"Wtedy zaczął się mój upadek...". Egzystencjalne dylematy bohaterów Józefa Conrada i Alberta Camusa

Author(s): Irena Jokiel / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2014

The article uses the notion of 'border' in the interpretation of psychological and ethical themes in "Lord Jim" by J. Conrad and "The Fall" by A. Camus. The heroes of these novels realise that they had made bad use of their freedom , and the moment in which this happened had marked their lives irrevocably, and divided it into zones of rise and fall. After this moment nothing would be as it used to. Throughout the centuries literature has developed language to express the fundamental experience of this kind; it tells the stories of people experiencing the traumatic force of a demarcation moment, which after passing, leaves no posibility of returning to the life before; it creates alternative worlds inhabited by people who seek the truth about their "I", it constructs situations that embodies our anxiety resulting from the fact that man is not "redy and finished", and in the flowing "here and now" he does deeds which shape his destiny. "The Fall" indirectly includes the question of attitude of modern world towards Condrad's ethos.

(Nie)obiektywna podmiotowość

Author(s): Piotr Piotrowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 36/2016

In this article, I analyze the issue of subjectivity in the form in which it appears in Charles Taylor’s and Richard Rorty’s writings. Positions of these philosophers are generally regarded as contradictory. I will, however, argued that the position on subjectivity represented by Rorty finds its complementation in Taylor’s concept. To do this, I will show firstly that both Rorty and Taylor use the category of contingency, presenting some common thesis about subjectivity. This way I will show that the location of the category of subjectivity and the scope of its use in each of them concept is closely related to the understanding of objectivity accepted by each of them. This will allow then to reconstruct the concept of subjectivity presented by Taylor and Rorty. Next, in the conclusion, I will present such a summary of those two standpoints, which will include justification of the thesis of their complementarity.

(Post)sekularna filozofia negatywna, media wizualne i ekstasis (dekonstrukcja jako wariant neofenomenologii)

Author(s): Joanna Sarbiewska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2016

The author proposes a neophenomenological interpretation of the late Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction, by bringing it into the light of (post)secular negative philosophy and indicating the application of its mystic/ecstatic implications on a media techno-vision basis. In this conceptualization, deconstruction/negation, as an ,epoche strategy, not only denudes (kenosis) cognition of the idolatry, characteristic of the traditional methaphysics of presence and the dogmatic religion, but also suspends “the source” itself (the Offenberkeit register), and thus, causes the experience of radical emptiness (chora) as a condition of an opening to the Impossible. The author, by presenting the concept of negative image, demonstrates that technology visual media provide a suitable space (groundlessness) for Impossible to manifest itself in post-industrial culture.

A fenomenológiával való megismerkedésem

Author(s): László Tengelyi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2015

In this interview, László Tengelyi answers the question of the Hungarian Phenomenological Society: “how did you arrive to the phenomenological tradition and to phenomenological thinking?” The form of the answer is an essay which was written in 2006. Tengelyi describes his first encounter with Husserl and Heidegger through Nicolai Hartmann’s aesthetics and ontology. This attraction was deepened during his 1988-89 stay in Leuven with the support of the Soros Foundation. Rudolf Bernet and other prominent phenomenologists (Klaus Held, Bernhard Waldenfels, Marc Richir) convinced him that phenomenology is one of the possible ways of original thinking. What distinguishes phenomenology from other contemporary schools of thought (structuralism, analytical philosophy, critical social philosophy) is its inner relation to the whole tradition of Western philosophy. That is why phenomenology, “with its historical saturation”, is able to maintain a kind of spiritual vigilance in the philosophical practice.

A fiatal Pauler Ákos és az olasz filozófusok

Author(s): Róbert Somos / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2015

Although his main favourites were German, French and English thinkers, Ákos Pauler, the most respected Hungarian philosopher of the first decades of the 20th century, had also substantial connection with Italian philosophers and works. Treating the topic of the Italian line, according to the chronological order, the following items should be analysed: 1. Pauler’s longer sojourns in Italy before the First World War, when he attended different conferences and made personal relationships with different philosophers, especially with Mario Calderoni. 2. Benedetto Croce’s influence on Pauler and the Hungarian philosopher’s criticism on Croce’s position relating to the problems of pure logic and aesthetics. 3. Pauler’s view on Mussolini and its import for the political ideas of the Hungarian thinker. 4. The reception of Pauler’s Grundlegung der Philosophie in the philosophical school of Naples (Cleto Carbonara, Nicola Abbagnano) and Pauler’s answers to their criticisms. 5. Antonio Rosmini-Serbati’s and Giovanni Peano’s influence on Pauler in his later years in the fields of theistic metaphysics and symbolic logic. The paper focuses on the influences of the early phase of Ákos Pauler’s activity and it deals with the first two points.

