Arquivo para June, 2022
Being and Contemplation
16
Jun
The thinker Byung-Chul Han developed the themes of Hannah
Arendt Vita Activa and Vita Contemplativa in his book “A society of Bournout”, where he reveals that “the loss of the contemplative capacity is in correspondence with the absolutization of the vita activa – which measure to the hysteria and nervousness of the modern society of action”, and this leads to tiredness, depression, self-exploitation and Burnout.
According to the Korean-German thinker, current life has led to the “imperative of work, which degrades the person into animal laborans”, which makes him lose the “world” and “time”. new “the contemplative vita in your bosom” and “put yourself at your service again” (O Aroma do tempo. A philosophical essay on the art of delay, 2009).
Despite this loss, there is a renewed interest in spirituality in Western civilization, but it does not consider traditional religions more important, which occurs in the sphere of a phenomenon called “mindfulness”, linked to neurosciences and in health care, education and business.
There is no deeper meaning in this relationship that reaches the divine, the superhuman or the beyond-human, it turns to what Peter Sloterdijk calls “the exercise society”, without the possibility of a true spirituality, or a despiritualized asceticism.
Hannah Arendt had touched on the problem lightly, it must be remembered that her thesis was on “Love in St. Augustin” without the help of the divine it does so without success, it remains hidden.
“With the title Vita contemplativa, that world in which it was originally located should not be reconjured. It is linked to that experience of being, according to which the beautiful and the perfect is Immutable and Imperishable and withdraws from any and all human use” (HAN, p. 35), although for the author the contemplative capacity is not necessarily linked to the imperishable Being (p. 36).
The concept of what the soul is was treated by Saint Justin, in the second century of the Christian era, before becoming a Christian he had approached the Stoics, but they did not consider it important to know God, then he approached the Pythagoreans and had to dedicate himself to numbers and music, and finally it was Plato’s disciples who thought as much about corporeal things as about ideas, but the key problem that distanced him was the question of the “soul” and is in his “Dialogue with Trypho”.
For older Christians (Catholic, Orthodox and Eastern) Eucharistic Adoration is the greatest contemplation, because God makes himself a piece of bread, a consecrated host.
Han, Byung-Chul Sociedade do cansaço. tradução de Enio Paulo Giachini. – Petropolis, RJ: Vozes, 2015.
Being and action
15
Jun
Being is not inactivity, because it is being that determines its action,
but the pure project on action empties being, it is activism or “vita activa”, the one that Husserl, Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, and more recently Byung Chul Han question about the absence of vita contemplativa, the interior.
It is not about subjectivity, because it is precisely the separation between objective and subjective being that is the first great impulse for the emptying of being, it is not also about the social being, it is what is projected in man’s consciousness, in the intention that it directs to the object, to the external life.
The “vita activa” (life in action) was thus expressed by Hanna Arendt: “The expression vita activa, comprising all human activities and defined from the point of view of the absolute stillness of contemplation, therefore corresponds more to the Greek askholia (occupation, restlessness) with which Aristotle [defines] all activity, which the bio politikos of the Greeks. The expression vita activa is permeated and overloaded with tradition. It is as old as our tradition of political thought, but no older than it. The expression itself, which in medieval philosophy is the consecrated translation of Aristotle’s bios politikos, already occurs in Augustine where, as vita negotiosa or actuosa, it still reflects its original meaning: a life dedicated to public and political affairs” (Arendt, 2007, p.23), in this explanation by Arendt there is also a complete translation of the political animal.
What action is for Arendt, is not that of activism or voluntarism, but that which takes place “between” men, depends on intersubjectivity (the relationship of interiorities), which she says thus: “the end, the last of the elements of vita activa addressed by Arendt is action. Action is the element of interpersonality and the environment of intersubjectivity, that is, it occurs between men. Therefore, because it is developed between people, the action is observed in a prominent way from labor and work, such elements do not influence it.
