Basic Philosophical texts in Medieval Serbia

Medieval Serbian philosophy took shape mostly through the process of translating Byzantine texts and revising the Slavic translations. Apart from the Aristotelian terminological tradition, introduced via the translation of Damascene's Dialectic, there also was, under the influence of the Corpus Areopagiticum and ascetic literature, notably of John Climacus' Ladder, another strain of thought originating from Christian Platonism. Damascene's philosophical chapters, or Dialectic, translated into medieval Serbian in the third quarter of the fourteenth century, not only shows the high standards of translation technique developed in Serbian monastic scriptoria, but testifies to a highly educated readership interested in such a complex theologico-philosophical text with its nuanced terminology. A new theological debate about the impossibility of knowing God led to Gregory Palamas' complex text, The Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. Philosophical texts were frequently copied and much worked on in medieval Serbia, but it is difficult to infer about the actual scope of their influence on the formation and articulation of the worldview of medieval society. As a result of their demanding theoretical complexity, the study of philosophy was restricted to quite narrow monastic, court and urban circles. However, the strongest aspect of the influence of Byzantine thought on medieval society was the liturgy as the central social event of the community. It was through the liturgy that the wording of the translated texts influenced the life of medieval Serbian society

Liberal and Conservative Political Thought in Nineteenth-century Serbia. Vladimir Jovanović and Slobodan Jovanović

Two very influential political philosophers and politicians, Vladimir Jovanović and Slobodan Jovanović, differed considerably in political theory. The father, Vladimir, offered an Enlightenment-inspired rationalist critique of the traditional values underpinning his upbringing. The son, Slobodan, having had a non-traditional, liberal upbringing, gradually-through analyzing and criticizing the epoch's prevail­ing ideas, scientism, positivism and materialism-came up with his own synthesis of traditional and liberal, state and liberty, general and individual. Unlike Vladimir Jovanović, who advocated popular sovereignty, central to the political thought of his son Slobodan was the concept of the state. On the other hand, Slobodan shared his father's conviction that a bicameral system was a prerequisite for the protection of individual liberties and for good governance. Political views based on different political philosophies decisively influenced different understandings of parliamentarianism in nineteenth-century Serbia, which in turn had a direct impact on the domestic political scene and the manner of government

Drafting the Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1920)

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was internationally recognized during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919–20. Even though there was neither a provisional nor a permanent constitution of the newly-formed state, factually there was a state as well as a system of governance, represented by supreme bodies, the King and the Parliament. Many draft constitutions were prepared by different political parties and notable individuals. We shall focus on the official Draft Constitution prepared during the premiership of Stojan Protić. He appointed the Drafting Committee as a governmental (multi-ethnic) advisory team of prominent legal experts from different parts of the new state consisting of Professors Slobodan Jovanović (President), Kosta Kumanudi and Lazar Marković (Serbia), Professor Ladislav Polić (Croatia) and Dr Bogumil Vošnjak (Slovenia). After two months of work, the Committee submitted its draft to the Prime Minister. The leading Serbian legal scholar and president of the committee, Slobodan Jovanović (1869–1958), was well-acquainted with the details of Austro-Hungarian and German legal traditions. Since he was an active participant and witness of the events that led to the creation of the new state, while also being an objective and critical historian, it is important to shed light on his firsthand account of the emergence of the state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

Balkan "Propaganda Wars" in the Late 19th Century : Participant and Interpreter : Historian Slobodan Jovanović

Slobodan Jovanović (1869–1958) was a renowned Serbian scholar and statesman, political philosopher, lawyer, historian, literary critic and writer, professor of public and constitutional law. He was president of the Royal Serbian Academy, rector of Belgrade University, dean of Belgrade University’s Law School, and president of the Serbian Cultural Club, a leading Serbian political and cultural organization in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on the eve of the Second World War. He died in 1958 in London, where he had served as prime minister an deputy prime minister of the Yugoslav government-in-exile during the Second World War. In post-war Yugoslavia, in a political trial in absentia held in 1946, he was sentenced to twenty years’ hard labour, confiscation of property and deprivation of civil rights. He was exonerated by a Serbian court in 2007. As a young diplomat, Slobodan Jovanović worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Serbia at the time of an intense propaganda war fought in the Balkans by the great powers and the Balkan states with the aim to resolve the Macedonian question as a part of the Eastern Question, in the context of the division of the possessions of the Ottoman Empire. It was the war of all against all, “a bitter, life-or-death war, all means permitted”, as it was described in the report of the diplomat Mihailo G. Ristić, Slobodan’s brother-in law. Since Jovanović directly took part in and eye-witnessed the events in the Balkan “propaganda wars” in the late 19th century, and at the same time he was an objective and critical historian, it is important to shed light on his first-hand account of this period in the history of the Balkans

