Filozofia is an academic journal publishing original articles in a wide range of areas including metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, history of philosophy, social and political philosophy, and related disciplines, such as logic, methodology and ethics. Filozofia is double-blind peer-reviewed journal and is open to all authors, independently of their methodology and/or theoretical background. Filozofia is published 6 times per year: in February (no. 1), April (no. 2), May (no. 3), September (no. 4), October (no. 5), and December (no. 6).
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200 rokov Maďarskej akadémie vied: Kontakty maďarskej a slovenskej vedy v dejinách a súčasnosti akadémie
Miscellaneous (Scientific events, Critical notes, …)
Copyright (c) 2025 Laura Kladeková https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Lea David: A Victim‘s Shoe, a Broken Watch, and Marbles: Desire Objects and Human Rights
A book review of Lea David's A Victim‘s Shoe, a Broken Watch, and Marbles: Desire Objects and Human Rights. New York: Columbia University Press 2025, 328pp.
Copyright (c) 2025 Tatiana Sedová https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Right Use of Reason in the Moral Theories of Aristotle and Habermas
The Aristotelian distinction between technical and moral reason, production and interaction permeates Habermas’s thought. But in moral theory, Habermas’s main emphasis is on the decontextualized justification of moral norms, while Aristotle’s focus is on contextualized judgment. The paper argues that Aristotle’s theory of practical wisdom could be instructive for discourse ethics. Habermas has not been open to this possibility because he has appropriated the neo-Aristotelian interpretation of Aristotle, in which practical wisdom is subordinated to traditional norms, an interpretation that neglects the role of reason in moral deliberation. Moreover, the contemporary ethos is impregnated with universal moral demands which, it is supposed, should guide our moral judgments. It is further argued that there are elements in Habermas’s theory of moral and social development which can serve a role comparable to that of teleology in Aristotle. The paper maintains that a possible way to strengthen discourse ethics by incorporating practical wisdom is to tease out the implications of the fact that both Habermas and Aristotle build their views on the human capacity for speech and reasoning.
Copyright (c) 2025 Vilhjálmur Árnason https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Introduction to the Monothematic Block: The Human Being in the Coordinates of Symbolic Structures
Copyright (c) 2025 Jaroslava Vydrová, Jon Stewart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
FACUNDO BEY (Ed.): Hans-Georg Gadamer. Cuestiones abiertas / Open Questions
A book review of Facundo Bey's (ed.): Hans-Georg Gadamer. Cuestiones abiertas / Open Questions. Quito: Filosófica Editorial 2025, 476 pp.
Copyright (c) 2025 Martín Prestía https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Michel Eltchaninoff: Lenin Walked on the Moon
A review of the book of Michel Eltchaninoff: Lenin Walked on the Moon, trans. by Tina Kover. London: Europa Editions, 2023, pp. 256.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mark Coeckelbergh https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Introduction to the Monothematic Block: Socrates in the 20th Century
Copyright (c) 2025 Jozef Majerník, Refik Güremen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Metapopulistická demokracia ako filozofia interregna
The review study focuses on the philosophical interpretation and critical reflection of the concept of metapopulist democracy as developed by Michael Hauser. Against the backdrop of the crisis of the liberal order and the transformation of political rationality, it examines how Hauser redefines the concepts of the people, representation, and human rights in the conditions of interregnum. The text uses a hermeneutic-critical approach and shows that metapopulism can be understood as an attempt to renew emancipatory politics in an era of exhausted modern ideals. The study also evaluates the theoretical and methodological contributions of Hauser’s concept to contemporary political philosophy and its Central European context.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anna Mravcová https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Hegel and Gombrich on the Particular Forms of Art and their Persistence
Hegel’s aesthetics is not only organized around a developed account of the differing artistic genres (from architecture to poetry) but also articulates the importance of the particular forms of art (i.e., the symbolic, classical and romantic). The oppositions involved in Hegel’s treatment of the particular forms of art – particularly that between the symbolic and the classical – also have an importance for the twentieth-century art historian E. H. Gombrich, who frames their relation as an opposition between what he called the “incarnational” side of art and the “challenge to the senses” that he thought the symbolic art form posed. This paper compares Gombrich’s and Hegel’s views of these art forms and turns in a final section to an exploration of the post- Hegelian, post-Gombrichian legacy of these issues.
Copyright (c) 2025 Allen Speight https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Could a Large Language Model be Conscious?
There has recently been widespread discussion of whether large language models such as the GPT systems might be sentient or conscious. Should we take this idea seriously? I will discuss the underlying issue and will break down the strongest reasons for and against.
