RETHINKING HOLISM: THE PRINCIPLE OF WHOLENESS AS A METAPHOR AND METHOD IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY OF THE PAST AND PRESENT

2021 ◽  
pp. 33-42
Author(s):  
Andrey A. Linchenko
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

Geschichtsphilosophie und Philosophiegeschichte

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-24
Author(s):  
Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Systematic Philosophy ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

Abstract The essay – an elaborated version of my academic farewell speech [Abschiedsvorlesung] – discusses three theses: 1. Histories and history as well as history of philosophy and philosophy of history can only be staged as narratives. “True” stories enact the past and deliver schemes for anticipating the future; insofar history and future constitute the semantics of the present. 2. “Systematic” philosophy analyses the temporal narratives which store the historical experiences and eliminates their temporality in a process of transforming narratives into arguments. The most important step in this transformation consists in isolating the key notions of the narratives and in arranging these key notions in a “timeless” systematic order. 3. History of philosophy and philosophy of history restage, however, the temporal narrative, which systematic philosophy wants to eliminate from philosophy. This operation produces an unsolvable paradox where the claim of timeless truth and that of unescapable temporality are both valid. It throws up questions such as: how can it be possible for philosophical truths to lose their credit? Do timeless truths exist, and if so what do they mean? Do these paradoxes lead to schadenfreude on the part of the historian of philosophy, who knew it all along, or should one see these unsolvable complexities as a chance to enjoy the richness of possibilities which history unfolds? The essay chooses the second alternative.

scholarly journals Philosophy of History of N.A. Berdyaev: The Existential End of History or an Apocalipsis Interiorized

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
Artem Khamidulin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Philosophy Of Time ◽  
Religious Philosophy ◽  
End Of History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment

The article analyzes the philosophy of history of N. A. Berdyaev. The starting point of the article is the thesis about the relationship between the problematics of time and historical science. It is noted that for Berdyaev, the philosophy of time is one of the main themes of his philosophy of history. Attention is drawn to the feeling of dissatisfaction experienced by Berdyaev with the fluidity and mobility of time. The perception of the philosopher of time as solicitude and, to a large extent, as an evil or a disease that must be overcome is explicated. The reality of the past and future times equal to the present is revealed. The author demonstrates the bliss inspired by actual experience and philosophy of time. Concept of psychological time of Augustine, which justifies the reality of the past, present and future. Teaching about the instantaneity of the present as a point of interaction between time (historical and cosmic) and eternity (celestial time) of Berdyaev is considered. The possibility of experiencing this kind of moment is considered by Berdyaev on the basis of the existential dimension of time that flows in the depths of the human spirit. The author notes the influence of the teaching about the moment by Danish philosopher Sшren Kierkegaard on Berdyaev. A parallel is drawn between teaching on the meaning of the moment by Berdyaev and the concept of "kairos" of German theologian Paul Tillich. The article analyzes eschatology of Berdyaev, which determines his belonging to the traditions of the Russian religious philosophy of history. Two possible ways to overcome time are revealed: in an instant, i.e. repeatedly during human life, and as a result of the total end of history, which, according to Berdyaev, is also to a large extent a phenomenon of the existential sphere of being. According to Berdyaev, this kind of exit from time gives the opportunity to learn the meaning of history, on the one hand, and to free oneself from the enslaving power of time, on the other. It is concluded that Berdyaev understood the end of history existentially as a special spiritual experience that allows us to overcome time and look at history in terms of eternity.

scholarly journals In the Shadow of the Decay. The Philosophy of History of Mencius and Xunzi

Asian Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-171
Author(s):  
Dawid ROGACZ
Keyword(s):  
Historical Thinking ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Confucian Philosophy ◽  
Mandate Of Heaven

The aim of my paper is to analyze the debate between Mencius and Xunzi from the perspective of their views on the nature of the historical process. The Mencian approach embraces not only elaboration on the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven, resulting in a cyclical vision of history, but also strong idealization of the past. I will show that ren (benevolence), treated as a historical principle, could link two dimensions of his historical thinking: the moral and ontological. Xunzi rejected the possibility of the intervention of Heaven in history, however, his theory of rituals and belief in moral use of history made his philosophy of history much more conservative, embalming the idealization of the past. In short, I will look for the main common points and differences between these two major figures of Confucianism regarding their views on history, attempting to answer which beliefs could constitute a unique Confucian philosophy of history.

What’s Forgotten About The Structure of Scientific Revolutions?

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-339
Author(s):  
Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Scientific Revolutions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Structure Of Scientific Revolutions ◽  
History Of

Abstract Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a classic, and it is certainly not forgotten. However, an essential aspect about it has been neglected. That is, Kuhn’s Structure is a book in philosophy of history in the sense that Structure attempts gives an account of historical events, focuses on the whole of the history of science and stipulates a structure of the history of science to explain historical events. Kuhn’s book and its contribution to the debates about the progress of science and the contingency and inevitability of the history of science shows why and how philosophy of history is relevant for the history and philosophy of science. Its successful integration of historical and philosophical aspects in one account makes it worthwhile reading also for philosophers of history in the twentieth-first century. In particular, it raises the question whether the historical record can justify philosophical views and comprehensive syntheses of the past.

scholarly journals Interrupção e montagem nas teses “Sobre o conceito de história” / Interruption and Assemblage in the Theses “On the Concept of History”

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Tomaz Amorim Izabel
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

