Dés-amitiés…

Author(s): Abdellatif El Azouzi / Language(s): French Issue: 23/2019

Le sens de l’amitié, pour Jean-Jacques Rousseau, se situe et se développe dans l’individu. L’amitié dans ce cas est une expansion morale du moi, dans la mesure où sa finalité vertueuse est moins un privilège dont jouirait autrui qu’une émancipation interne de notre caractère autonome. // The meaning of friendship, for Rousseau, is located and develops in the individual. In this case, friendship is an expansion of self, because its virtuous purpose is less a privilege enjoyed by others than an internal emancipation of our autonomous character.

Endre Szécsényi (ed.), Francis Hutcheson and the Origins of the Aesthetic, special issue of the Journal of Scottish Thought, Vol. 7, Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen, 2016

Author(s): Eduard Ghiṭă / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

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LIPSIUS’ DE CONSTANTIA, 17TH CENTURY STILL LIFE PAINTING AND THE USE OF CONSTANCY TODAY

Author(s): Anisia Iacob / Language(s): English Issue: Sp.Issue/2020

Lipsius’ De constantia, 17th Century Still Life Painting and the Use of Constancy Today. The present article revisits the main ideas from Justus Lipsius’ De constantia in the light of the present ongoing pandemic. Through his interest for the Stoics, Lipsius was able to contribute to a more general and European interest towards this topic, reviving the Stoic philosophy under the name of Neostoicism. The influence of his ideas can be seen in some art production, especially the one that is connected to the places where Lipsius lived and it is a testimony to their popularity and the various ways of transmitting them. Even if the Stoic ideal remains an ideal, the Neostoicism of Justus Lipsius is meaningful in as much as any philosophy that deals with crises because it can help us view the text from both its relevancy and our recent general experience. The isolation, the anxiety, the uneasiness and fear are emotions that have been more or less present in our lives during this pandemic and they require a solution. Constancy is the solution that Justus Lipsius proposes.

EIN LOGOS FÜR DAS SEIN UND DEN GOTT. HEIDEGGERS AUSEINANDERSETZUNG MIT DER THEOLOGIE AB DEN DREISSIGER JAHREN. II

Author(s): Rosa Maria Marafioti / Language(s): German Issue: 3/2020

A Logos for Being and God. Heidegger’s Confrontation with Theology from the 1930s. II. Heidegger’s entire itinerary is characterised by the search for a living relationship with God, and thus for a Logos able to think and name the divine without objectifying its divinity. Getting into a dialogue with Western philosophers and theologians and distinguishing the fields of thinking, faith and science one from the other, since the 1930’s Heidegger claims that, if the traditional theology has seen God as the supreme being, metaphysics, on its part, has identified it with Being as such. According to Heidegger, the “onto-theo-logical” constitution of metaphysics has developed itself by means of the reception of the Jewish-Christian concept of an almighty God as creator. This process has led to the “fulfilment” of the “machination” in the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Heidegger speaks about the “poverty” of thought and about the consequent impossibility of building an ontology as well as a theology. Nevertheless, he still waits for the hint of a “last God”, in so far as he assumes that a renewed manifestation of the divine must be prepared through the “overcoming” of the “forgetfulness” of Being and God.

Francis Bacon’ın Lâik Ahlâk Anlayışı

Author(s): Tuğba Torun / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 2/2020

Ethics has been an important discipline that has been discussed for ages without losing its importance or timeliness. With this importance, a problem regarding the source of ethics appears throughout the ages with different views and theories following accordingly. One of the various suggestions made regarding the source of ethics is the secular understanding of ethics. The modern period where knowledge is thought to be power is also the period where secular ethics came into prominence. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to study secular ethics, a perception of ethics that interprets the source of ethics outside of the religion and within the earthly world and considers reason to be the ethical principle rule maker. The aforementioned way of thinking was put forward in accordance with the English philosopher Francis Bacon (d. 1626) who was referred to as the father of modern science owing to him uttering “Knowledge is power’’ slogan at his age. Although the philosopher is more widely known more for his properties as a scientist, he also shared his thoughts on ethics in his works titled The Essays and in The Advancement of Learning. Although the ideas suggesting that religion is not the source of all ethics were voiced prior to Bacon, he, as a clear reflection of the fundamental characteristic of English empiricism, went down in history as the first person who expressed the modern philosophy approach and enlightenment view replacing classical philosophy approach and teleological universe view in the English history of thought. Bacon stated clearly that experiments and experiences are essential for scientific knowledge and accordingly, emphasized that the mind could explain everything related to humanity and the universe. This emphasis laid the ground for a secular moral understanding which does not base religion as its source, thus making it secular. With that mentioned, it should be noted that the period that he was in had an important role in his acceptance of secularized ethics. The said time period is a period where the Industrial Revolution occurred and colonization policies rose with it. Accordingly, how the Industrial Revolution and the scientific developments that led to it had encircled Bacon could be understood from his motto. This encirclement could easily be seen in his leadership of settling in science as a power in our minds and how he reflects the scientific methods to the ethics. As much as the socio-cultural conditions that were created by the Industrial Revolution had an effect on the ideas of Bacon, the psychological effect that was created by his ‘’Knowledge is Power’’ understanding had an influence over colonial policies. The viewpoint “Knowledge is power’’, which prepared the Industrial Revolution and later on utilized it to increase its own importance and strength, brought mental transformation and changes in consciousness with it. Humanity now believed that they had authority over nature and had the power to rule over it. It developed an ethical viewpoint that it could utilize nature as it likes for its own benefit and comfort. The said consciousness has created differences in ethics and behaviors while causing the purposes of and ways to be ethical to change. Accordingly, having information has emerged as the most important ethical act and sentiment; reality and meaning have been started to be searched in the world where humans could feel and see. It could be said that the secularized ethical viewpoint Bacon laid the foundations of started here. In addition to controversial aspects of secular ethics that Bacon tried to lay the foundations of independent of religion, we could refer to a positive aspect such as this: In the present, religion has sometimes been suggested as the source of the evil deeds that were done by humans and even natural and ethical evils have been used to imply that there is a God that wants bad things for humanity. Secular ethics could be utilized to show how ungrounded these claims are. In other words, secular ethics could be utilized to point out that claims putting the responsibility of immoral attitudes and acts on religion and blaming religion for these acts have no concrete ground. Although his personality as an ethics philosopher has been secondary, the importance he has due to voicing an ethical understanding that is outside of religion, that is secular ethics, makes it clear that there is a need for more studies regarding him. This article was written due to this necessity and utilized secondary sources to present Bacon’s views on ethics.

L’âme

Author(s): Odette Barbero / Language(s): French Issue: 26/2020

Defining soul only by the concept of mind or mens, Descartes breaks with the philosophy of Aristotle and his hylomorphic conception of the soul and its various functions. But, on the one hand, what are the relations between this definition derived from mind’s perception and the “I” of cogito or the self which characterize the connection mind/body? Still, on the other hand, in the absence of a mind in the animal, Descartes agrees to animal’s body sensation and perfection.

The Lex secundum quam disponuntur omnia: Trichotomic Trees in Jan Amos Komenský’s Pansophical Metaphysics and Metaphorics

Author(s): Petr Pavlas / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The goal of this article is to detail the opposition to “Ramean tree” dichotomic divisions which emerged in the age of swelling Antitrinitarian- ism, especially Socinianism. Scholars such as Bartholomaeus Keckermann, Jan Amos Komenský and Richard Baxter made a point of preferring the trichotomic to the dichotomic division of Petrus Ramus and the Ramist tradition. This paper tracks the origin of Komenský’s “universal triadism” as present in his book metaphorics and in his metaphysics. Komenský’s triadic book metaphorics (the notion of nature, human mind and Scripture as “the triple book of God”) has its source in late sixteenth-century Lutheran mysticism and theosophy, mediated perhaps by Heinrich Khunrath and, above all, by Johann Heinrich Alsted. Komenský’s metaphysics follows the same triadic pattern. What is more, Komenský illustrates both these domains by means of Ramist- like bracketed trees; regarding book metaphorics, clearly his sources are Khun- rath and Alsted. Although inspirations from Lullus, Sabundus and Nicholas of Cusa are most probably involved, the crucial role has to be ascribed to the influence of Lutheran mysticism and Alsted’s “Lullo-Ramism.”

Needles and Pins on the Scaffold: Francis Bacon and Giovan Battista della Porta on the Motions of the Human Soul and the Passions of the Lodestone

Author(s): Sergius Kodera / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

This article discusses the powers of the lodestone for two authors, Francis Bacon and Giovan Battista della Porta, relating their observations on magnetism and human emotions to the field of learned natural magic. It investigates some of Bacon’s and Porta’s remarks on experimental work with lode- stones and the ways in which both authors translated the inexplicable powers of lodestones and magnetized iron into a series of principles that also served as a structure and explanation of human emotions (and vice versa). I suggest that at work here is not merely an anthropomorphic projection at nature, but also (and conversely) an interest in and fascination with the naturalization and mechanization of human emotions. My contribution examines passages from Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, the Novum organum, the Sylva sylvarum and his Essays; from Della Porta’s Magia naturalis (second edition 1589) and his comedy Sorella (1604). First, the insight that Bacon’s and Della Porta’s perception of magnetic movements have a strong common bias: the identification with human emotions. Both authors postulate not merely a close analogy, but a mutual convertibility between the two phenomena and with animal spirits. Second, this syn-optic approach is no one-way-street merely creating a characteristic perception of the phenomenon of magnetism: it also conditions the modes in which the human mind and emotions are perceived. Third, emotions—in particular love and hatred—are in principle as predictable as the movements of attraction and repulsion exercised by iron and lodestone.

Angus Vine, Miscellaneous Order: Manuscript Culture and the Early Modern Organization of Knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019

Author(s): Alexandru Liciu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

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Immanuel Kant’s Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?

Author(s): Aivaras Stepukonis / Language(s): English Issue: 106/2021

The article provides a historically informed exposition of Immanuel Kant’s notion of enlightenment. The 18th century marked the zenith of absolute monarchy in Europe. The century was accompanied by the emergence of new social, economic, and technological conditions and the simultaneous rise of an intellectual culture that sought a wider public adoption of independent critical thinking through the proliferation of schools and academies across the Old Continent. This was the semantic setting in which Kant poses and answers the question of enlightenment. The article explicates the individual and societal aspects of the Kantian concept of enlightenment, while stressing their argumentative dependency on the analytic distinction between the public and private uses of reason. Enlightenment is conceived by Kant as a gradual progress both of the individual and of society towards a fuller mastery of their rational capacities, especially as they pertain to the public sphere of life. The philosopher’s insights are as relevant to our times as they were to his.

Omotač: Čitanje Spinoze (Etika, prvi deo, “O Bogu”)

Author(s): Luce Irigaray / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2-3/1995

Šta sve telo može da radi?

Author(s): Branka Arsić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2-3/1995

In this text an attempt was made to inquire Spinoza’s concept of body, not only as one of many in the history of philosophy, not at all as one that remains by the stereotype which is produced by the history of philosophy, and according to which body does not think, and the spirit that thinks is a birthplace of the subject, etc. The analysis of Spinoza’s statement about body and of the relationship between body and spirit tries to show that body, in spite of the parallelism of the order of modi in attributes, becomes the condition of the possibility of the spirit, its essence itself. This kind of the turn of the relation, on its part draws also Spinoza’s attempt to establish the new way of thinking.

19. Yüzyıl İngiliz Ahlak Düşüncesinde William Whewell ve John Stuart Mill Polemiği

Author(s): Metin Aydin / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 43/2021

This article deals with the polemic between William Whewell and John Stuart Mill, two major thinkers of 19th century British moral thought. In his work, Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England, Whewell criticized Bentham and utilitarianism. Mill also wrote an article titled "Whewell on Moral Philosophy" to answer these criticisms. Whewell generally accuses utilitarianism of evaluating actions on the basis of pleasure and pain and Bentham of building a moral theory on pleasure and pain; Mill accuses Whewell of solving the relation between self-interest and duty by appealing to God, and of appealing to utilitarian reasons when generating justifications for the basic moral principles of his system. This polemic, in which both thinkers often apply rhetorical tricks, is a polemic in which opinions are supported by popular arguments rather than technical ones. In this polemic, Whewell's main purpose is to show that utilitarianism does not have as strong foundations as it seems, while Mill's aim is to present that Whewell's criticisms are based on prejudices. In this context, based on the answers given, it can be said that Mill is more successful than Whewell, which I think should not be accepted as the absolute defense of both theories.

No Tension. David Hume’s Solution to Everyday Aesthetics

Author(s): María Jesús Godoy / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

This study looks at the emerging branch of everyday aesthetics from the perspective of the fracture which exists in its core, as a result of the double reading of the everyday: the first, which elevates it to the realm of the extraordinary and the second, in which it remains strictly ordinary. Our purpose here is to repair this fracture by turning to David Hume’s functionalist aesthetics, where disinterest and utility are reconciled through sympathy and the affective experience of otherness that it provides. Once transferred to the everyday sphere, sympathy facilitates understanding between these two versions, since the aesthetic appreciation of everyday objects or common activities requires, like the second version, that they remain in the practical environment and, like the first, to see something special in them, which is the possibility of one’s own or another’s well-being.

ALIÉNATION, ENTFREMDUNG – AND ALIENATION. HEGEL’S SOLIDARY DISPLACEMENT OF DIDEROT

Author(s): Asger Sørensen / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit put alienation high on the philosophical agenda, as was readily recognized by Marx. Relatively well-known is also that Hegel’s concept of alienation was inspired by Goethe’s translation of Diderot’s dialogue Rameau’s Nephew, but the details and the conceptual implications of these details typically escape scholarly attention. Recognizing the basic idea of alienation as not-belonging to or being deprived of something, I emphasize that alienation implies a movement towards the limits of the human being, in which the mental suffering this involves is conditioned by social pathologies. To substantiate this claim, I show how Diderot’s satire implies uncompromising materialist social criticism, but that it does not employ the term ‘aliénation’ but instead reserves it for a kind of frenzy that borders on insanity. My claim is then that, in Goethe’s translation of Diderot’s dialogue, and in his translation of ‘aliénation’ to ‘Entfremdung’, Hegel found a general key for the conceptual critique of the spirit of Modernity. I therefore argue that, in the Phenomenology, Hegel employed alienation in more than one sense, raising madness to the level of a characteristic of Modernity, stressing the detrimental implications for consciousness under such living conditions, emphasizing how alienation works as negation, and, finally, pointing nevertheless to the possibility of embracing social and political reality.