So what considers the human condition of action is plurality, he says textually: “Considering that action is an activity of free men in the public sphere, it is an expression of human plurality. Its realization depends on the coexistence between different individuals. However, since action requires an interactive diversity, it particularizes men. It promotes the appearance of individualities and enables the construction of identities. Now, man will never be able to manifest his uniqueness in isolation. Nobody shows what it is in the personal sphere of intimacy. Only when he is with others can man reveal what he is” (ARENDT, 2007, p.189).
But Hannah Arendt considers modernity in crisis only from the beginning of totalitarianism and the events of the two world wars, and in our view the problem already arises in rationalist/idealist thinking.
ARENDT, Hannah. (2007) A condição Humana. (The Human Condition). 10th ed. Rio de Janeiro: ed. Forense Universitária. .
New tension pole: Taiwan
14
Jun
In the midst of the war in Ukraine, the battle of Severodonesk
continues with Russian advance, which promises greater protection to the separatist republic of Donbass, with no prospects for agreement, a new pole of world tension involving the West and the socialist republics is heading towards Taiwan.
The attempt at tension between the People’s Republic of China, which is Mainland, and Taiwan, which is on the island of Taiwan, which has separated from China since the defeat of Chiang Kai Shek by the socialist supporters of Moa Tse Tung, is getting closer and closer.
Let’s understand history, founded in 1912, the Republic of China embraced a large part of Mainland China and Mongolia, at the end of the second world war with the surrender of Japan, the country annexed the islands of Formosa and Penghu (fishermen) to its jurisdiction, when the Kuomintang (KMT) lost the war to the communist party led by Mao Zedong in 1948, Chiang Kai-Shek’s government took refuge in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, and founded the Republic in Taiwan.
China never accepted this separation, but Taiwan’s political and political parties, such as former presidents Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian, considered that there was no need for a formal declaration of independence, however this became controversial in front of countries in the UN.
UN resolution 2758 of 1971 expelled the Republic of China (Taiwan) and gave the seat to the People’s Republic of China which lost its membership in all intergovernmental organizations related to the United Nations, such as the International Court of Justice, where international rights are discussed.
But the vote on the resolution was not unanimous (pictured) and many countries want to recognize the Republic of China, which maintains its independence, being one of the four Asian tigers with a strong economy, especially in the part of microelectronics components.
The tension is enormous and the idea that the People’s Republic of China will attack Taiwan is almost certain.
Covid 19: the fourth wave has arrived
13
Jun
We warned here in several posts of the risk of the absence or
fragility of protocols, and that this led the population to believe that Covid 19 would be at an end, even though vaccination was high and the variant was less lethal, the risk was clear and few health attitudes they were taken.
The number of the average of known cases in Brazil is again approaching the house of 50 thousand and the average number of deaths has again exceeded 100 deaths by Covid, it must be taken into account that many cases are diagnosed in the private network and in pharmacies. , and some are asymptomatic.
Now the fourth wave has arrived, resuming the use of masks and care in environments such as ventilation and distancing are little observed because sanitary habits are followed only by a small conscious portion of the population.
Worldwide, the number of cases is falling, but most Latin American countries, Brazil’s neighbors, are on the rise, and surveillance at airports is not constant and rigorous.
The attitudes taken so far are hesitant and not very incisive in terms of effective care and protocols, only the recommendation to use masks, there is no testing policy, companies and people do it on their own and do not supervise protocols, when it exists.
The authorities are expected to take more responsible attitudes and recognize that the health crisis is still serious and requires very serious and special care on the part of the population.
The data does not lie, a fourth wave of Covid is already present throughout the country, and the number of hospitalizations and deaths is growing again.
The Being and the Truth
10
Jun
In times of crisis, fake news and a pandemic, little truth comes out,
each and every group wants to interpret the truth according to their narrative, but the truth is the Being, and its address is in language, it is necessary to have interiority and Spirit of Truth to inhabit it.
The play on words, the cruelty of war or the political and even legal manipulation of the truth are instruments for emptying the truth, even pure subjectivity is not a really spiritual exercise, it is, as Sloterdijk says, part of a “society of exercises”, in this case it is despiritualized.
