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In Kitsch and Art Tomáš Kulka notes that natural landscapes cannot be called kitsch. Kitsch needs to be produced by a human being, he says. I agree with that. Experience-wise it is more complicated, though. Sometimes kitsch affects our experience of landscapes. It is not just that our overwhelming culture of images affects how we see nature, but that also sugared, sentimental and stereotypical kitsch images of nature, that we see in postcards and social media, affect our experience of e.g. sunsets and picturesque landscapes. We might desire to fight back, but at least we need to understand and to some extent accept our situation. Kitsch is in our experience even when there is no kitsch around, and our experiences of nature prove that.
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The article takes as its starting point the work of Tomas Kulka on Kitsch and Art to further a philosophical move aiming at the very logical core of the question of art. In conclusion, the idea of Singular Rule is offered as capturing the defining logic of art. In so doing, the logical structure of a singular rule is uncovered and in that also the sense in which the idea of singular rule both explains and justifies the role that art plays in our life. In his Kitsch and Art Tomas Kulka extends Karl Popper's refutation principle in science to the arts. He asks of a true work of art to be open to “refutation” by way of evaluating it against its own admissible alterations or variations. An admissible alteration according to Kulka is a change or a modification of the work that does not “shatter its basic perceptual gestalt”. In considering alterations that are aesthetically better, worse or neutral with respect to the original picture, Kulka offers us a rational reconstruction of key aesthetics concepts such as unity, complexity and intensity. His reconstruction will show that a work of kitsch does not qualify as art in direct analogy to a proposition that cannot qualify as scientific if it is not refutable. Kitsch cannot be “refuted” by any of its possible alterations as they are all of equal aesthetic value. This explains the aura of empty perfectionism that accompanies the experience of kitsch since the work of kitsch does not carry any promise for improvement nor does it show itself superior to any of its possible alterations. Notwithstanding Kulka’s novel analysis, its premise we must note is grounded in the work of art impressing on us a single basic perceptual gestalt with respect to which an alteration can qualify as admissible. But in acknowledging the possibility of a gestalt-switch or the fact that the work of art can impress on us a variety of mutually-exclusive perceptual gestalts, Kulka's analysis loses the logical anchor necessary for it to work. However, in what might look at first sight as an unrecoverable logical deficiency, we find an anchor to a novel analysis to the question of art. This is our analysis to the idea of art as a singular rule. Indeed, the concept of a singular rule - a rule onto itself which has exclusively itself as its own argument - must strike us as paradoxical. But in offering to reconstruct the work of art through the complementary concepts of background and figure - to match respectively the how and the what of the work - we are able to provide a structural resolution to the idea of singular rule as what defines art. In this we believe we deliver a definitive answer to the question of art.
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The article attempts to critically reconsider some of the central motives of Tomáš Kulka’s aesthetics, especially his use of the term Gestalt and his concept of versions and alterations. In addition to his own objections, the author focuses on criticism of the above-mentioned parts of Kulka’s theory from the perspective of Czech structuralism and phenomenology.
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Recipients always perceive texts in a successive and linear way. Often, the recipient’s perception of the text only lasts until the text has fulfilled the expectations the recipient has of it. Being well aware of this, authors build texts based on their goals, aims, or preferences that either meaningfully fulfill the expectations of the recipient - according to the authors’ own knowledge, estimation, or presumptions - or, on the contrary, more or less intentionally violate these expectations. While the fulfillment of expectations results in a certain “comforting” impression on recipients, its violation causes an arousal in them. In this sense, violation of expectations does not only have a negative effect, but it can also have a communicative value. It can be argued that a) the author incorporates stimuli into the text that lead to the violation of the recipient’s expectations and does so with a communicatively functional - also artistic and aesthetic - kind of intent and b) an arousal is a consequence of violating the recipient’s expectations; then if an author’s artistic or aesthetic intention lies in a series of violations of the recipient’s expectations, this can provoke an aesthetic experience which will be caused - among other things - by the arousals themselves induced by the relevant violations.
