STUDII DE ISTORIE A FILOSOFIEI UNIVERSALE, vol. XXXII, 2024


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 NUMĂRUL CURENT

SIFU_XXX_2022.pngSTUDII DE ISTORIE A FILOSOFIEI UNIVERSALE, vol. XXXII, 2024
Coordonatori: CLAUDIU BACIU, TINCA PRUNEA-BRETONNET, ION TĂNĂSESCU
Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024

ISSN (print): 1583-8536           INDEXĂRI:
ISSN (online): 3008-2129 ebsco-logo.png
ISSN-L 1583-8536 CEEOL-logo.png







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pdf_ico.png CONTENTS / CUPRINS

A. GOETHE AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF HIS TIME

* The following section contains papers presented at the conference Goethe and the Philosophy of His Time. The conference, held online on 11-13 November 2024, was organized by the Department of Western Philosophy of the Constantin Rădulescu-Motru Institute of Philosophy and Psychology of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest. Scientific editing of this section was done by Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet and Claudiu Baciu.

FORM AS CONCEPT. GOETHE’S MORPHOLOGICAL THOUGHT
Formă şi concept: Gândirea morfologică a lui Goethe
MÁRCIO SUZUKI
University of São Paulo

Abstract. After a brief historical reconstruction, the article shows how Buffon’s Natural History was crucial both for Kant’s understanding of nature and for Goethe’s works on the natural sciences. It conceptually compares Kant’s teleological conception with Goethe’s anti-finalist vision of Nature, and concludes with some remarks on the philosophical topicality of Goethe’s morphology.
Keywords: Buffon; Goethe; Kant; Newton; neoclassicism.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 11-20]
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EXPLORING THE VISIBLE. WORDS AND IMAGES IN GOETHE’S NATURFREUNDSCHAFT
Explorând vizibilul: Rolul cuvintelor și al imaginilor în Naturfreundschaft a lui Goethe
ALBERTO MERZARI
Academy of Fine Arts of Urbino

Abstract. The paper explores Goethe’s unique approach to the question of expression and expressibility, presenting it as a key element to understand the relation between his literary and his scientific vocation. Section 1 sets Goethe’s Sprachkritik in its context by briefly outlining some arguments on the limit of expression raised in his time (Herder, Lichtenberg, Hamann). Section 2 then shifts the focus to Goethe. It is argued that – akin to many of his contemporaries, but for partially different reasons – he neither fully distrusts nor completely relies on the power of words and images. Provided that expression refrains from deliberately moving away from or suffocating its objects, Goethe rather views the unavoidable simplification of the visual experience that it produces as a potential instrument of intensification of experience itself. Finally, section 3 takes into account the interplay between words and images as different expressive media. From Goethe’s perspective, images are closer to singularity but poorer in conveying the temporal dimension, whereas words can provide images with a temporal dimension but need images to overcome their tension to universality. In the end, just like visual experience and expression as a whole, so can words and images be seen as linked in a polarity, both potentially collaborating into a singular (infinite) expressive effort.
Keywords: Goethe; expression; vision; words; images.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 21-37]
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DAEMONS AND GENIUS: ON THE PLACE OF THE GENIUS IN SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY ACCORDING TO KANT, GOETHE, AND HEGEL
Demoni și geniu: Despre rolul geniului în știință și filosofie la Kant, Goethe și Hegel
EMMANUEL CHAPUT
Johns Hopkins University

Abstract. In his Critique of Judgment, Kant rejected the idea of genius in science. Goethe, in a sense, lifted this ban. Despite his interest in Kant's third critique, Goethean science, by the very nature of the scientist's relation to nature, implies a certain idea of the genius analogous to the one Kant had glimpsed in the realm of art. Thus, in this paper I begin by explaining Kant’s refusal of the genius in science, I then explain how Goethe’s own approach to science and nature seems to allow such an idea of a scientific genius able to grasp the genius(es) of nature. I then turn to Hegel and his own way to deal with this issue in relation with philosophy understood as a demonstrative science.
Keywords: Critique of Judgment; genius; J.W. Goethe; G.W.F. Hegel; I. Kant; theory of science.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 39-52]
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THE MEANING OF “APPEARANCE” IN KANT AND GOETHE
Sensul conceptului de „fenomen” la Kant și Goethe
CLAUDIU BACIU
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru Institute of Philosophy and Psychology, Romanian Academy

