scholarly journals The problem of egoism in Rousseau’s practical philosophy

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-162
Author(s):  
Slobodan Sadzakov

This paper discusses the aspects of Rousseau?s understandimg of egoism, primarily those related to his highlighting of historical dimension of the problem, including the economical reasons for establishing this practical principle as an important part of the civil reproduction of life. Among other things, it analyses the contextual connection of egoism with relevant definitions in Rousseau?s work such as human nature, natural law, general will etc. and the difference of Rousseau?s overview of this problem from other important philosophers, for example Hobbes. This paper underlines how the French philosopher, on the basis of key assumptions of his practical philosophy, points at the historical dependence and the possibility of overcoming the egoistic actions, and endeavors to pave the way to a multilateral practical unlocking of the potentials of freedom in its political, moral and legal sense.

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Henrique Garbellini Carnio

<p><strong>Resumo:</strong> O presente artigo tem como base a conferência dada por Rudolf von Jhering em 12 de março de 1884 para a Sociedade Jurídica de Viena, intitulada "Sobre o nascimento do sentimento jurídico". O objetivo é demonstrar algumas reflexões surpreendentes e pouco conhecidas deste importante jurista, enfatizando, em especial, a importância que ele atribui ao devir histórico na formação do sentimento jurídico, apostando que o sentido do direito é modelado pela história e não proveniente das leis naturais eternas. Jhering, propondo uma tarefa genealógica, defende de forma contundente um historicismo ético e jurídico que o distancia de um relativismo absoluto como o das clássicas posições jusnaturalistas, completamente ahistóricas, que se revela extremamente interessante para as reflexões atuais sobre a filosofia do direito.</p><p><strong>Palavras-chave:</strong> Rudolf von Jhering; sentimento jurídico; historicismo ético-político.</p><p><strong>Abstract:</strong> This article is based on a lecture given by Rudolf von Jhering on March 12, 1884 for the Law Society of Vienna, entitled "About the birth of the legal feeling." The objective is to demonstrate some surprising and little-known reflections of this important jurist, emphasizing, in particular, the importance he attaches to the historical development in the formation of the legal feeling, betting that the sense of law is shaped by history and not from the eternal natural laws. Jhering proposing a genealogical task, forcefully defends an ethical and legal historicism that distances him of the absolute relativism as the way of classic natural law positions, completely ahistorical, that reveals itself highly interesting for the current reflections on the philosophy of law.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Rudolf von Jhering; legal feeling; ethical and political historicism.</p>


Author(s):  
Iris Berent

Do newborns think? Do they know that 3 is greater than 2? Do they prefer right to wrong? What about emotions? Do newborns recognize happiness or anger? If they do, then how are our inborn thoughts and feelings encoded in our bodies? Could they persist after we die? Going all the way back to ancient Greece, human nature and the mind–body link are the topics of age-old scholarly debates. But laypeople also have strong opinions about such matters. Most people believe, for example, that newborn babies don’t know the difference between right and wrong—such knowledge, they insist, can only be learned. For emotions, they presume the opposite—that our capacity to feel fear, for example, is both inborn and embodied. These beliefs are stories we tell ourselves about what we know and who we are. They reflect and influence our understanding of ourselves and others, and they guide every aspect of our lives. In a twist that could have come out of a Greek tragedy, Berent proposes that our errors are our fate. These mistakes emanate from the very principles that make our minds tick: Our blindness to human nature is rooted in human nature itself. An intellectual journey that draws on philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, cognitive science, and Berent’s own cutting-edge research, The Blind Storyteller grapples with a host of provocative questions, from why we are so infatuated with our brains to what happens when we die. The end result is a startling new perspective on our humanity.


