Sergio Alloggio - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sergio Alloggio

Sustainability, 2023

Human actions are ambivalent in nature and this in turn has an impact on all components of socio-... more Human actions are ambivalent in nature and this in turn has an impact on all components of socio-ecological systems. Their ambivalence results from the fact that human actions have both positive and negative outcomes and properties, which occur and manifest concurrently in the ontological realm of human existence. In terms of space–time, both micro-geography and macro-geography of human existence are intertwined during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus affecting pre- and post-pandemic space–time continuum. The utilitarian qubit can be used to describe the nature of human existence, i.e., Homo sapiens has always been experiencing a state of existence where pain and pleasure are co-extensive. In this state, it is impossible to establish to what extent pain, and to what extent pleasure, will have a definitive impact on our status as individuals and humanity as a species. In this article, the authors explore how the record of an individual’s life before and after the COVID-19 pandemic has bee...

Acta Juridica, 2022

The recent institutional consolidation of feminist philosophy, African and Africana philosophies,... more The recent institutional consolidation of feminist philosophy, African and Africana philosophies, sociology of knowledge and decolonial theory have brought professional philosophers face-to-face with the repressed side of Western philosophy. This essay, drawing on the theoretical framework developed in my previous article ‘Hic sunt leones’, investigates the role played by professional narcissism and resistance to history in the philosopher’s self-image and imaginary, with a particular focus on professional white philosophy in South Africa. The pedagogical aspects of philosophical apprenticeship will be examined psychoanalytically, and explored in their transferential components. Such a psychoanalytic reading will also engage with current conflicts within the South African philosophical field, promoting a shared space for negotiations. However, without adequate introjection of, and progressive identification with, African philosophers and their work, professional white philosophers in South Africa run the twofold risk of replicating regressive forms of disciplinary parenthood while institutionalising neocolonial forms of academic (af)filiations.

Ramon Llull Journal of Applied Ethics, Jul 26, 2021

This first of two papers in which the authors seek to explain and problematise the current moral ... more This first of two papers in which the authors seek to explain and problematise the current moral and ethical deviations from ideal research ethics by examining the predominant humanist philosophical knowledge system that underpins the postmodern era and modern scientific research practices. Additionally, a causal relationship between knowledge paradigms, culture and societal behaviour along with societal products and societal instruments is proposed. The notion being, that knowledge paradigms have the potential to influence the cultures of the people who adopt them. The culture which knowledge paradigms produce within a society in turn influences the instruments that said society generates, such as economic systems, power structures and policies pertaining to human co-existence/behaviour. This paper in two parts examines and compares the formulae for (ethical) knowledge generation that were used during the medieval, modern and current postmodern eras and the performative effects of the respective knowledge paradigms within those societies in terms of morality, ethics, geopolitics, scientific and existential inquiry.

Phronimon, 2020

The coronavirus outbreak is currently scrutinised by professional philosophers from different tra... more The coronavirus outbreak is currently scrutinised by professional philosophers from different traditions and geographical areas. By focusing on several contributions from European academic philosophers, this article assesses whether such philosophical works manifest and reproduce, consciously or unconsciously, neocolonial and Eurocentric understandings of the Covid-19 pandemic. Particular attention will be given to Agamben's and Žižek's interpretations to show the role played in their analysis by reductionist and regressive constructions of the social world. I will then draw on several contributions from African and Africana philosophers (Gqola, Asante, More, West and Outlaw), to set up a theoretical space in which the social experiencing of the coronavirus outbreak, as well as the self-understanding of academic philosophers, could be positively reconceptualised. This act of resignification has its aim in promoting adequate forms of institutional analysis and professional engagement, and it points to the emancipatory task philosophy embodies in the global South.

Phronimon, 2019

Plato constructs the philosopher in contrast to the sophist. Both sophistical and rhetorical logo... more Plato constructs the philosopher in contrast to the sophist. Both sophistical and rhetorical logos, in their epistemic closeness to philosophical logos, require a constant act of demarcation throughout Plato's works. The challenge posed by the sophists creates a structural, instable tension in several Platonic dialogues. Why is the Athenian philosopher obsessed by a different yet comparable approach to virtue, knowledge and social order? Why does the Athenian philosopher need and, at the same time, reject the sophist when it comes to shaping his own self-image? To try to answer these questions, I will go back to a foundational moment where the Platonic philosopher is theoretically constructed and conceptually produced against the sophist, namely, Plato's Sophist, Statesman, Protagoras, Gorgias and Phaedrus. The aim of the article is to show how the Platonic philosopher is conveniently defined through a series of partisan demarcations grounded on ontological privilege, epistemic exclusion, ethical circularity and, ultimately, political delegitimation.

