Hans-Jörg Rheinberger as a Philosopher of Time.

When Hans-Jörg Rheinberger proposed the concept of epistemic things, he drew inspiration from the art historian George Kubler, who had considered the aesthetic object as resulting from problem-solving processes in The Shape of Time (1962). Kubler also demonstrated that a sequence of objects could retrace the progress that led to a solution that was afterwards accepted as the most classical. Parallel to Kubler, Rheinberger demonstrates how temporally extended activities of experimentation are condensed in the object, revealing the moments of innovation that lead to it. In the history of science as well as in art history, various trajectories can thus be grasped in the materially given. Rheinberger conceives of an object as a network of heterogeneous time strings. However, these are manifold: they cannot be thought of as making up a homogeneous temporality encompassing all the others as a temporal container and synchronizing them within it. Since the discovery of the Anthropocene, we no longer separate natural from cultural time, and no hegemonic historical narrative can be taken as unifying all the others. Historical epistemology as proposed by Rheinberger will be read as a contribution to constructing new models of natural as well as of cultural time.

Theological presuppositions of the evolutionary epic: From Robert Chambers to E. O. Wilson.

We can trace the "evolutionary epic" (named by E. O. Wilson, 1978) back to earlier writers, beginning with Robert Chambers (1844). Its basic elements are: fixation on seeing human history as rooted in biology; an aspiration toward telling the whole history of humankind (in its essential features); and insistence on the overall coherence of the projected narrative. The claim to coherence depends on assuming either that the universe possesses an "embedded rationality," or that it is guided by divine purpose. This article proposes the term "idealism" to refer to these two assumptions taken together, for in practice they were closely linked. Nietzsche (1881) was perhaps the first thinker to point out the evolutionary epic's dependence on such an idealism, and he also pointed out that the assumptions of embedded rationality and of divine purpose are closely connected. Darwin's theory of descent with modification (1859) was sharply inconsistent with these assumptions: he was not an "idealist" in the sense indicated here, and not a proponent of the evolutionary epic. Proclaiming his "materialism," Wilson (1978) failed to acknowledge that the epic depends on idealist assumptions; other adherents of the genre (M. Dowd, L. Rue) resurrect (knowingly or not) its theological roots.

Friedrich Nietzsche: the wandering and learned neuropath under Dionisius / Friedrich Nietzsche: o neuropata culto e vagante sob Dionísio

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a remarkable philologist-philosopher while remaining in a condition of ill-health. Issues about his wandering/disruptive behavior that might be a consequence and/or protection against his cognitive decline and multifaceted disease are presented. The life complex that raises speculations about its etiology is constituted by: insight, creativity and wandering behavior besides several symptoms and signs of disease(s), mainly neurological one. The most important issue to be considered at the moment is not the disease diagnosis (Lissauer’s general paresis or CADASIL, e.g.), but the probable Nietzsche’s great cognitive reserve linked to the multifactorial etiology (genetic and environmental), and shared characteristics both to creativity and psychopathology. This makes any disease seems especial regarding Nietzsche, and whichever the diagnostic hypothesis has to consider the Nietzsche’s unique background to express any disease(s).

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) foi um notável filólogo-filósofo enquanto mantinha-se em uma condição de saúde precária. São apresentadas questões sobre seu comportamento errante/disruptivo que podem ser uma consequência e/ou protecção contra seu declínio cognitivo e doença multifacetada. O complexo de vida que levanta especulações sobre sua etiologia é constituído por: insight, criatividade e comportamento errante, além de vários sintomas e sinais de doença(s) principalmente neurológicas. A questão mais importante a ser considerada no momento não é o diagnóstico da doença (Paralisia geral de Lissauer ou CADASIL, por exemplo), mas a grande reserva cognitiva de Nietzsche ligada à etiologia multifatorial (genética e ambiental) e as características comuns tanto para criatividade ou psicopatologia. Isso faz com que qualquer doença do filósofo se expresse de forma especial, e qualquer que seja a hipótese diagnóstica tem que considerar a base especial de Nietzsche para expressar qualquer doença(s).