The 10 most recently published documents
Begriffe sind keineswegs Abbildungen von adäquat zu beschreibenden Gegenständen, sondern eher Werkzeuge, anhand derer wir uns in der Wirklichkeit mehr oder weniger wirksam ständig orientieren. Dieses gilt nicht nur für das theoretische Denken: auch im Alltag oder in der Kunstpraxis entkommt man Begriffen nicht. Ein unentbehrliches künstlerisch-kritisches Moment besteht darin, den periodisch entstehenden „Haftungsverlust“ von Begriffen zu überwinden und ihre „Greifkraft“ wiederzugewinnen. In diese Richtung arbeiten die Beiträge dieses Heftes. In Auseinandersetzung mit der sich wandelnden Realität des Theaters entwickeln sie etablierte Begriffe weiter oder loten das kritische Potenzial relativ neuer Begriffe aus, die auch außerhalb des Theaters nützlich sein könnten. Insgesamt dokumentieren sie den Versuch, nicht nur über das Theater nachzudenken, sondern auch mit Hilfe des Theaters zu denken.
When we feel that all beings are interconnected – how can we reconstruct this in philosophical terms, avoiding ideology and scientific-evolutionary or religious big pictures? This text looks at Bergsons notion of intuition and Rentschs notion of negativity and the transcendental conditions of life in order to describe a secular mysticism. Love is a core aspect of this mysticism since love protects singularity (Rentsch), sees potentials of development (Scheler) and can connect us with the world (Bergson).
The present article addresses the question of the adequate knowledge of nature in the context of Immanuel Hermann Fichte’s philosophy of nature. After an examination of the position and role that this systematic problem has both in Karl Joël’s book Der Ursprung der Naturphilosophie aus dem Geiste der Mystik and in contemporary research on the Anthropocene, this article offers a depiction of Fichte’s conception of the aposterioric speculative mode of knowledge of nature. Finally, Fichte’s conception of knowledge of nature is brought up for discussion both with Joël’s epistemological thesis and with certain approaches of contemporary research on the Anthropocene. It is shown that Fichte’s philosophy offers a productive perspective to addressing contemporary problems of the Anthropocene.
In his work “On the Origin of Natural Philosophy from the Spirit of Mysticism” Karl Joël refers several times to Schelling and his thinking about nature without elaborating on this references. The article discusses the thesis, whether the concept of conversion, which seems to be essential for Joëls philosophical approach, could be seen as a link between him and Schelling. It substantiates that both authors find in the conversion of human beings a condition for a non-reductive insight into nature.
Leonardo da Vinci und die Geburt der Naturphilosophie in der Renaissance. Eine Reise durch Bilder
(2022)
The “sfumato” is a new notion, both from an artistic and metaphysical viewpoint. Thanks to this concept, Leonardo brings the reflection on the nature of the cosmos to a level of surprising currency, thus overcoming the dichotomy between the human and the natural world (animals, plants, atmosphere, water, and rock formations). At the same time, the distinction between nature and supernatural reality is also questioned: nature is pervaded by the spirit, i.e., the incorporeal force that animates the entire universe, while the sacred turns out to be rooted in an original dimension that escapes any temporal computation. And it is to this union that such magnificent works such as The Virgin of the Rocks, the Mona Lisa, and Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child are inspired. They are pictorial treatises on the philosophy of nature that are inspired to the divine principle, which pervades creation. At the heart of this deep osmosis between natural exploration and the human-divine world is creativity of the artist, in whose works the world is spiritualized and perfected.
According to Joël’s study from 1906, natural philosophy, religious feeling or thinking and poetry are not separate cultural phenomena, but rather are interrelated. This contradicts the prevailing view around 1900 and so his work can be understood as an attempt to develop a new view of cultural horizons. Joël sees “feeling” and “mysticism” directed at nature as the main impulse. These two terms, which were completely shaped by the psychological ideas around 1900, cannot, however, come close to the life of early antiquity and obstruct the view of the novelty seen by Joël: the determination of a special cognitive disposition of a time that permeates all cultural phenomena.