African Yearbook of Rhetoric, 2019

In this article I analyse what we traditionally call Book I of Plato’s Republic to investigate ho... more In this article I analyse what we traditionally call Book I of Plato’s Republic to investigate how the modulation of his dialeghesthai takes shape through a progressive series of refutations of characters (Cephalus, Polemarchus and Thrasymachus); an argumentative modulation which, first and foremost, relies on a much larger strategy of subjugation of what those three characters represent politically and symbolise philosophically. Book I will be read as a multi-layered rite of (blocked) passage among socio-political boundaries, understood as argumentative limits whose main aim is to consecrate class divisions and division of labour within the kallipolis.

Acta Educationis Generalis, 2019

Introduction: Although this paper deals mostly with the positive effects of a posthumanist worldv... more Introduction: Although this paper deals mostly with the positive effects of a posthumanist worldview on environmental sustainability, partnership, or moral accountability in science and scientific research, it also promotes a new understanding of our educational practice in higher education. The ideas espoused have the ability to inspire educators at all levels to show students, future researchers or other professions about the importance of a progressive, holistic approach to our environment. We claim that being sensitive and caring for our environment is not only part of our moral and ethical responsibility, it is an inseparable aspect of our environmental education, our environmental intelligence. This paper discusses posthumanist1 reciprocity ethics in the context of traditional knowledge (TK) and the protection of indigenous traditional knowledge from commercial exploitation. Methods: Instances of unethical bioprospecting and biopiracy were common throughout the turn of the 21s...

Debating African Philosophy: Perspectives on Identity, Decolonial Ethics and Comparative Philosophy, 2019

The right of George Hull to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the aut... more The right of George Hull to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

African Yearbook of Rhetoric, Dec 31, 2016

In this paper, I will first discuss how funeral orations (epitaphioi) in Nicole Loraux’s The Inve... more In this paper, I will first discuss how funeral orations (epitaphioi) in Nicole Loraux’s The Invention of Athens are read as part of the Athenian ideological struggle against internal and external conflicts. Loraux’s book is by far the most influential study of the Greek epitaphios. Further, I will focus on the rhetorical strategies that allow the funeral orations to transform death into an ideological tool to strengthen Athenian hegemony during its classical phase (fifth and fourth centuries BC). Lastly, drawing on Jean-Francois Lyotard and Jean-Paul Sartre, I shall briefly examine some philosophical implications about death and its ideological function when collectively implemented in an epitaphios.

Consecutio Temporum: Rivista critica della postmodernità, 2013

This article constitutes the second part of the essay "'This head of Medusa within': Politics of ... more This article constitutes the second part of the essay "'This head of Medusa within': Politics of delegitimation in Jean-François Lyotard's The Differend", the first part of which was published in «Consecutio Temporum», no. 3, 2012. I begin by investigating Lyotard's organic approach to Kant and argue that from the Critique of Pure Reason to Kant's political works, Lyotard's reading is wrought through the phrasal dispositif which illuminates how a politics of delegitimation takes place between Lyotard and Kant. Within Lyotard's reading of Hegel the phrasal dispositif is made to engage with its inverted doppelganger, that is Hegel's speculative dispositif: against Hegel, Lyotard makes use of the concept of an undialectical death, one which blocks both the speculative dispositif and the notion of différend itself. Lastly, some of the unavoidable consequences implied by this untranscendable death are discussed, thereby problematizing Lyotard's own claim for a politics of resistance.

Social Dynamics, 2013

In a recent article in the South African newspaper City Press (“Strive the Beloved Country,” Nove... more In a recent article in the South African newspaper City Press (“Strive the Beloved Country,” November 11, 2012) editor Ferial Haffajee argues that, although in the latest state plan for national development “the vision of a decent life is finally fleshed out,” “sadly, South Africa’s response has been lukewarm and we, the people and our government, appear intent on ignoring it completely.” The task of addressing inequality and poverty is surely a fundamental goal for any progressive politics; and as this is the ostensible aim of the plan, it is critical to engage with it.
Social Dynamics, 2013 Vol. 39, No. 1, 108–110, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2013.777555

Consecutio Temporum: Rivista critica della postmodernità, 2012

This article is the first part of a two-part essay that approaches Lyotard's masterpiece Le diffé... more This article is the first part of a two-part essay that approaches Lyotard's masterpiece Le différend aiming at a structural reconfiguration of the book itself. The second part of the essay will appear in the next issue of Consecutio Temporum. As a general introduction to the Lyotardian emphasis on judgment, I use a self-absolutory confession made by Derrida in his Before the Law, a confession on the decisive role played by judging in Derrida's own deconstructive enterprise as a whole. The Differend is then genealogically analyzed to show how a specific ontology, epistemology and politics characterises what can be called the phrasal dispositif of the book. This dispositif is more extensively investigated in its elemental composition, that is triangulation, agonistic atomism and vengeance of the names. It is only at this final point that most of the book's concepts (differend, wrong and litigation) can be rearranged in order to prove that Lyotard's phrasal agonistics relies on a politics of delegitimation.

