Semiotics and culture: The perception of time as a semiotic problem

Author(s): Boris Uspenskij / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2017

The perception of time is culturally conditioned which means that in different cultures time may be experienced – perceived, conceptualized and evaluated – in diverse ways. The distinction between past, present and future seems to be a universal phenomenon, but the relations of these categories may be different in different cultural codes. The author defines two models of temporal perception, ‘historical’ and ‘cosmological’, analysing the conceptualization of time in each of them.

History as geography: In search for Russian identity

Author(s): Mihhail Lotman / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2017

This article addresses the notion of a Russian spacetime, in which the spatial parameters constitute one of the most important constant of history. This constant is not dependent on the governing ideology. What changes is the evaluative, that is, the most superficial, component; what is a matter of pride for some people, is a discredit to others. Yet nobody seems to contest the dominant of spatiality. In the article, a typology of this betweenness is offered; different Russian ideologists have used all options that are theoretically possible.

A strawberry, an animal cry and a human subject: Where existential semiotics, biosemiotics and relational metaphysics seem to meet one another

Author(s): Katarzyna Machtyl / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2019

The article discusses some semiotic approaches to the relation between nature and culture. Starting with outlining the structuralistic approach to this issue, especially the ideas of Juri Lotman and Algirdas Julien Greimas, the author finds parallels between different views on the relation between the natural world and human beings. First, the juxtaposition of Eero Tarasti’s existential semiotics with selected concepts of biosemiotics is discussed. The following part of the paper is dedicated to Bruno Latour’s ideas on nature–culture relation, hybrids and mediations. Then the author refers to Lotman’s notion of the semiosphere as the common space for all living and inanimate elements. Closing the paper with a return to biosemiotics, the author comes back to Tarasti’s ideas and compares these with some ideas in biosemiotics, paying special attention to the concepts of unpredictability, choice and dynamics. The comparison shows that some intuitions, assumptions and theses of these different scholars turn out to be surprisingly convergent. The author believes that the outlined parallels between Tarasti’s view, Latour’s and Lotman’s concepts, and biosemiotics may be promising for further research, inviting detailed study.

Izlaganje Kantove kritike racionalne teologije kao priloga tezi o nesuvislosti religijskih sukoba

Author(s): Safer Grbić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 35/2021

What is the significance of Kant's critique of metaphysics and in particular of his critique of rational theology in the context of the question of the incoherence of religious conflicts? Precisely concerning this relationship, this paper will consider a brief history of thinking of a phenomenon called rational theology, then in this context, we will consider Kant's precritical work and later presentation of a critique of rational theology, all in the context of questioning the relationship enumerated with religious conflicts. The hypothesis of this paper is reflected in proving the relationship between Kant's critique of rational theology and the idea of the inconsistency of religious conflicts in such a way that the inconsistency of religious conflicts is based on the results of Kant's critique: the impossibility of certainty and knowledge. So, finally, and according to the results of Kant's main work Kritik der reinen Vernunft: why make religious conflicts serious at all when we cannot objectively prove the existence of the religious idea of God – who is the reason religious conflicts themselves, by their definition, are serious!?

Hajdeger o Baumgartenu

Author(s): Una Popović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 35/2021

This paper brings forth an interpretation of a few Heidegger’s comments on Baumgarten, presented in his lecture The Question Concerning the Thing. The analysis shows Heidegger’s focus on the relation between metaphysics and aesthetics in Baumgarten, and also that Baumgarten’s foundation of aesthetics is related to modern understanding of a being as a thing and as an object of perception. The results imply a very important role of Heidegger’s critique of Baumgarten in his project of overcoming of aesthetics. Also, they allow for an insightful interpretation of some of the key aspects of Heidegger’s philosophy of art.

