17th Century & Early Modern Philosophy

"En la época de la fábula del mundo: de la poesía cosmológica de Du Bartas a la imaginación filosófica de Descartes"
Resumen
En las siguientes páginas propongo partir de un amplio marco temporal, llamado aquí la época de la fábula del mundo, para reflexionar en torno al episodio intelectual específico que va de la publicación de la poesía cosmológica de Guillaume Salluste du Bartas a la de Le Monde ou le traité de la lumière de René Descartes. En primer lugar, enfatizaré los puntos de vista que, desde la perspectiva de la poesía cosmológica, conciben a la filosofía natural como una especulación que finge un relato o fábula del mundo. En segundo lugar, señalaré las posturas críticas de Michel de Montaigne y de Francis Bacon a la imaginación filosófica por el afán que tiene de construir estos relatos ficticios del cosmos. En tercer lugar, caracterizaré los principios de la fábula cartesiana del mundo, identificando sus dimensiones epistémicas, físicas y metafísicas. Finalmente, consideraré las tensiones de los principios de Descartes que conllevan a la valoración de su filosofía natural como una teoría eminentemente especulativa.

"Las vías reflexivas de Laura Benítez y La historiografía de la filosofía natural en la modernidad temprana", en: Laguna, Rogelio, Maldonado, R., Stepanenko, P. (comps.) Cincuenta años de docencia e investigación. Homenaje a Laura Benítez, UNAM-IIFs, 2023.

In his book „I Judge No One: The Political Life of Jesus“, published by Hurst & Company in 2022, the author David Lloyd Dusenbury touches upon various toppics, including Jesus' role as a political figure, the relationship between the secular and the sacred, the concepts of sin and crime, the importance of forgiveness, and how our perception of Jesus changes when we look beyond the political lens. The book, much like the author's previous work „The Innocence of Pontius Pilate“ published in 2021., emphasizes the importance of understanding Jesus in the broader context of European intellectual, legal, and political history. It argues that the Gospels have significantly shaped European thought, influencing everything from literature to philosophy, making a compelling case that Jesus is central to our understanding of these fields. "I Judge No One" is structured as a exploration of how various philosophers, including Hermann Samuel Reimarus, Baruch Spinoza, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer, George Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty have engaged in discussions about Jesus from both theological and philosophical perspectives. This adds an extra layer of depth to the narrative, offering a comprehensive view of the influence of Jesus on modern philosophical thought.

In this paper I investigate where the boundaries of conscious mental life lie in Cavendish’s theory, and why. Cavendish argues for a wholly material yet wholly thinking universe. She claims that all matter is capable of “self-knowledge” and “perception” (OEP, p. 138), so that every part of nature “must have its own knowledge and perception, according to its own particular nature” (OEP, p. 141). It is unclear, however, whether the universal capacity of matter to know and perceive also implies the presence of consciousness. I show that Cavendish’s use of the notions of “self-knowledge” and “perception” implies the attribution of consciousness to all bodies. I identify one condition under which the ubiquitous presence of consciousness is intuitively required in Cavendish’s system: namely the presence of intentional agency in every part of nature, which Cavendish conceives as necessary, alongside the capacity of self-motion, to account for the orderly behavior of any body.

Tänasel päeval kõlab sageli süüdistusi genotsiidis. "Genotsiid" on mõiste, mis on üldistatud ajaloolisest sündmusest nimega "Holokaust". Selgub aga, et filosoofia entsüklopeediates esineb küll sageli väljend "Holokaust", ei esine aga peaaegu üldse väljendit "Nakba". Mõiste illustreerimiseks kasutatud paradigmaatiliste näidiste valik mõjutab dispositsioone, millal seda mõistet taibatakse kasutada ja millal sellest hoidutakse.

Inleiding Simon Stevin (1548-1620) geldt als een geleerde, die de praktische toepassing van wetenschappelijk onderzoek hoog in het vaandel had. Daarom is de belangrijkste Nederlandse onderscheiding voor academische onderzoekers die de resultaten van hun werk maatschappelijk dienstbaar maken, naar hem genoemd. Daarnaast is er een Stevinpenning, die uitgereikt wordt aan personen die zich bijzonder verdienstelijk hebben gemaakt op het gebied van de Nederlandse terminologie en de vaktaal. Stevin, wiskundige, natuurkundige en ingenieur, heeft namelijk een groot gedeelte van de nog immer gebruikte Nederlandse wis-en natuurkundige terminologie ontwikkeld. Stevin is de uitvinder van de term wiskunde, waarin voor een geoefend oog de woorden wijs en bewijzen terug te vinden zijn.

