Kali Tribune

Tagged: Ontology

1

Knowledge / Podcast

Hegel, Marx and Sustainable Development: A Study in Incompatible, Pt.1

The ease with which a number of popular contemporary conservatives identify ontology and politics of sustainable development (aka 'degrowth', 'The Great Reset', 'green politics', etc.) with Marxism and its derivations is comparable only to their ignorance of the original philosophical assumptions of Karl Marx and their roots in classical German philosophy; ignorance that, in a peculiar sense, appears so blatant that it seems almost wilful. To set the record straight, in the series of podcasts we'll outline the rift existing between these two, modern and postmodern, totalitarian projects, based on their root assumptions. In the first episode we sketch the basic propositions of Hegel's metaphysics that inspired Marx' project.

0

Knowledge / Podcast

Basic Notions of Metaphysics: Univocal Concept of Being

In this episode of our ongoing series "Basic Notions of Metaphysics", we talk about univocal concept of being as explicated by John Duns Scotus. It is hard to overestimate the influence of the idea that being is an univocal concept, that is: the simple, indivisible and, above all, indifferent notion present in all other concepts - from the spec of dust to God Himself. We argue that univocity represents the point of departure from traditional metaphysics towards modernity and postmodernity; whereas, traditionally, being was understood as reality or act/ἐνέργειᾰ, with univocity it becomes a concept and hence opens the horizon of modern metaphysics with its conceptual systems and reliance on subjectivity. Naturally, we on KT have few objections about that.

q&a 0

Ask Kali / Podcast

KT Answers: What is Ontology?

In this episode of our regular Q&A podcast we answer the seemingly simple question, what is ontology? We delineate three thinkers and three notions of the primary philosophical science, out of which only one qualifies as ontology. Those thinkers are Christian Wolff, Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, whereas Wolff is the one who, in 18th Century, introduced ontology as a discipline in the "system of philosophical sciences". We proceed to demonstrate that ontology, as modern invention, is a far cry from what Aristotle and Aquinas considered inquiry into "being qua being" to be. Off course, there are number of random digressions into all kinds of related subjects, from traditional notion of genera/species relation, nature of ens universalis, Kant's blending of metaphysics with Wolffian system and more.

A Party for Scorpions 6

Essay / Miscellanea

Miscellanea: Of Freaks and Posthumans

Posthumanism is an ontology waiting for its metaphysics. While we, still human, wait until posthumans finally come to meet their shadow, why not enrich our understanding of the posthuman, not by reading or thinking, but by leisurely browsing through pictures?

q&a 0

Ask Kali / Podcast

KT Answers: Unterwegs zu Heidegger Cul-De-Sac, pt.2

In the second part of our Q&A on corrosive influence of Heidegger, we turn to actual (not in the sense of presence, but in the sense of energeia) texts, i.e. to concrete examples of how he misinterprets Aristole's notions of energeia, kinesis, entelehia.

We conclude with overall evaluation of Heidegger's influence and remarks on low grade philosophy found online.

aristotel-metafizika 2

Knowledge / Podcast

Basic Notions of Metaphysics: What is Metaphysics Anyway?

After going through a number of metaphysical notions, now, prompted by reader's query, we finally try to answer the simple question: what is metaphysics? The very fact that one can talk about metaphysics for a long time without explicitly defining what it is gives us an important clue about this type of knowledge, more common that most people think. We sum up some of the notions we expounded upon before and attempt to give definition of "science sought for" in both traditional sense and its modern, we would claim, misconception of the "system of science". Also we touch upon the possible reasons for shunning it by modern thinkers like adherents of "analytical" philosophy and say few words on technology and its latent metaphysical origin.

0

Knowledge / Podcast

Basic Notions of Metaphysics: Above and Below

In this podcast we talk about the traditional notion of Being and its unwarranted "deconstruction" by modern philosophers, premier among them being Martin Heidegger. As a starting point we take a passage from Boethius' De Trinitate  on how Being can never be a subject or substrate and juxtapose it to Heidegger's "phenomenological destruction of traditional ontology" which claims that Tradition does precisely the opposite. From there on we point out the importance of spacial metaphors in metaphysics, where what is "groundless" can mean both something below and something above. It is our contention that thinkers in the vein of Heidegger confuse this metaphysical above and below, and seek abyss where traditional thought sought heaven.

0

Knowledge / Podcast

Basic Notions of Metaphysics: On Being One and One Being

When someone says that being and one are convertible, what does this mean? In this podcast we'll explicate some of the distinctive qualities of this distinct indivisibility and undivided distinction. Also, we address the error of understanding explication of oneness as reduction to mathematical or physical unit, quite alien to traditional thought, and proneness of contemporary "back to origins" thinkers to perpetuating it especially when they're explicitly trying to refute it. We demonstrate how somewhat natural temptation to find one, indivisible and comprehensive historical point from which all the ills of our times can be explained is utterly in opposition to the One that transcends determinations and is the proper origin of time and what it brings forth.