Stephen Greenblatt. The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. New York: W. W. Norton. 2011.

Author(s): Nikolay Aretov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2015

Stephen Greenblatt tells the story of how Poggio Bracciolini, a 15th-century papal emissary, and obsessive book hunter, saved the last copy of the Roman poet Lucretius‘s On the Nature of Things from near-terminal neglect in a German monastery, thus reintroducing important ideas that sparked the modern age. The author analyzes this development in a very broad cultural and philosophical scale. This review presents the monograph of the so-called New Historicism and its possible applications in Bulgarian scholarship.

Prawno-filozoficzny problem możliwości wykonywania kary śmierci w kontekście prawa do życia w świetle współczesnych dokumentów międzynarodowych

Author(s): Dawid Dziurkowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 12/2015

The right to life is one of the most fundamental rights of every man. However, the immanent feature of capital punishment is its irreversibility. Therefore, the breached right to life cannot be restored.The issue of admissibility of sentencing to and execution of death penalty in the context of the right to life exists not only due to axiological and general preventive reasons but also due to the growing importance of treaties signed by numerous states, whose dignitaries do not always agree with the interpretation of international tribunals.Looking at international documents executed after World War II and their interpretation by courts and tribunals of the particular states of the world, it has to be stated that there is no doubt about the absolute innate inalienable and universal character of the right to life, however, the scope of its applicability remains a matter of dispute, also in the context of death penalty.Prawo do życia jest najbardziej fundamentalnym uprawnieniem, jakie przysługuje każdemu człowiekowi. Z kolei immanentną cechą kary śmierci jest jej nieodwracalność. W związku z powyższym nie można przywrócić naruszonego najważniejszego prawa, jakie posiada człowiek. Problem możliwości wykonywania kary śmierci w kontekście prawa do życia jest obecny nie tylko na płaszczyźnie aksjologicznej i prewencyjnej (odstraszającej), lecz także w aspekcie coraz silniej akcentowanego prawa międzynarodowego. Ponadto nie sposób mówić o karze głównej, pomijając zagadnienia filozoficzne oraz prawnofilozoficzne. Wydaje się, iż są one fundamentem sporów o możliwość legalnego pozbawienia życia przez państwo, natomiast dogmatyka prawa jest kwestią równie istotną, lecz zawsze wtórną. Nie ma wątpliwości co do bezwzględnego, przyrodzonego, niezbywalnego i uniwersalnego charakteru prawa do życia, lecz kwestią sporną do dnia dzisiejszego pozostaje zakres jego obowiązywania, także w kontekście głównego przedmiotu sporu niniejszego artykułu, jakim jest kara śmierci.

Czy pluralizm prowadzi do relatywizmu moralnego? Aksjologia w edukacji filozoficznej

Author(s): Maciej Woźniczka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 10/2013

The main problem discussed in the text is the relation between moral pluralism and moral relativism. In argumentation conditioned by the tradition of certain philosophical currents attention is drawn to the clear-cut nature of the impact of the first view in relation to the second one. Representatives of the opposing perception, most often associated with contemporary philosophy, claim that there is no direct transition between pluralism and relativism. In some interpretations, it is pointed that the source of this negative moral phenomena lies not so much in the emergence of pluralism, but in the correct analysis of relativism. Axiology in philosophical education has been chosen as the context for the interpretation. Głównym problemem podjętym w tekście jest kwestia relacji między pluralizmem moralnym a relatywizmem moralnym. W argumentacji warunkowanej tradycją pewnych nurtów filozoficznych wskazuje się na jednoznaczność oddziaływania pierwszego stanowiska na drugie. Przedstawiciele stanowiska opozycyjnego, wiązanego najczęściej z filozofią współczesną, stwierdzają, że nie ma bezpośredniego przejścia między pluralizmem a relatywizmem. W niektórych interpretacjach wskazuje się, że źródło negatywnych zjawisk moralnych tkwi nie tyle w pojawieniu się pluralizmu, co we właściwej interpretacji relatywizmu. Jako kontekst odniesień wybrano aksjologię w edukacji filozoficznej.

