Journal articles on the topic 'Mathesis universalis'

AbstractDer experimentale heutige Mensch ist dazu verdammt, den Menschen neu zu denken. Er bewundert sich immer, dies zu können. Dafür muss er nur alle die Mittel benutzen und kombinieren, die er gebrauchen kann, um zu sehen, was dabei herauskommt. Und das merkwürdigste Ergebnis, über das er sich freuen kann, heißt immer, sich selbst dabei neu zu denken. Er kann sich nicht genug über sich selbst und seine ewige Neuheit freuen, wenn er sich selbst in eine totale Experimentierung der Welt und seiner selbst projiziert. Und das mit Recht, weil ihn diese totale Experimentierung seiner mathesis universalis und seiner sapientia universalis zwingt zu entdecken, dass er die magische Kraft, sich selbst und die Welt zu schaffen, allein sich selbst und insbesondere der magischen Kraft der Sprache verdankt.

En el presente artículo analizaremos cómo se produce un primer momento del giro subjetivo cartesiano a partir de la necesidad de dar una respuesta unitaria (es decir, monista) en el plano del conocimiento a una realidad ontológica irreductiblemente dualista, es decir, cómo se concibe un monismo gnoseológico a partir de un dualismo ontológico. A tal fin analizaremos cómo su mathesis universalis expresa el proyecto originario de las Regulae y establece las condiciones generales para su interpretación.nLuego, cómo esta mathesis, comprendida como exigencia epistémica, tiene como correlato gnoseológico una psicología en la que la percepción y la facultad cognitiva conforman un mecanismo integral distinguible, ontológicamente, en cuerpo/mente. Finalmente analizaremos cómo este dualismo ontológico encubre un verdadero monismo gnoseológico en el que toda la realidad es reducida a una dimensión cognoscente en el que la corporalidad asume el papel de «corporalidad ideal».

The article discusses the ancient origins of the mathematical foundations of Cartesian rationalism. The author concludes that Cartesian project of «mathesis universalis» synthesised the ideas of many ancient thinkers. In particular, the idea of coordinates comes from Apollonius, the use of motion in mathematics from Archimedes, and the concept of modelling mathematical objects (Cartesius uses geometric shapes) from the Pythagoreans. The author, while acknowledging the conventionality of these parallels, concludes that without the ancient union of philosophy and mathematics, this unity could not have developed in the modern era.

Artykuł jest krótką prezentacją głównych założeń koncepcji fenomenologii życia współczesnej polskiej myślicielki Anny Teresy Tymienieckiej (1923-2014). Są to te założenia, które Tymieniecka wypunktowała w jednej ze swoich wypowiedzi zaprezentowanej na Kongresie Kultury Polskiej w Londynie w 1985 roku. Celem obrad sekcji filozoficznej było nakreślenie sytuacji filozofii polskiej oraz polskiej kultury na emigracji w kontekście kryzysu kultury europejskiej. Tymieniecka, działająca naukowo w Stanach Zjednoczonych, przedstawiła własny punkt widzenia tego kryzysu, jako mającego źródło w braku komunikacji między różnymi dziedzinami nauki, ale także między nauką w ogóle a innymi formami ludzkiej działalności kulturotwórczej. Przedstawiła też własną wizję przezwyciężenia tego kryzysu w postaci fenomenologii twórczej kondycji ludzkiej jako nowej mathesis universalis.

Ausgehend von der strengen Definition des gegebenen Ingeniums in der Regel XII schlagen wir vor, die symbolische Funktion der Vorstellung zu untersuchen, so wie Descartes sie aufstellt, indem er eine Zahl ins Werk setzt, deren überdeutlichen Elemente, elementaren Figuren und algebraischen Schreibweisen den Ruf haben, die gesamte Fragestellung auszudrücken, wenn sie in die Erkenntnis des Menschen rückt, und sobald diese auf eine Proportion und eine Gleichung reduziert ist. Das spätere Auseinanderstreben der Geometrie und der Cartesianischen Physik macht die Bemühung um die Mathesis universalis unmöglich ; in diesem Sinn hat sich die Wissenschaft, deren Regulae ad directionem ingenii das Ziel andeuten, nirgendwo im reifen Werk realisiert.

Tekst se bavi problemom odnosa Dekartovog projekta <em>Mathesis universalis </em>i Lajbnicovog univerzalnog jezika<em>.</em><em> </em>Iako je u Lajbnicovo vreme postojalo već mnoštvo pokušaja da se razvije jedan takav jezik, ono što Lajbnica izdvaja u odnosu na njih jeste pokušaj da se taj jezik utemelji na filozofski način – koreni Lajbnicovog filozofskog utemeljenja <em>lingue universalis </em>imaju kartezijanske osnove. Premda je Dekartovu potragu za univerzalnim znanjem iz <em>Regulae </em>Lajbnic kritikovao, on je preuzeo osnovne motive takve potrage kada 1666. razvija svoju univerzalnu karakteristiku u <em>Ars combinatoria. </em>On daje nov odgovor na potrebu utemeljivanja nauka – umesto metodologije i percepcije, Lajbnic kriterijume naučnosti vidi u mogućnosti jezičke formalizacije. Ovde se javlja ono što je strano Dekartovom, a blisko Lajbnicovom sistemu i što će ostaviti traga i na dvadesetovekovne mislioce poput Borhesa, Huserla, Fukoa i Deleza – naime, pojam znaka kao osnovnog izraza misli. U daljem tekstu autor razvija implikacije ove promene obzirom na osnovne motive Lajbnicove filozofije – pojmove kombinatorike, monade te odnosa univerzalnog jezika i naučnosti.

