V glavakh kollektivnoi| monografii predstavleny kont︠s︡eptualʹnye razrabotki problem, znachimykh dli︠a︡ filosofii nachala novogo stoletii︠a︡. Ėtot krug problem okhvatyvaet vse oblasti sovremennoi| filosofii--ot ontologii i filosofii nauki do filosofii logiki i politiki. Sovremennye ot︠s︡enki i razvitie poluchai︠u︡t idei analiticheskoi| filosofii, ėkzistent︠s︡ializma, fenomenologii, strukturalizma s ikh orientat︠s︡iei| na prikladnye sfery. Kniga adresovana kak spet︠s︡ialistam, tak i vsem tem, kto proi︠a︡vli︠a︡et interes k sostoi︠a︡nii︠u︡ i problematike sovremennoi| otechestvennoĭ filosofii.

In recent years there has been a boom in the study of the Yi Jing (the Book of Changes) and ancient Chinese forms of physical exercise in European countries such as Germany, Belgium and France, with research themes focusing on psychotherapeutic and medical clinical experimental studies, such as a study conducted at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Tübingen in Germany that emphasised that moderate general physiological activation, exercise-dependent regulation of the heart rhythm ANS can induce a typical (...) state of calm to regulate Qi. There are few theoretical studies on the metaphysical aspects of the existence of such healthful and beneficial underlying psychophysiological mechanisms of mind-body exercise Florens（2021）, so this paper chooses to use the practice of Qi as a case study, where Qi practice refers to the classical and systematic use in Chinese martial arts’ internal styles and systems such as Taijiquan (Taichi), Qigong and shaolinquan(Shaolin Boxing). A primarily documentary research approach is adopted, this paper using classical theories from the Yi Jing to analyse a metaphysical analysis of the physical exercises associated with Qi. The conclusions of the study show that: Firstly, Chinese traditional methods and practical experience can be drawn upon. Secondly, the classical theory of the Yi Jing, which uses Qi as the core of practice, enriches the ontology of human life perception in the field of philosophy. Thirdly, the ultimate pursuit of life through the practice of Qi is a concrete manifestation of the metaphysical holistic view of life in traditional Chinese physical exercises. (shrink)

The spiritual geography of Russian cosmism. General characteristics ; Recent definitions of cosmism -- Forerunners of Russian cosmism. Vasily Nazarovich Karazin (1773-1842) ; Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev (1749-1802) ; Poets: Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, (1711-1765) and Gavriila Romanovich Derzhavin (1743-1816) ; Prince Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky (1803-1869) ; Aleksander Vasilyevich Sukhovo-Kobylin (1817-1903) -- The Russian philosophical context. Philosophy as a passion ; The destiny of Russia ; Thought as a call for action ; The totalitarian cast of mind -- The religious and spiritual (...) context. The kingdom of god on earth ; Hesychasm: two great Russian saints ; The Third Rome ; Pre-Christian antecedents -- The Russian esoteric context. Early searches for "deep wisdom" ; Popular magic ; Higher magic in the time of Peter the Great ; Esotericism after Peter the Great ; Theosophy and anthroposophy -- Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov (1829-1903), the philosopher of the common task ; The one idea ; The unacknowledged prince ; The village teacher ; First disciple: Dostoevsky and Tolstoy ; The Moscow librarian ; Last years: Askhabad: the only portrait -- The "common task" ; Esoteric dimensions of the "common task" ; Fedorov's legacy: projectivism, delo, regulation -- The religious cosmists. Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov (1853-1900) ; Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov (1871-1944) ; Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky (1882-1937) ; Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948) -- The scientific cosmists. Konstantin Edouardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) ; Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945) ; Alexander Leonidovich Chizhevsky (1897-1964) ; Vasily Feofilovich Kuprevich (1897-1969) -- Promethean theurgy. Life-creation ; Cultural immortalism ; God-building ; Re-aiming the arrows of Eros ; Technological utopianism ; Occultism -- Fedorov's twentieth century followers. Nikolai Pavlovich Peterson (1844-1919) and Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kozhevnikov (1852-1917) ; Svyatogor and the biocosmists ; New wine and the universal task ; Alexander Konstantinovich Gorsky (1886-1943) and Nikolai Alexandrovich Setnitsky (1888-1937) ; Valerian Nikolaevich Muravyov (1885-1932) ; Vasily Nikolaevich Chekrygin (1897-1922) -- Cosmism and its offshoots today. The N.F. Fedorov museum-library ; The Tsiolkovsky museum and Chizhevsky center ; ISRICA - Institute for Scientific Research in Cosmic Anthropoecology ; Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev (1912-1992) and neo-eurasianism ; The hyperboreans ; Scientific immortalism: Igor Vishev, Danila Medvedev ; Conclusions about the Russian cosmists. (shrink)

