Jolanta Żelazna

Do we understand the emotions? (Sartre and Spinoza) Can the difficulties of the Spinozian theory of affects be explained by the use of the tool of phenomenology, employed by Sartre in Esquisse d'une Theorie des Emotions? The similarity of the method and views used in Ethics and Esquisse... suggests such an attempt is possible. Endeavours corresponding to the phenomenological reductions were made in Ethics, Spinoza, similarily to Husserl and Sartre, accepts the intuition and direct insight into the essence of things as the key to cognition. The article summarises the base common points of both theories. A complying answer of Sartre to the question in the title seems to result from a not precise epoche reduction, whereas the Spinoza's answer is directly incorporated into his theory.

Radical Enlightenment – Spinoza’s Demiurgic Role in the Formation of the Idea of Enlightenment? In his monograph devoted to the history of enlightenment, Radical Enlightenment. Philosophy and the Making of Modernity (1650-1750) British historian Jonathan Irvine Israel formulated a  new theory of dating, sources, and the nature of this period of history. Israel attributed a  major role in the formation of the concepts of enlightenment to the philosophy of Spinoza (1632-1677). The work has caused a series of controversies and criticisms concerning the assessment of facts related to the history of ideas. In this article I refer to interpretations of the role of Spinoza’s philosophy and its early reception between 1663-1678 when it had a direct influence. The political situation in the Netherlands in the period of 1648-1677 (i.e. from the gaining of independence to the death of Spinoza) and the fate of the philosophy of Descartes (since 1650) are two significant factors that played an important role in shaping the initial reception of Spinozism and determined the fate of that philosophy for a long time.

The translations of Holy Scripture to the local European languages in the beginning of Reformation were usually based on Latin Bible. It's language was vastly different from the dialects used by the Old Testament prophets and Christ. By raising the question of the contents of their teachings in A Theologico-Political Treatise, Spinoza underlined the necessity of basing the translations on the sources most approximate to the Hebrew versions of the parables and teachings, initially passed by oral speech only. According to him, the knowledge of the Hebrew language and the traditions of the nation of Israel allowed to distinguish the essence of religion (the contents of the faith) from the tools of providing credibility to the prophecies and from means serving the consolidation of these contents (the religious cult). Up to that point, Jews and Christians alike treated the biblical message as a "sacred" script, not as a record of moral guidelines passed with a simple, common language acommodated to the sensibility of the archaic fishermen, hunters, farmers and merchants. In A Theologico-Political Treatise, Spinoza employed his own method of deciphering the chosen fragments of the Hebrew Bible, sharing the philological and historical knowledge he found useful in bringing out the universal moral guidelines, comprehensible to the "pure mind" and comprising the very meaning of faith.

"Was heisst Denken?" - das ist die Frage die sich in Heideggers schriften vom Anfang seiner philosophischer Arbeit bis zum letzten Interviev zieht. Vorliegender Text ist eine Probe der Rekonstruktion des Gebiets um den diese Frage den Kreis des hermeneutischen Begreifens zieht. Er interpretiert auch ihre Bedeutung im Bereich der Kunst und der Philosophie. Das Problem des fragenden "Subjekts" wurde aber hier nicht beruhrt. Es ist ein Problem, welches die Moglichkeiten seiner Aufgliederung im einen kurzen Artikel weit uberschreitet. Vorliegender Artikel ist nur ein Teil einer umfangreicheren Arbeit, die der Beziehung des "wesentlichen Denkens" von Heidegger zu den - nach seiner art - "wesentlichen" Faden der Philosophie von F. Nietzsche gewidmet ist.