Hegelian Synthesis Research Articles

Socialism with Haitian Characteristics

This work argues that following the Haitian Revolution, which is a revolt against slavery and mercantilist capitalism, the founder of the country, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, attempted to synthesize three forms of system and social integration on the island in order to constitute the nation of Haiti: the mercantilist and liberal capitalism of the Affranchis, petit-bourgeois blacks and mulatto elites, respectively; and the Lakouism, communism, of the African majority on the island. In this sense, Dessalines, represented the first embodiment of Kojève’s end of history Hegelian thesis, and defined Haiti’s socialism, what Mocombe calls libertarian communism, with its Haitian characteristics.

HEIDEGGER’S UNDERSTANDING OF ART IN THE ESSAY THE ORIGIN OF THE WORK OF ART

The paper analyzes Heidegger's understanding of art, presented in the essay The Origin of the Work of Art. The research is divided into two parts: destructive, dedicated to the exposition of Heidegger's understanding of the process of aestheticization and criticism of modern aesthetics, and constructive, which presents a detailed analysis of Heidegger's understanding of art and the work of art. Although in the first part, Heidegger claims that the Hegelian thesis about the end of art has merit, as he finds that aestheticization is a process in which the work of art disappears into experience, in the second part, Heidegger opens up space for its reconsideration and thus introduces the thesis about defiant potential of art and the possibility for expelling representation and metaphysical aesthetics. This is why Heidegger begins a complex analysis of the way of being of the work of art, which is first opened in contrast to the being of thing and the being of equipment. The research reveals that the work of art should be understood within the dialectics of the world and the earth, through the concept of truth as aletheia, and concludes that art is simultaneously the truth's setting-itself-into-work and the setting-of-truth-into-the-work. Heidegger's double definition of art suggests the introduction of a balance between the reflexive and revolutionary understanding of art, between the autonomy of the work and the need for the artist and the audience, and the ontological determinations of throwness and projection. In the end, the examination of the origin of a work of art shows that art itself is a kind of origin from which the truth as unconcealment springs.

Borys Grinchenko about regulation methods of creative inspiration

The article is a first attempt to tackle Borys Grinchenko’s theoretical paper “The Management of Inspiration” (1893) in the Ukrainian literary studies. The manuscript of Grinchenko’s paper is kept at the Institute of Manuscripts of the National Library of Ukraine named after V. I. Vernadsky. The subject of the research is the writer’s views on the psychology of creativity. The article aims to consider the theoretical views of the Ukrainian philosopher on the problem of inspiration as a special creative venue of the artists, writers or composers, the management of which can affect their productivity. The results of the study enable to detect the influence of both idealistic and positivist-oriented aesthetics in Grinchenko’s theoretical approach to the cultivated creativity. The Ukrainian philosopher is resolute in denying the idea of inspiration as a rapidly passing special state which cannot be managed for example by the writer. Nor does he accept the possibility of productive creativity only in the moments of emotional outburst or transcendence. Grinchenko develops coherently the idea that the ingenious writers systematically experienced inspiration relying on the skill, worked out over the years, to create at a fixed time. In his opinion, the timing for different types of activity allowed those writers to evoke special spirituality at certain hours, when aesthetic performance is the most productive. In his paper, B. Grinchenko insists on the need for each creator to handle the inspiration by means of the skillful management of creative process. The ideas of the Ukrainian philosopher on the possibility of managing writer’s insight keep with the Hegelian thesis of creative inspiration as a natural result of the artist’s hard work. B. Grinchenko regards inspiration as an animating force that can be set in motion by daily routine. Every writer’s moment of the highest revelation proceeds differently; its every stage can be differently time-bound. Yet Borys Grinchenko hopes that in the future the development of literary processes will lead most writers to a disciplined and manageable way of creativity. The ideas of Grinchenko’s paper on the bonding of inspiration and the titanic work of the writer are up-to-date.

Does Every Genuine Philosophy Have a Skeptical Side?

