Branko Mitrovic
Biographic Data
| ID | 485129 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Branko Mitrovic |
| GIVEN NAMES | Branko |
| FAMILY NAME | Mitrovic |
| SIGNATURE | MITROVIC B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Norwegian University of Science and Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0457-1316 |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Ordeals of Romantic Idealism, or How Not to Refute Realism about the Past
The paper presents realist perspectives on three points of disagreement between advocates of realist and anti-realist positions in the philosophy of history. The first of these points of contention pertains to the capacity of social constructionism to explain our knowledge of the past; the second to the dilemma of whether social constructionism can replace correspondence-based understanding of the truth of descriptions of the past; and the third …
Response to Frank Ankersmit, Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen, and Paul Roth
In this text I analyze Frank Ankersmit’s, Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen’s, and Paul Roth’s responses to my claim that anti-realism in the philosophy of history entails that the past did not happen. I conclude that Ankersmit has failed to understand the argument I presented, Kuukkanen de facto agrees with my view, while Roth has addressed my earlier criticism of the view that the past can be changed and not the argument that is currently under discussion
What Is Historical Anti-realism and How to Define It
Authors who advocate historical anti-realism have often insisted that they do not claim that no past events happened or that the past did not happen. In this paper, I show that in spite of such protestations, the core arguments presented by Leon Goldstein, Paul Roth, Frank Ankersmit, and Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen preclude the possibility that the past or past events happened
A Naïve Realist Rumination on the Roth-and-Dewulf versus Currie-and-Swaim Exchange
The paper presents a realist perspective on the recent exchange in the Journal of the Philosophy of History between Adrian Currie and Daniel Swaim on the one side and Paul Roth and Fons Dewulf on the other. The first part presents a critique of Currie and Swaim’s view that the past is not determinate and can be changed. The second part states a series of arguments against Roth’s view that events exist only under description. The third part discus…
Guarino Guarini’s Architectural Theory and Counter-Reformation Aristotelianism: Visuality and Aesthetics in Architettura civile and Placita philosophica
Previous article FreeGuarino Guarini’s Architectural Theory and Counter-Reformation Aristotelianism: Visuality and Aesthetics in Architettura civile and Placita philosophicaBranko MitrovićBranko MitrovićNorges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, Norway Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMore…
Art and Objects
‘I want to join the society of idealists, but, hehe, I’ll be the opposition there, so I’ll be a realist without being a materialist’, says the Devil to Ivan in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov.1 The same idea—that one can be an idealist, rejecting materialism but still endorsing realism about various immaterial things—has become increasingly influential in recent years due to the impact of speculative realism and object orientated ontology. The pr…
What Remains After Postmodernism
Tor Egil F⊘rland's book Values, Objectivity, and Explanation in Historiography surveys a series of topics that theories of historiography have to face in the aftermath of postmodernism. The book challenges the appropriateness of the association of anti-objectivism in historiography with left-wing politics and, by defending objectivist perspectives on historical research, takes a strong stance against cultural relativism and theories of situated t…
Visuality and Aesthetic Formalism
In the philosophy and psychology of perception there exists a long-standing debate about the detachability of the visual from the conceptual contents of perception. The article analyses the implications of this dilemma for the attribution of aesthetic properties independent of the classification of aesthetic objects and the possibility of (moderate) aesthetic formalism
Is Multiple Realizability a Valid Argument against Methodological Individualism
In recent decades, a number of authors have relied on the multiple realizability argument to reject methodological individualism. In this article, I argue that this strategy results in serious difficulties and makes it impossible to identify social entities and phenomena
“Without Thinkers … No Theories of the World”
Tim Crane's books Aspects of Psychologism and The Objects of Thought present a perspective on human intentionality based on internalism about mental contents. Crane understands intentionality as the defining aspect of the mental. The theory of intentionality that he formulates is similar to that of John Searle when it comes to ontological commitments, but it is also marked by a more traditional approach that retains the concept of intentional obj…
Historical Understanding and Historical Interpretation as Contextualization
This article discusses the theoretical problems pertaining to the relationship between historical contextualization and historical understanding and interpretation. On the one hand, there is the view that documents need to be understood in relation to their historical context; on the other, it is not clear how a historian can get out of his or her own historical context in order to be able to engage with the conceptual frameworks, beliefs, or way…
Opacity and Transparency in Historical Representations
