Topic of the issue PHILOSOPHY, PLURALISM, TRUTH
Issue editor: Nikolay Mihaylov
CONTENTS & Abstracts & Keywords & The authors in the issue
Anguel S. Stefanov (Corresponding Member of BAS, Professor at IPS-BAS)– On Faith and Suffering
Abstract: Nikolay Turlakov published a study in this journal, No. 4, 2021, entitled “Humility and Justification or Rebellion and Struggle: Philosophical Notes on the Attitude to Suffering in Religious Faith and Customary Morality”. The outlined dilemma is whether one must follow a rigorous faith and submissively encounter human sufferings, or one ought to struggle against them. I was impressed by the interesting reflections the author has made in his study, so my paper is presented here as a kind of a letter to him. My aim is directed to strengthening his attempt at resolving the dilemma by finding a way out of it on the base of the introduction of what is called a moderate religious faith.
Keywords: human suffering, revolt against evil, fanatic religious faith, moderate religious faith.
Hristo Hristov (Assistant Professor, PhD at the IPS-BAS()– COVID-19 and the Present-Day Ethical Narratives
Abstract: The present COVID-19 pandemic in most spectacular way delineates the need of rethinking about a big issue that in general is the main topic in this article. In this case we must do that in background of the very pandemic. This issue is tied to the main line of division as a whole between contemporary societies – a line of division between the cultures appreciating individual freedom in respect of ethics and the cultures that stake on the value of the community life. There is neither an explanation nor an indisputable solution to this division, because there will always be a tension between these notions which build dichotomies such as freedom and security, individual wishes and social duty, independence and interdependence. These dichotomies are the dichotomies of the present-day ethical narratives which still determine what our societies will look like during global pandemic as well.
Keywords: COVID-19, freedom, security, individual wishes, social duty, independence, interdependence.
Nikolay Mihaylov(Professor, PhD at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”) – Emile Durkheim and the necessity for moral education in society
Abstract: The article is devoted to the ideas of the French sociologist and philosopher Emile Durkheim about moral education. Moral education means special care for students, which is also care for the whole society. The influence of individualism as main moral principle of contemporary society is also analyzed. The author traces connections of Durkheim's ideas with the concepts of other thinkers and considers their contemporary influence on the education system. He also argues on the analysis of Durkheim's ideas, the necessity of education and training in ethics in the modern educational process.
Keywords: ethics, moral education, individualism, society, culture, communication.
Carmen Rodica Dobre (PhD student, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)– Plotinus' Ethical Ideal
Abstract: Plotinus, the founder of Neo-Platonism, in his work Enneads, defined virtues and vices, and classified them describing also their action on the human soul and building an ethical ideal. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the actions of virtues and vices on the human soul and how the practising of virtues can recover and lead the soul to higher levels until it attains wisdom in its ascension to the state of the divine man resembling the first or supreme God.
Keywords: soul; body; virtue; vice; reason; divinity; intelligible.
Felix Olatunji(Senior Lecturer, PhD, Department of General Studies (Philosophy Unit), Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso; Visiting Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, Osogbo (Ikire Campus), Nigeria), Adetunji Oni (Lecturer II, PhD, Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, Osogbo (Ikire Campus), Nigeria Lecturer II, PhD, Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, Osogbo (Ikire Campus), Nigeria)
– Thomas Hobbes'–Georg Hegel's Ideas of Knowledge in Development Narratives and the Challenge of Human Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract: The understanding of Thomas Hobbes's analysis on the importance of reason signifies the essence for the establishment of human capacity project, which will be rooted and reckoned with in the quest for the development of human thoughts. The quest for right reason in Hobbes is a necessary point in Georg Hegel, which stipulates reason as the determinant of development in Hegel's dialectism that development can only be realised in union with the ultimate realisation of the Spirit as reason rules the world. This is the fact that the principle of development enables a being to produce and reproduce itself, and by making itself actually what it already was potentially. It is pertinent to understand from the outset the significance of knowledge-based society as the foundation for security in the quest towards the attainment of authentic development. This means that security of lives and property is founded on the establishment of adequate knowledge necessary for action. Thus, human security for development is based on the level, attainment and utilisation of knowledge in human society. This paper will, therefore, employ analytic methodology to thematise that human security is a conditio sine qua non in the attainment of authentic development among societies of the Global South particularly sub-Sahara Africa. It is expected that the intent of the paper will interrogate the extent and the ways human security would be struggled for, in order for development to be guaranteed, which would be premised and thematised from the stand-points of Hobbes and Hegel.
Keywords: knowledge, security, development, Hegel's reason, Hobbes' right reason, Africa.
Abstract: Nikolay Turlakov published a study in this journal, No. 4, 2021, entitled “Humility and Justification or Rebellion and Struggle: Philosophical Notes on the Attitude to Suffering in Religious Faith and Customary Morality”. The outlined dilemma is whether one must follow a rigorous faith and submissively encounter human sufferings, or one ought to struggle against them. I was impressed by the interesting reflections the author has made in his study, so my paper is presented here as a kind of a letter to him. My aim is directed to strengthening his attempt at resolving the dilemma by finding a way out of it on the base of the introduction of what is called a moderate religious faith.
Keywords: human suffering, revolt against evil, fanatic religious faith, moderate religious faith.
Hristo Hristov (Assistant Professor, PhD at the IPS-BAS()– COVID-19 and the Present-Day Ethical Narratives
Abstract: The present COVID-19 pandemic in most spectacular way delineates the need of rethinking about a big issue that in general is the main topic in this article. In this case we must do that in background of the very pandemic. This issue is tied to the main line of division as a whole between contemporary societies – a line of division between the cultures appreciating individual freedom in respect of ethics and the cultures that stake on the value of the community life. There is neither an explanation nor an indisputable solution to this division, because there will always be a tension between these notions which build dichotomies such as freedom and security, individual wishes and social duty, independence and interdependence. These dichotomies are the dichotomies of the present-day ethical narratives which still determine what our societies will look like during global pandemic as well.
Keywords: COVID-19, freedom, security, individual wishes, social duty, independence, interdependence.
Nikolay Mihaylov(Professor, PhD at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”) – Emile Durkheim and the necessity for moral education in society
Abstract: The article is devoted to the ideas of the French sociologist and philosopher Emile Durkheim about moral education. Moral education means special care for students, which is also care for the whole society. The influence of individualism as main moral principle of contemporary society is also analyzed. The author traces connections of Durkheim's ideas with the concepts of other thinkers and considers their contemporary influence on the education system. He also argues on the analysis of Durkheim's ideas, the necessity of education and training in ethics in the modern educational process.
Keywords: ethics, moral education, individualism, society, culture, communication.
Carmen Rodica Dobre (PhD student, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)– Plotinus' Ethical Ideal
Abstract: Plotinus, the founder of Neo-Platonism, in his work Enneads, defined virtues and vices, and classified them describing also their action on the human soul and building an ethical ideal. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the actions of virtues and vices on the human soul and how the practising of virtues can recover and lead the soul to higher levels until it attains wisdom in its ascension to the state of the divine man resembling the first or supreme God.
Keywords: soul; body; virtue; vice; reason; divinity; intelligible.
Felix Olatunji(Senior Lecturer, PhD, Department of General Studies (Philosophy Unit), Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso; Visiting Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, Osogbo (Ikire Campus), Nigeria), Adetunji Oni (Lecturer II, PhD, Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, Osogbo (Ikire Campus), Nigeria Lecturer II, PhD, Department of Philosophy, College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, Osogbo (Ikire Campus), Nigeria)
– Thomas Hobbes'–Georg Hegel's Ideas of Knowledge in Development Narratives and the Challenge of Human Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract: The understanding of Thomas Hobbes's analysis on the importance of reason signifies the essence for the establishment of human capacity project, which will be rooted and reckoned with in the quest for the development of human thoughts. The quest for right reason in Hobbes is a necessary point in Georg Hegel, which stipulates reason as the determinant of development in Hegel's dialectism that development can only be realised in union with the ultimate realisation of the Spirit as reason rules the world. This is the fact that the principle of development enables a being to produce and reproduce itself, and by making itself actually what it already was potentially. It is pertinent to understand from the outset the significance of knowledge-based society as the foundation for security in the quest towards the attainment of authentic development. This means that security of lives and property is founded on the establishment of adequate knowledge necessary for action. Thus, human security for development is based on the level, attainment and utilisation of knowledge in human society. This paper will, therefore, employ analytic methodology to thematise that human security is a conditio sine qua non in the attainment of authentic development among societies of the Global South particularly sub-Sahara Africa. It is expected that the intent of the paper will interrogate the extent and the ways human security would be struggled for, in order for development to be guaranteed, which would be premised and thematised from the stand-points of Hobbes and Hegel.
Keywords: knowledge, security, development, Hegel's reason, Hobbes' right reason, Africa.
Constantin Yanakiev (Associate Professor, PhD, at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)
– The Unspoken That Binds Us
Abstract: This paper presents ideas from a report held at a conference in honour of the 100th anniversary of Azarya Polikarov. The author shares Polikarov's view that Thomas Kuhn's exemplars introduce continuity between disciplinary matrices despite of Kuhn's own conception of scientific revolutions as radical breaks with the past. Kuhn's notion of a disciplinary matrix owes much to Carnap's “linguistic framewoks”, and scientific revolutions are analogous to the solutions of Carnap's “external questions”. But the unspoken suggestion of exemplars not only acts forwards on future scientific practice. It reaches back to a past tradition, thus connecting an old and a new disciplinary matrix. This tacit connection between disciplinary matrices is the same that binds us in love and faith.
Keywords: paradigm, exemplar, disciplinary matrix, linguistic framework, external and internal questions, problem-solving, the unspoken, love, faith.
Iskra Dandolova (Architect and Urban sociologist, PhD in Sociology (BAS), PhD in Social Sciences (Paris Nanterre University)researcher at IPS-BAS)
– The Philosophy of Modernism in Bauhaus Architecture
Abstract: After 1989, the construction of industrially built residential blocks in residential complexes in Sofia was stopped. Until then, for two or three decades, they were the most important production for the construction of residential buildings in the capital according to the principles of modernism. Thousands of homeless people eagerly awaited them to be sheltered. Confusion ensued after the political changes in 1989, when attempts were made to implement the laws on the restitution of agricultural land within the complexes, despite the fact that these were “projects with implementation” and according to the Restitution Law no changes could be made there. The complexes, as well as the other constructions in progress, only had to be completed according to their designs. But it did not happen. In many places, “illegal restitution” of private agricultural land has begun, as well as spontaneous “privatization” of municipal and state lands and new construction in violation of the projects for the development of residential complexes. Their physical and social environment has changed radically and as a result the quality of life in them has deteriorated sharply. Thirty years after 1989, the residential complexes of Sofia have dramatically moved away from the principles of modernism and are almost everywhere in spatial and social degradation. An intensive process of anti-modernism is under way. Only recently the Sofia Municipality decided to introduce a policy to improve the living conditions of citizens in these territories – will it be able to realize and develop it and is it not too late?
Keywords: modernism, residential complexes, restitution of “agricultural lands” in the complexes, degradation of residential complexes, anti-modernism.
Dani Kotev (PhD student at Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski“; philosophy teacher in Sofia Professional High School of Tourism, 24 SU “Peyo K. Yavorov”, 117 SOU “St. Cyril and St. Methodius”)
– Eros and Philosophy
Abstract: The article reconstructs the mythical understanding of Eros from philosophy's standpoint. The ancient Greek god Eros is transformed into a concept with clear boundaries. Accordingly, the article examines the connection between the mythological and philosophical worldview. The archaic conceptions of Eros are regarded as the basis of philosophical concepts, and accordingly as a metaphysical entity with a high degree of
Abstractness. The initial parameters of the very concept of Eros are based on the erotic in its metaphysical context. The article therefore examines the possibilities offered by the conceptualization of Eros and the erotic within the limits of metaphysics.
Keywords: Eros, mythology, philosophical concept, metaphysics.
Boyan Bahanov(Boyan Bahanov – PhD student at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)
– Speaker Meaning and Conventional Meaning in Legal Norms
Abstract: Law is a main source of justice in a democratic society, and as such it must send clear and unequivocal messages to its addressees. Therefore, the question of meaning in the legal vocabulary does not lose its relevance and universality. The present study examines the question of the linguistic significance of legal norms in legal vocabulary, applying an interdisciplinary approach. Joining the thesis that the legislation can be considered as an expression of the legally significant will of the rule-making authority, the legal provisions will be presented as an intentional act. In search of the most appropriate explanatory method, two kinds of theories will be applied in parallel: Paul Grice's theory of linguistic meaning, on the one hand, and some theories with both textualist and intentionalist orientation, on the other. Subsequently, the communicative maxims proposed by Grice will be related to selected normative requirements related to the language of the normative acts.
Keywords: intention, legal norms, linguistic conventions, linguistic reassignment, Paul Grice, textualism.
Nikolay Alexandrov(PhD in Law and Politics, PhD in Journalism at University of Veliko Tarnovo “St. Cyril and St. Methodius”)
– Socio-Economic Theory of Ludwig von Mises as an Attempt to Rehabilitate Liberalism
Abstract: This article examines a number of key points in the teachings of the famous representative of the Austrian School of Economics Ludwig von Mises, whose work can be described as an attempt to rehabilitate liberalism, positioned on such basic concepts as “private property”, “individual freedom”, “market economy”, “free enterprise”, etc. The article aims not only to set out the basics of Mises' socio-economic theory, but also to present its philosophical-anthropological basis in the face of praxeology, through the prism of which the Austrian scientist studies liberalism, socialism, and state interventionism (Keynesian capitalism).
Keywords: liberalism, economics, laissez-faire, socialism, interventionism, praxeology, market society.
– The Unspoken That Binds Us
Abstract: This paper presents ideas from a report held at a conference in honour of the 100th anniversary of Azarya Polikarov. The author shares Polikarov's view that Thomas Kuhn's exemplars introduce continuity between disciplinary matrices despite of Kuhn's own conception of scientific revolutions as radical breaks with the past. Kuhn's notion of a disciplinary matrix owes much to Carnap's “linguistic framewoks”, and scientific revolutions are analogous to the solutions of Carnap's “external questions”. But the unspoken suggestion of exemplars not only acts forwards on future scientific practice. It reaches back to a past tradition, thus connecting an old and a new disciplinary matrix. This tacit connection between disciplinary matrices is the same that binds us in love and faith.
Keywords: paradigm, exemplar, disciplinary matrix, linguistic framework, external and internal questions, problem-solving, the unspoken, love, faith.
Iskra Dandolova (Architect and Urban sociologist, PhD in Sociology (BAS), PhD in Social Sciences (Paris Nanterre University)researcher at IPS-BAS)
– The Philosophy of Modernism in Bauhaus Architecture
Abstract: After 1989, the construction of industrially built residential blocks in residential complexes in Sofia was stopped. Until then, for two or three decades, they were the most important production for the construction of residential buildings in the capital according to the principles of modernism. Thousands of homeless people eagerly awaited them to be sheltered. Confusion ensued after the political changes in 1989, when attempts were made to implement the laws on the restitution of agricultural land within the complexes, despite the fact that these were “projects with implementation” and according to the Restitution Law no changes could be made there. The complexes, as well as the other constructions in progress, only had to be completed according to their designs. But it did not happen. In many places, “illegal restitution” of private agricultural land has begun, as well as spontaneous “privatization” of municipal and state lands and new construction in violation of the projects for the development of residential complexes. Their physical and social environment has changed radically and as a result the quality of life in them has deteriorated sharply. Thirty years after 1989, the residential complexes of Sofia have dramatically moved away from the principles of modernism and are almost everywhere in spatial and social degradation. An intensive process of anti-modernism is under way. Only recently the Sofia Municipality decided to introduce a policy to improve the living conditions of citizens in these territories – will it be able to realize and develop it and is it not too late?
Keywords: modernism, residential complexes, restitution of “agricultural lands” in the complexes, degradation of residential complexes, anti-modernism.
Dani Kotev (PhD student at Sofia University „St. Kliment Ohridski“; philosophy teacher in Sofia Professional High School of Tourism, 24 SU “Peyo K. Yavorov”, 117 SOU “St. Cyril and St. Methodius”)
– Eros and Philosophy
Abstract: The article reconstructs the mythical understanding of Eros from philosophy's standpoint. The ancient Greek god Eros is transformed into a concept with clear boundaries. Accordingly, the article examines the connection between the mythological and philosophical worldview. The archaic conceptions of Eros are regarded as the basis of philosophical concepts, and accordingly as a metaphysical entity with a high degree of
Abstractness. The initial parameters of the very concept of Eros are based on the erotic in its metaphysical context. The article therefore examines the possibilities offered by the conceptualization of Eros and the erotic within the limits of metaphysics.
Keywords: Eros, mythology, philosophical concept, metaphysics.
Boyan Bahanov(Boyan Bahanov – PhD student at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)
– Speaker Meaning and Conventional Meaning in Legal Norms
Abstract: Law is a main source of justice in a democratic society, and as such it must send clear and unequivocal messages to its addressees. Therefore, the question of meaning in the legal vocabulary does not lose its relevance and universality. The present study examines the question of the linguistic significance of legal norms in legal vocabulary, applying an interdisciplinary approach. Joining the thesis that the legislation can be considered as an expression of the legally significant will of the rule-making authority, the legal provisions will be presented as an intentional act. In search of the most appropriate explanatory method, two kinds of theories will be applied in parallel: Paul Grice's theory of linguistic meaning, on the one hand, and some theories with both textualist and intentionalist orientation, on the other. Subsequently, the communicative maxims proposed by Grice will be related to selected normative requirements related to the language of the normative acts.
Keywords: intention, legal norms, linguistic conventions, linguistic reassignment, Paul Grice, textualism.
Nikolay Alexandrov(PhD in Law and Politics, PhD in Journalism at University of Veliko Tarnovo “St. Cyril and St. Methodius”)
– Socio-Economic Theory of Ludwig von Mises as an Attempt to Rehabilitate Liberalism
Abstract: This article examines a number of key points in the teachings of the famous representative of the Austrian School of Economics Ludwig von Mises, whose work can be described as an attempt to rehabilitate liberalism, positioned on such basic concepts as “private property”, “individual freedom”, “market economy”, “free enterprise”, etc. The article aims not only to set out the basics of Mises' socio-economic theory, but also to present its philosophical-anthropological basis in the face of praxeology, through the prism of which the Austrian scientist studies liberalism, socialism, and state interventionism (Keynesian capitalism).
Keywords: liberalism, economics, laissez-faire, socialism, interventionism, praxeology, market society.
Dimitar Tsatsov (Professor, DSc., at the University of Veliko Tarnovo “St. Cyril and St. Methodius”)
– A Small Apology for Yanko Yanev (December 13, 1900 – February 13, 1945)
Abstract: The article is on the occasion of the anniversaries of Yanko Yanev and is an attempt to show how the criticism of modernity and philosophizing without transcendence moves to reflections on the historical destiny of the Bulgarian people. In this context, his main testament emerges – the vocation of the authentic Bulgarian philosopher is a careful look at the concrete dynamics of the historical, of what is happening here and now.
Keywords: rationality, irrationality, destiny, Being, recognition.
– A Small Apology for Yanko Yanev (December 13, 1900 – February 13, 1945)
Abstract: The article is on the occasion of the anniversaries of Yanko Yanev and is an attempt to show how the criticism of modernity and philosophizing without transcendence moves to reflections on the historical destiny of the Bulgarian people. In this context, his main testament emerges – the vocation of the authentic Bulgarian philosopher is a careful look at the concrete dynamics of the historical, of what is happening here and now.
Keywords: rationality, irrationality, destiny, Being, recognition.
Georgi Garkov (B.A. at Sofia University St. “Kliment Ohridski”)
– Cognitive Science and Its Replicative Crises in the Context of Epistemological Anarchism
Abstract: The present study attempts to examine the replicative crises in cognitive science from the perspective of epistemological anarchism and the problematic assumptions of nomothetism. A closer look at the history of science suggests replicative crises are not a phenomenon characteristic of low-quality theories or dubious scientific practices, but also a stage that describes some of the most significant and well-tested theories in the history of science. In contrast to the logic of naive falsificationism, reality paints a considerably more complex and even contradictory picture of the process of discovery. Forgoing politically correct narratives, science reveals no less fruitful manifestations of what could be characterized as disorder, irrationality, mysticism and pseudo-scientific biases. And even with respect to well-developed theories one could point to discrepancies with the available facts, beyond the acceptable margin of error. At the same time, however, a potential contribution to the replicative crisis stems from the hidden assumptions of the nomothetic approach – a neglect of the individual mechanisms problem and the contextual interactions problem. Two varieties of nomothetism could be distinguished, respectively: classical one and based on aggregate values one. While classical nomothetism tends to ignore the syncretics of ecological contexts, aggregate-based nomothetism ignores the presence of individual mechanisms and combines them into theoretical constructs that describe “everyone and no one”.
Keywords: epistemological anarchism, cognitive science, nomothetism, replicative crises.
– Cognitive Science and Its Replicative Crises in the Context of Epistemological Anarchism
Abstract: The present study attempts to examine the replicative crises in cognitive science from the perspective of epistemological anarchism and the problematic assumptions of nomothetism. A closer look at the history of science suggests replicative crises are not a phenomenon characteristic of low-quality theories or dubious scientific practices, but also a stage that describes some of the most significant and well-tested theories in the history of science. In contrast to the logic of naive falsificationism, reality paints a considerably more complex and even contradictory picture of the process of discovery. Forgoing politically correct narratives, science reveals no less fruitful manifestations of what could be characterized as disorder, irrationality, mysticism and pseudo-scientific biases. And even with respect to well-developed theories one could point to discrepancies with the available facts, beyond the acceptable margin of error. At the same time, however, a potential contribution to the replicative crisis stems from the hidden assumptions of the nomothetic approach – a neglect of the individual mechanisms problem and the contextual interactions problem. Two varieties of nomothetism could be distinguished, respectively: classical one and based on aggregate values one. While classical nomothetism tends to ignore the syncretics of ecological contexts, aggregate-based nomothetism ignores the presence of individual mechanisms and combines them into theoretical constructs that describe “everyone and no one”.
Keywords: epistemological anarchism, cognitive science, nomothetism, replicative crises.
Nonka Bogomilova – To the memory of Prof. Lyuben Sivilov
Words by the new Editor in Chief Prof. Nikolai Mihailov