Grupo de Leitura Filosofia Animal – 9º ciclo

A Besta e o Soberano. Volume 1 Seminário (2001-2002), de Jacques Derrida

Início: sexta-feira, 25 de abril | Término: sexta-feira, 27 de junho

Local: Plataforma Zoom

Horário: 14h00-16h00 (Lisboa – GMT+1) | 10h00-12h00 (Brasília)

Contacto: animalphilosophy.diversitas@gmail.com

Inscrições: bit.ly/bestaeosoberano

 

 

DESCRIÇÃO
O nono ciclo do Grupo de Leitura Filosofia Animal (Diversitas-FFLCH/USP e Grupo Praxis-CFUL) convida para a leitura coletiva de alguns capítulos do livro A Besta e o Soberano. Volume 1. Seminário (2001-2002), de Jacques Derrida.

Derrida dedicou os últimos anos do seu ensino (2001-2003) ao pensamento sobre a vida animal e a soberania política na tradição intelectual ocidental. Publicados em dois volumes sob o título A Besta e o Soberano, esses seminários estavam inseridos no contexto geral dos seus seminários sobre «Questões de Responsabilidade», proferidos desde 1991 até ao ano da sua morte, em 2004. Para Derrida, a besta e o soberano representavam duas figuras opostas à esfera pública humana, ambas situadas fora da lei e excluídas da política: a besta, que não conhece a lei, e o soberano, por ter o poder de a revogar. O seu propósito é evidenciar como essa oposição revela o autoconceito da humanidade ocidental, onde reis e deuses pairam acima da lei, enquanto os animais rastejam abaixo dela. São relações binárias de poder que derivam desse emparelhamento que aloca, de um lado, a besta (associada à animalidade, à natureza, à feminilidade, à servidão, ao sujeito não branco, à colónia, à doença, ao anormal etc.), e, do outro, o soberano (relacionado ao humano e ao supra-humano, a Deus, ao Estado, à masculinidade, ao sujeito branco, fisicamente e sexualmente “normal”).

Devido à extensão do seminário, nos encontros deste ciclo de leitura serão trabalhados alguns capítulos previamente escolhidos.

 

Bibliografia

DERRIDA, Jacques (2023). A Besta e o Soberano. Volume 1 Seminário (2001-2002). Trad. Fernanda Bernardo. Coimbra: Palimage.

 

SOBRE O GRUPO DE LEITURA FILOSOFIA ANIMAL

O Grupo de Leitura Filosofia Animal é um trabalho de parceria entre o Grupo de Pesquisa sobre Ética e Direitos dos Animais do Núcleo Diversitas/FFLCH da Universidade de São Paulo e o Grupo Praxis do Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa. Tem como objetivo reunir pessoas dispostas a, coletivamente, ler e discutir textos clássicos e contemporâneos que se dediquem à análise das complexas relações entre humanos e outros animais, abarcando também o tema da animalidade, nos âmbitos da ontologia, da política, da cultura, da ética e da atual crise ecológica, transitando por diferentes campos do conhecimento.

Realizamos um ciclo de leitura por semestre. Os encontros são semanais, sempre no período da manhã no horário do Brasil e no início da tarde no horário de Portugal.

O primeiro ciclo foi dedicado à leitura do livro O Animal que Logo Sou (A Seguir), de Jacques Derrida. O segundo, ao tema «Devires-Animais?». O terceiro, a leituras de Donna Haraway. O quarto, a textos de Judith Butler e Emmanuel Levinas, respetivamente, sobre os conceitos de precariedade e alteridade. O quinto, ao livro O Que os Animais Nos Ensinam Sobre Política, de Brian Massumi. O sexto, ao tema «Sobre a Alma e a Razão dos Animais: Perspectivas Históricas». O sétimo, à leitura do livro As Origens Animais da Cultura, de Dominique Lestel. O oitavo, à leitura do livro Filosofia de la Animalidad, de Felice Cimatti.

A cada finalização de ciclo são realizados eventos na forma de colóquios ou palestras com convidadas/os externas/os, com o objetivo de aprofundar os estudos e ampliar as discussões para além do trabalho realizado pelo grupo.

