Еротичната валидност на истината като междуиндивиден феномен

Author(s): Nevena Krumova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2015

This text attempts to clarify relations between love and truth, and the nature of that which is true – not in the sense of the truth about Being but as „the concept of truth in the intrasubjectivity of the existences“. The study is oriented to the late texts of Sartre and his attempts to deploy his ideas after Being and Nothingness. The article also draws parallels between objectivated and nonobjectivated fear and non-objectivated Eros searching for the relation between the non-objectivity of Eros and the erotic validity of the truth. The text goes no further than the interpretative level and is not focused on language prior to the object.

Срещи на исляма с модерността

Author(s): Stefan Penov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2015

Legacy of the Ancients: Plato on the Self

Author(s): Chris Tasie Osegenwune / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

Early traits of moral subjectivism can be gleaned from some of Plato’s dialogues with the emphasis on the “self.” The Socratic injunction “man know thyself” provided a stimulus for self-examination and self-awareness, which spring from human subjectivity. The Republic, Plato’s greatest dialogue, a magisterial masterpiece, recognized truth, value, and reality as fluctuating as they relate to the physical world. However, he gave much credence to the forms or ideas as the real reality. Plato recognized the centrality of human subjectivity—the contemplative intellect which grasps the forms—as the basis of truth, value, and intelligibility in the physical world. His accommodation of objectivity and subjectivity is an eloquent testimony to the centrality of duality not only in the everyday reality of humanity, but also in the decision making process in world affairs. For Plato, subjectivity is grounded in “theory of justice,” the recognition that communication, understanding, and cooperation are required for harmony and peaceful coexistence to subsist in the human community. Not adhering to Plato’s theory of justice, which stipulates the need for specialization of functions—i.e., one man, one job—is injustice, and does not encourage peace and stability. This paper recognizes the need to go beyond Plato’s presentation of moral objectivism as an independent realm of reality to moral subjectivity. This is the task of a philosophy that recognizes the importance of the idea of human freedom and the attainment of a stable society.

Process Ontology in an Eastern Perspective, with Special Reference to Zhuangzi

Author(s): Desislava Damyanova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The transience of being in the Chinese context—and specifically within Daoist texts—has been the subject of scholarly attention both as a philosophical theme and as a social phenomenon. Dao is the mystery that makes nature “the way it is.” It can mean process, pattern, or existence. Eastern thinkers tend to find truth in every perspective, pursuing the middle way, and they stress mutual dependence—Zhuangzi’s “equality of things,” the “axis of Dao,” etc. The Chinese sages tend to harbor an optimistic outlook that, however opposed divergent views may appear, in the end they are bound to harmonize and complement one another. Humans can unite themselves with the way they live. There are three threads at work in Zhuangzi’s thought: (1) The principle of equality: all things are equal or have relative parity. Each has its own merit, even that which seems deformed or useless to humans. (2) The principle of difference: each thing is unique and exists in itself in accordance with the Dao. (3) The principle of transformation. The only constant is that myriad beings are always transforming and becoming.

Появата на философско общество от кориците на книга

Author(s): Krasimir Delchev / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 6/2016

The article investigates the relationship between Wolf and Societas Alethophilorum.

Characteristica universalis: Лайбниц и Декарт

Author(s): Kamen Lozev / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2017

The paper discusses Leibniz’s project for a lingua universalis undertaken in his first period, 1666- 1679, when he was enthusiastic about the possibility of creating a universal language based on the “alphabet of human thought”, which he viewed as the “most important instrument for the perfection of the human mind”. The article analyzes the main issue confronted by the young Leibniz, i.e., the creation of a list of “primitive notions”, also discussed by Descartes in his letter to Mersenne from 20th November 1629. Leibniz’s response to the issues raised by Descartes is outlined together with how he resolved them by means of the theory of so-called “blind thought” (cogitatio caeca). The article concludes with a brief account of the influence these ideas in Leibniz’s work had on the 19th century pioneers of modern logic.

Отзив за „Евдемонии“ на Христо Стоев

Author(s): Vladimir Radenkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2-3/2017

Историйността на естетическото?

Author(s): Andrey Leshkov / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 4/2017

The article offers a quasi-phenomenological reading of the aesthetic attitude. Inspired by the end of art thesis, while taking into consideration its restatement through Heidegger’s “Der Ursprung des Kunstwerkes”, the author proposes an approach based on the notions of secularization and resacralization. This approach seems relevant enough for interpreting those signs of the times that the modern aesthetic culture of a European art world reveals through its historicity. This makes it possible, on the one hand, to interpret aesthetic theorization as a kind of “heretical theology”, and on the other hand, to construe art within the framework of its relatedness to an extra-confessional worship or even a liturgical practice.

