Philosophical Trends Research Articles

Merleau-Ponty’s Immanent Critique of Gestalt Theory

Merleau-Ponty’s appropriation of Gestalt theory in The Structure of Behavior is central to his entire corpus. Yet commentators exhibit little agreement about what lesson is to be learned from his critique, and provide little exegesis of how his argument proceeds. I fill this exegetical gap. I show that the Gestaltist’s fundamental error is to reify forms as transcendent realities, rather than treating them as phenomena of perceptual consciousness. From this, reductivist errors follow. The essay serves not only as a helpful guide through parts of The Structure of Behavior for newcomers, but also offers a corrective to recent trends in philosophy of mind. Such influential commentators as Hubert Dreyfus, Taylor Carmen, and Evan Thompson have, I argue, risked serious misunderstanding of Merleau-Ponty’s view, by mistakenly treating “circular causality” as central to Merleau-Ponty’s own acausal (dialectical) view of forms.

Science Studies in Russia and in the West

In Russia, works on the philosophy of scientific knowledge formed the basis of science studies. In the West, the priority in the discussion regarding science studies was given to sociology. Over time, the problematic of the philosophical and sociological trends moved closer and the border between them shifted. As a result, understanding the role of science in society has changed substantially. Accordingly, there is a fundamental change both in the subject matter of epistemological investigations and in epistemological concepts.

Traditional Korean Ceramics: A Look by a Scientist by Carolyn Kyongshin Koh Choo

Reviewed by: Traditional Korean Ceramics: A Look by a Scientist by Carolyn Kyongshin Koh Choo Lim Jongtae Traditional Korean Ceramics: A Look by a Scientist by Carolyn Kyongshin Koh Choo (Ko Kyŏngsin 高慶信). Seoul: Designnanoom, 2016. 292pp. As can be surmised from its title, this book is a comprehensive survey of traditional Korean ceramics written by a scientist. Its author, Carolyn Kyongshin Koh Choo, is a scientist who has taken an unusual career path. Trained as a physical chemist at MIT, she turned her research focus to traditional Korean ceramics in the early 1990s, establishing the Department of Science of Cultural Properties at Chung-Ang University as the institutional base for her extraordinary project to “understand the beauty of [Korean] ceramic wares from a scientific point of view” (9). The guiding motive of this book is not especially different from that of the prominent 20th-century connoisseurs of Korean ceramic arts. Like Yanagi Muneyoshi, Ko Yusŏp, and other modern art historians, Koh Choo also searches for the uniqueness of the Korean ceramic tradition by identifying its subtle differences from the grossly similar but technically more sophisticated Chinese tradition. To this common search for Korean uniqueness, she adds her own “scientific point of view.” She presents the microscopic and chemical analysis of ceramic shards excavated from major kiln sites as a new way to investigate the unique technical and aesthetic characteristics of Korean ceramics. Reflecting the author’s self-positioning as a scientific connoisseur of Korean ceramic art, this book takes a different approach from that of ordinary art history works. Rather than following the conventional historical succession of the main ceramic types, from Koryŏ celadon to Chosŏn white porcelain, she [End Page 257] arranges its four parts (each consisting of three chapters) according to major decorative methods employed by Korean potters (15). After giving an overall introduction to Korean ceramics in Part 1, the remaining three parts are devoted to discussions of major techniques that characterize Korean ceramic art: underglazing and inlaying (sanggam 象嵌) (Part 2), various decorative methods applied to Chosŏn punch’ŏng wares (Part 3), and finally, uses of pigments (iron-rich clay, copper red, and cobalt blue) in brush painting on ceramic surfaces (Part 4). This arrangement of topics according to decorative techniques enables the author to freely commute between the two realms of art and science in her discussion of specific methods. She thus connects the prominent aesthetic features, imparted to the ceramic wares by certain techniques, with the scientific analysis of the ceramic bodies, glazes, and pigments that were employed in the technical processes. In order for readers to follow this oscillation between artistic and scientific discussions, it is essential to rely on the introductory Part 1, which offers a well-arranged and highly enlightening overview of the book’s contents. Chapter 1 presents the aesthetic characteristics of Korean ceramic arts, compared with those of China. Unlike the Chinese ceramic tradition, which developed a technically sophisticated overglazing method as a response to ever increasing international demands, the Korean tradition remained in isolation from global market trends, continuously relying on the underglazing method. This was the technical base upon which Korean potters imparted to their wares the “subdued and restrained beauty” (25) which, according to many modern connoisseurs, came to represent the “quintessence of the Oriental spirit” (18). Chapter 2 portrays the historical process of how Chinese ceramic techniques were imported and assimilated, while identifying the major sociopolitical and philosophical environments that shaped the fundamental characteristics of Korean ceramics. The high concentration of ceramic production into a few government-controlled centers (Kangjin and Puan in Koryŏ, and Kwangju in Chosŏn) explains the lack of diversity in the Korean ceramic tradition. Philosophical trends of the ruling class, especially Chosŏn Confucianism with its emphasis on frugality and simplicity, discouraged technical sophistication and colorful decoration, thus giving birth to what might be called the minimalist aesthetics of Chosŏn punch’ŏng ware and white porcelain. In Chapter 3, the author introduces an entirely new, scientific way to view the methods of traditional ceramic arts. For the careful reader, discovering how certain aesthetic features of ceramics can be explained by the chemical composition of the raw...

