This article entitled “History's `So it seems'” explores the potential of phenomenology for the framing of histories which privilege partcipant perspectives. The theory agenda of the article adapts insights drawn from Heidegger's ontological hermeneutic of Da-sein - the human condition of being-there and being-aware (or not aware). The theory agenda also adapts Heidegger's readings of Heraclitus. The practical agenda of the article illustrates this potential of Heidegger's phenomenology for history by contrasting `so it once seemed' senses of the Emperor Julian (...) the Apostate's Roman pagan self-hood. The contrasts are autobiographical (Julian's Misopogon ), contemporary biographical (Ammianus Marcellinus's history), and long-lag biographical (Gore Vidal's novel avowedly constrained by the sources). (shrink)

The present study proposes a valorization of the work of professor and philosopher Ioan Biriş. The statistics of his books and studies, their distribution by areas of interest, and especially the ideas in his work confirm the need for philosophy in the Romanian cultural life. As a whole, his philosophical endeavor is based on the concept of totality. Thus in the Hegelian spirit, Ioan Biriş successfully convinces us that the logical may exceed the limits of formal exercise and become the (...) organon of philosophy. In this capacity, the logical may operate on the real and valorize the multiple relationships between identity and difference. His books Filosofia și logica științelor sociale, Totalitate, sistem, holon, Rolul imaginarului în cunoașterea științifică, Istorie şi cultură, as well as a series of studies among which let me mention: “L’identité symbolique et la logique partitive des valeurs spirituelles”, “On the logic of religious terms”, “Le rapport identite-difference et la conjonction collective. Aspects logiques”, clearly prove the author’s capacity to integrate existential, religious, cognitive and axiological issues into a unitary vision. As Noica would say, he succeeded to enter the spirit’s life thorough the intellect’s gate. (shrink)

Ludwig's contribution to the discipline of philosophy of language cannot be overemphasized. This article addresses his contribution to resolving problems in philosophy by the use of language, in two of his most famous works: Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations.

Eleştiri, olumlayıcı olduğu ölçüde radikalleşir. Bu açıdan, eleştiriyi içkin bir eleştiri projesi olarak değerlendiren Gilles Deleuze felsefesi, dile getirilen ile onu dile getirebilen güç arasındaki ilişkiyi, fikirlerle problemler arasındaki teması sahneler. Bu sahneleme pratiği diyalektik düşünceyle ve özellikle Hegel’le karşılaştığında karşımıza üç eksen çıkar. Birincisi, özdeşliği farkı kavramanın koşulu haline getirmenin düşünceyi dışsal farklara mahkûm kıldığını bulgular ve kendinde fark kavramını gündeme getirir. İkinci eksende, tanıma ilişkisinin tek ve zorunlu öznellik projesi olmadığı, Hegelci köle ve efendinin belirlenimlerini değiş-tokuş ederek farklılaşamadıkları (...) açığa çıkar. Olumlayıcı bir öznellik düşüncesinin kayıtsız kalınamayan varlığı, olumsuzlamanın ve dolayımın çıkmazlarındaki benliği başka bir yerden düşünmeye çağırır. Üçüncü eleştiri ise temsil sorunu üzerinden gelişerek Nietzsche’nin eylem ve fail arasında süregelen ayrıma yönelik itirazlarından yola çıkar. Deleuze’ün diyalektik düşünceye yönelik eleştirisi olumsuzlamanın ve temsilin yeni bir okumasına esin verirken diğer taraftan temsil edilemeyen asimetrik varoluş kiplerinin de varlığını onaylar. Bu metin bu üç eleştiri eksenini belirginleştirerek tanınmayan, örtüşmeyen, asimetrik bir ilişkinin izini sürüyor. (shrink)

The main purpose of the following inquiry is to emphasise the importance of a phenomenon long neglected by the majority of the human sciences, the artefact; each one of us, no matter what age, sex or culture, is in contact with artefacts every moment of our lives yet despite this they have received scant attention. The study begins by outlining a definition of the artefact, highlighting those characteristics which, in combination, ensure its centrality to social life before, through a discussion (...) of Popper's ideas, proceeding to see how material culture can be conceptualised as meaningful. In order to understand how meaning becomes attached to the artefact the notion of objectification will be analysed and, consequently, so shall the importance of both the type of activity and the physical nature of the materials involved in the artefact's production. Picking up on the theme of materiality this aspect of material culture will be shown to pose major problems to any interpretation of the artefact along semiological lines; language and material culture are evinced to possess fundamentally distinct characteristics which make comparisons between them far from straightforward. These differences will be analysed further, concentrating specifically on the role of context in the establishment of meaning. This leads on to the proposal that our understanding of artefacts can occur on three levels; three forms of knowledge are thus described of which a linguistically formulated type constitutes just one kind. The penultimate chapter tackles the ways in which artefacts affect us, how they are active elements in our relationships with them; therefore, a dialectical position is postulated in which both artefacts and agents take part. Finally, the study concludes by stressing some of its wider implications and suggests a few of the practical situations to which it can be applied. (shrink)