In 1933 Godel introduced a calculus of provability (also known as modal logic S4) and left open the question of its exact intended semantics. In this paper we give a solution to this problem. We find the logic LP of propositions and proofs and show that Godel's provability calculus is nothing but the forgetful projection of LP. This also achieves Godel's objective of defining intuitionistic propositional logic Int via classical proofs and provides a Brouwer-Heyting-Kolmogorov style provability semantics for Int which (...) resisted formalization since the early 1930s. LP may be regarded as a unified underlying structure for intuitionistic, modal logics, typed combinatory logic and λ-calculus. (shrink)

Inspired by Hintikka’s ideas on constructivism, we are going to ‘effectivize’ the game-theoretic semantics for independence-friendly first-order logic, but in a somewhat different way than he did in the monograph ‘The Principles of Mathematics Revisited’. First we show that Nelson’s realizability interpretation—which extends the famous Kleene’s realizability interpretation by adding ‘strong negation’—restricted to the implication-free first-order formulas can be viewed as an effective version of GTS for FOL. Then we propose a realizability interpretation for IF-FOL, inspired by the so-called ‘trump (...) semantics’ which was discovered by Hodges, and show that this trump realizability interpretation can be viewed as an effective version of GTS for IF-FOL. Finally we prove that the trump realizability interpretation for IF-FOL appropriately generalises Nelson’s restricted realizability interpretation for the implication-free first-order formulas. (shrink)

In this paper, we provide a semantic analysis of the well-known knowability paradox stemming from the Church–Fitch observation that the meaningful knowability principle /all truths are knowable/, when expressed as a bi-modal principle F --> K♢F, yields an unacceptable omniscience property /all truths are known/. We offer an alternative semantic proof of this fact independent of the Church–Fitch argument. This shows that the knowability paradox is not intrinsically related to the Church–Fitch proof, nor to the Moore sentence upon which it (...) relies, but rather to the knowability principle itself. Further, we show that, from a verifiability perspective, the knowability principle fails in the classical logic setting because it is missing the explicit incorporation of a hidden assumption of /stability/: ‘the proposition in question does not change from true to false in the process of discovery.’ Once stability is taken into account, the resulting /stable knowability principle/ and its nuanced versions more accurately represent verification-based knowability and do not yield omniscience. (shrink)

We describe a general logical framework, Justification Logic, for reasoning about epistemic justification. Justification Logic is based on classical propositional logic augmented by justification assertions t: F that read t is a justification for F. Justification Logic absorbs basic principles originating from both mainstream epistemology and the mathematical theory of proofs. It contributes to the studies of the well-known Justified True Belief vs. Knowledge problem. We state a general Correspondence Theorem showing that behind each epistemic modal logic, there is a (...) robust system of justifications. This renders a new, evidence-based foundation for epistemic logic. As a case study, we offer a resolution of the GoldmanRed Barns in Justification Logic. Furthermore, we formalize the well-known Gettier example and reveal hidden assumptions and redundancies in Gettier’s reasoning. (shrink)

This article examines a still contentious question: how conservative and liberal elements are combined in Boris N. Chicherin’s worldview and political doctrine. It considers several points of view...

Im Zentrum der Monographie von Claudia Rapp steht die Figur des christlichen Bischofs im Kontext der spätantiken Gesellschaft. Das Buch besteht aus zwei Teilen und einem Epilog. Der erste Teil (S. 1–152) erfüllt eine zweifache Aufgabe: Er bietet (1.) eine Übersicht über die relevante Forschungsliteratur und Positionierung der vorliegenden Arbeit in der Forschungslandschaft und (2.) die Präsentation des von der Verf. entworfenen Erklärungsmodells, das die gesamte Untersuchung konzeptuell bestimmt. Im zweiten Teil (S. 155–289) betrachtet die Verf. die Entwicklung der Rolle (...) des christlichen Bischofs im Kontext spätantiker Städte und Römischen Reiches vom 3. bis zum 6. Jahrhundert anhand von archäologischem, hagiographischem und juristischem Quellenmaterial. Im Epilog (S. 290–302) wird die Figur des Bischofs im Spiegel der Grabinschriften prominenter Amtsträger skizziert. Ein Quellen- und Literaturverzeichnis sowie ein Index beschließen den Band (S. 303–346). (shrink)

