Odo Marquard

El presente artículo trabaja la teoría de Marquard y su comprensión del ser humano como Homo Compensator, que permite superar los problemas que enfrenta la modernidad subsumida en el dilema de la gnosis que, ante la falta de un sentido absoluto, no logra comprender el problema del mal. Así, se propone demostrar la pertinencia de la reflexión de la antropología filosófica actual frente a la pregunta por el sentido de la vida humana. El presente texto consta de tres momentos: en el primero, se presenta la lectura de Marquard acerca del modo en que la modernidad trató de responder al problema del mal desde la teodicea y la filosofía de la historia; posteriormente, ante el fracaso de tales soluciones se muestra, la propuesta marquartiana de la compensación como la búsqueda de sentido sucedáneo dentro del marco de una filosofía de la finitud que aboga por el sentido retórico-narrativo; finalmente, concluye con el problema de lo incompensable y el dilema que genera para la comprensión del...

O objetivo deste artigo é investigar o papel desempenhado pela linguagem mítica no romance O complexo de Portnoy, de Philip Roth. O referencial teórico utilizado é composto da crítica do monomito, de Odo Marquard, e a teoria da fala mítica, de Roland Barthes. Nossa hipótese considera que todo o impulso à perversão de Alexander Portnoy estaria estruturado em torno do problema da posição do significante no interior da linguagem mítica.

Hans Blumenberg (1920-1996) é um dos maiores filósofos da segunda metade do século XX. Autor de uma obra gigantesca, o seu estilo sinuoso não parece conter nenhuma tese fundamental, ainda que se ramifique por entre temas tão diversos tais como a metaforologia, o desenvolvimento da racionalidade científica, o historicismo ou as fragilidades da fenomenologia. O pensamento blumenberguiano manifesta o esforço mais radical para pensar o falhanço de qualquer forma de metafísica, o fracasso de todos os absolutismos: ontológicos, teológicos, científicos e de qualquer realismo. Entre as ruínas da metafísica, este lúcido herdeiro do Iluminismo dedica-se ao paciente trabalho de devolver à razão uma margem de manobra face aos absolutismos que escondem o carácter contingente do sóbrio trabalho de uma razão que se assume como finita. E se a nossa circunstância é o horizonte de uma Modernidade inultrapassável, a nossa situação apela para a reactivação possível do projecto kantiano: o de uma radical antropologia filosófica.

Presentación
«La Filosofía de Castlevania» contiene un análisis filosófico de la saga de Castlevania, a partir de los videojuegos clásicos, la serie de Netflix y la saga de Lords of Shadow. Los presupuestos filosóficos de este análisis se remontan a una Filosofía de la Compensación, tal y como la concibió Odo Marquard (1929-2015) en sus textos. Así mismo, la figura de Kierkegaard es fundamental para nuestra interpretación.

Como es evidente, se trata de un libro de filosofía y videojuegos, y no tememos ir de conceptos filosóficos a las mecánicas de juego en una misma reflexión. Consideramos que se trata de un ejercicio valioso, porque abre un espacio, de investigación y divulgación de las relaciones entre filosofía y videojuegos. Este trabajo surge a partir de un canal de youtube "Filosofía y Videojuegos" creado en la pandemia de Covid, en el 2020. Los videos que hemos compartido allí nos han brindado insumos e ideas para redactar este libro.

Adicionalmente, quiero contar que este libro tiene un origen curioso. Lo escribí para mi cumpleaños número cuarenta, pues empieza la década y quiero pensar que apenas voy en la mitad de mi vida. En tanto filósofo, la pregunta por la vida coincide con la pregunta por la muerte y reflexionar sobre la una implica, necesariamente, una reflexión sobre la otra. Y en tanto amante de los videojuegos, esta pregunta se me presenta cuando tomo un control y caigo una y otra vez por los precipicios de un juego.

