Transylvanian Review Vol. XXIII No. 1 Spring 2014
Transylvanian Review Vol. XXIII No. 1 Spring 2014
• Paradigms
Models of Explanation in Aristotle’s Biology , p.3
Andrei Bereschi
Abstract
Models of Explanation in Aristotle’s Biology
There is an important connection between bios (life) and techne (art) that arises in the biological treatises of Aristotle as a result of his investigation of the living world. In the history of philosophy, this connection bears the mark of Aristotle’s struggle towards the first scientific understanding of the phenomenon of life in all its complexity. Our thesis is that he simply used the model of techne in reading the mechanisms of the living creatures, their inner structure, their generation, and their movements. Thus, by applying the model of techne to bios, Aristotle identified a sort of genuine meaning of biology as very close to biotechnology, bioethics and biopolitics. In fact, it is the relationship between bios and techne that gave birth to the first systematic biology in the history of science and simultaneously to a range of problems that are still giving us food for thought.
Keywords
Aristotle, biology, art, model, explanation, animals
Le statut de l’Éthique à Eudème dans l’exégèse aristotélicienne antique, médiévale et moderne , p.17
Filotheia Bogoiu
Abstract
The Status of Aristotle’s Eudemian Ethics in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Exegesis
After reviewing the main conflicting opinions of Aristotelian scholars about the dating, authenticity and general aims of this most controversial of Aristotle’s ethical treaties, we propose the hypothesis of the origin of these diverging views as being more general and deeper than the mere punctual or detail-centered collisions between the “evolutionist,” “systematic” and “aporetical” schools of interpretation. In the last part of the paper, this hypothesis is used in order to question the traditionally assumed inferiority of the Eudemian Ethics with respect to the Nicomachean Ethics.
Keywords
Aristotle, ethics, scholarly investigation, Eudemian Ethics, Nicomachean Ethics
Reditio completa: Connaissance et réflexivité dans quelques commentaires latins sur le Liber de causis , p.36
Alexander Baumgarten
Abstract
Reditio completa: Knowledge and Reflexivity in Some Latin Commentaries on Liber de causis
This analysis is concerned with a comparison between certain commentaries on the famous opuscule Liber de causis made by Roger Bacon, Ps.-Henry of Ghent, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. The goal of this research paper is to offer an overview of the different medieval attitudes towards the relationship between the possibility of a complete reflexion (reditio completa) and the criticism this theory has received. My study provides an historical analysis that begins with the first reconstructions of ancient peripateticism and follows the interaction between the peripatetic concept of self-awareness and the Neoplatonic theory known as reditio completa among the commentators mentioned in the treatise De causis.
Keywords
Liber de causis, reditio completa, knowledge, Neoplatonism, conscience
Abelard’s Answer to the Quarrel of Universals , p.48
Alexandra Baneu
Abstract
Abelard’s Answer to the Quarrel of Universals
Our investigation has two main points: a contextualization of Abelard’s account of universals and a detailed analysis of his theory as it is formulated in the Logica “ingredientibus.” The interest of the first point is to show that Abelard is just one author among the many who tried to offer a solution to the debate. In order to do so, we follow and comment upon John of Salisbury’s presentation of contemporary theories on the subject. The interest of the second point, however, is to show how Abelard’s answer is subtle and important in itself. His theory is especially innovative due to the fact that it changes the framework of the debate: it no longer belongs to the domain of metaphysics, but to that of meaning.
Keywords
universal, Abelard, nominalism, realism, John of Salisbury, status theory
From Intentionality to Immateriality: The Mark of the Cognitive for Thomas Aquinas, p. 62
Elena Bãltutã
Abstract
From Intentionality to Immateriality: The Mark of the Cognitive for Thomas Aquinas
The idea that for medieval philosophers in general, and for Thomas Aquinas in particular, intentionality is the mark of the cognitive has become a commonplace in philosophy. According to this classical line of reasoning, for Aquinas, esse intentionale is the mark of the cognitive. The present paper challenges this classical reading of Aquinas, by stressing the importance of esse immateriale for defining a knower as opposed to a non-knower. In other words, is endeavours to demonstrate that for Thomas Aquinas intentionality is not the mark of the cognitive. While for intentionality to be cognitive it needs to be connected with immateriality, neither immateriality, nor intentionality alone is sufficient for cognition.
Keywords
Thomas Aquinas, intentionality, immateriality, esse naturale, esse intentionale, esse immateriale, intellective cognition, sensorial cognition
What Is “Good Life”? The Influence of the Averroist Intellectual Ideal on Marsilius of Padua , p.78
Mihai Maga
Abstract
What Is “Good Life”? The Influence of the Averroist Intellectual Ideal
on Marsilius of Padua
In this paper we discuss the implication of a moral ideal in the conception of a civil political model in Marsilius of Padua’s Defensor pacis. The tradition of treatises on the supreme good finds a continuation in Marsilius of Padua’s work that identifies the supreme good in politics with peace and liberty. In this sense, we notice that Marsilius is closer to the medieval tradition, and Aristotle is used merely as a source of arguments. Thus, the politician must be a guide for the people to reach the utmost good in this life, but this good is not politically determined. The good life is identified, just like by other Aristotelians, as the leisure of practicing liberal activities, both theoretical and practical.
