Research Paper
Mojtaba Etemadinia
Volume 5, Issue 2 , July 2015, Pages 1-20
Abstract
In the early Wittgenstein’s aesthetic perspective, aesthetics is a way of ‘expressing’ the mystical, and the factuality of facts. Accordingly, a work of art is an object seen from sub specie aetenitutis. Sub specie aetenitutis viewing means seeing the world as a finite whole. When we ...
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In the early Wittgenstein’s aesthetic perspective, aesthetics is a way of ‘expressing’ the mystical, and the factuality of facts. Accordingly, a work of art is an object seen from sub specie aetenitutis. Sub specie aetenitutis viewing means seeing the world as a finite whole. When we see things from this perspective, forget their everyday’s profits and costs and transcend them from the facts. Hence, we see them with wonder and finite laudatory surprise in the finite whole framework. A work of art shows the wholeness of the world and therefore illustrates its meaning.
Based on early Wittgenstein, if the moral propositions are nonsensical and moral education is actualized only by examples and extensions, so art is a best example.
Research Paper
Mehdi Banaee Jahromi
Volume 5, Issue 2 , July 2015, Pages 21-36
Abstract
This paper attempts to explain why Levinas defends subjectivity, as opposed to philosophers like Heidegger and Foucault and also against structuralists like Strauss, and to show that the ethical subjectivity is a central and constant theme in Levinas’s thought. Levinas believes that ‘ethics’ ...
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This paper attempts to explain why Levinas defends subjectivity, as opposed to philosophers like Heidegger and Foucault and also against structuralists like Strauss, and to show that the ethical subjectivity is a central and constant theme in Levinas’s thought. Levinas believes that ‘ethics’ is first philosophy and defines it as ‘the putting into question of my spontaneity by the presence of the Other’. So the structure of ethical subjectivity is ‘the other within the same’ or disposed towards the other. The ethical relation to the other is described by Levinas in terms of infinity. He thinks, according to the philosophy of Descartes, that the human subject has an idea of infinity, and this idea is a thought that contains more than can be thought. In his view, relation to the infinity (other) is ethical and cannot be reduced to comprehension
Research Paper
Elnaz Taghizadeh; Ahmad Ali Heydari
Volume 5, Issue 2 , July 2015, Pages 37-53
Abstract
This essay intends to explain the meaning of nothingness in the Heidegger's thought. In ‘What is metaphysics?’, Heidegger focuses on the question of nothingness. According to Heidegger, understanding the meaning of ‘nothingness’ as the ‘complete negation of the totality ...
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This essay intends to explain the meaning of nothingness in the Heidegger's thought. In ‘What is metaphysics?’, Heidegger focuses on the question of nothingness. According to Heidegger, understanding the meaning of ‘nothingness’ as the ‘complete negation of the totality of being’ is not epistemologically possible. In order to grasp the meaning of nothingness we should adopt an existential approach. Dasein experiences Nothingness through the fundamental mood of anxiety. By discussing the experience of nothingness as complete negation of the totality of being Heidegger is looking for Dasein’s transcendence and freedom through releasing Dasein from anxiety caused by being surrounded by beings which impede its fundamental freedom. We will show how Heidegger, through the meaningful questioning of being and nothingness, enables us to take a fresh look on our being, beings, and life as a whole.
Research Paper
Rahman Sharifzadeh
Volume 5, Issue 2 , July 2015, Pages 55-84
Abstract
Even though Bruno Latour is called constructivist, but he severely criticizes social constructivism. He believes that social constructivism and its opposed approach, i.e. naive realism, are going on wrong way; both admit subject-object dichotomy and that’s why they can’t get rid of some tenacious ...
