Le destin du philosophe aux temps médiocres. Désaccords autour de l’œuvre et de la biographie de Constantin Noica

Author(s): Kazimierz Jurczak / Language(s): French Issue: 3/2015

In the last 25 years, polemics about Constantin Noica multiplied. For a significant part of the Romanian intellectual élite, he is an exceptional philosopher, maybe the most representative of the Romanian culture in the 20th century. For a little one, his work and his activity represent the “embodiment” of all the critical problems of Romanian culture in the last century. A few scholars criticize philosopher’s ideological options, toward authoritarianism and totalitarianism. In my paper, I present an intellectual profile of the philosopher by revisiting his ontology. I strongly agree with Ion Ianoşi, who stressed that the philosophy of Noica is mainly based on the traditionalism. From this perspective of interpretation, Noica remains a controversial author, but reveals himself as one of the most consistent Romanian philosopher from the last century, who preserved his views till the end of his life.

Die Nietzscherezeption bei Ernst Troeltsch

Author(s): Daniel Mourkojannis / Language(s): German Issue: 9/2015

Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844-1900) legacy in the texts of the prominent protestant theologian, religious and cultural philosopher Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923) could not be overlooked. Troeltsch, together with Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930) and Wilhelm Herrmann (1846-1922), belongs to the main circle of representatives of the Cultural Protestantism. In his analysis of the reasons and consequences of social and cultural changes and ruptures occurring at the beginning of the 20th century, Nietzsche’s philosophy became one of the main references to Troeltsch. Also Nietzsche’s attempts to overcome the menacing nihilism as a result of the decline of Christian faith has a strong influence on Troeltsch’s ethical studies. In its first part the article discusses the criticism of Nietzsche’s esthetical ethics performed by Troeltsch. The second part is dedicated to the concept of Troeltsch’s idea of History. The third part presents Troeltsch’s understanding of sense and senselessness.

O argumencie Corazzy przeciw pojęciu myśli zależnej od przedmiotu

Author(s): Aleksander Latkowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3 (95)/2016

The aim of the article is to prove that the concept of an object-dependent thought withstands the critique put forward by Eros Corazza. In the first section of the article I present and elaborate on the concept of object-dependent thought, formulated for the first time by Gareth Evans. In the second section I present Corazza’s criticism of this concept and point to the fact — not emphasized enough by Corazza — that it may be understood in two different ways: methodological and ontological. In the final part of the article I defend the concept of object-dependent thoughts. I show that ontological intuitions are not a sufficient ground for the refutation of the concept, since this would mean that they need to be strengthened with methodological assumptions. Those assumptions however — in the light of my argumentation — do not seem justified.

Załóżmy, że nie jest najprościej. Polemika z Pawłem Gładziejewskim na temat psychologii potocznej

Author(s): Witold M. Hensel / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3 (99)/2017

The paper is a polemic with Paweł Gładziejewski’s account of the relation between folk psychology and cognitive science. According to Gładziejewski, folk psychological explanations operate at a higher level than those offered by cognitive science, but cognitive science is not independent of folk psychology, as the latter provides the former with explananda. I argue that, according to Gładziejewski’s own account, folk psychology cannot provide cognitive science with explananda because it is too deflated and too narrowly construed. However, if one makes it sufficiently broad and interprets it more realistically, then it may very well be incompatible with cognitive science.

Ekofilozoficzna interpretacja pozytywizmu

Author(s): Anita Ganowicz-Bączyk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

Implementation of the idea of scientific and technological advancement is perceived as the fundamental cause of the ecological crisis. That idea was promoted among others by Auguste Comte. This article discusses positivist view on the place of human in nature and clarifies to what extent it translated into a deepening of the alienation of human from nature. The positivist position is strongly anthropocentric, which manifests in the continuation of Baconian recommendations for subordinating nature to human needs. Positivism developed a scientific method which contributed to the enormous leap of civilization, but it turned out to be a deeply crisis-generating for human relationship with nature.

W sprawie środowiskowej ochrony człowieczeństwa człowieka

Author(s): Zbigniew Łepko / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

The title of this study contains an appeal for the environmental protection of man’s humanity. It is based on the results of ethological research on civilized humanity and the reflection of practical philosophers of nature. Its main thesis about nature in man and man in nature points both to the nature of man himself and to man’s relationship with nature. According to this approach, man who in his entirety originates from nature, is associated with it to the most subtle layers of his being. This connection is subtly complicated and it reveals itself on the level of the human body, the human psyche and the human spirit. These levels of human existence are, therefore, directly affected by the ongoing destruction, i.e. loss of the natural environment of human life. Its accumulation leads to the phenomenon that ethologists defined as “regression of humanity”.