The hermeneutic circle that proposes the fusion of horizons and the opening of orthodox discourses and narratives was the path of Hans-Georg Gadamer to write his magnum opus “Truth and Method”, in which the author develops the Heideggerian hermeneutics putting it before the Being.
The absence of depth that reveals Being, the highest and most interior truth, causes lies to spill over realities (fake-news is just a media use of them), narratives that do not account for the totality of the truth, fanaticism, wars and aberrations.
The man outside his Being is thrown into the meaningless void, it is not the void of the search and the epoché, it is the void of anguish and the absence of solid paths that lead us to the full truth.
For Christians, the biblical passage John 16:12 is quite strong: “But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into the whole truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak, and even things to come he will announce to you.”
So this spirit is able to unveil even the future, now so uncertain and fearful, and only it can really free us from such a heavy and dark present for humanism.
Gadamer, H. G. (1999) Verdade e Método. Tradução de Flávio Paulo Meurer. Brazil, RJ: Vozes.
Glade, abode and Being
09
Jun
For Heidegger, Being has abode and presence, and this is what
enhances the clearing as a destination, this void of modernity is precisely the emptying of Being as Dwelling and Presence, necessary for Being to fill this void, in which Being of re-veiling or unveiling, the concept is confusing in Portuguese because to re-veal would be to veil again and to unveil would be presence.
Says the Heideggerian text: “Destiny appropriates itself as the clearing of being, which is as clearing. It is the clearing that grants the proximity of being. In this proximity, in the clearing of “Giving space”, man lives as a former assistant, without him being able to experience and assume this dwelling today” (HEIDEGGER,
The abode can be said that the house of being as language, in it the manifestation of being is consummated, ancient philosophy would say this is a return to nominalism, but the linguistic turn has overcome this, as it radiates from it and transforms itself into action, as something from thinking, because only from the act of thinking can we remove the process of doing and operating, so that is why language is “dwelling”.
In this dwelling, the ex-tactical is preserved, and in it the clearing is determined, it removes us from the abyss of our ex-sistent essence, the clearing is the “world”, and language is the advent that clears and reveals the very being. , this was contested by Peter Sloterdijk, in his answer in the book Rules for the Human Park, where he reveals the failure of the humanism project, yes, but the Humanism that Heidegger reveals in “Letters to Humanism”, which is nothing more than the of modernity.
This is easy to demonstrate since Sloterdijk considers the humanism he criticizes (of Heidegger) as a shepherd of being, that its essence and its task originate in knowing how to guard the being and corresponds to it, thus keeping its flock in the clearing, which is the open world, but which
All of Sloterdijk’s work is thus surrounded by this dilemma of modernity, occasionally evoking terms that come from theology, in his later works Spheres I, II and III: “Matrix in grêmio” that recalls the religious figure of Mary, or the In-sein In-Sein has, according to Sloterdijk, an anthropological origin, which is the experience of the fetus in the mother’s womb, without the Christian perspective, of course.
It will be a disciple of yours, Byung Chul Han, who will address more broadly the question of Being as a questioning in modernity, certainly due to its oriental origin, the reading of the clearing goes deeper into modernity: The society of fatigue, The aroma of time and The agony of Eros, unveil the drama of modernity, I look forward to something from Chul Han on the war landscape.
However, a picture of the Chul Han pandemic has already been outlined in his Palliative Society and Pain Today, we have already made a post, how much the Being moves away from pain or from what can approach it, so we created a series of palliatives, which is the distance from the clearing (my conclusion).
HAN, Byung-Chul. (2021) The palliative society: pain today. trans. Lucas Machado. Brazil, Petrópolis: Vozes.
Heidegger, M. LETTER ON HUMANISM. Transl. by Miles Groth, s/d. (PDF)
Sloterdijk, P. Regeln für den Menschenpark: Ein Antwortschreiben zu Heideggers Brief über den Humanismus. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1999.
