Everything Seems So Illogical: Constructing Missingness Between Life and Death in Israel

This paper discusses the case of missing persons in Israel, to show how the category of “missingness” is constructed by the people who have been left behind, and how this may threaten the life-death dichotomy assumption. The field of missing persons in Israel is characterized not only by high uncertainty, but also by the absence of relevant cultural scripts. Based on a narrative ethnography of missingness in Israel, I claim that a new and subversive social category of “missingness” can be constructed following the absence of cultural scripts. The left-behinds fluctuate not only between different assumptions about the missing person’s fate; they also fluctuate between acceptance of the life-death dichotomy, thus yearning for a solution to a temporary in-between state, and blurring this dichotomy, and thus constructing “missingness” as a new stable and subversive ontological category. Under this category, new rites of passage are also negotiated and constructed.

The (Con)Text of a Footnote: Heidegger and the Factical and Pre-Ontological Aspects of Care

Right after the presentation of Hyginus’s fable in §42 of Being and Time comes a note in which Heidegger affirms that the orientation about care as the being of Dasein (§41) arose in the context of the interpretation of Augustinian anthropology and the foundations obtained by the analysis of Aristotelian ontology. Why such a mention and why is it placed precisely after proving the pre-ontological origin of care as the being of Dasein? Assuming such problem, this paper does not aim only at offering a reading key that justifies such note, but at presenting the importance of the factical and pre-ontological aspects presented, respectively, in Book X of The Confessions of Augustine and in the fable of Hyginus for Heidegger's elaboration of care as an ontological category. For this purpose, three lecture courses will be assumed, especially: Augustine and Neo-Platonism (1921), which will make it possible to perceive the always factical aspect of care, thus evidencing the historical enactment perspective of the hermeneutics of facticity; Phenomenological Interpretations of Aristotle (1921/1922), which will make it possible to understand the idea of “ontological category” as a first formulation of what, in Being and Time, will be the existentials; and History of the concept of time: prolegomena (1925), which will allow us to realize that care is about being and not having, therefore, that it is not a possession of Dasein, but a condition of its existence. Finally, after justifying the importance of different aspects for care as an ontological category, it will be understood why the ontological interpretation differs from both others.

Functional-semantic field of quantity (number) in systematically different languages

This article studies the problem of the functional-semantic field of quantity (number) in systematically (structurally) different languages. The author analyses various language structures with the meaning of quantity obtained from 18 monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. The peculiarities of the functioning of these structures are recorded based on a continuous sampling from the literary and journalistic works of the English, American, Russian, and Japanese authors. The research considers the ontological category of quantity (number) conceptualizing in a language and being a language category of quantitativeness. The analysis is performed based onliterary and journalistic works, colloquial language. It is established that the category of quantity (number) is essential for all the languages studied. The grammatical category of number is represented through the opposition of singularity and plurality, duality. The functional-semantic field of quantity (number) is represented through four main parameters: composition, measurability, deviation, and state. The research results are that the author discovers that the functional-semantic field of quantity consists of two quantitative macrofields – definite and indefinite.

Die Stimmung des Willens

This paper reconstructs Friedrich Schiller’s aesthetics from a compatibilist point of view. I shall argue that it is Schiller’s conception of individual self-determination that motivates his aesthetic critique of Kant’s moral philosophy. Schiller conceives of aesthetic self-determination in terms of a compatibilism between reason and nature. As such, Schiller’s aesthetics can be interpreted as an ontological category. His concepts of love, play and the aesthetic state must therefore be understood in terms of volitional structures that describe human freedom in nature, history and society.

Introduction

The Introduction sets out the aims of the book and introduces its main themes. It begins by defining certain terms used throughout the book—“logic,” “emotion,” “intellectual,” and nyāya—and situating the book’s argument in relation to prior studies on Sanskrit philosophy in early modern India (1500–1700 ce). It also addresses the rationale for using the short essay genre, the vāda, as the point of entry into main concerns of the book. Finally, it provides a sketch of each chapter, as well as notes on the meaning of ontological category (padārtha) and on the book’s translation principles.

