To End All Good News: Emotive Opinionatores, Arrogant Experts, and Group Ideologues

In this paper I will be dealing with two major arguments: a) an emancipated thinking is not just one that liberates itself from the baseless authority of others, but also and fundamentally one which is known to subject itself to patient self-criticism, persistent deepening and intricate dialogue with different perspectives; such a way of thinking is menaced by the impoverishment of the use of language in contemporary media b) along with the technical question of how to transmit information products more and more rapidly, we need to develop a symmetrical concern for the development of critical points of view, of reasonable approaches to the problems, of prudent scepticism, illustrated pessimism and meditative prudence

A percepção e representação em Maine de Biran

O presente trabalho pretende meditar sobre as implicações e o alcance da distinção biraniana entre apercepção e representação. Tentaremos mostrar que tal distinção: (a) se compreende no horizonte da teoria dos “pontos de vista”, (b) se liga ao modo como Biran pensa o homem simplex in vitalitate, duplex in humanitate e (c) tem o seu centro na afirmação de que não há analogia entre factos “interiores” e “exteriores”. Não terminaremos sem testar uma tese: a afirmação biraniana de um pensamento sem imagem tem por escopo filosófico guardar lugar para o problema da existência pessoal, num contexto histórico marcado pela tentativa de transposição da inspiração experimental para o âmbito da nascente science de l’homme.This paper aims to meditate on the implications and philosophical range of the distinction made by Maine de Biran between apperception and representation. We will try to show that the distinction in question: (a) must be understood in view of the philosopher’s theory of “points of view”, (b) that it should be linked to the idea of a man simplex in vitalitate, duplex in humanitate, and (c) that it has its centre in the statement that there is no analogy whatsoever between “interior” and “exterior” types of facts. Furthermore, we would like to test the following thesis: the biranian statement of a “thought without image” has an important philosophical goal, which is to try to give room to the problem of personal existence in an historical moment marked by the attempt to transport experimental methodologies to the field of the so called science de l’homme

Feeling as a Body: On Maine de Biran’s Anthropological Concept of Sentiment

In this paper I would like to argue that in the context of Maine Bi-ran’s anthropological project – and among many other points of in-terest – one can find a particularly interesting theory of feeling (sen-timent). Since it is impossible, in the short space of this modest arti-cle, to fully deal with such a vast and intricate subject, I will simply try here to formulate the essential terms of this possibility of analy-sis, leaving the more problematic implications, scope and details for further work.In this paper I would like to argue that in the context of Maine Bi-ran’s anthropological project – and among many other points of in-terest – one can find a particularly interesting theory of feeling (sen-timent). Since it is impossible, in the short space of this modest arti-cle, to fully deal with such a vast and intricate subject, I will simply try here to formulate the essential terms of this possibility of analy-sis, leaving the more problematic implications, scope and details for further work

Somatologia subjectiva : apercepção de si e corpo em Maine de Biran

Tese de de doutoramento em Filosofia (Filosofia Moderna e Contemporânea) apresentada à Fac. de Letras da Univ. de CoimbraMarca o verdadeiro labor filosófico a humildade de se saber previamente interpelado pelo que anima, a partir de dentro, a experiência do pensar. Nos espaços inaugurados por esta experiência que se ilumina na surpresa e na esperança, na novidade e na responsabilidade, se arrisca aquele que percorre o caminho milenar da Filosofia, aquele que se aventura nos trilhos que sulcam o Ser e solicitam, “de modos sempre novos, a resposta humana” . O arco dessa solicitação é sempre acolhido com outros. E, desde logo, com aqueles que honramos como pensadores, quando reconhecemos a sua diferença epocal, sistemática, ou conceptual como possibilidade de chegar a responder às exigências interpretativas de um problema real que, no chão histórico que é o nosso, então conseguimos começar a compreender, podemos continuar a compreender, ou experimentamos a necessidade de compreender de outro modo. O presente trabalho é motivado pelo tema filosófico do corpo e construído em diálogo com o filósofo francês Maine de Biran (1766-1824) que, no dealbar do séc. XIX, inaugura inesperadas, interpelantes e vigorosas possibilidades de uma verdadeira filosofia do corpo. Possibilidades estas que, defendemo-lo, chamam ainda, e porventura mais do que nunca, a pensar o leitor contemporâneo de filosofia ao longo de um triplo encadeamento temático: a) a crítica necessária aos limites da concepção moderna de experiência, que Biran antecipa ao contemplar um alargamento do conceito de causalidade – por via da consideração da relação primitiva da vontade ao corpo que lhe corresponde; b) a ponderação dos vários modos de presença do corpo no centro da experiência pessoal – não representativa – e a consequente denúncia das concepções empobrecidas de corpo que acompanham a ilusão de manifestação do pensamento; c) o reconhecimento do poder desconhecido do corpo e a tematização da fragilidade da posse de si

