![Norberto Bobbio, filosofo del dubbio e delle domande radicali](/api/image/getissuecoverimage?id=picture_2004_48666.jpg)
Norberto Bobbio, filosofo del dubbio e delle domande radicali
A eulogy of Norberto Bobbio, spotlighting the solitude of his liberalism in the Italian intellectual setting, tipically enticed by transformism and authoritarianism.
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A eulogy of Norberto Bobbio, spotlighting the solitude of his liberalism in the Italian intellectual setting, tipically enticed by transformism and authoritarianism.
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The article presents the approximate condition of the philosophy in Poland. The article consist of three parts. In the first part are discussed preliminary remarks (literature of the problem, institutional determinants, polish philosophical language, the criteria for separating of the Polish philosophy). The main discussed problems in second part are: main trends of the Polish philosophy (socio-political philosophy, polish humanism, the philosophy of natural sciences, philosophy connected with religion and formal logic). In the third part presents the tradition adapting the ideas of the European philosophical culture onto the Polish ground.
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Paul Natorp, John Dewey and Sergius Hessen are usually considered to represent three different philosophical and pedagogical doctrines developed at the turn of the Twentieth century. These are, respectively: neo‑Kantianism, pragmatism and humanistic pedagogy widely rooted in Wilhelm Dilthey’s philosophy. Contrary to this common classification, Hessen himself described his own concept of pedagogy as an applied philosophy as a continuation of Natorp’s thought. However, Hessen also noted that an approach very similar to his one can be found (with some restrictions) in John Dewey’s theory. In this case, the fundamental issue is to determine the relationship between philosophy and pedagogical theory and practise. The main part of this article will identify the specificity of this relationship: the specificity implied by the concept of pedagogy understood as applied philosophy. The concept of pedagogy, understood as an applied philosophy in its theoretical and practical aspects, is the basis for critical reconstruction of social life in general. It is the opinion shared by all three philosophers that this type of reconstruction should be based on the communal dimension of basic social interactions, that is, on the communal dimension of work. The only way for the renewal of a different form of social life leads through regaining through them an essential communal dimension of human work. All three authors agreed that to regain the communal dimension of human work by another form of social interaction would only be possible when certain conditions are present; that is, when work will be permeated by individual creativity. The presence of such conditions shall be ensured by the educational community. Thus, the educational community should be a starting and end point for any critical social reconstruction as well as for the pedagogy understood as an applied philosophy.
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This article discusses the concept of mysticism in the phenomenology of Michel Henry, which involves the relationship of life and the living, as set against two opposing views on the connection of life to the living: Arthur Schopenhauer’s naturalistic philosophy of life and the religious doctrine of Master Eckhart. In the first approach, life is identical with the will to live, a natural force inherent to everything that is alive. In the other one, life is identified with the Christian God (infinite or absolute life), encompassing all individual livings and constituting the foundation for all creation existing out of him. Hermeneutic analyses carried out in the article consider those texts by Michel Henry which comment on the works of Master Eckhart and Schopenhauer and provide for his own interpretations of them. They aim to show that Henry’s thought involves the religious understanding of mysticism as pertaining to the connection of life and the living identified with the relationship of God (absolute life) and humans (finite life). Moreover, the mysticism of life should be distinguished from Schopenhauer’s naturalistic metaphysics of life, while its main inspiration are the Christian teachings of Master Eckhart, therefore the former may be considered as one of the interpretations of the latter. Irrespective of its Christian background, Henry’s thought can be also of interest to non‑Christians, as it presents a way of accessing (absolute) life through the experience of a living body (French: chair) underlying self‑affectivity, largely forgotten in modern times but which can be revived by communing with art, because aesthetic experience is one of the forms of feeling one’s own being. In Henry’s thought, aesthetics, ethics and religion are closely interrelated, providing an effective remedy for the contemporary cultural crisis.
