Studies in Phenomenology



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ENACTING THE CONTINGENCY
CATHERINE MALABOU
BEFORE TOMORROW: EPIGENESIS AND RATIONALITY
Translated by Carolyn Shread. Malden, MA, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016. ISBN 9780745691510

Title in the language of publication: ENACTING THE CONTINGENCY
CATHERINE MALABOU
BEFORE TOMORROW: EPIGENESIS AND RATIONALITY
Translated by Carolyn Shread. Malden, MA, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016. ISBN 9780745691510
Author: MAXIM MIROSHNICHENKO
Issue: HORIZON. Studies in Phenomenology.
Vol. 7, №2 (2018),  597–607
Language: English
Document type: Review
DOI : 10.21638/2226-5260-2018-7-2-597-607 PDF (Downloads: 2780)

Abstract
This review is an attempt to read the main ideas of Catherine Malabou’s Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality, with a particular emphasis made upon the problem of the modifiability of the transcendental one and the rejection of the a priori dimension of subjectivity within scientific and philosophical thought of a materialist orientation. Malabou’s thesis of the epigenesis of pure reason evinces the dynamical dimension of the transcendental one, integrating structural and evolutionary conceptions of reason. Epigenesis secures the stability of the phenomenal world and provides the possibility of a contingent metamorphosis of reason, thereby establishing the economy of the transcendental contingency. Largely, Malabou’s work has many affinities with the recent phenomenological thought, although it makes just a few explicit references to phenomenological philosophers as such.

Key words
Malabou, Kant, transcendental philosophy, epigenesis, contingency, necessity, biology, teleology.

References

  • Gould, S. J., & Lewontin, R. C. (1979). The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 205, 581-598.
  • Malabou, C. (2014). Avant demain. Épigenèse et rationalité. Paris: P.U.F.
  • Malabou, C. (2016). Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality. Malden, Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Varela, F., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (1991). The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Cambridge. Massachusetts, London, England: The MIT Press.

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DAVID KLEINBERG-LEVIN
BECKETT’S WORDS. THE PROMISE OF HAPPINESS IN A TIME OF MOURNING
London and New York. Bloomsbury, 2015. ISBN 978-1-47421-685-2

Title in the language of publication: РЕЦЕНЗИЯ НА КНИГУ ДЭВИДА КЛЕЙНБЕРГА-ЛЕВИНА
BECKETT’S WORDS. THE PROMISE OF HAPPINESS IN A TIME OF MOURNING
London and New York. Bloomsbury, 2015. ISBN 978-1-47421-685-2
Author: ALEXEY SIDOROV
Issue: HORIZON. Studies in Phenomenology.
Vol. 7, №2 (2018),  586–596
Language: Russian
Document type: Review
DOI : 10.21638/2226-5260-2018-7-2-586-596 PDF (Downloads: 2628)

Abstract
The review is devoted to the book of American philosopher D. Kleinberg-Levin Beckett’s Words. The Promise of Happiness in a Time of Mourning. The book presents an analysis of the contemporary post-religious and post-metaphysical situation in Western culture, which was became known as nihilism in the 19th century. “The Death of God” has become a historical, cultural and intellectual trauma, which requires the “work of mourning” in order to cope with its consequences. The author analyzes the causes of this situation and possible positions for philosophers and writers. Guided by the late works of Heidegger, D. Kleinberg-Levin argues that the path in a world without grounds is possible due to a promise that calls us from the essence of the language. Beckett’s work is interpreted as an example of the writer’s struggle with the forces of nihilism in the name of the “promise of happiness”, which is inherent in the very language as such. Therein lies the messianic dimension of language that can be freed from religious doctrines and retain its importance in the “disenchanted” modern world. In the epoch of nihilism, after the death of God, there is the last remaining hope of the immanent power and responsibility of a writer, true to his paradoxical vocation – the impossibility and necessity of expression. In the review Kleinberg-Levin’s book is considered in the context of studies of nihilism as a cultural trauma of modernity.

