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Utilitarianism, systematised by Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) in 18th century, is a theory having strong effects in many different areas from economy and ethics to politic and law especially in England and geographies in which Anglo-Saxon culture reigns. John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873) reinterpreted Utilitrianism which was inherited from Bentham, in the context of critics of utilitarianism and his own thoughts. In this essay, Mill’s utilitarianism will be examined. In this context, I will discuss how his utilitarianism evolved from hedonist position to eudeomonist position. For this purpose, primarily, Mill’s utilitarianism will be introduced roughly, then the principle of utility in Mill’s utilitarianism, the happiness term developed in the basis of this principle, pleasure, value, freedom, character development, the state, sanction and justice, which have value in the extent to contributing the happiness shall be studied.
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The paper shows two distinct methodological views, held by two nineteenth-century historians of philosophy: Eduard Zeller and Eduard Röth. Both of them participated in a debate concerning the origins of Greek philosophy. Their different views brought different research results, which in this paper are compared with each other, and with regard to the philosophy and life of Thales of Miletus. Zeller apparently won the debate, however certain works by modern historians of philosophy may give us some insights leading to reopening it.
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This paper thematizes the problem of characterization of Nietzsche’s Socrates as a decadent. It’s aim is to show that Nietzsche’s Socrates was not a decadent from the very beginning of Nietzsche’s thought, and that he “becomes” decadent only through introduction of decadence as a notion in Nietzsche’s mature thought. Special attention is dedicated to the chronology of emergence of the notion of decadence, and to Nietzsche’s defining of this notion, all of this in order to obtain an adequate horizon from which it is possible to understand Nietzsche’s Socrates as decadent. Also, this presentation insists that there is no possibility of good understanding of the notion of decadence exclusively through Nietzsche’s thematization of Socrates, and that only throughout development of decadence as a notion in Nietzsche's thought, does the figure of Socrates and it’s symbolical function gain a completely new position and meaning.
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Here we approach Nietzsche through the idea of reinterpretation of traditional concept of Wiederkunft as a carrier concept of the way of thinking which is characteristic for that which Nietzsche calls the history of western nihilism. According to this reinterpretation Nietzsche gains the corner stone of his mature philosophy in the notion of the eternal recurrence (ewige Wiederkunft). From that point it is also possible to understand Nietzsche’s concept of revaluation, and other carrier concepts of mature Nietzsche’s thought as well, and to perceive them in their correlation. However, the question then arises as to what is the character of this correlation and is there a ground to justify argument about a possible philosophical system in Nietzsche’s thought. The solution we offer here is an interpretation which states that, regarding to Nietzsche, we actually deal with something that could be defined as a counter-system, in accordance to the characterization of Nietzsche’s thought – through reinterpretation of Wiederkunft – as a counter-movement in respect to nihilistic tradition.
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This article examines the relation between logical and mathematical elements in the empiristic doctrine of John Stuart Mill, as it is expounded in his System of Logic. With his understanding of logic as the science of human scientific knowledge based on experience, Mill substituted the idea of a general notion with the idea of a particular name and its connotative and denotative definition, and superimposed inductive over deductive reasoning, asserting the former as a prerequisite of the latter. Establishing the particular as basis of all knowledge facilitates the reevaluation of the status of mathematical knowledge. In Mill’s system, mathematical definitions are just hypothetical names and mathematical postulates are generalizations from all experience. Therefore, there can be no specific mathematical method, and mathematics may only be considered fundamental because it deals with relations that exist between all real objects, not because its laws are neccessary and universal aprioristic truths.
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Renewed interest in Eternal Recurrence has surfaced recently as the result of an early note from Nietzsche known as the Zeitatomenlehre, a note from 1873. This note languished in obscurity until its resurrection in 1952 and numerous commentators have thrown their voice into the arena on Eternal Recurrence. Traditionally, Eternal Recurrence has been examined from two primary perspectives, the cosmological and hypothetical, with most of the recent examination adopting a cosmological approach. In this article I examine the two traditional interpretations, suggesting that they both fail to adequately reflect a Nietzschean position on Recurrence. In particular, they both adopt a similar answer to the problem of the what that returns (sequential circularity of events), but approach this answer from two different foundations: one factual, the other hypothetical. I will show that because of this they both come into conflict with Nietzsche’s comments on Eternal Recurrence and with his philosophy as a unified whole. My solution to this problem will focus on the Zietatomenlehre note and the depiction of Eternal Recurrence in “On The Vision And The Riddle” in Zarathustra, focusing on the significance of the Moment to properly understanding Eternal Recurrence.
