What is political philosophy? Aristotle pursues that question by asking what the good is. If Nietzsche's postmodern diagnosis that modern philosophical rationalism has exhausted itself is true, it is unclear if an answer to that question is possible. Yet given the prevalence of extremist ideologies in 20th century politics, and the politically irresponsible support of philosophers for these ideologies, there is an urgent need for an answer. This thesis examines how, in these philosophical circumstances, Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, and Alasdair MacIntyre conclude that a key resource in the recovery of political philosophy, and in showing its contemporary relevance, lies in the recovery of Aristotle's political philosophy. This thesis contends that how and why Arendt, Strauss, and MacIntyre turn to Aristotle, and what they find in Aristotle, depends on their varying critiques of modernity. Convinced that the philosophical tradition is shattered irreversibly after the events of totalitarianism, Arendt argues for a retrieval of Aristotle and his understanding of politics from the fragments of that tradition. Strauss is impelled to turn to the political philosophy of Aristotle because of the crisis of radical historicism, to recover classical rationalism’s answer to what the good is. MacIntyre turns to Aristotle to find the moral justification for rejecting Stalinism that contemporary philosophical traditions fail to provide; he reconstructs an Aristotelian tradition that can answer the question of what the good is better than his contemporary rivals. Although these thinkers may appear disparate, this thesis argues that each addresses the question of what the good is by offering a vision of political philosophy as a way of life, which Aristotle helps form. This way of life probes the relationship between philosophy and politics as permanent problem for human existence. In recovering this tradition of thinking with Aristotle about the character of political philosophy, this thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of each of these thinkers, as well as to the practice of political philosophy in modern, post-Nietzschean times.

El maquiavelismo degollado est un défi lancé à tous les hommes de pouvoir tentés de suivre la voie pragmatique de Machiavel plutôt que celle tracée par l’Église catholique romaine ; son auteur, Claude Clément, fut alors considéré comme le plus radical des penseurs de l’anti-machiavélisme. Son œuvre n’a pourtant jamais été rééditée et reste mal connue probablement parce qu’elle est composée de trois textes publiés dans deux langues différentes et que sa version espagnole semble bien être une réécriture plutôt qu’une simple traduction. Parsemée de reproductions de documents, enrichie de nombreuses allusions, de citations parfois cachées, l’œuvre de Claude Clément se veut un recueil de la pensée politique de son temps. À l’aide de bases de données numériques, ce travail se donne pour objectif d’établir le texte du Maquiavelismo degollado dans sa diversité, d’expliquer les grands mécanismes de son évolution et de comprendre sa position dans le réseau des sources qui l’influencent. / El maquiavelismo degollado sounds as a challenge to all statesmen who could be tempted to follow the pragmatic way shown by Machiavelli rather than by the Roman Catholic Church. Then, Claude Clément was considered as a champion of the radical line in the anti-Machiavellian school of thought; however, the book has never been republished and, therefor, is not very well known. El maquiavelismo degollado is not a unique work knowing that three different books have been published, using two different languages and that the Spanish version really seems to be a re-written text rather than a simple translation. Scattered with reproductions of foreign documents, enriched with many allusions, quotations, some of them hidden away, this work seems to be a miscellany of political theories of its time. Using digital databases, this study attempts first to establish the text of El maquiavelismo degollado respecting its complexity, then to explain the main mechanism of its evolution from one version to the other and finally to determine how other works could have influenced it.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Este é um estudo sobre o conceito de democracia em obras do pensamento político brasileiro publicadas entre 1914 e 1945. A soberania do povo, não obstante impor-se como uma espécie de ideal universal e um dos pilares em que se assenta a legitimidade política na modernidade, longe de instaurar um consenso acerca de seus modos de realização prática, mostrou-se problemática e aberta a uma pluralidade de formatações institucionais, muitas vezes contraditórias entre si. Desse modo, em vez de um debate estruturado entre opositores e defensores da democracia, constatou-se uma forte polêmica no interior do próprio conceito, isto é, em relação aos modos pelos quais seria possível e legítimo implementar a democracia no país. A hipótese da tese é que a polissemia e as controvérsias em torno da definição do conceito remetem ao próprio processo de desincorporação do poder e dos sujeitos da soberania na modernidade: o povo e a nação. Através da análise das obras publicadas no período, buscou-se reconstituir o debate em torno das modalidades de constituição política do povo-nação e elaborar uma tipologia das diferentes respostas dadas ao problema da democracia no contexto brasileiro. / This thesis examines the concept of democracy in works of Brazilian political thought