STUDII DE ISTORIE A FILOSOFIEI UNIVERSALE, vol. XXXI, 2023


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SIFU_XXX_2022.pngSTUDII DE ISTORIE A FILOSOFIEI UNIVERSALE, vol. XXXI, 2023
Coordonatori: CLAUDIU BACIU, TINCA PRUNEA-BRETONNET, ION TĂNĂSESCU
Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023

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. EXPLORING THE METAPHYSICS OF ALFRED  NORTH WHITEHEAD

* The following section contains papers presented at the conference Exploring the Metaphysics of A. N. Whitehead: Process, Actual Occasions, and the Divine. The conference was held online 31.10.2023 - 01.11.2023 and 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 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. 12-20]
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ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD’S RELATIONAL SPECIAL RELATIVITY
Concepția relațională a lui Alfred North Whitehead cu privire la teoria relativității restrânse     
ENRICO R. A. C. GIANNETTO
University of Bergamo

Abstract. The greatest relevance of Alfred North Whitehead’s work, in my opinion, has to be related to the interpretation and understanding of the theory of relativity. Whitehead’s same philosophy as ‘meta-physics,’ or ‘pan-physics’ has to be considered a transition from a logico-mathematical philosophy to a physical philosophy, to a cosmological philosophy rooted in his interpretation of relativity. He understood motion as a structural series of temporal events, avoiding permanent material bodies and refuting any interpretation of four-dimensional space-time as a kind of eternal permanence.
Keywords: special relativity, motion, events, space, time.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 37-44]
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WHITEHEAD’S RESISTANCE TO SCEPTICISM IN RELATION TO SANTAYANA
Opoziția lui Whitehead față de scepticism în contextul relației acestuia cu Santayana
BOGDAN RUSU

Abstract. Without ever becoming central, the refutation of scepticism constitutes one of the pervading themes of Whitehead's philosophy of perception. His way of resisting scepticism about the external world was the doctrine of the two pure modes of perception, presentational immediacy and causal efficacy, and of the mixt mode of symbolic reference. In the present study, I try to evaluate Whitehead's theory of perception as a rampart against scepticism. First, I expose, in relevant outline, Whitehead’s theory of perception as it first appears in S, with the necessary refinements adduced in PR, and I find it wanting. Next, I show that Whitehead’s doctrine of subjective forms works as a patch for the theory, and allows it to counter some varieties of scepticism.
Keywords: Whitehead, Santayana, critical realism, solipsism of the present moment, causal efficacy.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 47-58]
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‘FEELING’ AND METAPHYSICS IN WHITEHEAD
„Simțire” și metafizică la Whitehead
CLAUDIU BACIU
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru Institute of Philosophy and Psychology, Romanian Academy

Abstract. For someone who knows the history of Western metaphysics, it is entirely unexpected to hear that Whitehead’s metaphysics contains as one of its fundamental pieces the concept of ‘feeling.’ This could work if one envisages a metaphysics of the human being but not metaphysics in general. In my paper, I show what sinuous ways Western metaphysics had to follow so that ‘feeling' could be postulated as a universal feature of all entities in the universe and why ‘feeling’ is a sine qua non condition in conceptualizing the ‘actual occasion.’
Keywords: Whitehead, metaphysics, feeling, function, actual occasion.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 59-70]
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LA METAPHYSIQUE DE LA CONVERSATION SELON WHITEHEAD. LE PARADIGME DE MUNICH
Metafizica conversației în concepția lui Whitehead. Paradigma de la München
JEAN-CLAUDE DUMONCEL
Université de Caen, CNRS

Abstract. Conversation is the flower of civilization, of which screens are a scourge. Faced with this threat, the theory of conversation in Whitehead is elevated to the metaphysical level. The joke and the enjoyment of a joke form its humorous core, in a conception that makes from conversing the double function of language and can thus go from daily conversation to the renewal of Platonic dialectics via the maieutics of Socrates.
Keywords: Whitehead, conversation, joke, metaphysics, actual occasion.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 71-78]
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‘IMMEDIACY’ IN WHITEHEAD AND BLAGA
‘Imediatitatea’ la Whitehead și Blaga
HENRIETA ȘERBAN
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru Institute of Philosophy and Psychology, Romanian Academy
 