A atividade é aberta e é necessário realizar inscrição. A periodicidade é semanal, às sextas-feiras, pela plataforma Zoom. Serão emitidos certificados de participação a partir de 70% de frequência. Para o encerramento do ciclo, será realizado um colóquio no dia 4 de julho.

 

ORGANIZAÇÃO

Grupo Praxis do Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa

Grupo de Pesquisa sobre Ética e Direitos dos Animais do Diversitas – FFLCH/USP (Núcleo de Estudos das Diversidades, Intolerâncias e Conflitos – Universidade de São Paulo)

 

COORDENAÇÃO

Dirk Michael Hennrich – Praxis-CFUL (Lisboa) / Diversitas (FFLCH/USP)
Luanda Francine Garcia da Costa – Praxis-CFUL (Lisboa) / Diversitas (FFLCH/USP)

 

Este evento é financiado por fundos nacionais através da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, IP, no âmbito dos projetos UIDB/00310/Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa.

 

 

Pedro Galvão

Praxis-CFUL, University of Lisbon

O que se segue da Regra de Ouro?

8 April 2025, 17h00 (Lisbon Time — GMT+1)

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy)

School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

 

Resumo

A Regra de Ouro, penso, é um princípio constitutivo do próprio ponto de vista moral. O que se segue dela, quando devidamente entendida? Ao abordar esta questão, começarei por propor um subjectivismo acerca de razões normativas, conectado com o Princípio do Espelho – um princípio epistémico que nos diz algo sobre o que é necessário para saber como é estar no lugar alguém. Argumentarei que, livre de restrições ditadas por outros padrões normativos, a Regra de Ouro conduz a uma forma de utilitarismo. Não conduz forçosamente, no entanto, a um utilitarismo dos actos.

 

 

Reading Group as part of the Praxis-CFUL activities

 

Working language: English

Organizers: Dr. Mariana Teixeira (mariana.o.teixeira[at]edu.ulisboa.pt) and Silvia Locatelli (locatelli.silvia.96[at]gmail.com)

When: twice a month on Fridays, from 16h00 to 18h00 (Lisbon Time), according to the program below

Format: online (link shared via email after registration)

 

Attendance is free and open to the public. Please register via email:  praxis.reading.group.hegel@gmail.com

 

DESCRIPTION

Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit is one of the most important – and difficult – texts in the history of philosophy, with its original mode of narrative that focuses on the development of human consciousness and spirit over time, introducing the idea of dialectical progression where ideas and concepts evolve through contradiction.

Since its first publication in 1806-1807, it has captivated generations of philosophers and social theorists, having influenced many schools of thought, such as Marxism, existentialism, feminism and contemporary critical theory. But its importance can also be attested by the passionate responses it provoked among its critics, from Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche to more recent approaches, such as post-structuralism.

Through the collective reading of the integral text of the Phenomenology, we will attempt in this Reading Group to understand how action and knowledge develop in the course of the search for truth: of oneself and of the world, and in relation with otherness. We will follow the journey of consciousness through the many figures it encounters – including, for instance, the much-discussed figures of the master-slave dialectics, the struggle for recognition, the unhappy consciousness, Antigone, and the beautiful soul – in order to grasp the role of experience in the consciousness’s path towards absolute knowing and to unveil the book’s critical potential.

The edition to be consulted is Michael Inwood’s translation:

Hegel, G.W.F. 2018 [1807]. The Phenomenology of the Spirit. Trans. M. Inwood. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

PROGRAM – 2^nd cycle

 

Session 1 | October 11^th, 2024

V. Reason C. Individuality, which, to itself, is real in and for itself (c.) — §§ 419-437

 

Session 2 | October 25^th, 2024

VI. Spirit A. The true spirit, the ethical order (a.) — §§ 438-463

 

Session 3 | November 8^th, 2024

VI. Spirit. A. The true spirit, the ethical order (b. and c.) — §§ 464-483

 

Session 4 | November 22^nd, 2024

VI. Spirit. B. Self-alienated spirit: Culture (I.a.) — §§ 484-507

 

Session 5 | December 6^th, 2024

VI. Spirit. B. Self-alienated spirit: Culture (I.a. and b.) — §§ 508-537

 

