This dissertation examines from a Vattimian perspective the challenge that euthanasia and assisted suicide posed to the sanctity of life ethos in Canada from 1972–2005. Gianni Vattimo’s central themes—metaphysics (absolute values), “event of being” (lived experiences that call absolute values into question), and passive-reactive nihilism (the use of “masks” or “disguises” to prevent the dissolution of metaphysics)—are pivotal to understanding the way religious and secular beliefs are interwoven within ethical, medical, legal and political discourses in Canada. Vattimo’s philosophico-ethical approach was specifically chosen because as a theoretical tool, it helps to illuminate the presence, weakening, and resilience of metaphysics in discourses surrounding an intentionally hastened death. To demonstrate how Vattimo’s major themes apply empirically to the research, a social constructionist approach was adopted in the form of a discourse analysis. Particular emphasis was placed on an examination of the three most important cases of death and dying in Canada, namely, Nancy B., Sue Rodriguez and Robert Latimer. The bulk of the evidence suggests that when these “events of being” challenged the sanctity doctrine as the ultimate foundation for life-terminating decisions, ethical, medical, legal and political discourses converged to promote three normative positions or authorizing discourses used in the tradition of Christian ethics: (1) stewardship—the view that since life is a “loan from God,” sacred, and of infinite worth, death cannot be intentionally hastened (“nature must take its course”); (2) value in prolonged suffering—the view that since suffering possesses transcendent meaning or purpose, its prolongation is justified in individual circumstances; and (3) the “slippery slope”—the view that any weakening of the sanctity of life ethos inevitably harms or threatens the community. Generally speaking, religious and secular advocates of the sanctity of life ethos reacted similarly in cases involving an intentionally hastened death. In other words, both the religious and the secular embraced metaphysics (absolute values), condoned and rationalized the prolongation of suffering, and relied on the “slippery slope” as a “mask” to maintain the sanctity of human life as first principle. The research strongly suggests that Canada is still significantly indebted to Christian notions when it comes to discussions surrounding the decriminalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Many accounts of Max Weber’s thought would seek to portray him as a theorist of responsibility or “re-enchantment” – as one who can confirm for us the appropriateness of a liberal position given the conditions of life as moderns, thus preserving the possibility of a renewed project of management at every turn. Such a reading may well be comforting today, insofar as it enables a reconciliation to the constellations of technological thinking within which we already find ourselves engaged. Over and against such accounts, this thesis attempts to elaborate an image of Weber as a hunger artist, as one who brings into emphasis a fundamental sense of loss attendant to “modernity”, and who broods upon that loss as the condition of a more faithful reflection upon the character of being. Not only does Weber offer insight into modern conditions of research and the theorization of politics; he is one who thinks such questions in their mournful profundity, gesturing towards what cannot be carried forward within their terms. In the melancholy of his thought, it is suggested, we glimpse the contours of a horizon from which we have still not emerged.

No description available.

Egaré dans l’histoire, dans un devenir horizontal qui le condamne à s’autodétruire pour s’affirmer, l’homme de Cioran s’ouvre par moments à un devenir vertical, soit en s’élevant à travers l’extase qui le transfigure, soit en tombant à travers l’ennui qui le défigure. En envisageant la pensée de Cioran comme une « course thérapeutique en sens cosmique » ou comme une errance infinie issue d’une « théologie sentimentale où l’absolu se construit avec les éléments du désir », cette thèse, consacrée à la fois à l’œuvre française et à l’œuvre roumaine, s’attache à l’évolution de l’auteur de l’une à l’autre tout en dénonçant le mythe de la césure entre les deux. En posant le nihilisme à la fois comme un poison et comme un remède, comme l’horizon d’une fin ou d’un nouveau commencement, l’étude se propose d’analyser les processus et les expériences à travers lesquels le nihilisme est vaincu par lui-même. Le diagnostic du « héros de la rétractation » est interprété à partir de ses tentations et de ses inconséquences ; son exploration des impasses, son évasion dans le virtuel, ses hésitations entre une carrière métaphysique et un rôle historique, sa lutte avec le temps et ses expériences extatiques, sont analysées à partir d’une double tentation d’un même passage : « du néant vers le monde » et « du monde vers le néant ». / Going astray in History, in a horizontal becoming which condemns him to self-destruct to assert himself, Cioran’s man opens at times to a vertical becoming either in rising through the ecstasy that transfigures, either by falling through boredom which disfigures. Considering Cioran’s thought as a « therapeutic run in a cosmic sense » or as an endless wandering stemming from « a sentimental theology, in which the Absolute is built with the elements of desire », this study, devoted both to the French and Romanian works, focuses on the evolution of the author from one to the other by denouncing the myth of the caesura between the two works. Assuming both nihilism as a poison and as a remedy, as the horizon of an end or of a new beginning, the study aims to analyse the processes and experiences through which nihilism is defeated by itself. The diagnosis of the « hero of the withdrawal » is interpreted from his temptations and his inconsistencies ; his exploration of the impasses, his escape into the virtual, his hesitation between a metaphysical career and a historic role, his struggle with time and ecstatic experiences, are analyzed from a double temptation of a same passage : « from nothingness to the world » and « from the world towards nothingness ».

