What would happen if we could stroll through the revolutionary history of the 20th century and, without any fear of the possible responses, ask the main protagonists - from Lenin to Che Guevara, from Alexandra Kollontai to Ulrike Meinhof - seemingly naïve questions about love? Although all important political and social changes of the 20th century included heated debates on the role of love, it seems that in the 21st century of new technologies of the self we are faced with (...) a hyperinflation of sex, not love. By going back to the sexual revolution of the October Revolution and its subsequent repression, to Ches dilemma between love and revolutionary commitment and to the period of 68 and its commodification in late capitalism, the Croatian philosopher Srecko Horvat gives a possible answer to the question of why it is that the most radical revolutionaries like Lenin or Che were scared of the radicality of love. What is so radical about a seemingly conservative notion of love and why is it anything but conservative? This short book is a modest contribution to the current upheavals around the world - from Tahrir to Taksim, from Occupy Wall Street to Hong Kong, from Athens to Sarajevo - in which the question of love is curiously, surprisingly, absent. (shrink)

The article focuses on Kant's formal logic (formal theory of concepts, judgments, and inference, general methodology) in the systematic order of logical forms and presents the main characteristics of his transcendental logic (theory of categories and transcendental ideas). Kant's problem of the foundations of logic and its completeness is addressed. The relevance and influence of Kant's account of logic in the development of modern logic is outlined. The article gives a selection of primary and secondary sources.

A first-order logic of belief with identity is proposed, primarily to give an account of possible de re contradictory beliefs, which sometimes occur as consequences of de dicto non-contradictory beliefs. A model has two separate, though interconnected domains: the domain of objects and the domain of appearances. The satisfaction of atomic formulas is defined by a particular S-accessibility relation between worlds. Identity is non-classical, and is conceived as an equivalence relation having the classical identity relation as a subset. A tableau (...) system with labels, signs, and suffixes is defined, extending the basic language $\mathscr{L}_{\mathbf{QB}}$ by quasiformulas (to express the denotations of predicates). The proposed logical system is paraconsistent since $\phi \wedge \neg\phi$ does not ``explode'' with arbitrary syntactic consequences. (shrink)

Quine rejects intensional Platonism and, with it, also rejects attributes (properties) as designations of predicates. He pragmatically accepts extensional Platonism, but conceives of classes as merely auxiliary entities needed to express some laws of set theory. At the elementary logical level, Quine develops an “ontologically innocent” logic of predicates. What in standard quantification theory is the work of variables is in the logic of predicates the work of a few functors that operate on predicates themselves: variables are eliminated. This “predicate (...) functor logic” may be conceived as a peculiar sort of Platonism - ontologically neutral, reduced to schematized linguistic forms. (shrink)

God's Covenant with men contitutes the essence of Revelation. The first text to give account of a Covenant is the narration of Creation and the last one appears in the Gospels, when Jesus announces the New Covenant through his blood. Nevertheless, there are not two covenants, an Old one and a New one. In the Bible, the different narrations of covenants are a renewal of the unique Covenant. It's man who is summoned to change his attitude in order to answer, (...) always in a more profound way, to God's call. (shrink)

Los procesos de industrialización provenientes de la primera Revolución Industrial alcanzaron a España y a Aragón con un importante retraso. Dentro del amplio abanico de sectores industriales, el de la generación energética resultó indispensable para acelerar los procesos productivos y promover mejoras tecnológicas. En Aragón, al igual que en otros lugares, las estructuras nacidas del sector energético modificaron paisajes y dinamizaron el territorio en el que se ubicaron, constituyendo una fuente de riqueza y modo de vida para sus gentes. Muchas (...) de esas estructuras generadoras de energía ya cerraron sus puertas, pero, en la actualidad, forman parte de un rico Patrimonio industrial estudiado por disciplinas como la Arqueología industrial. Lamentablemente, en Aragón, los poderes públicos encargados de su protección y reutilización mantienen sumido en un profundo abandono a los vestigios industriales relacionados con la generación energética a pesar de su evidente importancia histórica, económica y social. Palabras clave: industrialización, sector energético, patrimonio industrial, inventarios, protección patrimonial, abandono patrimonial.Industrialization processes from the first Industrial Revolution reached Spain and Aragon with a significant delay. Within the wide range of industrial sectors, energy generation was essential to accelerate production processes and promote technological improvements. In Aragon, as in other places, structures born from the energy sector modified landscapes and energized the territory in which they were located, constituting a source of wealth and way of life for its people. Many of these energy-generating structures have already closed their doors but, at present, they are part of a rich industrial heritage studied by disciplines such as industrial archeology. Unfortunately, in Aragon, the public authorities in charge of their protection and reuse keep industrial vestiges related to energy generation in deep abandonment despite their obvious historical, economic and social importance. Key words: industrialization, energy sector, industrial heritage, patrimonial inventory, patrimonial protection, patrimonial abandonment. (shrink)