Ce este și cum poate fi cunoscut „datul”

Author(s): Viorel Cernica / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 17/2021

In „Teoria cunoștinței” (Theory of knowledge), the author N. Bagdasar enunciated the following idea: the metaphysics is conditioned by the theory of knowledge, since the first is a knowledge placed from the beginning under rules. After I will emphasise the Kantian sense of this idea and depict the manner in which the author explains Auguste Comte’s positivism in relation with the meaning of ‘positive’ (given) in that context, I will put into discussion two theories about the unknowability of a “fact” that is in its possibility an object of knowledge. The first, belonging to Mircea Florian, can be deemed as “ontologically negative” and privileges the idea of a suspension of knowledge in the front of the given (an object to be known, in its possibility). The second, belonging to J.-L. Marion, which can be labelled as “cognitively negative”, suggests the idea of „negative certitudes” – in connection to the recognizing, in some situations, of the unknowability of the given (an object to be known, in its possibility). Both theories condition the “power” of knowledge by the nature of object of knowledge, also assuming that this power, when questions its own possibilities, can produce unknowability. In this perspective, the two theories discussed here and Comte’s positive philosophy draw similar conclusions. The references to a possible relation between metaphysics and theory of knowledge will be maintained in the following, but the formal privilege that the last has towards the first in Bagdasar’s view will be relativized.

Controversa „Ignorabimus” în România secolului al XIX-lea: Conștiința ca limită a cunoașterii științifice

Author(s): Mona Mamulea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 17/2021

Du Bois-Reymond’s „Ignorabimus” could have been a game changer in the last decades of 19th century, but it wasn’t. The sound argument of the German physiologist concerning the limits of natural science, although it was indeed taken seriously and confronted by all means, was in fact so severely distorted by opponents that one could hardly recognize it in the straw men generated in the process. By scrutinizing three less known approaches dug up from 19th century Romanian literature, the present paper focuses on the theoretical commitments that prevented the consciousness issue to be properly addressed.

KOSMIČKI PLES DIJALOGA!

Author(s): Leonard Swidler / Language(s): Bosnian,English Issue: 2/2020

The author starts from the obvious statement that no one knows everything about everything and that we can have only partial knowledge of any limited study of reality, although, when it comes to religion, many still claim to know everything they need to know. Since people cannot know everything, dialogue is necessary, because through a conversation with another, a person learns what he cannot notice from his place and with his personal lenses of knowledge. Dialogue is not just a way to get more information: Dialogue is a whole new way of thinking! Dialogue in its broadest sense is at the very heart of the cosmos, that is, the very essence of the cosmos and our humanity is dialogical, and fulfilled human life is the highest expression of the Cosmic Dance of Dialogue. Therefore, the author emphasizes, we humans today have an obvious choice: dialogue or death! The text points out that there are three main dimensions of dialogue, which correspond to the structure of humanity: The dialogue of the head, hands and heart in the holistic harmony of the holy man. In the dialogue of the head we reach out to those who think differently from us to understand how they see the world and the reason for their behavior. The world is too complicated for anyone to figure it out on their own. In hand dialogue, we team up with others to make the world a better place where we all need to live together. In the dialogue of the heart we open ourselves to perceive/receive the beauty of the other. The author concludes that people cannot live divided. If they want to survive, and even flourish, they must not only dance individually the dialogues of head, hand, and heart but also bring together the various parts in harmony.

Usporedba političkih teologija Carla Schmitta i Johanna Baptista Metza: analognost i kontrapunkt

Author(s): Ivica Raguž,Mirko Vlk / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 4/2021

The article compares the political theologies of Carl Schmitt and Johann Baptist Metz to point out the analogy between these two seemingly different projects, which, despite all the similarities, stand in counterpoint when it comes to the intention of their founders. Their analogy stems from the very structure of political theology as a reflection on the relationship between religion and politics. Thus, both political theologies are structural in nature, developing the metaphysical and hermeneutic framework to analyze their material object. Likewise, they adopt a negative theological anthropology to emphasize the adverse nature of human existence. Finally, Schmitt and Metz rely on the disruptive-critical element of political theology – the fact that the sociopolitical life of the entire community lies in a reciprocal relationship with the religious beliefs of its members – to point out how man’s subjectivity is not limited to history but transcends it.