Uncertainty can’t be understood without taking into account both properties of the problem situation and agent’s knowledge about it. The correspondence of knowledge and situation of decision-making is crucial for understanding the onto-epistemological nature of uncertainty. At the same time, this correspondence is the key topic in virtue epistemology, especially in its ‘non-classical’, regulatory, branch, related to works of R. Roberts and W.J. Wood. In this article, genetic consultation is chosen as an example of such a problematic situation since a (...) doctor and a patient explicitly deal with the uncertainty of genetic risks. The problems of communication and joint decision-making in the context of medical-genetic consultation are comprehensively described in bioethics. At the same time, its social dimension is limited to the direct interaction of two individual agents, that allows us to use it as a model for constructing the ethics of uncertainty. In this article, four forms of uncertainty are identified: descriptive, normative and radical uncertainties, and translation uncertainty. Referring to the approaches of virtue epistemology, the author brings each of these forms into conformity with the proposed regulatory principle. The regulations assume that generating or disseminating knowledge under conditions of uncertainty require taking into account the incompleteness of the presented model of reality in its four aspects. A modelled fragment of reality could change in a predictable (descriptive uncertainty) or unexpected (radical uncertainty) way. The goals and values of a model’s user can not be hierarchically ordered, and may also change in the future (normative uncertainty). User’s interpretations of the model may be diverse, and can never be strictly defined by the intentions of the model’s author (indeterminancy of translation, or uncertainty whether success of co-reference is achieved). (shrink)

Tracing how the logic of inoperativity works in the domains of language, law, history and humanity, 'Agamben and Politics' systematically introduces the fundamental concepts of Agamben's political thought and a critically interprets his insights in the wider context of contemporary philosophy.

While Foucault’s work on biopolitics continues to inspire diverse studies in a variety of disciplines, it has largely been missing from the debates on the possibility of “affirmative biopolitics” which have been primarily influenced by the work of Agamben and Esposito. This article restores Foucault’s work to these debates, proposing that his final lecture course at the Collège de France in 1983–1984 developed a paradigm of affirmative biopolitics in the reading of the Cynic practice of truth-telling ( parrhesia). The Cynic (...) problematization of the relation between truth and life and their transvaluation of conventional truths by relocating them to the domain of bare life not only seeks to transform one’s life in accordance with the truth but also, through the confrontation with the existing conventions and norms, to transform the world as such. Cynic parrhesia is thus biopolitical, insofar as it reclaims the power of one’s life from the social order and its rationalities of government and applies it to oneself, investing one’s existence with truth. Since Foucault developed this reading of Cynicism in the context of his political engagement on behalf on East European dissidents, the article proceeds to analyse the resonances between parrhesia and Václav Havel’s idea of “living within the truth,” elaborating the biopolitical significance of both practices. We conclude by addressing the implications of our interpretation for Foucault scholarship and the wider debates on biopolitics. (shrink)

In a rather general setting, we prove a number of basic theorems concerning computational complexity of derivability in adaptive logics. For that setting, the so-called standard format of adaptive logics is suitably adopted, and the corresponding completeness results are established in a very uniform way.

The paper aims to present a critical analysis of the phenomenon and notion of exceptionalism in bioethics. The authors demonstrate that exceptionalism pertains to phenomena that are not (yet) entirely familiar to us and could potentially bear risks regarding their regulation. After an overview of the state of the art, we briefly describe the origins and evolution of the concept, compared to exception and exclusion. In the second step, they look at the overall development debates on genetic exceptionalism, compared to (...) other bioethical debates on exceptionalism, before presenting a detailed analysis of a specific case of early regulation of genetic screening. In the last part, the authors explain the historical background behind the connection between exceptionalism and exclusion in these debates. Their main conclusion is that while the initial stage of the discussion is shaped by the concept of exceptionalism and awareness of risks of exclusion, the later development centers around exceptions that are needed in detailed regulatory procedures. (shrink)