An objectivistic critic of phenomenological hermeneutics

In traditional hermeneutics, complete objectivity of interpretation is assumed. Elaborating in detail various aspects of the hermeneutic method and rules of interpretation, the representatives of traditional hermeneutics overlooked the role of the subject of interpretation itself. They did not reflect on their hermeneutic situation, that is, their awareness of their own belonging to a unique historical flow. The phenomenological approach also includes the objectivist one. The contribution of phenomenological hermeneutics is that it also takes into account the position of the one who builds the historical horizon from his own perspective. Understanding the hermeneutic situation is crucial for understanding phenomenological hermeneutics. The hermeneutic situation contains prejudices that the interpreter cannot avoid because it is always a part of his time. The better one’s own prejudices are observed and the more gradual, critical and objective the research is, the truer is the understanding of the historical horizon

Božidar Knežević (1862-1905): Biography, philosophy, reception and criticism

Božidar Knežević (1862-1905) was a Serbian philosopher of history. His philosophico-historical system is presented in his two-volume Principles of History (Law of Order [succession] in History, 1898; and Proportion in History, 1901). Knežević was a proponent of Spencerism, the philosophy of the then most popular philosopher, Herbert Spencer. For Knežević, history, as a positive science, is actually the real philosophy, and the true goal of history is the brotherhood of humankind: “it remains for scientific history to bind man to man; history is to bind all peoples and all times, to bring them closer to one another and to reconcile them”. He saw global history as an evolutionary ascent to moral and intellectual unification of humankind. Knežević’s book of aphorisms (on morality, history, religion etc.) The Thoughts (1902) was very popular. He translated writings of Henry Thomas Buckle, Thomas Carlyle and Thomas Babington Macaulay into Serbian. He translated from French, German and Russian as well. Abridged versions of his writings and selected aphorisms are published in English (History, the Anatomy of Time: The Final Phase of Sunlight, translated by George Vid Tomashevich, Sherwood A. Wakeman, Philosophical Library, New York, 1980)

Plato’s Structure of Reality

According to the evidence of the “unwritten teachings” or “unwritten doctrines” (ἄγραφα δόγματα) and the dialogues Plato’s philosophy can be reconstructed as a system. The phrase “unwritten teachings” refers to the written evidence of Plato’s lectures, which were held in his school, the Academy in Athens. Although Plato’s philosophy cannot be called a system in the modern sense of the word, it has systemic features, due to its comprehensiveness and presentation of a complete picture of reality. With the help of dialectics, different layers of reality are defined. At the top of Plato’s hierarchy of reality are the first principles – the One and the indefinite Dyad. The One as active principle limits the indefinite Dyad producing the structure of reality starting from ideal numbers. At the next level of the hierarchy of reality, there are ideas. Mathematical paradigms lie between ideas and sense-perceptible things. Plato’s philosophy is the first philosophical system in the history of philosophy. It is based on previous teachings about the One and the elements.Према сведочанствима о неписаном учењу и дијалозима може се реконструисати целина Платоновог учења као систем. Иако се Платонова филозофија не може назвати системом у модерном смислу речи, она има системске одлике, због свеобухватности и представљања потпуне слике целине стварности. Уз помоћ дијалектике одређују се различити слојеви стварности. На врху Платонове хијерархије стварности налазе се прва начела – једно и неодређена двојина. Из првог и другог начела настаје стварност. Једно као активно начелно ограничава неограничено, производећи структуру стварности, почевши од идеалних бројева. На наредном нивоу хијерархије стварности налазе се идеје, чије гранање је сложено. Математичке парадигме налазе се између идеја и чулно опажљивих ствари. Веза је била замишљена као прелаз са идеалних на видљиве чулне бројеве. Платоновa филозофија представља први филозофски систем у историји филозофије. Заснован је на претходним учењима о једном и састојцима (елементима). Платон је објединио учења својих претходника, али не еклектички, већ садржински, што се може сагледати на основу неписаног учења