Philosophy & History of Philosophy (e-books)

E-publication

Štefan Jusko

This monograph aims at following the study of P. S. Loeb in which he presented a significant turning point in the issue of the interpretation of Nietzsche's idea of the eternal return of the same. What was that reversal? Despite prominent scholars of Nietzsche's philosophy of the 20th century who rejected the idea of eternal return because of its logical incoherence, Loeb eruditely proved the temporal identity of eternal return of the same, thus verifying the logical connection of the idea concerned.

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E-book

Lukáš Šutor

The seventh volume of Doctoral Miscellanea was created in this year's specific research and educational situation, which predetermined its character as a non-conference collection.

The previous two editions continued the tradition of domestic scientific events (initially seminars, later conferences) at the Autumn School of Doctoral Students of the Faculty of Arts at UPJŠ in Košice, thereby creating an opportunity to verify more comprehensive scientific conclusions before a diverse audience, not only of experienced educators but also of researchers from their own generation. This phase was narrowed down to communication between the supervisor/reviewer and the doctoral student during the publication's creation. However, this did not automatically mean a less intense dialogue. Many contributions underwent interesting changes and variations.

The resulting studies reflect not only the degree of development of dissertation projects but often also the interest of young scientists in specific issues that have the potential for independent research. After all, they chose our domestic collection for testing their ideas.

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E-book

Martin Škára

The presented university textbook is a reaction to two fundamental shortcomings. The first one is the absence of a similar, if not equivalent, textbook in the Slovak university environment. The second shortcoming is the mistake that Leibniz's philosophy is a system called monadology.

The presented textbook corrects this mistake and at the same time fills the gap of the absence of this kind of textbook with a Leibniz subject. For the above reasons, the presented textbook brings a new perspective on the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz, especially in the period of early philosophical beginnings with an overlap into the so-called Paris period and the De summa rerum period up to the first philosophical doctrinal formulation expressed in the Discours de métaphysique (Winter 1685-1686). The textbook is conceived as a selection of sections of source texts translated by the author of the textbook from French and partly from Latin and equipped with comments accessible to the target audience.

It is therefore the author's wish that this textbook not only serve as a form of correction for the misinterpretation of Leibniz's philosophy, but as an inspiring text that will introduce the reader to the world of Leibniz's philosophy in its undistorted light.

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E-book

Štefan Jusko

The goal of the monograph is to highlight the significant problem of interpreting the Socratic question, as its approach represents a method of interpreting the history of philosophy, specifically in our case, the interpretation of Socrates and Plato. The Socratic question can be grasped in diametrically different ways, as shown by Patočka and Nietzsche, among others. The former aligns with Socrates and innovatively updates his question for the present. The latter is ambivalent towards Socrates but ultimately labels him a decadent.

In the first part of the monograph, Patočka's characterization of human existence is presented, which he formulates as unified and morally firm. Patočka interprets the Socratic question as care for the soul, for its well-being, without deriving the concept of good from something positively defined but from the whole world, which can only be defined negatively due to its constant openness. This sphere of negativity is for Patočka something immensely positive because transcendence lifts humans from relative goods to the overall meaning, making them morally capable in the true sense. The good, i.e., the requirement for a surge, for a turn of humans from the world of things to the whole world, is for him a program that Socrates first formulated through his knowing ignorance.

The second part of the work is dedicated to Nietzsche's concept based on the non-unified nature of human existence, which is not derived from the whole world or overall meaning but from situational meaning. Nietzsche strives to prove that in every situation, human existence is exposed to two opposing perspectives, between which it is impossible to decide which is correct. He concludes that both perspectives are equally valid and mutually conditioned, meaning that the opposite of good, what threatens meaning, is a beneficial condition for situational meaning. He labels this level as immoral, as a sphere where human existence creates meaning outside the thinking of good and evil in opposition.

The conclusion of the work is open because, as it turns out, we do not have a common denominator that could decide on the correctness of one or the other concept. Precisely in this lies the fact that the Socratic question remains a serious philosophical problem even today.

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Štefan Jusko

The stimulus for this monograph was my two studies on Heidegger’s interpretation of Nietzsche’s ideas of the will to power and eternal return of the same, published in Heidegger and Modern Metaphysics (supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency, APVV-14-0706, under the leadership of V. Leška and M. Sobotka). In the submitted monograph, I present both studies in expanded (particularly “Will to Power as Art”) and refined versions (“Eternal Return of the Same”) and add a third chapter addressing the question of the meaning of interpreting philosophical texts, which themselves are interpretations of other texts.

In seeking an appropriate approach to the meaning of interpretation, I conclude that—generally—the purpose of interpretation is to uncover the productive dimension of the interpreted text, which can only be revealed if the interpreter enters the text openly and as neutrally as possible. If the interpreter does not open themselves to the text, allowing it to interpret them in turn, interpretation remains trapped. I believe that without mutual openness between interpreter and interpreted, interpretation has no meaning and typically becomes either rejection or misinterpretation—a form of violence.

In the third chapter, which I consider foundational, I attempt to “balance” the interpretive context of “Heidegger–Nietzsche” from the first two chapters through a reversible context of “Nietzsche–Heidegger,” albeit with the risk that my interpretation of Nietzsche’s thought—specifically his ideas of eternal return and will to power—may remain subjective, even if unintended as misinterpretation. Ultimately, the ambition of the third chapter is to explore intersections between the two philosophers, one of which—a rudimentary yet significant overlap—I identify as Heidegger’s concept of being-in-the-world, reinterpreted through Nietzsche’s lens. It is Nietzsche who challenges us to adopt a self-defined stance toward the world, to confront what it means to be in the world.

The challenge for me—and perhaps the reader—is to remain faithful to oneself, which is only possible by persisting in the context of mutual interpretation between interpreter and interpreted, regardless of who/what is interpreting or being interpreted. For the context of being-in-the-world is always co-created by both sides.

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Lukáš Šutor (ed.)

The proposed anthology represents for many doctoral students their first entry into the publishing environment of scientific genres. The studies in such cases contain the essence of future dissertation works, which represent the creative pinnacle of doctoral studies. In addition to providing doctoral students with the opportunity to publish scientific outputs, we also consider the anthology a space for interdisciplinary encounters and mutual enrichment. However, interdisciplinarity is not merely a characteristic of the anthology as a whole but also of some studies.

Most notable interdisciplinary approaches are observed in literary studies. The traditional subject of research into artistic texts is enriched in individual studies by examining theatrical and film works (Peter Getlík), linguistic aspects of phrasemes (Ivana Hudiková), musical elements (Terézia Kulíková), visual art (Dominika Petáková), and digital spaces of new media (Alexandra Popovičová). From other disciplines, we highlight Miroslava Süčová Vernarská’s study, which extends psychological research into sociological and linguistically communicative contexts (the concept of metaphor), or conversely, Zuzana Šoltésová and Dušan Šlosár’s contribution, analyzing eating disorders from their disciplinary background in social work.

Both mentioned disciplines also include contributions with traditional research subjects. Nikola Fabiny from psychology analyzes consequence expectations in the context of goal selection and achievement. Jana Plavnická and Dušan Šlosár’s co-authored study from the Department of Social Work presents a multi-perspective analysis of integration barriers for immigrants in Slovakia. Within their own disciplines, both philosophy contributions operate: Juraj Brenišin interprets the ethical aspects of Avicbron’s Fons vitæ, while Michal Kručko examines Edmund Husserl’s unfinished work through a comparative lens of his students Jan Patočka and Roman Ingarden. The anthology concludes with Lukáš Lukačín’s study (written in English), which explores the semantic-grammatical category of modality in the verbs MAY and CAN within legal-administrative documents of the European Union.

The representation of academic disciplines and doctoral students’ individual creative outputs in Doktorandské miscelaneá 4 is thus appropriately diverse. We present this publication to the broader academic community as a representative overview of trends in young scholars’ thinking across the spectrum of humanities and social sciences doctoral programs at the Faculty of Arts, UPJŠ in Košice.

Lukáš Šutor

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Vladimír Leško

The book is the result of long-term contemplation on the relationships between the history of philosophy and its reflection in more or less systematic, or non-systematic forms of philosophizing of the most significant philosophical teachings of the 19th and 20th centuries (Hegel, Schelling, Marx, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Fink, Patočka, and Gadamer).

The primary goal of the work is to present the most significant historical-philosophical teachings of the 19th and 20th centuries in the formation and fulfillment of strong and weak models of the philosophy of the history of philosophy in the concepts of Hegel, Schelling, Marx, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Fink, Patočka, and Gadamer.

The results of the philosophy of the history of philosophy are presented here as a metatheoretical movement within historical-philosophical thinking, whose aim is not to empirically describe the historical-philosophical process, but to understand and explain it as an inseparable part of the most significant philosophical problems – what is philosophy, what is metaphysics, and the question of being.

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Mária Mičaninová - Ivica Hajdučeková (eds.)

In the framework of the project VEGA of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic 1/0330/12 The Function of Metaphor in the Philosophy of Shlomo ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol and Shihab al-Din Yahya al-Suhrawardi, project leader Assoc. Prof. Mária Mičaninová, CSc., under the patronage of the rector of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, The Slovak Republic, Prof. MUDr. Ladislav Mirossay, DrSc., and of The Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts of the same University, took place on 4th – 5th October 2013 an International conference on The Function of Metaphor in Medieval Neoplatonism. Two days´conference was opened by Dean of the Faculty of Arts of P. J. Šafárik University, Prof. PhDr. Ján Gbúr, CSc.,in the presence of Prof. PhDr. Vladimír Leško, CSc., Head of The Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy, and of foreign guests and students of the University.

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Mária Mičaninová

Scholars whose works constitute medieval philosophy were active as theologians, jurists, physicians, and sometimes even poets. Among them, there is hardly anyone who could be described exclusively as a philosopher.

For theologians and (religious) jurists, the primary source of their philosophical reflection was the Bible or the Qur’an. The second source was the philosophical heritage of the preceding antiquity, in which the figure of Aristotle and his commentators dominated. The Peripatetic legacy was complemented by followers of Plato in the long line of so-called Neoplatonic philosophy (e.g., Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus), which in its beginnings developed within the environment of Hellenistic schools.

It is therefore not surprising that the main philosophical problem for medieval scholars was the relationship between theology and philosophy, or faith and reason, and, consequently, the relationship between theology and metaphysics. In the context of Christian thought, this was already discussed in the 2nd century, when some Church Fathers questioned the value of secular learning for those to whom the truth had been revealed by God.

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Lukáš Šutor (ed.)

Contributions in the field of psychology address current issues such as normative beliefs and attitudes regarding alcohol consumption, the characteristics of loneliness, questions of pupil personality and the perception of teachers’ interaction styles. They also consider hyperexcitability (excessive psychological excitability), research theorems on injustice, and fundamental concepts and their theoretical connections in the field of self-regulation research within the context of executive functions.

In philosophy, the authors focus on selected aspects of works belonging to major currents of world philosophy (Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Plotinus, Descartes, Patočka).

In literary studies (Slovak studies), the topics include modeling the theme of death in prose texts, the depiction of technological progress in space science fiction films, and the translation work of K. Strmeň, Návštevy (Anthology of World Lyric Poetry).

In the field of social work, the authors present contributions on current trends in preventing burnout syndrome in helping professions, the use of logotherapy in foster care, certain factors enabling the emergence, development, and spread of socially pathological phenomena (“cyberbullying”), religiosity and the value of human life, and an empirical analysis of the competencies of social workers in institutional care for people with intellectual disabilities.

The political science contribution analyzes selected institutions and documents within the European system of human rights protection, while the British and American studies paper examines the relationship between metaphor and metonymy in the interpretation of the meaning of new English compounds.

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