Projects / Programmes
Philosophical Investigations
January 1, 2022
- December 31, 2027
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.10.00 |
Humanities |
Philosophy |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.03 |
Humanities |
Philosophy, Ethics and Religion |
Žižek, Dolar, philosophy, psyhoanalysis, truth, theory of power, diagnosis of time, idealization, history of philosophy
Data for the last 5 years (citations for the last 10 years) on
April 22, 2024;
A3 for period
2018-2022
| Database |
Linked records |
Citations |
Pure citations |
Average pure citations |
| WoS |
171 |
1,400 |
1,381 |
8.08 |
| Scopus |
192 |
2,055 |
2,021 |
10.53 |
Researchers (29)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Philosophical Investigations: Return to Truth The proposed research program is a meaningful continuation of the program Philosophical Investigations, financed in the years 2015-2021 (and running continuously from 1999). The specificity and decisive advantage of the research group lies in its scope and inner diversity. The researchers cover all major orientations of thought in contemporary philosophy. However, in order to integrate this otherwise invaluable multifariousness of the group into a unified research program, in the period to follow the research will focus on one principal topic: truth. The main objective of the joint efforts of the group will be to elaborate and provide a more stringent and binding philosophical concept of ""truth"" to be opposed to the governing devaluation of truth-standards both within and outside philosophy. The general objective of the programme, unifying all the researchers, is to rehabilitate a substantial, strong, and indispensable concept of ""truth"" against the relativisms od 20th century (postmodernism etc.) and denigrations of the 21st century (post-truth). In order to achieve this goal, the research will be divided in three specific objectives: 1. A defence of the irreducibly philosophical element of truth. In the first section, the research will try to provide the answer to the question, why philosophy is needed to provide a theory of truth. The research will proceed in three sub-sections: a. Semantically-linguistic underpinning. In order to develop an original and innovative theory of truth, a new field of research will be established: the original impulse of ""truth"" will be placed in the historical shifts in which the procedures of idealization of the traditional conceptuality disclosed the modern facticity in its de-symbolized, a-subjective, non-anthropomorphic form. b. Historical background. The focus will be a certain dimension of truth unfolding in the historical events in which the entire sets of truth-values are defined anew and can no longer be undone. c. Logically-analytical formalization and classification. The ""new inclination of truth"" will be formalized with regard to the classical definitions of truth. 2. Truth at the interstice between philosophy and psychoanalysis. The research core of the programme is the original junction of the philosophy of German idealism and Lacanian psychoanalysis, as invented and promoted by Mladen Dolar and Slavoj Žižek. In this section, the hypothesis will be tested that precisely the psychoanalytical concept of ""truth"" can offer support and opposition to the growing dissolution of truth-standards in philosophy. 3. Social effects and interdisciplinary connectivity of the strong concept of ""truth."" The objective of research is to define the effects of ""truth"" on other philosophical disciplines, such as social theory, ethics, aesthetics, but also on non- or extra-philosophical domains.
Significance for science
The relevance for the development of science can be summarized in the following items: 1. The international reputation of the programme leader and the members of the group promise broad scientific impact and relevance of the research programme. The most important part of the research will be the original scholarly work aiming to reach highest scientific quality, and the publication in major philosophical outlets. The ultimate scope of the research programme consists in enabling a dialogue with the most important achievements of contemporary thought, in taking part in international currents and streams of philosophy today, and in promoting the global proliferation of a certain line of thought, hence, of the Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis. 2. The programme ""Philosophical Investigations"" on the one hand serves to encourage the transfer of foreign compendia of knowledge, theoretical achievements of the global knowledge society into the Slovenian space, and on the other hand to affirm and consolidate Slovenian philosophy in its global recognition. So far, both tasks have been more than successfully fulfilled, since the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts of the Ljubljana University proves to be one of the largest and most recognizable humanistic study programmes in Slovenia, with a long and well-nourished tradition of excellence and a high level of scientific research. The interdisciplinary fruitful relationship between philosophy and psychoanalysis, an original Slovenian project as the innovation of the Ljubljana Lacanian School/Ljubljana School of Psychoanalyisis (S. Žižek, M. Dolar), put Slovenia on the map of world-philosophy. 3. The most immediate theoretical effect of the research is the elaboration of the formal conditions for a new dimension of ""truth."" This will enable a productive collaboration of all schools of thought, combined by the programme. The objective is foremost to develop a concept of ""truth"" which will bring together two most diverse thought orientations, the continental and the analytical school. 4. The significance of this research programme lies primarily in the topicality of its subject, cross-fertilizing the proximal and overlapping conceptual spaces of ""truth,"" ""subjectivity,"" ""event,"" ""idealization."" The research is designed to engage in the liveliest debates within contemporary philosophy, both continental and analytical, as well as within public space. It proposes an entirely original stance, opposing its concept of ""truth"" to truth-relativism of the end of the 20th century, contemporary new realism, transcendental normativism, scientific positivism, post-humanism, and the discourse of post-truth. The relevance of our proposal consists in the fact that the research group indeed acknowledges the call for realism in philosophy and advocates the ontological solidity of facticity, but nevertheless endeavors to outline an alternative solution, which shows that a concept of ""surplus-truth"" is indispensable if we wish to trade relativism for universality. Since our proposal directly addresses the problem of truth, we believe that philosophical research so conceived - especially in our time - is highly needed. 