Critical Philosophy Research Articles

Hermann Cohen on the role of history in critical philosophy

AbstractConsider two features of Hermann Cohen's critical philosophy. First, using what Cohen calls the transcendental method, critical philosophy aims to identify formal conditions of experience that are universally, and so timelessly, valid. Second, detailed, context‐sensitive surveys of the history of science and philosophy are ubiquitous in his accounts of those formal conditions. This paper argues for two claims about how those two features of Cohen's philosophy fit together. First, Cohen holds the striking view that, while philosophy aims to discover and investigate principles that are timelessly valid, it must nevertheless use historical investigation to do so. Second, Cohen has the resources to explain why, on his view, history must play this role in philosophy. This paper uses a genealogical strategy to locate that explanation in Cohen's writings: it traces views of history held by various of Cohen's teachers and shows that Cohen combines and develops those ideas to produce just the explanation needed. Ultimately, the underlying reasoning of Cohen's explanation is this. The history of science has a teleological structure, and as it unfolds, knowledge becomes increasingly universal. But then, elements of scientific theories that remain stable across a succession of increasingly universal theories will be plausible candidates for or approximations of the strictly universal formal conditions of experience. The critical philosopher is thus required to attend to the history of science to identify plausible candidates for those formal conditions.

“Style” or “yphos” in Psaltic Art?

Abstract The term style is used in the philosophy of culture, in aesthetics, art theory and art criticism, in literary languages, in the plastic and monumental arts, in the way of life and behavior of people to characterize cultures, eras, creative individuals or works, so as we learn from philosophy dictionaries. If in Greek there is this duality of the terms style and yphos, the Romanian language uses only the former, while yphos appears to be used with completely different meanings, over time. Unlike the meanings in Greek, in the current dictionaries of the Romanian language the word yphos has a more pejorative meaning, suffering over time semantic changes. However, it seems that the old meaning of the term yphos reveals much deeper and richer valences than the term style and helps us to understand in a better way the conditions of an authentic musical-spiritual interpretation, in the “right spirit”.

الرؤية الفلسفية والنقد السياسي في فلسفة أبي حيان التوحيدي کتاب أخلاق الوزيرين نموذجًا

تهتم هذه الدراسة بفلسفة النقد السياسي عند فلاسفة القرن الرابع الهجري، من خلال دراسة کتاب الفيلسوف أبي حيان التوحيدي في کتابه أخلاق الوزيرين أو مثالب الوزيرين ، هذا الکتاب الذي تبني نقد الواقع السياسي من خلال وصف الأخلاق السياسية السائدة في بلاط الوزيرين ابن عباد، ابن العميد ، والخطاب الفلسفي عند أبي حيان التوحيدي يعالج قضايا الإنسان والثقافة والدين والتربية من منظور سياسي، ففي کتابه أخلاق الوزيرين يتبني الفيلسوف الحديث من خلال المواقف الفعلية التي حدثت معه عن الرؤية الأخلاقية للسياسة، التي يتعين على الحکام أن يتحلوا بها، فأبو حيان تبني المفارقة الفلسفية في الترسيخ لمفهوم السياسة والأخلاق من خلال کتابه، فالموقف السياسي والحدث الواقعي هو الذي ينتج القيمة الفلسفية السياسية في رؤية الفيلسوف أبي حيان. لقد کشفت الدراسة عن تقارب الفکر السياسي عند أبي حيان مع الفلسفات الحديثة والمعاصرة في النهج السياسي وظهر ذلک في مبحث شروط الرياسة أو العقد الاجتماعي في الفکر الإسلامي، وفکرة المواطنة وتبنت الدراسة المنهج الإجرائي التحليلي القائم على التحليل والتأويل للواقع السياسي في بلاد دولة الإسلام في القرن الرابع الهجري، وتوصلت الدراسة إلى أن أبا حيان بنى منهجه النقدي على المعايشة، ونقد الأوضاع القائمة؛ بهدف السعي في إصلاحها، متبنيا رؤية معتدلة في النقد. Abstract: This study is concerned with the philosophy of political criticism among the philosophers of the fourth century AH, by studying the book of the philosopher Abi Hayyan al-Tawhidi in his book “The Ethics of the Two Ministers or the Defects of the Two Ministers”, this book which adopted the criticism of political reality by describing the prevailing political morals in the court of the two ministers, Ibn Abbad, Ibn al-Ameed, the philosophical discourse of Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi deals with issues of man, culture, religion and education from a political perspective. In his book The Ethics of the Two Ministers, the philosopher adopts the conversation through the actual situations that occurred with him about the moral vision of politics, which the rulers must possess. Abu Hayyan adopts The philosophical paradox in establishing the concept of politics and ethics through his book. The political position and the actual event are what produce the philosophical-political value in the vision of the philosopher Abi Hayyan. The study revealed the convergence of political thought in Abu Hayyan with modern and contemporary philosophies in the political approach and this appeared in the study of conditions of leadership or social contract in Islamic thought, and the idea of citizenship. The study adopted the analytical procedural approach based on analysis and interpretation of the political reality in the countries of the Islamic state in the fourth century The study concluded that Abu Hayyan built his critical approach on coexistence and critiquing the existing conditions. With the aim of seeking to reform it, adopting a moderate view of criticism. Key words:Citizenship, the presidency, despotism, the opposition, the Shura

