In 1993 John Rawls published his main and longest work since 1971, where he had published his reknowned A Theory of Justice, book that made him famous as the greatest political philosopher of the century. We are referring to Political Liberalism, a summary of his writings of the 80’s and the first half of the 90’s, where he attempts to answer the critics of his intellectual partners, communitarian philosophers. One of the key topics in this book is the issue of “public reason”, whose object is nothing else than public good, and on which the principles and proceedings of justice are to be applied. The book was so important for the political philosophy of the time that in 1997 Rawls had to go through the 1993 edition, becoming this new one the last relevant writing published before the death of the Harvard philosopher in November 2002.

This paper aims the systematisation of historical dynamics and political conceptualisations around Portuguese nationalism and federalism, between 1901 and 1926. Used by several doctrinists and political programmes as ideological references, such concepts have suffered multiple appropriations. To be stressed is the doctrinal diversity of the Portuguese nationalism, strongly influenced by an epoch determined by the emergence of European nationalisms and the struggle among hegemonic powers. Inside them, according to Fernand Braudel, «violent units» were manifest but condemned to failure, since «violence was never enough for anyone to take control over the whole European household».

The type of authority needed for a good environmental public policy is discussed. We looked at some authors who saw in Leviathan, a type of authority possibly compatible with a model for environmental policy and to some others who refuted it. The need for a Leviathan, what type of Leviathan and could Hobbes’s arguments be used in environmental policy is then discussed. The tragedy of the commons, a rich metaphor for environmental policy is used as the main drive. This small essay will, even though very modestly, contribute for an almost absent environmental political philosophy, where traditional concepts such as authority, sovereignty or state are being challenged and need discussion.

Se développant autour du problème de la citoyenneté, l’article soutient qu’il s’agit moins d’un statut fixe que d’un processus de construction, c’est-à-dire, d’une affaire de culture. Plusieurs de ces connexions fortes entre les deux concepts sont ici présentées sous la forme d’énoncés: a) la citoyenneté doit être comprise en tant qu’œuvre de culture; b) la citoyenneté n’existe que dans un cadre de culture où elle peut s’exercer; c) les déterminations de la citoyenneté sont à son tour enrichies par les possibilités de la culture.

Le propos de l’article c’est d’analyser la formation et l’évolution du concept de souveraineté, concernant essentiellement les siècles XII-XIV, une période au long de laquelle il est progressivement configuré. La thèse fondamentale de l’auteur consiste précisément dans l’affirmation selon laquelle les questions inhérentes à la souveraineté sont simultanément politiques et juridiques, liaison intrinsèque qui transparaît dans les deux moments essentiels de la construction du concept de souveraineté : le premier se rapportant avec la question de la distribution des juridictions strictu sensu, c’est-à-dire, avec la définition de l’entité dont la mission est de faire accomplir la loi en tant que telle; le second qui signale l’apparition d’un sens plus large du concept de juridiction - légitimité de créer, de changer et de révoquer les normes - associée à l’idée de pouvoir législatif dans une acception moderne. Cette construction en deux mouvements est analysée dans des auteurs fondamentaux de cette période depuis les canonistes du XIII siècle jusqu’à Guillaume d’Ockham, passant par Saint Thomas d'Aquin et Jean Quidort, entre autres.

The present article tries to consider the present circumstances of the phenomenon of war starting from an opposition between Carl Schmitt and Michael Walzer. Starting from the essential link between jus ad bellum and jus in bello, the author tries to analyse the kind of war that arises from the crisis of jus ad bellum: a war reduced to self defence, based on enemy’s criminalization and justified as a police action with humanitarian rhetoric. Based on that analysis, he argues that the inevitable consequence of taking away the jus belli from sovereign power is the increasing of war’s intensity and violence itself.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the contribution of Statesman James Madison - in its theoretical and practical component - to the solution of a classical problem of Political Philosophy: how is it possible to guarantee the protection of citizens within a political project that deeply involves them? First, we will consider Madison’s theoretical contributions, examining his letters, political writings and speeches; secondly, we will analyse his participation in the discussion and framing of the American Bill of Rights (1791), there by trying to widerstand the reasons for its success and how important Madison’s procedures and observations were in accomplishing it.