Contenido

La tesis que defendemos es clara: Drácula, en particular la versión de Castlevania, se vuelve el arquetipo del ser humano contemporáneo que, ante la ausencia de Dios y bajo el peso de sus propios dolores, construye una narrativa de dolor y soledad. Para desarrollar esta tesis, seguiremos el camino formulado por el filósofo Odo Marquard, quien considera que la historia de la filosofía moderna se desarrolla como una filosofía de la compensación ante la pérdida, ante lo que no logramos, ante lo que anhelamos y ante lo que nos despedimos. Así, esta filosofía de la compensación ha mostrado que el proyecto moderno por comprender el dolor inicia la Teodicea, pero fracasa por la parcialidad de sus respuestas. Tras la teodicea, surge la filosofía de la historia, como un intento por adoptar el puesto de un Dios ausente; mas tal camino falla por utilizar siempre una coartada, a futuro, que promete una mejora del presente que nunca llega. Finalmente, tras la filosofía de la historia, se abre el camino de la antropología, como la pregunta por el ser humano que sufre y los modos en que compensa su propio dolor.

Por ello, hemos dividido el corpus del trabajo en tres capítulos:

    1. La Teodicea Fallida y el origen de Drácula
    2. Una Filosofía de la Historia de la sangre
    3. ¿Qué es el hombre? - Una miserable pila de secretos.

Desarrollamos estos tres capítulos desarrollando, a su vez, diversos apartados en los que articulamos temas tan sugerentes como: el fracaso de toda teodicea; el origen de Drácula en Castlevania Lament of Innocence; la Historia como maldición en Dracula's Curse o en Simon's Quest, asi como la monstruosidad del hombre sin Dios, un apartado maravilloso en el que trabajamos las conversaciones que tiene Isaac con el monstruo-filósofo en la serie de Netflix.

¿Quién es el lector del libro?

Este libro está escrito para todos los fans de la saga de Castlevania y entusiastas de la filosofía, así como a los investigadores en Filosofía y Videojuegos. Espero que disfruten la lectura de esta obra y que podamos encontrarnos en algún momento para compartir sus impresiones acerca de las ideas aquí expuestas.

Finalmente, no me queda sino agradecer que hayas leido esta presentación. El libro entero se puede conseguir en amazon:

https://www.amazon.com.mx/Filosof%C3%ADa-Castlevania-Manuel-Dar%C3%ADo-Palacio-ebook/dp/B09RMKRGJJ

Que los cielos nos miren con su beneplácito.

Den Kontext dieser Arbeit bildet die Säkularisierungsdebatte der 1960er Jahre in Deutschland, genauer das sogenannte „Säkularisierungstheorem“, demzufolge viele als originell neuzeitlich geltende, das moderne Selbstverständnis prägende Inhalte und Konzepte tatsächlich säkularisierte christliche sind. Das Thema dieser Arbeit ist Hans Blumenbergs Kritik am Säkularisierungstheorem, die dieser im ersten Teil seiner Legitimität der Neuzeit vortrug und in welchem er sich insbesondere mit den Theorien Löwiths, Gadamers, Kosellecks und Schmitts befasst. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, 1/ ein geistesgeschichtliches Panorama der Säkularisierungsdebatte zu entwerfen, unter Berücksichtigung der Begriffsgeschichte von „Säkularisierung“ sowie des Gebrauchs der Kategorie Säkularisierung in verschiedenen Kontexten, 2/ eine konzise Darstellung der philosophischen Position Hans Blumenbergs in der Debatte sowie der Grundprinzipien einer Phänomenologie der Geschichte zu geben, 3/ eine Analyse der Argumente Blumenbergs unter rhetorischen Gesichtspunkten zu skizzieren. Die Methodologie der Arbeit ist a) geistesgeschichtlich: die jeweiligen Positionen und Argumente der Protagonisten werden als Beitrag zu einer größeren Debatte und als solche immer in ihrem Kontext betrachtet, wobei eine dynamische Darstellung der Grundgedanken und philosophischen Kernthesen der Autoren angestrebt wird; b) hermeneutisch: die Kernthesen der Geschichtsphilosophie Blumenbergs sowie die Grundlagen und Voraussetzungen der Theorien seiner Kontrahenten werden erschlossen; c) argumentationstheoretisch: der Standpunkt, von dem aus Blumenberg seine Thesen zur Geschichte formuliert sowie die Taktik, derer er sich in der Konfrontation bedient, werden untersucht.

