Aug 2026· Philosophies· Vol 11, pp. 146· 0 citations· 42 references
Abstract
My essay draws attention to several little-known texts by Wittgenstein in which he addresses the processes which may precede a genocide. I seek to demonstrate that Wittgenstein’s thought contains resources that may be drawn on in confronting such ethical and political problems, and more specifically, in addressing issues that arise in relation to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The resources I locate in Wittgenstein’s work include techniques for shifting attitudes and for redirecting attention, for unsettling interlocutors from their complacency and for leading them to transform their ways of seeing the problems they confront. In this connection, I reflect on the ethical and political efficacy of experiences of the uncanny. I also find in Wittgenstein the suggestion that moral philosophy calls for a mode of engagement which is essentially first-personal, and refuses to separate the biographical from the philosophical. In order to put this suggestion to the test, the essay is written in the idiom of autotheory.
Introduction: this article continues the author's series of works examining the entire body of John Locke's writings to identify his criminal law paradigm and the factors that influenced its formation in specific historical contexts. Purpose: while previous studies have identified historical, biographical, and sociopolitical prerequisites, this review focuses on the ideological and religious aspects that, in their own way, influenced the thinker and shaped his views. Methods: the study employed general scientific methods such as description, analysis, synthesis as well as specific scientific methods: historical-legal, comparativelegal. Results: the paper has explored the legacy to which Locke drew. He did not write from a "blank slate," but acknowledged the contributions of his predecessors and colleagues, including J. Calvin, R. Bellarmine, F. Hunton, R. Parsons, J. Buchanan, J. Major, W. Ockham, and J. Buridan. Through polemics with the English philosopher Robert Filmer, the thinker formulated and published two treatises on government, in which he expounded his criminal-political views. For the Enlightenment thinker, Filmer was a “composite figure” since Locke contrasted himself not only with Filmer but also, through him, with all supporters of royalism – H. Fern, J. Heywood, A. Blackwood, J. Barclay, and others. Through identifying the full spectrum of ideas surrounding the thinker, the paper reconstructs a picture of the topic considered and assesses the originality of Locke's approaches to understanding crime and punishment. Conclusions: the theme of the relationship between subjects and rulers is not new – it was not discovered by Filmer and Locke. By the time they joined the discussion, a criminal-law element had already been incorporated into it. The vanguard position of this element was determined by the fact that supreme command was primarily realized through obedience, while disobedience was corrected through punishment as the key form of coercion. Robert Filmer and John Locke accepted this axiom and, in their treatises, continued to directly link authority with the right to punish.
S. A. Bochkarev· Вестник Пермского университе...· 0 citations
Abstract This article seeks to elucidate the politico-theological significance of Ludwig Feuerbach’s magnum opus, The Essence of Christianity (1841), by considering that work in relation to reviews published by Feuerbach in the 1830s of works written by two figures identified by him as representatives of “the Positive Philosophy.” These are Friedrich Julius Stahl, later called by Friedrich Wilhelm IV to the chair of jurisprudence in Berlin, and Jakob Sengler, a co-founder of the Zeitschrift für Philosophie und spekulative Theologie. Feuerbach’s critique of Christian theism and his own theory of the divine attributes in The Essence of Christianity are interpreted as a direct response to the theoretical claims of the Positive Philosophy and as an indirect repudiation of the theory of the German-Christian state underwritten by those claims, most notably in Stahl’s account of the monarchical principle and in conservative publications such as the Berliner Politisches Wochenblatt.
Todd Gooch· Journal for the History of M...· 0 citations
This is the third and final volume of an admirably readable translation by Ciaran Cronin of a history of philosophy originally published in German in two volumes in 2019, the year of Habermas’s 90 th birthday.1 The entire work is a monumental capstone to the prolific career of one of the most recognizable public intellectu-als of the Federal Republic of Germany since its inception. It is staggering in the breadth of its engagement with a diverse range of theoretical interlocutors. To that extent it is representative of the “productive eclecticism” whereby Habermas sought throughout his career to augment his own theoretical position through the selective appropriation of insights acquired through such engagement.2 It is also an eloquent vindication of the interests of practical reason and a timely plaidoyer, at a crucial historical turning point, for a conception of philosophy that “accords
Todd Gooch· Journal for the History of M...· 0 citations
After enthusiastically agreeing to review Shakespeare in the 'Post'Colonies, I found myself hesitating before reading it. As a citizen of a 'post'colony (South Africa) and a descendant of colonisers, I have been down dark tunnels of outrage and guilt with regards to my ancestors' actions. This tunneling is ethically necessary, but also draining and disturbing. Shakespeare used to be a haven I escaped to from the horrors of the real world, but in academic settings, my passion for Shakespeare has been problematised to the point where I feel naïve and ignorant for simply loving his plays. This book was sure to show me more ways in which Shakespeare was and is complicit in colonial processes and legacies of manipulation, oppression and violence towards the most vulnerable. I prayed I could write something intelligible ... O, what form of prayer could serve my turn?
Lauren Bates· Bakwethu: A Journal of Shake...· 0 citations
This article argues that beneath the spectacular surface imagery of bearded hags and cauldron-boiling in Macbeth lies a sustained philosophical exploration of the power of language to shape reality. Drawing on Diane Purkiss's scholarship on early modern witchcraft, James I's Dæmonologie and Holinshed's Chronicles, the article shows how Shakespeare encodes within Macbeth a psychological and linguistic account of evil – one that quietly subverts the theological orthodoxies of his sovereign. This reading is illuminated through a comparison with Othello, in which Iago explicitly describes his destructive manipulation of others as working "by wit and not by witchcraft". In Macbeth, too, Shakespeare presents witchcraft as the planting of word-seeds in receptive minds. In the context of teaching Shakespeare in South Africa, the author reflects on how students may come to understand an apparently theological, teleological problem in psychological and linguistic – humanistic – terms.
John Antony Goedhals· Bakwethu: A Journal of Shake...· 0 citations
Summary: This paper explores Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough, advancing the working hypothesis that these reflections emerge at the intersection of three key ideas that Wittgenstein decisively resists. First, Wittgenstein challenges the assumption that language games can be analyzed independently of the “vital” or “cultural” practices in which they are embedded. Second, he rejects the positivist notion that the progress of natural science will eventually render religion obsolete. Third, and most pointedly, he disputes the idea of a “universal grammar” underlying religious practices — a supposed structure hidden beneath the surface diversity of religious expressions. Through his remarks, Wittgenstein not only offers a powerful critique of the search for hidden essences — emphasizing the irreducibly plural and context-dependent nature of religious language — but also lays the groundwork for the methodological orientation that will characterize his later philosophical investigations.
R. Lima· Nordic Wittgenstein Review· 0 citations
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