Does Every Genuine Philosophy Have a Skeptical Side? Michael Neil Forster I have spent a number of years now mining Hegel’s writings for insights into skepticism. 1 Among those that I have identified and broadly endorsed, the following three are perhaps most important: (1) Hegel argues convincingly that ancient skepticism and modern skepticism are sharply different in character (ancient skepticism being typified by the general method of “equipollence,” or arguing with equal plausibility on both sides of each question, modern skepticism instead by such specific problems as the “veil of perception” problem), and that as a result ancient skepticism is philosophically superior to modern, in particular because free of an essential dogmatism, and resulting vulnerability to skepticism, that afflict the latter and blessed with a sort of generalness of applicability that the latter lacks.2 (2) Hegel argues, in opposition to Kant and other philosophers influenced by him, such as Gottlob Ernst Schulze, who conceive ancient skepticism as limited in the scope of its attack, that, on the contrary, ancient skepticism is a radical position that attacks all beliefs. This interpretive dispute has recently been replayed at a high philological and philosophical level by Myles Burnyeat and Michael Frede, respectively. I have argued that it is the radical Hegel-Burnyeat reading of ancient skepticism rather than the moderate Kant-Frede reading that is more exegetically correct.3 (3) [End Page 219] Hegel argues, again in opposition to Kant and those influenced by him, that such a radical form of ancient skepticism is, moreover, philosophically viable. In particular, he argues that it can plausibly attack even judgments of subjective experience and logical principles. I have argued that on this point too Hegel is correct.4 In the present article I would like to identify and defend a fourth important Hegelian insight into skepticism: a thesis he articulates in his seminal essay The Relation of Skepticism to Philosophy: A Presentation of Its Various Modifications and a Comparison of Its Newest Form with Its Ancient from 1802, to the effect that every genuine philosophy has a skeptical side—or, as he puts it there, “that skepticism itself is most intimately one with every true philosophy . . . that a true philosophy necessarily itself . . . has a negative side.”5 I In order to appropriate and defend this Hegelian thesis, I first need to clarify and disambiguate it in certain ways. In particular, the following three points should be noted. First, as Hegel articulates the thesis in his 1802 essay, it is often concerned with “true philosophy” in the very narrow sense of “philosophy that is true”—which would restrict the bearing of the thesis to just his own philosophy and a few alleged anticipations of it by favored predecessors such as Plato. On the other hand, in the very context of the remarks that were quoted above, Hegel rejects the idea that philosophy should be equated with dogmatism, and he implies that it also includes a broad range of skeptically minded thinkers, among them not only Plato but also certain poets, Xenophanes, Zeno, and Democritus.6 Moreover, at other points in the essay he identifies Pyrrho and the older set of Pyrrhonian tropes, or methods for bringing about suspension of judgment, as examples of philosophy as well.7 So there [End Page 220] are also good textual grounds for construing “true philosophy” in his thesis in the broader sense, not of “philosophy that is true,” but of something more like “genuine philosophy” (whether true or not). While the former, narrow sense of his thesis is undeniably present in the essay, I do not find it very philosophically promising and shall therefore simply set it aside here. It is the latter, broader sense of the thesis that seems to me to have good prospects of being correct, and that interests me here. Second, somewhat surprisingly, Hegel in the 1802 essay identifies as the paradigm of “skepticism” the second half of Plato’s Parmenides— which he interprets as a destructive dialectic both preparatory and integral to Plato’s positive philosophy (very much as his own destructively dialectical Logic was at this early period of his career both preparatory and integral to his own positive philosophy). However, Hegel...

Pentecostal Churches and Capitalism in a South African Township: Towards a Communism of the Market?

With reference to two Pentecostal churches in the Kayamandi suburb of Stellenbosch, South Africa, we consider the ways in which capitalism and the Pentecostal spirit interrelate in a contemporary South Africa. We start off by acknowledging that many forms of Pentecostalism now tend to follow the paradigm set by neo-Pentecostalism, and that the same might be true of our two church communities, Revival Fire Ministries, and the Apostolic Faith Mission, even if the latter is more typically regarded as part of the classical Pentecostal movement in South Africa. Then we discuss Pentecostalism and its relationship to the secular domain. We show how Pentecostalism, in contrast to traditional forms of Christianity, is par excellence involved in the immanent/horizontal affairs of believers' lives. Indeed, the market itself appears to be sacralized, implying a transfer of holiness into the secular domain. We conclude with the idea that we have observed a fourth wave of Pentecostalism, anticipating that the golden age of Gesara/Nesara may be considered as a secular faith, forming a Hegelian synthesis of the two so-called secular religions of the 20th century, capitalism and communism. We have analyzed it as an apocatastasis, meaning restoration to the original or primordial condition1.

Regulation of technological loading on soils: a concept for solving the problem

Аnnotation Purpose. Justify the possibility and feasibility of using the technological standard (Tn) to regulate the technological load on soils to eliminate the conditions of their degradation using the energy assessment of the action of agricultural machinery systems and agronomic measures in terms of the structural-aggregate and humus state, as well as biological activity. Methods. General scientific (field, morphological-genetic, comparative-analytical, agroanalytical, laboratory) and special (determination of the content of elementary soil particles (ESP) and microaggregation by the microscopic method according to Bulygin S. Yu.). Results. Under the conditions of stationary experiments of the Right-Bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine, it was revealed that more than 60 years of use of alkaline chernozem soil in a 10-field crop rotation with a field of clover with a traditional tillage system using moldboard plowing against the background of different fertilization options did not significantly worsen any of the parameters of agrophysical and humus state, biological activity, quantitative and species composition of the microbiological pool. More than 40 years of use of dark gray podzolized soil at a full rate of fertilization, applying lime to neutralize hydrolytic acidity and growing green manures after cereal early ripening crops, leaving the non-marketable part of the crop on the field under the conditions of a traditional processing system with moldboard plowing in a 7-field crop rotation , also with a field of clover, did not worsen the main parameters of its fertility. A conceptual mathematical model has been developed for the processing soil conservation agriculture systems based on the studies. Conclusions 1. Agrophysical parameters of soil have different information content and different sensibility. Each hierarchical level of the soil body system is characterized by a certain set of indicators, including agrophysical ones. It has been established that a scientifically grounded crop rotation against the background of moderate doses of mineral fertilizers, necessary chemical ameliorants with the abandonment of the non-commercial part of the crop and the use of green manure after early grain crops guaranteed to hold the agro physical condition of soils from deterioration. 2. The guarantor of a quasi-stable humus state is the stability of the agrophysical framework of the soil system and the harmony of the microbiological pool, the quantitative and species composition of which determines the balance of the synthesis and mineralization of humus and other organic substances. 3. Changing the effective influence of the living soil phase is determined by its agrophysical state, which leads to a change in the humus state – the first iteration passed. Next – the next and next chain of the spiral of the “life” of the soil (thesis-antithesis synthesis by Hegel), until the bottom or the top of the dynamic equilibrium is achieved, which is determined by the level of agriculture culture. 4. The direction (vector and trend) of the soil formation is determined by the energy ratio of the energy of the Sun in the form of a fresh vegetable residue (the second factor of the genesis of soils according to Dokuchaev) to anthropogenic energy, which is consumed in the implementation of crop technologies, which determines the value of the technological regulation (Tn). 5. The energy assessment of technologies for growing crops under the conditions of long-term stationary experiments made it possible to determine technological standards (Tn): for meadow-chernozem soil – 8.6, for dark gray podzolized soil – 7.2. Keywords: technological standard of energy load, elementary soil particles (ESP), coefficient of microaggregation, humus state, microbiological activity, energy assessment of plant technologies.

