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There is much talk about “Plato-Kant canon”, but it is no less legitimate discourse about the “canon of Aristotle-Kant”. This communication aims to support the thesis about “Aristotle-Kant canon” with arguments from Aristotle’s work influences history on European metaphysics.
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In the paper the author analyses forms, manifestation and mythological aspects of borders or terminal lines in the Slovak and Czech folk tales. The author focuses on the metaphorical, magical and mythological value of water surface, bridge, house and wood like boundaries between life and death.
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In this article, I contribute to ongoing debates about the status of fictional names. The main debate in the philosophy of language focuses on whether fictional names should be thought of as non-referring terms (this is anti-realism) or referring terms (this is realism). This debate corresponds to a debate in metaphysics about the ontological status of fictional characters: the anti-realist claim that fictional characters do not exist while the realist say that they do exist in some sense. Although anti-realism is pre-theoretically intuitive, it has been challenged by a powerful argument in favour of realism based on so-called “metafictional” uses of fictional terms. This argument puts a lot of pressure on the anti-realist, for they have to come up with a theory of metafictional sentences which is in keeping with the anti-realist central tenet. I show that the existing anti-realist account of metafictional statements is wrong-headed. I thus propose a new one. In doing so, I hope to free the anti-realist from the realist pressure. However, I do not offer any argument against realism. Consequently, I merely claim that anti-realism be a live option. My modest proposal will, perhaps, make anti-realism more attractive than it is today among philosophers of language.
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Human nature, human condition, human destiny are all concepts used by E. Bernea in his philosophy to configure the backbone of an anthropological concept aimed at perfecting the human being in the sense of its elevation to a superior level of wisdom and virtue. This target cannot be reached unless the creative spirit intervenes as a generative factor for human being's affective and emotional development as well as intellectual, cultural and moral/spiritual. Human spirit is however studied by another specialization – anthroposophy. Therefore the human philosophical issues approached by Ernest Berne arrange between philosophical anthropology and anthroposophy. This is how we understand why his two main posthumous works – Philosophical meditations. Notes for an outdated philosophy and Small treaty of wisdom and virtue – Ernest Bernea tackles on almost the whole of the philosophical anthropology – human nature, human condition, human origin, man himself, man for others, human relationships with nature and society, basic laws of being and human existence – in conjunction with the ideational area of anthroposophy, with the explicit aim of underlining the decisive role of the spirit in the existence and functioning of man.
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The article discusses the images of ecstasy in the novel Uvod u lebdenje, the last novel by Dževad Karahasan. The experience that Peter Hurd, a poet and great connoisseur of classical Greek culture, undergoes in besieged Sarajevo is treated through a series of images associated with ecstatic cults, but it is also linked to the ecstasy that this poet experiences when under the influence of opiates and drugs. His ecstasy culminates during his visit to Pale, where Peter, together with Serbian soldiers shoots at Sarajevo and goes with a Canadian UNPROFOR general to a house where captive women are being raped. Considering that a year after leaving the besieged city Peter Hurd experiences a complete mental breakdown, conclusions are drawn about the differences between ecstasy within Greek cults and chemically induced contemporary ecstasy. Karahasan’s novel is treated with respect to the characteristics of the Menippean satire, the importance of shame and the role of being a witness, as Karahasan’s important themes. By pointing out the connection of this novel with Plato’s writings, it is shown that through the fate of Peter Hurd, Karahasan has shown that ecstasy in the European culture has undergone a transformation: from the knowledge of the divine towards forgetting oneself.
