Joseph Ratzinger’s Argument for the Epistemological Seriousness of Faith

Christianity, and the Christian faith, seems to be losing when confronted with scientific reason and scientific certainty. Christianity needs new arguments for the epistemological seriousness of its faith. Those could be found in Joseph Ratzinger’s writings, providing new insights into fundamental theology. The subject of faith as an element that is crucial to him (and to Christianity) pervades all his works. This paper aims at proving that Ratzinger has worked out an original epistemological way of defending the Christian faith. It is an attempt to recreate his argument on the basis of his entire intellectual output. The present research leads to the conclusion that Ratzinger’s way of argumentation is quite unique. In classical fundamental theology, the Christian faith (comprehended mostly as an individual act of faith) is placed at its end point, while in Ratzinger’s fundamental theology, faith (understood mostly as a historical and communal act) is practically a point of departure. From the beginning of his reasoning Ratzinger (due to his meta-faith perspective) persuades that the Christian faith is epistemologically very serious. Faith may not only manifest its presence alongside other serious attitudes to reality, but also be capable of demonstrating its foundation, rationality, originality, uniqueness, and even absoluteness (definitiveness).

The Clean Label Concept: Novel Approaches in Gluten-Free Breadmaking

The commonly used term of “clean label” refers to food products that do not contain additives (E numbers). Although there is not always a scientific reason for believing that additive-free products are healthier, clean label products are becoming more popular. The growing market for gluten-free foods represents an important target group of consumers, who could be interested in products meeting clean label standards. However, manufacturing gluten-free baked goods according to the clean label concept is extremely difficult, as gluten-free raw materials demonstrate poor baking properties. Additives are required to simulate the texturing properties of gluten, few of are suitable for clean label products. This paper discusses the possibility of replacing the hydrocolloids most commonly used in gluten-free baked goods with β-glucan, psyllium, or transglutaminase.

La noción de “Mundo de la vida” en el proyecto de Alfred Schutz para una fundamentación fenomenológica de las ciencias sociales

El tema de la prioridad conceptual del mundo de la vida con relación a cualquier especulación científica abstracta es el tema recurrente en los escritos tempranos de Alfred Schutz. En ellos, la reflexión en torno al mundo de la vida se constituye como la base y el fundamento para la posterior formación de conceptos en ciencias sociales. Particularmente inten-tamos recuperar lo puede denominarse como “reivindicación epistémica” (epistemic claim) de una sociología del mundo de la vida. Esa reivindicación se enmarca en el proyecto schutziano de fundamentación fenomenológica de las ciencias sociales, cuyos orígenes pueden rastrearse en las discusiones entabladas en el marco de la Escuela Austríaca de Economía. La reconstrucción de este debate nos permitió pensar el vínculo entre mundo de la vida y razón científica, de modo tal de evitar la sustitución de la realidad social por las idealidades y abstraccio-nes creadas por la ciencia.The question of conceptual priority of the life-world in relation to any abstract scientific speculation is a recurrent topic in Alfred Schutz´s early writings. There, the reflection on the life- world is constituted as the basis and the foundation for the posterior formation of concepts in social sciences. In particular, we will try to regain something that we could name “an epistemic claim” of a sociology of the life-world. This claim is part of Schutz’s project of phenomenological foundation of social sciences, which origins can be found in discussions among the members of Austrian School of Economics. The reconstruction of this debate has enabled us to think the link between the life-world and the scientific reason, in order to avoid the substitution of social reality by idealizations and abstractions created by the science.

Leadership and Regimes

This chapter looks at the similarities and differences between Thucydides and Hobbes on the subject of regimes. Hobbes was convinced that Thucydides had proved the absurdity of democracy and the desirability of absolute monarchy. However, Hobbes misread Thucydides on this point. For Hobbes, monarchy was the only regime in which the selfish interests of the ruler and ruled rationally coincide. Revealingly, in order to deal with the leadership of Pericles, Hobbes had to characterize him superficially as a monarch, ignoring how Pericles won and maintained his power. But it is just the type of statesmanship exemplified by Pericles that Hobbes cannot accept because of his rigid assumptions about human nature. Thucydides' focus on the importance of studying the thought, character, and actions of statesmen is an important difference between the Thucydidean and the Hobbesian realist models. Hobbes's horror at civil violence led him to lose faith in ordinary human reason and thus in political deliberation. It is because he lost faith in the latter that scientific reason emerged as a powerful alternative. But if human beings are so unreasonable that one can no longer take seriously what they say, how can one expect them to be reasonable enough to accept Hobbes's prescriptions? The Hobbesian solution is that an absolute government must enforce the plan. The chapter then argues that this solution to political problems is even more dangerous than the Thucydidean solution, which relies on political rhetoric and judgment.

Difficulties of Discovery

The uncertainty of the glyph, reflecting a new commitment to the unpredictability of history and the fallibility of scientific reason, is shown in this chapter to have generated a major avant-garde interest in modern physics, particularly quantum mechanics. The chapter charts cognate developments in Olson’s work and that of Wolfgang Paalen, an Austrian-Mexican painter who had a decisive influence on abstract expressionism through his journal Dyn. Both Olson and Paalen are shown to have turned to post-classical physics—particularly Heisenberg’s ‘uncertainty principle’—as a platform for a new late modernist art that would break with both the political and the aesthetic principles of high modernism.