Abstract. Both for Kant and for Goethe, man lives in a phenomenal world. However, the meaning of “appearance” or “phenomenon” differs, which also entails different worldviews. For Kant, appearance ultimately has a mathematical structure, whereas, for Goethe, it has a symbolic nature. The following paper explores the reasons why these two thinkers see this topic so differently despite their apparent accord concerning phenomenality.
Keywords: appearance; science; mathematics; symbol; infinity.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 53-67]
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THE PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF GOETHE’S FARBENLEHRE FOR HEGEL
Semnificația filosofică a lucrării Teoria culorilor a lui Goethe pentru Hegel
ANTON KABESHKIN
Potsdam University

Abstract. In this paper, I discuss Hegel’s reception of Goethe’s theory of colors and attempt to shed light on its philosophical significance for Hegel. I start with an overview of the central themes and concepts in Goethe’s theory, focusing in particular on primordial phenomena, polarity, intensification, complementarity of colors, and Goethe’s anti-reductionism. I then argue that it is especially the principle of polarity, as well as Goethe’s anti-reductionism about the domain of color phenomena, that were attractive for Hegel and played the most significant role in his discussion of Goethe’s theory. Finally, I argue that Hegel’s interest in polarity is connected with his view that this principle anticipates, in a sensuous and not fully adequate way, his own account of the concept as the fundamental structure of reality.
Keywords: Hegel; natural philosophy; Goethe’s science; Theory of colors; Polarity.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 69-79]
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DISCOVERING ARCHETYPES: GOETHE AND THE POETRY OF NATURAL HISTORY
Descoperind arhetipurile: Goethe și poezia istoriei naturale
LUDOVICO ZIZZO
DePaul University

Abstract. This paper engages Goethe’s studies in the natural sciences, especially his morphology, and the fundamental role that the concept of archetype (Urphänomen) plays therein. While recent scholarship focuses on the influence of Spinoza’s or Kant’s philosophy on Goethe, like Robert J. Richards (2002), and others, like Eckart Förster (2009/10; 2012) and De Laurentiis (2000; 2021), have underscored the mutual influence of Goethe and other key German contemporaries, like Hegel or Schelling, I contend alternatively, and on the model of Karl Löwith (1964), that it is important to acknowledge Goethe’s fundamental philosophical problems on their own terms. I argue that the defining motivation for Goethe’s natural scientific inquiry is the knowledge of human spirit but that the notion of an ‘archetype’ of the human fails in this crucial aspect, due to the inherent arbitrariness and undecidability of human history; and I read this as a productive contradiction.
Keywords: Goethe; archetypes; Naturphilosophie; aesthetics; German Post-Kantian philosophy.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 81-93]
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GOETHE AND WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT’S PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
Influența lui Goethe asupra filosofiei limbajului a lui Wilhelm von Humboldt
LIAM TIERNAĊ Ó BEAGÁIN
School of Philosophy, University College Dublin

Abstract. This paper discusses homologies in thought from Johann Wolfgang Goethe to Wilhelm von Humboldt. My aim is to show how similarities in thought between them are not mere coincidences but arise from Goethe’s immediate influence on Humboldt. The paper discusses Goethe’s methodological concept of Urform, and in particular examines his idea of Urpflanze in his botanical studies, as well as the nature of the relationship between Goethe and Humboldt. It examines Humboldt’s form of language and presents homologies in thought from Goethe to Humboldt by performing an analysis of Humboldt’s methodological approaches to his objects of study. It shows how his analysis relates, in part, to the Goethean method of examining how individual organisms follow fundamental principles found in their universal forms.
Keywords: Goethe; Wilhelm von Humboldt; Urform; Urpflanze; form of language.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 95-112]
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GOETHE AND HEGEL ON HEDONISM AND IDEALISM
Goethe și Hegel despre hedonism și idealism
VLAD MUREŞAN
Babeş-Bolyai University

