KIERKEGAARD'S YEAR 2023

9th INTERNATIONAL PHILOSOPHICAL SYMPOSIUM OF MIKLAVŽ OCEPEK

THE 11^th 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 9^st to the 13^th of June, 2022

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

School of Philosophy Unije: from the 18^th of June to the 25^th 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?

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ABSTRACTS

                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

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KIERKEGAARD'S YEAR 2022

THE 10^th 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 6^st to the 8^th of June, 2022

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

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

This year's conference and workshop is dedicated to the 120^th anniversary of the birth and 30^th 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 17^th 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 24^th 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 25^th 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 8^th 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.

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KIERKEGAARD'S YEAR 2021

THE 8^th 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 21^st to the 24^th of August, 2021

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

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

This year's symposium is dedicated to the 200^th 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 1^st 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 15^th 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 15^th 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.

This paper aims to investigate the question of community in Kierkegaard's thought, comparing it with Montaigne's concept of political friendships and Derrida’s policies of friendship. In order to highlight the possible connections between the concepts of friendship and of the political, I will discuss the way in which the three authors deal with two strictly interconnected themes: friendship and mourning. Following the Aristotelian-Ciceronian lesson on philia and the reading of his friend Etienne de la Boetie, Montaigne stresses the political dimension of friendship. He merges the classic criteria of similarity, equality and reciprocity with the grounding moment of a free and voluntary choice that constitutes individuals in confrérie. According to Montaigne, the decision is the political category of friendship, which in turn constitutes the microscopic level of society and the critical fault in the human tendency towards voluntary servitude. In Politics of Friendship, Derrida deconstructs the metaphysical tradition that had seen the basis of the political in friendship. Contrary to Montaigne, Derrida sees the typical characteristics of political friendship along with its possible degenerative outcomes. The political shifts towards a familiar configuration based on a naturalist assumption: family, state, nation, are intertwined with the myth of earth and blood. The political then is grounded on friendship that finds its condition of possibility in the dialectical suspension of enmity and therefore in the Schmittean couple Friend/Enemy. Montaigne’s saying, “O my friends, there is no friend”, becomes inseparable from the Nietzschean one: “Enemies, there are no enemies”. However, Derrida envisages the possibility of a friendship as unpolitical phenomenon and identifies it in the mourning-surviving relationship always present in friendship. Kierkegaard offers an alternative critical reading to the two previous interpretations: he describes friendship in Montaigne's terms and then shares it with love in their being preferential bonds. Since a friend is chosen because he corresponds to the classical criteria of friendship, his otherness is lost and the relationship is narrowed down to a narcissistic doubling of the ego. The more two egos become one by merging themselves, the greater the latter unified ego distances itself from the others outside the relationship. Since friendship as social cell is created in such an exclusive and excluding manner, Kierkegaard describes – ahead of his time – the whole political as intrinsically narcissistic. Enten-Eller's Symparanekromenoi, a congregation of the dead (such as the friendships between Lelio and Cicero, La Boetie and Montaigne) is the exemplum of isolation and camaraderie that characterize modern society. To these preferential bonds, Kierkegaard opposes neighbour-love and a model of Christian community as viable alternative to the paradigm of political theology. The category of neighbour suspends the difference between friend and enemy and thus proves to be absolutely unpolitical. At the same time, it opens up to a type of social bond, emblematically represented by loving the deceased, which replaces the construction of a common identity based on the resemblance (society), with the mutual openness to others that is at the same time a kenotic exposure and expropriation of one’s ego (community).

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