Martin LUTHER: "Ispovijest vjere (1528.). Uvodna studija i prijevod Ivan Macut – Dinko Aračić"

Author(s): Emanuel Petrov / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 3/2021

Review of: Martin LUTHER: "Ispovijest vjere (1528.). Uvodna studija i prijevod Ivan Macut – Dinko Aračić" – Franjevačka provincija Presvetog Otkupitelja – Služba Božja, Split,2021., 136 p. Reviewed by: Emanuel Petrov.

O filozofsko-teološkim učenjima imama El-Haremejna Džuvejnija

Author(s): Hasan Džilo,Šinazi Memedi / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 88/2021

The article analyses some philosophical-theological teachings of Al-Juwayni, known by the title Imamu-l-Haramain (leading master in Mecca and Medina) of whom until now nothing has been written. He was a great theologian, open towards various affinities of human spirit. His theological-philosophical thought is characterised by a thorough and deep analysis of the main theological issues that were in the focus of discussions within two philosophical-theological schools of Islam – Mut’azila and Ash’ariyya. He provides a deeper support for the teachings of Al-Ashari, like Baqilani, Fakhrud-din Razi and Gazali. Metaphysical, ethical and epistemological issues are overlapping in his teachings. He advocates rational cognition and rational theology whose chief subjects are the main religious teachings, like arguments for the existence of God, the relation between God’s being and His attributes, creation of the world and man’s free will. Elaborating on the teachings on these issues of Al-Ashari school, Juwayni, under the influence of teachings of Ibn Sina’ and his disciples in Persia, introduces some thoughts that are by large shrouded in a metaphysical form. Juwayni’s work demonstrates consistent theological teachings which in their metaphysical, epistemological, ethical and legal aspects are truly worthy of serious analysis.

Refleksija i spekulacija. Rani Hegelov koncept logike kao samokritike refleksije

Author(s): Nevena Jevtić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 36/2021

The author of this paper will present Hegel’s concepts of reflection and speculation, in the way they were developed in his Differenzschrift. Reflection and speculation, being connected and conditioned intellectual procedures, are in fact able to fulfil twofold task of philosophy, i. e. the critical task of introduction and systematic task of developing of philosophy. As a radical grasping into the antinomy of reflection, as a way of exposing the antinomies in the absolute identity itself, self-critical reflection is the method of reason or speculation. In manuscript of Hegel’s lecture from 1804/5, Logic – Metaphysics – Philosophy of Nature, taking logical development of the forms of judgment as an example, the self-criticism of reflexive categories is obvious. This early concept of logic, which Hegel calls logic of reflection or logic of understanding, plays a role of the introduction to metaphysics.

Pitanje o stvari: Hajdeger o kategorijalnim bivstvujućima

Author(s): Una Popović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 36/2021

This paper is about the problem of understanding of non-human beings in Heidegger's philosophy during 1930's. My point is to stress the importance of this problem is in Heidegger's later philosophy, in comparison to his early thought. I will try to show that 'thing' is the main Heidegger's notion denoting categorial kind of beings. I will also present the problem of space as the key perspective for the interpretation of categorial beings. The results of these analyses should enable further and more precise interpretation of particular topics of Heidegger's thought, such as question of artwork, of thing, of building, etc.

Good Will and Spontaneity in Communication

Author(s): Nerijus Stasiulis / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The article is based on the interpretation of Kant’s notion of good will with regard to its meaning for successful communication. It seeks to delineate its necessary relation to spontaneity as opposed to a strictly closed definition – the spontaneity in language as crucial for communication. Agambenian and Wittgensteinian musings on language and paradigm are employed for that purpose. The art of comedy is seen to illustrate the communication based on spontaneity and paradigm and the art of tragedy is seen to depict the condition of radical incommunicability. Alongside this linguistic and epistemological approach, the discussion of the issue also includes the ontological aspect, i.e. the Agambenian-Aristotelian notion of potentiality is described as akin to the Kantian good will (Ding an sich) and is seen as the necessary (and perhaps also sufficient) condition for (successful) communication.

