History Of Philosophy Research Articles

V—Time and Subtle Pictures in the History of Philosophy

Abstract For centuries, philosophers of time have produced texts containing words and pictures. Although some historians study visual representations of time, I have not found any history of philosophy on pictures of time within texts. This paper argues that studying such pictures can be rewarding. I will make this case by studying pictures of time in the works of Leibniz, Arthur Eddington and C. D. Broad, and argue they play subtle roles. Further, I will argue that historians of philosophy more widely could benefit from paying more attention to pictures.

Leibniz. Del panlogicismo y la metafísica del cálculo o de cómo imaginar una harmonia praestabilita

La filosofía de Leibniz es considerada por los historiadores de la filosofía de diferentes y hasta opuestas maneras. En efecto, hay quienes consideran a Leibniz como “el gran espíritu universal de la modernidad” (Otto Saame) o como el filósofo pasado “de quien resultan hoy vigentes mayor número de tesis” (José Ortega y Gasset), pero también quienes consideran que su importancia no es “tan enorme que no se pueda concebir la historia del espíritu humano sin ella” (H. Glockner). Sin caer en estas descripciones lo que llevo a cabo en el artículo es un ensayo de comprensión de la filosofía de Leibniz según la cual ésta sería un panlogicismo en el que, a través de una metafísica del cálculo, se imagina una harmonia praestabilita.

Интеллектуальная история как поле методологического самосознания историков философии

Интеллектуальная история как поле методологического самосознания историков философии

Between Relativism and Design: The Limits of Hume's Secularity

Challenging the common image of Hume as a thoroughly secular philosopher, I argue that Hume occasionally relied on the design argument to defend the objectivity of values. Hume acknowledged that rejecting design might open the door to aesthetic, ethical, and epistemic relativism. To avoid this prospect, he allowed himself to repurpose the language of providential naturalists like Hutcheson and claim that “nature,” rather than God, has attuned our faculties to objective standards of morals, beauty, and truth. Historians of philosophy have treated such passages as merely figurative, as they conflict with fundamental principles in Hume's philosophy. I argue instead, from an intellectual historical perspective, that Hume nonetheless expects the passages to be read literally, since only the literal reading helps his case against relativism. Rather than recasting Hume as a defender of design, however, I argue that his appeals to design were less an integral part of his philosophy than a provisional compromise, a response to intractable tensions in the history of secularism.

Enlightenment philosophy and scepticism

The article discusses the role of scepticism in the Enlightenment. For many historians of philosophy, Enlightenment was a hiatus in the history of scepticism. Ideas often attributed to the Enlightenment, such as the cult of reason, optimism and the belief in progress, seem to be contrary to scepticism. I argue that this simplistic view of the Enlightenment is far from reality. The Enlightenment not only brought forth such great followers of scepticism as Hume, but also influenced other thinkers in many different ways. The influence of scepticism is not always clearly visible in the philosophical works of that time. Moreover, few philosophers would describe themselves as sceptics. Nevertheless, if one considers different ways in which scepticism influenced Enlightenment philosophy, it becomes apparent that the assertion that scepticism was allegedly absent in the Enlightenment is untenable.

Nietzsche's The Gay Science: An Introduction

<i>Nietzsche's</i> The Gay Science: <i>An Introduction</i>

“Russian” Spengler and the Destiny of World History in Russian Philosophy in the Beginning of the 20th Century

This article deals with the history of Russian philosophers ‘acquaintance with the ideas of O. Spengler, set forth in his work “The Decline of the West”. The authors point out that the initial orientation of Russian thought towards Historiosophy, problems of history and ontology became the key factor of Spengler’s popularity in Russia. The article considers and analyzes critical and methodological approaches to the theory of cultural and historical types by O. Spengler and N. Ya. Danilevsky within the framework of Russian philosophical thought. The authors pay attention to the ideological influence of the United States as the country which adheres to the ideas of the Enlightenment, as well as to German thinkers, who visited this country in the early twentieth century. It is concluded that the global scenario of the human civilization development, that used to be the mainstream of its formation before the events of the beginning of this year, is unsuitable and untenable. The authors insist on the important role of the theory of cultural and historical types supported and developed by Russian emigration representatives, and focus on the importance of the religious factor in the process of cultural revival.