„Опити” на Мишел дьо Монтен (1571-1592): Скептичен консерватизъм и парадоксална антропология

Author(s): Paul Geyer / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2019

At first, Montaigne followed the process, which began with Petrarch, of adopting the “Roman-Greek philosophy of life”. Unusual, however, was the extent to which Montaigne attached the ancient life teachings to his own self. It replaced the instance of transcendence that had become void or insignificant by acquiring its qualities. The self for Montaigne became a substitute for metaphysics and an addition to God. Montaigne, however, avoided the trap of the metaphysics of the subject by sharpening figures of thought from ancient skepticism and transferring them into his own self. The Essays is the first place to testify that the solutions, which ancient authors offered, were no longer satisfactory for the problems of subjectivity in modernity. Montaigne appears quite a modern thinker when he refers the notion of barbarism – a notion, with which the Europeans readily treat other civilizations – to the horrors of the religious wars in Europe or when criticizing the European colonialism in South America, at the same time highly appreciating the old American cultures. He realized that all values and customs are relative and that they do not have any transcendent origin. In his later years, Montaigne allowed for the possibility of self-consciousness and conscience being neutralized as instances of (self-)knowledge and morality. But pushing the understanding of the multilayeredness and elusiveness of one's own self, Montaigne became one of the first representatives of the nostalgia for the essential, which even up to today, through Romanticism and existentialism, accompanies the work on the notion of modern subjectivity.

„Богомилски легенди” на Николай Райнов – неразчетената мистификация

Author(s): Violeta Ruseva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2019

Bogomilski legendi (Legends of the Bogomils) by Nikolai Rainov is a unique book that can be said to have Protean qualities insofar as each of its four editions, published in 1912, 1918, 1938 and 1989, presents a different version of the text. Because of this peculiarity readers’ responses to the book have tended to vary, and even commentaries by professional literary critics have often given the impression of being about totally different books rather than about different editions of the same text. Rainov edited Bogomilski legendi extensively. The book’s four editions differ in a number of significant ways but are best approached as a composite text. This article links the book’s Protean textuality to medieval manuscript culture in which a text existed in several different versions because it was copied by different scribes. The first edition of Bogomilski legendi contains intertextual references to the Bible and The Secret Book of the Bogomils. It also invokes a number of medieval apocrypha which were subsequently brought to the attention of the Bulgarian reading public by the literary historian Yordan Ivanov, who published his Bogomilski knigi i legendi (Books and Legends of the Bogomils) in 1925. The correspondences between the first edition of Rainov’s book and the apocrypha suggest that Bogomilski legendi may be read as a literary mystification. The article presents such a reading.

Утопичните острови на тропиците – възможни и реални

Author(s): Maya Gorcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

In the European cultural tradition, the image of the islands brings together the geographical strangeness with a social utopia. The paper traces its historical alterations, as attested in documentary and literary travel stories, in comparison with Leibniz's thesis of the “best world”.

Z badań nad dziejami i spuścizną polskich filozofujących przyrodnikóww Kijowie w latach 1900–1919. Część 1: Czesław Białobrzeski

Author(s): Łukasz Mścisławski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 20/2021

The aim of this paper is to present less known facts of Czesław Białobrzeski’s life from the period before he left Kiev in 1919 and his familiar works from that period. Particular emphasis is placed on biographical details, some aspects of the creation of his most famous work, and his popularization activities and philosophical interests, especially regarding science and the influence of French conventionalism.It turns out that in works such as “Reality in terms of natural science” or “The Principle of Relativity and some of its applications”, Białobrzeski appears to be a naturalist very well versed in philosophical topics related to sciences. The story behind Białobrzeski’s most famous work, “Sur l’équilibre thermodynamique d’une sphère gazeuse libre” which emerges from his correspondence with Władysław Natanson, is also interesting.

The academic virtues in public discussion: Adam Schaff and the campaign against the Lvov-Warsaw School in post-war Poland

Author(s): Aleksei Lokhmatov / Language(s): English Issue: 20/2021

Adam Schaff was at the front of the ideological campaign organized in post-war Poland during the wave of Stalinization. By attempting to adapt the Soviet “model” of public discussion to Polish academia, Schaff wanted to teach the representatives of the Lvov-Warsaw School of logic how to lead a scholarly debate. Schaff ’s group consisted of young scholars from the Instytut Kształcenia Kadr Naukowych [Institute for Education of Scientific Staff] and with critical reviews on the works of Polish logicians they tried to force their opponents to change the basic principles of their academic practice under the new circumstances. Nevertheless, Schaff ’s project failed since, unlike Soviet scholars, the participants in the discussion referred to different academic virtues that made the adaptation of the Soviet model of public discussion impossible.

