scholarly journals Lies and Fabrications. The Cognitive Potential of Pseudos in Plato’s Republic

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-90
Author(s):  
Dorota Zygmuntowicz

In this article, I pose the question of what the role of the pseudos theme is in the entire argument of the Republic, which is motivated by a challenge from Thrasymachus, who defined justice as “the advantage of the stronger/ruler.” How can the “beautiful polis” (Kallipolis), based on a “noble falshood” addressed to its rulers in particular, be a good counterargument to the realist Thrasymachus? I show that Plato, wanting to prove that Thrasymachus’s thesis is too narrow and only seemingly realistic description of political reality, explicitly uses the same tool that implicitly lies at the root of the worldview expressed in the rhetorician’s thesis: ideological falsehood. He opposes the ugly ideology (the advantage of the stronger) with a “noble falsehood” (the dogma of love), since falsehood as such is an indispensable structural element of the polis itself, resulting from the weakness of the faculty of reason proper to the human condition. The pseudos theme has a dual function in the Republic: heuristic and structural. First, Plato exposes the implicit ideological falsehood underlying Thrasymachus’s realistic thesis using a falsehood that he [Plato] himself has explicitly proposed. Second, he presents falsehood as a component of the political, which compensates for human ignorance and exploits human susceptibility to normative and cultural implementations.

Author(s):  
Sheldon S. Wolin

This chapter explores the origins of the antidemocratic strain in Hannah Arendt's thought, tracing it from its beginnings in her classic study of totalitarianism to its apogee in her next major work, The Human Condition. It then shows that in her later writings a change is evident. It appeared first in the last chapter of On Revolution (1963) and more strikingly in the collection of essays, Crises of the Republic (1969). While on the way to what can fairly be described as a leftward position, she modified some of her most characteristic categories. Within limits, and in her own way, she was in the course of reflecting upon the political events of the 1960s, radicalized.


Author(s):  
A. FREDDIE

The article examines the place and role of democracy and human rights in South Africas foreign policy. The author analyzes the process of South Africas foreign policy change after the fall of the apartheid regime and transition to democracy. He gives characteristics of the foreign policy under different presidents of South Africa from 1994 to 2018 and analyzes the political activities of South Africa in the area of peacekeeping and human rights on the African continent.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-155
Author(s):  
Elva Orozco Mendoza ◽  

This article offers an interpretation of anti-feminicide maternal activism as political in northern Mexico by analyzing it alongside Hannah Arendt’s concepts of freedom, natality, and the child in The Human Condition. While feminist theorists often debate whether maternalism strengthens or undermines women’s political participation, the author offers an unconventional interpretation of Arendt’s categories to illustrate that the meaning and practice of maternalism radically changes through the public performance of motherhood. While Arendt does not seem the best candidate to navigate this debate, her concepts of freedom and the child provide a productive perspective to rethink the relationship between maternalism and citizenship. In making this claim, this article challenges feminist political theories that depict motherhood as the chief source of women’s subordination. In the case of northern Mexico, anti-feminicide maternal activism illustrates how the political is also a personal endeavor, thereby complementing the famous feminist motto.


2004 ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Martin Litchfield West

This paper deals with Indo-European concepts concerning the human condition: the nature of man, the role of fate in shaping his life, his destiny in death. The evidence is partly drawn from linguistic material, partly from literary. The assumption is that, just as comparison of vocabulary in widely separated languages such as Hittite, Sanskrit and Old Irish makes it possible to reconstruct words of the parent language, so comparison of parallel motifs in different traditional literatures may show up inherited ideas and beliefs.


Jurnal Akta ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Rita Permanasari ◽  
Akhmad Khisni