A magyar filozófia, amint saját történetét írja

Author(s): Béla Mester / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2015

János Erdélyi, a 19th century Hegelian classic of the historiography of Hungarian philosophy has summarised his narrative in the following scheme. The first epoch was the prehistory of Hungarian thought, formulated in a foreign language, Latin; the second one was the long period of the turn from Latin to Hungarian; and the third and last one is when Hungarian philosophy writes its own history, beginning with the foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. After Erdélyi’s masterpiece on Hungarian philosophy, there have been no serious candidates for a new synthesis until the second half of the 20th century. This paper offers an overview of the last two centuries of the history of Hungarian philosophy in the mirror of its paradigmatic errors. First, it discusses the case of Boëthius de Dacia as a Hungarian mediaeval philosopher, and then the misinterpretation of the early modern works of János Pósaházi and József Rozgonyi, following the pattern of the history of reception. According to the hypothesis of this paper, all these paradigmatic errors have been caused by a wrong formulation of the connection between the universal and the national narratives of the history of philosophy. After an overview of the usual solutions to this problem in the Hungarian historiography of philosophy, the author outlines a new method for establishing the paradigm of an East-Central-European history of philosophy, above, but not instead of the national narratives, which can also modify the universal narrative in several details.

A szabadság eszménye a republikánus gondolati tradícióban

Author(s): Attila Demeter M. / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 02/2015

The essay highlights conclusions related to the nature and reason of freedom, which can be drawn from the tradition of republican thinking. Putting the question this way implies the presupposition that conclusions can be drawn from a tradition dating back to two thousand years ago. For this reason, the paper starts (and concludes) with some considerations related to the nature of political thinking. Unlike philosophical thinking in general, our political thinking is not a historical one by its nature. However, it is not purely unhistorical either, like mathematical thinking, for example. The political experiences accumulated in the course of time have been, of course, able to change the way we think about political matters, but our vision about the essence of politics has remained unchanged since the time of Ancient Greece. Turning now to the question of freedom: in this essay, I try to demonstrate that republicanism presents an ideal of freedom which radically differs from our perception of liberty and which, in consequence, can serve as a background for a “new utopia of liberty”. In our time, the dominant concept of freedom is based on the freedom of will. Freedom is usually regarded as a set of rights which aim to ensure citizens the almost unlimited possibility to choose their identity, their habits and ways of life. At the same time, citizens’ growing defencelessness against the state, as well as their increasing dependence on arbitrary social or political powers can also be observed. By contrast, for republican thinking, freedom has always meant – first and foremost – the lack of arbitrary power and, as a result, the capability and the possibility of self-government. The aim of republican thinking has always been to form citizens who are not subjected to anyone else’s will (and, of course, who do not want to dominate anyone else), instead of citizens who are helpless and defenceless – mostly in front of the state. It is an ideal which, I think, can be exemplary for all times – 0including ours.

Abgeschiedenheit Mistrza Eckharta w fenomenologicznej wykładni Bernharda Weltego

Author(s): Joachim Piecuch / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2016

The basis of analyzes carried out in the article is the work of Bernhard Welte: Meister Eckhart. Gedanken zu seinen Gedanken. The central subject of research is the idea Abgeschiedenheit (“isolation”). Following the interpretation of Welte it has been considerated a phenomeno‐ logical description on two ways. From the practical experience, as a modus vivendi a religious man, and from the theoretical, as speculative thought. Theoretical considerations consist of analysis of the concept of truth and goodness, which Eckhart identifies with the idea of God. Welte shows that these concepts of medieval thinker at the starting point considerations are still sink in the schemes of metaphysical thinking, but in the next stages of its argumentation he overcome metaphysical discourse. The purpose of the article, guided by the suggestion Weltes interpretation, is to show ways of reaching the source forms of religious experience. At the same time the text raised the issue of problematic use formulas of mystical union and noticed parallels have been taking place between the method of phenomenological reduction and the idea of Abgeschiedenheit.

Aksjologia stosowana Bohdana Dziemidoka

Author(s): Paulina Tendera / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2013

Aktualność krytyki ekonomii politycznej. Przyczynek do praktycznofilozoficznej dialektyki u Marksa

Author(s): Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 37/2016

Karl Marx is forgotten today as a philosopher, not because he had failed, but because of his critique of political economy, which is not understood based on its practical philosophical core. Critique of political economy is negative theory, which is committed to the task of unveiling the negativity of capitalist normative theory. It is not find justification in itself, but its justification lies exclusively in the preceding her early writings of Marx. At its foundation is not the way to build a solidaristic and ecological economy; the only its importance lies in the practical and philosophical awareness that the normative logic of capital, killing man and nature, we must overcome.