In his latest book Frank Ankersmit develops a comprehensive philosophical perspective on the problem of the truth and reference of historical representations. The approach and the wider perspective of the book largely belong to what could be called the postmodernist paradigm, in spite of some recent attempts to interpret Ankersmit's recent work differently. Since his 1983 Narrative Logic Ankersmit has propounded the view that individual statement…
Attribution of Concepts and Problems With Anachronism1
Many long-standing debates about anachronistic concept-attributions derive from an essentialist understanding of concepts that is often difficult to sustain for metaphysical or epistemological reasons. The intentionalist alternative to essentialism elaborated in this article successfully clarifies and avoids many standard problems with anachronism
Studying Renaissance Architectural Theory in the Age of Stalinism
Humanist Art History and its Enemies: Erwin Panofsky on the Individualism–Holism Debate
Intentionalism, Intentionality, and Reporting Beliefs1
The dominant view of twentieth-century analytic philosophy has been that all thinking is always in a language, that languages are vehicles of thought. The same view has been widespread in continental philosophy as well. In recent decades, however, the opposite view-that languages serve merely to express language-independent thought-contents or propositions-has been more widely accepted. The debate has a direct equivalent in the philosophy of hist…
Intellectual History, Inconceivability, and Methodological Holism1
The debate between individualism and holism in the philosophy of history pertains to the nature of the entities relied on in historical explanations. The question is whether explanations of historical items (for example, events, actions, artifacts) require the assumption that the collective historical entities (for example, civilizations, cultures, and so on) used in these explanations are (sometimes) conceived of as irreducible to the actions, t…
Paduan Aristotelianism and Daniele Barbaro's Commentary on Vitruvius' De Architectura
Daniele Barbaro's 1556 commentary on Vitruvius (second edition 1567) is generally regarded as the highest achievement of Renaissance Vitruvian exegesis. Because of Palladio's participation in its writing, architectural historians have devoted much attention to it in recent decades. However, the philosophical influences underlying Barbaro's arguments have been little studied so far, even though Barbaro himself was the author of a number of philoso…
Is Multiple Realizability a Valid Argument against Methodological Individualism
In recent decades, a number of authors have relied on the multiple realizability argument to reject methodological individualism. In this article, I argue that this strategy results in serious difficulties and makes it impossible to identify social entities and phenomena
Historical Understanding and Historical Interpretation as Contextualization
This article discusses the theoretical problems pertaining to the relationship between historical contextualization and historical understanding and interpretation. On the one hand, there is the view that documents need to be understood in relation to their historical context; on the other, it is not clear how a historian can get out of his or her own historical context in order to be able to engage with the conceptual frameworks, beliefs, or way…
Visuality and Aesthetic Formalism
In the philosophy and psychology of perception there exists a long-standing debate about the detachability of the visual from the conceptual contents of perception. The article analyses the implications of this dilemma for the attribution of aesthetic properties independent of the classification of aesthetic objects and the possibility of (moderate) aesthetic formalism
Studying Renaissance Architectural Theory in the Age of Stalinism
Paduan Aristotelianism and Daniele Barbaro's Commentary on Vitruvius' De Architectura
Daniele Barbaro's 1556 commentary on Vitruvius (second edition 1567) is generally regarded as the highest achievement of Renaissance Vitruvian exegesis. Because of Palladio's participation in its writing, architectural historians have devoted much attention to it in recent decades. However, the philosophical influences underlying Barbaro's arguments have been little studied so far, even though Barbaro himself was the author of a number of philoso…
Intellectual History, Inconceivability, and Methodological Holism1
The debate between individualism and holism in the philosophy of history pertains to the nature of the entities relied on in historical explanations. The question is whether explanations of historical items (for example, events, actions, artifacts) require the assumption that the collective historical entities (for example, civilizations, cultures, and so on) used in these explanations are (sometimes) conceived of as irreducible to the actions, t…
Studying Renaissance Architectural Theory in the Age of Stalinism
Humanist Art History and its Enemies: Erwin Panofsky on the Individualism–Holism Debate
Intentionalism, Intentionality, and Reporting Beliefs1
The dominant view of twentieth-century analytic philosophy has been that all thinking is always in a language, that languages are vehicles of thought. The same view has been widespread in continental philosophy as well. In recent decades, however, the opposite view-that languages serve merely to express language-independent thought-contents or propositions-has been more widely accepted. The debate has a direct equivalent in the philosophy of hist…
Attribution of Concepts and Problems With Anachronism1
Many long-standing debates about anachronistic concept-attributions derive from an essentialist understanding of concepts that is often difficult to sustain for metaphysical or epistemological reasons. The intentionalist alternative to essentialism elaborated in this article successfully clarifies and avoids many standard problems with anachronism
Opacity and Transparency in Historical Representations
