ANNALS of Philosophy, Social and Human Disciplines

Annals of “Ştefan cel Mare” University of Suceava Philosophy, Social and Human Disciplines 2014 Volume II Speculative truth FantaSy and reality ISSN 2069 – 4008 (online: ISSN 2069 – 4016) Annals of “Ştefan cel Mare” University of Suceava PHILOSOPHY, SOCIAL AND HUMAN DISCIPLINES SERIES 2014 VOLUME II Co-editors: Bogdan POPOVENIUC Marius CUCU Founding Editor: Sorin-Tudor MAXIM “Ştefan cel Mare” University of Suceava Press Annals of “Ştefan cel Mare” University of Suceava Philosophy, Social and Human Disciplines Series Bogdan Popoveniuc; Sorin-Tudor Maxim; Marius Cucu; © Suceava : ―Ştefan cel Mare‖ University Press, 2014 ISSN 2069 – 4008 (online: ISSN 2069 – 4016) Analele Universităţii “Ştefan cel Mare” din Suceava Seria Filosofie şi Discipline Socio-umane Bogdan Popoveniuc; Sorin-Tudor Maxim ; Marius Cucu; © Suceava : Editura Universităţii ―Ştefan cel Mare‖, 2014 ISSN 2069 – 4008 (online: ISSN 2069 – 4016) ANNALS of Philosophy, Social and Human Disciplines (Annals of ―Ştefan cel Mare‖ University of Suceava, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIAL AND HUMAN DISCIPLINES SERIES) Advisory Board: Professor Anton Adămuţ, Al. I. Cuza University of Iaşi Associate Professor Alexandru Baumgarten, Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca Professor Alexandru Boboc, Corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy Professor Ionel Buşe, University of Craiova Associate Professor Gheorghe Clitan, West University of Timişoara Associate Professor Aurelian Crăiuţu, Indiana University, USA Associate Professor Cristina Emanuela Dascălu, Apollonia, Iaşi Professor Teodor Dima, Corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy Professor Marius Dumitrescu, Al. I. Cuza University of Iaşi Associate Professor Miyoko Enomoto, Tokyo International University, Japan Professor Luciano Floridi, University of Hertfordshire, St. Cross College, University of Oxford Lecturer Ph.D. Harumi Higashi, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan Senior researcher Ionuţ Isac, Institute of History ―G. Bariţiu‖ of the Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca branch Researcher, Ph.D. Ruxandra Mărginean Kohno, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan Professor Basarab Nicolesco, Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy Professor Florea Lucaci, Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad Professor Kuruvilla Joseph SJ Pandikattu, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pontifical Institute of Philosophy and Religion, Pune, India Professor Vladimir Petercă, Sfânta Tereza Roman Catholic Theological Institute of Bucharest and Roman Catholic Theological Institute of Chişinău, Republic of Moldova Professor Lia Pop, University of Oradea Associate Professor Colin T. A. Schmidt, Le Mans University & ENSAM-ParisTECH, France Professor Alexandru Surdu, Member of the Romanian Academy Professor Keiji Sawada, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan Professor Victor Voicu, Dunărea de Jos University of Galaţi Professor Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, Jean Moulin Lyon III University, France Editorial Board: Co-Editors: Bogdan Popoveniuc, Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava Marius Cucu, Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava Founding Editor: Sorin Tudor Maxim, Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava Authors’s Editor: Silvia-Oana Ubassy Copy Editor: Laura Dumitriu 2014 Volume II Contents Research Papers Why Meillassoux‘s Speculative Materialism Struggles with Ancestrality ................... 11 Education for and as philosophy – a didacticist approach ............................................. 33 An Axiological Perspective in Understanding Truth ..................................................... 43 The Plurivocal Character of Hermeneutics – Moving beyond the Quest for Objectivity ............................................................................................................................................ 51 The American ―You Probably Know‖: On Chomsky, United States, and the Failed States .................................................................................................................................. 63 The Migration in and from the Community in the Knowledge-based Society ............. 77 Teaching a Foreign Language Focused on the Student as the Main Pillar of the Didactic Process ............................................................................................................... 91 Don Quixote, Figures and Philosophical Journey of Cervante‘s Masterpiece in Albania ............................................................................................................................ 101 Paul Goma. The Novel Sabina: The Phenomenology of Eros and the Autonomous Game of Writing in Romantic Arts .............................................................................. 