The Eventful Character of Bibikhin's Philosophical Thought

The article deals with the event-related aspects of V.V. Bibikhin's philosophical activities on the material of his lectures, texts and communication with contemporaries (S.S. Horuzhy, S.S. Averintsev and A.V. Akhutin). The eventfulness of the transfer of knowledge from teacher to student, as well as the unity of thought, word and life are the principles of teaching philosophy derived from the pedagogical experience of V.V. Bibikhin. He was a follower of A.F. Losev and M. Heidegger focusing his thoughts on clarifying ontological problems. Ontological thought is paradoxical in its own nature. This is revealed in the reading and interpretation of Bibikhin's writings, as well as in the evidence of his polemical communication with colleagues. One of the brightest ontological disputes of recent times is the discussion of V.V. Bibikhin and S.S. Horuzhy about the concept of energy which is an essential ontological category. These prominent Russian thinkers had a long-term friendship that included an element of intellectual rivalry. The author calls such communication “friendship in struggle” which has a paradoxical character. The philosophical definition of friendship presented in the book “The Pillar and Statement of Truth” by P.A. Florensky which has an antinomic character is used in the text. The paradoxical event and the polemic nature of V.V. Bibikhin's thought manifests itself in his works and correspondence with friends. The article provides illustrative examples of these moments of his intellectual creativity. V.V. Bibikhin is one of those thinkers who preserve the Russian philosophical tradition in the context of its disputes with other national traditions.

On the Concept of “Pointˮ As an Ontological Category That Underpins the Idea of Transcendence

The article shows that the active development of science, in particular, physics, which deals with unvisualizable and inexplicable phenomena, in the modern world it is especially important to understand the phenomena that are on the verge of human perception. In this sense, the study of the concept of “pointˮ not only as a mathematical object, but as a universal, anticipating the idea of an ontological order, can contribute to the methodology of thinking for new interpretations of scientific discoveries and their adequate description. The author considers the concept of “pointˮ in the mainstream of metaphysical comprehension, and the inclusion in the context of the analysis of the idea of transcendence, to which this concept leads, forms a conceptual scheme for interpreting what does not lend itself to multi-faceted comprehension and explanation. The search for alternative interpretations and additional semantic connotations of familiar concepts, which are characterized by integrativity and syncretism, is especially important in modern scientific research, because allows to enrich the epistemological arsenal and open new aspects of the thematic field of philosophy and science. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the ontological status of the concept of “pointˮ in the problem-theoretical context of modern culture. The point is presented as the beginning and end of being, which is illustrated by the generally accepted cosmological model. The special nature of this concept is demonstrated, acting as a link between the spheres of the immanent and the transcendent.

Moral Psychology and Artificial Agents (Part One)

This is the first of two chapters introducing the moral psychology of robots and transhumanism. Evolved moral cognition and the human conceptual system has naturally embedded difficulties in coping with the new moral challenges brought on by emerging future technologies. The reviewed literature outlines our contemporary understanding based on evolutionary psychology of humans as cognitive organisms. The authors then give a skeletal outline of moral psychology. These fields together suggest that there are many innate and cultural mechanisms which influence how we understand technology and have blind spots in recognizing the moral issues related to them. They discuss human tool use and cognitive categories and show how tools have shaped our evolution. The first part closes by introducing a new concept: the new ontological category (NOC i.e. robots and AI), which did not exist in our evolution. They explain how the NOC is fundamentally confounding for our moral cognitive machinery. In part two, they apply the background provided here on recent empirical studies in the moral psychology of robotics and transhumanism.

Language norm vs. literary norm: orthological analysis

In connection with the transition of the Kazakh alphabet to the Latin script, further improvement of the orthological codification of the Kazakh language becomes relevant. As you know, the system-centric object of the science of orthology is the norm / linguistic norm / literary norm. In passing, we note that there are still unresolved issues in the definition of a linguistic norm / literary norm in linguistics. In recent years, the problems of orthology have been actively developed in Kazakh linguistics, incl. special attention was paid to the study of spelling, orthoepic, lexical norms of the modern Kazakh literary language. First of all, there is a need to define the essence of the norm as an ontological category and the creation of an integral orthological theory, which will contribute to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon in general of the linguistic norm, its systemic properties and functioning features, in particular. And also the unification and codification of the language norm will have an effective impact on further improving the language culture and the development of language capital will contribute to ensuring the full activity of the Kazakh language as a state language. The article analyzes the relationship and difference between the concepts of norm – linguistic norm – literary norm and the characteristic features of norms – regulatory function, tradition and internal dynamism.

Moral Psychology and Artificial Agents (Part Two)

Part 1 concluded by introducing the concept of the new ontological category – explaining how our cognitive machinery does not have natural and intuitive understanding of robots and AIs, unlike we have for animals, tools, and plants. Here the authors review findings in the moral psychology of robotics and transhumanism. They show that many peculiarities arise from the interaction of human cognition with robots, AIs, and human enhancement technologies. Robots are treated similarly, but not completely, like humans. Some such peculiarities are explained by mind perception mechanisms. On the other hand, it seems that transhumanistic technologies like brain implants and mind uploading are condemned, and the condemnation is motivated by our innate sexual disgust sensitivity mechanisms.