Делото на д-р Петър Берон

Author(s): gr Penchov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2018

„Логиката“ на д-р Васил Хаджистоянов-Берон – първият български учебник по философия през Възраждането

Author(s): Angel S. Stefanov / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 2/2019

The article discusses the logical, philosophical, and cultural content of Logic, a textbook written by Dr. Vassil Hadjistoyanov-Beron in 1861. The specificity of the book’s original content is analyzed, as well as the Kantian influence on, and the principles of, Dr. V. Beron’s philosophy. Dr. Vassil Hadjistoyanov-Beron; introduction of philosophical terminology; Dr. V. Beron’s ontological conception and theory of knowledge.

За „Философия на историята“ на Красимир Делчев

Author(s): Nonka Bogomilova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2019

Съвременни прочити на отговорността

Author(s): Tatyana Batuleva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 6/2019

The article offers an analysis, in parallel, of the philosophies of responsibility of Emmanuel Levinas and Hans Jonas, based on an overview of their most representative theses. These include, in the case of Levinas, ethics as a “first philosophy”; the hypostasis of the Self and Being for the Other as a path to the transcendent; responsibility and ethical transcendence; the transition from responsibility to justice. In the case of Jonas, responsibility and metaphysics as guardians of justifications; the role of knowledge and imagination; the specificity of the subject of responsibility, who continues and ensures the work of the “silent God”.

A lét és a jó egysége Augustinus filozófiájában

Author(s): Amália Soós / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 4/2019

The aim of this paper is to sketch some of the philosophical guidelines of Augustine’s thinking on the problems of good, evil and being. Starting with the early Cassiciacum dialogues, the research continues with the dialog On the Free Will and the anti-Manichaean treatise about the nature of good, focusing mainly on the Neoplatonic influence concerning the idea of unity and on the ways Manichaean doctrines justify the vivacity of Augustine’s philosophical thoughts on good and evil.

„Süße des Lebens“, „Schmecken des Schönen“ und höchstes Gelingen. Hêdonê und Eudaimonia bei Aristoteles

Author(s): Ralf Elm / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2020

The topic of the phenomena joy, lust or pleasure (hêdonê) is repeatedly astonishing and at the same time a quite ambivalent field for Aristotle. His numerous statements about the hedônê made throughout the work, his basic definitions and systematic analyzes, in particular the two so-called pleasure treatises in the 7th and 10th book of Nicomachean Ethics and their consideration in the examination of emotions in the second book of Rhetoric are very stimulating. In my lecture, I would first like to (I) visualize some of the phenomenal diversity that Aristotle had in mind. In a second step (II) I will briefly introduce Aristotle’s engagement with anti-hedonism in his first treatise (EN VII 12-15) and introduce his understanding of pleasure as “unhindered activity”. This is then deepened in the third section (III) with Aristotle’s second treatise on pleasure (in EN X 1-5) and his second suggestion of pleasure as a “perfection that comes to perfection”. That self-referential relationships always play a role in lust and displeasure, for which the elementary corporeality is just as important as the intersubjectivity of friendships (for example, in the context of Aristotle’s political philosophy) is addressed in the final section (IV).

What is a World? Deception, Possibility, and the Uses of Fiction from Cervantes to Descartes

Author(s): Justin E. H. Smith / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

In this short essay I will aim to show that literary fiction is consistently at the vanguard of the exploration of philosophical problems relating to the concept of world, while what we think of as philosophy, in the narrower sense, typically arrives late on the scene, picking up themes that have already been explored in literary texts that are explicitly intended as exercises of the imagination. I will pursue this argument with a sustained investigation of the shared aims and methods of Miguel de Cervantes and René Descartes.

Leibniz and Calvino, Possible Worlds and Possible Cities, Philosophy and Fiction

Author(s): Ohad Nachtomy / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities presents a wide array of possible cities—cities whose composition turns on a productive ambiguity of their being described or invented by Marco Polo in his conversations with Kublai Khan. Implicit in this book is also a theory about how all possible cities are composed. The method turns on decompos¬ing a city down to its basic elements and recomposing it in different ways through the imagination. I argue that there is a close affinity between Calvino’s theory of fictional cities and Leibniz’s theory of possible worlds. The main similarity is that both theories are combinatorial—they suppose that possibilities are produced by combination and variation of basic elements. The paper presents Leibniz’s theory of possibility in its metaphysical context and explores the similarity (as well as some differences) with Calvino’s cities in their literary context. I suggest that there is a rather strong relation between the theory of literary fiction implicit in Invisible Cities and Leibniz’s theory of possibility, in that both define the possible in terms of the conceivable. Indeed, Leibniz often refers to literary examples to substantiate his position, and I argue that this reveals an essential feature of his theory.

Renaissance Averroism and Its Aftermath: Arabic Philosophy in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Anna Akasoy and Guido Giglioni, Dordrecht: Springer, 2013, 405 pp.

