Distinctio: Journal of Intersubjective Studies

Current Biethical Challenges

Jure Zovko — 2025-05-07

Der „vormundschaftliche Staat“

Andreas Arndt — 2025-05-07

Der Hegel-Schüler Eduard Gans kritisierte 1832 den preußischen Staat als „vormundschaftlichen Staat“, der seine Bürger in Unmündigkeit halte. Für diese Vormundschaft gebe es aber keine vernünftigen Gründe mehr, so dass die Bürger sich von ihr befreien müssten. Heute, wo die Bürgerinnen und Bürger in den westlichen Demokratien noch weitgehend Freiheitsrechte genießen, kehrt sich diese Forderung um: Freiheit wird zunehmend als Privatbesitz ohne soziale Bindungen verstanden, so dass vom Staat gefordert wird, gegen Alle und Alles vorzugehen, was diesen Privatbesitz stören könnte. Es ist dies in der Konsequenz der Ruf nach einem autoritären Staat und damit der Gang in eine neue Unmündigkeit.

Protestantism and the Social Responsibility of the State

Hans-Peter Grosshans — 2025-05-07

The article analyses the religious basis of the different attitudes towards the modern welfare state and state social assistance systems in countries that have been influenced by different Christian denominations, especially Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinist, Presbyterian) Christianity. The article looks at early forms of poor relief in Lutheran cities at the beginning of the Reformation and their theological basis in Martin Luther’s writings. The article then looks at the different ways in which social assistance to the poor was organised in areas under Reformed influence and in Catholic areas. The article shows that the Christian obligation to support the poor underpins modern social assistance, but that it has played out in very different ways in societies according to the relative predominance of Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed Protestant religious heritages, and that these patterns can be seen today in variations in social assistance and welfare-to-work policies in OECD countries. The article shows that reference to the social doctrines and poor relief systems of historically significant Christian denominations can help to answer a number of otherwise puzzling cross-national differences in poverty policy. These include different beliefs and attitudes within Christian denominations, such as their understanding of salvation, their concepts of work and non-work (begging), their understanding of state-church relations and their understanding of the state in general.

Der „Organismus des Staates“ als Bild des Lebens

Dominika Jerkic — 2025-05-07

In diesem Beitrag argumentiere ich dafür, dass Hegels Begriff der `Idee`, wie er in der Wissenschaft der Logik (1816) entwickelt wird, ein methodologischer Grundlagenbegriff der Philosophie des Rechts (1821) ist. Dies wird im Zusammenhang mit Hegels Bild vom „Staat als Organismus“ gezeigt, und dies wiederum vor dem Hintergrund posthumanistischer kritischer Theorien, die eine transstaatliche Perspektive hervorkehren. Hier herrscht die Vorstellung vor, dass es im Prinzip nur noch einen einzigen Organismus geben soll, mit dem wir verbunden, vernetzt und in Beziehung stehen und in den wir eingebettet sind. Dem steht die Position Hegels gegenüber.

BORROWED SOVEREIGNTY AND ITS INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS IN DEEPLY DIVIDED SOCIETIES

Dražen Barbarić — 2025-05-07

The main goal of this paper is to evaluate international community approaches towards resolving institutional problems in deeply divided societies that have experienced the trauma of civil war in their recent past. International actors decided to “borrow sovereignty” to these countries through different international interventions. With temporal distance, we can now conclude that the cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are proof that similar intervention arrangements can have completely different outcomes. The main problem in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is that the Office of High Representative (OHR) has transformed a “permanent peace process” into a “permanent Berlin Congress.” In comparison to Kosovo, the different outcomes in the two cases are the result of two different paradigms of foreign intervention: one is a “parasitic paradigm” (BIH), in which external actors perpetuate an extraordinary state without stability and democratisation; the second is a “decomposing paradigm” (Kosovo), in which the same actors slowly weaken their positions by transferring powers to domestic institutions.

Spinoza’s view of freedom of thought and speech (libertas philosophandi) in a democratic society

Ivana Renić — 2025-05-07

Spinoza’s notion of freedom of philosophizing emerges from his arguments for achieving safety and freedom of society as the state’s main aim. Freedom, as explained in his Ethics, is a paradoxical concept since on the one side, it implicates the necessity and natural lawfulness of human’s desire for preservation (conatus), but on the other side, it is regarded in a higher sense as a moral and cultural endeavor. The notion of freedom of thought and speech in Theological-Political Treatise should be considered with psychological features of human nature, like a desire for others to approve of the things they think/do/express (EIIIP29). The state’s role in achieving the security of society, according to Spinoza, has to be delicately connected to the freedom of philosophizing which presupposes a harmonious community of individuals who practice tolerance and use judgment wisely while restraining negative affects like hatred, anger, envy, etc. Currently, there are potential constraints of speech in academic circles, it is of utmost importance to understand what freedom of philosophizing could mean. Spinoza’s political philosophy could give us a thorough explanation and wise suggestions for the regulation of speech in the public sphere.

To Be Apolitical: A Christian Perspective

Changchi Hao — 2025-05-07

The paper defends a special kind of political philosophy based on the discussions of Kierkegaard, Augustine and New Testaments. A Christian political philosophy is relatively uninterested in questions concerning how human beings can form certain kind of compromise between human wills in their pursuit of self-interests. For Kierkegaard, the confusion of Christianity with Christendom has the danger that by calling itself a Christian nation, society replaces salvation with socialization, For Augustine, true justice, true peace and freedom can only be found in serving God only; a Christian is on pilgrimage in this world in order to achieve the blessings in eternal life in the future. The temporal peace and justice have no merits in themselves if they cannot be made use of in worshiping God. In New Testaments, we find that the political philosophy in Kierkegaard and Augustine is in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Contrary to what modern political philosophy has understood, freedom, in its authentic and true sense, can only be realized through Jesus Christ.

WAR AND PEACE IN NORBERTO BOBBIO’S PHILOSOPHY

Josip Ćapin — 2025-05-07

The purpose of this paper is to present and analyse the basic ideas and concepts of the theory of war and peace that Norberto Bobbio elaborates in his philosophy. Bobbio devoted a large part of his “late” research to issues of war and peace, giving it the epithet of the most important philosophical, political and legal problem of today. He observes this problem through the perspective of a nuclear war, a war that requires rethinking and re-evaluation of traditional theories of war that cannot survive the test that a war led by this type of weapon sets before them. Through the analysis of the very terms “war” and “peace”, he arrives at a technical-legal definition of peace through which peace is understood, not as the simple absence of war, but as the activity of building long-term relations between countries. Such an understanding of peace leads Bobbio to theories of active pacifism. Among these theories, Bobbio chooses the theory of institutional pacifism, an idea that advocates the establishment of a Third, universal state, which should necessarily be based on democratic principles. It would have control over the means of waging war and it would be able to resolve conflicts between states in dispute, bringing humanity, at least, closer to the idea of permanent peace.

About the Journal

Editors — 2025-05-07

Preface

Editors — 2025-05-07

We present you with the second issue of the journal Distinctio for 2024.