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ABSTRACTS

Ottó HéviziDiacritical Ethics: On the Ethical

Consequences of Tengelyi’s View of theLate Kant and of TemporalityKeywords: László Tengelyi, MauriceMerleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Lévinas,Immanuel Kant, diacritical ethics,antinomyIn his early works, László Tengelyi madean attempt to create a theory aiming tounify the “diacritical system” of Merleau-Ponty and the “an-archic” ethics foundedby Lévinas upon the thought of “radicalalterity”. Later on, Tengelyi turned awayfrom this theory that he himselfdeveloped. In my paper, I would like toargue that this ethical approach of his isindeed both possible and relevant, andthat one can call it a diacritical ethics. Mythesis is based – within the framework ofa kind of “philosophical replay” – on twoelements: on the radical temporality ofthe “diacritical model”, and on Tengelyi’sinterpretation of the late Kant, whom he calls “the thinker of antinomies”. I believe it is precisely Kant’s well-elaborated antinomies that can reveal themain differences (the main oppositions)of our ethical decisions as well as thetemporal dimensions of our ethicaltheories. Three differences are to bedetected and distinguished here, namelythose in respect of [1] ethics, [2] morality,and [3] virtue. One can call thesedifferences unbridgeable gaps: gaps [1]between theories founded upon theimmanent (present-focused) and trans-cendent (future-focused) ground; [2]between the theories of deontologism(their measure is always a priori) andconsequentialism (their measure is alwaysa posteriori); and [3] between the theoriesof free will (all these notions reckon withthe beginning) and (beginningless) deter-minism. Nevertheless, these antinomiesare not to be resolved. Rather, they existas limits for considering our ethicalproblems. It is by these limits that adiacritical space of our ethics is, fromtime to time, constituted and reconsti-tuted. It is only within these limits thatour diacritical ways appear, movingalways between the past and future,sometimes crossing each other in radicalturns, which Tengelyi calls “destinalevents in life history”. The conclusion of

the paper is that as the diacritical ways of our “life histories” exist always dia-chronically in a diacritical space, whichis also limited by our thinking oftemporality, the theory of a diacriticalethics is a possible, coherent andacceptable approach.

Károly Kókai Arnold Hauser and the Social History

of FilmKeywords: film industries, interwar period,Marxism, Austria, migration, culturaltransferArnold Hauser has become well knownwith the publication of The Social His-tory of Art in London in 1951. The bookanalyzes the social context of culturalproductions from the ancient times untilthe mid-20th century. The last chapter,dealing with the times of the author, isentitled “Under the sign of the film”, andalso the entire work shows a remarkableinterest for viewing cultural phenomenafrom a filmic perspective. Taking a closerlook at Hauser’s activities as an im-migrant intellectual in Austria in the1920s and 1930s, it becomes clear thathis interest in film has developed fromhis general preoccupations in two steps.First, he was the representative of the USproduction company United Artists, andlater he started to lecture and publish inthe field of film studies. He brought alongthat interest and practical knowledgeinto his second exile in England in 1938.The insights into the emergence of a newart form, into the mechanisms of culturalproduction and distribution, and into thesociology of the film audience enabledhim to not only understand how cultureworked, but also shaped his work, whichfinally brought his breakthrough as aMarxist cultural historian.

Gábor KovácsIstván Bibó and the Genre of Political

PhilosophyKeywords: political philosophy, essay,interwar Hungarian culture, substitutegenre, political thinkerBibó István has often been mentioned asthe most prominent representative ofHungarian political thought in the 20thcentury. But how can the genre of hiswork be defined? Was it political philo-sophy? It was not, at least not in thesense of systematic analytical political

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philosophy. However, in a wider meaning,putting his oeuvre into the context ofcontinental philosophy and of interwarHungarian thought, Bibó belongs to theessayistic tradition of political thoughtpopular in different European countries,including Great Britain, France andGermany. This genre of essay wasespecially popular in Hungarian cultureafter the First World War. It was, in asense, a substitute for political philo-sophy. Writers and thinkers like GáborHalász, László Cs. Szabó, Antal Szerb,and Németh László, whose essays deeplyinfluenced Bibó’s intellectual sociali-zation, cultivated it on very high level.This Hungarian essay genre provided thepossibility for dealing with pressinghistorical, social, and political problemsin a form which was accessible for thewider public within a culture in whichliterature had enjoyed higher prestigethan philosophy. Bibó’s political essaygrew out of this interwar Hungariancontext. He was an outstanding politicalthinker, but not a professional politicalphilosopher.

