Mamardašvilis, Proustas ir savęs realizavimo problema

Author(s): Audrius Račkauskas / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 58/2016

Article deals with Merab Mamardashvili’s suggested view to Marcel Proust’s literature activity. According to Mamardashvili, main interest and creativity pathos of Proust can be expressed by formula “to realize yourself”. But Mamardashvili explicates this personalistic and existential formula of self-realization in concepts, unusual for personalism and existentialism. Mamardashvili says that “to realize yourself” means “to realize impression”. The aim of this article is to explore the conceptual relation between self-realization and realization of impression.

A filozófia mint önismereti tudomány

Author(s): Péter Egyed / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 02/2015

Útban Utópia felé: államelméletek fikcionalizálása

Author(s): Andrea Gál / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 02/2015

A görög filozófus és az élet

Author(s): György Geréby / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 02/2015

The encounter between the Christian philosopher Justin Martyr, of Samaritan background, and Tryphon the Jew (around 150 AD) offers essential pointers to understand more precisely what “Greek”, or rather Hellenistic, philosophy meant. First, Greek was not a nationality, but a culture, a langue axiale in which Greeks and non-Greeks could exchange and debate ideas. Again, as educated persons, they shared a literary canon (in artificial Greek) and methods of conceptualisation. Consequently, they shared a common framework in terms of the rationality of discussion, which also extended to theology. Rational theology was a legitimate branch of philosophy as the third theoretical discipline according to Aristotle. The inclusion of theology in philosophy shows that the ultimate subject for philosophy was not sterile speculation, or pure theory, but the principles which, in forms of practical syllogisms (Aristotle, NE 1144a 31-2), would lead to action, thereby answering the fundamental problem “how to live”. Greek philosophy was supposed to prepare a “way of life” (P. Hadot). More than that, it was not without reason that successive Roman emperors invited the advice of philosophy in the complexities of the imperial polity.

Praetextatus és Paulina, a halhatatlan szerelmesek

Author(s): György Heidl / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 02/2015

The epitaphs of married couples often say that the conjugal love lasts even after death. However, this idea is very rarely associated with the faith in the immortality of the soul, and with the conviction that the deceased lovers will somehow live together in the afterlife. The epitaph of Paulina and her husband, Praetextatus is exceptional from this viewpoint. The poem represents the confession of a Roman pagan couple initiated into every possible mystery, and it can be taken as the witness of an early personalist approach.

Marcus Aurelius. A traumatizált lélek és a terapeuta

Author(s): Kornél Steiger / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 02/2015

A favourite genre of ancient moral philosophy is the precept. It is addressed to the disciple by the philosopher-master. He calls the disciple to reflect upon such thoughts and to follow such forms of behaviour whose correctness and usefulness have been previously demonstrated. Quite many of the precepts of Marcus Aurelius, which he addressed to himself, are such that they are inconsistent both with the teachings of stoic moral philosophy and with the other precepts of the emperor. These “layman precepts” are characterised by lethargy, fear of death, and misanthropy, as if in a therapy the soul suffering from traumas were talking to itself in the voice of the therapist. In this paper I argue for the point that the layman precepts do not serve therapy but rather contain the diagnosis of the trauma: the emperor gives an account of his own mental disposition in need of the therapy of moral philosophy.

Variációk a kulturális identitásra: Catullus, carm. 39

Author(s): Ábel Tamás / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 02/2015

In this paper, I interpret Catullus’ poem 39 as reflecting to the instability of Roman identity. Characteristically, the Catullan persona uses the concept of urbanitas to attack someone else as rusticus or inurbanus, while the language of his argumentation destabilizes his own position. In the end, the bad habit of smirking everywhere, every time and in every situation attributed to Egnatius by the Catullan speaker emerges as a highly suitable answer – the answer of a sophisticated (i.e. urbanus) reader of the poem’s “Catullus” – to the Catullan attack which tries to stabilize a cultural position for himself (“I am urbanus and I know what it is”) which cannot be stabilized at all. In my interpretation, I read the Catullan poem as participating in the identity struggles of the late republican Rome.

