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The most recent discussions about centric discourses can well baffle the uninformed reader. On the one hand, post-war European cultural development was marked by attempts to overcome the ethnocentric and nationalist paradigms which had made European history into a history of wars, conflicts and intolerance.
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Literary historians have hitherto generally adopted the idea suggested by some contemporary critics that literary realism only really established itself in the Czech lands around the mid-1880s, particularly in connection with Russian literary criticism and discussions over the work of Émile Zola. The aim of this study is to present a more precise description of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s position in Czech discussions over realism, thus contributing not so much to knowledge of the origins of Czech thinking on this literary phenomenon, as to that of censorship, which was one of the symptoms of the transition being made by Czech intellectuals from the Classicist-Romantic tradition to modern thinking. The first part considers the paradox between what the sources tell us and what history tells us in the evaluation of the realistic nature of the novel by Václav Vlček Zlato v ohni – Gold in the Fire. Masaryk’s argument, which endeavoured to cast doubt on the prevalent views that Vlček’s novel was a work that realistically represented the Czech world at that time, is viewed by the present study in terms of Masaryk’s aesthetic views, taking into account the context from which they emerged. The study not only presents fairly precise findings on the connections and differences between Masaryk’s views of realism and those of the previous generation of Czech literary critics, but it also indicates that rather than being a conflict between different conceptions of realism, in this case it was more a symptom of the forthcoming conflict between the rising generation of writers and those already established in Czech literary life.
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Jakob von Uexküll’s (1864–1944) work was influential at the time of the biosemiotic turn in semiotics in the 1990s and, together with the hermeneutic and phenomenological approaches, laid the basis for a semiotic turn in biology without losing a connection to the morphology and physiology of organisms. His work appears to be attractive and promising in transforming the culture–nature divide into an understanding of the difference between the living and the non-living. The biological study of subjectivity makes the Uexküllian approach pertinent to the 21st-century changes both in the humanities and in biology, as the acceptance of his theoretical biology marks the start of a post-Darwinian era after the long period of neo-Darwinism that dominated the 20th-century biological thought. A review and bibliography of 20th-century Uexküll studies was published in 2001; the following provides a bibliography of Uexküll studies in the two decades after 2001.
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Janko Janeff’s book Southeast Europe and the German Spirit (1938) is analyzed through the lens of a fundamental Thracian-Dionysian- Orphic myth, i.e. the birth of being or of light from non-being/nothing/ darkness. It is shown how its geopolitical and ontological/theologicalconsequences are to be drawn accordingly to that purely phenomenological premise concerning the supposed Indo-European Renaissance on the OldContinent as per the views expressed by the author.
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The article is an attempt to characterize Platonic idealism as interpreted by Hermann Cohen – founder and the same time a leading representative of Marburg school of Neo-Kantism. The course of analysis includes Cohen’s theses put forward in the epistemological work PlatonsIdeenlehre und die Mathematik. The postulates to which Cohen refers connect the reflection on classical idealism and the status of the Platonic idea with logical-mathematical reflection and the problem of sichere Hypothesis as a certain hypothesis. Defining the role of mathematics: arithmetic and geometry, becomes indispensable in understanding the idealism of both Plato and Kant. Both emphasize the importance of thought, logic of pure thinking, criticism as a path and character-shaping.The argumentation presented in the article, rooted in the historical and philosophical analyzes of the problem, in the summary is also an attempt to define the meaning of Platonic and Neo-Kantian idealism for contemporary scientific and philosophical issues.
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Aşadar drepturile omului au devenit centrul tuturor preocupărilor politice ale contemporaneităţii, lăsând la o parte ideea de guvernare de sine a societăţii şi a omului, devenind numai o încercare de a satisface revendicări care nu cunosc limită şi eliberând o dinamică socială care afectează negativ democraţia, golind-o de sens şi reducând-o numai la o structură formală, procedurală. De fapt, drepturile omului, în loc de a produce ceea ce promit, sunt doar un pas mare către impotenţă colectivă, către paralizie socială. Acest lucru este un paradox, din pricina următorului motiv: din perspectiva acestei atitudini ideologice tot ceea ce contează este absolutul drepturilor omului, sanctitatea individului, însă viața de zi cu zi arată altfel, fiind impuse exigențe ce nu pot fi satisfăcute, care duc la o degradare de fapt a omului și a condiției sale, acesta fiind rezultatul de fapt al democraţiei drepturilor omului, adică a unei democraţii a nemulţumirii, a protestului permanent fără justificare, care refuză să ia în seama realitatea și efectele propriilor cerințe.
