Books by Panos Theodorou
This collective volume fills an important scholarly gap against the widespread, mainstream take o... more This collective volume fills an important scholarly gap against the widespread, mainstream take on the philosophy of law and the sphere of social acts and social realities. It revisits and reinvigorates the phenomenological account of some of the major questions and themes of jurisprudence such as the nature and structure of social acts and social realities, the texture of the sphere of praxis, the foundations of law, ethics, and economics, and the fundamental issue of the normativity of positive law. This volume argues that wherever there is a demand for grounding law and aspects of its context, the phenomenological method can provide a priori—albeit corrigible in their application—access to essential truths about the corresponding elements of interest. The present work reflects upon the place in and potential impact on the theory of law and its context of the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl—largely overlooked by legal philosophers and legal theorists. Further coverage contains those who have built upon these ideas of Husserl, such as Alfred Schutz, Edith Stein, Emmanuel Levinas, and Adolf Reinach.
The contributions address new issues and questions from the general perspective of the phenomenology of law, of normativity, and of the sphere of social acts and social realities. It is a response to the received view of legal positivism by presenting informed arguments in support of the view that phenomenology has the potential to achieve a deeper grasp of legal normative concepts such as rights, claims, obligations, promises, and apologies. Boundaries between law and morality as well as legal and social ontologies are also approached from a phenomenological perspective.
The present volume appeals to students, researchers, and professionals working in phenomenology, ethics, legal philosophy, and human rights theory and practice.
Nissos Publications, 2019.
The purpose of the series is to serve as a vehicle for the pursuit of phenomenological research a... more The purpose of the series is to serve as a vehicle for the pursuit of phenomenological research across a broad spectrum, including cross-over developments with other fields of inquiry such as the social sciences and cognitive science. Since its establishment in 1987, Contributions To Phenomenology has published nearly 80 titles on diverse themes of phenomenological philosophy. In addition to welcoming monographs and collections of papers in established areas of scholarship, the series encourages original work in phenomenology. The breadth and depth of the Series reflects the rich and varied significance of phenomenological thinking for seminal questions of human inquiry as well as the increasingly international reach of phenomenological research.
PhD Thesis by Panos Theodorou
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Research Programs by Panos Theodorou
Results published in "Desire, Craving, Orexis. Contribution to the Naturalization of Intentionality's Temporal Ground" (forthcoming)
Generally speaking, these naturalized renderings of Phenomenology aspire to show that intelligent... more Generally speaking, these naturalized renderings of Phenomenology aspire to show that intelligent behavior in living beings is grounded in that they are embodied and embeded in a world that they enactively constitute. Intentionality of the mind and its meaning-giving essence are understood in such a context. Meaningfulness of cognition and behavior, however, presuppose the organization and the synthesis of sensory and other elements in a horizon of temporality. But how is the opening up of this horizon made possible in the living being? Quite a few ideas have been offered to this effect (Varela 1999, van Gelder 1999, Lloyd 2002, Grush 2006, 2017). They attempt to ‘transplant’ Husserl’s account of temporality into the neuronal substructure of the living organisms. These attempts, however, have notable defects.
In our paper we develop a detailed but concise critique of the aforementioned views and proposals. We show that they wrongly assimilated Husserl’s analysis of inner time consciousness as one concerning timing rather than temporality (Varela, van Gelder, Lloyd) or as concerning prediction of hyletic data rather than temporal flow (Grush). We argue that either their ideas regarding the specific neuronal networks and functions that give rise to the opening up of the temporal horizon show toward irrelevant directions (Varela, van Gelder, Lloyd) or they lack any successful positive suggestion (Grush). We present and develop the novel idea that the lived-through temporal horizonality resides in the orectic (appetitive-desirative) character of basic functions of the living organism. We offer a classification of the orectic phenomena in the different levels of the living beings. We appeal to Panksepp’s behavioral neuro-ethological findings regarding the presence of a SEEKING system in interconnected dopaminergic circuits in the subcortical frontal brain. Finally, we interpret these results in a way that suggests how this system makes possible the opening up of the primordial temporal horizon.