AbstractLorenzo Valla's rhetorical reform of logic resulted in important changes in sixteenth-century mathematical sciences, and not only in mathematical education and in the use of mathematics in other sciences, but also in mathematical theory itself. Logic came to be identified with dialectic, syllogisms with enthymemes and necessary truth with the limit case of probable truth. Two main ancient authorities mediated between logical and mathematical concerns: Cicero and Proclus. Cicero's 'common notions' were identified with Euclid's axioms, so that mathematics could be viewed as core knowledge shared by all humankind. Proclus' interpretation of Euclid's axioms gave rise to the idea of a universal human natural light of reasoning and of a mathesis universalis as a basic mathematics common to both arithmetic and geometry and as an art of thinking interpretable as algebra.

This paper deals with the metaphysics of the notion of quantity in the philosophy of Leibniz, and its aim is to defend the following bi-conditional: for any object x, x has a certain quantity if and only if x has a (metaphysical) limit or a bound. The direction from left to right is justified in §3, while in §4 I develop an argument to justify the direction from right to left. Since the bi-conditional links the metaphysical notion of limit to the mathematical notion of quantity (and in this way it links Leibniz’s metaphysics with his conception of Mathesis Universalis), it allows the use of metaphysics to clarify the features of the mathematical notion of quantity. This task is accomplished in §5 and §6. Finally, §7 discusses a possible objection.

El concepto cartesiano de una mathesis universalis tiene como antecedente histórico inmediato algunas de las ideas defendidas en el contexto de las discusiones del aristotelismo renacentista acerca de la certeza matemática y el puesto de las matemáticas en la clasificación de las ciencias. Una de las figuras principales en este debate es la del jesuita valenciano Benet Perera (1535 – 1610). A través de la presentación de una serie de pasajes extraídos de los manuscritos inéditos de Perera, en este artículo analizamos la defensa que este autor realiza de la existencia de una ciencia matemática común, en relación con algunas de sus ideas fundamentales, como la impugnación del carácter científico de las matemáticas, o la división de la metafísica en una filosofía primera dedicada al ente en cuanto ente y una teología natural que estudia las inteligencias y Dios.

The fundamental program of Stein’s philosophy after his conversion was the relationship between modern philosophy and scholasticism. This article deals with new metaphysical and epistemological aspects of Stein’s work that reflect the encounter between both philosophical currents, starting from her reading of Thomas Aquinas’ De veritate, which have not yet been treated in the Edith Stein Forschung. Thus, from the metaphysical point of view, the question of the relationship between unity and multiplicity and the problem of the conditions of possibility of organic development are identified. And from the epistemological point of view, the following relevant aspects are raised: the starting point of philosophizing; the principles of knowledge; the extent to which habit influences knowledge; the question of whether angelic knowledge can serve to clarify human knowledge; the relationship between mathesis universalis and divine knowledge; the relationship between abstraction and intuition; and the critique of the Heideggerian interpretation of the concept of truth in the philosophical tradition.

Abstract The scientific phenornenology of Bachelard is constituted as an original reflection about the production of the scientific work, in their subjective (the scientist’s Psychology/Psychoanalysis) and objective (the phenomenon while measure) slopes. Inspired for a softer or a soft-headed phenomenology, the French author wanted to reformulate. some concepts and manners of seeing of the German classic phenomenology. Critical of the husserlian phenomenology of the concept of Meinung, Bachelard enrolled his epistemological labor inside of the history of the applied phenomenology to the sciences. In spite. of, he defends the lost «husserlian purity», independently of the denial of the idealism of the absolute conscience. The main theory is the one of the “Applied Rationalism” to the science and the consequent passing of thc psychologism but, and at the same time, of the mathesis universalis. The “discursive idealism of Bachelard didn’t ignore the specific disparity of the several scientific practices, on the contrary, he examined them the light of what called «phenomenontechnique».

Malebranche's conception of imagination is often thought to be entirely contained in Book II of La Recherche de la vérité, which aims at destroying the beliefs and false theories resulting from the untempered use of that faculty. And yet Malebranche shows, in Book VI of the same work, that imagination has an essential function in the construction of science, particularly when it comes to producing geometrical models for phenomena; and it is, from the point of view of cognition, a singular cunning of reason which associates the presence of corporeal affects in the mind, and ideas, which enlighten it without touching it. This conception rests upon unacknowledged quotations from the Regulae ad directionem ingenii, which Malebranche must have had at hand while working on the Recherche. At stake is, for us, the precise understanding of the relation between mathematics and imagination, first in the Regulae and then in the Recherche, in the general context of the project of a universal science or mathesis universalis.

Roland Barthes’s work has confronted contemporary culture with the question of what happens when an object turns into language. This question allowed Barthes to “construct” well known cultural objects — from novels to music, from images to classical rhetoric, from love to theatre — in an unthought way, and to create new, even more unknown ones — from contemporary myth to fashion, from Japan to food culture. In this paper, Barthes’s cultural criticism is considered alongside with the issues raised by Cultural Studies. More specifically, Barthes’s constant reflection on the myth undoubtedly entitles us to connect his cultural criticism to the work that, in those same years, was being produced by the English forge of Cultural Studies, namely the so-called “Birmingham school”. Even today, Barthes’s work makes it possible for semiotics to be, to use his expressions, both “the science of every imagined universe”, and a mathesis singularis, rather than universalis, that is to say a systematic way to approach the singularity of the objects of knowledge. On the basis of this “transcendental reduction”, we can therefore wish for a “second birth” and a transvaluation of linguistics and of semiotics, both to be applied through varied and disseminated forms of intellectual activism.