Ismétlés és emlékezés

Author(s): Károly Veress / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 02/2015

My reading of Plato attempts to show how remembering (anamnesis), conducted through “right thinking” and connected to the tradition of orality, and historical memory, which takes the form of scriptural tradition and conservation, become associated and are confronted with each other in the contemporary reading of the Timaeus, which rests on the pretext of illustrating with a concrete example the Republic’s plan of the ideal city-state. Furthermore, this interpretation tries to reveal the various functions of repetition within the relationship between model and likeness, (actual) reality and (recounted) narrative, “right thinking” and truth, in the context of these two forms of remembrance. My comparative reading of the Timaeus and Critias also focuses the attention on the complexity of Plato’s art of writing and philosophical thinking, as well as on the ways in which the commitment to right thinking can lead to well-founded metaphysical constructions, while also revealing clues to their deconstruction.

Miejsce teorii widzenia w filozofii George’a Berkeleya

Author(s): Marta Szymańska-Lewoszewska / Language(s): Polish Issue: XXVI/2014

The aim of this article is to show the meaning of the central role and the place of the new theory of vision in Berkeley’s philosophy. Apart from its value in explaining the phenomenon of visual perception it is important in bringing God closer to the life of men, which was the aim of Berkeley’s thought. The visual language which is gradually revealed as a part of the new theory of vision influences human seeing and understanding of the world and their organization of moral life.

Immanuel Kant i ontologiczny dowód na istnienie Boga

Author(s): Jacek Surzyn / Language(s): Polish Issue: XXVI/2014

This article discusses the critical position of Immanuel Kant towards the tradition of so called ontological proof of God’s existence. Kant treats the proof sceptically – he is convinced that any proof of God’s existence is impossible. However, Kant accepts the concept of God as the idea of pure reason, i.e. a sum of total positive “properties” and the ideal of pure reason. This ideal – an unconditional possibility of all – has a positive sense, but only as a formal concept. The ideal of pure reason – God is not something existing in reality, but it is only a postulate of pure reason and an a priori source idea. According to Kant, any attempt at finding a proof of real existence of this ideal (and in consequence of God’s real existence) makes no sense because it has no “objective” content and this ideal is only a formal condition of transcendental knowledge.

Kultura jako ekwilibium. Krytyczna filozofa Ernsta Cassirera

Author(s): Sławomir Raube / Language(s): Polish Issue: XXVI/2014

Cassirer was nearly always concerned with technical epistemological problems and philosophy of science, but in the last decades of his life he turned his attention to the history of ideas and culture. He was aware that culture also involves other aspects, such as mythical thinking, social needs to build up an effective and just society, as well as artistic views. At that time he began to perceive culture as a symbolic equilibrium of many dimensions growing out of man’s spiritual activity: myth, religion, language, art, science are conceived of as specific functions of consciousness. Cassirer expressed such ideas earlier, before he left Germany; for example in his work Freiheit und Form (1916) and Philosophie der symbolischen Formen (the 1920s); but after 1933 his philosophy of culture was becoming more conscious of the dangers against freedom and democracy. Cassirer’s philosophy of culture can be seen as an attempt at understanding what it means to be human, what freedom and true society are.

Dyskurs rozestetyzowany: w stronę (trans)filozofii obraz(owości)

Author(s): Mariola Sułkowska-Jankowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: XXVI/2014

It is assumed that some of the most important events in human history have been determined by the appearance of literacy in place of orality. It was also the beginning of the whole philosophical tradition of our West thinking, as well as, in consequence, of self-consciousness of "homo sapiens". It seems like today we are facing another turning point. "Homo sapiens" transforms into ..."homo videns". Since perception of pictures has become a substitute of thinking, the intelligent human being has been dethroned by mindless "telekid" (G. Sartori). In this article I attempt to analyze the abovementioned problem and try to give some thought to the question of the influence of the transformation on a new quality of philosophical thinking. Are we dealing with a new state of our mind, the ‘pictural’ one (compare Havelock’s idea of the Homeric state of mind)? If yes, in what context should we consider the new state of mind? Shall we somehow involve here some new categories such are transversality, trans-thinking, trans-rationality or, finally, trans-philosophy? Moreover, what are the consequences of the transformation? Is it a chance or rather a symptom of a deep crisis, “the crisis of human mind and cognitive abilities” (G. Sartori)?