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Even though Bruno Latour is called constructivist, but he severely criticizes social constructivism. He believes that social constructivism and its opposed approach, i.e. naive realism, are going on wrong way; both admit subject-object dichotomy and that’s why they can’t get rid of some tenacious philosophical problems, such as skepticism and relativism. Latour through actant-network metaphysics, considers the relations of actants in another way, he talks about them symmetrically and believes that their relation is based on ‘negotiation’. In this paper we argue firstly that though he relinquishes social constructivism and common realism, it doesn’t mean that he is not constructivist and realist anymore; Latour wants to defend a kind of realistic realism or constructivist realism which is not based on subject-object division. Second we’ll show how Latour’s approach does not become trapped in the hole of those philosophical problems.
Research Paper
Ali Salehi Farsani; Saeed Hajinaseri
Volume 5, Issue 2 , July 2015, Pages 85-104
Abstract
Rereading the Webber’s works and going beyond Parsons’ interpretation of Weber, Nietzschean aspects in his approach toward modernity are revealed, such that it leads to the promotion of his function as the mediator between Nietzsche and critical approach of postmodern figures such as Lyotard ...
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Rereading the Webber’s works and going beyond Parsons’ interpretation of Weber, Nietzschean aspects in his approach toward modernity are revealed, such that it leads to the promotion of his function as the mediator between Nietzsche and critical approach of postmodern figures such as Lyotard and Foucault. To verify this hypothesis, firstly, we need to have criterion to assessing the similarities and differences of Weber, Lyotard and Foucault. Secondly, the appropriate method for the application of that criterion is needed. The assessment criterion or theoretical framework of this article is Taylor’s three malaises and the method of the application of this criterion, is Lovejoy’s history of ideas. Based on this theoretical framework or method, four unit-ideas are selected as the elements of these three thinkers. Findings of this research indicate that the unit- ideas of ‘instrumentalism’, ‘value- differentiation’ and ‘cultural integrity’ and ‘autonomy’ are prominent in the thought of Weber, Lyotard and Foucault respectively.
Research Paper
Mohammad Moshkat; Mohsen Fazeli
Volume 5, Issue 2 , July 2015, Pages 105-135
Abstract
Philosopher and historian of ideas, Isaiah Berlin, is one of the most famous and prominent contemporary liberals. His exposition on two kinds of liberty has brought a lot of political, social and ethical discussions concerning the concept of freedom. According to him, the important thing in the human ...
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Philosopher and historian of ideas, Isaiah Berlin, is one of the most famous and prominent contemporary liberals. His exposition on two kinds of liberty has brought a lot of political, social and ethical discussions concerning the concept of freedom. According to him, the important thing in the human being and even what the humanity is based on is ‘choice’, and therefore, freedom is important because it provides a ground to choice. In all aspects of Berlin’s ideas including: value pluralism, rejection of historical determinism, rejection of utopianism and defense of democracy (of course a democracy which its negative aspects are limited and controlled by critics and intellectuals) the trace of ‘freedom’ is evident, and his concern to defending liberty is perceptible and comprehensible. In this paper we’ll firstly explain the negative and positive concepts of liberty, and then, we’ll consider the different aspects of it through a critical perspective.
Research Paper
Esmail Noshad; Yousef Shaghool
Volume 5, Issue 2 , July 2015, Pages 137-152
Abstract
The ideas of self, God, and universe are supposed to do a regulative role in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. These ideas are applied to unify the phenomena fragments through space and time as well as the categories applied by the Understanding. We demonstrate that, in Critique of Practical Reason, Kant ...
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The ideas of self, God, and universe are supposed to do a regulative role in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. These ideas are applied to unify the phenomena fragments through space and time as well as the categories applied by the Understanding. We demonstrate that, in Critique of Practical Reason, Kant introduces the subject in constitutional and non-theoretical way referring to the transcendental free will. The ideas of God and universe are also presented in a reflective and subjective way in Critique of the Power of Judgment. Thus, a transcendental consistency can be observed among the three critiques. However, a controversial question is raised in the third critique, ‘the sublime’, which cannot be resolved within the Kantian system. Kant tries to attribute the sublime to the ideas of reason, but the experience of the sublime is an extraordinary chaotic element that threatens his entire system and paves the way to deconstructive interpretations of people like Derrida or Deleuze. In this way, a postmodernist and eccentric interpretation of the Kantian system appears.
