The present paper is a continuation of the previous appearances by the author addressing the phenomenon of the cultural-symbolic world pictures as typologically founded in the “epoch-making” ontologies and culturally expressed versions of history. In their construction, philosophy is responsible for the love of wisdom, history – for the given in making the consciousness of being, culture – for the personal expression of human history. This article re-constructs the world picture of the Latin Christian Medieval Ages, adequate to the author’s (...) original theoretical constructs, with an emphasis on its ontological dimension proper. Section 1 deals with the European practice of interpreting the mentioned period as a distinct cultural-historical type, from Renaissance till the 20th century’s Human World. Concurrently, at the theoretical level, the paper addresses the very historical form of being is defined; philosophical tools to tell theory and history apart are offered; transformations of fact in the past are shown; distinguishing features of the knowledge relation. Section 2 deals with the basic components of cultural myth on the symbolic Divine World, and their representation in the philosophical practice of that period. Primarily, the very pathway of such philosophical “portraying” is sketched out: 1) the “epoch-making” interpretations of the absolute foundations of life of resp. ontologies → 2) ideals and values as defined by the latter, being components of an “epoch-making” ontological structure → 3) characteristic recording of the obtained “picture” in cultural reflections → 4) the “epoch-making” guides into knowledge and texts – realizers for the intent to irradiate knowledge. The paper also offers three symbolic worlds of the Latin Medieval Ages. Finally, under the distinctive Medieval “double-focus” view mode, and based on analysis of key texts of the period, seven twofold ontologically oriented characteristic features are offered as fundamental components of the then picture of the world. Section 3 suggests the final definition of the Latin Medieval Ages as a distinct cultural-historical type of life. Manuscript received 16.02.2020. (shrink)

The paper is taking up the original research, spanning now a quarter-century, on distinguishing European cultural-historical epochs using the philosophical toolset proper. It is about an application of the phenomenological dialectic methodology within the general Platonic approach to the problem of knowledge and understanding where the former per se turns into the self-correlation of sense, while the latter appears as an embodiment of knowledge over ‘the other’, distinguished from pure knowledge ‘by a measure of reason’ of its holder. Thus any (...) thing considered in correlation with itself as a subject matter of knowledge, appears as its own idea. Correlation of an idea with its reasonable embodiment transfers a thing into the ‘medial’ domain of understanding. It is here that the particular historical comprehension of types for the above ideality, embodiment, and being a holder allows for considering epochs through the lens of ‘epochal’ ontologies. In such acts of understanding, philosophy is responsible for the love of wisdom as a synthesis of knowledge and life in its reasonable explanations, and history – for the comprehension of being in its continuous making, and culture – for the picturesquely personal expression of human history. Thus emerges a kaleidoscope of picturesquely expressed ontologies where various epochs in European history are explicitly distin- guished upon sense-bearing grounds. This philosophical ‘depicting’ shall be preceded by a definition of concept for world pictures as a European thought heritage proper. For this purpose, on the backdrop of such categories as essence, sense, reason, intelligence, eidos, idea, symbol, myth, and name, the author is preliminarily identifying here: Europe – as the idea of arranging vital space under the guidance of personality; history – as a self-realizing being in the making; personality – as an actually embodied self-consciousness; culture – as an expressed mythology of human personality. Hence, the final definition of the world picture as history is typologically expressed in culture. Article received 17.08.2019. (shrink)