NAE IONESCU ȘI RĂZBUNAREA PATRIARHULUI

Author(s): Anton Adămuț / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 45/2020

In the inter-war period, Romania was shaken by a very unusual event. Nae Ionescu, Professor for Logics and Metaphysics at the University of Bucharest, was painted as a devil on a fresco depicting the Judgement Day on the wall of the Patriarchal Cathedral. Where did such a revenge of the Patriarch Miron Cristea came from and what were the circumstances are the questions of the present article.

On the Possibility of a New (Meta)Figure

Author(s): Kristiyan Enchev / Language(s): English Issue: 50/2022

Utopia absenței răului ca premisă a acestuia (studiu de caz: romanul Noi de Evgheni Zamiatin)

Author(s): Delia Doina Mihalache / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 3/2014

The problem of evil has raised many concerns among the philosophers and theologians, which tried during centuries of Christianity, and even before, to give a plausible answer to the question of evil’s existence onto the world. Thus, based on competent opinions, we intend to discuss in this paper the problem of evil in relation to the dystopian fiction of Yevgeny Zamyatin, We, and the attempt, made by the One State, to eliminate evil (under all its aspects: social, moral, metaphysical, natural). We will try to prove that such endeavors are not only against human nature and the nature of God, but are also unsustainable in the long term, for, in order to reach a certain degree of authenticity, the freedom of choice must be maintained. The good, according to the opinions quoted in the paper, means not the constraint to do good, but the choice to do it – in the context in which the evil was also possible; thus choice represents, in the end, the defining element of any conceptual distinction between good and evil.

Yeni Çağ İnanışlarının Çeşitli Değişkenlerle İlişkisi Üzerine Bir Araştırma: Bursa Örneği

Author(s): Ekber Şah Ahmedi / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 1/2022

This study examines new age beliefs, which can be considered as individual religiosity. The study aims to measure the relationship between new age beliefs and the level of religious knowledge and religiosity of individuals. As known, classical secularization theorists predicted that religious, mythological, and similar supernaturalist structures will gradually lose their importance with the modernization process. In other words, according to classical secularization theories, metaphysically based beliefs will weaken and lose their prestige as a result of the differentiation and rationalization of societies. Besides, religiosity will not only lose its decisive influence on social institutions but will also be significantly withdrawn from the life of the individual. However, although it has lost its decisive role in directing life relatively in (post)modern societies compared to the past, it can be stated that religion still exists in different forms as an important social institution. In other words, it can be argued that religion takes on different forms in societies where institutional religion has weakened. There is no consensus on how these forms of religiosity should be defined. However, concepts such as new religions, cults, esoteric movements, new religious movements, new age beliefs, and new age spiritualism have been introduced to describe these phenomena. Although it is possible to bring together the aforementioned religious structures within the framework of the concept of new religiosity or new religion, the differences between them seem so important that they cannot be ignored. For this reason, the religious phenomena in question can be handled under two general headings as new religious movements and new age beliefs. The roots of new religious movements, which generally emerged by separating from traditional religions, go back to the 18th century. New religious movements such as Mormonism, which are shaped around a specific organization and authority, often point to a centralized religious structure. New age beliefs, on the other hand, are generally used to describe individual hybrid belief forms that do not have a central organization, have no authority, and are centered on self-development. It can be stated that both new religious movements and new age beliefs were born to perform functions that weakened institutional religions could not fulfill, and to offer a world of meaning to modern individuals who feel in a spiritual vacuum. It can be argued that these spiritualist movements, which started to emerge in Western Europe and the United States, especially after the Second World War, led to the questioning of the basic theses of classical secularization theories, which were put forward to explain the religious change in modern societies. It has been determined that similar religious structures have begun to gain visibility in our modernizing country. As a sociological phenomenon, it is important to investigate the subject by considering its different dimensions. In this context, the current research, which was planned in a quantitative design, used in addition to the demographic information form, the new age beliefs scale developed by Mevlüt Kaya and Cüneyt Aydın. The research was conducted with 382 students studying at various faculties/departments of Bursa Technical University and Bursa Uludağ University. The data obtained were analyzed using the SPSS 25 software. In the study, a negative correlation was found between the level of perceived religiosity and new age beliefs. In other words, the new age belief scores of individuals who see themselves as religious were lower than the other participants. In addition, in the research, an inversely proportional relationship was determined between academic religious knowledge and new age beliefs. According to the findings, the new age belief scores differ significantly according to the type of high school from which the individuals graduated and the department/faculty studied. In other words, the new age belief scores of imam hatip high school graduates are significantly lower than the anatolian high school, regular high school, vocational high school, and other high school graduates, and the scores of the students studying at the faculty of divinity are significantly lower than the students studying at other departments and faculties. In the light of the findings, it can be argued that the tendency of individuals to new religious forms will increase as institutional religiosity and religious knowledge decrease.

