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The article is concerned to a considerable philosophical problem of truth which is basically a pragmatist conception. The professor of the Sofia University Dimitar Mihalchev offers a discussion of the possibility to apply the method and the criterion of pragmatism conception in the science.
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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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What is the thing that within one and the same story gathers closer such different notions as a master, a voice, a letter, a mirror, a noise? It is a record player, a machine which within itself has numerous components that enable the occurrence of these notions on the level of record player's communication.
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The focus of the study is an analysis of the interpretative method of Zdeněk Kožmín, which is demonstrated on the example of Karel Hynek Mácha’s work. Kožmín’s explanation encompasses selected Mácha’s sonnets and other poetic texts. Methodologically, Kožmín follows Jacques Geninasca’s sonnet interpretations and other structuralist analyses.
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The study focuses on characters in Arnošt Lustig’s prose. It primarily focuses on the consciousness in fictional characters. As a theoretical basis we chose publications Poetics (2001) Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Story and Discourse (2008) Seymour Chatman, Individuals in the Narrative Worlds Uri Margolin and Transparent Minds: Narrative Modes for Presenting Consciousness in Fiction Dorrit Cohn. Aristotle’s concept of mimetic character, as an imitation of human beings, which followed formalist and structuralist poetics, consisted mainly of subordination “acting person” storyline. The relation of the characters to the storyline, so in the case of Lustig’s character is superiority characters story, because in narrative occupy a dominant position. We are interested in the interior world of the characters in autor´s prose. We observe consciousness of characters, emotions and experiences in the fictional world. The aim of the study observes ways of presenting the characters in the narrative, both from the point of view of the narrator, so from the perspective of the characters. Uri Margolin Individuals in the Narrative Worlds provides information that the person in the narrative can be regarded as a series of temporary conditions attached to each other.
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The article focuses on three different conceptions of space: Kant’s philosophical system presented in his Critique of Pure Reason, Heidegger’s conception of poetic space from his essay Poetically Man Dwells, and the general structural conception of space understood in its basic theoretical conditions. The aim of the paper is to show the change of the theoretical paradigm which refuses the idea of holistic and universalistic space, and, at the same time, to challenge Kant’s theory of space from the structural point of view. In this case we can talk about a turn, which emphasizes reference qualities instead of a priori qualities. The structural conception of space is further demonstrated on selected studies and texts.
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The Cours de linguistique générale (1916), which became the master text for structuralist linguistics and semiotics, is characterized by a series of dichotomies. Some of them, e.g. langue and parole, signified and signifier, arbitrary and motivated, are very well known, others less so. This paper looks at Saussure’s semiotics in terms of these dichotomies, and considers how later critiques, such as Voloshinov’s (1929), and reformulations, particularly Hjelmslev’s (1935, 1942) and the concept of enunciation which emerged conjointly in the work of Jakobson, Lacan, Dubois, Benveniste and others, were shaped as responses to the Saussurean dichotomies. Also examined in terms of its contrast with Saussure is Bally’s stylistics. The aim is a fuller understanding of the shapes taken by structuralist semiotics, in view of the heritage on which they were based and the broader intellectual climate, including phenomenology and Marxism, in which they developed.
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What Adorno would detect as the phenomenon of an agonal situation of emigration shattered by vain misery that managed to wriggle out of the authoritarian fists and beyond the reach of the monstrous Nazi regime, is present almost a century later. And it refers to all dissidents, internal and external, indifferent or angry, all the same, observers, sages, analysts who "afforded" themselves a close or indirect encounter with the totalitarian nemani. Because, in the meantime, the world has not become a better place to live. The satraps and despots in a planetary motley composition take care of it zealously: from the Syrian meerkat, the North Korean midget, the Turkish namchor-brkajlia, the Myanmar Nobel laureate and her saffron-revolutionary generals, to the last in the line, the most dangerous, Russian mindless sadist - a black belt - what day? – every fucking day!