Αντικείμενο του προγράμματος ήταν η φιλοσοφική προσέγγιση και η κατ’ αρχήν αποτίμηση των προβλημά... more Αντικείμενο του προγράμματος ήταν η φιλοσοφική προσέγγιση και η κατ’ αρχήν αποτίμηση των προβλημάτων που σχετίζονται με τις λεγόμενες οντολογίες (ontologies). Η ιδέα περί των οντολογιών συνιστά ένα εγχείρημα κωδικοποίησης, αποθήκευσης, επεξεργασίας, και ανάκτησης γνωσιακά αξιόλογων πληροφοριών για τον κόσμο σε υπολογιστές και ανάλογα συστήματα. Η γενική ιδέα είναι ότι για να έχουμε τη δυνατότητα μιας κωδικοποίησης που να καταφέρνει να αντιστοιχίσει στο επίπεδο αποθηκεύσιμων και επεξεργάσιμων συμβόλων πληροφορία για τον εξωτερικό κόσμο πρέπει να διαθέτουμε ένα όσο δυνατό λεπτομερέστερο και διεισδυτικότερο όργανο κατηγοριοποίησης (εννοιολόγησης) του εξωτερικού κόσμου. Σχετικά πρόσφατα ως τέτοιο όργανο έχουν προταθεί οι λεγόμενες οντολογίες (ή εννοιολογήσεις ή μοντέλα του κόσμου). Σκοπός μας ήταν να διερευνήσουμε τους όρους (προϋποθέσεις, δυνατότητα, περιορισμούς) που σχετίζονται με τις σχετικές προσπάθειες αναπαράστασης και επεξεργασίας της γνώσης (από τυπική και υλική οντολογική άποψη) σε υπολογιστές. Με βάση αυτή τη γνώση θα μπορούσαν να προσαρμοστούν κατάλληλα οι σχετικές τεχνικές δημιουργίας και αποθήκευσης και ανάκτησης πληροφοριών με τρόπο ώστε να ικανοποιείται το αίτημα για πληροφοριακή σχετικότητα (informational relevance).
Papers by Panos Theodorou
Legal positivism considers it impossible for a legal theorist to discover some essential fundamen... more Legal positivism considers it impossible for a legal theorist to discover some essential fundament upon which the content and the normativity of positive law could be grounded. Phenomenology, however, maintains that we can trace the foundations of positive law by revealing a non-mystical and non-relativistic basis comprising essential relevant truths. In his A Priori Foundations of Civil Law (1913), Reinach argues that there is a pure or a priori science of law, which consists of phenomenologically discoverable, strictly a priori synthetic propositions, upon which positive law is grounded. Nonetheless, the clarity, meaning, inner function, coherence, and viability of this project are still an open question. My aim here is to make clear exactly what Reinach thinks this a priori theory of law is all about and how it supposedly grounds positive law in its normativity. Firstly, I present an overview of Reinach’s idea and analyze the general methodological spirit behind his search for an a priori theory of law. Secondly, I refer to a series of problems in the interpretations of Reinach’s project: problems that make it necessary to revisit that project in detail. After this, I unfold my reading of Reinach’s ideas, beginning with my central claim that Reinach’s phenomenological grounding of logical normativity is based on the scheme of the phenomenological grounding of logical normativity that Husserl develops in the Prolegomena (1900). After that, I show how this scheme applies to Reinach’s project for grounding positive law. Next, I delve deeper into a critical examination of the core elements in Reinach’s project. Finally, I propose the direction for a suitably revised version of the project for a phenomenological grounding of positive law in its normativity.
New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy
The movement for the naturalization of intentionality or of phenomenology is growing. Among other... more The movement for the naturalization of intentionality or of phenomenology is growing. Among other characteristics, the relevant approaches also give special attention to the non-representational and enactive character of experience. Intentionality of the mind and its meaning-giving essence are understood in such a context. Meaningfulness of cognition and behavior, however, presuppose the organization and synthesis of sensory and other elements in a horizon of temporality. But how is the opening-up of this horizon made possible in the living beings? Quite a few ideas have been offered, which attempt to ‘transplant’ Husserl’s account of temporality into the neuronal substructure of the living organisms (Varela 1999, van Gelder 1999, Grush 2006). In our paper we present and develop the novel idea that the opening-up of the temporal horizon is made possible on the basis of the desirative/orectic phenomena of the living organism. After an exposition of the issue concerning the possible natural basis of the temporalization of experience and comportment, we offer a classification of the desirative/orectic phenomena in corresponding different levels of the articulation of the living organisms. Then we maintain that the orectic phenomena properly so-called are not directed toward concrete or specific objects or sensory contents, but toward evolutionarily/survivally significant values. We explicate how, in this orectic directedness to values, the opening-up of the temporal horizon happens. For the deepening of the naturalized understanding of this happening, though, we need to trace relevant neuronal circuits. We appeal to Panksepp’s behavioral neuro-ethological findings regarding the presence of a SEEKING system in collaborating dopaminergic circuits in the subcortical frontal brain. Finally, we interpret this system as orectic and value-directed and show that Panksepp’s results underpin the idea that such a system makes possible the opening-up of the primordial temporal horizon.
A. Baltas and Th. Dimitrakos (eds). Philosophy and Sciences in the 20th Century II. Crete University Press [in Greek], 2021
«Ο ρόλος αυτού του "φιλοσοφικού υποβάθρου" υπήρξε πάντα υψίστης σημασίας. […] [Μ]έσα στην ιστορία... more «Ο ρόλος αυτού του "φιλοσοφικού υποβάθρου" υπήρξε πάντα υψίστης σημασίας. […] [Μ]έσα στην ιστορία, η επίδραση της φιλοσοφίας πάνω στην επιστήμη υπήρξε πάντοτε τόσο σημαντική όσο η επίδραση-την οποία όλοι παραδέχονται-της επιστήμης πάνω στη φιλοσοφία. Ως παράδειγμα, […] θεωρείστε την περίοδο της μετα-κοπερνίκειας επιστήμης, την περίοδο που γενικώς θεωρείται ότι υπήρξε αυτή της γένεσης της νεότερης επιστήμης» (Koyré 1955, 107
![Research paper thumbnail of Structuralism and Husserl's Phenomenology. Structure and Subject [in Greek]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/68454087/thumbnails/1.jpg)
A. Baltas and Th. Dimitrakos (eds). Philosophy and Sciences in the 20th Century II. Crete University Press [in Greek], 2021
