Антифилософията на Лев Шестов

Author(s): Nina Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

The text discusses specific features of Lev Shestov's philosophical style, highlighting the main accents in it – even with his first works, Shestov gained the reputation of a philosopher who denied philosophy. The following philosophical figures are discussed – the paradoxicalist, the groundless man, the anti-dogmatist and the anti-metaphysician, etc., emblematic of Shestov. Important facts from his biography are examined, the totality of which could be part of the explanation for the originality of his thought, one of which is the lack of an academic philosophical education. Other relevant facts are the ethnic background as well as unusual circumstances of his early years. Special attention is paid to the relationship between Shestov and Husserl regarding the understanding of philosophy (the main opposition is between the conception of philosophy as a reflection – Besinnung, and of philosophy as a struggle) – the main stages in these relations are traced chronologically. Finally, Shestov's opinion on Indian thought, which he began to get to know and deal with since 1934, is presented, and his dissatisfaction with this thought is also discussed.

Философско-смисловото поле на преводаческо-интерпретативната техника на гъ-и

Author(s): Yana Stefanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

The article aims to present the controversy surrounding the geyi's translation and interpretation technique, which was used in the third and fourth centuries in China, commonly translated as "matching concepts", which is the most distinct manifestation of the adaptation of Buddhist concepts to classical Taoist doctrines. For this purpose, its basic philological and philosophical interpretations of the term are presented. Studying the spread and adaptation of Buddhist doctrines in China gives the unique opportunity to balance these two opposing positions. The very specificity of the philosophical sense of the translator and the interpretive technique of the geyi is considered in its aspect as one of the main factors that shaped the features of Chinese Buddhism and its subsequent final detachment from its Indian equivalent. Its use and improvement mark the beginning of the formation of East Asian Buddhism as an essentially new Buddhist doctrinal strand.

Философският живот на новото време

Author(s): Atanas Iliev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

The article of Atanas Iliev (1893–1985), published in 1934, discusses the change in the philosophical paradigm, notes the presence of the philosophy of life and comments on the figure of the philosopher of the new age.

On the Interpretation of Values in Radoslav-Andrea Tsanoff's Works

Author(s): Tatyana Batuleva / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The object of analysis in this paper is the interpretation of values in Radoslav-Andrea Tsanoff's works. The Bulgarian-born American philosopher calls for a new approach to moral values and their inclusion in a new scale. The main emphases are: the connection between knowledge and values; value aspects of reality; differentiation between sharable and non-sharable values. The conclusion is substantiated that Tsanoff's theory of values is the main connecting element providing a successful transition between two types of discourse: ethical and socio-political. His original optics, aimed at inscribing moral imperatives in economic and political relations, take him much further than his initial goal: “to discover new aspects of traditional virtues and vices” and to build a new scale of values. His theory of values attempts to bring a new in the economic and political relations because, without a “vital moral principle” to sustain it, any economic or political reform would lose its positive charge. The ethical perspective is organically woven into the socio-political narrative. With his analysis of the ambivalent role of scientific and technical discoveries (progress is not only a function of science's progress but also of this progress's role in upholding specific values), Tsanoff is once again “ahead of his time”. In this case, he fits into a discourse highlighting the part of “responsibility”, which makes him particularly relevant.

Tribulaţiile lui Mihail Ralea sub regimul Antonescu, 1940-1944

Author(s): Cristian Vasile / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 21/2022

Using under-researched archives and other historical sources, the article examines the biographical path of Mihail Ralea during Ion Antonescu dictatorship (from 6 September 1940 to 23 August 1944). M. Ralea had been member of the National Peasant Party (1927-1938) and Minister of Labor under the authoritarian rule of Carol II (March 1938 – July 1940). He had reasons to fear for his life after the coming into power of General Ion Antonescu and the Iron Guard, the most important Romanian fascist organization also called Legion of the Archangel Michael or the Legionnaire Movement. The hypothesis of this article is that M. Ralea’s survival in a period characterized by political assassinations against the dignitaries of the Royal dictatorship is explained by objective and conjunctural factors. Firstly, I focus both on the nature of the Antonescu political regime and M. Ralea’s relation with the government from September 1940 to August 1944. Secondly, the article highlights Ralea’s motives, after 6 September 1940, for becoming an enemy of the Antonescu regime. In order to clarify complicated biographical aspects and political events I had to work with highly contradictory historical sources. Analyzing the complete biography of Mihail Ralea one can notice that the wartime years constituted a period of transition to strong pro-Soviet and pro-communist orientations.

