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Cioran and the Existential Philosophy of Lev Shestov. Cioran is said to have been influenced by Pascal, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, the author of La Chute dans le temps thus enrolling in the line of existential philosophy. Much less - or not at all - is mentioned in this context Lev Shestov, who exerted a considerable influence on the intellectual environments in France, but also in Romania, in the period immediately following the First World War. Cioran considered Shestov as one of his spiritual masters, the influence of the Russian thinker being present both in his youthful writings and in those written later in France. We will try to highlight some of Shestov’s ideas which have been creatively taken over by Cioran and that can be found constantly throughout his work.
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This paper discusses the quotation frequency and reference strategies of Leon Battista Alberti, Federico Borromeo, and Gabriele Paleotti. These three Catholic art theoreticians of Early Modern period engaged Classical texts as the point of reference and expertly manipulated the Classical sources to provide contextual arguments in the formation of their own artistic theories. Alberti, Borromeo, and Paleotti directly alluded or referred to Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Xenophon, Strabo, Aulus Gellius, and other Classical sources rather extensively. This can be noticed from various quotation strategies applied in Alberti, Borromeo, and Paleotti treatises and by statistical data on quotation frequency in Alberti’s De pictura, Paleotti’s Discorso intorno alle immagini sacre e profane, and Borromeo’s De pictura sacra.
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The intense and dichotomous relationship between orientalism and classicism that has been created over the last decades of the XX century, reaches new dimensions through the rapid scientific growth, the discoveries of new historical sources and artifacts, and, most importantly, through the paradigms change in many scientific disciplines. This development is also influenced by the rapid and multifaceted societal transformations in the intensively globalizing world of the new millennium. In this context, the paper explores the new understandings of these two important conceptions in the research of the past, and their redefined scope and relation in the light of the globalization theories and through the paradigm of ancient globalization.
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When Descartes made his scientific work public he ushered in a worldview based almost entirely on mechanical motion, which brought along a complete rejection of “occult” forces. Thus, the foundation of astrology was equally rejected by many prominent Cartesians. However, the popularity of Descartes’ system lead to its rapid adoption by many subjects, astrology included. Here, I will take a look at the curious case of Claude Gadroys, whose primary work, Discours sur les influences des astres (1671), defends a mechanical account of astrology that accords with Descartes’ principles.Gadroys’ Discours employs a sophisticated strategy to rehabilitate astrology of the 17th century against Pico della Mirandola, among other critics. Gadroys’ theory even incorporates Descartes’ discovery, contra the scholastics, that the sublunary and celestial spheres do not differ in kind. Surprisingly, Gadroys uses Descartes’ discovery to substantiate the stars influencing the Earth, whereas earlier astrologers required such a distinction. Gadroys’ adoption of Cartesian philosophy highlights two major theses. First, the advent of mechanical philosophy in no way necessitated the downfall of astrology; instead, it merely changed the direction of astrological explanation for those that followed current science. Second, it shows selective nature of Cartesian explanation and hypotheses.
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U dvanaestom poglavlju Biographie Literarie Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772- 1834) će napisati: "Sveukupno znanje proistječe iz podudarnosti objekta i subjekta" 1 (CW 7,1:252) i time dotaći ključnu temu u svojoj teoriji, temu pomirenja suprotnosti (reconciliation of opposites), povezanu s Coleridgeovim nastojanjem da formulira jedinstvenu teoriju života i dokine teorijsku podijeljenost nauke, umjetnosti i kršćanske vjere.
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[John Schuster, Descartes-Agonistes: Physico-mathematics, Method & Corpuscular-Mechanism 1618–33, Dordrecht: Springer, 2013; Frédéric de Buzon, La Science cartésienne et son objet. Mathesis et phénomène, Paris: Honoré Champion, 2013] 1
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This paper explores how, according to three early modern philosophers, philosophical theory should relate to our pre-theoretical picture of reality. Though coming from very different backgrounds, the Spanish scholastic, Domingo de Soto, and the English natural philosopher, Kenelm Digby, agreed that an ability to accommodate our pre-theoretical picture of the world and our ordinary way of speaking about reality is a virtue for a philosophical theory. Yet at the same time, they disagreed on what kind of ontology of the material world is implied by these. The Dutch Cartesian, Johannes de Raey, took a very different approach, and argued that the picture of reality we naturally develop from our early days onwards and the language associated with it have their use in domains such as law and medical practice, but are a poor guide to the ontology of the material world. Thus, if we are to arrive at a proper understanding of the nature of matter, we need to move beyond the picture of reality we naturally develop from our early days onwards in order to come to see that the nature of matter consists in bare extension.
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In his defense of innateness in New Essays on Human Understanding (1704), Leibniz attributes innateness to concepts and principles which do not originate from the senses rather than to the ideas that we are born with. He argues that the innate concepts and principles can be known in two ways: through reason or natural light (necessary truths), and through instincts (other innate truths and principles). In this paper I will show how theoretical and moral reasoning differ from each other in Leibniz, and compare moral reasoning and instincts as sources of knowledge in his practical philosophy. As the practical instincts are closely related to pleasure and passions, which are by nature cognitive, my emphasis will be on the affective character of instinctive moral action and especially deliberation which leads to moral action. I will argue that inclinations arising from moral instinct, which lead us to pleasure while avoiding sorrow, can direct our moral action and sometimes anticipate reasoning when conclusions are not readily available. Acting by will, which is related to moral reasoning, and acting by instincts can lead us to the same moral knowledge independently, but they can also complement each other. To illustrate the two alternative ways to reach moral knowledge, I will discuss the case of happiness, which is the goal of all human moral action for Leibniz.
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The submitted paper offers a philosophical analysis of contemporary society based on the ideas of Immanuel Kant’s practical philosophy. Kant focused on the issue of society in terms of the a priori principles of freedom, equality, and independence and his ideas on social issues are analysed in the first part of the paper. The analysis then serves as a prerequisite for philosophical-critical assessment of contemporary society, especially in the region of Central Europe, presented by philosophers and authors of various fields of study. In the second part of the paper the authors aim to analyse basic social problems of contemporary society and its situation from the point of view of philosophical criticism and referring to the topicality of Kant’s ideas in today’s philosophical thought.
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Leibniz’s juvenile work De arte combinatoria of 1666 included the “Proof for the Existence of God.” This proof bears a mathematical character and is constructed in line with Euclid’s pattern. I attempted to logically formalize it in 1982. In this text, on the basis of then analysis and the contents of the proof, I seek to show what concept of substance Leibniz used on behalf of the proof. Besides, Leibnizian conception of the whole and part as well as Leibniz’s definitional method have been reconstructed here.
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In the history of philosophy, in particular, in the history of early American philosophy, there is a person who deserves special attention, because the extraordinary ideas of this thinker greatly influenced the science of the 18th century. We are talking about Cadwallader Colden, who was an extremely active scientist. He published several treatises on physics, mathematics, ethics, and he studied the nature of mind, psyche, physiology, and the cosmos in which man lives. His cosmological doctrine was formed under the influence of the natural philosophy of Isaac Newton, and it was proof of the existence of philosophical discourse on different sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The purpose of the article is not to test the validity of the ideas of the early American philosopher, not to critically examine the doctrine through the prism of modern physics and cosmology, but to try to assess self-valuable philosophical ideas. The article demonstrates that Cadwallader Colden was a unique and individual philosopher, with original teachings in natural philosophy and cosmology. His views on the nature of physical phenomena were similar to mental phenomena; he carefully studied the properties of bodies and the nature of their impact. Using the ancient concept of the ether, he tried to explain the nature of gravity, which keeps the Planets of the Solar System in their orbits. In his understanding, it is impossible to imagine the process of transferring power from one agent to another without an intermediary, and he considered ether to be this intermediary. Since the theory of gravity is still a theory, a philosophical analysis of this phenomenon remains relevant, and an appeal to the cosmological experience of philosophers of the past will allow us to look at the problem from a different angle.
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Ciprian Vălcan propose une réflexion ironique sur la misanthropie, le suicide et la relation maître-disciple. Ciprian Vălcan proposes an ironic meditation on misanthropy, suicide and the relationship between master and disciple.
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This paper compares two programmes of historical criticism at the end of the 16th Century – Jean Mabillon’s diplomatics and Richard Simon’s biblical criticism. Although they were both conceived as philological and contextual reconstruction of texts, their relation with the authority of the texts and their engagement with political and institutional stakes were strikingly different.
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Resumen: A lo largo de la Edad Media cristiana, la concepción del amor oscila entre dos extremos que provienen de la contradicción básica entre el cuerpo y el espíritu, y la condena de la sexualidad basada en ella: el amor es, o bien una de las virtudes más nobles, o un pecado mortal. En la literatura, la resolución del conflicto entre el anhelo espiritual y el deseo físico culminó en la concepción específica de la relación amorosa de la poesía trovadoresca. En la España del siglo XV, la auténtica ‘atmósfera trovadoresca’ se propagó y, luego, degeneró en las convenciones del código del amor cortés que dominan la poesía cancioneril y la novela sentimental, y que fueron magistralmente desenmascaradas y parodiadas en La Celestina (1499) de Fernando de Rojas. La presente contribución se centra en el papel ambiguo de la misericordia (pietas) como factor del que depende la evolución del proceso amoroso. Es a esta actitud emocional, que se expresa con mayor frecuencia en el contexto cristiano, a la que apela también el amante en los discursos dirigidos a su dama. La etiqueta cortesana sigue, en este aspecto, a la doctrina cristiana, dictando a la dama actos de compasión partiendo de la suposición de que el amante no abusará de su confianza. Los ejemplos seleccionados de las obras literarias demuestran cómo la ambigüedad del uso de las metáforas en el diálogo entre los amantes potenciales abre más o menos deliberadamente interpretaciones en las que prevalecen los motivos lascivos de ambos participantes. Abstract: Throughout the entire Christian Middle Ages, the concept of love is torn between two extremes arising from the basic contradiction between body and soul, and the condemnation of sexuality based on it: love is either one of the highest virtues or a deadly sin. In literature, the resolving of the conflict between spiritual longing and physical lust reached pinnacle in the specific concept of love relationship between man and woman in the troubadouresque lyric. In 15th century Spain, the genuine ‘trubadouresque ambience’ reached full swing and declined in conventions of the courtly codex which permeate the cancioniero poetry as well as the sentimental novel, and which are masterfully exposed and parodied in Celestina (1499), a novel in dialogue by Fernando de Rojas. Our contribution is focused on the ambiguous role of mercy (pietas) being the element which determines the disentanglement of love process. This emotional attitude, most often expressed in the Christian context since Christianity makes an appeal to believers to be compassionate towards the suffering and dead Christ and therefore expect Him to be merciful towards them, is also appealed by a courtly lover in addressing his beloved one. In this perspective, the courtly etiquette followed the Christian teaching and demanded acts of mercy from a lady, however, on condition that a man would not betray her trust. Furthermore, the selected examples of literary works show how the abundantly ambiguous metaphoric of mercy in the dialogue between the two potential lovers opens up more or less intentionally a wide area of interpretations among which the first place is taken by salacious urges of both participants.
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Big Data technologies are about how to extract information from the rough data. The intermediate stage is represented by preprocessed data. But, even from preprocessed data to information the way is long and complex. First of all, we must understand what information means. There is no widely accepted definition for information. By proposing and using a working definition for the concept of information, we present the main techniques involved on the way from the rough data to the useful information. How the information is generated, extracted and how it emerges is shortly introduced. The role played by information in the knowledge process leads to the way information, as structure acting by its meaning, must reconsider the philosophical approach of existence.
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The article ventures a detailed and critical exposition of the first three sections of David Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, which represents, in a revised fashion, most of Book I of his Treatise of Human Nature. Through a careful examination of such core concepts of Hume’s epistemology as ‘perception,’ ‘impression,’ and ‘idea,’ the article arrives at the conclusion that the Humean theory of human understanding is best construed as a kind of methodological dualism: on the one hand, Hume proceeds as a philosopher making statements about the nature of human understanding with the force of a priori evidence, on the other, he acts as a natural scientist gathering empirical data, examining it, and drawing an inductive generalization therefrom. Hume is thus both a theoretical epistemologist and an empirical psychologist with a semi-disguised propensity to reduce the duties of the former to those of the latter.
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The objective of this article is to analyze the differences between the two forms of skepticism as conceived by Hegel, i.e. ancient and modern skepticism. We shall examine this in the first part of this work and in the second, we shall see how for Hegel, ancient skepticism is in fact a moment of philosophy and not its enemy, as was the case for Sextus Empiricus. Finally, in the third part, we will explore the paradox at the heart of this Hegelian distinction. This paradox lies in the fact that Hegel seems to misinterpret skepticism as Greek philosophers such as Pyrrho first conceived it, abolishing all appearances or phenomena as a result. Therefore, ancient skepticism, according to Hegel, has more resemblance to nihilism than to the way of life as purported by the ancient skeptics themselves.
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The author initially considers the philosophical circumstances that lead to the contemporary affirmation of ontology as the primary philosophy in the beginning of the 17th century. To better distinguish the difference between the “old” and “new”, that is, the classical and modern philosophy, the relation between Descartes’ thematization of being, according to the Aristotle’s request to investigate the being in different manner, is analyzed. This relation is expressively reductive, as it leaves only one of Aristotle’s four ways – displaying the false and true – with Descartes. The display of the false and the true is based on a certainty that the pros hemas, in relation to us, integrates that in itself, kat’auto. In the second part of the paper, the difficulties that come from the synonymous use of the terms philosophia prima, metaphysica and ontology are analyzed. The author concludes that the new term, in case of ontology, has not resulted in an establishment of a new kind of a philosophical discipline, but has in turn marked a new manner of deliberating through the old philosophical problems. The source of the confusion and the ostensible synonymy between ontology and metaphysics has appeared as a consequence of the constellation within which the new deliberation of old problems was easily identified with old disciplines. Taking that into consideration, it is pointed out that the consistent steps taken by the modern promoters of ontology were made to eliminate the term of metaphysics from the philosophical horizon, and not to create a false interchangeability with ontology. Starting with Jacob Lorhard, that is with the first act of the establishment of ontology, the introduction of the new term is somewhat stultified.
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