ARTICLES

Anthropology of Tragedy. By Ximo Brotons.

The author herein draws an introduction to the capital ideas about democracy as discussed in his book Idea trágica de democracia, which can be summarised as the exploration of one’s own care and the care for political freedom. In this paper he explores the anthropological foundings of the idea of democracy: assumption of our mortality and humans’ ‘second innocence’ as found in Nietzsche’s atheism. [Download]

Towards a Reconciliation of Public and Private Autonomy in Thoreau's Politics . By Antonio Casado da Rocha.

After a literature review, this paper provides an overview of Henry D. Thoreau’s political philosophy, with emphasis on the concept of civil self-determination, which Habermas sees as comprised of both private and public autonomy, and which is present in Thoreau’s own work. I argue that he was not an anti-social anarchist, or even a pure liberal individualist, but that along with the main liberal themes of his thought there is also a democratic, even communitarian strand. Finally, I identify and describe a tension between democratic and liberal themes in both his work and contemporary Western politics, thus highlighting Thoreau’s relevance. [Download]

Let's Be Realistic: What is Left of May 68? By Nemrod Carrasco.

Forty years later, the choice about the May 68 raises again the alternative between a modern or a postmodern reading. The crucial break of the postmodern reading consists on refusing the political dimension of the May 68: for thinkers like Vallespin or Lipovetsky, the antihierarchic rhetoric of 68 was a necessary passage for the new spirit of the capital could turn successfully against the social oppressive organizations of the corporate capitalism. So that without the mediation of 68 there would have been impossible the accomplishment of the capitalist system as a consistent project. Instead, we hold that 68 remained faithful to the old procedure dialectic to focus where the project failed as the only way to get to the truth of the capitalist system. This is what the 68 would express with the formula: "Be realistic, ask for the impossible". [Download]

Dreams of a God HEavenly Adrift. By Evelio Moreno.

The platonic myth of Prometheus, stealing the fire from the gods, symbolizes the start of the most thrilling challenge of Humanity, the adventure of knowledge. Witty Daedalus pursued the stella in vain; and the kidnapping of Europe by Zeus, not in its orthodox aspect, but as represented by Bayros, closes a journey in pursuit of well being, which today proves both encouraging and threatening. When we are about to carry out Francis Bacon's imperative dominating the natural world, this latter resists and refuses to be controlled revealing the fragility of human nature. Piqueras as sporadic contrast is a witness of the past, a wake-up call. The technological imperative sums up this turning point in which we find ourselves, a non-return moment?, at the face of which the moral conscience founders and the destiny of suffering humanity can be marked by it. The height of the rational has brought us so far, to the crisis embueing everything. If this is a tale by Calleja, we are failing to discern the moral. [Download]