ABSTRACTS OF CONTRIBUTIONS

The 9th International Philosophical Symposium of Miklavž Ocepek

The 11th International Philosophical Conference and Workshop

 

How to encourage the individual in the apocalypse to make an existential turn towards a new oikonomia of relationships?

In cooperation with Cankarjev dom and Krušče Creative Center.

Krušče and Ljubljana, 9th – 16th of June 2023

 

Paula Arizpe (MX): On the impossibility of not being Pascalian

The Works of Blaise Pascal have been a source of inspiration ever since were written.

The very interesting fact is that he did not agree with Rene Descartes´ division of res cogitans and res extensa but his life exemplifies perfectly such dichotomy. This paper intends to show:

  1. The esthetics of his pragmatic works
  2. The depth of his spiritual reflection
  3. The Gordian knot tide between the res cogitans and extensa in Arrow´s theorem
  4. The triumphant solution of a good life and its redundant benefits.

KIERKEGAARD'S YEAR 2023

9th INTERNATIONAL PHILOSOPHICAL SYMPOSIUM OF MIKLAVŽ OCEPEK

THE 11th INTERNATIONAL PHILOSOPHICAL CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP OF SØREN KIERKEGAARD

CALL FOR PAPERS

Organizer: Central European Research Institute Soeren Kierkegaard, Slovenia

Co-organizer: KUD Apokalipsa, Slovenia

Co-organizer of the international conference: Cankarjev dom Ljubljana

Creative center Krušče, Krušče: from the 9st to the 13th of June, 2022

Cankarjev dom Ljubljana: from the 14th to the 16th of June, 2022

School of Philosophy Unije: from the 18th of June to the 25th of June, 2022

 

The symposium is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of KUD Apokalipsa, the 10th anniversary of the Central European Research Institute Soeren Kierkegaard and the 500th anniversary of the birth of Blaise Pascal (1623-1662).

The theme: How to encourage the individual in the apocalypse to make an existential turn towards a new oikonomia of relationships?

After the apocalypse, even death itself is veiled, and man, with his/her constitution, surrenders more and more to the namelessness of fate. Modern technical civilisation is ominously revealed in a kind of civil war of false value systems which only conceal the abolition of man in the face of the idea of production and consumption, which makes him a machine and abolishes all dignity for all living creatures. Only the single individual can resist this limitless usurpation, by self-reflecting on his/her own situation and thus opening the way to communion. The modern individual is a dividuum that feeds its dividuality on self-consumption, self-promotion/selfovertaking, consumerism and mass non-culture.

Kierkegaard has beautifully shown that the single individual cannot be embodied in something mass, because the mass always flees from the particular. The existential revolution that we predicted a decade ago as a spiritual transformation can thus not take place under one or another kind of compulsion (ideology, political conviction), but only through an evolutionary growth of understanding that is reflected in acts of love. For a society that is uniformed brings about a unity that is massed, and sociability expresses duality, a dialogue, a conversation between two, face to face. The views are personally experienced, and in this sense are rooted and grounded in a true tradition.

Only this can lead to the common good.


To express this politically, it is therefore necessary to provide the conditions for the possibility of a genuine dialogue between those who are shocked, but in a mutually reconcilable, yet necessarily radical, way. Only in this way will we also be able to listen to those who think differently or to help a concrete neighbour in need. This openness to dialogue is also a farewell to the need for social power as power, in the name of a celebration of sociability that awakens the sincerity of the individual in a noble desire for radical reflection. In doing so, we are always confronted with the transcendent, where the restlessness of existence invites us to live fully. Today, the individual is lulled to sleep in an apparent democracy. The new oikonomia of relationships cannot do without the fundamental value that only the self-reliant individual can give.

This fundamental attitude requires of us a radical personal definition of the reality of the ordering of the world in which we live. Therefore, the perspective of practice, which is theoretically declared and practically repressed, must be turned from this despair to expectation and realisation. The transcendence of the meaning of one's personal existence gives a new existence, and this is why existential communication is necessary. Thus, personal responsibility comes up against the face of one's fellow man. Anything else is the arbitrariness of pseudo-existence, which can bring out the worst in man. Kierkegaard and Pascal are thus to be taken extremely seriously in their concern for the neighbour, according to that fundamental question when I ask myself whether I look at the community of the world of all living creatures with the gaze of life or death, the oikonomia of the responsibility of the particular or the orgiastic of the multitude.