Meaning-Centered Existential Analysis: Philosophy as Psychotherapy in the Work of Viktor E. Frankl by Peter Sarkany

Reviewed by: Meaning-Centered Existential Analysis: Philosophy as Psychotherapy in the Work of Viktor E. Frankl by Peter Sarkany Margarete Landwehr Peter Sarkany, Meaning-Centered Existential Analysis: Philosophy as Psychotherapy in the Work of Viktor E. Frankl. Translated by Emese Czintos. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2016. 121 pp. The insightful studies in Peter Sarkany's Meaning-Centered Existential Analysis: Philosophy as Psychotherapy in the Work of Viktor E. Frankl examine the third Viennese school of psychotherapy, known as logotherapy, founded by the eminent philosopher Viktor Frankl (1905–1997) as a philosophical trend of psychotherapy. Each essay focuses on the relationship between this meaning-centered existential analysis and various fields such as phenomenology, philosophical counseling, ethics, and religion. The initial chapter introduces the concept of the "philosophical care of the soul" and its relationship to psychotherapy, whereas chapters 2, 3, and 4 provide "methodological approaches to the philosophical importance of logotherapy and existential analysis" (13). Of particular interest is chapter 4, which deals with the philosophical method of Socratic dialogue. The last four chapters discuss the further philosophical dimensions of Frankl's work with comparisons to the thought of Heidegger, Hartmann, and Ingarden with a final chapter on Frankl's philosophy of religion in contrast to Freud's ideas on religion. In chapter 1, Sarkany states that the philosophical care of the soul does not focus primarily on the individual's salvation, health or physical, spiritual or social well-being but on "the concrete meaning of man's lived existence, the comprehensive meaning of a contemplative life, and on the contemplation of meaning" (24). This "life-philosophical approach" (24) considers the striving for wisdom and for happiness as one unity. Sarkany defines this approach as "the care of thinking" (25) and outlines three dimensions of this approach: (1) problem-solving or thinking that focuses on concrete problems; (2) life-philosophical/ethical thinking that deals with the care of the self, including [End Page 177] the formation of values and duties that shape one's conduct; and (3) contemplative thinking which involves a "transcendental" condition that enables the consideration of the relationship between one's self and another. The subsequent three chapters offer the core of Sarkany's depiction of a meaning-centered existential analysis. The foundations of this analysis are based on Frankl's Philosophy and Psychotherapy (1938), in which the terms logotherapy and existential analysis appear together to denote a "spiritually approached" (32) psychotherapy aimed at "a responsible being" whose goal is creating or finding meaning. Frankl clearly distinguishes between traditional psychoanalysis and logotherapy: "Psychotherapy endeavors to bring instinctual facts to consciousness. Logotherapy […] seeks to bring to awareness spiritual realities. As existential analysis it is particularly concerned with making men conscious of their responsibility" (32). This responsibility is always a responsibility toward a meaning and encompasses other existential issues such as freedom, challenges (such as suffering, sin, death), and possibilities (work, love). Frankl states that humans can find meaning in three ways: (1) through the creation of something, such as a work of art; (2) through an emotional experience, such as loving someone; and (3) through attitudinal meaning in which meaning can be found in the attitude one chooses within even the most hopeless and unchangeable situations such as a severe illness. As a concentration camp inmate, Frankl discovered these options as a means to survive the horrendous camp conditions. In his landmark memoir Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, Frankl discusses the improvised cabaret inmates created with songs, poems, and ironic jokes that helped them endure their suffering and the redeeming value of loving another, even when the beloved is absent. Reflecting on his love for his wife enabled Frankl not only to survive but also to create meaning in a senseless and brutal existence: "In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment" (49). In a similar vein, the logotherapist guides the client toward the possibilities of achieving meaning in his or her...

