In this essay I examine the plausibility of theism and naturalism. I will do this by applying the principle of simplicity as a criterion for measuring the probability of these two worldviews. Theism is the view that God exist as a transcendent being and that the ultimate reality is personal. Naturalism on the other side opposes theism and postulate that only the natural world exist and that the ultimate reality is impersonal. The principle of simplicity measures which of competing theories is simpler and one aspect of simplicity is that if a theory F is simpler than a competing theory H, then F postulates none or fewer ad hoc hypotheses than H. Another aspect of simplicity is that if H means postulating an explanation that goes beyond necessity and F does not, then F is simpler than H.    It is easy to think that theism, because it postulate a supernatural being, is more complex than naturalism. It is tempting to make the fast conclusion that theism is more ad hoc than naturalism, and because we can understand nature by using the naturalistic method that assumes that God does not intervene in nature, has the conclusion that theism is unnecessary. One of the reasons for making the above conclusion is because theism does not correspond well with background knowledge i.e. facts we know by experience to be true. Some philosophers assumes that we can use background knowledge to measure whether F is simpler than H. They assume that simpler metaphysical theories are those with more background assumptions into the body of the metaphysical theory. A crucial task in this essay will be to evaluate that assumption.   I propose that it is problematic to apply background knowledge when assessing the simplicity of metaphysical theories because assuming that one can measure metaphysical simplicity with background knowledge is to assume that all that exist is relatively symmetrical. Also, I suggest that naturalism is more ad hoc than theism when it comes to explain diverse phenomena in the world.

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-07-09T22:25:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 26b.pdf: 548409 bytes, checksum: dea18b68447228403a2b9f3bd80fe34f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-09T22:25:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 26b.pdf: 548409 bytes, checksum: dea18b68447228403a2b9f3bd80fe34f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Nenhuma / Este trabalho investiga o naturalismo moral contemporâneo a partir das variadas formulações do argumento conhecido como a falácia naturalista, assim como do contraponto de algumas teorias não-naturalistas, em especial a de G. E. Moore. Parto da análise destas formulações do argumento no contexto formal da metaética contemporânea, buscando aferir a validade da falácia naturalista no contexto atual, bem como de seus limites na aplicação contra o naturalismo moral. Apresento então o naturalismo moral numa versão humeana, que sugere uma abordagem descritivista da moralidade, em oposição ao viés prescritivista. Trabalho as origens do naturalismo e apresento algumas posições em metaética a fim de melhor entender a situação contemporânea do debate moral no que tange à naturalização da ética, contrastando teorias da ação e do valor quanto ao tema da motivação e da normatividade morais. / This work addresses contemporary moral naturalism from the investigation of an array of formulations of the argument known as the naturallistic fallacy, as from the contrast of a few non-naturalistic theories, especially G. E. Moore’s. Proceeding from the analysis of such formulations of the argument in the formal context of contemporary metaethics, attempting to assert the validity of the naturallistic fallacy in the current context, as so its limits in its application against moral naturalism. Then I am going to present moral naturalism in a humean version, which suggests a descriptivist naturalism instead of a prescriptivist one. Such origins of naturalism will be worked with and some positions in metaethics to further understand of the contemporary situation of the moral debate concerning the naturalization of ethics will be presented, contrasting theories of action and of value on the matter of moral motivation and normativity.