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Kojève is considered by many to be a Marxist thinker whose interpretation of Hegelianism was said to be similar to the twentieth-century ‘totalitarian’ ideologies. Historical research on his political thought has preserved his image as a ‘philosophical Jacobin’, who had an affi rmative stance toward political violence and was an apologist for revolutionary activity, the ultimate goal of which was to be ‘the end of history’. The article aims to present an alternative narrative based on new research and sources that show that his thought is much more nuanced. Firstly, it is claimed that the context of his work should be found primarily in Russian religious philosophy and relations with Russian intellectuals in exile. Secondly, the infl uence of geopolitical changes in the fi rst half of the twentieth century on the evolution of his political concepts is emphasised. Thirdly, his critical attitude to revolutionary theories is discussed. Finally, the article concludes with a presentation of the views of ‘mature’ Kojève as one of the creators of the vision of modern European universalism based on a specifi c ideal of justice and the desire for a lasting peace ending the post-Enlightenment chaos full of brutal wars and revolutions.
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In this paper I argue that Nietzsche and Girard provide, for the first time, a phenomenology and genealogical account of the victim as both an ontological and moral category. First, I lay out Girard’s mimetic theory and show how it culminates in a phenomenology of victims and victimization. I then turn to Nietzsche, in particular Girard’s consideration of Nietzsche as the most important theologian of recent past, to show that Girard’s phenomenology – of victims, violence, and scapegoating – already exists within Nietzsche’s philosophical framework, albeit with a significantly different interpretation. It is my hope to problematize the seemingly self-evident and axiomatic character of the category of the “victim” by highlighting its specific genealogy within the Judeo-Christian tradition in order to further a much broader discussion on the hermeneutics of violence in general.
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This essay undertakes a brief engagement with Martin Heidegger’s reading of Sophocles’ “Ode to Man” to orient hermeneutic engagements with three paintings (Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Children, El Greco’s Purification of the Temple, and Hodler’s Truth) to say something about hermeneutic education, truth, and violence.
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The article is an attempt at reading the poetry of Teresa Ferenc through the prism of feminist politics of mourning. Using Helene Cixous’s neologism “stigmatext,” I argue that the figure of an “open wound” constitutes Ferenc’s poetic imagination. This figure refers not only to the tragic event of pacification of Sochy – Ferenc’s family village – but also to the specifically understood relation with mother as is conceived in our culture. Motherhood functions here as a synecdoche of stigmatized otherness. From this point of view, poetry of open wounds emerges as an integral element of Ferenc’s ethical program,v which is opposed to the phallogocentric logic of war, death, and destruction.
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In Riga at the beginning of 2022, two very different exhibitions took place: “Resolution Strike” by Kristīne Krauze-Slucka (ISSP), and “Mellow Apocalypse” by Alnis Stakle (Latvian Museum of Photography). In this article, a post-humanist approach is employed to actualize the role of photography and the digitalized image in preserving and forming of both personal and collective memory and identity. The theoretical approach is assisted by the concept of prosthesis which describes the hybridity of human and technology as used by theoreticians such as Sigmund Freud, Slavoj Žižek, Donna Haraway, Celia Lury and Alison Landsberg.In considering photography, its objectivity and reliability is an important aspect. To resolve the tension between the apparent objectivity of photographic capture and the subjectivity brought in by the framing and context of the image, it is proposed to think of multiple situated objectivities, which describe the situation where the perception and images of technological tools offer a distinct, non-human but not neutral or uninvolved view.Discussing the exhibition by Kristīne Krauze-Slucka, centred around destroyed, fragmented, and altered photographs from a family album, the distinction drawn by Jens Ruchatz is employed, distinguishing between photography as the externalization or trace of a memory. The photographs that were selected to be destroyed suggest that the personal photography is seen as a trace that aids memory, instead of storing memories. At the same time, the importance of photography in construction of personal identity is emphasized, which is seen as technologically mediated and socially involved. In this aspect, the photography is a prosthesis of identity instead of memory.Following Aline Cordonier et al. and researching the passing of photography as a memory carrier from