Neurotudományok és a tudat

Author(s): János Boros / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 05/2013

One of the most important challenges facing the natural sciences and philosophy today consists in understanding the human brain, as well as human consciousness. These two tendencies of research, each confronting its own almost insurmountable difficulties, are by no means synonymous, as the author critically argues. Consciousness, subjective experience, conceptual understanding and our personal epistemic involvement in our world are dealt with by the branch of philosophy which goes by the name of philosophy of mind (Bewusstseinsphilosophie, Philosophie des Geistes). On its turn, the brain as a physical entity is studied by neuroscientists with empirical methods. However, according to the sceptical argument presented by the author, there are no signs that these two fundamental directions of research would tend to converge in any way.

Dharma kołem się toczy. O zanikaniu szkół filozoficznych buddyzmu chińskiego w V–VII wieku

Author(s): Dawid Rogacz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2014

The aim of this paper is to find the causes of perishment of the philosophical schools of ChineseBuddhism between V and VII c. A.C. The subject of consideration are: seven first Buddhistschools, Chinese Madhyamaka and Chinese Yogacara. The causes are ideological, ex. Philosophical,not cultural or linguisical. For the sake of paper I am comparing the thought of mentionedschools with the philosophy of Tiantai and Huayan.

ELEMENTE KANTIENE LA RAWLS ŞI NOZICK

Author(s): Emanuel Mihail Socaciu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2008

This paper aims to analyze the competing claims put forward by John  Rawls and Robert Nozick that their respective theories of justice are  “Kantian”.  The  result  is  not  an  assessment  of  the  quantity  of  Kantianism incorporated in the two theories, nor a judgment about  which one of them is “truly” Kantian. Rather, the main effort here was  to explore the ways in which different understandings of the same  background moral theory led the two authors to radically different  conclusions about what it means for a society to be just with regard to  the distribution of goods.

O rozwoju platońskiego poglądu na Erosa (na podstawie wybranych dialogów)

Author(s): Magdalena Jaworska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2016

Plato's Lysis, a comprehensive study of philia, can be treated as a prelude to theissue of eros, discussed directly in the Symposium and the Phaedrus. The ideas firstintroduced by Plato in the Lysis, are developed and elaborated on in the two dialogueson love. Being the first part of the Platonic story of love, the dialogue is an excellentstarting point for considerations of eros, especially its synthetic, intermediary andmasculine nature.

Platon i wino

Author(s): Magdalena Jaworska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

Since time immemorial symposiums were held in the Hellenic Republic that, justlike drinking wine, fostered memories of past times and discussions on moral topics. Therefore, it is not a surprise that oinos was appreciated by many authors and themotive of wine itself played a significant role in the Greek literature. Naturally, Plato also could not refuse the gift given to the people by Dionysus and talked about winein several of his dialogues. Plato's considerations of oinos cover indications of etymological nature, typology of symposiums, as well as the effect the drink has on the attitudeand activeness of a human being. They also owe a lot to traditional images and Hellenic medical concepts that play an important role in the thinker's discussion on the subjectand commonly present oinos as φάρμακον. Does the Dionysus' heavenly gift deservethe Plato's encomium? This study will make an attempt to answer this question.

(Post)sekularna filozofia negatywna, media wizualne i ekstasis (dekonstrukcja jako wariant neofenomenologii)

Author(s): Joanna Sarbiewska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2016

The author proposes a neophenomenological interpretation of the late Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction, by bringing it into the light of (post)secular negative philosophy and indicating the application of its mystic/ecstatic implications on a media techno-vision basis. In this conceptualization, deconstruction/negation, as an ,epoche strategy, not only denudes (kenosis) cognition of the idolatry, characteristic of the traditional methaphysics of presence and the dogmatic religion, but also suspends “the source” itself (the Offenberkeit register), and thus, causes the experience of radical emptiness (chora) as a condition of an opening to the Impossible. The author, by presenting the concept of negative image, demonstrates that technology visual media provide a suitable space (groundlessness) for Impossible to manifest itself in post-industrial culture.