Once we understand our position, we will also have a new criterion for our own action. It is subjective, a criterion that requires passionate thinking, where the question is always to understand oneself in one's own existence and at the same time to double it by concrete action: "Whoever thinks existence without thinking it passionately is as if he did not think it at all, as if he had forgotten the most important thing - that he himself is existent." (Kierkegaard, Postscript, 242)

This means a deepening of experience in an existential turn that cannot persist in mere thinking or avoid the political sphere as a dimension of existence. To be open-minded and open-hearted is thus to "will the good" and brings unity of thought and action.

We will set up our reflections by continuing them with the Philosophical School of the Unije: How to promote, by means of the existential communication, the responsibility of the single individual for an oikonomic democracy for the blessings (Salighed) and prosparity of the community of single individuals.

The knowledge that is indispensable for man is to know himself. (Pascal, Thoughts, & 144) According to Climacus (Kierkegaard, Postscript), the individual is faced with the task of becoming a subjective thinker. The secret of this thought lies in the paradoxicality of existence itself, attuned to the transcendence of the absolute. The question arises of how to turn thought in order to think both sides simultaneously in the dialogue of community (as subjects, persons, responsible individuals) and act accordingly for the universal well-being of coexistence.

Participants are expected to send their application with a short CV in English, with the title of the paper no later than the 15st of December, 2022 to the address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. In addition to a short description, the CV should also contain contact information (e-mail address, phone number).

The deadline for submitting abstracts is the 20th of January, 2023. Please note the following when submitting your abstract:

-          font: Times New Roman;

-          size: 12;

-          line spacing: 1.5;

-          max. 1.300 characters.

The deadline for submmitting the paper, of up to 20.000 characters, is the 15th of April, 2023. Papers that will meet the criteria of appropriate quality, prescribed stylistic provisions and citation methods, will be published in the journal Kierkegaard in 2023. The provisions are as follows:

-          font: Times New Roman;

-          size: 12;

-          space lining: 1.5;

-          citation style: Surname, N. (Year): Title. City: Publishing House.

Additional information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ABSTRACTS

The 10th International Philosophical Conference and Workshop of Søren Kierkegaard

               

                Igor Bijuklič (SI)

Dwarf Titans: Günther Anders and the Promethean gap as a new position of man in the technical age

For Günther Anders, one of the more original thinkers of the metamorphosis of the human psyche in the technical age, year 1945 marked the beginning of a new era in which the human condition fundamentally changed. The omnipotence of humanity appears in reverse, not as creation from nothing, but as reduction to nothing. The ability to set in motion processes on earth similar to those that take place on the surface of the sun, that is to say, the ability for humanity to produce its own end, inaugurates the "dwarf titans". With the advent of modern technology for Anders, an unbridgeable gap is created between the various human capacities, most markedly between what we can produce (technically conceive, invent) and, on the other hand, the human capacity for imagination. Human imagination, perception, emotion, language become extremely limited in the face of the almost infinite effects of our technical achievements. Within this modern schizophrenia, this new conditio humana, which Anders calls the "Promethean gap" (Prometheische Geffäle), imagining the ultimate effects of our own doing is no longer so easily attainable. Even more, within the technical division of labour and responsibilities, is no longer our task and concern. The oversized and the unimaginable are inscribed in our technical doing, and so it can easily happen that the most horrifying and terrible things no longer arouse our concern and emotion. How, if at all, is it possible to bridge this gap?

Keywords: Günther Anders, modern technic, titans

KIERKEGAARD'S YEAR 2022

THE 10th INTERNATIONAL PHILOSOPHICAL CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP OF SØREN KIERKEGAARD

CALL FOR PAPERS

Organizer: Central European Research Institute Soeren Kierkegaard, Slovenia

Co-organizer: KUD Apokalipsa, Slovenia

Co-organizer of the international conference: Cankarjev dom Ljubljana

Ulica Lili Novy 25, 1000 Ljubljana: from the 6st to the 8th of June, 2022

Cankarjev dom Ljubljana: from the 9th to the 10th of June, 2022

School of Philosophy Unije: from the 12th of June to the 19th of June, 2022

 

This year's conference and workshop is dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the birth and 30th anniversary of death of Günther Anders (1902–1992).

Theme: The threat of technology and the hope of existing between "not-yet" and "no-more": How we, the people, can even live in uncertain times of the threat of total elimination of humanity / humanness?

»The technification of the being: the fact that today it is possible that unknowingly and indirectly, like screws in a machine, we can be used in actions, the effects of which are beyond the horizon of our eyes and imagination, and of which, could we imagine them, we could not approve – this fact has changed the very foundations of our moral existence«(Günther Anders, 3 June 1959).