Author(s):  
Neiva Oliveira ◽  
Gomercindo Ghiggi ◽  
Avelino da Rosa Oliveira

O trabalho tem dois eixos articulados entre si: primeiro, apresenta Emílio e Do Contrato Social como obras pedagógicas de Rousseau; em seguida, mostra a utilização que o autor faz dos conceitos experiência, liberdade e vontade geral, enquanto categorias que dão sustentação a esta pedagogia política. Na primeira linha de reflexão, afirma-se que o próprio fato do Contrato Social estar contido no Emílio indica a vontade instrutora do autor de ensinar as regras básicas para que o cidadão insira-se na sociedade. O Contrato Social visa instruir: Rousseau instrui-se através dele, instrui também Emílio e todo cidadão. A questão pedagógica por excelência é a explicitação da natureza do poder político. No segundo eixo temático, afirma-se que há em Rousseau uma intencionalidade educativa onde a relação entre liberdade e autoridade é uma das tensões que ocorre. Da concepção de natureza humana exposta em sua exterioridade, Rousseau extrai o critério de construção do essencial no humano, o que tem valor permanente e substantivo, que é necessário. Nesta perspectiva de formação e educação há um elemento que se destaca, sem o qual o homem perde a dimensão que o distingue: a liberdade, não ilimitada, mas regulada pela necessidade, pela autoridade da vontade geral. Palavras-chave: Rousseau; pedagogia política; liberdade; necessidade; vontade geral Abstract The paper encompasses two paths of argumentation. First, it brings forward both Rousseau’s Emile and The Social Contract as educational works; next, it shows the way the author makes use of concepts such as experience, freedom and general will as categories that provide support to his political pedagogy. In the first argumentative path, it is stated that the very fact that The Social Contract is contained inside Emile indicates the author’s will of teaching the basic rules for a citizen to join society. The Social Contract aims at instructing: through it, Rousseau instructs himself, as well as he instructs Emile, and every citizen. The pedagogical question by excellence is the explanation of the political power. In the second argumentative path, it is stated that there is in Rousseau an educational intentionality in which takes place a tension between freedom and authority. Rousseau brings out from the concept of human nature the criterion for the construction of what is essential in human beings, of what has lasting and substantial worth, of what is necessary. In such a perspective of formation and education, it is freedom that is uplifted, and without it, man loses what makes him different from other beings. But it is not unlimited freedom that distinguishes man; instead, it is freedom ruled by necessity, in other words, by the authority of general will. Keywords: Rousseau; political pedagogy; freedom; necessity; general will


2021 ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Fernando Muñoz León

Resumen: El presente artículo esboza los supuestos y estrategias de una historia conceptual de la discriminación, aproximación al estudio histórico de esta problemática que ilustra identificando usos discursivos de dicha palabra que muestran que el origen del concepto en cuestión se encuentra en el Estados Unidos de la posguerra civil, donde adquirió un renovado significado conceptual a partir de la experiencia de la segregación racial, para posteriormente abordar las circunstancias que permitieron la constitucionalización del concepto de discriminación en el Chile de Augusto Pinochet, donde fue empleado como medio para codificar una comprensión neoliberal de los derechos fundamentales.Absytract: This article contributes to the production of a genealogy of the concept of discrimination by reviewing some of the lineages that make up its biography. To that end it focuses on its absence from Chilean constitutional thought during most of its history, identifies the emergence of its two senses –“arbitrary” discrimination and “structural” discrimination– in 19th century United States, and examines the way that it was inscribed in the text of the 1980 Political Constitution of the Republic of Chile where it was employed as a means to codify the economic rationality of market decisions and to protect an understanding of human nature based on Catholic natural law.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-361
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Grau-Pérez ◽  
J. Guillermo Milán

In Uruguay, Lacanian ideas arrived in the 1960s, into a context of Kleinian hegemony. Adopting a discursive approach, this study researched the initial reception of these ideas and its effects on clinical practices. We gathered a corpus of discursive data from clinical cases and theoretical-doctrinal articles (from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s). In order to examine the effects of Lacanian ideas, we analysed the difference in the way of interpreting the clinical material before and after Lacan's reception. The results of this research illuminate some epistemological problems of psychoanalysis, especially the relationship between theory and clinical practice.


SUHUF ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-72
Author(s):  
Ahmad Fathoni
Keyword(s):  

The object of the study of the knowledge of the variety of the Quranic reading  is the  Qur'an itself. The focus is on the difference of the reading and its articulation. The method is based on the riwayat or narration which is originated from the Prophet (Rasulullah saw) and its use is to be one of the instruments to keep the originality of the Qur’an. The validity of the reading the Qur’an is to be judged based on the valid chain  (sanad ¡a¥ī¥)  in accord with the Rasm U£mānÄ« as well as with the  Arabic grammar. Whereas the qualification of its originality is divided into six stages as follow: the first is mutawātir, the second is masyhÅ«r, the third is āhād, the fourth is syaz, the fifth is maudū‘, and the six is mudraj. Of this six catagories, the readings which can be included in the catagory of mutawātir are Qiraat Sab‘ah (the seven readings) and Qiraat ‘Asyrah  (the ten readings). To study this knowledge of reading the Qur’an (ilmu qiraat), one is advised to know about special terms being used such as  qiraat  (readings), riwayat (narration), tarÄ«q (the way), wajh (aspect), mÄ«m jama‘, sukÅ«n mÄ«m jama‘ and many others.


