NotaBene

NotaBene å åëåêòðîííî ñïèñàíèå çà ôèëîñîôñêè è ïîëèòè÷åñêè íàóêè. Ïîâå÷å çà íàñ

About the end of Modernity

In this issue

Journal NotaBene Issue 48 (2020) Editor: Gergana Popova

Topic of the issue: About the end of Modernity

Psychological and Philosophical Aspects of the Topic of Consumption in the Works of Herbert Marcuse and Erich Fromm. Contemporary Resonance. Part 1

The article analyzes the topic of consumption in the critical theories of Herbert Marcuse and Erich Fromm. In its first part, it examines Marcuse's conception of a repressive society and the place and function of consumption in it. The text emphasizes Marcuse's thesis about the dominance of the principle of productivity in repressive civilization, about the possibilities for its abolition and the creation of a non-repressive order that will weaken the compulsions of the urge to consume. The second part of the article deals with the problem of consumption in the perspective of Erich Fromm's views on freedom, love, and the two orientations of existence – to have or to be. The psychological, existential, and ecological consequences of the dominance of the possessive attitude and its most widespread modern mode – consumption are traced. The presented analyzes allow the formulation of the thesis about consumption as an escape of freedom, a form of passivity, and denial of the opportunities for non-pathological development of both the individual and society. The third paragraph of the study is based on the finding of the consumptive nature of modern Western societies and attempts to assess the theoretical potential of Marcuse's and Fromm's reflections on consumption in terms of the present.
Keywords: consumption, repressive society, principle of productivity, productiveness, spontaneous activity

To the full article »

Psychological and Philosophical Aspects of the Topic of Consumption in the Works of Herbert Marcuse and Erich Fromm. Contemporary Resonance. Part 2

To the full article »

Durkheim and Durkemanism: a Society sui Generis and the Erasure of Nature

The subject of the study is the evolution of Durkheim’s views on society, the further development of his ideas on the part of his eminent followers (Mauss and Halbwchs) as well as the reception of Durkheim’s ideas on the part of sociologists and anthropologists beyond the narrow circle of his disciples. The focus of the analysis is the problem of the relationship between society and nature. The contradictions in Durkheim’s ideas of society and the failure of his attempt to combine biologism („the strife for existence“) and moralism are discussed. Durkheim finds a solution in the separation of society from nature and its description as a reality sui generis. „Social facts“ are declared to be creations of „collective conscience“; material things, in their social being are transformed into a purely passive element (substrate). Human „masses“ become a kind of „substrate“ as well. Durkheim’s disciples keep this conceptual frame, whereas other Durkheim adherents change it substantially in various directions. In the whole Durkheim tradition, however, (sociology and anthropology) society has been interpreted as entirely separated from nature –in biological and telluric aspect. So, Durkheimian, and mainstream sociology altogether, turn out to be theoretically unprepared for the arising ecological problems and face the attacks of reductionist „biosociology“ of the last several decades. So contemporary development brings us back to the Durkheim’s initial dilemma about the relationship between the natural and the social.
Keywords: Durkheim, Mauss, Halbwachs, Malinowski, Radcliff-Brown, Levi-Strauss, sociology, anthropology, society, nature, biological

To the full article »

50 Years after Karl Jaspers

Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) is a German psychiatrist, psychologist and philosopher. He is considered as one of the main representatives on the existentialist school, particularly of its religious version. The philosophy of Jaspers is idiosyncratic. Jaspers himself does not have a philosophical diploma; his philosophical knowledge and works are based on his efforts in the field of philosophy. In 2019, we celebrated 50 years since the death of this great European thinker. Jaspersian philosophy is oriented mostly towards the life and the fate of the particular, the individual man – towards the realization and the achievement of his true and authentic self. Jaspers introduced the notion of “boundary situations” to designate the extreme experiences in the life of man, which turn his world upside down, but, on the other hand, they provide the possibilities for self-realization and authenticity. One can overcome boundary situations only temporarily. That is why it is worth exploring the role of creativity in the dynamics of these boundary situations.
Êëþ÷îâè äóìè: Êàðë ßñïåðñ, áèîãðàôèÿ, ãîäèøíèíà îò ñìúðòòà, ãðàíè÷íè ñèòóàöèè, êðåàòèâíîñò.
Keywords: Karl Jaspers, biography, death anniversary, boundary situations, creativity.

To the full article »

Contagion

A translation into Bulgarian of Agamben's short text “Contagion", published on 11th of March 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.

To the full article »

Podium

The Architecture of Collective Housing after the Second World War: Conceptual Prerequisites and Development Trends. Part 1

The text is dedicated to the concepts and trends of modern architecture after the Second World War. In its first part, it analyzes the theoretical and practical works of Corbusier, focusing in detail on his one-block residential complexes built in Marseilles and Berlin. The projects in the field of collective housing construction in the Eastern bloc are also traced, with special attention paid to the processes in the USSR, which dictate the architectural tendencies in the other socialist countries as well. In this context, the barracks and Stalin houses from the Stalinist period, replaced by the so-called Khrushchevs and Brezhnevs houses, are considered. The article also focuses on collective housing in the United States, developed as a result of Harry Truman's social program. In its second part, the text put an accent on the changes in architecture in the 1970s and the emergence and development of postmodern architecture. Its conceptual preconditions are analyzed, as well as its various stylistic tendencies.

Keywords: Corbusier, One-block residential complexes, postmodern architecture, International architectural style

To the full article »

The Architecture of Collective Housing after the Second World War: Conceptual Prerequisites and Development Trends. Part 2

To the full article »

Janusz Korczak as a Freemason

In this article, we will discuss Janusz Korczak's relationship with Freemasonry and various ideas in his work that were inspired by them. According to our research, Korczak's ideas can be understood only by compare them with the ideas of the masonic and esoteric organizations to which Korczak was associated to, specifically the ideas of French freemasonry and Theosophy.
Keywords: Janusz Korczak, freemasonry, pedagogy, educational activities

To the full article »

Minima moralia

A Century without Max Weber – the Legacy he Left

100 years after the death of Maximilian Êarl Emil Weber, the heritage of the lawyer, sociologist, philosopher, and economist Max Weber remains relevant to date. Moreover, Weber's work continues to provoke debate and controversy, to gain supporters and opponents, to provide answers and to raise more and more questions. Weber himself could hardly have assumed how great his influence would be in the field of sociology and how little, unfortunately, in the speciality that had always attracted his attention - economics. À century is not enough to realize and describe Weber`s theories, his life path, and the influence he has had on so many scientific disciplines. A century is not enough, but it is not necessary, because Weber's legacies and work will never be fully completed.
Keywords: Max Weber, sociology, economics, philosophy, ethics, capitalism, Spanish flu

To the full article »

EAST-WEST – BEYOND THE POLITICAL BOUNDARIES AND THE HUMAN RIGHTS

The figure of the refugee is such a figure which shows how crossing the boundaries (East – West) puts under question the functioning political order. Leaving the boundaries of his own country and acquiring the refugee statute the human being begins his new life beyond the political (because he is not actually any more citizen of his country). Crossing the borders puts under question the established in the frameworks of the nation–states political order. The refugee questions many concepts, which organize the political order of the nation states such as citizen, human rights, citizen rights, sovereignty, nationality. The principle of inclusion through exclusion in the political sphere is an actual principle of functioning of the biopolitical order.
Keywords: refugee, Agamben, citizen rights, sovereignty, nationality

To the full article »

Announcement

THE ANALOGY OF PHILOSOPHY AND ART IN SCHELLING'S PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEM

The main moment of coincidence between philosophy and art is the interpenetration of science, the good and the beautiful in an absolute simultaneity of the peculiarity in Schelling's philosophical system. Philosophy encompasses everything in its totality, and by the principle of construction is an eternal and faithful image of the universe. Art as a doctrine is formed in philosophy through contemplation. The latter is a main creative principle and receives the image of the immediate eternal.
Through the principle of construction, philosophy produces in art to the extent of determining its place in the universe, and by contemplating it, attains the highest – the identity of philosophy and the doctrine of art. This seemingly cyclical process represents two different paths of knowledge – one by constructing in the ideal, subjective sphere and the other by contemplation in the real, objective realm. The sublime moment of fusion is the idea of the divine where god and the universe appear as the same expression of the whole.
The construction and reconstruction are the immanent and transcendental path of reflection, by which we can define the logical construct of art, accepting pure thought as an ideal principle and pure Being as a real principle.
The theorizing of art in the history of Western philosophy was not an easy task, given Plato's severe condemnation of poets and painters in the Ideal State, but the artist's thought and the becoming of its works are ideal definitions of the universe.
Apart from mythology, the antiquity could be determined by the principle of sculpture, because as a kind of art, it is the work of an artist, a consummate and master where the philosopher has to produce and reflect, and by himself, to raise this ideal essence in itself – in this particular moment of logical construction. Thus, the sculpture becomes an ideal definition of philosophy. Not just the order and symmetry, but its place in the universe.
To achieve the theoretical foundation of art, philosophy must gradually build its essential moments in the act of creation for itself – to raise it in the identical image to itself as a real truth of the universe.

Keywords: Schelling, philosophy of art, German classical philosophy, aesthetics, philosophy, art

To the full article »

The French debate for philosophical education: relevance to the Bulgarian situation

The text follows the development of the French debate, centered on some problems of philosophical education in high school, which relate to its content and the way it is taught. At the same time, the article tries to relate the mentioned problems to the Bulgarian situation, referring to the education in philosophy in the first high school stage of compulsory education for the Bulgarian students. Two basic perceptions of teaching are considered: teaching as making philosophy and teaching as transferring knowledge. By relaying on the Bulgarian Educational Standards for Philosophy and on personal experience, it is shown that the first teaching model is currently not applicable in Bulgaria. By using the text of the French debate as a base and secondary sources, it is suggested that the "Bulgarian debate" will be resolved if a combination of practice and theory with respect to philosophy is achieved in the National Educational Standards. The method of analysis is mainly used.
Keywords: education in philosophy, doing philosophy, disciplines, Bulgarian situation, French debate.

To the full article »

Poiesis

Frankenstein today. Photo Collage by Nikolai Pandarski

To the full article »