U članku se promatraju osnovne karakteristike razvojne dinamike hrvatskoga logičkoga nazivlja od izlazka Pacelove Logike za gimnazije, prve sustavne logike na hrvatskome jeziku, 1868. godine, pa sve do Petrovićeve Logike, također za srednja učilišta, iz 1964., koja je još uviek u uporabi. Nazivlje je u tu svrhu razvrstano u nekoliko tipičih skupina. Općenito, uočava se porast zastupljenosti latinizama (i grecizama) na štetu hrvatskih naziva. U analizi nazivlja autor se ograničuje na knjige namienjene nastavi logike bilo na srednjim učilištima, bilo na (...) sveučilištu, i to na nazivlje tradicionalne logike. Mjestimice su pridodane i napomene o nazivlju moderne (matematičke) logike. (shrink)

The booklet provides teachers and others who use the textbook "Logic" by Srećko Kovač with basic theoretical and philosophical ideas about logic as a discipline, as well as practical instructions on how to use the textbook.

This paper proposes a possible reconstruction and philosophical-logical clarification of Gödel's idea of causality as the philosophical fundamental concept. The results are based on Gödel's published and non-published texts (including Max Phil notebooks), and are established on the ground of interconnections of Gödel's dispersed remarks on causality, as well as on the ground of his general philosophical views. The paper is logically informal but is connected with already achieved results in the formalization of a causal account of Gödel's onto-theological theory. (...) Gödel's main causal concepts are analysed (will, force, enjoyment, God, time and space, life, form, matter). Special attention is paid to a possible causal account of some of Gödel's logical concepts (assertion, privation, affirmation, negation, whole, part, general, particular, subject, predicate, necessary, possible, implication), as well as of logical antinomies. The problem of mechanical and non-mechanical procedures in the work with and on concepts is addressed in terms of Gödel's causal view. (shrink)

The square of opposition (as part of a lattice) is used as a natural way to represent different and opposite ways of who makes decisions, and in what way, in/for a group or a society. Majority logic is characterized by multiple logical squares (one for each possible majority), with the “discursive dilemma” as a consequence. Three-valued logics of majority decisions with discursive dilemma undecided, of veto, consensus, and sequential voting are analyzed from the semantic point of view. For instance, the (...) paraconsistent and paracomplete logics M3, M3veto and C3 are described. The distinction of designated and non-designated values is not used, and instead, the consequence relation is defined as a preservation of the minimum truth-value of the implying set of sentences. The consequence and opposition relations of the logics described are compared, and an ordering of the logics with respect to their opposition relations is established. (shrink)

Obituary for Marijan Cipra, a most prominent Croatian philosopher. In his essential book "Metamorfoze metafizike" ("Metamorphoses of Metaphysics", 1978), he proposed a metaphysical foundations of the historical development of philosophy, based particularly on his in-depth study of Greek philosophy.

The content for an advanced logic course is presented, which includes the properties of first-order logic language, soundness and completeness of the first-order logic deductive system, Peano arithmetic, Gödel's incompleteness theorems, higher-order logic and its properties. As a reminder, a brief description of first-order logic is included.

The monograph focuses on corpus analysis of texts, exploring the interface between lexical and discursive aspects of pragmatic meaning.

Gödel's ontological argument is related to Gödel's view that causality is the fundamental concept in philosophy. This explicit philosophical intention is developed in the form of an onto-theological Gödelian system based on justification logic. An essentially richer language, so extended, offers the possibility to express new philosophical content. In particular, theorems on the existence of a universal cause on a causal "slingshot" are formulated.

Using both Confucian texts and the work of American pragmatist John Dewey, this book offers a distinctly Confucian model of democracy.

