Michael Polanyi and Karl Mannheim

This essay reviews historical records that set forth the discussions and interaction of Michael Polanyi and Karl Mannheim from 1944 until  Mannheim’s death early in 1947. The letters describe Polanyi’s effort to assemble a book to be published in a series edited by Manneheim. They  also reveal the different perspectives these thinkers took about freedom and the historical context of ideas. Records of J.H. Oldham’s discussion group “the Moot” suggest that these and other differences in philosophy were  debated in meetings of “the Moot” attended by Polanyi and Mannheim in 1944.

Murray and Marx

Theory from Marx and related thinkers challenges interpretation of Les Murray's poetry. Topics discussed are: dialectics and dreams; death and its place in our lives; and poetry and religion. Using Marx, religious ideas are given meaning for our lives and thus, it is argued, interest and complexity is discovered in Murray's poetry.

Tradition in a free society : the fideism of Michael Polanyi and the rationalism of Karl Popper

Michael Polanyi and Karl Popper offer contrasting accounts of social tradition. Popper is steeped in the heritage of the Enlightenment, while Polanyi interweaves religious and diverse secular strands of thought. Explaining the liberal tradition, Polanyi features tacit knowledge of rules, standards, applications and interpretations being transmitted by “craftsmen” to “apprentices.” Each generation adopts the liberal tradition on “faith,” commits to creatively developing its art of knowledge-in-practice, and is drawn to the spiritual reality of ideal ends. Of particular interest to Popper is the rationality of social traditions. Likened by him to scientific theories, Popper’s traditions are criticizable and improvable, assisting agents to understand, and act in, the world as stable and predictable. Polanyi’s is the more informative rendering of tradition. Polanyi delves deeply into important areas where Popper only scratches their surface: the tacit dimension, transmission by way of apprenticeship, the meaning of tradition for those who participate in it, and the extent of its authority over them.

Neo-positivist or neo-kantian? Karl Popper and the Vienna Circle.

This paper re-contextualises Popper within a Kantian tradition by examining his interaction with the Vienna Circle. The complexity of Popper’s relationship to the Vienna Circle is often a point of confusion as some view him as a member of the Vienna Circle while others minimise his association with this group. This paper argues that Popper was not a member of the Vienna Circle or a positivist but shared many neo-Kantian philosophical tendencies with the members of the Circle as well as many of their philosophical problems and interests. By better understanding the influence of the Circle’s members upon Popper, we not only remove the myths surrounding Popper’s positivism, but also place the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle within its proper philosophical context. This paper further argues that it was Popper’s friend during his formative philosophical years in Vienna, Julius Kraft (1921–1960) who was responsible for the way in which Popper approached Kant. Through Kraft, Popper was introduced to the thought of Leonard Nelson (1882–1927) and Jakob Fries (1773–1843) as well as a tradition of critical rationalism which Popper would continue both in his methodological orientation as well as through his late German Enlightenment intellectual values.

Michael Polanyi and Karl Popper : the fraying of a long-standing acquaintance

Based upon archival correspondence and their publications, this essay analyzes the interaction of Karl Popper and Michael Polanyi. Popper sent Polanyi for review in 1932 an early draft of The Logic of Discovery. Friedrich Hayek helped both Polanyi and Popper publish some of their writings in the forties. Polanyi renewed his acquaintance with Popper in the late forties when Popper took a position at the London School of Economics and they met to discuss common interests. In the early fifties, as Polanyi prepared and presented his Gifford Lectures and published The Logic of Liberty, Polanyi became increasingly clear and articulate in distinguishing his social philosophy and philosophy of science from Popper’s ideas. Polanyi’s 1952 paper “The Stability of Belief” forthrightly presented Polanyi’s post-critical ideas that Popper overtly rejected in an important letter. After this, they had little to do with each other.

Karl Popper on Jewish nationalism and cosmopolitanism

This paper re-contextualizes Karl Popper’s thought within the anti-nationalist cosmopolitan tradition of the Central European intelligentsia. It argues that, although Popper was brought up in an assimilated Jewish Viennese household, from the perspective of the Jewish Enlightenment or Haskalah tradition, he can be seen to be a modern day heterodox Maskil (scholar). Popper’s ever present fear of anti-Semitism and his refusal to see Judaism as compatible with cosmopolitanism raise important questions as to the realisable limits of the cosmopolitan ideal. His inability to integrate an understanding of Jewishness in his cosmopolitan political ideal resulted in his strong opposition to Zionism and the state of Israel. By comparing Popper’s positions with those of Hermann Cohen, another neo-Kantian philosopher, I argue that although their solutions fall short in certain respects, their arguments have continuing purchase in recent debates on cosmopolitanism and the problem of the integration of minority groups. In addition, the arguments of the Jewish Enlightenment thinkers offer important insights for the current debates on minority integration and xenophobia.

