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1. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2
Marcin Podbielski

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2. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2
Maxim Kantor

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The essay contrasts two recurring phenomena of European culture: renaissance and avant-garde. The author discusses the paradigmatic Renaissance of 15ᵗʰ and 16ᵗʰ centuries and the paradigmatic Avant-Garde of early 20ᵗʰ century from the point of view of a practicing artist, interested in philosophical, social, religious,and political involvements of artists and their creation. The author shows the artistic and social history of 20ᵗʰ century as a struggle between the Avant-Garde and the Renaissance ideals, which, as he points out, found a fertile ground in in the 20 years that followed immediately the Second World War.
3. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2
Svetlana M. Klimova, Elena S. Molostova

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This paper discusses the methodological challenges of Soviet sociology of religion in the period between 1960 and 1989, when it was charged with the contradictory task of investigating the actual standing of religion in Soviet society and, at the same time, with proposing methods through which the official“scientific atheism,” deeply rooted in Marxism, could be imposed upon the very populations that were the subject of its inquiries. The authors propose an insight into the actual practices of the researchers, based on little-known archival materials from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History. The materialsadduced by the authors show the various ways in which Soviet believers were surveyed and in which questionnaires were constructed, illustrating the modes ofargumentation used in atheist propaganda conducted alongside such surveys, and giving a rare glimpse into the methodological discussions that were taking place at conferences organized by the Institute of Scientific Atheism. The authors track also the sociological conceptions and typologies adopted by Soviet sociology.
4. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2
Tomasz Dekert

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This article proposes to look at the concept of freedom formulated by Nicholas Berdyaev in his early work, Philosophy of Freedom, through the prism of kenotic Christology. The kenotic nature of the Incarnation of the Son of God, as it was described in the St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians and developed later by theChristian tradition, was connected with His renunciation of his own infinitude—adopting the “form of a servant” and embracing the limits of the human body. It was an absolutely free act of the divine Person, who revealed to man his own divine model and opened up for him the possibility of its implementation, i.e., the way to becoming a person. For Berdyaev, this possibility is conditioned by the ability to engage in a free act of kenosis, involving the renunciation of the compulsions of reason that have entangled us in natural forms of necessity and that reduce us to mere cogs in the machinery of nature. According to Berdyaev, this way of human kenosis is faith. The act of faith, understood as a rejection of the tendency to seek security through compelling evidence, constitutes a person in his / her uniqueness, and performatively realizes the similarity to God potentially present in every human.
5. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2
Aleksey Kamenskikh

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The subject of this paper is a specific form of cosmogony—the conception of cosmogonic objectivation, interpreted as a tragedy or cosmogonic fall. This conception is examined on the basis of the evidence furnished by two sets of materials: firstly, the original texts and paraphrases of the Valentinian Gnostics of the 2ⁿᵈ and 3ʳᵈ centuries AD (Irenaeus Adversus haereses, 1.1.1–1.1.10; Excerpta ex Theodoto, compiled by Clement of Alexandria; and The Gospel of Truth from theNag Hammadi Library), and secondly, the writings of the Russian philosophers Vladimir Solovyov, Lev Karsavin and Nikolay Berdyaev. The research reveals aseries of specific features common to both of these: in particular, the conception of cosmogonic objectivation appears to be connected with the doctrine of theabsolute person’s fall, and with the motive of self-alienation.
6. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2
Katharina Breckner

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This essay introduces Semyon Lyudvigovich Frank as a philosopher who deservedly may be called a revolutionary thinker: he introduced a remarkablesocial ontology that foregrounds service. His oeuvre presents service as the supreme principle of personal and hence social life. The singular personality isseen as being there to creatively serve itself: his view of man focuses on the human soul as being there to bring forth creative action—to serve those who willcome after, the community, society, and the Christian Churches. Service, then, is the source for freedom as a derivative principle. Consequently, and in oppositionto the fundamental idea of the “Charter of Human Rights,” freedom in Frank has no absolute value, but only a functional one. It is justified by the ontologicalprinciple of service. All governmental organization is, ideally, the organization of freedom, the planned, systematic formation of free, spontaneous cooperation.Spontaneous cooperation makes up part of his concept of sobornost’, the empirical substrate of social culture. Frank would have agreed with Karl Popper’s notion of the “open society,” yet he would have certainly added that accessibility and transparency, be they spiritual or social, emanate from the principle of the universality of service. The true ontological meaning and the true source of democracy is, in his eyes, not the rule of all, but the service of all.
7. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2
Oksana Nazarova

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This paper analyzes the problem of Western perceptions of one of the most original branches of the Russian Philosophical Renaissance that occurred atthe beginning of the 20ᵗʰ century: namely, the so called Russian Religious Philosophy. This problem still possesses contemporary relevance, owing to the fact thatRussian philosophy continues to be engaged in a search for self-identification in respect of Western philosophical contexts. The paper shows that “Russian Religious Philosophy” is perceived by Western thinkers not only as “an exotic cultural phenomenon,” but also as an equal partner in a dialogue: it is considered asignificant philosophical achievement, meeting all generally accepted criteria of philosophical creativity. The German Catholic philosopher Peter Ehlen’s monograph on the subject of the religious philosophy of Semyon Lyudvigovich Frank will furnish us, here, with an example of just such an approach. The author of the monograph approaches his subject as something which he himself stands in an essential connection to—something which he, as a researcher, is in a peculiar spiritual communion with. A common spiritual experience of the religious perception of reality determines both Ehlen’s interest in Frank and the specificcharacter of the research undertaken by him. The position of researcher, expected to maintain a certain distance from his or her subject matter, is replaced by thatof a co-thinker, engaged in co-experiencing and understanding in depth the ideas of the particular philosopher under examination. The result of this approach is a new synthesis created by Ehlen on the basis of Frank’s philosophy.