published between 1914-1945. Even if sovereignty of the people impose itself like a universal ideal and one of pillars where lay modern political legitimacy, there is no established consensus about its ways of practice achievement, and this ideal has seemed problematic and open to a plurality of institutional arrangements, sometimes mutually contradictory. In this way, instead a structured debate between supporters and enemies of democracy, it verified a strong polemic inside the concept itself, i. e., about the ways that could be possible and legitimate put into practice democracy in country. This work sustain the hypotheses that polysemy and controversies about concepts definition refers to the process of disincorporation of power and of subjects of sovereignty in modernity: people and nation. Through analyses of works published in that period, we have attempted to reconstitute the debate on forms of political constitution of the people-nation and establish a typology of different answers given to the problem of democracy in Brazilian context.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:54:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Antonio Carlos Drummond Monteiro de Castro.pdf: 864920 bytes, checksum: 8441a5ff9f4859481702cea9b5c388a4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-25 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This study aims at analyzing the literary work Grande Sertão: Veredas / The Devil to Pay in the Backlands under a politics perspective. As such, it sets out to analyze the narrator‟s mediation to communicate the novelist‟s thoughts. The narrative makes use of political, legal, historical and powerful literary resources. In the last twenty years, the high quality of the studies and essays on Guimaraes Rosa‟s work under the politics perspective has followed suit the well-known diversity of his books‟ themes. The polysemy in Riobaldo‟s name, as well as in his nicknames, has been highlighted by several critics and essayists. In this study, Baldo and Secretario convey the power/force/energy and role of the law and the war in the novel, which, in its turn, leads to a set of indices that points out to an unusual form of evidence: what weighs less, what does not show much or, what has been strategically scattered throughout the text; or, in addition, indices that were sifted out of his own history. They provide stronger evidence because they are difficult to notice; once they are, they strongly validate what is easy to see. This methodology suits a work where the subordinate relationships are weakened; or the relationships are subtly accomplished, in the fashion of a mobile. Through his language, the author gives us the arts of the language and the law, which will set the Art of Governing/the Art of Government/the Art of Governance / O objeto de nosso trabalho consiste em penetrar na obra literária Grande Sertão: Veredas sob a perspectiva da política. E, como tal, precisamos partir da mediação do narrador, desdobramento do romancista, que comunica o seu pensamento. Narrativa que se utiliza de instrumentais político, jurídico, histórico e intensos recursos literários. Nos últimos vinte anos, a excelência dos estudos e ensaios sob a perspectiva política acerca da obra de Guimarães Rosa vem sendo acompanhada pela conhecida diversidade de temas de seus livros. Riobaldo carrega polissemias em seu nome já destacadas por diversos críticos e ensaístas; de modo semelhante, os seus apelidos. No nosso estudo, Baldo e Secretário indicam o peso e o papel do direito e da guerra no romance que, por sua vez, nos leva a um conjunto de índices que aponta para um modo não habitual de prova: aquilo que pesa pouco, que pouco aparece ou, então, que alguns achados vão sendo deixados estrategicamente ao longo do texto; ou, ainda, índices depurados de sua história. Eles provam mais porque difíceis de serem percebidos; uma vez que sejam, confirmam com mais força aquilo fácil de ver. Essa metodologia se adéqua a uma obra em que as relações subordinadas são enfraquecidas; ou ainda, as relações se efetivam sutilmente, ao modo de um móbile. Através de sua língua própria, o autor nos traz as artes da linguagem e do direito que imprimirão a Arte de Governar

What kind of agent does liberal political thought presuppose? Who is the subject inhabiting modern, liberal conceptions of political order? This dissertation is a study of liberal character-formation, of the kinds of persons, subjects and citizens underlying seminal works in the liberal tradition. More specifically, it explores the forms of character and agency sustaining Immanuel Kant’s and John Stuart Mill’s moral and political philosophies, as well as problems of exclusion and marginalization faced by agents who are, either naturally or circumstantially, unable to develop a properly liberal character. The project is guided by three central aims. The first is expository: the dissertation draws to light the substantial attention that Kant and Mill both devoted to the moral psychology of progressive, liberal agency, and to the conditions, processes and mechanisms forming a liberal character. The second aim is critical, examining the ways in which these ideals of liberal character stand to constrain the inclusiveness and equality at the centre of liberal moral and political doctrines. The final aim is evaluative, reflecting on how we might situate problems of exclusion, both within the broader architectures of Kant’s and Mill’s respective philosophical systems, and in relation to the liberalisms that we inherit from them.

