we can say that there is nothing strange about breaking a friendship based on interest or pleasure when our friends no longer possess the attributes of being useful and pleasant; in fact we were friends with those attributes, and when they disappear it is reasonable not to continue in love. ” (Aristotle, IX, 3, 1165b) .
In the chapter “The partner and the neighbor” of the book “History and Truth” by Paul Ricoeur he will talk about the difference between these relationships, he talks about charity: “Charity doesn’t need to be where it appears; it is also hidden in the humble and abstract post office, the social security; it is often the hidden part of the social”, Paul Ricoeur, Le socius et le Prochain (1954).
We are reminded by the philosopher that just as institutions can only have corporate relationships, they can also have interpersonal relationships, of affection and solidarity and that make them less cold and less bureaucratic, where one sees not a client or a service more, but a neighbor in which one may be interested.
It is not by chance that it is a chapter of History and Truth, because the truth is only established between true and close friends, and if they are partners, it will only be to be closer.
The Twinkl website referenced this post in function of this date, thanks for the reminder.
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.
Imbalance and false treasures
28
Jul
It is food and public goods (water, energy and sanitation) that
are the real basic inputs of the population, but it is what you see little in advertisements, they show riches that are accessible to few and only remember the real ones at election time.
Talking about hunger has already been the slogan of many elections, all over the world, but the conditions that are sustainable for this are little or almost never understood, and they depend on a greater balance of world markets and guarantees of imports and exports of basic inputs, including for health.
Economic crises, basically, is an imbalance between the production and distribution of essential goods and consumption, and they arise in isolated sectors of the economy, it is not necessary that there is a shortage of various goods, it is a cascading imbalance and capital and stock exchanges are more reflections than origin of these crises, which include wars and revolutions.
Also natural factors can influence (droughts, floods, epidemics or some major event like an earthquake or an atomic crisis that is now possible).
Thus, the real treasures must be those that lead humanity to greater balance and sustainability, including care for nature, as the production of food, energy and even less essential consumer goods depend on it.
The real treasures like this, even if we only think of the earthly, forgetting about the spiritual ones that give us comfort and true joy, are those that provide a greater civilizing understanding, tolerance between races and cultures, and those that include the spiritual plane.
The growing culture of individualism, hatred (of different types), the accumulation of goods as a symbol of happiness, consumption even of the human body and mind lead to the opposite path of those who want to build real treasures.
Illusions pass, the moth consumes, time rusts or rots, but what remains is essential and a true spiritual asceticism depends on it, a good that glimpses future generations, and for those who believe, eternity.
So the current crisis is at its base a crisis of thought, of ethical and solidary values, of mutual respect and of a clarity about what it means to build true
Our daily bread
27
Jul
I read last year that China told the people to stock up on food,
it seemed that it was due to the Pandemic, but at the end of the year that the Pandemic was already showing signs of retreat, the news remained, this time in greater prominence appearing on visible channels, such as CNN.
When the war in Ukraine started, it seemed something more evident, and the impact on the economy is great, because something called market commoditization occurs, that is, the main reference becomes various commodities, such as fertilizers, for example, that Russia is a major producer, in addition to food as stronger references than currencies.
To understand the war from the point of view of the market, we have already posted that the worst origin is xenophobia, which means the hatred fomented between peoples, let’s look at the world’s largest food producers, China was by far the world’s largest agricultural producer in 2020 , India is the second largest producer in terms of population, its production in 2020 was estimated at US$ 403.5 billion, followed by the United States.
Brazil and Russia follow closely behind what has ensured the significant increase and diversification of field production in recent decades, we have already posted (the previous post) the importance of Ukraine and the strangulation of these markets by war is a growing concern, which explains why For example, Russia’s interest in Black Sea ports and NATO now in the already admitted entry of Finland and Sweden into the bloc.
Drone spraying, the use of remote sensing and machines with sophisticated digital controls such as GPS and various sensors, increase the so-called digital agriculture, but this will not prevent countries with low production and dependent on exports from suffering.
It is already inevitable that poor countries dependent on food exports suffer, we have moved from the culture of solidarity to help them, to that of survival due to war, they are the invisible scourges of war, the poor peoples and populations of the planet.
