scholarly journals The Decartes’ paradox and the modern philosophy as the foundation farse

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Milan Brdar
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Epistemic Uncertainty ◽  
The Other ◽  
Will To Power ◽  
Death Of God ◽  
Ultimate Result ◽  
The Will ◽  
The One ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Hegelian Philosophy

In this article the author identifies a paradox at the heart of Descartes? foundationalist project. The components of the paradox are as follows: on the one hand, ontological certainty of cogito, on the other hand, its epistemic uncertainty: it is impossible for the solus ipse to establish the elementary truth: at present it is impossible to determine whether it is now night or daylight. For Descartes the solution consists of introducing God and in believing in His existence. But this is no solution whatsoever, for a subject would require direct contact with God in order to receive clear and distinct ideas, which are at the same time marks of their truth. The author concludes the following: firstly, Descartes managed to establish a foundation for nothing; secondly, the Cartesian project that includes the necessity of contact with God as a way to attain the Truth, becomes completed only in Hegel?s philosophy of Absolut Knowledge (in Wiss. der Logik), along with his justification provided in the Phenoimenologie des Gesites. The post-Hegelian philosophy, however, has engendered its own paradox by abandoning Hegel?s own solution despite it being fully Cartesian in its character. This was the consequence of abandoning God and declaring Hegel?s philosophy as a deplorable conservative revival of theology; something that was beyond understanding by modern philosophers. The abandonment of God had as its consequence the return to the Cartesian paradox, which reopened the question of truth - connected to the Cogito, and the question of sense (Sinn) - connected to the sum of human subject. The neglect of God leads to the departure from ratio-centrism in two ways: the epistemic perspectivism and relativism, on the one hand, and Nihilism, voluntarism with decisionism, along with existentialism, on the other. Consequently, with the death of God, and the fall of Hegel?s system, the modern metaphysics of subjectivity reveals itself as founded merely on the Will to power - as a will for God, until Hegel, and a will against God, subsequently. Thus, Heidegger was right when he said that Nietzsche?s Will to Power was the end of the Western metaphysics. The author complements this finding by adding that this kind of metaphysic had already been concealed within the Descartes Meditations from the start, in the forms of the will for the Reason and the will for God. Finally, the author concludes that the modern philosophy completes its own Odyssey of looking for a foundation by abandoning the Hegelian solution, blind to the fact that Hegel?s solution was the only consequent Cartesian one. The ultimate result was the fall of ratio-centrism into nihilism, voluntarism, and existentialism, as promoted under a thin vail of Picodellamirandolian humanism.

Nihilsmo, Fin de la Metafisica y Secularizacion en el Pensamiento de Nietzsche, Heidegger y Vattimo

1998 ◽  
pp. 165-172
Author(s):  
Laura Laiseca
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Death Of God ◽  
Eternal Recurrence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Postmodern Philosophy ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

The purpose of this article is to articulate Nietzsche's criticism of morality which is centered in his experience of the death of God and the end of the subject of Modernity. Nietzsche considers nihilism as a nihilism of morality, not of metaphysics: it is morality and its history that has given rise to nihilism in the Occident. That is why Nietzsche separates himself from metaphysics as well as from morality and science, which differs from Heidegger's reasons. According to Heidegger, Nietzsche places himself in a primal position in the history of metaphysics, by which he means the consummation (Vollendung) of metaphysics' nihilism, which Heidegger tries to transcend. On the one hand, Heidegger shows us how Nietzsche consummates the Platonic philosophy by inverting its principles. On the other, Nietzsche consummates the metaphysics of subjectivity. Consequently he conceives the thought of the will of power and of the eternal recurrence as the two last forms of the metaphysical categories of essence and existence respectively. On this ground it is possible to understand Nietzsche's and Heidegger's thought as the necessary first stage in the transition to Vattimo's postmodern philosophy and his notion of secularization.

Nietzsches Wiederholung Spinozas. Ein problemgeschichtlicher Bezug der Konzepte des conatus und des Willens zur Macht

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timon Boehm
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Will To Power ◽  
Main Work ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will ◽  
The One ◽  
Conceptual Setting ◽  
Temporal Shifts

AbstractTo what extent does Nietzsche’s concept of Will to Power succeed Spinoza’s concept of conatus? In our approach, based on the history of problems, concepts are viewed as an answer to certain philosophically relevant issues. The concept of conatus is an attempt to solve, among others, the problems of creatio continua, teleology, the will as a faculty, and normativity. Nietzsche reconsiders them, explicitly or implicitly, in a conceptual setting that has much changed over the subsequent two hundred years, and reacts on them with his concept of Will to Power. Such a reconsideration of problems can be conceived as a repetition in the sense of Deleuze, i. e. a repetition that comprises temporal shifts and differences. It is required if problems are considered still as unsolved, or if their former solution seems no longer plausible. The concept of conatus appears therefore in a particular way as an impulse and stimulus for Nietzsche’s own philosophy of Will to Power which is discussed here mainly by recurring to Boscovich. The above mentioned problems arise from ontological concerns, but are ethically oriented in the end, according to Spinoza’s main work The Ethics. A special focus is put on understanding affects as expressions of the conatus on the one hand, and the Will to Power on the other.

