Ethics in Progress, 2019, Volume 10, Issue 1
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Item The End of Life As “Non” Death(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Tarca, Luigi VeroTaking the cue from some verses of Rilke’s Duineser Elegien, where the poet talks about the distinction between life and death, a distinction which mortals perform too rigidly, in this paper I discuss the contrast just between life and death, in order to understand the conditions under which the first truly distinguishes itself from the latter. This happens to the extent that life is also distinguished from the denial of death because otherwise, being the negation a form of necation (nex = killing, murder), the presumed denial of death would reverse in a triumph of death. In the present age this circumstance is particularly evident and significant, since humanity aims at a technological realization of im‑mortality, understood as the denial of death. To the extent that this remains a negative operation, it takes the form of the scrapping of mortals. True liberation/salvation from death presupposes that the negation itself is called into question. Only on this condition, in fact, is possible a life free from any form of necation. This freedom presupposes, inter alia, a “non” education, intended as an education to be able to freely play with the negative of death and denial.Item Arne Naess: A Tragic Ecosophy(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Troiano, AmbraArne Naess was one of the first philosopher who try to find out a way to resolve the ecological crisis through philosophy. By analysing some of the main point of Naess‘ philosophy, the essay shows that his main interest was to legitimize the ecological movement. Philosophy becomes a political instrument and assumes a tragical character, because it takes on an impossible project. For Naess philosophy should provide a new total view to change man‘s attitude to nature. This analysis could help us to find out some critical points of a philosophy that try to be useful in the ecological crisis.Item Virtual Identity, Plastic Identity. The „eighth Basque Province“ and the Genetically Imaginative Community(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Volpi, LauraIn this paper I propose to demonstrate how the anthropological view can highlight the effects of the relationship between ethnic nationalism and global processes. Showing the results of an ethnographical research conducted in 2015, I focus on the representation of social identity in the contemporary Basque Country. I emphasize the central role played by the new technologies for the identification of the Basque communities’ boundaries. The creation of „the eighth province“ (or province of the diaspora) shows how, in this context, Internet could transform the “imagined community” into a virtual reality. The ethnographical view proves to be useful to understand how local practices and discourses can interact with global phenomena: particularly significant is the spreading of archaeogenetic investigations in Euskal Herria, in order to verify the hypothesis of a reproductive isolation of Basque people. Moreover, a big part of local population is using genetic tests proposed online by DNA consulting agencies. It is important to identify how these genetic narratives are absorbed and reused by local populations and if they can reshape the past of a mnemonic community, influencing the representation of its future.Item Gender, Utopias and the Savage Slot: The Role of Anthropology in the (De)Construction of a Concept(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Peano, IreneThe paper addresses some of the ways in which anthropology, as a discourse and a discipline, has contributed to the forging as much as of the problematisation of the concept of gender, not only within the feminist, queer and LGBTQI camps, but also among Catholic fundamentalists. It argues that, despite some recent genealogical critiques of the concept of gender and its origins in mid-20th century bio-medical governance, insufficient attention has been paid to the role of the so-called ‘savage slot’ - as Rolph Trouillot defined the domain of knowledge carved out for anthropology, in a wider scheme of thought that has its origins at the same time as ‘the West’ became a reality. A more thorough genealogy of the ways in which anthropological thinking and evidence contributed to the construction, and then the deconstruction, of gender, can provide fruitful tools for a deeper challenge of the apparatus of gender itself.Item Conflicts and Religions: The Case of Syria and Iraq(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Luizard, Pierre-JeanReligion is at the heart of the lacerating conflicts in Iraq and Syria today. In both countries the matter at hand is the fracture between the two main branches of Islam. This fracture escalated into a religious war after the Arab Springs in 2011, even though the violent conflict between Shia and Sunni started in Iraq in 2003, after the American invasion of the ancient Mesopotamia. The reason for both the foreign occupation and the insurrection of the civil society leading to the same chaos is that, in both countries, the State does not raise enough legitimacy to open a public space able to welcome a unitary citizenship. Such a phenomenon calls back to the history of the two states and at the British (Iraq) and French (Syria) establishing mandates of the two institutions, which never succeeded in imposing their legitimacy for most people (Shia in Iraq and Sunni in Syria), left out of the ruling bodies for a long time. The Shia-Kurdish combination, which is the leading force in Iraq since 2003, conducted to the refusal of the Arab Sunni minority to live marginalized and powerless.Item Towards “Post-Digital”. A Media Theory to Re-Think the Digital Revolution(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Striano, FrancescoCan we say we live in a post-digital condition? It depends. This paper sets out to distinguish between the current mass digital culture and an authentic post-digital culture. If we mean “post-digital” as the full internalization and awareness of the result of the so-called digital revolution, then it is necessary a philosophical work to discuss related problems, identify the causes and propose solutions. An authentic philosophy of digital will, however, have to start from a clarification of the terms and basic objects of its investigation. Here media theory is inserted as an analytical tool: the purpose of this essay is to outline a road map for a good media theory that interfaces with questions of definition of digital, also in light of the notions of space, time, and matter. As will be seen, the description given here for a “good media theory” does, in fact, coincide with an already existing – and inserted in the contemporary debate – school. In conclusion we will try to delineate the field of philosophical inquiry opened by the clarification