<p>Vilhelm Gotfrid Lajbnic bio je jedan od najvažnijih utemeljitelja modernog pojma nauke. Svojim određenjem moderne nauke, njegovo ime i njegova fi lozofi ja su višestruko povezani sa najpoznatijom katastrofom na početku moderne epohe, Lisabonskim zemljotresom iz 1755. godine. Lajbnicov ideal nauke iskazan je kroz ideju <em>mathesis universalis </em>(univerzalna matematika). Prema njegovoj interpretaciji, sve stvari u prirodi trebalo bi da se razumeju i objasne preko veličina (<em>magnitudo</em>), oblika (fi gure) i pokreta (<em>motus</em>). Mogli bismo reći da prema ovakvoj ideji moderne nauke svi posebni prirodni fenomeni treba da budu objašnjeni matematički. Lajbnicova ideja nauke je potpuni izraz moderne epohe. Matematika ne bi trebalo da samo nauci donese izvesnost (<em>certitude</em>), već i našim životima. Lajbnicova matematička interpretacija prirodnih fenomena vodi nas do „optimizma” i ideje o <em>najboljem od svih mogućih svetova</em>. Nažalost, Lajbnicov optimistički pogled na svet, tipičan za kraj 17. i početak 18. veka, bio je dramatično prekinut Lisabonskim zemljotresom. Sposobnost merenja i računanja snage zemljotresa i visine cunamija nisu u duše Portugalaca i drugih Evropljana uneli mir i sigurnost. Upravo suprotno, računajući odnos prema Lisabonskom zemljotresu uneo je u njihove živote ogroman strah od ponavljanja katastrofe. Prethodna katastrofa je shvatana kao potencijalna mogućnost novih, koje tek treba da se dogode. Stoga autor ovog teksta zastupa stav da sâm Lisabonski zemljotres iz 1755. godine nije ono što je označilo kraj optimizma, već moderni pojam nauke koji je, preko računanja i predikcije verovatnoće novih katastrofa u budućnosti, u duše ljudi uneo strah.</p>

Il 20 febbraio 2018, a Catania, è mancato improvvisamente Biagio Micale, Professore ordinario di Matematiche complementari all’Università di Catania. Avrebbe compiuto 72 anni il 16 novembre 2018. È stato membro della Commissione Italiana per l’Insegnamento della Matematica e presidente della sezione Mathesis di Catania. Ha coordinato il Nucleo di Ricerca Didattica che opera presso il Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica dell’Università di Catania. L’attività scientifica ha riguardato vari aspetti della matematica. In particolare nel periodo che va dagli studi post-laurea al 1986 ha indirizzato la ricerca principalmente verso questioni di fondamenti della matematica riguardanti soprattutto le algebre universali, in particolare gli \( \Omega \)-gruppi di Higgins, e i sistemi algebrici. A partire dal 1987 ha arontato temi di ricerca riguardati la Combinatorica, in modo particolare i \( t \)-design (sistemi di quadruple di Steiner, sistemi di terne e di quaterne orientate). Dal 1978 ha sviluppato un’ampia attività di ricerca riguardante tematiche di fondamenti della matematica e di didattica della matematica, con particolare riguardo per la geometria. Relativamente alla didattica della matematica, sviluppa una organica ricerca prevalentemente indirizzata su problemi riguardanti la didattica della geometria nelle scuole secondarie in relazione alle innovazioni contenute nei programmi di insegnamento in vigore o in via di sperimentazione. In modo particolare dà vita ad una serie di ricerche su problematiche didattiche legate allo sviluppo del tema sulle trasformazioni geometriche, avendo come obiettivo unitario quello di innestare e amalgamare tale tema con la tradizione “euclidea” dell’insegnamento della geometria nella nostra scuola.

O objeto de análise neste artigo são as crianças pregadoras no pentecostalismo midiático contemporâneo, o objetivo é interpretar o uso espetacular de crianças de quatro a 13 anos no exercício de uma pretensa vocação religiosa carismática de pregadores nos templos e auditórios de prática pentecostal. Nosso percurso metodológico básico parte dos conceitos da sociedade espetáculo aplicado na publicização da intimidade infantil (DEBORD, 1997), e do discurso de Deus na idade mídia contemporânea (RAMOS, 2005), como mais uma manifestação de teatralização no campo religioso brasileiro (CAMPOS, 1997). Destarte, analisaremos o percurso carismático de duas crianças americanas, Marjoe Gortner e Kanon Tipton, e detalharemos o caso de uma criança brasileira, Matheus Moraes. A partir das Kids who preach, entre muitos questionamentos e (in)certezas, interpretaremos o insólito uso infantil no mercado religioso pentecostal contemporâneo, onde os pais tornam-se agentes e empresários de seus filhos, papel estranho se comparado com os direitos universais da criança, onde o papel da família é ser protetora e provedora, e não exploradora em nome da fé.
 
 
 KIDS WHO PREACH: THE PREACHERS CHILDREN AND SPECTACULAR SPEECH ABOUT GOD IN AGE MEDIA PENTECOSTAL
 
 
 The object of analysis in this article are preacher children in contemporary mediatic Pentecostalism. The purpose is to interpret the spectacular use of children in the exercise of a pretended charismatic religious vocation of preachers in the temples and auditoriums of Pentecostal practice. Our basic methodological course is based on the concepts of the spectacle society applied in the publicity of children's intimacy (DEBORD, 1997), and of God's discourse in the contemporary media age (RAMOS, 2005), as another demonstration of theatricalisation in the Brazilian religious field (CAMPOS, 1997). From the Kids who preach, among many questions and (un) certainties, we will interpret the unusual use of children in the contemporary Pentecostal religious market, where parents become agents and entrepreneurs of their children, a strange role compared to the universal rights of the child , where the role of the family is to be protective and providing, not childish explorer in the name of faith.