Antygona Hegla i nowoczesny podmiot kobiecy

Author(s): Bartosz Wójcik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 21/2017

The article contains an analysis of George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s interpretation of Antigone by Sophocles contained in The Phenomenology of Spirit. The philosopher develops his concept of a tragic confl ict occurring in the world of the Greek antiquity – a conflict between man’s law (a state representing generality) and underground law (a family representing individuality). The laws are embodied by Kreon and Antigone, respectively. Hegel’s interpretation indicates the privileged position of Antigone. The author argues that the heroine of the tragedy is the anticipation of modern subjectivity: Antigone is killed because there is no place for an acting woman in ancient ethics. Hegel’s fascination with Antigone as a manifestation of feminine subjectivity therefore undermines stereotypical allegations about the philosopher’s sexism and patriarchalism.

Richard Wagner nyílt levele Friedrich Nietzschéhez – fordítás bevezetővel

Author(s): József Fülöp / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2018

Promišljanja o mudroslovlju i filozofiji u Hrvatskoj

Author(s): Bernard Špoljarić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 02/150/2018

This research, made of reflections upon relevant notions, aims to structure the relations of specific definitions of philosophy, approaching the subject from a wider conceptual scope to a narrower. In other words, reflections are approaching its subject, the Croatian philosophy, by revealing the conditions of possibility for understanding it. Philosophy in its absolute notion does not succumb to fragmentation, therefore the research is directed towards the recognition of legitimate specific mode of thought dependent of that which is understood as Croatian. Since the reflections do not lose sight of thought as its main factor, the important segment is the manifestation of this thought, especially in a form that is characteristic for human cognition, which is language. If there is a substantial argument for Croatian philosophy, then this authenticity will be explicated through language.

In memoriam

Author(s): Predrag Finci / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 02/150/2018

In memoriam: Vladimir Premec (Gola, 1939. – Sarajevo, 2018.)

FILOSOFIA SPAŢIULUI PLAN SAU BĂRĂGANUL REINVENTAT LA VASILE BĂNCILĂ

Author(s): Marius Dobre / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 4/2017

The article presents an original philosophical interpretation of the Bărăgan’s Space, as a reply to Blaga’s Mioritic Space. Vasile Băncilă tries to show that the mioritical space, the field, the hill-valley type of space is not totally specific to romanians, it is not the only landform meant to influence the personality of romanians. The plain sometimes creates different kind of people. Thus, hill romanians have a certain way of being, the ones from the plain an other way of being. The importance of studying this problem consists especially of emphasizing certain properties of the plain, usually hidden to the naked eye.

SISTEMUL PERSONALISMULUI ENERGETIC AL LUI C. RĂDULESCU-MOTRU

Author(s): Dragoș Popescu / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 6/2018

This articlepresents, in a condensed manner, the System of Energetic Personalism, a philosophicalsystem authored by Constantin Rădulescu-Motru, an important scholar of 20th centuryin Romania. The Personalism is, according Rădulescu-Motru’s view, the objective scienceof personality. The science of personality studies the conditioning of life in a largercontext of universal energy development. This science is essentially different from the„anarchic personalism”, that is based on the „mystical soul”, a traditional form ofknowledge and action that new science intends to eliminate. The System of EnergeticPersonalism is a characteristic form of philosophical systems at the end 19th century andthe beginning of 20th century

Copernican principle as a philosophical dogma defining modern astronomy

Author(s): Spyridon I. Kakos / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2018

For centuries the case of Galileo Galilei has been the cornerstone of every majorargument against the church and its supposedly unscientific dogmatism. Thechurch seems to have condemned Galileo for his heresies, just because it couldn’tand wouldn’t handle the truth. Galileo was a hero of science wrongfully accusedand now – at last – everyone knows that. But is that true? This paper tries toexamine the case from the point of modern physics and the conclusions drawn arestartling. It seems that contemporary church was too haste into condemning itself.The evidence provided by Galileo to support the heliocentric system do not evenpass simple scrutiny, while modern physics has ruled for a long time now againstboth heliocentric and geocentric models as depictions of the “truth”. As Einsteineloquently said, the debate about which system is chosen is void of any meaningfrom a physics’ point of view. At the end, the selection of the center is more amatter of choice rather than a matter of ‘truth’ of any kind. And this choice isdriven by specific philosophical axioms penetrating astronomy for hundreds ofyears now. From Galileo to Hubble, the Copernican principle has been slowlytransformed to a dogma followed by all mainstream astronomers. It is time tochallenge our dogmatic adherence to the anti-humanism idea that we areinsignificant in the cosmos and start making true honest science again, asCopernicus once postulated.

Umjesto In memoriama akademiku Vladimiru Premecu (1939-2018)

Author(s): Željko Škuljević / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 2/2018

U prekrasnoj baladi Die Bürgschaft (Jamstvo) njemačkog pjesnika Friedricha Schillera nalazi se kao motiv jedna pradavna priča koja na nesvakidašnji način govori o prijateljstvu i održavanju zadate riječi na primjeru Damona i Fintije, dva starogrčka filozofa pitagorovca u službi kod sirakuškog vladara Dionisija Mlađeg. Naime, zbog nekog učinjenog djela tiranin Fintiju osudi na smrt, a ovaj zatraži odgodu da bi kod kuće posvršavao neke poslove. Vladar pristade s tim da Damon, njegov prijatelj, mora svojim životom jamčiti da će se on vratiti. Zadržavši se na putu duže nego što je očekivao Fintija se vrati u posljednji čas i tako izbavi prijatelja – jamca od sigurne smrti vješanjem. Dirnut ovakvim primjerom vjernosti Dionisije Mlađi oprosti kaznu osuđeniku te zamoli oba prijatelja da ga, kao trećeg, prime u svoje društvo.