예술작품의 철학적 비평에 관한 이해 - 작품의 복합적 요소들과 그 읽기 -

이 논문은 예술작품의 가치, 기법, 상상력 등의 복합적 요소들을 분석하는 비평의 관점, 방법, 구성 등에 대해 살펴보고자 한다. 비평은 작품의 기법이나 가치를 형성하고 있는 사 상적 문화적 배경, 또는 작가가 무심코 행한 예술적 행위도 새로운 측면에서 해석하기 때 문에 또 하나의 창작이라고 말할 수 있다. 이 글에서 말하고자 하는 비평적 분석은 작품 속에 숨겨진 그와 같은 복합성의 요소들을 분석하고 그 열린 구조를 찾아내는 방법이다. 이런 측면에서 이 글은 ‘예술비평은 무엇을 분석하는가’, ‘예술작품을 철학적으로 어떻게 비평할 것인가’ 등에도 주요 초점을 갖고 작품 및 비평의 의미, 비평의 구성방법과 사례들 을 소개하고자 했다. 그리고 들뢰즈의 예술비평과 그 예시를 통해 작품을 읽고 생각할 수 있는 철학적 비평의 방법을 살펴보고자 했다. 그 결과 우리가 작품을 창의적으로 읽고 이 해한다는 것은 그 복합성을 분석하고 이해할 수 있는 통섭(通涉)의 시선을 필요로 한다는 점을 강조하고자 한다.

The concept of publicness in Kant’s critical method of metaphysics

Kant’s writings on political philosophy do not clearly and conclusively determine its place and significance in his critical philosophy. To address this issue, most accounts of Kant’s political philosophy concentrate on his explicitly political texts that cluster around the second and third Critiques. Although many of these interpretations illuminate different aspects of Kant’s political philosophy, they are silent with regard to a concept of publicness that is implied in the first Critique. This article suggests that Kant’s critical method of metaphysics implies a disciplinary conception of publicness, which is foundational for his political philosophy. It demonstrates how this conception of publicness can be found in the Doctrine of Method of the first Critique, more specifically, in Kant’s argument that all acts of reason must be subjected to the discipline of pure reason.

«Старое бремя» субъективности в критике Л. Фейербаха и младогегельянцев

The article is devoted to the consideration of key aspects of the socio-political meaning and direction of the philosophical and theological doctrine of the Junghegelianer. The nomination of philosophy as the “mother of sciences”, combining the old metaphysics and new dialectic, to the center of the social “agenda” is explained both by internal reasons (split in the Hegel “school”, competition from positivism, renaissance of theological thought), and the impact of external factors. The problem of understanding “subjectivity” in the philosophical critique of the 1840s, which turned out to be a stumbling block for many panellists, is explored; the categorical content of the concept has not been clarified. The task is to identify the basic characteristics of such widely interpreted “subjectivity” and clarify the positions of the parties. Replacing the speculative practices of the “old” Kantian school with intellectual (going from Schelling) “procedures” of philosophizing formed a completely new philosophical paradigm of a different era. The revolution of 1848 updated many philosophical ideas, filling them with social content. The conclusions state the contradiction and a certain eclecticism of the philosophical designs of the Junghegelianer.