Keywords
medieval political thought, history of political philosophy, Averroism, supreme good, Marsilius of Padua
• Legacy
The Truth of Psychoanalysis , p.89
Alexandru Polgár
Abstract
The Truth of Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis has been for almost a century not only a specific form of psychotherapy, but also an extremely fruitful theoretical area. Has this significant influence of psychoanalysis brought us closer to what assures the effectiveness of psychoanalytic knowledge? What type of knowledge is this (scientific, extra-scientific)? Is it possible to determine the epistemological type of psychoanalysis? The guiding hypothesis of this paper is that psychoanalysis reveals an aspect of the world itself. Focusing on Lacan’s interpretation of truth, this paper suggests that the larger family in which psychoanalytic knowledge can find its place is the Heideggerian knowledge of finitude.
Keywords
psychoanalysis, truth, Lacan, Freud, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, finitude
Der Bukowiner “Zwerg” auf den Schultern des Wiener “Riesen”: Wilhelm Stekels Umgang mit Religion und Sexualität (I) , p.100
Ana-Maria Palimariu
Abstract
The Bukovinian “Dwarf” on the Shoulders of the Viennese “Giant”: Wilhelm Stekel’s Exposure to Religion and Sexuality
The present article argues that Wilhelm Stekel, a psychoanalyst and Freud’s collaborator, experienced a threefold migration. Beyond the already existing research into his career, which can only account for two exiles (his separation from Freud and the exile to London) the present paper starts a new debate. One outcome of the investigation is that the psychoanalytical movement becomes an even more complicated context, because Stekel’s first exile, which has been so far neglected, was in the psychoanalytic society. Under Freud’s supervision, who would give Stekel case studies and would also review them in view of their publication, Stekel, in his representation of the Eastern Jewish sexual issues case studies, had to disguise the Eastern Jewish dimension, at the expense of another religion. After leaving the psychoanalytic society and after the split from Freud, Stekel could nevertheless autobiographically and technically apply both his Eastern Jewish origin and his (religious) knowledge about Bukovina. When reading Stekel’s work, before and after his collaboration with Freud, bringing together Jewish religion and sexuality, one can infer a Jewish complex with Freud and the absence of it with Stekel.
Keywords
psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Stekel, religion, sexuality as a cultural code
• Tangencies
Hierocratic Aspects Related to the Legation of Archbishop Robert of Esztergom to Cumania (1227), p. 118
Robert-Marius Mihalachea
Abstract
Hierocratic Aspects Related to the Legation of Archbishop Robert of Esztergom to Cumania (1227)
The topic addressed in this study has been discussed before and there are a number of writings related to the moment when the Cumans’ diocese was established in 1227. However, the motivation for approaching this subject is given by the fact that the studies dedicated to it do not present the legation of Archbishop Robert of Esztergom (Strigonium) from a hierocratic perspective. In this paper, we shall attempt to highlight the hierocratic aspects of the legation undertaken by Archbishop Robert of Esztergom in “Cumania” (the southwest of Moldova), by analyzing several published pontifical documents. At least from a hierocratic perspective, the legation of Archbishop Robert of Esztergom was successful, having fully satisfied the discipline demanded by the Holy See. The results of the actions taken by the legate de latere were remarkable: he converted a large number of Cumans to Christianity and he established a new diocese. Thus, the boundaries of Christianitas were expanded, not only from a temporal-political perspective, but especially from a spiritual point of view.
Keywords
hierocracy, Robert of Esztergom, legatus natus, Cumans, legate de latere, 1227, exempt diocese
Romanian Agriculture during the Interwar Period and the Demographic Effects of Its Development p. 132
Horatiu Dan, Paula Mureşan
Abstract
Romanian Agriculture during the Interwar Period and the Demographic Effects of Its Development
The interwar period was a time of major structural changes for the Romanian socio-economic environment, with new territories, resources and an almost doubled population being the main drivers of change. The aim of this paper is to carry out a pertinent analysis of the agricultural sector—the main economic activity of the country’s population, as 13 of the 18 million inhabitants were dependent on agriculture—and to compare its development with the more dynamic evolution of the industrial sector, a comparison that reveals most of the factors that led to internal migration away from the rural area.
Keywords
Romanian interwar economy, agricultural sector, demographic changes, internal migration
• Book Reviews
Peter Meusburger and Thomas Schuch, eds., Wissenschaftsatlas der Universität Heidelberg (reviewed by József Benedek) , p.148
Marius Eppel, Politics and Church in Transylvania 1875–1918(reviewed by Ioan Bolovan) , p.150
Edda Binder-Iijima, Heinz-Dietrich Löwe, and Gerald Volkmer, eds., Die Hohenzollern in Rumänien 1866–1947: Eine monarchische Herrschaftsordnung im europäischen Kontext (reviewed by Amelia-Liana Vãidean) , p.151
Viorel Achim, Politica regimului Antonescu faþã de cultele neoprotestante: Documente (reviewed by Florian Dumitru Soporan) , p.157
• Contributors , p.160