Λέξεις κλειδιά: Έντμουντ Χούσερλ, φαινομενολογία, αποβλεπτικότητα, φαινομενολογική(ές) αναγωγή(ές... more Λέξεις κλειδιά: Έντμουντ Χούσερλ, φαινομενολογία, αποβλεπτικότητα, φαινομενολογική(ές) αναγωγή(ές), ψυχολογισμός, Καθαρή Λογική Γραμματική, Υπερβατολογική Λογική, δομές και φαινομενολογία, υποκείμενο και φαινομενολογία, Ζαν-Πωλ Σάρτρ, Μωρός-Μερλώ Ποντύ. Phänomenologie, 1936). Το βασικό αρχείο με τα κατάλοιπα του Ε. Χούσερλ βρίσκεται στην πόλη Λουβέν (Louvain) του Βελγίου. Σήμερα, έχει σχεδόν ολοκληρωθεί η κριτική έκδοσή τους στις σειρές Husserliana, Husserliana Dokumente, και Husserliana Materialien, από τους εκδοτικούς οίκους Martinus Nijhoff, αρχικά, και Springer, πολύ αργότερα. Είναι γενικά αποδεκτό ότι στο έργο του μπορούν να εντοπιστούν τρεις διαφορετικές φάσεις που αντιστοιχούν, πάνω κάτω, στους τόπους διαμονής και εργασίας του. Η πρώτη φάση (1887-1895) ή φάση της Χάλε (1887-1901) χαρακτηρίζεται ως προφαινομενολογική και πρωτο-φαινομενολογική. Η δεύτερη φάση (1896-1906) αντιστοιχεί στην πρώτη περίοδο της παραμονής του Χούσερλ στο Γκαίτινγκεν (1901-1906) και χαρακτηρίζεται ως φάση της Φαινομενολογικής Ψυχολογίας. Τέλος, η τρίτη φάση περιλαμβάνει τη δεύτερη περίοδο της διαμονής του Χούσερλ στο Γκαίτινγκεν (1907-1916) και όλη την περίοδο της διαμονής του στο Φράιμπουργκ (1917-1938) και χαρακτηρίζεται ως φάση της Υπερβατολογικής Φαινομενολογίας. 2 Γενικά μιλώντας, στο πλαίσιο της φιλοσοφίας του Χούσερλ, το πρόβλημα της γνώσης του κόσμου δεν είναι πλέον αυτό της νεότερης φιλοσοφίας: πώς μια περίκλειστη εγωϊκή συνείδηση οικειοποιείται γνωστικά μια απόλυτα ετερολογική ρεαλιστική υπερβατικότητα καθ' εαυτήν. Είναι μόνο πρόβλημα ανάλυσης ή φωτισμού μιας πάντα επί το έργον αδιαμφισβήτητης συστοίχισης συνείδησης και αντικειμένων της που βρίσκονται πέραν αυτής. 3 Δεν υπάρχει συνείδηση χωρίς κάτι που να γίνεται συνειδητό και-στις πιο βασικές μορφές συνείδησης-ό,τι γίνεται συνειδητό, δηλαδή κάθε αντικείμενο που η συνείδηση συνειδητοποιεί, δεν συνιστά μια εμμενή παράστασή της ή απλώς σημείο για κάτι άλλο πέραν αυτής. Τουναντίον, ό,τι εμφανίζεται, π.χ., στην αντιληπτική συνείδηση, είναι αυτό το ίδιο ένα αντικείμενο ευρισκόμενο πέραν της ιδίας. Μπορεί στη συνείδηση να υπάρχουν εμμενή περιεχόμενα, π.χ., στην αντίληψη, αυτή η τρεχόντως δεδομένη όψη του αντικειμένου, αλλά αυτά είναι μόνο βιούμενα στοιχεία από τα αντικείμενα. Αυτά τα δεδομένα στοιχεία καταγράφονται παροδικά εντός της εμμενούς ροής των βιωμάτων της έγχρονης συνείδησης, αλλά δεν συνιστούν ούτε αντικείμενά της ούτε παραστάσεις ή σύμβολα για αυτά τα αντικείμενα. Τα τελευταία, πάλι, εμφανίζονται ως ευρισκόμενα εκεί έξω, ως υπερβατικά σε σχέση με αυτήν (εντός του αντίστοιχου προσίδιου ορίζοντά του ή κόσμου τους), αλλά δεν συνιστούν περιεχόμενα της συνείδησης (με κάποια στενή σημασία του όρου). Έτσι, το πρόβλημα της γνώσης δεν είναι πρόβλημα αυθυπέρβασης της συνείδησης προς κάτι οντολογικά αλλότριο. Είναι πρόβλημα συγκρότησης και εμφάνισης υπερβατικών όντων που συγκροτούνται στη συνείδηση ως κάτι με νόημα (ως κάτι που εμφανίζεται και κατανοείται ως κάτι, εντός αντίστοιχων κόσμων), στη βάση των