Nietzsche auslegen und kommentieren: Neue Interpretationen von Jenseits von Gut und Böse

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 465-472
Author(s):  
Aldo Venturelli
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Will To Power ◽  
Free Spirit ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The One ◽  
Good And Evil

Abstract Reading and commenting on Nietzsche. New interpretations of Beyond Good and Evil. Two recent volumes on Nietzsche’s text highlight its fundamental ambivalence. On the one hand, Beyond Good and Evil is marked by a dynamic openness for experiment, critique of dogmatism, and stylistic sophistication; on the other hand, the argument centers on themes, such as the opposition between slaves and nobles, exploitation and new forms of tyranny, decadence and will to power, harshness and cheerfulness. Following the two volumes under discussion, I examine how and whether these diametrically opposed aspects of Nietzsche’s text can be brought together in a way that also allows us to reassess other basic themes of Nietzsche’s thought. The latter include the oppositions between the unity and the plurality of the will to power, Nietzsche’s emphasis on the „free spirit“ and his search for a „higher type“, his critique of morality and the creation of new values, his commitment to Europe and authoritarianism.

Global Economic Crisis of 2008-2009: Sources and Roots

2009 ◽  
pp. 18-31
Author(s):  
G. Rapoport ◽  
A. Guerts
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Trade Deficit ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The Other ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Production Output ◽  
The One ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Partial Destruction

In the article the global crisis of 2008-2009 is considered as superposition of a few regional crises that occurred simultaneously but for different reasons. However, they have something in common: developed countries tend to maintain a strong level of social security without increasing the real production output. On the one hand, this policy has resulted in trade deficit and partial destruction of market mechanisms. On the other hand, it has clashed with the desire of several oil and gas exporting countries to receive an exclusive price for their energy resources.

The Problem of the Typology of Rationality in Muslim Culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 88-99
Author(s):  
Andrey A. Lukashev
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
The Common ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The One ◽  
Muslim Culture

The typology of rationality is one of major issues of modern philosophy. In an attempt to provide a typology to Oriental materials, a researcher faces additional problems. The diversity of the Orient as such poses a major challenge. When we say “Oriental,” we mean several cultures for which we cannot find a common denominator. The concept of “Orient” involves Arabic, Indian, Chinese, Turkish and other cultures, and the only thing they share is that they are “non-Western.” Moreover, even if we focus just on Islamic culture and look into rationality in this context, we have to deal with a conglomerate of various trends, which does not let us define, with full confidence, a common theoretical basis and treat them as a unity. Nevertheless, we have to go on trying to find common directions in thought development, so as to draw conclusions about types of rationality possible in Islamic culture. A basis for such a typology of rationality in the context of the Islamic world was recently suggested in A.V. Smirnov’s logic of sense theory. However, actual empiric material cannot always fit theoretical models, and the cases that do not fit the common scheme are interesting per se. On the one hand, examination of such cases gives an opportunity to specify certain provisions of the theory and, on the other hand, to define the limits of its applicability.

Kroniek van een aangekondigd ontslag. Twee opmerkelijke brieven van Alfons Van de Perre betreffende zijn afscheid als volksvertegenwoordiger in 1919

2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Luc Vandeweyer
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
First World War ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Will ◽  
The One ◽  
First World ◽  
Member Of Parliament