Abstract. In Whitehead’s metaphysics there is a concept of ‘immediacy’ which is interesting to interpret in relation to the concept of ‘immediacy’ found in Lucian Blaga’s metaphysics.  Immediacy stands in opposition to the wholeness of existence and the complexity of reality in both thinkers. In Whitehead, immediate experience is merely a facet of the constructed series of events and processes fundamental for existence and reality and for connecting our objective, scientific and logical descriptions of the world, and the more everyday world of subjective experience.  In Blaga, immediacy is the label for limited (animal-like) existence deprived of the metaphysical dimension. However, in Blaga, man is defined by the metaphysical dimension and thus, in terms closer to Whitehead’s view, always engaged in a crusade to comprehend both ‘physical multiplicity’ (the World) and ‘the infinite ground of all mentality’ (God), which is consonant with Blaga’s concept of man’s defining situation within ‘the horizon of mystery’. Both metaphysics accepted a perspective, or, an interpretation of the idea that God creates the World as well as the World creating God. In our view, the Unmoved Mover image of God remains as a ‘trace’ in the idea of permanent reference for the World. This is comparable with the perspective found in the metaphysics of Lucian Blaga, where the metaphysical center, the ‘Great Anonymous,’ ‘pushes’ backwards the human being, via limitative ‘divine differentials’ occasioning the limiting stylistic matrices for the creative and intrusive ontological and metaphysical drive of man.
Keywords: metaphysics; existence; immediacy; Alfred N. Whitehead; Lucian Blaga.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 79-92]
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CHRISTIAN LOVE AND WHITEHEAD’S POETIC GOD
Iubirea creștină și Dumnezeul poetic al lui Whitehead
MARIAN GEORGE PANAIT
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru Institute of Philosophy and Psychology, Romanian Academy

Abstract. Whitehead uses the term God along two lines of thought: to make a typology of religion – i.e., a typology of how divinity is understood in each type of religion (Religion in the Making) – and to formulate his own philosophy in terms of metaphysics (Process and Reality). I propose a comparison between the concept of Christian Love and the meaning, in each of these two contexts, of the term God. In this way I want to investigate whether God, as he appears in Whitehead’s philosophy, maintains a relationship with the way divinity appears in Christianity, particularly when it is defined as Christian Love.
Keywords: Christian Love, poetic God, creativity, primordial nature of God, consequent nature of God.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 93-102]
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LIFE, SUBJECTIVITY AND CREATIVITY: ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD’S METAPHYSICAL UNDERSTANDING OF EVOLUTIONISM
Viață, subiectivitate și creativitate: înțelegerea metafizică a evoluționismului de către Alfred North Whitehead
ANDREEA STOICESCU
National University of Music of Bucharest

Abstract. The theory of evolution has had a well-known complex and tumultuous public journey, from its beginning as a shocking and bold hypothesis about animal life on Earth, until its present status almost as common ground and, as some may argue, an almost (scientific) common sense framework for interpreting the metamorphoses of life as a general phenomenon. Although the biological and environmental mechanisms of evolution have been thoroughly described and structurally analyzed during the past century and a half, the metaphysical possibility, grounding and implications of Charles Darwin’s ideas were rarely accounted for in a philosophically satisfying manner. In my paper, I will argue that Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy has at its core exactly such an attempt of deducing, coherently expressing and conceptually understanding the inner metaphysical significance of speaking about ‘life’ in evolutionary terms. This attempt is not the only source of Whitehead’s groundbreaking metaphysics (as cosmology), but is among the most important because is directly related to his famous formulation of the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness, to his description of an ‘actual occasion’ inspired by the ‘vibratory organism’, to his non-Cartesian insights on ‘subjectivity’ as embedded by ‘feelings’ and a ‘subjective aim’ and, finally, is related to his rendering of Creativity as the Category of the Ultimate, the driving force of existence. Especially regarding creativity, the theory of evolution has been of invaluable support, yet, according to Whitehead himself, the scientific mind is leaning towards neglecting this beautiful and optimistic side of evolution, concentrating more on its destructive and brutal side: ‘The other side of the evolutionary machinery, the neglected side, is expressed by the word creativeness’ (Science and the Modern World).
Keywords: Creativity, subjectivity, life, organism, adventure.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 103-111]
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IS THE ARROW’S FLIGHT A PROCESS?
Este zborul săgeții un proces?
ANDREI MĂRĂȘOIU
University of Bucharest