Założenia metafizyczne w programie pozytywizmu logicznego

In the present study I analyzed some aspects of the program of logical empiricism. I devoted particular attention to issues such as demarcation criterion, protocol sentence or logical syntax. These issues have been considered mainly through the prism of the work of Rudolf Carnap, while the contribution of other representatives of the Vienna Circle was rather kind of argumentative background. Mentioned philosophical trend had to stand in the closest possible touch with science. Therefore, fundamentally discredited metaphysical issues as meaningless. According to the author, such a radical distinction between sense and nonsense is unauthorized. Key neo-positivist postulates themselves are based on certain metaphysical assumptions.

PLATO’S HERITAGE TO WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, EUROPEAN INTELLECTUAL TRADITION AND SOME SPECIAL SCIENCES

Although the statement of Whitehead, asserting that European philosophy may be seen as footnotes to Plato, is exaggerated, it does provide us with a challenge to explain the element of truth in it. This article investigates a number of philosophical issues surfacing already in pre-Platonic thought in order to show how Plato mediated their impact upon subsequent philosophical developments and philosophical trends within some special sciences. The quest for a principle of origin explored alternative modes of explanation, such as number (the Pythagorean claim that everything is number), the metaphysics of space (Parmenides), the struggle with constancy and change (Heraclitus and Plato) as well as contemplating the limits of conceptual knowledge in Plato’s dialogue, Parmenides. Owing to the philosophical roots of the special sciences, a more detailed account is given of the influence of Platonism upon the disciplines of mathematics, physics and theology.

Introduction to comparative Heidegger studies: American context

The dynamics of Heidegger studies in international intellectual process is the real challenge for the Ukrainian scientific community that makes us look for effective means of generalization and learning context and the content of the problems that have defined the history of the world understanding of M. Heidegger. Comparative studies in the history of philosophy are one of the key areas of research activities that contribute to the identification of semantic coordinates of modern philosophical discourse. American line in reception of Heidegger's philosophy seems to have been based upon the German-French debate on understanding Heidegger, which has nevertheless obtained its own achievements in the reappraisal of the controversial philosopher. Being strongly influenced by the traditional American philosophical trends of pragmatism and analytical philosophy, reception of Heidegger's philosophy has undergone certain transformation of criticism into productive synthesis, which included several paradigmatic shifts. This movement was driven by critique of archetypical Heideggerian motives of poetics of Being and religion of language. The pragmatist and analytical appropriation of Heidegger's concepts and methodologies have been preceded by a long period of postmodernist hermeneutics. The vector of American Heidegger studies should be appropriated to the conditions of the Ukrainian philosophical process, where we have to reinvent the very ground-forming premises in their historical concreteness. The Marxist legacy of the former times should not be negated; it should be reinvented and restored as inherent basis of a novel mind-set.

Montale as postmodernist

The article considers primarily Montale’s fourth book, Satura (1971), and interrogates the connections between the new direction of Montale’s poetry and the scientific and philosophical trends of the 1950s and 1960s. To describe Montale’s late work as postmodernist is to measure the self-conscious distancing of his poetics from the writing of the first three volumes: the poetic voice of Satura explores the dialectic relationship between modern and postmodern. The common postmodernist annulments – the end of ideology, the end of history, the end of authorial presence, the distinction between high and low culture – all play a role in Satura’s composition. The article includes a discussion of Cesare Vasoli’s Tra cultura e ideologia as an important source to explain Montale’s suspension of poetic output as a symptom of the political and philosophical disillusionment he experienced during the years of the reconstruction and the economic boom. Using the latter text as a guide, the article analyzes one of the most hermeneutically complex poems of Satura, ‘Dialogo’.

