Introduction to Filozofski vestnik 44/2 (2023), special issue, The Body in The Field of Tensions between Biopolitics and Necropolitics: Analyzing the Future of the Prosthetic Body in the 21st Century, ed. Marina Gržinić and Jovita Pristovšek.

The problem of naming is not just any philosophical problem, but rather one that is central to classical ontology, the latter depending on the notion of names as latching onto things in their essential being. As such, the name has traditionally been tied to the concept of truth as adequatio or correspondence between knowledge and being, intellect and thing, or proposition and reality. Accordingly, the problem of naming lies at the core of the issues of objectivity and fiction, as addressed (...) in this issue of Filozofski vestnik. Probing and circumventing the double trap of “transcendentalism” and “new materialism,” I propose to cast a side-glance at this massive philosophical problem, approaching it from the singular point of view of smells and their striking relationship to language. (shrink)

https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/filozofski-vestnik/article/view/4533.

The present issue of Filozofski Vestnik starts from a concatenation – science and thought – that at first sight is the radical opposite to Heidegger’s diagnosis. The title of this issue, “Science and Thought”, already suggests that there is or at least there can be such a relation. With regard to Heidegger, this implies two options here: either Heidegger was wrong in his criticism of metaphysics or he was wrong with his equation of Ge-Stell (as the essence of technology) (...) and science. Simply put: either metaphysics still contains some sort of valuable thought (and hence there could be some sort of metaphysical science that thinks) or science is simply not reducible to the metaphysics or to the being of a mere technology in the sense that Heidegger criticized. Then the (metaphysical) question of being could be separated from technology and metaphysics, but perhaps it still finds its locus rather within science. Heidegger’s claim about metaphysics and technology then would find itself inverted through the suggested relation of science and thought. Such an inversion of Heidegger’s critique of the very status of science is itself conditioned by the recent developments in philosophy that we take as the starting point for the present issue of Filozosfki Vestnik. (shrink)

On November 19, 1985, a seminar on the topic "Mind and the Brain: Philosophical Aspects" was held at the M. V. Lomonosov State University at Moscow. It was organized by the journal Philosophical Sciences [Filosofskie nauki], the Division on Scientific Method and the Philosophical Problems of Natural Science of the Philosophical Society of the USSR, the administration of the "Knowledge" [Znanie] Society of the RSFSR, and the Department of Philosophy of the Natural Science Faculties of Moscow State University. Over three (...) hundred persons participated in the seminar, ranging from students, graduate students, instructors at Moscow State University and other institutions of higher learning, to students at the Moscow University Institute for Advanced Teacher Training, associates the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology of the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Social Sciences attached to the CPSU Central Committee, and the Institute of Philosophy of the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences, etc., to representatives of the editorial boards of the journals Philosophical Sciences, Problems of Philosophy [Voprosy filosofii], The Moscow University Herald [Vestnik MGU], and members of the Scientific Method Council on Philosophy of the "Knowledge" Society of the RSFSR. The seminar attracted the attention of psychologists, physiologists, physicians, biologists, philosophers, physicists, students of literature, etc. (shrink)

The paper reviews historical and regional studies publications of Volyn periodicals in the 19 th -20 th centuries, which covered the Ukrainian-Polish-Russian relations. Their key theme lines are indicated, specifically a socio-economic line which addressed social inequality problems, enslavement of Ukrainian peasants by Polish gentry at the time when some Ukrainian regions were a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; a religious line which covered consequences of Polonization, threats to Orthodoxy, feats and courage of its defenders; an ethnographic line which attempted (...) to describe the history of origin of nations and the specifics of their national self-identification. It is shown that all these lines of publications featured different ideological tendencies. Thus some articles from ‘Volynskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti’, ‘Pochayevskiye Izvestiya’ and ‘Volynskiye Yeparkhialniye Vedomosti’ were analyzed, which allowed to trace propaganda of the Russian Empire in the spirit of Russian monarchism and chauvinism spreading via press. Those processes had a rather negative impact on social and interethnic moods of the Ukrainian-Polish-Russian relations in the imperialist context. By contrast with the above, journalists of the democratic newspaper ‘Vestnik Volyni’ advocated the Polish and Ukrainian self-identification. (shrink)

The immediate reason for choosing the theme of this international issue of Filozofski vestnik was the forthcoming XVII International Congress of Aesthetics (Ankara, July 2007). The other motive was to discern some of the issues in contemporary aesthetics.