D. D. ROŞCA – UN POLEMIST OCAZIONAL

Author(s): Ion Dur / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 2/2018

The text seeks to portray the polemic hypostasis of the philosopher D.D. Roşca. First of all, it is about the position the thinker had towards the criticism made by the sociologist Virgil Bărbat to his book L’influence de Hegel sur Taine, théoricien de la connaissance et de l’art, the main thesis presented by D.D. Roşca at Sorbone to get his state doctor degree in letters. It follows the analysis of a polemic “dialogue” between the publications Luceafărul and Revista Cercului Literar, both newspapers from Sibiu, the aim being the "clarification" of the ideological attitude of some young people who joined the Literary Circle from Sibiu. It was particularly about the critic Ion Negoiţescu. Finally, the text includes also the critical opinions, mostly unfavorable, of Rosca about the book The Temptation to Exist of Emil Cioran.

Utopia and Uchronia: From Thomas More to H. G. Wells

Author(s): Lucian-Vasile Szabo / Language(s): English Issue: 04/2018

The purpose of this study is to identify some general characteristics of utopia (or dystopia) as compared to uchronia. While Thomas More succeeded in giving firm contours to the spatial utopia, H. G. Wells was the author who reconfigured the geography of possible worlds in a temporal succession. Both authors would make use of the theme of travel, thus giving the readers the opportunity to understand their works as both a literary adventure and as an adventure of knowledge. The relationship between utopia (dystopia) and uchronia is a complex one, but one characteristic is evident: utopia can be constructed as a distinct topos, as a functional society, by making use of spatial elements. The uchronic topos is completely dependent on the spatial dimensions, as is the utopic one, but in order for it to take shape the utopic (dystopian) perimeter needs to have already been established, and then placed on a temporal axis. The contextual analysis of the ideas developed in Utopia and The Time Machine reveals elements that indicate interferences between two genres: utopia and science fiction. Thus the capacity of utopia (and also dystopia and uchronia) to function as a space of debate and reflection on the problems of today (the curent present) becomes evident. Yet the imaginary worlds (some of them can also be ideal), parallel or chronological, are coherent as convergent or divergent narratives.

TEORIA CARTEZIANĂ A IDEILOR – RUPTURI FAŢĂ DE TEORIA TOMISTĂ A CUNOAŞTERII

Author(s): Cosmin-Petru Vraciu / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 6/2016

The seventeenth century theory of ideas, asrepresented by Descartes, Arnauld and Malebranche marks a radical transformation inrelation to the scholastic tradition, especially the thomist doctrine of knowledge. Thistransformation has, as features, the constitution of a representational knowledge, themodification of the role of intellect, from an ontological to an epistemological entity,and the definition of knowledge within the boundaries set up by consciousness. This transformationis expressed in Descartes’ distinction between objective and formal reality.

DESCARTES ŞI CERCUL LUI HARTLIB: UN EPISOD DE COMUNICARE A CUNOAŞTERII ÎN PERIOADA MODERNITĂŢII TIMPURII

Author(s): Mihnea Dobre / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 6/2016

This paper discusses the various strategies taken bySamuel Hartlib in order to approach Descartes. I argue that Hartlib tried, at least twice,to put Descartes in contact with his own philosophical agenda. However, none of theseattempts were done directly, but through the use of intermediaries. I detail the case ofthe 1638–1640 approach, then the 1648 letter exchanges, with a greater focus on thesecond episode (involving Henry More), which also reflects several additional philosophicalpoints. The aim of the paper is to go beyond Webster’s classical study of the correspondencebetween More and William Petty and to argue that Hartlib’s secondapproach carried the mark of another agenda, which was not that much directed towardDescartes, but with imposing Hartlib’s views at the University of Cambridge.

(Une Rencontre) entre Misch et Heidegger

Author(s): Antoinette Koleva / Language(s): French Issue: 05/1997

Hylomorphic Teleology in Aristotle’s Physics II

Author(s): Catherine Peters / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

This study draws attention to the ordering of matter and form argued for in Aristotle’s Physics II, 8 (199a30–32). This argument for hylomorphic teleology relies on the presentation of nature earlier in Physics II, 1. In this way, it highlights the connections between chapter one’s account of nature as matter and form and chapter eight’s defense of final causality. Grounding final causality in the principles of nature reveals its central importance for Aristotle’s view of nature. To clarify the meaning of hylomorphic teleology I contrast my interpretation of Aristotle with that of Wolfgang Wieland regarding the scope and foundation of the final cause, countering his claim that chance and universal final causality are mutually exclusive. I contend that the presentation of teleology in chapter eight supports a diverse interpretation of the final cause, one that admits chance events while not sacrificing the intrinsic ordering of matter to form.