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Très en profondeur, dans les couches étymologiques qui enrobent l`origine de la catégorie controversée du baroque, gît l`insolite, la précieuse image : l`image d`une perle ne possédant pas une forme parfaitement ronde ni d`axe propre de rotation, et qui, par suite, reste privée du prestige réservé aux exemplaires « réguliers » de son espèce.
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Cioran and the Existential Philosophy of Lev Shestov. Cioran is said to have been influenced by Pascal, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, the author of La Chute dans le temps thus enrolling in the line of existential philosophy. Much less - or not at all - is mentioned in this context Lev Shestov, who exerted a considerable influence on the intellectual environments in France, but also in Romania, in the period immediately following the First World War. Cioran considered Shestov as one of his spiritual masters, the influence of the Russian thinker being present both in his youthful writings and in those written later in France. We will try to highlight some of Shestov’s ideas which have been creatively taken over by Cioran and that can be found constantly throughout his work.
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This paper compares two programmes of historical criticism at the end of the 16th Century – Jean Mabillon’s diplomatics and Richard Simon’s biblical criticism. Although they were both conceived as philological and contextual reconstruction of texts, their relation with the authority of the texts and their engagement with political and institutional stakes were strikingly different.
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The paper addresses the question of how adequate the standard interpretation (or conception) of Cartesian dualism is, given the complexity of Cartesian texts. Ryle’s “ghost in the machine dogma” and Gilson’s concept of angel in the human body are exempla grata of the standard interpretation. The current paper draws the following general conclusions. First, the standard interpretation commits “the Straw Man Fallacy”, that is, violates “the Principle of Charity”. Second, contradictions are a particularly striking feature of the Cartesian texts and testify to the dialectical nature of the texts.
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Le sens de l’amitié, pour Jean-Jacques Rousseau, se situe et se développe dans l’individu. L’amitié dans ce cas est une expansion morale du moi, dans la mesure où sa finalité vertueuse est moins un privilège dont jouirait autrui qu’une émancipation interne de notre caractère autonome. // The meaning of friendship, for Rousseau, is located and develops in the individual. In this case, friendship is an expansion of self, because its virtuous purpose is less a privilege enjoyed by others than an internal emancipation of our autonomous character.
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The theory of notitiae naturales or κοιναὶ ἔννοιαι was part of the ancient Stoic epistemology. It served as precondition of any knowledge. Within the framework of the humanist rediscovery of ancient sources this theory became an important aspect of Philipp Melanchthon’s theological anthropology. This paper examines the polyvalent perspectives of the theory of notitiae naturales in Melanchthon’s philosophy and the role it played among Lutheran and Calvinist scholars, particularly regarding Rom 1: 19, where Paul stated some kind of a natural knowledge of God. The idea of notitiae communes or “common notions” as an a priori precondition of knowledge was widely spread both on the continent and in England in early modernity. It came to an end by John Locke’s critique in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
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This paper investigates the Baconian roots of Maupertuis’s Lettre XIX. Sur le Progrès des Sciences (1752). The Letter was published almost a decade after Maupertuis had accepted Frederick II’s invitation to move from Paris to Berlin and become the new President of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Contrary to the secondary literature that identifies a distinction between Maupertuis’s Parisian and Berliner phases, this paper argues that there is in fact greater continuity between the two. Based on a reading that emphasizes the programmatic and methodological commonalities between Bacon’s project in De augmentis scientiarum (1623) and Maupertuis’s Lettre XIX, this paper argues that, in a Baconian fashion, Maupertuis combines the roles of the “scientist” and the “natural philosopher” into an integrated plan of action with both intellectual an institutional aims. One of Maupertuis’s aims was to highlight the importance of observation and experiment not only in the development of natural philosophy but also for some aspects of speculative philosophy, while another of his aims was to reinvigorate the structure of the Berlin Academy and to model it the fashion of other similar European intellectual projects of that time.
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This article aims to examine Pierre Charron’s conception of solitude, a task which is complicated by the fact that this conception underwent several changes between the two editions of De la sagesse. Unlike the 1601 edition, the 1604 edition includes passages on the importance of the social dimension of the good life, which may look like an exhortation to actively participate in social life in order to acquire civil prudence. In order to clarify the Charronian position on this issue, I undertake a comparative analysis of the two editions of De la Sagesse, as well as an enquiry into the letters sent to a Doctor of the Sorbonne and to Gabriel Michel de La Rochemaillet, in which Charron deepens his reflections on solitude. I will show that Charron describes solitude not only as a physical separation from a civil context, but also as an emotional autonomy which can be reached everywhere. Charron’s perspective on solitude is also the result of his reading of previous philosophers, such as Seneca, Aristotle and Michel de Montaigne, as well as an analysis of Renaissance discussions of the active and contemplative lives.
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This essay explores Kant’s concept of absolute space in the Metaphysical Foundations from the perspective of the development of the relationist interpretation of bodily interactions in the center-of-mass reference frame, a strategy that Huygens had originally pioneered and which Mach also endorsed. In contrast to the interpretations of Kant that stress a non-relationist, Newton-inspired orientation in his critical period work, it will be argued that the content and function of Kant’s utilization of this reference frame strategy places him much closer to Huygens’ relationism than the absolute notions of space and motion favored by Newton and Euler.
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Lipsius’ De constantia, 17th Century Still Life Painting and the Use of Constancy Today. The present article revisits the main ideas from Justus Lipsius’ De constantia in the light of the present ongoing pandemic. Through his interest for the Stoics, Lipsius was able to contribute to a more general and European interest towards this topic, reviving the Stoic philosophy under the name of Neostoicism. The influence of his ideas can be seen in some art production, especially the one that is connected to the places where Lipsius lived and it is a testimony to their popularity and the various ways of transmitting them. Even if the Stoic ideal remains an ideal, the Neostoicism of Justus Lipsius is meaningful in as much as any philosophy that deals with crises because it can help us view the text from both its relevancy and our recent general experience. The isolation, the anxiety, the uneasiness and fear are emotions that have been more or less present in our lives during this pandemic and they require a solution. Constancy is the solution that Justus Lipsius proposes.
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A Logos for Being and God. Heidegger’s Confrontation with Theology from the 1930s. II. Heidegger’s entire itinerary is characterised by the search for a living relationship with God, and thus for a Logos able to think and name the divine without objectifying its divinity. Getting into a dialogue with Western philosophers and theologians and distinguishing the fields of thinking, faith and science one from the other, since the 1930’s Heidegger claims that, if the traditional theology has seen God as the supreme being, metaphysics, on its part, has identified it with Being as such. According to Heidegger, the “onto-theo-logical” constitution of metaphysics has developed itself by means of the reception of the Jewish-Christian concept of an almighty God as creator. This process has led to the “fulfilment” of the “machination” in the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Heidegger speaks about the “poverty” of thought and about the consequent impossibility of building an ontology as well as a theology. Nevertheless, he still waits for the hint of a “last God”, in so far as he assumes that a renewed manifestation of the divine must be prepared through the “overcoming” of the “forgetfulness” of Being and God.
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Ethics has been an important discipline that has been discussed for ages without losing its importance or timeliness. With this importance, a problem regarding the source of ethics appears throughout the ages with different views and theories following accordingly. One of the various suggestions made regarding the source of ethics is the secular understanding of ethics. The modern period where knowledge is thought to be power is also the period where secular ethics came into prominence. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to study secular ethics, a perception of ethics that interprets the source of ethics outside of the religion and within the earthly world and considers reason to be the ethical principle rule maker. The aforementioned way of thinking was put forward in accordance with the English philosopher Francis Bacon (d. 1626) who was referred to as the father of modern science owing to him uttering “Knowledge is power’’ slogan at his age. Although the philosopher is more widely known more for his properties as a scientist, he also shared his thoughts on ethics in his works titled The Essays and in The Advancement of Learning. Although the ideas suggesting that religion is not the source of all ethics were voiced prior to Bacon, he, as a clear reflection of the fundamental characteristic of English empiricism, went down in history as the first person who expressed the modern philosophy approach and enlightenment view replacing classical philosophy approach and teleological universe view in the English history of thought. Bacon stated clearly that experiments and experiences are essential for scientific knowledge and accordingly, emphasized that the mind could explain everything related to humanity and the universe. This emphasis laid the ground for a secular moral understanding which does not base religion as its source, thus making it secular. With that mentioned, it should be noted that the period that he was in had an important role in his acceptance of secularized ethics. The said time period is a period where the Industrial Revolution occurred and colonization policies rose with it. Accordingly, how the Industrial Revolution and the scientific developments that led to it had encircled Bacon could be understood from his motto. This encirclement could easily be seen in his leadership of settling in science as a power in our minds and how he reflects the scientific methods to the ethics. As much as the socio-cultural conditions that were created by the Industrial Revolution had an effect on the ideas of Bacon, the psychological effect that was created by his ‘’Knowledge is Power’’ understanding had an influence over colonial policies. The viewpoint “Knowledge is power’’, which prepared the Industrial Revolution and later on utilized it to increase its own importance and strength, brought mental transformation and changes in consciousness with it. Humanity now believed that they had authority over nature and had the power to rule over it. It developed an ethical viewpoint that it could utilize nature as it likes for its own benefit and comfort. The said consciousness has created differences in ethics and behaviors while causing the purposes of and ways to be ethical to change. Accordingly, having information has emerged as the most important ethical act and sentiment; reality and meaning have been started to be searched in the world where humans could feel and see. It could be said that the secularized ethical viewpoint Bacon laid the foundations of started here. In addition to controversial aspects of secular ethics that Bacon tried to lay the foundations of independent of religion, we could refer to a positive aspect such as this: In the present, religion has sometimes been suggested as the source of the evil deeds that were done by humans and even natural and ethical evils have been used to imply that there is a God that wants bad things for humanity. Secular ethics could be utilized to show how ungrounded these claims are. In other words, secular ethics could be utilized to point out that claims putting the responsibility of immoral attitudes and acts on religion and blaming religion for these acts have no concrete ground. Although his personality as an ethics philosopher has been secondary, the importance he has due to voicing an ethical understanding that is outside of religion, that is secular ethics, makes it clear that there is a need for more studies regarding him. This article was written due to this necessity and utilized secondary sources to present Bacon’s views on ethics.