Our point of departure in this issue of Filozofski vestnik is the thesis that the repetition of a certain gesture of Lenin's is needed today in philosophy – as Lenin withdrew in the midst of the most ferocious battles during World War I to study and to rethink theoretical questions in order to act differ- ently. What we need today is a new and radical rethinking of the theoretical and practical presuppositions of contemporaineity.

V pričujočem prispevku bom kritično presodil dva splošno sprejeta pristopa k umetnosti in estetiki, ki nakazujeta, da filozofska estetika ni več mogoča. Tako sociologija umetnosti kot tudi številni poststrukturalistični pristopi k umetnosti trdijo, da so pokazali, da sta tradicionalna umetnostna zgodovina in filozofija umetnosti nelegitimni. Sociologija umetnosti in poststrukturalistična teorija sta obe prišli - po povsem različnih poteh -do podobnega sklepa: estetika je v osnovi ideološki diskurz, ki mora biti demaskiran. Poskušal bom pokazati, da Bourdieujev pristop - čeprav razjasni nekatere (...) aspekte umetnostne presoje -resno napačno razlaga naravo sodobne filozofske estetike. Zdi se mi, da so mnogi poststrukturalistični misleci zagrešili isto napako, kot jo je Bourdieu: nagnjeni so k temu, da tradicionalno umetnostno in literarno zgodovino itd. razumejo kot neizpodbitno »logocentrično« in »esencialistično«. To je tako, kot da bi hoteli povedati, da mrrabiti vsaka, svojega imena vredna estetika esencialistična, nezgodovinska in zatorej ideološka. Trdim, daje koncept umetnosti, kot ga mi poznamo in ki seje izoblikoval v sedanjo obliko konec 18. stoletja, zgodovinski koncept. Umetnost, kot jo mi poznamo, ni večna, čeprav presega naše življenje. To pa ne pomeni, da umetniškega vzgiba, kije soroden simbolnemu in kije lahko uresničen na mnogo načinov v različnih zgodovinskih in kulturnih pogojih, ne moremo legitimno obravnavati kot stalno odliko človeške narave. Človek ni samo zoon politikon, temveč tudi zoon symbolikon. Estetika je med drugim racionalni odraz naše potrebe po simbolih ter naše zmožnosti simbolizacije. (shrink)

Kritika okularocentrizma, prevladujoče težnje privilegirati vid na račun drugih čutnih modalnosti v zahodnem mišljenju, je pred nedavnim postala predmet napada poststrukturalističnih in postfenomenoloških mislecev. Kritika okularo-centrizma naj bi okrepila in dopolnila kritiko logo-centrizma in metafizike navzočnosti. Povedano drugače, ta kritika tvori del kritike razsvetljenske racionalnosti. V članku zagovarjam mnenje, da kritika razsvetljenstva pogosto cilja višje kot pa leži njena tarča. Heideggrova kritika »skopične« racionalnosti naše kulture naj bi služila kot radikalna alternativa okularocentričnemu mišljenju. Pokazati skušam, da Heideggrova kritika razsvetljenske racionalnosti (...) in modernosti ni radikalno antiesencialistična in antifundacionalistična, kot trdijo njegovi učenci. Pokazati tudi skušam, da je Heidegger, zaradi svoje problematične politične preteklosti in kritike modernosti, v najboljšem primeru dvomljiv zaveznik v boju proti zatiralski »skopični« racionalnosti. (shrink)

Two terms, solitude and common, were chosen in order to develop some reflections on the articulation between difference and sameness in Lacan’s teaching and to tease out some political implications therefrom. In this context, an analysis of the collective experience of transmission such as is practiced and theorized in Lacan’s École de la cause enables a critical evaluation of the so-called Lacanian left.

