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This special issue on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s aesthetics marks the beginning of a new era for Estetika. Starting with this issue, Estetika will be published by Helsinki University Press in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. Also the name of the journal has been slightly modified and from now on it will be Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics. We are pleased to continue to develop Estetika as an open access journal of the highest academic standard in collaboration with Helsinki University Press, a university press that is committed to the ideals of open science and making publically funded research available to all. The journal will continue to use triple blind peer review, which Estetika adopted already in 2012.
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A book review of Beth Savickey. Wittgenstein’s Investigations: Awakening the Imagination. Cham: Springer, 2017, 137 pp. ISBN 978-3-319-45308-8
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The study analyzes the philosophical and religious dimensions of the novel Život bez konca (A Life without End, 1956) by the Slovak writer František Švantner (1912–1950). It argues that they are derived from Taoism (as an original source also of its later European adaptations). The study compares Švantner’s imagination with Taoism and further analyzes its intertextuality with A. Schopenhauer, H. Bergson and F. Nietzsche. These philosophical projections are recognized in philosophical metaphors that are the key supporting elements of the cognitive architecture of the novel and support the Taoist perspective. One of the novel’s Taoist principles are invocations of examples of earthly life, which Švantner executes by realistically representing life on the river Hron in early 20th century. In this way his writing paradoxically conforms with the ideological prescriptions of (socialist) realism, even though his inspiration was not marxism, but irrationalist philosophy. This philosophical conflict complicated aesthetic and stylistic assessments of the novel. Their contradictions can be explained by a philosophical (especially the novel’s Taoist dimension) rather than a literary interpretation.
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In this article it is argued that the existential tradition can be understood to be sympathetic to many of the concerns of classical republicanism, and in particular to the classical republican view that freedom consists of securing the institutions that allow for freedom as non-domination ‒ that is, for the ability to live one’s life without the interference of an arbitrary power. In his recent book on Marx, William Clare Roberts has argued that Marx should also be understood in light of the concerns of classical republicanism, and in this article that reading is extended to include the work of Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, and Deleuze. In particular, by developing the Deleuzian concept of a problem, wherein a problem is a reality irreducible to the solutions it makes possible, and a reality that subsists within these solutions, the domination and arbitrary power the republicans challenge comes to be understood as a system, or ideology, that presents itself as a solution without a problem, or a forced solution in other words. This reading provides both a new way of engaging the existential tradition with political theory, and it highlights the overlapping concerns of Deleuze with the existentialists, most notably Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus.
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Werner Hamacher attempted to explore a dimension of language which he called the afformative. He defined it in opposition to performativity as well as to language’s communicative, representational domain. His concept of afformativity enables a critical view of the self-grounding power of language utterance by pointing out an abyss that always separates language from action and representation. These considerations are opening up a path for deconstructive thought opening a possibility to reflect on language, literature, politics and justice in a different way than that typical of the economics of performativity. This article aims to demonstrate how the concept of the afformative can be interpreted in relation to the context of Hamacher’s thought. The conclusion discusses the praxis of the humanities from the perspective of Hamacher’s œuvre.
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Professional wrestling as a form of live performance has existed in a variety of different manifestations for hundreds of years and masks, both literal and figurative, have been documented as being utilised as a means of creating stage personas and archetypal figures in professional wrestling since the nineteenth century. Expanding upon Heather Levi’s essay in Chow et al.’s recent collection Performance and Professional Wrestling (2017), regarding the utilisation of a popular persona in Mexican culture to promote a specific political narrative, this article utilises examples of both masked and non-masked performers from different professional wrestling cultures, in conjunction with Jungian and post-Jungian theories, to provide an alternative perspective on existing studies of persona and archetypes. It considers sociological notions of identity, social presentation and individual self-conception as well as theories such as separation and integration of the self from the persona, found in Quinn’s “Celebrity and the Semiotics of Acting” (1990), the concept of “the theatre ghost” and how it permeates into the public consciousness highlighted in Carlson’s The Haunted Stage (2001), and how the persona can engage with a broader public sphere as discussed in Balme’s The Theatrical Public Sphere (2014). This article also considers not only how the professional wrestling mask functions as an autonomous entity but also its role in the creation of mythopoeia and how personas created within a professional wrestling context can, effectively or otherwise, transfer from the confines of the wrestling arena into the public arena.