5. The financing will enable the continuity of research work for some already renowned researchers, but also the younger researchers. The goal of the project is thus to establish a more long-lasting research group with its specific area of expertise, focusing on the topics of truth, subject, science, reality, and post-humanism. Thereby, Ljubljana will remain one of the leading centers of contemporary philosophy. 6. Let us point out some of the most interesting and definite scientific goals which will undoubtedly influence the course of world-philosophy: - elaboration of a theory of ""rumours"" and its relation to truth - development of a psychoanalytical theory of power, with the ambition to provide an answer to the question ""Where does the power come from?"" - providing a definition of the concepts of ""idealization"" and ""de-symbolization,"" which are still inarticulate and practically absent within the frame of the theories of truth. - studies on the opening of the modern, ""disenchanted"" facticity in its de-symbolized, a-subjective, non-anthropomorphic form
Significance for the country
The importance for Slovenia's socio-economic and cultural development can be summarized in the following items: 1. INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF SLOVENIA. The programme ""Philosophical Investigations"" is one of the most successful research programme teams in Slovenia. In view of its publications in leading academic journals and publishing houses, Slovenian philosophy has become one of the highest recognition factors for Slovenia in the world. The internationally recognized Ljubljana Lacanian School (of the ""Ljubljana Schoool""), which is of high importance to the cultural development of Slovenia, has unbendingly put Slovenia on the map of world philosophy. 2. THINKING THE MODERN CONDITION. Immediate influence of the basic philosophical investigation on society, social infrastructure, cultural development etc. is primarily in that it provides new concepts in the time of fundamental shifts and changes, which help bring about a better understanding of contemporaneity, bring attention to the paradoxes of the present situation and outline the norms for both individual and social practice. Thorough engagement in fundamental philosophical concepts from both contemporary and classical period evinces crucial importance of general culturedness, which is the necessary condition for public reflection, quality cooperation of citizens in a democratic society, ability to confront contemporary phenomena and, lastly, for the formation of both individual and collective identity. In the following period, the research of Slavoj Žižek could be pointed out, adressing a number of topical contemporary issues, from the paradoxes of global capitalism to economic, ecological, refugee crises, proliferation of new social media, involving new ways of surveillance, and the loss of the old practices of communication and personal identity in the new media of immediate transfer (such as neuralink), as well as the research of Mladen Dolar, which will focus predominantly on the status of truth in the public, private, and semi-private sphere, and on the origins of social power. 3. INCLUSION IN THE TEACHING PROCESS. Because of their close relatedness to pedagogical work, the research results will be directly involved in the educational process, which offers an additional value of the programme for sustainable development. The research programme group members have established new programs from all university study levels. Among other things, research programme group members also cooperate in the additional and permanent education of high-school philosophy teachers. 4. INTERDISCIPLINARITY. Although research investigations call for a fundamental grounding, a characteristic advantage of the Ljubljana School is exactly its ability of interdisciplinary cooperation, which includes and links all sciences, from sociology, psychology, psychoanalysis to law and economy, and also natural sciences, with physics, biology and medicine at the forefront; 5. TRANSLATIONS. The programme researchers provide translations of key works of philosophical tradition (Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger), thus laying the grounds of scientific literature in Slovenia, as well as translations of authors which are unknown to Slovene readership and are thus introduced into our cultural space. 6. ESTABLISHING AND MAINTAINING THE PHILOSOPHICAL INFRASTRUCTURE. In view of the fact that, in both size and extent, the ""Philosophical Investigations"" team holds a unique position in relation to comparable research teams in Slovenia, it sees its primary task in representing the broadest possible palette of relevant world philosophical schools and orientations. Its broad material and formal constitution help include young researchers into its working field, as well as enable those most gifted young researchers with an expired research status to remain active within the scientific field. 7. TERMINOLOGY. One of the more important functions of the research is to bring the Slovenian culture of scientific research and terminology on a higher level. The researchers often rely upon literature in foreign languages and use terminology that has not yet been adopted in Slovene; thereby, with consistent use and clear definitions, the first step for its eventual lexicalisation in Slovene is made. In the period to follow, a redefinition of relevant philosophical concepts is expected, those of ""truth,"" ""power,"" ""rumours"", ""idealization,"" ""de-symbolization,"" ""indirectness."" 8. PRESENCE IN THE PUBLIC SPACE. Especially the two leading researchers, Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar, are among the most prolific public intellectuals in the Slovenian space. Moreover, the researchers Borut Ošlaj, Eva D. Bahovec, Valentina Hribar-Sorčan, Olga Markič, and Aljoša Kravanja often partake in the debates on the topics of truth, ethics, bioethics, ethical aspects of euthanasia, death, artificial intelligence, data in the digital society, women and minoritise issues, and generally of the popularization of philosophy.
