Research Lines

Ontology, Knowledge and Languages

The Ontology, Knowledge, and Languages research line is interdisciplinary and transversal in nature, with an intersection made possible by dialogue involving ontological issues pertaining to the categorical structure and properties of beings, discussions between essence and appearance, the notion of existence, and the relationship between possible entities and actual entities (between the ontic and the ontological, in the Scholastic sense). In this interrelationship, ontological notions will present themselves according to their classical dichotomies represented by monism and dualism, determinism and indeterminism, materialism and idealism, and by realism and antirealism when dealing with the notions of substances and entities, typical of scientific theories. The issue of the being will naturally lead to the interrelation between knowledge and languages. Thus, this line of research will also encompass issues involving epistemology, as a theory of knowledge, and its classic themes—such as the issue of knowledge, the sources of knowledge, the forms of knowledge, truth and the theories that surround it, justification, rationality, belief, and skepticism—and more transversal themes concerning the languages through which knowledge is communicated. The term "languages," in this sense, aims to encompass not only the philosophy of language, as an area of knowledge within philosophy, but also the relationship between knowledge and the languages through which it can be communicated, transmitted, propagated, and reflected—be they the languages of science, ethics, aesthetics, literature, metaphysics, logic, technology, or ecology. As proposed, this will be an open and pluralistic line of research without losing what is distinctive about typically philosophical reflection.

Ethics and Political Philosophy

The line of research in Ethics and Political Philosophy is formed by two broad areas that often share important issues for discussing the glaring problems of today's reality. It is not simply a matter of fostering interdisciplinary dialogue between these areas, but also of understanding them in their specificities. Initially, this line encompasses research on traditional and contemporary ethical issues, based on two possible directions: both those philosophical orientations that seek a metaphysical foundation and/or grounding for Ethics (infinitist or finitist), and those based on a critical and/or genealogical reflection of the metaphysical tradition and its foundation, including research on its essential terms such as freedom and subjectivity, as well as on its borderline themes, such as self-care, human rights, education, and their relationships with language, religion, and science. In turn, the debate in Political Philosophy, guided by the orientations of tradition, incites discussion about the place and importance of philosophical discourse in understanding the relationships between the individual and the community, on the theme of equality and justice, from another perspective the problem of freedom, the legitimacy of power and the State, democratic principles, the discourses that legitimize the different forms of government, the tools of domination and strengthening of intersubjectivity, the intersections between morality and the problems of collective life, the approximation or distance between the spheres of ethics and politics, among other issues, find in this line of research a broad space for debate and realization of their reflections.