Diderot, Balzac et la physiologie de l’amour

Author(s): Marian Skrzypek / Language(s): French Issue: 60/2015

Diderot follows Hobbe’s materialistic tradition, which sees love as the manifestation of the energy of nature. He wishes to tame this brute and wild nature, and praises the society of the Tahitians, where the wife is not as yet privately owned by her husband. Another source of the notion of the energy of nature in Diderot is platonian eros considered as the creative cosmical force. In Platon Diderot finds also the physiological explanation of love. In this respect, he continues deliberations about enthusiasm undertaken by Plato and Shaftesbury. For Diderot, enthusiasm is a romantic notion. The reflection on hysteria leads Diderot to formulate the notion of alienation. Balzac as a reader of Diderot classifies women’s neuroses as romantic neuroses, melancholic in nature, and classic neuroses, which are aggressive in nature. In the latter, he detects women’s subconscious emancipatory revolt.

Intuicjonizm krytyczny neookcydentalisty Borysa Jakowienki. Zarys problematyki

Author(s): Barbara Czardybon / Language(s): Polish Issue: 60/2015

This article is an attempt to show the theory of transcendental pluralism of Boris V. Jakovenko (1884–1949), one of the most important Russian representative of neooccidentalism. There is a synthesis of specific themes of Hermann Cohen’s neo-Kantianismand Husserlian phenomenology in the Russian philosopher’s system; he pays great attention to the two aspects of philosophical reflection, i.e. to scientificity and immediacy of a contemplation of Being (Сущее). Jakovenko distinguishes four kinds of cognition: sensual, emotional-volitional, scientific and philosophical. According to him the aim of philosophy consists of fulfilling the condition of “critical” scientificity – “science of science”. The only subject of philosophical research is Being as Being, i.e. Being in the entire richness of all its moments, in all of its manifestations. Pluralism of philosophy should correspond to the diversity of Being, but pluralism of philosophy, which is reflected in an intellectual contemplation, is a result of a long evolution of a philosophical reflection. The reflection passes through three developmental cycles: cosmism, gnoseologism and transcendentalism. Transcendental pluralism postulated by Jakovenko will be “the living method”, versed in depsychologization, denaturalization and desubstancialization of Being.

Sumienie w kontekście etyki Edwarda Abramowskiego

Author(s): Małgorzata Olech / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2015

In the article the author makes an endeavour to present Abramowski’s attempt to merge two different moral concepts, which may be considered as contradictory, into one common ethos: social ethics of brotherhood with individualistic ethics of developing pleasures. On account of this, the notion of conscience occurs to the philosopher not only in the context of experiencing the absolute ideal of community of all people, but also in the perspective of the sphere of human needs. It fulfills the role of the authority which maps out the way of acting in case of the antinomy of individual’s good and social good. В статье автор представляет попытку Абрамовского объединить в один общий этос разные, почти что противоположные, моральные концепции: общественную этику братства и индивидуалистическую этику развивающихся удовольствий. В связи с этим понятие совести появляется у философа не только на основе опыта абсолютного идеала сообщества всех людей, но также в перспективе сферы человеческих потребностей. Оно исполняет роль инстанции определяющей курс действия в случае антиномии между индивидуальным и общественным благом.

Gilson, Darwin, and Intelligent Design

Author(s): Desmond J. FitzGerald / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2015

The article starts with stating the fact that today there is an increasing recognition of difficulties with Darwinism accompanied by vigorous responses on the part of Darwin’s defenders; among the instances of challenge to the dominant theory, one can find a book of Gilson, From Aristotle to Darwin and Back Again, and those behind the Intelligent Design movement. In relating the book of Gilson to the ID proponents, the author concludes that, while in some ways they are on the same side in opposing the anti-creation thrust of Darwinism, Gilson is neutral on the validity or truth of Darwin’s biological hypothesis. Gilson, however, whose book preceded the ID movement by some twenty years, seeks to analyze Darwinism from the perspective of the classical philosophy of nature. He well understands that, according to modern scientific method, final causes are excluded from consideration, but he calls for a biophilosophy which will be open to the reality of human experience as Aristotle was and recognize that teleology is present in nature. According to him, even if teleology seems to be a contestable explanation, chance as understood by Darwinists is the pure absence of explanation.