Nell'Abbozzo di una morale senza obbligo né sanzione Guyau anticipa la tendenza dell'etica contemporanea a spostare l’accento dal dovere alla responsabilità rispetto alle risorse che si posseggono. Il saggio ricostruisce la formazione di questa originale proposta a partire dai confronti con lo stoicismo e l'epicureismo, con i moralisti inglesi e specialmente con l’autonomia kantiana, che Guyau approfondisce e supera in nome di un’«anomia» che implica la moltiplicazione e la varietà degli ideali individuali. L'autore si sofferma a considerara il significato congetturale dell’«ipotesi metafísica» dell'espansione della vita, che oltrepassa l’ambito dei principi, socialmente utili, di conservazione della vita e costituisce il livello più alto della moralità individuale. La portata «altruistica» dell'espansione della vita viene chiarita attraverso un confronto con l'idea di «volontà di potenza», che Nietzsche, nelle note critiche poste a margine dell'Esquisse, avvicina ma oppone all'idea di «dépense» sostenuta dal filosofo francese. Quest'idea non conforta l'aspettativa spenceriana di un'affermazione incondizionata, nel futuro, dell'istinto sociale altruistico: per Guyau l'uomo conserva il privilegio, e la condanna, di dover sempre ragiona re (raisonner) i propri desideri.

Le philosophe espagnol José Ortega y Gasset a exposé quelques lignes de sa conception de l’histoire dans une série de conférences tenues a Lisbonne, en 1944, sur le thème « La raison historique ». L’auteur de cet article montre comment, chez Ortega, soit le sens général de l’histoire soit en particulier ses idées sur l’avenir de l’Europe se rattachent directement à sa philosophie de la vie, mettant en même temps en évidence ses jugements critiques sur la révolution, la contradiction et la dialectique.

Cet article prend pour point de départ les rapports entre religion, art et politique dans les écrits schellingiens de la période de la philosophie de l’identité, en particulier l'Essai sur Dante, de 1803. Il examine le programme schellingien (qui fût aussi celui de toute une génération) de constitution d’une religion esthétique - dans ses dimensions philosophique et politique, aussi bien que religieuse - et avance quelques réponses à la question de son échec et de son abandon.

This paper comments Eckhart’s sermon “Beati pauperes spiritu...” , trying to show how the inner sense of spiritual poverty, the first of the blessednesses, is finally to reassume the uncreated plenitude, or the Deity (Gottheit), previous to the production of God (Gott) and the world, as correlatives of the free self-creation of the subject. To want nothing, to know nothing and to own nothing, indeed to be nothing, is thus a deconstitution of the subject which frees him from himself, from God and from everything, in returning to the absolute. The mystical fruition of that absolute than assumes an a-theist, a-theological and an-archic meaning, as it suspends the divinisation of the primordial and its representation as an hegemonic and extrinsical principle. Zero degree of being, renunciation of all limitations of existence, extreme poverty is here the absolute wealth of being no more than the Infinite.

O pensamento do poeta português cruza-se com o filósofo alemão sobre o tema da busca da verdade. Criticando o dualismo metafísico e a posição de uma verdade absoluta, Pessoa retoma a transmutação dos valores par a concluir uma verdade múltipla e relativa, ou seja a linguagem do mundo como metáfora. No entanto, ao contrario de Nieztsche que admite a morte de Deus par a poder reconsiderar completamente o conhecimento e o sentido da tragédia, Pessoa limita-se a reconhecer unicamente a sua ausência. A partir dessa divergência, a metáfora apresenta-se na reflexão do poeta como um fingimen to contemplativo, abdicando assim do projecto nieztscheano de instituir a metáfora como acção criativa.