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In German Modern Philosophy at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the prevailing view was that Kant, with his critical idealism, both fulfilled and overcame Hume's skeptical philosophy. This paper begins by exploring Jacobi's motivation to revisit the meaning and value of Hume's philosophy—particularly Hume's concept of belief—at a time when Kantian thought was emerging as the dominant philosophical paradigm. The central part of the paper examines Hume's understanding of belief. The author considers how Hume's problematization of the causal relation, which underpins knowledge about matters of fact, leads to a broader inquiry into the basis of belief. For Jacobi, however, the recognition that knowledge is founded on Glaube (a term encompassing both faith and belief) does not merely expose its uncertainty as rooted in the subject's habitual tendencies. Drawing on recent interpretative perspectives, the author argues that Jacobi's concept of faith seeks to disclose an attitude of mind that transcends the fixed dichotomy between subject and object, as well as their abstract unity. Instead, Jacobi envisions their unity in difference, emphasizing an immediate actuality of this dynamic, living relationship. This notion of faith, as developed by Jacobi, emerges as one of the most significant inspirations for post-Kantian philosophy.
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This study is dedicated to examining the motif of light in the thought of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and St. Augustine. In both cases, the motif of light is tied to the fundamental Christian problem of the ineffability of God; the two thinkers offer two very different responses to this problem. In line with his apophatic theology, Areopagite opts for an extremely unusual solution embodied in the formulation of the divine darkness, as a double negation of earthly light. In contrast, St. Augustine argues for the possibility of gradual enlightenment of the soul through knowledge leading up to discernment, but not the vision of the divine inaccessible light.
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That the human reason cannot gain knowledge of the world as a totality – is one of the main results of Kant’s critical philosophy. By the concept of the world – and Kant understood the world primarily as one of the reason’s concepts, an idea – one cannot gain any knowledge because nothing from the sphere of human experience corresponds to this concept. According to Kant, the author tries to show that striving towards transcendent and unconditioned as such is not the crucial problem of metaphysical cosmology but the assumption that one can realize such striving within a theoretical area. Kant, on the contrary, claims that we can fulfill it only practically, so the question concerning the world as a whole for him is a practical question, too. The task of establishing the world as intelligible, as it should be or as a kingdom of ends, is the basis of Kant’s doctrine of the categorical imperative. Kant understands this establishment as an endless task. The author also considers political-historical and religious aspects of Kant’s understanding of the world as an idea, as well as Hegel’s claim that Kant’s thought of the world finally capitulates to the finiteness.
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The paper analyzes the personalist view of Kant’s thought in general and the personalist criticism of Kant’s understanding of human dignity and natural law. It is pointed out the way in which the results of that criticism were realized as a personalist concept of human dignity, which was also reflected in the fundamental legal acts on human rights. Concluding considerations are presented in the light of contemporary discussions of the reception of the origin of the legal foundation of human dignity.
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The Christian view of man is often intertwined with the philosophical idea of homo viator (pilgrim man). Gabriel Marcel, the father of Christian existentialism, attempts to weave together the relevant strands of religion and philosophy in his book Homo viator: Introduction to the Metaphysics of Hope. We often interpret the lifespan of a few decades on Earth as a journey, a wander. This observation has led to a number of questions: from where did we come from and where will we arrive? If we are passing travellers, how should we relate appropriately to the world and to those who are travelling with us in the same time and space? And in what sense does Peter’s first letter call his addressees “aliens” and “exiles” (1 Peter 1:1; 2:11)? This presentation will highlight the context of Peter’s first letter in which the author provides an eschatological grounding for Christian identity. Yet, this identity, in turn, can be understood not only in the theological tradition of the people of Israel, but also in the new existence in which we can participate through baptism. The cornerstone of this identity is found in 1 Peter 2:2: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation”(ESV). As we shall see, the petrine context intersects with, and at some point surpasses, the issues raised by the philosophical aspects of homo viator.
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Recall the Rabin-Keisler theorem which gives a lower bound κω for the size of proper elementary extensions of complete structures of size κ, provided that κ is an infinite cardinal below the first measurable cardinal. We survey – and at places clarify and extend – some facts which connect the Rabin-Keisler theorem, sizes of ultrapowers, combinatorial properties of ultrafilters, and large cardinals.
