The Demonology of Michael Psellus: Socio-Cultural Context and Neoplatonic Influences
Gerasim Petrinski
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
https://doi.org/10.53656/phil2025-03-01
Abstract: The present study aims to explore one of the relatively under-researched aspects of Michael Psellus’ philosophical legacy, namely, his demonological treatises. Although extremely brief, these texts establish a new paradigm that shapes the Byzantine intellectual elite’s approach to ancient heritage, contemporary folklore, and the vernacular literature of preceding centuries. Our first task in achieving this goal will be to outline the main characteristics of the sociocultural context in which Psellus formed his philosophical worldview. As comparative analysis shows, by the eleventh century, a consolidated demonological system was already taking shape based on official Christian dogma and selectively chosen images from ancient literature. The second task will determine the method by which Psellus constructs his demonology. As we shall see, he withholds his sources and intentionally bases his highly selective notes on the subject primarily on a few late antique authors within the Neoplatonic tradition.
Keywords: Psellus; Neoplatonism; demons; demonology; Byzantium; hagiography
Kant and Contemporary Metaphysics
Alexander Kanev
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/phil2025-03-02
Abstract. The paper examines the evolution of metaphysical thought from Immanuel Kant to contemporary philosophy, focusing on a pivotal shift in 1951. It explores Kant’s critique of traditional metaphysics and his influence on modern thinkers like Ludwig Wittgenstein and W.V.O. Quine. The paper highlights Wittgenstein’s late reflections on the relationship between logic and reality, and Quine’s challenge to the analytic-synthetic distinction, which reshaped metaphysical discourse. It also discusses the revival of speculative metaphysics, influenced by both Kantian critique and the rise of naturalistic and abductive approaches, and questions whether Kant’s objections to metaphysics remain relevant today.
Keywords: metaphysics; logic; reality; abductive methodology
Concerning the Noumenon, or Kant’s Thirteenth and Fatal Concept of the Transcendental Analytic
Lydia Kondova
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
https://doi.org/10.53656/phil2025-03-03
Abstract. The paper provides a detailed reconstruction of Kant’s deduction of the concept noumenon at the end of CPR’s Transcendental analytic with the final aim to undermine the view of its unknowability. According to our initial premise, the contradictions, faced by Kant’s transcendental idealism, have their origin on the systematic level. The noumenon should, therefore, be understood as a purely methodological entity with reality solely within the system of transcendental idealism or as a “conceptual gate,” that functions as system’s entrance and exit and preserves its connection with its philosophical “other” – the realism.
Keywords: Kant; transcendental idealism; noumenon; system; method
Physicalism in the Philosophy of Mind
Aneta Karageorgieva
Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria
https://doi.org/10.53656/phil2025-03-04
Abstract. The text aims to formulate the position in the philosophy of consciousness known as physicalism in a way that does not repeat the shortcomings of existing formulations and yet retains the essential features of the physical as the basis of the mental. It explains why the word „materialism“ is outdated and should be replaced by „physicalism“ despite the existence of usages that treat them as interchangeable. The assumption is defended that physicalism is not only a metaphysical position, as is usually claimed, but is a hybrid – metaphysical and at the same time scientific – hypothesis. It is shown where to seek support for physicalism beyond the famous philosophical arguments from causal closure, from prior explanatory successes, and from mind-brain correlations, namely in the realm of the empirical. The best way to connect the mental and the physical is defended as „grounding,“ which shows the mental as a broadly physical fact, based on narrowly physical facts, in contrast to supervenience and realization. The advantages of physicalism as a strategy for studying consciousness are briefly described.
Keywords: philosophy of mind, physicalism, materialism, hybrid hypothesis, empirical support
Irritability (Need) and An-irritability (Fatigue): A Disorder of Rhythms – the Ontological Burnout
Marina Christodoulou
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
https://doi.org/10.53656/phil2025-03-05
Abstract. This paper discusses the concepts of effort, resistance, action-reaction, sense of life, death, and habit as explored by philosophers such as Xavier Bichat, Maine de Biran, and Félix Ravaisson. It highlights the idea that habit is formed as a result of the alternation between external forces and internal resistance. The paper also touches on the role of sensation and tonality in habituation, as well as the individuality of each living being’s vital force. Additionally, it mentions the connection between different “frequency profiles” and the perception of time. Overall the paper at first explores the complex relationship between life, habit, and the human experience, as a preamble in order to then discuss the concept of burnout in contemporary society, particularly in relation to the pressure to achieve and perform.
Keywords: effort; habit; depression; fatigue; exhaustion; burnout
Agreement as Beginning of Philosophizing
Vesselin Dafov
Sоfia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/phil2025-03-06
Abstract. The text discusses the issue of agreement (contracting) for philosophical activity (teaching, class, session, etc.) in institutional (school, university, etc.) and meta-academic forms of philosophizing (philosophy with children in kindergartens and primary and secondary schools, individual philosophical counseling, philosophical clubs for adults, etc.). The opportunities, advantages and disadvantages of, on the one hand, the so-called institutional and, on the other hand, meta-academic philosophizing from the point of view of negotiation (contracting) are discussed. The idea of the “standard” for philosophizing is introduced, as overcoming the limitations arising from the concept of “requirement” in relation to philosophy and philosophizing as common intersubjective and thinking-together being.
Keywords: ontology; subjectivity; philosophizing; philosophy with children; philosophical counseling; philosophical practices
Philosophizing with Children and Philosophizing Children’s Everyday Life
Tsena Zhelyazkova Stoeva
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
https://doi.org/10.53656/phil2025-03-07
Abstract. The text explores the form and content of doing philosophy with children, which, while being an educational activity, differs from classical teaching as it is guided by ideas and standards of a different spirit. Children are acknowledged as capable of autonomous thinking. Philosophising with them, is a distinct engagement from teaching and studying any specialised knowledge, skill, or attitude, whereas it does not differ essentially from any other philosophical practice. As a staring point in philosophising with children, any moment of children’s everyday life could become subject to philosophical reflection.
Keywords: philosophy with children, philosophizing, free thinking, creativity, philosophical community
A Process-Approach in Education
Plamen Makariev
Sofia University
https://doi.org/10.53656/phil2025-03-08
Protsesualen podhod v obrazovanieto. Razvivane na kliuchovi kompetentnosti chrez filosofija i grazhdansko obrazovanie. Teorija i praktika. PETROV, V., KACHAKOVA, V., BORISOVA, S., GEORGIEVA, L., IVANOV, M., KLIMENTOVA, P., MININA, R., VARDZHIISKA, E. & VARBANOVA, A. Izdatelstvo na BAN „Prof. Marin Drinov“. Sofia 2024. [In Bulgarian]
