Political Reflection Research Articles

Les extensions de la post-vérité, questions épistémologiques et politiques : entretien avec Philippe Huneman

ObjectivesWhat is the logic of assent given to a conspiracy theory? Is the post-truth era to be understood as a quest for certainty, or on the contrary as the unleashing of doubt? Such questions deserve to be apprehended through a psychological approach to conspiracy, in order to clarify the meaning and equivocity of the terms belief, truth, assertive logic, and doubt. This conceptual clarification cannot take place without examining the use of these notions in the epistemology of knowledge and in the philosophy of science. MethodSarah Troubé and Olivier Douville interviewed the philosopher of science Philippe Huneman about his recent work on conspiracy theories and the conditions of the production and the diffusion of scientific knowledge. ResultsThe interview invites us to question the surface analogy between the rapid modes of construction of conspiracy theories and the process of the constitution of scientific knowledge. It should be taken into account that this outpouring of post-truths offers us the opportunity to question the criteria of rational doubt and justified belief. The difficulty of establishing a priori criteria that would make it possible to separate – from the sole examination of individual belief – the rational and irrational uses of doubt and belief leads us to examine the conditions of the social production of knowledge. DiscussionReducing adherence to conspiracy theories to an individual belief in the truth of these theories leads to a misunderstanding of the phenomenon under consideration. Acknowledging the epistemic equivocity of belief allows us to re-situate it in its social and interlocutory dimension of address to the other. The question of the social production of knowledge, and more particularly of scientific knowledge, invites us to question the processes that legitimize the assent of the public and researchers in the reliability of scientific knowledge. But it also allows us to identify, in the current social and economic conditions of research, the elements likely to engender a form of mistrust towards certain scientific productions. ConclusionThe impossibility of confining oneself to an examination of belief as an individual phenomenon, and of separating a priori the irrational from the rational in the conspiratorial phenomenon, leads to epistemological and political reflection. By introducing, in public debate, an indifference to any division between true and false, the proliferation of fake news not only attacks the very conditions of the constitution of shared knowledge, but also jeopardizes the springs of democratic deliberation. Contrary to any filiation between the post-truth era and post-modernist philosophies, the understanding of this indifference to true and false is to be placed in the context of an information market that creates the conditions for this lack of differentiation between true and false facts.

Victor Serge en México, 1941-1947

Este artículo examina la transformación de los planteamientos políticos de Victor Serge durante su exilio en México entre 1941 y 1947. A partir de una crítica al totalitarismo soviético y al régimen nazi, durante este periodo Serge realiza una reformulación del comunismo ortodoxo en el sentido de un socialismo renovado, contemplando la inclusión de los principios de democracia y libertad. Lo anterior provocó una escisión dentro del grupo Socialismo y Libertad, que anuncia las profundas diferencias que es posible observar entre la crítica antitotalitaria de Serge y el anticomunismo hacia el cual evolucionó Julián Gorkin en los años cincuenta. Utilizando como fuentes el diario de Serge en México, así como las publicaciones Análisis. Revista de Hechos e Ideas (1942) y Mundo (1943-1945), este trabajo propone que esta redefinición del socialismo estuvo muy influida por los intercambios que Serge mantuvo con un pequeño círculo de escritores, médicos y psicoanalistas de habla alemana y de tendencia antiestalinista, en tensión permanente con el exilio comunista que se encontraba también en México. En la crítica de Serge hacia la ortodoxia comunista convergen elementos del pensamiento marxista, la literatura y el psicoanálisis, introduciendo las variables del inconsciente y de la subjetividad en el análisis de los procesos políticos y sociales. La coincidencia de estas perspectivas en el marco de una reflexión política acerca de las consecuencias de la segunda guerra mundial es el rasgo distintivo del pensamiento de Serge en la última etapa de su vida.

