DESYMPHONICA VERITATE : THE CASE FOR PLURALISM IN A RELATIVISTIC ENVIRONMENT

Artikel ini memertimbangkan kembali relativisme moraldalam hubungannya dengan pluralitas kebudayaan danposisi-posisi filosofis. Mengingat bahwa umumnyaHukum Hume dipakai sebagai dasar epistemologis bagirelativisme, maka pada “pars destruens” diajukan kritik atasHukum Hume yang memerlihatkan bahwa nalar manusiadapat melampaui penginderaan. Relativisme sebagaikondisi dasar bagi masyarakat pluralistik dan demokratisdikritik juga sebagai tidak benar. Sedang pada “parsconstruens” diajukan peran filsafat Katolik dalam dunia'glokal' kini sebagai ditandai pencarian 'kebenaran publik'warta Kristiani, sejenis bentuk baru “teologi natural(filosofis)”

The Commentary as Polemical Tool : The Anonymous Commentator on the Theaetetus against the Stoics

Contrairement à ce qui est pris d’ordinaire pour acquis, le Commentateur Anonyme du Théétète est philosophiquement stimulant, comme le démontre la confrontation avec le Stoïcisme. Le Commentateur Anonyme déploie une stratégie subtile, ne visant pas tant à rejeter des doctrines nettement stoïciennes qu’à les incorporer dans son propre système platonicien, en présupposant que seul ce dernier peut assurer des fondements adéquats aux doctrines. Le Commentateur Anonyme peut de la sorte s’approprier le Stoïcisme et régler de manière définitive l’ancienne querelle entre Stoïcisme et Platonisme. Qui plus est, le Stoïcisme n’est pas une question séparée, mais il fait partie d’une question plus large. Car la comparaison avec le Stoïcisme aide aussi le Commentateur Anonyme à défendre son interprétation unitaire de la tradition académique platonicienne. Commenter un texte n’est pas une pratique neutre, mais bien plutôt un des aspects les plus importants de la philosophie post-hellénistique.Contrary to what is usually assumed, the Anonymous Commentator on the Theaetetus is philosophically stimulating, as the confrontation with Stoicism shows. The Anonymous Commentator displays a subtle strategy, aiming not so much to reject distinctively Stoic doctrines as to incorporate them into his own Platonist system, on the assumption that only the latter can secure adequate foundations to the doctrines. The Anonymous Commentator can thus appropriate Stoicism and definitely settle the ancient quarrel between Stoicism and Platonism. Besides, Stoicism is not a separate issue, but is part of a wider issue. For the comparison with Stoicism also helps the Anonymous Commentator to defend his unitary interpretation of the Platonic-Academic tradition. Commenting a text is not a neutral practice but one of the most important aspects of post-Hellenistic philosophy

PERHAPS HERETICAL

This is a brief reply to Matteo Marconi’s article. I have been challenged along with Marcello Tanca with the criticism of practicing a geography that is eccentric but unaware of the logical continuity between modernity and postmodernity. The suspicion is that the subversive impact of the “culturalist” turning point is in fact compromised by a system of production of truth akin by logic, operation and subject to that of the modern era. I have therefore attempted to formulate a possible answer to these comments and to the critical insights of Matteo Marconi, whom I thank for having requested a response to his writing

MATTEO RICCI AND GLOBAL CIVILIZATION

This essay will examine the contributions of the Jesuitmissionary Matteo Ricci. His evaluation of Confucian ethics and therelated religious thought of the ancient Chinese tradition is not theresult of a work of mere “intellectual meditation”, but the obviousoutcome of an authentic Christian experience, which enabled him toreceive all that was positive in the culture that he met. There is inRicci the clear knowledge that the Christian faith gives a vision ofthe human experience and of history that does not go against humancultures, but assumes all of them in a real encounter between all thepeoples. The Christian faith, in fact, generates a total vision of thetruth, in which science, culture and politics are not separated, butunified in a Weltanschauung (vision of the world). In this way theencounter and the dialogue that Ricci established with the Chineseculture turned out effective, in as much as compromises were notattempted, nor convictions were abandoned. Neither did he pursuethe road of syncretism, but it is in true dialogue that an encounterwas attempted, a dialogue that is also a new interpretation and anew assumption of the essential elements present in the ancientChinese religious tradition and in the original Confucian thought.An understanding of Ricci’s approach can serve as an example ofauthentic intercultural dialogue

The End of the Academy

What happened to the Platonic Academy in late Hellenistic and Early Imperial Age is a controversial point. For a long period it has been a widely held view that the Academy continued to operate until the Emperor Justinian closed it in the 529 A.D. But in opposition to this view some challenging studies argued that it rather ended its activity around 86 b.C., during and in consequence of the Mithridatic War, when the garden of the Academy was destroyed by Sulla's troops. Needless to say, neither this new (and more solid) reconstruction solved all the ambiguities, and more recently some doubts have been raised against it. By reconsidering the available evidence, aim of the paper is a reapprisal of this vetus quaestio. In fact, the problems are two: the problem of the end of the Academy as a working institution is not the same as its end in the sense of its destruction. The two points not necessarily imply each other. And even though one may cast doubts that the Academy was physically destroyed, the surviving testimonies appear to show that there was not anymore Academic teaching in Athens. Even more fatal than Sulla's troops, were the internal struggles. But not everything went lost, for the term 'Academic' continued to be used in the following centuries, confirming the importance of the tradition stemming from Plato: for at stake in the use and appropriation of the term was not so much the membership to the institution as Plato's heritage – an everlasting problem.(Mauro Bonazi, University of Milan

Pick My Desk and Go: A solution to Improve Team Dynamics

In this article, we describe the preliminary results of an ongoing project to improve the dynamics of innovative teams. We investigate how to design a system that allows employees in an open space to swap the place with a colleague for one day. We call this system “Pick my desk and go” and we combine notions from people analytics and organizational design to illustrate how the system enhances collaboration among team members and knowledge exchange. We tested the system for a period of eight weeks and we collected empirical evidences and insights from semi-structured interviews that support our claim concerning the effectiveness of the system to improve team creativity. We conclude the paper by illustrating the features of the next version of the system in order to increase its effectiveness as a persuasive system. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

Athos Bulcão and the Architecture of Brasilia

This essay aims to show Athos Bulcão’s artworks integrated into architecture in Brasilia, his career and partnership and the significance of his work as a precious legacy for the city. The artwork of Athos Bulcão not only reveals beauty and colors but an architectural identity that reflects a successful partnership between modern architecture and fine arts in Brazil. Brasilia is the high mark of modern movement where Athos Bulcão became a unique artist with the skill to amalgamate his art into architecture