Stanislav Lem on the philosophy of language: recovery from fragments of phrases

This article examines some of S. Lem’s statements about his philosophical and worldview positions regarding the mysterious nature of language and the linguistic sign, the connection between language, mind and reality. The main goal of the paper is to understand what texts on the philosophy of language the Polish thinker read and what attitude he has formed towards them. Lem is the follower of an analytical intellectual culture that focuses on the naturalistic worldview and the consequences of the “linguistic turn” in Western philosophy. For Lem, language is not only an interesting philosophical object, but also a complex precise instrument of his own creative thinking. In this regard, the philosophy of language for a writer cannot be based only on logical-linguistic atomistic methodology. Lem seeks (and finds) in his contemporary interdisciplinary methods ways to combine realistic and anti-realist positions. Many concepts, such as “the effect of semantic transparency”, “polymorphic language model”, “variation model” are quite correlated with modern theories of language and require additional philosophical comments.

Interpretation of Sense/Meaning in the Communicative Field

The past century has shown the conversion of a so-called anthropological turn which began with works of Franz Brentano, into a linguistic turn (Richard Rorty’s term). The philosophy of language took the place of what once had been classical theory of cognition. It has become either a kind of epistemology, or analytical philosophy, or even a general theory of knowledge called in Greece, Germany and Russia gnoseology (from Greek: gnosis - knowledge). It is necessary to make some clarifications in understanding the current intellectual situation in the field of communication theory. Communication is a term containing a root morpheme ‘uni’ with the meaning of “one”, “unity”. For our purposes, the English word “conversation” is more suitable because, denoting a talk, it actually has the primary existential meaning of “living together”. Developing this topic, we can rely on the classic research in the field of theory and practice of communication conducted over several decades by the American specialist in the field of social psychology Deborah Tannen.

Hermeneutics of Aristotle and Hermeneutics of Sophists in Terms of Dialogue Philosophy. Part II. From Sophists to Modernity

The article considers the logical and philosophical doctrine of sophists, which, according to some modern researchers, was more philosophical than their ancient critics recognized. A comparison of the provisions of Aristotle's hermeneutics with preserved fragments of Protagoras and Gorgias shows that the doctrine of sophists was a kind of holistic philosophy, which anticipated the philosophy of dialogue of the XX century. Despite the fact that the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle tried to overcome the relativism and anti-ontologism of the doctrine of sophists, some elements of its dialogism were preserved in subsequent philosophy in dialectics and rhetoric. The first thing you should pay attention to is the difference between the dialogical form of the presentation of philosophy in Plato and dialogue as the fundamental basis of thinking that we find among sophists. The dialogism preserved in the dialectic of Plato and the rhetoric of Aristotle is more a technical method of convincing the interlocutor than a hermeneutical basis, which it is in the philosophy of dialogue and in the method of Socratic discussion. The linguistic turn that occurred in the philosophy of the 20th century includes not only an increased interest in language and accuracy of expression. No less important is the new formulation of the question of the nature of the language. Is language a tool for the formulation of thought as Aristotle believed and followed by representatives of modern analytical philosophy, or does it have its own fundamental status, as representatives of the philosophy of dialogue believe? In this context, it is very important for the philosophy of dialogue to find in the thinking of the pre-Socratics those predecessors who already charted the paths for modern thought two and a half thousand years ago. The second part of the article discusses the forms of the dialogic thinking that have survived in philosophy after the sophists and the role of the sophists' hermeneutics in the formation of modern philosophy of dialogue.

Contemporary Historiography on Christianity in Roman Africa

This essay follows the broad contours of patristic and ecclesiastical history relative to African Christianity. Rival Catholic and Protestant narratives of the origin and trajectory of African Christianity in the early modern period continued to influence historiography, even after the acceptance of critical historical methods in the 19th century. The advent of archeological research in the colonial period opened new vistas on African history and ushered in the sociohistorical approach which characterized early Christian studies in the 20th century. Finally, the “linguistic turn” in early Christian studies inspired by critical theory has directed recent research toward issues surrounding the identities of African Christians, rhetorical and real.

