Philosophical Treatise Research Articles

Vilém Flusser’s Brazilian cities

ABSTRACT This essay proposes that the motif of cities has a decisive role in the operation and articulation of Flusser's thinking of exile. Crossing the most diverse moments and types of Flusser's writing, cities appear as a nodule that interlinks and connects it. By focusing particularly on Flusser's texts on Brazilian cities, this study looks at some of the ways in which this crossing occurs to suggest the necessity of reorganizing the whole Flusserian corpus, by reconsidering its phases and movements and by reexamining the assumption that Flusser questions Zweig’s concept of “country of the future”. Then, by analyzing the philosophical treatment of “Grandfather” in Bom Retiro, in São Paulo, and in two undated “urban” poems by Flusser, this paper finally considers the relations between thought, exile, being Jewish, cities, and Brazilian-ness.

Fitting anger and patient wrongdoing

As a result of the stress of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers have been expressing a great deal of frustration and anger, sometimes directed at patients who have chosen not to get vaccinated. This paper examines the moral status of such anger in light of philosophical treatments of anger's purpose, benefits, and drawbacks. A theory of appropriate anger is sketched, after which healthcare workers’ anger toward perceived patient wrongdoing is assessed in light of philosophical considerations for and against anger. Ultimately, it is argued that it would be better for nurses and doctors not to experience this kind of anger, and this conclusion is used to motivate a moral case for additional support for overtaxed healthcare workers.

Women Translating Women: Resisting the Male Intellectual Canon in Eliza Hayley’s Essays on Friendship and Old-Age, by the Marchioness de Lambert (1780)

In 1780 the English translator and essayist Eliza Ball Hayley (b.1750-1797) published Essays on Friendship and Old-Age, by the Marchioness de Lambert. The text was a translation of two of the many philosophical treatises written by the French philosopher Anne-Thérèse de Lambert (1647-1733). Addressing the chronological, linguistic, and geographical distance between the authors and their philosophical thought, this article examines the motivations behind Hayley’s translation, regarding them as an act of resistance to the predominant contemporary male intellectual discourse, dismissive of de Lambert’s influence. Furthermore, it suggests that through the act of translating, Hayley is in fact recovering de Lambert and her (gendered) contribution to the history of ideas, while in parallel she is asserting her own place within this intellectual continuum by benefiting from de Lambert’s legacy, and thus contributing to, and sustaining, a female genealogy of thought.

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Jürgen Habermas and the Public Intellectual in Modern Democratic Life

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Jürgen Habermas and the Public Intellectual in Modern Democratic Life

Coverage Shortfalls at the Library of Agency

In his “Games and the Art of Agency,” C. Thi Nguyen makes an intriguing and very plausible suggestion: games, or at any rate a great many of them, are artworks whose medium is, roughly, how one goes about doing what one does. In assigning an objective, laying down the constraints under which it has to be achieved, and specifying the terrain on which it will be played out, a game sculpts the decision-making processes of its players, the ways they see their environment and option space, their motivations, and much else. Thus our by now quite extensive repertoire of games constitutes a library of agency. This library allows us to try on different modes of agency before deciding which is best for us—for a given type of occasion, or generally. It can help educate us into unfamiliar forms of agency, by providing the sort of controlled exercises that allow beginners the practice they need, which is to say that games are exercise and preparation for autonomous agency. And it promises to broaden and enrich our philosophical treatments of the topic, in part by serving as a testbed for competing theories of practical rationality; if we want to get a realistic sense of what it would be like to decide what to do, in the way that one or another theory of practical deliberation says, we can experiment with it in an appropriately designed game.

Knowing and learning: from Hirst to Ofsted

Abstract Hirst always highlighted knowledge when reflecting on the school curriculum. He replaced his early focus on liberal education, the development of mind and theoretical knowledge by emphasizing the practical and practices as a curriculum starting point and for the framing of educational aims. In this paper I explore links between Hirst’s philosophical treatment of knowledge and some currently contested aspects of UK government education policies. I also note some ways in which his work relates to selected present-day debates in philosophy of education. Examples of UK government policy will include Ofsted’s definition of learning as a ‘change in long-term memory’ and the ways in which they place ‘logical sequencing’ at the heart of teaching, learning, and curriculum. Their learning definition treats knowledge as an individual asset rather than something about individuals as embedded in the social world of practices, a perspective more in keeping with Hirst’s later views. The critique of individualistic notions of knowledge and learning includes some explorations of how learners move into the ‘space of reasons’. Where I draw attention to relationships between Hirst’s thought and contemporary philosophy of education debates, I do not always draw any definite conclusions.