Redpath on the Nature of Philosophy

Author(s): Robert A. Delfino / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

In this article the author discusses Peter A. Redpath’s understanding of the nature of philosophy and his account of how erroneous understandings of philosophy have led to the decline of the West and to the separation of philosophy from modern science and modern science from wisdom. Following Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, Redpath argues that philosophy is a sense realism because it begins in wonder about real things known through the senses. Philosophy presupposes pre-philosophical knowledge, common sense, which consists of principles rooted in sensation that make human experience, sense wonder, and philosophy possible. Philosophy is certain knowledge demonstrated through causes and thus philosophy is the same as science. Redpath understands science as a habit that we acquire through repeated practice. More precisely, a scientific habit is a simple quality of the intellect that enables us to demonstrate (prove) the necessary properties of a genus through their causes or principles. In this way, science is the study of the one and the many. Redpath argues that metaphysics is the final cause of the arts and sciences, providing the foundation for all of the arts and sciences and justifying their principles. Finally, he argues that with modernity’s loss of belief in God and its rejection of metaphysics as a science, utopian socialism has become an historical/political substitute for metaphysics.

Peter Redpath’s Philosophy of History

Author(s): Curtis L. Hancock / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

Peter Redpath is a distinguished historian of philosophy. He believes that the best way to acquire a philosophical education is through the study of philosophy’s history. Because he is convinced that ideas have consequences, he holds that the history of philosophy illuminates important events in history. Philosophy is a necessary condition for sound education, which, in turn, is a necessary condition for cultural and political leadership. Hence, the way educators and leaders shape culture reflects the effects of philosophy on culture. In light of this background, it is possible to discern in Redpath’s account of the history of philosophy a corresponding philosophy of history. This emerges as he explains how philosophers have produced changes in thinking that have profound consequences for the culture at large. Some of these changes, many of them significant, have been positive, but others have been disastrous. Much of Redpath’s philosophy of history diagnoses what went wrong in the history of philosophy so as to indicate why modern culture suffers considerable disorder. The good news is that Redpath’s philosophy of history prescribes ways to correct Western Civilization’s current malaise.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Dramatist?

Author(s): Eric McLuhan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

The article begins with the statement that there is one aspect of St Thomas’s work that has not received due scrutiny as a literary form, one with solid dramatic qualities and structure: the Article. The Article is as Thomistic as the syllogism is Aristotelian. This particular mode of argument was evidently original with St. Thomas: he did not derive it from the work of any other writer, yet its inner movement is of the essence of dialectic, from the opening proposition to opposing objections, then “to the contrary” position as found in orthodoxy, and then the writer’s resolution, and so on. It is a variation on the classic sic-et-non, a reasonable, balanced to and fro of the sort beloved by disputants. No parallel or even parody of this Article is to be found in any known literature before or since the thirteenth century. The author aims to show that part of the sheer power of the Article resides in the fact that it has two levels of operation. The surface is composed of the dialectical to-and-fro adumbrated above. But under that surface lies a rhetorical structure constructed along the lines of the five divisions of the rhetorical logos as laid out by Cicero and Horace.

Philosophical Creationism: Thomas Aquinas’ Metaphysics of Creatio ex Nihilo

Author(s): Andrzej Maryniarczyk / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

All philosophers, beginning with the pre-Socratics, through Plato and Aristotle, and up to Thomas Aquinas, accepted as a certain that the world as a whole existed eternally. The foundation for the eternity of the world was the indestructible and eternal primal building material of the world, a material that existed in the form of primordial material elements (the Ionians), in the form of ideas (Plato), or in the form of matter, eternal motion, and the first heavens (Aristotle).The article outlines the main structure of the philosophical theory of creation ex nihilo developed by St. Thomas Aquinas and indebted to his metaphysical thought. It shows the wisdom-based and ratiocinative foundation of the rational cognition of reality—reality that comes from the personal creative act of God. It concludes that the perception that the beings called to existence by the personal act of God the Creator are intelligible is the ultimate rational justification for the fact that our human cognition, love, and spiritual creativity are rational.