We approach the traditional problem of the relationship between opinion and truth, objects and appearances, from the standpoint and tools of logic of belief, combining an informal and technical approach. We describe and comment on some logics of individual concepts and modes of representation, and address the question of how to explain the possibility of a contradictory de re belief integrated with the corresponding non-contradictory de dicto belief. The QB logic is proposed, where the semantic problem is resolved (1) by (...) extending the framework and model domain with the domain of appearances, with a special S-accessibility relation among worlds, and with non-rigid interpretation of appearance names, as well as (2) redefining the concept of satisfaction (and truth), including the satisfaction of identity statements, by relativizing satisfaction to the difference between things and appearances and to the S-accessibility of different epistemic alternatives. In doing so, all worlds are classical within themselves, while inconsistency and incompleteness in beliefs stem from different ways of connecting (merging and separating) worlds in determining the satisfaction of a formula. (shrink)

Despite contemporary Confucianism’s aspirations to be a world philosophy, there is an ethnocentric strand within the Confucian tradition, most glaringly exemplified in Han Yu’s attacks on Buddhism. This paper re-assesses Confucian ethnocentrism in the context of contrary practices that indicate a more pragmatic attitude among Confucians toward cross-cultural interactions. It argues that while the ethnocentric tendency serves as constant reminder of the need for vigilance, and recognition of the difficulties of crossing cultural boundaries, there are nevertheless resources within Confucianism for (...) constructing an ethics of communication that is urgently needed to deal with the moral problems of cultural pluralism. The paper analyses the role of various common Confucian virtues such as ren(benevolence, co-humanity), yi (appropriateness), li (ritual), zhi (wisdom) in communication, and argues that a virtue of flexibility is implicit in Confucius’s insistence of bugu and could contribute significantly to a Confucian ethics of communicative virtues. (shrink)

My response to Tully’s article, “Deparochializing Political Theory and Beyond,” suggests that before introducing students in Asia to comparative political thought, including texts from Asian traditions in Political Theory or Philosophy courses, their education needs to first engage in the critical practice of questioning their own “background horizon of disclosure.” The background horizon of disclosure that needs questioning certainly is not simply constituted by Asian traditions; despite westernized education, it is also not entirely western, insofar as the society they live (...) in continues to be Asian in various ways, and the adopted western institutions and modes of thought have been modified in practice and interaction with local traditions. (shrink)

This paper compares criticisms of Singapore’s meritocracy, especially against its impact on income disparities and class divisions, with Michael Sandel’s critique of the meritocratic ethic in the United States. Despite significant differences in their history and politics, meritocracy has similar dysfunctions in both societies, allowing us to draw theoretical conclusions about meritocracy as an ideal of governance. It then contrasts Sandel’s communitarian critique of meritocracy with recent Confucian promotion of political meritocracy and meritocratic justice and argues that the Confucian principle (...) of “promoting the virtuous and talented” is different from the contemporary conception of meritocracy. Textual evidence indicates that a Confucian understanding of “merit” is contrary to the technocratic expertise of contemporary meritocracies. Furthermore, pre-Qin Confucian texts do not support a conception of justice that emphasizes individual desert; they address distributive problems from the perspective of needs and sustaining social relations. The texts also support limiting the reign of merit when it results in inequalities that cause suffering, inhibit personal cultivation of some groups, or undermine social relations. The paper concludes with an assessment of Singapore’s on-going attempts to improve its meritocracy from a Confucian perspective. (shrink)

U tekstu se obrađuju Stadlerovo i Bauerovo shvaćanje i zasnivanje formalne logike. Formalna je logika u oba slučaja postavljena u duhu novoskolastičke filozofije druge polovice 19. stoljeća. Subjektivna je strana mišljenja (samosviest, djelatba) spojena s njegovom objektivnom stranom (objektivna vriednost), a logička se načela temelje na ontologijskim. Stadler se i Bauer oddvajaju od onodobnoga formalizma i logicizma, kao i od psihologizma i voluntarizma. Pritom je Bauer izrazitije ušao u razpravljanje s drugačijim shvaćanjima (psihologizam i voluntarizam u Wundta).

Whether the Pragmatic conception of democracy is applicable outside the United States of America is a question that had already been raised even during Dewey’s life time. His visit to China, in particular, has been seen as proof that “the Pragmatic method” for bringing about democracy is inherently flawed.3 However, even if it was a failed experiment, China’s past encounter with Dewey’s Pragmatism should not be seen as absolute proof that Chinese democracy can never be Pragmatic. When an experiment fails, (...) one examines what went wrong or did not turn out as expected, and uses the additional information to improve on the next experiment. This paper reconsiders the failed “Dewey experiment” together with China’s.. (shrink)

Tang Junyi engaged in philosophical comparisons very early in his career. He always philosophized from a cultural perspective in his subsequent philosophical reflection on the development of the mind, the philosophy of life, the relation between culture and moral reason, and the spiritual value of Chinese culture.