brought by the previous analysis, and to suggest a general framework within which philosophy will have to move in order to finally reach the authentic post-digital condition.Item Philosophy and Mediation. A Manifesto(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) De Cesaris, AlessandroThe current condition of philosophy as a discipline is quite problematic, in particular if we consider its relationship to other human sciences and to other disciplines in general. The philosophical debate appears fragmented, and philosophy itself has lost any specific role in the present scientific landscape. This situation determines a sort of “identity crisis”, whose main consequence is the coexistence of antinomical views about philosophy in the contemporary scientific and public discourse. Starting from this context, the paper aims at providing a description of philosophy as “theory of mediation”. This description does not want to be ‘original’, but rather tries to emphasize an element that is always been rooted in the very essence of philosophy, but that has also often been neglected. Philosophy has always pointed out the necessity to think the in-between of things, their relation and the passage from one to another, rather than just offering a taxonomy or a factual description of the world. In order to prove this point, the paper offers an analysis of some classical texts, in particular of some fragments by Heraclitus and of a passage taken from Hegel’s early writings. A view that rethinks philosophy as “mediology” allows a rehabilitation of philosophy as a specific discipline and as a systematic enterprise, at the same time providing a new framework for the understanding of the relationship between philosophy and other sciences.Item The Cartography of Childhood. A Parcours of Philosophy for Children / Community and Cartography(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Bevilacqua, SilviaThe following reflections are born from some practical and theoretical trajectories undertook by the writer – already since a few years in my research scope – around philosophy for children/community and philosophical practices. The experience of some activities proposed at the Liceo Vasco/Beccaria/Govone in Mondovì during the Cespec Summer School 2017 around the issue of Humanitas in the contemporary society was recently added to these reflections. It is a theme that engaged us in several experiences of Philosophy for Community. Throughout these gatherings, we proposed a cartographic writing and philosophical approach. In particular, this contribution will explore the concept of children cartography (cartografia d’infanzia), as an occasion of translating the philosophical discourse into a map of a philosophical debate, also mutuating the concept of philosophical confluence considered by Pierpaolo Casarin. The adopted perspective is the transdisciplinary border where human geography, philosophy, and writing, as disciplinary subjects, can confound their identities and boundaries in a space of immanence in the making. Summarizing, we intend to highlight the themes, concepts, and practical propositions around some practical and theoretical research trajectories, current and future, which hold implications for all of us (and for humanity). Such practices allow again – and still – the possibility of orienting and losing oneself thanks to the Humanitas.Item European Humanities in the Perception of Chinese Students: A Reflection Based on A Personal Teaching Experience(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Untea, IonutAs a young teacher and researcher, the prospective of introducing western philosophical themes to a public of students from a non-western country, came in 2016 as a once-in-a lifetime opportunity, which I met with great enthusiasm. However, as in any situation involving pre-conceived expectations, facing and dealing with the real situation on the ground opens up a pathway for a closer understanding of both the new culture explored, a perception of one’s own limits and the willingness to overcome them. The following lines are intended to cover the way my approach to teaching to a Chinese public has evolved from pre-conceptions and empty enthusiasm to an attitude of pedagogical creativity in identifying and presenting the key topics that would attract my students’ attention. As I will show, students’ expectations were to approach the western ideas not directly, but via a more complex process of being acquainted with the major historical and cultural movements in Europe and the western world. This meant the involvement in the teaching process of a wider number of elements taken not only from philosophy but from other humanistic disciplines.Item Discussion Theater. A Method of Democratic Education(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Lind, GeorgDemocracy is bound to fail if its citizens lack opportunities to develop their moral-democratic competence, that is, their ability to solve conflicts through thinking and discussion, instead of through violence, deceit or bowing down to others. The concept of Discussion Theatre has been designed to provide such an learning opportunity. In contrast to traditional theatre, there is no above and below, no division between actors and listeners – all are participants. The Discussion Theatre is the “public” version of the Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion (KMDD), which is been successfully used in institutions of education in many countries for over two decades.Item Intercultural Dialogue and Humanities from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Di Palma, Enrico MariaThe aim of this articole is to discover traces of humanitas in late antique and mediaval literature. Starting from the classic meaning of this notion, the paper finds three meaningful episodes: the controversy between Ambrosius and Symmachus about the Altar of Victory, the Dialogue of a Philosopher with a Jew and a Christian by Peter Abelard and the spread of the Life of Balaam and Josaphat. Through these examples, the article builds a new idea of humanitas, free from historical restricion, a blend of literary passion, acceptance of diversity and multiculturalism.Item Introduction. Humanitas and Humanities in the Contemporary World(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01) Rebuffo, Cristina; Sisto, DavideFrom 12th to 16th September 2017 the 10th edition of the CeSPeC’s Summer School took place in Cuneo (Italy). This event revolved around the role of the humanities in the contemporary world and had the purpose of explaining the various perspectives which may demonstrate how still the contribution of such disciplines is important to interpret the world and the reality in the post-modern, global and post-digital era. In this introduction we provide a focus on the main topic and a brief presentation of the reflections composing the present papers collection.Item Content(Wydawnictwo Naukowe Instytutu Filozofii UAM, 2019-01-01)