Stanisław Czerniak: Helmuth Plessner: Philosophical Anthropology as Social Critique
Stanisław Czerniak: The Category of “Contingency” in Contemporary Anthropological Discourse. Odo Marquard, Richard Rorty, Jürgen Habermas
Stanisław Czerniak : Max Scheler—Bernhard Waldenfels. Two Phenomenological Conceptions of Suffering
Stanisław Czerniak: The Philosophical Anthropology of Arnold Gehlen as a Critique of the Age of Technology
Gernot Böhme: Self-Cultivation according to Immanuel Kant
Christoph Wulf: Towards a Historical Cultural Anthropology
Paweł Dybel: Man, Animal and Mirror. Origins of the Human “I” according to Helmuth Plessner and Jacques Lacan
Volker Schürmann:  What Is Sceptical Anthropology?
Giorgio Derossi: Beyond “Wesenschau:” The Merleau-Ponty “Ambiguity” between Sensation and Perception
Serena Cataruzza: The Aesthetic Theory of Gernot Böhme and Gestalt Phenomenology
Rafał Michalski: Arnold Gehlen’s Anthropological Theory of Institution
Andrzej Gniazdowski: The Political Anthropology of Edmund Husserl
Alice Pugliese: Play and Self-Reflection. Eugen Fink’s Phenomenological Anthropology
Saulius Geniušas: Musical Works as Ideal Objects: Phenomenology of Music and Its Implications for Philosophical Anthropology
Jagna Brudzińska: Lived Body and Intentional Embodiment. New Perspectives on Phenomenological Anthropology

This paper explores the themes of nature, perception, compensation, and history in selected poems of Seamus Heaney and John Sheahan. This opens up a link to the philosophy of Odo Marquard who - at least partly - worked on the same topics and put them together in what he called 'theory of compensation'.
The paper is a contribution to a festschrift I edited for Bert Hornback's 80th birthday and it is thus not always written in a thoroughly formal and academic way. The festschrift has only been published as a single copy issue so far to make it particularly special. The editor and contributors will consider to re-work the festschrift for publication purposes though. It contains essays from German and Irish contributors working in Irish Historical Studies, British and Irish Literature, Philosophy, French Studies, Psychology, Sociology, and Ancient History.

La posibilidad de que hoy lo humano tenga cabida y significado en un mundo indiferente a su realidad depende de la elaboración prosaica de mundos con sentido, tarea en la que diariamente todos nos empeñamos. Nuestra esencial carencia de esencia nos lanza a la tarea de nadar, dando rodeos para dilatar el naufragio. Por ello, el sentido del hombre habita más en el trabajo de mantenernos a flote que en el arribo a un puerto definitivo, más en el arte de sobrevivir en alta mar con los recursos que disponemos a la mano para no ahogarnos, que en dominar las corrientes venciendo el mar en una nave totalmente segura. Inquietud flotante, que ha de aprender a oscilar con los vaivenes del océano, somos una nave hecha con las olas. La nave que somos.
El libro aborda la problemática antropológica desde una perspectiva filosófica, en el marco de las tradiciones fenomenológicas, hermenéuticas y deconstructivas contemporáneas, que han encontrado en las obras de Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida y Hans Blumenberg, destacados representantes. En el trasfondo de estas navegaciones resuena, sin ser dominante, un diálogo con el pensamiento reaccionario de Nicolás Gómez Dávila y las críticas de fondo al proyecto antropológico de la modernidad.

The FM and ToC of this volume are freely accessible.

Two chapters are OpenAccess (#2 and #13); see below.
Chapter 2 includes summaries of all further chapters.

The volume is available from the publisher:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110701654


See the review by Alexander Waszynski (in German):

Waszynski, Alexander. “Review. DS Mayfield: Rhetoric and Contingency: Aristotle, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Blumenberg”. Arcadia 56.1 (June: 2021): 105–113.

Available from the publisher:
https://doi.org/10.1515/arcadia-2021-9024.

