Different notions of the consistency of obligations collapse in standard deontic logic. In justification logics, which feature explicit reasons for obligations, the situation is different. Their strength depends on a constant specification and on the available set of operations for combining different reasons. We present different consistency principles in justification logic and compare their logical strength. We propose a novel semantics for which justification logics with the explicit version of axiom D, jd⁠, are complete for arbitrary constant specifications. Consistency is (...) sometimes formulated in terms of permission. We therefore study permission in the context of justification logic, introducing a notion of free-choice permission for the first time. We then discuss the philosophical implications with regard to some deontic paradoxes. (shrink)

This paper addresses a common assumption in Horkheimer’s early critical thinking and Husserl’s late transcendental phenomenology. Though diverging in their approaches in many respects, both Husserl and Horkheimer consider a cultivated self- relation vital to succeed in their philosophical endeavors. Both critical behavior and transcendental- phenomenological self- reflection presuppose a certain competence to stand through rather intimate conflict in one’s own experience. Such a relationship to oneself harbors not only knowledge but the chance to human maturity.

In this paper, I investigate the role of public opinion and De Staël’s liberal principles in relation to her psychological image of human nature. De Staël regarded the French Revolution as a new stage of human progress, in which the French people, for the first time, gained a political voice. From her position as a liberal republican, De Staël argues for political progress in the form of civil equality and liberty confirmed by law and political representation, for which public opinion (...) serves as a political tool. I aim to demonstrate that De Staël developed a multi-layered analysis of public opinion as both an emancipatory tool for more equality, justice, and liberty, as well as a discriminating and harmful tool. According to De Staël, human passions play a crucial role in determining the employment and the effects of public opinion, as becomes clear in the case of the trial of Marie-Antoinette. (shrink)

A non-dual ontology of Self shares the difficulty of any systematic order: it has presuppositions that it cannot represent within its system. For most theoretical concerns, this problem is trivial. For the non-dual philosophies of Śaṅkara and Nishitani, on the other hand, it points to a central aspect: their thinking rests on a radical turn of experience whose existential dimension cannot be represented in their propositions but can very well be expressed. Along the relationship between personality and impersonality, the contribution (...) will trace this expression and thus point to the fruitful superfluity of a non-dual philosophy that can be exhausted neither in theory nor in practice. (shrink)

This paper takes contemporary attempts to engage South and East Asian philosophies regarding their conceptual resources for addressing environmental philosophical problems as an opportunity to discuss the concept of nature within the tradition of classical Advaita Vedānta. Initially, the ambiguity of the European concept of nature and corresponding equivalents in the Indian context are outlined. Subsequently, a widespread interpretation is reconstructed, which regards Śaṅkara’s non-dual Vedānta as an illusionistic variant of akosmian monism and cites this ontology as evidence that such (...) an understanding of nature can only lead to alienation from and contempt for the natural world. Even if this interpretation proves correct under certain conditions, it overlooks the fact that the ambiguity embedded in the Western term “nature”—as the totality of phenomena (jagat, prakṛti, nāmarūpa, māyā) on the one hand, and as the essence of this totality (svabhāva) on the other—in Śaṅkara’s Vedānta does not pertain to an ontological problem but to a methodological strategy of non-dual philosophy. (shrink)

This article seeks to explore "the mystery of the plurality of metaphysical concepts" (Patočka). Following a Heideggerian line of reasoning, I will argue that it is due to the non-representational character of being that metaphysics splits into a multitude of alternating approaches. However, unlike Heidegger and his successors, I will propose to understand the non-objectivity of being not as a radical negativity, but rather as an ultra-positive surplus, a hyperbolé. The first part of the article will thus show how metaphysical (...) thought is kept in motion by this hyperbolic element. The second, systematic part will build on this. It will discuss the extent to which the history of metaphysics can be understood as a hyperbolic movement. Finally, the last part will explore ways of establishing a relationship between the hyperbolic dynamics of being and phenomenology. (shrink)

This essay follows the assumption that the first principle of classical metaphysics has its counterpart in political sovereignty as suprema potestas. Therefore, both can be equally described as arché. Their epitome is the God of so-called ontotheology, who thus proves to be what I call the Ur-Arché. In contrast to current post-metaphysical approaches, however, I suggest overcoming ontotheology through a different metaphysics, which emphasizes the self-transcending surplus character of being. I regard early Christian martyrdom as an eminent way in which (...) the surplus of being is manifested. This has two interwoven aspects, one ontological and one political, both arising from the excessive idea of the Christ event, or the notion that there is life beyond life unto death. I will analyse the mechanism allowing early Christian martyrs to counteract Roman imperial sovereignty. Finally, I will relate this to contemporary life systems in which sovereignty has become anonymous biopower. (shrink)

