Vilius Bartninkas | Vilnius University (original) (raw)

Papers by Vilius Bartninkas

Literatūra, 2022

Anotacija. Vėlyvojo laikotarpio Platono etikoje pagrindinis asmeninio tobulėjimo iššūkis yra siel... more Anotacija. Vėlyvojo laikotarpio Platono etikoje pagrindinis asmeninio tobulėjimo iššūkis yra sielos netvarkingos mintys ir netvarkingi judesiai. Tokią netvarką siūloma taisyti mąstant ir atkartojant kosminių dievų tvarkingas mintis ir judesius. Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos Platono etikos teorinės prielaidos. Nuodugni dialogo Timajas analizė atskleidžia savitą matematikos koncepciją, pagal kurią skaičiai ir jų santykiai ne tik parodo realybės faktus, bet kartu išreiškia vertybes ir idealus. Mokydamiesi matematikos, žmonės pažįsta kosminių dievų etinę kasdienybę ir tampa kaip šie dievai.

The Ancient Sea: The Utopian and Catastrophic in Classical Narratives and their Reception, 2022

This chapter explores the classical Greek texts that lay the conceptual foundation for the Greek ... more This chapter explores the classical Greek texts that lay the conceptual foundation for the Greek notions of sea power. I argue that for the Greek authors, sea power embodies broader principles of expansionism and mobility, which are bound to threaten the stability of the existing political order and lead to either a catastrophic subversion of it or the creation of a new utopian arrangement. At their core, the Greek notions of sea power mediate between a profound transformation of the political sphere and a conspicuous challenge to the good life of citizens.

Lietuvių katalikų mokslo akademijos metraštis, 2021

This article examines the anthropological premises of Alvydas Jokubaitis’s philosophy. His earlie... more This article examines the anthropological premises of Alvydas Jokubaitis’s philosophy. His earlier works are based on the conception of humans as political animals, an anthropological theory according to which humans are naturally social beings inclined to act in the public space. His latest book, Politinis idiotas (A Political Idiot), is based on a new anthropological theory, according to which humans are apolitical (or idiotic) animals, who cannot reveal their personalities in the public space and in social roles. This article explains the turn from the earlier anthropological optimism to the later anthropological pessimism as a theoretical answer to a particular issue concerning the nature of unsuccessful practical actions. However, the article also argues that this turn also marks a new tension in Jokubaitis’s philosophy, since the two anthropologies establish different visions of morality and the political. The former vision follows the classical conception of morality and the Schmittian distinction between friends and enemies, while the latter vision develops a personalist view of ethics and prioritises the category of the enemy. This tension cannot be resolved in Jokubaitis’s current works and thus the two different conceptions of the human nature allow us to classify his works into the earlier period and the later period.

Mnemosyne, 2021

This paper examines moral virtues and cult practice in Plato’s Laws. It explores the symposium an... more This paper examines moral virtues and cult practice in Plato’s Laws. It explores the symposium and the chorus and their potential to provide a recognisable cultural setting, in which the Magnesian citizens can test their responses to pleasurable and painful experiences and thus train their moral virtues. The challenge to this reading is to explain what additional input to moral habituation is provided by the religious aspect of these institutions. This paper draws attention to the relationship between the people and the patron gods of the respective institutions. It argues that the cult practices are designed to reflect the virtuous character of the traditional gods, who serve as the ethical role models for the worshipers. In this way, the worship of the traditional gods not only facilitates moral progress by exemplifying the objective of virtuous life, but also gives an egalitarian version of the ideal of godlikeness to its citizens. For final version see: https://doi.org/10.1163/1568525X-12347312

Problemos, 2019

Santrauka. Šis straipsnis nagrinėja VIII-IV a. pr. Kr. antikinio politinio mąstymo diskursus. Šio... more Santrauka. Šis straipsnis nagrinėja VIII-IV a. pr. Kr. antikinio politinio mąstymo diskursus. Šio periodo autorių, svarsčiusių apie politinius klausimus, analizė rodo, kad antikinį politinį mąstymą galima skirstyti į tris diskursus: politinę mintį, politinę teoriją ir politinę filosofiją. Straipsnio tikslas-apibrėžti trijų diskursų savitumus, juos iliustruojant konkrečiais istoriniais pavyzdžiais, rodančiais minėtų diskursų santykį su graikų politinėmis patirtimis ir atskleidžiančiais, kaip vyko politinės minties transformacija į teoriją ir filosofiją.

Abstract. This paper examines the origins of ancient political thinking from (roughly) 750 to 348 B.C. The analysis of authors who had been discussing political questions over this period shows that ancient political thinking can be classified into three discourses: political thought, political theory, and political philosophy. The purpose of this paper is to define the characteristics of each discourse and to illustrate them with specific historical examples which show how these discourses interacted with the Greek political experiences and how political thought transformed into a theory and philosophy.

Literatūra, 2019

Anotacija. Šiame straipsnyje apžvelgsime standartines Platono pasakojimo apie Atlantidą interpret... more Anotacija. Šiame straipsnyje apžvelgsime standartines Platono pasakojimo apie Atlantidą interpretacijas. Straipsnio tikslas-įvardyti, kaip konkretūs tyrėjų sprendimai dėl dialogo veikėjų tikslų, pasakotojo intencijų, Atlantidos pasa-kojimo žanro ir siužeto plėtotės duoda pagrindą įvairioms politinio skaitymo galimybėms. Taip atskleisime draminės sąrangos įtaką politinės minties raiškai. Straipsnyje teigiama, kad Kritijo sąveika su Sokratu ir Timaju geriausiai paaiškina, kodėl dviejose Kritijo kalbose daugiausia dėmesio skiriama valstybių atsiradimo klausimui. Reikšminiai žodžiai: Platonas, Timajas, Kritijas, Atlantida, drama, politika, politogonija.

Summary. This paper explores the prevailing readings of the Atlantis story. The purpose of this paper is to show how interpretative judgements on the narrator's intentions, the objectives of the characters, and the genre and the development of the story prepares the grounds for the political understanding of Athens and Atlantis. In this way, I will show how the dramatic framework influences the expression of political thought. I argue that the most important dramatic feature of the story is Critias' interaction with Socrates and Timaeus, which explains why Critias composes two speeches that are essentially dedicated to the question of political origins.

[This paper is based on my MPhil project 'Civic Identity in Plato's Laws'] Anotacija. Šiame stra... more [This paper is based on my MPhil project 'Civic Identity in Plato's Laws']

Anotacija. Šiame straipsnyje nagrinėjama religijos ir pamaldumo reikšmė Platono politinėje ir eti-nėje mintyje, aptinkamoje dialoge Įstatymai. Aptariant šiuolaikinę literatūrą pastebima, kad tyri-nėtojai yra vis labiau linkę telktis ties Platono vėlyvąja etika, praleisdami religijos klausimą. Tačiau dialogo kertinių politinių naratyvų aptarimas atskleidžia, kad religija užima svarbią vietą Platono teorijoje. Tolesnė analizė rodo, kad Platonas savo paskutiniajame darbe permąsto religijos ir pa-maldumo reikšmę. Viena vertus, jis polemizuoja su tradicinėmis graikų idėjomis apie pamaldumą, siūlydamas būdą, kaip sujungti performatyvaus ir racionalaus dievotumo tipus. Be to, pamaldumas yra įtraukiamas į dorybių etiką, suteikiant jam struktūriškai svarbų vaidmenį etikoje. Taip aiškėja, kad pamaldumas yra viena iš esminių idėjų mąstant apie Magnesijos projektą dialoge Įstatymai.

Abstract. This paper explores the meaning of religion and piety in Plato’s Laws . A discussion of contemporary scholarship shows that currently there is a trend to emphasize ethical innovations in Plato’s later thought without discussing its relation to religion. However, an analysis of the key foundational narratives of Magnesia reveals that religion has a substantial role in the dialogue. Plato rethinks the meaning of piety in his last dialogue. On the one hand, he criticizes the traditional Greek religiosity by providing a way to reconcile the performative and the rational devotion to gods. On the other hand, piety is incorporated in ethical theory as a key structural component. Thus, piety emerges as one of the most fundamental ideas in the political project of Magnesia.

[This paper is based on my BA thesis (2014) written under supervision of prof. Vytautas Ališauska... more [This paper is based on my BA thesis (2014) written under supervision of prof. Vytautas Ališauskas at Vilnius University.] This paper deals with the role of expertise (technē) in Plato’s Statesman. We argue that expertise is one of the central notions in the dialogue, which pervades the conception of political action and human condition in general. In the Statesman, humans are understood as technological animals whose being is in the constant state of conflict. However, the expertises do not overcome the political conflict but stimulate it even more by competing for political power. One of the activities of statesmanship is to manage and control the conflict of expertises by ordering their functions, using them for communal good and regulating them by means of disciplinary expertises. In this way statesmanship reveals as an expertise itself. The foundation for statesman’s expertise is a theoretical knowledge which gives an understanding about the evolvement of the conflict of expertises and the solutions for political activities.

The paper explores Plato’s Statesman in the perspective of its philosophical unity and autonomy. The relevance of this approach arises from the problem posed by the traditional readings of the Statesman – the developmental and unitarian. Both methods interpret the Statesman in the context of Plato’s major political dialogues of, the Republic and the Laws, thus preventing the exposing of the internal theoretical coherence of the dialogue. Hence this paper focuses on the analysis of the main political themes of the dialogue – conflict, statesmanship, and political knowledge – and their relations to each other. By discussing the emergence of the political and its importance for conceptualizing political practice, as well as by indicating the structural elements of statesmanship, the author of the paper argues that the Statesman contains a coherent and internally completed political theory.

The Pre-Political and the Political in Aristotle's 'Politics', Mar 2014

[This paper is based on BA course project (2012) written under supervision of prof. Naglis Kardel... more [This paper is based on BA course project (2012) written under supervision of prof. Naglis Kardelis at Vilnius University.] The paper argues that the distinction between the pre-political and the political in the form of the household and the state is essential to the understanding of Aristotle’s communal projects. The analysis with the help of this distinction reveals the structure and principles of Aristotelian communal projects and removes tensions, which are rooted in different and frequently incompatible statements of Aristotle. In the course of the paper, it is showed that the household and the state can be defined as separate and yet interdependent communities and how these definitions affect the understanding of concrete constitutional communities.

Non-academic articles by Vilius Bartninkas

The Daybreak of Politics: The Pre-political Experiences in Greek Myths, Dec 2011

Esė apie politikos gimimą graikų mituose. Raktiniai žodžiai: Arendt, iki-politika, graikų mitai, ... more Esė apie politikos gimimą graikų mituose. Raktiniai žodžiai: Arendt, iki-politika, graikų mitai, filosofija, politika

The Daybreak of Politics II: Together in Oppose, Oct 2013

Draugystės pavidalų Antikos kultūroje, politinėje mintyje ir filosofijoje analizė. Raktiniai žodž... more Draugystės pavidalų Antikos kultūroje, politinėje mintyje ir filosofijoje analizė. Raktiniai žodžiai: draugystė, meilė, Antika, filosofija, Platonas, Lisidas

Petro Dirgėlos Baltijos epas yra valstybės simbolis. Baltija romanuose atskleidžiama ne kaip vand... more Petro Dirgėlos Baltijos epas yra valstybės simbolis. Baltija romanuose atskleidžiama ne kaip vandens telkinys, o kaip politinė koordinatė, leidžianti brėžti alternatyvius politinės veiklos žemėlapius. Jūros sąvoka, tiek mažai naudota lietuvių mąstyme, leidžia įžvelgti spekuliatyvias, neišmėgintas, bet galimas veiklos kryptis, suvokti praėjusias ir būsimas politines situacijas, kurių sprendimai paliečia valstybės išgyvenimą. Geopolitiniai apmąstymai, iš jų plaukiantys atsargūs atsakymai ir tolesni klausimai, Dirgėlos kūryboje tėra suvokiami kaip priemonė spręsti pamatinę politinę problemą – valstybės išlikimo klausimą.

Šis tekstas yra tęsinys anksčiau publikuoto straipsnio, kuriame aptarėme pirmąją Petro Dirgėlos i... more Šis tekstas yra tęsinys anksčiau publikuoto straipsnio, kuriame aptarėme
pirmąją Petro Dirgėlos istorinių romanų seriją – Baltijos epą. Antrasis Dirgėlos epas Karalystė klausia apie naujosios Lietuvos pradžią 1989–2000 m. Monumentaliu keturiolikos romanų ciklu užsimota išsiaiškinti, kaip lietuviai atsidūrė ten, kur jie šiandien yra: kokią valstybę jiems pavyko atkurti ir ką ji žada? Ieškodamas atsakymo, Dirgėla atlieka gelminę Dainuojančios revoliucijos ir jos pasekmių rekonstrukciją.

Organised Conferences by Vilius Bartninkas

Law and order were among the central questions debated in Antiquity, permeating nearly all branch... more Law and order were among the central questions debated in Antiquity, permeating nearly all branches of ancient philosophy from metaphysics, natural philosophy, and cosmology to ethics, political theory, and aesthetics. This topic is open to a large number of approaches and can be related to various disciplines in the humanities, such as ancient history, literature, and legal theory – for which reason we hope to welcome students and junior academics throughout the humanities, thus creating an interdisciplinary dialogue across various fields in the study of classical antiquity and beyond. We welcome papers that discuss law and order from different angles and in various contexts, including (but not limited to):

· The origin of order and laws;

· Hierarchies in cosmos, nature, and city;

· Order in soul;

· Justice and injustice;

· Divine, natural, and human laws;

· Constitutionalism and legislation;

· Ethical agency, customs, and law;

· Philosophical method and laws of reasoning;

· Taxonomy and classification;

· Harmony and proportion.

Body and corporeality were among the central questions debated in ancient philosophy from the ear... more Body and corporeality were among the central questions debated in ancient philosophy from the early Greek thinkers to Late Antiquity. Our purpose is to examine how philosophers interpreted or made significant use of the concept of body in a wide variety of contexts, including (but without being restricted to):

· Geometrical, physical, and astronomical bodies,
· Corporeal gods and their bodies,
· Living bodies: animality and monstrosity,
· Human corporeality: biological and medical issues,
· Bodily perception,
· Body and soul/mind,
· The body in eschatological accounts,
· The body, personhood, and ethical agency,
· Organic imagery in political, social, and economic thought.

We are interested in exploring the various ways in which the body is thematised in ancient philosophy. This question is open to a large number of approaches and can be addressed within several branches of ancient philosophy, such as ethics, theology, epistemology, physics and metaphysics. It can also be related to other disciplines in the humanities, such as ancient history, science and literature – for which reason we hope to welcome students and junior academics throughout the humanities and thus create an interdisciplinary dialogue across various fields in the study of classical antiquity and beyond.

We invite proposals for papers to be given at an interdisciplinary conference on the theme ‘Archa... more We invite proposals for papers to be given at an interdisciplinary conference on the theme ‘Archai and Geneseis: Theorising Origins in Ancient Philosophy’, to take place in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, on 18-19 March 2016.

One of the wellsprings of philosophy is the contemplation of ‘what is first’ – that is, the reflection upon the original state from which things arose and on the forces that initiate and govern their coming-to-be. The notion of ‘origins’ was a central theme in ancient philosophy from the Presocratics to the Hellenistic schools. Our purpose is to examine how philosophers interpreted or made significant use of the concepts of genesis and coming-to-be in a wide variety of contexts, including, but not restricted to:

the beginning of the cosmos;
the origin of life;
the creation of mankind;
the origins of language, knowledge, and human society;
the emergence of philosophy, of philosophical communities, and of particular trends within ancient philosophy.
We are interested in exploring the various ways in which origins are thematised in ancient philosophy. This question is open to a large number of approaches and can be addressed within several branches of ancient philosophy, such as ethics, epistemology, physics and metaphysics. Moreover, it can also be related to other humanistic disciplines, such as ancient history and literature – for which reason we hope to welcome students and academics throughout the humanities and thus create an interdisciplinary dialogue across various fields in the study of classical antiquity and beyond.