War and famine
26
Jul
War is not just a dispute over markets and measuring “ideals”,
it is above all an atrocity on a scale, if murder is reprehensible why wouldn’t it be a war? during the Serbia/Bosnia war I asked a Serbian activist why she wanted to destroy Bosnia, she told me that they were historical factors that would be difficult to explain, but she said that her country was a “victim” of bombings that had no justification.
Such is hatred, intolerance and the absence of dialogue, often concealed with docile words to win public opinion, but every war has as its principle some atrocity, some unjustifiable hatred and some cultural intolerance (it can be of many types), not there is no other way to go back other than repentance (on both sides of course) and acknowledging that they chose the worst way, of course, and then sitting down at the table.
One of the consequences, already inevitable, even if there is an agreement for Ukraine’s grain exports, will be the lack of grains on the world market, as shown in the chart above, the country at war is responsible for 42% of sunflower oil in global exports. , 16% of corn, 10% of barley and 9% of wheat (2019 data, see graph) as Russia exports fertilizer and gas to Europe.
There was an agreement mediated by Turkey, but due to the war it is a fact that part of the production was lost and the price of food has already risen worldwide, the current crop will be exported, but little or nothing can be said about future crops, good part of the population left Ukraine, including in rural areas.
It is difficult for a process of regression, apparently throughout the world the confrontation and cultural and social hatred has spread, even among those who should proclaim peace.
Last week we explained the importance of friendship and empathy between men for a true spirituality, which can help civilization in this difficult process.
There is only one way, to change the climate of empathy, peace and solidarity among people, so that politicians and leaders who grow up around hatred may lose ground.
Covid in decline and WHO shifts focus
25
Jul
With the number of deaths above 200 in Brazil, Covid is still a
concern, since the number of cases has dropped below 50 thousand ‘which shows a downward trend, but care protocols and care with protocols are still necessary. .
The World Health Organization (WHO) in a document released this Friday (22/07) announced that a new global strategy to increase vaccine coverage against Covid-19, especially among the most vulnerable populations with comorbidities and advanced age, where aims to reach 100% vaccinated.
The strategy is correct because as the virus circulates, new variants may appear, and as it is very difficult to reach 100% of the population or to lockdown, it is an effective strategy.
Monkey smallpox represents a new concern, the number of cases is growing worldwide, and in Brazil there are already more than 600 cases, now with internal transmission, but the number of cases is increasing worldwide.
Transmission can occur either through close contact with injuries or through bodily fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as personal clothes and bedding, and according to health agencies, , between human beings in physical contact between close people who are symptomatic.
Precautions therefore must be to avoid contact with contaminated materials and close people who show symptoms.
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..
The idealistic concepts of friendship
21
Jul
We post that it is an exercise in rhetoric, but like any philosophy
there is a seminal origin of a certain thought, Nietzsche starts from Platonic metaphysics stating that the game between friends of philosophy had a vice of conception that would be the will of truth, sometimes it was precisely she that there is a critique of the sophists relativizes it.
Based on this principle, Nietzsche will state that the philosopher must practice a certain “art of mistrust”, his main instrument being the hammer (Niettzsche in “Beyond Good and Evil”).
Deleuze states that Foucault would have declared that “Heidegger always fascinated him, but that he could only understand him through Nietzsche, with Nietzsche (and not the other way around)” (Deleuze, 1986, p. 120-121) and even though “surely , alongside Heidegger, but in a totally different way, the one who most profoundly renewed the image of thought” (Deleuze, 1990, p. 130-131).
Returning to the initial question, which is true friendship, after all if it is it and nothing else that allows for a broad relationship between the various concepts of friends in philosophy, being itself by definition (philo-friend) sophia (wisdom).
This is how Deleuze and Guattari develop the question of friendship, considering the different thinkers, the friend is for him, being more textual, it is a “trait of conceptual character” that has to do with “psychosocial characters” (Deleuze, Guattari, 1991, p. .68)
As we said, it is an emptying of the concept of friend, transformed into an object of subjective reflection, for this reason we say that they are idealist concepts, even when approaching clearly non-idealist authors such as Heidegger and Nietzsche.
We return to the Aristotelian concept that differentiates friendship for pleasure or for utility from true friendship and therefore the question of truth is essential, and even Plato considered it, although it divides the world of ideas (eidos for the Greeks) and the sensible world.
