2023-04Forum
Taylor and Vattimo on the Place of Culture in Political Practical Reasoning

Abstract: Philosophical hermeneutics has become an unavoidable reference in the field throughout the twentieth century but has seldom been extended to draw conclusions in the area of political theory. Two intellectuals that have contributed to such a project are Charles Taylor and Gianni Vattimo, although they exhibit some important differences in key aspects of this enterprise,…

2023-04Forum
Pragmatic or Absolute Establishment of Philosophy

Abstract: At the foundation of systematic thinking lie decisive assumptions that cannot be articulated and treated in a theoretical manner. Nonetheless, they are settled practically and metaphorically to orient and provoke the systematic attempts of philosophy. This field of non-theoretical assumptions is the theme of this paper. In the following, I articulate one specific metaphorical and practical…

2023-03Forum
Movenglish: Dance as Sign System

Abstract: The paper examines a central question in the philosophy of dance from the vantage point of a specific choreographic practice: Movenglish. Movenglish attempts to establish a one-to-one mapping between English words and dance movement equivalents in the body in a way that maximally captures both the connotative and denotative aspects of the words in question. The paper argues…

2023-03Forum
Reconceptualizing Eastern Europe: Toward a Common Ethos

Abstract: The aim of this essay is a philosophical reconstruction of the category of Eastern Europe (as topographical and ethical, and only by implication a geographical one). This will proceed in three steps. First, deconstruction of the category in question by exposing its colonialist and post-colonialist origins. Second, projection of a new cultural geography of Eastern Europe. The main criteria…

2023-02Forum
Häm on the Wall: Hamacher, Celan, and Two Simple Questions

Abstract: The paper is a modest attempt at a careful assessment of Werner Hamacher’s version of deconstruction as a reading strategy which centers upon the idea of the afformative caesura. In order to probe the potential and the possible limits of Hamacher’s strategy, the author presents a Hamacherian reading of one of Paul Celan’s poems, titled “Mauerspruch,” a poem…

2023-02Forum
Transformation of Trust into Capital, Financialization and the Moment of Betrayal

Abstract: In his text, the author develops the notion of trust as a condition for the possibility of any relational anthropology. Referring to the root associated with trust as the foundation of the relationship, he takes a position in the dispute about the primal nature of trust or perfidy; believes that in the abusive practices of credit and debt there…

2023-02Forum
“Pigeons Fly off a Stone Mountain”: From a Cooing Lovebird to a War Pigeon, or Modification of Embroidered Rock Dove’s Symbolics in Today’s Ukrainian Merch

Abstract: The article is devoted to the symbolics of doves on epigraphic embroidered towels (mainly known as rushnyks with inscriptions), which were massively produced by Ukrainian girls and women from the end of the nineteenth till the middle of the twentieth century. Embroidering lines from folk songs or proverbs on textile was a very popular kind of…

2023-01Forum
The Museum’s Fourth Future

Abstract: It is a widely accepted trope that museums work for future generations. They often define themselves in relation to heritage: something of the past, which is celebrated in the present and securely preserved for the future. In doing so, museums cloak themselves in a shroud of respectability for appropriately thinking in short and long terms and bravely…

2023-01Forum
The Honor-Based Society, Past and Present

Abstract: This paper asserts that honor-based peoples have and maintain a distinct cultural identity that is valid for at least eighty-five percent of the world population. It is necessarily considered relative to dignity-based societies which make up the other fifteen percent. Practically all dignity-based cultures originated during the Enlightenment; modern honor-based groups will…

2022-03Forum
Mutterings to the Wall

Abstract: This paper takes up Hadot’s call for more comparative work on Buddhism and Philosophy as a Way of Life by comparing Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku’s artwork Pilgrims with the graffiti artist Banksy’s The Street is in Play. Beyond the striking similarities in form and apparent tongue-in-cheek criticism of graffiti, this paper explains the context of…