Key words
Trauma, nihilism, modernity, Beckett, Heidegger, language, promise.

References

  • Bekket, S. (1994). Trilogiya [Trilogy]. St Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo Chernysheva. (in Russian).
  • Critchley, S. (2004). Very Little… Almost Nothing. Death, Philosophy, Literature (Warwick Studies in European Philosophy). London, New York: Routledge.
  • Gusserl’, E. (2009). Idei k chistoi fenomenologii i fenomenologicheskoi filosofii. Kniga 1 [Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy. Book 1]. Moscow: Akademicheskii proekt. (in Russian).
  • Khaidegger, M. (1993). Vremya i bytie [Time and Being]. Moscow: Respublika. (in Russian).
  • Kleinberg-Levin, D. (2015). Beckett’s Words. The Promise of Happines in a Time of Mourning. London, New York: Bloomsbury.
  • Merlo-Ponti, M. (2006). Vidimoe i nevidimoe [The Visible and the Invisible]. Minsk: Logvinov. (in Russian).

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ADONIS FRANGESKOU LEVINAS, KANT AND THE PROBLEM OF TEMPORALITY
London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. ISBN 978-1-137-59795-3

Title in the language of publication: РЕЦЕНЗИЯ НА КНИГУ АДОНИСА ФРАНГЕСКУ
LEVINAS, KANT AND THE PROBLEM OF TEMPORALITY
London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. ISBN 978-1-137-59795-3
Author: ANNA YAMPOLSKAYA
Issue: HORIZON. Studies in Phenomenology.
Vol. 7, №2 (2018),  576–585
Language: Russian
Document type: Review
DOI : 10.21638/2226-5260-2018-7-2-576-585 PDF (Downloads: 2672)

Abstract
Frangeskou’s point of departure in his juxtaposition of Levinas and Kant is the problem of transcendental schematism but not the tension between autonomy and heteronomy as it is common for most of the published literature. Thus, the middle ground between Levinas and Kant is occupied by Heidegger, but also by Franz Rosenzweig with his “biblical” version of ecstatic temporality. Levinassian diachrony is described by Frangeskou as a new form of ecstatic temporality, different from the interpretations given by Heidegger and Rosenzweig. It is analogous to transcendental schematism of reason. We briefly compare Frangeskou’s interpretation with Marc Richir’s notion of transcendental schematism which also goes back to Levinassian diachronic temporality. Richir’s schematism functions as a medium joining together heterogenous elements such as the layer of “phenomenological”, i.e., the unstable and flickering sense, and the layer of “symbolic”, i.e., the organised and stabilised sense. In a similar way, for Frangeskou, diachronic temporality provides a synthesis (though, not a synchronisation) of God, the world and a man.

Key words
Levinas, Kant, Heidegger, Rosenzweig, temporality, diachrony, transcendental schematism.