διδόμενων παροδικών, απλώς βιούμενων, εμμενών περιεχομένων της συνείδησης. Για να έχει ξεπεραστεί έτσι το νεοτερικό γνωσιολογικό πρόβλημα, πρέπει να έχει συμβεί μια ριζική αναθεώρηση της φυσιογνωμίας του συνειδέναι, και αυτό αποτελεί ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα επιτεύγματα της φιλοσοφικής σκέψης του Χούσερλ. Δεν προσπαθεί να διασφαλίσει την ύπαρξη και τη γνώση του εξωτερικού κόσμου στηριζόμενος σε θεολογικές εγγυήσεις για την αντιστοιχία των εμμενών ιδεών ή παραστάσεων μιας res cogitans στα αντικείμενα κάποιας res extensa. Ούτε οντοθέτει δογματι-2 Για μια λεπτομερέστερη ανάλυση των προβλημάτων που ενδιέφεραν τον Χούσερλ και των τρόπων πραγμάτευσής τους ανά περίοδο μπορείτε να ανατρέξετε στην Εισαγωγή μου στο Husserl (2005). Για την πορεία της σκέψης του προς τις ΛΕ και για το περιεχόμενο αυτών, βλ. Βασιλείου και Θεοδώρου 2019. 3 Βεβαίως, όπως θα δούμε παρακάτω (§3), το πρόβλημα αυτό έχει διαφορετικό νόημα στην προυπερβατολογική Φαινομενολογία των Λογικών Ερευνών (1900/1901) και στην υπερβατολογική Φαινομενολογία των Ιδεών Ι (1913) και μετά.
![Research paper thumbnail of Husserl’s and Cassirer’s Naïve Historico-Cultural Progressivism as Viewed Through a Radical Reworking of Köhler’s [Koehler's] Value Theory](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/96958790/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Marco Cavallaro, Thiemo Breyer, and Elio Antonucci (eds), Husserl and Cassirer. Perspectives on the Philosophy of Culture. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2022
Husserl and Cassirer stand, according to their own self-understanding, as key 20 th century figur... more Husserl and Cassirer stand, according to their own self-understanding, as key 20 th century figures in the cultivation of Enlightenment's principles and views on humanity, culture, and history. In a word, they both understand European culture and history as a story of progress (§ 1). As I see it, central in a culture and its dynamics is its system of values, and a grounded understanding of the issue of progress presupposes an adequate theory of the standing or constitution as well as of the givenness and transvaluation of values. Neither Husserl nor Cassirer, however, actually advanced any such theory. We are still in need of one in order to account for culture's formation and dynamics in history. Next, I briefly review Husserl's and Cassirer's available problematic views on values (§ 2). Then, in § 3, I examine some of the central problems in the traditional approaches to culture and to values. In § 4, I appeal to Köhler's very interesting Gestalt theoretical approach to values and pinpoint some of its problems. Next, in § 5, I suggest how we could start the research from below, from the level of the organism, which could eventually shed some new light on the problem of value constitution and givenness. Finally, in § 6, I attempt to sketch an explanation for how we can use this new approach to values in order to understand actual cultural formation and its historicity, in a way that goes further than the whiggish philosophy of history.
Giovanni Jan Giubilato (ed.), Die Lebendigkeit der Phänomenologie. Tradition und Erneuerung // The Vitality of Phenomenology. Tradition and Renewal (Bautz Verlag) (2019)
Politics presupposes an understanding of meaning in history, according to which it manages the ac... more Politics presupposes an understanding of meaning in history, according to which it manages the actions that accord with or serve this meaning (as an ultimate good). The aim of this paper is to examine the process by which meaning in history is formed, as well as its character. To do this, I employ suitably modified phenomenological analyses of intentional consciousness to bring them as close as possible to the thematic of the psychoanalytic unconscious. I first try to sketch the basis on which the modern problem of meaning in history arises and the fundamental responses produced by modern philosophy. Then, I delineate two basic understandings of meaning in history as developed by the founders of Phenomenology, Husserl and Heidegger, which are surprisingly close to those of modern metaphysics. Next, I draft the process by which the topic of the unconscious surfaces in the context of difficulties faced by critical epistemology in its effort to penetrate the unperceivable folds of reality, which should be acknowledged as a precondition of experience but also of action and ethics. After this, a brief phenomenological account regarding action and praxis in response to evil is presented as a specific concretization of this philosophy after its vaccination with the thematic of the unconscious. Next, I examine Merleau-Ponty’s final, although ultimately failed, attempt to construct a phenomenological proof of the possibility of objective knowledge regarding historical meaning. In addition, I consider how persistent maintenance of the ideologically optimistic reading of history simply concocts political action that crucially exposes humanity to the danger of perpetrating what Arendt called “banal evil.” The question, then, is whether Phenomenology can offer a non-nihilistic understanding of existence, action, and events in history. I argue that a cautious non-Marxist and de-Messianized re-interpretation of Benjamin’s “Theses on the Philosophy of History” (1940), in tandem with an Aristotelian analysis of praxis and Kantian-Arendtian “common sense,” offers a sober, perspectivist, realistic understanding of the place of humans in the cosmos and of the historical course we happen to take in it.
Γιώργος Φαράκλας και Πηνελόπη Κουφοπούλου, Πολιτικὴ τῆς πράξης: Ἕνας ὁδηγὸς γιὰ τὴν σκέψη τῆς Ἄρεντ. Εκδόσεις Νήσος (2021)
1 VITA ACTIVA, ANIMAL LABORANS, ΚΑΙ Η ΔΙΑΦΕΥΓΟΥΣΑ ΠΡΩΤΑΡΧΙΚΗ ΥΠΑΡ-ΚΤΙΚΗ ΖΩΗ. Η "ΑΠΕΡΙΣΚΕΨΙΑ" ΤΗΣ ... more 1 VITA ACTIVA, ANIMAL LABORANS, ΚΑΙ Η ΔΙΑΦΕΥΓΟΥΣΑ ΠΡΩΤΑΡΧΙΚΗ ΥΠΑΡ-ΚΤΙΚΗ ΖΩΗ. Η "ΑΠΕΡΙΣΚΕΨΙΑ" ΤΗΣ HANNAH ARENDT ΚΑΙ Η ΕΠΙΜΟΝΗ ΚΡΙΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΕΥΡΩΠΑΙΟΥ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΥ ὁ ἄνθρωπος […] φωνὴν καὶ ὀνόματα ταχὺ διηρθρώσατο τῇ τέχνῃ, καὶ οἰκήσεις καὶ ἐσθῆτας καὶ ὑποδέσεις καὶ στρωμνὰς καὶ τὰς ἐκ γῆς τροφὰς ηὕρετο. οὕτω δὴ παρεσκευασμένοι κατ᾽ ἀρχὰς ἄνθρωποι ᾤκουν σποράδην. πόλεις δὲ οὐκ ἦσαν. ἀπώλλυντο οὖν ὑπὸ τῶν θηρίων. […] ἐζήτουν δὴ ἁθροίζεσθαι καὶ σῴζεσθαι κτίζοντες πόλεις. ὅτ᾽ οὖν ἁθροισθεῖεν, ἠδίκουν ἀλλήλους ἅτε οὐκ ἔχοντες τὴν πολιτικὴν τέχνην, ὥστε πάλιν σκεδαννύμενοι διεφθείροντο. (Πλάτων: Πρωταγόρας 322a-c) 1. Ο άνθρωπος ως μοχθούν και ως περιττεύον ζώο 4 Βλ.
In the vast majority of the literature on Kant, the prevailing view is that his conception of ana... more In the vast majority of the literature on Kant, the prevailing view is that his conception of analyticity and analytic truths suffers from obscurities and inconsistencies that render it, in the end, unintelligible. In the present paper, I try (i) to underline the meaning of these conceptions of Kant’s, (ii) to bring to the fore a crucial hidden presupposition in his account of analytic truths, and (ii) to present an interpretation that restores an intelligible account of Kantian analyticity and analytic truth. Contrary to the ‘received’ view, I claim that definition is the royal way to Kant’s analyticity and analytic truth, and that the latter cannot be understood apart from a very specific kind of appeal to the intuition of the object falling under the concept being defined. I call this elusive and fragile act “simple intuition,” pointing thus to the medieval notion of apprehensio simplex (and the long history behind it). Then I try to show how this is done with reference to the most suitable species of concepts, the mathematical, and by analogy (and with expectable limitations) to the empirical ones. Of course, the present attempt to reconstruct an intelligible Kantian account of analyticity and analytic truths does not also mean that I endorse it as successful and final in the context of philosophy’s effort to clarify the possibility and kinds of a priori truths.
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Books by Panos Theodorou
The contributions address new issues and questions from the general perspective of the phenomenology of law, of normativity, and of the sphere of social acts and social realities. It is a response to the received view of legal positivism by presenting informed arguments in support of the view that phenomenology has the potential to achieve a deeper grasp of legal normative concepts such as rights, claims, obligations, promises, and apologies. Boundaries between law and morality as well as legal and social ontologies are also approached from a phenomenological perspective.
The present volume appeals to students, researchers, and professionals working in phenomenology, ethics, legal philosophy, and human rights theory and practice.
PhD Thesis by Panos Theodorou
Research Programs by Panos Theodorou
In our paper we develop a detailed but concise critique of the aforementioned views and proposals. We show that they wrongly assimilated Husserl’s analysis of inner time consciousness as one concerning timing rather than temporality (Varela, van Gelder, Lloyd) or as concerning prediction of hyletic data rather than temporal flow (Grush). We argue that either their ideas regarding the specific neuronal networks and functions that give rise to the opening up of the temporal horizon show toward irrelevant directions (Varela, van Gelder, Lloyd) or they lack any successful positive suggestion (Grush). We present and develop the novel idea that the lived-through temporal horizonality resides in the orectic (appetitive-desirative) character of basic functions of the living organism. We offer a classification of the orectic phenomena in the different levels of the living beings. We appeal to Panksepp’s behavioral neuro-ethological findings regarding the presence of a SEEKING system in interconnected dopaminergic circuits in the subcortical frontal brain. Finally, we interpret these results in a way that suggests how this system makes possible the opening up of the primordial temporal horizon.
Papers by Panos Theodorou
The contributions address new issues and questions from the general perspective of the phenomenology of law, of normativity, and of the sphere of social acts and social realities. It is a response to the received view of legal positivism by presenting informed arguments in support of the view that phenomenology has the potential to achieve a deeper grasp of legal normative concepts such as rights, claims, obligations, promises, and apologies. Boundaries between law and morality as well as legal and social ontologies are also approached from a phenomenological perspective.
The present volume appeals to students, researchers, and professionals working in phenomenology, ethics, legal philosophy, and human rights theory and practice.
In our paper we develop a detailed but concise critique of the aforementioned views and proposals. We show that they wrongly assimilated Husserl’s analysis of inner time consciousness as one concerning timing rather than temporality (Varela, van Gelder, Lloyd) or as concerning prediction of hyletic data rather than temporal flow (Grush). We argue that either their ideas regarding the specific neuronal networks and functions that give rise to the opening up of the temporal horizon show toward irrelevant directions (Varela, van Gelder, Lloyd) or they lack any successful positive suggestion (Grush). We present and develop the novel idea that the lived-through temporal horizonality resides in the orectic (appetitive-desirative) character of basic functions of the living organism. We offer a classification of the orectic phenomena in the different levels of the living beings. We appeal to Panksepp’s behavioral neuro-ethological findings regarding the presence of a SEEKING system in interconnected dopaminergic circuits in the subcortical frontal brain. Finally, we interpret these results in a way that suggests how this system makes possible the opening up of the primordial temporal horizon.