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Volume 1 number 2

e-ISSN 20841043

Kraków, December 2011, volume 1, number 2

CONTENTS

Leading theme of the issuue:

Tracing Liminal and Boundary Experience in Philosophical and Religious Discourse

edited by Wojciech Hanuszkiewicz
thematic advisor Tadeusz Gadacz

stained_glass_photo by Marzenna Jakubczak

Editor’s Note

Introduction to the issue (Wojciech HANUSZKIEWICZ)


Articles and treatises

Małgorzata BOGACZYK-VORMAYR, Veränderung zur Praktike. Kleine Bemerkungen zur Lebensphilosophie des Evagrios Pontikos (pp. 191-209)

Abstract
Change for praktike. Minor Comments to Evagrius Ponticus’ Philosophy of Life. The paper elucidates the evolution in understanding of a life phenomenon, which took place in the writing of the early Christian authors who referred to the heritage of the ancient philosophy trying to define their own position in relation to it. In this perspective the present author discusses the thought of Evagius Ponticus who undertakes some currents typical of Socrates’ concept of life, known from Plato’s dialogues. As Bogaczyk argues, among the common points for both philosophical traditions, the ancient Greek and early Christian, there are, first of all, the understanding of life as change and as the exercise in accepting this change and mortality it inevitably implies. That is only the dialectics of life and death, or hope and pessimism, which makes the phenomenon of life accessible to us, and its concept possible to be grasped. Thus, this dialectics can be applied either in contemporary currents of philosophy of life or in psychological and medical approach towards the problem of depression.
Keywords: Socrates, Evagius Ponticus, philosophy/art of life, praktike, akedia, askesis

Piotr AUGUSTYNIAK, Bóg Mistrza Eckharta wobec Nietzscheańskiej krytyki chrześcijaństwa (pp. 211-224)

Abstract
Master Eckhart’s God Confronted with Nietzschean Critique of Christianity. Author tries to demonstrate that the way of thinking about Christian God developed in the late Middle Ages by Master Eckhart goes beyond the interpretation which underlies Nietzsche’s criticism of Christianity as a religion of the other world. In the paper, Author first presents the said criticism, followed by the vision of God outlined by Eckhart. He demonstrates that Christianity, criticized by Nietzsche, uses a commonsense vision of God’s transcendence based on spatial images. The author also demonstrates that Eckhart defines this transcendence in such a way that it does not fall under Nietzsche’s criticism, in particular it cannot lead to the depreciation of worldliness in favour of an invented other world, which Nietzsche observes. Eckhart’s thought makes room for Christianity ‘after Nietzsche.’
Keywords: Master Eckhart, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, criticism of Christianity

Anna SZYRWIŃSKA, Die Grundlagen der Normativität bei Kant und Spener (pp. 225-237)

Abstract
The Fundations of Normativity by Kant and Spener. In one of the chapters in Conflict of Faculties, Kant presents so-called “Spener’s problem”. Kant refers to the conception of the 17th century theologian Philipp Jakob Spener, concerning the problem of radical moral transformation of individuals. Spener became famous as one of the founders and main exponents of pietistic theology, which in the 18th century became one of the most significant intellectual trends at the University of Königsberg and about which one may assume, that it could influence the evolution of Kantian philosophy. The goal of the article is to compare the main assumptions of Spener’s theology with Kantian theory of moral motivation. The analysis focuses on the possibility of describing the phenomenon of normativity in both conceptions.
Keywords: externalism, internalism, Kant, normativity, pietism, Spener

Joachim PIECUCH, Fenomenologia doświadczenia granicznego w ujęciu Józefa Tischnera (pp. 239-258)

Abstract
Józef Tischner’s Phenomenology of Boundary Experience. Author of the paper distinguishes four paradigms of phenomenological analysis one can indicate in Tischner’s philosophical writing. Each of these paradigms captures the issue of the genuine source of phenomenological experience. This genuine source can be provided with: transcendental ‘I’, axiological ‘I’, Dasein, or the relationship to another man. By developing the latter, i.e. the paradigm based on the experience of meeting (dialogue), Tischner makes the foundations for his Philosophy of Drama (in Polish: Filozofia dramatu) which should be interpreted, as Piecuch argues, in terms of the possible ways to conduct phenomenological analysis. The peculiarity of this way is that it aims at grasping various aspects of the border experience in which a man experiences the limits of one’s own thinking, activity and sensing.
Keywords: Józef Tischner, phenomenology, philosophy of drama, boundary and liminal experience, agathology, axiology

Tadeusz GADACZ, Das Problem des Bösen in der Philosophie Józef Tischners (pp. 259-274)

Abstract
The Issue of Evil in Philosophy of Józef Tischner. The paper presents several understandings of evil distinguished by Józef Tischner, like the axiological evil, agathological evil and structural evil. While exposing the phenomenological approach of Tischner, Gadacz discusses evil as ‘a phantom’ that accompanies the very source form of experience which, according to Tischner, stands for the episode of meeting another man. In this perspective evil as a ghost proves to be the source experience as well, alike the episode of meeting being the source of happening of the good and freedom. Therefore, the original experience does not inform us whether something exists or it should be such and so, but rather tells us that there is something which ought not to be.
Keywords: Józef Tischner, evil, agathology, axiology, phenomenology, philosophy of drama.

Antoni SZWED, Recepcja myśli Sørena Kierkegaarda w filozofii Józefa Tischnera (pp. 275-290)

Abstract
The Reception of Søren Kierkegaard’s Thought in Józef Tischner’s Philosophy. The aim of this article is to indicate sources of Józef Tischner’s philosophical inspiration in Søren Kierkegaard’s texts. For Tischner Kierkegaard apperared as a great expert of human matters and as a exquisite, subtle romantic writer. In his refined use of metaphors Tischner searches material to describe a network of almost imperceptible connections of values, norms and customs, by which a human being is wrapped in his/her everyday life. This network Tischener calls a „little axiology of everyday life”. He does not penetrate in all the structure of the very complicated existential philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard, but using his quasi-fenomenological descriptions our philosopher performs his own analises in the sphere of philosophy of drama and philosophy of meeting. Tischner devotes a lot of attention to a phenomenon of existential dispair, and to a certain degree he has a dispute with Kierkegaard. In the last part of this article were indicated philosophical divergences of both philosophers, which have the source in different Christian profession and in historical differences of national cultures.
Keywords: Inspiration and interpretation, philosophy of drama, aesthetics of words, different relations between I-You, hidden and open forms of despair, finished and unfinished forms of despair, universal philosophy of man and national cultures.

Urszula IDZIAK, Dziedzictwo śmierci — Ricoeur i Derrida (pp. 291-300)

Abstract
Ricoeur and Derrida — the Heritage of Death. In this article the author juxtaposes two different attempts of defending life against Heidegger’s horizon of death (Sein zum Tode) (the survie (survival) of Jacques Derrida and the “Living up to Death” of Paul Ricoeur). Their false proximity introduces a new insight into the discussion about the paradoxical positiveness of deconstruction. Ricoeur’s concept of life makes impossible the understanding of deconstruction as faithfulness to the other not in his identity, but precisely in his otherness.
Keywords: Death, Survival, Spectre, Ricoeur, Derrida

Magdalena NOWAK, The Complicated History of Einfühlung (pp. 301-326)

Abstract
The article analyses the history of the Einfühlung concept. Theories of ‘feeling into’ Nature, works of art or feelings and behaviours of other persons by German philosophers of the second half of the nineteenth century Robert and Friedrich Vischer and Theodor Lipps are evoked, as well as similar theory of understanding (Verstehen) by Wilhelm Dilthey and Friedrich Schleiermacher, to which Dilthey refers. The meaning of the term Einfühlung within Edith Stein’s thought is also analysed. Both Einfühlung and Verstehen were criticized as non-objective and naive methods consisting only in the identification of the subject with the object or the projection of feelings onto the object. The article refers to criticism by Georg Gadamer and Bertolt Brecht and proposes ways to restitute the concept of Einfühlung after this criticism, recalling the theory of empathy by Dominick Lacapra, in terms of its advantages for the historical enquiry, or the myth of Narcissus analyzed in the spirit of psychoanalysis by Julia Kristeva. The article proposes a reformulation of the concept of mimesis, connected to the Einfühlung, understood as the identification, analogy, imitation of feelings (as it was described by Lipss and Vischer). Mimesis does not necessarily mean a passive repetition and reconstruction of the feelings of the object, but serves only as a starting point for the interest of the subject for the outside world or for experiences of historical protagonists. Then there is no identification or projection of feelings, but the creative, active and critical reformulation of knowledge. It is stated that empathy is not a passive, uncritical process, but that it deals with the critical choice of the object of empathy and with an active approach to the perceived feelings and appearances. In addition to this cognitive aspect, empathy may also contribute to the analytical and valuable introspection. Furthermore empathy allows us to connect the analysis of the facts with a personal narrative and understanding of individual identity in historical knowledge.
Keywords: Einfühlung; empathy; understanding; Verstehen; mimesis; re-enactment