OBŁĄKANI, IDIOCI I OGRANICZENIA LUDZKIEGO ROZUMU. JOHN LOCKE O LUDZKIEJ GŁUPOCIE

Author(s): Adam Grzeliński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The article discusses the various manifestations of human irrationality analyzed by John Locke in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. According to Locke, human understanding’s weaknesses have a twofold character: they can be treated as natural imperfections of cognitive faculties and as mental diseases such as madness. Locke’s analyses lead to the conclusion that the notion of human nature has no clearly delineated boundaries. Rationality, an essential quality of a human being, is only a potency that can be realized to a varying degree. Children, idiots, and madmen occupy a specific place: they are human, but their minds function in a limited way. It turns out that folly is permanently inscribed in human nature and can manifest itself as the immaturity or defect of the reason of individual people, but also of human societies. The task of philosophy is not so much to cure the human mind as to prevent its diseases. Seen from this perspective, Locke’s writings on practical issues, whether religious or political, serve this very project: preventing an excessive development of human irrationality.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT EPISTEMOLOGY AND ITS PRESENT BLURRED MIRROR

Author(s): Ana Bazac / Language(s): English Issue: 47/2021

The paper tries to demonstrate the hypothesis that the Enlightenment epistemology, synthetically represented by Kant, is the unity between the epistemological criticism or more precisely the epistemological (and not mathematical) constructivist approach of knowledge as mental processing of the tools of mind and the ethical maximalism of the categorical imperative. Actually, the ethical maximalism was conceived of and is conceivable only in tandem with and as a result of the epistemological constructivism that alone enabled the responsibility without which the ethical stakes remain an exterior normative speculation. The unity arose from and supported the development of the concept of critique as autonomous use of reason, of education of the critical spirit, and of public presence of critiques. Surveying Kant’s What is Enlightenment and Contest of Faculties, the concepts and the logic related to the critical spirit are described, as well as their interpretations by Deleuze and Foucault. One conclusion of the article is that the radical character of Enlightenment is given not by its liberal political theories but just by the above mentioned unity. With Enlightenment, criticism became more than the critique of empirical facts and abstract theories: it became a transcendental methodology uniting the conditions of every type of criticism and advancing the logic of self-criticism and moral construction.

PROTOCONCEPTION OF EXISTENTIAL ROOTEDNESS OF MAN IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF HRYHORІІ SKOVORODA

Author(s): Tetiana TSYMBAL / Language(s): English Issue: 47/2021

The article presents the experience of Hrуhoriі Skovoroda's philosophy of thinking in the context of the concept of man's rooting. It is emphasized that the basis for the teaching of the philosopher were moral and ethical reflections, and their main object was the spiritual world of man, knowledge of nature and the essence of personality, possibilities and the necessity of achieving happiness and freedom. The latter is realized through self-knowledge, moral perfection of man, through activities aimed at self-creation and the search for affinity. The understanding of the “affinity of labor” by Н. Skovoroda correlates with the concept of man's rooting by virtue of the existential nature and orientation of unrooted man who has no support in the world. The anthropologically-existential character of the concept of “affinity of labor” is emphasized, which makes it possible to define it as a spiritual and practical way of man rootedness, the epicentre of which are moral values and personal feelings.

LEIBNIZ’S QUASI-MONISM

Author(s): Adrian Nita / Language(s): English Issue: 46/2020

I will interpret Leibniz's monadology as “quasi-monism”, or “nearly monism”, or, from another perspective, a Monism of a special kind. The “quasi monistic” thesis is as follows: the man is a Monad, that is, a simple substance endowed with perception, appetition, memory and reason; a closer look shows that man is soul and body; at a deeper level, we find form and matter; even deeper, we have a substantial form united to a primary matter; deeper more, one finds active force and primitive passive force and soon to infinity. This is the reason and context on which I intend to do a reverse chronological reading, from the writings of 1716 to the writings of 1695, in order to see the exciting game of two kinds of metaphysics: disclosed metaphysics and hidden metaphysics.

REALISMUL INTERNALIST AL LUI HILARY PUTNAM

Author(s): Ștefan Viorel Ghenea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 30/2012

In this article I will start from the critic of the metaphysical realism and I will analyze the internal realism proposed by Hilary Putnam. I will refer to the main thesis, but also some critical issues. At the same time, I will try to see if internal realism is a form of realism. I will also try to identify the role that this doctrine has in Putnam’s philosophical program.