I argue that current descriptions of the ways that language and computer code effect change (are “performative”) oversimplify the effects that utterances made in and through virtual spaces have on the real world. Building on J.L. Austin’s speech-act theory and Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of Austin’s notion of performative language, I develop the theory of cyber-performativity. Though Katherine Hayles argues that “code” is more strongly performative than the utterances Austin focused on, Hayles’ analysis is founded on her problematic distinction between the logical computational worldview and the slippery natural-languages worldview. Cyber-performative theory builds on Hayles’ argument by showing that computational processes are as uncertain as natural languages: like human languages, “code” might always signify more and other than is intended. I argue that the social, economic, and political status of language changes as utterances made in virtual worlds such as Second Life simultaneously effect change in both real and virtual spaces.

What kind of agent does liberal political thought presuppose? Who is the subject inhabiting modern, liberal conceptions of political order? This dissertation is a study of liberal character-formation, of the kinds of persons, subjects and citizens underlying seminal works in the liberal tradition. More specifically, it explores the forms of character and agency sustaining Immanuel Kant’s and John Stuart Mill’s moral and political philosophies, as well as problems of exclusion and marginalization faced by agents who are, either naturally or circumstantially, unable to develop a properly liberal character. The project is guided by three central aims. The first is expository: the dissertation draws to light the substantial attention that Kant and Mill both devoted to the moral psychology of progressive, liberal agency, and to the conditions, processes and mechanisms forming a liberal character. The second aim is critical, examining the ways in which these ideals of liberal character stand to constrain the inclusiveness and equality at the centre of liberal moral and political doctrines. The final aim is evaluative, reflecting on how we might situate problems of exclusion, both within the broader architectures of Kant’s and Mill’s respective philosophical systems, and in relation to the liberalisms that we inherit from them.

[pt] Esta tese pretende indicar vínculos entre o pensamento político desenvolvido sob o influxo da filosofia da ilustração, a política colonial praticada pela Metrópole européia e os modelos literários do Arcadismo. O trânsito de idéias proporcionado pelo Iluminismo foi festejado por homens de letras brasileiros que começavam a estabelecer seu espaço político e cultural na Colônia: empregados em altos cargos da administração colonial, tais letrados conspiraram contra essa mesma administração. O espírito de autonomia, cunhado em ambiente metropolitano, apresentava descompassos em relação ao ambiente colonial americano. Os poetas da época, subordinados a fortes convencionalismos literários e políticos, dramatizaram esses descompassos: a literatura foi usual veículo do complexo pensamento político da época. / [en] The objective of this thesis is to point out the links between the political thought, developed under the influence of the Enlightenment philosophy, the colonial politics employed by the European metropolis and the literary patterns of Arcadism. The exchange of ideas brought about by the Enlightenment was welcomed by Brazilian scholars who started to acquire political and cultural status in the colony: those scholars who were high ranking officials in the colonial administration conspired against that same administration. The spirit of independence, which thrived in the metropolitan environment, was ahead of the situation in South America. The poets of that period, subordinated to political and literary conventions, dramatized this mismatch: literature became a common vehicle for the complex political thought of the time.