Benjamin’s essay Toward the Critique of Violence has often irritated readers. This is even more true of his concept of divine violence, which is defined as “law-annihilating” and goes against legally sanctioned state sovereignty. In this paper, I present a new reading of both Benjamin’s essay and divine violence. Against an apocalyptic tendency of Benjamin, I argue that divine violence can only be an instrument of justice if it is understood as violence suffered rather than perpetrated. This is especially the (...) case where people suffer persecution – imprisonment, torture, death – as a result of nonviolent resistance to an oppressive political regime. Only where such resistant suffering occurs, can violence properly be called divine. Only then does it offer a perspective beyond the never-ending atrocities of human history. (shrink)

Het multiculturalisme wordt al jaren met enige regelmaat dood verklaard. Europese politici–met Sarkozy, Merkel en Cameron voorop–hebben het multiculturalisme definitief de rug toegekeerd. Het bezwaar luidt veelal dat het multiculturalisme te stug heeft vastgehouden aan vastomlijnde identiteiten van zowel inwoners uit Europese landen als immigranten. Ook uit academische hoek klinkt kritiek op het multiculturalisme. Normatieve noties van multiculturalisme zouden te veel nadruk leggen op identiteitspolitiek en culturele verschillen en zodoende sociaal-economische verschillen veronachtzamen. Multiculturalisme zou naar essentialisme neigen, gezien het uitgaat (...) van een concept van cultuur dat te weinig oog heeft voor de contextuele constructie en formatie van cultuur. Hierdoor creëert het ongelijkheid tussen meerderheids-en minderheidsgroeperingen in een samenleving. Yolande Jansen stelt in 'Secularism, Assimilation and the Crisis of Multiculturalism' dat het echter te vroeg is om het multiculturalisme definitief af te wijzen: meer dan assimilatie of secularisme, heeft het politieke beleid van het multiculturalisme aandacht voor de werking van herinnering, de internalisatie van cultuur, de paradoxaliteit van privatisering en individualisering van verschil in de positie van etnische en religieuze minderheden. (shrink)

If one follows the accounts by philosophers of science and the discussions in scientific communities, there can be little doubt that failure is an essential part of scientific practice. It is essential both in the sense of being integral to scientific practice and of being necessary for its overall success. Researchers who create new scientific knowledge face uncertainties about the nature of the problem they are trying to solve, the existence of a solution to that problem, the way in which (...) a solution can be found, and their ability to find such a solution (Gläser, 2007, 247). The existence of these uncertainties means, in turn, that each research process carries the risk of failure. (shrink)

As Karl Löwith suggested, modern philosophy of history secularizes Christian Heilsgeschichte by turning the eschaton into an immanent telos of the historical process. This article agrees with Löwith that there is an essential relation between the modern understanding of history and the Christian model. Yet, in drawing on the philosophy of history of Jan Patočka, it shows that for modern philosophy of history, there is a second option of dealing with the eschaton. Just as the Christian eschaton constitutes history also (...) in urging to make a decision for Christ here and now, modern history constantly calls for making a decision concerning its meaning. According to Patočka, however, the ultimate meaning of history cannot be specified. Rather, meaning realizes itself in the question of meaning. One might speak here of a “crossed-out eschatology” that stands in opposition to the idea of human self-redemption, even if it is thoroughly modern. (shrink)

This paper on feminism was given at a public lecture in Spain. The author speaks from the perspective of contemporary Catholicism, represented in the magisterial teachings of St John Paul II, foreshadowed in the works of St. Edith Stein, and amplified and developed by contemporary Catholic scholars such as Prudence Allen, Michelle Schumacher, Leonie Caldecott and Cardinals Angelo Scola, Walter Kasper and Karl Lehmann.

A publicação do volume XX dos escritos completos de Kant publicado pela Academia de Berlin, editado por Lehmann em 1942, representou uma contribuição fundamental para a interpretação do desenvolvimento da filosofia moral de Kant, uma vez que, pela primeira vez, os intérpretes tiveram acesso ao extrato completo das decisivas Anotações (Bemerkungen) kantianas em seu exemplar particular de Observações sobre o Sentimento do Belo e do Sublime. De fato, pouca progressão havia sido observada no trabalho dos primeiros intérpretes do desenvolvimento, (...) que, com acesso apenas aos excertos incompletos organizados anteriormente por Schubert, não foram capazes de avaliar adequadamente os problemas fundamentais da filosofia moral com os quais Kant, em sigilo, estava preocupado nesse contexto. Em certo ponto, estas anotações deixam de ser um adendo aos temas da obra de Observações para tornarem-se reflexões críticas profundas sobre os escritos rousseaunianos, que, surpreendentemente,nos permite reconhecer os traços mais básicos da teoria ética que, mais tarde, seria apresentada na Fundamentação da Metafísica dos Costumes. Com efeito, isso levou a literatura, desde a segunda metade do século XX, a reconhecer“uma perfeição inicial” da ética kantiana, uma vez que, já naquele tempo, Kant parece compreendera consciência moral “totalmente a partir da essência da vontade”, o que o conduz à“fórmula do imperativo categórico a partir da universalidade da vontade”. (shrink)