Autobiografia jako narzędzie badań historyka idei. Casus „Wspomnień niezależnego” Richarda Pipesa

The aim of the article is to develop a research tool for a historian of ideas in the form of an autobiography. It is about framing when a personal document meets the criteria of being a tool for a historian of political thought. The conclusions included the thought that the memories must be meta-considerations on the subject of written autobiography or an analysis of the problem of auto-biography within the framework of the created philosophy or history vision. Examples representing this narrative type were left by, among others, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Thomas Carlyle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Friedrich Nietzsche, Benedetto Croce, Robin G. Collingwood, and in Poland Stanisław Brzozowski. The volume of Richard Pipes’ memoirs, Memoirs of a Non-belonger, which is the foundation for the analysis, has also become part of the trend. The most important thinkers who have studied the issue of autobiography in depth include Wilhelm Dilthey and Georg Misch. The conclusions of the analysis are as follows: autobiography has a philosophical and epistemological meaning in the field of knowledge about human nature. In this sense, autobiography becomes part of anthropology, while anthropology is the foundation for the history of ideas, including political thought.

The meanings of scientific progress in the history of International Relations – selected cases

This article aims at reconstructing and interpreting the meanings of scientific progress present in selected important works within the discipline of International Relations (IR). This research objective stems from the gap in the literature concerning scientific progress in IR, as it is mostly concerned with the evaluation of the progressiveness of particular approaches, paradigms within the discipline. The reconstruction of meanings given by particular IR scholars to scientific progress is conducted only as far as its instrumental for the critique of their approaches and making room for the approaches of the critics. My objective is different – using a method inspired by the history of ideas and the research technique of qualitative content analysis, I will attempt to answer the following research questions: Q1 – How is the category of scientific progress of IR understood by particular scholars? Q2 – What are the contexts of its usage? Q3 – How can we interpret the rationale behind the employment of particular meanings in particular contexts? Q4 – How, on the basis of all cases, can we depict the flow of ideas of scientific progress through the history of IR? The cases selected span the development of IR from World War II to the early 2000s: Edward Carr’s The Twenty Years’ Crisis; Morton Kaplan’s texts from the early phase of the second great debate; John Vasquez’s The Power of Power Politics; and Miriam and Colin Elman’s Progress in International Relations Theory. On the basis of these cases I will argue that the notion of scientific progress in IR is an essentially contested concept within the discipline. Despite certain similarities in the meaning of the term among the cases – a cumulative notion of scientific progress – all of them are used in a way that is intended to legitimize the approach of a particular author as ‘properly scientific’. Another conclusion drawn is that although differing in kind, all of the cases consider important historical events that do not shape the meanings of progress themselves, but instead create a window of opportunity for particular meanings, as their context.

FLORENSKY’S PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS AND THE THEORY OF SETS OF CANTOR

The article considers the role of the idea of actual infinity in the works of Florensky. The introduction briefly traces the history of ideas about the actual infinity in European culture to the works of George Cantor. The reaction of European scientists and religious figures to the emergence of the “naïve” theory of Cantor sets is characterized. A detailed analysis of the connection between Florensky and George Cantor’s ideas is given. Many quotations from the 1904 work on the symbols of Infinity are given, which illustrate the influence of Cantor’s works on Florensky. The presentation of Florensky’s religious and philosophical ideas of Cantor about the actual infinity is given. Emphasized understanding Florensky transfinite numbers Cantor as symbols.

Is there a demand for “suggestion” and “counter-suggestion” concepts in modern social science?

