Arquivo para February, 2021
The asceticism of the soul
26
Feb
We live in times when even organized thinking has deviated and
whoever wants to find the truth will have difficulty, the vast majority of people seek asceticism through what Peter Sloterdijk calls “exercise life”, recipes for how to have a good life, in general , only financial, but in many cases also the care with food and the body and beyond, how the asceticism of the soul is and where to find it is the question.
It is true that there are those who do not even believe that the soul exists, but live in a discomfort of clinging only to the things that pass and never find what does not, we developed this week is the asceticism of the encounter with the Other, the one who does not it’s the mirror.
The organized fans of this or that type, this or that form of spirituality, this or that current are only looking for the mirror, someone who thinks and lives the model of asceticism linked only to a group, for this reason as they are exclusive, they do not they are a model for everyone and cannot be a true ascesis.
Even in terms of religion, he who “loves God who does not see and does not love the brother who sees, is a liar” (John 1: 4,20) also other religions have similar formulas that are summed up in the so-called “golden rule” , not doing to the Other what you would not like to be ugly to you.
Markets and shopping malls fill up in times of pandemic, apparently even more than in normal times, of course when they are open and it is allowed, people look there for what a false asceticism gave, that is, a life of exercise, in this case of consumption.
So times will be harder, and with more difficulty finding the true peace that is the one that takes us to the top, after all asceticism means to rise, rise and reach a region of soul comfort, not material and not even that which we entered there and we were fine (in our group or crowd), but an elevation of the spirit and soul that comforts us, even in crisis.
The biblical passage that reveals this asceticism is the passage in which Jesus chooses three disciples and goes to Mount Tabor (beware because Jesus’ other ascension is a debt ascension, which was after his Death and Resurrection), says this passage (Mc 9 , 2-3): “At that time, 2Jesus took Peter, James and John with him, and took them alone to a separate place on a high mountain. And he transfigured himself before them. Her clothes were shiny and as white as no washerwoman on the earth could target”.
After Mount Tabor (see the picture above) they had to return to reality and descend from there, Peter wanted to stay there, this is the difference from the other ascent in which Jesus returns to his divine reality (heaven is a metaphor of the divine live).
A time of true ascension, the pandemic removed everything that was false from us, we stand before Being.
Naming elephant and worldview
25
Feb
Deceased in February last year, American and
Christian philosopher James W. Sire (1933-2018) did extensive research behind the worldview issue, said it took 30 years, published in 2004, probably to begin to address the theme in 1974.
Also his worldview must be reread, I mean that from 1974 to 2004 the world underwent transformations that it deepened, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the cold war that now seems to be reborn, the fall of dictatorships that seem to come back in all over the planet.
I have not read the book, but one of the book’s chapters and also its commentators have helped formulate an idea, though inaccurate, of his main book Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept, publisher IVP Academic), and the chapter I refer to is the Definitions of Worldview: from Dilthey to Naugle, which in the title is suggestive of some idealism which the text confirms early on, is available on google Books, if he citing Dilthey its good news for me, and it is good text.
It says at the beginning of Chapter 2 that the origin of the term Weltanschauung originated with Kant (1724-1804) (amaze idealists!), “but only in passing” and quotes Dilthey verbatim: “to denote a set of beliefs that underlie and shape all human thought and action.” (Sire, 2004, p. 23), denoting a set of beliefs that underpin and shape all human thought and action.
Although appropriate, perhaps the most thorough analysis of the term, Heidegger’s reading which updated and developed the subject in a broader sense than that of Kant and Dilthey is lacking, and Hans Georg Gadamer will rightly criticize Dilthey’s conception of the idealist.
To follow the concept of Weltanschauung Cites Nietszche, Wittgenstein, with tours of Plato and Descartes, Foucault and passing Rorthy art, and then begins to address evangelical Christian authors (Reformed is the name abroad), James Orr, Abraham Kuyper , Herman Dooyeweerd, Ronald Nash until he comes to what he calls the new synthesis that would be David Naugle.
