Situamos Dante no contexto das polémicas medievais sobre a relação entre os poderes temporal e espiritual, em clara defesa das prerrogativas e da autonomia do poder temporal contra os partidários da teocracia. Neste contexto cumpre, por um lado, sublinhar a concepção da sociedade e da politica como tendo por fim a actualização da potencia especifica do homem, ou seja, da faculdade ou virtude da intelecção, colocando, deste modo o poder numa base gnosiológica. Por outro lado, situando a questão da origem do poder fora das teses tradicionais da escolástica, Dante considera e defende a tese da origem divina imediata do poder, procurando, por essa via, sublinhar a sua autonomia perante as pretensões do Pontífice romano. É neste quadro que se entrega à análise criteriosa do «oficio das chaves» de São Pedro, limitando a sua extensão aos assuntos do foro espiritual, por devermos a Pedro tudo o que é de Pedro e por nao devermos a Pedro tudo o que é de Cristo.

O meu propósito é abordar um aspecto do pensamento de Petrarca no qual se revela a faceta de filósofo moral que quase sempre ficou oculta sob a maior evidência da do poeta e do humanista. Essa faceta, que se expõe sobretudo em obras como De remediis utriusque fortunae, De vita solitaria e De secreto conflictu curarum mearum, era porém bem reconhecida pelos primeiros leitores quatrocentistas e quinhentistas do autor das Rime. Servir-me-ei do tópico da humana conditio para delinear a topografia da reflexão antropológica do autor, destacando a sua concepção heracliteana e agónica da existência humana e da própria realidade, regidas uma e outra pela luta e conflito ou pela ambivalência da fortuna, ao que o humanista responde com uma filosofia moral própria, concebida como moderação racional das paixões da alma, tanto da esperança e da alegria como do medo e da dor, concebida enfim como medicina mentis e meditatio mortis, que se inspira seja no estoicismo senequiano seja no platonismo agostiniano. Relevo será dado ao primado concedido pelo filósofo a ordem dos afectos, o que o inscreve na linhagem do voluntarismo agostiniano, bem como à sua meditação acerca da nobreza e excelência do homem, na qual os tópicos colhidos na antropo-teologia patrística são temperados pela viva consciência da miséria da condição humana. Sobressairá o perfil de um pensador cujos assomos de optimismo se oferecem envoltos nas tonalidades da melancolia e do pessimismo e que, com igual razão, pode ser lido como «o primeiro dos modernos» ou como um dos últimos medievais.

Our aim is to reflect upon the theme of “Transcending God”, as the core of the spiritual and mystical quest and journey, in Meister Eckhart and Angelus Silesius. We comment positions like “So therefore we pray to God that we may be free of “God”” (Eckhart) and “I must go even beyond God, to a desert” (Silesius), situating them in the context of neoplatonic experience and tradition. Finally, we wonder if we couldn’t find here a previous and more radical “death of God”, where religion is simultaneously accomplished and overpassed by mystical spirituality. This could be the other side of the “death of God” proclaimed by Nietzsche.

O artigo apresenta uma análise cronológica da recepção de Kierkegaard em Portugal. Na primeira parte, analisam-se as traduções até agora publicadas em língua portuguesa, contextualizando-as no panorama filosófico e literário em que vieram a lume; na segunda parte, comentam-se os artigos de diversos quadrantes que, sensivelmente, desde a década de quarenta do século passado foram publicados em Portugal, realçando-se ainda o papel desempenhado por alguns desses comentadores na divulgação de Kierkegaard. É dado particular relevo às mais recentes traduções realizadas a partir do original dinamarquês, bem como ao lugar ocupado na actualidade pelo filósofo, na investigação e no ensino, nas universidades portuguesas.

The aim of this article is to analyse the concept of mundanity (verdslighed) in Kierkegaard’s works and his dialogue with the Augustine tradition. This concept can be too secularization in Kierkegaard’s thought, for this motive we use it in double sense. For our purpose we analyse specially the Augustine’s book XV of City of God (The two cities in the Land) and the Kierkegaard’s discourse The Changelessness of God (1855).

