_Purpose._ The purpose is to justify the validity of interpreting Descartes’ teachings as an enquiry into the search for forms and means of improving human nature, which implies a focus on the way he understands the openness of knowledge and education. The problem is considered from the perspective of representatives of university communities (teachers and librarians), historically included in the communication structure and system of the institution, including through the creation, management, use, preservation and dissemination of knowledge. _Theoretical basis._ One (...) of the tenets of Descartes’ teachings is his desire to improve the human being. For our consideration, it is fundamentally important that Descartes uses "knowledge" not only in a narrow sense – as natural scientific knowledge, but also in a broader sense. In the context of the theme of the study, the most important case is when the thinker recalls the knowledge that every person experiences without referring to philosophy. It is this knowledge that, for Descartes, is key in resolving the central problem of his ethics – how can human nature be perfected? For our consideration of Descartes’ key points, it is fair to focus on the manifestation of the phenomenon of altruism in Descartes’ philosophy and on the representative fact of his inner openness – his willingness to engage in dialogue. He appreciates and encourages his interlocutors to turn to books, which are a form of representation of the vivid personalities of their authors. _Originality._ For the first time in the research literature, the thesis of René Descartes as one of the forerunners of the open knowledge system is substantiated. The arguments are given for the validity of Descartes’ interpretation of the demand of his own epoch for the search of effective forms of human improvement. _Conclusions._ The idea of justification of Descartes’ philosophical legacy as a predictor of open knowledge became possible under the condition of paying attention to the anthropological turn he made and finding substantive analogues of openness, including open education. Drawing on Christianity as the basis for altruism, Descartes demonstrates a caring attitude towards the achievements of previous generations on the path of personal self-development. His attention is rightly drawn to education and books as representations of vibrant personalities. Their authentic and productive assimilation is possible only under the condition of a caring attitude towards the public good, which involves the intellectual volunteering of teachers and librarians. It is about self-realization through altruistic self-improvement, i.e. intellectual charity, which is especially evident today during martial law in Ukraine and is voluntary, conscious and free work for the benefit of others. (shrink)

Мета. Реконструювати точку зору Гоголя щодо його антропологічного проєкту, тобто виявити його відповіді на питання про те, що собою являє людина у вимірах сущого та належного. Інакше кажучи, йдеться про з’ясування позиції Гоголя щодо принципів існування українця в російській імперії. Теоретичний базис. Наш погляд на спадщину Гоголя базується на концептуальних положеннях феноменології, екзистенціалізму та герменевтики. Наукова новизна. Вперше зроблена спроба вивчити спадщину Гоголя як розробку антропологічного проєкту. В процесі її реалізації автори, звертаючись до біографії мислителя, його листування та текстів, реконструювали (...) основні виміри цього проєкту. Уважне ставлення до особливостей антропології Гоголя дозволяє наблизитися до розуміння теоретичних парадоксів світогляду письменника та чинників його ранньої смерті як особистої життєвої трагедії патріота України. Йдеться про те, що Гоголь в процесі пошуку форм реалізації свого високого покликання поставив перед собою задачу — обґрунтувати утопічну мету. Для нього шляхи розбудови росії як великої держави передбачають вихолощення базових цінностей європейської культури та приниження гідності людини. Висновки. В ході дослідження творів Миколи Гоголя автори виявили: а) важливість світоглядно-філософських питань; б) проблеми людини в його спадщині. Аргументовано, що Микола Гоголь, вирішуючи задачу окреслення загальних рис природи людини, на ранньому етапі творчості демонстрував оптимізм та виразні життєстверджуючі риси, укорінені в україноцентризмі. Істотні зміни в світогляді нашого мислителя зумовили його намагання обґрунтувати альтернативний європейському варіант антропологічного проєкту, що передбачає виправдання нікчемності пересічного жителя росії та й самої імперії ціною заперечення здобутків європейської філософії та науки. Болісне переживання цього теоретичного дисонансу стало передумовою ранньої трагічної смерті Миколи Васильовича. Нині вона є своєрідним попередженням про неможливість поєднати українську культуру та культуру росії, тобто небезпеку нігілістичного ставлення до здобутків європейської культури, невід’ємною складовою якої є Україна. Перспективи подальшого дослідження спадщини Гоголя автори повʼязують із зосередженням уваги на його: а) критиці Просвітництва та б) зʼясуванні форм змістовної укоріненості його творчості в українській філософії, насамперед у вченні Григорія Сковороди. (shrink)

In this book, T. L. Short places the notorious difficulties of Peirce's important writings in a more productive light, arguing that he wrote philosophy as a scientist, by framing conjectures intended to be refined or superseded in the inquiries they initiate. He argues also that Peirce held that the methods and metaphysics of modern science are amended as inquiry progresses, making metaphysics a branch of empirical knowledge. Additionally, Short shows that Peirce's scientific work expanded empiricism on empirical grounds, grounding his (...) phenomenology and subverting the fact/value dichotomy, and that he understood statistical explanations in nineteenth-century science as reintroducing the idea of final causation, now made empirical. Those innovations underlie Peirce's late ideas of a normative science and of philosophy as a branch of science. Short's rich and original study shows us how to read Peirce's writings and why they are worth reading. (shrink)