Session 6 | December 20^th, 2024

VI. Spirit. B. Self-alienated spirit: Culture (II.a.) — §§ 538-573

 

Session 7 | February 7^th, 2025

VI. Spirit. B. Self-alienated spirit: Culture (II.b. and III.) — §§ 574-595

 

Session 8 | February 28^th, 2025

VI. Spirit. C. Spirit certain of itself: Morality (a.) — §§ 596-615

 

Session 9 | March 14^th, 2025

VI. Spirit. C. Spirit certain of itself: Morality (b.) — §§ 616-631

 

Session 10 | March 28^th, 2025

VI. Spirit. C. Spirit certain of itself: Morality (c.) — §§ 632-671

 

Session 11 | April 4^th, 2025

VII. Religion. A. Natural religion — §§ 672-698

 

Session 12 | May 2^nd, 2025

VII. Religion. B. Religion of art (a. and b.) — §§ 699-726

 

Session 13 | May 16^th, 2025

VII. Religion. B. Religion of art (c.) — §§ 727-747

 

Session 14 | May 30^th, 2025

VII. Religion. C. The revealed religion — §§ 748-787

 

Session 15 | June 13^th, 2025

VIII. Absolute knowing — §§ 788-808

 

 

 

Luciana Martinez

HPhil-CFUL

Originality and Taste: Kant on Genius

1 April 2025, 17h00 (Lisbon Time — GMT+1)

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy)

School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

 

Abstract

In this contribution I intend to develop an interpretation of the Kantian view of genius. From the earliest sources up to the Critique of Judgement, we can identify some variations in Kant’s thinking on this issue. In my view, the most significant variation that occurred during the pre-critical period, and which took place towards the end of the silent decade, is the specification of genius as a feature of art-making. At that time, furthermore, Kant began to mention Shakespeare as a genius in his Anthropology lectures, according to the available notes. I argue that, in relation to the figure of Shakespeare, there is another significant turn in Kant’s thinking about artistic creation. This change is expressed especially in the Critique of Judgement, where Kant omits Shakespeare’s name and, moreover, adds an explanation of the technical aspects of artistic creation. The specific aim of my paper is to justify the claim of this second turn and to explain what it consists of and why it occurs.

 

 

 

 

O Grupo de Investigação em Filosofia Prática do Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa (Praxis-CFUL) convida à manifestação de interesse de candidatos qualificados para a submissão de candidaturas a bolsas de doutoramento (até 4 anos) financiadas pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), no âmbito do concurso de Bolsas de Doutoramento de 2025. A investigação deverá conduzir à obtenção do grau de Doutor em Filosofia na Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa (FLUL), tendo como instituição de acolhimento o Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa (CFUL).

Os projetos de investigação submetidos a concurso deverão estar alinhados com o âmbito e linhas de investigação atualmente desenvolvidas no grupo Praxis-CFUL [ver aqui]. Os candidatos serão sujeitos a uma triagem inicial, após a qual os selecionados deverão submeter a candidatura diretamente à FCT para obtenção de financiamento [anúncio da FCT]. O Praxis-CFUL prestará apoio no processo de candidatura.

 

Submissão de manifestações de interesse

Os interessados devem manifestar o seu interesse até 2 de abril de 2025, enviando a seguinte documentação, em inglês ou português:

 

E-mail: c.filosofia@letras.ulisboa.pt

Assunto: BID 2025 FCT_[Nome do Candidato]

 

Documentação necessária:

• • Resumo do plano de investigação (400 palavras)
  • Curriculum Vitae (formato PDF)
  • Nome do investigador integrado (Full Member) do Praxis-CFUL com quem gostaria de trabalhar como orientador [ver aqui]

 

A decisão sobre as candidaturas que o Praxis-CFUL irá apoiar será comunicada no prazo de três dias.

 

 

 

Søren Mau’s Mute Compulsion: A Marxist Theory of the Economic Power of Capital (Verso, 2023) offers a compelling entry point for examining the exercise of power in our contemporary post-industrial world, moving beyond traditional frameworks of violence and ideology. Bringing together philosophical, economic, historical, and sociological perspectives, the book enriches both the reading experience and the discussions that follow.

