Ethics and Aesthetics : Intersections in Iris Murdoch's Philosophy

The study addresses the question concerning the relationship between ethics and aesthetics in the philosophy of Iris Murdoch. The main argument is that Murdoch s philosophy cannot be accurately understood without an understanding of the relationship she sees between the aesthetic experience and morality. Reading Murdoch s philosophy with this relationship in mind shows that it must be considered as a relevant alternative to the main forms of aesthetic-ethical theories. The study consists of seven previously published articles and a summary. It shows that Murdoch belongs to a tradition of philosophers who seek to broaden the scope of ethics by reference to aesthetic value and aesthetic experience. She sees an attitude responsible for aesthetic experiences as relevant for morality. However, she does not collapse morality into aesthetic experience. The two meet on the level of the subject s attitude towards its object, but there is a distinction between the experiences that accompany the attitudes. Aesthetic experiences can function as a clue to morals in that they present in a pleasing manner moral truths which otherwise might be psychologically too difficult to face. Murdoch equates the aesthetic attitude with virtuous love characterized by unselfish attention to its object. The primary object of such love is in Murdoch s account another human individual in her particularity. She compares the recognition of the other person as a particular existence to the experience of the Kantian sublime and offers her own version of the true sublime which is the experience of awe in the face of the infinity of the task of understanding others. One of the most central claims in Murdoch s philosophy is that human consciousness is evaluatively structured. This claim challenges the distinction between facts and values which has had an immense influence on modern moral philosophy. One argument with which Murdoch supports her claim is the nature of great literature. According to her, the standard of greatness in literature is the authors awareness of the independent existence of individuals in the particularity of their evaluative consciousnesses. The analysis of the standard of greatness in literature is also Murdoch s only argument for the claim that the primary object of the loving unselfish attention is the other particular individual. She is convinced that great literature reveals a deep truth about the human condition with its capacity to capture the particular. Abstract philo¬sophical discourse cannot compete with this capacity but it should take truths revealed by literature seriously in its theorising. Recognising this as Murdoch s stand on the question of the relation between philosophy and literature as forms of human discourse settles whether she is part of what has been called philosophy s turn to literature. The answer is yes.

Direito cosmopolita: regime jurídico ou apenas filosofia? Pressupostos, sistematização e o caso do direito de visita internacional

Esta tese visa a responder à indagação sobre a existência do Direito Cosmopolita não apenas como categoria filosófica, mas também como regime jurídico propriamente dito. Para tal, investiga seus pressupostos teóricos e seus pressupostos materiais, concluindo pela sua existência, tanto abstrata quanto concreta, enquanto regime jurídico stricto sensu. Com base nas premissas encontradas, o Direito Cosmopolita é traduzido da linguagem filosófica para a jurídica, sendo: (a) definido; (b) diferenciado do Direito Natural, do Direito Internacional, do Direito Comunitário e do Direito Internacional dos Direitos Humanos; e (c) sistematizado em torno de algumas categorias relevantes para o estudo jurídico (fontes, objeto, sujeitos, sanções e limites). Finalmente, a esquematização do Direito Cosmopolita abstratamente elaborada é testada no caso concreto do direito de visita a território estrangeiro, resultando em conclusões mais favoráveis à efetivação dos direitos humanos em âmbito mundial.