SUHUF ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-214
Author(s):  
Afifur Rochman Sya'rani

Most of traditional Muslim exegetes interpret Q. 4:34 in terms of maintaining the superiority of men over women. Some progressive Muslim scholars then insist a contextual approach to the verse to criticize gender inequality. Among some progressive Muslim scholars, this article comparatively examines the interpretations of Amina Wadud and Mohammed Talbi of Q. 4:34. Although both of them propose a contextual reading of the verse, they have different intellectual background, approach and method in interpreting the Qur’ān. The questions are to what extent the similarities and differences of both Wadud’s and Talbi’s interpretation of Q. 4:34 and how far their interpretations reflect their respective intention and perspective? Applying Gadamer’s hermeneutical approach, the article concludes that [1] Both Wadud and Talbi argue that the verse does not establish the superiority of men over women, but acknowledges duties division among married couple; [2] the difference among their interpretations is on the status of relationship among married couple; [3] Wadud’s and Talbi’s interpretations represent their respective hermeneutical situations and the way they define ontologically the nature of  interpretation and Qur’anic hermeneutics affect on producing the meanings of the verse.


Author(s):  
Abraham A. Singer

This chapter reviews the development of transaction cost economics and unpacks its theory of the firm. The chapter begins with the marginal revolution in economics and how it altered the way economists understood the corporation. It then reviews the work of Ronald Coase and Oliver Williamson, explaining how they provided a novel account of firms. Transaction cost economics emphasizes how firms use hierarchy and bureaucracy to overcome problems of opportunism and asset-specific investment to coordinate some types of economic activity more efficiently than markets can. The transaction cost account of the corporation’s productivity component is shown in tabular form in comparison with its historical forerunners reviewed in the previous chapter.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002216782110008
Author(s):  
Maharaj K. Raina

Greatness, a relative concept, has been historically approached in different ways. Considering greatness of character as different from greatness of talents, some cultures have conceptualized greatness as an expression of human spirit leading to transcending existing patterns and awakening inner selves to new levels of consciousness, rising above times and circumstances, and to change the direction of human tide. Individuals characterized by such greatness working with higher selves, guided by moral and ethical imperatives, and possessing noble impulses of human nature are considered to be manifesting spiritual greatness. Examining such greatness is the goal of this article. Keeping Indian tradition in focus, this article has studied how greatness has been conceptualized in that particular tradition and the way in which life and times have shaped great individuals called Mahāpuruşha who exhibited extraordinary moral responsibility relentlessly in pursuit of their visions of addressing contemporary major issues and changing the direction of human life. Four Mahāpuruşha, who possessed such enduring greatness and excelled in their thoughts and actions to give a new positive direction to human life, have been profiled in this article. Suggestions have also been made for studies on moral and spiritual excellence to help realize our true human path and purpose.


Author(s):  
K. P. Purnhagen ◽  
E. van Herpen ◽  
S. Kamps ◽  
F. Michetti

AbstractFindings from behavioural research are gaining increased interest in EU legislation, specifically in the area of unfair commercial practices. Prior research on the Mars case (Purnhagen and van Herpen 2017) has left open whether empirical evidence can provide an indication that this practice of using oversized indications of additional volume alters the transactional decision of consumers. This, however, is required to determine the “misleadingness” of such a practice in the legal sense as stipulated by the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC. The current paper closes this gap by illustrating how behavioural research can inform legal interpretation. In particular, it extends the previous research in two important ways: first, by examining the actual choice that people make; and second, by investigating whether the effects remain present in a context where a comparison product is available. Yet, while supporting and extending the findings of the study from Purnhagen and van Herpen (2017) on deceptiveness, the current study could not produce empirical evidence of a clear influence on the transactional decision of consumers, in the way “UCPD” requires.


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