Several commentators have argued that the focus within political theory in recent decades on abstraction rather than 'reality' has left it with has nothing to say to political actors. On these grounds, some have even expressed concern regarding the discipline's future. As a reply to these concerns, I introduce in this thesis the scholarship and political career of the Italian philosopher Massimo Cacciari. Cacciari shares many goals with Anglophone political theorists, but neither his scholarship nor his practice have engaged in the kind of intellectual abstraction which they now find so troubling. Drawing from Cacciari's philosophy, political career, and interventions as a public intellectual, I show how his understanding of real-world conflicts and contradictions begins with a commitment to what I call his 'geophilosophy of the archipelago', which regards the foundations of human knowledge to be irreducibly plural. A commitment to irreducibly plural foundations means that philosophers and political actors must discard what Cacciari views as 'enchantment' with the possibility of ultimate or absolute resolution of all political discord. In return, however, he argues that hopeful political engagement is still possible, because political actors remain able to cope in material and semiotic terms with the complex realities they face. I suggest that serious consideration of Cacciari's example of recognising irreducible plurality, coupled with a disenchanted engagement with both the material and the semiotic dimensions of political life, offers a compelling alternative orientation to the world that may suggest new ways forward in political theory.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-02-02Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:03:49Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 fariasjunior_jp_dr_fran.pdf: 1545468 bytes, checksum: e44c351d749902fc2b79e19f75334afc (MD5) / Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) / A investigação se propõe analisar as obras De Regno (Ao imperador, sobre a realeza) e De Providentia (Aos egípcios, sobre a providência), ambas de autoria do filósofo norte-africano Sinésio de Cirene, supostamente escritas no momento em que participa da embaixada em Constantinopla, entre 397 e 400 d.C., a serviço de sua cidade nativa, Cirene, na província da Líbia Superior/ Cirenaica, norte da África. No centro de nossa investigação, encontram-se as estratégias discursivas e os topoi retóricos empregados por Sinésio para a construção de um ethos político favorável não só à construção de uma imagem de si que se ajusta ao papel do filósofo na política imperial, mas também à representatividade política de famílias abastadas na administração imperial, haja vista seu envolvimento e o de sua família nos quadros político-administrativos do Império Romano. A proposição de uma análise retórica pelo viés da construção do ethos político pode nos oferecer informações sobre as estratégias empreendidas por aristocratas da África romana tardia para se firmar no cenário político romano / The research aims to analyze the works De Regno (To the emperor, on the royalty) and De Providentia (To the Egyptians, on Providence), both written by the North African philosopher Synesius of Cyrene, who wrote them supposedly during his participation in the embassy in Constantinople between 397 and 400 AD serving his native city, Cyrene, in the province of Lybia Superior/Cyrenaica, North Africa. In the center of our research are the discursive strategies and rhetorical topoi used by Synesius to the construction of a political ethos in favor not only of the building of an image of himself that fits the role of the philosopher in imperial policy, but also of the political representation of wealthy families in the imperial administration, considering his involvement and his family’s involvement in political and administrative cadres of the Roman Empire. The proposition of a rhetorical analysis by the bias of the construction of political ethos can offer information on the strategies undertaken by aristocrats of the late Roman Africa who sought to establish themselves in the Roman political scene

In this thesis I consider ubuntu as a metonym for the particularly African features of South African philosophy. Given that Mbembe critiques African philosophy in general as having failed because it has been subsumed under two unreflective political movements in African thought, I consider whether or not the concept of ubuntu escapes his critique. After developing criteria for measuring the success of any philosophical concept, I conclude that ubuntu is unsuccessful. I then identify the political constraints placed on ubuntu that lead to its failure. These constraints arise from having to validate Africa as a place of intellectual worth. Considering the role of place in these constraints, I argue that a far more productive approach to ubuntu (and South African philosophy in general) is to explicitly incorporate this place into our philosophical project. I use the conceptual framework developed by Bruce Janz to provide a systematic account of place that can be used in formulating South African philosophy. I add to Janz, arguing that philosophy is a response to a particular feature of place: the mystery. By incorporating place into ubuntu, I am able to start developing a philosophical concept which can fulfil the political constraints placed on ubuntu without sacrificing its philosophical integrity. I suggest that ubuntu remains an interesting concept primarily because it promises to respond to the fragmentation of the South African place. I conclude by arguing that ubuntu should be used as the basis for a civic religion which responds to the fragmentation of the South African place. This civic religion will give rise to a significantly distinct philosophical tradition which should not succumb to Mbembe’s critique.

Orientador: Yara Adario Frateschi / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T10:12:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_LuizCarlosSantosda_M.pdf: 654662 bytes, checksum: 4105ed4b2ad6551e58ce398de2046942 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: O objetivo do presente trabalho é apresentar de que modo a conduta natural dos homens em Hobbes, ao contrário da interpretação de Leo Strauss que procura retirar das bases da política hobbesiana toda influência dos princípios científicos, resulta de uma aplicação do princípio inercial do movimento na consideração dos homens em estado de natureza Para tanto, procuramos investigar de que maneira o movimento inercial é entendido por Hobbes como causa e origem da sensação e concepções mentais, bem como das paixões e ações voluntárias que regulam o comportamento natural dos homens. / Abstract: The objective of the present work is to present in which way men's natural conduct in Hobbes, unlike Leo Strauss's interpretation that tries to remove of the bases of Hobbes' politics all influences of the scientific principles, results in an application of the inertial principle of the movement on men's consideration in state of nature. For that, we tried to investigate in which way the inertial movement is understood by Hobbes as cause and origin of sensation and mental conceptions, as well as of passions and voluntary actions that regulates men's natural behavior. / Mestrado / Mestre em Filosofia

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This study critically and systematically analyses the purported democratic values of freedom and equality with a view to clarifying the meaning of the concepts of democracy, freedom and equality; and examining the nature of the relations between kinds of freedom and kinds of equality, their association with democracy, and assessing their reconcilability within the two broad schools of democratic theory, namely, Anglo American democratic theory and Continental democratic theory. Put slightly differently, the issue is whether freedom and equality are mutually compatible or incompatible within democratic contexts. The analysis necessitates exploring the possible reason or reasons for the reconcilability or incompatibility of freedom and equality. Hence, the arguments in democratic literature relevant to the meanings of freedom and equality, and the relations between them will be examined. The first set of arguments concern the question of whether kinds of freedom endanger kinds of equality, and conversely, whether kinds of equality erode or hamper kinds of freedom. The relation existing between freedom and equality, and equality and freedom, in both instances purport to demonstrate the tension existing between them in theory as well as in practice. The second set of arguments concern the question of whether kinds of freedom promote kinds of equality, and conversely, whether kinds of equality further kinds of freedom. The relation in both instances is deemed to demonstrate the affinity between freedom and equality, and equality and freedom. An attempt will thus be made to address the issue of the seemingly confusing array of meanings of democracy, freedom and equality, and the potentially problematic relations between them, and particularly those between freedom and equality as represented by the two sets of arguments within appropriate democratic contexts. The study will endeavour to examine the analytic and synthetic interplay of meanings and relations, their nature and compatibility or incompatibility, and the possible reasons for this state of affairs, in an attempt to identify and address the perceived misapprehensions concerning their meanings and relations in democratic literature. / Political Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (Politics)

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This thesis explores the normative significance of making a rights-backed, authorized demand as a right holder. Rights, I argue, enable their holders to make a special kind of demand which comes with a special force. It is, in other words, one of rights' functions that they are demands-enabling. I single out what sort of demands I am interested in exploring. I also look at how these special demands are normatively significant. I call them rights-backed, authorized demands. They are normatively significant, first, because of the interesting role they play in other agents' practical-reasoning, and , second, because the very making of these demands, as a matter of rights, is empowering in an abstract way. I go on to contrast my view with other ‘demand theories' in existence and conclude that my view is substantively different. In particular, existing demand theories of rights all fail to sufficiently highlight the importance of actual demands, and instead focus on the ‘status' of ‘being in a position' to make demands. I argue that this focus is a fundamental mistake. I also consider how my view can contribute to some related literature on rights. First, I argue that my view highlights a new function which rights have: it has interesting implications on the shape of the long-standing debate between the will and interest theory of rights. Second, I argue that my view provides us with a new way to counter one of the most discussed criticisms of the existence of welfare human rights, which is the argument that rights must correlate with some specific duties as a necessary existence condition, and that human welfare rights fail on this mark. I conclude that if human rights indeed have a demand-related function as I argue, it weakens the intuitive appeal of this criticism.

Orientador: Pedro Geraldo Tosi / Coorientador: Elaine Cristine Sartorelli / Banca: Therese Fuhrer / Banca: Breno Battistin Sebastiani / Banca: Pablo Shwartz Frydman / Banca: Elizabete Sanches Rocha / Resumo: A investigação se propõe analisar as obras De Regno (Ao imperador, sobre a realeza) e De Providentia (Aos egípcios, sobre a providência), ambas de autoria do filósofo norte-africano Sinésio de Cirene, supostamente escritas no momento em que participa da embaixada em Constantinopla, entre 397 e 400 d.C., a serviço de sua cidade nativa, Cirene, na província da Líbia Superior/ Cirenaica, norte da África. No centro de nossa investigação, encontram-se as estratégias discursivas e os topoi retóricos empregados por Sinésio para a construção de um ethos político favorável não só à construção de uma imagem de si que se ajusta ao papel do filósofo na política imperial, mas também à representatividade política de famílias abastadas na administração imperial, haja vista seu envolvimento e o de sua família nos quadros político-administrativos do Império Romano. A proposição de uma análise retórica pelo viés da construção do ethos político pode nos oferecer informações sobre as estratégias empreendidas por aristocratas da África romana tardia para se firmar no cenário político romano / Abstract: The research aims to analyze the works De Regno (To the emperor, on the royalty) and De Providentia (To the Egyptians, on Providence), both written by the North African philosopher Synesius of Cyrene, who wrote them supposedly during his participation in the embassy in Constantinople between 397 and 400 AD serving his native city, Cyrene, in the province of Lybia Superior/Cyrenaica, North Africa. In the center of our research are the discursive strategies and rhetorical topoi used by Synesius to the construction of a political ethos in favor not only of the building of an image of himself that fits the role of the philosopher in imperial policy, but also of the political representation of wealthy families in the imperial administration, considering his involvement and his family's involvement in political and administrative cadres of the Roman Empire. The proposition of a rhetorical analysis by the bias of the construction of political ethos can offer information on the strategies undertaken by aristocrats of the late Roman Africa who sought to establish themselves in the Roman political scene / Doutor