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Why &#8220;Culture&#8221;? Coimbra International Conference on the Semantics of Culture24-25 November 2011PresentationThe  philosophical reference to &#8220;Culture&#8221; can be found and traced in the  History of Philosophical Thought around two main currents. The first  began with the Aufkl&#228;rung and was focused on the  philosophical-anthropological reflection on the Human Being as the  creative agent of &#34;culture&#34;. The Enlightenment ideal of liberation from  superstition, immaturity and oppressive political systems was expressed  in Kant&#8217;s formula of the sapere aude continued by Schiller&#8217;s ideas of an  aesthetical education of Mankind, which bases the emancipative project  on Knowledge and self-Knowledge. Kant extended his well-known  distinction between culture (the spiritual idea of morality) and  civilization (the practical application of the idea of morality), to the  universal categorical imperative of a Civilized Moral Life. This  entails the theoretical difficulty of the articulation of the concept of  &#34;Culture&#34; with the concept of &#34;Nature.&#34; Culture in this sense is the  &#8220;second nature&#8221; (die zweite Natur) of Human Beings &#8211; as Johann Gottfried  Herder would write in clear harmony with the legacy left by Giovanni  Battista Vico&#8217;s &#8220;sensus communis&#8221; &#8211;, but this, unlike the first,  requires Bildung. Between this first stage and the second it is possible  to identify the investigations on so-called &#34;primitive societies&#34;.  Holistic views of phenomena called &#8220;cultural&#8221;, which were already  present in the writings of Vico and Herder, are now applied to the study  of Human Communities which seem grounded on mythical beliefs, magical  rituals, and other ceremonials different from those known in Europe.  After Joseph-Fran&#231;ois Lafitau&#8217;s M&#339;ures des Sauvages Am&#233;ricains Compar&#233;es  aux M&#339;urs des Premiers Temps, (1724) the works of Edward Burnett Tylor,  Emile Durkheim, Franz Boas and Bronislaw Malinowski had a great  relevance to a better understanding and a consequent expansion of the  concept of Culture and also for the emergence of the Comparative  Studies. These studies were decisive for the idea that the psychic  structures of the Human Being are not only ruled by propositional  meanings, but the Cultural Forms also have a root linking to a mythical  view of the world and nature.The second current, that  takes place almost two centuries later in relation to the first, is  partly favored by the development of the Social Sciences and  Anthropology and can be interpreted as a Revolution &#8211; a Cultural Turn &#8211;  in Philosophy. If we want to find a philosophical trait that marks this  particular stage, then we can find it in the words of Ernst Cassirer  when, in the first volume of his Philosophie der Symbolischen Formen, he  alerted to the need for the transformation of Kant's Critique of Reason  in a Critique of Culture, that is, a true Philosophy of Culture.  Cassirer &#8211; as indeed had also argued Georg Simmel &#8211; sees the  philosophical reflection on Culture as a integral study of the external  forms (those symbolic forms such as Myth, Religion, Language, Art,  Science) that Humans use to symbolize and articulate their experience of  the World as well as to represent and schematize the individual  Freedom. Thus, in this broader sense, &#8220;Culture&#8221; is of course a Symbolic  System of shared patterns, norms and values that regulate social  interaction, and, according to Cassirer's Philosophy, it is also a way  for Man to achieve individuation. We will take the main  ideas that underlie these two historic periods &#8211; that is, the movement  traced from the concept of &#34;Culture&#34; to the Philosophy of Culture &#8211; as a  reference to our Congress &#171;Why &#8220;Culture&#8221;? Coimbra International  Conference on the Semantics of Culture&#187;. We are aware that &#8220;Culture&#8221; as a  philosophical category is not immune to its own semantic construction  in History and Society. But sometimes we need to stress this point  against dogmatism. We intend to explore in a critical  and historical sense, and if possible covering an interdisciplinary  atmosphere (Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Social  Psychology), the philosophical themes that help us to think about the  issue of individuation from the theoretical horizons opened by the  introduction of the topic of Culture in the world of Philosophy. We  welcome also the discussion of contemporary themes such as the  important subjects related to Colonialism, post-Colonialism and  Globalization or to Aesthetics and the Theories of Art that can help us  to recognize the links between Bildung, Cultural Difference and  Individuation in contemporary Society. The following  topics may serve as references, guides or general marks for the  preparation of the papers to be submitted and subsequently included in  the program of the Conference.