The physiology of inscription : Foucault's genealogy as curative science

In ''Nietzsche, Genealogy, History," Foucault suggests that genealogy is a sort of "curative science." The genealogist must be a physiologist and a pathologist as well as an historian, for his task is to decipher the marks that power relations and historical events leave on the subjugated body; "he must be able to diagnose the illnesses of the body, its conditions of weakness and strength, its breakdowns and resistances, to be in a position to judge philosophical discourse." But this claim seems to be incongruent with another major task of genealogy. After all, genealogy is supposed to show us that the things we take to be absolute are in fact discontinuous and historically situated: "Nothing in man-not even his body-is sufficiently stable to serve as the basis for self-recognition or for understanding other men." If this is true, then the subjugated body can never be restored to a healthy state because it has no essential or original nature. There are no universal standards by which we can even distinguish between healthy and unhealthy bodies. So in what sense is genealogy to be a "curative science"? In my thesis, I try to elucidate the complex relationship between genealogy and the body. I argue that genealogy can be a curative science even while it "multiplies our body and sets it against itself." Ifwe place a special emphasis on the role that transgression plays in Foucault's genealogical works, then the healthy body is precisely the body that resists universal standards and classifications. If genealogy is to be a curative science, then it must restore to the subjugated body an "identity" that transgresses its own limits and that constitutes itself, paradoxically, in the very effacement of identity. In the first chapter of my thesis, I examine the body's role as "surface of the inscription of events." Power relations inscribe on and around the body an identity or subjectivity that appears to be unified and universal, but which is in fact disparate and historically situated. The "subjected" body is the sick and pathologically weak body. In Chapters 2 and 3, I describe how it is possible for the unhealthy body to become healthy by resisting the subjectivity that has been inscribed upon it. Chapter 4 explains how Foucault's later works fit into this characterization of genealogy

La réflexion phénoménologique au crible de la grammaire : la question de l’expression de la vie intérieure de la conscience chez Husserl et Wittgenstein

Cotutelle avec l'Université Panthéon Sorbonne - Paris I

La fonction éthico-thérapeutique du discours philosophique : la contribution de Ludwig Wittgenstein à la lumière du modèle de la vie philosophique de Pierre Hadot

Réalisé en cotutelle avec L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales de Paris

Jaume Serra Hunter i la teoria de la cultura en el Noucentisme

Catalan modern and contemporary philosophy has traditionally been little studied so strictly to historical and political reasons for more or less the same conviction that is compared with literature and even in historiography, it is a minor contribution. Some of the characters in the world of philosophy has been the Catalan Jaume Serra Hunter charismatic and versatile, whom history has done justice. Like many others, was persecuted in the Franco regime, declared outlawed and persecuted and exiled, first to France and then Mexico. This research aims to discover him and his huge role as a politician. But above all, I want to convey their deep love for culture and fierce defense that he did, especially Catalan, is following in philosophical discourse of his work. I figure Serra Hunter claim their struggle for cultural cohesion through its philosophy, making it reach everyone. I want to show how he worked in a time of crisis in society, culture and education, to overcome the crisis of philosophy as a guide. Serra Hunter lived a very difficult time for philosophy. But he wanted to bring all cultures. It is a philosophy that dealing with the issues may be even a sort of advanced in the world and some of the problems it has today. According to him, philosophy should be more human and more alive and present in all the different curriculum of any educational plan.

O Corpo do grupo corpo: os movimentos das obras Benguelê, Lecuona e Onqotô

In this research, we invite to reflection by a phenomenological gaze on the body, through the description of some works of contemporary Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo. This Company was chosen intentionally to give us elements in their creations to interrogate the understanding of the body and sensitive. Thus, as we launch issues in this dissertation: that body dance in Grupo Corpo? And as we can see, a phenomenological approach, an understanding of the body and sensitive works in that company? Building on this, the works are to be questioned Benguelê (1998/2003), Lecuona (2004) and Onqotô (2005). It is intended, through these works, coreological approaching the discourse of philosophical discourse and give movement to phenomenological thought of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, in special the sensitive, flesh of the body, the investment in the sensory world as a merger, calling the know body and its power to take chances, to incorporate the world, language, culture, create and choose. Thus, these openings is where thought enters this research. This consistency, we used the phenomenological attitude of Maurice Merleau-Ponty as a methodological approach, since in their study the philosopher takes a look expressive on the body, forming a sensitive language that is expressed in the movements, which deepens the arguments of the Phenomenology a new arrangement for knowledge as a result of our experience in the lived world. The reflections presented here aim to take us to the amazement, the unthinking, whom many still impose epistemological challenges, including understanding the body of knowledge and sensitive

