Contradictions Of Concepts Research Articles

An Examination of Red Dragon (2002) in Light of the Deleuzian Theory of Becoming‑Animal

This paper explores the character development in the movie Red Dragon (2002) in relation to the Deleuzian theory of becoming-animal, and paintings by William Blake. A character analysis is made on Francis Dolarhyde in light of the theory of becoming, and parallels are drawn between connectionism and relationality, apparent in both Blake’s paintings and the Deleuzian theory. It’s argued that the theory of becoming‑animal resonates with the character development in the film, and the connectivity and contradictions of concepts in Blake’s paintings by which Dolarhyde’s character is inspired. Dolarhyde’s character is described in terms of a continuous, non‑teleological process where he disrupts binaries between the man persona and the dragon alter ego, and is characterized by virtue of his becoming.

Contradiction and Kant’s Formula of Universal Law

AbstractKant’s most prominent formulation of the Categorical Imperative, known as the Formula of Universal Law (FUL), is generally thought to demand that one act only on maxims that one can will as universal laws without this generating a contradiction. Kant’s view is standardly summarized as requiring the ‘universalizability’ of one’s maxims and described in terms of the distinction between ‘contradictions in conception’ and ‘contradictions in the will’. Focusing on the underappreciated significance of the simultaneity condition included in the FUL, I argue, by contrast, that the principle is better read as requiring that one be able to will

Die Selbstreflexion des Marxismus.

The article argues that Adorno’s book Negative Dialectics is a major contribution to the Marxist debate. Adorno’s starting point is a critique of Marx’ eleventh Feuerbach-thesis that the world should not be longer interpreted but changed. After all the defeats that the left and Marxist theory had to experience since the middle of the 19th century Adorno argues for a renewal of theory by a self-reflexive turn of Marxism. As an important moment of this self-reflection a critical assessment of dialectics itself is necessary. Adorno criticized the traditional idea of the negation of negation and the expectation of a positive result as well as the notion of totality. Critically approaching Hegel, he sees him as the affirmative theorist of the tendency of the bourgeois society to totalize itself. In opposition to this – and in difference to any Hegel-Marxism – Adorno conceive of dialectics as negative i.e. it has itself a temporal index and is a form of intellectual appropriation of the world only under conditions of domination. To think in an emancipatory way then has as a consequence to develop a non-systematic theory and to be sensitive for the movements and contradictions of concepts that attract themselves and form constellations.

Kant’s Formula of the Universal Law of Nature Reconsidered

I criticize the widely accepted “practical” interpretation of the universality test contained in Kant’s first formula of the categorical imperative in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals – the formula of the universal law of nature. I argue that this interpretation does not work for contradictions in conception because it wrongly takes contradictions in the will as the model for them and, as a consequence, cannot establish a clear distinction between the two kinds of contradiction. This interpretation also assumes an understanding of universality that departs from Kant’s own and, cannot, for this reason, capture the kind of contradiction that he explicitly claims to establish. I provide an alternative interpretation, which I call revised logical interpretation, that allows us to account for contradictions in conception, including those examples that the practical interpretation cannot handle, as well as to establish a clear distinction between the two kinds of contradiction.

Universal Necessity and Contradictions in Conception

Analyse du test des contradictions de la conception developpe par Kant au fondement de la question morale des devoirs parfaits et de leurs exceptions. Examinant la formulation des maximes de la morale conformement a la necessite et a l'universalite des lois de la nature, l'A. montre que le rigorisme kantien ne tient pas compte de l'intention de l'agent ni des conditions accidentelles de son acte qui ne peuvent entrer dans l'explication sincere de son choix de conduite.