However, never runs away from idealism, says he goes from ontology to hermeneutics (not the other way around) and says that this synthetic view is characterized by a “system”. semiotic of narrative signs ”(Sire, 2004, p. 42) quoting Naugle who made such a synthesis. However, the true synthesis hidden behind the text, with a clear nominalist view and the idea of a semiotic system, reveals itself by quoting the biblical text: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe me also, referring to the biblical passage in John 14: 1, because you then ignore the text that says, “In my father’s house are many mansions.”
The idea of signs, myths and symbols embedded in narratives that represent a worldview is not negligible, and it is even important, however any view that is solely about narrative does not do the work of removing the anthropological view and the real “historical view”. Of what happened, being the idealist and unreal vision of Dilthey’s historicism.
There is another more significant passage, the so-called return of the prodigal son (Luke 15:10: 32), which some idealistic authors and exegetes dislike the name, seeking to idolize the eldest son who stayed at home with his father, who is more conservative. therefore, but also his prodigal son, his defect, went to the world to experiment.
The fact that he returned is commendable, but what a worldview he brought from his deviance, in fact their father is merciful to his conservative and rebel.
Healing the Other
24
Feb
Gandhi affirmed that “one cannot hurt the other without hurting oneself”, but Carl Jung has an expanded recipe “the one who heals the other, heals himself”, in terms of the pandemic it is good to think about this, to take care of the distance, hygiene rules, etc.
Some say this will never happen to me, they are people with comorbidities, etc. yes they are in the risk group, but the pandemic now with the new strains has expanded the “risk group”, it can be said that the whole society is vulnerable.
And along with the pandemic, economies are collapsing, but the idealistic models are still there, we have the answer for so long, do not forget that they have already been tested, so it is not about this or that model, all current models are centered on “ economy ”as the center of any policy and not in the human being, this was even more valid in this crisis.
The Fukushima plant for example, there have been tremors in that region recently, it has shown new leaks, the water used to cool it will be poured into the sea and then it will go around the world now.
If we have other natural accidents, earthquakes are always happening here and there, and if they are close to other plants, and if another type of planetary crisis, other than the pandemic comes, and this is not just pessimism, it is a possibility that we all know exists .
Yes, now the problem is the disease, the source of the current blindness, it is also an extension of the cultural crisis and night of God, see the different types of religiosity that grows, the appeals and prophecies are not lacking everywhere, in my view some may to be true even, but this is not about this, but about asking how “healthy” life is going on the planet, and there comes the Other.
They said that the crisis was in the media, or in the networks, which is a very different thing, now they are the lifeline to keep in touch with the proper distance, time it wasn’t the cell phones that did this and why they don’t do it now, to keep companies and schools running , it is not so bad, the use yes.
Of course not, the loss of relationships does not depend on the means (the media) that we use, and putting ourselves in a network is even better, now it seems clearer to put ourselves first in front of those closest to us, take care of and take care of them, things that we remember being asked by our grandparents, who seemed closed and backward, but they knew what it meant to be close, to be loving and to be faithful.
Saving the economy even if people die, that is the foundation of a world where, at bottom, the economy that everyone was concerned about, maybe a minority really thought about the well-being and balance of life lived in essence, without luxury and with a certain “comfort”.
Remember that the Greek oeconomicus was about the domestic economy and agriculture, it is true that the economy has evolved a lot, but it shouldn’t have lost its origins, organizing people’s “domestic” economy and producing food, it seems essential in this crisis.
We don’t just have to heal ourselves, we need to heal and care for the other, so our medical heroes teach us, because the consequences will be for everyone, the discovery of this interdependence is healthy for a world that begins to close itself in authoritarian nationalisms and mentalities.
Overworked and true empathy
23
Feb
Always smiling and needing to be happy can be altruism and even heroism of 
many people, which should give us confidence and empathy should be transparency, which is not always empathic. Of course, this does not mean being rude or rude, nor deviation from personality, but the relief of inner dualism in the face of truth, even when it is not sympathetic, makes one have greater internal coherence, which is not confused with identity.
Identity may be personal, group or cultural, sometimes confused with being conniving or convenient, but at the root this is falsehood, so empathy has its place in the face of truth and being, not always the social ethics that dictate rules of convenience. and “legality,” which has come to be called politically correct, but could well be politically convenient.