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The author of the article analyses the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of a possible dialogue between biopolitics and biophilosophy. It is argued that the pandemic, despite the horrific sufferings it has caused to humankind, had a certain positive side to it as it made us raise our ethical, social and political consciousness to a qualitatively new level. In this sense, the new coronavirus might be viewed as a pharmakon, that is, both as a poison (as the etymology of the Latin word virus suggests) and as a remedy – or as a gift. The author, drawing attention to the fact that viruses, strictly speaking, are neither alive nor dead, yet play a significant role in the evolution of living organisms, argues that the “poisonous” gift of the new coronavirus and the gift of COVID-19 vaccines interact – either by way of the initiation of the selection process or by way of its correction (limitation) – in the process of natural selection of the members of human population, thus affecting human evolution: the “poisonous” gift of the virus acts positively, presenting a biological challenge to humans, and the gift of vaccines acts negatively, by way of correcting this process, that is, selectively limiting the extent and intensity of the challenge posed by the virus. It is evident that individuals vaccinated against COVID-19, though they are not completely exempt from the dangers of coronaviral infection, participate in the process of natural selection, initiated by the action of coronavirus, to a significantly lesser extent and degree. Bearing in mind that personal decisions to accept or decline the gift of a COVID-19 vaccine are related to certain personal convictions, one might claim that, in the process of this particular case of natural selection, holding to certain specific convictions selects humans for certain cognitively, ethically and socially important personal traits that play a role in personal decision-making and are, as we might suggest, at least partially influenced by genes. Therefore, not only the urgency to act promptly – to act in a biopolitical sense – in the face of such challenges as COVID-19 pandemic (and, in the future, in the face of dangers posed by similar pandemic diseases), but also the necessity to reflect – to reflect in biophilosophical sense – on the interaction between humans and viruses that takes place on a global scale and in a common biological medium highlight the importance of a new trend – that of the convergence between biopolitics and biophilosophy
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This contribution shows how the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas has been confronted autobiographically with National-Socialism (1933-1945) and how his personal experience and the experience of the Jewish people under Hitlerism were translated in his philosophical understanding of ‘being’ as ‘il y a’ (in English: ‘there is’). The Holocaust provides a unique negative point of entry to understand Levinas’ ontological category which is as such not understandable since in the il y a, there is no longer a subject that stands before the objectivity of reality. On the contrary, the il y a is exactly the category that expresses a situation where the subject itself has no longer the ‘right’ to exist as such but still does not stop to exist. This violence of being is exactly what Hitlerism wanted to do in creating the Holocaust and submitting the Jewish people to it. This makes understandable how the whole philosophy of Levinas is an effort to overcome the il y a through a moral answer to the Holocaust.
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Digital media, and especially the widespread use of the internet, challenge our experience of embodied presence and consequently force us to rethink the definition of the ‘human’ body that informs our social practices. Starting from the online documentations of Guy Ben-Ary’s bio-artwork cellF (2015), Alvin Lucier’s seminal experimental music piece Music for Solo Performer (1965), and Stelarc’s performance RE-WIRED / RE-MIXED (2015) the present article participates in this debate by asking: what type of embodied identity is contoured in online specta(c)torship? From a methodological point of view, the article resonates with Mieke Bal’s insistence on the importance of the case study in art theory and in the philosophy of art. It aims at performing a philosophical intervention with respect to the contemporary understanding of embodiment starting from the experience proposed by the encounter with specific artworks. Drawing on the case studies mentioned above and on theories of embodiment formulated in a diversity of contexts — such as affect theory (Seigworth and Greg, Clough), feminist critique (Grosz, Butler), performance studies (Salazar Sutil) and the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze —, the article contends that the problematic of the embodied subject, such as it appears in online specta(c)torship, is that of an ongoing misrecognition: an ongoing decentring of the thinking subject (of the cartesian cogito) in a continuous renegotiation of the bio-techno-logical ‘self’ that grounds the ‘I’ and is in turn grounded by it.