Copyright (c) 2025 David J. Chalmers https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Vasil Gluchman: Podoby sekulárneho humanizmu na Slovensku v 20. storočí (do roku 1989)
A review of the book of Vasil Gluchman: Podoby sekulárneho humanizmu na Slovensku v 20. storočí (do roku 1989). Prešov: Prešovská univerzita v Prešove 2024, 228 pp.
Copyright (c) 2025 Dmytro Tomakh https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Patočka’s Socrates and His Socratic Politics
This paper gives an account of Jan Patočka’s reception of the figure of Socrates. Patočka sees as Socrates’ most important insight his knowledge of ignorance – the fact that we lack knowledge of the most important things in life, but we merely have opinions of them. Socrates then questions and examines such opinions, his own as well as those of others, and this practice of questioning thinking is what Patočka calls care for the soul, and which he understands as the general form of all genuine philosophic questioning. The mature Patočka understood the entirety of Plato’s thought as rooted in his account of the self-moving soul, and this account as arising from reflection on Socratic questioning. Finally, I argue that Patočka’s decision to actively engage with the Charter 77 movement was explicitly motivated by the example of Socrates.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jozef Majerník https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Problém autonómie subjektu v Nussbaumovej teórii spôsobilostí
This paper deals with autonomy in political philosophy and theories of justice. The starting point is a critique of traditional, abstract concepts of autonomy (stoicism, social contract theory), which, according to Martha C. Nussbaum, fail to adequately respond to real human vulnerability and inequality. It presents an alternative – the capabilities approach, which redefines autonomy as a set of real possibilities for leading a dignified life. The core is a critical analysis of Nussbaum’s theory. It identifies three key tensions: between antipaternalistic respect for choice and the normative character of her list of capabilities; between the individualistic basis and the necessity of collective action; and between the emphasis on external conditions and the insufficient elaboration of internal, psychological barriers to autonomy. The article assesses that Nussbaum’s main contribution lies not in the final solution, but in the productive redefinition of the question of the conditions of human autonomy.
Copyright (c) 2025 Martin Foltin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
K autonómii a ľudským právam: je autonómia nevyhnutná?
The paper deals with the distinction between different aspects of autonomy. Kant’s two kinds of freedom are discussed. Regarding human rights there are interpreters who claim that autonomy and human rights are barely distinguishable and, by contrast, other thinkers who deny any relevance of autonomy for human rights. The author tries to propose a middle ground interpretation.
The Experience of Strangeness and the Possibility of Manifestations in Social Roles with Reference to A. Schutz and H. Plessner
The aim of the article is to describe the peculiar situation of a stranger and a homecomer from the perspective of what they have at their disposal and how they occur in social relations. In this regard, firstly, we explore the configurations of the experience, and secondly, the forms of performing roles in private and public space, diplomacy and tact. This is examined with reference to the ideas of liminal subjectivity in A. Schutz and radical artificiality in H. Plessner. Both thinkers drew from the phenomenological tradition and were concerned with questions of social relations, although they rarely appear together in theoretical considerations. The study does not intend to compare them; however, it does indicate how an exploration of their ideas can contribute to gaining greater insight into peculiar intersubjective relations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jaroslava Vydrová https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Zouhar (2020) offers a critique of the pragma-dialectical definition of argumentation, drawing on model dialogues between cooperative speakers. I argue that this critique is unfounded. The dialogues in question do not constitute counterexamples, as the pragma-dialectical definition does not require the presence of an opponent, the controversiality of the defended proposition, or even the preexistence of a clash of opinions. I further compare the aims and values embedded in the pragma-dialectical definition with those articulated in Zouhar’s general definition of argumentation. I contend that the difference between the two is merely a matter of formulation and that both definitions capture an identical underlying concept of argumentation in the same redundant fashion.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marek Picha https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Feuerbach’s Anthropomorphic Critique of Kant’s Theism
Scholars have not noticed that Immanuel Kant’s theoretical and practical (moral) conceptions of God inspired the structure of Ludwig Feuerbach’s general account of God in his The Essence of Christianity and that Kant’s theism is a primary target in Feuerbach’s anthropomorphic critique. To recognize the role of Kant’s account of God in Feuerbach’s Essence opens up new vistas in understanding both philosophers on the origin, nature and reality of the concept of God. I conclude by defending the plausibility of Feuerbach’s anthropomorphic critique of Kant’s theism, although Feuerbach does not always construe Kant’s views accurately.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lou Matz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Neofregeovská reinterpretácia Traktátu a pojem holého indivídua
In the article “Frege’s Der Gedanke as a Rival Project to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus,” we considered the question of the explication of the concepts of fact and world to be the key difference between these projects. Tichý proposed reconciling the two by reinterpreting Wittgenstein’s complexes as abstract procedures that rely on the modal concept of the bare individual. Russell’s misunderstanding of Frege’s distinction between the sense and denotation of an expression significantly influenced Wittgenstein. Tichý’s concept of an abstract procedure closely resembles Frege’s concept of compound thought. We supplement Tichý’s explanation of the concept of the bare individual by distinguishing between two suppositions of proper names, de dicto and de re. This distinction brings us closer to Frege’s own distinction between the sense and denotation of proper names. Finally, we present an explanation that the core of the semantic error of logical atomism is the assumed tropism.