This activity is open to researchers and students—whether affiliated with Praxis-CFUL or not—who are interested in a deep analysis of political economy. Sessions will take place on Thursdays (except for Friday, May 2nd) from 12h30 to 14h00 in Room Pedro Hispano (Department of Philosophy).

Working language: English

Co-organizers: Mariana Teixeira (mariana.o.teixeira [at] edu.ulisboa.pt) and Juana Polo López (juana.lopez [at] edu.ulisboa.pt)

More info here!

 

Program

 

Session 1 | 27 March

Introduction (pp. 1–19)

 

Session 2 | 3 April

Part I: 1. Conceptualising Power and Capital + 2. Power and Marxism (pp. 23–69)

 

Session 3 | 10 April

3. The Social Ontology of Economic Power + 4. The Human Corporeal Organisation (pp. 70–103)

 

Session 4 | 24 April

5. Metabolic Domination + Part II: 6. Transcendental Class Domination (pp. 104–151)

 

Session 5 | 2 May

7. Capital and Difference + 8. The Universal Power of Value (pp. 152–199)

 

Session 6 | 8 May

9. Value, Class, and Competition (pp. 200–221)

 

Session 7 | 22 May

Part III: 10. The Despotism of Subsumption (pp. 225–252)

 

Session 8 | 29 May

11. The Capitalist Reconfiguration of Nature + 12. Logistical Power (pp. 253–295)

 

Session 9 | 5 June

13. Surplus Populations and Crisis + Conclusion (pp. 296-326)

 

 

Rodrigo Castro Orellana

Complutense University of Madrid

Neoliberalismo y temporalidad

25 March 2025, 17h00 (Lisbon Time — GMT+0)

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy)

School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

 

Abstract

Los dispositivos neoliberales modelan la vida como una tarea infinita y acelerada para lograr un futuro que nunca llega o que siempre está en riesgo de desaparecer como consecuencia de las decisiones personales que se tomen. Así se configura un mundo sin exterioridad en donde el porvenir se retrasa sistemáticamente expandiendo el presente hasta convertirlo en una realidad absoluta. La construcción neoliberal del tiempo opera, entonces, como ausencia de novedad y disolución de la percepción del futuro, haciendo que la experiencia de la aceleración coexista con la experiencia de la repetición y de un presente cada vez más lento. Sin embargo, estos procesos resultan inseparables de dinámicas de construcción del espacio, de mecanismos de captura de la subjetividad que operan como atmosferas generadoras de incertidumbre. Nuestro objetivo en esta conferencia será reflexionar sobre estos procesos que caracterizan la temporalidad propia de las sociedades neoliberales.

 

This work/event is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UID/00310/2025, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa
(https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/00310/2025)

Aaron Schuster

Independent Researcher

Involuntary Insubordination and the Borderland between Loneliness and Community: Kafka and Psychoanalysis

18 March 2025, 17h00 (Lisbon Time — GMT+0)

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy)

School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

 

Abstract

In one of his diary entries, Franz Kafka writes of “the borderland between loneliness and community.” I will argue that this borderland is precisely the domain of psychoanalysis, and that Kafka’s line provides a compelling formulation of what is at stake in the psychoanalytic view of the human being. Humans are creatures of the border, caught between sheer isolation and worldlessness, on the one hand, and their belonging to the community and insertion into the socio-symbolic order, on the other. Symptoms should be conceived as “solutions” that a person (unconsciously) invents for problems that the wider community cannot solve. They save the person from total isolation—from helplessly drowning in their problems—while at the same disconnecting them from the codes and frameworks that organize shared social life. This talk will explore how this borderland forces a reconsideration of freedom. The opposition between autonomy and heteronomy is complicated by voluntary servitude, defined as a willing of unfreedom or an autonomous affirmation of heteronomy. In opposition to this, I will propose an “involuntary insubordination,” a heteronomous autonomy or “freedom from behind,” as the form of freedom theorized by psychoanalysis and portrayed in Kafka’s fiction. Therein lies the warped or ironical optimism of both Freud and Kafka, whose lesson ought to be renewed today: however much the human being willingly accedes to its domination, there insists a certain measure of “unwanted freedom” that testifies to the impossibility of the individual’s smooth integration into society. Symptoms are political insofar as they are not simply disorders (sicknesses) but articulate tensions, gaps, and fault lines in the social order, and express a strange and idiosyncratic freedom.