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In her work, the author problematizes, but also tries to shed light on, the phenomenon of female sexuality and the place and role of women in the symbolic space, by entering into a dialogue with representatives of l’écriture féminine (“women’s writing”), as a French branch of feminist philosophical-literary theory from the beginning of the 70s. those years of the 20th century. The first findings resulting from this polemical discussion reveal that the subject of interest of the theory of “women’s writing” is the inscription of the female body and female diversity in structural language and text, by means of deconstruction as a post-structuralist method. It will be shown that the search for a “hidden signifier” in language, which tends to express the unspeakable, implies a critical review of philosophical, psychoanalytic, and literary-theoretical positions on the development of female sexual identity, as well as on the role of women in the symbolic order. Thus, Foucault’s texts question the archeology of sexuality in the narrative, under the strong influence of psychoanalysis. French psychoanalysts, led by Freud, through the phenomenon of hysteria, which Foucault reinterprets as a phenomenon of self-misunderstanding, open the way to consider the misunderstanding of one’s own desire and one’s own sexuality, while literary theorists in parallel introduce the discursive production of knowledge about sexuality, emphasizing the ubiquitous misunderstanding and exclusion of female sexuality. from the standard male language code. In the end, the author concludes that in the androcentric language, women are defined as “other”, and that they must enter into a dialogue with their otherness in order to reaffirm such an understanding of themselves and their sexuality.
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In her work, the author problematizes, but also tries to shed light on, the phenomenon of female sexuality and the place and role of women in the symbolic space, by entering into a dialogue with representatives of l’écriture féminine (“women’s writing”), as a French branch of feminist philosophical-literary theory from the beginning of the 70s. those years of the 20th century. The first findings resulting from this polemical discussion reveal that the subject of interest of the theory of “women’s writing” is the inscription of the female body and female diversity in structural language and text, by means of deconstruction as a post-structuralist method. It will be shown that the search for a “hidden signifier” in language, which tends to express the unspeakable, implies a critical review of philosophical, psychoanalytic, and literary-theoretical positions on the development of female sexual identity, as well as on the role of women in the symbolic order. Thus, Foucault’s texts question the archeology of sexuality in the narrative, under the strong influence of psychoanalysis. French psychoanalysts, led by Freud, through the phenomenon of hysteria, which Foucault reinterprets as a phenomenon of self-misunderstanding, open the way to consider the misunderstanding of one’s own desire and one’s own sexuality, while literary theorists in parallel introduce the discursive production of knowledge about sexuality, emphasizing the ubiquitous misunderstanding and exclusion of female sexuality. from the standard male language code. In the end, the author concludes that in the androcentric language, women are defined as “other”, and that they must enter into a dialogue with their otherness in order to reaffirm such an understanding of themselves and their sexuality.
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This contribution investigates the relation between biography as a genre and changes in the understanding of historicity which took place in Late Modernism. The author introduces various theoretical inspirations based on the texts of Gilles Deleuze and Françoise Hartog, which could help us grasp the shift in approaching the category of time in Late Modernism. These inspirations are then applied to various forms of biography in current culture of remembrance. Materials the author analyses include for instance biographic series of various publishers, a collection of biographies of Václav Havel, campaign of the Kefírer brand, or project Opráski Sčeskí Historje. These materials are studied from the perspective of their relation to the past which they can help create. The author asks whether these sources deal with national history oriented towards future or with nostalgic recollections devoid of substantive social content. In conclusion, the author proposes a typology of relations to the past as mediated by biographies and offers an explanation of success of this genre within the current culture of remembrance.
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The article attempts to present some methodological approaches, controversies, and dilemmas in the research of intellectual history. First, the paper shows a dispute over the subject matter and the definition of the discipline from the perspective of influential scholars in the field. The major part of the study aims to show several methodological approaches: the traditional method of the “history of ideas” in the USA, the linguistic contextualism of the “Cambridge school”, the relationship between postmodernism and intellectual history, as well as social intellectual history. Similarities and differences between selected approaches are discussed considering their contributions and shortcomings. The final part of the article examines contemporary trends within the discipline, offering one of the potential solutions for earlier crises and methodological difficulties.
