This paper addresses Peter Sloterdijk's optimistic 'attitude'. I show that it is a philosophical posture based on pragmatic speculation and spiritual exercise. By situating it in a tradition that passes from Leibniz's meliorism to Whitehead's ecology of propositions, I argue that optimism is an essential component of a public use of reason of which the finality is no longer the good sense of critique but of the care for common sense. At stake is the cosmological and cosmopolitical care for the possibility of rationalization processes in a 'monstruous world' of ever denser feedback mechanisms.
The essay, celebrating the 70th birthday of the German author, essayist and philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, focuses on the main discrepancies in his opinions in the period between his Critique of Cynical Reason (1983) and the current social-critical and political engagement (Die nehmende Hand und die gebende Seite, 2010 - Was geschah im 20. Jahrhundert?, 2016, including his confrontational polemics in the journal Cicero between 2014–2017). The author poses two questions: a) Did Sloterdijk's readers consider his opinions a genuine critical philosophy, while they concealed what Hegel marked as "gloss of uncommonness" of original conservativism? b) When and how can philosophical theories achieve an acceptable level of trustworthiness? The answers mark the determinants of Sloterdijk's anthropology, generally falling under the concept of "Anthropocene" and relying on several theories. The author highlights Sloterdijk’s theory of borders and his economic theory of the replacement of the tax system by a system of donation and charity. He also points out that Sloterdijk does not present any relevant arguments or explanations of practical implications of his theories. Instead he limits himself to moralistic and journalistic claims.
The text refers to Peter Sloterdijk's maybe most famous book which entails a long chapter about the Weimar Republic. This short time period of German history is seen as an exemplary historical example for a situation in which cynical thinking becomes general. In his first prominent book, he changed the leftist images and the narratives of Weimar Republic after 1968 as a laboratory for modernism and of a tragic end of revolutionary efforts. Instead the first democracy was presented as an apocalyptical period in which cold intellectual affirmation was dominant. As the text argues, Sloterdijk widens the concept of cynical thinking in a way that seems to be problematic. His argumentation discusses melancholy, nihilism, social and cultural discontent under the terminological umbrella of the "cynic".
Máme tři hlavní teorie blahobytu. První je hédonismus. To je teze, že blahobyt jednotlivce zcela závisí na tom, jak se cítí. Blahobyt prostě spočívá v potěšení. Pro člověka je dobré, aby ve svém životě prožíval příjemné zážitky. A je pro něj špatné, aby trpěl. Nejlepší život je pak takový, který znamená největší možnou převahu potěšení nad bolestí. Druhá je teorie touhy, která znamená, že něco je pro někoho dobré, protože to splňuje jeho touhu. Je na tom lépe do té míry, do jaké dostane to, po čem touží. Blahobyt tedy spočívá v realizaci subjektivních preferencí. Třetí teorie blahobytu je perfekcionismus. To je názor, že pro člověka je dobré, aby rozvíjel schopnosti, které jsou charakteristické pro lidský druh. Tyto schopnosti zahrnují zejména racionalitu, teoretickou i praktickou. Blahobyt spočívá v sebe-zdokonalování, v životě excelentní a ctnostné aktivity, resp. v dobrém fungování lidské bytosti. Počiny, jako jsou úspěšné projekty, poznání, estetická zkušenost, rodičovství a přátelství, jsou konstitutivní pro naši lidskou prosperitu. V tomto článku dospívám k závěru, že tyto tři konkurenční teorie ztělesňují odlišné koncepce autenticity. and We have three main theories of well-being. The first theory is hedonism. It is the thesis that individual well-being wholly depends on how he feels. Well-being simply consists in pleasure. What is good for him is the enjoyable experiences in his life. And what is bad for him is the suffering in his life. The best life is that with the greatest balance of pleasure over pain. The second one is the desire theory. It means that something is good for someone because it fulfils his desire. He is better off insofar as he gets what he wants. Briefly, well-being consists in the realization of subjective preferences. The third theory of well-being is perfectionism. It is the view that the development of certain characteristically human capacities is good. These capacities include, in the first place, our rationality, both theoretical and practical. Well-being consists in the self-perfection, in a life of excellent or virtuous activity, or well-functioning as human being. Endeavours such as achievements, knowledge, aesthetical experience, parenting and close friendships constitute our human flourishing. In this paper I conclude, that these three rival theories represent different conceptions of authenticity.
Kapitola X., Zánik středověku, v které běží o otázku, zda je náš rytíř figurou potvrzující středověk. Don Quijote začíná jako retro-rytíř. Krámuje kusy brnění svých prarodičů. Jeho cíl je, zdá se, inspirován středověce. Ve středověku existovali rytíři, v době Dona Quijote již ne. Přesto se v tomto románu bezúspěšně pátrá po potvrzení věku zvaného "medium aevum". Je tento věk potvrzen alespoň skrytě? Anebo zjistíme, podíváme-li se na jádro našeho caballero andante, že je jen středověkým převlekem pro opuštění středověku? Následující, zeširoka pojatá "dřevořezba", dává na tuto otázku jednoznačnou odpověď.
Předkládaná studie je úvodem k textu Filozof, jehož autorem je francouzský gramatik a filozof César Chesneau Du Marsais (1676-1756). Po stručné charakteristice autora a jeho díla jsou představeny nejvýznamnější edice textu Filozof v 18. století: první vydání v roce 1743, anonymní verze v Encyklopedii a Voltairova edice z roku 1773. and The paper deals with the text Philosopher by French grammarian and philosopher César Chesneau Du Marsais (1676-1756). After an introduction to life and work of Du Marsais, there is a presentation of the most important editions of Philosopher in the 18th century: first publication in 1743, an anonymous version in the Encyclopédie and Voltaire's edition from 1773.