Note și recenzii

Author(s): Maria Camelia Zavarache ,Gabriela Dristaru,Radu Tudorancea,Cristian Vasile,Simion Gheorghiu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 21/2022

Review of: Lux, modă şi alte bagatele politiceşti în Europa de Sud-Est în secolele XVI-XIX, Constanţa Vintilă, Giulia Calvi, Maria Pakucs-Willcocks, Nicoleta Roman, Michał Wasiucionek, Bucureşti, Editura Humanitas, 2021, 431 p. Stelian Tănase, Povestea unui terorist. Haos&Anarhie, Bucureşti, Editura Omnium, 2022, 300 p. Stejărel Olaru, Maria Tănase Artista, omul, legenda, Bucureşti, Editura Corint, 2019, 346 p. R.G. Waldeck, Athénée Palace, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2022 (ediţie nouă), 334 p. O vecinătate dificilă. Relaţiile româno-ruse/sovietice 1914-1965, coordonator Radu Tudorancea, Târgovişte, Editura Cetatea de Scaun, 2021, 227 p. Eddie Jaku, Cel mai fericit om de pe Pământ, Editura Trei, Bucureşti, 2022, 171 p. Artiste uitate din România: cercetări şi studii despre contribuţia femeilor la istoria artei româneşti, Cosmin Nasui (editor coordonator), Voluntari, Postmodernism Museum, 2021, 271 p. Ai Weiwei, 1000 de ani de bucurii şi dureri, Editura Trei, Bucureşti, 2022, 375 p. Călin Hentea, România. Album de istorie comunistă, 1948-1989, cuvânt înainte de Adrian Cioroianu, Cluj Napoca, Editura Mega, 2021, 198 p. Margaret MacMillan, Războiul. Cum ne-au modelat conflictele, Bucureşti, Editura Trei, 2022, 303 p. Orlando Figes, The story of Russia, London, Bloomsbury, 2022, 348 p. Vasile Buga, Pe muchie de cuţit. Relaţiile româno-sovietice. 1965-1989, ediţia a II-a revăzută şi adăugită, Bucureşti, Editura Institutului Naţional pentru Studiul Totalitarismului, 2022, 538 p.

From Pilgrim to Local. The Problem of Unity in Postmodern Philosophy

Author(s): Lucjan Klimsza / Language(s): English Issue: 10/2022

In this article, the author outlines the problem of unity from the perspective of postmodern philosophy. Basically, unity of the human being is one of the most important problems of philosophy. Ancient philosophers identified human being as identical with citizenship. Man as a citizen of Athens was able to prove his citizenship of Athens by pointing to his ownership of family tombs and fireplace. Medieval philosophy continued the ancient idea but added one new aspect, hope. A medieval man was a citizen of the empire, but at the same time he or she was a citizen of Kingdom of Heaven. He or she was a pilgrim who travelled to God. Modern philosophy develops unity in an absolutely different way of thinking. First, what we have to know is that unity is a problem. Second, if we would like to solve this problem, it is absolutely necessary to use a new terminology. In this article I emphasize like to highlight the phenomenon of identity through an analysis that the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman did in the past three decades. He divided a modern man into two categories. First, Bauman characterized a modern man as a global, very rich and well educated and can invest capital in all countries of the world. The second type is a local. He is a type of modern man who is not necessarily poor, but who is bound to only one place where he resides. The problem of the locals is that they cannot freely travel and invest in their own capital. Locals live in one place, they have not enough power to influence local politics, economy, infrastructure, religions. Globals are able to influence the local community by means of politics, economy, social structures, and religion. Zygmunt Bauman describes the identity of modern man as a tension between locals and globals.

POLITYKA JĘZYKOWA W PAŃSTWACH UNII EUROPEJSKIEJ

Author(s): Zuzanna M. SIMA / Language(s): Polish Issue: 42/2022

The presence of multiple languages spoken within the territory of the European Union member states implies the necessity for the EU institutions to adopt a specific language policy. The purpose of this article is to explain the basis, rooted in the tradition of European philosophy, of the activities that the Council of Europe and the European Union carry out in the field of language policy. As in many other spheres of the Union's functioning, in the area of language policy, too, there have been proposals suggesting the need to abandon the previous concept based on strong philosophical foundations and implement a new one, more in line with the spirit of multiculturalism. The author presents the controversy between these classical concepts and contemporary proposals, emphasizing the importance of the philosophical foundations of future language policy from the point of view of the survival of minority languages and the situation of Europe's national and ethnic minorities.

Психоанализа, философия и изкуство

Author(s): Svetlozar M. Vasilev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2022

The article argues that philosophy, art, and psychoanalysis explore a common territory – namely, that of desires, emotional experiences, and conflicts between the inner world and physical reality. The author defines and illustrates the application of psychoanalysis to the field of cinema and fine art through an analysis of the film “Klimt and Schiele. Eros and Psyche” (2018), and paintings central to the period La Belle Époque (1871-1914). The second part of the paper is devoted to a comparison between the developments in the field of psychoanalysis and art in Vienna and Sofia in the beginning of the 20th century. The conclusion is that, despite the differences, the pursuits of intellectuals from Central and Eastern Europe in this period were similar in terms of themes and artistic techniques.