In the 1920s, John Dewey's followers in China, led by his student Hu Shih, attempted to put his pragmatism into practice in their quest for democracy. This essay compares Hu Shih's thought, especially his emphasis on pragmatism as method, with Dewey's philosophical positions and evaluates Hu's achievement as a pragmatist in the context of the tumultuous times he lived in. It assesses Hu's claim that the means to democracy lies in education rather than politics, since democracy as a way of (...) life requires a cultural renewal beyond institutional changes. It argues that a problem‐centered approach to social change does not preclude radical action, even revolution. But pragmatism is against gratuitous use of violence in the service of wholesale and abstract ideals advocated by various “isms.” While Hu's experiment of democracy in China is a significant episode in the history of pragmatism, its “failure” does not prove that there are inherent flaws in the pragmatist method, that pragmatism is unviable for China. The failure needs to be understood in the context of the pragmatist conception of experiment, in which failures are to be expected; what is important is to learn from them to achieve better results in the next stage of inquiry. Hu Shih's pragmatism contains lessons for pragmatists and for those interested in the continued quest for democracy in China—the experiment continues. (shrink)

Faust Vrančić's (Faustus Verantius, 1551-1617) logic is analyzed in comparison to Renaissance Aristotelianism in logic with regard to the problem of determining logic, the subject of logic, and understanding the method. Vrančić's logic is compared to Markantun de Dominis' understanding of logic and to the understanding of logic in Jacopo Zabarella and in the Jesuit Renaissance tradition (P. Fonseca, F. Toletus, F. Suárez). In addition, the concept of science is discussed. "Censura logicae" published at the end of Vrančić's "Logica nova" (...) (1616) is attributed to de Dominis. (shrink)

This article considers Quentin Skinner's critique and methodology in his seminal essay "Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas " vis-a-vis the current methodological debates in Chinese and comparative philosophy. It surveys the different ways in which philosophers who work with ancient Chinese texts in those related fields deal with the tension between textual contexts and autonomy and how some of the errors criticized by Skinner under the mythology of coherence, mythology of doctrines, mythology of parochialism, and mythology of (...) prolepsis might apply to those fields. It argues that Skinner's insistence that understanding a text requires recovering its author's intended meaning by studying its linguistic context has limited application to Chinese and comparative philosophy because those fields' most important texts are not best understood as means of communication by specific historical authors with intended messages to convey to readers. These texts are instead the means by which Chinese traditions perpetuate their respective beliefs and practices. Instead of being circumscribed by authorial intent, the meanings of traditional texts are dynamic and co-created in the process of producing, reproducing, and consuming texts as well as in the evolution of practices that also constitute each tradition. The meanings received by the audience are never exactly what authors or transmitters intended but have been transformed by each audience's own concerns and interests, even if the audience attempts to grasp what the former intended. Using the Five Classics and the Analects as examples, this article illustrates how such texts' purposes to teach and perpetuate the practices that constitute a way of life determine their meanings. Understanding is not merely cognitive but practical as well. The meanings of such texts are not static but dynamic as traditions evolve. The debates about methods of reading and interpreting ancient Chinese texts are also debates about the nature of Chinese traditions and struggles over their futures. (shrink)

Zlatko Posavac is one of the most thorough and deepest experts on Croatian cultural history, with a focus on aesthetics both as a theory and as realized in artistic practice. On the basis of his improved factography, he examines aesthetic phenomena through the model of meaningful-stylistic structures and epochal change. As one of the fundamental phenomena, he highlights the "prevention of free transmission of tradition" (silencing, falsifying, expulsion of truth). He introduces significant structural shifts in cultural-historical periodization.

Obituary for Berislav Žarnić, an outstanding, internationally influential, Croatian logician and philosopher. His main contributions are in logic of practical inference, logic of imperatives, logic of norms and philosophy of education.

The book contains an introduction to basic logical concepts and methods. It covers traditional logic of categorical judgment and syllogism, modern propositional logic, and introductory elements of predicate logic with corresponding methods (truth tables, natural deduction, truth trees).

