Program of Graduate Studies in Philosophy (M.A and Ph.D)

In recent decades, the feminist reception of Brecht's work has grown. Since 1970, several authors have appropriated Brechtian concepts and practices to develop a feminist theater that is critical of the social and ideological constructions of gender, claiming, however, that such criticism was not put into practice by the playwright in his own theater. Responding to the initial feminist reception of Brecht's work, some authors have more recently dedicated themselves to questioning this perspective. Following this line of thought and dialoguing with this reception of Brecht's work, this research aims to explain the existence of a critical dimension of patriarchal structures in his plays. We work with the hypothesis that the critique of these structures, as a foundation of capitalism[...]

This doctoral research addresses the convergences between ecofeminism and the commons in the work of Silvia Federici, with an emphasis on social reproduction as a central link for understanding the articulation between gender oppression, the exploitation of nature, and capitalist logic. The investigation aims to determine the extent to which these connections can be established. The methodology adopted is theoretical-analytical, based on a critical reading of Federici’s works, especially Re-Enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons and Caliban and the Witch, articulated with the ecofeminist frameworks of Vandana Shiva, Maria Mies, A s: licia Puleo, and Ariel Salleh, as well as contemporary authors who discuss the commons, such as Elinor Ostrom, David Bollier, and Silke[...]

This dissertation presents the results of research focused on the meaning of the concept of labor in Hegelian philosophy, as well as its implications for discussions on issues and themes related to contemporary philosophy. The research begins with two of Hegel's central works, namely, the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Philosophy of Right, to analyze the specific meanings of labor in each, corresponding to distinct functions within his philosophical system, as well as a meaning capable of presenting a common denominator between them. This common meaning is linked to the concept of formation (Bildung), from which it becomes possible not only to relate the different periods of Hegel's work, but also his concept of labor to contemporary debates related to themes such as identity and[...]

As a rationalist thinker, Leibniz demonstrates also a great interest in theological questions of his time, while he incorporates, in many of his writings, concepts and doctrines of Revealed Theology. Despite the absence of a text where his theological positions are explicitly and systematically exposed, the volume of these properly theological writings and the frequent mention of these doctrines even in Leibniz's philosophical texts leads to the question about the presence and role of Revealed Theology in Leibniz's thought, and the relationship between his philosophy and his theological positions, as well as the epistemological status of the revealed truths and the relevance of the philosophical problems and solutions that emerge from them, especially if we take into account the presence[...]

This dissertation investigates the epistemic status of preternatural phenomena in early modernity (16th–17th centuries) through three case studies: the pelico, ecstasy, and the Benandanti, a visionary peasant tradition from Friuli. Drawing on the historiographical dialogue between Carlo Ginzburg's microhistory and Lorraine Daston's historical epistemology, the work develops the methodological notion of disciplined sensibility. This investigative stance combines rigorous historical reconstruction with an attentive openness to the instability of its objects. The research situates the preternatural as a historical category that strained the duality between the natural and the supernatural, establishing a third epistemic space where the effects were empirically observable, but their causes[...]

This dissertation seeks to explain the relationship between natural law and democracy in Spinoza's thought. In the first chapter, we aim to provide a concise exposition concerning God or Substance and how all of nature, including man, relates to it, demonstrating Spinoza's break with the traditional Judeo-Christian view, which believed in a transcendent and anthropomorphic God situated outside the reality of human experience and therefore incomprehensible. In the second chapter, we provide a brief overview of the meaning of natural law for the philosophers Spinoza and Hobbes, examining the similarities and differences between both thinkers regarding the emergence of political regimes. In the third chapter, we list the reasons why Spinoza considers democracy to be the most natural and most[...]

The aim is to present a possible and coherent way of thinking, in Rousseau's work, about the articulation between the political imperative of particularizing customs and the moral imperative of humanizing the citizen. This articulation presupposes the connection between Rousseau's epistemology and anthropology: for him, the formation of moral ideas cannot be explained simply by the gathering of simple ideas into complex ones, as Locke and Condillac would have it, but requires, instead of a mechanics of ideas, instead of a merely formal progress of understanding, that we also resort to the sphere of affections and customs. In that case, we speak of archetypal ideas of mixed modes, we abstract from what man is in his totality, and it results in abstract, transcendental morals; in the latter[...]

