Sumários

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17 Fevereiro 2022, 16:00 Rita Sousa


Dualism and concepts of ontological reality in Greek thought. A compared view with hindu thought (W. Doniger O'Flaherty)

The dichotomous principles of Plato's philosophy: A. Lovejoy's criticism of the thisworldliness/thatworldliness divide in Plato and his heirs.

The Greek way of thinking and making war: John Keegan's analysis of Greek dualism and their concepts of war.

Judeo-Christian dualism and platonic thought. The way to the Calcedon. An explanation of the creed, and its ontological deirivatives.

Bibliography:

W. Doniger O'Flaherty, Dreams, illusion and other realities

A. Lovejoy, The Great chain of being

J. Keegan, History of Warfare

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16 Fevereiro 2022, 16:00 Rita Sousa


The notion of "category" in Anthropology and its logico-philosophical foundations.

Boole, Cantor, Gödel - numbers, groups and paradoxes.

Bertrand Russel's critical review of Aristotelian logics and metaphysics, and why it's important for a new grounding of anthropological thought.

The language-mind debate: universality and substance. Categories of thought or categories of language.

Bibliography:

J. Barrow, The Book of Nothing.

W. Folley, Anthropological Linguistics

B. Russel, History of Western Philosophy

E. Benveniste, Catégories de langue, catégories de pensée

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10 Fevereiro 2022, 16:00 Rita Sousa


Problematisation of accepted anthropological concepts.

From Plato to the doctrine of Chalcedon: the archaeology of the n otions of dualism in Western thought. Counter-examples from non-Chalcedonic Churches.

Mind - Language - Culture

The notion of "category" in Anthropology and its logico-philosophical foundations.

A criticism of the Aristotelian groundings of anthropological categorisations.

The language-mind debate. Where do symbols stand?

A lost possibility: non-rousseauian anthropology in the 18th century: de Sade, Lametrie, Montesquieu, Kant.

Bibliography:

De Sade, Aline et Valcour

Roy D'Andrade, The Development of Cognitive Anthropology

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9 Fevereiro 2022, 16:00 Rita Sousa


Presentation of the course's programme, bibliography and system of evaluation.

Introductory discussion of contemporary issues on symbolism and cognition.

The need for an interdisciplinary approach (anthropology vis a vis the neurosciences) and the relevance of a revisited ethnography (Tim Ingold in the Debated Mind, and Maurice Bloch's connectivist views on cultural cognition).

The problems of the Western-centric semantic (and rhetoric) conditioning of anthropological discourses.

The limitations of a materialist approach to cognition. Example:

António Damásio's Self comes to Mind: Constructing the conscious brain

John Searle's critical review of Damasio's Self comes to mind