micro level (personal photographs) to meso level (family album) with a perspective to enter the macro level (collective memory), it is demonstrated that in this process the importance lies not within a sequential narrative but in the construction of a new identity through selection of social and affective moments, thus forming a prosthetic identity that does not conform to linear time.The “Mellow Apocalypse” series by Alnis Stakle is created from the digital image collections of various institutions, for example, museums, that became widely available during the pandemic. The decontextualized fragments of images form expansive collages with the visible artefacts of digital image rendering increasing the effect of fragmentation. Even though a common theme and narrative can be determined, the interpretation is called to question due to insecurity about the original sources and contexts of the images. The article analyses the source of this insecurity as linked to the creation and preservation of collective identity in a digital age.The notion of collective memory, based on the definition by Tota and Hagen, is seen as the representation of past events created and institutionalized by social groups. This definition fits the sources of images used by Stakle. However, the exhibition questions this concept, accentuating the contemporary issues of collective memory preservation. The advent of mass media and globalization problematises the concept of discrete social groups, as each individual belongs to several communities that can be transnational and transcultural. Following Hoskins, the notion of “multitudes” can be employed to describe the individually selected and interpreted range of collective memories determined by digital and social hyperconnectivity, communication, technological mediation and information globalization. In this view, the collective memory can be seen as a hyperobject, to borrow the term from Timothy Morton, thus explaining the fact that each individual or institution can access the collective memory only indirectly, through its aspects that can be also photographs or digitalized images. The fragmentation of an archive, decontextualizing the image, leads to real or illusory disappearance of memory, which is seen in micro level through fragmenting of personal archive images by Krauze-Slucka, and emphasized in macro level by Stakle who fragments and repositions the representations of collective memory.In the case of Stakle, the images can be interpreted in two additional ways that do not stop at the notion of apocalypse. Firstly, the concept of multitude allows for the personal memory of an individual created through the vast repository of collective memories, seeking for new meanings as it is done in Stakle’s collages. This interpretation is also applicable for a video piece in Krauze-Slucka’s exhibition, where a young woman uses the transnational and translocal images to create selfies that inscribe her identity in a globalized virtual space of social media. This searching for personal identity through socially available imagery simultaneously enables the self-reproduction and self-preservation of collective memory.Secondly, in Stakle’s case a cyborg gaze can be conceptualized: a gaze determined by the hybridity of human and technology that is characterized by a radically different understanding of time and selfhood. This gaze, created through digital manipulation and repositioning of images, is two-dimensional, fragmented and combined; it does not discriminate human and non-human, creating unexpected, often playful combinations. In this regard, the works by Stakle visualize the transformation of the collective memory as it has already happened due to digitalization and technological mediation.The fact that both very different exhibitions took place at the same time and reflect on a similar theme suggests that this range of ideas – photography and the digital image as carriers of memory, and their role in the creation, interpretation, and preservation of personal and collective memory – is important at the current time and requires additional artistic and theoretical research, which can be fruitful also when a post-humanist approach is employed.
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This text takes up various aspects of a conceptual art project titled “Scales in the Local” in relation to key ideas of postmodern philosophical thought. More particularly, the conceptual focus of the authors of the project on the local, elemental, and uniquely singular is juxtaposed with the shifting focus of postmodern culture from the universalist metanarratives of the Enlightenment to the particularity of the singular. The project, which was implemented by a team of artists with different approaches to it, is seen as addressing and inducing reflections about major issues and concerns of our time. The work of the different artists is analyzed, drawing upon thinkers who left highly significant marks on postmodern philosophical thinking, including Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Lyotard, and Foucault, among others. While the discussion of the participating works of art is inevitably arbitrary, its main purpose is to be a source of further reflections.
