Projects / Programmes
Historical-philosophical Studies
January 1, 1999
- December 31, 2003
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.10.00 |
Humanities |
Philosophy |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H150 |
Humanities |
Philosophy of special sciences |
| H130 |
Humanities |
History of philosophy |
| H271 |
Humanities |
Political history |
| H200 |
Humanities |
Theory of history |
Researchers (6)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The research project is carried out along two main lines. Part of the research is dedicated to the history of political thought, chiefly medieval and modern. The research rejects the idea of a watershed between the medieval and early-modern political thought, and understands study of the history of western political thought as a necessary condition for comprehending politics in the so-called postmodernity and for finding ways out of the impass of postmodern criticism. Issues at the core of the research are: conceptual articulations of power; the invention of the state as the typical modern form of public authority; the concept of sovereignty; reason of state; philosophical foundations of war and peace, and the development of ius gentium and ius pacis; the history of the idea of Europe and of projects for European unions; attitudes of Christendom and Europe toward the non-Christian and non-European world; relations between Christianity and power, with special focus on the institution of secular power and arguments for civil religion.
The second main interest of the research project lies in the history of philosophy. The leading idea of this research work is the understanding of medieval philosophy as a meeting point between the ancient epsiteme and early-modern philosophy: although there is continuity between ancient and medieval philosophy, the latter is at the same time parting with the ancient philosophical tradition, heading toward a cesure that was to be accomplished in the early modernity. The reaserch focuses on the following issues: contingency in ancient, medieval, and early-modern philosophy; certainty of knowledge and the question of scepticism in the Middle Ages; the debate on the nature of the difference between essence and being in the created entities; the genesis and influence of the concept of creatio ex nichilo; the epistemological relevance of nominalism; the relation between theology and philosophy in the Middle Ages; the development of medieval theories on the nature and functions of language (logics, semantics, and speculative grammatics); the question of universals; and the relation of the early-modern philosophy to the Middle Ages. The research into the history of philosophy is primarily concerned with those aspects of the metaphysics, epsitemology, philosophy of nature, and philosophy of language that are, studied in their historical context, of no little relevance for our contemporary philosophical debates. Integral to this part of the research projects are studies into the history of concepts. These studies feed into preparing a dictionary of Slovene philosophical terminology.
Most important scientific results
Final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Final report