Understanding Marxism

Marxism as an intellectual movement has been one of the most important and fertile contributions to twentieth-century thought. No social theory or political philosophy today can be taken seriously unless it enters a dialogue, not just with the legacy of Marx, but also with the innovations and questions that spring from the movement that his work sparked, Marxism.

Marx provided a revolutionary set of ideas about freedom, politics and society. As social and political conditions changed and new intellectual challenges to Marx’s social philosophy arose, the Marxist theorists sought to update his social theory, rectify the sociological positions of historical materialism and respond to philosophical challenges with a Marxist reply. This book provides an accessible introduction to Marxism by explaining each of the key concepts of Marxist politics and social theory. The book is organized into three parts, which explore the successive waves of change within Marxist theory and places these in historical context, while the whole provides a clear and comprehensive account of Marxism as an intellectual system.

No Limite : pedagogia e currículo da TV : moldando a subjetividade contemporânea

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Limite de endividamento e sustentabilidade fiscal no Brasil: uma abordagem via modelo quantílico auto-regressivo (QAR)

Neste artigo investigamos a sustentabilidade fiscal no Brasil através de um modelo Quantílico Auto-Regressivo (QAR). Esta metodologia nos permite caracterizar a dinâmica da dívida pública e construir uma medida limite de endividamento, compatível com a sustentabilidade fiscal. Tal limite de endividamento constitui-se um indicador de grande importância para guiar os gestores da dívida pública, de forma a mantê-la sustentável no longo prazo, evitando uma austeridade fiscal excessiva. Nossos resultados indicam que a dívida pública (federal e interna) brasileira é globalmente sustentável a 10% de significância, apesar de ter ultrapassado o limite de endividamento por inúmeras vezes nos dois últimos anos. Por fim, sugerimos uma redução de 5% na razão dívida/PIB até o final de 2006, de forma a garantir a sustentabilidade fiscal do Brasil no longo prazo. Desta forma, apresentamos um arcabouço teórico consistente, e sua respectiva aplicação prática, com o intuito de contribuir para o planejamento estratégico e a gestão da dívida pública no Brasil.

Verificação do estado limite de serviço de abertura das fissuras em seções de concreto armado submetidas à flexão simples

Este trabalho apresenta um programa que tem por finalidade automatizar os procedimentos de verificação do estado limite de serviço de abertura das fissuras em seções retangulares e T de concreto armado, submetidas à flexão simples, conforme as recomendações da norma NBR 6118/2003 – Projeto de Estruturas de Concreto. O programa foi implementado na linguagem de programação Microsoft Visual Basic, aproveitando os recursos fornecidos por esta linguagem, que propiciam o desenvolvimento de uma entrada de dados amigável, típica do ambiente Windows. A fissuração, em elementos de concreto armado, ocorre quando as tensões de tração no concreto excedem a sua capacidade resistente. Nos elementos fissurados, as aberturas das fissuras devem ser controladas. Segundo as recomendações da norma, o valor característico da abertura das fissuras não deve ultrapassar determinados valores admissíveis. No procedimento implementado, são determinadas as aberturas das fissuras considerando-se o conjunto de barras da armadura tracionada e a camada mais tracionada da armadura, com o propósito de estabelecer a situação mais desfavorável. O programa tem também a pretensão de auxiliar estudantes de engenharia na compreensão do fenômeno da fissuração, fornecendo valores de elementos que caracterizam o funcionamento da peça fletida.

Perfil de usuários da Biblioteca Karl A. Boedecker

Técnicas de inteligência artificial, aplicadas a dados de transações de empréstimo do acervo de uma biblioteca, podem gerar recomendações de itens relevantes para usuários e pesquisadores. O sistema sugerido neste relatório é baseado em procedimentos de consolidação e conexão de registros em um data mart, associados às técnicas de análise de cestas, análise de agrupamentos e análise de redes, numa estratégia de cooperação indireta. No modelo aqui proposto, os itens da biblioteca são consolidados em assuntos significativos e grupos temáticos. Os usuários, por outro lado, são separados por grupos temáticos e segmentados segundo seu perfil de leitura. Por meio de consolidação são criadas listas para cada subgrupo especializado obtido, contendo recomendações específicas, temáticas e gerais. Sugere-se a utilização de transações virtuais para aperfeiçoar as recomendações. Além de servir a bibliotecas, o modelo proposto tem aplicabilidade direta em livrarias virtuais e pode ser adaptado para praticamente qualquer tipo de empreendimento em e-business.