An Aristotelian Naturalist Perspective on Artificial Nutrition and Hydration

Author(s): Paolo Biondi / Language(s): English / Issue: 50/2016

This polemical note looks at the ethical issue of providing artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) to patients with advanced dementia from the perspective of an Aristotelian and naturalist ethics. I argue that this issue may be considered in terms of the Aristotelian notion of eudaimonia, well-being. I present a number of facts about the conditions of human life that contribute to eudaimonia. In addition, I present a number of facts about advanced dementia as well as clarify the goals of medicine. From these facts, I argue that we are not ethically obligated to provide ANH to this class of patients.

An Examination of Superluminal Motion

Author(s): Argun Abrek Canbolat / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

In this work, the debate between Yuri Balashov and Hud Hudson is reviewed in terms of the views put forward by Tim Maudlin. It seems that Maudlin’s view can shed light on the debate and may ensure new discussions and perspectives. Hudson, posing an interesting thought experiment, says that superluminal motion is possible whereas Balashov argues to the contrary. If we take into account what Tim Maudlin suggests in the first chapter of his book The Metaphysics within Physics, namely, that “laws of nature ought to be accepted as ontologically primitive,” we can interpret Balashov-Hudson debate from a new perspective. It can be said that Balashov would be taking a step forward if we were to take into account Maudlin perspective.

Antyutopia i utopia. Granice w powieści "Mięso" Martina Harníčka

Author(s): Aleksandra Paluch / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2014

The novel “Meat” by Martin Harníček is thought provoking. It calls the reader to reflections on consumption which has been reduced to the factor determining our survival. Anti-utopian surrounding called “a city” does not consist of many elements. It is rather a picture of self-destruction. The only thing its citizens want is to survive. It can be ensured by the title “meat”. Limits in the novel are related to topography which divides good from evil. What is more, they are based on human psychic. There is a certain dependence on rules, orders and prohibitions, beliefs, and also instincts that were inculcated in an individual. The main character of the novel keeps crossing the limits and, as a result, he must bear responsibility for that.

Architektoniczność jako paradygmat sztuki Aleksandra Rodczenki.

Konteksty konstruktywizmu

Author(s): Aleksandra Lukaszewicz Alcaraz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 34/2015

There are at least a few reasons to consider deeply the art of Aleksandr Rodchenko. Undoubtedlya pretext is an exposition that had taken place in National Museum in Cracovduring the Month of Photography between May and August 2012: „Aleksandr Rodchenko.Revolution in Photography”. Nevertheless, apart from photographic creation of Rodchenkoit is worth to put an interest on his painting from one side and on the other onmanifests of constructivism and texts on art, photography, society and on his perceptionof future. Then appears an image of the whole Rodchenko’s artistic figure. In this figureseems to dominate an architectural form of seeing and of constructing of space in its‘visual, social, political, ideological and philosophical aspects.Rodchenko was looking on the world, the reality surrounding him through prism ofarchitecture, plan, construction. This architectural form of seeing, explicit in Rodchenko’sart, is present on many levels and has deeper meaning referring itself to „the constructionof the new world“ and has theoretical reasons on social, political, artistical andesthetical basis.

Argument Williamsona przeciwko KK-tezie

Author(s): Grzegorz Lisowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 52/2017

The KK-principle can be defined as follows: “For any subject x: if x knows that p, then she is always in a position to know that she knows that p”. This principle has been widely accepted in the history of philosophy. However, in contemporary epistemology it is considered controversial and regarded as an important part of the debate concerning the nature of knowledge. One of the arguments against the KK-principle has been presented by Timothy Williamson and it involves the so-called “safety principle”. In this paper, I argue against this account. My argument consists of two parts: in the first part, it is argued that the safety principle presented by Williamson contradicts Dretske’s account of knowledge. In the second part, I claim that the safety principle, as defined by Williamson, is not precise enough, which enables one to argue that it does not contradict the KK-principle.

Argumenty na rzecz nieredukcyjnego ujęcia tożsamości osobowej

Author(s): Mariusz Grygianiec / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 34/2016

In the debate on personal identity many different criteria of identity are proposed and defended. Criteria of identity are usually taken to state necessary and sufficient conditions of identity and are viewed, in their metaphysical interpretation, as providing truth conditions of relevant identity statements. In my paper I argue that this view is misconceived and I present some arguments for the simple view of personal identity, according to which there are no noncircular and informative criteria of identity for persons. In particular, I argue that there are no other facts of the matter than identity itself which would serve as truth conditions of statements concerning numerical identity. I also try to justify the view that in most cases criteria of identity should be interpreted either epistemically as a means for finding out whether identity holds or not or metaphysically as criteria of genidentity, which provide appropriate persistence conditions for objects of a given kind.