Тема воспитания и изображение детей в притчах А. П. Сумарокова

Pedagogical and philosophical treatises by Western European scholars made their way to Russia in the 1760s via Russian translations and drew the attention of the Russian society to childhood as an important formative stage of the human self. According to the Russian writers, the fable, as a genre targeting people of all ages, acquired a major educational potential at the time. Re-working the fables by the Ancient and Western European authors who used children for their characters, Sumarokov replanted the events into the domestic soil, modifi ed the images of children, added emotional interpretation. In the fables based on his own stories, Sumarokov described the behavior, feelings and emotions of children in various situations, their search for self-affirmation and attempts to stand up for themselves in critical situations. The stories are permeated by the author’s spirit and empathy. Sumarokov’s literary work contributed to the awareness of the specific nature of childhood, its inherent value, and to the emergence of child-oriented and child-depicting fi ction in Russia.

Смысл и значение финала драмы Фридриха Шиллера «Орлеанская дева»

The article deals with the final scene of the historical drama The Maid of Orleansby the German poet Friedrich Schiller. It is discussed in the context of the principle of subjectivity, which is one of the main principles for modernity as a macro era, as well as through the prism of a special understanding of history by the creators ofart of the second half of the 18th –early 19th centuries. The article aims to: analyze the final scene of the drama from the point of view of F. Schiller’s philosophical ideas reflected in his philo-sophical treatises and articles on history and poetically embodied in the Ode to Joy; identify the peculiar fea-turesof the image of the main character of the play, associated with the creative principles of the modern era and the subjective understanding of the historical personality by the playwright. The study revealed that of particular importance for F. Schiller’s works, both philosophical and dramatic, were Johann Herder’s reflec-tions on unity and the concept of pre-established harmony proposed by Gottfried Leibniz. It was found that the poet’s conscious retreat from historical reality when creating the final scene of the work was connected, on the one hand, with the specific representation of Joan of Arc as a person capable of recreating reality in a special way; on the other hand, with the individual-author’s awareness of the interrelationship of historical epochs, characteristic of the time of modernity, which made it possible for the poet to most clearly convey through dramatic action the idea of total unity, philosophically interpreted by him on the pages of treatises, which turns out to be especially significant for the early 19th century.

John of Garland, Integumentum Ovidii. Text, Translation, and Commentary by Kyle Gervais. TEAMS: Secular Commentary Series. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2022, xv, 201 pp.

Some of the most exciting features of medieval philosophy and epistemology consist of the willingness to read the natural world allegorically, or as an integument, which altogether allows us today to recognize the essential epistemology pursued in the high Middle Ages. John of Garland was one of the more influential teachers of his time (b. ca. 1195, d. after 1258), and in his Integumentum Ovidii, superbly translated by Kyle Gervais, he offers an extensive discussion of how to approach Ovid’s Metamorphoses through an allegorical lens. We will profit from this translation in a critical fashion because it makes accessible in English a major study of high medieval interpretive analysis. As Gervais points out, John wrote at least a dozen philosophical treatises, which were well received by his contemporaries and successors.

Suleiman of Gazza on the Ecumenical Councils

The article discusses the ideas about the history and deeds of the Ecumenical Councils of the Melkite writer of the 10th–11th centuries Suleiman, Bishop of Gaza, the first Arabic-speaking Christian poet and author of a number of theological and philosophical treatises. Although Suleiman was not a historian, he nonetheless wrote two noteworthy texts on the history of the Ecumenical Councils. According to a number of formal criteria, these texts may well be attributed to “the synopsis of the Councils” genre, which was very popular in Byzantium and was widely used in Byzantine doctrinal and catechetical literature. At the same time, this genre was not in demand in Melkite literature, and the Bishop of Gaza was actually the only Arabic-speaking Melkite writer who created works in “the synopsis of the Councils” genre, which was widely used in Byzantine doctrinal and catechetical literature. The author notes that, unlike most Melkite writers of the 8th–13th centuries (St John of Damascus, Theodore Abu Qurrah, Agapius of Manbij, Macarius of Sinai), who had quite adequate ideas about the history of the Ecumenical Councils and their deeds, Suleiman in his treatises makes many mistakes, both purely historical and concerning the theological essence of some heresies condemned by the Councils. The article attempts to establish the reasons for the mistakes made by Suleiman of Gazza and find logical explanations for some of them. The author comes to the conclusion that Suleiman’s knowledge of Church history cannot be considered satisfactory. Because of this, it is absolutely impossible to call the Bishop of Gazza a writer who knew the history of the Church well, as some researchers do.

ВИТОКИ ФІЛОСОФСЬКОГО ДИСКУРСУ В ЄВРЕЙСЬКІЙ ДУХОВНІЙ ТРАДИЦІЇ XII СТОЛІТТЯ

The article explores the nuances of interpreting Jewish philosophy, tracing its origins to the works of Saadiy Gaon. We drew attention to the reinterpretation of the female aspect of the Divine essence (Shehina) and highlighted the main characteristics of its philosophical treatment. It delves into the distinctive features of Jewish philosophy as presented in the writings of Maimonides, emphasizing the interconnectedness of theological and philosophical reflections in his work. The abstract also provides an overview of Maimonides' key approach to understanding Hagadic and Halachic literature. The nomination of some female images in Haggadic legends (King's daughter, bride, princess) is outlined. The given list will serve for further feminist studies, and in the 20th century it will be used within the framework of Reform Judaism to justify the right of women to be rabbis. One notable divergence between Jewish philosophy and Talmudic interpretations lies in the former's focus on specific thematic directions, aligning with the philosophy of falsafa (Arabic/Muslim Aristotelianism). The midrash method, an interpretive model of biblical texts, plays a pivotal role in this thematic distinction, influencing the interpretation of individual concepts. The article discusses how the application of philosophical school approaches to Jewish philosophy takes on a unique character, ushering in a fresh perspective on the normative aspects of religious practices. Special attention is devoted to the reconstruction of Rambam's views in his 'Guide of the Perplexed,' particularly in relation to the relationship between the Absolute Beginning and the fulfillment of spiritual tradition precepts, which carry a theurgical essence. Moreover, it is argued that a person's virtues are intimately tied to their spiritual, moral, and intellectual perfection, aligning with the sacred texts. Jewish philosophers unanimously affirm that personal virtues represent the pinnacle of a complete individual. As philosophical interpretations of biblical texts evolved, the need to elucidate the moral teachings of Judaism (Musar) gained prominence. Among the main thematic layers of Musar, the emphasis is on interpersonal relationships in the family and community. Coordinated roles of parents and subordinate responsibilities in the community ensure the process of Shchina's return to the world. The implementation of divine justice forms a just society with equally protected rights and equally fulfilled obligations of men and women. This goal was achieved through the works of Maimonides and his followers, as well as through polemics with representatives of multi confessional environments.

Value-based Consultancy in Business

Most businesses in India undergo disproportionate development as their focus is on making more and more profit. They seem to have no concern for the environment, the welfare of their employees or the unethical practices they follow. This has resulted in problems such as an increase in business rivalry, a widening employer–employee gap, a disconnect with environmental concerns as well as a general disinterest in the well-being of the world. The need of the hour therefore is to weave value-based business models for India based on its rich philosophical thought, deep culture and evolved knowledge systems. This paper proposes to meet this need by initiating value-based consultancy based on ancient Indian philosophical thought. It proposes that it should be done with a focus on the human values approach as reflected in the theory of Purusarthas, different dimensions of Yoga and Vedanta philosophy to improve businesses and business practices from a holistic perspective. This philosophical intervention will certainly help businesses to develop more clarity about unethical practices and the ways to control them.

Exploring the Ways of Integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine Culture with the Civic Education of College Students

Traditional Chinese Medicine is the crystallization of Chinese people’s exploration of the way of life and health for thousands of years, which contains rich philosophical ideas, medical theories and treatment methods. Therefore, by clarifying the connotation and significance of the excellent traditional culture of TCM and analyzing the realistic dilemmas in its integration into the civic education of colleges and universities, we aim to enhance the ideology and affinity of the teaching of TCM on the basis of insisting on diversified teaching measures and aligning with the teaching objectives, so as to achieve the integration of TCM culture into the whole process of civic education of young students.

Animating theAffect–Care–Labor Linkin the Wake of “The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill”: Care Ethics and Policymaking on Indian Surrogacy

AbstractStarting from the early 2000s, India was one of the most sought-after destinations for commercial surrogacy. However, in 2015 the government decided to ban transnational commercial surrogacy, and recently “The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021,” which bans commercial surrogacy altogether and confines it to its altruistic form, has been enacted. Our article makes a philosophical intervention into the policy debate around this move by analyzing various draft versions of “The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill” which culminated in the ban. We argue that the Bill fails to realize its ethical potential since it is vitiated by a number of conceptual fallacies. We expose the conceptual fallacies by unpacking the concept of care in gestational surrogacy through the lens of care ethics. The robust conceptualization of care serves as a critical vantage point for analyzing the Bill's distorted understanding of care (and especially the affect–care–labor link) in gestational surrogacy. Consequently, we conclude that regulation of commercial surrogacy with fair compensation and due consideration for the agency of surrogates holds far greater ethical potential than a blanket ban on commercial surrogacy and mandating that it be practiced only in its altruistic form.

Sêneca e as figurações da hospitalidade

This article analyzes the way in which hospitable reception or deliberate hostility were figured in three works by Seneca, a Roman Stoic philosopher of the 1st century AD. It is an important topic, capable of revealing social elements and political orientations expected of a good princeps. We propose the study of a Menippean satire against Emperor Claudius; a philosophical treatise on the virtue of clemency; and a mythological tragedy involving Thyestes and Atreus, descendants of Tantalus. Regardless of the discursive genre, there is an orderly appeal according to the precepts of Stoicism, so that the absence of hospitality can represent the insanity of a tyrant; the impropriety of an apotheosis; a reproach against vice.

SYMBIOSIS OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN ONCOLOGY

SYMBIOSIS OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN ONCOLOGY

Emblematic Patterns and Metaphysical Meanings of Hryhorii Skovoroda

The focus of the author’s attention has been on the emblematic sense concentration in the philosophical system of Hryhorii Skovoroda. The study aims to reveal the artistic and style features of eide emblematic formation in the texts of the Ukrainian sophist, their origin, context, and conceptual classification by the author himself. The theoretical generalizations were essentially based on the philosophical treatises and dialogues by Hryhorii Skovoroda and the studies of other scholars. To analyze the issues under scrutiny, the author applied structuralist and semiotic methodology. The article highlights the emblematic sense, conveyance, and dominance in Skovoroda’s works. Emblematic forms of signification play a unique role in elucidating the anthropological, metaphysical, ethical, aesthetic, and hermeneutic dimensions of the Ukrainian poet and philosopher. Skovoroda considers emblemacity a particularly effective pictorial and verbal (iconic-conventional) type of “significative” speech, functioning as metalanguage.

Both Directions at Once

In Both Directions at Once, an album lost for almost 40 years, John Coltrane presents a constellation of musical tradition, themes, composition and improvisation, in dialectical opposition. This article imagines Coltrane as a sonic philosopher of oppositions and the album—named after Coltrane’s quote in which he attempts ‘starting a sentence in the middle, and then going to the beginning and the end of it at the same time… both directions at once’—as his philosophical treatise. Borrowing from biographers, musicologists and jazz critics, this contribution argues that in the album, the music engages with itself rather than seeking resolution or finality. In other words, Coltrane’s dialectical aesthetic drives the aesthetic. Both Directions at Once is sound focused on sonically opposing forces. It is an attempt by a deep thinker to present contradictions and oppositions between musical polarities that may create new potentialities. What listeners hear is Coltrane, the philosopher, striving toward a multidirectional aesthetic that furnishes music unshackled from the conditions of possibility.

Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob and His Treatise

The treatise of the German philosopher Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob (1759-1827), Examination of Mendelssohn’s Morning Hours, or All Speculative Proofs for the Existence of God provides researchers with a good excuse to address captivating subjects related to issues of biographical and historical-philosophical dimension. Of particular interest in this context is the introductory article by I. Kant, which he sent to L.H. von Jakob before the publication of the treatise. The central idea of Jacob’s treatise was to defend Kant’s critical philosophy against the also critical M. Mendelssohn’s position. In the treatise, von Jakob sought to defend Kant’s concept against Mendelssohn’s similar methodological attitude of criticality in his treatment of philosophy. On this basis, Jacob’s treatise contains a serious critique of Mendelssohn’s concept. The treatise indicates an interesting picture of a certain competition between the authors of philosophical concepts of the German Enlightenment. The sides of the “Russian” period in L.H. von Jakob’s biography are also revealed. The treatise scrutinizes Mendelssohn’s methodological positions, as well as an analytical examination of his axioms. To reproduce this analysis accurately, an attempt is made to compare von Jakob’s philosophical ideas with some of Kant’s ideas. L.H. von Jakob’s philosophy can be defined as critical, with some reservations, in the general history of the German Enlightenment. It contributes substantially to comprehending the essence of the philosophical positions of both Kant and Mendelssohn and also clarifies the nature of the difference between the critiques of these two German thinkers.

Wkład ks. Konstantego Michalskiego do skarbca kultury europejskiej

Rev. Konstanty Michalski, CM, (1879-1947), a philosopher, Thomist, professor and rector of the Jagiellonian University as well as an active member of the Historical-Philosophical Department of the Polish Academy of Learning; he was chairman of the Commission of the History of Philosophy in Poland and Vice-Director of the Department. In 1924, he initiated the Catholic Scientific Institute in Kraków. He experienced the horrors of the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen near Berlin. Michalski’s academic achievements in the field of the history of medieval thought include three thematic groups: Polish philosophy, Western philosophy and philosophical-theological thought of Dante Alighieri. While investigating the 14th century philosophical trends and problems of Scholasticism, Michalski concluded that the dynamics of mediaeval thought was strictly related to the reception of Aristotle’s works and their Arabic and Greek commentators. Together with Aleksander Birkenmajer he put forward a project of a critical edition of the Latin translations of Aristotle’s works, Latin translations of the Arabic and Jewish thinkers as well as the best medieval commentaries on the works of the Stagirite and independent philosophical treatises. On behalf of the Polish Academy of Learning Michalski presented a project of the editorial series Corpus philosophorum medii aevii to the Union Académique Internationale (International Union of Academies) in Brussels in 1928. The Union accepted the proposal of the two medievalists from Kraków in 1930. Michalski gave great impetus to Aristotelian studies, which made medievalists continue their work until today. Corpus philosophorum medii aevii is the most significant and greatest contribution to research on mediaeval thought, continued by scientific centres in Poland and abroad. Michalski reached the conclusion that only getting familiar with the main Western trends would allow him to fathom the doctrinal currents of Polish medieval philosophy. From 1920, he stopped investigating Polish Scholasticism and began seeking its sources in the main trends of Western philosophy of the 14 century. He was not so much interested in schools and systems as in the issues discussed in the 14th century, their formulations and proposed solutions. Michalski was the first Polish scholar who raised research on the history of philosophy to a European level by investigating the sources and carrying out independent studies on fields that had been little known or examined. At the same time, he was the first Polish scholar who explored the main trends in the 14th century philosophy in France and England, contributing to European science to a considerable extent. His achievements are permanent and notable. He studied from the historical-critical perspective over 360 philosophical texts in Polish, English, French, German and Italian libraries. He showed numerous parallels, analogies and similarities in problem-doctrinal areas between medieval philosophy on the one hand and modern and contemporary philosophy on the other. The outcome of his research activities has been included permanently in fundamental textbooks for medieval philosophy. However, his research was not limited to perceiving the main late medieval philosophical currents that dominated teaching at the universities in Oxford, Paris and Kraków. He also studied the texts of ancient and medieval philosophers, especially Saint Thomas Aquinas, at the same time referring to contemporary thought. Problems of contemporary philosophy inspired him to research the Middle Ages. The ideas of Max Scheler, Nicolai Hartmann, Roman Ingarden or Jan Łukasiewicz paved the way for him to make discoveries in the14th century philosophy.