The limits of motivation theory in education and the dynamics of value-embedded learning (VEL)

Over the past twenty-five years, or so, considerable advances have been made in understanding how learning occurs in the brain, though much of this research is still to make its way into education. One contribution it should be making is to furnish the philosophical critique of past and current theory with supporting empirical evidence. For example, motivation theory and its cognate expectancy-value theory continue to be taught in teacher education, even though their rational cognitivist foundations are philosophically shaky, and their shared representational notion of the mind is incompatible with what is now known about the learning brain. Furthermore, the central claim of motivation theory that children need to be motivated in order to learn is educationally problematic, not least because it incorporates a deficit model of the child as learner. This paper provides a philosophical and educational critique of motivation and expectancy-value theories and begins to sketch out an alternative dynamic systems (complexity-theory) approach, which argues that value is deeply embedded in the learning process, not only in the value students may or may not attach to their learning, but also neurobiologically. In opposition to motivation and its notion of the learner this paper argues that every student is equipped with a brain that is value-orientated towards learning and will learn, when nested in suitably affordant learning environments. In place of expectancy-value, we argue for value-embedded learning (VEL), which provides a non-reductive and biologically plausible account of how value and emotional salience are dynamically interwoven in the learning process.

Kant’s Transcendental Deduction: A Cosmology of Experience

In her new book, Alison Laywine applies the historical approach of her earlier book Kant’s Early Metaphysics and the Origins of the Critical Philosophy (1993) to the delicate philosophical task of ...

Transhumanist immortality: Understanding the dream as a nightmare

This paper offers new arguments to reject the alleged dream of immortality. In order to do this, I firstly introduce an amendment to Michael Hauskeller’s approach of the “immortalist fallacy”. I argue that the conclusion “we (normally) do not want to live forever” does not follow from the premise “we (normally) do not want to die”. Next, I propose the philosophical turn from “normally” to “under these circumstances” to resolve this logical error. Then, I review strong philosophical critiques of this transhumanist purpose of immortality in the literature. There are two key questions related to the possibility of fulfilling this goal: the hard problem of consciousness and the personal identity dilemma. Finally, I defend a specific type of indefinite life and justify that it is more desirable than our current limited life.

The Role of Synthetic A Priori Propositions in the Development of Kant’s Account of Practical Autonomy: A Critique of Watkins’ Reading of Kant’s Prolegomena

AbstractI draw attention to a 12-page Vorarbeit to Kant’s Prolegomena from the so-called Scheffner-Nachlaß and argue that the parallel Kant draws there between the possibility of theoretical and practical synthetic a priori propositions provides important insight into the development of his account of practical autonomy in the Groundwork. Based on a brief sketch of the role synthetic a priori propositions play in the development of Kant’s critical philosophy, I conclude that for Kant the objective validity of any science depends on the objective validity of a number of synthetic a priori propositions.

THE CHARACTERISTICS AND APPROACHES OF IMMANENCE CRITICISM IN DORIS LESSING’S NOVEL OF “THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK”

Unlike the XIX century, literary culture of the XX century made a strong aesthetic leap in women’s identity. This process has caused to the emergence of a large number of new generation women writers in world literature and moreover, these writers had succeeded in revealing a real and contemporary literary phenomenon, such as “immanence- immanentism” which is focused on female landscapes in their stories and novels. In general, the works of “immanence” authors have a feminist background. As a doctrine, imamnence is used to explain the connection with the spiritual world, which is confirmed by some philosophical and metaphysical theories and critics. But later, immanence was replaced by Kant as a philosophical concept, and this awareness began to include a philosophical disposition perceived by the senses on the basis of personal experience. Lessing, who donated many works to world culture, created a portrait of the physical and spiritual characteristics of people (especially women) with her strong logic and talent in all her stories and novels and tried to explain in detail the special feelings that exist in them. With the help of this concept, Lessing aimed not only to represent the love experiences and emotional vibrations of women in her novels, but also to present a strong and courageous woman in a socio-cultural and political context, unlike female literature. In this paper is discussed, the feature elements of immanent culture in Doris Lessing’s novel in (“The Golden Notebook”). In the novel, Lessing interprets the classic drama of a woman of art who is free ones like as herself and in their examples, examines the potential and profiles of creative women seeking their place in social society. In her works, Doris Lessing reproduces the female perspective in the universe by thinking from the prism of immanentism and pays particular attention to the psychology of female characters and the identification of their inner states of heroes. Based on all of these, the author also refers to the expanding principle of women sovereignty regarding the rights and the status of women in society. At the same time, Lessing also explores the possibility of a relationship based on the concept of mundane reality as an alternative to romantic love parodies of postmodernism, and with this in mind, she erects a “protective wall” against the expansion of the “Western world” in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Key words: existence, immanence, Sufism, "The Golden Notebook", socio-cultural

On Serpents and Doves: the systematic relationship between prudence and morality in Kant’s political philosophy

Abstract This paper argues that the political adage “Be ye prudent as serpents and guileless as doves” involves three different types of relation between prudence and morality, namely: unification (Vereinigung), subordination (Unterordnung), and association (Beigesellung). I maintain that these relations are set up according to the same principle that determines the relationship between mechanical and teleological causality in the third Critique. Thus, I argue that morality and prudence are much more systematically related within the system of critical philosophy than is normally assumed in the literature and that this is made possible by way of an intimate relationship between prudence and teleological judgment.

Introduction. Paolo Parrini & relative a priori principles

Paolo Parrini devoted concerted philosophical attention to theoretical phi- losophy, re-examining core issues in epistemology, philosophy of language and history and philosophy of science, not only for their intrinsic philosophical interest, but also for their cultural significance. This pair of papers published here in English he himself affiliated closely. “Analyticity and Epistemological Holism: Prague Alternatives” appeared originally in Italian in 2006; “Quine on Analyticity and Holism. A critical appraisal in dialogue with Sandro Nannini,” in 2018. He translated both into English early in 2020, posting their original Italian together with their new English versions on his own website. Doubtless both are related to his research interests in Herbart’s conceptual Bearbeitung, which surely must be a vigorous form of conceptual explication. Most unfortunately, Paolo was taken from us suddenly, unexpectedly, at the start of July (2020). What more we can learn from him, we shall learn from his considerable published accomplishments. This brief Introduction seeks to epitomize the core issues and significance of this pair of papers, in tribute to him and his very substantial philosophical achievements.

Some Aspects of the Pantheistic Doctrine by I. G. Fichte

The article deals with some aspects of the philosophical outlook of I. G. Fichte. It was possible to identify key aspects of the philosophical views of the thinker. By analyzing his philosophical positions, the conviction is growing that he was a major and original thinker, who in a new way comprehended important philosophical problems and had a significant impact on subsequent generations of philosophers. As a result, the article allows us to understand the place and significance of the German philosopher in the history of philosophy, his contribution to the development of critical philosophy after Kant.

A Freirean analysis of the Escola sem Partido dystopian schooling model: indignation, hope and untested feasibility during pandemic times

ABSTRACT This paper examines contemporary challenges for education and democracy in Brazil. In the past decade, conservative forces headed by the Escola sem Partido (ESP) movement have led a scaremongering campaign against teachers and public education, with Paulo Freire’s critical educational philosophies as their main enemy. This study investigates the ESP’s attempts to implement its ‘neutral’ education model based in traditional values across the country. Key Freirean concepts combined with Horsford ‘3Rs’ agenda to regain democracy in schools are used to analyse the media narratives presented by the ESP and civil movements that have resisted its efforts to undermine democracy within Brazilian schools. The findings suggest that the ESP’s bullying tactics have been effective in undermining teachers’ autonomy in many Brazilian schools. Further tensions have been provoked by the pandemic within the public educational system. Conversely, Freirean-inspired school communities have found new ways to counteract this harassment and strengthen democratic pedagogies.

