Topic of the issue: MINIMA MARGINALIA (https://doi.org/10.58945/HQRQ4387)
Issue editor: Kristiyan Enchev
CONTENTS & Abstracts & Keywords & Authors in the issue
EMANCIPATION, RECOGNITION, GENDER
Recognizing Emancipation in ‘Post-traditional’ Societies: Assessing Axel Honneth’s Theory of Recognition
https://doi.org/10.58945/SAQX1511
Abstract: This paper proposes a non-foundationalist interpretation of Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition that strengthens the case for the emancipatory potential of recognition struggles within “post-traditional” societies. It discusses Honneth’s anthropological thesis—that individuals depend on recognition for self-identity—and his socio-historical argument that recognition is shaped by specific normative frameworks. This dual perspective situates recognition struggles as responses to systemic withheld recognition, reflecting broader social dynamics rather than individual grievances. The paper addresses critiques of foundationalism by clarifying Honneth’s conception of recognition as historically and socially embedded. It points out the interrelation between Honneth’s tripartite model of personhood—comprising self-confidence, self-respect, and self-esteem—and the differentiated spheres of recognition institutionalized in modern societies. These frameworks allow the identification of recognition struggles as potential critique of unfulfilled societal promises that challenge asymmetries within the normative order. By linking recognition, subjectivity, and emancipation, the paper distinguishes conditions under which struggles for recognition acquire emancipatory significance. In doing so, it advances Honneth’s argument by demonstrating how recognition struggles can reshape normative structures to uphold personhood’s integrity in contemporary societies.
Keywords: Axel Honneth; critical theory; emancipation; struggles for recognition; ‘post traditional’ societies
Hristo Hristov (PhD in Philosophy)
Difference Between Notions of Sex and Gender Revisited: Denotations and Connotations With Reference to Ethics
https://doi.org/10.58945/JGFQ4236
Abstract: The notion of gender does not blur the boundary between male and female but suggests that it is time to turn our attention to outlines that we have not seen for a long time: the outlines of all such persons who do not conform with the standards of the binary conception of gender for reasons such as inborn characteristics, environmental factors, culture, personal life, and so on. This state of affairs must be kept in mind by politicians, high state officials, academicians, lawyers, and other important stakeholders when it comes to real democratic public debate on the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, as well as the change of attitudes and expectations of the Bulgarian society in respect to this problem. The present article is an attempt to search for some solutions concerning this problematic field with a metaethical focus on the investigation of the meanings of terms used in our ethical judgments about the nature of the notions of sex and gender in the Bulgarian linguistic community.
Keywords: ratification of Istanbul Convention in Bulgaria; binary conception of gender; LGBT rights in Bulgaria; gender-based crimes in Bulgaria; ethical connotations of the notions of sex and gender in the Bulgarian linguistic community
PHENOMENOLOGICAL AND EXISTENTIAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE MUSICAL AND THE TRAGIC
Moritz Geiger’s Aesthetic Attitude and Its Musical-Phenomenological Dimensions
https://doi.org/10.58945/URIH7244
Abstract: This article examines the main concept in Moritz Geiger’s aesthetics – the aesthetic attitude – which, as an extension of the phenomenological concept attitude, describes the art-oriented (art-attuned) self. The very concept of attitude always refers to the intimate turning towards (orientation) either the world or art. At the same time, however, there exists another third attitude, which is capable of describing the intimacy of both the aesthetic and the world attitude, and which is inferred as a logical necessity without any evidence of what precisely this third attitude is. This indicates the existence of methodological ambiguity in contemporary music philosophy and musicology. The possibility of elucidating it – by revealing the musical-phenomenological dimensions of Geiger's aesthetics – is one of the conceptual horizons of this article, while the relations between the three attitudes are part of the conditions in which its theme unfolds. In order to clarify the aesthetic attitude, Geiger introduces additional concepts, namely outer concentration and value perception. Geiger analyses their modus operandi phenomenologically, and this makes it possible to reveal the musical-phenomenological dimensions of the aesthetic attitude, which directly links it to themes and ideas in musical-philosophical literature. Musical-philosophical concepts such as musical nomos, transcendental musical synthesis, and the faculty of co-being enable Geiger's ideas to be developed and placed into a concrete musical-philosophical perspective that sees the relationship between the self and music as fundamental and autonomous.
Keywords: aesthetic phenomenology; aesthetic attitude; inner and outer concentration; value perception; music philosophy; musical nomos; transcendental musical synthesis; faculty of co-being
Krasimir Delchev (Professor, DSc at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)
A Survey of Major Philosophical Views on the Nature of the Tragic and Tragic Guilt From Plato and Aristotle to Kierkegaard
https://doi.org/10.58945/KDQE1925
Abstract: The article analyzes the tragic and tragic guilt from Plato and Aristotle to Kierkegaard.
Keywords: tragic; guilt
BORDER FIELDS IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
Narcissism and Borderline Situation
https://doi.org/10.58945/MYWO3334
Abstract: In the article, with a view to uncovering the main features of narcissism and the narcissistic personality, the connection between creativity and metapsychology is examined, and a transition is made to the connection between a borderline situation and creativity. Starting from Freud's metapsychology and
psychoanalysis, we move through creativity and finally reach the borderline situations themselves. One of the main theses is that there is a dialectical interaction between creativity and boundary situations.
Keywords: creativity; metapsychology; borderline situation; narcissism; narcissistic personality
METAPHYSICS, LANGUAGE, MODALITY
Philosophy as Language (a text by Joseph Seifert)
https://doi.org/10.58945/EJXI2207
Abstract: Joseph Seifert's work Ontological categories: On their distinction from transcendentals, modes of being, and logical categories could be considered as an inventory of an essential part of the technical language of philosophy. The present review offers translated passages and more strictly or freely rendered places from this impressive text, as well as some comments of my own.
Keywords: Categories; Transcendentals; Metaphysics; Logic; Language
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
Werner Heisenberg’s Philosophical View About Reality
https://doi.org/10.58945/AODL2213
Abstract: One can often meet recent writings in different electronic media, which raise claims either that the world we inhabit is a virtual reality or that the universe is unreal, that what we usually understand by the word “reality” is only seeming. In comparison with such claims, Werner Heisenberg’s view about reality, although somehow similar to them, has a philosophical basis that conceptually exceeds them. This philosophical basis, however, encapsulates an epistemological thesis that when man investigates nature, he meets himself as a result. This thesis leads to a curious consequence. The aim of the paper is to present and critically analyze Heisenberg’s view about reality.
Keywords: Werner Heisenberg; Michael Ruse; reality of the elementary particles; Heisenberg’ epistemological thesis
Ndukaku Okorie, Dapo Daniel Shaola (PhD at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; Specialist at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria)
Autonomy, Interdependence of Care Argument and the Moral Justification of Human Genome Editing (HGE)
https://doi.org/10.58945/VSNH2774
Abstract: Abstract: The debate about the ethics of human genome editing (HGE) is common among bioethicists, religiousscholars, physicians inter alia. One of the major problems has been how to justify HGE by including considerations about human dignity. This is because HGE has the potential to reinforce and violate human dignity and equality. In this paper, we aim to argue that HGE can be morally justified without the violation of human dignity and equality. In doing this, the autonomy and interdependence of the care argument will be deployed to demonstrate the moral justification of HGE for therapeutic and non-therapeutic purposes. The paper will conclude that HGE can be successfully justified through autonomy and interdependence of care arguments without violating human dignity and equality.
Keywords: Human Genome Editing; human dignity; equality