A talk given on the 10th of May at the University of Warsaw, Poland, during a workshop with staff and students from the University of Warsaw and Saarland University, Germany.
This talk is a shortened version of '"To set the darkness echoing". The Role of Nature in Heaney's Poetry and Marquard's Philosophy', and essay I wrote on the occasion of Prof. Bert Hornback's 80th birthday and which can be found in the respective festschrift entitled 'Think Pieces - Food for Thought. A Festschrift Dedicated to Bert Hornback'.

In "Reti di storie" Wilhelm Schapp, allievo di Husserl, espone per la prima volta al grande pubblico il pensiero portante della sua "filosofia delle storie". Nell'impianto teoretico del pensatore, le storie rappresentano il fenomeno originario, gli elementi ultimi oltre i quali l'indagine filosofica non può procedere. Ogni uomo, questa la tesi, si trova fin dalla nascita avvolto in un fascio di storie. Questa condizione d'involgimento essenziale viene felicemente espressa dalla frase più celebre dell'opera: "La storia sta per l'uomo". Con essa, l'autore ci vuole dire che l'unica chiave d'accesso all'essere dell'uomo è la comprensione del contesto dinamico di storie in cui egli è costantemente irretito. Nella condizione strutturale e ineliminabile dell'irretimento, cose e persone ci si fanno incontro come centri irradianti storie. Il nostro prendere parte a una storia anziché a un'altra determina quindi, di volta in volta, chi o cosa siamo.

The paper proposes a comparison between the “classic” philosophical anthropology of the XX century and Karl Löwith’s thought, through a dialog with Joachim Fischer’s 2008 book, Philosophische Anthropologie. Eine Denkrichtung des 20. Jahrhunderts.

Aus Joachim Ritters »Collegium Philosophicum« sind bedeutende Vertreter der deutschen Gegenwartsphilosophie hervorgegangen, darunter Hermann Lübbe, Odo Marquard und Robert Spaemann. Einige von ihnen wirkten als Publizisten und Sachverständige, in politischen Ämtern und Gremien, in Rechtswesen oder Kirche weit über die akademische Sphäre hinaus. Diese »Ritter-Schule« hat den wissenschaftlichen Diskurs und das geistige Leben der Bundesrepublik geprägt, etwa in den Auseinandersetzungen um die Grundlagen der freiheitlich-demokratischen Ordnung, die Erneuerung der praktischen Philosophie oder die Aufgabe der Geisteswissenschaften. Heute tritt die Bedeutung des Kreises zunehmend hervor und wird im Horizont aktueller Debatten um Zivilgesellschaft, Geschichtskultur und die Rückkehr der Religion erörtert.

Al iniciar la fundamentación histórica y psicológica de la denominada Teoría de las concepciones del mundo, Dilthey presenta un diagnóstico de la esfera intelectual, en la que la comprensión de la historia se ha opuesto al desarrollo de la filosofía. Quizás esta contraposición en nuestros tiempos no sea tan vigente, más tras los desarrollos de las grandes teorías de la historia del siglo XX que han dejado de lado las tradicionales filosofías de la historia. Sin embargo, hoy nos enfrentamos a un oscuro sentimiento que vuelve a contraponer la historia con la filosofía: no se trata ya de la discusión decimonónica entre esencias metafísicas y acontecimientos históricos; hoy hablamos de una tensión que es más elemental y consiste entre un presentimiento del fin de las cosas y una comprensión filosófica del mismo.

Von Joachim Ritter (1903-1974) gingen entscheidende Beiträge zum philosophischen Diskurs der Bundesrepublik aus, etwa hinsichtlich der Rolle der Geisteswissenschaften in der modernen Industriegesellschaft, der Erneuerung der praktischen Philosophie oder des Sinns theoretischer Bildung. Darüber hinaus hat sein hochschul- und wissenschaftspolitischer Einsatz sowohl den Wiederaufbau universitärer Strukturen nach dem Krieg als auch ihre Reform im Laufe der folgenden Jahrzehnte maßgeblich mitgetragen und so auch die institutionelle Verfassung akademischer Forschung und Lehre nachhaltig geprägt. Viele seiner Schüler wurden bedeutende Gelehrte der Bundesrepublik und wirkten als Publizisten und Sachverständige, in politischen Ämtern und hochschulpolitischen Gremien, im Rechtswesen oder in kirchlichem Auftrag zum Teil weit über den akademischen Wissenschaftsbetrieb selbst hinaus. Mit dieser Arbeit liegt die erste systematische Gesamtdarstellung von Joachim Ritters Werk vor. Sie interpretiert seine Philosophie als eine philosophische Theorie der modernen Welt, die sowohl der weltgeschichtlichen Bedeutung der Moderne als auch ihrer inneren Problematik und Gefährdung gerecht zu werden sucht. Im Zuge dessen werden auch Ritters wegweisende Überlegungen zur praktischen Philosophie sowie seine Konzeption von Philosophie als Hermeneutik der geschichtlichen Wirklichkeit in den Blick genommen. Ein Ausblick zur Wirkung Joachim Ritters unter seinen Schülern Hermann Lübbe, Odo Marquard und Robert Spaemann sowie zur Aktualität seines Denkens schließt den Band ab.

This article reconstructs and interprets the evolution of the Minoan myth's reception in literature, fine arts, and urban development during the twentieth century. The author's understanding of this evolution is based on three assumptions: a) myth is a polysemantic symbol of metaphysical and historical origins and function; b) myth reflects the relationship of the cognitive vs. creative mechanisms of human activity; and c) as symbolic, myth's form must be treated as an image as much as it is a (discursive) narrative. As a motif in literature and the arts, the Minoan myth in particular has displayed all three of these aspects by allowing first its heroic narrative and, more recently, its formal structure (i.e., the tragic maze of moral and intellectual values) and visual setting (i.e., the actual labyrinth) to serve as porte-paroles of ongoing social and civilisational transformations: aestheticisation, deconstruction of cognitive and political hierarchies , technicisation, and intensive urbanisation. The displacement of the narrative and of the figure of the Minotaur is interpreted from the perspectives of psychoanalysis and post-structuralism.

Die Bedeutung Joachim Ritters und seiner Schüler für philosophische, politische, gesellschaftstheoretische und geistes- bzw. kulturwissenschaftliche Diskussionen der Gegenwart.

Der Kreis um den Philosophen Joachim Ritter wird zunehmend als ein »Zentrum der jüngeren Geistesgeschichte« (Uwe Justus Wenzel) entdeckt. Aus ihm sind einige der einflussreichsten Wissenschaftler und Intellektuellen der Bundesrepublik hervorgegangen, darunter Hermann Lübbe, Odo Marquard, Robert Spaemann und Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde.

Aus dem Inhalt:
Jens Hacke: Die Ritter-Schule in der politischen Philosophie der Bundesrepublik
Henning Ottmann: Zum Hegelianismus der Ritter-Schule
Wolfram Hogrebe: Zur Erinnerung an Ritters Theorie der Globalisierung
Otfried Höffe: Einige autobiografische Bemerkungen zur Bedeutung Ritters
Hermann Lübbe: Zur Auseinandersetzung mit Aufklärungsirrtümern in der Ritter-Schule
Franz-Josef Wetz: Der Naturalismus als kulturelle Herausforderung
Josef Früchtl: Joachim Ritters maßhaltende Ästhetik
Ulrich Dierse: Zwischen Bewusstsein und Gesellschaft. Zu einigen frühen Schriften von Joachim Ritter
Aline-Florence Manent: »In der Bundesrepublik zu Hause sein«. Joachim Ritter und die politische Philosophie der Stabilität
Reinhard Mehring: Carl Schmitts Antwort auf Joachim Ritter
Margarita Kranz: Der »Große Ritter«. Joachim Ritter und das Historische Wörterbuch der Philosophie

http://www.wallstein-verlag.de/9783835330818-entzweite-moderne.html

There lies a feeling of reprisal behind the choice to argue for the legitimacy of a philosophical investigation on our puzzling life form. It arises from the desire to defend the worth of the traditional philosophical aspiration to reach a mildly synoptic view on reality, even in the time of the triumph of natural science’s analytic attitude. But how far this aspiration may be warranted in light of the contemporary philosophical debate? In my paper, I will try to argue in favour of a wide-ranging reflection on the sense of human experience by making use of theoretical tools developed by a number of analytic and post-analytic contemporary philosophers (Charles Taylor and John McDowell among others).

Объектом исследования статьи является теория компенсации. Согласно данной концепции для выстраивания собственной идентичности человеку в культуре модерна необходимо компенсировать процессы модернизации и рационализации современности. Вследствие этого для современной культуры характерна тенденция к консервации и реактуализации своего исторического происхождения.

"Compensação" é a palavra-chave que sintetiza uma influente resposta ao problema da função das ciências humanas no mundo contemporâneo. Originária do universo da filosofia alemã da segunda metade do século 20, tal resposta sustenta, em linhas gerais, que as ciências humanas servem como uma espécie de indenização espiritual por prejuízos culturais sofridos por sociedades e indivíduos em meio à modernização (em decorrência, por exemplo, da disseminação de novas relações sociais abstratas e não-tradicionais, ou do progresso acelerado dos meios técnicos). A teoria da compensação pode ser apontada como um dos principais conjuntos de ideias a que se contrapõe a teoria da história de Jörn Rüsen. O presente texto enfoca a relação agonística entre essas duas teorias, no centro das quais está o problema do valor e da utilidade dos estudos históricos. Lançar luz sobre tal relação – esta é a minha aposta interpretativa – é uma maneira de compreender melhor aspectos importantes das reflexões de Rüsen sobre história e historiografia que até agora ainda não receberam a atenção que lhes é devida. Quero mostrar que Rüsen rejeita a teoria da compensação não só porque discorda da divisão do trabalho científico nela apregoada, a qual atribui às ciências humanas o papel relativamente modesto de tentar conservar algo daquilo que a modernidade precisa destruir. Procurarei explicar como tal rejeição também se deve a diferenças mais fundamentais existentes entre Rüsen e os teóricos da compensação, mais especificamente, às suas divergências de entendimento quanto à natureza da modernidade e quanto ao modo de configurar a complexa inter-relação entre conhecimento, política e futuro. Palavras-chave: teoria da história; modernização; futuro; ciências humanas; formação; filosofia alemã; século 20; Joachim Ritter; Odo Marquard. Jörn Rüsen against the compensation-theory

Abstract: " Kompensation " is the keyword for an influential answer to the problem of the function of the human sciences in the contemporary world. It emerged in the second half of the twentieth-century in the field of German philosophy, and its chief message is that the human sciences have the task of compensating modern societies and individuals for cultural losses generated within the course of modernization (for instance, by the spread social relations of a new, abstract, non-traditional kind; or by the accelerating progress of technology). The compensation-theory can be stressed as one of the main ideational sets against which Jörn Rüsen developed his own theory of history. This paper focuses on the agonistic relationship between these two theories that attempt to elucidate what is the value and the use of historical studies. My interpretative bet is that by doing so we will better understand important aspects of Rüsen’s  theoretical  reflections  on  history  and  historiography  that  have  not  yet  received sufficient attention. I will show that Rüsen rejects the compensation-theory not only because of he disagrees with the scientific division of labor it entails – which ascribes to the human sciences the relatively modest role of attempting to preserve some of what modernity needs to destroy. I will try to explain how that rejection is also due to more fundamental differences between  Rüsen  and  the  compensation-theorists,  more specifically  their  differing understandings  of  modernity,  and  their  dissent  regarding  how  should  the  complex interrelationship between knowledge, politics, and the future be configured.

In order to address the human appropriation of fate, I turn to Odo Marquard’s Farewell to Matters of Principle, specifically its fourth chapter, in which he argues that this appropriation implies a certain philosophy of history. Marquard very clearly outlines how humans took fate to be in their own hands. In order to better understand the subjectivity that underlies this appropriation of fate, I will use Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age and Sources of the Self who supports Marquard’s argument and contributes to the details of the narrative of disembeddedness of mankind. Therefore, first an analysis of the depletion of fate will be carried out by means of Marquard and Taylor. Next, a section will be dedicated to show the effects of the illusion of makeability. Finally, the necessity of speculative philosophy of history will be outlined in order to understand the consequences of the depletion of fate. These analysis sections will be building towards the understanding of the gravity of our current situation, which will be finally addressed in the conclusion.