O objetivo desta dissertação é o de discutir o modo como o escritor moçambicano Mia Couto problematiza a identidade dos africanos, já que a representação das personagens aponta, freqüentemente, para reflexões que giram em torno das questões sobre a globalização e a pós-modernidade. Escolhi o livro O outro pé da sereia (2009) como corpus principal desta pesquisa por ser uma obra que procura desconstruir os arquétipos sobre a África e seus povos representados no imaginário do homem ocidental. Imagem, esta, que foi construída a partir de uma visão eurocêntrica. Nesta perspectiva, identifiquei que a obra de Mia Couto apresenta uma visão niilista quanto aos construtos identitários e, dessa forma, problematiza ao mesmo tempo em que desmistifica a África como um lugar de regresso da diáspora em busca de suas raízes. A partir deste recorte busquei questionar, sob a perspectiva nietzschiana, o modo como os fatores sociais incidem na formação da subjetividade de cada indivíduo, buscando não mais uma Verdade fixa sobre a identidade dos africanos, mas questionar para quem e para que se busca esta Verdade, observando os desafios e as tensões do homem moderno representado em suas obras frente aos desafios da contemporaneidade. Assim esta dissertação procurou discutir e apresentar os construtos identitários a partir de fatores que julguei importantes como a pós-modernidade, a nação, a raça e o cosmopolitismo. / The goal of this dissertation is to discuss how the Mozambican writer Mia Couto problematizes the identity of the African people, since the representation of the characters points out, often to reflections that revolve around the issues of globalization and postmodernity. I chose the book O outro pé da sereia as the main corpus of this research because it’s a book that seeks to deconstruct those archetypes about Africa and its peoples represented in the imagination of Western society - an image that was built from a Eurocentric view. In this perspective, I have identified that the work of Mia Couto presents a nihilistic view about the identity constructs and thus problematizes as well as demystifies Africa as a place of return of the Diaspora in search of their roots. From this crop I sought to question from a Nietzschean perspective, how social factors affect the formation of subjectivity of each individual, seeking no longer a fixed truth about the identity of Africans, but to whom and for what are we seeking that Truth, noting the challenges and tensions of modern society represented in its works before the challenges of contemporary times. This dissertation sought to discuss and present the constructs identity from factors judged important as post-modernity, nation, race and cosmopolitanism.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-03-15Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:07:06Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 bernardes_cd_dr_sjrp_parcial.pdf: 131506 bytes, checksum: b61e96e0fc149b40b46eb07f77cc1058 (MD5) Bitstreams deleted on 2015-06-25T13:00:56Z: bernardes_cd_dr_sjrp_parcial.pdf,. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-06-25T13:03:19Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000619081_20161512.pdf: 118890 bytes, checksum: 999f060d13bd016c6c6a36f085a2618f (MD5) Bitstreams deleted on 2017-01-02T15:03:47Z: 000619081_20161512.pdf,. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2017-01-02T15:05:06Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000619081.pdf: 990823 bytes, checksum: aeff84ed92c2ab0bea7e4988d1a54f13 (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / O tema da viagem de Odisseu foi largamente retomado pela tradição literária após a Odisséia de Homero, seja para confirmar o ideal do herói nostálgico, que anseia o retorno à pátria, seja para reafirmar o ímpeto do eterno navegador de mares. Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) igualmente retoma o Odisseu lendário, insatisfeito com o retorno ao lar, como seu protótipo de herói e constrói, na modernidade, o poema épico Odisséia (1938), a partir do canto XXII no verso 477 do poema de Homero, sendo Odisseu levado a um novo itinerário ao deixar Ítaca definitivamente. Embora se baseie na obra clássica, recuperando personagens e a estrutura épica, Kazantzakis participa de seu tempo, compondo um novo Odisseu representante do mundo moderno, próximo das filosofias de Nietzsche e de Bergson. Como figura “entre mundos”, o Odisseu de Kazantzakis recupera as antigas delineações de Homero e incorpora as questões da modernidade: o niilismo, a desesperança, a multiplicidade. No entanto, além de prolongar os feitos de Odisseu e a narrativa de Homero, Kazantzakis compõe um poema épico de dimensões admiráveis – 33.333 versos de 17 sílabas poéticas, em 24 cantos – contrariando (e reafirmando) as intenções inovadoras de seus contemporâneos da primeira metade do século XX. A epopéia configura na modernidade um gênero considerado esgotado, que teria dado lugar ao romance como gênero mais apropriado às produções modernas. Esta investigação, no entanto, procura evidenciar que o épico de Kazantzakis, ainda que represente um anacronismo em tempos modernos e, para muitos, uma afronta às normas estéticas, é, assim como muitas das obras de sua época, a confirmação das intenções inovadoras em tempos de crise, por meio da incorporação de uma trajetória filosófica de Odisseu baseada no niilismo heróico de cunho nietzschiano e na evolução criadora de Bergson... / The theme of Odysseus‟ journey was broadly retaken by the literary tradition after Homer‟s Odyssey, whether to confirm the nostalgic ideal of the hero yearning to return to his homeland, or to reaffirm the impetus of the eternal navigator. Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) also incorporates as his prototypical hero the legendary Odysseus, unhappy about returning home, and writes, in the modernity, the epic poem Odyssey (1938), based on the canto XXII and on the verse 477 of Homer‟s poem, and taking Odysseus to a new route when he leaves Ithaca for good. Although based on the classic work, restoring its characters and its epic structure, Kazantzakis takes part of his own time, creating a new Odysseus, now representative of the modern world, and close to the philosophies of Nietzsche and Bergson. As a figure “between worlds”, Kazantzakis‟s Odysseus recovers the old delineations of Homer and incorporates the issues of modernity: nihilism, hopelessness, and multiplicity. However, besides prolonging Odysseus‟ prowess and Homer‟s narrative, Kazantzakis wrote an epic poem of remarkable dimensions –– 33,333 verses of 17 poetic syllables, along 24 Cantos –– contradicting (and reassuring) the innovative intentions of his contemporaries in the first half of the 20th century. In the modernity, epic poetry configures a genre considered to be already exhausted, and which would have given rise to the novel as a genre much more suitable to the modern productions. This research, however, intends to show that the Kazantzakis‟s epopee, even being an anachronism in the modern times and, for many, an affront to aesthetic standards, is, like many of the works of his time, the confirmation of innovative intentions that take place in times of crisis, through the incorporation of a philosophical trajectory of Odysseus based upon Nietzsche‟s heroic nihilism and on Bergson‟s ...(Complete abstract click electronic access below)

O objetivo desta dissertação é o de discutir o modo como o escritor moçambicano Mia Couto problematiza a identidade dos africanos, já que a representação das personagens aponta, freqüentemente, para reflexões que giram em torno das questões sobre a globalização e a pós-modernidade. Escolhi o livro O outro pé da sereia (2009) como corpus principal desta pesquisa por ser uma obra que procura desconstruir os arquétipos sobre a África e seus povos representados no imaginário do homem ocidental. Imagem, esta, que foi construída a partir de uma visão eurocêntrica. Nesta perspectiva, identifiquei que a obra de Mia Couto apresenta uma visão niilista quanto aos construtos identitários e, dessa forma, problematiza ao mesmo tempo em que desmistifica a África como um lugar de regresso da diáspora em busca de suas raízes. A partir deste recorte busquei questionar, sob a perspectiva nietzschiana, o modo como os fatores sociais incidem na formação da subjetividade de cada indivíduo, buscando não mais uma Verdade fixa sobre a identidade dos africanos, mas questionar para quem e para que se busca esta Verdade, observando os desafios e as tensões do homem moderno representado em suas obras frente aos desafios da contemporaneidade. Assim esta dissertação procurou discutir e apresentar os construtos identitários a partir de fatores que julguei importantes como a pós-modernidade, a nação, a raça e o cosmopolitismo. / The goal of this dissertation is to discuss how the Mozambican writer Mia Couto problematizes the identity of the African people, since the representation of the characters points out, often to reflections that revolve around the issues of globalization and postmodernity. I chose the book O outro pé da sereia as the main corpus of this research because it’s a book that seeks to deconstruct those archetypes about Africa and its peoples represented in the imagination of Western society - an image that was built from a Eurocentric view. In this perspective, I have identified that the work of Mia Couto presents a nihilistic view about the identity constructs and thus problematizes as well as demystifies Africa as a place of return of the Diaspora in search of their roots. From this crop I sought to question from a Nietzschean perspective, how social factors affect the formation of subjectivity of each individual, seeking no longer a fixed truth about the identity of Africans, but to whom and for what are we seeking that Truth, noting the challenges and tensions of modern society represented in its works before the challenges of contemporary times. This dissertation sought to discuss and present the constructs identity from factors judged important as post-modernity, nation, race and cosmopolitanism.

