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This article is an attempt to present the basic ideas of Ch. Taylor on thenatural and humanistic conception of man. The natural perspective is characterizedby naturalism – man lost the important elements of his existence(purpose, intentionality, the sphere of meanings and values). He appears asa disinterested observer, who wants to objectify and control the world. Heuses a procedural rationality. According to Taylor, the total reduction of humanityto the natural dimension is impossible, because human life unfoldsin other areas, which we can not describe on the natural level. Taylor prefersthe humanistic conception of man, where he is characterized by the followingfeatures: understanding, focus on the good (a common conception of good isdone through discourse), purposefulness of human action and the quest formeaning in life. It should be noted, however, that Taylor emphasizes sometimesthe complementarity of the two visions, because they relate to otherspheres of human reality, other practices and different types of rationality. Thescientific description of man is needed, but it seems to be insufficient becauseof the moral nature of human existence – a man must be understood withinthe horizon of meanings and values.
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The aim of this paper is to submit Max Scheler’s achievements in the theoryof cognition. Narrow meaning of “cognition” has accurate connectionwith simplified image of the man. It does not include neither various formsof cognitive activity of the man nor the complexity of his nature. Cognition(Erkenntnis) is not the most basic concept. It assumes something more basicand wider: knowledge (Wissen). The man fully achieves his human speciesspecificity because of recognition in the world what is important. Philosophyshould tend to observe existence in its anthropological and metaphysicalassessment. Proper course of philosophical inquiries depends on adopted inthem way of looking. Max Scheler names it phenomenological and adds thatthe most important in philosophizing is love between person and entity. Oneof the most important epistemological assumptions of Scheler’s is a statementthat the human knowledge is not a unity. The man acquires different typesof knowledge. You should practice your knowledge to avoid sidedness. Onlythen knowledge is formed as an integrity. All types of knowledge are also essentialbecause of the ultimate goal of knowledge. “All knowledge is in fact inthe last instance the knowledge of God and for God”.
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The notion of origin has different meanings in the philosophy of Presocratics, Heidegger’s and in postmodern philosophy. That notion should differ from the historical origin and notion of abyss (Urgrund). In philosophy, the question of origin is a question of foundation and authenticity. Horizon does not only refer to future while the origin is not only something referred to as the past. Origin and horizon are based on the Here and Now: they both belong to a changeable world, the only one in which our “eternity” is possible. We equate the notion of eternity with the notion of value, value in the sense of something worth living for, or value which designates our world, and as such “eternity” is also in its essence historical and a mirror of our present.
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The aim of this article is to demonstrate the basics of Stanislav Grof’s philosophical anthropology. Grof’sreflections are focused on the attempt to answer the question about human nature and human’s placein the world. Grof’s aims to grasp the essence of a human being by referring to the Eastern and Westernphilosophical and psychological cultural heritage, in addition to religious mystical experiences, psychotherapy,his own experiences and introspection. Grof offers an innovative approach, as his views are notlimited merely to theoretical reflections. This is a proposal of self-development and a therapeutic exploration,which, correspondingly to Plato’s philosophy, can be treated as a type of ‘way up’.
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In the article I explain both what the probabilistic chaos is, as well as what it means that this chaos is,according to Stanislaw Lem, the leading metaphysical rule forming the universe. In the article it is shownthat the pilgrim's and vagabond’s path is the same path. This means that only the fact of moving alongit and the hardships of this journey are solely the consequence of the chaotic-probabilistic nature ofreality, a part of which is the path.
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The theme of man’s death is one of the main slogans of postmodernity. This article presents a few selected reflections in the contemporary philosophy on posthuman condition. The presented analysis shows that even though postmodernism announced the transgression of man, in a human being there will always remain the mysterious element, which is impossible to eliminate, because it would mean the end of any language. Equating man with nothingness does not mean that postmodernism is not longer interested in the subject (despite breaking with it).
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The age-old philosophical idea of universalism defended by Husserl has in our times come under heavy inter-continental intellectualistic attacks. Advocates of localism, relativism and particularity have accused it of being a form of “Euro centrism”, and thus of being an essentially hegemonic concept. This paper examines Michael H. Mitias on challenges of universalism. Despite its short-comings, Mitias is perfectly in order when he insists that universalism does not set cultural understandings aside, for it does not iconoclastically view them as the cultural muck of history or as a cluster of irrational prejudices. This may be a good start point in terms of the future needs of our humanity and collective destiny, but it may not be enough to secure this future for all of us.
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In the present paper I will discuss some of Ryszard Legutko’s ideas about the concept of tolerance; with particular emphasis on the distinction between the negative and positive tolerance (passive and active, respectively). I will sketch the historical background of this distinction and describe the extraordinary career of the notion of positive tolerance in the context of modern Occidental culture, concluding with the idea of “tolerantionism”. Finally, I will try to introduce a few objections to Legutko’s critical approach to tolerance, taking into account not only the coherence, but also the development (creativity) of European culture and Western Civilization. Legutko’s vision can be described as conservative, mine is rather “oscillating”. When a culture becomes too monolithic, it is natural to encourage more pluralism; however, if there is excessive pluralism, then monism should be promoted (triumph and absolute domination of the only one ideal – even the right one – tends to be harmful not only for the social freedom, but also for this same ideal; absolute power corrupts).
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Without doubt “Prolegomena filozofii pracy” by Stanislaw Brzozowski sets in a historical perspective the trail which we can go through not only thanks to our serious effort, but also to the intangible internal gesture. According to this philosopher, the work irreversibly determines the shape of our lives; it creates a world of culture. What is more, life is its purpose in the sense that it makes permanent transformations in the world that protects human life – not necessarily our own! According to this new logic, man creates his life and the cognition of himself. Reconstruction of murderous mental rite of work is impossible, because living matter wears just down through the work. However, according to Brzozowski, we cannot know anything except our own life. We constantly think about it, we give it some shape. The author passionately draws from Hegel’s philosophy of process, but he arrives at his own implications. Brzozowski has made a specific identification of consciousness with a deep philosophy. In his opinion, our fear of the future would not be justified if we could rely on the work of our ancestors. However, work remains our constant challenge. In general, a person is very weak and fragile in the face of the world of nature. We are weak when we are subordinated to the objective rules. If a human develops in the work – he and she protects and cares for their truly human dignity. Brzozowski was a rebelious thinker. He believed in the cause of the working class even more than their own strength. I would like to dedicate my article to Stanislaw Brzozowski to demonstrate what a piercing philosopher and a theorist of social thought he was.
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The main objective of the paper is to analyze the concept of validity (Geltung) presented by Hermann Lotze in second chapter (entitled „World of Ideas”) of the third book of his Logic published in 1874. Contrary to wide spread opinion (propagated, among others, by Martin Heidegger) this concept is not ambiguous. Interpretation of Plato᾽s world of ideas,offered by Lotze, presents a coherent theory of Geltung. One can distinguish four aspects of this theory: ontical, semantic, pragmatic and phenomenological-metaphysical one. Validity of the content of judgment pertains to the ontical aspect and is opposed to the judgment conceptualized as the mere act of judging. The distinction between the act and its product plays here the main role. The semantic aspect is recognizes the reference of objective valid conceptual content of judgment to object, which is intended in this content. The pragmatic aspect the same objective conceptual content considers in its subjective (formal) way, as an act of recognition by the judging subject. Phenomenological-metaphysical aspect shows that we have also other types of the access to the world (i.e. by feelings, moods or practical activity), more than just one which is offered by the conceptual content of judgments.
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Lotze’s work entitled „World of Ideas” is the second chapter of the third book of System der Philosophie. Erster Teil. Drei Bücher der Logik (published in 1874). This text had an exceptional impact on the development of German philosophy (especially Marburg and Baden School of neo-Kantianism, Husserl’s and Scheler’s phenomenology and Frege’s logic) because of the concept of validity (Geltung) which Lotze had presented here as a foundation of his interpretation of Plato’s theory of ideas.
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The mental illnesses, their development and their consequences have been a subject of keen interest from ancient times until this day. This text provides us the opportunity to take a look at this matter through the perspective of the concept of essence through explication of some views on it. We would elaborate several of the beginning with the teaching of the Church Fathers and ending with the modern psychoanalytic view on illnesses of the soul and their relationship to the essence concept. The work examines four main views on the essence and on the problem how and to what extent the essence itself could be affected by mental illness. Of particular importance to the study is Aristotle's concept „mερική ουσία“, as well as the criticism on that view provided by Photios I of Constantinople.Taking into considerations the views of both Aristotle and Photios the paper examines the construction and the deconstruction of the subject through the link between the mental illness and the essence.
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The aim of this article is to outline the idea of one’s own body (le corps propre) in The Phenomenologyof Perception, the seminal work of Merleau-Ponty, and to present the dispute of Merleau-Ponty (andHusserl) with Sartre on the so-called double sensation and the related possibility of simultaneous associationof the body in its physical form (der Körper) with its lived aspects (der Leib). The author of thearticle, contrary to most writers on the subject, supports Sartre’s position. The views presented in thearticle undermine the status of one’s own body, and along with it one of the main theses of The Phenomenologyof Perception (the connection between the physical and the lived body) which forms the basisof all other theses in Merleau-Ponty’s opus magnum.