Abstract. Zeno’s famous arrow’s paradox has troubled philosophers for a long time. In the aftermath of Russell’s discussion of the paradox in terms of the calculus, I argue that the paradox leaves a lingering question as to how our everyday, pre-theoretical notions of the motion of objects (such as arrows) intermesh with the mathematical physics thought to fully account for them. Starting from Russell and Salmon’s reformulations of the arrow paradox in terms of ‘at-at’ theories of motion, I argue that such solutions can only account for our pre-theoretical intuitions if supplemented ontologically, by something in the vein of (though perhaps not necessarily identical with) Whitehedian processes. I then explore the suitability of this approach to the arrow paradox, and end by exploring ontological and metaontological concerns one might raise about whether this is a viable way out of paradox.
Keywords: the arrow paradox, ontology of processes, Zeno of Elea, motion, continuity.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 113-121]
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ON OCCURRENCES OF ‘CAESAR’ IN SOME OF WHITEHEADʼS TEXTS
Despre ocurențele termenului „Cezar” în unele dintre textele lui Whitehead
ANTON ADĂMUȚ
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi

Abstract. It is something absolutely natural that in Whitehead’s philosophical and essayistic works one meets names like: Plato, Locke, Descartes, Hume or Kant. It is equally natural that in Principia Mathematica the onomastics are of a completely different nature. This is how it happens that here we will meet names like Nicod, Zermelo, Peano, Cantor, Dedekind or Frege. Names as appropriate as possible with the content of the works. On the other hand, one cannot help but wonder why in the philosophical and essay-like works you find the occurrence of ‘Caesar’ no less than 37 times. We intend to discuss the presence of this occurrence in some of Whitehead’s works in the following text.
Keywords: Whitehead, Caesar, Rubicon, sentence, ambiguity, truth.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 123-138]
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LOGICISM, FREGE AND THE LOGICAL COMPOSITION OF INFORMATIVE IDENTITIES
Logicismul, Frege și structura logică a identităților informative
NORA GRIGORE
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru Institute of Philosophy and Psychology, Romanian Academy

Abstract. Informative, non-trivial identities (like the definition of number) form the core of Frege's logicist program. This is why it is important to be able to dissipate any impression that there might be something paradoxical about them. However, it is easy to have such an impression : informative identities seem to be able to have either correctness (because the two elements involved in the identity really are identical) or informativeness (because the two elements involved in the identity are not exactly identical). This problem is sometimes called ‘the paradox of analysis.’ The first step in the direction of a Fregean solution to the paradox is, I argue, the elucidation of the status of  ‘fruitful definitions’ as informative identities in Frege.
Keywords: Frege, fruitful, definition, informative identities, analysis.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 139-153]
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B. VARIA
 
SPINOZA ȘI URIEL DA COSTA. SCHIȚA UNEI FILIAȚII ANALITICE
Spinoza and Uriel Da Costa. Outline of an Analytical Filiation
GABRIELA TĂNĂSESCU
Institutul de Științe Politice și Relații Internaționale „Ion I. C. Brătianu” al Academiei Române