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The focus of this essay is the main course of Heidegger’s interpretation of Nietsche, which is understood as reexamening of the essence of philosophy and the possibilities of its new founding. Heidegger’s critique of Nietsche as the last metaphysicist is the basis for understanding of this new positioning of philosophy: Nietsche is the end of the fist beginning of the thought, and therefore points out to its second beginning. The key concepts of the analysis are the truth and the art: the concept of truth is criticized and shifted from its traditional meaning and function, and so delivers the possibility for releasing philosophy from its traditional role. The essence of philosophy is further to be reexamined and revealed with regard to model given by the art.
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Author’s main intention shows two horizons of understanding Nietzsche’s philosophy: first one, ethical, reflects Nietzsche’s attempt to confront “harmful”, Socratic idea of morality with vivid, pre-Socratic idea of heroism; while the second one, aesthetical, deals with Nietzsche’s understanding of tragedy, as an authentic paradigm of Hellenic life in all its forms. Regarding the first horizon, it’s important to show Nietzsche’s attempt to exclude clear boundaries between mans theoretical, practical and poetical area, because he tries to replace practical idea of morality with an idea of heroism, and a creative principle, which is basically poetical. It’s the same, although heterogeneous, ground of Nietzsche’s philosophy that develop his understanding of tragedy. He is trying to build a certain wall between the early-Hellenic idea of justice and rational and philosophical understanding of morality, but it’s the early period of Hellenic tragedy that expresses the authentic process of creation of moral consciousness in Hellenic history, because neither the ethical, cognitive nor educational purposes cannot be excluded from the tragedy as the art form of one era. These problems lead to the weakest point of Nietzsche’s philosophy: his necessity to remove the decadent tissue of the era he is contemplating, often leads to the removal of its healthiest tissue as well.
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Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg (1802-1872) is still today known mostly as a logician and logic historian, primarily for his investigation of Aristotle and his critique of Hegel. His own philosophical conception, which is oriented towards Plato and Aristotle, and the explicitly objective idealism of his organic world-view, which is directed towards one „theory of sciences“, are thus barely known. This contribution is trying to show the significance of that theoretical concept for the pre-history of Neo-Kantianism – especially for the theoretical path of Herman Cohen, the founder of the Marburg school.
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This paper sets forth to show the propedeutical foundations of philosophical system of Mihail Hristifor Ristić, who used to be a highschool teacher of philosophy in Sremski Karlovci. From the aspect of Kantian synthetical criticism, Ristić developed system of theoretical and practical philosophy. That system is based on hystorical and theoretical preconditiones, on propedeutical introduction into philosophy, on basics of fundamental philosophy and on empirical psychology of synthetically comprehensed philosophy.
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Die Marx’sche Aversion gegenüber jeglicher Moral lässt sich auf die Kant-Kritik Hegels zurückverfolgen. Hegel stellt dem Verallgemeinerungsprinzip des kategorischen Imperativs ein „System der Sittlichkeit“ gegenüber, das nicht mehr wie Kant vom abstrakten Einzelnen ausgeht, um zur Gemeinschaft zu kommen, sondern von der sittlichen Gemeinschaft selbst. Marx übernimmt diese Moralkritik Hegels, argumentiert jedoch selbst normativ im Hinblick auf die freie Entfaltung der Individualität. Dadurch überschreitet er das Modell der „immanenten Kritik“, was jedoch nicht explizit zu Tage tritt. Die von Kant formulierte gegenseitige Anerkennung der Menschen als Selbstzwecke kann nicht nur als der normative Kern der Kapitalismuskritik ausgewiesen werden, sondern ebenso als ethisches Fundament einer moralischen Naturkritik, die der belebten Natur mit ihrer Lebensparadoxie eine ständige Verletzung des Selbstzweckcharakters leidempfindender Lebewesen vorwirft.
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There is a secret in Kierkegaard’s life which is also present in his works. That has a crucial importance for his existence and his views on communication. Telling about his melancholy Kierkegaard partially reveals his secret, and we understand that it is a problem relating to a “disproportion between the mental and the somatic” conditions. The main reason for Kierkegaard’s melancholy, according to one hypothesis, is actually his sickness: a form of epilepsy which today is known as “temporal-lope” epilepsy.