References

  • Basterra, G. (2015). The Subject of Freedom: Kant, Levinas. Fordham University Press.
  • Frangeskou, A. (2017). Levinas, Kant and the Problem of Temporality. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Gordon, P. E. (2003). Rosenzweig and Heidegger: Between Judaism and German philosophy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Kant, I. (1994). Kritika chistogo razuma [Critique of Pure Reason]. Moscow: Mysl’. (in Russian).
  • Khaidegger, M. (1997). Kant i problema metafiziki [Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics]. Moscow: Logos. (in Russian).
  • Lévinas, E. (1983). Le temps et l’autre. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.
  • Lévinas, E. (1986). De Dieu qui vient à l’idée. Paris: Vrin.
  • Levinas, E. (1987). Autrement que savoir. Paris: Osiris.
  • Lévinas, E. (1993). Entre nous (Essais sur le penser-à-l’-autre). Paris: Librairie générale française.
  • Lévinas, E. (1995). Dieu, la mort et le temps. Paris: Le livre de poche.
  • Levinas, E. (2014). Zametki o smysle. [Notes on Meaning]. In S. Sholokhova & A. Yampol’skaya (Eds.), (Post)fenomenologiya: novaya fenomenologiya vo Frantsii i za ee predelami [(Post)phenomenology: New Phenomenology in France and Beyond] (18-38). Moscow: Akademicheskii proekt. (in Russian).
  • Llewelyn, J. (1999). The Hypocritical Imagination: Between Kant and Levinas. London: Routledge.
  • Richir, M. (1992). Méditations phénoménologiques: Phénoménologie et phénoménologie du langage. Grenoble: J. Millon.
  • Richir, M. (1996). L’expérience du penser: Phénoménologie, philosophie, mythologie. Grenoble: Jérôme Millon.
  • Rosenzweig, F. (2002). Der Stern der Erlösung. Freiburg: Universitätsbibliothek.
  • Rozentsveig, F. (2017). Zvezda izbavleniya [The Star of Redemption]. Moscow: Mosty kul’tury / Gesharim. (in Russian).
  • Schnell, A. (2011). Le sens se faisant. Marc Richir et la refondation de la phénoménologie transcendantale. Bruxelles: Ousia.

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THE REVIEW OF THE 32ND INTERNATIONAL HEGELIAN CONGRESS
(JUNE 5-8, 2018, TAMPERE, FINLAND)

Title in the language of publication: ОБЗОР 32-го МЕЖДУНАРОДНОГО ГЕГЕЛЕВСКОГО КОНГРЕССА
(5-8 июня 2018 года, Тампере, Финляндия)
Author: ALEKSANDR TIMOFEEV KIRA SILAEVA
Issue: HORIZON. Studies in Phenomenology.
Vol. 7, №2 (2018),  563–575
Language: Russian
Document type: Report
DOI : 10.21638/2226-5260-2018-7-2-563-575 PDF (Downloads: 2637)

Abstract
This review examines the main aspects of the 32nd International Hegel Congress, which was held in Finland in early June 2018. The analysis of Hegel’s Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences was chosen as the central theme of this congress. The participants especially focused on the relation between Encyclopedia and Hegel’s other works, as well as on the interpretation of the semantic features in various versions of the Encyclopedia. Most reports argued that the form of Encyclopedia is, by no means, an external and accidental limitation which thinking is organized in, but it is determined by the very nature and originality of the “method” of Hegel’s dialectically speculative philosophy. The main emphasis in the reports was laid on the study of those forms of thinking and knowledge, which Hegel applied in order to give a holistic picture of the correlation between the spirit, nature and logical categories. Therein, researchers revealed some ways of employment of Hegelian ideas for modern studies. Besides, we should pay attention to another cross-cutting theme of the Congress, i.e. an analysis of the subjective spirit, since the integrity problem becomes objective and is realized as an object in the individual self-awareness. The section devoted to “Hegel in Russia” became especially prominent for the congress. Reports on this issue delivered at the congress may be divided into two categories, i.e. Russian Hegelianism of the 19th and the early 20th century and comprehension of Hegel’s ideas in the USSR period. Therein, it should be noted that Hegelianism of the Soviet period attracted more speakers and aroused more interest for the public, apparently, due to the fact that at that time both it reflected the ideological and inner sides of that modernization project, implemented in Russia in the 20th century. Besides, some reports were focused on the analysis of ideas of emigration of the Soviet period.

Key words
Hegel, Encyclopedia, system, spirit, nature, categories of logic, Russian reception of Hegel.