Introduction to the 2nd Synthese Special Issue: trends in philosophy of language and mind

Introduction to the 2nd Synthese Special Issue: trends in philosophy of language and mind

Portuguese

Between 20 th th Century World Wars, Japan became intellectual scenario for the development of important studies on the press and the theory of journalism. The transformation of journalism in big business provoked a rich discussion about it in academic and professional circles. The article presents the first analysis in Portuguese about this phenomenon, frequently unnoticed even in more advanced scholarly centers. The period studied in the article extends from 1920 to 1937. The initial section analyses the origins and historical context of the phenomenon. The three following sections report the scientific and philosophical trends that guided its development. The conclusion points to the circumstances of their break, occurred amid the advancement of military dictatorship and the escalation of war against China.

Heidegger's ontology and his contemporaries: Husserl and Cassirer

Research into the history of understanding Heidegger's ideas allows to reveal how different thinkers were likely to grasp the specific subjective positions that defined the meaning of philosophizing as a cultural practice posited by modern era of intellectual history. The figure of Heidegger is crucial because it shed light on the more general context of the evolution of philosophizing within the system of scientific knowledge. A clear contrast between scientific rationalism and philosophical thinking, inherent for Heidegger's philosophy, is now hardly perceived within general coordinates of scientific philosophy of the last century, combining directions of phenomenology, Neo-Kantian tradition and positivism. Understanding the nature of synthesis of phenomenological method with the principles of the philosophy of life that formed the core of Heidegger's thought was the point of reference of such thinkers like Edmund Husserl and Ernst Cassirer. The problem of how to reconstruct the contours of delineation between the aforementioned philosophical trends remains relevant today and, as the latter define the contours of contemporary philosophy so that the barriers between different traditions of philosophy only intensified. Heidegger's desire to find premises of philosophizing, deeper than principles for a positivist and phenomenological science, would find support from Neo-Kantian thinkers, who also stood for autonomy of philosophy. But radical ontologism of Heidegger refused any possibility of dialogue. Husserl and Cassirer made critical remarks on ontologization as the leading motive of Heidegger's thought, which gave starting intention to further reception of Heidegger's work. It is ontology of time that has a threat of all consuming relativism and opportunism, since it deprives ethics from opportunities that would not fit the immanent structure of Dasein. Ontology of language fell prey to similar criticism, as Heidegger suggested lingual turn of existential analytics of Dasein. Cassirer in his own philosophy of symbolic forms forsaw the opportunity of linguistic totalization of being and developed his theory of generic symbolic forms.

First Among Equals: Christian Theology and Modern Philosophy

Christian theology can and should interact with modern philosophical trends and ideas to remain relevant to contemporary society. The roots of critical engagement between theology and philosophy are ancient, going back to the nature of the Triune God and the Bible itself and his broad kingdom redemptive commission to the Church. Scripture is finite, anchored in space and time, but the truths within it can generate responses to new situations. Theology sits alongside other disciplines in a relationship of ‘first among equals’, benefitting from and critiquing human thought.

Nature’s Ultimate End

Against the growing trend in philosophy toward naturalistic analysis, Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment has gained significant attention. Some scholars suggest that Kant’s insights bear on our aesthetic appreciation of nature, others on our account of the life sciences. In this paper I draw these lines of inquiry together to identify two overlooked dimensions of Kant’s project: the role of moral hope in problematizing the limits of natural science and the role of culture in providing a solution. Kant argues that we cannot think consistently unless we are able to conceive of nature as a domain that is hospitable to human freedom. His response is to identify the productive capacity of the imagination to transform the material of nature into something more. While the prevailing conception of nature today is at best indifferent and at worst antagonistic to human habitation, this dimension of Kant’s work has much to bear on contemporary thought.