 

This activity is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UID/00310/2025, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa
(https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/00310/2025)

Dirk-Michael Hennrich

Praxis-CFUL, University of Lisbon

On Animal Intelligence: Modes to Deconstruct the Technosphere

11 March 2025, 17h00 (Lisbon Time — GMT+0)

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy)

School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

 

Abstract

In the current discussion about the concept of the Anthropocene, the implications of the Technosphere are becoming increasingly serious. The Technosphere refers to the totality of the technical objects and, depending on the interpretation, all activities to be prescribed in technical rationality, which superimposes on the Biosphere due to their exponential growth. In the future, this sphere, constructed by human activities and productions, will be intensively programmed and controlled by Artificial Intelligence. Thus appears a reality conjured already in dystopian science-fiction scenarios, in which the human or, in short, the animal spheres of action and decision-making are progressively restricted and marginalized. Without a determination of the question about the human being, or even the question of consciousness, having been satisfactorily answered, the development of the so-called Artificial Intelligence is being pushed forward and indorsed compared to all other forms of intelligence since an unspoken potential for the mastery of humanity immersed in the Technosphere is projected onto it. To read this tendency critically and to counteract the growing technization of the global sphere, a backward reflection and the rethinking of other forms of intelligence, especially Animal Intelligence, will be necessary. Animal intelligence includes Human Intelligence, and the first question is what exactly Animal Intelligence describes and what distinguishes it from Artificial Intelligence. To give a reason for this distinction, I introduce the concept of Ancestral Intelligence and define it as the potency that cannot be inserted into the artificial. This Ancestral Intelligence includes the ability to catch up with the immemorial/unprethinkable (das Unvordenkliche) and therefore the explanation leads consequently to a determination of what must (paradoxically) be thought of as immemorial. This immemorial is then the starting point for a Politics of the Sensible that is yet to come, and which locates the body and the most diverse bodily experiences of ancestrality in their centre.

 

 

The Science of Logic is probably one of the fundamental texts for understanding the Hegelian thought. Indeed, the Logic represents the first sphere of Hegel’s encyclopedic system, and its comprehension is essential to grasp the structure of the Philosophy of Nature and the Philosophy of Spirit. In this reading group we therefore propose a detailed reading of the first book of the Science of Logic, the Doctrine of Being. Following this first phase, the reading group plans two more cycles to analyze the Doctrine of Essence and the Doctrine of the Concept.

Working language: English

Organizer: Silvia Locatelli

 

The reading group will be online. It will be held every two weeks (except for one session in April), on Fridays 16h00-18h00 Lisbon Time (GMT+0)

To register and ask for the link, email the organizer to locatelli.silvia.96 [at] gmail.com

 

We will use the following recommended edition:

Hegel, G.W.F. The Science of Logic. Trans. George Di Giovanni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

 

 

Program

 

Session 1 | 21 March

The Science Of Logic (pp. 1-44)
Preface To The First Edition
Preface To The Second Edition
Introduction

 

Session 2 | 4 April

With What Must The Science Begin? (pp. 45-82)
General Division Of Being
Section One: Determinateness (Quality)
Chapter I Being

 

Session 3 | 18 April

Chapter 2 Determinate Being (pp. 83-125)

 

Session 4 |  25 April

Chapter 3 Being-For-Self (pp. 126-151)

 

Session 5 | 9 May

Section Two: Magnitude (Quantity)
Chapter I Quantity
Pp.152-167

 

Session 6 | 23 May

Chapter 2 Quantum (Part 1) (pp. 178-201)

 

Session 7 | 6 June

Chapter 2 Quantum (Part 2) (pp. 201-270)

 

Session 8 | 20 June

Chapter 3 The Quantitative Relation Or Quantitative Ratio (pp. 271-301)
Section Three: Measure
Chapter I Specific Quantity

 

Session 9 | 4 July

Chapter 2 Real Measure
Chapter 3: The Becoming Of Essence
(pp. 302-339)