Há uma sensação no ar de que vivemos tempos-limite. A educação liberal, mesmo a de alto padrão científico e tecnológico, não eliminou a exclusão e a barbárie social, pelo contrário, alimentou-a. A voracidade insaciável da economia-política neoliberal corroeu a própria democracia social e mantém-nos presos à ciência moderna baconiana que vê a natureza como fonte de exploração a qualquer custo. Daí, a amplificação dos problemas sociais estruturais – o racismo, o patriarcalismo a pobreza, a fome, a violência – vem apontando, tempos-limite com a crise global sanitária, climática e hídrica. Nesse quadro, impossível não lembrar Eric Hobsbawm em Era dos Extremos: o breve século XX, 1914-1991, lançado em 1994. Lá, o historiador britânico não só sintetizou as catástrofes e crises daquele período, como já visualizava, no final do século, uma porta aberta para um futuro incerto. O futuro continua incerto; porém, hoje temos uma consciência maior das causas históricas dos grandes problemas socioambientais e indícios mais claros que, no tempo presente, vivemos uma crise paradigmática do modelo de civilização estruturado na modernidade ocidental do norte-global e hoje mundialmente hegemônico. Aceitar a existência de crise paradigmática hoje é reconhecer a interdependência e a complexidade dos grandes problemas sociais, econômicos, políticos e culturais que ameaçam a humanidade. São de tal magnitude que não se pode resolvê-los separadamente e nem enfrentá-los com modelos culturais e tecnológicos da modernidade que criamos, pois são eles as causas desses grandes problemas. Mas nem todos pensam assim. Para os ‘obrigatoriamente’ otimistas, encastelados no poder econômico, supera-se a crise da modernidade com mais modernidade. Ou seja, a modernidade pode resolver os problemas gerados por ela, com mais ciência, tecnologia e desenvolvimento econômico. É preciso apenas um ajuste de rumo civilizatório. Se não puder salvar todos, salvam-se os que tiverem mérito para isso, mas tenta-se evitar o caos do ‘salve-se-quem-puder’. Há também os ‘profetas do passado’ que veem a solução da crise da civilização moderna, na negação da própria modernidade em nome de valores pré-modernos sejam epistemológicos, sejam morais. Eles tentam manter, a todo custo, seu status quo, defendendo estruturas sociais já ultrapassadas pela modernidade. Foi assim, por exemplo, a ação do Santo Ofício que, em pleno Renascimento, impunha a visão teocêntrica a ferro-e-fogo, para manter o poder medieval da Igreja, abalado pelos novos tempos. A história não para e, muito menos, volta ao passado; mesmo que a curto e médio prazo isso pareça possível. O tempo de crise paradigmática em que vivemos é para ser respeitado e refletido profundamente. É tempo de grandes aprendizagens, pois as mudanças históricas de paradigmas civilizatórios são muito abrangentes do que as ‘revoluções’ que ocorrem dentro de um mesmo paradigma, como apontou Thomas Kuhn em A estrutura das revoluções científicas (1962). Assim foram as transformações científicas no interior da modernidade, com Newton, Darwin e Freud. Enfim, nesses tempos-limite, há ainda aqueles ‘realisticamente esperançosos’. Para eles – que acreditamos e lutamos por um outro mundo possível – os desafios são enormes, pois nestes tempos perdem-se muitos referenciais. Não temos mais o GPS do curso da história como tinham Marx e Comte, no século XIX. O século XX abalou todas nossas belas certezas modernas. Sabemos hoje muito mais do que não podemos continuar valorizando, do que do perfil da sociedade que precisamos construir. A transição entre o paradigma medieval e o paradigma moderno demorou pelo menos trezentos anos. Todavia, talvez agora não tenhamos mais tanto o tempo como os modernos tiveram para construir um novo olhar sobre o universo, a natureza e a sociedade em nome de uma nova retórica de poder. Trata-se agora de sobrevivência urgente da humanidade. É isso que crise sanitária, climática e hídrica está gritando em nossos surdos ouvidos. Essa é a luz que brilha no final do túnel de transição paradigmática: a vida e vida digna para todos sem exceção. E mais, a crise do paradigma da modernidade também nos mostra que a vida humana é parte ínfima e profundamente dependente da vida planetária. E depois que ela tiver passado, nada terá acontecido, já disse Nietzsche lá no século XIX. Viver em tempo de transição paradigmática, acreditando na luta por uma outra sociedade, exige colocar, como primeiro valor, o direito humano à vida e essa, em equilíbrio com a vida planetária. A partir dessa certeza pode-se reconfigurar os valores da educação em direitos humanos. Assim, educar as novas gerações, cuja responsabilidade é construir a ponte para uma nova sociedade, exige cultivar certos valores, hoje fundamentais. Um deles é a postura diante daquilo que chamamos de ‘verdade’. Aceitar a verdade científica moderna não mais como absoluta, não é negá-la ou falseá-la, mas colocá-la em diálogo com outros saberes para ampliar percepção da diversidade e complexidade da realidade socioambiental. Educar hoje exige a humildade da escuta e do aprender juntos na vivência e na reflexão, em lugar do discurso prepotente de quem crê ter a verdade única e absoluta, seja ela científica, política, ou religiosa. Estar aberto às novas possibilidades e aos novos olhares e nossa atual condição humana. Há outras exigências nesses tempos-limite como: – ressignificar os conceitos de desenvolvimento, de consumo do necessário e do bem viver para todos, que na modernidade visavam especialmente o lucro, o supérfluo e o individualismo; – estimular a cidadania autônoma, ativa, crítica e coletiva; – desenvolver a sensibilidade e a empatia para a convivência nas diferenças sem os padrões culturais cristalizados; e – cultivar a indignação e a luta individual e coletiva contra as desigualdades sociais e todo tipo de opressão e autoritarismo. Numa palavra, a moralidade humana tem como princípio ético a inclusão e não a seleção natural, que na modernidade ideologicamente chama-se de meritocracia. No novo paradigma a humanidade será para todos ou não será humanidade. * * * Trilhando esse caminho a Revista Interdisciplinar de Direitos Humanos apresenta nesta edição o dossiê Educação em direitos humanos: resistência e transformação. Na seção de ‘artigos diversos’, mantemos o foco editorial de ‘interdisciplinaridade’, trazendo contribuições para pensar os direitos humanos como tema transversal em diferentes áreas do conhecimento acadêmico. Filosofia. O texto de Ana Santana e Antônio Basílio traz “as reflexões político-filosóficas de Hannah Arendt, volvendo o olhar para a sua teia conceitual sobre a educação e os direitos humanos, a fim de detectar os fios constituintes, capazes de fundamentar os pilares universais”. Direito. No ensaio A escravidão contemporânea no Brasil e a perda da propriedade privada, Pedro Greco e Ricardo Resende debruçam-se “sobre uma discussão do papel da legislação na erradicação da escravidão contemporânea”. O estudo nos mostra o “efeito emancipatório dos direitos hu¬manos na luta antiescravista com o objetivo de melhor vislumbrarmos alguns dos motivos pelo qual pouco prospera a pauta que prevê a perda da pro¬priedade privada em casos de escravidão contemporânea no Brasil”. Educação. André Luiz, em Educação em direitos humanos: uma pauta premente na docência e na gestão escolar, relata e analisa uma experiência de formação continuada de docentes e coordenadores pedagógicos, suscitando “novos saberes na prática educativa em direitos humanos”. Educomunicação. Educação em direitos humanos e letramento digital e o artigo de Mara Juliane e Matheus. Nele os autores apresentam as ações e análise dos resultados de uma proposta pedagógica desenvolvida “com discentes das três turmas de primeiros anos do ensino técnico integrado ao ensino médio”. Comunicação: Nesta área temos duas contribuições. Na primeira, as autoras Fabiana de Melo e Maria Dalvi retomam a polêmica ocorrida nas redes sociais, em 2017, “atinente ao recolhimento, pelo Ministério da Educação do Brasil, em 2017, do livro Enquanto o sono não vem”. No artigo Polêmicas nas redes sociais, censura literária e silenciamentos sobre abuso sexual: um debate sobre direitos das crianças, “[...] a análise centra-se na questão dos direitos da infância, à luz do tensiona¬mento sobre a responsabilidade do Estado e da educação pública”. Na segunda contribuição, João da Cruz apresenta um ensaio criativo e crítico para demonstrar, com detalhes, A pedagogia conservadora do cinema de animação. O filme Os Incríveis (Pixar, 2004) é o objeto do estudo. Engenharia. Com A inserção dos direitos humanos nos cursos de engenharia, os autores Marcos Silvério, Gustavo dos Santos e Márcia de Oliveira fecham esta edição da RIDH, comentando, com dados quantitativos, uma experiência positiva de educação em direitos humanos pelas disciplinas ‘Tecnologia Social’ e ‘Eco¬nomia Solidária’ de um curso de Engenharia. Boa leitura! Prof. Clodoaldo Meneguello Cardoso Dezembro de 2021.