Schelling, Hegel, and the History of Nature

This paper argues that one of the key differences between Schelling and Hegel concerns the potential within their respective systems to conceive the history of nature as philosophically significant. The author begins by considering the late Schelling's critique of Hegel in order to elucidate the difference between an ontology of nature and a philosophical history of nature. With this distinction in mind, he turns to the early Schelling's philosophy of nature and argue that, despite his insistence on the atemporal character of nature's system of stages, the early Schelling nevertheless hints at the ontological significance of nature's history. He goes on to interpret Hegel's rejection of the idea that natural history might be of significance to an ontology of nature, and argues that this view must be understood in light of Hegel's conception of nature as "self-external reason." He concludes by suggesting that it is only in Schelling's middle period—and, in particular, in the Ages of the World—that the rationally necessary development from inorganic nature to life and spirit is presented as a historical development, making this period of Schelling's thought the high point of idealist philosophy of nature.

A Poetics for Spatial Justice: Gaston Bachelard, Walter Benjamin, and the Return to Historical Materialism

With the ebb of the last half century’s linguistic/cultural turn, socio-legal and legal-humanist scholarship has begun to return to materiality. This article addresses the “new materialisms” and “vibrant matter” of recent years, and asks how they might be embodied in a philosophy of law that can address the forms, notably “spatial justice,” that materiality is assuming in contemporary legal studies. To attempt answers, the article turns to two figures from the middle decades of the twentieth century: Gaston Bachelard – once famous, now mostly forgotten; and Walter Benjamin – once largely forgotten, now famous. A prolific and much-admired writer between 1930 and 1960, Bachelard pursued a trajectory of inquiry that braided two putatively distinct elements: a dialectical and materialist and historical (but non-Marxist) philosophy of science; and a poetics of the material imagination based on inquiry into the literary reception and representation of classical antiquity’s four physical elements – earth, water, fire, and air. Between the late 1920s and 1940, meanwhile, Benjamin developed an idiosyncratic but potent form of historical materialism dedicated to “arousing [the world] from its dream of itself.” The article argues that by mobilizing Bachelard and Benjamin for scholarship at the intersection of law with the humanities, new materialism can be reminded that it has a potent history from which a poetics can be fashioned for the material forms in which law appears to us today.

AUGUST NEANDER AND THE RELIGION OF HISTORY IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ‘PRIESTHOOD OF LETTERS’

AbstractThe Berlin ecclesiastical historian, August Neander (1789–1850), developed a religiously driven conception of history which excited contemporaries across the Protestant world. This article reconstructs the impetus which Neander gave to the creation of a religiously cosmopolitan historical imagination in Germany, Britain, and the United States. At a time when Hegelian and ‘scientific’ models of historical progress foretold a post-Christian future for civilization, Neander's alternative idea of world history, centred on the leavening spread of the invisible church through contrasting forms of Christianity and culture, exercised a powerful sway over Protestant historians everywhere. His universalizing historical philosophy offered an appealing mode of self-understanding to the networks which translated his ideas into new settings. Appearing to afford a mode of securing Protestantism from the twin dangers of sectarianism and unbelief, Neander's ‘unpartisan’ philosophy simultaneously became an important instrument of Protestant nation-building in the hands of the historians drawn towards it. By considering the interaction between universal and national aspirations in the development and dissemination of Neander's historical philosophy, the article examines the practical implications of historical thought, and connections between national and transnational scales of analysis, in modern religious and intellectual history.