In his latest book Frank Ankersmit develops a comprehensive philosophical perspective on the problem of the truth and reference of historical representations. The approach and the wider perspective of the book largely belong to what could be called the postmodernist paradigm, in spite of some recent attempts to interpret Ankersmit's recent work differently. Since his 1983 Narrative Logic Ankersmit has propounded the view that individual statement…
Historical Understanding and Historical Interpretation as Contextualization
This article discusses the theoretical problems pertaining to the relationship between historical contextualization and historical understanding and interpretation. On the one hand, there is the view that documents need to be understood in relation to their historical context; on the other, it is not clear how a historian can get out of his or her own historical context in order to be able to engage with the conceptual frameworks, beliefs, or way…
“Without Thinkers … No Theories of the World”
Tim Crane's books Aspects of Psychologism and The Objects of Thought present a perspective on human intentionality based on internalism about mental contents. Crane understands intentionality as the defining aspect of the mental. The theory of intentionality that he formulates is similar to that of John Searle when it comes to ontological commitments, but it is also marked by a more traditional approach that retains the concept of intentional obj…
Is Multiple Realizability a Valid Argument against Methodological Individualism
In recent decades, a number of authors have relied on the multiple realizability argument to reject methodological individualism. In this article, I argue that this strategy results in serious difficulties and makes it impossible to identify social entities and phenomena
Visuality and Aesthetic Formalism
In the philosophy and psychology of perception there exists a long-standing debate about the detachability of the visual from the conceptual contents of perception. The article analyses the implications of this dilemma for the attribution of aesthetic properties independent of the classification of aesthetic objects and the possibility of (moderate) aesthetic formalism
What Remains After Postmodernism
Tor Egil F⊘rland's book Values, Objectivity, and Explanation in Historiography surveys a series of topics that theories of historiography have to face in the aftermath of postmodernism. The book challenges the appropriateness of the association of anti-objectivism in historiography with left-wing politics and, by defending objectivist perspectives on historical research, takes a strong stance against cultural relativism and theories of situated t…
Guarino Guarini’s Architectural Theory and Counter-Reformation Aristotelianism: Visuality and Aesthetics in Architettura civile and Placita philosophica
Previous article FreeGuarino Guarini’s Architectural Theory and Counter-Reformation Aristotelianism: Visuality and Aesthetics in Architettura civile and Placita philosophicaBranko MitrovićBranko MitrovićNorges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, Norway Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMore…
Art and Objects
‘I want to join the society of idealists, but, hehe, I’ll be the opposition there, so I’ll be a realist without being a materialist’, says the Devil to Ivan in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov.1 The same idea—that one can be an idealist, rejecting materialism but still endorsing realism about various immaterial things—has become increasingly influential in recent years due to the impact of speculative realism and object orientated ontology. The pr…
A Naïve Realist Rumination on the Roth-and-Dewulf versus Currie-and-Swaim Exchange
The paper presents a realist perspective on the recent exchange in the Journal of the Philosophy of History between Adrian Currie and Daniel Swaim on the one side and Paul Roth and Fons Dewulf on the other. The first part presents a critique of Currie and Swaim’s view that the past is not determinate and can be changed. The second part states a series of arguments against Roth’s view that events exist only under description. The third part discus…
Response to Frank Ankersmit, Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen, and Paul Roth
In this text I analyze Frank Ankersmit’s, Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen’s, and Paul Roth’s responses to my claim that anti-realism in the philosophy of history entails that the past did not happen. I conclude that Ankersmit has failed to understand the argument I presented, Kuukkanen de facto agrees with my view, while Roth has addressed my earlier criticism of the view that the past can be changed and not the argument that is currently under discussion
What Is Historical Anti-realism and How to Define It
Authors who advocate historical anti-realism have often insisted that they do not claim that no past events happened or that the past did not happen. In this paper, I show that in spite of such protestations, the core arguments presented by Leon Goldstein, Paul Roth, Frank Ankersmit, and Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen preclude the possibility that the past or past events happened
Ordeals of Romantic Idealism, or How Not to Refute Realism about the Past
The paper presents realist perspectives on three points of disagreement between advocates of realist and anti-realist positions in the philosophy of history. The first of these points of contention pertains to the capacity of social constructionism to explain our knowledge of the past; the second to the dilemma of whether social constructionism can replace correspondence-based understanding of the truth of descriptions of the past; and the third …
Philosophy (15 works) · Epistemology (13 works) · Law (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Philosophy, History, and Historiography (7 works) · Art (5 works) · Classics (5 works) · Classics (5 works)