The author shows how Proclo is a precursor of 'Mathesis universalis' concept, without admiting the aporetic method of mathematics which is in Plato, Aristotle and Euclides thought. Today, his paradigm is rejected but it is a decisive factor to understand the sources of western thought. This study deals with the works of Brisson, Cleary, Trudeau, Beierwaltes and Schmitz.

Bu çalışmada amacım Spinoza’nın geometrik yönteminin Descartes’a dayanan kökenlerini göstermeye çalışmaktır. Descartes aritmetik ve geometriye dayanan evrensel bir bilim (mathesis universalis) kurmak istemiştir. Onun bu konudaki fikirleri kendi yöntem anlayışında da belirleyicidir. Descartes’ın mathesis universalis düşüncesi ve yöntem anlayışı Spinoza’nın geometrik yöntem anlayışının şekillenmesinde doğrudan etkili olmuştur. Çalışmamda Spinoza’nın geometrik yönteminin nasıl şekillendiğini göstermek için Birinci Kısımda Descartes’ın mathesis universalis projesini ve yöntem anlayışını inceledim. Bu bağlamda onun geometrik düzen hakkındaki fikirlerini ele aldım. İkinci kısımda ise Spinoza’nın geometrik yöntem anlayışının nasıl doğduğunu göstermek amacıyla, hala Descartes’ın yöntem konusundaki etkilerinin görüldüğü Aklın Islahı Üzerine Bir İnceleme başlıklı çalışmasından Ethica’ya kadar olan eserlerini araştırmam bağlamında geometrik yöntemin uygulanması bakımından inceledim. Spinoza’nın geometrik yönteminin geçtiği aşamalar onun geometrik yönteminin zaman içinde nasıl gelişip değiştiğini göstermektedir. Spinoza geometrik yöntemle yazma konusunda Descartes’tan ileri gitmiş, her konuda geometrik yöntemin kullanılabileceğini söylemiştir.

O objetivo deste trabalho é refletir acerca da perspectiva anticartesiana que se manifesta nas obras de Pascal (1623-62) e Hume (1711-76), especificamente no que se refere à concepção filosófica dos primeiros princípios do conhecimento. Partindo da enunciação da mathesis universalis em Descartes, buscamos identificar como Pascal e Hume apresentam uma posição alternativa, assim como refletir acerca das semelhanças e divergências entre esses dois autores. As principais fontes de Pascal a serem consideradas são o opúsculo Do Espírito Geométrico (1656, publicado parcialmente em 1728) e o fragmento 72 (edição Brunschvicg) dos Pensamentos (1670). No caso de Hume, focaremos na Parte I do Livro I do Tratado acerca da natureza humana (1739-40) e na Investigação sobre o entendimento humano (1748).

