Doxographical, Philosophical, and Historical Forms of the History of Philosophy

This chapter examines the doxographical, philosophical, and historical forms of the history of philosophy. The aim of doxography is to reconstruct and present philosophical views or positions that have been proposed in the past and to do so in a way that makes clear the interest they may retain for contemporary philosophical discussions. However, the inadequacy of ancient doxographical writers seems so great that the term ‘doxography’ itself has acquired a pejorative connotation. The criticism is twofold: first, one has the feeling that the ancient doxographers did not have historical awareness or a sensitivity to history; second, one tends to associate doxography with a kind of philosophical failure. People then abandoned the assumption that the positions of the past retain their philosophical importance in the contemporary context. In its place, they began to suppose that the views of the past were only of interest as stages, even if necessary ones, of the evolution of thought. This sort of history represents the philosophical study of the history of philosophy. It is precisely this philosophical position which, towards the middle of the nineteenth century, provokes a reaction. But this reaction takes two very different forms. On the one hand, it gives rise to the historical study of the history of philosophy and, on the other, to a modern form of doxography.

Three Kantian Routes to the Synthetic A Priori

Kant influentially distinguished analytic from synthetic a priori propositions, and he took certain propositions in the latter category to be of immense philosophical importance. His distinction between the analytic and the synthetic has been accepted by many and attacked by others; but despite its importance, a number of discussions of it since at least W. V. Quine’s have paid insufficient attention to some of the passages in which Kant draws the distinction. This paper seeks to clarify what appear to be three distinct conceptions of the analytic (and implicitly of the synthetic) that are presented in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and in some other Kantian texts. The conceptions are important in themselves, and their differences are significant even if they are extensionally equivalent. The paper is also aimed at showing how the proposed understanding of these conceptions—and especially the one that has received insufficient attention from philosophers—may bear on how we should conceive the synthetic a priori, in and beyond Kant’s own writings.

Normalisation and subformula property for a system of intuitionistic logic with general introduction and elimination rules

This paper studies a formalisation of intuitionistic logic by Negri and von Plato which has general introduction and elimination rules. The philosophical importance of the system is expounded. Definitions of ‘maximal formula’, ‘segment’ and ‘maximal segment’ suitable to the system are formulated and corresponding reduction procedures for maximal formulas and permutative reduction procedures for maximal segments given. Alternatives to the main method used are also considered. It is shown that deductions in the system convert into normal form and that deductions in normal form have the subformula property.

The Concept Of Civil Responsibility In Young People And Its Peculiarities

The article analyzes the socio-philosophical importance of the formation of civil responsibility in young people in the process of building a democratic legal state and civil society of our country. At present, attention is paid to the issue of means and factors affecting the comprehensive formation of civil duty and responsibility in young people.

Dante and Cecco d’Ascoli on Love and Compulsion: The Epistle to Cino, Io sono stato, the Third Heaven

Arguing that Dante ultimately views compulsion in the erotic sphere as part and parcel of compulsion in the properly philosophical sphere, aka determinism, this article traces Dante’s variable thinking on this core issue as he veers from a moralistic view in the Vita Nuova to a more “scientific” view in the third epistle and again to a moralistic view in the Commedia (whose circle of lust boasts, in the wind that buffets the lustful, an example of compulsion borrowed from Nicomachean Ethics 3.1). The philosopher and astrologer Cecco d’Ascoli is a contemporary witness to the philosophical importance of these issues: in his philosophical poem Acerba, Cecco attacks Dante’s love poetry for harboring deterministic belief.

Wo ist Gott in der Pandemie? Theologische Überlegungen aus Praxis und Reflexion kirchenleitenden Handelns

The pandemic has confronted the churches with various difficult questions both practical and theological. Is there a responsible way of celebrating worship in the churches without risking people’s health? Numerous creative new digital formats were developed in the parishes to offer alternatives. How does God work in the pandemic? Is there any causal connection between God and the virus? The responses to this question are not only of philosophical importance, but have fundamental consequences on how we pray and how we identify God’s presence in our lives. Some responses affirm God’s role in the origin of the virus, e.g. by identifying the work of the deus absconditus in it, others emphasize the mysteriousness of God’s action, others see God’s action in God’s spirit of creative energy to overcome suffering in human and non-human nature. The latter approach is developed by an understanding of God based on God’s revelation in Jesus Christ and an eschatological interpretation of its visibility beyond current experiences of destruction and despair.

Kurt Gödels onvolledigheidsstellingen en de grenzen van de kennis

Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorems and the limits of knowledgeIn this paper a presentation is given of Kurt Gödel’s pathbreaking results on the incompleteness of formal arithmetic. Some biographical details are provided but the main focus is on the analysis of the theorems themselves. An intermediate level between informal and formal has been sought that allows the reader to get a sufficient taste of the technicalities involved and not lose sight of the philosophical importance of the results. Connections are established with the work of Alan Turing and Hao Wang to show the present-day relevance of Gödel’s research and how it relates to the limitations of human knowledge, mathematical knowledge in particular.

Reading Hume on the passions

This paper provides a reception history of Book Two of the Treatise-Of the passions-as well as an attempt to reconcile Hume's ambitions to systematicity in Book Two with the distracted and distracting nature of the text. We currently have, I think, a good sense of the philosophical importance of Book Two within Hume's science of human nature. Yet we have not made much progress on understanding Book Two on its own terms, and especially why Book Two so often seems on the verge of falling into an explanatory heap. I aim to rectify this situation by giving a reading of Book Two that makes sense of the philosophical importance of Hume's system of the passions, yet also explains why he encounters so many difficulties in setting out his system; such that he is often forced to stretch his explanations to the very edge of the credible. I contend that Hume's system of the passions is best viewed as an unstable explanatory compound, one that progressively dissolves as Hume's explanatory intentions become increasingly ambitious.

Comenius-Jahrbuch

John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) is inspired by many sources and is connected to many developments after him. Thus he enters into manifold constellations à la Dieter Henrich: elements of a shared cognitive space in which creative impulses unfold. This volume explores such constellations in various directions from diverse perspectives: the biblical self-stylization of Comenius, sources and topicality of light as a metaphor, the philosophical importance of the image of God in Leibniz, Hume vs. cosmo-theology, organicist thought in Schelling and “atmospheres” in today’s schools.