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo explorar os elementos constituintes da teoria sobre a afetividade humana conforme desenvolvida por Espinosa na Ética, analisando seus pressupostos metafísicos bem como a relação dos afetos com o intelecto humano. Serão enfatizadas as particularidades desta teoria mediante análise e exposição dos conceitos centrais que a compõem, identificando as características estruturais do universo conceitual espinosista. A análise crítica utilizada conta também com a avaliação sobre um dado posicionamento interpretativo que pretende destacar a existência de um enfraquecimento do naturalismo espinosista. Destacando-se assim a necessidade de negar certas noções sobre a afetividade humana que a colocam como sendo composta por traços contrários ao conatus. O propósito da dissertação repousa na busca por evidências onde a forma de naturalização, como encontrada na Ética, revele seu caráter constitutivo na teoria afetiva de Espinosa, destacando assim duas formas pelas quais o conceito de ação pode ser entendido nesta obra. Por fim, pretende-se determinar a origem das paixões humanas em Espinosa, expondo o interior da problemática por elas imposta à empreitada medular da Ética, em um tratamento onde a afetividade é vista como caráter fundamental da existência humana. / The aim of this study is to present the constituent elements of Spinoza's theory of human affects in Ethics, through a study of its metaphysical presuppositions and their involvement as a full part of the human intellect. The particularities of this theory will be emphasized and its central concepts will be analyzed in terms of the structural characteristics of Spinoza's conceptual framework. An interpretation that objects to Spinoza’s alleged naturalism will also be evaluated, arguing that some of our affective experiences cannot be explained by the concept of conatus, as is proven in the beginning of the third part of Ethics. Some evidence will be provided against this interpretation, and hence, in favor of Spinoza’s naturalism as it is found in Ethics, highlighting two ways in which the concept of action can be understood in this work. Finally, we aim to determine the origin of human passions, according to Spinoza, in order to elucidate the sense in which they are problematic from the perspective of ethical theory, whilst preserving the view that affectivity is a fundamental character of human existence.

Nesta tese, pesquisamos filmes que investigaram o Brasil com o objetivo de revelar as suas doenças ocultas. Esse projeto do início dos anos 2000 gerou imagens repletas de deformações, de repetições, de estados de descontrole, de doenças do olhar e de crueldade, entre outras características que destacamos ao longo do trabalho. A hipótese que desenvolvemos é de que houve uma profusão da referida estética no início dos anos 2000 e que ela se dispersou ao longo da década. Podemos vê-la em filmes como Cronicamente inviável, Através da janela, Latitude zero, O invasor, Amarelo manga, Contra todos, Quanto vale ou é por quilo?, O cheiro do ralo e Baixio das bestas. Defendemos ainda que essas imagens atualizam um projeto naturalista e se desdobram em uma sintomatologia. Para enfrentar o desafio de análise, apropriamo-nos do conceito de imagem-pulsão proposto por Gilles Deleuze na sua taxonomia de imagens. Trata-se de um conceito marginal na taxonomia do autor, que no entanto se revelou adequado porque oferece um método rigoroso para lidar com o problema da pulsão (de morte) no cinema. As imagens-pulsão em Deleuze são aqui compreendidas como um desdobramento dos conceitos instinto de morte e corpo sem órgãos, que o autor havia desenvolvido ao longo dos anos 1960 e 1970. Com relação às análises, a tese está composta em três eixos: imagens-pulsão, neonaturalismo e sintomatologia. No primeiro, procuramos evidenciar nas imagens a articulação que existe entre a dimensão da realidade (meios derivados), a dimensão da doença (mundos originários) e as dinâmicas de ação das doenças sobre a realidade (momentos privilegiados). É nesse eixo que tecemos algumas das principais proposições deste trabalho: os deslocamentos naturalizantes; os espaços centrados; os métodos de testemunho da pulsão (de morte) irrepresentável; a plasmaticidade de retorno ao inorgânico; as repetições que condenam no tempo; os estados de descontrole que revelam uma impossibilidade de agir. No segundo eixo, evidenciamos a influência naturalista nessas imagens: a visão entrópica; a associação entre o trágico e o cotidiano; a opção por narrativas em queda ou circulares; o gosto pelo submundo, pelas deformações e pela violência animalesca; o interesse pelos diagnósticos e sua eficácia. No terceiro eixo, propomos que o gesto político nessa estética é a sintomatologia, no sentido de que a própria imagem é concebida para fazer sintoma em civilização. A sintomatologia tem dupla estratégia: desconfortar e satisfazer o espectador. Finalmente, sistematizamos as proposições da tese e evidenciamos aquilo que julgamos ser o desafio por