scholarly journals Educar al «animal enfermo». Nietzsche y el problema de la grandeza y la reconfiguración de la intersubjetividad en la experiencia histórica

2021 ◽  
pp. 67-87
Author(s):  
Riccardo Roni

In this article I am focusing on the problem of greatness and on the social destiny of strong individuals in some moments of Nietzsche’s reflection, investigating the ethical-pedagogical implications of this assumption, without neglecting the importance of the historical experience. On this basis, I value Nietzsche’s attempt to reconfigure subjectivity and intersubjective relations through new models of coexistence (even in democratic contexts marked by decadence), by appealing to the human capacity for self-overcoming, in accordance with the demands of a “concrete reason” which makes explicit the multiple ways of being in the world.

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Martin I. Nord

Critical theoretical approaches to information literacy are an important part of the growing LIS focus on the context of information. This concern for information’s social environment and the awareness of new models of interaction between learners and librarians open the possibility for using social epistemology to better understand information literacy. The concept of social epistemology—the study of the ways in which an individual’s knowledge is shaped by their interactions with the world around them—has long been part of epistemology. However, LIS theorists Margaret Egan and Jesse Shera, who coined the term, intended it to address librarianship specifically. This paper argues that social epistemology is well positioned to strengthen the critical practice of information literacy, based both on the social epistemological characteristics of critical theory and the information literacy aspects of the social epistemology stream in the field of philosophy. A review of the critical theoretical trend in LIS literature on information literacy reveals an already-present social epistemological foundation on which LIS research can build to expand the application of critical theory to information literacy. Placing this literature in conversation with itself illuminates the ways in which engagement with social epistemological concerns is already evolving. This paper then critiques the literature and highlights some concerns. Recognition of these weaknesses in otherwise valuable work alerts us to opportunities for improvement. This paper suggests that future progress will be tied to better understanding of the social context of knowledge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (36) ◽  
pp. 01-32
Author(s):  
Jason Thomas Wozniak

In this article, I examine what the ethical and political implications of conceptualizing and practicing philosophy for/with children (P4wC) in the neoliberal debt economy are. Though P4wC cannot alone bring about any significant transformation of debt political-economic realities, it can play an important role in cultivating oppositional debt ethics and consciousness. The first half of this article situates P4wC within the current global debt economy. Here, I summarize the analyses made by critical theorists of the ways that debt impacts public institutions (including schools), and shapes individual subjectivity. The second half of this article builds on Michel Foucault’s conceptualization of “counter-conduct.” For Foucault, counter-conduct is an ethical/political act of resistance against governmentality, one that makes possible alternative social relations and ways of being in the world. I argue in this section that P4wC should be conceptualized, and practiced, as form of counter-conduct that challenges power in the debt economy. Both the form of P4wC pedagogy, and the content that can be taken up in a collective manner in communities of inquiry, make P4wC a potential site for debt counter-conduct practices. Thought of as counter-conduct, P4wC is an educational practice with liberatory promise. I conclude this piece with brief ruminations on practicing P4wC in the time of COVID, and during the uprisings around the world against racial capitalism. It is suggested here that P4wC not only be practiced within formal education settings, but also in the social movements that are fighting to bring into being a world more just for all of us. En este artículo, examino cuáles son las implicaciones éticas y políticas de conceptualizar y practicar la filosofía para / con niños (P4wC) en la economía de la deuda neoliberal. Aunque P4wC no puede provocar por sí solo ninguna transformación significativa de las realidades político-económicas de la deuda, puede desempeñar un papel importante en el cultivo de una ética y una conciencia de la deuda opuestas. La primera mitad de este artículo sitúa a P4wC dentro de la economía de deuda global actual. Aquí, resumo los análisis realizados por teóricos críticos sobre las formas en que la deuda afecta a las instituciones públicas (incluidas las escuelas) y configura la subjetividad individual. La segunda mitad de este artículo se basa en la conceptualización de la "contra-conducta" de Michel Foucault. Para Foucault, la contra-conducta es un acto ético / político de resistencia contra la gobernamentalidad, que posibilita relaciones sociales y formas de estar en el mundo alternativas. Sostengo en esta sección que P4wC debe conceptualizarse y practicarse como una forma de contra-conducta que desafía el poder en la economía de la deuda. Tanto la forma pedagógica de P4wC, como su contenido adoptados de manera colectiva en las comunidades de investigación, hacen de P4wC un sitio potencial para las prácticas de contra-conducta de la deuda. Pensada como una contra-conducta, P4wC es una práctica educativa con promesa liberadora. Concluyo este artículo con breves reflexiones sobre la práctica de P4wC en la época de COVID y de los alzamientos en todo el mundo contra el capitalismo racial. Aquí se sugiere que P4wC no solo se practique dentro de los entornos de educación formal, sino también en los movimientos sociales que luchan por crear un mundo más justo para todos nosotros. Key Words: Debt (Deuda), Philosophy for/with Children (P4wC) (Filosofía para / con niños), Counter-Conduct (contra-conducta)