Also the concept of neighbor (one who is within a broad affection of friendship) and the partner (one to whom we associate ourselves for a certain happiness), concepts of Paul Ricoeur are essential points in our view for the reflection on friendship.
DELEUZE, Gilles. Pourparlers Paris: Minuit, 1990.
DELEUZE, Gilles; GUATTARI, Félix. Qu’est-ce que la philosophie? Paris: Minuit, 1991.
Friendship and concepts
20
Jul
We have already posted and explored the concepts of friendship
in Aristotle for pleasure, for interest and true friendships, we also highlight the difference between the partner and the neighbor (Paul Ricoeur’s text) where in the first case there is only interest and once the friendship is over closes or diminishes.
What we want to explore a little bit now is what it means in an individualistic world and where interest reigns, what is the concepts of friendship and friend.
In another perspective, in which Deleuze and Guattari go so far as to say that the friend and friendship are “absent” concerns in philosophical thought, and the book “A friendship de Maurice Blachot” is mentioned as a rare exception, but there is already at the base of this discourse a clear distinction between friend and friendship.
So the philosopher is a “friend” of wisdom (philos-friend and sophia-wisdom), but there is a compulsory obligation due to “friendship” being the object of this relationship, and thus only these friends could participate in the friendship, that is, there is a requirement of wisdom.
The basis of this concept is in the “gaze” of a so-called “sage”, so they are concepts within each one, they are the eyes or look of each one on another person, but this look is a sensation that does not come from the eyes of the senses or of personal feelings, so they are a nobody’s gaze, a demand for observation, a selfie that must be seen by another.
But how can you be a friend while being nobody? This question makes more sense when it comes to a dimension in a highly differentiable plane, and thus it can be seen in certain historical, political and even religious contexts, where each thinker is taken individually as having a “look” of sage, or of pretended wisdom.
One can illustrate with Guattari and Deleuze himself, and thus we can divide friendship into concepts of different contexts: the Greek, the Nietzschean, the Heideggerian and the Focaultian.
Such an inquiry aims to explore the territory of friendship as a concept, because if, as we said, it is a highly differentiable dimension or plane, then it can be detected in certain historical periods or even in each thinker taken individually. We will then try to define and illustrate, from the elements that we have just lent to Deleuze and Guattari, in a way appropriate to the extension of this article, four types of friendship of the concept, the Greek, the Nietzschean, the Heideggerian and the Foucaultian, but it’s just a rhetorical exercise.
It can be worthwhile as an exercise in thought, friendship is simple and there can be, and there are, among simple people with little book culture, and there may not be among “cults”.
I venture to say that there is more true friendship between simple people, than Heidegger says in his Forest Path in which he lives with very simple people.
Plague, War and Famine
19
Jul
This vicious circle seems to perpetuate itself in history, and the
recent data and provocations of the war in Europe not only frighten, but cause a justifiable fear when it is observed that all over the world there are “fans” on both sides, and it is not a game , but a great genocide like any other war, but of greater proportions because it can involve the greatest world powers.
The generation that witnessed the horrors of the first two wars no longer remembers it, counting from the start date, the assassination of Duke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, by a Serbian nationalist and which is considered the trigger of the first war.
What preceded it was a period of European politics from 871 to 1914 called “Paz Armada”, where there is an intensification of disputes over markets, colonial territories and a vision of predominance in European geopolitics, where the Austrian Empire stood out. Hungarian to which Francisco Feerdinad was heir.
A documentary about the rise of the Nazis in Germany can be seen in a documentary made by the History Channel, and we will see a similar scenario: recent wars, economic crisis and not mentioned in the documentary: the Spanish flu (1918-1919).
The parallel with the growing tension between NATO and Russia in the current Ukraine war is evident, and therefore the fear of a war of civilizing proportions must be feared, including the inclusion of Serbian separatists, whom China is accused of send weapons.
The future scenario is one of a market crisis, especially in grains that will affect, in particular, the poorest, is already a visible scenario for many analysts. Global Hunger Index reports show that violent conflict is a major contributor to hunger (photo).
Civilization proportions are due not only to the number of nuclear weapons, but to more than 400 nuclear plants spread across the planet, the documentary on what the Nazis thought helps to reflect on our thoughts on popular “myths” and “fantasies” .
There is no vigorous force that fights for peace, but small attitudes such as gestures of empathy and friendship can help to overcome the current growing climate of hatred and lack of love.