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Defining soul only by the concept of mind or mens, Descartes breaks with the philosophy of Aristotle and his hylomorphic conception of the soul and its various functions. But, on the one hand, what are the relations between this definition derived from mind’s perception and the “I” of cogito or the self which characterize the connection mind/body? Still, on the other hand, in the absence of a mind in the animal, Descartes agrees to animal’s body sensation and perfection.
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The goal of this article is to detail the opposition to “Ramean tree” dichotomic divisions which emerged in the age of swelling Antitrinitarian- ism, especially Socinianism. Scholars such as Bartholomaeus Keckermann, Jan Amos Komenský and Richard Baxter made a point of preferring the trichotomic to the dichotomic division of Petrus Ramus and the Ramist tradition. This paper tracks the origin of Komenský’s “universal triadism” as present in his book metaphorics and in his metaphysics. Komenský’s triadic book metaphorics (the notion of nature, human mind and Scripture as “the triple book of God”) has its source in late sixteenth-century Lutheran mysticism and theosophy, mediated perhaps by Heinrich Khunrath and, above all, by Johann Heinrich Alsted. Komenský’s metaphysics follows the same triadic pattern. What is more, Komenský illustrates both these domains by means of Ramist- like bracketed trees; regarding book metaphorics, clearly his sources are Khun- rath and Alsted. Although inspirations from Lullus, Sabundus and Nicholas of Cusa are most probably involved, the crucial role has to be ascribed to the influence of Lutheran mysticism and Alsted’s “Lullo-Ramism.”
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This article discusses the powers of the lodestone for two authors, Francis Bacon and Giovan Battista della Porta, relating their observations on magnetism and human emotions to the field of learned natural magic. It investigates some of Bacon’s and Porta’s remarks on experimental work with lode- stones and the ways in which both authors translated the inexplicable powers of lodestones and magnetized iron into a series of principles that also served as a structure and explanation of human emotions (and vice versa). I suggest that at work here is not merely an anthropomorphic projection at nature, but also (and conversely) an interest in and fascination with the naturalization and mechanization of human emotions. My contribution examines passages from Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, the Novum organum, the Sylva sylvarum and his Essays; from Della Porta’s Magia naturalis (second edition 1589) and his comedy Sorella (1604). First, the insight that Bacon’s and Della Porta’s perception of magnetic movements have a strong common bias: the identification with human emotions. Both authors postulate not merely a close analogy, but a mutual convertibility between the two phenomena and with animal spirits. Second, this syn-optic approach is no one-way-street merely creating a characteristic perception of the phenomenon of magnetism: it also conditions the modes in which the human mind and emotions are perceived. Third, emotions—in particular love and hatred—are in principle as predictable as the movements of attraction and repulsion exercised by iron and lodestone.
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The article provides a historically informed exposition of Immanuel Kant’s notion of enlightenment. The 18th century marked the zenith of absolute monarchy in Europe. The century was accompanied by the emergence of new social, economic, and technological conditions and the simultaneous rise of an intellectual culture that sought a wider public adoption of independent critical thinking through the proliferation of schools and academies across the Old Continent. This was the semantic setting in which Kant poses and answers the question of enlightenment. The article explicates the individual and societal aspects of the Kantian concept of enlightenment, while stressing their argumentative dependency on the analytic distinction between the public and private uses of reason. Enlightenment is conceived by Kant as a gradual progress both of the individual and of society towards a fuller mastery of their rational capacities, especially as they pertain to the public sphere of life. The philosopher’s insights are as relevant to our times as they were to his.
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In this text an attempt was made to inquire Spinoza’s concept of body, not only as one of many in the history of philosophy, not at all as one that remains by the stereotype which is produced by the history of philosophy, and according to which body does not think, and the spirit that thinks is a birthplace of the subject, etc. The analysis of Spinoza’s statement about body and of the relationship between body and spirit tries to show that body, in spite of the parallelism of the order of modi in attributes, becomes the condition of the possibility of the spirit, its essence itself. This kind of the turn of the relation, on its part draws also Spinoza’s attempt to establish the new way of thinking.
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