Abstract. This paper begins with a general comparison between Hegel and Goethe, identifying both similarities and dissimilarities in their narratives of the spirit. It then advances with a more technical comparison of direct quotes from Goethe and Hegel dealing with hedonism and idealism that speak of either individual happiness or collective happiness. It shows that both Goethe and Hegel deem pleasure and social utopia as unable to secure an authentic reconciliation.
Keywords: Goethe; Hegel; idealism; hedonism; Faust.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 113-121]
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GOETHE’S ZUR FARBENLEHRE (1810) AND ARTHUR SEGAL’S DAS LICHTPROBLEM IN DER MALEREI (1925)
Lucrarea Zur Farbenlehre (1810) a lui Goethe și lucrarea Das Lichtproblem in der Malerei (1925) a lui Arthur Segal
ERWIN KESSLER
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru Institute of Philosophy and Psychology, Romanian Academy

Abstract. Goethe’s Zur Farbenlehre (1810) and Arthur Segal’s Das Lichtproblem in der Malerei (1925) deal with the various assessments, considerations and usages of Goethe’s Theory of Colours on the background of the aesthetics of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The paper follows Goethe’s appreciation of his own research and theory of colours throughout his lifetime, as it emerges from his Conversations with Eckermann. This contribution frames Goethe’s artistic activities as an interpretative context of his theories of the colour spectrum. A special attention is paid to the relationship between Goethe and the painter Philip Otto Runge, with whom he had an exchange of letters and conversations about the chromatic spectrum. The relevance of Goethe’s work is further examined from the point of view of early modernist artists such as John Mallord William Turner, but also from the point of view of later theories of colour such as the one of the French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, who strongly influenced the emergence of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism. After presenting the protracted criticism of Goethe’s colour theory by Wittgenstein, who doubted the factual truth that Goethe’s theory was influential upon artists, the paper addresses the way in which the Theory of Colours was assimilated and distorted in Kandinsky and especially in the theory of the Romanian-born painter Arthur Segal. The latter published in 1925 Das Lichtproblem in der Malerei and invoked both Newton and Goethe in order to articulate a theory of the utopian, optical equilibrium in painting, a theory based on the Goethean ideal of a world of perfect colour harmony, possibly emerging only in painting.
Keywords: colour theory; early modernism; utopia; avant-garde; aesthetics.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 123-139]
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B. VARIA

CRITICA PSIHOLOGIEI RAŢIONALE ŞI PARALOGISMUL PSIHOLOGIC
The Critique of Rational Psychology and the Psychological Paralogism
RODICA CROITORU
Institutul de Filosofie și Psihologie „Constantin Rădulescu-Motru” al Academiei Române

Abstract. In his Critique of Pure Reason, Kant contributes to the critique of rational psychology by highlighting the intensive size of the soul and arguing that it is responsible for the degree of reality of the faculties of the soul and for existence in general. This degree may progressively decrease to nothing. This way, a substance can be transformed into nothing, not by decomposition, but through a gradual loss of force. This observation proved to be consonant with further clinical and empirical observations about the human being and about its vital capacities. At the same time, it contributed to the decline of psychology as a general science of the human soul, particularly by changing the focus on different aspects of the I/soul/psyche in relationship with human life.
Keywords: rational psychology; categories; thinking I; order of purposes; psychological paralogism; Moses Mendelssohn.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 143-152]
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SENTIMENTE AUTENTICE ŞI FIINŢĂ INTEGRALĂ LA JOHN STUART MILL
Authentic Feelings and Integral Being in John Stuart Mill
IONUŢ RĂDUICĂ
Universitatea din Craiova, Facultatea de Științe Sociale

