Gianfranco Ferraro

Starting from the premise, recently shared by authors such as Jacques Derrida and Pierre Macherey (for whom a state of crisis is inherent to the university) that of the humanities constitute the specific terrain in which to propose new experiments, this article attempts to verify what is at stake in an approach to philosophy as a way of life, in the context of the current academic form. In doing so, following Hadot and Foucault, it describes philosophical spirituality, and conversion, as the determining elements of a philosophy connected to the practices of existence. Secondly, it shows how the criticisms of the philosophy linked to the state, of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Bourdieu – as well as the criticisms of the philosophy linked to the neoliberal market – determine the urgency of thinking of a philosophy as spirituality within universities. In what terms, however, is it possible to practice this philosophy without changing the very forms of the contemporary county university? And how is it possible to change the contemporary university without giving philosophy the utopian place it deserves?

The volume Conceptual Figures of Fragmentation and Reconfiguration is a collection of revised versions of the papers presented at a research seminar which took place at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, between January and June 2019. The seminar is one of the core activities of the project “Fragmentation and Reconfiguration: Experiencing the City between Art and Philosophy”, based at IFILNOVA – Nova Institute of Philosophy in Lisbon. This volume strives to reassess the relationship between fragmentation and reconfiguration, the contemporary relevance of which can be appreciated by focusing on the experience of the city, in particular the aesthetic experience of the city. Following the structure of the original seminar presentations, and drawing on key philosophical authors such as Goethe, Benjamin, Wittgenstein, Foucault, Deleuze, Joyce, Proust, and Perec, each of the nine contributors focuses on a specific conceptual figure: Catastrophe (Gianfranco Ferraro); Ruins (Maria Filomena Molder); Chaosmopolitanism (Bartholomew Ryan); Morphogenesis (Maurizio Gribaudi); Atlas (Nélio Conceição); Archive (João Duarte); Collection (Maria João Gamito); Panoramic Presentation (Alexandra Dias Fortes); and Aesthetic Experience (Nuno Fonseca).

In this article, we will show how Derrida’s deconstruction of modern individualism, exemplified by Robinson Crusoe’s attitude toward nature, addresses the contemporary debate on the Anthropocene. Through Hadot’s genealogy of modern “prometheanism,” we will discuss how a different gaze by human beings on themselves and nature can lead us out of the modern self-conception of the human person, that is resulting in the Anthropocene era, its catastrophic results endangering the very survival of humankind. Through Morton’s conception of hospitality and Haraway’s notion of Chthulucene, we argue that a new individual and collective conversion to nature may result in an era in which human beings can conceive of themselves as ethical parts of nature. Hence, a new view on the reciprocal interdependence between human beings and nature can be affirmed, creating a feeling of hospitality without hostility. We conclude by considering Agamben’s recovery of Franciscanism, as a form-of-life, preceding modernity, in which this ethical, natural civilization was firstly foreseen.

A experiência da conversão é habitualmente ligada ao contexto religioso.Contudo, autores como Pierre Hadot e Michel Foucault destacaram a presença de uma conversão filosófica, ao longo dos séculos. Se é possível verificar como nas tradições apocalípticas de caráter religioso se instaura uma conversão que visa alcançar uma manutenção do mundo em épocas de crise, também no contexto filosófico a diagnose nietzscheana do niilismo foi seguida por experiências filosóficas, como as de Simone Weil e de Georges Bataille, que visam a definição de uma vida filosófica capaz de enfrentar o apocalipse. Através da abordagem do antropólogo Ernesto De Martino, tentarei mostrar, por um lado, o caráter apocalíptico-cultural do niilismo, e, por outro, como uma conversão filosófica, enquanto experiência interior, pode encarar este hóspede do nosso tempo.

Marta Faustino and Gianfranco Ferraro present a collection of essays by esteemed academics on the ethical and political questions present in Michel Foucault's late work. As one of the most important and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century, the philosopher's last works are at the centre of much current academic research and debate. Comprising 15 essays written by specialists on Foucault's thought from 10 different countries, the perspectives offered by the contributors and the thinker himself can help us to unravel modernity and give us the tools to understand and ethically and politically transform our present.

Nietzsche’s four Untimely Meditations are a set of works generally rather neglected of this author. They are, however, the outcome of a project placed in a critical situation, along the development of Nietzsche as philosopher. By beginning, particularly, with an analysis of the first Meditation, David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer, and of the third one, Schopenhauer as educator, we will try to show two philosophical perspectives which, launched in the Meditations, will carry Nietzsche’s path until its end: the path of an “ontology of the modernity”, according with the expression of Foucault, and that of a philosophy as “way of life”, according with the expression of Hadot.