Arquivo para August, 2022
The origin and crisis of humanism
17
Aug
The two wars and the current tension Russia x Ukraine and
China x Taiwan, which are nothing but the tension now between two types of colonial systems, capitalist imperialism and ideological imperialism, which is not just Marxist or communist, because this requires a discussion on the topic.
His proposal, according to Sloterdijk himself, were well understood by the participants, however in the reaction of the philosophers there was a “fascist” content in them, which is the genetic selection of humanity, or the induction of this change.
I also had this reaction in a first reading, in my case the criticism of Heidegger’s “Letters on Humanism”, one of the central themes that it addresses, in addition to the questioning it makes of the conception of humanism, its great contribution is in understanding the ontic relationship ontological, inverting Heidegger’s precedence of the ontological over the ontic.
In practice it means a revision of the clearing motif, as the incorporation of its natural history over the social one (Sloterdijk, 1999, p. 61), means that there is a natural dimension on the ontological.
Personally, I prefer not to submit one dimension to another, I say that they cooperate, something similar to what Henri Bergson wrote in his “Creative Evolution” (1907), but adhering to the mystical, and it is clear that this depends on a cosmovision with some religious background.
Sloterdijk’s review of Plato’s “Politics” (Sloterdijk, 1999, p. 47-56) develops the origins of humanism in Antiquity, in his view, linked to the exercise of an inhibition, that of the habit of reading capable of pacifying, to tame, to develop patience, in opposition to the frenetic amusements of the “uninhibited homo inhumanus”.
The Platonic metaphor supposes that these different natures are found in Being, that is, they are ontological, and as raw material to form the Greek citizen (the politician), there is the artifice of separating them in order to have the desired configuration for their function. in the polis.
It must be remembered that the Greeks also already spoke of areté, the exercise of virtue, to use Sloterdijk’s term “a life of exercises”, but the German philosopher’s view is that this project fails, and in our analysis that includes the mystic , means that there is an abandonment of areté.
Thus, I am not making a blind defense of Sloterdijk here, I only note that his criticism of humanism is to this “peacemaking” project of man, hence why the “rules of the human park”, his suggestion of ontic nature, do not necessarily mean manipulation. genetics.
Behind this question is the question whether man is good or bad, as the Enlightenment contractualists did when defining the role of the state, so Sloterdijk’s question proceeds.
The Silicon War and the Hedgehog
16
Aug
We have already posted the power that Taiwan is in the production of
chips, which are mostly produced from silicon, but the sand from which the silicon is taken comes from China, of course, and from other countries, but this depends on the transom of ships at sea and this is China’s strategy.
The disproportion between population and troop strength is huge, China has 1.4 billion inhabitants while Taiwan has 24.5 million inhabitants, China’s military strength is over 2 million while Taiwan is close to 170,000, in this effective the smallest disproportion is for the navy of 240,000 for China and 40,000 for Taiwan.
Thus, Taiwan’s so-called “porcupine” strategy consists of counterattacking with painful thorns, that is, instead of acquiring expensive fighter jets and submarines, it deployed mobile and hidden defensive systems, with anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles and these will be the “painful thorns”.
The sacrifice of civilian lives is inevitable, although condemnable by all kinds of war agreements, mistakes in strategy, wrong targets and even the hatred that wars generate end up reaching innocent people who barely understand the real reasons for wars and trade disputes. .
In any case, this would have a limited duration due to the disparity of forces, so they will need to act on other fronts: financial, commercial and informational (including cybernetics already underway).
While China plans to strangle and isolate the rebel island and Taipei perfects the porcupine strategy, the Americans are left in the ambiguity of trying to maintain good relations with China on the one hand and on the other hand not revealing the support they can give Taiwan in attack case, but analysts say it will.
The war in Ukraine is but a separate chapter in the ideological aspect of this issue, as Russia and China are political allies who want to destroy the forces of Western capitalism, although both have absorbed aspects of free enterprise.
There is a third force on this chessboard which are the Islamic countries, Turkey and Iran in particular, and they may represent an imbalance of forces that keeps the tension in a pre-World War II stage, where a full confrontation would lead to a nuclear crisis.
Are there forces for peace? Yes, but they seem weakened, the UN cannot play a mediating role and in some cases, such as amnesty international, there have also been ideological defections on both sides.
Humanity has always managed to get out of these civilizational snares and crises, at the moment it is difficult to find these answers, even thinkers like Edgar Morin or Peter Sloterdijk seem to be a collapse of world proportions, perhaps a force superior to what most men believe, something superhuman or supernatural.
Residual Covid and absence of protocols
15
Aug
Covid remains low but stable with a moving average of deaths
above 200, and registering in the last few days close to 300 daily deaths, the number of cases is slowly decreasing, around the 30 thousand known cases daily.
The protocols continue to treat it as a common disease, with very little care, in some environments, with most environments, even poorly ventilated, poorly supervised.
Reports and protocols are published only as a bureaucratic duty, in practice they are rarely observed, it is at the personal discretion or of some zealous sanitary or administrative official.
The World Average of cases was last week at 899,983 out of 770,230, showing that also worldwide there is a certain “stability”, but considering the low numbers is ignoring the possibility of new cases and variants appearing.
The number of cases and deaths worldwide, can be observed as a weaker fifth wave and with a tendency to fall, but looking at the moving average numbers of deaths around 200 thousand is worrying and should still be under strong protocol care.
The WHO emergency committee for the Pandemic has been issuing notes since the beginning of July maintaining the state of Public Health Emergency of Internal Interest, noting the growth of infection rates in some countries and warning for the maintenance of vaccination. .
In a July note, the Committee expressed: “concern about sharp reductions in testing, resulting in reduced surveillance coverage and quality, in addition to fewer genomic sequences being submitted to open access platforms. This impedes assessments of current and emerging variants of the virus and is translating into less ability to interpret trends in transmission and to adjust public health measures.”
Local governments however do not seem to be alert to the level that the WHO asks.
Freedom, Tolerance and Peace
12
Aug
The popular adage says: “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”,
this thought would extend to tolerance and Peace, where they cease to exist, freedom also ends up being curtailed.
Not only do the authoritarians want to limit freedom, there are also authoritarian models that try to justify themselves in the name of promises that they do not fulfill: justice, public morality and the well-being of their fellow men, for all this, it always depends on spaces for the different and the dialogue.
The first act of a war is to eliminate those who are different, the second is to establish a state of exception that allows those in power to feed the fuel of intolerance for war.
It is not a national issue, the extent of these tensions already has global contours, even Amnesty International, an exempt and generally tolerant body, already presents distortions in its actions and its reports are questionable.
The Pandemic generated a global problem, however, not even this common “enemy” made us solidarity, we could not read a great civilizing distress signal and with this others will come.
So, what is our reaction to the lack of solidarity and peace? Pinochet.
For a more just and fraternal world, not only words are needed, but actions that are in fact affirmative to implement tolerance, the right to difference and social freedom.
To those who believe, the biblical word is very clear, because an announcement of a civilization of solidarity and peace requires action, it is written in Luke (12,49-51): “I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I would like was already lit. I must receive a baptism, and how anxious I am until this is accomplished! Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? On the contrary, I say to you, I came to bring division.
It is a clear watershed between true Christians and those who think only of heavenly peace.
Difference and identity in philosophy
11
Aug
The western philosophical system opposed difference and identity
in different fields, only Leibniz tried to create something different that he called the Law of Identity of indiscernibles, while Kant, in the face of the objectivity of his thought, will say that all objects are different even if there are similarities, because they are in different places.
Modern structuralists and poststructuralists make a distinct unification, claim that difference is constitutive of meaning as much of identity, more bluntly, identity (and also personal identity) is seen in non-essentialist terms as a construct, because they only produce meaning through the interaction of differences.
But neither structuralism nor poststructuralism adequately resolves this issue, Derridá coined the term “différance”, a deliberate misspelling of différence the correct word in French, as a conceptual hook on processes of meaning in writing/language, this device intended for an essentialist ontology critique, and for its Being.
The neologism différance is thus defined as “the non-original, constituting a disruption of presence”, creating spaces, ruptures and postponing the presence of the presence of Being in its totality, since the word differ in French is both to defer and to postpone.
Someone could be confused with the quantum lapse, what the physicist Nicolescu Barsarab, using a principle of the included middle of Stéphane Lupasco, space between two “quanta”, but it is necessary to remember that neither space nor time are absolute measures in quantum physics. .
Dualism is the basis of many modern authoritarian theories, all of them under the influence of Kantian idealism and, to a certain extent, Aristotelian philosophy, where being is and non-being is not.
It justifies the exclusion of a third term, of something that is different and similar at the same time, it is an opening to “fundamentalist”, “racist” and “scientist” philosophies, origin of Manichaeism present in modern culture, in quotation marks because there is true faith and science.
Thus, for the ontology of the included middle, being is, not being is not, and a being that is not and is at the same time, the included middle T is possible.