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Das Thema dieses Artikels macht Kierkegaards Begriff des Ernstes, zusammen mit dem der Innerlichkeit, aus. Sein Hauptzweck ist zu versuchen, anhand dieser Begriffe zu zeigen, daβ die Philosophie Kierkegaards einen hoch bedeutsamen Schritt in den Anstrengungen getan hat, welche die Philosophie seit dem Ende des Klassischen Deutschen Idealismus unternimmt, um im Lichte der Aufstellung ihrer neuen Seinsauslegungsweisen einen Boden zu erobern und zugrunde zu legen, von welchem aus wenigstens zwei Aufgaben erfüllt werden sollen. Sie hat auf der einen Seite vor, den aktuellen Anforderungen der Zeit zu genügen, und eben dadurch die Philosophie des neuzeitlichen Subjektivismus auf der anderen Seite zu überwinden. Eine solche Unternahme schlieβt eine Umgestaltung oder neue Gestaltung der grundliegenden Bedeutungsformen und Bedeutungsinhalte als eine ihrer Hauptaufgaben in sich ein. Sie sollen die tragende Kräfte dieses Bodens ausmachen, welcher seinen leitenden Absichten gemäβ diejenige Rolle übernehmen soll, welche in der klassischen Metaphysik und Ontologie deren Kategorien, Begriffe und Grundsätze gespielt haben.
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Even if Western philosophy has always reflected on beauty and on art, aesthetics is a modern discipline. Aesthetics was born in the moment that three philosophical threads – which had had until then a more or less independent life – were unified: philosophy of beauty, philosophy of art, philosophy of sensibility or perception. We can even give the date of its birth: 1735, when Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, at the age of 21, published his Reflections on Poetry. He identifies beauty with the perfection of sensible knowledge and the perfection of sensible knowledge with poetry or art in general. And at the end of his work, Baumgarten asks himself which name this science must have. He returns to the traditional distinction between aisthetá and noetá, which is Greek for „sensible things” and „thought things.” Since the name of the science of „thought things” is logic, the name of the science of „sensible things” must be episteme aisthetike, aesthetical science, or just aesthetics. [...]
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Although Kierkegaard is often hailed as one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, he seemed, at least in the early part of his intellectual career, not to have understood the technical use of the concept of actuality or „Wirklichkeit” in the German philosophical tradition. To be sure, he was not the only one to misunderstand this usage; there was considerable confusion surrounding Hegel’s famous statement from the Philosophy of Right in 1821, „What is rational is actual and what is actual is rational.” This had been given so many negative interpretations that Hegel felt himself obliged to explain it again when he published the second expanded edition of the Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences in 1827. The formula was taken by some to be a straightforward defense of the social and political status quo and was thus seen as a justification of all forms of existing oppression. This is of course not what Hegel meant with this admittedly paradoxical formulation. [...]
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Isak Dinesen is the pseudonym of the Danish writer Karen Blixen, née Dinesen (1885-1962), born in Rungsted, north of Copenhagen. In 1914 she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, and went to live in British East Africa (now Kenya) on a coffee plantation. After her divorce in 1921 she remained in Africa, returning to her childhood home in 1931. Here she started to write. She wrote both the Danish and the English versions of all her works, and her first book, Seven Gothic Tales, was published first in USA in 1934, in Denmark in 1935. Out of Africa (1937), which was made into a film, was based on her experiences in Kenya. Blixen’s later works include Winter’s Tales (1942), Last Tales (1957), Anecdotes of Destiny (1958), Shadows on the Grass (1960), and Ehrengard (1963). [...]
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The article is devoted to the identification of some intersection points in the philosophical ideas of F. Nietzsche and V. Lenin. The analysis of Lenin’s views, given by Louis Althusser in a number of his works, can serve as the methodological basis for such a comparison. In this perspective, Lenin’s understanding of philosophy is characterized by the fact that philosophy is treated not only as a theory but, above all, as a practice of struggle for domination. Lenin and Nietzsche share the dynamic view of the universe, the idea of the leading role of contradictions and struggle in the world’s being. Philosophy appears as an expression of some hidden impulses, which are ultimately reducible to the will to power. Therefore, for both thinkers knowledge appears not as the result of pure and objective cognition, but as a product of the struggle of power instincts, and knowledge itself is a necessary element of any power order.
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