Ways to care: Forms and possibilities of compassion within UK food banks

Food banks are organisations which occupy an uncomfortable position, being seen both as a manifestation of caring communities as well as an undesirable feature of neoliberal government. By focusing on the encounters between volunteers and food bank users within these organisations, we excavate their caring side to find three forms of compassion: compassion ‘for’, compassion ‘with’ and compassion ‘within’. We show that while compassion ‘for’ can lead to countless selfless acts, it remains embedded within neoliberal discourses. This can serve to reinforce distance and inequalities between giver (volunteer) and receiver (food bank user), creating a chain of indebtedness as compassion becomes part of a transactional exchange offered to those seen as worthy. Compassion ‘with’ others focuses on the person rather than the problem of food poverty and manifests itself in expressions of connection and responsibility which can, however, become possessive at times. Compassion ‘within’ is a form of compassion that, although less visible and demonstrative in response to the immediate suffering of others, provokes ethical and political reflection for individual volunteers who at times may challenge the very need for food banks. By grounding compassion in a specific social and organisational context, we highlight its relational nature and the dynamic and uncomfortable relation between different forms of compassion in the context of UK food banks. We conclude that compassion is a socially embedded and differentiated relationship which can activate affective, ethical and political responses to food poverty.

The good citizen: Minority and majority youths’ definitions of and experiences with citizenship in Denmark

Young adults’ abilities and willingness to support and live up to dominant citizen ideals are often questioned, particularly for minority ethnic youths. Based on inductive analysis of 71 interviews, I demonstrate that minority and majority youths share a conception of “the good citizen” as someone who is law-abiding and socially and economically contributing. At the same time, the differential societal status of the two groups affects which of “the good citizen’s” traits and duties they stress, and whether they see themselves as being in a position to make claims to citizenship. While majority youths emphasize political reflection and participation, minority youths place greater weight on not stepping out of line. As such, power and status shape citizenship ideals.

Schiller’s Demetrius Project: Questions of Legitimacy for the Twentieth Century

This essay explores the way in which Schiller problematizes power legitimation in his dramatic fragment Demetrius, and demonstrates how relevant this unfinished text was to early twentieth-century political thinking on legitimacy in Germany. This is not a matter of mere speculation: there is evidence, both direct and indirect, of the influence of Schiller, and in particular of his Demetrius, on three important intellectuals: Ferdinand Tönnies, Max Weber, and Carl Schmitt. Rather than discuss the reception of Schiller’s text by legal philosophers, this essay shows, via a close reading of the play, how Schiller’s theater around 1800 reveals the problematic nature of various aspects of power legitimation and how these emerged with particular force during the early twentieth century, when they intersected with the legal and political reflections of the time.

Верификационная онтология: переосмысление древнегреческой философии

This article proposes a revision of the traditional interpretation of ancient Greek ontology and indicates what consequences this revision may have for political reflection. The basis for the interpretation laid out here lies in classicist Charles H. Kahn’s work on the meaning and function of the verb “to be” (einai) in ancient Greek. Kahn asserts that the original and fundamental meaning of einai was veritative (veridical) rather than existential – it was used to signify truth, not existence. Though the significance of Kahn’s research has been widely acknowledged, the influence of his analyses on interpretations of Greek ontology seems disproportionately small in comparison. The veritative interpretation remains on the margin of studies dominated by the existential interpretation. My article is meant as a contribution to the project of building a veritative interpretation of Greek ontology. I intend to show, using certain examples, the forms of this interpretation and possibilities it presents. For scholars of ancient Greek philosophy, it is often difficult to distinguish between its ontological and epistemological aspects. As I will try to show, this state of affairs results from a post factum imposition of the existential interpretation on Greek thought. The problem is greatly reduced when we use the veritative paradigm in place of the existential paradigm. It also becomes easier to grasp the unity of Greek philosophy, especially the unity of ontology and epistemology. A veritative interpretation of Greek ontology carries with it important consequences for our understanding of Greek political philosophy as well. One of the key consequences is a “formal” (as opposed to “material”) understanding of concepts fundamental to Greek political reflection, such as the “good” and “justice.” As a result, discussion on ancient Greek political and legal reflection can be conducted from a fruitful new perspective.