This master’s dissertation discusses Heraclitus’ statements that in part approach the world from a perspective of multiplicity, contrasts and becoming and in part, from a perspective of unity, harmony and stability. Although many considered them contradictory, such statements, in light of the set of the Heraclitean fragments we have access to, in fact point out to a cohesive and coherent worldview that could not be properly described by any of these perspectives alone, but by the combination of both duly articulated by what we hereinafter refer to as “tension”. Tension would thus be the ‘articulating notion’ that not only allowed Heraclitus (1) to see through the contrasts a deeper aspect common to them, the unity in its many facets, but also allowed him (2) to understand the very[...]

his work is devoted to the study of the emergence of neoliberalism, the establishment of its governing institutions, and finally the process that led to the crisis of this institutional body. The reflection begins in the prologue to the thesis, which briefly addresses some aspects of the crisis of liberalism in the 19th century, with the aim of illustrating the context of the rise of neoliberalism. The first chapter of the thesis is dedicated to the crisis of political economy, providing a description of the emergence of economic science as a new instrument for understanding government practices. In addition, this chapter also presents the path taken by the notion of competition, indicating how it spread from the sphere of commercial relations to operate as a broader social regulatory[...]

This dissertation provides an interpretation of Plato’s Parmenides dialogue with a focus on the metaphysical problem of the One and the Many. We hypothesize that Plato introduces the central difficulty at the outset of the dialogue by addressing the sensible domain. However, this approach generates further challenges when one posits Forms, rather than mere universals, as the solution. Any attempt to derive the Forms from the sensible domain and extend them to the intelligible realm encounters significant problems. Through the character Parmenides, Plato demonstrates the proper method for apprehending the Forms: a dialectical exercise suited to the intellect. The dialogue further demonstrates how the One and the Many are manifested in the realm of the Forms when considered in relation to[...]

The goal of the present research is to analyze some passages in the works of Augustine of Hippo about the relationship between Christians and civil power. It seeks to identify the foundations of an ideal Christian citizenship, guided by love for God and neighbor, which, while showing no interest in worldly power structures, aims to promote social peace through Christian example and morality. To this end, the research first documents, in Augustinian works prior to De civitate Dei, the concepts of two distinct cities and the conditions of human life resulting from the Fall in Eden. Finally, it highlights the conception in Book XIX of De civitate Dei in which Augustine provides guidance on how Christians should behave in this world, as they await their final beatitude—eternal life with God.

This research aimed to investigate the concept of organism within the framework of the thinking of Estonian biologist and philosopher Jakob von Uexküll and to support the thesis that living systems are meaning-producing beings, forming a system of biosemiotics. To clarify this thesis, the work is divided into four chapters, each developing the steps that lead to the formulation of the presented thesis. In the first chapter, the theoretical foundation of Uexküll’s biology is presented, particularly the influence of Immanuel Kant. In the second chapter, the physiology developed by the biologist is analyzed, moving from the reflex model to the functional circuits model. In the third chapter, the concept of environment, the central idea in Uexküll’s work, is developed. Finally, in the fourth[...]

This dissertation reassesses the claim that Augustine “invented” the will, not as the unveiling of a single faculty, but as the strategic activation of a conceptual bundle—voluntas, assent, habit/concupiscence—deployed across historiographical, ontological-theological, and political registers. Chapter 1 surveys modern interpretations (Arendt, Dihle, Frede), separating lexicography from conceptual analysis, and shows how philological hypotheses about antiquity turned into broader narratives on freedom and individualism. Chapter 2 returns to Augustine to analyze voluntas as a fractured, reflexive power (Conf. VIII), whose incompleteness stems from createdness (ex nihilo): belief as “thinking with assent” entails a circularity between cogitatio and assensus that constrains decisionist[...]