Karl Barth's homiletical viewsKarl Barth is well-known for his theology and dogmatics. His struggle as a young preacher to proclaim the word of God, inspired his theological views, especially his homiletics. This paper is an attempt to pay tribute to his homiletical views. In order to do this research it is necessary to evaluate his works against the background of the theological trends of his time. The conclusions of this paper are formed by putting Barth's homiletical principles to the test, (...) comparing them ith abstracts from his sermons. (shrink)

Catalepton 10 is a unique survival from antiquity: it is the only parody of an entire poem to reach us, and is written in pure iambic trimeters, a near intractable metre. Addressed to Sabinus, an upstart muleteer, the poem launches a stinging attack at him, and draws attention to his status as a parvenu. It remains incredibly close to its charming model—Catullus 4 —in structural, lexical, stylistic and metrical terms, but rather different in purport. In attempting to reassess a number (...) of problems in the text of the poem, the textual critic ought largely to be guided by the relationship of Sabinus ille to its model, as it is clear that the author of Catalepton 10 was an incredibly close reader of the Catullan text and sought not only to imitate through parody but also to subvert and deflate his predecessor's poem. (shrink)

Given its scope and the size of many Cambridge Histories, this volume is short. It is 751 pages long. The main text consist of 54 chapters of between 12 and 14 pages each. For comparison, The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy is 968 pages long. One might ask why the present volume could not be allowed a similar length. 200 more pages could have made for a much more useful book, as I will suggest below. The brevity of the chapters (...) makes room for a large cast of characters, and avoids concentration on the best-known texts in the history of ethics. The chapters cover not only Aristotle, Hume, and Kant, but also medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophers, Descartes, Pascal, Bayle... (shrink)

H.B. Acton, professor successively in South Wales, London, and Edinburgh, died in June 1974 when he was just sixty-six. His loss is deeply lamented by his friends, not least by students of Hegel; and they extend their profound sympathy to his widow. He was much interested in political, economic and social questions, and his publications on these matters are expressive of a humane and liberal outlook. His remarkable short book on Kant’s moral philosophy shed fresh light on a well-worn topic, (...) and his posthumously printed Comte lecture on The Idea of A Spiritual Power must have many readers wish that he could have seen his idea translated into reality. It is sad that his notes for a book on Hegel in Perspective did not reach a stage at which they could be worked up for publication, but his long preface to a translation of Hegel’s essay on Natural Law is to appear in 1975 from the University of Pennsylvania Press. Not even the shortest notice could exclude mention of his effectiveness as a teacher, his untiring devotion to his students, or the respect and admiration which in them and others he inspired. (shrink)

This article reviews contributions to The Volitional Brain, some of which defend a libertarian, contra-causal account of free will, while others take a so-called compatibilist view, in which adequate conceptions of human liberty and moral responsibility are claimed to be compatible with naturalistic causality. Siding with compatibilism, this review finds that defenders of libertarian free will place undue weight on the first person feeling of freedom, while discounting scientific evidence that human choices are fully a function of antecedent causes at (...) various levels of description. It is argued that morality, justice, and personal responsibility and efficacy do not require the assumption that persons are first causes, so that we need not fear mechanism when applied to human agency. (shrink)

jild-i 1. al-Taṣawwurāt -- jild-i 2. al-Taṣdīqāt.

In speaking of Demosthenes' conduct in the period between his return to Athens after the peace agreement with Macedon and Philip's death Aeschines refers to only one specific incident, the attempt by Demosthenes to have himself elected What this position was has never been satisfactorily explained.

‘The tale of the Argonauts was among the most popular myths in Greek and Roman literature of all periods.’ There was, however, not inconsiderable variation in certain aspects of the narrative: in the inclusion or exclusion of entire episodes; in (un)expected divergences from more authoritative versions of the story; and in the details of minutiae. In the Argonautic choral odes of Seneca'sMedea(301–79 and 579–669), and in Valerius Flaccus’ incomplete epic, there is a conspicuous, learned engagement with much of the earlier (...) tradition that hints at versions of the myth which are divergent from those that the two poets privilege in their respective narratives. Such moments serve to assert the playwright's and the epicist's status asdocti poetae, and to engage the learned reader in a (re)negotiation of the tradition; at times, an awareness of a literary past seems to be given to particular characters too so as to heighten the reader's experience of the narrative—by a sort of prolepsis—as it unfolds. (shrink)

The great achievement of mankind was the appearance of a printed book that not only significantly expanded the circle of readers, but also in comparison with the handwritten book contributed to the unification of canonical texts, in particular, such as Scripture, church service books, works of the Church Fathers, polemical and other religious literature. Consideration of the words "Japanese typography as the basis for the preservation and transmission of sources of Christian literary culture requires a brief description of the essence (...) of printing, not only as a means of mechanical reproduction of the text, but also a remarkable cultural-historical phenomenon. (shrink)