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THE REVIEW OF THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE “PHENOMENOLOGY OF OIL”
(MAY 17-18, 2018, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA)

Title in the language of publication: МЕЖДУНАРОДНАЯ НАУЧНАЯ КОНФЕРЕНЦИЯ «ФЕНОМЕНОЛОГИЯ НЕФТИ»
(17-18 мая 2018 года, Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Author: SERGEY TROITSKIY, NIKITA KRECHKO
Issue: HORIZON. Studies in Phenomenology.
Vol. 7, №2 (2018),  554–562
Language: Russian
Document type: Report
DOI : 10.21638/2226-5260-2018-7-2-554-562 PDF (Downloads: 2800

Abstract
The review of the International Scientific Conference “Phenomenology of Oil”, held at the Institute of Philosophy of the St Petersburg State University on May 17-18, reflects the structure of the event, presents the participants of the conference, includes the main abstracts of the reports. The conference was devoted to the issues related to the ontological, socio-cultural, economic role oil plays in the modern world order. The program was conveniently divided into three thematically related and logically arranged components: theoretical, demonstration, interactive. The first and main one involved delivering of reports and organized discussions. The composition of speakers was distinguished by diversity of nations (Italy, Germany, Poland) and professions (philosophy, literature, art). Besides the main (scientific) part, a film seminar, an exhibition of Vitaly Kasatkin’s paintings in oil and oil products (the demonstration part), the conference “Phenomenology of Oil” also included a master class of painting in oil, which was of great interest. Such workshop made it possible to feel the potential hidden in the very object of two-day intellectual and artistic exploration. As a result, a number of oil-related phenomena, that can not be described and analyzed through classical approaches and generally accepted terminology have been detected, which suggests the need for developing the research in the domain of the oil philosophy.

Key words
Phenomenology, oil, oil dependence, petroleum, world order, primary element.

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Views: 2860


HEIDEGGER AND RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHIZING: THE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE DISTANCE

Title in the language of publication: ХАЙДЕГГЕР И РОССИЙСКОЕ ФИЛОСОФСТВОВАНИЕ: ПРОДУКТИВНОСТЬ ДИСТАНЦИИ
Author: ILYA INISHEV
Issue: HORIZON. Studies in Phenomenology.
Vol. 7, №2 (2018),  546–553
Language: Russian
Document type: Report
DOI : 10.21638/2226-5260-2018-7-2-546-553 PDF (Downloads: 2800)

Abstract
The paper offers a critical analysis of a programmatic article by Alexander Mikhailovsky on the reception of “late” Heidegger’s philosophy in Russian philosophical community. I mainly focus on the thesis put forth by Mikhailovsky on the peculiar esoterism of Heidegger’s “being-historical” thought, demanding a special philosophical practice of a “meaningful silence” considered the only commensurate approach to it. Moreover, according to Mikhailovsky, only Russian cultural and philosophical space (by which he understands mainly Russia’s conservative cultural and political thought) retains the ability to perform this kind of silence, while Western researchers and scholars have completely lost it. I put forward the following main arguments against this thesis: 1) several varieties of “esoterism” are simultaneously inherent in early” and “late” Heidegger’s philosophy and none of which requires a disavowal of a public scientific discussion and undertaking of a particular socio-political mission instead; 2) Heidegger’s conception of the so-called “other beginning” is not a radical-reformist but diagnostic one, that is to say, in its basic intentions it is not active revolutionary but rather quietist; 3) By now, the most substantial contribution to the systematic research of Heidegger’s legacy is made by Western interpreters; 4) Heidegger’s publishing policy testifies precisely to his intention to prevent ideologized forms of appropriation of his philosophy and, on the contrary, to guarantee the possibility of its systematic scientific reception. In addition to issues of content, I pay attention to the rhetorical form of the article in question. From my point of view, the rhetorical strategy of Alexander Mikhailovsky draws on a general tonality that came to be strongly associated with reception of Heidegger in Russian speaking cultural space due to the translations of Heidegger’s works into Russian made in the 1980-90s. In conclusion I, in general outline, present my own – alternative – view on the productive strategies of treating Heidegger’s theoretical legacy.

Key words
Heidegger, being-historical thinking, esoterism, Russian philosophy, conservatism, political engagement, rhetorical strategies.

References

  • Heidegger, M. (1995) Phänomenologie des religiösen Lebens (GA 60). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann.