Riassunto
This book is records recent discussions upon statements of the following kind : "This is the best of all possible worlds." Leibniz (1646-1716) "Unto the noble everything is good." Euripides (480-406 BC) "When God created the World, He consulted with the righteous men, and made the World for their sake." Hasidic sages in the 18th century. The discussions took place between the author and several of his closer friends. The above statement of Leibniz created over time commotions in Europe. After all, it could not be disregarded, let alone dismissed so easily, since he was one of the major philosophers at the dawn of the Western modern times, and he was certainly not an apologist of any church. Also, he had remarkable contributions in science, no lesser than, among others, being - together with, and independently of Newton - the founder of Differential and Integral Calculus. In one direction, that commotion led to the creation of a branch in theology, called Theodicy. On the other hand, in about half a century, it led the famous French polemicist Voltaire to write the book "Candide" which makes a most merciless, if not in fact, vicious fun of the mentioned statement of Leibniz. And the popular success of that book has over the last nearly three centuries been such that it is considered to be the most read French book by non-French readers, in its translation into the respective languages. But the rather unanimous, even if often tacit, public opposition to the above statement of Leibniz has had other celebrity champions as well. Among them we can recall Heidegger, one of the most prominent philosophers of the 20th century. Indeed, according to him, the human condition is rather the extreme opposite to the view of Leibniz, as it is in fact describable by the phenomenon which he calls ``thrownness". And if it comes to that, it is indeed worth having a look at what Heidegger means by that. In this way, it comes to pass that the ontological discussions, as reported here in these pages, have been going on related to these two irreconcilably extreme opposite views : the view of Leibniz, and on the other hand, of Voltaire and Heidegger. And needless to say, the vast majority, and in fact, near unanimity of humankind happens to side rather clearly and strongly - even if often tacitly - with Voltaire and Heidegger, albeit so often they may not quite be aware of the whole of the rich complexity and true depth of the issues involved. But then, so many and many more among us humans, and even including the privileged, simply would not feel the need for any more involved elaborations in order to take the very same and seemingly rather self-evident stand in that sharp and unbridgeable dichotomy of views between Leibniz, and on the other hand, Voltaire and Heidegger, and do so by simply and instantly rejecting the view of Leibniz. And then - given such a general, strongly entrenched and ages old background - the aim of the discussions recorded here has been to look more carefully into the issues involved, and see whether it may make some sense - if any at all - to side rather with Leibniz, even if that may place one in such a most sharp opposition to the views of so very very many, and many many more. Well, towards the end of the discussions, we in the group, may seem to have reached some idea about what may be NECESSARY in order to avoid falling into the immensely popular Voltaire and Heidegger gloom. As for what may also be SUFFICIENT to end up by embracing the view of Leibniz, this, I suppose, is a strictly personal, individual, intimate venture, one about which it may simply be impossible to say anything that may be relevant enough to many enough. But then, nowadays, we live in an era of a strong tendency for individuality, and even more so, for its often blatant manifestation. Consequently, why should there be a special concern if, for instance, the mentioned SUFFICIENT condition may mostly be left to the individual ?
Informazioni sull'autore
Emer. Prof. Elemer Elad Rosinger has been visiting, or spent time for longer periods, at numerous universities on five continents. For a while by now, he has been a member of the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Prof. Rosinger's research is in a number of fields in mathematics and physics. Among others, he introduced two nonlinear theories for solving large classes of nonlinear PDEs. One of them is listed under 46F30 by the American Mathematical Society. The second one is based on the order completion of spaces of smooth functions. He also gave the first complete solution to Hilbert's Fifth Problem which was outstanding since 1900. During six decades of academic career, Prof. Rosinger has published more than ten research monographs, as well as more than two hundred research papers in science. He has also published books and papers in philosophy. In his view, what goes by the name of "philosophy'', and specifically "ontology'', is unavoidable for every normal human being, either one likes it or not, either one is aware of that fact, or not. And then, if that may indeed be the case, one - needless to say - should better try to do something about it ... Therefore, the discussions in the present book ... And such discussions with others, or merely with oneself, are supposed to be nothing short of a ... never ending story ...
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