‘Nothing over and above’ or ‘nothing’? On Eliminativism, Reductionism, and Composition

Author(s): Jiri Benovsky / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

In this article, I am interested in an issue concerning eliminativism about ordinary objects that can be put as the claim that the eliminativist is guilty of postulating the existence of something (atoms arranged tablewise), but not of something that is identical to it (the table). But, as we will see, this turns out to be a problem for everybody except the eliminativist. Indeed, this issue highlights a more general problem about the relationship between an entity and the parts the compose it. Furthermore, I am not interested in this issue only for its own sake and for the sake of understanding and defending eliminativism, but also for the way it allows me to discuss the differences and relations between eliminativism and reductionism. What difference is there between eliminating an entity and reducing it to something else?

“NATURAL WORK” AS SELF-CAPABILITY: REMAINING HUMAN IN THE ERA OF TURMOIL. IN MEMORY OF GRIGORY SAVVICH SKOVORODA

Author(s): Andrey I. Matsyna / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

A great wandering humanist philosopher, enlightener and outstanding poet Grigory Savvich Skovoroda’s work pertains to a difficult period in the life of the 18th century Eastern Ukraine. Against the background of growing injustice and evil, the decline of spiritual values, an authentic practical philosophy of individual opposition to a self- serving world steeped in vice was born. Skovoroda’s philosophy completely lacks the intention to consider proprietary interests as the driving force of human development. Its key principle of human development is self-examination within one’s own energy- activity-object-related space. The call for self-examination from the perspective of the authentic idea of “natural work” is revealed dynamically as the process of bringing the objective world into harmony with the nature of an individual. “Natural work” is a pro- cess of individual’s constant creative self-overcoming on the ascent to subject identity; total communion of man with the universal whole.

„(...) tak wielbiłem obraz starego Geulincxa, zmarłego w młodym wieku, przyznającego mi wolność (...)” — Samuel Beckett czytający Arnolda Geulincxa

Author(s): Joanna Usakiewicz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2017

Arnold Geulincx (1624–1669), like the Occasionalism which he represents, was pushed to the margins of philosophy and, at present, is known almost exclusively to historians of philosophy. However, Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), the brilliant writer and dramatist, did certainly read his works, especially his Ethics. References to Geulincx and his views, together with explicative comparisons in Beckett’s own writing — as, for example, in Murphy, Molloy and The End,— testify to this fact. In this article, the author demonstrates the inspirational influence of Geulincx’s thought upon Beckett through an analysis of the ways in which the famous playwright read and made use of the words and images of the philosopher.

„Bardzo nieliczni czują, że ich życie nie jest życiem, lecz śmiercią”. F. Dostojewski i L. Szestow wobec idei szczęścia i egzystencjalnej satysfakcji

Author(s): Michał Kruszelnicki / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 33/2016

In my paper I set the existential interpretation of Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground proposed by Lev Shestov against the religious and psychological interpretations of this novel in order to excavate a vital problem in Dostoevsky, which is the inversion of hierarchy in pairs of oppositional categories such as normality-pathology, happiness-unhappiness, harmony- dissonance, omnitude-lack, certainty-uncertainty, joy-despair, faith-doubt. Following Shestov I argue that Dostoevsky embraces those categories that are traditionally mistrusted and negatively valorized and by so doing he rehabilitates the “underground”, accursed and unhappy existence at the expense of regular, “normal” life, easily founding spiritual certainty and every day satisfaction. Such an un-problematic life Dostoevsky’s man from the underground regards as a false, smug and eventually – “dead”. In further part of my study I focus on the religious aspect of Shestov’s later philosophy and try to prove that the perspective of faith gradually introduced to his reading of Dostoevsky in no way cancels Shestov’s early philosophy of the underground, despair and tragedy. On the contrary: if faith “obtained” is likely to become yet another mask of “evidence” and “certainty” and in this way might put stop to existential doubts and spiritual dissatisfaction, then neither Dostoevsky, nor Shestov himself, can easily trust it. In this situation despair and tragedy cannot but hold in Dostoevsky’s and Shestov’s thought and the circle of searching and suffering must remain vicious. I demonstrate the consistency in Shestov’s philosophical thought on Dostoevsky and its constant adequacy for understanding one of the crucial existential dilemmas in the works of the Russian writer.