Феноменология и математика при Оскар Бекер

Author(s): Jassen Andreev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2023

According to Becker, the dispute between the intuitionistic (construction as the guarantor of mathematical existence) and the formalistic (non-contradiction as the guarantor of mathematical existence) definition should be resolved in a phenomenological perspective on the problem. The question of the legitimacy of the transfinite should also be resolved in the perspective of a phenomenological constitutive analysis. This analysis provides the key to the problematic of mathematical existence: the result of Becker’s investigations on the logic and ontology of the mathematical is a solution in favour of the “genuine phenomena” of intuitionistic mathematics and the infinite. “Genuine phenomena” are those which turn out to be accessible for constitutive analysis precisely as phenomena of “pure consciousness” and even of the “concrete historical Dasein.” The final solution in favour of the “genuine phenomena” of intuitionistic mathematics and the infinite is motivated by the fact that Hilbert’s formalism does not satisfy the “chief phenomenological principle of demonstrability” (Ausweisbarkeit).

"За българската философска култура". Атанас Стаматов.

Author(s): Iassen Zahariev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2023

Не животно, а човек

Author(s): Boryana Uzunova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 13/2023

Differentiating „man” from „animal” has never been a simple task of classification. Maintaining a clear and unbridgeable gulf between the two has always been an important condition for domination. Apart from making it „only too natural” for humans to rule over all other beings, this „anthropological difference” can also be used as a powerful mechanism for the subjugation of one group of people to another. Last but not least, the abyss between „animal” and „human” can serve as a guarantee for the existence of higher ontological dimensions beyond the „simple” physiological realm, revealed and/or functioning through human thoughts, words, properties and actions. The early twentieth century marked an interesting watershed in the way humans related themselves to animals. Two leading motifs could be discerned there. On the one hand, there was the burgeoning epistemological pluralism, which couldn't just be brushed aside, but at the same time, the strife for a unifying vision and stable reference points was still alive and well. One of the forms in which these two opposing tendencies found common expression was the philosophical anthropology of the first half of the 20th century in Germany. A meeting would be arranged between biology and metaphysics around the question „What is man?” providing plenty possibilities in an arguably final attempt at co-existing. One of the driving forces of this endeavor would be the restating of the anthropological difference, with a major factor of making it possible to appear as the prodigious ability called „self-consciousness” or „self-reflection”

Димитър Михалчев и Вълко Червенков – един неочакван диалог

Author(s): Emil Iv. Dimitrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 13/2023

The article is dedicated to an unknown subject till now – the attempt undertaken in 1951 for a dialogue between the philosopher D. Michalchev (1880–1967) with the prime minister and leader of the communist party V. Chervenkov (1900–1980). It is presented the immediate context and the motives for the writing of “Criticism and Self-defense” by Michalchev, which is used as a reason for addressing the state and party leader. Michalchev’s philosophical and citizen’s gesture is linked with the current mainstream as well as with the personal history of the philosopher, which reflects the destiny of prominent Bulgarian intellectuals surviving the political changes of 1944. Unpublished archive documents have been presented in the article. An interpretation has been developed there of revealing the right causes and mechanisms of Michalchev’s ideological defeat in the early 1953.

Ecofeminist Theology and Fundamentalisms within the Arabic Context

Author(s): Jihan Zakarriya / Language(s): English Issue: 16(45)/2023

The paper seeks to examine and redefine diverse forms of fundamentalisms within modern Arabic contexts employing an ecofeminist theology perspective. Ecofeminist theology analyses varied forms of domination, androcentrism and superiority over women and nature through deconstructing and challenging masculinist interpretations, understandings, and linguistic expressions of religions. Ecofeminist theologians relate religions and humanism as forces of unbiased, uncategorized liberation, equality, and freedom. Although the concept of fundamentalism is controversial for definers, modern and contemporary academia and media relate fundamentalism exclusively to Islam, particularly with the emergence of militant Islamist groups and global terrorist organizations. Fundamentalist movements are hierarchical, essentialist and sexist. Existing scholarship on Islamic fundamentalism lacks the feminist perspective and overlooks important forms of nonreligious fundamentalisms in Arab countries such as militarisms and semitribalisms that participate in the inferior position of women and nature. This paper examines the role of some Arab thinkers in relating women, politics, religion, and nature and specifically refers to Averroes, Fatima Mernissi, Zainab al Ghazali, and Nawal el Saadawi.

