RCAAP Repository

No summary/description provided

No summary/description provided

No summary/description provided

Great philosophers in ancient Egypt from Imhotep to Akhenaten devoted their life to a constant process of reflection and interrogation of the problems posed to human beings and their experiences in their relationships with the world, nature, the cosmos, spiritual life, and human beings themselves. In the West, under the classical Greek orientation, this exercise became a discipline, more important as a thing in itself (Kant’s “das Ding an sich”) rather than sabayet or wisdom, the expression of collective representations of society, systems of thought, and cosmological perspectives. This paper seeks to unveil the anteriority and impact of Kemetic wisdom literature in the development of humanity by highlighting its epistemological character, philosophical content, and analytical discourse in the context of the Africological disciplinary framework.

The topic of this article is the concept of wisdom, which is very ancient and has been adapted in different cultures, thus attracting much interest in the fields of philosophy, religion and science. In the philosophical context, I mention the Greek philosophers, from the 6thcentury BCE, such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Aristotle and Heraclitus. As regards religion, we only have to consider the "Book of Wisdom" in the Bible and, concerning the distinction between Science and wisdom, I recall the great French thinker Jacques Maritain. To put the subject in a frame of reference, I reflect about its evolution, both in the East andtheWest, thus trying to enunciate a comprehensive definition of wisdom and to analyze the complex cultural contexture of the concept, as well as itsnature, origin and development from a transversal perspective. Mentions are also made to the reviewing display, to the notoriety of theme and to the designation of "wise man". Considering that the most recent analyses follow a culturally inclusive model and try to decipher the various components that have contributed to our present perspective on the subject, my aim in this essay -as I reflect on the history of wisdom and about its place in the world nowadays and analyze its constitution and the motif of its relevance –is to contribute to a debate, which has an intersecting conceptual basis. I hope that my considerations will motivate the readers to reflect both on the present concepts and on the classical notions of wisdom, so that with my reflections I may somewhat help to bring wisdom back to our society, thus implementing a knowledgeable understanding of the idea and redefining our human condition and our experience of life. Among other justifications, I think that an analysis of the concept is both necessary and beneficial in our times when wisdom should be seen asthe highest ideal to be attained -as it is a virtue that leads men to pursuit what is Good, True and Beautiful-thus contributing to our personal and collective development and constituting what can be seen as a new paradigm of the 21thcentury.

Hipparchusis a Platonic dialogue that begins abruptly with the question: "what is the love of profit, who are the profiteers?". It shows how Socrates defies conventions and seeks the root of Greek traditional ethics. Socrates dialogues with a fellow Athenian who believes that the love of profit deserves censure; he questions the young, forcing him to review his own principles and, finally, leaves him perplexed. The reference to Hipparchus comes as a detour in the dialogue. Hipparchus was the son of tyrant Pisistratus, but Socrates argues that the tyranny of Hipparchus was in fact benign and wise; that he was in fact trying to educate his fellow citizens, leading them to admire his superior wisdom. The long praise of Hipparchus is poisonous: the supposed rehabilitation reinforces the negative impression on the reader, but no one is surprised that Socrates was convicted of corrupting the youth by encouraging disrespect of moral traditions of the city. The text conveys, therefore, the "popular" vision of Socrates, which ultimately leads to his conviction.

Thomas Carlyle famously called economy the 'dismal science.' In fact, technocratic views are often used as foundations for the existence of wide worldviews or ideologies. This relationship can be observed in the early writings of Ludwig von Mises around the First World War. Although Mises was, at all times in his career, explaining and describing economic processes, his writings acquire a decisive political-narrative emphasis in Nation, State, and Economy (1919). As we will try to show, his attempts to ground political solutions in epistemology go far beyond economic scientific work. Can 'true science' serve as a foundation for an ideology? By analysing his political thought (1907-1919), it is argued that Mises shifted in this respect as a reaction against the First World War. Socialism, according to Mises, is based on ideological choices devoid of solid scientific foundations. However, we will argue that Mises is, in the end, conceptually mimicking the socialists he criticizes, notably in both ideologies' claim that they represent a 'true science.' Mises himself seemed more or less aware of this fact.

This article is based on a research whose aim isto discover and systematize the factors that condition the social and cultural sustainability factors of support institutions for elderly people and the perspective of the institutions’ managers and local bodies. This is a mixed method of research, which used two questionnaires, one for 97 members of institutions for elderly people and another for 138 users of those institutions, and interviews with the institutions’ managers and local authorities. The research demonstrated that there is a wide range of sustainability factors in the social and cultural domain, the most relevant of which are as follows: social support needs; adaptation of services to needs; participation by civil society; empowerment of institutions; overall user satisfaction; prominence of the institutions; guarantee of respect for cultural differences.