The puzzle of Japans welfare capitalism: a review of the welfare regimes approach

ABSTRACTThere has been little consensus on Japans welfare regime since Esping-Andersens [1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press] unclear categorisation of Japan as his only non-Western welfare state. This article is the first attempt to analyse academic research published in both English and Japanese. It presents a review of 40 collected studies (including 15 Western, 6 Asian and 19 Japanese articles), reached a wide variety of conclusions, defining Japan as eight different types: We point out that while the majority of Western studies tend to run statistical models including Japan among otherwise Western welfare states with little theoretical justification, Japanese scholars tend to focus on Japan as a single case. The two very different approaches may have something to learn from each other, as in thesis antithesis synthesis. Now that we are aware of very different approaches to and conclusions about Japans welfare regime, the topic appears ripe for greater co-operation between scholars.

Dialectic Synthesis: Application to Human Trafficking

We place the concept of dialectic synthesis in a fuzzy logic setting. Our purpose is to use the triplet thesis–antithesis–synthesis in applications to human trafficking and modern slavery. We are particularly interested in a country’s government’s response to its vulnerability to these situations.

Metamodernism. Historicity, Affect, and Depth After Postmodernism ed. by Robin van den Akker, Alison Gibbons, and Timotheus Vermeulen

Reviewed by: Metamodernism. Historicity, Affect, and Depth After Postmodernism ed. by Robin van den Akker, Alison Gibbons, and Timotheus Vermeulen Alex Ciorogar Robin van den Akker, Alison Gibbons, and Timotheus Vermeulen (eds.), Metamodernism. Historicity, Affect, and Depth After Postmodernism. Rowman & Littlefield, London: New-York, 2017. Without diving into a detailed analysis of the contemporary, such as it was famously construed in the works of Adorno, Benjamin or Foucault, I would nevertheless like to offer some quick preliminary remarks on what it means to work within the now. Consequently, I'll start by pointing out that the cultural and intellectual practices of the last 30 years or so—hybridity, Performatism, digitalization, and globalization—, could be systematically mapped out by examining contemporary themes, on the one hand, and their forms, on the other. Which, in so many words, is exactly what Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect, Depth After Postmodernism (2017) brilliantly succeeds in delivering: this new collection features some of today's most influential figures writing about twenty-first-century aesthetics, politics, and recent socio-economic developments. It is beyond any shadow of a doubt: there's no other book out there which tackles the question of what may lie beyond postmodernism in a more thoroughly convincing fashion. And there's no shortage of them: one could name Jeffrey Nealon's Post-Postmodernism (2012), Alan Kirby's Digimodernism (2009), Gilles Lipovetsky's Hypermodern Times (2004), Raoul Eshelman's Performatism (2008), Billy Childish's and Charles Thomson's Remodernism (2000), Christian Moraru's Cosmodernism (2011) or Nicolas Bourriaud's Altermodernism (2005). As its title clearly indicates, the volume takes off from Jameson's arguments regarding the postmodern waning of historicity, affect, and depth in Western capitalist societies, in order to show that twenty-first-century discourses could, indeed, be considered as belonging to a new and emerging cultural logic. The "sticky mess that new cultural practices are in the very process of emerging from" (Brian McHale, book cover) slowly unravels itself as you further progress through the weeds of the authors' arguments. What you get is not only a crisp theoretical examination of the critical debates going on right now in the humanities but an exquisitely panned out discussion of recent analytical and scholarly contexts. The ongoing reconfigurations of capitalist societies and neoliberal economies are indicative of new post-postmodern symptoms, such as the return of historicity, affect, [End Page 388] and depth, all of which are also represented or expressed in current cultural developments. The editors argue, in a nutshell, that postmodernism is no longer able to describe some of the most salient characteristics of prominent contemporary cultural productions. While postmodernism marked the superseding of modernist ideals, methods, and sensibilities, metamodernism is instead defined as an attempt to both incorporate and move beyond postmodern stylistic devices. At the same time, metamodernism comprises a return to realist, modernist and pre-modernist forms, techniques, and aspirations. In the editors' words, "this book is an attempt to create a new language or a series of linked dialects" (3) which could help us come to terms with our current historical moment or the "dominant ways of feeling, doing and thinking" (3). One way of looking at cultural patterns today, the editors contend, is by discerning their ground tones or, in the words of the famous Raymond Williams, their specific "structure of feeling." The editors also suggest that metamodernism isn't a manifesto or a social movement, although it encompasses a number of developments which may be understood as "social movements (Occupy), stylistic registers (the New Sincerity) and philosophies (Speculative Materialism, Object-Oriented Ontology)" (5). In the old-fashioned dialectical tradition, metamodernism would represent a reaction to postmodernism. However, as the editors suggest, meta-modernism is brimming with "productive contradictions, simmering tensions, and ideological formations" (5). Thus, metamodernism is, they conclude, both a heuristic label and a chronological term characterized by Nietzschean oscillation rather than Hegelian synthesis. In order to show the ways in which the metamodern structure of feeling is characterized by a sense of earnestness and hope (as opposed to the postmodern cynical attitude towards reality) the collection features several hands-on instances of investigative essays. The postmodern free-floating signifiers are now replaced by the gestures...