Islamic Book and Islam in Indonesia: a Historical Perspective

Alongside the advance of Islamic reformism in the early twentieth century, one central element to pay attention is the rise of printed media, Islamic book, which enhanced the shaping of the reformist Muslims. Written in Malay with Rumi script, the books with Islamic substance first appeared as part of Islamic reform movement. Nearly all the authors were the leading activists of reformist organizations. This trend continued to develop, leading the books to emerge as an important pillar in the formation of Islamic intellectual discourses. This study focuses on the historical study of the Islamic books development and progression, with strong emphasis given to the ideas behind their rising in the courses of Indonesian history. Based on the classical theory of discourse of Michel Foucault, as well as the one of post-linguistic turn historiography, this article demonstrates, in reference to the three time periods which each presented a specific mode of intellectual thinking, the growing importance of Islamic books in the making of print-based religious life, which paved the way for the strengthening of socio-religious plurality in modern Indonesia. Firstly, Islamic Book as the voice of Islamic reform, secondly, Islamic Books in 1950s-1960s, and lastly, Islamic Books in contemporary Indonesia.

Echoing the Call for Multimodal Representation

The editor’s introduction to the Visual Anthropology Review, Vol. 32, Issue 2, from fall 2016 emphasizes the necessity of anthropology to engage in multimodal methodologies of research and research communication. An expanded view of visual anthropology, and its methodological and analytical contributions to current debates, recognizes and builds on the field’s commitment to a reflexive awareness of the social relationships at stake in the process of making images and an engagement with the politics of representation. It also encompasses an active approach toward learning to see how others see, how technologies of imaging picture the world, and a serious consideration of the technical capacities necessary for communicating ethnographic knowledge through visual composition, editing, and design. (Chio & Cox, 2016, pp. 101–102) The claim that the reflection on images has been neglected compared to the reflection on language, echoing in the introduction of Chio and Cox (216), has been made in the context of the iconic turn in the mid-1990s. In reference to the linguistic turn in philosophy coined by Richard Rorty (1967) in philosophy, art historian Gottfried Boehm (1994, pp. 11–38) described the iconic turn, and Thomas W. Mitchell (1995, pp. 11–34) used the term pictorial turn, observing a significant shift toward communication by images. Both recognized the increasing power of images in society through the digital means of communication, which enables everyone to easily create and disseminate images. Both were aware of the lack of reflection on the meaning of images in Western thought.

Theoretical Foundations and Methodological Problems of the Semiotics of History

The article deals with the theoretical and methodological problems of the semiotics of history. Semiotics is the science that studies the sign system. This system is used by people to transfer knowledge and information. Modern governance is semiotic. A separate fact can turn into a sign-symbol. The sign lives its own life in the virtual space, leaving the information space. The modern world is governed by language. The revolution starts with the language. Semiotics changes the epistemological regime. The code provides a communication system. Any code requires decoding. Cultural space codes are ambiguous. The semiotics of history actively interacts with the history of ideologies. The question of the truth of the nationalism doctrine cannot be solved by science, because it belongs to ideology. The name is the essence. In psychiatry, there is the concept of semiotic dementia, when the patient does not understand the meaning of words. Information is distributed among people, therefore it acquires its social significance when it is perceived by people, only under this condition it becomes knowledge. Knowledge helps to act. A prerequisite for this is correct information. Concepts of the information society can be distinguished in the format of semiotics of history. Images have a stronger effect on people than texts. Negative information spreads faster than texts. Virtuality creates the image of the desired world. The images of the future are not neutral. A certain image of the future is set by the present. No one can escape the human prejudice. The semantics of history develops in the general line of the linguistic turn in historical science. In this sense, the methodological and theoretical problems of the semiotics of history are associated with the linguistic problems of consciousness, caused by the imperfection of any language and the ways of its public use

Death of Philosophy: On the Edge of Thought (polemical essay)

The article is devoted to the problem of the marginalization of philosophy in the modern world. The starting point of the study is the position of Oswald Spengler about the loss of understanding of the meaning and significance of philosophy in the situation of the death of European civilization. The article highlights the main signs of the degeneration of philosophical thought in modern society, among which the author refers to the atomization of philosophical discourse, the blurring of the boundaries between philosophical thought and scientific research, the loss of transcendental dimensions by philosophy, the marginalization of philosophical discourse and the phenomenon of "turn". The study pays special attention to the anthropological and linguistic turn. In particular, the author substantiates the thesis that modern philosophy does not just address the problem of language, but replaces being, as the main category of philosophy, with a sign and its structural components. The article criticizes positivism and poststructuralism as crisis and borderline phenomena of modern philosophical thought. The thesis is substantiated that the transformation of philosophical discourse in the post-metaphysical directions of modern thought leads to the distortion and loss of the original meaning of philosophy. The author made an attempt to reconstruct the original meaning of philosophy. The study uses the methodological principles and attitudes of historical and philosophical reconstruction, discourse analysis and semiotics.