Writers and Rebels: The Literature of Insurgency in the Caucasus by Rebecca Gould

Reviewed by: Writers and Rebels: The Literature of Insurgency in the Caucasus by Rebecca Gould Ian Lanzillotti (bio) Rebecca Gould, Writers and Rebels: The Literature of Insurgency in the Caucasus ( New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016). 352 pp., ill. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. ISBN: 978-0-300-20064-5. The works of indigenous writers of the Caucasus have been neglected in studies of literary representations of the region. Rather, scholars have focused on the works of Russian writers and the place of the Caucasus in the Russian literary imagination.1 Rebecca Gould's Writers and Rebels explores the aestheticization of violence across multiple Caucasus literatures of insurgency, and places these literatures in conversation with each other. Drawing on fluency in Arabic, Chechen, Georgian, and Russian, Gould has written the first major comparative study of the literatures of the Caucasus. Similarly impressive, and rare for a Western scholar, Gould draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the North Caucasus. Gould's work also impresses in its ability to breakdown the disciplinary and geographic barriers that have constrained Caucasus studies. While an emphasis on anti-colonial resistance has dominated Caucasus studies, the ways in which literature and its aesthetics of violence shaped the interpretive frameworks of people in the region have largely been ignored (and this applies to Eurasian studies more broadly). To the extent that scholarship on the Caucasus engages with literature, it is usually viewed as a reflection of politics. Gould's interdisciplinary approach to the region, which draws on insights from subaltern studies, aesthetic theory, literary theory, post-structuralism, and Western Marxism, reveals the ways in which texts "giv[e] birth to new ways of conceiving political life" (P. 23). Caucasus studies has also been characterized by a tendency to see the North and South Caucasus in isolation from each other. In focusing on works of Georgian literature that have taken anti-colonial resistance in North Caucasus as their subject and highlighting how Georgian writers contributed to the aestheticization of violence in their writings in ways that parallel the work of [End Page 327] Chechen writers, Gould helps break down this artificial scholarly divide. More than covering an understudied literary history, Gould contributes to the study of anti-colonial violence by adopting the methods of literary anthropology, which uses literature to understand culture and social life. While most studies of anti-colonial violence have asked why anti-state actors turn to violence, Gould explores "the literary and aesthetic question of why and how anticolonial violence mesmerizes and mobilizes religious sensibilities" (P. 7). Gould argues that it is through these questions that we can better understand "how violence can become a viable – and often the only – modality of social existence, and of resistance, in societies ravaged by colonial and neocolonial rule" (P. 7). For Gould, it is through "the repetition and performance of [anti-colonial] violence in cultural production" that violence becomes aestheticized and, ultimately, attractive (P. 6). This understanding of how literary representations of violence become part of cultural memory offers a new way of answering the question so often asked by political scientists of the Caucasus and Eastern Europe: Why do some conflicts persist while others dissipate? Transgressive sanctity is the conceptual framework that undergirds Gould's examination of the aestheticization of violence in Caucasus literatures of insurgency. Transgressive sanctity is the sacralization of rebellion through "transgression against an externally imposed legal order" that has not yet become hegemonic and is seen as illegitimately imposed. According to Gould, "the transgressive act [results] in the altering of local legal, aesthetic, and ethical norms" (P. 3). Transgressive sanctity emerged as a means of challenging colonial governmentality in the wake of the defeat of Imam Shamil and his theocratic anti-colonial state after more than twenty-five years of resistance to Russian rule. At this point, hope was lost for successful anti-colonial resistance and there was a vacuum of authority caused by the destruction of the indigenous legal system and the rejection of the externally imposed colonial order. In this context, the abrek – the precolonial socialbandit-turned-sacred-warrior – defended indigenous communal values from colonialism by "craft[ing] an alternative ethical system" (P. 7). The abrek did this "by violating an external...