Author(s): Lucian Petrescu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

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THE ENLIGHTENMENT EPISTEMOLOGY AND ITS WARNING AGAINST THE INSTRUMENTALISATION OF SCIENCE

Author(s): Ana Bazac / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The paper is written in order to demonstrate the lack of soundness of the present counter-Enlightenment attacks against reason and science. The characterisation of Enlightenment cannot only refer to the logical consequences of the universally manifested reason –(the wishful thoughts about) the humans‘ education and educability and thus the changing the world for the better –without substantiating them. Kant has substantiated the Enlightenment epistemology that supports even today the human endeavour to live in a better world. As the purpose of the analysis is the epistemological way of comprehension –i.e. the rational all the way, coherent to the end, thus the scientific questioning of the premises of every theory –the paper thus features only a selection from among the coryphaei of the Enlightenment movement. It starts from Kant‘s ―Copernican revolution‖ –a metaphor used by him that may rightfully be employed in order to evaluate his philosophy –which, in the view expressed here, consists in the interdependence of the constructivist epistemology and the categorical imperative ethics. Actually, and this is the thesis promoted here, this epistemology and this ethics constitute a continuous and unique structure and just this unitary epistemological-ethical structure, called here even the Enlightenment epistemology, is the basis of the Enlightenment perspective and theory of comprehension. But this perspective and comprehension form a methodological pattern for the approach of the world and for the reason to be of the human knowledge. Thus, the paper is not a simple reminder of an old page of the history of philosophy. And neither should the history of philosophy be thought of as an evolution of ideas, where there would exist just a simple transmission and taking over of the relay from one paramount theory to another and where at one time or another the respective preponderant theory would exist alone. The Enlightenment pattern was not the only one when it appeared, and so much less today. The epistemological analysis of some contemporary facts emphasizes the contradictory views expressed within the Enlightenment and counter-Enlightenment manners. There are presented Enlightenment type arguments and anti-Enlightenment arguments, put face to face. Thus, the paper shows that the Enlightenment perspective and understanding defeat the counter-Enlightenment attacks and they outline a methodological framework for the current interpretation of science and technology.

Schellingovo samorazumijevanje u povijesti filozofije

Author(s): Kristijan Gradečak / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 01/157/2020

Schelling begreift seine eigene Stellung in der Philosophiegeschichte auf zweifache Weise: mit seinem Frühwerk hat er zu der Entwicklung der negativen Philosophie oder der Philosophie der absoluten Identität beigetragen, so dass sie vollends ihre Verwandlung in die positive Philosophie vollziehen könnte. Parallel dazu hat er an der Begründung und Entwicklung der geschichtlichen bzw. Philosophie der Offenbarung gearbeitet. Letztere ist auch wirklicher Inhalt der positiven Philosophie. Diese Auffassung über die Begrenztheit der rationalen Philosophie kann man im gesammten Schellingschen Werk bestätigen, unabhänging von der Entstehungszeit einzelner Schriften. Deshalb ist man durchaus berechtigt auch in dem früheren Werk zumindest die methodische Vorbereitung zur positiven Philosophie zu betrachten. Demzufolge sieht Schelling seine eigene Rolle in der Philosophiegeschiche als eine vermittelnde und endlich den Parallelismus zwischen der unüberwältigten negativen und unrealisierten positiven Philosophie auflösende.

Revisiting Ingarden’s Theoretical Biological Account of the Literary Work of Art: is the Computer Game an "Organism"?

Author(s): Matthew E. Gladden / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

From his earliest published writings to his last, Roman Ingarden displayed an interest in theoretical biology and its efforts to clarify what distinguishes living organisms from other types of entities. However,many of his explorations of such issues are easily overlooked, because they don’t appear in works that are primarily ontological, metaphysical, or anthropological in nature but are “hidden” within his works on literary aesthetics, where Ingarden sought to define the nature of living organisms in order tocompare literary works to such entities. This article undertakes a historical textual analysis that traces the evolution of Ingarden’s thought regarding the nature of the literary work of art as an organism-like entity and uncovers its links with the simultaneous development of his systems theory and its central concept of the “relatively isolated system”: for Ingarden, a literary work and an organism are each a systematically transforming, “living,” functional-structural whole that comprises a system of hierarchically arranged and partially isolated (yet interdependent) elements whose harmonious interaction allows the literary work or organism to fulfill its chief function. Having completed that historical analysis, we test Ingarden’s assessment of works of art as organism-like entities in a novel context by investigating the organism-like qualities of the contemporary computer game; insofar as their AI-driven behavior displays a form of agency, such games might appear to be even more “alive” than traditional works of art. We show that Ingarden’s conceptual framework provides a useful tool for understanding the“organicity” of such games as works of art, despite the fact that they differ qualitatively from those art forms with which Ingarden was directly familiar.