Being, clearing and unveiling
08
Jun
Every material, human and substantial question developed in the Enlightenment humanism provoked a veiling of Being, in which the external questions are more important and thought out than the interior ones, even though from Kant to Hegel the question of the spirit has been dealt with, it has always resulted in a dualism between active life (exterior) and contemplative life (interior), the latter translated as subjectivity (which belongs to the subject) and the former as objectivity.
For Heidegger it goes further, because it touches on the deep question of truth, it is in it that Western metaphysical thought was decided and developed, for this the thinker took up the question that the Greeks called “aletheia”, commonly translated simply as truth, but the suffix a-léthea, indicates negation, thus unveiled or as Heidegger preferred to translate it: unveiled.
The veiling is linked to the “presence” [on], which is the presence and the light, synthesized in the question that drives Plato’s thought in the myth of the cave, coming to light, coming out of the cave, in times of darkness, it means finding the clearing and unveiling it.
The presence of light, summarized in the question of Eidos, which was translated in the West by the word idea, cannot forget that for the Greeks the big question is to remain in the light, or to get out of the objective/subjective dualism that is to have the light of Being, not only inwardly, but in outward acts.
When questioning the end of philosophy as a task of thought, the act of questioning while thinking becomes pure interpretation of “data”, it is no longer a question of “[on” (presence) but what is present only as a thing, which for Heidegger from phenomenology is an adjective of “light”, while thinking is an “open free”, which has nothing in common, not even from the point of view of language, he wrote in this question: “of course, in the sense of open free , has “nothing” in common, neither from a linguistic point of view, nor in terms of the thing that is expressed with the adjective “luminous”, which means clear” (HEIDEGGER, 1979, p. 79).
It’s not about abolishing tradition, it played a role in history, but unveiling it, bringing it to light.
It is, therefore, about free thinking about the world, in permanent exercise of the world view.
Heidegger, Martin. (1979) “O fim da filosofia e a tarefa do pensamento” (The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thought”. In: Os pensadores. Brazil, São Paulo: Abril Cultural, pp. 79.
Between the clearing and the dark
07
Jun
There must be effective forces fighting for peace, unfortunately a good
part of the western media is polarized and is incapable of making a sensible reflection on the horrors and folly of war, not because of ignorance of its effects, the two wars have already shown, but because of of childish and fanatical behavior on both sides.
The threat of closing embassies in Russia, the missiles already fired in North Korea, the war that is increasingly bloody in Ukraine, with heavier and more lethal weapons, is heightened by the media that goes Between the clearing and the dark
About embassies, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a joke (in bad taste in my view) of dedicating the song “We are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, by Taylor Swift, to Putin, meaning that they will never be completely separated. .
It is clear that Russia has turned to Eastern Europe and dreams of an enlarged Russian federation, while China has never stopped dreaming of Taiwan’s recovery, and North Korea can be another piece in this war that advances with “care” , but it seems to have a dark purpose.
The clearing, in the context in which it was developed by Heidegger, means an opening in the middle of the forest, in the middle of the darkness, where being must emerge, and what is appropriate for modernity is also appropriate for a moment of a world war seen in a horizon, because it is opposed to beings, economic, social and even political materialities, thus appears Being, life and its logic, its “lebenswelt”, as Husserl would say.
There is a shadow, or a darkness that runs through the minds of humanity, war does not seem to be what it is: a serious civilizational danger, the end of arguments and dialogues, the denial of the Other as a Being, of its culture and its options and convictions, and this is darkness.
The biblical reading says: if the salt becomes tasteless, with what will we salt it? It will be of no use to anything else, but to be thrown away and trampled underfoot by men (Mt 5:13), there must be light and wisdom.
Peace is always possible and desirable if we have tolerance and understanding with the Other.
Covid 19: responsibility and risks
06
Jun
It is not easy to give bad news, however when dealing with serious diseases and health problems one cannot omit or fail to provide accurate diagnoses and data on diseases and social problems.