„Bezstronny obserwator” Adama Smitha a neutralne kryteria oceny w etyce społecznej

Author(s): Cezary Kalita / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 36/2016

Ethical theory for Adam Smith is first of all the basic mechanism of social controls. Going out from decisions of the matter of the moral feelings, which the ‘sympathy’ states the foundation; it tries to work out the neutral criteria of ethical opinions introducing the ‘impartial spectator’ figure. Superiority of this category in relation to John Rawls ‘veil of ignorance’ depends on this, that the Smith places his philosophical theory in the strong empirical context (the kind of sociological philosophy). Social ethicist is the base to build more folded regulators of community life, or social, such as economy and politics. The neutral criteria of ethical opinions are the foundation of different derivative social workings (economy, politics).

„Bona matrona”. O znaczeniu przykładu w konstruowaniu wizerunku idealnej Rzymianki

Author(s): Danuta Musiał / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2016

Private and political life in ancient Rome was regulated by a set of values and standards of conduct called the custom of ancestors (mos maiorum). The knowledge we have of it is derived from examples of mythical and historical past of Rome, coming primarily from the works of historians, above all from the History of Rome by Livy. In his stories of the Sabine women, Lucretia, Veturia, and Vergina, the Roman historian sketches portraits of women which can be considered as depicting the ideal matron. In his opinion, a bona matrona in order to enjoy the rightful position of her authority, needs to be described as pudica, casta, sancta, univira, and lanifica. She also needs to wear the stola. However, the set of values described by Liy was independent of the real position of women in families and in the society, which is confi rmed by epitaphs.

„Bycie” czy „istnienie”? Kilka uwag na temat Form istnienia Wawrzyńca Rymkiewicza

Author(s): Łukasz Kołoczek / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 63/2016

In the present article, I enter into a discussion with Wawrzyniec Rymkiewicz’s proposed translations included in his book Formy istnienia [Forms of existence]. They concern Martin Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit and depart from the Polish tradition of translating Heidegger. Rymkiewicz proposes translating Sein as ‘istnienie’ (rather than ‘bycie’), and Dasein as ‘przebywanie’. Although not justifying his decisions, the author does put forward an elaborate interpretation of Heidegger’s work in the new terminology. The present article explores the reading of Heidegger that Rymkiewicz propounds by means of these different translations. I argue that his interpretation is at odds with Heidegger’s conception. Rymkiewicz places great emphasis on the phenomenological side of Heidegger’s project, failing to appreciate its hermeneutical component. As a consequence, he treats existence as given, which, although perhaps justified in phenomenological terms, entirely misses the point of Heidegger’s idea of Sein. That is the fundamental accusation against the term ‘istnienie’. I also reveal inconsistencies in these propositions as they appear on other levels of Heidegger’s text.

„CAŁA MATEMATYKA TO WŁAŚCIWIE GEOMETRIA”. POGLĄDY GOTTLOBA FREGEGO NA PODSTAWY MATEMATYKI PO UPADKU LOGICYZMU

Author(s): Krystian Bogucki / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 44/2018

Gottlob Frege abandoned his logicist program after Bertrand Russell had discovered that some assumptions of Frege’s system lead to contradiction (so called Russell’s paradox). Nevertheless, he proposed a new attempt for the foundations of mathematics in two last years of his life. According to this new program, the whole of mathematics is based on the geometrical source of knowledge. By the geometrical source of cognition Frege meant intuition which is the source of an infinite number of objects in arithmetic. In this article, I describe this final attempt of Frege to provide the foundations of mathematics. Furthermore, I compare Frege’s views of intuition from The Foundations of Arithmetic (and his later views) with the Kantian conception of pure intuition as the source of geometrical axioms. In the conclusion of the essay, I examine some implications for the debate between Hans Sluga and Michael Dummett concerning the realistic and idealistic interpretations of Frege’s philosophy.