Plato's heritage to Western philosophy, European intellectual tradition and some special sciences

Although the statement of Whitehead, asserting that European philosophy may be seen as footnotes to Plato, is exaggerated, it does provide us with a challenge to explain the element of truth in it. This article investigates a number of philosophical issues surfacing already in pre-Platonic thought in order to show how Plato mediated their impact upon subsequent philosophical developments and philosophical trends within some special sciences. The quest for a principle of origin explored alternative modes of explanation, such as number (the Pythagorean claim that everything is number), the metaphysics of space (Parmenides), the struggle with constancy and change (Heraclitus and Plato) as well as contemplating the limits of conceptual knowledge in Plato’s dialogue, Parmenides. Owing to the philosophical roots of the special sciences, a more detailed account is given of the influence of Platonism upon the disciplines of mathematics, physics and theology.

On the Impossibility of Object-Oriented Film Theory

Theaetetus: How, Stranger, can I describe an image except as something fashioned in likeness of true?Stranger: And do you mean this something to be some other true thing, or what do you mean?Theaetetus: Certainly not another true thing, but only a resemblance.Stranger: And you mean by true that which really is?Theaetetus: Yes.Stranger: And not true is that which is opposite of true?Theaetetus: Exactly.Stranger: A resemblance, then, is not really real, if, as you say, not true?Theaetetus: Nay, but it is in a certain sense.Stranger: You mean to say, not in a true sense?Theaetetus: Yes; it is in reality only an image.Stranger: Then what we call an image is in reality really unreal.Theaetetus: In what a strange complication of being and not-being we are involved!Stranger: Strange! I should think so. See how, by his reciprocation of opposites, many-headed Sophist has compelled us, quite against our will, to admit existence of not-being.Plato, SophistThough rise of object-oriented philosophy's (OOP) popularity seems to have recently lost some of its momentum, there remains fact that this new philosophical trend has in last few years managed to gather quite a following in philosophical community, art world and its curatorial circles,1 and academic disciplines ranging anywhere from medieval to new media studies. OOP's recognition across different fields in humanities is perhaps not surprising. It can be understood as part of a desire that has taken shape in context of a more general reconfiguration of knowledge and ideological constraints in our historical moment. The most general contour of this process assumes fashionable gesture of turning away from problematic of the toward that of the inhuman-an operation distinguishable from various past critiques of humanism and human-centered thought, which sought to either expand these notions beyond recognizably human or to show humanity as itself engendered by a series of conditions that constitutively exceed and destabilize it. An alternative way to capture current ideological realignment would be to describe it as movement from subject to object, from a focus on language and discursivity to foregrounding of materiality and reality, from deconstruction and what it often stands for (French theory) to a seemingly less problematic relationship to metaphysics, or, we might say, from critique and constructivism back in direction of a more affirmative and conciliatory, if not simply positivistic, image of thought. OOP's approach, which sees itself as embodying all these traits, now guides people in several nonphilosophical disciplines, some of which, such as media and literary studies, exist in relative proximity to field of film studies.Yet there has hardly been an attempt from side of film studies to explore possibilities that OOP, or object-oriented ontology as it is also known, might have to offer. Why is this so? Why are there so far no encounters of note between OOP and film studies? The question is worth pondering, especially when one takes into account interest that discipline of film studies typically exhibits for new theoretical tools. As will hopefully become clear, I believe that nonexistence of an encounter between OOP and film theory is not simply a matter of chance. It cannot, for instance, be explained away by some accidental lack of interest for cinema among OO philosophers. Nor can an ignorance of recent philosophical trends by film scholars be posited as a reason. The absence of encounter-this is claim I wish to advance and explore here-stems instead from a set of fundamental impediments (a denial of reality of images, exclusion of time and movement from aesthetic experience) that render standpoint of OOP incapable of producing constructive effects in domain of film theoretical research. …

Tassie, Gregor Nikolay Myaskovsky: The Conscience of Russian Music (review)

