JUOZO GIRNIAUS IR BRONIAUS KUZMICKO SUSIRAŠINĖJIMAS
Corespondence between Juozas Girnius and Bronius Kuzmickas
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Corespondence between Juozas Girnius and Bronius Kuzmickas
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The purpose of this paper is to give a sketch of a new phenomenological approach to shame. I claim that prevailing theories of shame are too narrow and reduce shame to a mere fear of social sanctions or to an intimate experience wherein a subject becomes an object of external social norms. Instead, I demonstrate that we should understand shame as an experience wherein an individual feels his incapability of meeting the standards of the ego-ideal, since he lacks something valuable. From this perspective shame is, on the one hand, a profoundly intimate experience wherein an individual evaluates herself negatively because she lacks something she thinks she requires. On the other hand, since lack reveals itself only through a process wherein an individual compares her real self to the ego-ideal, shame always has an ideological dimension since the ego-ideal reflects the shared ideological values an individual is attached to and constitute part of one’s self-conception.
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The aim of this article is to examine the nature of existential loneliness and point out how complex and difficult it is to conceptually grasp it. It is exactly this complexity, or perhaps even paradoxicity, of the nature of existential loneliness that is the reason why it is necessary to examine this phenomenon not only on the level of an objective problem but also to consider the moment of mystery. While examining this problem, the author differentiates between the phenomena of isolation, solitude and loneliness, the last of which is seen as (1) a negative subjective experience, connected to the absence of a valuably important unity between a subject (individual, but also group) and something (someone) else, or as (2) a psychological (empirical) and existential loneliness. The author understands existential loneliness as an objectless, a priori, and thus also universal and necessary way of existence (and self-understanding) of human being-there in its being and co-being in the world. In this context the author considers the understanding of existential loneliness as conditio humana a serious problem, since it means that the human being is a priori, always and everywhere, lonely and, at the same time, loneliness is meant to be encountered as a whole in our experience. The author rejects the frequent reduction of existential loneliness to a specific type of a psychological (empirical) one and sees the solution to the problem in the acceptance of the existence of a strange, boundary type of experience, in which existential loneliness as conditio humana paradoxically appears to man. The existentiality of this experience consists in that it transcends the subject-object (intentional) structure of everyday consciousness and is an experience of non-being (nothingness, emptiness, timelessness) and thus also human finitude.
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The importance of purport in human's life is raised in the article. According to the philosophical and psychological Iiterature, purport is defined as a basis human life. Herewith, there is a problem of purport' discovery in a contemporary society defined, in which a lot of people experience the feeling of inanity or loses their identity and human dignity. The Beginning of these negative phenomena are associated with nowadays individual's alienation from spiritual values, which help to orientate in the world and find what is meaningful in it. There is an attempt to define the spiritual values, which form purport of Iife basis made. According to systematic and hierarchical codes, the priority is given to the moral values as the core of the good, which has a close connection with the truth, the beauty and sanctity. There is also the attitude of elder pupil's towards the search of purport and their connection with spiritual values revealed in this article.
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The article has two objectives. Firstly, I shall reconstruct the change of conceptualization of genesis from the Ionian philosophy till the early atomists in order to explain how the idea of transformation and regularity of genesis was shaped in the early Greek philosophy. Secondly, I shall analyse the conception of regularity of generation in the fragments of Anaxagoras and the early atomists in order to reject F. Solmsen’s thesis that Epicurus’ negation of spontaneous genesis was not related with the early atomists. The methodology of the study is based on the semantic analysis of the philosophical texts. The linguistic method is applied to contextualize the philosophical concepts in the literary tradition and language use. In the reconstruction of development of conception of genesis I will try to prove that there has been an important shift in the meaning of genesis from the Ionian philosophers to Parmenides.
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There is a contradiction between spiritual life and economical, technical welfare which tracks harmony and peace in people's life. It is important today to understand the authentic spirituality, to look at the roots and depth of spirituality, where spirituality is, what is an object of spirituality, and how spirituality changes people's life.
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During the 20-th century the educology depended upon various unilateral philosophical and ideological trends: positivism, pragmatism, existentialism, marxism etc. This fact made negative int1uence on integrity educational science and conditioning of public education. In this situation origination of the universal educology and universal educational system is required.
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This article is devoted to an analysis of the iconic novel Aviator (2016), written by Eugene Vodolazkin. Uchronia is indicated as a text-forming principle for organizing the text, with the works of A. Ulybyshev, F. Dostoevsky, I. Goncharov and N. Chernyshevsky, up to the writings of A. Bogdanov and A. Chayanov, acting as its examples in Russia. Our hypothesis is that the key idea of narration is the creation of a character’s own diary as an island, where the elusive signs of time and the “trivialities of existence,” through which the ineffable unfolds, are preserved. The island-text becomes one of the ways for the story to survive. From this point of view, we analyze the structure of the novel as a text within a text, the system of characters, the key motifs of uchronia, including the dream, the journey, the exotic island, the garden, the initiation, the character’s love for the “aboriginal woman,” and the classical versions of the characters: the traveler and the interpreters accompanying him. The novel Aviator, built on the basis of uchronia, unfolds into a narration about the search for existential meanings that are found in the existential experiences of the characters. The deciphering code of history, it seems, is literature, the plots found within which unfold in real life, turn into myths and return to literature, an example of which is the Aviator’s diary.
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This paper examines the argument for the existence of gods, formulated by the Athenian in the 10th book of Plato’s Laws. The purpose of this investigation is to find out whether the argument persuades its intended audience – the atheists. The analysis is divided into three parts: 1) the investigation of the Athenian’s concept of persuasion; 2) the examination of the argument’s audience; 3) the reconstruction of the argument and the evaluation of its logical soundness, compliance with the defined criteria of persuasion, and suitability for the defined audience. This paper argues that the Athenian’s argument for the existence of gods should persuade atheists.
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The reception of Ričardas Gavelis’s works still remains problematic. The conception of the author’s novels is controversial, balancing between theories of modernism and postmodernism. This article focuses on one of Gavelis’s most significant novels, Vilnius poker. The analysis is based on the assumption that the postmodern structure hides the modern conception of the novel. The aims of the article are to actualize a modern postmodern poetics and to analyze the types of existence in the romance. The possibilities of an authentic existence are analyzed in contrast to the monological, postcolonialistic “broken human being”. The analysis of the concept of authentic being is based on the philosophies of Heidegger and Kierkegaard. The concepts of dialogical and monological being are based on the works of Bakhtin and Buber. The article is based on hermeneutic methodology and the theory of dialogue. The concept of authentic being is analyzed in the context of existentialism. In the theoretical part, the author describes the problems of authentic dialogical being in general, and analyses the context of existentialism and the differences between dialogue and monologue. In the first practical part, the types of the monological being in Vilnius poker are analyzed. In the second one, the concept of authentic being in Vilnius poker is analyzed.
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This is a discussion of Francesca Ferrando’s book Philosophical Posthumanism, focusing in particular on three chapters, “Antihumanism and the Ubermensch,” “Technologies of the Self as Posthumanist (Re)Sources” and “Posthumanist Perspectivism.” It traces the origins and implications of the concepts at the center of these chapters from a posthumanist perspective. It then evaluates these implications from the viewpoint of a non-Western praxis, specifically the spiritual praxis of Indian yoga. For this, it elaborates briefly on some genealogies of yoga and discusses what an intersection of posthumanism and yoga may look like. It holds that such a consideration would enhance the concepts of the chapters in question in Ferrando’s text.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has placed us all in front of an existential mirror: Who am I? Who are we, as a society, as a species, as a planet? Many of the old anthropocentric habits based on the foundational myth of human mastery of the world no longer work. The Anthropocene, and all the related environmental emergencies that are happening, are co-caused by the unbalance created by human unsustainable practices of living, behaving and trading. We are at the forefront of a paradigm shift, which is calling all of us to action. Academics have the duty to confront themselves on these issues: Thinking must be followed by actual change. The actualization can be challenging and intense, but is also cathartic, regenerative and empowering. In this text, we will address compelling questions for the 21st century, related to posthuman economics and emerging technologies, sustainable ways of living and existential praxis.
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This paper examines the question concerning the right model of epistemically rational dialogue. First of all, the main, though not undisputed, principles of rational dialogue are defined according to the contemporary field of the epistemology of disagreement. It then explains why even these principles are not sufficient for making the disagreement between believers and atheists not only a rational discourse but also a fruitful dialogue. This paper defends a thesis that the latter aim can be achieved with a proper model of dialogue, which is found in Plato’s Laws – one of the first discussions between the believers and the atheists in the Western intellectual tradition. This model not only includes the contemporary principles of rational argument but also provides some new guidelines for the solution of problems that lead the believers and the atheists to the communicational dead end.
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This paper analyzes two modern visions of an ancient myth: the myth of Sisyphus in the reinterpretation of Charles Baudelaire, the hero and herald of modern poetry, and Albert Camus, a “mythical” figure of the twentieth century. We first remind the reader of the essential features of myth, so that we can dedicate the discussion to the concept of literary myth. In the following sections, we deal with Sisyphus' tragic destiny, which is also at the center of this literary research. Applying intertextual and comparative analysis, we point to the richness of imagination and philosophical fullness of two hypertexts, such as the sonnet “Evil Fate” from The Flowers of Evil and the famous essay The Myth of Sisyphus. Finally, we emphasize the similarities and differences between the two interpretations to suggest the extent to which Baudelaire's vision of “Sisyphus” announces Camus’, bearing in mind that The Flowers of Evil are considered the spiritual landmark of all modern literary trends in the twentieth century.