Teknoloji Toplumlarında Teknoloji, Eğitim ve Politika Sibernetiği

Social cybernetics is the concept of manipulation and control, and it has been reincarnated and awakened into new shapes within technological society. This study thereby focuses on the mobility of the governance of social cybernetics upon technology, education, and politics in the global political economy. This paper addresses the fundamental social cybernetics concerns through the political and philosophical history of technological development to argue whether or not the democratic principles have been globally and inappropriately rejected for the purpose of manipulation and control of the public. This paper inquiries into the background and reasoning behind the use of these new techniques, which have been orchestrated for the persistence of establishing a form of plutocratic technocratic governance existing under the guise of democratic international relations.

David Hume, the Académie des inscriptions and the Nature of Historical Evidence in the Early Eighteenth Century

Philosophical history became the Enlightenment genre of historical writing par excellence supposedly by “defeating” established humanist erudite history and antiquarianism. This article argues that, contrary to established perceptions, philosophical history developed out of a concern expressed by early eighteenth-century erudite historians about the nature of historical evidence: both David Hume—leading philosophical historian—and the members of the French erudite Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres shared a broadly Lockean approach to historical evidence, choosing verisimilitude to common experience as the key criterion of certainty. Indeed, Hume likely drew directly from the académiciens. Historical certainty is achieved, both sides concluded, by providing a verisimilar chain of causes of historical events, rather than mere lists of historical facts. Philosophical historians like Hume departed from the reformulated eighteenth-century version of erudite history by making causes the main object of history rather than merely a foundation of trustworthy factual accounts.

Oedipus Rex as a philosophical and political strategy

This article studies Michel Foucault’s interpretation of the tragedy Oedipus Rex. The analysis seeks to uncover the various intellectual strategies around his study. First, Foucault takes a position in the political debate about prisons in France in the early 1970s. Second, his analysis of the tragedy contributes to position his work in the field of the philosophical history of truth, by singularising his project and separating it from the dominant models of the history of philosophy. Third, Foucault aims to differentiate himself from the results of the historical work of the Paris School. This article analyses how Foucault depends on these interpretations and how it helps him to acquire philosophical relevance. Through the sociology of intellectual history’s perspective, the article elaborates the contributions and limits of Foucault’s perspective.

Франц Брентано: критика кантовской философии (материалы круглого стола)

On March the 19th 2019 a round table “Franz Brentano: The critic of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy”, dedicated to the publication of book Franz Brentano. “On the future of philosophy: Selected works” (Moscow: Akademicheskij proekt, 2018) was held at the Institute of Philosophy of the RAS. The round table was hosted by the journal “Voprosy filosofii”, Department of Contemporary Western Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy of the RAS and Center for Phenomeno­logical Philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy of the RSUH. The discussion was attended by phenomenologists, historians of philosophy, epistemologists. Their focus was on the following topics: the historical-philosophical concept of F. Brentano and his evaluation of I. Kant’s doctrine as the reference point of the phase extreme decline in philosophy; the problem of criticizing influential concepts; skepticism and science philosophy; judgment or belief: the problem of synthetic a priori judgments; difference between analytical and synthetic; space, time, categories as themes of critical analysis; ethics: the categorical imperative as psychological fiction. The most controversial topics were the philosophical-methodological problems of the unity of social-humanitarian and natural-science knowledge.

ДЕКОМУНІЗАЦІЯ ДОСЛІДЖЕНЬ ІСТОРІЇ ФІЛОСОФІЇ УКРАЇНИ: отця М. КОНРАД ТА ЙОГО КРИТИКА СОЦІАЛІСТИЧНО-КОМУНІСТИЧНОЇ МЕНТАЛЬНОСТІ

The article is devoted to highlighting the importance of the process of decommunization in the study of the forbidden by Soviet ideology themes and personalities in the history of philosophy of Ukraine, namely: the history of neo-Thomism and the work of its representative, the historian of philosophy Fr. M. Conrad (1876–1941). The author establishes how the ideological pressure of the Soviet system influenced the course of historical and philosophical research in Ukraine and what were its consequences; whether Ukrainian historians of philosophy of the Soviet period could study the philosophical views of M. Conrad; if so, in what way and for what reasons was it not done? The study showed that the ideological pressure in the historical and philosophical sphere was not the same during the Soviet period. With the beginning of the "thaw" there was a turn in research on the history of philosophy of Ukraine from the study of philosophical thought of "revolutionary democrats" and naturalists to "idealistic" philosophical teachings, which allowed the study of the history of neo-Thomism with its obligatory criticism. Criticism then was often a way to study the views of thinkers that were considered dangerous to the Soviet system. For these reasons, Conrad could be criticized as an objective idealist. Or, for nationalist ideas, as a bourgeois nationalist. However, such opportunities had their limits. The analysis of philosopher's critical views on the socialist-communist mentality allowed to characterize them as well-argued and objective, which could be another reason for banning the study of his works. As a result of the 1972 repressions of Ukrainian philosophers and the strengthening of ideological control over the course of historical and philosophical research, the study of not only neo-Thomism but also the work of pro-Soviet thinkers ceased. The beginning of the decommunization process allowed the freedom of choice of themes and personalities and created the conditions for an objective study of the creative work of Father M. Conrad.

Научный реализм в истории античной философии

The article is devoted to the consideration of the possibility of applying the methodological principles of scientific realism in the history of ancient philosophy. The author shows that in its strong version, scientific realism is not an appropriate basis for historical research, since it involves minimizing the number of interpretations of philosophical material of the past. Another serious drawback of applying strong versions of scientific realism in the history of philosophy is their focus on the correspondent theory of truth. This theory does not fit the historian of philosophy, since she aims not only at creating a realistic picture of the past, but also at incorporating the philosophical ideas of the past into the modern context, therefore a coherent theory of truth is more likely to meet her objectives. After a brief review of the weak versions of realism (H. Putnam’s “internal realism”, S. Blackburn’s “quasi-realism” and “sensibility theory”), the author concludes that these kinds of realism are more suitable for the history of philosophy in general and for the history of ancient philosophy in particular. As a result, the author concludes that the historian of philosophy must take into account the objectivity and independence of the philosophical ideas of the past, and inevitably be guided by his own conceptual and terminological facilities in order to incorporate the ideas of the past into the modern philosophical context.

Intercultural Philosophy and Intercultural Hermeneutics: A Response to Defoort, Wenning, and Marchal

Intercultural Philosophy and Intercultural Hermeneutics: A Response to Defoort, Wenning, and Marchal Eric S. Nelson (bio) I. Introduction Carine Defoort, Mario Wenning, and Kai Marchal offer three ways of engaging with Chinese and Buddhist Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century German Thought and the philosophical, hermeneutical, and historical issues it attempted to articulate and address.1 This work is historical with a contemporary philosophical intent: to reexamine a tumultuous contested epoch of philosophy’s past in order to reconsider its existing limitations and alternative possibilities. One dimension of this book is the investigation of constellations and entanglements of historical forces and concepts for the sake of articulating critical models and alternatives for the present.2 In the book, I contested the modern self-image of philosophy as exclusively and intrinsically Occidental by genealogically tracing how philosophy is already intercultural through a series of case studies focusing primarily on early twentieth-century German philosophy in its broader historical context. This critical genealogy of the intercultural conditions of the formation of modern philosophy is evidenced not only by considering “positive” influences and appropriations, as in Martin Buber, Martin Heidegger, or Georg Misch’s interpretation of Daoist sources such as the Zhuangzi 莊子 (chapters 4 and 5), but also in the constructions of the autonomy and purity of modern Western philosophy through its reactions against, and exclusion and subordi-nation of, its “non-Western” others (chapters 1, 5, and 6). The book does not represent a purely Western history or narrative insofar as I draw on a variety of argumentational and hermeneutical strategies from Chinese and other discourses to reverse and transform Western prejudices and perspectives. Two important examples of contesting and transforming Western perspectives in the text can be mentioned here. First, I examine the Confucian analysis of resentment in chapter 3 in response to the identification of the Chinese people and Chinese thought with resentment. The Confucian discourse in many ways offers a more nuanced and systematic analysis of the moral psychology of resentment than Western philosophical analyses. Second, in chapter 5, I draw inspiration from the Zhuangzi, and Misch’s interpretation, in pursuing a strategy of undermining and undoing fixations by exposing the limitations of false claims to truth and universality through a [End Page 247] series of historical examples focused on early twentieth-century interactions between Chinese and German thought.3 “The Autumn Floods” (Qiushui 秋水) chapter of the Zhuangzi, which fascinated Misch as an image of “breakthrough” (Durchbruch) and breaking-out from an unreflective natural attitude, depicts how the great river is shocked by its own smallness when entering the sea. The second passage of Qiushui speaks of the frog in the well that cannot glimpse or comprehend anything beyond its limited perspective.4 Leaping out of one’s well is challenging if not impossible. While the ethnocentric skeptic can deny that a genuine leap outside the well and change of perspective has ever occurred, we can ask how he/she knows it has not occurred. Chinese and Buddhist Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century German Thought was composed as a philosophical history in which we ourselves are participating. It is a deeply hermeneutical project insofar as it calls on its author and readers to practice what it analyzes (undoing fixations) and reflect on itself as part of its object of inquiry (the current polycultural hermeneutical situation). II. Decolonizing Philosophy, Modernity, and the Lifeworld The hegemonic idea of philosophy as disinterested theory, pure reason, and rigorous science, progressing from its presumed ancient Greek origins to Western modernity, is a derivative development of this history. The teleological narrative of the philosophy of history was constructed not only by prominent canonical thinkers such as Hegel and Husserl, who are frequent targets of multicultural criticism, but in the submerged sedimented discourses from which they emerged. Well-intentioned multicultural philosophers miss an important point in the debate when they argue that it is only an issue of the particularities of Western vis-à-vis “non-Western” cultures, since the most hegemonic discourses of the primacy of the West do not directly appeal to race or premodern Western cultures. It is the idea of Western modernity and Occidental rationalization that deadlocks debates about Eurocentrism and multiculturalism inside and...

Totality and community: Rosenzweig versus Hegel

In his masterpiece The Star of Redemption, Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) shows as the notion of totality is a constant and central reference in the history of philosophy from Ionia to Jena. This paper aims to explain a different meaning of the concept of totality, reconsidering some aspects of the question starting from the philosophical reflection of Franz Rosenzweig and his opposition to the Hegelian thought. In particular, according to Rosenzweig, the concept of totality is the essential background in which one could rethink the concept of community. For this reason, the second part of this paper is focused on the implications of a different concept of totality embodied by Judaism.

Творчество и мифология Уильяма Блейка в контексте кинопроизведения Дж. Джармуша «Мертвец».

The presented article is devoted to the study of the image of creativity and mythology of William Blake in the film by J. Jarmusch "Dead Man". The author has carried out a detailed philosophical and art analysis of the film "Dead Man" and graphic works by William Blake, in particular, the series of engravings “Heads of Ghosts”, engravings “Ghost of the Flea” and “The Lost Boy”. The author also examined poetry and mythology in the work of William Blake based on the material of the works "The Marriage of Hell and Eden" (1973), "Songs of Innocence" (1789) and "Songs of Experience" (1973). Having conducted a comparative analysis of the works of W. Blake and the film by J. Jarmusch, the author revealed the similarities among the characters, mythology, plot and attitude in the movie "Dead" by J. Jarmusch and the works of W. Blake, interpreted the reason for citing the works of W. Blake in the movie "Dead Man" ... As a result, a conclusion was made about the commonality of the worldview attitudes of the work of J. Jarmusch "Dead Man" and the work of W. Blake. The article highlights the common features of the investigated works and the film: quotations from works of other authors, acquiring new meaning (citing the works of John Milton and Dante W. Blake correlates with the quotation of W. Blake in the film "Dead Man"); initiation motive; wandering motive; the idea of the wrongness of the world and the dualism of the universe. The author notes that the main artistic ideas of the works under consideration by William Blake are reflected in the film "Dead Man" by J. Jarmusch. In synthesis, they acquire a new meaning – the path of the soul to salvation through the overcoming of false ideas, vices, knowledge of the truth. This work uses the method of philosophical and art history analysis, developed by the Siberian art history school.

Creation and Contingency in Early Patristic Thought: The Beginning of All Things by Joseph Torchia

Reviewed by: Creation and Contingency in Early Patristic Thought: The Beginning of All Things by Joseph Torchia Alexander H. Pierce Creation and Contingency in Early Patristic Thought: The Beginning of All Things Joseph Torchia Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019. Pp. xxxiv + 229. ISBN: 978-1-4985-6281-2 The publication of Gerhard May's Schöpfung aus dem Nichts in 1978 (and its subsequent translation under the title Creatio ex nihilo in 1994) contributed to a heightened concern among biblical scholars, theologians, and historians of philosophy to trace the development of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo within Jewish and early Christian literature and to situate it in the light of the philosophical traditions that developed in response to Plato's Timaeus. Many scholars have called May's proposal into question and others have come to his defense. Joseph [End Page 446] Torchia's book under review successfully accomplishes pushing the focus of the conversation beyond controversy over whether the explicit terminology of creation ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων is the evidence necessary to evince early Christian selfdifferentiation to a more implicit factor, what he calls the "contingency criterion," by which he means "whether the text in question affirms the contingency of created reality in relation to the sovereignty and omnipotence of its Creator" (xxvii). In this excellent monograph, Torchia builds on a diverse and expansive literature by offering a well-balanced analysis that provides us with a greater level of clarity concerning the theological horizon of creatio ex nihilo as the absolute sovereignty of God and contingency of all creation. Creation and Contingency is comprised of three parts. In the first, Torchia examines the sources of the development of the doctrine of creation, including Christian Scripture (Chapter 1), Plato's Timaeus (Chapter 2), and the debates among Middle Platonists concerning Aristotle's criticism of Plato's cosmogony (Chapter 3). Torchia contends in Chapter 1 that Scripture attests both the correlativity of creaturely contingency and divine sovereignty and that God's creation is invested with an intelligible purpose, to participate in the God who is its highest Good. In Chapter 2, Torchia takes the "beginning" of all things in Tim. 27d-69a as a point of departure to explore how Plato presents a teleological world in which true Being is immutable, cosmogony involves the mutability of this sensible world, and the changing world of Becoming we experience is good because of its participation in intelligible Being. In anticipation of the third chapter, Torchia presses the issue of the literal and metaphorical readings of Plato's Timaeus, contending that whereas the majority of Plato's successors took his claim that the world came into being (γέγονε) metaphorically, Aristotle read Plato literally, which conflicted with his own view that the world is eternally existent, without beginning or end. Chapter 3 then charts the Middle Platonists who uphold the "majority opinion," siding with Aristotle on the eternal world while referring to Plato to speak of causal principles that explain its order (e.g., Alcinous, Apuleius), and those who maintain a temporally originated universe (e.g., Plutarch, Atticus). As he turns to consider the early patristic reception of these sources, Torchia alerts readers to an important issue often underappreciated in such studies, namely, the problem of "meaning variance" in the unwarranted conflation of creation as ordering disorder with creation as bringing being out of non-being (64–65). The second part of the book attends to the theology of creation and the relation of God to the world in Hellenistic Judaism and the Apostolic Fathers, finding in these sources both the conflicted reception of the biblical text and Plato's Timaeus and the undeniable anticipation of later developments among the Greek apologists of the second century. In Chapter 4, Torchia treats the creation account according to Philo Judaeus, showing how Philo's reading of Genesis as a Middle Platonist enabled him to function as a point of contact between Hellenistic and Judeo-Christian thought and a model for how to incorporate Plato's Timaeus and Genesis (among other scriptural texts) in a satisfactory account of the beginning of all things. Chapter 5 prepares the [End Page 447] way for the final part by considering the Apostolic Fathers' affirmations...