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The idea of traveling, as a theme, topic, or metaphor, is present in Kierkegaard’s production—namely, in the dialectics between the objective and subjective, the role of the imaginary in recollection, the reflection on memory, space and time, and, more significantly, in the dialectics of recollection and repetition. Moreover, the idea of traveling has a pivotal role within the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious stages, which structure all of his writings. In Fear and Trembling and Repetition, traveling lies at the core of the philosophical debate. I begin by presenting the Gilleleje notes, followed by the recurrent use of Opdagelse-reise (great voyage of discovery) in his works; then, I introduce his idea of ethical traveling and the ensuing conception of the Christian as a traveler; I also discuss his ambivalent disposition regarding the demand for traveling in his day. In the second part, I analyze the philosophical use of the idea of traveling by focusing first on Abraham’s journey to Mount Moriah in Fear and Trembling and then on the seminal proposal of a dialectical relation between repetition and recollection in Repetition. I end by drawing conclusive remarks from the previous analyses, which guide me to elaborate proposals for a more holistic understanding of the genre of travel literature.
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The specific position of the European Union is that it, as a social and political organization of the international level, denies its own tradition. In current relations, the EU practically renounces its tradition and starting point in philosophical thought, above all in Enlightenment and transcendental philosophy, where not only the starting point for a future alliance of European states, but, above all, the European identity as the basis of that alliance is founded. In this sense, the European Union is necessarily directed to reconsider its own political starting points and rethink the idea of Europe as the basis of any possibility of establishing European unity. In this context, as a special feature, which is the starting point in every direction of understanding political identity, "European issues" are imposed as social and spiritual problems that cannot be solved in any other way than by looking at the entire context of relations within Europe. At that level of thematizing Europe, the EU appears as a surrogate and in many respects the opposite of the European tradition and the idea of Europe. In the last instance, as the opposite of what Europe is in its spiritual starting point and from which it is only possible to establish the unity of the European identity.
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In 1869, Fredrich Nietzsche was not a philosopher in any professional capacity. He was an exceptionally talented young philologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland who had not yet ruined his promising career identifying himself with Richard Wagner and publishing The Birth of Tragedy. In May of 1869, he had only just met Richard Wagner and Wagner’s wife, Cosmina. In those years, Nietzsche’s career revolved around his reading knowledge of numerous, ancient languages which included several Indo-European ones (Latin, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit) as well as Hebrew. He concerned himself professionally with the ancients; cultivating a refined understanding of the common characteristics of Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Western Civilization, including its sentiments, thought, and arts. In sum, for years of his life, Philology was his métier and he was, by most accounts, exceptionally good at it.
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Nietzsche's views on the Laws of Manu are widely considered some of his most controversial. Even among those who express a supportive view of Nietzschean philosophy tend to shy away or outright ignore his apparent praise for the laws responsible for the caste system in India. It is strange enough that Nietzsche would ever comment on the caste system and weirder still is that these comments on the Laws of Manu seem to be one of the only overt examples of Nietzsche’s political philosophy. It might be akin to contemporary readers of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit suddenly getting goosebumps and chills of terror as they discover the conclusive section of ‘Observing Reason’ where Hegel devotes time and effort to discussing the defunct science of phrenology.
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The paper aims to present Hegel’s specific solution to the problem of beginning’s regression in the perspective of the crucial historical-philosophical inquiries of late 18th and early 19th centuries’ post-Kantian idealism. This historical background gives the opportunity to enrich the Hegelian doctrine of the circular philosophical system with the thesis of causality’s sublation in the reciprocal interdependence of developmental moments. The mutual justification of the starting point and the result, as well as of every grade in-between, provides a positive resolution of the epistemological skepticism, namely, by introducing it as an integral part of the dialectical progress-regression.