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The notion of “projective aesthetics” is considered in this paper for the first time as a variant of the recourse to praxis that characterizes contemporary aesthetics and its “aesthetic involvement” (A. Berleant). Projective aesthetics involves the use of methodologies of a new type: “schizoanalysis” (in Deleuze’s and Guattari’s terms), “conceptivism” (as devised by M. Epstein) and “projectivism”. The emphasis is put on the principle of “rhizome” and on the features of so-called “culturonics”, a way of thinking “through projects” in the cultural sphere. Projective aesthetics implies a way of philosophizing about art and aesthetics which is defined by a functional orientation in terms of a process of aestheticization and artification, and, accordingly, of projectivity. The connection between projective aesthetics and the peculiarities of modern communicative aesthetics is also examined, together with the need for creating a philosophical glossary of artistry and modern art, meant as a relevant project for aesthetics. In the text, a special place is also given to a number of projects implemented in the process of teaching philosophical aesthetics, as related to beauty as well as with the direct participation of students in filling out the contents of the above-mentioned glossary.
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The article explores the presence of the concept of homeland and native in Bulgarian humanities from the first half of the twentieth century. The terms homeland and patriotism are considered as emblems for the interwar period in Bulgaria, as concepts that seek to consolidate national energies. The ambition of the text is to highlight the philosophical aspects in the various reflections on the subject at the time. Initially, an analysis of the concept of homeland is proposed, after which two types of reasoning of authors from the first half of the century are distinguished. The ideas of Dimo Kyorchev and Yanko Yanev, and of Atanas Iliev and Konstantin Galabov are commented – as an attempt for a metaphysics of the homeland, and as seeking a synthesis between native and foreign.
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Within the following text our main goal is to offer a metaphilosophical reflection on the role of suffering within the philosophy of Boethius, Plato, and Nietzsche. By metaphilosophy we understand the discipline that is engaged with questions such as the following: "What is philosophy?", "How philosophy is done?" and "Why should we do philosophy? "Metaphilosophy is not a discipline that is on the "outside" of philosophy or even a sort of non-philosophical enterprise. The insight which it should provide comes from the "inside" of philosophy. It is based on the understanding that whenever we philosophize and offer explicit answers to philosophical questions, there exists an implicit layer containing our presupposed understanding of what philosophy is, how it works, and why it is meaningful to practice it. Therefore, within the discipline of metaphilosophy we investigate how philosophy conceives itself by asking how philosophy is done. Otherwise put, metaphilosophy is the thorough reflection on the ground/s of philosophy. For a reason specified above, a great deal of the metaphilosophical enquiry is based on methodological reflection.A favored metaphilosophical approach to which we will adhere is the one which Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattary elaborate in their book „What is philosophy?“ We also engage into some argumentation in defense of metaphilosophy and our usage of Deleuze and Guattari`s conception as a metaphilosophical one, thereby showing that there is no problem to consider their work as metaphilosophical in nature. We have noticed that within the literature on metaphilosophy Deleuze and Guattari`s approach is rather neglected. Our second aim, besides the one focusing on the role of suffering, is to evoke the interest towards Deleuze and Guattari in metaphilosophy.We take Boethius, Plato, and Nietzsche as authors whose starting point is namely suffering and thereafter expand on how suffering is integrated into their philosophies. A motive that is common to all of them is that philosophy should somehow cure us from suffering. We show that suffering, in relation to the opposition between convalescence and disease, could be a positive factor for the establishment of the philosophical enterprise. We focus mostly on Boethius and Plato because Nietzsche already explicitly claimed against Platonism that suffering and passion are by no means negative – for him they are constitutive, i.e positive, in regards to the creative process that characterizes Being, which Nietzsche calls "Will to Power". It would be satisfactory simply to indicate certain passages and motives within his thought that have the potential to establish a continuity with Boethius and Plato than a discontinuity.A third aim of our reflection or investigation, that will be outlined within the account of Boethius, consists in showing that Deleuze and Guattari`s own methodology in explaining philosophy enables us to think the possibility of "theistic" philosophy. We argue here against the claim of Deleuze and Guattari that Christian philosophy in order to be a legitimate philosophy has to be "atheistic". Our main argument is that the applicability of their methodology does not completely rule out the theistic element nor renders it a mere "transcendent illusion".What we find to be intriguing and intertwined with suffering is the fact that philosophy for these three philosophers is linked to crime, evaluation, and transgression. Philosophy is an act of transgressing and evaluating the conventional societal norms, which would entail that it be qualified as a criminal activity or subversion against political order. In regards to Boethius we see how in his „Consolatio philosophiae“ philosophy is condemned namely for its incongruity with the social order that is built on moral degradation and estrangement from truth. As far as Plato is concerned, by adhering to Georges Battaile`s conception of eroticism and Plato`s exposition of Eros in „Symposium“, we show that suffering and transgression have a lot to do with the dialectical movement of Eros, which emancipates us from the bodily prison and the shady world of the unphilosophical, i.e. untruthful and opinionated thought. In Nietzsche the eternally recurrent differentiation or transformation of everything undermines the vision of stability that comes with every order. This would mean that the transgressive movement is the will to overcome or, otherwise put, the Will to Power that is immanent to all of reality. The common thread between these three thinkers is that suffering, and transgression are eventually the same – adhering to the latter means adhering to the former and vice versa. If transgression is indispensable from philosophy and plays a positive role regarding the meaningfulness and conduct of philosophy, then this is equally valid about suffering too; for suffering turns out to be a positive condition for the possibility of philosophy. In this dialectical movement we see the value of philosophy regarding the transformation of our lives – an existential motive that puts Boethius, Plato, and Nietzsche on the same metaphilosophical plane.
