Jônadas Techio

Skepticism, Film and Philosophy: Losing And Recovering Presentness

The current research proposal will focus on two distinct yet complementary tasks. First I will seek a deeper understanding of Cavell's lifelong engagement with the media of photography and film, which he sees as emblems of a particularly modern, skeptical picture of our relation to the world and others, itself derived from a dissatisfaction with our finitude and the way it conditions our claims to knowledge and rationality. Second (and against the theoretical background provided by Cavell's writings on skepticism and film), I will propose a set of close readings of specific films that explore our modern dissatisfaction with finitude, as well as different ways of overcoming it, in their own narratives.

Ordinary Language, Skepticism and Finitude: an Investigation from Wittgenstein and Cavell

Despite being increasingly influential worldwide, Stanley Cavell's philosophy has not received due attention in Brazil. In order to change that situation, furthering the investigation started on my PhD dissertation, I propose to study more thoroughly the development of his thought, focusing on elucidating the relationships between these three key aspects of his philosophy: (1) the methodological interest in ordinary language philosophy represented in the writings of J. L. Austin and Ludwig Wittgenstein, (2) the "projective vision" of linguistic criteria systematized in The Claim of Reason, (3) the thesis of the "truth of skepticism" that underlies many of his later writings.

Ontology and Finitude: An Investigation from Strawson, Wittgenstein and Cavell

Peter Strawson was largely responsible for the rehabilitation of metaphysics in the analytic tradition. His project of "descriptive metaphysics" led him to search for a general and systematic overview of the most fundamental or basic features of our conceptual structure. The methodology adopted to achieve those results situates the Strawsonian project as a kind of compromise between traditional metaphysics (especially in its Kantian guise) and ordinary language philosophy. This research aims to establish a critical evaluation of this proposal, starting from the confrontation (suggested by Strawson himself) between his methodology and the therapeutic procedures that characterize the mature writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein. This research will privilege a particular interpretation of these procedures, articulated in a seminal and exemplary way in the work of Stanley Cavell. A fundamental aspect of this interpretation is the emphasis on the recognition of human finitude. In stressing the importance of this point, drawing attention to its methodological consequences in relation to the project of clarification of our conceptual scheme, this research intends to continue a reflection begun in my doctoral thesis, which had among its general objectives the establishment of a metaphysical investigation characterized by self-consciousness in relation to human finitude and the anxieties that derive from it.