„Dajcie mi rewolwer, a poruszę wszystkie budynki”. Architektura z punktu widzenia Teorii Aktora-Sieci (ANT)

Author(s): Bruno Latour,Albena Yaneva / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2018

Our building problem is just the opposite of Etienne Jules Marey’s famous inquiry into the physiology of movement. Through the invention of his “photographic gun,” he wanted to arrest the flight of a gull so as to be able to see in a fixed format every single successive freeze-frame of a continuous flow of flight, the mechanism of which had eluded all observers until his invention. What we need is the reverse: the problem with buildings is that they look desperately static. It seems almost impossible to grasp them as movement, as flight, as a series of transformations. Everybody knows—and especially architects, of course—that a building is not a static object but a moving project, and that even once it is has been built, it ages, it is transformed by its users, modified by all of what happens inside and outside, and that it will pass or be renovated, adulterated and transformed beyond recognition. We know this, but the problem is that we have no equivalent of Marey’s photographic gun: when we picture a building, it is always as a fixed, stolid structure that is there in four colors in the glossy magazines that customers flip through in architects’ waiting rooms. If Marey was so frustrated not to be able to picture in a successive series of freeze-frames the flight of a gull, how irritating it is for us not to be able to picture, as one continuous movement, the project flow that makes up a building. Marey had the visual input of his eyes and was able to establish the physiology of flight only after he invented an artificial device (the photographic gun); we too need an artificial device (a theory in this case) in order to be able to transform the static view of a building into one among many successive freeze-frames that could at last document the continuous flow that a building always is.

„Die kann lesen wie eine Hexe“ . Sprachobsession, Kunstkonzeptionen und Politik bei Joseph von Sonnenfels und Friedrich Schlegel

Author(s): Cornelia Eșianu / Language(s): German / Issue: 19/2019

Der Schwerpunkt des Beitrags gilt dem Versuch einer überblicksartigen Durchleuchtung des kulturellen Verhältnisses von Joseph von Sonnenfels und Friedrich Schlegel auf den Ebenen von Sprache, Kunst und Politik und deren möglichen Wechselbeziehungen. Von Bedeutung für das Zusammentreffen des Deutschen mit dem Österreicher dürfte das Jahr 1812 gewesen sein, von dem ausgehend in diesem Beitrag die Analyse der kulturellen Gegenüberstellung der beiden Persönlichkeiten startet, deren Werk in der Regel unterschiedlichen literaturgeschichtlichen Epochen – Aufklärung und Romantik – zugeordnet wird. Dabei wird festgehalten, dass dieser Analyse die permanenten, wenn auch oppositionellen, mitunter doch konträren Kunstüberlegungen in Theorie und Praxis (Literatur, bildende wie darstellende Kunst) beider Autoren vorausgehen.

„Filar postawy anty-bożej”. Immanuel Kant w horyzoncie myśli filozofów rosyjskich (z Pawłem Florenskim w tle)

Author(s): Jerzy Kapuścik / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 122/2008

The article is an attempt to present the attitude of Russian religious thinkers to the teaching of Immanuel Kant on the problem of the limits of gnoseology and the critique of cognition based on the rational element, as well as to his metaphysics of morality. The interest in Kant’s philosophical system in Russia, which dates back to the visit of Nikolai Karamzin in Kant’s house in Koenigsberg in 1789, developed in the first half of the 19th century and reached its apogee at the turn of the 19th century – the Silver  Age of Russian culture. The Russians perceived the author of the Critique of Pure Reason as the inventor of “true” philosophy, which had general significance.  The article does not aim at specifying strict limits of interest in Kant, but looks for its source. Doubtless, it was the period of Romanticism, with its other popular idealistic philosophers such as F. Schelling and G. Hegel, that contributed to the reception of the great German philosopher in the spirit of universalism. They were considered to be discoverers of  a new way of thinking, oriented to individual freedom and based on two elements — reason and “ideal intuition.” Among the philosophical systems, the one developed by Kant proved to be particularly long lasting. Regardless of the contradictory assessments by Russian religious thinkers, he has been regarded as the teacher of Russians until today. They criticized him, however, for excessive confidence in human reason and for questioning the divine order of the world. The article discusses in detail the sources of the Russian “weakness” for Kant, who combined the strictly logical thinking and the idea of God as a peculiar “thing in itself” or, in other words, a postulate of practical reason. The understanding of individual freedom by the Koenigsberg scholar met with the polemic of Russian thinkers too, who represented a “we philosophy”.  The author of the article notes that the problems of Kant’s metaphysics of morality, which assumed that man “makes himself,” as well as the gnoseological issues, such as understanding of the truth and limits of cognition, evoked a sharp critique of Pavel Florensky — one of the most prominent philosophers of the Russian Silver Age.  