115 Essays, Presentations, Reviews The Philosophy after ―Philosophy‖ .............................................................................. 127 Research Papers Why Meillassoux‟s Speculative Materialism Struggles with Ancestrality Ciprian Jeler, Researcher Ph.D. Interdisciplinary Research Department – Human and Social Sciences ―Alexandru Ioan Cuza‖ University of Iaşi, Romania [email protected] Abstract This paper shows that Quentin Meillassoux‘s speculative materialism doesn‘t offer us the means to account for the ancestral statements that the modern sciences produce, i.e. for the scientific statements about events preceding all forms of life. An analysis of the reasons why Meillassoux thinks that the problem of ancestrality problematizes the contemporary self-evidence of correlationism is first offered. The results of this analysis are then applied to speculative materialism itself and the consequences are not very promising: very much like correlationism, speculative materialism explicitly denies what I call the ―generalized version of the realistic assumption of science‖ and, in so doing, renders scientific ancestral statements de jure unverifiable. Therefore, if correlationism is rendered suspicious by the issue of ancestrality, the same can be said of speculative materialism. Keywords: Meillassoux, speculative materialism, correlationism, ancestral statements. This paper shows that Quentin Meillassoux‘s speculative materialism doesn‘t offer us the means to account for the types of ancestral statements that the modern sciences produce. In other words, as far as their way of handling ancestrality is concerned, speculative materialism and correlationism do not seem to be all that different. However, since Meillassoux uses the problem of ancestrality precisely as a means ―to problematize the contemporary self-evidence of correlationism,‖1 this similarity in the handling of ancestral statements might raise difficulties for the speculative materialism itself. 1 Quentin Meillassoux, ―Iteration, Reiteration, Repetition: A Speculative Analysis of the Meaningless Sign,‖ trans. R. Mackay, April 20, 2012, forthcoming, accessed June 25, 2014, https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0069/6232/files/Meillassoux_Workshop_Berlin.pdf. 11 Philosophy, Social and Human Disciplines 2014 vol. II I don‘t intend to show that speculative materialism is incapable of accounting for the general ability of mathematized sciences to identify the properties of a world that exists independently of the thinking. Indeed, I couldn‘t claim such a thing since the derivation of this ability of mathematized science from the guiding principle of speculative materialism (i.e. from the principle of factiality which states that the necessary contingency of beings is the sole necessity the world can be characterized by) has not yet been offered by Meillassoux, even though the first steps taken towards achieving this goal look promising.2 But one cannot criticize an author‘s intentions or goals, one can only criticize the positions and arguments he or she has clearly articulated. Therefore, my aim here is not to show that speculative materialism cannot account for science‘s ability to know or think – in general – a world independent of thought, but only that it cannot account for the ability of science to produce ancestral statements, i.e. to describe ―independent of thought‖ properties of beings belonging to a world anterior to man or to life in general. Out of all the ―facts‖ that sciences can identify and treat, I only focus here on the ancestral ones. Presuppositions In order to spare the reader‘s patience here, I will assume that the main lines of Meillassoux‘s arguments are well known, and I will simply indicate here which of them are necessary for the aim of my paper. I will mainly make use here of two of his beautiful demonstrations. a) The first necessary element is the proof given in chapter III of After finitude3 (and even more clearly re-stated in ―Iteration, Reiteration, Repetition‖) as to why a correlationist (defined as every philosophy that maintains the impossibility of acceding through thought to a being independent of thought) that wants to distinguish himself or herself from subjectalism4 will necessarily fall back on a speculative materialist position, i.e. he / she will be forced to assume the principle of factiality. Obviously, the distinction between what Meillassoux calls 2 I‘m hinting here at Meillassoux‘s proof that our ability to use meaningless signs stems from the necessary contingency of all beings (cf. ―Iteration, Reiteration, Repetition,‖ where Meillassoux‘s earlier considerations about identity – from his thesis L‘inexistence divine – are adapted to serve this new purpose). 3 trans. R. Brassier (London: Continuum, 2008, ebook version). 4 In After Finitude, ―subjectalism‖ is referred to by different names (absolute idealism, subjectivist metaphysics, etc.). In order to avoid any possible

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