book reviews

8. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2
Renata Ziemińska

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9. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2
Carl Humphries

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10. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2
Łukasz Borowiecki

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11. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2

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12. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 2

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13. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 1
James A. Harold

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How is one to distinguish a true lover of peace from a mere appeaser, a pacifist, and a warmonger? Distinguishing them can be sometimes confusing,as they will often appropriate each other’s language. The criterion for the above distinction does not only lie in outward behavior, as knowledge of inward attitudesis also required. A right understanding of these attitudes and motivations involve at least an implicit grasp of the true nature of peace, which is investigated as something more than the mere absence of war, insofar as peace is primarily a work of two moral virtues: justice and charity. It is in the spirit of justice and charity that the true lover of peace must then distinguish—both in one’s own life and with nations—between what can be ignored and / or forgiven, and what must be redressed. Furthermore, the distinction between the lover of peace and the pacifist, with the possibility of pacifism being a distinct tradition from just war philosophy, is investigated. The argument is made that pacifism should not be considered outside the context of just war because one needs that context toaddress if and who demands restitution.

14. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 1
Edgar Valdez

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In this paper I argue for a notion of conversion in Kant’s critical philosophy by drawing a connection between the conversions to be found in Kant and the intellectual, moral, and religious conversions of Augustine. I liken Augustine’s Platonic metaphysics of God to Kant’s antinomy of Pure Reason as an intellectual conversion. I link Augustine’s moral conversion with Kant’s metamaxim to commit to a use of reason that is free from the influence of inclination. I connect Augustine’s religious conversion with Kant’s recognition of God as the postulated condition for the highest good. There are advantages to understandingthe conversions in Kant for understanding how his critical philosophy views faith more generally. The conversions in Kant point to the practical necessity offaith as Kant understands it. Such an interpretation also unifies Kant’s contribution to the conversation on the relationship between faith and reason. For Kantfaith, much like knowledge, is a form of holding true and as such is reasonable.

15. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 1
Georgios Patios

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The purpose of this article is to analyze Kierkegaard’s philosophical views concerning the problem of the nature of the human self. With the help of aclose examination of Kierkegaard’s texts the Concept of Anxiety and the Sickness unto Death, we argue that Kierkegaard “constructs” the human self in a specificway. this way reveals, through the examination by Kierkegaard of “anxiety” and “despair,” three main characteristics of the human self: a) the self is a dynamicprocess, always “becoming” in time through free will and freedom of choice, b) the human self is always a historical self, so that history is then a direct product of“becoming a self,” and c) the human self, in order to be “whole,” must freely ground itself in a transcendental being (God).

16. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 1
M. Andrew Holowchak

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In a letter to Benjamin Rush, Jefferson includes a syllabus—a comparative account of the merits of Jewish morality, ancient philosophy, and the precepts of Jesus. Using the syllabus as a guide, this paper is a critical examination of the influence of ancient ethical and religious thinking on Jefferson’s ethical and religious thinking—viz., Jefferson’s views of the ethics and religion of the Hebrews, the ancient philosophers, and Jesus.

17. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 1
Yishai Cohen

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In this paper I articulate and defend a new anti-theodicy challenge to Skeptical Theism. More specifically, I defend the Threshold Problem according to which there is a threshold to the kinds of evils that are in principle justifiable for God to permit, and certain instances of evil are beyond that threshold. I further argue that Skeptical Theism does not have the resources to adequately rebut the Threshold Problem. I argue for this claim by drawing a distinction between a weak and strong version of Skeptical Theism, such that the strong version must be defended in order to rebut the Threshold Problem. However, the skeptical theist’s appeal to our limited cognitive faculties only supports the weak version.

18. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 1
Leland R. Harper

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Seemingly, in an attempt to appease both the micro-physicists and the classical theists, Nancey Murphy and Thomas Tracy have each developed accountsof God which allow for Him to act, in an otherwise causally closed natural world, through various micro-processes at the subatomic level. I argue that notonly do each of these views skew the accounts of both micro-physics and theism just enough to preclude the appeasement of either group but that both accountscan aptly be classified as, what I term, epistemic deism. I go on to argue that epistemic deism is a weak brand of deism that ultimately provides us with little to noanswers to any of serious questions discussed within the philosophy or religion.

19. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 1
Igor Gasparov

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In this paper I would like to defend three interconnected claims. The first stems from the fact that the definition of substance dualism recently proposed by Dean Zimmerman needs some essential adjustments in order to capture the genuine spirit of the doctrine. In this paper I will formulate the conditions for genuine substance dualism, as distinct from quasi-dualisms, and provide a definition for genuine substance dualism that I consider more appropriate than Zimmerman’s.The second is that none of the currently proposed forms of substance dualism are able to provide a satisfactory account of conscious subjectivity. To support this claim I present two arguments, the first against Cartesian Dualism, the other against Emergent Dualism. The third, I believe, derives from the two just mentioned: if the dualistic arguments against the ability of physicalist theories to provide a sound account of the unity of the subject of consciousness are persuasive enough, then, in order to acquire a more adequate account of the unity of the conscious subject, we will have to look more closely at such forms of quasi-dualism as spiritualism or a broadly Aristotelian view of human persons.

20. Forum Philosophicum: Volume > 18 > Issue: 1

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