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This article considers the development of Spanish historical thought between the mid-19th and the early 20th centuries. The main stages in the development of the Spanish historical tradition are singled out. The features and driving forces of each stage are analyzed. The representatives of the traditions under study are given in chronological order. Their contributions to Spanish historical thought are specified. The brightest ideas of the most prominent scholars that reveal the unique nature of Spanish historical thought are discussed. Moreover, it was these ideas that provoked the dramatic changes in the Spanish interpretation of history in general, as well as in the approaches and methods of its study. The gradual movement of Spanish historiography to its current state is presented through a variety of views from the works of Spanish historians. The common interpretations of every phenomenon or trend are supplemented with alternative theories and concepts. The progress of Spanish historical thought is traced up to the early 20th century. The first step is marked by the adaptation of the ideas of Krausism, which largely affected the subsequent evolution of Spanish historical thought. The period that followed is associated with positivist ideas; its characteristics and various interpretations by Spanish scholars are summarized. The results obtained make it possible to conclude about the basic features typical of the development of Spanish historical thought in the late 19th–early 20th centuries.
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The current paper is focused on the genealogy and the relevance of negative aesthetics as a distinct philosophical field and, in particular: 1) to draw a concept of the beautiful as a myth; then 2) to justify the need of a specific genealogy of loss of the beautiful, and, on this basis, 3) to bring out negative aesthetics in its main subject as a mythology of loss of the beautiful.
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The text discusses specific features of Lev Shestov's philosophical style, highlighting the main accents in it – even with his first works, Shestov gained the reputation of a philosopher who denied philosophy. The following philosophical figures are discussed – the paradoxicalist, the groundless man, the anti-dogmatist and the anti-metaphysician, etc., emblematic of Shestov. Important facts from his biography are examined, the totality of which could be part of the explanation for the originality of his thought, one of which is the lack of an academic philosophical education. Other relevant facts are the ethnic background as well as unusual circumstances of his early years. Special attention is paid to the relationship between Shestov and Husserl regarding the understanding of philosophy (the main opposition is between the conception of philosophy as a reflection – Besinnung, and of philosophy as a struggle) – the main stages in these relations are traced chronologically. Finally, Shestov's opinion on Indian thought, which he began to get to know and deal with since 1934, is presented, and his dissatisfaction with this thought is also discussed.
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The article of Atanas Iliev (1893–1985), published in 1934, discusses the change in the philosophical paradigm, notes the presence of the philosophy of life and comments on the figure of the philosopher of the new age.
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The article presents and analyzes the cultural and philosophical ideas of the French philosopher, lawyer and political activist Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, whose contribution to understanding the phenomenon of nutrition has been underestimated. These ideas have most clearly been set forth in his book “The Physiology of Taste”, written in an elegant style, with an inexhaustible wit and containing a number of iconic aphorisms. Apart from the style and humor the book impresses with the unique synthesis of knowledge of various scientific fields, of required norms, moral and aesthetic rules and the dissection of taste transforming simple pleasure and delight into a precise “act of appreciation”. Savarin's main idea is that a genuinely good and fine nutrition implies all manifestations of high taste refracted through the spirit – knowledge of quality food and the ways of its preparation, definition of the required norms of dining behavior, awareness of the social and cultural role of food and a strategy of one’s own personal advancement which can be realized in a field such as the daily nutrition regimen often ignored by theoreticians.
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This article contributes to recovering the history of women’s contributions to aesthetics by examining Emilia Dilke’s writings on aesthetics from the mid-1860s to the early 1870s. Initially, Dilke took the historicist view that artworks are inescapably the products and expressions of their social and historical circumstances and that art is better, as art, the more it distils its time. Dilke also thought that in the modern world art had separated inexorably from morality and religion. On that basis she came to endorse aestheticism, arguing that art should be made for beauty’s sake and not subordinated to moral purposes. However, this ultimately led to some tensions between her aestheticism and historicism. In the end she resolved these tensions by distinguishing between various kinds of value, or uses, that artworks can have. The best artworks have properly aesthetic value and transcend history, whereas the majority of artworks have only historical value as expressions of their eras. Overall, Dilke put forward a forceful defence of aestheticism and negotiated between aestheticism and historicism in a unique way. She deserves recognition as a significant female figure in the history of aesthetics.