Filozofia XVII wieku — jej źródła i kontynuacje. Klasycy filozofii XVII wieku i ich współczesna recepcja

Author(s): Paulina Winiarska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2017

Between the ethics of forgiveness and the unforgivable: Reflections on Arendt’s idea of reconciliation in politics

Author(s): Rafał Wonicki / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The aim of the article is to examine the role that memory and oblivion, forgiveness and unforgiveness play in Hannah Arendt’s thought in relation to acts of violence in the political sphere. Political communities do not always decide to remember the crimes they have committed or the wrongs they have suffered, but neither can they always forget their mutual harms, even when there is already peace between them. Without striving to exhaust the entire subject matter of Arendt’s work, I would like to illustrate the difficulty of understanding the role forgiveness plays in her thought as well as to indicate possible solutions when forgiveness becomes unachievable within the framework of her considerations. Her reflection can be divided into two stages. The first is a focus on the idea of radical evil and the need to forgive perpetrators for their crimes. Second, under the influence of the Adolf Eichmann trial, she developed the idea of the banality of evil. This idea points to situations so terrible that they transcend all human moral judgment, making forgiveness impossible. However, even when the moral possibility of individual forgiveness has been rejected, when the legal possibility of seeking justice has been exhausted and when victims and perpetrators in the community are still unable to live together peacefully, Arendt’s thought leads us to the possibility of political reconciliation.

Power and force: Rethinking Kojève, Arendt and Camus in the populist era

Author(s): Maciej Kałuża / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

In the presented essay, I would like to focus on the relationship between force and power. The idea that power, without resorting to forceful, even violent solutions, is less problematic, is both deceitful and dangerous. Once accepted, it can cause an oversight of violence‐free but possibly harmful forms of power. My focus in the article will be on the two reinterpretations of Master‐Slave dialectics, as presented by Alexandre Kojève and Albert Camus. This will be presented with reference to the position of Hannah Arendt and her remarks on power and force. In conclusion, I will be abstemious: my goal is rather to diagnose and bind the existentialist judgement with the contemporary situation and suggest that thinking outside the force‐power relationship may be continuously fruitful and an important part of reflection on the nature of political power.

Koncepcja „demokracji zakorzenionej” Wolfganga Merkela w kontekście współczesnego populizmu i kryzysu demokracji

Author(s): Katarzyna Guczalska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

The article presents the concept of “rooted democracy” by Wolf‐ gang Merkel, which was presented in the context of the democratic crisis. The German poli‐ tical scientist indicates what democracy is — specifying the proper functioning of the regula‐ tions of the democratic system (regimes). Speaking of the weakness or strength of democracy, we must have a well‐described set of system principles that determine the degree of strength of democracy or its erosion. The above set of principles of the democratic system is thoroughly discussed in the article. In particular, the functional model of civil society is analysed. The text also explores how the crisis of democracy is understood and Merkel’s view of the impact of global capitalism on democratic institutions, which contributes to the transformation of democracy into an oligarchy. The topics discussed in the article also concern alternative, non‐ ‐liberal forms of democracy and populism. The question is whether Merkel’s concept is useful in explaining populism and its political consequences.

Prawo siły jako polityczna konsekwencja naturalizmu — na przykładzie myśli Jeana-Jacques’a Rousseau

Author(s): Katarzyna Haremska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

Jean‐Jacques Rousseau rejected the Enlightenment ideas of reason, equality and progress. He experienced the charm of physical vigour and male causative power. He preached the apotheosis of primal instincts and the cult of strength. Rousseau’s historiosophy disavowed the optimistic vision of the Enlightenment and became its main competitor. The philosopher questioned the existing civilization; on its debris he wanted to restore the natural order based on biologically conditioned inequalities.

The problems with liberal consensus. Agonistic politics according to Chantal Mouffe

Author(s): Anna Szklarska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

This article is a critical analysis of the most important assumptions of Chantal Mouffe’s political philosophy, along with its original categories such as agonism, radical democracy and hegemony. The sources of her concept are indicated and certain difficulties that the author falls into are distinguished. The thread that is considered central to this philosophy, with the most profound practical consequences, is an attempt to demonstrate the futility of a liberal doctrine that values consensus and deliberation and proclaims an apology for individualism and rationalism. Mouffe’s diagnosis strikes at the most important liberal values with the intention of discrediting them although she tries to creatively adopt others, such as pluralism. She proposes a new paradigm, much fairer than existing ones, because it does not negate the conflictive nature of politics. Does an agonist dispute and radical democracy really have a chance to undermine liberal axiology? Are we dealing with a breakthrough in thinking about politics?

Świat czy wydarzenie? W stronę ontologii wojny

Author(s): Adam Woźniak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

This paper is an attempt to rethink the ontology of war. Its main object is to determine the ontological status of war and the connection between strategies of armed conflict prevention and the way this status is understood. If to overcome metaphysics we need to reconsider its basis then maybe a similar strategy should be applied in order to overcome war. The source of war is understood here not only in temporal terms, but also as its essence — the ontological basis. The first part of the article invokes several conceptions from the twentieth century (that, of course, refer to much older texts), according to which, war was to be overcome by variously understood progress. In those conceptions, as well as in the critical approaches from the beginning of the 21st century, war is treated as an event, a state of affairs. In the next part of my paper, based on Margaret Mead’s anthropological diagnosis, I propound a conception of war as an invention, and therefore — technology. The issue of war is further considered in the context of the twentieth-century philosophy of technology. A thesis is put forward according to which understanding the influence of techne of war over episteme should be the essence of thinking of war prevention. In this study, war is treated as a technology that determines perception. For critical reflection upon war, I use twentieth-century philosophical conceptions linking technology with cognitive processes, especially those formulated by Martin Heidegger and Marshall McLuhan.

Problemy z moralnością zwierząt

Author(s): Andrzej Waleszczyński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

The paper aims at discussing the category of animal morality in the light of contemporary scientific findings and theories. First, the issue of moral development is reconsidered in the context of evolutionary anthropology and primatology, then the main positions in this debate are presented. The author proposes a typology which is based on a distinction between various senses of morality, namely a descriptive, neutral, and normative sense (i.e. evaluative). These three aspects of morality are explained in detail and used when analyzing the problems specific to animal morality. The idea of morality applied by the leading participants of ongoing debates is also discussed. The article concludes with an observation that the main problem of these debates is not the very definition of morality and, at the same time, answering the question as to whether animals (individual species) are moral beings or not, but rather what is essentially problematic are the consequences to be implied from a specific understanding of morality.

Holistic model as a challenge for the medical profession

Author(s): Nina Putała / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The article presents a doctor–patient relationship model based on the assumptions of a holistic approach to the patient. The author draws attention to selected patients’ needs, ones taken into account in this model. These are the right to autonomy and an individualised approach to the patient. These issues, considered in relation to philosophy, show a conflict between patients’ values and aspirations and doctors’ values and their experience. Nowadays, patients’ needs are protected by consumer rights as well as being strengthened by postmodern philosophy, which shapes society’s awareness of various definitions of health and underlines the right of the individual to self‐determination. This situation creates an incredible challenge for doctors because attempts to assist is, according to medical knowledge, associated with an inevitable collision with the subjective perception of a patient’s health. Because of this issue, the author considers it necessary to enquire about the needs and aspirations of not so much patients as doctors themselves. It is assumed that the definition of what is currently important for this group determines the scope of any possible admission or intentional ignorance of patients’ needs.

