Et l'homme dans tout ça ? Plaidoyer pour un humanisme moderne

377 p., ref. bib. : ref. et notes dissem.Copernic a chassé l'Homme du centre de l'Univers, Lamarck et Darwin du sommet de la création, notre société a tendance à le chasser du cœur de ses projets. Il n'est pourtant pas utopique de concilier le progrès, créateur de richesses, les avancées scientifiques et les logiques économiques avec l'humanisme. Axel Kahn ouvre un débat majeur sur le devenir de l'Homme : les biotechnologies, le clonage humain, l'assistance médicale à la procréation, les essais sur l'être humain, la place de notre espèce dans la nature, le déterminisme et la liberté, le racisme, la sexualité... Au-delà de l'éclairage décisif porté sur ces différentes questions, la réflexion claire et passionnée menée ici incite chacun de nous à un nécessaire sursaut moral : dissociée des valeurs éthiques, au premier rang desquelles la solidarité, la maîtrise croissante des mécanismes de la vie par la science et les forces du marché constitue bel et bien une menace pour l'humanité

Technologies of the Self: Habitus and Capacities.

NoThis paper analyses Foucault's notion of technologies of the self, but does so through a non-Foucauldian style of analysis. It traces the use of the term technology back to the works of Aristotle and elaborates upon this definition. Here, technology is seen to be central not only in the production of works, but also in the production of selves. This idea is then developed through the work of other thinkers who have a similar technological view of the production of the self, particularly Marcel Mauss and John Dewey. Another important element emerges from their works, which is the production of self through the technology of habit or habitus. It is argued that habitus is not a socially determinate concept, because it allows for the development of both practical and critical reason, both of which permit the agent some freedom in their activities. However, it is possible to use the connotation of habitus with routine to understand something of the nature of social power. The concept of capacity is also introduced to extend the self-reflexive and knowing aspect of habitus, showing how this is an essential feature of the agential self. However, it is argued that although the development of practical and critical reason allows for reflexivity, the self is always grounded in technologies of the body and self, which constitute the aspect of the self reflected upon. Reflexivity, then, is a secondary and partial aspect of the self

A vivência do desemprego: um estudo crítico do significado do desemprego no capitalismo The experience of being unemployed: a critical study of the meaning of unemployment in capitalism

O artigo examina, primeiramente, os resultados de uma pesquisa com indivíduos que procuravam emprego por meio de encaminhamento do Sine - Sistema Nacional de Emprego - de Florianópolis (Santa Catarina), com o propósito de apreender as características mais marcantes de sua vivência como desempregados. Em seguida, ao analisar o significado do desemprego no interior da lógica societal capitalista, conclui que os desempregados se encontram numa situação de dificuldade e, no limite, na impossibilidade de vender não somente a força de trabalho, mas qualquer mercadoria, e, dessa forma, também na impossibilidade de comprar os meios de subsistência para poderem produzir suas vidas como seres humanos. Daí se pode entender que as características de suas vivências são expressão, no seu cotidiano, da produção de sua degradação como seres humanos e, ao mesmo tempo, de suas tentativas de reação a este processo.<br>In a first stage, the article examines the results of a survey with individuals that were looking for a job by referral from the SINE - Brazilian Employment System - in Florianópolis - Santa Catarina, in an attempt to find out the main characteristics of their experience as unemployed. Next, analysing the meaning of unemployment within the logic of capitalist society, it concludes that the unemployed have great difficulty in selling the force of his/her labour, and, in extreme cases, are totally unable, not just to sell this labour, but to sell any other merchandise, with the consequence that they have also great difficulty in buying - or are totally unable to buy - their means of subsistence so as to produce their lives as human beings. From this it is possible to presume that the characteristics of their experience are an expression, in their everyday life, of the production of their degradation as human beings as well as of their efforts to react against this process