2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (04) ◽  
pp. 1023-1045 ◽  
Author(s):  
ODED LÖWENHEIM

AbstractAutoethnography is a way and method to reflect on the mutual constitution of the self and the social. It allows one to consider how her/his personal and professional subjectivity was constructed and how her/his actions in the world reproduce or change this world. Autoethnography enables one to acquire an agentive role in the world by highlighting one's uniqueness and voice. It also aims to create mutual empowerment among people, ordinary individuals, by means of identification, connectivity, and empathy. In this article I explore some conceptual issues relating to autoethnography and then present my personal account of why I study International Relations (IR) and how I decided to bring myself more openly into my texts and lectures. I conclude by arguing that autoethnography made me more confident in sounding my voice in print and in class, and that, consequently, I became much more aware of the human capacity to make a difference.


Author(s):  
John C. Bigelow

In the social sciences, functionalists are theorists who give an especially prominent role to functional explanations. One of the most influential self-defined functionalists, Malinowski (1926), summed up this view: the functionalist ‘insists… upon the principle that in every type of civilisation, every custom, material object, idea and belief fulfils some vital function, has some task to accomplish, represents an indispensable part within a working whole’. As an example of a functionalist explanation, one might consider the hypothesis, as argued for instance by Evans-Pritchard in his work on the Azande in Africa, that belief in witches generally plays a role in maintaining social stability (1937). In the last few decades of the twentieth century, postmodern, or post-structuralist, sociologists have largely disavowed the pursuit of functional explanations. The extremism of some functionalist theses has been matched by an equal extremism in postmodern antitheses. In denying that everything must be explained functionally, some go so far as to say that nothing should ever be explained functionally. Yet there is liveable logical space between the modernist’s ‘There has always got to be a reason, the real reason, for everything’, and the postmodernist’s ‘There is never any real reason for anything’. We do not have to be card-carrying functionalists to suspect that functional explanations might be found for at least some of the bewildering things that some people do in various parts of the world. New models of functional explanation are emerging from recent ferment in the biological sciences, and these new models may suggest new ways of approaching functional explanations in the social sciences.


Africa ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Rayfield

Opening ParagraphThe main purpose of this paper is to show how recent research into the process of urbanization in Africa and into the structure of African cities and nations compels us to rethink our theories of urbanization in general.The relationship between theory and research is a reciprocal one. New research compels the creation of new models, and new models suggest new subjects and methods of research. But both theory and research are affected by politics in the broadest sense of the term. Many African scholars consider the study of modern Africa by Westerners an extension of economic and political colonialism, especially when African cities are studied in terms of Western models. And many African governments, aware of the social problems involved in urbanization, seriously study the work of both African and non-African social scientists. The period since 1960 has been one of rapid development in the study of urbanization in Africa and the rest of the world, and the African material should throw new light on general theories of urbanization.


2021 ◽  
Vol 144 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-37
Author(s):  
Sergey N. Evtushenko ◽  
◽  
Svetlana B. Epikhina ◽  

Russia faces a critical choice. The world civilizational shift objectively determines the new roles of the individual, society, state and new models of their relationships and mutual influences. The digital citizen and the digital society are becoming the main factors of success in achieving national strategic goals, the balance of individual and social development forms the social order of the 21st century in Russia.


Diacovensia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 133.-154.
Author(s):  
Stanislav Šota

The paper analyzes the understanding of the pastoral and catechetical dimension of the bishop’s ministry in the documents of Pope Francis. In four parts, the paper presents the content and characteristics of bishop’s pastoral and catechetical activities, the mode of its realization and concrete contribution. Speaking primarily of the Jesus-like dimension of bishop’s pastoral-catechetical activity, the paper analyzes, it “stops” on Jesus’ face as the image and the synonym of bishop’s necessary evangelizing zeal, fervor and transformation. Jesus’ transformed face is a call, a mission and a need for the evangelizing, pastoral and catechetical transformation. The Jesus-like face speaks about the necessity of bishops being imbued with the principles and values of Jesus, about the necessity of their testimony and concrete love rooted in pastoral and catechetical activity. The second part of the paper brings concrete tasks of bishop’s ministry in the pastoral and catechetical sense: the incorporation of the Gospel in the socio-cultural environment, creating new models of pastoral-catechetical activity, promoting missionary communion, reviewing traditions, overcoming the “rural syndrome” in the pastoral-catechetical activity, the need to realize the bishop’s ministry in the dimension of “Jesus the Citizen” and “going out” to the peripheries, especially with a better family pastoral. In the third part, the author analyzes the pastoral-catechetical postulates of the bishop’s ministry through the prism of stronger inculturation, active, rather than re-active pastoral-catechetical activity, the overcoming of atheistic and anti-ecclesial culture of modern man, the need to preserve the original ways of incorporating the Gospel in the society, and the need for a stronger pastoral and catechetical inculturational involvement of bishops in their own dioceses. The fourth part of the paper points to the social dimension of the pastoral-catechistical activity of bishops, by stressing the need for bishops’ initiative to overcome evil and poverty that are present in the world, to deprive and eliminate their consequences, to point out their structural causes, with concern for ensuring health care for every person, the dignity of work, fair pay, protection of the dignity of human life, to contribute to and spread social dialogue as an essential dimension of peace and common good in the world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-34
Author(s):  
Graeme Wynn

Abstract Responding to the social, political, economic, and ecological challenges that confront contemporary society, this article—the 2019 Presidential Address to the American Society for Environmental History—argues that critique and resistance, married with a quest for alternative possibilities, will serve us better than a doleful narrative of decline. It seeks hope by reengaging with the ideas of scholars who earlier lamented despoliation and envisaged other, better, ways of being in the world. By discovering, interrogating, and drawing insight from the ways in which our precursors sought to emancipate their contemporaries, we can ask what they (or their ideas) can do for us. Although this strategy is unlikely to deliver immediate efficacious solutions to current dilemmas, it can help us to historicize ourselves and the precepts that shape our lives. It can also expand the range of existential possibilities by calling into question the conceited convictions, tired mantras, and blithe assumptions of contemporary economic and political discourse. By reflecting on the lives and contributions of two Canadians—Pierre Dansereau, an ecologist, and C. B. Macpherson, a political theorist—whose ideas cast light on the roots of our present predicament, this article helps to frame hopeful strategies with which to address our circumstances.


1997 ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Borys Lobovyk

An important problem of religious studies, the history of religion as a branch of knowledge is the periodization process of the development of religious phenomenon. It is precisely here, as in focus, that the question of the essence and meaning of the religious development of the human being of the world, the origin of beliefs and cult, the reasons for the changes in them, the place and role of religion in the social and spiritual process, etc., are converging.


Author(s):  
Melanie SARANTOU ◽  
Satu MIETTINEN

This paper addresses the fields of social and service design in development contexts, practice-based and constructive design research. A framework for social design for services will be explored through the survey of existing literature, specifically by drawing on eight doctoral theses that were produced by the World Design research group. The work of World Design researcher-designers was guided by a strong ethos of social and service design for development in marginalised communities. The paper also draws on a case study in Namibia and South Africa titled ‘My Dream World’. This case study presents a good example of how the social design for services framework functions in practice during experimentation and research in the field. The social design for services framework transfers the World Design group’s research results into practical action, providing a tool for the facilitation of design and research processes for sustainable development in marginal contexts.


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