A Reflection on the Dialectic Synthesis

This paper contains a reflection on the Hegelian Dialectic Synthesis, shortened by the triplet Thesis–Antithesis–Synthesis, from a formal and naive points of view inscribed in the field of ordinary or commonsense reasoning. The Dialectic Synthesis is analyzed thanks to the methodology of Fuzzy Logic, and limiting the antithesis to either negation or opposite. It is shown, through very simple examples, the necessity for arriving at a synthesis, of a common ground (either crisp or possibilistic) between the thesis and its antithesis.

Spatial dialectics and the geography of social movements: the case of Occupy London

This paper develops spatial dialectics as an analytical method capable of exposing and explaining the contradictions, dilemmas and tensions that cut through the spatialities of social movements. Despite scholarly recognition of internal divides in movements such as Occupy, there is greater need to conceptualise the inherently contradictory nature of social movements, in particular by reflecting on the role of spatiality. Building on recent work on multiple spatialities of activism, the paper shifts attention to contradiction as a key factor in spatial mobilisation, further arguing that the recent turn to assemblage thought is ill equipped for such a task. Dialectics is introduced via Bertell Ollman's influential account of its ontological and epistemological bases, before turning to Edward Soja's reading of Henri Lefebvre to incorporate spatiality. Spatial dialectics disrupts the linearity of thesis–antithesis–synthesis, placing contradictions not only within the historical unfolding of relations but also within co‐dependent yet antagonistic moments of space, through Lefebvre's ‘trialetic’ of perceived, conceived and lived space. Building on ‘militant research’, which combined a seven‐month ethnography, 43 in‐depth interviews and analyses of representations of space, spatial dialectics is put to work through the analysis of three specific contradictions in Occupy London's spatial strategies: a global movement that became tied to the physical space of occupation; a prefigurative space engulfed by internal hierarchies; and a grassroots territorial strategy that was subsumed into logics of dominant territorial institutions. In each case, Occupy London's spatial strategies are explained in the context of unfolding contradictions in conceived, perceived and lived spaces and the subsequent dilemmas and shifts in spatial strategy this led to. In conclusion, the paper highlights broader lessons for social movements’ spatial praxis generated through the analysis of Occupy London.

Critical notes on Hegel’s treatment of Africa

This paper interrogates the adequacy of Hegel’s cultural framework upon which he constructed a philosophy of history which excludes Africa from the scheme of things. In what follows, I argue that the Hegelian dialectic is a project aimed at the exclusion of Africa from the universal history, leading to certain problematic theses like the Hegelian thesis on slavery, which is connected to theproblem of class formation and his concept of thestate. This paper is therefore a refutation of the Hegelian position, drawing insights from Senghor’s discussion of Negritude as a geo-climatic contextualized ideology.