The Critical-Linguistic Critique of the Aesthetic Ideology in the Late Writing of Paul de Man

The focus of this essay is Paul de Man's provocative antipathy towards the category of the aesthetic in his late writings on philosophical aesthetics. I introduce de Man's critique of what he terms aesthetic ideology – a form of ideological communication – which he considers manifest in the aesthetics of Schiller in particular but also in more scrupulously critical philosophers. I begin the essay with Benjamin's well known observation that twentieth century fascisms aestheticized political practice as part of a defence of existing property relations. I introduce de Man's critique of aesthetic ideology as a way of developing or elaborating on what are relatively sketchy comments on the relationship aesthetics and politics in Benjamin's earlier essay.

La mort de Cook ou la naissance de l’Auteur

The story of Captain Cook’s death, within the narrative of his third voyage, accomplishes the feat of making Cook the author of a text he could not write. Considered as the apotheosis of the history of scholarly exploration journeys, the "voyage to the Pacific Ocean" becomes a poetic model that retrospectively invites us to re-read all the narratives of scholar travels. It suggests that this genre, although claiming to be scientific in scope, is fully literary and plays a bit of an auctorial role in establishing the authority of the statements retraced. It is the obvious realization of what literary and philosophical critics have called the “function auteur”: a dead individual can only become an author if the author is a textual construct.

Intuição e causalidade na crítica de Schopenhauer à epistemologia kantiana

Pode-se afirmar que a filosofia crítica kantiana é uma espécie de suporte para a fundamentação epistemológica de Schopenhauer, mas que a teoria schopenhaueriana de modo algum a ela se reduz até porque Schopenhauer reprova desde a compreensão de Kant a respeito do papel que desempenham intuição e razão até a arquitetônica kantiana que exige doze categorias como alicerce do processo de conhecer. Nosso texto versará sobre a importância que Schopenhauer concede à intuição e, principalmente, sobre a justificação de Schopenhauer acerca da causalidade como única “categoria” necessária e suficiente para a percepção dos objetos.

Race, Reproduction, and Biopolitics: A Review Essay.

This review essay critically examines Catherine Mills's Biopolitics (2018) and Camisha Russell's The Assisted Reproduction of Race (2018). Although distinct works, the centrality of race and reproduction provides a point of connection and an opening into reframing contemporary debates within bioethics and biopolitics. In reviewing these books together I hope to show how biopolitical theory and critical philosophy of race can be useful in looking at bioethical problems from a new perspective that open up different kinds of analyses, especially around historically embedded problems like institutional racism and the legacies of colonialism in healthcare.

Romantic Acosmism – On Friedrich Schlegel’s Theory of an Unfinished World

This article examines the often neglected ‘reversal side’ of early Romanticism, for which Friedrich Schlegel’s critical philosophy of the infinite, developed in his Lectures on Transcendental Philosophy of 1800/1801, is exemplary. Therein Schlegel aims to synthesize Spinoza’s philosophy of substance with Fichte’s subjective foundationalism. This synthesis finds its particular challenge in the consequences that follow from the cosmological antinomies of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Since the antinomies no longer allow adherence to the constitutive totality of the world, Schlegel is forced to take a radical step. His conception, however, does not aim at a uniform and harmonious universe, as is usually assumed. Because the modern, reflexive I must reject every positive order of being as inconsistent, Schlegel concludes, that the world itself has to be regarded as unfinished, or indeterminate which results in the idea of an unfinished deity. Contrary to common understandings, this article argues that Schlegel’s concept of “world” is based on an acosmism that also has a formative influence on his theoretical foundations of poetry and art. Romantic universal poetry it could be said, therefore, is not only a benign manifesto of poetics, but also a resolute response to the impossible union of the subject with the cosmos. The rejection of a positive order of being motivates Romanticism to its own acosmic poetics, which evokes a fundamentally new conception of poetry by reflecting this insight.