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We survey some lesser-known facts concerning properties of embeddings and projections between forcing notions. We will also state some generalizations of Easton’s lemma. To our knowledge, many of these facts have not been published, so we include their proofs for the benefit of the reader.
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Izvješća o relacijama između Nietzschea i Kanta uobičajeno se fokusiraju na moral i povezane metafizičke probleme poput kategoričkog imperativa, moralne odgovornosti i slobodne volje1 , ili na epistemološke teme poput Nietzscheove kritike Kantovog gledišta da imamo konceptualne resurse za smislenu reprezentaciju stvari po sebi.2 Suprotno tome, u ovom eseju ću razmatrati epistemološki i metodološki razdor između ovih dvaju mislilaca o mogućnostima racionalne samokritike: aktivnost u kojoj um refletira o svojim kognitivnim moćima, odvaja pravilnu upotrebu i ograničenja te moći i prema tome postiže sistematično potpun uvid u ono što možemo i ne možemo znati. Kant potvrđuje dok Nietzsche poriče da možemo uspješno provesti takav prema sebi usmjeren racionalni upit. Moja namjera je da razumijem njihove argumente i korijenje njihovog razilaženja.
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The philosophy of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, shaped by the historical context of the Renaissance and an academic environment inclined toward syncretism, leaves an impression of a complex and stratified system to this day. In his philosophical approach to the knowledge of God, Pico relies on various philosophical and theological sources, thereby constructing a distinctive representation of the spiritual journey toward a mystical union with God. The authors explore his philosophical approach to the knowledge of God through three points, or degrees, by which human introspection, philosophical inquiry, and theological reflection lead toward God. After a brief overview of Pico’s thesis with respect to the capacity of knowing God, the authors go on to elaborate on the position of rationality and the capacity to abstract the attributes of God, as well as the nature of contemplation and the mystical union with God, relying on Oration on the Dignity of Man (De hominis dignitate) and On Being and Unity (De ente et uno).
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Review of: Jonathan Fuqua, Robert C. Koons (eds.), Classical Theism: New Essays on the Metaphysics of God. London: Routledge, 2023, X + 344 pp.
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Review of: Matt Lutz, Spencer Case, Is Morality Real? A Debate. London: Routledge, 2023, First Edition 260 pp.
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Review of: Douglas Groothuis, Beyond the Wager: The Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal. Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2024, 224 pp.
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Review of: Danijel Tolvajčić, Teodicejski problem u suvremenoj filozofiji religije. Zagreb, Grafički zavod Hrvatske d.o.o., 2023, 151 pp.
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In this essay Nikos Chryssos explores the intellectual and creative journey of Nikos Kazantzakis, a towering figure in 20th-century Greek literature and philosophy. Kazantzakis engaged with a wide range of philosophical and ideological influences, including Nietzsche, Bergson, Darwin, and Eastern metaphysics, which shaped his distinctive worldview and literary output. His works reflect a profound struggle to reconcile opposing ideas such as nihilism and spirituality, as well as his quest for freedom, creative evolution, and existential meaning. The essay highlights key milestones in Kazantzakis’ intellectual life, including his formative education, his encounters with major thinkers, and his synthesis of diverse philosophical traditions. Central to his philosophy is a dynamic conception of God, characterized by a relentless pursuit of transcendence and creative freedom, which challenges orthodox religious dogma. The text also examines the dualistic and dialogical elements in his writing, exemplified in works such as Zorba the Greek, The Saviors of God, and Report to Greco, where metaphysical, theological, and existential questions are interwoven with vivid storytelling.
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In these two lectures, held in two different years and places, two different works by Kazantzakis are discussed, but they are united by one element: spirituality. There is also a comparative reading between him and his friend, Unamuno, respectively between the two philosophical works: Asceticism and Tragic Sense of Life. First lectures search for the relation between two great writers and friends, the next one focused only in question about writing the gospel by Matthew.
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