We compare the logic HYPE recently suggested by H. Leitgeb as a basic propositional logic to deal with hyperintensional contexts and Heyting-Ockham logic introduced in the course of studying logical aspects of the well-founded semantics for logic programs with negation. The semantics of Heyting-Ockham logic makes use of the so-called Routley star negation. It is shown how the Routley star negation can be obtained from Dimiter Vakarelov’s theory of negation and that propositional HYPE coincides with the logic characterized by the (...) class of all involutive Routley star information frames. This result provides a much simplified semantics for HYPE and also a simplified axiomatization, which shows that HYPE is identical with the modal symmetric propositional calculus introduced by G. Moisil in 1942. Moreover, it is shown that HYPE can be faithfully embedded into a normal bi-modal logic based on classical logic. Against this background, we discuss the notion of hyperintensionality. (shrink)

This work treats the problem of axiomatizing the truth and falsity consequence relations, ⊨ t and ⊨ f, determined via truth and falsity orderings on the trilattice SIXTEEN 3 (Shramko and Wansing, 2005). The approach is based on a representation of SIXTEEN 3 as a twist-structure over the two-element Boolean algebra.

N4-lattices provide algebraic semantics for the logic N4, the paraconsistent variant of Nelson's logic with strong negation. We obtain the representation of N4-lattices showing that the structure of an arbitrary N4-lattice is completely determined by a suitable implicative lattice with distinguished filter and ideal. We introduce also special filters on N4-lattices and prove that special filters are exactly kernels of homomorphisms. Criteria of embeddability and to be a homomorphic image are obtained for N4-lattices in terms of the above mentioned representation. (...) Finally, subdirectly irreducible N4-lattices are described. (shrink)

The word “encyclopedia” comes to us from the Greek or, more precisely, is the deformed transcription, through Latin, of a erase in which we recognize a word composed of two elements, enkyklios and paideia, found in Quintilian in the ancient editions of De institutione oratoria (I, 10, 1). The expression itself, enkyklios paideia, appears only later, in the Hellenistic Age, under Roman domination, beginning with Dionysius of Halicarnassus (around the first century B.C.), but the concept goes back to the Eleatics, (...) especially to Hippias of Elis who, if we can believe the account in Plato's Dialogues, taught this total knowledge, later known with the term enkyklopaideia. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In 1933 Gödel introduced an axiomatic system, currently known as S4, for a logic of an absolute provability, i.e. not depending on the formalism chosen ([God 33]). The problem of finding a fair provability model for S4 was left open. The famous formal provability predicate which first appeared in the Gödel Incompleteness Theorem does not do this job: the logic of formal provability is not compatible with S4. As was discovered in [Art 95], this defect of the formal provability (...) predicate can be bypassed by replacing hidden quantifiers over proofs by proof polynomials in a certain finite basis. The resulting Logic of Proofs enjoys a natural arithmetical semantics and provides an intended provability model for S4, thus answering a question left open by Gödel in 1933. Proof polynomials give an intended semantics for some other constructions based on the concept of provability, including intuitionistic logic with its Brouwer- Heyting- Kolmogorov interpretation, ?-calculus and modal ?-calculus. In the current paper we demonstrate how the intuitionistic propositional logic Int can be directly realized by proof polynomials. It is shown, that Int is complete with respect to this proof realizability. (shrink)

The article analyzes the philosophical concept of the “porous self” of J. Rivera. The originality of this concept in the post-phenomenological project is determined by the role of theological constructions that modify the primal experience of self-consciousness. This modification allows us to interpret the phenomenological description of the human self as different from the classical — “porous” temporality, i.e., correlating through “two entrances”—the internal and external—with eternity. Within this approach, the primary phenomenon of the constitution of the "porous" self becomes (...) the inner word, which in the appeal to eternity turns out to be the original self-awareness of the self as a temporality. The secondary phenomenon of the constitution of the “porous” self is not the mundane temporality of M. Heidegger, but Epektasis as an intense striving towards the end of time in General. The worldly temporality of the self, transformed by faith, is phenomenologically revealed as open to eternity in each of its moments. The third phenomenon of the temporality of the self is Memoria, whose interpretation reveals how the structure of the inner consciousness of time by E. Husserl can be framed ontologically and harmoniously integrated into the theological concept. The article shows how, based on this understanding of both the internal and external openness of the “porous” self for eternity, the integral structure of its temporality is formed. The temporality of the porous self is a modification of Husserl’s time diagrams and the intertwining of two streams of temporality at the same time from past to future and from future to past, which itself constitutes a phenomenal field of events of self. This understanding of temporality sets new perspectives for the phenomenological analysis of subjectivity. (shrink)