Философската същина на психоаналитичния мироглед

Author(s): Ivan Kinkel / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2022

The article sets forth some of the main ideas of the psychoanalytical teaching of Z. Freud. It emphasizes the dependence of mental powers and processes of man on the primary propulsive instinct in him. The author has stated that culturally and historically and from a sociological point of view the psychoanalytical teaching may be defined as society's readiness for self-analysis; it is its resolute desire to peer boldly into its own soul, by subjecting the instinct foundations of the soul, i.e. of the life of the individual and society to a psychological research. Psychoanalysis has been defined as the most successful attempt at understanding the hidden and mysterious aspect of the human soul. It drives human thought to the point that a return to the old idealistic illusions, veiling and concealment is no longer possible for man: he has finally matured, has abandoned the infantile psychology which has made him swing for centuries in the world of sweet fairytales about him, his specific nature and aristocratic standing in life.

Политията като трагедия

Author(s): Christo Ch. Todorov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2022

This paper offers an interpretation of a passage in Book VII of Plato's Laws (817b1- 817d8), where the political constitution of the fictional polis Magnesia is called the “truest tragedy”. The author argues that this statement is metaphorical and analyses the conceptual and dramaturgical premises for understanding the metaphor.

Саварен – философът гастроном

Author(s): Rajcho Pozharliev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2022

The article presents and analyzes the cultural and philosophical ideas of the French philosopher, lawyer and political activist Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, whose contribution to understanding the phenomenon of nutrition has been underestimated. These ideas have most clearly been set forth in his book “The Physiology of Taste”, written in an elegant style, with an inexhaustible wit and containing a number of iconic aphorisms. Apart from the style and humor the book impresses with the unique synthesis of knowledge of various scientific fields, of required norms, moral and aesthetic rules and the dissection of taste transforming simple pleasure and delight into a precise “act of appreciation”. Savarin's main idea is that a genuinely good and fine nutrition implies all manifestations of high taste refracted through the spirit – knowledge of quality food and the ways of its preparation, definition of the required norms of dining behavior, awareness of the social and cultural role of food and a strategy of one’s own personal advancement which can be realized in a field such as the daily nutrition regimen often ignored by theoreticians.

Какъв е въпросът?

Author(s): Jassen Andreev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2022

The present preface to the translation of Magda King's study introduces her five main arguments related to the difficulties that any interpretation of Heidegger's phenomenological philosophy faces. An essential doubt and concern of King is that Heidegger's Seinsfrage is a question focused on illuminating the obscure meaning of one or more basic ontological terms. So, she undertakes to dispel the dangerous suspicion that Heidegger may be merely concerned with the meaning of a word. The question of the meaning of being is not at all to be understood onto-semantically but as a question of the meaning of being itself. However, what could it even mean to ask about the meaning of being without the formal question asking on the very content of the Seinsfrage being raised, and, accordingly, without the two different material questions (What does the word "being" mean? and What does being as being mean?) being carefully distinguished? What does it mean to raise the question without at least giving a prior clarification of the sense of the word-problem?

Ekofilozofia a filozofia prawa rozumianego jako forma symboliczna

Author(s): Ewa Kosowska-Czapla / Language(s): Polish Issue: 38/2022

This article aims to find the paradigm of ecophilosophy in the philosophy of symbolic forms in the context of law. At the time of the article, ecophilosophy needed an introduction, and it needed to be defined within the scope of the philosophy of law. First, the symbolic universe was presented as the starting point for the search for this paradigm. The world in which the animal symbolicum lives differs significantly from the world of other organisms because only man lives in the symbolic universe. The symbolic universe was defined as a world consisting not only of material reality but also of numerous networks formed by symbols such as language, myth, and religion. Humankind recognized reality differently but also co-creates it.Next, Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms was presented in more detail with particular emphasis on law. The philosopher identified nature as the sphere of lawfulness, and he acknowledged the wisdom of nature manifesting itself in harmony and biodiversity. He looked for sources of natural human rights. Man as an animal symbolicum should participate as the co-creator of the great masterpiece of creation. This act of co-creation included morally righteous actions, as well as establishing the appropriate content of law. Consequently, according to the philosophy of symbolic forms related to ecology, the guiding principle – a paradigm in the relationship between man and nature – should be the principle of personal, social, and state responsibility for nature. I called this principle the pneumocentrism paradigm of ecophilosophy. Additionally, I looked for acceptance or rejection of this principle, including in court rulings in Poland. I noted that in some ways the existence of this principle is considered desirable; however, its implementation may become a difficult task for mankind. Among other things, humankind desires to satisfy their own needs and faith quickly in future technological possibilities as a way to reduce its destructive actions towards nature in the present.

THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN ARISTOTLE’S POLITICS

Author(s): Zoran Dimić / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Aristotle analyzed the problem of education in the seventh and eighth books of Politics. Most researchers interpret his thoughts on education as “the education of the youth”. Some authors try to convince us of the significance of contemplation and the problem of the best possible way of life in analyzing Aristotle’s education theory. We would like to regard the problem of education in another frame. The role of education is exceptionally significant, judging from the central theme of Politics – the political practice of human beings. Therefore, the critical question we want to ask here is – what is the reason for creating a polis? Only when we understand Aristotle’s answer to this question will we know why education plays such an essential role in a polis. Aristotle avoids definitively prescribing and ordering what music children and citizens should listen to. He leaves open the critical question about “how children and citizens should be educated”. Disagreeing on the proper way of education is the very essence of education. No ready-made best way to be educated has to be applied in every case. The best way is only the one that is the outcome of the particular dispute. Just as citizens, while in power, have to think about those who are subordinate because they replace each other, when thinking about the aim of education, they have to think about each other. Outside of that process, there is no ideal form of education, the application of which would improve the political community.

INFRAPOLITICS AT THE END OF AESTH-ETHICS: ON ALBERTO MOREIRAS’ RECENT WORK

Author(s): Jaime Rodríguez Matos / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

In this paper I will offer a reading of Alberto Moreiras’ recently published books, but within the context of his life’s work as a whole: which I will consider from the point of view of a questioning of the idea of the time/history difference. After briefly tracing that overarching concern in his early work, I move to a consideration of a move away from Hegelianism in the more recent publications. This non-Hegelianism is not simply an anti-Hegelian stance. Understanding the difference will take us into the true dimension of infrapolitics. This aspect of Moreiras’ contribution to contemporary debates will be illustrated by way of his paradoxical and unrecognizable Antigone.

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS TO THE KINGDOM OF BEAUTY AND LOVE. HERBERT MARCUSE’S TRAJECTORY TO SOCIALISM

Author(s): Maroje Višić / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Socialists today can learn from Marcuse. Starting from this premise this paper discusses and elaborates on Herbert Marcuse’s trajectory to socialism. Marcuse successfully eluded the trap of “economism”, and turned to subjectivity in search of a socialist solution. The transition to socialism is possible through the creation of new anthropology expressed through the concept of “new sensibility”. The prototype of a new socialist human is an anti-superman. Peace and beauty are important characteristics of Marcuse’s socialism. “Libertarian socialism”, “feminist socialism”, “integral socialism”, “socialist humanism”, “socialism as the work of art”, and “utopian socialism” are all terms that testify to Marcuse’s open and many-faceted understanding of socialism in all of its complexity of meanings. Some of those meanings can inform debates on future prospects of socialism.

Vzkaz v láhvi: Paul Celan a Martin Heidegger

Author(s): Ivan Blecha / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2023

The article deals with the problematic relationship between Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger. The two knew and respected each other intellectually, but the obstacle in their relationship was Heidegger’s involvement in the Nazi movement, which was unacceptable to Celan as a direct witness to the Holocaust. The main difference between them was in their view of the role of language: Heidegger wanted to use ‘poetic’ thought to overcome the crisis of metaphysics and reformulate the question of being, while Celan to give a voice to all the martyred. Though Celan never succeeded in getting Heidegger to apologize in any way for his involvement with the Nazis, his moral superiority – both in his thought world and during their mutual encounters – is obvious.

Божествен разум

Author(s): Georgi Fotev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

O życiu roślin w „Patykach i badylach” Urszuli Zajączkowskiej

Author(s): Barbara Stelingowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 31/2022

In the era of climate humanistic education, one can notice many changes in the approach to nature, to thinking about nature and man. Urszula Zajączkowska – a contemporary Polish poet, biologist, and scientist – in her works, presents an innovative approach to the relationship between nature and man, as well as developing a new description of language. The analyzed volume of essays, Patyki i badyle [Sticks and stalks], is a literary description of observations of the life and death of plants, shoots and trees. Zajączkowska represents a reflective method of studying nature; she talks about the life of green plants with tenderness and emotion, calling them “creatures” with “bodies”. Anthropomorphization in the treatment of plants is characteristic of the poet’s entire work, thus constituting a kind of linguistic experiment. For Zajączkowska, plants are unique; they are characterized by simplicity and loneliness, and man is inscribed in their nature and should learn the humility of life from them.