Abstract. The paper circumscribes, through a specific history of ideas approach, the influence on Spinozaʼs philosophy and his radical biblical analysis of the unique intellectual and religious model of marranos ‒ Sephardic ‘secret Jews’ forcibly converted to Christianity in Spain and Portugal, later reconverted to Judaism in their exile in the Netherlands in particular. From the ‘radical cases’ of heterodox marranos, the paper presents the historical and linguistic coordinates of Uriel da Costa’s biblical criticism, followed by Spinoza as well, and also the similarities between the two thinkers’ thought and existential paths.
Keywords: marrano, spiritualized Judaism, Uriel da Costa, reason, heterodoxy, biblical analysis.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 157-166]
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LEIBNIZ DESPRE PRINCIPIUL CONTINUITĂȚII  
Leibniz on the Principle of Continuity
ADRIAN NIŢĂ
Institutul de Filosofie şi Psihologie „Constantin Rădulescu-Motru” al Academiei Române

Abstract. The idea that man is a living mirror of the universe, or, as a spirit, a living mirror of divinity, is closely related to the theme of continuity. We will approach this issue less from the perspective of the theory of knowledge, than from a metaphysical perspective. The solution to the labyrinth of the composition of the continuum constitutes the Ariadne’s thread through the labyrinth of Leibnizian thought, with the help of which we will be able to reach the end of many problems raised by the latter’s texts. Just like Ariadne’s thread, the solution of the labyrinth has two ends: one is located in the principle of continuity, the other in the theory of possibility, or, to put it differently, starting from the problematic theory of continuity we will reach the bright area of possibility.
Keywords: Leibniz, continuity, possibility, force, monads, composition.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 167-179]
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ESEUL KANTIAN ASUPRA ÎMBĂTRÂNIRII PĂMÂNTULUI: MOTIVE DE ÎNGRIJORARE SAU DE RESPONSABILITATE  
Kant’s Essay on the Aging of the Earth: Reasons to Worry or to Act Responsibly
RODICA CROITORU
Institutul de Filosofie şi Psihologie „Constantin Rădulescu-Motru” al Academiei Române

Abstract. From the Kantian essay on the aging of the Earth follow consequences still valuable today. Among them, care for water, necessary for the maintenance of nature and humans, is dominant. Another resource which should not be wasted is salt. It contributes to the maintenance of life as well. It is required that all such natural resources be responsibly maintained, in order to better serve their purposes. This is the implicit message of Kant’s essay on the aging of the Earth: to be responsible for our planet.
Keywords: Earth, aging, resources, nature.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 181-191]
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SENTIMENT EMPIRIC ȘI ACȚIUNE MORALA LA KANT
Empirical Feeling and Moral Action in Kant 
IONUȚ RADUICĂ
Universitatea din Craiova

Abstract. In this study we aim to investigate Kant’s thought on the concept of feeling. Using a hermeneutical method that involves genealogy and links between ideas, we follow the development of the concept of feeling in three main stages: one focuses on the Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime; the second regards some aspects from Critique of Pure Reason; and the last investigates the Metaphysics of Morals. The main question of the study is whether the view from the beginning (feeling is self-sufficient as a practical postulate, despite some imperfection and malfunctions) is still valid during the second and the third stages. Our theory suggests that Kant chose to acknowledge the importance only of the feelings that rely on reason (happiness, moral feeling), while the rest of them are assimilated with regular sensation.
Keywords: feeling, emotion, practice, ethics, action.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 193-202]
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FENOMENOLOGIA GESTULUI ÎNTRE HEIDEGGER ȘI FLUSSER
The Phenomenology of Gestures Between Heidegger and Flusser
CRISTIAN CIOCAN
Universitatea din București