This article aims to discover and systematise the factors that condition the economic and financial sustainability factors of support institutions for elderly people and the point of view of the institutions’ managers and local bodies. This method used wasbased on two questionnaires, one for 97 members of institutions for elderly people and another for 138 users of those institutions, and interviews with the institutions’ managers and local authorities. The work carried out revealed that there is a wide range of sustainability factors in the economic and financial domain, with emphasis on the following: 1) the state’s financial contribution; 2) the users’ financial contribution; 3) members’ payments; 4) openness to other groups with greater financial capacity; 5) organisation and management of institutions; 6) caution regarding indebtedness.

Having read Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Churchill understood what he calls "the granite pillars" of the Nazi Leader’s policy, thus knowing, step by step, what the Dictator wanted to do, was going to do. This allowed Churchill to start counter acting successfully Hitler’s actions even before being the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Thus Mein Kampfbecame both Hitler’s and Churchill’s guide, leading them in quite opposite directions.

No summary/description provided

1851, is a date often chosen to signal the beginning of the mid-Victorian period, witnessed the "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations", featuring Albert, the Prince Consort (1819-1861), as a stately sponsor and a 'royal' patron. In spite of the modern and universal outlook of the Exhibition, purporting to act as a showcase of the industrial, technological and artistic primacy attained by the "workshop of the world", propped up and sustained by economic, financial, commercial and colonial infrastructures and networks, it also allocated space to 'Ye olde mediaeval past', through a pavilion designed by A. W. N. Pugin (1812-1852) and decorated with medieval-looking artifacts. What relationships or articulations, if any, can then be drawn between Pugin's 19th century present and his cherished medieval past?; or between Victorian times, often referred to as "the age of progress" and/or "the age of improvement", and the inspirational recollection of the 'dark' and 'backward' Middle Ages?

In this contribution I intend to reconstruct a brief history of the reception of the worldly famous Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) in Portugal. His first translation datesfrom 1934, but it was between 1937 and 1950 that most of his novellas, essays and biographies (30 titles) were published by Civilização, a publisher from Oporto. His works were mostly translated from French and enjoyed great popularity among the reading public, considering that some have reached 19 editions. When Zweig came to Portugal on a short private holiday in 1938 his presence was largelyannounced and commented (and praised) by the press. The same happened after his tragic death in Brazil in 1942.A Zweig revival takes place in the early 21stcentury, which shows a renewed interest in this author, now directly translated from German. I will examine this phenomenon, with a considerable number of retranslations and I will tackle the question of what books have been chosen for new translations. I will also look at the impact of Zweig’s life and work on film-makers such as Wes Anderson and Maria Schrader, whose successful works were largely noticed in the press, thus reinforcing Zweig’s visibility in the Portuguese cultural life. It has to be mentioned that literary critics and intellectuals are now paying a particular attention to his autobiography The World of Yesterday.Memoriesof an European, which provides enough food for thought in a time of deep crisis in the European ideals.

Peace concepts, aspirations, propositions and tactics have changed throughout history. Historic age, culture, politics and science affected the thoughts about the ideal of an everlasting peace -the eternal dream –but peace has been mostly considered a nobel aim, and the capacity for peace was predominantly contemplated as an individual and social virtue, and a learning asset. Therefore, throughout the years, peace education programs emerged. The current state of the world keeps reminding us that more efforts to create peace are not redundant, and that there is an urgency to keep developing and spreading more initiatives on education for peace, in particular scientifically based, rigorously assessed, flexible, and straightforward programs that can be deliver to the simplest and the most complex world arenas. This article addresses a framework for a humble, but also distinguished and valuable input to understanding and promoting peace, that refers to the contribution that surfaced from the emergent positive psychology movement, namely its studies on collective wellbeing and public happiness. Positive psychology is the scientific study of what enablesindividuals and communities to thrive, and peace is clearly one crucial aspect towards human flourishing.Both –positive peace building education and positive psychology -are strengths-oriented and aim for the optimization of the best in people, focusing attention and strategies in developing the peak functioning of individuals, groups, communities and nations. The study and promotion of virtuousness, goodness, social cohesion, justice and wellbeing is therefore inherent to the framework of the Education for Global Peace Sustainability Project -E=GPS. The contextualization and specifics of the program,and its consubstantiation and aims, are therefore detailed.