Bishop Nicholai Velimirovich (1881–1956) spent WWII in Nazi captivity. After the war, in 1946, he left for the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life. During his life, he enjoyed great spiritual and moral authority, both in Eastern Orthodox Church as well as in a wider international and ecumenical context. However, his public image was significantly changed 30 years after his death, i.e. after the publication of several pieces attributed to him posthumously, and especially after the (...) book entitled To the Serbian People Through the Dungeon Window was published. In the present paper, we will consider some aspects of this book, with special reference to the questions of the authenticity of this work. (shrink)

This article engages the views of PRC Confucian scholars who responded to the United States Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's citing of Confucius in his majority opinion on same-sex marriage in 2015. It questions their separation of tolerance for homosexuality from legalization of same-sex marriage and argue that tolerance is not enough. The arguments in the mainland Confucian discourse about same-sex marriage highlights the historical and persistent entanglement of Confucianism with patriarchy. Instead of reviving traditional patriarchal society, further entrenching and (...) increasing gender inequality, contemporary Confucianism could shape its own unique modern society that aspires to (and hopefully one day achieving) gender equality together with sexual inclusivity by deconstructing the patriarchal Confucian family and reconstructing a different Confucian family ideal. Accepting same-sex marriage would lend weight to the latter, and there are Confucian reasons for legalizing same-sex marriage and recognizing its ethical value. (shrink)

Chinese philosophy views experience as intrinsically aesthetic. This world view could be elucidated through a consideration of John Dewey's aesthetics and features of Chinese art. Dewey's philosophy of art starts with an understanding of experience as 'live processes' of living creatures interacting with their environment. Such processes are autopoietic in being self-sustaining, ever-changing, capable of increasing complexity, capable of generating novelty, direction and progress on its own. Its autopoietic character is a precondition of the aesthetic in the process of experience. (...) An aesthetic experience is rhythmic, focused, consummatory, and reaches beyond the transitory boundaries of concrete existence. The aesthetic is not confined to what is conventionally identified as art. Most important, the ethical-political, the natural and the cosmic all have an aesthetic aspect, as the paper attempts to show by examining classical Confucianism. (shrink)

This book is an introduction to elementary logic (classical propositional and first-order logic), comprising brief summaries of the basics of elementary logic, with the emphasis on typical questions and procedure descriptions and with a large number of corresponding exercises and problems. Solutions are given for each problem and exercise, often with commentaries. The first part, Basics of Logic, deals with (a) formal language, models, Venn diagrams for sentences, and translation from natural into formal language and vice versa, (b) deduction and (...) refutation methods in the format of natural deduction (Fitch and Suppes-Lemmon styles), tableau system and Venn diagrams, and (c) basic logical properties and relations (consistency, validity, consequence, equivalence, various types of opposition, logical completeness and independency, relationship between syntax and semantics). The second part, Logic in Understanding and Analysis, introduces into (a) logical approach to problem solving in concrete situations and events as presented in brief tales and anecdotes, (b) discovering the meaning, and reconstruction of logical interconnections, in ordinary, scholarly and philosophical texts, (c) application of already mastered logical tools in examining and defining further theoretical (logical, scientific) concepts and in building formal languages. The shorter third part, From the Traditional Logic, is dedicated to the traditional logic of concepts, judgements and syllogisms, largely with the use of Venn diagrams. (shrink)

Explores the significance of Dewey’s thought on democracy for the contemporary world.

This chapter explores the relevance of Dewey’s philosophy of democracy for China within the context of Dewey’s historical visit to China and continuing debates about his influence among the Chinese. Dewey’s pragmatism illuminates certain problems in the contemporary discourses about China’s democratization, including questions whether Chinese culture is an obstacle to democratization and the strengths of a Deweyan approach to articulating a Confucian democracy that could work in China. Dewey’s emphasis on experimentation in social reforms and his fallibilism regarding the (...) political institutions of democracy open up new possibilities for China’s democratization and suggest where one might look to discover the indigenous conditions—the varied experiments being conducted in local governance and civil society—from which a Chinese democracy might be born. (shrink)

: Developed here is a Confucian balance between two key democratic ideals, liberty and community, by focusing on the Confucian notion of li (ritual), which has often been considered hostile to liberty. By adopting a semiotic approach to li and relating it to recent studies of ritual in various Western disciplines, li's contribution to communication and its aesthetic dimension are explored to show how emphasizing harmony without sacrificing reflective experience and personal fulfillment renders li a concept of moral empowerment of (...) free individuals in community. (shrink)