„GESUNDHEIT“ UND „KRANKHEIT“ IN DER MUSIK: EIN PROBLEMAUFRISS

Author(s): Dorothea Redepenning / Language(s): German / Issue: 2/2018

The article synthesizes the cultural, historical and philosophical problem areas arising from the relationship of health / disease and music, with a focus on Western European music of the 19th and early 20th century. A first section gives an introductory overview of the representations of disease in operas and instrumental music. A second section examines medical histories of composers and the question of whether and to what extent illness may have had an effect on the creative process. In particular, works by Robert Schumann are examined in the light of his syphilis disease. Schumann was inspired by E. T. A. Hoffmann’s insane Kapellmeister Kreisler to write a piano cycle Kreisleriana, which gives the impression of insanity with compositional means. But the creation of such music and the structures of this music are anything but “insane”, they are well thought out to evoke the effect of madness. A very different impression brings the so-called Ghost Variations, a small cycle, Schumann’s last work. He believed that the music was given to him by angels – base is a subject that he had previously used in several works. The third part discusses the narrative of “ill art” on the one hand in the perspective it received from the Italian psychiatrist and coroner Cesare Lombroso. Illness, especially mental illness, in his opinion generates “degenerate” art. Illness, especially mental illness, in his opinion generates “degenerate” art. On the other hand, the opposite view is illuminated, pointing the disease, especially mental illness as a sign of the Chosen One. Thomas Mann embraces this perspective when he speaks of “genius-donating disease” in his Doctor Faustus. At the end there is an outlook on the ideological abuse of innovative art.

„Jesteśmy zepsuci do ostatnich granic”, czyli Mandeville’a niewygodna prawda o nas samych

Author(s): Agnieszka Droś / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 7/2018

The philosopher of the Enlightenment, Bernard Mandeville, perceived the roots of human nature in faults, which, if used appropriately, will build the power of the state. One of the areas he discussed was prostitution, which was both common as well as illegal and immoral. According to Mandeville sexual desire is entrenched deeply in human nature and it is impossible to eradicate it. The illegality of brothels contradicts human needs and therefore, raises many problems and leads to the detriment of society, contributing to the spread of venereal diseases and rape as well as limiting state income. According to the author, there is no clear boundary between good and evil and sometimes good comes from evil. In his view, Mandeville destroyed the contemporary worldview, becoming an ostracized author.

„Pabėgimas į tėvynę“: egzegetinės strategijos istorija

Author(s): Tatjana Aleknienė / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 57/2016

Šis straipsnis apibendrintai perteikia kelių mano prancūzų kalba parašytų tyrimų, skirtų Filono Aleksandriečio egzegetinių veikalų vaidmeniui filosofinės egzegezės istorijoje, rezultatus. Siekiu įrodyti du tradicinėms filosofijos istorikų nuostatoms prieštaraujančius teiginius: 1) žydų Raštų egzegetas Filonas Aleksandrietis (apie 25 m. pr. Kr. – 45 m. po Kr.) laikytinas vienu iš filosofinės nefilosofinių tekstų egzegezės pradininkų; 2) Aleksandrijoje ilgai mokslus ėjęs filosofas Plotinas (apie 205–270 m.) veikiausiai buvo susipažinęs su egzegetiniais Filono Aleksandriečio veikalais.Už galimybę atsidėti nuodugnesniam „Teaiteto“ egzegetinės „formulės“ plėtotės platonizmo tradicijoje tyri¬mui esu dėkinga Lietuvos mokslo tarybai, finansavusiai mano vykdytą mokslo projektą „Filonas Aleksandrietis ir filosofinė graikų kultūra“ (MIP-064/2014). The article provides a survey of the results of several of my studies published in French and dedicated to the role of Philo of Alexandria’s exegetical works in the history of philosophical exegesis. My aim is to prove two statements which contradict traditional views among the historians of philosophy, namely: a) that the exegete of the Jewish Scriptures Philo of Alexandria (ca 25 BC – 45 AD) should be considered as one of those who initiated philosophical interpretation of non-philosophical texts; b) that the philosopher Plotinus (ca 205–270), who has studied in Alexandria for a long period of time, probably knew Philo of Alexandria’s exegetical works. For the possibility to consecrate myself to a thorough analysis of the exegetical development of the formula of Theaetetus in the Platonic tradition, I am grateful to the Research Council of Lithuania which financed my research project „Philo of Alexandria and Greek philosophical culture“ (MIP-064/2014).