In 2018 twenty years will have passed since Maria Judite de Carvalho’s death. It is then a particular time to remember the woman and the authoress of unique narratives, theatre and poetry. Maria Judite de Carvalho’s universe reveals a situational multiplicity that decodesreality as it is observed (as well as regularly chronicled) by the authorin the middle 20thcentury. Such realism is translated through awide variety of characters (usually female characters) that defy readersand identity/identities while denouncinga supposedly unthinkable reality that seems to be transmitted throughout generations. "Tanta Gente, Mariana! exemplifies such pattern as if taking part of the main character’s introspective journey or as if being part of the physical and social scenery that is recreated. Readers are then led to think about such sceneries as if taken by hand bya woman who considers herself adeviation from the norm.

For Helen Milner, "international political economy is a growth industry" (1998) and, according to the "growth stability theory", a stable and open world economy requires the dominance of one country, or leading power, to coordinate and discipline other countries and ensure the conditions conducive to economic growth. By most accounts, throughout the 19th century that hegemon was still Great Britain. Yet, as early as the 18th century, the United States were debating how to secure commerce and navigation in the Mediterranean Sea and prevent the Barbary pirates from entering the Atlantic, weighing whether, in Jefferson’s words, to obtain peace at any cost: "to obtain peace by purchasing it [or] to vindicate their commerce by arms" (1790). This paper aims to explore the ways in which David Humphreys, as both poet and politician, helped shape 19th-century American alterity into hegemony and how he did so from Lisbon, as First Minister from the United States of America to Portugal and Commissioner Plenipotentiary charged by George Washington with negotiating and concluding Treaties of Amity and Commerce with Tripoli and Algiers.

Numa Introdução procurei expor o conceito e indicar alguns exemplos de ex-votos. Numa pesquisa a textos de Direito Canónico, encontramos boas referências a ex-votos, seja no Código de Direito Canónico de 1917, no Código de Direito Canónico de 1983 e no Código das Igrejas Orientais de 1990, seja em documentos da Conferência Episcopal Portuguesa, da Congregação para o Culto Divino e a Disciplina dos Sacramentos e, ainda, da Congregação para os Bispos.

O Governo Italiano recorreu da sentença do Tribunal Europeu dos Direitos do Homem de Estrasburgo, de 3 de Novembro de 2009, que condenava a Itália por violar o artigo 2.º do Protocolo n.º 1em conjunto com o artigo 9.º da Convenção Europeia dos Direitos do Homem. O Tribunal considerava que a presença de crucifixos nas salas de aula era uma violação da liberdade dos pais de educar os seus filhos segundo as suas crenças e da liberdade de religião dos alunos, dando, assim, razão aos recorrentes Senhora Lautsi e Outros. No recurso apresentado pelo Governo, a Itália defendia que a presença de crucifixos nas salas de aula não violava o princípio da laicidade do Estado, que era "parte do património jurídico da Europa e das democracias ocidentais", que o crucifixo era um símbolo histórico e cultural, possuindo um "valor ligado à identidade" para o povo italiano e que também deveria ser considerado um símbolo de um sistema de valores que sustentam a Constituição Italiana. O recurso foi julgado pelo Plenário(Grande Câmara)do Tribunal dos Direitos do Homem que proferiu sentença em 18 de Março de 2011. O Plenário deu razão ao Governo Italiano, porque não foi provado que, mantendo os crucifixos nas paredes das salas de aula das escolas públicas, não seja assegurado o gozo dos direitos e liberdades reconhecidos na Convenção, concretamente fundadas na religião a que pertença uma minoria de cidadãos.

The narrative that presents the "polis"of "Utopia"does not build an image of a "place without place", but demonstrates that which could and should be – at least structurally – the form of a real community, the one that erects itself as an act of "common-wealth/common-good/common-goodness". The utopian societies, the ones that should have "no place" in human affairs, are the ones that exist historically. So it is really an inversion of "topoi"the one that Sir Thomas operates, making us remember that the reality of humanity is not a society of Hobbes like wolves, but a community of Augustine like good-doers, even if not perfect, even if never perfect.

"Black women, Gender policies, and Issues of identity"discusses problems resulting from the fact that discourses about Africa are framed by western epistemologies following a perfunctory assumption that gender is a fundamental category of analysis to understand African societies. This article explains that the concept and its universality, applicability, and relevance are inappropriate for a comprehensive understanding of African women’s experiences by demonstrating that gender has never been a determinant factor in the social structure and hierarchy in traditional African societies. Furthermore, it shows that the adoption of these concepts and visions alien to their ontological and social values have contributed and still contribute to keep black women in a two-fold subaltern position that can only be overturned by the Afrocentric paradigm.