Er(r)go, (paste the English text) Wojciech Kalaga

Anna Budziak

Anti-textualist Anti-essentialism. The Philosophy of Richard Shusterman.

Richard Shusterman's philosophy is outlined here as (1) providing a critique of Richard Rorty's "textualism" and (2) offering a philosophical alternative to Rorty's aestheticized ethics. In his critique of textualism, Shusterman points out the ontological as well as social and economic repercussions of Rorty's philosophical tenets: privileging the private discourse over the public, rendering self-definition exclusively in terms of self-narratives and prioritizing the aesthetic criterion of novelty. Shusterman proposes expanding the self-narrative's evaluative criteria by affirming integrity, harmony and growth. He also creates the discipline of somaesthetics: a branch of aesthetics which lays emphasis on the somatic aspect of the self and which defines the idea of "the aesthetic experience" as affective and transformatio­nal, thus capable of changing the course of life conducted not only within the textual confines but also hors de texte.

Leszek Drong

From Conventionalism to Normativism: A Few Remarks on the Evolution of Stanley Fish's Critical Position.

The essay argues for an evolutionary development of Stanley Fish's views on interpretation depsite what may seem like a surprising volte-face which many critics date back to his Professional Correctness published in 1995. Fish's early constructionism is gradually moderated in his writings by the introduction of the category of interpretive com­munities; his insistence on the rhetorical underpinning of all our verbal activity acquires a new dimension once we realise that the rhetoricity of public discourse is curbed by social/communal considerations which markedly restrict our ostensibly unfettered freedom of expression and opinion. Ultimately, Fish argues that in every situation some incontrovertible assumptions and principles are at work (including the assumption of an intention, which makes our utterances intelligible) even though in a different situation we may be capable of questioning and relativizing them. The point of the essay "From Conventionalism to Normativism" is thus to indicate the evolutionary emergence of normative categories in Fish's critical vocabulary, which has contained the seeds of his current position even in his most radical attacks on formalism and essentialism in the 1970s and 1980s.

Tomasz Kalaga

Dodging the Truth like Stray Bullets: Stanley Fish's Relativist Intentionalism.

The article discusses of the notion of truth in the context of Stanley Fish's reader-response criticism. The initial comparison of Fish's theory with several contemporary philosophical paradigms paves way for the argumentation in favour of acknowledging the subversive presence of the otherwise clandestine concept of truth in Fish's writings. Focusing on the ideas of meaning and rhetoric, the subsequent juxtaposition of Fish's ideas with the hermeneutic thought attempts to uncover this implied presence and outline possible consequences for the concepts of interpretation and textual stability.

Wojciech Małecki

Richard Shusterman vs. Hermeneutic Universalism.

Inspired by Nietzsche's claim on the superiority of interpretation, the paper explores Shusterman's account of herme­neutic universalism and in a critical manner explores Shusterman's views advocating functional distinction between understanding and interpretation. The polemics revolves around Stanley Fish's theory which, as the Author suggests, Shusterman seems to be at least in a partial agreement with, since (somehow contrary to some of his own views) remains established by the common ground of both Fish's and Shusterman's anti-fundationalist perspective.

Wojciech Chyła, Superheroes of Globalised Media Culture: Serial Killer and Suicide Bomber. Pathology of Sacrificial Exchange

The article analyses the discursive presence of a new type of pop-culture heroes, serial killer and suicide bomber, in the light of contemporary media theory.

Elżbieta Anna Sekuła, Urban Luminalia. Towards a Critical Ontology of Electropolis

The article provides a critical examination of the contemporary city, characterised here as post-polis in the context of contemporary cultural and media theory.

Anna Krynicka, “Subject’s Alien Location.” Paul Ricoeur and Bernhard Waldenfels on Responsibility

Taking as a departure point the notion of responsibility analysed here in the context of contemporary philosophy, the article revolves around the complexity of the relation between narrative identity and locality.

Alina Mitek's translation of Richard Rorty's essay.

Leszek Drong's Polish translation of Stanley Fish's essay.

Wojciech Małecki's Polish translation of "The End of Aesthetic Experience" in "Performing Live. Aesthetic Alternatives for the Ends of Art" by Richard Shusterman (2000).

Maciej Kropiwnicki's review of "Slavoj Žižek" by Tony Myers (2003).

Roman Konik's review of " Apocalittici e integrati: comunicazioni di massa e teorie della cultura di massa" by Umberto Eco (1964).

Karolina Lebek's review of "Maps and the Writing of Space in Early Modern England and Ireland" by Bernhard Klein (2001).

Critical notes on books

Summaries of the feature texts of the issue.

Colophon