sense and denotation (reference) of an expression
Copyright (c) 2025 František Gahér https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
A Precursor to Dialogical Philosophy? Buber’s Ambiguous View of Socrates
Martin Buber’s reception of Socrates is complex and its emphases shifted over time. In the present article I first demonstrate how Buber included Socrates in his project of dialogical philosophy and depicted him as an ally in his confrontation with monological philosophical paradigms. Subsequently, I highlight those aspects of Socrates’ doctrine which Buber considered problematic, often discussing them in connection with Jewish spirituality. I continue by analyzing Buber’s ideal of dialogical education, in which his confrontation with Socrates plays a central role. Finally, I present an overall evaluation of Buber’s reception of Socrates, commenting on its development and dynamics.
Copyright (c) 2025 Peter Šajda https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Conflict between the Old and the New Soap-Cellars and Kierkegaard’s Relation with Speculative Thought
In this article I offer a historical analysis of Kierkegaard’s early, unpublished theatrical work, The Conflict between the Old and the New Soap-Cellars. In this comedy, it is possible to trace a number of expressions that ridicule the philosophical view of Martensen, which in turn is associated with Hegelianism and speculative thought. However, I wish to argue that, if one pays close attention to some passages in Kierkegaard’s early journals in the 1830s, specifically the so-called journal of Gilleleje, one notes that he actually seems to agree with Martensen on several points. In my view, this would show that, despite Kierkegaard’s hostility towards Martensen in the Soap-Cellars, he was actually sympathetic to some of the latter’s ideas. This analysis would help us to better understand the philosophical position of young Kierkegaard, who, as it turns out, had a more favorable opinion of speculative thinking than is often thought.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nassim Bravo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
When the discourse on crises sidesteps the system’s shortcomings democracy is in a bad way. Institutions, social networks and individualism are to blame. It's the fault of the “radicalism of extremes,” or even of our powerlessness in the face of economic violence, which needs to be softened. Yet capitalism is founded on the division between the economic and the political, which makes it fundamentally anti-democratic.
Copyright (c) 2025 Nancy Fraser https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Problem of the Interiority of Inner Consciousness in Husserl's Phenomenology, with Reference to the Concept of the Inner in Plato
This study explores parallels between Plato’s soul structure and Husserl’s intentional consciousness regarding the “inner.” It argues Plato’s “inner” is a relational view of soul and world via action, surprisingly connected to Husserl’s overcoming psychologization and dynamic intentionality. This path suggests that what appears a subjectivist or Cartesian legacy within phenomenology has deeper roots, namely Husserl’s central motif of the inner as inner consciousness, the ground in which all constitution occurs. Despite parallels, the study notes key differences in their architectonics (soul vs. immanent consciousness, ideal, theoria). Ultimately, it shows phenomenology’s approach to the “inner” as unveiling external meaning’s presuppositions offers a distinct yet complementary perspective to Plato’s soul structure in the order of Forms.
Copyright (c) 2025 David Rybák https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Socrates provides the model for philosophy for Gadamer, who follows Plato and the example of Socrates with the claim that philosophy is dialectic and that dialectic is carried out through dialogue. The Socratic dialogues are exemplary in their open-endedness and their embrace of finitude. Gadamer is influenced by Heidegger’s thought, yet he resists Heidegger’s interpretation of Plato. The essay examines Gadamer’s account of the proximity of the thought of Plato and Aristotle and Gadamer’s claim that Aristotle’s ethics can already be found in Plato. I argue that Gadamer does not adequately attend to the distinction of logos and nous in the thought of Plato and Aristotle.