Romantic Paradoxes of Free Love: Hegel, Rousseau, and Goethe

Previous articleNext article No AccessRomantic Paradoxes of Free Love: Hegel, Rousseau, and GoetheRichard C. ShaRichard C. Sha Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Wordsworth Circle Volume 46, Number 1Winter 2015 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/TWC24888100 Views: 39Total views on this site © 2015 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

On the Dialectics of Global Governance in the Twenty-first Century: A Polanyian Double Movement?

Following decades of economic globalisation and market-oriented reforms across the world, Karl Polanyi's double movement has been invoked not only to explain what is happening but also to give reasons for being hopeful about a different future. Some have suggested a pendulum model of history: a swing from markets to society leading, in the next phase, to a swing from society to markets, and so on. The double movement can also be understood dialectically as a description of an irreversible historical development following its own inner laws or schemes of development. Going beyond a thesis–antithesis–synthesis pattern, I maintain that conceptions and schemes drawn from dialectics, and especially dialectical critical realism, can provide better geo-historical hypotheses for explaining past changes and for building scenarios about possible future changes. I analyse political economy contradictions and tendencies, and focus on normative rationality, to assess substantial claims about rational tendential directionality of world history. I argue that democratic global Keynesianism would enable processes of decommodification and new syntheses concerning the market/social nexus. A learning process towards qualitatively higher levels of reflexivity can help develop global transformative agency. Existing contradictions can be resolved by means of rational collective actions and building more adequate common institutions. These collective actions are likely to involve new forms of political agency such as world political parties.

Southern Thought and Other Essays on the Mediterranean.

Southern Thought and Other Essays on the Mediterranean.

Office Hysteroscopy: TROPHYscope CAMPO Compact Hysteroscope (®): Manufacturer: KARL STORZ, Tuttlingen, Germany.

In the early 1990s, outpatient procedures have increased in importance in gynecology since advances in technology and techniques made hysteroscopy less painful and less invasive [1, 2]. A major point for office hysteroscopy (“See and Treat Hysteroscopy”) is that there is no need to use a speculum. A new atraumatic hysteroscopic technique, the so-called vaginoscopic, or no-touch technique was developed and the widespread saline solution as the preferred distension medium as an alternative for CO2. Nowadays, office hysteroscopy can be considered as the gold standard if it comes to the examination of the uterine cavity. In fact, it is overcoming the significant restrictions of intrauterine diagnostic curettage [2]. The above-mentioned “See and Treat” concept is what patients are asking for. They consult a gynecologist with their issue and want to leave the office without the problem. For that purpose, the physician has to invest in extracurricular training and equipment to perform ambulatory hysteroscopy [1] (Fig. 1). Fig. 1 The TROPHYscope® However, modern office hysteroscopy benefits from the use of hysteroscopes with an outer diameter of less than 5 mm which can be used for diagnostics and minor operative procedures. Those hysteroscopes also eliminate the need to dilate the cervical canal which leads only to minimal discomfort for the patient. The new TROPHYscope® CAMPO Compact Hysteroscope from KARL STORZ, Tuttlingen, Germany, is specially designed for the above-mentioned purpose. It is based on a 2 mm HOPKINS® rod lens system with an integrated inflow channel. A continuous flow sheath or an operating sheath is positioned either in an active or passive position on the TROHPYscope®. At the start of the intervention, the primary access into the uterine cavity is carried out with an outer diameter of 2.9 mm, only, the corresponding sheath in the passive position. This small diameter facilitates the introduction of the hysteroscope into the uterine cavity and minimizes discomfort of the patient. It is advantageous for the examination of infertility patients and nullipara, as well as postmenopausal patients. If there is a need to clean the cavity (need for continuous flow), then further dilation up to 3.7 mm can be done by pushing the continuous flow sheath forward into the cavity guided by the telescope. For minor interventions, the extra operating sheath (overall diameter of 4.4 mm) with working channel for 5 Fr. instruments is used. For visualization in hysteroscopy a compact, versatile and portable system like the TELE PACK X LED is ideal for the gynecologists’ office. This system includes a 15″ LCD TFT-monitor, a camera, a light source, and a module for data processing as well as data management via USB or SD card [2]. As mentioned above, hysteroscopic procedures require distension of the uterine cavity. The most common medium in use is saline solution [2]. Saline solution offers a neutral vision of the uterine cavity, permits specific evaluation of the endometrial pathologies, and offers the possibility to work with bipolar electrodes. With an electronic irrigation and suction pump like the HAMOU® ENDOMAT, a pressure- and flow-controlled constant intrauterine distension is provided [3] (Fig. 2). Fig. 2 Tele pack + LED-System Nowadays, hysteroscopy is the gold standard for evaluation and treatment of intrauterine pathologies. But as a matter of fact, it is still not widely used in daily practice. The major reason for this is the lack of teaching in hysteroscopy during conventional medical training. Furthermore, the conviction of the gynecologist and the patient that an office hysteroscopy, without anesthesia, may be more painful leads to interventions favoring the so-called traditional approach [2]. Traditional surgery and office surgery are no longer mutually incompatible. Indeed, they have undergone a Hegelian synthesis. Both interventions are complementary to each other. The pathology itself distinguishes if traditional surgery or office surgery is appropriate as many diseases that can be treated hysteroscopically and can be done within an ambulatory setting [2]. Most women who have undergone an office hysteroscopy are satisfied with the procedure, and prepared to recommend it or undergo this experience again if necessary [4].