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Kant understood “family” primarily as a domestic society and presented the basic foundations for regulating its life in The Metaphysics of Morals. Kant’s view of “family” was criticized shortly after its publication. Among the existing interpretations of Kant’s understanding of “family” three main directions can be distinguished. First, there are interpretations that argue with Kant (Friedrich L. Bouterwek, Christian G. Schütz, Georg W.F. Hegel, Carl A. Emge, Gerhard Buchda, Ernst Swoboda, Reinhard Brandt, Hariolf Oberer, Frank Kuhne). Secondly, there are interpretations showing that Kant’s view of “family” is congruent with other elements of his philosophy (Karl Vorländer, Adam Horn, Julius Ebbinghaus, Klaus Steigleder, Pärttyli Rinne). Thirdly, some researchers discover that Kant’s understanding of “family” was not only innovative for its time, but still contains inspiring research potential (Wolfgang Kersting, Bernd Ludwig, Barbara Herman, Sharon Byrd, Peter König, Francesca Di Donato). However, after analysing the existing interpretations of the concept of “family” contained in Kant’s philosophy, one can reach the following conclusions. Firstly, there is a noticeable lack of studies directly and extensively analysing Kant’s understanding of “family”. Secondly, the existing interpretations clearly focus on the question of the consistency of Kant’s thoughts on family life with other elements of his philosophy. Third, even critics of Kant’s thoughts point out that his view of family life was innovative for those times. Fourthly, Kant’s concept of “family” is considered an interesting research area, as it can be used to find interesting inspirations for the ongoing discussions, such as the protection and equality of women, children’s rights, the conditions of moral fairness and the legitimacy of social contracts, moral evaluation and the possibility of legally sanctioning homosexual relationships or understanding human sexuality.
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Aesthetic existence and despair are the basic concepts of Soren Kierkegaard's philosophy. Kierkegaard gives place to the concept of despair in his texts entitled Sickness Unto Death and the concept of aesthetic existence in his texts entitled Either/Or. Kierkegaard associates these two interrelated concepts with the daily life and self of the person. Kierkegaard defines despair in the context of the alienated person. The philosopher argues that the person in the aesthetic stage of existence is hopeless, avoiding responsibility and spending his life in a pursuit of pleasure and entertainment. The aim of this study is to analyze the film The Fire Within (Le Feu follet, Louis Malle, 1963) in the context of Soren Kierkegaard's concepts of aesthetic existence and despair. For this purpose, this study initially reveals, Kierkegaard's concepts of aesthetic existence and despair. Then, the film is analyzed with thematic analysis method. As a result of the analysis, it observed that the main character of the film is an esthete who consumes a significant part of his life in a pursuit of pleasure and entertainment. The study concludes that the main character of the film is alienated from his own self and therefore he is in a despair situation.
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Jindřich Kohn’s essays, written in the first third of the last century, represent an interesting attempt to elaborate the project of assimilation as a historical and philosophical concept that went beyond the Czech-Jewish assimilationist ideas of the time: firstly, with its Hegelian phenomenological interpretation of assimilation as an (essentially) eschatological process of history, culminating in the assimilation of the whole of humanity, and secondly, as an original contribution to the Czech history of ideas and to the interpretation of its central figures. Kohn’s philosophy of history intrinsically linked the traditions of Jewish thinking with the mainstream of the Czech philosophy of history of the 19th century, especially with the ideas of T. G. Masaryk. In this context, we can consider J. Kohn as one of the important interpreters of Masaryk’s work. Using Masaryk’s ideas of humanity and democracy, and especially the idea of the religious meaning of (Czech) history, Kohn created an original philosophical-historical concept of universal assimilation of all human race based on respect and reciprocity, consciously opposed not only to the nationalism of the time, but also to the growing Zionist movement. Its important segments were an analysis of the spiritual situation of the present and the ethical nature of Jewish nationalism, which served as a starting point for understanding Czech-Jewish assimilation as a function of the pro-modernist transformation of Jewish identity.
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