Copyright (c) 2025 Robert J. Dostal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Truth, Plurality, and Political Phenomenology: Hannah Arendt’s Socrates
This paper examines Hannah Arendt’s Socrates. I argue that Arendt construes Socrates as a model of the compatibility of philosophy and politics. This model uniquely articulates this compatibility through a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach, where truth is conceived as a perspectival disclosure of meaning in the plural and discursive world of politics. I further contend that the more solitary features of Arendt’s Socrates (thinking as internal dialogue, and speechless wonder) also contribute to the political realm as a site of truth.
Copyright (c) 2025 Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Desire As a Way of Knowing What Is Good in the Ethics of J. S. Mill (and Some Other Philosophers)
John Stuart Mill asks in Utilitarianism how we know the first principles of morality. He answers that desire, which he compares to sensory faculties, is how we know that something is desirable. I suggest we take him at his word – desire is the faculty, or something very similar, of moral perception – and I give some provisional analysis of this idea. In assigning desire a role in moral knowledge, Mill connects to other philosophers who have done the same, including Aristotle and Boethius. Mill himself fails to give a thorough account of metaethics, but in considering desire as a faculty he adds an important epistemological component to the tradition of including desire in the account of moral knowledge. I suggest that Mill’s ideas can inform the ideas of others in the tradition, and vice versa. Finally, I suggest that this whole conversation might be able to inform contemporary discussions of desire.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mark Boone https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Introduction to the Monothematic Block: Megarics and Their Place in the Socratic Movement
Copyright (c) 2025 Vladislav Suvák https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Kant on the Political Obligation of Philosophers: Reading the Secret Article in Toward Perpetual Peace
This paper offers an interpretive framework for understanding Kant’s “secret article” in Toward Perpetual Peace as contributing to a three-step transition toward a republican constitution. First, rulers permit philosophers to speak freely and publicly and learn from them in secret. Second, rulers extend this freedom of public reason to all citizens, reflecting Kant’s enlightenment ideal in “What Is Enlightenment?” Third, rulers relinquish legislative power, allowing the public to become the de facto legislator—thus separating executive and legislative powers, which is essential to republican government. This reading reveals that Kant’s view of the relationship between philosophy and politics differs significantly from those of Plato and Machiavelli. He rejects both the Platonic philosopher-king and Machiavelli’s secret advisor model. Instead, Kant sees philosophers as agents of enlightenment whose influence lies not in ruling or advising rulers, but in preparing conditions necessary for perpetual peace.
Copyright (c) 2025 Yufei Zhao https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Other of the Other: Seth Benardete’s View of Socrates
Following in the footsteps of his teacher Leo Strauss, Seth Benardete devoted his life to understanding “the problem of Socrates”: Plato’s complex and enigmatic portrayal of the ironic Socrates’ embodiment of the philosophic life. This paper introduces Benardete’s rich and dense interpretive work by focusing on his understanding of two of Socrates’ most distinctive characteristics: his daimonion and his eros. Like Strauss, Benardete reads Plato’s dialogues as a response to Aristophanes’ fundamental but friendly critique of Socrates in the Clouds. In this context, the daimonion and eros emerge as the manifestation of Socrates’ self-knowledge, and thus of political philosophy as the “eccentric core” of philosophy. Guided by Plato, Benardete subsequently moves beyond the “quarrel between poetry and philosophy” to trace the Socratic turn and the origins of political philosophy all the way back to Homer.
Copyright (c) 2025 David Janssens https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Topoanalysis and Cultural Images: The Case of the cul-de-sac
The study deals with the possibilities of using the topoanalytical method applied to cultural images of urban spaces. As a guiding example, the phenomenon of a specific space, such as the cul-de-sac, is highlighted here. The author shows how the metaphor of the cul-de-sac as a description of a dead-end situation developed. It was historically imagined in three modes: as a dark and narrow alley (with an emphasis on the play of light, darkness, groping around and uncertain steps), as a space of wandering and being-lost, and finally as an image of impassability, of stopping and thus of a situation without a way out. Beyond the metaphorical and symbolic use of this image, attitudes to the place of the cul-de-sac in urban infrastructure have also changed: from its elimination in urban planning to its invocation as a positive value.
Copyright (c) 2025 Anton Vydra https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
“Art Has No Power over Schein through Its Abolition”
Theodor Adorno’s aesthetics takes up the German Idealist and Romantic idea of “Schein” – the “beautiful illusion” characteristic of authentic art – and reinterprets it through the lens of his own very particular kind of dialectical Marxism. Unlike his friend, Walter Benjamin, who welcomed the overcoming of so-called auratic art, Adorno believed that Schein can thus be vindicated. Whether this is so, the article argues, depends on how far one accepts Adorno’s adoption of a Marxist-Hegelian conception of social meaning.
Copyright (c) 2025 Michael Rosen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0