Since the 1930s, the Brazilian has been spoken of as the “cordial man”, although there is a great anthropological and historical distance from the politically correct, this would not be just the update.
Empathy should then be a good mood in the sense that the ability to calmly get into controversial issues and issues with a strong possibility of polarization, the world today needs this, and therefore confusing it with hypocrisy, easy smile or just tolerance can be “ cordial ”and may not be a true feeling.
The pandemic has made many people bitter, dissatisfied and in a way accentuated individualism, in The partner and the next (Le socius et le prochain), Paul Ricoeur explains this difference in relationship.
In fact, doing to the other what we would like it to do for us, is not the empathic system, what neuroscience shows is that we have a set of neurons called mirror neurons that say that imitating the other is a more natural empathic form than To do something to another simply because we would like it done to us, deep down we are “asking” for something we want.
Empathy means the gift that everyone has to be able to feel what the other feels, so to speak of the Other is the true way of both finding an innate gift of humanity, neuroscience reveals, as well as making this truth explicit, we exist and feel the Other.
We only deny it by denying the self that has empathy as a natural “skill”, just by a constant denial training. There is, therefore, no true self without the Other, without the empathy with the Other, natural and not forced, which is thus made a staging and the Other will feel, empathy is thus ontological, part of Being.
The vídeo of TedX by psyquiatrist Helen Riess is very interesting:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=baHrcC8B4WM
Variant, slow vaccination and the third wave
22
Feb
There are several variants, especially South Africa, Brazilian
and British, although there are controversies about their severity, it is certain that the spread of the virus is faster, and in the Brazilian case it already seems to be present in good part of the Brazilian territory, there is no isolation of regions and combating the pandemic is one of the most inefficient and faltering.
Vaccination remains slow, but results in Europe are more effective because they are combined with restrictions and confinement policies, and are also in late winter, and the arrival of new batches of vaccines is expected, AstraZeneca confirms a batch 10 million vaccines for Brazil at the end of February, but vaccination is slow in other countries as well.
The so-called third wave is due to Europe’s release for Christmas and the end of the year, many governments have recognized the error, here in Brazil the beaches continue to register movement and there is no clear policy to avoid agglomerations, it is not just about closing stores and commerce, as some cities have even done with supermarkets, the central problem is awareness.
The third wave then came because of the liberality of the holiday season, and soon afterwards almost all of Europe closed, including Sweden, which was more liberal until the arrival of winter, the only country that begins to release gradually is Greece but it had a very austere #lockdown.
Another concern is with the third wave is the variant, the infection is faster and quickly fills hospitals and creates a situation of chaos in the already stressed health system that struggles for a year with the most serious cases, Covid’s numbers officially fall worldwide and is restrained in Europe, but the measures remain severe.
The number of vaccinated people in Brazil exceeds 5.5 million, but the pace could be higher, the problem is the supply, 18 million more doses of Coronavac and 16.9 million of AstraZeneca are promised for March, the other Chemical Union / Gamaleya and Precis / Bharat Biotech are on schedule, still for the first semester, the laboratories produce the Sputnik V and Covaxin vaccines, respectively.
The state of Amazonas has the highest number of vaccinates 4.87%, while São Paulo has the highest in absolute numbers, a total of 1,620,182 people vaccinated in a percentage of 3.5% population, with a large percentage of second doses.
The map above shows the various lockdown situations in Europe.
The pandemic, the desert and temptations
19
Feb
The pandemic put us in check as to the rules of conduct of our
lives, first the primary (but widely used) idea that we can do everything we want if it is within our reach, the second is to imagine human omnipotence in the case of human medicine for face any difficulty that imposes on us, and the third the crude game of power, which forgets those who suffer.
Temptations are not just a religious problem, they also exist in the spiritual realm (human omnipotence above divine mysteries), but it is also a social problem, we want to drink, leave the house, go to the malls to enjoy the social benefits, and few Sometimes we remember that they are not accessible to everyone, and that their use should also be moderated.
