The critique of capitalism is the bedrock on which rests the reputation of Frankfurt School critical theory. Though critical theory has often been heralded – or criticized and rejected – as a reformulation of Marxian theory for our times, its relation with the critique of political economy, and in particular the economic treatises, has barely been studied. Friedrich Pollock, who was Max Horkheimer’s lifelong friend and close associate at the Institute for Social Research, was responsible for all administrative and financial (...) questions, but he wrote few theoretical essays and Wiggershaus calls him ‘the last unknown member of the Frankfurt School’. Nevertheless this article asks whether not only has his influence on early critical theory been sorely underestimated, but also his impact on the late philosophies of Horkheimer, Adorno and Marcuse. (shrink)

Perelman's work has been very influential in various disciplines, among them philosophy, rhetoric and law. Especially the typology of argumentative schemes which he developed together with L. Olbrechts-Tyteca has been considered as an excellent classification of arguments in natural language. There are, however, some weaknesses of this typology which make its application to empirical research quite difficult, namely, the lack of explicitness and the absence of clear criteria of demarcation. Still, the typology is highly relevant for empirical research, if these (...) weaknesses are removed. This is illustrated with an example: the scheme called ‘the division of the whole into its parts’ by Perelman/Olbrechts-Tyteca is described explicitly and then applied to the analysis of a sample of everyday arguments (mostly taken from newspapers). (shrink)

One needs specific initiation into the classics of transcendental philosophy because all say farewell to the common sense view of things. The three types of transcendental thinking converge in conceiving rational autonomy as the ultimate ground for justification. Correspondingly, the philosophical pedagogy of all three thinkers is focused on how to seize and make that very autonomy intellectually and existentially available. In the concrete way of proceeding, however, the three models diverge. Descartes expects one to become master of oneself and (...) "the world" by methodologically suspending his judgement on what cannot qualify itself to be undoubtable. Kant leads us to the point where we can triangulate universal conditions of the possibility of knowledge through individually acquiring the competence to judge the legitimacy of encountered propositional claims. Finally, Fichte confronts us with the idea of the identity of self-consciousness and objectivity. (shrink)

Verläßt man einmal den Ring Fichte-immanenten Philosophierens und orientiert sich allgemeiner an dem Angebot, womit soziale Phänomene erklärt werden, stößt man rasch - und zunehmend häufig - auf den Begriff »Verhalten«. Hier besteht die Tendenz, selbst rechts- und moralspezifische Entscheidungen als Unterformen von Verhalten zu bagatellisieren bzw. sie als solche für sozial steuerbar zu erklären, also einem Normzwang zu unterwerfen, der ohne allen Rückgriff auf »Freiheit« oder »Vernunftautonomie« auskommt. Typisches Beispiel : Bei Abgeordneten sprechen Journalisten wie sog. »Funktionsträger« von »Abstimmungsverhalten«. (...) Doch nicht allein von der einen, sagen wir: empirischen Seite zeichnet sich hier ein fundamentales Problem ab; auch die andere Seite, Ansätze einer Philosophie frei-vernünftiger Selbstbesinnung, bringt sich in Mißkredit. Spiegelbildlich dazu, wie mit »Verhalten« operiert wird, redet man dort etwa vom »Streben des Selbst«, von der »Kreativität der Einbildungskraft«, vom »Handeln des Ich« u. dgl. mehr. Nicht die konkrete Person, das je einzelne - empirische! - Urteilssubjekt steht danach in der Entscheidung, sondern die philosophischen Begriffsbildungen agieren gleich selber - »verhalten sich«, darf man ergänzen. (shrink)

There is presently a real boom in ethics. Never, it seems, has there been more published on fundamental moral claims to validity and on the ethical foundations of philosophical statements than today. One can note a sort of moral low, a tendential decline in human values accompanied by a real boom in publications with a bewildering array of moral philosophical arguments and theories. Ethics has paradoxically succumbed to ever greater confusion, ever since it has become subjected to the more rigorous (...) criteria of validation and foundation of “modern” philosophical reflection. Hardly anyone knows his or her way. Yet most people seem to have good reasons for their ultimate moral foundations. They see themselves as moralists in a crisis and actively participate in the game. (shrink)

Verzameling filosofische verhandelingen over tijd onder de titel Kairos = de juiste tijd of het juiste moment in het Grieks.

Gadamer, en Verdad y Método, alude a una llamada "nueva lógica", a propósito del concepto de la ocasionalidad de la obra de arte, desde el punto de vista hermenéutico. El autor se aprovecha de dicho concepto para rastrear en la obra de Lipps el pensamiento de la ocasionalidad y la lógica hermenéutica que le hace justicia, logrando con ello la rehabilitación de un filósofo de interés para el pensamiento kairológico que actualmente representa el autor.

El tema del artículo es la teoría de la tarea del crítico, según un ensayo de W. Benjamin, titulado Dos poemas de Holderlin (1915). Los temas centrales son una fundamentación metafísica de la producción poética y su reproducción crítica. Esta segunda tarea siempre será para el lector crítico un experimento. El autor reconstruye la compleja teoría del cálculo poetológico de W. Benjamin, y pone como ejemplo de la tarea crítica dos versiones de un poema de Hölderlin sobre el tema "la (...) muerte del poeta". (shrink)

(2012). Reasoning without believing: on the mechanisation of presuppositions and partiality. Journal of Applied Non-Classical Logics: Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 295-317. doi: 10.1080/11663081.2012.705962.

El interés del artículo es doble: la poética de Hölderlin, particularmente su teoría de la tragedia, y una reflexión filosófica del autor, de corte kairológico, en un esfuerzo por apartarse de la filosofía de la historia. La concepción trágica del mundo es investigada en las versiones de Hölderlin sobre Hiperión y Empédocles; la dimensión histórica del trabajo poético es estudiada en sus traducciones del Edipo y la Antígona de Sófocles; la concepción trágica de la historia aparece en la interpretación del (...) poema Patmos. El autor centra su interés en la cuestión del tiempo, pero no en su generalidad conceptual, sino en su comprensión de acontecimiento como "tiempo justo". (shrink)

The paper first presents a short survey of ancient and modern logical, rhetorical and argumentative approaches (e.g. Aristotle, Quintilian, Quine, Anscombre and Ducrot) studying the properties of paradoxical utterances. This survey is followed by a tentative definition of paradoxes as seemingly contradictory utterances triggering conversational implicatures in the sense of Grice. A specific group of paradoxes, namely, persuasive paradoxes, is further characterized by the specific implicatures which they trigger: the implicatures of persuasive paradoxes serve the interest of the (political) speaker (...) because they either convey a sharp criticism of the political opponent(s) or praise the political activities of the speaker in a highly effective way.The second part of the paper takes a corpus of about 80 paradoxical utterances from Cicero's speeches to show how they are used 1. for a devastating criticism of Cicero's political enemies, 2. a milder form of criticism in the case of his friends, when their political activities have failed, 3. a praise of successful policies of Cicero and his political friends and 4. a defense of unsuccessful activities started by Cicero and his friends. (shrink)