Seamus Heaney’s last collection of poetry, 'Human Chain', deals with the autumn of life and the issues it brings as experienced by Heaney himself after a stroke. Despite his dwindling potential, the poet seems to shape an argument in favour of gerotranscendence, the idea that getting older brings a lot of positive changes for the aging individual. In this paper, I shall argue that that is only one way to perceive of old age and that old age can also be understood more as an end than as a goal in itself, something of intrinsic value. Nowadays Western societies seem to compartmentalise the time of being a senior citizen into three stages: early-retired people of the higher middle class enjoying traveling, culture, and sports; advanced senectitude when bodily and mental constraints start showing; considerable caducity and increased need for help. Looking at his own experience, Heaney seems to touch upon the first two stages but leaves out the last one, that of weakness and advanced need for help (which only shines through in his caring for his fragile father). Old age can be interpreted as both: the shortage of a future that does not any longer hold much in store for the old man, and as a future that is short and thus all the more valuable because there are still new experiences to look forward to, like the second childhood/the time spent with grandchildren and the taking part in their lives. There is a significant overlap in the 'Human Chain' and the works of the late German Philosopher Odo Marquard with regards to the topics brought up here: emphasis on the past which is visible in Heaney drawing on Aeneid VI for his own poetry, and in Marquard through his Theory of Compensation; both scholars’ references to the past are not nostalgia but a rather realistic approach towards ill health, infirmity, and mortality – the past lives on and tradition (whether poetical or philosophical) is renewed to inform the present and to promise the future; in being guided by the past Heaney and Marquard cope with ageing through digging into classics; the fulfilment of the elderly comes from giving oneself to others and caring for them, from sharing with others the simple joys of life. However, there also seems to be a difference when it comes to interpreting those topics. While Heaney seems to celebrate life based on his recognizing and being aware of his own limitations, Marquard accepts his limitations too but seems to draw a less optimistic stance from it. Turning to the past, here, does not imply a celebration of life but rather a mitigating against the worst. It has been argued that, in 'Human Chain', Heaney offers definitions of old age and death; this paper attempts to argue against this view to a certain extent claiming that if Heaney offers definitions, those are not absolute and therefore they might not be definitions at all.

A chapter in the following DramaNet volume:
Poetics and Politics. Net Structures and Agencies in Early Modern Drama. Edited by Joachim Küpper, Toni Bernhart, Jaša Drnovšek, Sven Thorsten Kilian, and Jan Mosch.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110536690-014.

Archbishop Nikanor (Brovkovich) (1826–1890), and Konstantin Nikolaevich Leontiev (1831–1891), whose ideas are often considered as identical, are representatives of the Russian conservatism of the second half of the XIX century. Their views can be attributed to the culture-critical direction of the traditionalist type which interprets modernization as a threat to the existence of both the natural habitat of man and man himself. These thinkers oppose progress, as they believe that modernization is homogenizing culture and destroying traditions. To identify the differences between the views of Archbishop Nicanor and Leontiev, it seems necessary to turn to the theory of “compensation” by I. Ritter, G. Lubbe, and O. Marquard. According to this theory, modernity produces ways of compensation of its own rational homogeneity. Among these ways of compensation, we can find the interest of irrational and unique phenomena, and of individual “stories of origin”. Thus, culture-criticism itself is revealed as a way of a compensation of the standardizing aspects of modernization. Thus, Leont’ev contrasts modernity with “Byzantium” as a traditional culture, while Archbishop Nikanor does so with the ideal of individual Orthodox holiness. This demonstrates the difference between them, despite the fact that their traditionalism turns out to be equally modern, performing the compensation. However, Leontiev was sketching out the ways of destroying modernity, linking it with the victory of socialism which he predicted within the political avant-garde, leading to a new feudalism. In contrast, Archbishop Nikanor considered progress as inevitable, offering to compensate for its negative consequences by maintaining the irrational and unique aspects of traditional religiosity.