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Shortly after the passing of the most beloved professor Teodor Dima, member of the Romanian Academy, this paper tries to capture the distinctive features of the Romanian and universal culture personalities becoming, via his vision. Thus, we consider that the texts elaborated by Prof. Dima about the book of C. Noica, Letters on Hermes’s Logic, are of a fundamental and perennial importance. Our cherished professor, from Iasi, expresses, in this sense, the conviction that „Hermes’s logic” represents a logic ontology, and, even more general, a metaphysics of knowledge and its logic. We wouldn’t have, thus, to deal with „another logic” effectively, but with a different modelling or interpretation of the logic, under hermeneutic and dialectic sign. We might say that, in this case, we also have to deal with a new use of logic, throughout the re-thinking of its meaning and finality. Essentially, the idea inserted by Noica is the following: he contours a logic of the individual that makes the junction with the general, an „individual-general”, configuring meanings and purposes in the great culture of humankind. In other words, it is proposed to us the analysis and comprehension of certain examples of the synalethism, specific to the Romanian cultural-spiritual space. Knower and consequent cultivator of the sayings of Noica about the necessity to open logic towards culture, T. Dima operates remarkable openings towards major figures of Romanian philosophers, which briefly comprise as many culture, knowledge and creation horizons. In their light, the logic is achieved via ethical enterprises, signifying as much hypostasis of man’s detaching from the dull quotidian existence, and her/his entering the spiritual excellence, throughout beauty and truth.
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The meaning of the „sublime” has constantly changed, since the ancient treaty Peri Hypsos, a first stylistic theory written by the anonymous Greek author known as Longinus. From the „elevated” style of poetry, the term suffered a semantic transgression that includes also the emotions of the soul. Aristotle's theories of motion were reassumed by the theology of the middle ages in works like Emunah Ramah or Exalted Faith, by Ibn Daud and the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, which adds the „beauty” to our aesthetic categories. The ambivalent feelings and affects of melancholy are strongly bounded to the sublime, as initiation and enlightenment stages of the soul through the spirit. After Nicolas Boileau's interpretation of the Longinian text, rediscovered in the 17th century, many authors like Edmund Burke, Carl Heineken, Moses Mendelssohn and Carl Grosse published their theories about the sublime, from a psychological approach or by introducing the essential role of the genius, leading us to conclude that the sublime is an individual, deeply personal experience, infinitely elevating and expanding the soul.
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Arnold Gehlen's use of the term posthistory can be traced back to his writings from the 50s. It occurs also in Zeit-Bilder. Zur Soziologie und Ästhetik der modernen Malerei (1960/1986), where his theory of pictorial racionality in art history is formulated and "peinture conceptuelle" as the key tendency of modern painting is appointed. Focusing on both, Gehlen's aesthetics of modern art and his theorem of posthistory (or crystallization of socio-cultural structures), we try to remind of the conservative thinker's contribution to today's debates of art and art history.