Karl Joël’s book “Der Ursprung der Naturphilosophie aus dem Geiste der Mystik” seems at first glance, like almost all of his writings, as if the author was not very keen on an argumentative course. Yet, the text has been very precisely structured. Its four chapters correspond to the four unities: “It is actually a fourfold unity that they all [i.e. the Renaissance thinkers, HS] teach in the sensed unity of life: the unity of man, of the soul with God [1], the unity of God with the world [2] [...], the unity of the world as such [3], and the unity of man with the world [4]”. From the indifference point of feeling, Joël develops mysticism as the source of knowledge on one side and science as its clear verification on the other side. He bases his concept on an understanding of real spirituality as shown in the ensoulment of the cosmos and in the doctrine of metempsychosis.
The volume is devoted to the approach of the philosopher Karl Joël, which he presented under the title “Der Ursprung der Naturphilosophie aus dem Geiste derMystik” in 1906. Although the times have changed, it is worth pointing out the sources from which Joël drew, according to the conviction that gave rise to the present volume. Just as he himself asks about the origin of the philosophy of nature, so the contributions to this volume will enquire about the origin of his own thought. After a presentation of Joël’s concept (Schwaetzer), the three epochs to which he primarily recurs will be considered: Antiquity (Schneider), the Renaissance (Cuozzo) and German Idealism (Hueck), including Late Idealism (Hernández). Finally, there is a view from the present (Thomas). In a narrower sense, the question of the present volume is situated in the area of a philosophy of nature of the Anthropocene. It discusses the thesis that the philosophy of nature arises from mysticism without being dissolved in it, but that the former must not deny its origin Joël thus offers a concept of science that productively questions current understandings and is at the same time embedded in an anthropology that also takes seriously the mental and spiritual in man and the cosmos.
Der Band widmet sich dem Ansatz des Basler Philosophen Karl Joël, den dieser unter dem Titel „Der Ursprung der Naturphilosophie aus dem Geiste der Mystik“ 1906 vorgelegt hat. Trotz der geänderten Zeitlage lohnt es sich, so die Überzeugung, aus welcher der vorliegende Band entstanden ist, auf die Quellen hinzudeuten, aus denen Joël geschöpft hat. Wie er selbst nach dem Ursprung der Naturphilosophie fragt, so soll in den Beiträgen dieses Bandes nach dem Ursprung seines eigenen Denkens gefragt werden. Nach einer grundsätzlichen Vorstellung seines Ansatzes (Schwaetzer) werden die drei Epochen in den Blick genommen, auf die Joël vor allem rekurriert: Antike (Schneider), die Renaissance (Cuozzo) und Deutscher Idealismus (Hueck) sowie Spätidealismus (Hernández). Abschließend erfolgt ein Blick von der Gegenwart her (Thomas). Im engeren Sinne situiert sich die Fragestellung des vorliegenden Bandes im Bereich einer Naturphilosophie des Anthropozän. Er diskutiert dabei die These, dass Naturphilosophie aus Mystik entspringt, ohne in ihr aufzugehen, dass die erstere aber auch ihren Ursprung nicht verleugnen darf. Joël bietet damit einen gegenwärtige Konzeptionen produktiv hinterfragenden Wissenschaftsbegriff, der zugleich in eine auch das Geistige in Mensch und Kosmos ernst nehmende Anthropologie eingebettet ist.
On 27 June 2020, the prominent feminist poet Galina Rymbu published the poem «Моя вагина» (“My Vagina”) on her Facebook feed. «Моя вагина» is a solidarity poem, written in support of artist and LGBTQ activist Iuliia Tsvetkova, who is facing a charge of distributing pornography for her abstract paintings of vaginas in a group on the social media platform VKontakte. Rymbu’s poem created huge resonance: it was shared, translated and republished on various platforms on the web and in print, examined by researchers, and debated as both a work of literature and a political statement. The present article charts the story of this remarkable poem, from its origins to its formal properties, its place within contemporary feminist poetry and its close links to feminist activism, and the reactions it has triggered. It also analyses the follow-up poem Rymbu wrote in reply to her detractors, «Великая русская литература» (“Great Russian Literature”), with a focus on Rymbu’s ingenious play on personal pronouns. Finally, it will briefly look at the role of social media for the literary process in Russia, specifically the field of poetry.