„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.

„Дон Kихот“ като трактат за реалността

(въз основа на „Размишления върху „Дон Кихот“)

Author(s): Javier San Martín / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2016

Referring to some of the basic ideas of “Reflections on Don Quixote”, Javier San Martin analyzes the philosophical approach of Ortega to the book “Don Quixote” by Cervantes. The article presents the intertextuality of the “Reflections” and explicates three different notions of reality deriving from various cultural and historical periods. According to the article’s author Ortega appreciates “Don Quixote" as metanarrative of Modernity, because the mind is presented in the novel as a problem in itself.

„За“ обяснителната фундаменталност на диспозиционните обяснения

Author(s): Dimitar Elchinov / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2019

I argue that dispositional explanations which explain researchers’ behaviour are explanatory fundamental. In summary, my argument states the following: 1)an explanation which explains another explanation is fundamental; 2)non-dispositional explanations are actions; 3)dispositional explanations explain actions; 4)thus dispositional explanations are fundamental

„Интерферентната култура“: геополитика на маргиналния феномен

Author(s): Corneliu Bîlbă / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 44/1/2015

A former professor at the University of Amsterdam and currently a professor at the University of Bucharest, Sorin Alexandrescu is not only a specialist in semiotics, literary criticism, narratology, and poetics, but also a reputed historian of Romanian modernity. His studies of cultural history, such as Romanian Paradox (1998), Looking backward: Modernity (1999) or Identity in Rupture (2000), analyze the founding moments of modern Romanian culture with concepts and methods derived from cultural discourse theory, Foucauldian archeology or textual deconstruction. In this article, I analyze Sorin Alexandrescu’s discourse of method, which can be found in the prefaces of his books on Romanian intellectual history. Dealing with some methodological issues forged by Nietzsche, Foucault, and Ricoeur, Alexandrescu proposes perspectivism as a general strategy of cultural studies. He refutes the sanctifi cation of culture by modern historiography since that sanctification makes impossible a critical reflection on oneself. Such a critical approach does accept breaks, discontinuities, ruptures and Otherness; it allows to look at oneself through the eyes of the other. This does not mean defining Romanian culture as marginal but as interference culture since the distinction between center and periphery is perspectival. Alexandrescu admits that his method for analyzing the discursive strategies of modern cultural historiography is not only a form of resistance, but also (could be) a form of power-knowledge. His metahistorical reflection is a kind of self-analysis, a hermeneutics of the subject in which one can learn how to resist Foucault.

ЭКЗИСТЕНЦИЯ, ЭКЗИСТЕНЦИАЛ И ТЕЛЕСНОСТЬ ЧЕЛОВЕКА: ОСНОВНЫЕ ТОЧКИ ПЕРЕСЕЧЕНИЯ

Author(s): Olga Olegovna Dasaeva / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 1/2015

The paper justifies that human corporeality can be regarded as an existential. The concepts of existence, existential, and phenomenal body are analyzed. The human body is proved to be existential after considering it as a mode of existential experience and analyzing phenomenal corporeality. The main features of existentiality and existence are singled out. Their relation to the human body is emphasized. Considerable attention is paid to the body transcendence. At the same time, the borderline nature of corporeality in the world is stressed. The novelty of the problem is that the human body is not considered as an obstacle to existence, but rather as an existential entity.

Я КАК ДРУГОЙ В ТВОРЧЕСТВЕ ДИАНЫ АРБЕНИНОЙ

Author(s): Anton Sergeyevich Afanasiev / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 2/2014

The article deals with a topical problem in modern humanities studies, i.e. the problem of personal self-identification. The investigation covers the methods of representation of this problem in the works of Diana Arbenina. Based on the play “Motofozo”, it is proved that Arbenina’s philosophy is remarkable for the perception of the Self as the Other. For the harmonious existence of a person, it is necessary that the external Self be united with the internal Self (the Other).