In deze bronnenpublicatie ontleedt Luc Vandeweyer de parlementaire loopbaan van de geneesheer-politicus Alfons Van de Perre: hoe hij in 1912 feitelijk  tegen wil en dank  volksvertegenwoordiger werd, zich anderzijds blijkbaar naar behoren kweet van zijn taak en tijdens de eerste verkiezingen na de Eerste Wereldoorlog (1919) zijn mandaat hernieuwd zag maar meteen daarop ontslag nam. Volgens de bekende historiografische lezing was de abdicatie van de progressieve politicus een daad van zelfverloochening die enerzijds werd ingegeven door gezondheidsmotieven en  anderzijds was geïnspireerd door de wil om de eenheid binnen de katholieke partij te herstellen. De auteur komt op basis van nieuw en onontgonnen bronnenmateriaal tot de vaststelling dat Van de Perres spontane beslissing tot ontslag in de eerste plaats een strategische keuze was: in het parlement, waar hij zich overigens niet erg in zijn schik voelde, kon hij minder invloed uitoefenen op de Vlaamse beweging dan via de talrijke engagementen waarvoor hij voortaan de handen vrij had. Eén ervan was die van bestuurder én publicist bij het dagblad De Standaard.________Chronicle of the announcement of a resignation. Two remaekable letters by Alfons Van de Perre concerning his resignation as a Member of Parliament in 1919In this source publication Luc Vandeweyer analyses the parliamentary career of the physician-politician Alfons Van de Perre and he describes how Van de Perre became a Member of Parliament in 1912 actually against the grain, yet how he apparently did a good job carrying out his duties. During the first elections after the First World War (1919) Van de Perre found that his mandate was renewed, but he handed in his resignation immediately afterwards. According to the familiar historiographical interpretation the abdication of the progressive politician was an act of self-denial, which was prompted on the one hand by health reasons and on the other hand inspired by the will to restore unity within the Catholic political party. On the basis of new and so far unexplored source material the author concludes that the spontaneous decision by Van de Perres to hand in his resignation was above all a strategic choice: in the Parliament, which he did not much enjoy anyway, he could exert less influence on the Flemish movement than via his numerous commitments, which he was now free to take on. One of these was the post of director as well as political commentator of the newspaper De Standaard.

1. On Annelid Tracks in the Exploration of the Millstone Grits in the South-west of the County of Clare.

1857 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 294-295
Author(s):  
Robert Harkness
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Perfect State ◽  
The South ◽  
Great Abundance ◽  
South West ◽  
Soft State ◽  
The One ◽  
To Receive

The author remarks that the existence of Annelida during the Palæozoic formations is manifested in two conditions. In the one, we have the shelly envelope which invests the order Tubicola, in the form of Seapolites; and in the other, the tracks of the orders Abranchia and Dorsi-branchiata are found impressed on deposits which were, at one time, in a sufficiently soft state to receive the impressions of the wanderings of these animals.Among the strata which have hitherto afforded annelid tracks, those which, in the county of Clare, represent a portion of the equivalents of the Millstone Grit, contain such tracks, in their most perfect state of preservation in great abundance; and these strata also furnish evidence concerning the circumstances which prevailed during their deposition.

scholarly journals M. Heidegger: Metaphysical character of technical scientific civilisation

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-140
Author(s):  
Mico Savic
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Will To Power ◽  
World Picture ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
The World ◽  
The Will ◽  
Paper Author

In this paper, author deals with Heidegger's account of the modern age as the epoch based on Western metaphysics. In the first part of the paper, he shows that, according to Heidegger, modern interpretation of the reality as the world picture, is essentially determined by Descartes' philosophy. Then, author exposes Heidegger's interpretation of the turn which already took place in Plato's metaphysics and which made possible Descartes' metaphysics and modern epoch. In the second part of the paper, author explores Heidegger's interpretation of science and technology as shoots of very metaphysics. Heidegger emphasizes that the essence of technology corresponds to the essence of subjectivity and shows how the metaphysics of subjectivity subsequently finds its end in Nietzsche's metaphysics of the will to power, as the last word of Western philosophy. In the concluding part, author argues that the contemporary processes of globalization can be just understood as processes of completion of metaphysics. They can be identified as a global rule of the essence of technology. On the basis of Heidegger's vision of overcoming metaphysics, author concludes that it opens the possibility of a philosophy of finitude which points to dialogue with the Other as a way of resolving the key practical issues of the contemporary world.

Liberalism Without Transcendence

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
William R. Marty ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Gradual Decline ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Will ◽  
The One

John Hallowell's seminal study, originally published in 1943, treats modem Western thought since the Renaissance and the Reformation as, in its core, liberal, and its foundations as based on an uneasy synthesis of potentially warring elements: On the one hand, the primacy of the will as embodied in the autonomous individual; on the other, the ability of these autonomous wills to bind themselves together freely, by contract and consent, on the basis of their acknowledgment of transcendent moral truths discoverable by reason. Conscience, then, enabled independent wills to acknowledge and submit to justice as found by reason or revelation. But Hallowell described also the gradual decline in the confidence in reason to find transcendent truths, and the subsequent decline in the ability of autonomous individuals to find grounds for genuine community. Where will alone reigns, all standards collapse, and increasingly the arbiter between wills becomes force. Western civiltation, even as it approaches becoming world civilization, increasingly manifests symptoms of dissolution and an inability to provide the foundation for genuine communities.

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