Ex rege dominus, ex optimatibus factio, ex populo turba. O cyklach ustrojowych w De re publica Cycerona

Przedmiot badań: W artykule dokonano analizy koncepcji cyklów ustrojowych w De re publica Cycerona. W części pierwszej zaprezentowanych zostało pięć cyklów ustrojowych. Następnie zwrócono uwagę na związek opisywanej koncepcji z pojęciem res publica, a tym samym na znaczenie wolności, umiaru oraz tyranicznego charakteru wszystkich form zdegenerowanych. W części drugiej autor zajął się problematyką relacji cyklów ustrojowych i rzymskiego ustroju mieszanego, a także zagadnieniem jego ewentualnej degeneracji. W zakończeniu dokonano próby oceny koncepcji Cycerona tak od strony teoretycznej, jak i stricte politycznej.
 Cel badawczy: Analiza koncepcji cyklów ustrojowych Cycerona oraz wykazanie jej oryginalności.
 Metoda badawcza: W artykule wykorzystano metodę historyczno-prawną oraz metodę porów­nawczą.
 Wyniki: Konstrukcja cyklów ustrojowych Cycerona jest, w przeciwieństwie do „sztywnej” konstrukcji cyklu Polibiusza, bardziej elastyczna. Nie ma tu stałego i sztywnego schematu na­stępstwa ustrojów, a zmiana ustrojowa (cursus mutationum) nie jest przesądzona, jest co najwy­żej ewentualna. Stanowiąca istotę republikańskiej myśli politycznej utilitas rei publicae spra­wia, że w swej refleksji politycznej Cyceron nieustannie konfrontuje teorię z praktyką, który to pragmatyzm czyni teorię cyklów ustrojowych bardziej „użyteczną” dla rzymskiej wspólnoty politycznej.

Practice and Reflection of Course Ideology and Politics in the Teaching of Analytical Chemistry

Practice and Reflection of Course Ideology and Politics in the Teaching of Analytical Chemistry

АНГЕЛОЛОГИЯ В РУССКОЙ ИНТЕЛЛЕКТУАЛЬНОЙ ИСТОРИИ: НЕСКОЛЬКО ЭПИЗОДОВ

Reflections on the nature of angels in Russian religious philosophy are inseparable from political theology and reflection on scientific and technical achievements. Based on the works of N. Boldyrev, A. Losev and S. Averintsev, the article proves that the doctrine of angels was to spiritualize technical progress and not less to preserve humanitarian culture in the field of symbolic-mathematical speculation. Therefore, Russian angelology is dialogical and controversial: it relies on the hermeneutics of a symbol, while symbolism is considered as part of intellectual production parallel to technical invention. It is proved how exactly the reception of ideas related to the parameters of perception and a certain style of intellectual reasoning made it possible to single out questions about angels into a separate area of philosophical problematization. Accordingly, the study of how exactly the questions were thought of as autonomous, makes it possible to clarify how Russian thought could assert the autonomy of orders of philosophical reasoning

¿Presidente o príncipe? Una crítica maquiaveliana a Roque Sáenz Peña y la reforma electoral de 1912

The article analyzes the book The President, by Julio Costa (governor of the province of Buenos Aires in the 1890s), published simultaneously with the electoral reform of 1912. It is argued that the relevance of this text lies in three axes. First, it shows key topics of the public debate of that moment: representative government, political parties, secret and mandatory voting. Second, it ponders universal suffrage in the name of preserving traditions and the defense of freedom. Thus, it offers indications of possible crossings between conservatism, liberalism and democracy in Argentina of 1910s. Finally, the book displays a severe criticism of Roque Sáenz Peña inspired by The Prince, the famous text by Nicolò Machiavelli. From this point of view, it integrates a broader sequence, so far little explored: a political reflection grounded in the Florentine author about the vicissitudes of Argentine public life of the first decades of the twentieth century.

Historical consciousness of the Modern era and political projectivity

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the genesis of the idea of a socio-political project and a social ideal in the philosophical thought of Modernity. The author expresses and substantiates the assumption that the emergence of these ideas in their close connection with the idea of progressivism was due to changes in the historical experience of modern human, facing the horizon of the expected future. On the other hand, the special connection established in modern times between theoretical reflection and practical activity endows political reflection with the features of projective thinking. However, progressivism and projectivity turned out to be those moments of historical consciousness that underwent significant changes in the second half of the twentieth century. The main features of the projectivity of our time are determined and the main points of responsible thinking about the future are highlighted.

Regional Social-environmental Ethics as an approach to Regional Development

Abstract The development concepts fail to correlate the social issues and overall, the ecological issues with a long-term country project. The ethical political reflection around development patterns is therefore a decisive reflection. The aim is to dialogue about regional development from the standpoint of categories of socio-environmental ethics. It is exploratory research which is supported empirically in documental analysis of two cases of the regionalization process of the state of Santa Catarina (Brazil). It concludes that recognizing legitimate moral limits to the use of landscapes and living beings would be an important step in development planning, which requires a territorial reading. This is ignored by exclusively technical discourses and ecological common sense.

Manuel Sacristán y la imaginación analítica

Uno de los rasgos más característicos de la obra, dispersa y fragmentaria, de Manuel Sacristán es una recepción crítica de corrientes de pensamiento señeramente marxistas mediante un instrumental filosófico heredado de la tradición analítica. Se trata de una propuesta que anticipó en varias décadas el surgimiento del “marxismo analítico”, una intervención colectiva de gran impacto internacional en la que, sin embargo, Sacristán apenas intervino. Este artículo trata de reconstruir un diálogo posible entre algunos elementos centrales del marxismo analítico y las reflexiones epistemológicas y políticas de Manuel Sacristán.

Una lección sobre la justicia como equidad de John Rawls

John Rawls es uno de los más notables y controvertidos pensadores de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Su libro A Theory of Justice (1971) ha revitalizado la reflexión moral y política al tratar y analizar conceptos y cuestiones tan relevantes como la noción de justicia, de igualdad, de libertad, un modelo de sociedad democrática pluralista y tolerante, la desobediencia civil y la objeción de conciencia, etc. La influencia de Rawls como representante del “igualitarismo liberal” en el actual panorama del pensamiento político es, pues, considerable, sobre todo a partir de su proyecto de releer todas estas cuestiones guiado por clásicos tan renombrados como J. Locke, J. J. Rousseau e I. Kant. No debe extrañar por ello que haya sido objeto de numerosos comentarios.

444 pedras da réplica amazônica da “Saint Edward’s Crown” - Project 444 Stones: Arte - Ciência - História - Reflexão Política

Project by authorship and idealization of the paraense doctor Wirley Otávio Oliveira de Barros, which involves art, science, history and political reflection, developed in the city of Belém, capital of the State of Pará, in the middle of the Amazon region, registered in a notary through a Notarial Act. This grandiose work was developed with scientific support Museum of Geosciences of the Amazon (MUGEO) of the Institute of Geosciences (IG) of the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) through Prof. Dr. Marcondes Lima da Costa, with a PhD in Mineralogy and Geochemistry from Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Friedrich-Alexander), in Germany (1982) and with a post-doctorate in mineralogy-geochemistry from IG-USP (2001); chemist Dr. Suyanne Flávia Rodrigues, with a doctorate in Mineralogy and Geochemistry from the Graduate Program in Geology and Geochemistry (PPGG) at IG / UFPA and MsC. geologist Gisele Tavares Marques, also from PPGG. This project, which will soon be presented to the public, was duly informed to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor (Elizabeth II), of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in addition to Head of Commonwealth Realms and Defender of Faith, as it presents as a prominent item the replica work of “Saint Edward's Crown” or “St. Stephen’s Crown ”, as mentioned in the Royal letter received on February 3, 2016, signed by Miss Jennie Vine (Deputy to the Senior Correspondence Officer for Buckingham Palace), who on this occasion conveys the monarch's personal message. This is the official coronation crown of British monarchs, consisting of 444 stones of distinct mineral gems, which inspired the title attributed to the project. Therefore, it is a replica of a symbol of POWER, whose heraldic meaning of CRUZ DE MALTA and FLOR-DE-LIS guide the conduct and political profile of the ruler. In this regard, the author also addresses a message to the "men of power", made through a personal text of his own.

