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101. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 3
Elena N. Bolotnikova Philosophy as Self-Care
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This article states that the search for the meaning of life is possible only through an address to non-existence, and it is a sign of genuine human self-care. Religion and philosophy are considered as incarnation of the space of care. Philosophy here is understood in a broad sense, not as a rigorous science, but as search for wisdom. Based on the structure of self-care, given in Michel Foucault’s works, here are revealed peculiarities of the search for the meaning of life in respective fields. This also implies different lifestyles. The author believes that genuine self-care is available to everyone, in spite of the nature of modern mass culture.
102. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 3
Artur Karimov Analyticity and Modality
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In this paper I defend the concept of metaphysical analyticity, and argue for the notion of analyticity as truth in virtue of the reference determiner, introduced by Gillian K. Russell. Contrary to Russell, I try to show that necessary a posteriori statements are analytic under this notion. Also, I maintain that contingent a priori statements cannot be properly called analytic.
103. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 3
Olga N. Dyachenko Religious Faith in the Context of Personality Self- Determination
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The spread of Christianity reveals a new interpretation of human existence. In it temporality is regarded as a universal characteristic of the human race. The interpretation of God's word is based on a medieval understanding of being, as the Word. In the theocentric perspective Jesus Christ’s personality is a unique form of human self-consciousness. Christian thought unveils within it the dialogue between a faithful mind and a personal God, the relationship of “You” versus “Me.” Dialogic activity of a human agent is kept up by the constant renewal of religious communication contexts that arises from the process of spiritual contemplation. Theocentric thinking explains the self-sufficiency of human existence through the infinity of the knowledge of God that gives a person the opportunities of self-improvement and self-fulfillment. Faith is equal to finding one’s inner self; that is why it always considers a person as a personality containing unlimited perspectives for personal self-determination.
104. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 3
Vladimir Przhilenskiy Suspicion and Method: Towards the Post-Theoretical Lifeworld
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The article analyzes the historical and philosophical roots of the art of suspicion and its role in the development of modern philosophy and its method. Particular attention is paid to the issues of the comparison of philosophical suspicion and conspiracy theories as a special state of mass consciousness. The article also specifies the dependence of the art of suspicion on the sociology of knowledge and post-theoretical thinking.
105. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Gernot Böhme Being Human Well. A Proto-ethic
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Gernot Böhme discusses the nature of moral good in the light of what he calls proto-ethics, considering how to be human “well.” Here the predicate “good” takes on an adverbial and not an adjectival form, and Böhme refers to the Aristotelian distinction between praxis and poiesis to show that today's activistic civilisation with its emphasis on achievement as the effect of activity (poiesis) has deprived humans of their ability to focus on activity itself (praxis). Böhme rejects ideologies which profess the “enhancement” of humans by medical/pharmacological means, and instead postulates the recrea-tion of praxis skills by physical and spiritual training, especially in human relations with nature and the own body. Backing this postulate are numerous examples of how to be human “well.”
106. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Gernot Böhme Light and Space. On the Phenomenology of Light
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As its subtitle suggests, the essay is a phenomenological account of the diverse ways in which light can be experienced by the senses. Gernot Böhme divides these experiences into two types depending on whether they concern the relation between light and space (the categories “light-cleared space,” “lightspace,” “lights in space”) or between light and objects (“things in light,” “light upon things”). Böhme sees the synthesis of both these types of experiences in the illumination phenomenon, in which spatial/light effects and the way in which objects are illuminated combine to create a specific atmos-phere during the sensual, bodily experiencing of space. Böhme also discusses the applications of light effects in contemporary architecture and art.
107. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Rudolf Wolfgang Müller Gernot Böhme—Anima Naturaliter Japonica
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The author points to the spiritual relationship between certain underlying ideas in the philosophy of Gernot Böhme—especially in the areas of aesthetics and anthropology—and the typical features of Japanese culture as visible in its art, language and everyday life. For this, he turns to Böhme’s essay On the Aesthetics of the Ephemeral to show the typically ephemeral character of the Japanese painting school, he also reflects on the sophisticated aesthetics of Japanese culinary art. In Mueller’s opinion Japanese culture in many ways put some of Böhme’s philosophical postulates to practical use, notably those concerning the contemplative tendencies of individuals, the obliteration in experience of the difference between the subjective and objective (and in language between the active and passive voice), and the passive acceptance of atmospheric factors.
108. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Beata Frydryczak Landscape Garden as a Paradigmatic Model of Relationships between Human and Nature
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Following the suggestion expressed in the title of this essay, I deal with the idea which allows for considering landscape garden as a paradigmatic indicator of our relationship with nature. Focusing on the idea of landscape garden and its aesthetics I analyze two aesthetic notions: the picturesque and sublime, which are the background of the kind of experience accompanying a perception and participation of and in the landscape and environment. I analyse the kind of experience, which captures all the aspects that situate the human in the environment instead of opposing it. The analysis will be conducted within the framework of aesthetics.
109. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Gernot Böhme My Body—My Lived-body
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In this essay about the philosophy of human corporeality Böhme asks about the sense of the I—body relation. He enters a polemic with Hegel, who wrote about the self-appropriation of the own body in acts of will, and points to passive acts of bodily sensing like experiencing pain or fear as that which builds an awareness of the own body’s “mineness.” Böhme calls this awareness affected self-givenness, linguistically articulated by the pronouns “mine” and “me,” which are genetically precedent to awareness and the pronoun “I”. Against this categorial background Böhme considers the argumentative role both these philosophical models of the I—body relation could play in contemporary debates on the diverse cultural forms in which the human body has been commercialised.
110. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Gisbert Hoffmann The Median Mode of Being
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The author presents Gernot Böhme’s median mode of being theory, which attempts to find an anthropological middle ground between the rational and the irrational, the spiritual and the corporeal and the active and passive in human experience. Böhme’s reflections on the median mode of being are normative in character and linked to the concept of “sovereign man,” which he strongly defends and whose main characteristics Hoffmann outlines in the first part of the essay. Among others, Hoffmann argues against Böhme’s excessive emphasis on the controlling/restrictive functions of awareness at the cost of those functions which serve to protect and stimulate life, his non-distinction between the distance to a cognized object and its intellectual instrumentalisation, and his rather one-sided tendency to seek the sources of European rationalism in the Socra-tean tradition.
111. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Stanisław Czerniak The Philosophy of Gernot Böhme and Critical Theory. Doctrinal Positions and Interdisciplinary Mediations
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My intention in this paper is to answer two quite separate questions in a single interpretational narrative: a) about the philosophical (and often critical) content of Gernot Böhme’s expressis verbis—and, at times, “between the lines”—reference to the legacy of critical theory (especially the philosophical thought of Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno and Jürgen Habermas), and b) Böhme’s use of interesting mediatory devices to combine three different philosophical discourses: the philosophy of science, ethics and aesthetics. The three are in fact related—after all, Horkheimer ran comparisons between “traditional” and “critical” theory, Adorno is the father of the original aesthetical theory, and Habermas laid the ground for what we call “discursive ethics”—but this is a matter for separate and broader treatment. In this perforce shorter paper I will only attempt some initial reflections on the subject.
112. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Hisanori Kato Islamic Fundamentalists’ Approach to Multiculturalism. The Case of Al-mukmin School in Indonesia
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The psychological gap based on distrust and mutual ignorance between the Islamic world and the rest of the world, including Japan, has never been wider than it is today. Some might think that Islamic and other civilizations share little common ground in terms of basic values concerning humanity. Some even claim that “the clash of civilizations” is inevitable. However, it is too early to conclude that these civilizations will always be in conflict with each other. Although their theological interpretations of God and the teachings of their religions show clear contrasts, there might be some common values that they can share in social life. One of the most prestigious and well-known Islamic boarding schools or Pesantren in Indonesia, Al-Mukumin of Solo in Central Java, offers fundamentalist education. Yet, the students in this school still learn about the importance of co-existence with non-Muslims through social activities and classroom instructions. Multiculturalism and the appreciation of non-Muslims are clearly emphasised in the curriculum. Based on the field research conducted in January 2013, I will attempt to picture the state of Islamic education in Indonesia and identify some values common to Islamic and other civilizations, such as Western and Japanese.
113. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Gernot Böhme The Voice in Bodily Space
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In the paper Gernot Böhme considers the spatial aspects of the perception of sound, especially the human voice, which he sees not as a verbal bearer of meaning but the expression of “the speaker’s atmospheric presence.” The voice lends the communication space emotional colour and the atmospheres it creates envelop the communication partners by way of resonance. The author sets the signatures concept propounded by the Renaissance philosopher Jacob Böhme against semiotic theories: understanding music is not interpretation but resonance. Gernot Böhme also focuses on contemporary experimental music, where musical instruments are not treated as tools for the production of musical sounds but bodies “provoked” (by hitting, scraping, etc.) to generate specific sounds in the acoustic space.
114. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Gernot Böhme Meditation as the Exploration of Forms of Consciousness
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Gernot Böhme defines meditation as achieving specific states of consciousness by concentration and “switching off” the attention usually paid to diverse areas of everyday life. Böhme goes on to discuss what he considers to be the main meditation-generated forms of consciousness, like non-intentional consciousness, empty consciousness (a stand-by state in anticipation of contentual fulfillment), consciousness of presence (e.g. of one’s own bodily presence in the here-and-now), the awareness of nonduality (the fading of all contradictions, e.g. between the object and subject), and self-awareness, which extends beyond the normal sense of identity and reveals the hidden, unconscious dimensions of the deeper self (Yi in Oriental meditation). Böhme anchors these reflections in his philosophical critique of today’s reified consumerism and postulates the inclusion of this inquiry path in classical epistemological analysis.
115. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Gernot Böhme What Kind of Society Do We Want to Live in?
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The author asks about the conceptual tools which would enable a critique of contemporary capitalism without falling back to Utopianism and its historically-discredited theses. With the help of paired categories like community–society, human dignity–self-awareness, need–desire, Gernot Böhme portrays the deficiencies of contemporary Western social reality, e.g. the steadily exhausting reserves of the highly-bureaucratised welfare state system, the rapidly mounting differences in income, or the negative moral and psychological effects of unemployment and the so-called precariat. Böhme presents his critique of “aesthetic capitalism,” which does not satisfy human needs in the Marxist sense but rather the aesthetically-refined consumer desires of today’s affluent societies, in reference to the views of contemporary critical theory authorities (A. Honneth's con-cept of three sources of recognition).
116. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Stanisław Czerniak Between the Philosophy of Science and Philosophical Anthropology. Gernot Böhme’s Critical Philosophy of Technology
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The essay reconstructs the main aspects of Gernot Böhme’s philosophy of technolo-gy. In polemical reference to Max Horkheimer’s and Jürgen Habermas’ critical theory, Böhme asks about the rationality criteria of technology. He does not view his philosophy of technology as part of the philosophy of science but places it on the boundary between philosophical anthropology and social philosophy. Böhme reflects on the ethically negative, neutral and positive effects of the technification process both on the identity of contemporary humans and the changes taking place in social integration patterns. He also discusses the cultural sources of resistance to “invasive technification” not only in Western culture but also that of the Far East. The author closes his reflections with a set of questions about what he considers to be open issues in the Boehme’s philosophy of technology.
117. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Mikhail I. Mikhailov The Aesthetic Meaning of Catholicism and Orthodoxy
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The article considers the aesthetic meaning of Catholic and Orthodox cultural phenomena. According to the author, Catholicism is closely related to the notion of the tragic, which is manifested in the contrast between the Heavenly (spirit) and the Earthly (body). Therefore Catholicism, generating an important aesthetic notion, gave rise to Romanticism. The author regards Orthodoxy as the foundation of the Russian Symbolism (i.e. neo-Romanticism). Its essence is the proclamation of the Beauty of the man, which is revealed in the synergy of the Spiritual (i.e. heavenly) and the Earthly (i.e. bodily). In the aesthetic aspect Catholicism and Orthodoxy rather complement than oppose each other.
118. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 24 > Issue: 4
Teresa Pękala On the Aesthetic Experience of Nature and Time
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The paper treats Gernot Böhme’s project of new aesthetics as a signal of the advent of postmodern cosmology with the status of a philosophical theory. The main task of this study is to use some categories of Gernot Böhme’s aesthetics in discussing the processes of aestheticization of reality not only in terms of changes that occur between the human environment in the spatial but also in temporal dimension. The starting point is the analysis of aesthetic sense experience with a cognitive character. This experience is analyzed by Böhme within three main fields of aesthetic interest: nature, design, and art. The processes of aestheticizing reality blur the boundaries between the natural and the artificial to such an extent that the essence of aesthetic cognition should be investigated by analyzing nature together with design. Böhme’s categories of philosophy of nature can be utilized creatively to analyze aesthetic experience of the past. The phenomenon of the ephemeral and the concept of atmospheres take the rhythms of nature into account but it contrasts them with the human conception of time. The postmodern attitude towards time suggests a different theoretical approach that can be treated as the expansion of Böhme’s aesthetics, which is more focused on analyzing changes in space.
119. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 10
Aleksander Sitkowiecki An Arian in the New World: The Brazil Journal of Christopher Arciszewski
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Christopher Arciszewski (1592–1656), Arian mercenary and man of many facets, conducted a journal in which, it is suspected, he described military campaigns, the state of the colony and other interesting phenomena he was able to observe during his time of service in Brazil. In 1641, Gerard Vossius was completing his magnum opus De theologia. In Chapter 8 of the first volume, Vossius discusses the “cult of the demon” among various peoples. As an example the Netherlander erudite provides a colorful description of such a cult among the Brazilian Tapuya tribe. Since the author never traveled to Brazil, he makes use of the observations of Christopher Arciszewski. How does an Arian, brought up in an atmosphere of intense pluralism and far-reaching tolerance towards other belief systems (or at least imbued with a strong relativism), react when he encounters, first-hand, a culture utterly different, and completely alien to him? His presentation of a hierarchically constructed morality existent among various cannibalistic tribes is, in a sense, an intellectual breakthrough. Instead of treating the nativescollectively as one homogenous culture, as simply “savages”, Arciszewski distinguishes between various cultural units, and treats them individually. The nobleman attempts to convey their own views of morality not on the basis of European ethical systems, but on the local ones in place. In his day, such ideas were nearly unthinkable for most educated Europeans. Cannibalism of any kind was perceived as godless behavior, a sort of devilry, which would eventually be abolished with coming of the “light of Christianity” to the New World and the inevitable Europeanization of the natives. The reader can marvel at the extent to which Arciszewski is willing go in his relativism, to the point of sympathizing with the Tapuya. He allows them to explain to the reader the functioning of theirendo-cannibalistic culture. Arciszewski adds to the rationalization of cannibalism a detailed description of the death-rite among the Tapuya, presenting these ceremonial customs in accordance with their own beliefs, as something potentially interesting for humanistic intellectuals back in the Old World. Vossius’ book also discusses the question of the tribe’s spiritual beliefs: their conceptions of good and evil, deities, etc. The reader once again witnesses Arciszewski’s readiness to accept beliefs and deities completely unknown to European religion. The author does not prima facie discount the possibility that the “universal laws” operating in the Old World have no place in the Brazilian wilderness. His philosophical outlook, demonstrated by his rationalization of what had before been considered “magical” or “irrational”, is surely a foreshadowing of the rationalism of Enlightenment, whose modes of thinking constitute the core-foundation for alllater philosophical and scientific inquiry. Arciszewski, as an Arian brother par excellence, essentially operated with such conceptual tools as relativism, toleration and universalism, and his intellectual arsenal did not altogether differ from our own. As such, Arciszewski, and Europeans like him, helped free the Western worldview of its mediaeval philosophically limited conceptions of the cosmos, and propelled it in new directions of inquiry. This led eventually to a decided shifting of the European worldview away from superstition towards reason: the most definitively crucial moment in European intellectual history.
120. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 11/12
Mariusz M. Czarniecki, Maciej Bańkowski Transitional Humanity (poetical-metaphilosophical sketches)
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The author’s firm belief is that transitional humanity is not yet humanity proper but pre-humanity. He is especially intrigued by the essence and purpose of today’s contradiction between humanity’s immense advancement in micro-electronics, digital technology and social lore and its shocking moral shortcomings, best visible in its stagnant unchangeability—especially regarding the passionate quest for ever-better weaponry. Will our transience turn out to be nothing more but a phase on the road to human perfection, or will it petrify into an “inborn” scar? These are the main questions the author attempts to answer.As a species we are praehomine, pre-humans, a natural phase of ethical and esthetic imperfection. Typical for transitional humanity is the coexistence of progress. Nonetheless transitional humanity also carries the potential necessary to attain Wisdom, Good, Completeness and Perfection.