excelência dessas imagens: descobrir e testemunhar a pulsão (de morte) que elas acreditam encontrar nas profundidades da realidade brasileira. / In this Thesis, we study Brazilian films that investigated the country with the intention of revealing its inner diseases. This project from the beginning of the 2000s led to images replete of deformation, repetitions, uncontrolled behaviors, eye diseases and cruelty, among other characteristics we demonstrate in this work. Our hypothesis is that this aesthetics has expanded in the beginning of the 2000s and dispersed over the decade. We can see this aesthetics in films such as Chronically Unfeasible, Through the Window, Latitude Zero, The Trespasser, Mango Yellow, Up Against Them All, What Is It Worth?, Drained and Bog of Beasts. We also assert that these images update a naturalistic project and result in a symptomatology. In order to analyze the images, we employ the concept of impulse-image proposed by Gilles Deleuze in his taxonomy of images. It is a less popular concept in his taxonomy, but it has been suitable to this research because it offers a rigorous method for working with the instinct of (death) in the cinema. In this work, we understand Deleuze’s impulse-images as a development of the concepts of death instinct and body without organs, proposed by the author in the 1960s and the 1970s. Concerning the analysis, the Thesis is composed in three axes: impulse-images, neo-naturalism and symptomatology. In the first, we highlight the connection between the spheres of reality (derived milieu), the one of disease (originary world), and the dynamics of action from disease to reality (privileged moments). It is in this axis that we make some of the key proposals in this work: the naturalizing displacements; the centered spaces; the methods of testifying the unrepresentable instinct (of death); the repetitions that condemn in time; the plasmaticity of the return to the inorganic; the uncontrolled behaviors that reveal an impossibility of action. In the second axis, we demonstrate the naturalistic influence in these images: the entropic vision; the association between the tragic and everyday life; the option for narratives based either in falls or in circularity; the taste for the underworld, the deformations and the animalistic violence; the interest in diagnosis and its efficacy. In the third axis, we propose that the political gesture in this aesthetics is the symptomatology, in the sense that image itself should stand as a symptom in civilization. The symptomatology has a double strategy: producing discomfort and satisfaction in the spectator. Finally, we systematize the propositions from the Thesis and put in evidence what we believe is the key objective in these images: discovering and testifying the instinct (of death) that they believe lies deep in Brazilian reality.

Esta dissertação apresenta os resultados de uma análise de Dom Casmurro que levou à conclusão de que a ironia é princípio constitutivo do romance. A ironia explica como a duplicidade efetiva da obra não a impede de se erigir como um todo artístico objetivo. Procuramos mostrar como são conjugadas duas causalidades de natureza diversa: uma, que ocupa o primeiro plano da obra, é expressão da interpretação que o narrador personagem confere à própria existência e contém elementos naturalistas tanto na articulação do enredo, como nas concepções em que se baseia. A outra, que abrange a primeira e a desqualifica, ergue-se a contrapelo e associa a ação recíproca entre personagens às forças histórico-sociais que os pressionam. Ao final, vemos que a ironia age em três níveis interdependentes: na articulação formal, nas concepções que lhe servem de base e no caráter dos personagens. O resultado é um romance que inclui elementos da ideologia conservadora para figurá-los como preconceitos. Essa constituição confere à narrativa a capacidade de enredar o pensamento conservador, que encontra nela motivo de se expor abertamente / This dissertation presents the results of an analysis of Dom Casmurro which has drawn the conclusion that irony is a constitutive principle of the novel. Irony is what explains how the effective duplicity of the story does not prevent it from being constructed as a complete artistic object. We have worked to demonstrate how the two causalities, while of diverse nature, are actually conjugated. The first, occupying the foreground, is the expression of the interpretation the first person narrator confers on his own existence. It also contains naturalistic elements not only in the plot articulation but also in the conceptions on which it is based. The second one, which both includes and disqualifies the first, emerges in spite of the latter and associates the reciprocal actions between the characters and the socio-historical forces which push them. In the end, it can be clearly seen that irony acts in three interdependent levels: in the formal articulation, in the conceptions on which it is based, and on the characters\' actions and disposition. The result is a novel which includes elements of conservative ideology, to reveal them as prejudice. This constitution confers on the narrative the ability to entangle conservative thinking, which finds in the novel a reason to expose itself openly

Nessa dissertação, a viagem-expedição ao Rio Negro, realizada por Pierre Restany, Frans Krajcberg e Sepp Baendereck em 1978, e a análise das circunstâncias que levaram à escrita do Manifesto do Naturalismo Integral, são tomados como ponto de partida para refletir sobre a atuação do crítico Pierre Restany no processo de internacionalização da arte latino-americana nos anos 1960 e 1970. Com foco no contexto brasileiro, concentrado no eixo São Paulo - Rio de Janeiro, a recepção negativa do manifesto pela classe intelectual brasileira será analisada a partir de documentos da época conservados no Fundo Pierre Restany dos Archives de la Critique dArt (Rennes-França) e das matérias jornalísticas publicadas nos jornais da época. Procuramos analisar as diferentes representações de paisagens presentes nos documentos desaminados e as subjacentes visões da arte: por um lado, a floresta exótica e sublime evocada por Restany através do conceito de choque amazônico e sua inserção na teorização de uma arte planetária e internacional e, por outro, a Amazônia enquanto território de luta e resistência no processo de construção da identidade brasileira nos escritos daqueles autores que, como Francisco Bittencourt, Mário Pedrosa e Frederico Morais, pleitearam a afirmação de narrativas historicamente subalternizadas, contribuindo à criação de uma gnose liminar, ou seja, de um novo lugar de enunciação na história da arte. / In this dissertation, the voyage-expedition to the Rio Negro, realized by Pierre Restany, Frans Krajcberg e Sepp Baendereck in 1978, and the analysis of the circumstances which led to the writing of the Manifesto of Integral Naturalism, is taken as a starting point for reflecting on the performance of the critic Pierre Restany in the process of internationalization of Latin American art in the 60s and 70s. With a focus on the Brazilian context, concentrated in the São Paulo - Rio de Janeiro axis, the negative reception of the manifesto by the Brazilian intellectual class will be analyzed from original documents preserved in the Pierre Restany Fund dos Archives de la Critique dArt (Rennes-France) and chronicles published in the newspapers of the time. We aim to analyze the different representations of landscape present in the documents examined and the underlying differents views of art: on the one hand, the exotic and \"sublime\" forest evoked by Restany through the concept of \"Amazonian shock\" and its insertion in the theorization of a planetary and internacional art, and, on the other, the Amazon as a territory of struggle and resistance in the process of constructing the Brazilians identity in the writings of those authors who, like Francisco Bittencourt, Mário Pedrosa and mFrederico Morais, undertook to the affirmation of historically subordinate narrations, contributing to the creation of a \"border gnosis\", that is, of a new place of enunciation in the history of art.

In my dissertation Happiness and Superlative Value in the Eudemian Ethics, I analyze dimensions of the Eudemian Ethics (EE) that, as I see it, make the EE a distinctive contribution to ethics. The EE discusses a superlative excellence called kalokagathia, the virtue of being-beautiful-and-good, which does not figure in the Nicomachean Ethics (NE). The agent who possesses kalokagathia is the best agent of Aristotle’s EE. Scholars tend to hold that the practically wise person, the phronimos, or the theoretically wise person, the sophos, are the best agents of the NE. If my reading of the EE is right, then the EE and the NE conceive differently of the best agent. This is salient in both treatises’ construals of the unity of the virtues. In the NE, the unity of the virtues includes the character virtues and phronêsis. In the EE, it additionally includes the virtues of theoretical thinking, or so I argue. The EE starts with what I call the Superlative Thesis (ST): happiness is what is best, most beautiful, and most pleasant of all. I take this beginning to be programmatic. Aristotle aims to show how these three kinds of value combine in the best human life, rather than coming apart. The Pleasure Thesis (PT) is the most contested aspect of ST: happiness is the most pleasant thing of all. On my reading, Aristotle fully embraces PT. In laying out his proposal for the best human life, the Aristotle of the EE develops a distinctive kind of naturalism, which I call Natural Goods Naturalism. I reconstruct this position in two steps: by interpreting the EE’s function argument; and by exploring the notion of natural goods, which is central to the EE, but does not figure in the NE. In sum, my dissertation argues that the EE contains a distinctive and under-appreciated option within ancient ethics, and that it contains ideas that are relevant to today’s virtue ethics and ethical naturalism.

Durante a segunda metade do século XIX, a atenção dada à ciência, que ganha então maior espaço na literatura, cresce muito. A Medicina estava em ascensão, e grande foi a sua importância no controle de enfermidades e redução do número de mortes prematuras. Além disso, os médicos ainda enfrentavam, apesar de tudo, dificuldades para se estabelecerem socialmente, uma vez que ainda existia o costume da busca de curandeiros, boticários e benzedeiras. Eça de Queirós, que, neste particular, traça um panorama diversificado e valioso da situação portuguesa, aborda o cientificismo, colocando-o em xeque, juntamente com o discurso religioso, ambos ainda com tanto prestígio na esfera dos assuntos públicos. Muitos estudiosos ainda veem na obra de Eça um caráter exclusivamente doutrinador, e no discurso científico percebem apenas um contraponto ao discurso religioso. A análise de três obras que trazem médicos como personagens secundários ou como protagonistas na trama mostra que não era somente este o papel do cientificismo queirosiano em O Primo Basílio, O Crime do Padre Amaro e Os Maias. Através dos médicos dos romances da fase mais marcadamente realista-naturalista de Eça (Julião, Dr. Gouveia e Carlos Eduardo) é possível perceber o quanto Eça avança de posições mais doutrinárias (da década de 70) para posições mais complexas e problematizadoras (da década de 80) / Along the second half of the XIX century, the attention devoted to Science, which seemed to gain more space in Literature, grows considerably. Medicine was in ascension, and this has been of great importance in illness control, as well as in the reduction of premature deaths. Besides, doctors would still face, in spite of every effort, difficulties to establish socially, since people would still refer to healers, pharmacists and faith healers. Eça de Queirós, in this particular issue, portraits a diverse and valuable portrait of the Portuguese situation, taking into account Scientifics, putting it in discussion, together with the religious creed, both still with great prestige among the ordinary public at the time. A number of specialists see in Eças work a major doctrinaire trait, and, in scientific studies they perceive only a opposition to religious creed. The analysis of the three novels which present doctors as secondary characters or protagonists show that the role of Scientifics was not only that in O Primo Basílio, O Crime do Padre Amaro as well as in Os Maias. Through the doctors present in the novels of the remarkably realist-naturalist phase of Eça (Julião, Dr. Gouveia and Carlos Eduardo) it is possible to notice how much Eça develops from more doctrinaire positions (as from the seventies) to more complex and comprehensive ideas (as from the eighties)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T14:09:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Elaine Cristina Borges de Souza.pdf: 1884117 bytes, checksum: ad7a4686dee98b3c3b229629d1b5c529 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-14 / This work proposes to analyze the philosophical meanig of the theory of "self-world" (in German, Umwelt) devoloped by the biologist Jakob Von Uexkull. Among different interpretations proposed by important philophers, the theory is situted between an eventual metaphysics and a particular form of naturalism regarding to the way how different lived organisms perceive and act on the environment. To make possible this study, this work is divided in tree chapters. The fist on is dedicated to an analysis on the wide influence that Uexkull had from Kant s ideas and that indicates the philosophical basis of his theoretical biology. In the second chapter, we will analyze Heidegger interpretation that understands the theory of self-world in a particular metalphisical meaning. In the third chapter, we will examine the interpratation that understands the theory of sel-world as an altenative form of naturalism which breaks away the cartesian dualism in Merleau-Ponty view. From this showing, it is proposed to evaluate the eventual interpretations for the theory of self-world and their philosophical consequences

Irving Singer's theory of value declares itself a member of american naturalistic and pragmatic tradition. It refuses metaphysical speculation on behalf of empirism and stresses the processual character of every experience, focusing more on its imaginatively-affective rather than rational part. Singer distinguishes two basic types of valuation: appriciation of an object, seen as an instrument for a given function, and spontaneous bestowal of value, which values the object on the basis of its own qualities - generating an affective attachement in the process. In a healthy organism, both ought to cooperate to support the fullness of life-in-the-world. Their harmonization is a matter of aesthetics as recognized in the case of love or works of art. This thesis criticizes Singer's project from its own point of view - the american naturalism. In the first chapter, it describes closely Singer's point-of-departure and places it within historical tradition. The matter of the "intrinsic value controversy" is drawn here as well. Following two chapters probe into the pillars of Singer's systém - the conceptions of appriciation, bestowal, imagination and idealization. In comparison with the doctrines of John Dewey, George Santayana and christian situational ethics, fundamentally eclectical character of Singer's...