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This article addresses the contemporary challenge to the modern vision of man as a subject. It shows that this kind of thinking has become a postmodern dominant view, and by taking into account several philosophical accounts it explains how one should understand the idea of the „death of a man” and what its consequences are. In the first part, the author shows that the modern creation of the subject for a particular kind of sovereign, that is the ruler of himself and the world, consequently leads to his own „death”. The author argues that the death of such a subject has in a way been provoked by the very advocates of subjectivity and their idea of the deification of the subject, making him absolutely independent, autonomous, uninhibited. In the second part of the paper, the author explains what is entailed by the postmodern idea of the “death of a man” with reference to philosophers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Derrida, and Foucault. He argues that each of these philosophers, by abandoning metaphysics and questioning the modern understanding of subjectivity, proposes the vision of a man who ceases to be „jakis”, somehow determined, permanently present, defined. According to such a view, man becomes instead completely undefined. Lastly, the author shows following Foucault the essential features of the culture in which we live as the result of accepting certain postmodern assumptions when thinking about man. Hence, he speaks of a „nondialectic culture”, „the culture of good functioning” and the „culture of resistance”.
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Review of: Ewa Podrez - Piotr Stanisław Mazur, Metafizyka istnienia człowieka, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Akademii Ignatianum w Krakowie, Kraków 2018, ss. 174.
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The existential enlightenment, which by and large remains untouched in the context of the later reason- and world-philosophical themes of Jaspers’ work, is one of the most important concepts in his philosophy. In my essay, I would like to show the methodological yield of the existential enlightenment for university education and training.
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Hermeneutics-phenomenological methodology can be used to solve the challenges that face today by modern civilization. Hermeneutics and Phenomenology offers a distinctive solution to exit the crisis: instead of rational abstractions to return to the life world of man in all its concrete fullness. Within the framework of philosophical analysis is proposed to use the hermeneutic-phenomenological methodology in dealing with the challenges that are currently facing modern civilization. Studied theoretical and methodological aspects of the culture crisis, as well as his hermeneutic-phenomenological analysis of E. Husserl. His works reflect the general manifestations of the crisis «crisis consciousness». Husserl and Heidegger attributed the crisis to the oppression of the inner nature of man. According to Husserl, the problem of the crisis is based on the idea of the loss of sciences significance, their importance, mankind, having lost faith in the universal philosophy, at the same time has lost all meaning and telos (purpose) of existence. «Crisis», in Husserl, can be explained as seeming collapse of rationalism and cause of difficulties of rational culture, which is not the essence of rationalism by itself, but only in his coverage, in his distortion of «naturalism» and «objectivism.» Husserl believes that there are two ways out of the crisis of European existence: the decline of Europe in alienating its rational sense of life, the hatred of spirit and relapsing into barbarism, or «revival of Europe in keeping with the philosophy thanks to definitively overcome naturalism heroism of reason. Attention is drawn to the fact that one of the important and still largely unexplored problems of its phenomenology – the thesis of Husserl about any coherent meaning more or less adequately by means of a «single intuition» may be subjectively marked in principle, based on the act or intuitive perception of continuous imaging in which the structure and the meaning of other significant features can be read from the corresponding intuitive implementation.
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Romanian philosophy, situated, as it is known, in a plan close to the Western philosophy’s systems of values, has linked its destiny to that of man. Humanism, the faith in the creative capacity of human beings are two constant elements of the Romanian philosophical works. There is a real specific anthropological tradition of the Romanian thinkers who conceived, in time, philosophical works about specific human existential problems. Thus, in the period of the Romanian Humanism, Dimitrie Cantemir showed a first sign of discontent about the metaphysics of the human harmony with the world he belongs to. He launched the idea that the Romanian people was formed within the boundaries of minor cultures. This idea will be adopted and amplified by Lucian Blaga, who expresses dissatisfaction with the human situation created by „minor cultures.” The concern for human problems is quite old in Blaga’s preoccupations. He conceives the relationship between culture and the existential status of man as a means of deepening existential dimensions of the human specific. Blaga considers culture as being a part of the way of existing. Blaga considers that the human being is twice unfortunate. First, because it is subjugated to the desire to overcome the biological condition, then, because it is forced to live in the mystery horizon, in order to reveal it. Blaga's man is perfected in terms of these two unconscious horizons and becomes a mystery itself. Mystery is for Lucian Blaga „the supreme angle of view” that allowed him to understand the world as a mystery. Only by means of mystery, the world can be known and revealed; only through the mystery man can understand and bring the world closer. Blaga writes in Antropologia filosofică that human destiny is twice broken: first, as biological being disadvantaged by poor adaptive capacity; second, as being creative, transcendent subject to the censorship of the Great Anonymous. We do not meet in Lucian Blaga’s works a pure philosophical anthropology. The human type mystery, which he reveals in his philosophical thinking, is decorated with elements related to mythology, folklore, culture and philosophy. Discussions on the problematic nature of the human destiny are specific to European philosophical thought in the second half of last century. Mystery man is just one of the many aspects of the human typology representative for the European culture.
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Review of: Berdj Aşgian, Gânduri despre viaţă şi nefiinţă, Târgu-Mureş, Editura Ardealul, 2004, 216 p.
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