Overcoming Prejudice in Society through Gadamer Philosophical Hermeneutics

Author(s): Merlina Koseni,Enkelejda Cenaj / Language(s): English Issue: 16(45)/2023

Living and engaging in a society means living with others, accepting changes (gender, regional, political, cultural), and being able to maintain uniqueness. Albania is a small country, but it faces a high level of intolerance and regional, gender, political, cultural prejudices, etc. In this paper, we will try to apply Hans-Georg Gadamer’s theory on communicative understanding and fusion of horizons as a model that can lead us at reducing the level of prejudice and intolerance towards each other. For Gadamer, communicative understanding occurs only through a way of being with the other person. The purpose of dealing with Gadamer’s theory on understanding is to show the practicality of his hermeneutic theory to create new knowledge, to overcome the challenges of diversity in a society, as well as to create a just society where change and diversity are normal. This research is a qualitative theoretical research in which the hermeneutic research methodology and secondary data analysis are used. Through a textual analysis, we will focus on the treatment of Gadamer’s theory and the importance of the principles of dialogue, tolerance, prejudice, solidarity, reciprocity, equality and freedom in creating an open-minded and tolerant society. According to Gadamer, if we want to create a just and peaceful society, we must understand the others and not simply accept their presence, we have to accept our prejudices and try to overcome them. By identifying the important values of Gadamer's theory we can create a more tolerant environment and overcome the prejudices we have towards each other in a society like ours. Overcoming the divisions within us will bring us together to lead our society towards further cultural and political development.

Възможната свобода: от логосна метафизика към метафизична постъпка

Author(s): Ivan Kamburov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

The article highlights the main points of the specificity of metaphysics in the European philosophical tradition. The division of wisdom as a unity between knowledge and practice in ancient philosophy is emphasized. Kant's thesis that metaphysics is possible only in the realm of practical reason and only as a metaphysics of freedom is recapitulated. The forms of transcendence are revealed. Two approaches regarding metaphysics are analyzed – as a metaphysics of “questioning”, the logos type, and of a metaphysical act as overcoming causal dependencies in human individuality and truly achieving freedom.

Philosophy of Shared Society

Author(s): Albena Taneva,Kaloyan Simeonov,Vanya Kashukeeva-Nusheva,Denitsa Hinkova,Melanie Hussak / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

Insights on shared society reflect the nexus between collective actions and durable policy for the common good. The study’s core subject is the deeper understanding of the shared society in theory and practice. It helps overcome conflicting perceptions and divides. The main focus is on reasoning challenged by dynamics in democratic societies. The article aims to highlight its framework avoiding simplistic variations of main theses, but presenting new insights into the applications of this theory. It examines the ontological essence within cross-cutting varieties and dimensions of its profile. The philosophy of shared society is also represented in several practical perspectives. These vectors reflect various motivations and perils as links to practice. These links are: reflections on conflict resolution at municipal level in Germany, electoral participation and vote-buying practices in Bulgaria, EU economic integration and reforms to promote a shared and cohesive living.

Tinerețea lui Hegel - fragment

Author(s): Wilhelm Dilthey / Language(s): Romanian,Moldavian Issue: 1/2023

Literary text by Wilhelm Dilthey

От епос към етос с Хезиод: между митологията и моралистиката

Author(s): Sylvia Mineva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2024

The purpose of the article is to present the role and significance of Hesiod's poetry for the formation and development of the moral canon and the moral-philosophical thought of ancient Greece. For this purpose, the text traces and analyzes various biographical information, comments and evaluations about Hesiod's life and work. Special attention is given to the uses and meanings of the world ethos by Homer and Hesiod and their evolution under the influence of Hesiod's moral maxims (gnomes) in „Works and Days “. The main conclusion is that Hesiod's individualized, systematic and rational reading of archaic myths played a decisive role in the transition from myth to logos and the formation of the moral-philosophical views of ancient Greece about the happy life, the good person and the ideal state.

Имануел Кант за свободата като морална категория

Author(s): Nikolay Mihaylov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2024

The article is dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of the great German thinker and philosopher Immanuel Kant and analyzes his conceptions of the moral category of freedom. Based on a review and analysis of the philosopher's ideas in the three "critiques" and his other writings, an attempt is made to determine the specificity of Kant's understanding of moral freedom, as well as to find the connections it makes to some modern dimensions of the problem. Comments of Bulgarian and foreign philosophers on the relevant topic, which enrich the existing knowledge on the problem, are also examined. Conclusions concern the enduring importance of Kantian ideas for modern notions of freedom, publicity, independence, and the significance of truth.

Transcendentalna filozofija i duh prosvetiteljstva

Author(s): Tanja Todorović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 39/2023

The aim of this paper is to approach the question of Enlightenment through the aspect of transcendental methodology. There are not many authors in the history of philosophy who dealt with this method. From this approach, one must emphasize the basic aspects of Kant's and Husserl's philosophy, authors who tried to show both the positive aspect of this historical movement, as well as its disadvantages. They believe that the idea of science based on the concept of the human mind, must be distinguished from the modern ideal of science, which is based on universal reason and the new paradigm of nature. Both of these authors believe that the idea of development and the question of the purposefulness of the philosophical task should be reconsidered.