A metafísica de Isaac Newton

The general objective of this dissertation is to analyze the metaphysical aspects of "rational mechanics" of Isaac Newton, clarifying, by scientific and philosophical discourse, their main elements, with emphasis to the presence of one entity infinitely rational behind all the phenomena of nature, and to the Newton's insight as certain empiricist which, however, accepts deductions metaphysics; a philosopher-scientist. The specific objectives are detailed below: a) brief presentation of the development of modern science, since the Pre-Socratics, seeking to understand the historical conjecture that enabled the rise of Newtonian mechanics; b) presentation of the elements of scientific methodology and philosophical, aimed at comprehension of certain "Newtonian methodology", understanding how this specific methodology able to present empirical aspects, mathematics, philosophic and religious in communion; c) to understand, from the Newtonian concepts, both concerning man's role in the world as the "notional notions" of mass, space, time and movement, necessary for analysis and understanding of certain metaphysical aspects in the Newtonian physics; d) to present the Newtonian concepts related to the ether, to understand why it necessarily assumes metaphysics characteristics and mediation between the bodies; e) to present and understand the factors that lead the empiricist Newton to assume the religion in his mechanics, as well as, the existence and functions of God in nature, to object to the higher content of his metaphysics; f) to highlight the metaphysical elements of his classical mechanics, that confirm the presence of concepts like God Creator and Preserver of the natural laws; g) at last, to analyze the importance of Newton to the modern metaphysics and the legacy to philosophy of science at sec. XVII to science contemporary

A demarcação platônica de novas fronteiras epistêmicas para o discurso filosófico: um estudo sobre o sofista

No Sofista, mediante os circuitos do procedimento ontológico-binário das divisões dialéticas, Platão busca não somente chegar à verdade das coisas em si, mas, também, a sua correta expressão. A superação das aporias relativas à natureza da linguagem por um tratamento metódico rigoroso, que minimiza suas limitações e inadvertências e a instala numa dimensão transcendente, entre os gêneros do Ser, assegura-lhe o estatuto de discurso filosófico, capaz de dizer aquilo que é como ele é.

Indivisibilidades entre natureza, homem e expressão artística: a reflexão estética de Merleau-Ponty

Pós-graduação em Artes - IA

Nietzsche e a modernidade em Habermas

A crítica de Habermas a Nietzsche é apresentada pela demonstração do conceito de modernidade em Hegel, configurando-o, em primeiro lugar, no domínio da estética. No próprio Hegel, a filosofia coloca como necessidade a superação das fragmentações engendradas pela modernidade. Em Nietzsche, encontramos o ponto de inflexão que altera o rumo da trajetória anterior seguida pelo moderno discurso filosófico.

A metáfora fundamental do discurso de John Dewey

This work aims to identify the rootmetaphor of John Dewey’s philosophical and educational discourse, by means of rhetorical analyses parameters. This methodology is founded in Aristotle and in the works of Chaïm Perelman and other contemporary authors involved in the revision of Aristotelian philosophy. The article examines the essays “The philosophical work of Herbert Spencer” and “The influence of darwinism on philosophy”, published by John Dewey respectively in 1904 e 1909. They were written in the early years of Dewey in Columbia University, which intellectual environment was not dominated by Pragmatism, and for this reason they can be considered seminal in the structuring of the author’s arguments. The analysis reveals that Dewey is favorable to Darwinian evolutionism thesis and opposite to Spencer’s one. This positioning suggests that Dewey’s discourse is bound to the metaphor “undetermined route” because it situates evolution as a process devoid of previously listed purposes at a pre-determined plan, subject only to the relations that are established, so unpredictable, between organisms and the environmental conditions that surround. Analyzing Dewey’s ideas about education, the article concludes that “undetermined route” is the rootmetaphor of Dewey’s discourse, hypothesis that can contribute to discuss Dewey in the context of contemporary philosophy.

A questão da inexauribilidade do texto: o Frühromantik e a escritura derridiana

This article aims to investigate the configuration on the new scenario, during the Early German Romanticism, which led to dismantle the philosophical discourse as the expression of a safe and fixed content, free from the ambiguity of figural language. Our main argument is that already Schelling’s concept of symbol brings up the question about the opacity of the text. By analyzing to what extent this problematization around the language lingers on in the contemporariness, we refer to Derrida’s thought which points out to the illusion embedded in the pretension to conceive a clear and unambiguous language, creating therefore a new ground between art and philosophy since the text itself as a neutral and closed subject will be questioned now.