DIMITRIE CANTEMIR PROMINENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ROMANIAN ENCYCLOPEDISM

Author(s): Agnes Terezia Erich / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2023

This year was declared the Dimitrie Cantemir Cultural Year in Romania, taking into account that 350 years have passed since the birth, respectively 300 years since the death of the most famous encyclopedist of Romanian culture. The work of the Moldavian savant contributed to an extraordinary cultural development, also marking the beginning of the theorizing of new ideas in literature, history and philosophy. His works were appreciated by contemporaries of his time in European countries with advanced culture, for which international recognition came to him in his lifetime through his election as a member of the Berlin Academy. Having real qualities of analysis and synthesis of events, as well as the desire to verify any information he referred to, all this led to the creation of an impressive work. In this work we want to point out his main contributions to the cultural edification of the Romanian nation, emphasizing the innovative initiatives of his main writings

Lehet-e egyedül tekézni?

Author(s): Gábor Kovács / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2021

Körmendy Lajos: A közösség nélküli ember. Ad Librum Kft., Budapest, 2020. 479 oldal

Postmodernism and Postmodernity (In the Light of the Development of Digital Technologies and the Processes of Individualization)

Author(s): Paweł Pieniążek / Language(s): English Issue: 61/2023

The aim of the article is to confront postmodernism understood as a philosophical doctrine, or, more broadly, a certain type of cultural awareness with postmodernity as an epoch expressing the changes of late capitalism. The relationships between postmodernism and postmodernity are analysed from a philosophical and sociological perspective by comparing the diagnoses of postmodern changes presented by sociologists and the diagnoses presented by representatives of postmodernism. In the first part, I discuss the importance of digital technologies, in which postmodernists hoped to unleash the potential of human creativity, and in the second, the postmodern processes of individualization related to the idea of ​​self-realisation. Finally, I reach the conclusion that postmodernity has betrayed the ideas of freedom, creativity, self-realisation and solidarity proclaimed by postmodernists which, according to their hopes, postmodernity was supposed to realise.

Пространство и уредба

Author(s): Vasil Markov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 59/2023

Building upon Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s philosophy, assemblage thinking has been gaining currency in recent critical debates in human geography and cultural studies alike. As such, it has proved to be an influential tool for conceiving space and place. This paper provides an overview of contemporary assemblage theory and its applications within the framework of urban studies. As the concept of assemblage is fundamentally a spatial one, it can be employed in various ways in order to conceptualize the spatiality of the city. First, I try to elucidate the concept as developed by Deleuze and Guattari and elaborated further by the American philosopher Manuel DeLanda. Then I examine some of the ways in which home and urban places might have the characteristics of assemblages. Finally, I reflect on DeLanda’s idea of multilevel ontology and nested assemblages. By bringing together various aspects of assemblage thinking, I place an emphasis on the processual nature of cities and the way space is co-constituted along with the urban assemblage.

Filosofia românească între 1950 și 1990. „Revoluția științifică-tehnică” și noua concepție marxist-leninistă asupra omului, societății și lumii

Author(s): Dragoș Popescu / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 1/2024

The following paper continues the exploration of the Romanian Marxism-Leninism previously initi-ated by our journal. We explore a deeply desired but insufficiently understood metamorphosis of the Marxist-Leninist philosophy that occurred between the Declaration of PMR from April 1964 and the final moments of the Romanian Communist Party (few days before 1990). That devel-opment included, as an inner core, the intense focus on the scientific and social transformation of the human world as the result of the new scientific and technical discoveries. The effect of this long-term concentrated attention involved three features. Firstly, it was the po-litical aspect of the technical and the social development in the new historical context. Secondly, the prospective one (the early identification of the possible new directions of development). The third aspect, but not the last as importance, was the pragmatic aspect (in which, the Romanian Marxist-Leninist philosophers were going to state the main actions to be performed). The purpose of the above-mentioned metamorphosis was to support the Communist Party in its efforts to remain the leading force of the new Romanian socialist society.