Рассматриваются некоторые идеи Б.Ф. Поршнева, изложенные в его статье 50-летней давности «Контрсуггестия и история», характеризуется их место в истории идей от-носительно динамики социальных изменений, анализируемой, в частности, в трудах отечественных ученых прошлого. Обосновывается настоятельность введения в глоссарий современных социальных наук концепта «суггестия» и понятия «контрсуггестия», показана их релевантность на широком историческом материале и полях взаимодействия социальных субъектов. Отмечено, что суггестия и противостоящая ей контрсуггестия пронизывают массовые настроения и влияют на все общественные отношения, особенно в кризисные моменты. Обращается внимание на феномен инфодемии, усугубляющей, по заключению Всемирной организации здравоохранения, проявления пандемии коронавируса, а также на его корреляцию с суггестией. The article considers a number of ideas by B.F. Porshnev set forth 50 years ago in his article "Counter-suggestion and History", as well as its role in the history of ideas, especially in connection to the dynamics of social changes analyzed, in particular, in the works by Russian historians. The urgency of introducing the concept of "Suggestion" and the notion of "Сounter- Suggestion" into the glossary of modern social sciences is justified, as well as their relevance is shown in a wide range of historical material and fields of interaction of social subjects. It is noted that Suggestion and opposing Сounter-Suggestion permeate mass moods and affect all social relations, especially in crisis moments. Attention is drawn to the phenomenon of infodemia, which, according to the World Health Organization, exacerbates the manifestations of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as its correlation with suggestion.

British Literature and the Life of Institutions

Speculative States pursues two related goals, one reconstructive and literary-historical, the other conceptual. First, the book restores to view literature’s engagements with the slow politics of reform by linking the development of the institutional forms of the state to the aesthetic forms of literary writing. In doing so, it maps out a literary prehistory of the welfare state in Britain that spans the late Victorian and modernist periods. Second, the book also makes visible an ambitious reformist idiom which insists that we think about the state as an aspirational (speculative) figure—as a form of life in its own right rather than as a set of detached administrative procedures and bureaucratic processes. Placing literary studies in dialogue with political theory, philosophy, and the history of ideas, Speculative States marks a major contribution to current debates about literature and the state, but it also centrally intervenes in conversations in critical theory by urging a fuller engagement with the critical and speculative dimensions of the dialectical imagination.

Totalitarianisms as political religions in the 20th century

Despite all contents of secularisation, a certain kind of religious element is important in every modern totalitarian system, like Communism or National Socialism. Therefore, totalitarian systems can be regarded as political religions. The following historical and philosophical reflections on the history of ideas of political religions will contain three major parts: First, early uses of the concept ‘political religion’ by Campanella and Clasen in the 16th and 17th centuries will be considered, then the interpretation of totalitarianism as political religion will be analysed, with regards to Eric Voegelin, Raymond Aron and several ramifications, and finally, the perspective of political messianism in Jacob Leib Talmon’s work will be discussed.

Explanation and Understanding as Methods of Historical and Biographical Cognition

Traditionally, explanation is considered to be the method of natural sciences and understanding to be the method of humanities. However, this paper considers both to be methods of history. Namely, the author focuses on how explanation and understanding function in history in general and in biography in particular. Referring to biographical realm helps explicate the specifics of explanation and understanding as well as broaden the view about their uses in humanities. In the first part, the author refers to explanation and understanding in history as such. In particular, causal explanation (explanatory sketch by Karl Hempel) and rational explanation (history of ideas by Mark Bevir) are considered in the paper along with the relationship of hermeneutic notion of understanding with the two. The second part of the paper deals with the functioning of explanation and understanding in biographical research. Namely, it considers biographical understanding by Tilmann Habermas and Neşe Hatiboğlu as well as cases of causal and rational explanations in biographical research. In particular, it is shown that while causal explanation occurs in biography as explanatory sketch, it is not a separate distinct notion. It is also shown that rational explanation is used in biographical reconstructions in order to clarify the influence of particular events on beliefs of people. Based on the materials involved, the author demonstrates the specifics of explanation and understanding in biography compared to their usage in historical cognition in general.

Rethinking the Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty: Perceptions and Receptions Within Egyptian Society (1977–1982)

The Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty marked a new era in the history of the Arab–Israeli conflict. Relying methodologically on the history of ideas and diplomatic history, this article sheds light on the diversity of the perceptions and receptions of peace and relations with Israel as manifested by two influential Egyptian public opinion shapers who represented polar approaches—the mouthpiece of the Muslim Brothers—the journal Al-Da‘wa and Rūz al-Yūsuf, the semi-independent liberal weekly with a moderate left bias. The timeframe is 1977–1982—from Sadat’s historical visit to Jerusalem to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its impact on the budding Israeli–Egyptian relations.