Webrova vznemirljiva teza iz dela Protestanska etika in duh kapitalizma, ki sprva izgleda tako neverjetno, je bila od svoje prve objave deležna številnih kritik, spodbijajo pa jo vse do danes. Ena izmed številnih kritik, pa ostaja še posebej nepopustljiva: če je duh samoodpovedovanja primeren za kapitalistično podjetništvo, pa ekonomije ne poganjajo samo podjetniki; ekonomija potrebuje tudi potrošnike, ki so pripravljeni kupiti več od tega, kar predstavlja njihove dejanske potrebe. Po Benjaminu je kapitalizem religija brez dogme ali teologije in ni nič (...) drugega kot čisti kult. Kot takšen sestoji v nenehnem slavljenju vernika, ki svojo vero udejanja skozi porabo in potrošnjo. V nadaljevanju bi rad izpostavil tezo, da nam vzporejanje dveh momentov krize – krize Druge svetovne vojne in krize 2008 –, omogoča na novo osvetliti Webrovo slavno tezo o asketski naravi kapitalizma, ter podal novo razlago tega, zakaj investicijski kapitalizem in potrošniški kapitalizem sploh nista protislovna, temveč konec koncev popolnoma sovpadata. Med drugo svetovno vojno sta namreč vladi Združenih držav Amerike in Kanade izdali niz propagandnih plakatov, katerih cilj je bil zmanjšati porabo in preusmeriti finančne sile gospodinjstev v prid skupnega vojnega napora. Mnogi od teh plakatov, ki so jih naredili nekateri najbolj zviti oglaševalci tistega časa, so črpali iz najgloblje zakoreninjenih načel puritanizma Nove Anglije: dolžnosti samoomejevanja. Sporočilo je bilo v naslednjem: vaši prihranki bodo odrešljivi ob koncu vojne, to pa le malce premesti Calvinovo perspektivo varčevanja, ki omogočajo odrešitev v času ob koncu sveta. Danes bi bilo dobro, če bi premislili eshatološke implikacije teh prerokov, ki predpisujejo najboljše obnašanje ob dogodku konca krize. (shrink)

This article puts into perspective Badiou’s differing approach to set theory and the theory of categories and shows how the distinctions and protocols specific to these fields affect his philosophical thought. It also questions the evolution of Badiou’s approach to these two mathematical theories. The article concludes with questions and examinations related to some of the key points of Badiou’s philosophical orientation that he has not yet addressed.

The article reflects the discourses surrounding the military use of drones in the context of their employment in Afghanistan and Waziristan in the last two decades with a special emphasis on its necropolitical dimensions. It does so by first summarizing different critical accounts of a single well documented case in Afghanistan, underscoring historical continuities between drone warfare, state terror and air power. Second, the article puts a special emphasis on relations on the ground such as ambiguous legal constructions enabling the (...) use of lethal force, and the weaponization of Pashtun culture for the purposes of different governments. (shrink)

We no longer have any texts, any past, but just interpretations of them. The evident multi -interpretability of a text causes it gradually to lose its capacity to function as arbiter in the historical debate. It is necessary to define a new link with the past based on a complete and honest recognition of the position in which we now see ourselves placed as historians. In recent years, many people have observed our changed attitude towards the phenomenon of information. For (...) postmodernism, science and information are independent objects of study which obey their own laws. Language and art are not situated opposite reality but are themselves a pseudo-reality and are therefore situated within reality. Because of the relation between the historiographical view and the language used by the historian to express his view - a relation which nowhere intersects the domain of the past -historiography possesses the same opacity and intensional dimension as art. The essence of postmodernism is precisely that we should avoid pointing out essentialist patterns in the past. There is reason to assume that our relation to the past and our insight into it will in future be of a metaphorical nature rather than a literal one. (shrink)