Dale JACQUETTE, Enhancing the Diagramming Method in Informal Logic (pp. 327-360)

Abstract
The argument diagramming method developed by Monroe C. Beardsley in his (1950) book Practical Logic, which has since become the gold standard for diagramming arguments in informal logic, makes it possible to map the relation between premises and conclusions of a chain of reasoning in relatively complex ways. The method has since been adapted and developed in a number of directions by many contemporary informal logicians and argumentation theorists. It has proved useful in practical applications and especially pedagogically in teaching basic logic and critical reasoning skills at all levels of scientific education. I propose in this essay to build on Beardsley diagramming techniques to refine and supplement their structural tools for visualizing logical relationships in a number of categories not originally accommodated by Beardsley diagramming, including circular reasoning, reductio ad absurdum arguments, and efforts to dispute and contradict arguments, with applications and analysis.
Keywords: diagramming method, circular reasoning, reductio ad absurdum argument, contradict arguments

Polemics, debates and interviews

Ivo FRENZEL, Willy HOCHKEPPEL, Rozmowa z Herbertem Marcusem – transl. from German by Jacek ZELEK (pp. 361-375)

Keywords
Keywords: Herbert Marcuse, Ivo Frenzel, Willy Hochkeppel, neo-Marxism, New Left, communism, class struggle, students’ movement, life standard, violence

Reviews

Wojciech HANUSZKIEWICZ, Filozofia Hermanna Cohena w perspektywie sporu o jedność metody transcendentalnejSeweryn BLANDZI (pp. 377-378)

Keywords
Hermann Cohen, Paul Natorp, Ernst Cassirer, Franz Rosenzeig, neokantianism, philosophy of dialogue, transcendental method, metaphysics

ks. Jarosław JAGIEŁŁO, Niedokończony spór o antropologię filozoficzną (Heidegger–Plessner) – Maciej URBANEK (pp. 379-385)

Keywords
Plessner, Heidegger, philosophical anthropology, existential-analytic, philosophy of life, Dasein

Hannah ARENDT, Martin HEIDEGGER, Korespondencja z lat 1925–1975Tomasz BORYCKI (386-389)

Keywords
Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Heidegger and Nazism, contemporary philosophy

Czesław GŁOMBIK, Husserl und die Polen. Frühgeschichte einer Rezeption. Aus dem Polnischen übersetzt von Christoph SchatteWojciech HANUSZKIEWICZ (pp. 390-392)

Keywords
phenomenology, Edmund Husserl, Aleksader Rozenblum, Stefan Błachowski, Roman Ingarden, Władysław Heinrich, Jan Łukasiewicz, Bronisław Bandrowski, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz

Łukasz MUSIAŁ, Arkadiusz ŻYCHLIŃSKI (red.), Nienasycenie. Filozofowie o KafceKinga ELERT (pp. 393-400)

Keywords
Kafka, philosophy and literature, hermeneutics, philosophy speech, separation, philosophy of solitude, Judaism, God.

Announcements and invitations

Konferencja naukowa: „Cóż po uniwersytecie w czasach marnych? Tożsamość uniwersytetu w sytuacji cywilizacyjnych przemian”
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Tożsamość uniwersytetu w czasach cywilizacyjnych przemian — przegląd problematykiTadeusz GADACZ, Paweł KŁOCZOWSKI
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VII Międzynarodowe Forum Etyczne
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Bitwa idei IV
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Contributors
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