The idealistic model of in-tolerance
10
Aug
Modernity brought to light a model where some individuals, ideologies or
cultures would be superior to others, in the Kantian logic of the categorical imperative: “act in such a way that you are a model for others”, so this is the ideal of perfection and its ethical basis. .
The reaction we are experiencing is not the supposed ideological polarization, but a civilization that assumes that belonging to a certain group indicates greater or lesser civilization, it is not, therefore, an attitude of tolerance or “benevolence” towards the other, but imposing a model civilizing.
In a society that gave voice to almost everyone, there are still oppressions in dictatorial countries, what is a model starts to be questioned and in this sense there is a clash between models that can be called ethical, and those whose ethics are the norm of a certain sector. in the power.
The other then can be seen as inferior, abnormal, wild, uncivilized or even intolerant when a standard is imposed as being the “correct” or “civilized”, in practice it is a clash between authoritarian thoughts of two or more different hues, which do not fail to include the religious and the “culturally civilized”.
Understanding that history was written and is still dictated by political groups, editorials from culturally “civilized” sources means a possible historical, epistemological and even scientific critique of modern thought.
Conservative forces, of different shades, it is good to explain are on one side of the pressure and want the tension to remain only between them, the forces that are really contrary and that know that this tension is nothing but a dispute over the market and interests. , are the real opponents of these models, but there is little or no support from power.
Thus, war only favors the powerful and their interests, while peace is only thought of if there is an interest in those that history has neglected: the vanquished, that those peoples who historically contradicted the logic of the war of the powerful also make themselves present in the agony of a civilization in crisis.
In the map above, the concentration of the World GDP, with the USA, China, part of Europe, India and some countries in Arabia highlighted.
At the beginning of this war scenario, we dealt with the analysis of the bad agreements at the end of the first two wars, the submission of the colonized countries and now the confrontation of the powers under the cloak of political struggle, the power and control of markets is at stake.
China and Taiwan prepare for war
09
Aug
Long before the visit of the US Mayor Nancy Pelosi, on
Taiwan, the crisis of China and Taiwan grown up, we had already posted here the intensification of the Chinese struggle to regain possession of the Island of Taiwan, which since 1949, when China became communist, declared itself an independent democratic republic.
In the post at the time, we show of the countries that voted for resolution 2758 (from 1971), 35 voted for Taiwan, 76 in favor of the presence of the People’s Republic of China (mainland China) as the representative entitled to a seat at the UN, and so on. Taiwan was left without representation.
The map of the six Chinese exercise areas, wrote former Australian General Mick Ryan on his Twitter, “clearly traces where the Chinese think the main operational areas are for their strategic deterrence of Taiwan”, Mick Ryan is an adjunct member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, showing that the Chinese tactic is to strangle and isolate the rebel island.
The island with 23 million inhabitants, has consolidated itself with an increasingly independent economy, and is the leader of the world semiconductor market, currently has 54% of the market for chips made by its company TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) and this is a strong reason for dispute, as Chinese electronics companies have high growth.
Taiwan’s defense tactics are not clearly exposed, apparently the Chinese provocation did not trigger the island’s alarms and sirens, the island’s defense strategy entitled “Porcupine” is not clearly exposed, but unlike the Ukraine war it may attack areas China’s internal affairs, which according to this strategy would have long and painful “inflammation” periods.
The archipelago of Taiwan has several small islands and on one of them, the tips aviadas to avoid landings are the ones that most resemble the quills of pigs.
The difference in military contingent and armament is huge, but the Americans promise direct help to the small island, of course this whole scenario is regrettable and not very desirable for world peace.
Japan had part of its maritime area invaded and protested with energy promising to respond, in short, it is an increasingly dangerous scenario and it is necessary for the peacekeeping forces to be mobilized.
The threatened peace is increasingly a civilizing distress call open to humanitarian forces.
Covid 19 from the networks point of view
08
Aug
Social networks imply a relationship with their closest neighbors
that are considered as vertices of the networks, and the propagation of the virus is seen as the possibility of a node of the network transmitting to another, as the theory of small worlds (small words) states that each person (each node) is separated from the other, by just six steps of separation, transmission is evident.
Whatever the strategy, testing should always be present, but the cost makes many not adopt this protocol, not knowing who is infected and how to prevent and isolate the virus.
The strategy of isolating environments is not efficient, although keeping environments open and ventilated is a good protocol, in closed environments it does not mean that the viruses are more in certain environments, of course except for the contaminated treatment environments where it is evident that the virus is present. , the Japanese strategy is to hospitalize only serious cases.