Abstract. The main hypothesis is that feelings and emotions play a particularly significant role in the life of the individual and in that of society. The free man possesses qualitative feelings and emotions, being useful both to him and to his fellow beings. In this paper, we will analyze the opposition between the individual and society; the “practical principle” of human action; the society, and what its “qualities” are. The main question concerns how we design a non-conflictual society with individuals, given that the latter act rationally in a broad sense, often superficially, while also using positive social tendencies. Thus, we will investigate the social and individual utility of feelings, in order to ultimately interpret the relationship between the complete being and feelings, on the one hand, and the integral being and society, on the other hand. We will conclude that feelings and emotions are an effect and not a cause of the authenticity of the human being. Therefore, we consider Mill’s solution, which understands freedom as the cause of the authenticity and utility of feelings and emotions, to be well-founded.
Keywords: John Stuart Mill; feelings; emotions; individual; society; utility.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 153-165]
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PERSPECTIVE ASUPRA LIBERULUI ARBITRU: DE LA DUMNEZEU A MURIT LA PARADOX
Perspectives on Free Will: From God Is Dead to Paradox
IOANA CRISTINA NICOLAE

Abstract. This work is the second part of a work published in 2022 („The Concept of the Free Will in the Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence”), where I elaborated on the concepts of the free will and the eternal recurrence in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. I chose to present in this article the point of view of Søren Kierkegaard that corrects and completes the overthrow of all values that takes place in Nietzsche’s writings. If the German philosopher states a type of freedom achieved through extrem individualism and personal morality, Kierkegaard withholds the freedom that emerges from the relation with God and a free will dependent on choices that can dissapear (alongside freedom) when the individual does not respect (conciously or not) the paradox of faith and does not take into account God when making a decision.
Keywords: free will; values; God; moral philosophy; faith; freedom.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 167-172]
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INTERES TEORETIC ŞI FAZĂ FILOSOFICĂ ASCENDENTĂ. NE-AUSTRIACUL BRENTANO
Theoretical Interest and the Ascending Philosophical Phase: The Un-Austrian Brentano
ION TĂNĂSESCU
Institutul de Filosofie şi Psihologie „Constantin Rădulescu-Motru” al Academiei Române

Abstract. The thesis of this paper is that there is a fundamental, metaphysical dimension of Brentano’s philosophy that in no way allows itself to be reduced to his image as a representative of Austrian philosophy. This image is a result of a positivist-sceptical interpretation of his philosophy characterized by the following features: (i) the emphasis on the fourth habilitation thesis and the methodological monism specific to it; (ii) the elimination from philosophical discourse of problems that cannot be dealt on the basis of experience and scientific method; (iii) the focus on Brentanian psychology, without paying attention to its metaphysical dimension and, in general, to the philosophical discipline of metaphysics; (iv) the fact that it operates with only one meaning, the modern one, of the phrase “purely theoretical interest”, without the slightest suspicion that Brentano also operates with another meaning of the term, the traditional one. In this way, this interpretation risks turning his philosophy into a philosophy of the skeptical phase of decline. Unlike this thesis, the present study distinguishes between the two meanings of theoretical interest and, on the basis of the traditional meaning of it, reconstructs Brentanian philosophy as the philosophy of a new philosophical ascending phase at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. In this manner, both the importance of the metaphysical dimension of Brentano’s thought and the consequences resulting from this for the correct establishment of the relations between his thought and other philosophical trends of that time, including positivism, are highlighted.
Keywords: Brentano; pure theoretical interest; phase of philosophy; metaphysics; positivism.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 173-198]
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LEBENSWELT – UN CONCEPT DESPRE LUCRURILE ÎNSELE
Lebenswelt – A Concept About Things Themselves
ALEXANDRU MEDEȘAN
Universitatea din București

Abstract. In this paper, the concept of lifeworld (German: Lebenswelt) is expounded by focusing on the Husserlian notions that preceded it. The translatability of the term is discussed by arguing for preserving the original German word. It is argued that Lebenswelt holds an essential place among Husserl’s and other phenomenological concepts. The influence of this concept on the development of philosophy is also discussed.
Keywords: lifeworld; transcendental phenomenology; intersubjectivity; surrounding world; phenomenological constitution.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 199-212]
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WHITEHEAD’S EARLY THEORY OF PERCEPTION (1911–1917): A LOOK AT ITS SOURCES
O privire asupra surselor teoriei timpurii a percepției a lui Whitehead (1911–1917)
BOGDAN RUSU
Université Paris-Est Créteil