Béla MesterHungarian Philosophy as It Writes Its

Own HistoryKeywords: Boëthius de Dacia, East-Central Europe, history of philosophy,Hungarian philosophy, János Erdélyi, János Pósaházi, József RozgonyiJános Erdélyi, a 19th century Hegelianclassic of the historiography of Hunga-rian philosophy has summarised hisnarrative in the following scheme. Thefirst epoch was the prehistory ofHungarian thought, formulated in aforeign language, Latin; the second onewas the long period of the turn from La-tin to Hungarian; and the third and lastone is when Hungarian philosophywrites its own history, beginning with thefoundation of the Hungarian Academy ofSciences. After Erdélyi’s masterpiece onHungarian philosophy, there have beenno serious candidates for a new synthesisuntil the second half of the 20th century.This paper offers an overview of the lasttwo centuries of the history of Hungarianphilosophy in the mirror of its para-digmatic errors. First, it discusses thecase of Boëthius de Dacia as a Hungarianmediaeval philosopher, and then themisinterpretation of the early modern

works of János Pósaházi and JózsefRozgonyi, following the pattern of thehistory of reception. According to thehypothesis of this paper, all these para-digmatic errors have been caused by awrong formulation of the connectionbetween the universal and the nationalnarratives of the history of philosophy.After an overview of the usual solutionsto this problem in the Hungarianhistoriography of philosophy, the authoroutlines a new method for establishingthe paradigm of an East-Central-Euro-pean history of philosophy, above, butnot instead of the national narratives,which can also modify the universalnarrative in several details.

László PereczConsistency or Inconsistency? “Passen-

gers” and “Excursionists” in the Historyof Hungarian PhilosophyKeywords: existentialism, history ofHungarian philosophy, Neo-Kantianism,“New-Idealism”, Imre Pauer, Ákos Pauler,positivism, Bódog Somló, Béla TankóThe essay deals with four significantpersonalities in the history of Hungarianphilosophy in the 20th century: ImrePauer, Ákos Pauler, Bódog Somló, BélaTankó. Its argumentation distinguishestwo types of philosophers. The “passen-ger” consistently perseveres in his firstchosen philosophy: he is not diverted bynew philosophies. The “excursionist”, onthe other hand, inconsistently, leavesbehind his original philosophy, andchooses himself a new one. The con-clusion of the essay: Pauer and Tankó are“passengers”, Somló and Pauler are“excursionists”.

Róbert SomosThe Young Ákos Pauler and the Itali-

an PhilosophersKeywords: history of Hungarian philo-sophy, Ákos Pauler, philosophical recep-tion, Italian philosophy, Mario Calderoni,Benedetto CroceAlthough his main favourites wereGerman, French and English thinkers,Ákos Pauler, the most respected Hun-garian philosopher of the first decades ofthe 20th century, had also substantialconnection with Italian philosophers andworks. Treating the topic of the Italianline, according to the chronologicalorder, the following items should be

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analysed: 1. Pauler’s longer sojourns inItaly before the First World War, when heattended different conferences and madepersonal relationships with differentphilosophers, especially with MarioCalderoni. 2. Benedetto Croce’s influenceon Pauler and the Hungarian philo-sopher’s criticism on Croce’s positionrelating to the problems of pure logic andaesthetics. 3. Pauler’s view on Mussoliniand its import for the political ideas ofthe Hungarian thinker. 4. The receptionof Pauler’s Grundlegung der Philosophiein the philosophical school of Naples(Cleto Carbonara, Nicola Abbagnano)and Pauler’s answers to their criticisms.5. Antonio Rosmini-Serbati’s and Gio-vanni Peano’s influence on Pauler in hislater years in the fields of theisticmetaphysics and symbolic logic. Thepaper focuses on the influences of theearly phase of Ákos Pauler’s activity andit deals with the first two points.

