Peer-reviewed publications
Henri Bergson and the Morality of Uncertainty, A Special Issue for the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy / Revue de la Philosophie Française et de la Langue Française commemorating 75 years since the death of Henri Bergson, Vol. 24, no. 2, 2016 (available here).
Abstract: Moral and political theories, insofar as they are based on the fragile life of human beings, usually incorporate a reflection on the role of uncertainty or contingency. The question remains however, how exactly do we experience ‘uncertainty’? Can it show us different faces, to which we then react in different ways? If so, what is the meaning of such multiplicity for the exercise of agency? Comparing Bergson’s inquiry into the modern belief in chance with Jean-Marie Guyau’s reflections on the love of risk, I examine the moral significance of different ways of relating to uncertainty, and analyze their respective pedagogical purchase regarding the constitution of human freedom. When confronted with the unknown future, human agency gets easily trapped in the vicious and vertiginous circle of impotence and omnipotence. The contrast between Bergson and Guyau illuminates this problem, showing how our relation to uncertainty informs our identity, our capacity for action, and our sense of obligation.
Max Scheler and Adam Smith on Sympathy, The Review of Politics, Vol. 79, No. 3, Summer 2017 (forthcoming)
Abstract: Recent efforts to theorize the role of emotions in political life have stressed the importance of sympathy, and have often recurred to Adam Smith to articulate their claims. In the early twentieth-century, Max Scheler disputed the salutary character of sympathy, dismissing it as an ultimately perverse foundation for human association. Unlike later critics of sympathy as a political principle, Scheler rejected it for being ill equipped to salvage what, in his opinion, should be the proper basis of morality, namely, moral value. Even if Scheler’s objections against Smith’s project prove to be ultimately mistaken, he had important reasons to call into question its moral purchase in his own time. Where the most dangerous idol is not self-love but illusory self-knowledge, the virtue of self-command will not suffice. Where identification with others threatens the social bond more deeply than faction, “standing alone” in moral matters proves a more urgent task.
Working papers
The Life of the Humean Mind
Abstract: The paper examines David Hume's idea of the will, under the light of Hannah Arendt's treatment of this faculty in The Life of the Mind. It explores the way in which Hume deals with the phenomena that Arendt identifies as related to the "willing ego," with particular attention to their political and moral significance.
Non-peer reviewed publications
"Hannah Arendt and Raymond Aron on the Ambiguities of Democracy," La Gaceta de Ciencia Política, Año 6, No. 1 (2009), 107-113. (In Spanish)
"Gender and Justice," Revista Compromiso (Gazette of the Mexican Federal Judiciary), July 2009 - December 2010. (A monthly editorial, from July 2009 to December 2010, discussing topics related to minority rights and legal interpretation in constitutional, criminal, and civil law. In Spanish).