A beautiful photo of the philosopher

On Czech Marxism

On Czech Marxism: An interview with Ivan Landa and Jan Mervart

LeftEast’s James Robertson speaks with Czech scholars Ivan Landa and Jan Mervart about their current project collating and translating some of the key texts from the history of Czech Marxism.

see the full  interview here

The Democracy and the Myth of Cave

The Democracy and the Myth of Cave

Karel Kosík

The 20th century, which began with shots being fired in Sarajevo in 1914 and in our time is ending with the disintegration of the Soviet empire amid gunfire in that very same Sarajevo, is sometimes also called the century of Franz Kafka (“le siècle de Franz Kafka”)—and this is entirely justified.

Kafka described the essence of this period with extraordinary insight. While it seemed to some of his contemporaries that his texts were dreamlike visions, poetic hyperboles and phantasmagorical hallucinations, today we have come to realize with awe the accuracy and sobriety of his descriptions. Kafka reached the conclusion, and in my view that is where his profound discovery lies, that modern times are hostile to the tragic, eliminating it and replacing it with the grotesque. That is why the century of Franz Kafka is at the same time a period whose quintessence is personified by one of his characters—Greta Samsa. Greta Samsa is the anti-Antigone of the 20th century.

SOURCE

Karel Kosík, “Demokracie a mýtus o jeskyni,” Století Markéty Samsové, Český spisovatel, Prague 1993, p. 11–21.

Greek translation of Ilyenkov’s Dialectics of the Ideal

Greek translation of Ilyenkov’s Dialectics of the Ideal (2009) , the work  which remained unpublished until thirty years after the author’s tragic suicide in 1979.

-ΝΕΑ ΚΥΚΛΟΦΟΡΙΑ- 

Η διαλεκτική του Ιδεατού (Диалектика идеального) του Evald Ilyenkov

σειρά: Καλώς Κείμενα (7)
υπεύθυνος σειράς: Βαγγέλης Γαλάνης
μετάφραση - εισαγωγή: Marios Darviras
πρόλογος στην ελληνική έκδοση: Αντρέι Μαϊντάνσκι.
γλώσσα πρωτοτύπου: ρωσικά
μέγεθος: 13Χ20
σελίδες: 176
ISBN: 978-618-81620-7-5

[...] Το «ιδεατό» –ή η «ιδεατότητα» των φαινομένων– αποτελεί πολύ σημαντική κατηγορία για να καταφεύγουμε σε αυτήν απερίσκεπτα και απρόσεκτα, καθώς με αυτή είναι συνδεδεμένη όχι μόνο η μαρξιστική κατανόηση της ουσίας του ιδεαλισμού αλλά επίσης και η ονομασία του.

Ως ιδεαλιστικές θεωρίες θεωρούνται όλες εκείνες οι αντιλήψεις στη φιλοσοφία οι οποίες λαμβάνουν ως αφετηριακό σημείο για την ερμηνεία της ιστορίας και της γνώσης μια σύλληψη του ιδεατού –σαν αυτή η έννοια να μην έχει υποστεί καμιά επεξεργασία– ως συνείδηση ή βούληση, ως νόηση ή ως ψυχισμός εν γένει, ως «ψυχή» ή «πνεύμα», ως «αίσθημα» ή «δημιουργική αρχή» ή ως «κοινωνικά οργανωμένη εμπειρία».

Γι’ αυτόν ακριβώς τον λόγο, το αντι-υλιστικό στρατόπεδο στη φιλοσοφία καλείται ιδεαλισμός, και όχι ας πούμε «νοησιαρχία» ή «ψυχολογισμός», «βουλησιαρχία» ή «συνειδησισμός». Αυτά ήδη αποτελούν επιμέρους προσδιορισμούς του ιδεαλισμού και όχι τους καθολικούς, γενικούς προσδιορισμούς του που είναι ανεξάρτητοι από την ιδιαίτερη μορφή

που προσλαμβάνει. Το «ιδεατό» στο παρόν άρθρο κατανοείται στην ολότητά του ως ένα πλήρες σύνολο δυνατών ερμηνειών, αυτών που είναι ήδη γνωστές αλλά και αυτών που απομένουν ακόμα να ανακαλυφθούν [...]

Görgy Lukács Archive

“Petition against the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ decision to close down the Görgy Lukács Archives in Budapest:

“Lukács was one the significant philosophers of the 20th century, an author of modernity outstanding not only in philosophy but also in the fields of political mindedness, theory of literature, sociology and ethics An author of international renown, Lukács represented one of the intellectual peaks in Hungary’s history of civilisation, his works constitute a part of the treasures of humankind. For decades, the Lukács Archives has facilitated academic and non-academic circles to have access to the documents related to the philosopher’s life and professional achievements. As it is located in the philosopher’s home of his late years, it has also served as a memorial place devoted to a decisive personality of our era. Based on the above, we call on the authorities in charge to re-consider their decision, which took the international community of science and art by consternation and sorrow.””

sign the petition here: http://www.petitions24.com/protest_against_closing_down_the_lukacs_archiv

Karel Kosík

Dialéctica de lo concreto. Estudio sobre los problemas del hombre y del mundo

Ed. Grijalbo, México 1967
(t. o.: Dialektika Konkreteniko)

INTRODUCCIÓN

El prólogo de esta edición, escrito por Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez, catedrático de filosofía de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México a quien corresponde también la traducción, expone el lugar que ocupa esta obra en la literatura marxista de aquellos años: se inscribe en el movimiento antidogmático y renovador del marxismo que (...) se registra (...) desde 1956; es decir, a partir del XX Congreso del Partido Comunista de la Unión Soviética (p. 11), pero no lo realiza, como se hizo habitual, a partir de los primeros escritos de Marx —el llamado joven Marx—, sino mediante una nueva valoración de las obras de su madurez, obtenida al enfrentar su pensamiento con los problemas planteados por la filosofía a lo largo del siglo XX (p.ej por la fenomenología de Husserl, el existencialismo y el estructuralismo). De este modo la filosofía de Kosik no puede ser considerada —transcribimos de nuevo un juicio del traductor— como un desvanecimiento de la línea divisoria entre marxismo y lo que le es ajeno a él (ibid.), pues arraiga en las mismas fuentes, si bien somete a análisis temas —nuevos o viejos— que escapan a una mirada dogmática (ibid.).

A FOOL AGAINST THE SYSTEM

THE GOOD SOLDIER ŠVEJK: A FOOL AGAINST THE SYSTEM

 “When Švejk subsequently described life in the lunatic asylum, he did so in exceptionally eulogistic terms: ‘I really don’t know why those loonies get so angry when they’re kept there. You can crawl naked on the floor, howl like a jackal, rage and bite. If anyone did this anywhere on the promenade people would be astonished, but there it’s the most common or garden thing to do. There’s a freedom there which not even Socialists have ever dreamed of.’” (Jaroslav Hašek, The Good Soldier Švejk).

The underlying political and, to some extent, ideological context of Hašek’s novel has been remarked by Karel Kosik in his essay Hašek and Kafka, in which he investigates on similarities (or differences) of Hašek’s Josef Švejk and Josef K. from Kafka’sTrial. Kosik wrote: “Švejk’s “odyssey under the honourable escort of two soldiers with bayonets” takes him from the Hradčany garrison jail along Neruda Street to Malá Strana and over Charles Bridge to Karlín. It is an interesting group of three people: two guards escorting a delinquent. From the opposite direction over Charles Bridge and up to Strahov, another trio makes its way. This is the threesome from Kafka’s Trial: two guards leading a “delinquent,” the bank clerk Josef K., to the Strahov quarries, where one of them will “thrust a knife into his heart.” Both groups pass through the same places, but meeting each other is impossible.” (Steiner).

These two escorts set in comparison are rather symbolic – the first one leading its “delinquent” to freedom, and the second one to death. Both characters are victims of the system and represent two different approaches to its supremacy. “Kafka’s man is walled into a labyrinth of petrified possibilities, alienated relationships and materialism of daily life, all these growing to supernaturally phantasmagoric dimensions, while he constantly and with unrelenting passion searches for  the truth. Kafka’s man is condemned to live in a world in which the only human dignity is the interpretation of that world; while other forces, beyond the control of any individual, determine the course of world’s change.” (Peter Steiner, Tropos Kynikos: Jaroslav Hašek’s “The Good Soldier Švejk”, Poetics Today, Vol. 19, No. 4, Winter, 1998). On the other hand Hašek’s character proves that“man, even in a reified form, is still man, and that man is both the object and the producer of reification… [That] man cannot be reduced to an object, he is more than a system.” (Ibid.). 

It seems that in order to fight the system, Švejk’s method proved to be more effective than that of Josef K.’s. This is not to say that Švejk did not try to understand the system. However, by being ignorant of it, or approaching it under the guise of a fool, he managed to stay outside of its destructive mechanisms. Josef  Švejk, unlike Josepf K., by using precisely the system’s own means, caused its inner erosion and thus led himself to freedom. Therefore, following his own words it is justified to say: Long live the fool! Long live  Josef  Švejk! 

SOURCE:http://artlark.org

LINDA CESANA – KAREL KOSÍK: PRAXIS E VERITÀ.

LINDA CESANA – KAREL KOSÍK: PRAXIS E VERITÀ. «L’UOMO SI REALIZZA, CIOÈ SI UMANIZZA NELLA STORIA».

24 dicembre 2015 ppci Lascia un commento

In questo articolo si tenterà di cogliere come la verità e la prassi si pongano ad oggetti focali della filosofia di Karel Kosík, e si cercherà di mostrare come ad oggi, questa possa fornire spunti filosofici preziosi per criticare il cosmo capitalistico odierno nella prospettiva dell’apertura di spazi sociali emancipati.
La verità è oggetto proprio della filosofia, rubricata da Kosík attività umana indispensabile, autonoma rispetto all’ideologia e alla scienza. Una filosofia che si trasformasse in ideologia, visione del reale che scaturisce da determinati assetti di potere (l’ideologia forgia il sentire comune, secondo la lezione marxiana per cui le idee dominanti sono espressione della classe dominante, trasformandosi in apologia dell’esistente) e che quindi s’interdice la via verso l’universale, cesserebbe di essere filosofia perché rinuncerebbe al suo carattere critico-rivoluzionario rispetto al presente e sarebbe costretta a zoppicare dietro alla vita, ossia a fare l’apologia del potere. L’ideologia, infatti, comporta mistificazione perché non conosce la fatica del pensiero. Kosík cerca in questo modo di smarcarsi dall’ideologizzazione filosofica del comunismo storico novecentesco con la sua idolatria del Partito, riconoscendo oltremodo uno spessore ideologico al «capitalismo democratico» in cui si plaude alla fine delle ideologie novecentesche nell’accettazione ideologica della conformazione mercatistica del mondo. Superando le angustie di una riduzione della filosofia a ideologismo, la filosofia recupera un’istanza veritativa come presa di posizione rispetto alla totalità storica e sociale attuale: «La filosofia viene volgarmente concepita come espressione della situazione, e non come verità reale»… Source:blog.petiteplaisance.it

Historism and Historicism

by Karel Kosik

Marx's famous fragment on classical Greek art shares the fate of many a brilliant thought: the sediment of commentaries and a frequent overstatement of the obvious have obscured its true sense.1 Was Marx investigating the significance and the timeless character of antique art? Was he attempting to solve problems of art and beauty? Is the quote in question an isolated expression or is it related to his other views? What is its proper meaning? Why do those commentators fail who consider only its literal immediacy and see it as an invitation to resolve the question of the ideal character of Greek art? And why do also those interpreters fail who consider Marx's immediate answer as satisfactory, without pausing to question why the manuscript abruptly breaks off in the middle of an idea?

Download pdf file here