Thus, several strategies adopted can be more or less effective, the Chinese is the most obvious, which is zero tolerance, the lockdown, if everyone is isolated there is no transmission, but the Japanese is one of the smartest, and the numbers prove, that is to identify the nodes most susceptible to the contagion of serious cases, so the risk groups are the most monitored and tested there.
According to Japanese infectious disease specialist Sachio Miura, from the Nagasaki University School of Medicine, those with mild symptoms are advised to treat at home, thus avoiding a rush to hospitals, where overcrowding of patients becomes a breeding ground, which in the theory of networks would be called hubs, from which networks proliferate and transmit in smaller steps.
The different health bodies always have specialists in diseases, but the protocol strategy must be thought of globally (in a network), the number of cases and deaths has dropped only because the virus is less lethal, but lethality could be avoided with smart strategies.
Small worlds and closed circles
05
Aug
Small groups can potentiate their effects on a network, not only due to the ability to influence or cohesion, but also due to the degree of connectivity between nodes, which in technical language is called clustering, has nothing to do with closed circles, but the few connections are called Small Worlds.
This model of Social Networks (seen as a mathematical model of graphs and not just as media) observes a curious phenomenon called Small Worlds that was first proposed by Duncan J. Watts and Steven STrogatz in an article published in the journal Nature in 1998, the The model establishes that in a network there is a degree of separation between the points (network nodes) called six degrees of separation.
Albert L. Barabasi’s book “The New Science of Networks”, which expanded and corrected this model for larger scales, called scale-free, is thus described on pg. 47 of the book:
““The surprising discovery of Watts and Strogatz is that a few extra links are enough to drastically reduce the average separation between nodes…thanks to extensive bridges…connect nodes on the opposite side of the circle…”.(Barabasi, 2009).
So this is not the same as closed circles, since despite few connections, there must be bridges with nodes on the opposite side of the circle, so this “opening” is necessary, as mentioned for us on the opposite side of the circle.
This explains how many cultures and information expand or close according to the types of connectivity they have (the issue of clustering, in the graph p=0 to p=1) and due to the wider possibility of information today due to technology, the factors become more psychopolitical than geopolitical.
But it is also possible to explain the expansions of previous periods that depended on mobility and the “opening” of circles to other different cultures, Christianity for example, the book by Barabasi quotes, depended on the strategy of Paul of Tarsus which was to speak to the “Gentiles ” and to peoples who did not have Jewish culture, and from there it expanded into a network.
But they were a small group (12 apostles and then 72) but who traveled through the western world at the time, this idea of small worlds is still present in Christianity until today, although numerous, the precepts of Love and Solidarity are not always observed, and this reduces it to closed circles.
The future is also expressed in Christian culture (Lk 12:31): “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom”, then the parable of the administrator is told. they do not know the time that will arrive and must always act waiting for you to arrive and find them attentive, in this case it refers to true treasures that we have already dealt with in previous posts.
People who resisted empires
04
Aug
The great Persian empire expanded from Cyrus the Great in the
year 558 BC, and dominated the Medes and took all of Mesopotamia, Cyrus respected the culture and customs of his enemies, but expanded his empire to Egypt, and advanced over the Greeks, but was defeated by Athens.
After Darius I, Xerxes I and his son Artaxerxes also tried to conquer Greece and failed, in the year 332 BC. Emperor Alexander of Macedonia the Great organized an invincible army and ended up taking Greece and eventually winning the Persians, establishing a new empire, Macedonian.
Alexander’s death from typhoid fever or malaria (the poisoning hypothesis is not accepted by historians) the dispute between generals ended up weakening the empire and starting a decline.
The period established between the starting point of the Classical Era is pointed out with the first record of the poetry of the Greek Homer, in the 7th-8th centuries BC. and will extend to the period from 300 to 600 A.D. which is called Late Antiquity, when the Middle Ages begin.
In this interregnum between the Macedonian Empire and the Roman/Byzantine Empire, Greek culture developed in classical antiquity, which is deeply influential to this day with the so-called Western culture.
Greek culture and language were for that time what the English language is today, great developments were made from Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, names in several areas of knowledge stood out: Hippocrates in medicine, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides in theater , Apelles in painting, Phidias in sculpture, Archimedes in mathematics, Aristarchus, Erastothenes and Hipparchus in astronomy, are some important names that still influence our culture today.
This small nation was a great founder of concepts and thoughts that reached our days: the Organon and the Ethics of Aristotle, the Geometry of Euclid and Thales of Miletus and Pythagoras in mathematics.
They won battles uniting the city-states, but they were a small people with a strong culture and humanistic values that are remembered to this day, although they can be modified and updated.