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Kristina Andělová hájí kolegu Kandu argumentem, že jsem použil nevhodnou formu vědecké polemiky, když jsem — pokud to shrnu — zesměšnil jeho seriózní vědecký výklad. S tím nehodlám polemizovat, ani se za to nehodlám kát: je na čtenářích, aby posoudili, nakolik byla moje polemická strategie adekvátní posuzovanému textu. Nicméně měl jsem důvod, proč jsem zvolil právě tuto formu polemiky. A nebyla to jen předpojatost příslušníka generace, který si s marxismem užil své. K takovémuto druhu reakce mě totiž pohnula — a domnívám se, že to lze z mého textu snadno vyčíst — skutečnost, že Roman Kanda ve své stati odpůrcům marxismu sice cosi vyčítá, ve skutečnosti to však sám zcela účelově činí. Řečeno konkrétně, vyčítá jim ahistorismus, sám však ve své argumentaci postupuje důsledně ahistoricky, abstrahuje, řečeno s Marxem, „od historického příběhu“. Proto jsem také použil přirovnání k Cimrmanovu „kroku stranou“.
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The question ‘What is a novel?’ has received scant attention in the philosophical literature. Meanwhile, this question is important. In the light of this, in this paper, I would like to address it, suggesting a potential answer. I begin by defining what I call ‘novel in the restricted sense’ – the concept that covers all novels except the so-called nonfiction novels, graphic novels, and novels in verse. Then, drawing upon Jerrold Levinson’s approach to defining ‘art’, I provide a definition of the concept that covers nonfiction novels, graphic novels, and novels in verse. Finally, with the help of this definition and the definition of ‘novel in the restricted sense’, I formulate a definition of ‘novel’ simpliciter and defend it against potential objections.
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The study focuses on the significance of Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “Eternity”. It presents a literal Czech translation and a detailed commentary of the poem and compares it with other Czech translations. In addition, it describes the cultural context in which the poem was created, and it attempts to prove a hypothesis — based on the analysis of the poem — that “Eternity” is partially based on specific philosophical concepts of temporality, the absolute, and the Self. Consequently, the study implicitly polemizes with the opinion of Vítězslav Nezval, who significantly influenced the reception of Rimbaud in Czechia. Nezval appreciates Rimbaud’s free imagination, but claims there is no logical intention or philosophical background behind the meaning of Rimbaud’s poems. To prove the opposite, the study uncovers and describes the logical order and philosophical implications of the poem. At the end of the study, the author’s own poetic translation of “Eternity” is presented.
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This paper is devoted to the brilliant Czech logician and philosopher of language Pavel Tichý (1936–1994) who, after emigrating to New Zealand in 1970 and spending half his life there as a political refugee, committed suicide shortly before returning to his alma mater, Charles University in Prague, as Chair of the Department of Logic in the Faculty of Arts. After tracing a biographical profile of the Czech logician, the paper explains some of the central ideas of Tichý’s highly original theory, called Transparent Intensional Logic, while locating it in the wider context of the analytic philosophy of language. The paper concludes by highlighting the role played by Tichý’s intensional theory in advancing various disciplines, including artificial intelligence, with the aim of shedding light on the significant contributions of the Czech logician, who has yet to gain due recognition.
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This article takes its point of departure from Marshall McLuhan’s The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) and Elizabeth L. Eisenstein’s The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (1979). The purpose, however, is not a detailed historical critique of both books, but to take issue with fundamental claim underlying both publications: the claim that media technology is the creative agent behind early modern social, political, religious, and intellectual revolutions. The article refers to Eric Voegelin, Hannah Arendt, Ernst Cassirer, and Wilhelm von Humboldt to lay the theoretical groundwork for an alternative claim: creative agency happens in the form of linguistic evocation. The final section of the article provides a brief case study on revolutionary agency, primarily at the example of the radical reformer Thomas Müntzer. It highlights the role of language in the revolutionary transformation of the early reformation period.