African Yearbook of Rhetoric, 2012

In this paper first I will briefly address Louis Althusser's notions of Ideological State Apparat... more In this paper first I will briefly address Louis Althusser's notions of Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs), ideology and their interplay in the formation of a subjugated subjectivity, and then I focus my attention on his Marxist reading of Niccolo Machiavelli to cast light on ideological control, its alteration and limits.

African Yearbook of Rhetoric, , 2012

This paper engages with some of the writings of Hannah Arendt in order to draw a political parall... more This paper engages with some of the writings of Hannah Arendt in order to draw a political parallel between the complex nexus of responsibility, judgement and sociality in post-war Germany and post-apartheid South Africa. In her writings on post-war Germany Arendt described the failure on the part of the German public to recognise and respond to what she terms "the horror" of Nazism. In her report on the aftermath of war, written on her return to Germany from the United States in 1949, Arendt recounts how she found "an inability to feel", "absence of mourning for the dead"; and a "general lack of emotion" in those she encountered in Germany at that time. In this paper we connect her insights on post-war Germany to her later work on the difficulties of judging; this allows us to cast light on the problem of the evasion of responsibility in contemporary South Africa.

African Yearbook of Rhetoric, 2011

In the winter of 1949-50 Hannah Arendt, who immigrated to the United States in 1941, returns to W... more In the winter of 1949-50 Hannah Arendt, who immigrated to the United States in 1941, returns to West Germany to fulfil her commitment to the Commission for Jewish Cultural Reconstruction. It is her first post-war visit to her homeland, in a time in which she is no longer German and not yet American. "The Aftermath of Nazi Rule: Report from Germany", an article published in the American journal Commentary in 1950, is the printed testimony of that intense trip. The Report, while a minor article in Arendt's opus, nonetheless presents a number of remarkable observations made by a young thinker facing both the moral and physical devastation of her native soil - "a cloud of melancholy in the heart of Europe" as Arendt states.

African Yearbook of Rhetoric, 2010

Luce Irigaray's Marine Lover is part of her "tetralogy" on natural elements (water, air, fire and... more Luce Irigaray's Marine Lover is part of her "tetralogy" on natural elements (water, air, fire and earth) and male philosophers. The aim of this project is to show how the primal elements are the natural fabrics of passions, feelings and emotions, both in everyday life and philosophical interrogations. As we can guess, Marine Lover is about water and the philosopher in question is Friedrich Nietzsche, a great thinker whose encounters with feminism are interesting and productive, but never easy”, whose reading is “worthwhile for feminist theorists”, as well as “his critique of the liberal subject and the ethics of self‐creation that this critique entails.” The way in which Irigaray meets Nietzsche is simple and direct: she addresses the philosopher using only the second person, without even using his name (she starts mentioning him only in the last section), working in an endless face to face with the main concepts that Nietzsche introduces in his famous masterpiece Thus Spoke Zarathustra. For instance, concepts such as eternal recurrence, the Ubermensch, self-overcoming, latest thought and the death of God, among others, are all rethought by Irigaray using both the sexual difference and the role of the woman as key features.

Post-filosofie, May 12, 2005

In quell'immensa industria testuale riguardante la globalizzazione, e che sforna incessantemente ... more In quell'immensa industria testuale riguardante la globalizzazione, e che sforna incessantemente opere su molte delle quali dovrebbe abbattersi il buon vecchio rasoio di Ockham, si segnalano due libri pubblicati in Italia nel 2004. Il primo è: N. Chomsky, V. Shiva, J. E. Stiglitz e altri, La debolezza del più forte 1 , mentre il secondo, curato da Paolo Costa, si intitola Il diritto di avere diritti. 2 La debolezza del più forte raccoglie e sistematizza le Oxford Amnesty Lectures del 2003, un ciclo di conferenze svoltosi appunto a Oxford. Cominciate nel 1992, queste Lectures sono ormai diventate un celebre e annuale appuntamento per tastare il polso al dibattito internazionale sui diritti umani. Lo scopo del volume, come scrive il curatore Matthew J. Gibney nell'Introduzione, è «considerare l'impatto della globalizzazione sulla diffusione e sul rispetto dei diritti umani». 3 Punto comune a tutti gli interventi, potremmo dire con l'Heidegger di Sein und Zeit, è quello di essere mossi e guidati, anche senza averne sempre una chiara definizione, da ciò che si cerca di capire, in questo caso il fenomeno della globalizzazione in tutta la sua stringente attualità. Susan George, autrice del primo intervento, si concentra sul cortocircuito fra espansionismo neoliberista e incapacità di sviluppare