O objetivo desta dissertação é o de discutir o modo como o escritor moçambicano Mia Couto problematiza a identidade dos africanos, já que a representação das personagens aponta, freqüentemente, para reflexões que giram em torno das questões sobre a globalização e a pós-modernidade. Escolhi o livro O outro pé da sereia (2009) como corpus principal desta pesquisa por ser uma obra que procura desconstruir os arquétipos sobre a África e seus povos representados no imaginário do homem ocidental. Imagem, esta, que foi construída a partir de uma visão eurocêntrica. Nesta perspectiva, identifiquei que a obra de Mia Couto apresenta uma visão niilista quanto aos construtos identitários e, dessa forma, problematiza ao mesmo tempo em que desmistifica a África como um lugar de regresso da diáspora em busca de suas raízes. A partir deste recorte busquei questionar, sob a perspectiva nietzschiana, o modo como os fatores sociais incidem na formação da subjetividade de cada indivíduo, buscando não mais uma Verdade fixa sobre a identidade dos africanos, mas questionar para quem e para que se busca esta Verdade, observando os desafios e as tensões do homem moderno representado em suas obras frente aos desafios da contemporaneidade. Assim esta dissertação procurou discutir e apresentar os construtos identitários a partir de fatores que julguei importantes como a pós-modernidade, a nação, a raça e o cosmopolitismo. / The goal of this dissertation is to discuss how the Mozambican writer Mia Couto problematizes the identity of the African people, since the representation of the characters points out, often to reflections that revolve around the issues of globalization and postmodernity. I chose the book O outro pé da sereia as the main corpus of this research because it’s a book that seeks to deconstruct those archetypes about Africa and its peoples represented in the imagination of Western society - an image that was built from a Eurocentric view. In this perspective, I have identified that the work of Mia Couto presents a nihilistic view about the identity constructs and thus problematizes as well as demystifies Africa as a place of return of the Diaspora in search of their roots. From this crop I sought to question from a Nietzschean perspective, how social factors affect the formation of subjectivity of each individual, seeking no longer a fixed truth about the identity of Africans, but to whom and for what are we seeking that Truth, noting the challenges and tensions of modern society represented in its works before the challenges of contemporary times. This dissertation sought to discuss and present the constructs identity from factors judged important as post-modernity, nation, race and cosmopolitanism.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:26:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Juarez de Oliveira Pacheco.pdf: 950203 bytes, checksum: 1299edb78191d14fba18ef20bee6d49b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-05 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / By analyzing the concept of nihilism, which is shown polysemic in Nietzsche's work, we encounter frequent deadlocks concerning the origin of this phenomenon. This concept usually presents signifying a consequence of the moral development of the West, where the slave resentment and bad conscience, rooted in culture, ends up affecting modern man of a weariness and an emptying of value: it is nihilism in its own sense, a phenomenon of modern origin. On the other hand, there are aphorisms and excerpts, least discussed by the German philosopher in his work, indicating that the origin of nihilism refers to a distant period of human history, preceding the Christian moral-ascetic, and a phenomenon that opens a gap of absence of meaning about life and human suffering. These incompatible aspects of nihilism are present both in print, and in private notes of Nietzsche. The interior of the book Genealogy of Morals also holds that ambiguity of the concept of nihilism. The main objective of this work is to investigate the work Genealogy of Morals, with the help of other texts, trying to understand the meanings of nihilism and position in the history of civilization. Nietzsche s work as objects of study presents the concepts of resentment and bad conscience ascetic ideal, elements that are constitutive of Western morals. With interests in its topicality, Nietzsche investigates the past moral to its prehistory. Thus, this work is fundamental research into the origin of nihilism. His concepts are analyzed from a procedure that puts them in the realm of historical development and the dynamics instinctual, while concepts that change over time and have multiple meanings: with this polysemic feature that the central elements of the work are presented as well as nihilism. The Genealogy of Morals finally reveals that nihilism has various meanings, but that does not necessarily clash with each other. We show in this work a