- The semantics of &#34;Culture&#34; and &#34;Manners&#34;, &#34;Customs&#34;, &#34;Moeurs&#34;, &#34;Mode&#34; in XVIII Century in philosophical and literary Texts.- The philosophical use of &#34;Culture&#34; since Kant and Herder.- Sociology and Philosophy of Culture (G. Simmel, E. Cassirer).- The culture of &#34;Culture&#34; and the formation of a Culture of Taste in XVIII Century from Montesquieu and Burke to Kant.- &#34;Culture&#34; as Bildung and the semantics of Genius.- &#34;Culture&#34; as an historical concept and a descriptive analytical tool.- &#34;Culture&#34; and the hermeneutical triad of Action, Symbol and Text.- The semantics of &#34;Culture&#34; in modern society and the evolution of the distinction civilized / barbarian.- &#34;Culture&#34; in organizations.&#160;- Comparison through symbolic borders and the comparative use of &#34;Culture&#34;.- &#34;Culture&#34; and &#34;pop-culture&#34;.- &#34;Culture&#34;, mass media and the mediation of knowledge- Post-Colonial, Globalized Horizons of &#8220;Culture&#8221; and hybridizationsFurther questions on the organization and logistics will be explained after the initial contacts. Program 24 November 9.00 Opening Oswald Schwemmer, Culture as externalized information 9.45 Discussion 10.00 Coimbra Philosophical Lectures IV   Bernard Stiegler, La prol&#233;tarisation du sensible et les tournants machiniques de la sensibilit&#233; 10.45 Discussion 11.00 Break  11.15 &#8222;Culture&#8220; as &#8222;National&#8220; Expression? Henrique Jales Ribeiro, Culture and Philosophy: on the existence of typically national Philosophies. The Portuguese case Reviewed Jos&#233; Gama, A for&#231;a da cultura em Bento de Jesus Cara&#231;a Luis Costa Dias, A entrada de Portugal na era medi&#225;tica: imprensa e cultura urbana de massas na transi&#231;&#227;o do s&#233;culo XIX para o s&#233;culo XX 12.45 Discussion 13.00 Lunch Break 14.30 Effects of the Body, Art and Mediations Jo&#227;o Maria Bernardo Ascenso Andr&#233;, Artes e interculturalidade: o teatro como campo de di&#225;logo intercultural Eunice Gon&#231;alves Duarte, Para um questionamento da performance mediada pelos meios tecnol&#243;gicos Pedro Ord&#243;&#241;ez Eslava, Beyond identities: Transculturalisms, hybridizations, and other (cross-cultural) processes in music today 16.30 Discussion 16.45 Break  17.00 &#8222;Cultural&#8220; inscriptions in the Urban Space Paul Cortois, Cities as individual Essences Isabel Ferin, Cultura, Identidade e Consumos: os centros comerciais Colombo e Vasco da Gama&#160; V&#237;tor Oliveira Jorge, Por que &#233; que o conceito de cultura material n&#227;o tem sentido18.30 Discussion   25 November9.00 The Mediation of &#8222;Culture&#8220; and its subjects Maria Jo&#227;o Silveirinha e Carlos Camponez, Intelectualidade, autonomia e desprofissionaliza&#231;&#227;o: regresso a quest&#245;es cadentes do jornalismo Ana Teresa Peixinho, Jornalismo e Cultura e a cabe&#231;a de Janus. Cultura nos jornais de oitocentos: da elite &#224; massa 10.00 Discussion 10.15 Dimensions of the Semantics of &#8222;Culture&#8220; E. Patrascu, Cultural representations of trauma in postcolonialism and post-communism Isabelle Sim&#245;es Marques, Do romance plurilingue, ou da forma como a l&#237;ngua incorpora a cultura do Outro Antonia Olmos Alcaraz, El discurso multicultural y la re-esencializaci&#243;n de la cultura: sobre c&#243;mo se construyen diferencias y &#8220;nuevos&#8221; racismos Edmundo Balsem&#227;o Pires, Organic, Psychic and Communicative Elements in the Individuation of &#171;Genius&#187; in XVII-XVIII Centuries 12.45 Discussion 13.00 Lunch Break 14.30 &#8222;Culture&#8220; in the History of modern Philosophy Jeffrey Andrew Barash, The Rhetoric of Culture. Hans Blumenberg and the Legacy of Herder Inder S. Marwah, Bridging Nature and Freedom? Kant, Culture and Cultivation Bernhard Sylla, Ser&#225; que a linguagem determina a cultura? As posi&#231;&#245;es de Humboldt e Cassirer em torno desta quest&#227;o  16.00 Discussion 16.15 Philosophy of Culture Joaquim Braga, Philosophy as Philosophy of Culture Horia Patrascu, The Morphology of Culture in Romania. Lucian Blaga (1895-1965) &#8211; the Passage from Axiology to the Ontology of CultureOlivier Feron, Does culture an improbable product or the essence of a rich man?Liza Cortois, Incommensurability in the comparative study of cultures. From Kuhn to Benedict, back &#38; forth Christian M&#246;ckel, Mythisch-magisches Denken als Kulturform und als Kulturleistung. Eine Fragestellung bei Ernst Cassirer und Claude L&#233;vi-Strauss  18.45 DiscussionAbstracts and Texts:http://www.uc.pt/fluc/congresso_culturas/abstracts_and_textes/