Resumo: O artigo se pretende um ensaio a partir das teses “Sobre o conceito de história”, focando nos aspectos disruptivos de sua proposição sobre um contar histórico crítico à ideologia do progresso utilizando a técnica da montagem como uma de suas estratégias. Além disso, seguindo o gesto benjamininano de pensar o passado em um encontro com o tempo de agora – o jetztzeit –, sempre em risco de ser cooptado pela história dos vencedores, o artigo busca atualizar os perigos abordados por Benjamin na década de quarenta em nosso presente mergulhado em crises sociais, políticas e ecológicas. Trata-se menos de um panorama bibliográfico sobre este texto seminal do que uma tentativa de tornar efetivas suas potencialidades a partir de questões urgentes do agora.Palavras-chave: filosofia da história; modernidade; Walter Benjamin.Abstract: The article intends to be an essay about the thesis “On the concept of history”, focusing on the disruptive aspects of its proposition about a historical telling critical to the ideology of progress using the montage technique as one of its strategies. Moreover, following the Benjaminean gesture of thinking the past in a meeting with the present time – the jetztzeit – always in danger of being co-opted by the history of the winners, the article seeks to update the dangers that Benjamin addressed in the 1940s in our present steeped in social, political and ecological crises. It is less a bibliographical overview of this seminal text than an attempt to make its potentials effective on the urgent issues of the present.Keywords: philosophy of history; modernity; Walter Benjamin.

scholarly journals The Unpredictable Lightness of History in Nicolas Cavaillès’ Novellas on the Mauritius Islands

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 65-76
Author(s):  
Fevronia Novac
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Western History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Mauritius Island

Nicolas Cavaillès ponders on a philosophy of history mixed with humour and irony in his historical narratives of remote islands in the Indian Ocean in two of his novellas: Life of Mr. Legaut (the story of a Huguenot who is forced to leave his native France and travels to these islands) and The Dead on the Donkey, where the wanderings of un unfortunate donkey across the Mauritius Island allow the narrator to relate the history of the island and its tragic trajectory to modernity. The idea of Western history as progressive evolution is rolled upside down with irony in Cavaillès's philosophical reflection on the circumstances leading to colonial expeditions in Life of Mr. Leguat (2013) and in the successive destruction of the Mauritius Island in the novella The Dead on the Donkey (2018). If Cavaillès builds his books hermeneutically, he also defies hermeneutics by denying all forms of possible understanding of the events described. The actions of his protagonists, human or animal, are the result of circumstances that are well known, but so absurd that they cannot form a historical narrative. If they did, this narrative would look like a hybrid of Beckett's absurd and Cioran's despair. Anti-Hegelian, since history here does not lead to individual freedom, Cavaillès's conception of history equally challenges Nietzsche's representation of unhistorical temporality in an attempt to solve humanity’s relation to the past for enacting a more desirable future. In far away Edenic islands, colonized by powerful states and inhabited by human and animal slaves, no philosophy could make sense of history.

scholarly journals The Exemplification Theory of History: Narrativist Philosophy and the Autonomy of History

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiel van den Akker
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
The Past ◽  
Exemplification Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theory Of History ◽  
Arthur Danto ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The “exemplification theory of history” is proposed to account for the relationship between the past and historical narratives. The theory states that what belongs to the past according to some narrative does so in order to exemplify the historical thesis of that narrative. As such the theory explains how the past receives its meaning. This implies that the past has no intrinsic historical meaning itself. Moreover, it follows that historical narratives possess an autonomy of their own with regard to the past. It is argued that the exemplification theory of history goes to the heart of narrativist philosophy of history. This claim is supported by the key arguments of three narrativist philosophers: Arthur Danto, Louis Mink and Frank Ankersmit. The distinction between the history of social individuals (“states”, “poverty”, “Thirty Years War”) and the identification of such individuals turns out to be fundamental in this respect. The article concludes by distinguishing between a Platonic and an Aristotelian view on narrative and by explaining why we ought to prefer the former to the latter.

On The Possibility of an Autonomous History of Modern Southeast Asia

1961 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. W. Small
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

It is generally accepted that history is an element of culture and the historian a member of society, thus, in Croce's aphorism, that the only true history is contemporary history. It follows from this that when there occur great changes in the contemporary scene, there must also be great changes in historiography, that the vision not merely of the present but also of the past must change.

Stellar Evolution

1962 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 137-143
Author(s):  
M. Schwarzschild
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Stellar Evolution ◽  
Space Craft ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
Individual Stars ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evolution Of Galaxies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fast Flow

It is perhaps one of the most important characteristics of the past decade in astronomy that the evolution of some major classes of astronomical objects has become accessible to detailed research. The theory of the evolution of individual stars has developed into a substantial body of quantitative investigations. The evolution of galaxies, particularly of our own, has clearly become a subject for serious research. Even the history of the solar system, this close-by intriguing puzzle, may soon make the transition from being a subject of speculation to being a subject of detailed study in view of the fast flow of new data obtained with new techniques, including space-craft.

A 200-Year History of the Study of Childhood Language Disorders of Unknown Origin: Changes in Terminology

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence B. Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Language Disorders ◽  
Unknown Origin ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many

Purpose The current “specific language impairment” and “developmental language disorder” discussion might lead to important changes in how we refer to children with language disorders of unknown origin. The field has seen other changes in terminology. This article reviews many of these changes. Method A literature review of previous clinical labels was conducted, and possible reasons for the changes in labels were identified. Results References to children with significant yet unexplained deficits in language ability have been part of the scientific literature since, at least, the early 1800s. Terms have changed from those with a neurological emphasis to those that do not imply a cause for the language disorder. Diagnostic criteria have become more explicit but have become, at certain points, too narrow to represent the wider range of children with language disorders of unknown origin. Conclusions The field was not well served by the many changes in terminology that have transpired in the past. A new label at this point must be accompanied by strong efforts to recruit its adoption by clinical speech-language pathologists and the general public.

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