Abstract. In this article, I propose a phenomenological reflection on the problem of gesture. To begin with, I shed light on the difficulties encountered by the attempt to describe this phenomenon, given that the overflowing and irreducible plurality of gestures is constituted in various ways by the intertwining of several existential registers such as corporeality, intersubjectivity, affectivity and language. Then, I place the phenomenon of gesture in relation to bodily movement and the phenomenon of expressiveness, differentiating gestures from non-gestural movements and non-gestural expressions. Finally, I discuss two distinct phenomenological approaches which operate an enlargement of the concept of gesture, thus moving away from the primary meaning of the gesture as expressive, symbolic, intersubjectively anchored and affectively determined bodily movement. On the one hand, I show how Martin Heidegger rejects the relevance of the idea of expressivity to determine the gesture, emphasizing that all bodily movement, in order to be contrasted with the spatial movement of things, should be understood as gesture. On the other hand, I show how Vilém Flusser places the phenomenon of gesture in relation to the difference between moods and affect, understanding it as a symbolic movement for which we cannot find a satisfactory causal explanation.
Keywords: gesture, expression, body, phenomenology, Heidegger, Flusser. 

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 203-222]
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CE MAI PUTEM SPERA DE LA ARTA MODERNA? O PERSPECTIVĂ HEIDEGGERIANĂ ASUPRA ARTEI MODERNE
What More Can We Hope From Modern Art? A Heideggerian Perspective on Modern Art
ANITA DRELLA
Universitatea din București

Abstract. The central text around which I have written this work is: Art in the Epoch of Completion of Modernity, a text authored by Martin Heidegger between 1937 and 1938 but published posthumously. What draws attention in this work, distinguishing it from other Heideggerian texts, is the apparent shift from the usual manner of writing, primarily preoccupied with the meticulous choosing of the words that shape his thoughts. Instead, we encounter a Heidegger who is notably more decisive and impatient.
Keywords: aesthetics, art, modernism, image, Nazism.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 223-234]
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RAȚIUNI EXISTENȚIALISTE ALE LITERATURII: JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
Existentialist Reasons of Literature: Jean-Paul Sartre
LORENA STUPARU
Institutul de Științe Politice și Relații Internaționale ,,Ion I.C. Brătianu” al Academiei Române

Abstract. In this paper I present some of Jean-Paul Sartre’s observations regarding the liberating role of literature both from individual existential discomfort and from a socio-political point of view. According to the French philosopher, the main reason for writing literature is to convey an urgent, imperative message that all people need. Sartre wrote primarily for the enjoyment of all readers (regardless of political choice), so they can savor his memorable words and formulas, even when they are reserved about the content, and this profound choice aims at the freedom of the creator as well as that of the receiver.
Keywords: literature, choice, freedom, engagement, writer, world.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 235-246]
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INDICELE HIRSCH ÎN EVALUĂRILE UEFISCDI ȘI CERCETAREA CENTRAL-MARGINALĂ ÎN DOMENIUL ISTORIEI FILOSOFIEI
The Hirsch Index in UEFISCDI Evaluations and Central-Marginal Research in the History of Philosophy
ION TĂNĂSESCU
Institutul de Filosofie şi Psihologie „Constantin Rădulescu-Motru” al Academiei Române

Abstract. The text states that the idea of the UEFSCDI to evaluate projects in the humanities using the Hirsch Index is based on the unfounded assumption that there is only a single perspective on a given philosophical issue and single standards of excellence for assessing a project’s quality. Starting from the state of contemporary Brentano research, the text argues that there are two well-defined perspectives of analysis of Brentano’s work: the perspective proposed by authors trained in the spirit of analytic philosophy and that proposed by interpreters trained in the historical, continental tradition. At the theoretical level, the difference between the two approaches is evident both in the issues addressed and in the way they are treated. Beyond this, there is also an enforced bias aspect to this difference, namely that through their work as members of the review boards of different journals, the authors privilege the perspective they work from, and reject, for this ideological reason, articles that belong to competing research perspectives. The text also presents evidence from research practice that supports the thesis.
Keywords: analytical philosophy, continental philosophy, humanities, philosophical interest, h-index.

[Studii de istorie a filosofiei universale, vol. XXXI, Editura Academiei Române, Bucureşti, 2023, pp. 247-263]
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