João Ohara

@oharajrm.com

3095 Followers 891 Following

Theory and Philosophy of History @ University of São Paulo - USP (Brazil) Interested in narrative, trust, and epistemic dependence.

A photograph of a large auditorium, with the audience looking towards the stage from where Ewa Domanska is speaking. The speaker is displaying her slides on screens at the back of the stage and the middle of the hall.
Photograph of a conference room from the point of view of the audience. On the first plane, white chairs and the backs of the heads of audience members. On the background is the speaker and the screens with slides with his name, Berber Bevernage.
A screenshot of the paper's page on the journal website. Paper title: On Historical (Anti-)Realism. Author: João Ohara. Abstract: The problem of historical realism has gained some new momentum recently, with a fresh challenge to what is taken to be an anti-realist hegemony in the theory and philosophy of history. Unfortunately, this has also provided the opportunity for the reheating of old polemics and lazy scholarship that characterized the 1990s reaction to “postmodernism.” Ill-defined questions distract us from more important issues. Here, I offer a map that aims to clarify the conceptual space. I distinguish between a metaphysical problem, which is the problem of historical realism proper, and an epistemological problem, which is sometimes treated under the same phrase but is more adequately called the problem of historical skepticism. I then consider what the targets of each of these discussions are and map the conceptual space of possibilities in them.
A drawing of a person reaching for a bright light with the caption "me when my intuition was correct once again". An additional caption reads "analytic philosophers be like".
A screenshot of a Word document. It reads: article. On Historical (anti-)realism. João Ohara. The problem of historical realism has gained some new momentum recently, with a fresh challenge to what is taken to be an anti-realist hegemony in the theory and philosophy of history. Unfortunately, this has also provided the opportunity for the reheating of old polemics and lazy scholarship that characterized the 1990s reaction to “postmodernism.” Ill-defined questions distract us from more important issues. Here, I offer a map that aims to clarify the conceptual space. I distinguish between a metaphysical problem, which is the problem of historical realism proper, and an epistemological problem, which is sometimes treated under the same phrase but is more adequately called the problem of historical skepticism. I then consider what the targets of each of these discussions are and map the conceptual space of possibilities in them.
A package of stroopwaffels.
A meme cartoon face expressing great satisfaction.
A white man in a suit with his eyes closed. The captions say "Jesus, I see what you've done for other people, and I want that for me."
A photo of the book "Les Mots et les Choses", by Michel Foucault.
A monkey puppet looks around awkwardly.
A white chart about the types of philosophy of history paper. 1) History is just like literature; 2) Historical theorists got it wrong. Read this analytic philosopher instead; 3) History is definitely not like literature; 4) Hayden White was wrong; 5) Historians should know a lil bit about epistemology; 6) Vibing about time; 7) 18th Century German dude had some good idea (but was racist); 8) Why history is not like the sciences (but should be); 9) Comp lit paper that wasn't accepted in comp lit journal; 10) Why history is not like the sciences (and shouldn't be); 11) Whatever the latest French dude wrote is great; 12) Nazism bad.
Part of a flowchart on what kind of philosopher you are. The box reads, "You're a sexy murder poet. How do you feel about ethnonationalist fascism?" The arrow reads, "love it!" The target box reads, "Heideggerian".
A portrait of French philosopher Michel Foucault: bald white man with glasses and turtleneck shirt.
Section of a screenshot of a PDF file. It reads: Brill. Journal of the Philosophy of History 18. Stories are still not lived but told. João Rodolfo Munhoz Ohara. Assistant Professor, Institute for History, Federal U.
Screenshot of a text. It reads: "In the early 1680s Leibniz projected a Latin work, Elementa physicae (recall this post for a different angle on it). Not unlike many of his other book projects this work was never completed."
Screenshot of a website. The header has a menu icon, the logo for the series Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method, and a loupe icon. Under the header, a bar has a star icon, a printer icon, and a quote icon. Under that, the title of the article reads, "Louis O. Mink, by João Ohara". Under that, there is the DOI and a warning about subscription being required to access the contents of the page.
Poster for a talk at Queen's University, Canada. The title is "History and Inductive Risk, or the Social Harms of Bad Histories". The author is Dr. João Ohara, Assistant Professor at the Institute for History of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and currently Good Family Visiting Faculty Research Fellow at the Department of History, Queen's University. The talk is scheduled for April 4, 11:30, in room 514, Watson Hall. Illustrating the poster is the painting The Third of May 1808, by Goya, and a portrait of the speaker.
A graph containing nodes, which represent individual entries in a note management system, interconnected via links to one another (references).
On Neurath's view, it is a contingent fact, well supported by historical evidence, that we do choose among empirically equivalent theories on the basis of our estimation of the likelihood of their serving our favored social and political ends, this especially in sciences like economics and sociology. Denial of this fact being symptomatic of pseudo-rationalism, it were better that we be honest with ourselves and others about our so choosing. The cause of scientific objectivity and the cause of human freedom (for Neurath those two causes are one) are better served by open, public debate about the values whereby we choose, for the agents of regressive social and political interests hide their agendas behind the disguise of pseudo-rationalism.
An image of the painting " The Treachery of Images" by René Magritte. It shows the image of a pipe and the following words written under it: "ceci n'est pas un pipe", or this is not a pipe.