The isolation proposed to us a more restricted way of life, a greater coexistence with those who are closest to us, but also when going out for some activity to remember those who are obligatorily facing the pandemic: the people in the health area, the people responsible for the supply of foodstuffs (remembering those who do not have enough) and also the people responsible for security and essential services (there are many, but the controversy here can be left aside).
We have to face our own desert, isolation forces us, to face our own limits first, to accept them, not to be afraid to ask for help on the issues necessary for our survival: the desert, silence, reflection, knowing how to collect yourself is also an exercise.
There is a more usual temptation which is that of power, only our idea and our concepts are the ones that must be accepted, and also the struggle for power in a growing social polarization where little or almost nothing is discussed, we point out in this blog that it is now on a delicate summit.
The Christian recipe for power is very simple, in addition to valuing the humility and respectful listening of the Other, worshiping and calling only your God and your only son a teacher: Jesus, without this the struggle for power is growing and can lead to wars and social upheavals.
Before beginning his public life Jesus went to the desert to face his human frailties (Mk 1,12-13), it was his great asceticism, the Jews believed that in the desert lived an evil spirit called Azazel (Lev. 16 and Tb 8 , 3) however, a contemporary reading, the pandemic is an opportunity, even if forced and not exactly good, it is a serious disease, the desert that each one had to face can be an asceticism.
Review life and re-educate to live
18
Feb
Part of the world economic crisis, this is Morin’s analysis
is beyond economic, moral and ethical, in his sixth book on the Method of complexity, he develops the anthropological, historical and philosophical analysis of the problem, explaining that it starts from a concept inspired by Kant.
Here ethics is defined as a self-imposed moral requirement, instead of imperatives arising from practical reason, in Morin’s ethics based on complexity, it comes from three sources: one internal, analogous to our conscience, the other simulated and oriented external by cultures, beliefs and norms pre-established in the community, and from previous sources that are the very organization of living beings and transmitted genetically.
His ethics thus presents an ethics that requires reflection on our moral, social and values choices that we bring to our daily lives, here the civilizational crisis is serious.
However, Kantian ethics favored a self-centered, egocentric ethics, according to my interests and my will, ignoring that it should share with others, and this means that we must also orient ourselves towards a vision that is sensitive to society as a whole and those without a voice.
In times of a pandemic, we were “forced” for reasons of public health, but also for education, to limit our movements, to maintain safe social isolation, and to look at each person and feel responsible for him, is this what all do
This apparent limitation of freedom is in fact one that should already be incorporated into our social ethics, without a consistent education for the practice of fraternity and a careful and sensitive look at the other, we can fall into a social vacuum and feed the already present civilization crisis. .
It is necessary to go through a long path of personal reflection and be willing to change habits and attitudes to help society as a whole to emerge from a crisis that is not only health but also social.
Quarantine and Lent
17
Feb
Those who manage to live this long quarantine, which enters the
second year, as perspectives and hopes are true, but also with anguish and concerns, understand that there is a cause for attention, encouragement and concern, especially with the anguished. There was no carnival, and there is no reason to party, it is true that some groups insist, but if we look at the number of people compared to society as a whole, they are a minority, the majority are concerned and want us to have a way out of this suffering soon.
For Christians it is a period of prayer, fasting and abstinence, it means to abstain from some things that the new normal is already taking away from us, however this can be done voluntarily, thinking about the society as a whole that suffers. Representative of Catholicism, but also of Christianity, Pope Francis always looks at the whole human family with tenderness and passion as a good Latin, in his February 12 message he invited us “Let’s go up to Jerusalem…” (Mt 20, 18) which means how he himself explains a “journey of conversion, prayer and sharing of our goods”, and so to live this Lent with an attentive eye to those suffering from abandonment and anguish because of the pandemic (in the photo the door where Jesus began his final journey in Jerusalem).
When Jesus approaches Jerusalem, he goes there to live the days of the Passover, the Jews already celebrated it and still celebrate it today, but it does not always coincide due to the Jewish calendar being different from our Christian, but the lamb that is “sacrificed” during Easter, referring to the sacrifice Abraham made in place of his son, it is Jesus himself this lamb at Christian Easter.
The quarantine of all is the pandemic, saying words of encouragement that comfort, comfort, strengthen, stimulate instead of words that humiliate, distress, irritate and despise emphasized the Pope.
I think that due to the quarantine situation it will be a different Lent, in which we will go deeply into our pains as humanity, and we will be able to think about a much more promising and hopeful future ahead, Lent is not just death, we go through it , but the resurrection that is on the other side for the one who accepts to pass through the narrow door.
All humanity suffers, so it is a moment of passion for all humanity, and those who are fraternal and supportive will know the way to alleviate the pain of those who suffer.
It is time to think about the essentials of life, to review our false paths of progress and to review our personal lives.
Idealism and the wide door of misconceptions
16
Feb
At the same time discovered as quantum physics, holography, and a new 
worldview of the universe emerge, there are those who believe that the earth is flat and that we were never the moon. These are too many specific problems to be dealt with, but philosophy in general contemporary rather than neoliberal, this is its pragmatic economic aspect.
It is idealistic and even philosopher-youtubers who discourse on philosophy follow it. Kant is complex, but his central point is the dichotomy between subject and object, as they cannot be separated, at least in terms of theory of knowledge, he created the analytical and synthetic judgments. Who is cured the disease or sick, for Kant it is the disease.
The analytic judgment is that the predicate is within the subject, and so it specifies its logic, and this logic comes from a physical-mathematical view of knowledge in modernity. It exemplifies using geometric figures such as the triangle and the square, of course it has four sides, but this is not a deduction but a tautological, circular definitions.
The synthetic judgment, on the other hand, cannot be contained in the subject, so it adds reasoning as something completely new, that is, the novelty is the predicate.
It is very simplified, but essentially develops a logic where Being and Entity are confusing and dismantles the possibility of an ontology, even if it is partial, and imagined with this throwing away all the “superstitions”, the famous “Sapere audi”, dare to know.
As reason alone was not enough, it was necessary to introduce the idea of empiricism, which came from David Hume’s arguments (1711-1776, so judgments may a priori, which already exist in the subject, and a posteriori, experimentally acquired.
Schlick (1882-1936), who founded the Vienna Circle neologicist school, criticized the idealistic basis of a priori knowledge, claiming that since statements have a logical truth, they are neither analytical nor synthetic as they are. Kant argued because it was paradoxical; and that if the truth depends on the factual content, the statements are therefore a posteriori and not a priori, since the facts must happen, Schlick was assassinated by Nazism.
In the circle of Vienna were present Kurt Godel, Karl Popper, Hans Kelsen and others.
The same proposition can be known by cognitive agents both a priori and a posteriori, using the same example as Kant, a creation only knows that the square has four sides after learning to count, while for an adult it seems “inductive.”
The video is a short discussion about idealism of Kant to Hegel:
Coronavirus variants and release
15
Feb
While in the UK it is already confirmed that the vaccine does not
work for the virus variants, called the Bristol variant and confirmed by the British government, British scientist Sharon Peacock broke the news on Thursday (11/2) that the variant it has already spread across the UK and will sweep the world, so the pandemic crisis is far from over.
AstraZeneca reported that it will take 9 months for the vaccine to be ready for this variant, together with the University of Oxford the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FioCruz) participates in the production of the vaccine.
In Brazil, reports Agência Brasil, the presence of the P. variant has already been identified by FioCruz. in five other states, in addition to Amazonas, Pará, Paraíba, Roraima, Santa Catarina and São Paulo, the health secretariats of Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco have also identified the variant.
According to the Bloomberg website the UK is already reaching 52 million vaccinated (the country has close to 67 million inhabitants), even so LockDown has not yet been relieved, it serves as a warning to other countries, it is likely to open gradually, and gradual measures should be taken, studied on a case-by-case basis.
It remains to be seen how the case of the variant will be thought of, from a peak of 52,000 cases in early February dropped to 13,000 on Saturday (02/13), but the British scientific community is intensively analyzing the case of the variant to take the measures of release.
In the world there is a drop to 410 thousand cases, it is a slow drop, but it is already possible to think that even with the variant there is a hope that the vaccine will work within the limits of effectiveness.
It is up to each to maintain the care and not to relax until the effects of the vaccine are felt.