Introduction. The article analyzes the problem of substantiating morality in revolutionary activity using the example of L. D. Trotsky’s articles. The relevance of the article is connected with its consideration of ethical ideas, which are largely common to Marxist and generally left-radical philosophy. In addition, the works of L. D. Trotsky that we are considering, for political reasons, entered into free scientific circulation relatively recently, and to date have not received a sufficient amount of versatile academic commentary, primarily philosophical. The (...) purpose of the study is to analyze the position of L. D. Trotsky regarding the use of violence as a means of achieving political goals, to identify the main arguments and principles underlying his approach to this problem, and also to assess its influence on political thought and practice. As a result of the analysis, the authors strive to provide readers with a deeper understanding of the problematic ethical aspects of using violence in politics through the prism of the ideas and views of Leo Trotsky. Methods. The authors use historical and hermeneutic methods. The first allows us to explore the context of the time in which the ethical views of L. D. Trotsky developed, and the second allows us to identify in his texts the basic principles and ideas characteristic of revolutionary radicalism. In addition, general scientific methods were used: analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalization, which made it possible to organize the material, identify patterns and draw conclusions based on a comparison of the ethical views of L. D. Trotsky with various ethical systems, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses in these views. Scientific novelty of the research. The authors focus on the problematic substantiation of morality in the articles of L. D. Trotsky, primarily such as “Terrorism and Communism” (1920) and “Their Morality and Ours” (1938, written in exile). At the same time, Western research on this topic is analyzed, as well as the controversy that unfolded between Trotsky and Bertrand Russell. It is noted that based on the statements of F.M. Dostoevsky that building a just society is impossible with the help of immoral means, since the goal can be transformed depending on the methods of achieving it. The problematic nature of the concept of conscience and possible options for its inadequate interpretation are revealed: (1) when it replaces the moral and metaphysical ideal (I. Kant, L. Tolstoy), or (2) it is completely declared a “chimera”, identified with selfish aspirations, the need to capture and retain power, hiding behind some ideals. It is indicated that the second position is characteristic of L. Trotsky, who tried to “morally” justify total revolutionary violence. Results. The authors come to the conclusion that Trotsky’s position is essentially an extremely utilitarian and revolutionary version of Machiavellianism, when, for the sake of an allegedly good goal, it becomes possible to carry out mass repressions, to sacrifice not only people, but also entire nations. It turned out that sworn political opponents, Stalin and Trotsky, assessed the role of violence in politics in a similar way. At the same time, the launched flywheel of violence cannot be stopped so easily; it destroyed Trotsky himself. Nevertheless, the fact that Trotsky addressed this item speaks to the importance of resolving the moral problems associated with revolutionary practice. (shrink)

'Ontological Semantics' introduces a comprehensive approach to the treatment of text meaning by computer, arguing that being able to use meaning is crucial to the success of natural language processing applications.

We define a realizability interpretation of Aczel's Constructive Set Theory CZF into Explicit Mathematics. The final results are that CZF extended by Mahlo principles is realizable in corresponding extensions of T 0 , thus providing relative lower bounds for the proof-theoretic strength of the latter.

The relationships between various modal logics based on Belnap and Dunn’s paraconsistent four-valued logic FDE are investigated. It is shown that the paraconsistent modal logic \, which lacks a primitive possibility operator \, is definitionally equivalent with the logic \, which has both \ and \ as primitive modalities. Next, a tableau calculus for the paraconsistent modal logic KN4 introduced by L. Goble is defined and used to show that KN4 is definitionally equivalent with \ without the absurdity constant. Moreover, (...) a tableau calculus is defined for the modal bilattice logic MBL introduced and investigated by A. Jung, U. Rivieccio, and R. Jansana. MBL is a generalization of BK that in its Kripke semantics makes use of a four-valued accessibility relation. It is shown that MBL can be faithfully embedded into the bimodal logic \ over the non-modal vocabulary of MBL. On the way from \ to MBL, the Fischer Servi-style modal logic \ is defined as the set of all modal formulas valid under a modified standard translation into first-order FDE, and \ is shown to be characterized by the class of all models for \. Moreover, \ is axiomatized and this axiom system is proved to be strongly sound and complete with respect to the class of models for \. Moreover, the notion of definitional equivalence is suitably weakened, so as to show that \ and \ are weakly definitionally equivalent. (shrink)

The present paper is devoted to computational aspects of propositional inconsistency-adaptive logics. In particular, we prove (relativized versions of) some principal results on computational complexity of derivability in such logics, namely in cases of CLuN r and CLuN m , i.e., CLuN supplied with the reliability strategy and the minimal abnormality strategy, respectively.