form of nihilism primordial, a "first nihilism" that is precedent-Christian ascetic morality, including that operates as one of the causes of this moral. However, nihilism is presented as historical product of peacemaking mechanisms of civilization, which inevitably leads to poor awareness and resentment. Human instincts turn inward, causing a great malaise of civilization in the form of a long suffering baseless. The ascetic priest gives an answer to this suffering, reverses the direction of resentment, bad conscience reinterpreting the animal, making it more serious, in a way defined as the interpretation of suffering for sin. The bad conscience made man suffer senseless with instincts that turned against him, however, with the ascetic interpretation, now he unloads his forces against them with a sense that justifies the suffering. / Ao analisar o conceito de niilismo, que se mostra polissêmico na obra de Nietzsche, nos deparamos com impasses frequentes referentes à origem desse fenômeno. Esse conceito se apresenta geralmente significando uma consequência do desenvolvimento da moral do ocidente, em que o ressentimento escravo e a má consciência, enraizados na cultura, se transformam até que terminam acometendo o homem moderno de um cansaço e de um esvaziamento de valor: é o niilismo em seu sentido mais próprio, um fenômeno de origem moderna. Por outro lado, há aforismos e trechos, menos debatidos pelo filósofo alemão em sua obra, que indicam que a origem do niilismo remete a um período longínquo da história humana, precedente à moral ascético-cristã, e a um fenômeno que abre uma lacuna de ausência de sentido em relação à vida e ao sofrimento humano. Esses aspectos incompatíveis do niilismo se apresentam tanto em textos publicados, quanto em anotações privadas de Nietzsche. O interior da obra Genealogia da moral também detém essa ambiguidade do conceito de niilismo. O objetivo principal desse trabalho é investigar a obra Genealogia da moral, com a ajuda de outros textos, buscando compreender os significados e a posição do niilismo na história da civilização. O escrito nietzschiano apresenta como objetos de estudo os conceitos de ressentimento, má consciência e ideal ascético, elementos que são constitutivos da moral ocidental. Com interesses na sua atualidade, Nietzsche investiga o passado moral até a sua pré-história. Com isso, essa obra é fundamental na investigação sobre a origem do niilismo. Seus conceitos são analisados a partir de um procedimento que os coloca sob a esfera do devir histórico e da dinâmica instintual, enquanto conceitos que se transformam ao longo do tempo e possuem múltiplos sentidos: é com essa característica polissêmica que os elementos centrais da obra se apresentam, assim como o niilismo. A Genealogia da moral revela finalmente que o niilismo possui sentidos variados, mas que não necessariamente se chocam entre si. Evidenciamos nessa obra uma forma de niilismo primordial, um niilismo primeiro , que é precedente à moral ascético-cristã, que opera inclusive como uma das causas dessa moral. Entretanto, o niilismo se apresenta como histórico, produto dos mecanismos de pacificação da civilização, que inevitavelmente levam à má consciência e ao ressentimento. Os instintos humanos se voltam para dentro, causando um grande mal estar civilizatório, sob a forma de um sofrimento por longo tempo sem fundamento. O sacerdote ascético dá uma resposta a esse sofrimento, inverte a direção do ressentimento, reinterpretando a má consciência animal, tornando-a mais grave, de uma forma definida, como a interpretação do sofrimento pelo pecado. A má consciência fazia o homem sofrer sem sentido com os instintos que se voltavam contra si, porém, com a interpretação ascética, ele agora descarrega suas forças contra si com um sentido que justifica o sofrimento.

Many accounts of Max Weber’s thought would seek to portray him as a theorist of responsibility or “re-enchantment” – as one who can confirm for us the appropriateness of a liberal position given the conditions of life as moderns, thus preserving the possibility of a renewed project of management at every turn. Such a reading may well be comforting today, insofar as it enables a reconciliation to the constellations of technological thinking within which we already find ourselves engaged. Over and against such accounts, this thesis attempts to elaborate an image of Weber as a hunger artist, as one who brings into emphasis a fundamental sense of loss attendant to “modernity”, and who broods upon that loss as the condition of a more faithful reflection upon the character of being. Not only does Weber offer insight into modern conditions of research and the theorization of politics; he is one who thinks such questions in their mournful profundity, gesturing towards what cannot be carried forward within their terms. In the melancholy of his thought, it is suggested, we glimpse the contours of a horizon from which we have still not emerged.