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The article examines the development of narratology from its inception to the latest trends, showing the crisis of discipline and the prospects for the future progress. Within structuralism and semiotics ‘narrative’ was one of the study fields uncovering ‘deep structure’. The quest for universal categories determined the ambition of structural narratology as a discipline, with the help of the description reducing narrative structure to the combination of formal elements. In the article Introduction à l’analyse structurale des récits by Roland Barthes that was published in the journal Communications 8 in 1966, the understanding of the narrative did not confine to literary narratives alone, but it became an object of research for structural narratology. Comprehension of the structure of text within narratology was influenced by the binary model of the sign offered by Ferdinand de Saussure, as well as latest discoveries in linguistics that were discussed and incorporated in the literary theory during the 1950s and 1960s. Morphology of the Folktale by Vladimir Propp is one of the milestones in the context of classical narratology, analysing the narrative as a grammatical system. Selecting 100 Russian folktales as a research object, Propp described their general structure and regularities, demonstrating the limited number of elements that were used, and offered the classification after morphological parameters. French structuralists later on hastily applied these features to the analysis of literary narrative, but it should be noted that the universal model of plot proposed by Propp illustrates primitive narratives where reiteration has a functional dimension by transmitting texts. Although primitive narratives follow a certain scheme, the basic units of the narrative demonstrate universal phenomenon. It was soon realized by the structuralists. Mutual emulation created a series of theoretical constructions seeking for the smallest narrative unit, most comprehensive explanation of the concept of narrative, venturously offering an arsenal with new concepts in order to make the description process more accurate. Gérard Genette replaced the binary opposition of story/fable that was adopted from formalists with the three-part model, thus offering new perspectives on the temporality and the point of view in the analysis of literary text. Decentralized approach to knowledge of Post-Structuralism, as well as interest in ideologies, marginalized and the other, contributed to the crisis of formal approach in narratology. A new challenge was also presented by more complicated types of literary narratives—often atopic, atemporal, fragmented. Particular importance in the crisis of structural narratology was the idea of “grand narratives”—a term introduced by the French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard in his significant book La condition postmodern: rapport sur le savoir (1979). Although Lyotard’s study is dedicated to science, universal statements more widely influenced culture studies and the development of literary theory. In the context of narratology Lyotard contributed to a double ‘fracture’. First, the quest for narrative structure turned out to be not only intractable, but also abstract, because of the lack of the context. Second, “small narratives” came to the forefront, thus emphasizing the other and marginal, for instance, gender, race, social class, etc. This shift of interest from structure to context was termed by David Herman as the postclassical phase in narratology that initially sought to divest from the overwhelming heritage of structuralism, interacting more with gender and postcolonial studies as well as with the New Historicism and anthropological theories. In the coming decades the denial of structural heritage is softened. The expanded criticism that was carried out by post-structuralists contributed not only to a new theory influx in the narrative research, but also hybridisation. The change of focus marked rather radical rearrangement of interest in narratology, switching from the systemic view of literary functions to the analysis of context and cognitive poetics. Narratology nowadays is not evading from the epistemic polimodality of the text that rejects the categories of neutral and universal. On the contrary, the various theoretical ramifications demonstrate avoidance of creating generalized concepts and new supertheories.
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The article presents an attempt to outline, from a mainly typological and partly historical perspective, what the author considers the most important varieties of the relationship between philosophy and literature (which is, of course, understood here in a working and broad sense, as poesis). In the first of these varieties, for which the fundamental significance is Plato’s gesture of excluding poets from the state, the philosophical logos defines itself in opposition to literature, or mythos. In the second, which appears to predominate from Aristotle to the 18th century, the relationship between philosophy and literature takes on a more neutral character: the former provides the latter with motifs, themes, topics, mainly related to moral philosophy in the broadest sense, while the latter provides the former with discursive modes, such as genre. Modern aesthetics and the philosophy and theory of literature (fundamentally different from the tradition of the great poets and rhetoricians of the 16th and 17th centuries), which emerged together with transcendental philosophy and its reception in German Romanticism, contributed both to the increased interest among philosophers in literature and to a clear embedding, or even closing, of literature in philosophical notions, which originated mainly in the tradition of transcendentalism and dialectical thought. Finally, the beginning of the twentieth century is distinguished, in most of the major continental philosophical traditions, by a tendency to seek, or to find, in literature the most important partner of philosophical thinking, and sometimes even the identity of philosophy.
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The article considers Georges Bataille's concept of sovereignty. It argues that Bataille's concept of sovereignty covers three principal domains: materialist (economic), transcendental (epistemological), and temporal. Here, Bataille's sovereignty is defined as anti-servile, anti-utilitarian and anti-rationalist. Also, Bataille's sovereignty is described as egalitarian, rebellious and based on useless and nonproductive consumption. Bataille's temporal sovereignty is defined as presentism. The article proposes the notions of acephalous sovereignty and political atheology. Finally, the research reveals that Bataille's concept of sovereignty is more economic than political. This is what makes it original and distinguishes it from other theories of sovereignty.
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