Here is an account of recent investigations into the two main concepts of negation developed in the constructive logic: the negation as reduction to absurdity, and the strong negation. These concepts are studied in the setting of paraconsistent logic.

Justification Logic provides an axiomatic description of justifications and delegates the question of their nature to semantics. In this note, we address the conceptual issue of the logical type of justifications: we argue that justifications in the logical setting are naturally interpreted as sets of formulas which leads to a class of epistemic models that we call modular models . We show that Fitting models for Justification Logic naturally encode modular models and can be regarded as convenient pre-models of the (...) former. (shrink)

We outline an intuitionistic view of knowledge which maintains the original Brouwer–Heyting–Kolmogorov semantics for intuitionism and is consistent with the well-known approach that intuitionistic knowledge be regarded as the result of verification. We argue that on this view coreflectionA→KAis valid and the factivity of knowledge holds in the formKA→ ¬¬A‘known propositions cannot be false’.We show that the traditional form of factivityKA→Ais a distinctly classical principle which, liketertium non datur A∨ ¬A, does not hold intuitionistically, but, along with the whole of (...) classical epistemic logic, is intuitionistically valid in its double negation form ¬¬(KA¬A).Within the intuitionistic epistemic framework the knowability paradox is resolved in a constructive manner. We argue that this paradox is the result of an unwarranted classical reading of constructive principles and as such does not have the consequences for constructive foundations traditionally attributed it. (shrink)

The publication of The Use of Bodies, the final volume in Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer series, makes it possible to take stock of Agamben’s project as a whole. Having started with a powerful critique of the biopolitical sovereignty as the essence of modern politics, Agamben concludes his project with an affirmative vision of inoperative politics of form-of-life, in which life is not negated or sacrificed to the privileged form it must attain, but rather remains inseparable from the form that does (...) nothing but express it. The article begins by reconstituting the non-relational logic that Agamben develops in order to render inoperative the existing apparatuses of ontology, ethics and politics. We then address the dimension of lifestyle as a new key domain of Agamben’s work, in which biopolitics may be recast in an affirmative key of form-of-life. While Agamben is better known for sceptical and scornful statements about contemporary liberal democracies, we shall argue that his affirmative biopolitics, characterized by destituent power, resonates with Claude Lefort’s understanding of democracy as structured around the ontological void and epistemic indeterminacy. In the conclusion we question the viability of this biopolitical democracy, focusing on Agamben’s example of the Nocturnal Council in Plato’s Laws. (shrink)

We study unification problem and problem of admissibility for inference rules in minimal Johanssonsʼ logic J and positive intuitionistic logic IPC+. This paper proves that the problem of admissibility for inference rules with coefficients is decidable for the paraconsistent minimal Johanssonsʼ logic J and the positive intuitionistic logic IPC+. Using obtained technique we show also that the unification problem for these logics is also decidable: we offer algorithms which compute complete sets of unifiers for any unifiable formula. Checking just unifiability (...) of formulas with coefficients also works via verification of admissibility. (shrink)

The article takes Giorgio Agamben’s declaration of his optimism with regard to the possibilities of global political transformation as a point of departure for the inquiry into the affirmative aspects of Agamben’s political thought, frequently overshadowed by his more famous critical claims. We reconstitute three principles grounding Agamben’s optimism that pertain respectively to the total crisis of the contemporary biopolitical apparatuses, the possibility of a radically different form-of-life on the basis of their residue and the minimalist character of this transformation (...) that consists entirely in the subtraction of existence from these apparatuses. While the first two principles are unproblematic in the wider context of Agamben’s work, the third principle introduces the problematic of will that remains highly ambiguous in his philosophy. In the remainder of the article we address this ambiguity in an analysis of Agamben’s reading of Melville’s ‘Bartleby the Scrivener’ and conclude that Agamben’s optimism ultimately consists in the affirmation of absolute contingency, beyond both will and necessity. (shrink)