Editors' Introduction

There is no doubt that, for better or for worse, popular mobilisation always revels a significant, or even highly significant, transformative power. It can express itself as a sublime and magmatic power that, as historia docet, does not necessarily bring chaos and destruction, even when it shakes the institutions to their foundations. It generates and nurtures the crisis; and, as French Philosopher Paul Ricoeur remarks, ‘la crise de la démocratie est une crise double où se conjuguent un mouvement ascendant et un mouvement descendant, des menaces fécondes et des menaces ruineuses’. In short, the crisis generates and nurtures new energies and ideas, a fusion of horizons, refoundation and new impulses, which all pervade, however, a time of uncertainties where that fecundity of crisis and that possibility of ruin and fall inhabit half walls. After all, as a possibility, popular mobilisation is in itself a cornerstone of democratic life. Ricœur again underlines that ‘La démocratie est une idée en devenir et en combat. C’est une histoire commencée que nous avons la tâche de continuer. La crise (...) est un moment dans une histoire dont il faut retrouver l’élan’. It is the People who are primarily responsible for what happens in a democratic state.

Sobre a Stimmung: biranismo e fenomenologia

M. Richir, in recent works, showed the importance of a phenomenological analysis of the complex relations between “phantasie”, “imagination” and “afectivité” to the deciphering of our too much human nature. The terra incognita that can be seen from that conceptual crossroad is difficult to analyse and poses a challenge: to understand that we can not “measure” our “human condition” without taking into account the imaginative and affective dimensions, the boundaries of reason, the shores of the symbolic institution, the savage non perceptible presence of the Stimmung. In this particular context it is not, in our view, a detail the reference made by Richir to Maine de Biran. The phenomenologist believes Biran to be the philosopher that “better then anyone else, and much before Heidegger”, understood and more rigorously analysed the singular characteristics of that terra incognita (that “lost continent” as Biran puts it) of the Stimmung, of the affective tonalities, variations and eruptions. This paper aims to underlain the main points of Richir’s positions on this subject, but also, and most of all, to meditate on that contribution made by Maine de Biran to the understanding of the always bizarre tonality that bathes the world when it appears to us with its Jemeiningkeit.Marc Richir ha mostrado en obras recientes la importancia de un análisis fenomenológico de las relaciones complejas entre fantasía, imaginación y afectividad, a fin de descifrar nuestra “demasiado humana” naturaleza. La terra incognita que se deja contemplar desde tal encrucijada de conceptos es difícil de analizar y plantea el reto de comprender que no podemos “medir” nuestra “condición humana” sin tomar en consideración las dimensiones imaginativas y afectivas, las fronteras de la razón, los puntales de la institución simbólica, la presencia savage y no perceptible de la Stimmung. En este particular contexto no es un detalle, a nuestro parecer, la referencia hecha por Richir a Maine de Biran; pues él cree que Biran es el filósofo que “mejor que ningún otro, y mucho antes de Heidegger” comprendió y analizó con mayor rigor las singulares características de esta terra incognita (“continente perdido”, dice Biran) de la Stimmung, de las tonalidades, variaciones y erupciones, afectivas. Este ensayo pretende subrayar los puntos fundamentales de la posición de Richir al respecto, pero también, y sobre todo, mediar en la contribución de Maine de Biran a la comprensión de la tonalidad siempre bizarra que baña al mundo cuando nos aparece en su Jemeiningkeit

El “espacio interior del cuerpo” y la localización del dolor físico: lecturas de Maine de Biran

The aim of this paper is to study Maine de Biran’s theory of interior space along its three major components, established along a critical dialogue with Condillac and Destutt de Tracy, and developed from the theory of effort’s point of view. Those components are: the durability of the primordial effort; the possibility of perceiving exterior space; the consistency of the furtive time of sensibility.El objetivo de este artículo es estudiar la teoría del espacio interior del cuerpo de Maine de Biran a lo largo de sus tres componentes principales que son establecidos a lo largo de un diálogo crítico con Condillac y Destutt de Tracy, y desarrollados desde el punto de vista de la teoría del esfuerzo. Esos componentes son: la durabilidad del esfuerzo primordial; la posibilidad de percibir el espacio exterior; la consistencia del tiempo furtivo de la sensibilidad

Dose calculation in Abdominal-Pelvic CT examinations from two hospitals in the Lisbon area

This work aims to evaluate whether the dose values received by patients submitted to Abdominal-pelvic Computed Tomography (CT) in two hospitals in the Lisbon area do agree with the Diagnostic Reference Levels. The dosimetric units of examinations performed with modulated and continuous current in both hospitals were also compared. The study consisted in collecting data from 200 abdominal - pelvic CT's, obtained in two hospitals (100 per hospital). In Hospital A, the mean DLP was 562.34 mGy.cm and the average values CTDIvol was 12.06 mGy. In Hospital B, the mean DLPand CTDIvol was 767.14 mGy.cm and 15.02 mGy, respectively. We have concluded that, from this sample, none of the dosimetric units values exceeded the Diagnostic Reference Levels values. It was also noted that tests performed in B involved higher doses of patient exposure to ionizing radiation