Abstract. In this paper I deal with Whitehead’s early theory of perception, as presented in Whitehead’s first philosophical book from 1917. I argue that it differs from the theory developed subsequently, in the works on natural philosophy, by being subjectivist. Although the theory bears resemblance to Russell’s contemporary theory of perception, I hold that Russell’s influence on Whitehead was shallow. Much more substantive was the influence he received from G. F. Stout. Whitehead’s early theory of perception has a Stoutian infrastructure, that is, it draws on Stout’s analysis of mind from Analytic Psychology and assumes the Stoutian concept of „presentation”, as well as a Stoutian interpretation of the „principle of hypothetical sense-presentations”.
Keywords: A. N. Whitehead; G. F. Stout; B. Russell; perception; subjectivism.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 213-237]
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SPAŢIUL SACRU ŞI LOCUIREA AUTENTICĂ ÎN FILOSOFIA HEIDEGGERIANĂ
Sacred Space and Authentic Dwelling in Heideggerian Philosophy
CRISTINA-ANITA DRELLA
Universitatea din București

Abstract. In the following paper I’m proposing a phenomenological reflection on the problem of dwelling, as it is formulated in Martin Heidegger’s thought. Constructions are seen as a work of art that open up the space and create a place as well. These constructions allow us to authentically dwell. In the first chapter, I aim to present what it means to dwell in Martin Heidegger’s philosophy. I then propose a different approach to constructions, distinct from the examples Heidegger gives, namely “temple” and “bridge”. I argue that “chapel” is a suitable example of an authentic construction that allows us to dwell in the world in an authentic manner.
Keywords: dwelling; Dasein; sacred spaces; fourfold; autenthicity.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 239-253]
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ONTOLOGIE, RELAŢIE ŞI ANALOGIE: GOTTFRIED MARTIN ŞI METAFIZICA LUI KANT
Ontology, Relation, and Analogy: Gottfried Martin and Kant’s Metaphysics
TINCA PRUNEA-BRETONNET
Institutul de Filosofie și Psihologie „Constantin Rădulescu-Motru” al Academiei Române

Abstract. This paper examines Gottfried Martin’s interpretation of Kantian philosophy as a novel understanding of the theory of being. Arguing for both the continuity with the traditional ontology and an undeniable shift introduced by the critical endorsement of the Newtonian theory of science, Martin advances a subtle distinction between the different meanings of „being” in Kant. I argue that Martin’s main source of inspiration is N. Hartmann’s ontological perspective, which allows him to differentiate among several types of being thanks to a novel reading of the concept of objective reality and to the positive definition of the thing in itself. Influential and central for the reception of Kantian philosophy, Martin’s reading proves to be an original and consistent example within the metaphysical interpretation of critical philosophy which, starting 1924, has definitively changed our understanding of Kant’s thought.
Keywords: ontology; metaphysics; being; analogy; objective reality; Kant; Gottfried Martin.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 255-267]
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MĂRTURIA CA FENOMEN EXISTENŢIAL
Witnessing as an Existential Phenomenon
CRISTIAN CIOCAN
Universitatea din București

Abstract. In this article, I propose an exploration of the phenomenon of testimony. I argue that the phenomenological approach enables an integrative understanding of testimony, conceived as a phenomenon that engages the entire existential structure of the subject by articulating the interrelations between language, presence, memory, truth, and temporality. The witness is not only the one who provides testimony but, primarily, the one who confronts, in experiential presence, an event whose overwhelming meaning institutes the subject as a witness: either as an “enduring witness”, when the event primarily concerns the witness's ownmost self, or as an “eyewitness”, when it primarily involves another. Testimony thus reveals its significance within the tension between its ontological dimension, where the witness is understood as “being-there” in the presence of the event on the experiential level, and its hermeneutical dimension, where the witness is summoned before others on the level of language. Moreover, a further distinction can be drawn between the “confessing-witness”, whose testimony pertains to what they themselves endured, and the “third-party witness”, whose testimony concerns what was observed from a certain distance, without direct involvement.
Keywords: witnessing; testimony; phenomenology; existence; experience.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXII, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2024, pp. 269-288]
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