Nóra Szegedi – Tamás UllmannAutonomy and World Order: Guilt,

Fate, and Life HistoryKeywords: László Tengelyi, ImmanuelKant, evil, moral autonomy, guilt, fate, life history, intersubjectivity, privation,culpabilityThe article aims to give a picture of Lász-ló Tengelyi’s early works. The first partanalyses Tengelyi’s relationship to Kantand to the problem of evil in Kantianmoral philosophy. The key concepts ofhis early works are moral autonomy,guilt, fate, history of life, and inter-subjectivity. The second part presentsTengelyi’s first original work after hissignificant Kant-interpretations. His Guiltas Fate Event (1992) concentrates on theproblem of evil, rejecting the classicalconception of the metaphysical traditionbased on the “privation thesis”. Byshowing that evil cannot be reduced toprivation, nonbeing, and nullity, Tengelyiopens up another, latent tradition, that ofthe tragic view of culpability. Theconception of guilt as an eminent eventof fate is supposed to be able to substitutethe privation thesis of traditionalmetaphysics. The elaboration of thisconcept is Tengelyi’s first step towardcreating his own philosophy.

László TengelyiMy Way to Phenomenology

Keywords: László Tengelyi, phenome-nology, Nicolai Hartmann, Rudolf Bernet,Klaus Held, Bernhard Waldenfels, MarcRichirIn this interview, László Tengelyianswers the question of the HungarianPhenomenological Society: “how did youarrive to the phenomenological traditionand to phenomenological thinking?” Theform of the answer is an essay which waswritten in 2006. Tengelyi describes hisfirst encounter with Husserl and Hei-degger through Nicolai Hartmann’saesthetics and ontology. This attractionwas deepened during his 1988-89 stay inLeuven with the support of the SorosFoundation. Rudolf Bernet and otherprominent phenomenologists (KlausHeld, Bernhard Waldenfels, Marc Richir)convinced him that phenomenology isone of the possible ways of originalthinking. What distinguishes phenome-nology from other contemporary schoolsof thought (structuralism, analyticalphilosophy, critical social philosophy) is its inner relation to the whole traditionof Western philosophy. That is whyphenomenology, “with its historicalsaturation”, is able to maintain a kind ofspiritual vigilance in the philosophicalpractice.

Tamás Valastyán From the Judgement of Taste to the

Enjoyment of Reality: Marquard, Fehérand Lyotard on the Disposition ofModernity/PostmodernityKeywords: Jean-François Lyotard, OdoMarquard, Ferenc Fehér, modernity,postmodernityThe paper compares Jean-FrançoisLyotard’s, Odo Marquard’s and FerencFehér’s conception of aesthetics from the viewpoint of the disposition ofmodernity/postmodernity. None of theauthors considers the comparison be-tween modernity and postmodernitymechanically. While Marquard and Fehérclaim the modernity of the postmodern,Lyotard affirms the postmodernity of themodern, with a view to Nietzsche’s basicinsight that reality can only be justifiedas an aesthetic phenomenon.

Deodáth ZuhThe Historiography of Mannerism

Revisited: Ar nold Hauser in the Contextof 20th Century CriseologyKeywords: Mannerism, criseology, Ar noldHauser, Georg Luk ács, Max Dvořák, ErnstGombrich, unified aestheticsIn this essay, I try to sketch the outlinesof two conflicting inquiries concerningthe historical position of Mannerism. Mybasic idea is that they share a commongoal of constituting a multifaceted theoryof investigating art history. The first isbased on the Kan ti an tradition of unifiedaesthetics (epistemological, moral andaesthetical studies are grounded in thesame architecture of knowledge) anddescribes the works of art as they aregiven to our intuitions as the documentsof a certain world view or Weltanschauung.

The second is rather built on the ideathat we have to emphasize the variousways in which the works of art weremade and denies that such a world viewcould be reconstructed. He re I onlypresent a historical case study of the firstline of questioning, stating that the youngAr nold Hauser was a fierce advocate ofartistic style as the bearer of moral,ethical questions. In this way Mannerismis the document of a transitional, criticalperiod in European art history andEuropean culture. If this is correct,Mannerism could be interpreted as amodel for investigating and compre-hending contemporary instances oftransition and crisis. Finally, I trace backthis view (as a criseological approach tocontemporary culture) to some ideas ofthe young Georg Luk ács.

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