Books by Gustav Melichar
Die Stellung des ontologischen Gottesbeweises in der Hegelschen Philosophie ist rätselhaft. Die v... more Die Stellung des ontologischen Gottesbeweises in der Hegelschen Philosophie ist rätselhaft. Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt, warum Hegel guten Grund hat, die philosophische Theologie systematisch aufzugreifen: Kants Widerlegungsversuch vermag nicht zu überzeugen. Dennoch richtet sich Hegels Interesse auf Voraussetzungen und Hintergrundfragen des ontologischen Argumentes. Die Voraussetzungen zu begründen und das ontologische Argumente systematisch zu integrieren, ist einer der Hauptstränge der Wissenschaft der Logik, wie die Arbeit zeigt.
Papers by Gustav Melichar
The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 2023
Ancient philosophy has been a source of inspiration for contemporary philosophy in recent decades... more Ancient philosophy has been a source of inspiration for contemporary philosophy in recent decades. An outstanding example is the renaissance of hylomorphism in the field of philosophy of biology. For the philosophy of mind, hylomorphism has been little discussed so far. Therefore, ancient models in the philosophy of mind are still of interest. This article argues that Plato’s Phaedo can act as a source for contemporary debates. As a starting point, Simmias’s objections to the immortality of the soul are analyzed. Plato does not simply reject these objections, but introduces conditions for a hylomorphistic understanding of the soul in Socrates’ reply. These conditions are the following: (A) the mind supervenes on the body; (B) this supervenience must allow the strong emergence of the mind; (C) the mind comprises causal powers; (D) teleological explanations are a necessary ingredient of a suitable model for the mind-body problem. With these conditions, Plato already introduces central components that are present in contemporary philosophical debates, but have not yet been unified into a hylomorphistic concept in the philosophy of mind. The present article proposes this unification.
Zeitschrift für Ethik und Moralphilosophie, 2022
Vertrauen in andere Menschen und unsere Umwelt ist zweifellos eine der Voraussetzungen für den so... more Vertrauen in andere Menschen und unsere Umwelt ist zweifellos eine der Voraussetzungen für den sozialen Zusammenhalt im Allgemeinen, aber auch für ein gelingendes Leben des Einzelnen. In der Philosophie hat Vertrauen als zentrales Thema in den letzten drei Jahrzehnten verstärkte Aufmerksamkeit erfahren. Viele der Konzeptualisierungen verstehen Vertrauen als eine Erwartung von Verlässlichkeit, der ein weiterer Faktor hinzugefügt wird. Im Gegensatz dazu wird im vorliegenden Artikel argumentiert, dass Vertrauen in einer Haltung besteht, die die autonomen Ziele anderer Wesen mit den eigenen Zwecken in Einklang setzt. Diese Haltung wird aufgrund ihrer lebensweltlichen Grundlage der Zielorientierung als aristotelische Haltung charakterisiert. Dass Lebewesen zielorientiert sind, wird in Anlehnung an die Philosophie der Biologie von Hans Jonas und den Enaktivismus erklärt. Die Fähigkeit, diese Zielorientierung wahrzunehmen, wird in dem Artikel mit Hilfe der entwicklungspsychologischen Theorie von Tomassello und dem phänomenologischen Verständnis von Empathie analysiert. Um die Fruchtbarkeit des so entfalteten Vertrauensbegriffs zu demonstrieren, wird schließlich gezeigt, wie Vertrauen als zentraler Baustein im Kontext von Psychotherapien wirksam wird.
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 2022
In 2020, M. Summa developed a promising approach to understanding the concept of illness. This ap... more In 2020, M. Summa developed a promising approach to understanding the concept of illness. This approach combines a theory of organisms with Responsive Phenomenology to gain a concept of illness. Following on from this, the present article shows that the normative presuppositions can be further explicated and justified by drawing on the theoretical resources of Aristotelian naturalism as propounded by Michael Thompson. Aristotelian naturalism does provide a theoretical option to grasp the normative foundations of human life. However, this article argues that Aristotelian naturalism requires another criterion besides human nature to make the concept of illness intelligible. Following John McDowell’s critique of Aristotelian naturalism, it will be shown that this criterion consists in the capacity for autonomy. From this a concept of (mental) illness is developed which describes an impairment of the self-regulated and autonomous realisation of the human form of life.