ABSTRAKKetentuan Pasal 4 dan Pasal 16 ayat (1) huruf f Undang-Undang Jabatan Notaris mewajibkan notaris untuk menjaga kerahasiaan segala sesuatu mengenai akta yang dibuatnya dan segala keterangan yang diperoleh guna pembuatan akta sesuai dengan sumpah janji jabatan kecuali undang-undang menentukan lain. Kemungkinan terhadap pelanggaran kewajiban tersebut berdasarkan Pasal 16 ayat (11) Undang-Undang Jabatan Notaris, seorang notaris dapat dikenai sanksi berupa teguran lisan sampai dengan pemberhentian dengan tidak hormat. Terlebih lagi dengan adanya putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi Republik Indonesia dengan Nomor: 49/PUU–X/2012 memutuskan telah meniadakan atau mengakhiri kewenangan Majelis Pengawas Daerah (MPD) yang tercantum dalam Pasal 66 ayat (1) UUJN membuat notaris seakan-akan tidak ada perlindungan hukum bagi notaris dalam menjalankan tugas jabatannya. Ikatan Notaris Indonesia (INI) harus berusaha menjalankan peranan pembinaan dan perlindungan meningkatkan pengetahuan, kemampuan dan keterampilan para notaris. Demikian juga menjalin hubungan dengan para penegak hukum lainnya, agar penegak hukum lainnya yang ada hubungan dengan notaris dapat memahami kedudukan notaris sesuai UUJN.Berangkat dari pemikiran inilah kewajiban ingkar notaris masih tetap dipertahankan oleh pembuat undang-undang dalam revisi Undang-Undang Jabatan Notaris Tahun 2014 yang merupakan konfigurasi kekuatan perlindungan terhadap profesi dan jabatan notaris dari sisi politik.Kata Kunci : Jabatan Notaris, Hak Ingkar, Perlindungan Hukum.ABSTRACTThe provisions of Article 4 and Article 16 paragraph (1) sub-paragraph f of the Notary's Office Law require a notary to maintain the confidentiality of all matters concerning the deeds it has made and all the information obtained for the deed in accordance with the oath of pledge of office except the law otherwise. The possibility of breach of such obligation under Article 16 paragraph (11) of Notary Law Regulation, a notary public may be subject to sanctions in the form of oral reprimands until dismissal with disrespect. Moreover, with the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia with the number : 49 /PUU-X/2012 deciding to have canceled or terminated the authority of the Regional Supervisory Board (MPD) listed in Article 66 paragraph (1) UUJN made a notary as if there was no legal protection for a notary in performing duties. The Indonesian Notary Bond (INI) should endeavor to undertake the role of guidance and protection to increase the knowledge, abilities and skills of the notaries. Likewise establish relationships with other law enforcers, so that other law enforcement who has relationship with the notary can understand the position of notary under the UUJN.Departing from this thought the obligation of notarization is still maintained by the lawmakers in the revision of the Law Regulation of Position Notary on Year 2014 which is the configuration of the strength of the protection of the profession and the notary's position from the political side.Keyword : Position of Notary, Right of Remedy, Legal Protection.


Author(s):  
Roland Végső

The chapter examines Hannah Arendt’s critique of martin Heidegger and concentrates on the way Arendt tries to subvert the Heideggerian paradigm of worldlessness. While for Heidegger, the ontological paradigm of worldlessness was the lifeless stone, in Arendt’s book biological life itself emerges as the worldless condition of the political world of publicity. The theoretical challenge bequeathed to us by Arendt is to draw the consequences of the simple fact that life is worldless. The worldlessness of life, therefore, becomes a genuine condition of impossibility for politics: it makes politics possible, but at the same time it threatens the very existence of politics. The chapter traces the development of this argument in three of Arendt’s major works: The Origins of Totalitarianism, The Human Condition, and The Life of the Mind.


Author(s):  
Joshua Hordern

This chapter situates the enquiry by considering the transitions which healthcare practice is undergoing because of turns in healthcare thinking towards philosophy, person-centredness, and social theory. Such changes accentuate a problem inherent in other trends in modern healthcare which have tended to reduce the scope for exploring the human condition and morally worthy ways of living life within it. The historic response of Christian ethicists to such transitions and trends is reviewed as a kind of cautionary tale which, by distinguishing different theological approaches, discloses the contested nature of an enquiry such as this. Options for the proper mode of the enquiry are thereby considered, with an argument made for a version of ‘faithful secularity’ being predominant, drawing on Nigel Biggar and Luke Bretherton, while incorporating other insights. The structure of the book is then outlined, the political context is introduced, some distinctions are highlighted, and a guide to reading is offered.


Author(s):  
Justine Lacroix

This chapter examines a number of key concepts in Hannah Arendt's work, with particular emphasis on how they have influenced contemporary thought about the meaning of human rights. It begins with a discussion of Arendt's claim that totalitarianism amounts to a destruction of the political domain and a denial of the human condition itself; this in turn had occurred only because human rights had lost all validity. It then considers Arendt's formula of the ‘right to have rights’ and how it opens the way to a ‘political’ conception of human rights founded on the defence of republican institutions and public-spiritedness. It shows that this ‘political’ interpretation of human rights is itself based on an underlying understanding of the human condition as marked by natality, liberty, plurality and action, The chapter concludes by reflecting on the so-called ‘right to humanity’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-178
Author(s):  
Girdhari Dahal

The people of Nepal have witnessed different political movements in the political history of Nepal. The political movements are influenced by different philosophies. Gita philosophy as well has marked distinct impact in the politics of Nepal. The people of Nepal had to bear a lot of injustice, oppression and exploitation during Rana rule. Although the governments prior to Rana rule were also not so much democratic, to some extent they were directed to public welfare. At the time of Rana rule there had taken place many reformations in global politics, but Nepali people were denied off very common citizen rights. So, there was a need for a democratic movement in Nepal. In the campaigns for democratic movements then, there was a very significant impact of Gita philosophy. It is found from this study that four martyrs of 1997BS and founder leaders of Nepali Congress and Nepal Communist Party were influenced by the ideas of Gita philosophy and the general public has a great faith on the Gita philosophy. Gita philosophy has formed the foundations for the democratic movement in Nepal. And even after the establishment of democracy in Nepal, there were series of political changes in Nepal. And in the revolutions or campaigns for restoration of democracy or for the republic, there has been a role of different political leaders and as many of the first-generation leaders are still in active politics, we can find direct or indirect influence of Gita philosophy in Nepalese politics. Though the later generations of leadership seem to have less knowledge about Gita, their activities and the political interests matched with the principles of Gita philosophy.


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