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The paper examines the potential influence of Wilhelm Dilthey on the works and thought of the Peruvian writer and ethnologist José María Arguedas. In 1953 Arguedas opened his ethnological article “Mountains in the Process of Peruvian Culture” with a quote from Dilthey’s book of essays Experience and Poetry (1910). Despite the fact that the two authors are distant in space and time, their hermeneutic approach and, above all, their faith in art as the highest possible form of knowledge, brings their reflections together. Dilthey’s triad experience — expression — understanding, which forms the core of the chosen quote, expresses the essence of art and its value: beauty, honest judgment, an authentic descent into the depth of linguistic expression and cultural identity. The three concepts also summarize Arguedas’s lifelong efforts to use art to make the underestimated Quechua and mestizo cultures a legitimate part of modern Peru and art in general.
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До XIX века политическая философия была всеобъемлющей наукой о человеке и обществе. Но с появлением и развитием других социальных наук, всего за сто лет, политическая философия достигает точки закрытия. Исайя Берлин и его коллеги смогли продемонстрировать, что предмет политической философии остался неизменным со времен Древней Греции. Иными словами, до тех пор, пока в нашем обществе не доминирует только одна цель, пока существуют различные интерпретации эмпирических событий, и авторы, способные открывать нормативные истины, политическая философия будет занимать свое место среди общественных наук. Ее место находится между позитивной политической наукой и философией. В то время как первая отвечает на вопрос «что есть?», философия ищет ответ на вопрос «что (должно быть сделано)?», а политическая философия содержит вопрос «что делать, когда есть разногласия по поводу того, что делать». Таким образом, в самом своем бытии остается нормативный подход, но он не обсуждается в каком-то вакууме. Цели и предмета, конечно, недостаточно, чтобы называть дело наукой, но оно должно обладать систематическим и организованным знанием предмета в форме поддающихся проверке объяснений или принципов, каких-то правил поведения или методов. Благодаря теории справедливости Ролза, а также политическим теоретикам его века, мы получили методы, которые проверяют мыслительный процесс теории. Однако использование одного и того же метода не приносит с собой равного уровня теоретизирования. В то время как теория справедливости Ролза создает новое общество, нормы которого противоречат нашему 359 существующему обществу, теория консоциальной демократии Лейпхарта участвует в модернизации существующей системы, опираясь на эмпирические данные и дедуктивные выводы. Другими словами, теория справедливости является вершиной теоретической области, а с другой стороны, теория консоциальной демократии показывает нам нижнюю границу теоретизирования, необходимую для теории.
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The paper deals with the development of an applied ethics for the diplomatic service – a section of applied ethics that is clearly called for in order to non-repressively regulate this part of the public administration, yet one that so far has hardly been addressed in depth. The paper explores some of the specificities of diplomacy as a cooperative game-based profession and builds on the legacy of Max Scheler’s philosophical views on the role of sympathy in human relations to lay groundwork for a diplomatic ethics based on sympathy. In doing so, the author revises some of Scheler’s starting positions — for Scheler believed that sympathy cannot be a basis for ethics — through first exploring the reasons for Scheler’s pessimism about an ethics of sympathy, and then by developing empirically informed groundwork for precisely such an ethics in the diplomatic field. The paper’s argument rests on the assumption that, if there is to be an effective ethics for diplomacy as a discipline, it must be simple and based on a dynamic principle that will motivate all participants to cooperate, regardless of their cultural or geo-strategic differences and interests. In other words, such ethics must be capable of taking account of the differing interests, while at the same time providing sufficient common ground in values to ensure cooperation. The author argues that an applied ethics that is grounded in the functional mechanism of “sympathy” of “fellow-feeling”, allows for a regulatory system of behaviour that would satisfy both mentioned conditions: simplicity and sufficient motivational potential to generate cooperative initiatives.
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