Participants are expected to send their application with a short CV in English, with the title of the paper no later than the 17th of January 2022 to the address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. In addition to a short description, the CV should also contain contact information (email address, phone number).

The deadline for submitting abstracts is the 24th of January 2022. Please note the following when submitting your abstract:

-          font: Times New Roman;

-          size: 12;

-          line spacing: 1.5;

-          max. 1.300 characters.

The deadline for submitting the paper, of up to 20.000 characters, is the 25th of February 2022. Papers that will meet the criteria of appropriate quality, prescribed stylistic provisions and citation methods, will be published in the journal Kierkegaard in 2023. The provisions that must be complied with can be found in the document Temp_Contribution attachment. Papers not following the provisions will not be accepted for the 2023 Kierkegaard publication.

 

Registration fee for foreign participants: 350 EUR (registration fee covers all expenses for accommodation and meals) / in the case of an unfavorable epidemiological picture, it is also possible to participate and present the paper via ZOOM – in this case no registration fee is required.

Registration fee for domestic participants: 50 EUR

Registration fee for the School of Philosophy Unije: 250 EUR (registration fee covers all expenses for accommodation and meals).

 

Additional information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ABSTRACTS

The 8th International Philosophical Symposium of Miklavž Ocepek

Paula Arizpe (MEX)

Buddhism: The Crazy Wisdom

Spirituality has to do with TRUTH and GOOD and how they are conceived by the human mind. Occidental and Oriental scopes of truth and good are different, and thus the seeked result of happiness.

This paper analyses the gnoseological approach of the Buddhist path to spirituality and compares the noetical parameters where conceptions to both -Buddhist and Christian- approaches rest.

Occidental knowledge of Buddhism is not systematic: this paper exposes the underlying concepts that enable the comparison between both the gnoseological and psychological weave, such as trikaya, primal innocence, eternity, playful phaenomena and devotion.

I also intend not to lose the simple and naive ways in which the Buddhist tradition has spread out worldwide, which I consider part of its profound purity.

The paper concludes as a bridge between both traditions that I hope is useful for either to transit both ways.

KIERKEGAARD'S YEAR 2021

THE 8th INTERNATIONAL PHILOSOPHICAL SYMPOSIUM OF MIKLAVŽ OCEPEK

CALL FOR PAPERS

Organizer: Central European Research Institute Soeren Kierkegaard, Slovenia

Co-organizer: KUD Apokalipsa, Slovenia

Co-organizer of the international symposium: Cankarjev dom Ljubljana

Ulica Lili Novy 25, 1000 Ljubljana: from the 21st to the 24th of August, 2021

Cankarjev dom Ljubljana: from the 25th to the 27th of August, 2021

School of Philosophy Unije: from the 29th of August to the 5th of September, 2021

 

This year's symposium is dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881).

Theme: At the time of the corona crisis we are all »Idiots«: Thinking with Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky. A breakthrough into living culture in dialogue with Art.

This year's symposium will also be dedicated to the memory of the late dr. Cvetka H. Tóth. For this purpose, a special section will be organized that will be solely devoted to Tóth's thought, her work and her philosophy. When registering for the mentioned section, please state this in your registration e-mail.

Participants are expected to send their application with a short CV in English, with the title of the paper no later than the 1st of May, 2021 to the address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. In addition to a short description, the CV should also contain contact information (e-mail address, phone number).

The deadline for submitting abstracts is the 15th of May, 2021. Please note the following when submitting your abstract:

-          font: Times New Roman;

-          size: 12;

-          line spacing: 1.5;

-          max. 1.300 characters.

The deadline for submitting the paper, of up to 20.000 characters, is the 15th of July, 2021. Papers that will meet the criteria of appropriate quality, prescribed stylistic provisions and citation methods, will be published in the journal Kierkegaard in 2022. The provisions are as follows:

-          font: Times New Roman;

-          size: 12;

-          space lining: 1.5;

-          citation style: Surname, N. (Year): Title. City: Publishing House.

 

Registration fee for foreign participants: 350 EUR (registration fee covers all expenses for accommodation and meals) / in the case of an unfavorable epidemiological picture, it is also possible to participate and present the paper via ZOOM* – in this case no registration fee is required

Registration fee for domestic participants: 50 EUR

Registration fee for the School of Philosophy Unije : 250 EUR (registration fee covers all expenses for accommodation and meals)

*In the case of an inability, for whatever reason, to personally visit Ljubljana during the international symposium, it is also possible to apply for participation through ZOOM. In the case of a larger number of ZOOM applications, we will have to select the viable submissions.

 

Additional information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.