Naturalism and the Space of Reasons in Mind and World

This paper aims to show that many criticisms of McDowell’s naturalism of second nature are based on what I call ‘the orthodox interpretation’ of McDowell’s naturalism. The orthodox interpretation is, however, a misinterpretation, which results from the fact that the phrase ‘the space of reasons’ is used equivocally by McDowell in Mind and World. Failing to distinguish two senses of ‘the space of reasons’, I argue that the orthodox interpretation renders McDowell’s naturalism inconsistent with McDowell’s Hegelian thesis that the conceptual is unbounded. My interpretation saves McDowell from being inconsistent. However, the upshot of my interpretation is that what is really at work in McDowell’s diagnosis of the dualism between nature and reason is the Hegelian thesis, not the naturalism of second nature.

The Refiner's Fire and the Imago Dei:

The Refiner's Fire and the Imago Dei:

Unbiased Histological Examinations in Toxicological Experiments (or, the Informed Leading the Blinded Examination)

The subject of unbiased examination of toxicological histological material has been a contentious topic. A major reason for this arises because pathologists are unwilling to examine histopathological material blind to treatment, and consequently cannot claim to have unbiased data. Probably the most direct expression of the views on this subject was given in Comment on Toxicology (vol. II, no. 2, 1988), in which the editors (R. W. Leader and B. W. Wagner) devoted the entire issue to invited position statements from knowledgeable individuals and groups who held widely differing views. Dodd (1988) stated the commonly held view of those with pathology training: that a blind examination is unwise for a wide variety of reasons. The Guidelines for Best Practice have favored this position (Crissman et al. 2004; Ward et al. 1995) without ruling out blind or masked examination. Temple et al. (1988) held the opposite position that without a blind examination, any results were potentially biased. This article leads to the conclusion that this is not an either-or situation. Neither a blind nor an examination informed of treatment (informed or unblind) is absolutely better; they are complimentary. Both have different and important roles as parts of a full examination of experimental histological material. This article attempts a Hegelian synthesis, starting with these two extreme antitheses:

La aporía de las antropologías "totalizantes" como pregunta a los teólogos

This work tries to show that anthropologies that are described like totalizantes in it are related to Hegelian thesis according to which the truth is everything, at par that forget to discover in man Aristotelian distinction between act and potency, and Thomist between act of being and essence. The paradox in which they incur is that they cannot explain notion of person without body, with which they raise to theologians question of if post mortem man is human person.