Legal Issues and Risks of the Artificial Intelligence Use in Space Activity

Author(s): Larysa Soroka,Anna Danylenko,Maksym Sokiran / Language(s): English Issue: 28/2022

Ever since the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the space sector, there have been progressive changes that brought both benefits and risks. AI technologies have started to influence human rights and freedoms, relationships with public authorities and the private sector. Therefore, the use of AI involves legal obligations caused by the influence and consequences of the dependency on the specified technologies. This indicates the need to investigate the issue of the legal problems and risks of using AI in space activity to identify, describe and explain legal issues and dilemmas in general and in the space sector in particular. The author has formulated theoretical definitions in the defined area through the logical-semantic approach. The comparative method has allowed us to carry out a comparative analysis of the AI legal regulation in the space sector in the USA, China and the EU. The authors have gone into rethinking the issue of action, cause-effect relationship, legal personality in matters of prosecution for damage caused by autonomous space objects. As well as combining the existing space law and its state-oriented responsibility with the space activity of private players using autonomous objects.

THE LATER L. WITTGENSTEIN’S WISE MATURITY: THE PHILOSOPHICAL QUARANTINE – FORBIDEN METAPHISICAL USES OF THE WORDS

Author(s): Anka URSAKE TKACHUK,Diana Kibak / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

Людвіг Вітгенштейн – один із найвпливовіших філософів ХХ століття, автор фундаментальних внесків у розвиток сучасної логіки та філософії мови. Він здійснив революцію в історії думки двома способами, в результаті чого в його філософії чітко виділяються два періоди: один, що відповідає описовій теорії значення, і інший, що підтримує практичний аспект мови і обертається навколо сентенції “значення слова полягає в його вживанні”. Мета статті – в історичному й історіософському ключі проаналізувати значення праць Л. Вітгенштейна “Філософські дослідження” і “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” та визначити способи відходу від метафізичного використання слів. Матеріали і методи. На основі праць Л. Вітгенштейна, історіографічних і філософських розвідок про них проаналізовано значення і місце міркувань Л. Вітгенштейна у філософській думці ХХ ст. за допомогою аналітичного і описового методів. Висновки Найбільшим досягненням другого періоду є “Філософські дослідження”, твір, який тривав двадцять років і був опублікований посмертно в 1951 році. Якщо його єдиний твір, опублікований за його життя, “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” вважається одним із найскладніших філософських творів і відображає думку раннього Вітгенштейна, “Філософське дослідження” вважається його найважливішою роботою, що висвітлює мудрість пізнього Вітгенштейна. Відхід від метафізичного використання слів за допомогою специфічних процедур, таких як мовні ігри, здатність чітко бачити образ слова, не обманюючи себе в загадкових інтерпретаціях, а лише вдаючись до простого процесу опису, роблять можливою філософію Вітгенштейна, концептуально засновану на уявленні про форму життя, спільну між членами спільноти в даний момент часу.