Balancing Conflicting Conceptions of Justice in Taxation

This paper elaborates on different conceptions of justice. Economic justice aims at correcting market outcomes to warrant a fair distribution of resources, whereas tax justice focuses on the fair distribution of the tax burden. Both elements of distributive justice have their own ‘domain-specific’ principles. These principles may collide. Hence, balancing both elements of distributive justice is necessary. However, a balance also has to be sought between economic justice and legal justice and its core principles, such as legal equality, legal certainty and proportionality. Legal justice and economic justice pose diverging demands which the legislature should carefully balance. Unfortunately, hasty parliamentary decisions and political decisiveness often seem to prevail over respect for legal values and principles, such as legal certainty and equality. This has been explained with an example of Dutch tax legislation: the (rapid) evolvement of an instrumental incentive in the tax regulation for homeownership. Tax regulations therefore require a more careful political reflection on the fundamental tension between the focus on ends which are external to the law and legal principles. Moreover, the use of tax legislation for external ends should also be balanced with tax law’s internal values and principles of tax fairness – foremost the ability-to-pay principle.

POLÍTICA E ECONOMIA NO PERSONALISMO DE EMMANUEL MOUNIER

O presente artigo tem como objetivo apresentar a reflexão política e econômica elaborada pelo filósofo francês Emmanuel Mounier e confluída na corrente filosófica apelidada de personalismo. A cidade futura poderá ser realizada somente através de pequenas comunidades, feitas de pessoas responsáveis e maduras, que vivem ativamente a inserção na comunidade, fugindo, dessa forma, do anonimato que marca a vida nas grandes aglomerações. A análise mounieriana da política é intrinsicamente ligada à perspectiva econômica do personalismo, que tem como ponto de partida a crítica do sistema capitalista e do homem burguês. A economia capitalista mortifica a pessoa e, por isso, necessita formalizar uma economia do rosto novo, um rosto personalista. A passagem de uma economia do dinheiro para uma economia da pessoa exige uma firme ruptura. É em defesa dos valores da pessoa que Mounier conduz uma batalha contra a ética do capitalismo, para substituí-la por uma ética do personalismo. Mounier esboça um modelo econômico na perspectiva da pessoa, cuja socialização substitui toda forma de estatização, desenvolvendo a vida sindical para uma conquista da dignidade da pessoa de cada trabalhador.

On the Untranslatable in Psychoanalysis

ABSTRACT The untranslatable refers to a language-based formation that escapes meaning. Structurally susceptible to being identified, the untranslatable raises the question of how it should be conveyed. In the field of psychoanalysis, this linguistic concept invites us to review certain fundamental aspects of practice and theory. From this point of view, the recurrence of translingualism in Freudian clinical cases indicates the untranslatable as an element of the formation of the symptom. A logical articulation also arises with the paternal function of transmission of the name and the prohibition of incest. The Lacanian notions of the letter, of the littoral and of non-specularity additionally provide a few interesting versions of the untranslatable. Exploration of these different theoretical aspects will enable us to demonstrate that sex and modalities of gender give the logical function of the untranslatable a subjective form. A few clinical and political reflections will be drawn from this latter observation.

Forms of (Collective) Life: The Ontoethics of Inhabitation

Is there space for an ontological urban design? Or better still, following the words of Elisabeth Grosz, is there space for an “ontoethics” of the urban? While contributing to the reflection on the role of ethics as a relational practice, this paper is digging back into the notion of forms-of-life in Giorgio Agamben’s political reflections, aiming to foreground a possible ethics of the city. This aims to highlight the implications that ontology and ethics have in constructing a politics of life as they bring differences in how we live, act, what we value and how we produce and design. Particularly, to substantiate such ethics, three key characteristics of an affirmative life are put forward: the capacity to care and to connect; the capacity to repair, endure and hold together; as well as to imagine and experiment alternative life-forces to oppose politics of oppression and capitalist extraction of values.