/ 1968
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GOD, NATURE AND LANGUAGE: AN ESSAY ON BERKELEY’S PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

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This paper gives a critical account of the precise character of Berkeley’s fictionalism and instrumentalism in his philosophy of science. Two replies are given to the objections typically raised against his vision of science and its incompatibility with the scientific practice. The first objection claims that his immaterialism is incompatible with the natural causation, and the second that it is not able to give an explanation for the complex structure of issues raised by natural sciences. The replies rely on Berkeley’s thesis concerning the language of God, claiming that there are no causal but only semantic relations between the signs and the signified in the world. The system of nature constitutes a language which God uses to communicate with the finite creatures.

/ 1968
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AVANT-GARDE, KITSCH AND LEFTIST IDEAS

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The subject of this text is the relation between art and politics as it was practiced at the time of the rise of the European political Left, above all in the regions of the pre-war and post-war USSR. The thesis defended in the text is that all the totalitarian social-political systems form, in principle, a uniform attitude to arts as a powerful potential media for the promotion and transmission of their ideological and political messages, which mostly brings artistic creations to the verge of kitsch if not to its very centre. The other part of the thesis deals with events on the ex-Yugoslav post-war political and art scene, highlighting its specific features, especially those contained in the fact that kitsch was present on that scene rather as an (anti)-style of political life – above all of the language of the ruling politics of the time – than as a non-art.

/ 1968
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INTERPRETATION METAMORPHOSES OF THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE

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Richard Sennett has analyzed the period from 1750 up to the contemporary time, when the dominance of the culture of intimacy has transformed the political categories into psychological ones. The rise of the culture of intimacy had brought about the downfall of social theatrics, which has in turn caused the disappearance of public life. The family has transcended from a “particular, not-public” area into a haven, a world of its own, with a more stern moral code than the public sphere. Politicians have started to present their character to the public, as well as their feelings and the power of personal convictions. Here the theory of Hannah Arendt is analyzed from the horizon of so-called theatrical dimension of the public sphere and agonistic politics, through which the nature of worldliness is discussed. Some authors have criticized the mixing of internal and external areas (Hannah Arendt and Richard Sennett) while others (such as Peter Sloterdijk) have shown that there are consensuses which precede the separation of the internal and the external.

/ 1968
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ON THE VALUE AND THE LACK OF VALUE OF THE HUMANITIES

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One of the most contentious questions in today’s discussions on the educational policies concerns the role and values of the humanities in contemporary society and education. Many see the humanities as empty, unnecessary, inefficient, phony and worthless. This paper offers a rundown of arguments adduced to support this view, followed by an overview of Helen Small’s The Value of the Humanities, which offers an exceptionally critical and insightful analysis into the current debate over the value of the humanities. The paper ends by emphasizing further the need to recognize the contribution of the humanities to the production of knowledge and enhancement of the quality of life, as well as to the much needed sense of purpose and meaning.

/ 1968
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ETHICS IN THE THEATRE

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This paper aims to define and explore the importance of ethics in the theatre. The theoretical starting point of the work is based on Aristotle’s and Plato’s definitions of ethics and their observations of arts. For both Aristotle and Plato, art is an activity that inspires creation of virtues in the man. The second part brings the study of ethics in the works of Shakespeare and Sara Bernard, while the central part focuses on the theory of ethics in the theatre “poetics” of Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavsky. In his works, The System, My Life in Art and Ethics he laid the foundations of modern, naturalistic and professional theatre. Stanislavski wanted rules in theatre and beautiful relationships, goodness. He felt that the actors should be fully committed to their role and work in rehearsals. The concept of ethics in the theatre was examined from the perspective of a multi-disciplinary theatre and syncretic art. Arts should encourage positive emotions and traits in humans.

/ 1968
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MORAL EDUCATION AND THE AESTHETIC FORM OF MUSIC IN PLATO’S REPUBLIC AND ARISTOTLE’S POLITICS

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This paper examines Plato’s and Aristotle’s views on the role of music in moral education, with special emphasis on the chapters of Republic and Politics dealing with musical harmony and musical scales, regarded as formal aspects of music as an art form. Comparing these two philosophers’ positions their approach to the art of music appears to be different, which seems to have consequences in terms of both their conceptions of education and their aesthetics. Pointing out the differences in their choice of musical scales and instruments suitable for education, the paper discusses whether the reasons why these differences exist are to be found in their own philosophical doctrines or in the conventionally established musicianship of their epoch to which both these authors refer but reach different conclusions.

/ 1968
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MARCUSE’S CRITIQUE OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE AND ART

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According to Marcuse, contemporary culture is becoming one-dimensional. This means that we are witnessing an abolishment of differences between various cultural strata where everyone becomes a consumer of such (contemporary) art. However, the differences among real economic strata of society remain large. For these reasons Marcuse determinates modern society as irrational. When discussing the question of culture, Marcuse is discussing it in its broader sense where culture incorporates politics, education, art, religion and philosophy. Art, philosophy and religion serve as means to maintain the existing social order, according to Marcuse, where an individual is free to think but only within the confinements of patterns previously set out by society. As a consequence, education is set out to prepare an individual to manage within the confinements set up by the existing free market and it is focused primarily on positive science while leaving the question of social changes aside. As a consequence, an individual is less and less interested in political developments. Thus, Marcuse emphasizes that the criticism of the existing culture must be based on real social and economic processes, approaching the view of German idealism but also the view later expressed by Marx in his criticism of contemporary culture.

/ 1968
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AN ETHICAL READING OF VISUAL SYMBOLS OF ARCHITECT BOGDAN BOGDANOVIĆ

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Analyzing various interviews given by the architect Bogdan Bogdanović, which were compiled in a book Glib i krv (Mud and Blood), we could discern two different images of Belgrade that he cherished in his mind. One was an image of a mythical city of old Celtic civilization, raised between the two rivers – the Danube and the Sava as male and the female symbols – which was a mixture of a futuristic modernism and prehistoric necropolis and settlements. The other image was imprinted with rough changes that the Yugoslav society underwent after 1983, which he had anticipated saying that almost all Balkan cities would end up like archeological sites, buried under ruins of a culture and history of many nations. This paper will also analyze the first monument raised in Belgrade in honour of the Jewish victims to fascism, and will try to discover a universal symbolic of the memorial monument this eminent architect built from 1960-1980. The intent is to offer an ethical reading of the almost forgotten language of symbols, visual signs and arts which partially justifies the nature of Man/Builder and Man/Destroyer found in all of us.

/ 1968
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GRAFFITTI: CONSTRUCTING A THEORY FROM ARTISTS’ ACCOUNTS AND SOME RESERVATIONS

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This paper analyses certain artists’ personal accounts on their own works and artistic beliefs shaped into broad, general judgements on arts. These accounts have become theoretic formulations applicable to a much wider range of artwork, including more radical artistic practices. A question arises who to hold accountable for these: the artists or the art historians who use their standpoints as reference.

/ 1968
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PLATO’S MORAL ARGUMENT AGAINST POETRY

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The aim of this study is in attempt to demonstrate Plato’s appropriation of poetry into the corpus of educational practices in the ideal state. Taking into account some of Plato’s claims in Ion, the author draws attention to the possibility of Plato’s positive evaluation of poetry in the moral sense, given the poetic production. In addition, the author defends the thesis that poetry can have an extremely important role in the moral education of the individual, bearing in mind Plato’s views on poetic reception from Republic. In the end, the author concludes that, in a moral sense, good poetry is one of the conditions for achieving an ideal state.