In "Guida perversa alla politica globale" (titolo originale, Heaven in disorder), Žižek si prende “il suo spazio”: sprovvisto dell’interattività della sezione commenti che aveva alimentato la “diffusione” di Virus, si avverte l’esigenza dell’autore di non voler omettere nulla di ciò che è accaduto nel mondo e nella sua mente in questo convulso biennio.

In this article i give an argument for the truth and usefulness of the distinction between primary and secondary properties of things. If you accept metaphysical realism then you have to accept primary properties. Secondary properties like color  and sound are relational and presuppose the existence of perceptual consciousness and causal mechanism where consciousness is involved in.

The interpretation of Isaac Newton's texts has sparked controversy to this day. One of the most heated debates relates to the action between two bodies distant from each other (the gravitational attraction), and to what extent Newton involved God in this case. Practically, most of the papers discuss four types of gravitational attractions in the case of remote bodies: direct distance action as intrinsic property of bodies in epicurean sense; direct remote action divinely mediated by God; remote action mediated by a material ether; or remote action mediated by an immaterial ether. The purpose of this paper is to argue that Newton categorically rejected the types of direct action as the intrinsic property of bodies, and remote action mediated by a material ether. Concerning the other two types of action, direct through divine intervention and mediated through an immaterial environment, Newton has repeatedly stated that he does not know the exact cause of gravity, but in both cases...

The following contribution focuses on how to match the lens of restorative justice with the concerns of (also structural) past imbalance, today commonly considered as forms of injustice which need to be rebalanced through a variety of measures. Nowadays these situations are considered part of history (e.g., colonialism, various forms of discrimination and inequality), however, the conscience of their injustice still influences the current debate, involving the importance of publicly taking distance, or even condemning, those phenomena or behaviours, mostly in public discourses. History, memory, equity, and a sheer sense of justice are confronted with the possibility of dealing restoratively with such issues, considering that they might instead involve forms of removal or even retaliation (as it happens, e.g., within the so called 'cancel culture'). The question that arises is whether a restorative lens can positively affect actions taken in order to 'correct' past mistakes. Secondly, such perspective, could also help to show when, and under which conditions, some actions that apparently are meant to 'rebalance' things might result in contradiction with the values of justice as restoration. This helps highlighting how this approach could also act as a safeguard against the risk of undermining or even denying fundamental democratic values, albeit apparently (or admittedly) acting to promote them. A core theme is the role of memory and narratives and their connection to a relational and reparative approach to ethics. If, on the one hand, the following reflections place their focus outside the field of criminal justice, on the other hand they assume-as a premise-Howard Zehr's suggestion that restorative justice can be interpreted as a way of life, involving a perspective able to affect someone's way of thinking and acting. Among restorative justice's fundamental principles, there is the core-idea that justice should not 'imitate' the violent logic which underlies wrongdoing. Therefore, the restorative way of 'rebalancing things' cannot happen in a manner that violates important values, such as those which promote dialogue, empowerment, active responsibility, mutuality and respect.

Jacques Parrain Des Coutures , d’abord militaire, se fit ensuite érudit défenseur des vertus de la Religion Catholique et de celles du Roi Très Catholique.
Comme tous les intellectuels de son temps, pour illustrer et appuyer ses réflexions sur la morale d’Épicure, il recourt aux classiques de la philosophie et de la littérature antiques et patristiques : Aristote, Platon, Cicéron, Plutarque, saint Augustin, Justin, mais surtout à Sénèque, qu’il cite abondamment.
Déjà paradoxal en soi (car Sénèque est un Stoïcien affiché, dont la célébration de la sobriété et de la pauvreté sont étonnantes venant d’un membre actif à la cour de Néron, et de l’homme le plus riche de l’empire, après l’empereur.), il est contradictoire avec la détestation que Des Coutures proclame violemment contre les Stoïciens. On a le sentiment que Des Coutures se sert d’Épicure pour contrecarrer l’influence du stoïcisme dans les milieux qu’il rencontre, comme Gassendi s’en était servi pour contrecarrer celle de la scolastique aristotélicienne qu’il rencontrait dans les écoles.