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Book review of MAKKY, Lukáš (2019): Od začiatku po koniec a ešte ďalej: umenie v definičných súradniciach. (From the Beginning til the End and Beyond: The Art in Definitional Coordinates). Prešov: Filozofická fakulta Prešovskej univerzity v Prešove, Opera Philosophica. 256 pp.Preview
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Stjepan Zimmermann dealt with the subject matter, goals, tasks and methods of psychology on multiple occasions in his work. He viewed the scientific autonomy of psychology as being closely related to the special character of its subject matter, and he believed that scientific psychology is possible only if it can be shown that its subject matter is not shared with other sciences. Zimmermann considered self-observation and experiment to be the main methods of psychology. Using the criterion of method, psychology can be divided into empirical and philosophical, and their difference is in the relation to experiential verification of their conclusions. The central part of philosophical psychology is the question of the self, or the ontological status of the conscious subject. Zimmermann commended the work of the Würzburg School of Psychology, the results of which he saw as an empirical confirmation of the philosophical claims he accepted. In this article, a more thorough explanation of Zimmermann’s claims has been provided and possible objections brought forth.
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Prvi put sam Željka Škuljevića vidio u Zenici i to u prvoj sedmici mjeseca septembra 1980. godine u učionici I-6 razreda elektrotehničke škole na Bilmišću. Tada sam kao petnaestogodišnjak otpočeo svoje srednjoškolsko obrazovanje. S dnevnikom u ruci u učionicu je tog dana ušao povisok profesor, malo pogrbljen, duže kose i njegovane brade. Nosio je izblijedjele traperice, istu takvu jaknu ispod koje sam primijetio crnu majicu sa nekim natpisom, a na nogama je imao špicaste smeđe gležnjerice. Djelovao je neobično, starije nego što jest (kasnije sam saznao da ima 27 godina). Držeći crveni dnevnik, baritonom nam se predstavio i saopćio da će nam predavati predmet Marksizam i socijalističko samoupravljanje.
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Životnu stazu Zorana Đinđića, violentno i kobno prekinutu pucnjevima bezumnika, markiraju i zavazda će markirati filozofija i politika. Ovoj se drugoj Đinđić potpunomice priklonio i posvetio zadnjih petnaestak godina života. Onoj drugoj se pak odao i pripadao joj u svojim mlađim i ranim srednjim godinama, očitujući u njoj odista nesvakidašnji talent i ostavivši itekako zamjetljiv trag. U odsudnom životnom času politiku je pretpostavio filozofiji, politiku kao poziv stavio ponad filozofije kao pozvanosti. Čak i ako je filozofiju napustio u ime politike, teoriju u ime praktičkog političkog djelovanja, u kojemu se istina pokadšto žrtvuje ili čak gazi, teško je povjerovati da se filozofije posvema odrekao ili je počeo smatrati nečim bagatelnim i suvišnim.
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Axel Honneth, Anerkennung. Eine europäische Ideengeschichte, SuhrkampVerlag 2018, p. 238.
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The present study is compiled of three parts: preliminary considerations; U. Eco in dialogue with C.M. Martini and others; and moral conclusions drown on the contemporary moral crisis. The first part outlines the characteristics of christian ethics in relation with e secular ethics, the second part presents the dialogue between C.M. Martini and U. Eco and the staces taken by others (Emanuel Severino, Eugenio Scalfari, Victor Foa, Claudio Martelli), and the final part contains a presentation of a few significant value of the contemporary moral crisis.
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The article is trying to answer to the question what is postmodernism, and especially how and why should it be overcome? In first, the postmodernism must be overcome because it offered to man a religion without religiosity, a superman without a term of comparison, and gods without glory and sense. Secondly, the postmodernism is reproached for reversing the meaning of beyond, the word on which postmodernists have built their sand castles, reversing its meaning and transforming it into an here immanent and atheistic. The solution proposed by the author to overcoming the postmodern impasse is just emanating from this concept of beyond, which can alo be seen as a relocation of man in mystery and transcendence. Beyondism means, as a philosophical concept and solution, not only presence in the everyday reality, but also a promise for absence and openness to mystery. In other words, with Heidegger's terminology, the opening of Dasein is not just to here (Das da), but to beyond and universality.
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The brief, but interesting, work by Apuleius constitutes a fixed point both to delineate the biography of the famous African rhetorician, a native of Madaura, and to trace a picture with quite defined outlines on the social and cultural, economic and political aspect, in which he was paying the Roman Empire in the second century aD, especially in that rich southern Mediterranean area. In this short essay the close relationship between culture and magic is highlighted. In culturally backward populations, the educated person is often referred to as a magician, a name which, with its semantic nuances, continues today, especially in some villages of southern Italy. So magician, both in the singular and in the plural, means both the educated person and those who are able to spell or predict the future.
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