Philosophy and Politics in the 20th in Argentina. Readings of Italian Idealism

The transition from a positivist matrix to an idealistic one in Argentinean academic philosophy can be read as a result of a gradual and problematic pollution. It was, also, heavily traversed by considerations that exceeded the theoretical aspects. Based on the willingness to explore this transit, the article pays attention to one of the episodes of this contamination: how the Revista de Filosofía reads Croce and Gentile’s philosophy. Observing there some possibility of dialogue between positivist assumptions, with which the journal takes a position, and the idealism the article analyze how this dialogue and its limits were given from a political consideration. If the idealism was condemned, it is centrally owed to its performance during the first years of the government of Mussolini. If, meanwhile, it was some to rescue of that philosophy, it was that it contributed to think the revolutionary change.

'Ancient Enmities' and Modern Conflict: History and Politics in Northern Ireland

This article investigates the role of history and historical consciousness in deeply divided societies. It looks at the case of Northern Ireland. It argues that, while the conflict here is caused by contemporary divisions, perceptions of the past have had considerable influence. Recent years have seen efforts to change historical attitudes and this has aided political accommodation. An important lesson from the conflict in Northern Ireland points to the need to challenge such historical perceptions.

Confusing Culture and Politics: Ulster Scots Culture and Music

In Northern Ireland of the mid-1990s, many were caught off-guard by the comet-like arrival of a previously unarticulated Ulster Scots identity, replete with its own folk traditions. The article exploits the author’s position as Traditional Arts Officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from 1998 until 2003 to offer an auto-ethnographic reflection on the literature on cultural politics in Northern Ireland since the outbreak of the Troubles, informed by extensive fieldwork with arts administrators and with contemporary Ulster Scots musicians. The article gives a close reading and historical contextualisation of the Ulster-Scots musical revue On Eagle's Wing, which was developed during this period. The article uses the concept of "suture" articulated by Lacan and developed by Laclau, Mouffe, and Žižek to explain both the potential for Ulster Scots culture to enter political discourse out of a seeming vacuum and its subsequent difficulties, offering an original interpretation of the role of culture in the contemporary trajectory of Northern Ireland politics.