Taishū engeki—Entertainment for the Masses? What do a highway robber, a samurai, and a geisha have in common? They are all played by the same actor, often at the same time, in an incredible flurry of costume change, in a contemporary form of Japanese theatre called taishū engeki. Taishū engeki, translated as vaudeville, literally, “theatre for the masses”, would be better described as a parallel world of fantasy, glitter, and manga-esque beautiful men wearing elaborate wigs and even more elaborate kimonos, who dance and gracefully sway their hips to portray women, and simultaneously do their best to seduce the overwhelmingly female audience. Taishū engeki represents an escape into a world of romances enacted through dance, of tragic love stories that somehow end well when the main character reappears in the second act as a brilliant dragon-slaying god, and of literal dances with dragons. One performance by dance troupe Gekidan Kokoro included onna-gata buyō (traditional Japanese dance performed by a man playing the part of a woman), a play about brotherly love and devotion where the glamorous actor from the first part was a not too bright young boy (depicted with snot running down his nose), more crossdressing and dancing, a few shamisen songs, a totally unexpected breakdancing piece, and a collaboration with Iwami Kagura—a famous group from Shimane who performs sacred dances in association with various Shinto rituals. Despite being able to combine theatrical skills with dance and acrobatic feats, taishū engeki is seen as a minor theatrical genre, often included in the category of folk arts (Kurata 42), or “low art” intended merely for fun and entertainment” (Endo 151). Although the name would indicate that is addresses a wider audience (which may have been the case decades ago, when cheap entertainment was not so readily available as it is today), taishū engeki caters to a specific category of people. The performers are organised in small itinerant troupes who spend about one month in a specific location, putting on two shows daily—one starting at noon, and one in the evening. In most cases, the show has two parts: one is a play, followed by a free program of dancing, acrobatic features, and even playing instruments such as drums or shamisen. The audience itself consists of two categories: the local people, living in the vicinity of the small theatres where performances are held, and who might attend each new show two or three times, and the fans, who follow their favourite actor from place to place to the limit of their time and financial resources. When it comes to performing arts, Japan’s most famous form of theatre is definitely kabuki: a performative genre highly appreciated by the Japanese and whose extravagant costumes and make-up, as well as exaggerated gestures eliminate some of the language barriers and make it (at least to a certain degree) comprehensible to non-Japanese speakers. Besides kabuki, noh (a highly ritualised form of theatre characterised by its use of masks) and bunraku (puppet theatre) are most often mentioned together, popular both within and outside the borders of Japan as entertainment and objects of scholarly research. As a scholar of Japanese studies, I had learned about these three categories in my first year as an undergraduate student, but it took me over ten years in Japan to discover taishū engeki, something that Robert Schneider and Nathan Schneider (256) ironically call “a weed in Japan’s exquisite garden of classical theatre and a living fossil in the detritus of Asian modernity”. Is taishū engeki really a fossil or a weed accidentally left on the stage of classical theatre? Its faithful fans would beg to differ, and so would the accomplishments of some troupes, who are entirely self-sufficient, renting the venues where they perform and travelling with their own light and sound systems, as well as hundreds of exquisite costumes and wigs. To give just an example, Aotsuki Shinya, the leader of Gekidan Kokoro, told me that he possesses more than two hundred wigs, and mid-September this year will attempt to perform 120 different dances, with different costumes, during the three days that will celebrate his birthday. In contrast with noh or kabuki, where each gesture is highly stylised and must be performed in a pre-defined order, in a set context, taishū engeki is flexible: plays are based on known stories, but the plot is overly simplified, so that the audience can focus on the main characters and the way they perform more than on the storyline, and the second act is actually the main attraction of the show, when the actors can showcase their special skills to the delight of the audience. Kabuki developed in the seventeenth century, and it was aimed at the “common people”, while “the true professionals, the performers of the [noh] and the kyōgen [comedy], began to retreat behind the curtain of refinement” (Tsubaki 4). In the twenty-first century, noh has become more of a mixture of performance and ritual, appreciated by a small number of specialists, and often staged to accompany religious manifestations. Kabuki, on the other hand, has taken its place as the most valued theatrical art, with fans and aficionados vying for the best seats (whose prices can go up to 30,000 Japanese yen, and yet are hard to procure), but taishū engeki shows no signs that it might ever reach that level of popularity. In 1995 Marilyn Ivy saw it as a “discourse of the vanishing”, an art that might disappear as, while “it appears to carry on an unarguably Japanese knowledge” (239), it has failed to create a “boom” or a vast audience. While novelty is part of the performance, it seems to somehow be not new enough, not entrancing enough. The actors are talented, creative, and versatile, but they do not attain the fame level of their kabuki counterparts. Despite all these, as an anthropologist, I could not help but wonder why taishū engeki has not attracted more scholarly interest. The studies on this topic, both in Japanese and English, are far less numerous than those on butoh, for example, “a post-modern dance genre” which has been the focus of both practical and theoretical interest on the part of Japanese studies specialists. To give just an example, in his book on Japanese theatre, Benito Ortolani has a subchapter on butoh, but does not even mention taishū engeki. Prince(ss) Charming My first encounters with taishū engeki were due to a class project—I had started teaching a class on theatre as ritual performance, and wanted my students to have a first-hand experience. The project was a success: students who had shown no enthusiasm at all when reading the syllabus were mesmerised once the performance had begun, to the level that they had attended shows by themselves, and even started following the actors on various social networks. Taishū engeki surpasses all expectations of a first-time viewer. It follows a canon, just like kabuki, but that canon is audience-oriented, so without having ever been part of that audience, it is difficult to imagine what will happen on stage. As mentioned above, each performance has two parts: the first one is a play, whose content changes during the one-month performance, usually based on historical events familiar to the audience, but not restricted to that, an intermission during which the leader of the troupe greets the audience, talks about the schedule for the remainder of the month, and promotes the merchandise available for sale (T-shirts, fans, boxes of sweets), followed by a free-style show where the performers are free to display their best skills. Photography is not allowed during the first part—and this may be due to the fact that most troupe leaders create their own plays using the vast available materials, and are reluctant to share that with other troupes—but is encouraged during the second part. Video taking is forbidden at all times. Crossdressing is a significant part of the performance, with men playing the part of women who are attractive to other women, and women playing the part of men who also attract women. The actresses, however, never become the star of the troupe. Just like in the case of Takarazuka Theatre, where the otoko yaku (women playing the male roles) receive significantly more appreciation than the female counterparts, the heavily made-up male actors of taishū engeki represent the dreamy ideal of their dedicated fans. Each performing group is centered around one male actor who is representative of the troupe—usually the leader or the leader’s son, and who gathers a dedicated fan base composed of women (most of whom are middle-aged or older). These women try to attend as many shows as they can, literally showering their favourite actor with money. The few available studies on taishū engeki tended to focus on two major aspects: crossdressing (mostly of the onnagata—men playing women—type) and on the money the actors receive while on stage. Fig. 1: An actor on the Gofukuza Stage (Osaka) displaying money gifts, 13 June 2018. Schneider and Schneider, for example, looked into how gender is performed, and what rules are applied when performing gender. Their conclusion? There are no clear rules, as “taishū engeki plays with gender, but it also quite simply plays gender” (262). My own interest was not in the actual gender performed, but in the most pervasive and permanent element of all taishū engeki performances: seduction. Those who go to see these shows may do so for mere amusement—and their expectations are never disappointed, as the costumes are complex and flamboyant, and the performers are skilled dancers, but those who go faithfully do so due to their admiration for a certain actor. The first act (the historical play) is a convention where the star appears slightly more human—less make-up, sometimes performing the role of a man—always strong and masculine, which is quite an artistic feat seeing that even in the role of a man, the actors will wear specific make-up and false eyelashes. The Takarazuka Revue, an all-female group founded in 1914, has a large and consistent fan base made-up almost entirely of women who fall in love with the actress playing the main male roles—a phenomenon explained by the desire to temporarily live in a fantasy world. The difference between the Takarazuka actresses and the taishū engeki actors is that the former do not aim to seduce, but to invite the audience into a dream world, while the latter’s goal is to fully entrance. Regardless of the gender they play, the taishū engeki stars create erotic characters, just like their kabuki precursors, where, as Samuel L. Leiter (212) puts it, “eros remained primary”. Dressed in kimonos of intricate patterns that go far outside the lines of tradition, and are representative of the creative spirit of the performer, using make-up which completely transforms their physiognomies through the heavy use of eyeliner, glitter, false eyelashes, and wearing exquisite wigs, the actors invite the audience into a dream world where the Fairy Godmother gave the best dress to the prince, not the princess. For hundreds if not thousands of years, the folktales focussed around the image of a beautiful prince, the kalos kagathos hero (beautiful and virtuous, the ancient Greek ideal) who takes the maiden from distress and into a happily ever after. Taishū engeki heroes switch perspectives: it is not Prince Charming, but Princess Charming, an utterly beautiful creature who enchants the female audience by being the impossible. Princess Charming represents an embodiment of the best possible features—beauty, glamour, grace, sex appeal, elegance—and none of the negative ones—lack of manners, roughness, insensitivity. Moreover, Princess Charming is accessible. For a mere 2,000 yen, anybody can spend three hours in her company, and shaking her hand starts at a similarly low price—2,000 or 3,000 yen for a trinket bought during the intermission, to hand over as a gift during the performance. Fig. 2: Aotsuki Shinya as a romantic lady in a flowing kimono, Gofukuza, 9 July 2022. Dressed as females, the actors move their bodies with the grace of a geisha, bat their eyelashes, smile coquettishly, and even wink at the audience. As males, they are either abandoned lovers who drown their sorrows in drink, or fierce warriors dancing with masks and swords. In all circumstances, they present exaggerated feminine or masculine ideals, with the difference that femininity is emphasised through the overuse of garments and accessories, while masculinity will almost always involve a certain degree of nakedness: chest, arms, legs. The reasons are both practical (showing various naked body parts would destroy the dreamy feminine beauty wrapped up in layers of cloth and glitter), and symbolic: femininity is mysterious and fragile, and thus cannot easily be revealed, while masculinity must re-assert its strength and vitality. The body presented on stage is more of an artistic act than the performance itself, because it is there that most of the actor’s talent is poured. Creating a persona means borrowing from the “traditional” Japanese culture which includes geisha, courtesans, heavy wigs, and heavily embroidered kimonos, as well as the contemporary manga and cosplay culture. With exaggerated eyes and hairstyles as the central features of the head, the characters moving in front of the audience seem to have directly descended from (or drawn the viewers into, “Take On Me” style) the pages of a fantasy manga. An interview with Aotsuki Shinya (stage name), leader and star of the Kokoro (“Heart”) troupe conducted on 15 June 2022, did not offer any insightful glimpses into the metamorphosis process. While acknowledging that he cannot present his true self on stage, thus using make-up to become Aotsuki Shinya, the actor did not admit to any