The article proposes a thought reading of Kierkegaard about the subjectivity problem inside the historical period that in the philosophy was known as German idealism, talking with the three German thought larger representatives: Fichte, Schelling and Hegel.

Le présent article offre une brève réflexion sur la présence de la pensée de Søren Kierkegaard dans le cycle de l’Absurde de l’oeuvre d’Albert Camus. On essayera demontrer comment, en partageant un climat philosophique marqué par l’exaltation du paradoxe et la contradiction entant que signes distinctifs de l’existence concrète de l’individu, les deux auteurs se séparent en ce qui concerne les conséquences qui découlent de la considération de l’absurdité de la condition humaine. En prenant Camus en tant que lecteur de Kierkegaard, le propos de cette étude sera donc, plutôt qu’une exposition étendue des deux pensées, celui de dévoiler les principaux thèmes de la réflexion kierkegaardienne qu ’il faut tenir en compte pour comprendre, en contraposition à celle-ci, toute l ’originalité de la pensée camusienne.

At the beginning of his philosophical production, Habermas notes a collapse of religious conscience that leads to mass atheism. With the shift to modem thought, the religious world interpretations were depreciate in its categorical system, and its character as unifier seal on the whole of social integration was gradually undermined and replaced by reason. Purposes of the texts of the 1980s, we find a new direction on the treatment given to the philosophical issue of religion, with the record of its legitimacy, unique form and recognition of its right to coexist with post-metaphysical thought. At texts of this Century, Habermas admits that the root of his thought is nourished by the Christian héritage, and that Christianity is not only a precursor figure to modernity normative self-comprehension, because the egalitarian universalism which arose ideas of solidarity living, conduct o f independent living and emancipation, human rights and democracy, is an immediate inheritance of Jewish ethics and Christian ethics of love. At this work, it's first exposed the gradual structuring of that thought, then it’s seek, at the later Habermasian diagnosis, what has changed. There would be a theological construction within Habermas thought?

This paper is a reconstruction of Levinas’ reading of Hegel and his understanding of violence (of the enemy and the war). Combining Franz Rosenzweig’s reflections which concem the sick philosopher and Hegel’s State, as well as Derrida’s interpretation of the different attributes of violence, our aim is also to give full evidence of Derrida’s critical reading of Levinas. The first part illustrates the various classifications of the figures of violence from the different periods of Hegel’s life and the traces that these figures have left in Levinas’ texts beginning with „Liberté et commandement” in 1953. In the second part we discuss Hegel’s well-known analogy from his Rechtsphilosophie on sovereignty and the organism - that is to say the parallel reading of some paragraphs of Naturphilosophie too - and the relation between totality and violence, in Levinas’ “ontology as allergy” and in Derrida’s autoimmunology.

Backing his theory on a consequencialist doctrine, Peter Singer has fought for animal rights, pointing human beings as primarily responsible for animal suffering. Defending his position to the limit, Singer claims that some animals should be considered as persons. Likewise he argues that some human beings, such as babies, young children and disabled individuals, are not persons. Rejecting his point of view and supporting my position in a specist perspective, it seems obvious to me the difference between animals and humans and the consequent difference of status. I wonder how we can consider a chimpanzee as a person. And how is it possible to say that a child is not? Evaluating these issues and challenging Peter Singer we will discover what it takes to be a person.

“A Crisis on Education” was written in the same period (1956-57) of The Human Condition and might be read as a complementary text, reflecting upon an institution that had been left out of the book albeit its critical role in linking the private and public spheres: the school. This reading of Hannah Arendt’s “A Crisis on Education” follows closely the arguments of the author, establishing connections with other authors whenever appropriate. The presences of Kant and Hegel are signaled in particular, as predecessors of some of the key arguments in Arendt’s essay. The final paragraphs offer an analysis of, and a reply to Alain Renaut’s criticism to that essay in his La Fin de l'Autorité (Flammarion, 2004).