REVIEWS 749 Russian philosophy as a special national ‘path’, ‘destiny’, or ‘mission’ unique to Russia as the ‘new Jerusalem’. The new wave tends to perceive the monomania on theology as a hindrance to the development of philosophy in Russia. The current tendency rather consists in moving towards a more international conception of the discipline, increasingly opening up to the contemporary global philosophical scene. On this view, there is no contemporary prototypical national philosophy, but rather a plurality of philosophical trends. And that is partly what the title of the book — The End of Russian Philosophy — aims at suggesting, namely that Russian philosophy in the russkii sense of ‘Russian’ may have now come to an end. This informative book is recommendable to anyone seeking a window, however small, into the contemporary situation of philosophy in Russia. Institut Jean Nicod, Paris Frederic Tremblay Tassie, Gregor. Nikolay Myaskovsky: The Conscience of Russian Music. Rowan and Littlefield, Lanham, MD, Boulder, CO, Toronto, ON and Plymouth, 2014. xviii + 395 pp. Illustrations. Chronology. Notes. Bibliography. Discography. Catalog of works. Index. $84.00: £51.95. The career of Nikolai Miaskovskii is simultaneously a gift and a curse for biographers and critics. It represents a gift precisely because a detailed study of his life and works remains to be written in English, despite the availability of a wide array of sources, whether published and archival. It is equally a gift because over the course of nearly seventy years, Miaskovskii lived through some of the most gripping historical and cultural developments his country had ever witnessed. Yet his life might be felt to be a curse for very similar reasons. Unlike, say, the diaries of Sergei Prokof´ev, the documents pertaining to Miaskovskii’s life do not really illuminate his coy personality to anything like the same extent. And making sense of his involvement in such distinct and complex artistic phenomena as pre-war Russian modernism, the 1920s avant-garde, Socialist Realism and the machinations of Soviet arts institutions means that the biographer must range far beyond the narrow confines of the life itself. To be sure, Miaskovskii does not seem to present the critic with the kind of dilemmas or difficulties that beset scholars of Prokof´ev (his return to the Soviet Union, his treatment of his first wife, the nature of his Christian Science beliefs), Shostakovich (his joining of the party under Khrushchev, his willingness to write ideological works to order, his tendency to sign — usually unread — letters and articles dictated by apparatchiks) or Stravinskii (his moral tractability and constant self-mythologization), and in Nikolay Myaskovsky: The Conscience of Russian Music, Gregor Tassie charts his way through his subject’s SEER, 93, 4, OCTOBER 2015 750 life in commendable and confident detail. There is plenty of information on the vast corpus of works that the composer left behind — not just twenty-seven symphonies,butalsothirteenstringquartets,ninepianosonatasandavastbody of songs — and there are walk-on parts for a huge array of other characters too, whether the military figures who characterized his early life, or the composers, performers, teachers and administrators who made up his social and artistic circle thereafter. As for Tassie’s view of Miaskovskii’s character, then the subtitle of his biography spells this out clearly enough; for all that he was the recipient of a number of Stalin prizes and played a crucial role in the institutionalization of Soviet music as an editor, teacher and administrator, Miaskovskii did somehow manage to stay on the right side of posterity’s judgement. Beyond this, Tassie is unwillingtospeculateanyfurther,whetheraboutpoliticsorpersonality.Rightly noting that the composer’s enigmatic nature might well have stemmed from the tricky situation of being ‘the son of a tsarist general and a former officer in the imperial armed forces’ (p. 166), he nonetheless leaves much uncommented. He quotes Miaskovskii’s own claim that he had ‘no matrimonial inclination’ (p. 25) and summarizes Prokof´ev’s observations that ‘his colleague’s singlemindedness […] led him to obliviousness to the female gender’ (p. 41), yet the readerisnotinvitedtospeculateanyfurtherastothesignificanceofsuchleading comments. Readers wanting informed detail about Miaskovskii’s role in Soviet cultural politics will also have to look elsewhere. But the main problem with the book is that frequent errors and imprecisions of...

The Effects of Life Skills Psycho-education Programme on Divorced Women's Level of Inner Directed Support and Analysis of this Effect Based on Types of Marriage and Various Demographic Features

