The grand philosopher of the Commons: In memory of Elinor Ostrom

The grand philosopher of the Commons, Elinor Ostrom, passed away on the 12th June 2012. She was a brilliant, creative polymath; a theoretician of fine precision and great intellectual power; a deviser of masterful empirical studies; and an energetic collaborator and networker. Ostrom posed a formidable intellectual challenge to the fields of economics and the social sciences - and the advocates of central regulation, privatization, and enclosure.

Musicologist and philosopher Albert Schweitzer at a piano with cellist and conductor Pablo Casals Portraits Groups Men

Verso: Handwritten inscription to Martin U. Heiman in grateful appreciation signed Hans Moldenhauer 1/8/60

View of Heidelberg from "Philosophenhoehe" (Philosopher's Height) Cities, Towns, and Villages

Handwritten information on back of photo(s).

Comment peut-on encore philosopher après la Révélation?

Résumé: Le défi vital que la Révélation pose à la philosophie légitime la question de leurs rapports possibles. La raison considère d’abord l’absence de rapport en distinguant radicalement ce qui relève de chacune. Mais l’élan fondamental orienté vers le divin qui anime cette faculté, la rend naturellement théologique. Pour éviter le scepticisme, incompatible avec son dynamisme naturel, la raison finit par dévaloriser la Révélation. Cette attitude signifie l’unicité de l’autorité théologique de la raison, alors naturellement divine. Développée à partir du XVIIIème siècle, elle culmine avec l’homme démiurgique des XIX et XXème siècles. Mais, ne pouvant justifier l’universalité de ses élaborations idéologiques, la raison hésite entre le scepticisme ou le totalitarisme, deux renoncements à l’exercice philosophique. L’acceptation du soutien lumineux de la Révélation, qui suppose l’humble reconnaissance des limites de la raison, ne nuit pas à cet exercice, mais le féconde, et, seule, en permet l’épanouissement. Eclairée par la Révélation, la philosophie contribue au bonheur suprême des hommes, qui demeure son intention fondamentale.

The philosopher and the rhetorician : a study of persuasion in Plato's Gorgias and Aristotle's Rhetoric /

In his treatise, On Rhetoric, Aristotle argues that there are three species within an art of rhetoric, judicial, deliberative, and epideictic. Aristotle's threefold rhetorical art, which is based on the functioning of the soul toward justice, reveals the possibilities for persuasive speech found in the Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle suggests that the soul and political life can be ordered according to reason through speeches pursuing justice, efficiency, and noble action. The relation between rhetoric and the soul also demonstrates how Socrates' rhetoric in Plato's Gorgias is based on an well-ordered soul, which is a just soul. In contrast to his own persuasion, Socrates demonstrates that the persuasive speech employed and taught by Gorgias, the rhetorician, is based on disorder and injustice. These two texts reveal that the intent of rhetoric is not separate from its practice. A study of the art of rhetoric, based on a study of the just soul and the good life, leads to the higher inquiries into politics and philosophy. Thus, political life and philosophy may benefit when citizens examine the nature of rhetoric, and subsequently, justice, within a community and within a soul.

Silencing the philosopher

Em primeiro lugar argumentarei que existem dois modos de tematizar filosoficamente o silêncio: como um fenómeno do mundo e como o silenciamento do filósofo. Este segundo modo constitui um problema cuja carência de solução impede o primeiro modo de tematização. Em segundo lugar, discutirei o cepticismo pirroniano como aquela teoria filosófica que origina o silenciamento do filósofo e contestarei três objeções que defendem que este cepticismo não é construído em modo espúrio. De seguida mostro como o filósofo alemão Georg Hegel se propõe refutar o cepticismo pirroniano no seu magnum opus, a Ciência da Lógica. Finalmente, delineio as consequências da solução hegeliana a este problema para uma tentativa específica na história da filosofia de assegurar um lugar para o silêncio na teoria e na prática ontológica.

Statistical Methods and the Meaning of Probabilities. A Philosopher Looks at Statistics

The talk starts out with a short introduction to the philosophy of probability. I highlight the need to interpret probabilities in the sciences and motivate objectivist accounts of probabilities. Very roughly, according to such accounts, ascriptions of probabilities have truth-conditions that are independent of personal interests and needs. But objectivist accounts are pointless if they do not provide an objectivist epistemology, i.e., if they do not determine well-defined methods to support or falsify claims about probabilities. In the rest of the talk I examine recent philosophical proposals for an objectivist methodology. Most of them take up ideas well-known from statistics. I nevertheless find some proposals incompatible with objectivist aspirations.

Palabra y construcción de la identidad en Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

En Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, texto inaugural del ciclo novelístico de J. K. Rowling, aparecen diversos elementos y situaciones que inscriben el relato dentro del género bildungsroman (o novela de formación) y que a su vez son constitutivos del monomito estudiado por Joseph Campbell. Dentro de ese marco, el presente trabajo analizará la función que desempeña la palabra en el desarrollo del protagonista de la novela. Se sostendrá que la adquisición y el dominio pleno de una palabra permiten construir la subjetividad del personaje, quien valiéndose de esta herramienta se volverá capaz de disipar sus inquietudes frente a lo desconocido y al peso de la voz popular. El estudio se centrará en el nombre del antagonista, Lord Voldemort, su influencia en la saga y en cuán importante es que Harry sea capaz de nombrarlo por ese apelativo. Para este abordaje se utilizarán algunos conceptos de diversas disciplinas que nos permitirán advertir la injerencia de la palabra en la novela seminal de esta serie literaria y en el tránsito del personaje por la compleja senda del héroe