Dieser Projektvorschlag zu einer Fallstudie über die Entwicklung der politischen Philosophie in Deutschland nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg wurde nicht als solcher durchgeführt. Die Sachlage wurde u.a. durch die Publikation von Dirk van Lachs Buch "Gespräche in der Sicherheit des Schweigens. Carl Schmitt in der politischen Geistesgeschichte der frühen Bundesrepublik" (1993) wesentlich geändert. Möglicherweise könnte die Dreierkonstellation, die ich mit dem jetzt gewählten Titel wähle, interessieren. Die Gesichtspunkte passen jedenfalls zu anderen Arbeiten, die ich hier hineingestellt habe

Regardless of all attempts to declare the end of modernity, contemporary political researchers still take its classical conception into account and attempt to redefine it with respect to present-day challenges. Nevertheless, it seems that there is little agreement on the definition of “modernity”. Consequently, a wide range of theories, devoted to modernity, have developed. One of the most popular is “multiple modernities” proposed by Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt. According to this conception, modern societies can be defined and institutionally organized in a variety of ways. The reason for this diversity concerns the tradition and history of a particular society. For instance, intellectual and political elites in non-Western countries can produce their own understanding of modernity, combining elements of traditional politics with some elements of the classical modern program. Therefore, the role of tradition in the contemporary world is ambivalent. In modern society, tradition does not continually determine all spheres of life, including politics. On the other hand, tradition still influences the way in which modern institutions are organized. However, it is not clear to what extent tradition can vary the origin-program of modernity. To explore this question, we examine the alternative conception of modernity, known as compensation theory, proposed by Joachim Ritter, Hermann Lubbe and Odo Marquard. We employ a comparative analysis and demonstrate the differences between compensation theory and the conception of multiple modernities with regard to the role of tradition in modern society.The findings of this research illustrate the reasons behind the fact that tradition can influence the original program of modernity. It also contributes fruitfully to the discussion about modernization and modernity.

El objetivo fundamental de este artículo es el de ofrecer una interpretación y crítica del pensamiento filosófico de Odo Marquard, con especial atención a la potencialidad heurística de su análisis para interpretar las complejas relaciones entre pasado y presente que se proyectan desde nuestro régimen de historicidad. Desde el ámbito de la filosofía de la historia contemporánea, profundizaremos en su noción de “compensación” y en su lectura de la modernidad para explorar los diferentes estratos que subyacen a la aproximación de Marquard al problema del tiempo histórico. Ello nos permitirá sacar a la luz tanto las fortalezas de su análisis como sus debilidades.

The article is dedicated to a pre-war oeuvre of Hannah Arendt, namely the book concerning the life of Berlin salonnière, Rahel Varnhagen (1771-1833). Her narration is equally biographical and autobiographical, because Arendt, during writing it in the thirties, has been intending to manage with her own origin and actual political situation, appropriating the position of emancipating Jewess from the Romantic era. A simultaneous development of Zionism and anti-Semitism witnessed the fall of a fragile German-Jewish 'synthesis' inaugurated at the end of eighteen century. Arendt's book constitutes an excellent cultural critique as well as a hermeneutic of modern subjectivity, thrown back at painful consciousness of randomness concomitant with each birth. Similar problem is posed by Odo Marquard in his conception of derivativeness (Herkömmlichkeit), but solutions propounded within it seem very dubious. German philosopher's skeptic bias makes him unable to overcome melancholic repetition and tyranny of time. In comparison to him, Arendt's reflection on natality guards a hope for a promising art of living.

В статье рассматривается интеллектуальная биография одного из наиболее заметных полемистов и философов Германии второй половины XX века, Одо Маркварда. С историко-философской точки зрения исследователи относят Маркварда к школе Иоахима Риттера, который известен прежде всего как издатель и редактор «Исторического словаря философии». Сам Марквард указывает на то, что его обращение к философии Риттера было связано со студенческими волнениями 1968 года и, как следствие, с формированием аффирмативной позиции по отношению к модерну. До этого периода Марквард симпатизировал критически относящейся к модерну Франкфуртской школе и писал едкие эпиграммы в адрес философии Риттера. Но после событий 1968 года такие философы, как Теодор Адорно и Юрген Хабермас, становятся основными оппонентами Маркварда, а «философия раздвоения» Риттера, в частности его теория компенсации,—объектом его постоянных рефлексий и полемическим оружием против попытки поставить под сомнение основы сложившегося на территории послевоенной ФРГ либерально-демократического общества.