Like everything in the universe, family institution has been changing continuously, both structurally and functionally. The pace of the change has increased in the last decade. The structural and functional change in the family institution has made the family members change their roles and behaviour patterns. Although the phenomenon of divorce seems to be a personal problem, it has a social dimension as well and creates social problems with this aspect since the family union, known as the keystone of society is falling apart. Purpose of the Study: Divorce creates a serious and significant tremor in a person's life. This tremor affects both sexes; however, it is known that it affects women more. Therefore the women's social- economic level and their achieving internal support in marriage patterns have been studied. MethodThis is an experimental study based on pre-test control group, final-test and surveillance test model. As a means of getting data, Personal Information questionnaire and Personal Orientation Inventory reformed by Shostrom and adapted to Turkish by Kuzgun (1973) have been used. In this study taking the women's demands into consideration, a Psycho-education Program has been prepared within the scope of their self-actualization. Life Skills Psycho-education Program has been applied to the test group for ten weeks. The program has been prepared by taking Humanistic Philosophical Trend and Cognitive Behavioural Theory as basis. The data was analysed on SPSS 17.0. Multiple Regression Analysis techniques were used to find out. In the analysis of data Split-Plot pattern ANOVA, Mann Whitney-U, t-test techniques of have been used.

The Possibility of the Recommencement of Philosophy in Chinese Thought

In modern Chinese thought, “philosophy” and the whole disciplinary system rooted in it have had a far-reaching influence on the Chinese understanding and interpretation of their own tradition. If we are to avoid a naïve and simplistic final interpretation of traditional thought, the most prudent and reliable way to go about it is to ponder the whole framework and realm on which this understanding is based before we proceed to understand tradition. Before the inevitable problematization of “Chinese thought,” we should try to problematize “philosophy.” This demands that we find, in the constant rise and fall of philosophical trends, the view of philosophy by which Chinese thought is generally judged, and make it the object of questioning. Mou Zongsan’s attempt to reinterpret classical Chinese thought, based directly on Aristotle’s theory of the four causes, cannot be viewed as a success. The so-called first beginning of philosophy means establishing, led by the question of being—ontology, a system in which cheng (completion) is prior to and identical with sheng (generation). Now that Chinese thought has encountered Heidegger and thus rediscovered Aristotle and the whole of classical Western thought, the time is ripe for us to reexamine and assess the beginning of philosophy in terms of the complete and original experience whence Chinese thought arose.

Historiosophy of August Cieszkowski in the context of contemporary consciousness

Cieszkowski’s philosophy embodies the most influential trends in philosophy and culture of the nineteenth century. This does not mean, however, that Cieszkowski’s philosophy has today only historical character and it is good topic for some historians of philosophy. On the contrary. Although Cieszkowski used Post-Hegelian language and concepts, at the core his philosophy is an experience which has got a fundamental complexion. It is an experience of the dialectic of history. It underlies not only the of philosophy of the nineteenth century, but also lies at the root of modern consciousness, as determined by hermeneutics and postmodernism. The ancestor of the transversal reason is a cunning reason of history. Postmodernism, which focuses on pluralism and diversity, is closely related to the era of the end of history and post-history. The last term, just as the post-modernism is a historiosophical concept. The present of Cieszkowski’s philosophy of allows us better understanding the philosophical foundation of contemporary culture.

Outobiografie as hermeneutiek van die self: Van Rousseau tot Le Clézio

Autobiography as hermeneutics of the self, from Rousseau to Le Clézio. This article investigates the hypothesis that autobiography can be regarded as a type of hermeneutics of the self. In order to achieve this, a selection of French autobiographical texts was analysed. As this study is a reworked version of an inaugural lecture, it presents an overview rather than a detailed analysis of the theories or the texts it refers to. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, generally regarded as a cornerstone of modern autobiography, was used as a point of departure for the interpretation of operations of understanding at work in autobiographical texts. The article demonstrates how the writers of the rest of the corpus of texts question Rousseau’s historical model in different ways according to more recent concepts of the self. Thus it is argued that George Perec replaces the historical model of understanding with an approach based on deciphering signs from the past; that Nathalie Sarraute combines the New Novel’s concept of the divided subject with that of tropismes in order to give a truthful representation of her childhood; and that Roland Barthes problematises the notion of language as a medium of expression of subjectivity in his ‘anti-outobiography’. This study furthermore demonstrates how Marguerite Yourcenar breaks with the anthropomorphism associated with humanism to pave the way for the realisation that the presence of the Other profoundly determines the understanding of the self. Finally, the ethics of dealing with the Other in intercultural encounters, as recorded in Ken Bugul and Jean-Marie Le Clézio’s autobiographies, is examined. The article shows how, from the 18th century onwards, literary and philosophical trends influenced the act of understanding and interpreting the individual existence and hence the nature of autobiography.