The terms „Socinian“ and „Arminian“ (despite their often equivocal and polyvalent use) refer primarily to the members of two small Christian communities viewed with great suspicion by the established churches: the Ecclesia minor of the Polish Brethren, on the one hand, and the Dutch Remonstrant Brotherhood, on the other. These were two numerically small and marginalized groups, but capable of influencing substantial numbers of theologians and intellectuals of different denominational backgrounds in many European countries. The Dutch Remonstrants faced frequent allegations of Socinianism: far from diminishing over time, these charges became harsher and more insistent after the destruction of the Ecclesia minor and the resulting Socinian diaspora. However, this study shows that the relationship was not one-way: Arminius’ heirs in turn influenced those of Sozzini, as evidenced by the development of the two theological traditions on the crucial issue of Christ’s redemption and atonement...

Le capucin Benoît de Canfield (1562-1610), dans sa Règle de perfection, offre une synthèse originale de l’enseignement traditionnel de l’Église sur la vie spirituelle: il s’agit, quelle que soit la situation, de discerner et d’accomplir la volonté du Père comme l’a fait Jésus, dans la puissance de l’Esprit Saint. Ainsi, par la mise en œuvre de cette règle très simple de la volonté de Dieu, la perfection de la vie chrétienne, dans la vie active et contemplative, est accessible à tout baptisé. Pour le capucin anglais, profondément enraciné dans la tradition spirituelle et intellectuelle de son Ordre, l’homme-Dieu, Jésus-Christ, dans le mystère de son Incarnation et de sa Passion, est le centre, l’alpha et l’oméga de toute la vie spirituelle et par suite de la Règle de perfection.

This book provides the first comprehensive treatment of Albert the Great’s (c. 1193–1280) notion of virtus formativa, a shaping force responsible for crucial dynamics in the formation of living beings. Crossing the boundaries between theology and philosophy, the notion of virtus formativa, or formative power, was central in explaining genetic inheritance and the configuration of the embryo. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this book reconstructs how Albert the Great, motivated by theological open issues, reorganised the natural-philosophical and medical theories on embryonic development, creatively drawing upon Greek, Patristic, and Arabic sources. A valuable contribution to research, this book offers essential insights for those studying the history of embryology, medicine, and science in the medieval and Renaissance periods.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-24023-2#about-this-book

In his renowned collection Philosophy as a Way of Life, Pierre Hadot suggests that the original aspect of philosophy as a method by which one exercises oneself to achieve a new way of living and seeing the world fails with the rise of modernity. In that period, philosophy becomes increasingly theoretical, tending toward a system. However, Hadot himself glimpses at the dawn of modernity some instances of the original aspect of philosophy still very much present, and in his wake, Michel Foucault warns that between the late 16th and early 17th centuries the philosophical question of the reform of the mind attests to a still very close link between asceticism and access to truth.

This book aims to develop just such an idea by thoroughly analyzing the most representative works of the reform of the mind in the early modern period: Francis Bacon’s New Organon (1620), René Descartes’ Discourse on the Method (1637), and Baruch Spinoza’s Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (1677). From this analysis it will emerge that these modern works fully deserve to be counted among the tradition of philosophy as way of life. On closer inspection, the inquiries about method elaborated in these works are fully understandable only when read in the light of a broader and more complex philosophical need: to establish the spiritual conditions for accessing truth and aspiring to full self-realization.

https://brill.com/display/title/62299?contents=toc-66382

L'interesse della comunità filosofica per l’accostamento adorniano tra Ludwig Van Beethoven e Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ha recentemente gettato nuova luce sugli appunti del francofortese e sulla sua accennata “Filosofia della musica”.
L’obiettivo di questo contributo vuole essere, partendo dalle argomentazioni di Adorno, quello di prendere spunto da certe forme del pensiero hegeliano per comprendere meglio alcune strutture musicali e formali tratte dalle trentadue Sonate per pianoforte beethoveniane.
Questo, si intende, a prescindere dal fatto che questa musica sia effettivamente direttamente debitrice (o meno) del pensiero del grande filosofo di Stoccarda. Se è vero che il Beethoven di Adorno sopravvive al mero paragone tra i singoli autori, evidenziando che la musica conserva in sé una indubitabile componente di pensiero, filosofica, sarà utile sperimentare sul campo (cioè sullo spartito) alcuni effetti di questo procedimento. Attraverso il tema della componente linguistica dell'idioma musicale, dello studio della temporalità e del carattere meta-compositivo nelle opere pianistiche in questione si proverà a scandagliare in punti specifici lo scheletro del pensiero beethoveniano fornendo, si auspica, qualche elemento utile ad una sua contestualizzazione nell'orizzonte speculativo non solo della sua epoca.