There is a relative tolerance for the Covid 19 data, but the observation of friends and relatives around us is not difficult to notice a new increase in cases of Covid-19, the current strain, a variant of the omicron is less lethal then the number of deaths (in Brazil) remains around a hundred.
The data from this last week, which had been increasing, reveal a small drop, but it is worrying that in 8 states the data were not provided, two of them are the states of São Paulo and Bahia, according to them there were problems in the data of the Ministry of health.
The peak in these days from the 29th to the 31st, if we go back 10 days from the infection of the virus, falls precisely during the off-season Carnival, as we defend in the post, monitoring and health protocols could not let their guard down, which was said by some responsible infectologists.
The public bodies that control large agglomerations want a return to normality, of course we all want it, in times of threat of war, efforts to maintain society with a healthy economy and supply becomes imperative, but it cannot cost lives.
A bet that there will be no new lethal variants and that Covid 19 is giving in has no real data to confirm this, if you listen to serious infectologists and sanitarians, the precaution is right.
Looking at the data from our neighbors, Chile has registered a greater number of new cases in the last two months, reaching 7,550 new infections last Thursday (26/05), in Uruguay there is a 50% increase in positive diagnoses (data of Jovem Pan radio-Brazil) and the health authorities of Paraguay already admit the arrival of the fourth wave of the disease.
The fact that the variant is less lethal is comforting, but it can’t be a reason to be unconcerned.
It´s up to the health´s authorities to be responsible and indicate the risks and protocols for the current situation.
The Spirit for the Religion
03
Jun
One of the important features as a starting point in Hegelian
thought is the concept of religion, and in it the final stage of the construction of the subjective thought of idealism, which after moving from the subject to the object, creates an idea of representation in itself and for yes.
We have already said that a guiding thread is the idea of supersumption, which represents the consciousness of the movement of what opposes the object and the need for something of itself and for itself “ideal”, remembering from the previous post that the supersumption is an interaction between thesis and antithesis.
The concept of the self, which goes from the subject to the object and the self that transcends this path, does not contain the “other”, alterity, as thought in Christian ontology:
“The presence of an object is the presence of another, determined as the non-divine being, the finite world, finite consciousness. This finitude of the other is articulated in nature itself or in the spirit in itself, or in consciousness or in the spirit for an other”. (AQUINO, 1989, p.242).
Therefore, the contradiction already presents itself before the question of a divine “spirit”, Holy as Christianity presupposes, is in the consciousness of itself, and the question of the representation of the object.
The for-itself is not a beyond, but a return to the transcendent in-itself, a closure in itself, for this reason it does not contain the other, so the idea of subject is what differentiates from religion, it is the question of Being, a Being that it is Other, and not a for-itself that turns to the in-itself.
Thus, having observed this junction that refers to the presence of an object and another, both establish a relationship with consciousness, but consciousness itself is only interiority while the for-itself admits a beyond, since from the Greek this suffix means this, as parallax (beyond position), paradox (beyond opinion), etc.
In terms of representation, consciousness is in relation both to the world and to another consciousness, they still remain in the world, but a for-itself means beyond the world, beyond sensible and palpable reality, not only in the idea, but as To be.
A spirit thus thought transcends being and being-with-Other, making another-Being, which for many religions is the spiritual world, in which there is a Being par excellence.
The Christian trinitarian relationship is a for-itself-Beyond-Being, or a Being par excellence, therefore a Holy Spirit, which relates to the Being-in-the-World that is consubstantiated with the pure divine Being.
It is then beyond the supersumption, there is no thesis and antithesis, but each Being is in the Other, in the trinitarian reasoning: Jesus is consubstantiated in the Father, generated by the Holy Spirit, who is relationship with the Being.
The Christian Trinitarian relationship is perichoretic, that is, each being “interpenetrates” the other and there is communion.
Jesus reveals this perichoretic relationship to the apostles (Jn 20:21-22(: “Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”,” the divine reality in the human soul.
AQUINO, M. F. O Conceito de religião em Hegel (The concept of religion in Hegel). Brazil, Sao Paulo: Loyola, 1989.
