Labyrinth: An International Journal for Philosophy, Value Theory and Sociocultural Hermeneutics
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"Nothing, Nothing, Nothing": Dostoevsky and Existentialism
Full text linkThe paper attempts to situate the work of Fyodor Dostoevsky in the tradition of Russian existentialism, and to indicate his influence on the subsequent development of existentialism in its ontological or ethical guise. In fact, Dostoevsky may be seen as the originator of a tradition which will later on influence and be taken up, via Nietzsche and Shestov, by the figures like Emanuel Levinas, Albert Camus or Maurice Blanchot, all explicitly concerned with existentialist questions of debt, guilt or suicide (Kirilov). Dostoevsky\u27s writings are also interpreted in relation to Russian nationalism, and the sense of Russian Messianic election, which at the end of Crime and Punishment coalesce in another destination for Raskolnikov, launching him towards a Messianic future prior to the Abrahamic time and monotheistic sacrificiality. The end of Crime and Punishment imagines another existence for Raskolnikov, before the religious history, or the history tout court, has taken place or time. That time space is akin to something that Jacques Derrida formulated as an advent of an event to-come, a-venir. Dostoevsky is thus, in our interpretation, both a progenitor of the important strains of existentialism, but also a writer returning his hero\u27s existence to an advent of a completely other, time before time, yet to come
Im "Labyrinth der Legitimitäten" und Ethosanalyse. Carl Schmitt und Herfried Münkler über die neuen Kriege und Krieger
Full text linkIn the "Labyrinth of Legitimacy" and Ethos Analysis. Carl Schmitt and Herfried Münkler on the New Wars and New Warriors
The article analyzes Münkler\u27s continuation of Carl Schmitt\u27s late work on international law in the book Kriegssplitter and emphasizes its divergent ethical approach
Gegenwärtige Aufgaben einer philosophischen Theorie kriegerischer Gewalt. Exposé zum Diskussionsschwerpunkt
Full text linkGerman Editorial to the Special Issue on Philosophical Theories of War: Contemporary Challenges and Discussions presenting an overview of the latest state of the debate. 
Repression in the Existential Lives of Dostoevsky’s Poor People
Full text linkThis paper explores Sigmund Freud\u27s concept of repression in the existential strife exhibited by two main characters, Makar Alexyevitch and Varvara Alexyevna, in Fyodor Dostoevsky\u27s Poor People. To demonstrate this, I psychoanalyze of how they handle their repressed desires, emphasizing the necessity of Freud\u27s main rule for this method: Openness. Dostoevsky\u27s Poor People presents an existential crisis handled through openness and mishandled when an individual represses one\u27s desires. In delving into Dostoevsky\u27s first novel, I demonstrate a link between the existential and psychological, wherein individuals strive to overcome themselves. Surprisingly, this link has a come a common influence between Dostoevsky and Freud: Immanuel Kant. I briefly discuss this shared similarity to show the basic idea of an "existential middle" derived from a Freudian psychoanalysis of Dostoevsky\u27s Poor People
Holy Saturday Between the Sublime and Beautiful: Fantastic Realism in Kristeva and Desmond\u27s Dostoevskian Ideal
Full text linkThis article examines Dostoevsky\u27s "fantastic realism," which challenges the explanation of rationalism or empiricism in the need for determinate categories fixed in nature. His use of paintings by Hans Holbein, Claude Lorrain, and Raphael in terms of the sublime and beautiful exemplify an understanding of Holy Saturday and its status between death and resurrection. Julia Kristeva\u27s reading of Dostoevsky\u27s melancholy as exemplifying a religious ideal and William Desmond\u27s metaxological philosophy allows us to propose a terminology that rhymes with Dostoevskian between-ness, a conclusion that does not resolve the space between the beautiful and the sublime but remains open to the confessional enigmatic liminality that is Holy Saturday
Contemporary Challenges for a Philosophical Theory of War. An Exposé
Full text linkEnglish Editorial of the special Issue on Philosophical Theories of War: Contemporary Challenges and Discussions giving an overview of the latest state of the debate.
Revisiting Gadamer\u27s Conception of Works of Art
No full textIn contrast to Kant\u27s aesthetic, Gadamer proposes a fundamentally different way of understanding our experiences of art. One that is not restricted by the dichotomy between subjectivity and objectivity: A work of art is not simply an object created by an artist, but a "world" in which all the "players" participate. This conception of art is inspired by the performing arts; but how much is it relevant to other forms of art? Gadamer never explored this question fully. It is of interest, therefore, to expand the analysis of Gadamer on two fronts: first, new forms of art such as installations and video games; second, artistic practices in East Asia, notably, the Japanese art of kintsugi and Chinese art of seals (zhāng). The analysis of these forms of art not only helps broaden the scope of Gadamer\u27s theory, but shows also that the insights found in his works are more relevant than ever
Krieg oder Frieden. Auf der Suche nach einem Tertium Datur
Full text linkThere is a consensus on war: violent conflicts are out. But they continue to happen. One likes to exclude violent conflicts and to avoid them. But they could happen. Avoidance of wars appears not be sufficient. International relations presuppose an international anarchy. Anarchy does not exclude wars, but reduces them to exceptions. The present essay attempts to argue in favour of a categorical exclusion of violent conflicts which easily could destroy vital conditions of human survival
A Short Prolegomena to the Philosophy of War, in Four Problems
Full text linkIs something like a true "philosophy of war"—understood as a coherent system of ideas, or a clearly articulated theoretical posture adequate to fully addressing the enduring chal-lenges of war on a properly philosophical register—at all possible? What follows is an attempt to outline, in four problems, the parameters of any future critique of a philosophy of war: the problem of categories, the problem of representation, the problem of violence, and finally the problem of peace. It is argued that within each horizon delimited by these four problems philosophy encounters a potential limit, one that raises fundamental doubts regarding the cogency of any philosophy of war considered as a systematic enterprise
Industrial Modernism and the Hegelian Dialectic in Winslow Homer
Full text linkThis paper looks at the themes of nature, humanity, and military and industrial development in the nineteenth century American painter Winslow Homer through the lens of the Hegelian theory of art. Robert Pippin\u27s After the Beautiful (2015) has recently put the Hegelian framework to very fruitful use in understanding pictorial modernism. This study of Homer follows a similar approach but argues that Homer\u27s canvases represent a development in the modern spirt which, in many ways, goes beyond the canvases of Manet – a very tight modernist contemporary of Homer\u27s. Homer communicates a presentment of the immense and, in certain profound respects, horrifying power of humanity\u27s growing industrialization. I trace the development of this idea over the course of his career, from this early Civil War canvases to his final seascapes and argue that an understanding of Homer\u27s work is important for understanding the modern spirit of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries