1,721,012 research outputs found
Leo Strauss e il problema teologico-politico di John Locke
Full text linkThe chapter concerning modern natural right in Leo Strauss'Natural Right and History represents one of the most controversial interpretations of Locke's political teaching. The historical narrative of Strauss' work seems to underplay some aspects of Locke's thought, which this paper tries to analyze. §1 presents a brief resume of the main critiques which have been raised against Strauss' interpretation. § §2-3 address the alternative between reason and revelation and the position assumed by Strauss' Locke; § §4-5 reflects on the moderate character of Locke's rationalism. The purpose is to show to what extent Strauss' Locke could be regarded as a modern ally against the danger posed by relativism in contemporary political thought
A Lesson in Politics: Some Remarks on Leo Strauss' Socrates and Aristophanes
Full text linkIn the first paragraph of this paper, I tackle the problem represented by Leo Strauss’ work on Aristophanes’ comedies Socrates and Aristophanes. In the second and third part, I analyze the character of Socrates’ atheism, and the influence of natural science on his unbelief. The fourth part addresses the tension between the fundamental requirements of the city and the requirements of the philosophical way of life. The final section dwells on the peculiar meaning of Aristophanes’ political lesson
Tra inattualità e connessione spirituale. Nota sull'apolitia di Jacob Burckhardt
Full text linkThis paper discusses the nature of Burckhardt's apolitia, and raises the question as to the real meaning of his detachment from political things. The first part presents some major interpretations of Burckhardt alleged "Greek" unpolitical attitude (Ernst Cassirer, Karl Löwith, Albert Salomon, Benedetto Croce), and shows how these authors understood Burckhardt's contemplative stance almost as a philosophical one. The second part offers a brief historical reconstruction of Burckhardt process of detachment, mostly drawing on his correspondence. The third part analyses the meaning of Burckhardt's transcendence of the present in the past, namely, the way in which the historian wins a critical perspective on the present by concentrating on history. This process of detachment from the present is interpreted in its "political" aspects; as shown in the fourth part, Burckhardt's apolitia amounts to a critical movement aimed at the recovery of the spiritual connection with the past. In this way, the paper maintains that his apolitia is, in truth, in service of a higher ideal of humanity, namely, a specific idea of civilization which must be understood in contradistinction to barbarism. The essence of barbarism is the absence of historic consciousness; it is only the awareness of a fundamental continuity in the flowing of human things that allows the flourishing of man's spiritual life
Il selvaggio deserto del pensiero. Considerazioni su sacro e civiltà ne La nascita della tragedia
No full textThe paper addresses the complex conflict among the categories of Sacred, Kultur, and Civilization (respectively associated with the Dionysian, Apollonian and Socratic) in the account of Die Geburt der Tragödie, and sketches some lines of young Nietzsche’s radical critique of modern Western civilization. It also detects the Lutheran root of Nietzsche’s thought as the element that links the tragic Dionysian to modern times and emphasizes the importance of poetic imagination in the attempt to rebuild the sacred dimension in the time of its total removal
Leo Strauss and the Argument of Natural Theology
Full text linkIn this paper, I analyze the two versions of Leo Straussʼ argument of natural theology, presented respectively in Reason and Revelation (1948, 2006) and The Mutual Influence of Theology and Philosophy (1954, 1979). In both cases, Strauss confronts this argument with major difficulties. On the one hand, with the mysterious character of an all-wise God; on the other hand, with the flawed response of modern science, represented by Spinozaʼs attempt to obtain the system of nature, or the completed account of the whole, which would rule out the possibility of the existence of an omnipotent and unfathomable God. I will try to argue how natural theology may solve these major difficulties, namely by referring to the idea of justice as suggested in Straussʼ An Untitled Lecture on Platoʼs Euthyphron
Trust and Fiduciary Power
No full textThis paper analyzes an aspect of trust relatively less explored by political philosophers, namely, the legal conception of trust. As I explain in Sect. 1, the legal conception of trust refers to trust as a moral and/or legal obligation of power. It is distinct from trust understood as confidence and from trustworthiness; nonetheless, I offer that trust as confidence is constitutive of trust as obligation. In Sect. 2, I briefly recount the origin of the trust and the development of the legal metaphor of trust in 17th century England, most notably in the work of John Locke. In Sect. 3, I turn to examining the contemporary fiduciary political theory proposed by Evan Fox-Decent, which is a literalist transposition of private fiduciary principle to the public sphere. One notable aspect of Fox-Decent’s theory is its attempt to justify the State’s legitimacy on the basis of its fiduciary relationship with its subjects. Fox-Decent thus offers an alternative to all consent-based theories, primarily contesting A. John Simmons’s voluntarism. As I explain in Sect. 4, fiduciary political theory is based on a “presumption of trust” and appeals to Annette Baier’s conception of an “unconscious, automatic” trust in order to explain the fiduciary relation between the individual and the irresistible administrative power of the State. In Sect. 5, I present the main objections to fiduciary political theory and explore the compatibility of the fiduciary principle with Simmons’s voluntarism
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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