Kant-Studien, 2020
The relation between Kant’s conception of modalities in the Postulates of Empirical Thought and H... more The relation between Kant’s conception of modalities in the Postulates of Empirical Thought and Hegel’s conception in the Logic of Essence has not been addressed in the current scholarship. I argue that there is in fact a close connection that becomes visible if the desideratum which is implied by Kant’s conceptions is understood. Thus, after an analysis of the Kantian modal postulates, the article shows that they are sufficient to characterize the necessity of Kant’s Grundsätze and, hence, a specific form of synthetic propositions a priori. However, I will prove that they are insufficient to characterize Kant’s synthetic propositions a priori about transcendental philosophy. This insufficiency in the characterization of transcendental philosophy itself brings into the arena Hegel, who supplements the Kantian modalities with a self-reflexive form of transcendental modality.
Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, 2021
In his Encyclopedia , the late Hegel makes the highest demands on truth and justification from th... more In his Encyclopedia , the late Hegel makes the highest demands on truth and justification from the first paragraph onward. With this, Hegel takes up the skeptical challenge and believes that he can overcome this problem. However, it is not easy to see how Hegel tries to meet this challenge in the Science of Logic, which plays a fundamental role in Hegel’s encyclopedic project. The present article argues that the question of the justification of the claim to truth is a fruitful perspective for the interpretation of the Science of Logic . For this purpose Hegel’s answer to the Agrippan Trilemma is examined, which P. Franks analyzed as a basic problem for Classical German Philosophy. One possible interpretation of Hegel sees him solving the skeptical trilemma at the beginning of the Logic . The article argues against this possibility that the Logic of the Concept contains Hegel’s actual solution. This solution consists in (1) that the concept represents the principle of logic and (2) that the concept itself must be presented in the form of an apagogical argument. Finally, the article gives a reason why Hegel sees an analogy to the ontological argument in this attempt of an ultimate justification.
Kant-Studien, 2020
The relation between Kant’s conception of modalities in the Postulates of Empirical Thought and H... more The relation between Kant’s conception of modalities in the Postulates of Empirical Thought and Hegel’s conception in the Logic of Essence has not been addressed in the current scholarship. I argue that there is in fact a close connection that becomes visible if the desideratum which is implied by Kant’s conceptions is understood. Thus, after an analysis of the Kantian modal postulates, the article shows that they are sufficient to characterize the necessity of Kant’s Grundsätze and, hence, a specific form of synthetic propositions a priori. However, I will prove that they are insufficient to characterize Kant’s synthetic propositions a priori about transcendental philosophy. This insufficiency in the characterization of transcendental philosophy itself brings into the arena Hegel, who supplements the Kantian modalities with a self-reflexive form of transcendental modality.
philosophical inquiries, 2019
Neo-Aristotelian metaethics is conceived as a suitable alternative to a Kantian-style ethics. Ins... more Neo-Aristotelian metaethics is conceived as a suitable alternative to a Kantian-style ethics. Instead of grounding moral duties in practical reason and an abstract and categorical imperative, the appeal to the concept of human nature promises a rich and detailed picture of virtues and vices. As an objection by John McDowell indicates, practical reason turns out to be crucial for the concept of human nature as well. In Hegel’s philosophy of the subjective spirit, we can find an early attempt to combine the Kantian and the Aristotelian approaches. The attempt is still interesting because of the interpretation of human faculties as directed towards the capacity for practical reasoning. This paper presents Hegel’s argument as the attempt to transcendentalize the concept of human nature and as offering a synthetic metaethical stance.
Zeitschrift für Ethik und Moralphilosophie, 2020
Book Reviews by Gustav Melichar
Zeitschrift für philosophische Literatur, 2018
Philosophischer Literaturanzeiger 71 , 2018
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Books by Gustav Melichar
Papers by Gustav Melichar
Book Reviews by Gustav Melichar