Academic Background

• 1995 Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
• 1995 PhD in Philosophy, University of São Paulo
  Supervisor: Prof. Luiz Henrique Lopes dos Santos
  Title: Realism and Anti-Realism about Science: Philosophical Considerations on the Cognitive Value of Science
• 1982 Master’s Degree in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas
  Supervisor: Prof. Zeljko Loparic
  Title: Induction and Credibility: A Probabilistic-Personalist Study on Learning from Experience
• 1986/1987 Specialization in Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, USA
• 1979 Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
• 1977 Bachelor’s Degree in Physics at the University of São Paulo

Research Area

Epistemology and Philosophy of the Natural Sciences in the Analytical Tradition

Current Research

─Analysis of realist and antirealist conceptions of science,
─Application of game theory to epistemological questions,
─Examination of the social dimension of scientific rationality.

Caetano Ernesto Plastino

Academic Background

• 1990 Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
• 1983 PhD in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
  Title: The Criticism of Political Anthropology in the Work of Pierre Clastres
  Supervision: Prof. Marilena de Souza Chaui
• 1979 Post-graduation in Philosophy (Diplôme d'Études Approfondies) by Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
  Title: La representation machievellienne de l'histoire, étude des Istorie Fiorentine
  Supervisor: Prof. Claude Lefort
• 1971 Licenciate in Philosophy by the Nossa Senhora Medianeira Faculty
• 1969 Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas

Current Research

─The constitution of the ethical sphere in Montaigne’s Essays: a reorientation of morality and politics in the context of skepticism
─Skepticism and fideism in Raimond Sebon’s apology
─Investigations into ancient and Renaissance tradition of Republicanism

Academic Background

• 2009 Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
  Title: Hegel’s Aesthetics: His Times and Heritage
• 2000 PhD in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
  Title: The Form of Poetic Representation: Philosophy and Poetry in Hegel
  Supervisor: Prof. Victor Knoll
• 1996 Master’s Degree in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
  Title: The Notion of Poetry in Hölderlin, according to Heidegger
  Supervisor: Prof. Victor Knoll
• 1992 Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy at the Federal University of Santa Catarina

Current Research

Between Philosophy and Literature: The Aesthetics of Hegel in Goethe’s Time
Our research aims to develop some topics within the framework of aesthetics as a philosophical discipline, whose background or vanishing point is the systematic proposal of Hegel’s aesthetics, in relation to pre-romanticism (Herder), Weimar’s classicism (Goethe and Schiller) and the German literary romanticism (Hoffmann). With this, I continue the investigations into the aesthetics of Hegel and his time, a subject that I have been occupied with the last 15 years and that has reached some developments in terms of publications: in the direction of the classicism of Weimar (translation of Art Writings of Goethe, 2005) and romanticism (translation of the Doctrine of the Art of August Schlegel, 2014). I am now occupied with pre-Romanticism, in particular with the aesthetic thinking of the young Herder. My approach to Herder is a direct result of my “Return” starting from Hegel (Aesthetics courses) to August Schlegel (Doctrine of Art) and now coming to Herder. The guiding thread for this return to the foundations of the emergence of modern aesthetics, of which Hegel is a tributary, is the articulation between the categories of art theory, art criticism, and art history. It was August Schlegel who explicitly posed the problem, but Herder was the first to mobilize these notions, in the debate with Baumgarten (theory), Lessing (critic) and Winckelmann (history of art). This is precisely the subject of so-called Critical Forests. In Hegel’s Aesthetic Courses, for information only, art theory, art history, and art criticism lie at the basis of the triad concerning the Beautiful or the Ideal (theory); to the forms of symbolic, classical and romantic art (history of art) and to the system of particular arts: architecture, sculpture, painting, music and poetry (subject of art criticism).

 

Marco Aurélio Werle

Academic Background

• 2009 Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
  Title: Pedro Abelardo: Ethics or Know thyself
• 2002 Post-doctorate at the École Normale Supérieure,. Paris, France
• 1996 PhD in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
  Title: On Freedom in William of Ockham
• 1990 Master’s degree in Philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo
  Title: Abelard’s Ethics and the Individual
• 1975 Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo

Current Research

On the medieval presence of Augustine

Abstract

The medieval reception of Aristotle is strongly influenced by the reading of Augustine’s work. At the same time, this influence changes the way that work is understood. It seems to create a “medieval Augustine.” That is, a certain way of keeping present the problematic found in Augustine and often the letter of his work, although for reasons to be discussed it is not common to comment on his work textually. It is likely that Anselm of Canterbury cannot be understood without direct reference to Augustine. The influence becomes more elliptical, though it is expressed, in Peter Abelard (as in his “Theology summi boni” and “Ethics”). This influence is notoriously claimed by such authors as Henry of Gand, John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham. There are also, in the thirteenth century, commentators of Augustine, such as the Dominican Nicolau Trevet. We seek to sketch the different figures of this appropriation and indicate the intensity of the resulting conceptual impact. The work includes a research internship (FAPESP, 2017/21858-4) linked to the seminar led by Christophe Grellard (L’ignorance invincible et le problème de l'hétérodoxie, De Jean Gerson to Jean Nider) at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris.

Members

Coordinator: Prof. José Carlos Estêvão / Member: Gustavo Barreto Vilhena de Paiva
Funding: Foundation for Support of Research in the State of São Paulo (FAPESP).

José Carlos Estêvão

Academic Background

• 2009 Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
  Title: Saint Augustine and the Liberal Arts
• 1998 PhD in Philosophy at the University of São Paulo
  Title: Saint Augustine, Time and Music
  Supervisor: Prof. Franklin Leopoldo e Silva
• 1990 Bachelor’s Degree in Music at the University of São Paulo

Current Research

Sound and Image: Symbolic Forms and Limits of Language in Western Patristic Literature
The Christianization of the West led to a rejection of traditional musical and representative practices, committed to paganism. The condemnation of theatrical spectacles, on the one hand, and the fear of idolatry, on the other, were important obstacles to the transmission of ancient artistic practices. However, at this time (between the fourth and eighth centuries of the Christian era) the foundations of a new type of art and music were created, whose characteristics are fundamental to understand the further development of European culture. The research conducted until now on musical theories and aesthetic thinking in the patristic literature seem to show some limits, which have made it difficult to understand essential aspects of this transition. On the one hand, especially in music studies, almost exclusive attention has been paid to technical treatises, which are generally concerned with transmitting the Greek scientific tradition in the most faithful way possible (with misconceptions, it is true, that are not at all accidental and irrelevant), while the texts dealing with the pastoral use and the mystical meaning of the songs are not systematically studied, appearing only in some habitual quotation. In my doctoral thesis, I tried to show first the relation between the new value given to music and the emergence of an idea of conscience in the work of Augustine of Hippo; secondly, how this relationship sustains not only many aspects of Augustinian thought (the relationship between music and language, music and consciousness and thus the relation between music and time), but also the deep structure of later Christian singing, so far removed from the Greek-Roman tradition. To the idea of music as an objective proportional form, present in the relations between sound measures, typical of ancient culture, corresponds, in Christian times, a model of singing as an expression of an inner movement, which is expressed not in but through sounds.

Lorenzo Mammì