conscious attempt of becoming attractive. In his own words, all their efforts are for the benefit of the audience, directed towards helping them have fun. “Tanoshii”, “fun” seemed to be a key concept when staging a new performance, and the reasoning behind that is easy to follow. Unlike the more elevated kabuki, a taishū engeki theatre is a small cosy place where the audience can interact quite freely with the performers, who do not shy away from showing momentarily glimpses of the face behind the mask: forgetting a line and admitting to it, laughing at a joke said by another actor, kneeling prettily to receive gifts from their fans. Rather than gender fluid, the bodies in taishū engeki are genderless because they are not, nor do they claim to be, real. An actor on the traditional stage is a photography, or, if the setting includes fantastic elements, a painting of an imaginable universe. An actor on the taishū engeki stage turns their body into a manga drawing: something that does not exist in real life, but it is highly desirable. Kabuki actors staged eroticism by impersonating women; taishū engeki actors play with desire becoming in turns both Cinderella and the Prince. Figs. 3 & 4: Aotsuki Shinya as a fantastic character (fig. 3) and as the god Susano-wo slaying the dragon (fig. 4). “Fantasy, Sweet Fantasy” Analysing the loyalty that Takarazuka actresses inspire into their fans, Makiko Yamanashi interprets it as something that goes beyond (dreams of) physical love or mere escapism, and sees it as the desire to belong to an ideal community of women—friends, sisters, mothers. While not wrong, this approach seems to gloss over the real erotic feelings and the longing for something not of this world which are most definitely present among performative arts (be they kabuki, revue, vaudeville, butoh, modern theatre) aficionados. The men performed by the Takarazuka actresses do not exist in real life, and just as in the case of taishū engeki actors, make-up plays a crucial role. Lorie Brau even mentions an incident where an American director hired to stage a production of “West Side Story” required the actresses playing male roles to give up their false eyelashes—a change that did not last after the director left (86). The taishū engeki actors are warriors who bring back to life the god Izanagi, the creator of Japan, who fought an army of underworld monsters, while wearing eyeliner, eyelashes, and sparkling make-up. They are completely unrecognisable without make-up, and yet changing their appearance takes approximately ten minutes, much less than it would take a drag queen to turn from ordinary man into glamorous woman (at least forty minutes). I am not mentioning here the drag queens by chance—the two types of performances are similar enough that they lead to collaborations. On 10 June 2022, the troupe Kokoro performed at the Gofukuza Theatre in Umeda in the company of five drag queens well known on the Osaka stage: Feminina, Rulu Daisy, Madame Cocco, Ozu, and Il Rosa. One characteristic of drag performances is that they are actor-centred: they are not about the storyline, but about the performer’s creation—“channeling your inner femininity, fusing it with the male, and creating something otherworldly” (Hastings). The noticeable difference between drag and taishū engeki is that drag is actor-oriented, while taishū engeki is audience-oriented. Drag queens interact with the audiences and entertain, but the focus is internal, towards freeing something that had been developing within. Taishū engeki actors do choose their characters, of course, and have individual preferences, but this is secondary to their goal of captivating the audiences. Both categories of performers learn to re-invent their bodies, to re-create them on stage; however, in one case we witness an individual metamorphosis from real life to theatrical persona, and in the other we have one individual who can shapeshift into whatever character might work better magic on the people in front of him. Drag is about freedom while taishū engeki is about seduction. Fig. 5: Il Rosa and two actors of the Shin troupe, Gofukuza, 10 June 2022 Taishū engeki may not be kabuki: it is not celebrated by the media or the researchers, and many people in contemporary Japanese society see it as an inferior form of entertainment. Considering the low price of the tickets and the fact that shows are seldom sold out, one might worry about its future. Nevertheless, a visit to the backstage of Gofukuza during the month when Shin was performing revealed a large room full of costumes, and another one full of wig boxes—more than two hundred, according to Aotsuki Shinya. The Shin troupe was founded five years ago, so everything was still new and shiny—a sign that the genre will not disappear any time in the near future. The same visit, when I could interact with the actors in their day-to-day attires, using their regular voices, and standing near the costumes and wigs like exhibits in a museum, made one more thing acutely clear: the fact that their performances are a fantasy world. More of a fantasy world than a kabuki performance (to remain consistent with the comparison), where the setting is clearly a setting, separate from the audience. The blurred lines between stage and audience, between performance and flirting of the taishū engeki create a tangible fantasy, where one can not only fall in love with the Prince(ss) Charming, but maybe even take them to a ball. References Brau, Lorie. “The Women’s Theater of Takarazuka”. TDR 34.4 (Winter 1990): 79-95. Endo, Yukihide. “Reconsidering the Traveling Theater of Today’s Japan: An Interdisciplinary Approach to a Stigmatized Form of Japanese Theater.” Athens Journal of Humanities and Arts 2.3. Hastings, Magnus. Why Drag? Hong Kong: Chronicle Books, 2016. Ivy, Marilyn. Discourses of the Vanishing. Modernity Phantasm Japan. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995. Kurata, Ryosuke. “Taishū Engeki as a Show Business: Exploring the Segmentation of Customers.” Mathesis Universalis 17.2. Leiter, Samuel L. “From Gay to Gei: The Onnagata and the Creation of Kabuki’s Female Characters.” In A Kabuki Reader: History and Performance, ed. Samuel L. Leitner. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2002. 211-229. Ortolani, Benito. The Japanese Theatre. From Shamanistic Ritual to Contemporary Pluralism. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1995. Schneider, Robert, and Nathan Schneider. “A Dive and a Dance with Kabuki Vaudeville: Taishū Engeki Comes Back!” New Theater Quarterly 36.3 (2020). 29 July 2020 <https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/new-theatre-quarterly/article/abs/dive-and-a-dance-with-kabuki-vaudeville-taishu-engeki-comes-back/BB72486E86C79B70730B6F2DB5EC0FF8>. Yamanashi, Makiko. A History of the Takarazuka Revue Since 1914: Modernity, Girls’ Culture, Japan Pop. Leiden: Global Oriental, 2012.