More...Характеристика чешской философии на рубеже XIX и XX веков
Czech philosophy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was diverse. Besides positivism, which at that time took the leading positions there was also cultivated idealism, which was represented by L. Klima, F. Mares and E. Radl. Also an important place occupied structuralism, which in the Czech Republic was formed and grounded by Jan Mukařovski and J.L. Fischer. Specific place was held by the phenomenology (J. Kozák, J. Patočka), protestant philosophy (E. Rádl, J.L. Hromádka), catholic philosophy (J. Kratochvil). In this period also appeared neo-scholasticism. Czech philosophers had a great contribution to the development of world philosophy. Чешская философия XIX–XX веков была разнообразной. Кроме позитивизма, который в то время занимал лидирующие позиции, также культивируется идеализм, который пред-ставляли: Л. Клима, Ф. Марес, Е. Радл. Также важное место занимал структурализм, который в Чешской Республике сформулировали и укоренили Я. Мукаровский и Й.Л. Фишер. Особенное место занимала феноменология (Я. Козак, Я. Паточка), протестантская философия (Е. Радл, Я. Громадка), католическая философия (Я. Кратохвил). В этот же период возникает также неосхоластика. Чешские философы внесли огромный вклад в развитие мировой философии.
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The article consists of three parts. In the first part the authoress presents descent and education of the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset. In the second part she discusses the concept of Ortega’s philosophy, sociology and ratiovitalism. In the last part the authoress describes the influence of the Ortega at later times. Ortega’s legacy is assessed by Polish authors in different ways. He is even accused of lack of integrity, lack of consistency in the use of terms or lack of originality. Similarly, we can come across a variety of opinions when we consider his topicality. However, in addition to the impressive achievements we cannot be indifferent. We can find here the analysis and the specific interpretation of the world, human being, society and culture. Ortega pointed out both the sources of the crisis of culture in which he lived, but also the remedies. Without a doubt, an astute observer of reality became a teacher of many generations of intellectuals, not only in Spain, but all over the world.
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This article discusses the essence of early modern scientific standards as applied to defining the human person. The first part presents the basic concepts of early modern scientific standards, by placing these in a historical framework and linking them to persons and to philosophical and scientific phenomena. In order to describe complex phenomena in terms of simple constituents, modern science adopted a certain methodological reductionism. The second part compares the classical (Boethius) and modern (Descartes and Locke) definition of the person and shows the impossibility of inserting the classical definition of the human person in the early modern scientific context. In the final part of the paper our intention is to create a conceptual framework that goes beyond epistemological reductionism and that aims to bypass the connections between the real, living world and physical and mathematical systems. If the impossibility of inserting the human being into a scientific context was a fruit of modern methodology, after we have emphasized the limits of that methodology what are the implications for the definition of the human person? We outline a proposal for a new theoretical framework for defining the human person.
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Quine’s rejection of the analytic-synthetic dichotomy, as a result of uncritical references to meaning and analyticity, ultimately generates the third dogma of empiricism, which is the dichotomy of a conceptual scheme and empirical content. This last dogma of empiricism, so named by Donald Davidson, in terms of Quine’s behavioral interpretation of language, entails ontological and cognitive relativism. However, Davidson, applying methodological means of interpretation such as rational-logical correctness, brings into question the intelligibility of the very idea of the dichotomy of a conceptual scheme and empirical content, and the intelligibility of the very dogma that generates ontological and cognitive relativism.
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The aim of this paper is to suggest a new interpretation to the Gettier problem by showing that the standard JTB definition of knowledge is not epistemologically incomplete, being at the same time formally incomplete. The Gettier problem is shown to emerge through the implicit selfapplication of the JTB definition of knowledge to prove its own incompleteness. A conclusion is drawn, which runs counter to the traditional view that the problem necessarily requires a conceptual amendment of the standard definition, in spite of the formal incompleteness of the latter. The Gettier problem is construed to be related to the ancient Meno problem within a contemporary justificational discourse.
More...Temelji (prijekantovske) filozofije
Obwohl sich Stjepan Zimmermann zeit seines Lebens mit der noetischen Problematik beschäftigt hat, versucht man in diesem Beitrag – ausgehend von seinem Werk Die Grundlagen der Philosophie (Temelji filozofije) aus dem Jahr 1934 – die Frage zu beantworten: Was Zimmermann unter der „Philosophie“ überhaupt versteht, welche „Fundamenten“, den „Sinn“ und die Tragweite sie überhaupt hat? Trotz seines Versuchs, die Philosophie „noetisch“ zu begründen, geht er über ihr scholastisch-neuscholastisches Verständnis als die „Theodizee“, als die Berechtigung Gottes in der Geschichte nicht hinüber, womit sich eher Philosophie, als Theologie beschäftigt.
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