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Seks nema povijest. On je prirodna činjenica utemeljena u funkcioniranju tijela te, kao takav, leži izvan povijesti i kulture. S druge strane, seksualnost se zapravo ne odnosi na neki aspekt ili svojstvo tijela. Za razliku od seksa, seksualnost je kulturalna tvorevina: ona predstavlja prisvajanje ljudskoga tijela i njegovih psiholoških kapaciteta od strane ideološkog diskursa. Seksualnost nije somatska činjenica; ona je kulturalni učinak. Seksualnost, tako, ima svoju povijest – premda (kao što ću argumentirati) ne jako dugačku. Dakako, reći to ne znači ustanoviti nešto očigledno – unatoč samopouzdanu prizvuku s kojim sam to učinio – nego predložiti kontroverznu, sumnjivo pomodnu te, možda, izrazito kontraintuitivnu tvrdnju. Čini se da opravdanost takve tvrdnje ne počiva ni na čemu čvršćem od prestiža briljantnog, pionirskog, no uvelike teorijskog rada pokojnog francuskog filozofa Michela Foucaulta. Prema Foucaultu, seksualnost nije stvar, prirodna činjenica, nepromjenjivi i nepomični element u beskonačnoj gramatici ljudskoga subjektiviteta, već „skup učinaka što ih je u tijelima, ponašanjima, društvenim odnosima izazvao izvjestan dispozitiv (...) jedne složene političke tehnologije“. „Seksualnost“, Foucault inzistira u drugom odlomku, „ne treba shvaćati kao neku vrstu prirodne datosti koju bi vlast pokušavala ukrotiti, ili kao neko slabo poznato područje što bi ga znanje malo pomalo pokušavalo otkriti. To je ime koje se može dati jednom povijesnom dispozitivu: ne pozadinska stvarnost koju bismo teško dokučili, nego velika površinska mreža na kojoj se podsticanje tijela, pojačavanje zadovoljstava, podstrek na govor, stvaranje spoznaja, pojačavanje kontrola i otpora nadovezuju jedni na druge prema nekoliko velikih strategija znanja i vlasti.“
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Le blason du postmodernisme est le fragment. Et sur les fragments on ne peut écrire qu’en miettes. On peut écrire des fragments d’un discours postmodeme, où l’obsession de l’unité est subvertie par le scepticisme logique et moral. Un théoricien du roman, Antonio Blanch, remarquait au cours du symposium « Roman 87 » de Bratislava: « le discours postmoderne accepte plus que jamais les jeux de la pensée et du langage, dévoilant aussi les grandes pulsions du désir qu’impliquent ces modes d’expression».
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This chapter seeks to define and demonstrate the development of the concept of enchantment in semiotic and culture-studies terms. Enchantment is examined in a literature review of prominent classical and contemporary views on the subject, especially in regards to rationalization, consumerism, and meaning-making. The concept is then viewed in relation to ritual and social dramaturgy on micro and macro levels. Creighton concludes by noting that enchantment is both a product of ritual and social performances, as well as ingrained in these processes themselves, and furthermore, that enchantment is linked to obscenity and the loss of referents. Basic academic interests are rationalization, consumerism, semiotics of emotions, enchantment, ritual, and critical methods (see “Umwelt, enchantment, and McDonaldization”, 2022; “Postemotionalism, McDonaldization, and transmedial worlds as commodifying mechanisms in fan fiction communities”, 2022).
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Пред собом имамо четрнаест томова Сабраних списа академика Данила Басте, што свакако представља значајан издавачки подухват, јединствен у нашој филозофској култури. Иако су се у претходном периоду различити издавачи побринули да приреде изабрана дела неких наших истакнутих филозофа, као што су Брана Петронијевић, Милош Н. Ђурић, Михаило Ђурић, Михаило Марковић, Љубомир Тадић, Светозар Стојановић, Никола Милошевић, Зоран Ђинђић и Слободан Жуњић, ово је први пут да су неком нашем филозофу, и то за живота, објављена сабрана дела. Вероватно су се пре самог тог подухвата и приређивач и аутор суочили са дилемом да ли да се определе за сабране списе или за изабрана дела.
