Perception of the whole

Here I will consider one aspect of the whole, that is, its perception. The whole, we mean as something ultimate, complete and overcoming. It does not lead to the emergence of anything new. In this sense, the whole is opposed to the infinity which has no end or to the finitude which implies a continuation. […]

Aesthetics of the act of de-activation

The term “de-activation” in the title refers to that of Creazione e anarchia by Giorgio Agamben about the concept of the act of creation in an anarchic sense. In his work, Agamben describes a deactivating action that renders the operations of the functional, the pragmatic and the necessary inoperative, opening new possibilities to the human […]

On the aesthetic sense of life

In his work On the tragic sense of life, Miguel de Unamuno speaks of the tragic history of human thought, consisting of the struggle between reason and life. Any position of agreement and lasting harmony “between reason and life, between philosophy and religion becomes impossible” (1). The reason wants life to come to terms with […]

Ethics of the whole

In this paper, I will observe if we can apply classical ethical concepts to the whole and if humanity is able to judge its actions on a holistic realm. More precisely, I will see if Mill’s utilitarianism and Kant’s deontology can be applicable in justifying actions based on unity and integral wholeness. For this, it […]

Biases

Bias is an erroneous reasoning at the level of perception, judgement and memory. Some biases stem from the way our senses work (perceptual biases), others are the effects of how we judge, believe and expect (cognitive biases). Repetition effect People tend to judge claims they hear more often as likelier to be true. In other […]

Logical Fallacies

Logical fallacies are some forms of unreliable reasoning or misleading arguments. Any structurally invalid argument is logically fallacious, but there are some recognized patterns of how a logical fallacy is committed. The following list will review some illustrative examples of them.    Affirming the consequent: If P then Q QTherefore, P Denying the Antecedent: If […]

Valid argument forms

Argument is the basic unit of our reasoning and communication. The most idealized form of argumentation is a deductive reasoning according to which a good argument: is a valid argument (there is no way for a conclusion to be false if all the premises are true) and has all true premises. An argument that is […]

Doubting Descartes’ Doubt

Meditations of Descartes presents a series of arguments about a thinking thing and a God’s existence. In this essay, I will doubt his reasoning by pointing out at some fallacies. In search of a foundation of knowledge, Descartes starts from the scratch by undermining everything that he knows. He asks himself what could ground his […]

1. Facing the art of “anything”

The disappearance of any normative idea of ​​art since the era of conceptual art has opened up unlimited possibilities and total freedom of contemporary art. The whole problem is to know by virtue of what to judge a work under the denunciation of any notion of quality. How to appreciate the art of “anything”? Critics […]

2. Ruptures of contemporary art

Appearing after the Second World War, with Marcel Duchamp as a precursor, contemporary art is often unrecognized or misunderstood. It leaves no one indifferent, arousing passion, perplexity or contempt, sometimes going so far as to question its legitimacy. By presenting itself as an experimental art, contemporary art transgresses rules in perpetual innovation. It seeks a […]