Aristoteles in Nietzsches Rhetorik-Vorlesungen: Eine kritische Rückkehr zu antiken Quellen

Author(s): Kamila Najdek / Language(s): German / Issue: 61/2016

The paper’s point of departure are Nietzsche’s lectures prepared for the students of classical philology. While scrutinizying them I am trying to demonstrate that Nietzsche drew far more from the ancient philosophy than we usually assume. I believe he had a good reason to be concerned with rhetoric, even if the subject was considered of lesser importance in his days and downplayed. By asking about the importance of rhetoric he could, in anexemplary manner, realize the program delineated in his „Untimely Meditations” – he showed certain historical phenomenon, firmly rooted in the past, and confronted it with the contemporary situation; his lectures on the history of rhetoric are used to confront the modernity, as evidenced in his criticism of Victor’s Hugo left -wing demagoguery. Preserved notes and lectures show how young professor worked and the list of those subjectshe was focusing on and those he omits clearly illustrate his philosophical and aesthetic preferences. Fragments of translations of Rhetoric of Aristotle, his way of reasoning and peculiar lack of dispute with the Sophists prove that Nietzsche „enters”, so to speak, in the language of Stagirite, thus taking over his valuation of rhetorical enthymem. Consistent with the intuitions of Aristotle is Nietzsche’s assessment of the social role of the rhetoric itself. In the ideal case it is intended to establish consensus in the situations where it is impossible to know something for certain, in the case of abuse – rhetoric boils down to plain cheating. Nietzsche develops the issue of working out decision by asking about the talk itself and more precisely – about the cognitive status of the language. Lectures also shed new light on Nietzsche’s style, or, if you want, Nietzsche’s styles. On the one hand, they reveal his appreciation for the simplicity and clarity (as evidenced by the attic style preference), on the other hand – they demonstrate his knowledge of the classic figures of thought which means that the so-called „great”, bombastic style was for him a sign of irony. If you follow this path of interpretation, „Zoroaster” would be a reflection of his teachings i.e. as ironic, it would instruct to keep the distance.

Augustine’s Two Cities Revisited

Contemporary Approaches to De civitate Dei

Author(s): Anthony Dupont,Gregory W. Lee / Language(s): English / Issue: 61/2016

This article presents the current state of discussion in contemporary interpretation and appropriation of Augustine’s social and political vision in City of God, attending particularly to Augustine’s two cities framework for conceiving the relation between Church and world. The two cities are trans-national, trans-historical communities distinguished by their different loves. While they are primarily eschatological communities, the earthly and heavenly cities are nevertheless manifest in empirical social realities and inextricably intermingled with each other during this earthly existence. It is precisely this dynamic that generates the ambiguities and interpretive diversity characteristic of current scholarly discussion of Augustine’s political theology. The two cities framework undergirds Augustine’s position on a variety of issues this article treats in turn: pagan virtue, Christian participation in non-Christian political orders, and the nature of politics. The final section provides a roadmap for contemporary proposals concerning Augustine’s political theology.

Autonómia és világrend; bűn, sors és élettörténet

Tengelyi László munkássága az 1980-as és 90-es években

Author(s): Nóra Szegedi,Tamás Ullmann / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2015

The article aims to give a picture of László Tengelyi’s early works. The first part analyses Tengelyi’s relationship to Kant and to the problem of evil in Kantian moral philosophy. The key concepts of his early works are moral autonomy, guilt, fate, history of life, and intersubjectivity. The second part presents Tengelyi’s first original work after his significant Kant-interpretations. His Guilt as Fate Event (1992) concentrates on the problem of evil, rejecting the classical conception of the metaphysical tradition based on the “privation thesis”. By showing that evil cannot be reduced to privation, nonbeing, and nullity, Tengelyi opens up another, latent tradition, that of the tragic view of culpability. The conception of guilt as an eminent event of fate is supposed to be able to substitute the privation thesis of traditional metaphysics. The elaboration of this concept is Tengelyi’s first step toward creating his own philosophy.

Az ízlésítélettől a valóságélvezetig?

Marquard, Fehér és Lyotard a modernitás/posztmodernitás diszpozíciójáról

Author(s): Tamás Valastyán / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2015

The paper compares Jean-François Lyotard’s, Odo Marquard’s and Ferenc Fehér’s conception of aesthetics from the viewpoint of the disposition of modernity/postmodernity. None of the authors considers the comparison between modernity and postmodernity mechanically. While Marquard and Fehér claim the modernity of the postmodern, Lyotard affirms the postmodernity of the modern, with a view to Nietzsche’s basic insight that reality can only be justified as an aesthetic phenomenon.