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Differentiating „man” from „animal” has never been a simple task of classification. Maintaining a clear and unbridgeable gulf between the two has always been an important condition for domination. Apart from making it „only too natural” for humans to rule over all other beings, this „anthropological difference” can also be used as a powerful mechanism for the subjugation of one group of people to another. Last but not least, the abyss between „animal” and „human” can serve as a guarantee for the existence of higher ontological dimensions beyond the „simple” physiological realm, revealed and/or functioning through human thoughts, words, properties and actions. The early twentieth century marked an interesting watershed in the way humans related themselves to animals. Two leading motifs could be discerned there. On the one hand, there was the burgeoning epistemological pluralism, which couldn't just be brushed aside, but at the same time, the strife for a unifying vision and stable reference points was still alive and well. One of the forms in which these two opposing tendencies found common expression was the philosophical anthropology of the first half of the 20th century in Germany. A meeting would be arranged between biology and metaphysics around the question „What is man?” providing plenty possibilities in an arguably final attempt at co-existing. One of the driving forces of this endeavor would be the restating of the anthropological difference, with a major factor of making it possible to appear as the prodigious ability called „self-consciousness” or „self-reflection”
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The article is dedicated to an unknown subject till now – the attempt undertaken in 1951 for a dialogue between the philosopher D. Michalchev (1880–1967) with the prime minister and leader of the communist party V. Chervenkov (1900–1980). It is presented the immediate context and the motives for the writing of “Criticism and Self-defense” by Michalchev, which is used as a reason for addressing the state and party leader. Michalchev’s philosophical and citizen’s gesture is linked with the current mainstream as well as with the personal history of the philosopher, which reflects the destiny of prominent Bulgarian intellectuals surviving the political changes of 1944. Unpublished archive documents have been presented in the article. An interpretation has been developed there of revealing the right causes and mechanisms of Michalchev’s ideological defeat in the early 1953.
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The paper is dedicated to Humboldt ‘s understanding of the concept of Bildung and its reception to this day. In the triangle of Humboldt’s ’Theory of Human Education’ and his later writings, Adorno’s ’Theory of Half-Education’ and Liessmann’s ’Theory of Non-Education’, the fate of not only discursive changes in the focus of that educational vision is followed, but also the efforts of its practical implementation, betrayal and rejection. After the contextually situating Humboldt’s endeavor, the basic ideas of his comprehension of education and his ambiguous efforts to realize them are presented. The second and final part of the paper try to calculate the costs and perspectives of both the realization of Bildung’s ideals and its abandonment.
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Globalisation is a phenomenon that dominates the defining spirit (zeitgeist) of our historical time. The article revisits Popper’s critique of the methodology of the social sciences in the light of contemporary theories of globalisation. His standpoint contributes to the establishment of new arguments in the current debate between the pros and cons of globalisation. Here, neoliberalism, the dark side of globalisation, is carefully scrutinised since it is the most controversial consequence of the world’s transformation. Not only does neoliberalisation accelerate the rapid growth of the free market, but its consequences are such that most sovereign nation-states have abandoned the previously de rigueur welfare policies. Paradoxically, the neoliberal economic programme, invoking liberal values with which it has little in common, encourages activities which diminish the importance of regulations and control by the state, ultimately leading to increased social disparity among people and permanently threatening traditional liberal values. Against such a reductionist policy of global social engineering, we oppose the arguments presented in Popper’s critique of historicism and holism in order to revise the methodology that provides the grounds for current globalisation theories through philosophical research. We integrate the facts into a coherent critical argument to point out the shortcomings of these theories and how they can be corrected. Finally, in proposing plausible solutions for the new role of the sovereign nation-state in correcting the negative consequences of the globalisation process, we clarify which aspects within the theories of globalisation require further philosophical research.
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In this paper we will try to confront Quine’s and Davidson’s holistic position through Davidson’s thesis of mental as a non-ontological category. In this regard, since Davidson came to this position through the thesis of mental as a decidedly conceptual category, we will try to show how this approach does not, nevertheless, rule out the possibility of its interpretation in ontological terms. However, in what follows we will draw attention to the fact that mental can be interpreted so that it proves to be immune to ontologization in Quine’s sense. This would be the evidence of different ways, which are not necessarily compatible, to argue for Davidson’s central thesis – the thesis about holistic character of mental – as well as, which is closely related, a certain difference that exists between Davidson’s view of mental as a conceptual category on the one hand, and a holistic category on the other hand.
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According to the Quine-Putnam indispensability argument, we are committed to all the entities that are indispensable to our best scientific theory. John Melia argues contra Quine-Putnam by claiming that even though such entities as numbers are indispensable to our best science, there is reason to deny their existence. In order to defend Melia’s theory from criticism put forth by Mark Colyvan, who demands that Melia provide a nominalistically acceptable paraphrase of our best scientific theory, supporters of this view have argued for the stronger claim that numbers are not indispensable. They all claim that numbers have an indexing role in the scientific explanation. In this article, I will consider some of the arguments for the indexing theory and point out its inadequacies.
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