Submitted by Caroline Periotto (carol@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-19T17:57:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDERM.pdf: 1966841 bytes, checksum: cd7551cf6e0398775d202cde0e7e7d1d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-20T18:01:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDERM.pdf: 1966841 bytes, checksum: cd7551cf6e0398775d202cde0e7e7d1d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-09-20T18:01:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDERM.pdf: 1966841 bytes, checksum: cd7551cf6e0398775d202cde0e7e7d1d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-20T18:01:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseDERM.pdf: 1966841 bytes, checksum: cd7551cf6e0398775d202cde0e7e7d1d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-26 / Não recebi financiamento / The objective of this research is to analyze the intellectual production of Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira. The two main themes in his work are development and bureaucracy, accompanied, however, by a whole thematic constellation that gravitates around them – media class, nation, political pacts, state, entrepreneur, inflation, among others. Methodologically, it starts from the analytical suggestions of linguistic contextualism and from the research program on Brazilian political thought lineages, taken as assumption that the thought is a mode of political action. Thus, it is described, in the trajectory and work of Bresser-Pereira, the rupture and discontinuity – most visible elements –, but the regularity and resumption too. The main result of research is that the his intellectual production acquires more sense when referred to his performance in the many contexts in which it has moved. Not only factual contexts, but linguistic too. That means, it is his trajectory as actor and author that gives more sense to his work. / O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a produção intelectual de Luiz Carlos Bresser- Pereira. Os dois grandes temas presentes em sua obra são desenvolvimento e burocracia, acompanhados, porém, por toda uma constelação temática que gravita em torno deles – classe média, nação, pactos políticos, Estado, empresários, inflação entre outros. Metodologicamente, parte-se das sugestões analíticas do contextualismo linguístico e do programa de pesquisas sobre linhagens do pensamento político brasileiro, adotando-se o pressuposto de que o pensamento é uma modalidade de ação política. Assim, trata-se de descrever, na trajetória e obra de Bresser-Pereira, as rupturas e descontinuidades – elementos mais visíveis –, assim como também as regularidades e retomadas. O resultado principal da pesquisa é o de que sua produção intelectual ganha mais sentido quando remetida a sua atuação nos diversos contextos pelos quais transitou. Contextos esses não apenas factuais, mas também linguísticos. Ou seja, é sua trajetória como ator e autor que confere sentido à obra.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:23:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 842013 bytes, checksum: 66aa3f751b83b266f31802b1ada0cfd2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-03 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The objective of this work was to analyze the construction of the Brazilian State in the second half of the nineteenth century, via debates, conflicts and accommodations between Liberal and Catholic thoughts, considering the establishment and organization of public instruction in the country. The study was developed intending to create links between history and political thought a history-problem which "observe" the past not by itself, but as a key to understand the problems of the present, especially the political and the social ones. Using official documents of the Catholic Church and the speeches of ecclesiastics members of the Brazilian parliament, we tried to understand what were their proposals for public education in Brazil in opposition to liberal political thought. In contrast, the liberal thought was also analyzed from point of view of "classic" texts of some well known thinkers in modenity and also of Brazilian political subjects in the nineteenth century, concerned with the issue of public instruction, and that, somehow, established connections with liberalist thoughts. Among these, as a sample and attempt to understand liberalism in Brazil, it was highlighted the work of Diogo Antônio Feijó, in the first half of the nineteenth century; Tavares Bastos, in the transition to the second half, and Rui Barbosa in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. / O esforço empreendido nesta Dissertação foi o de analisar a formação do Estado brasileiro, na segunda metade do século XIX, a partir dos debates, conflitos e acomodações entre o pensamento liberal e a doutrina social católica, no que diz respeito à instalação e organização da instrução pública no país. O trabalho foi elaborado pretendendo estabelecer uma ponte entre história e pensamento político, ou seja, uma história-problema, que observasse o passado não por ele mesmo, mas como chave de compreensão dos problemas, sobretudo políticos e sociais do presente. Por meio dos documentos oficiais da Igreja Católica e dos discursos de eclesiásticos, membros do parlamento brasileiro, tentou-se perceber quais as propostas de instrução pública para o Brasil, da doutrina social católica em oposição ao pensamento político liberal. Este, por sua vez, foi também apreendido por meio de textos clássicos de alguns pensadores de intensa circulação na modernidade e de sujeitos políticos do Brasil no século XIX, envolvidos com o tema da instrução pública, e que, de alguma maneira, estabeleceram filiações, afinidades eletivas , com o liberalismo. Desses, como amostra e tentativa de entender o liberalismo no Brasil, destaquei a atuação de Diogo Antônio Feijó, na primeira metade do século XIX; Tavares Bastos, na transição para a segunda; e Rui Barbosa, no final do Oitocentos e início do século XX.