Państwo Boże w relacji do Kościoła i świata w De civitate Dei św. Augustyna (księgi 11–22). Teologiczno-filozoficzne refleksje na gruncie chrześcijańskiej historiozofii

Author(s): Michał Płóciennik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 12/2015

The problem of philosophy of the history of mankind is in no way a clear and obvious perspective of reality interpretation, but rather an approach based on a certain definite ontology. One of the main categories of Christian ontology is the history of salvation, which constitutes strong foundation for the existence of the world and man as beings created through historical dialogue with the Creator. One of the first who made an attempt to express the Christian version of historic philosophy was St Augustine, according to whom the fundamental point of tension in the sense of history is the relation between the world and Church with respect to God State; it could be even more clearly seen in the eschatic reference of God State to the world and Church in their mutual perichoretic antinomy.

Pedagogiczne aspekty oddziaływania hinduistycznych i buddyjskich systemów filozoficzno-religijnych w okresie globalizacji

Author(s): Robert Janik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 23/2014

The article deals with issues connected with the shaping of contemporary pedagogic in the area of the EU. These policies is discussed in the context of rapid economic changes which take place to a large degree under the influence of the globalization process. Modern times are also characterized by a large dissonance emerging between the commonly declared slogans such as “human dignity” and “human rights” while the practices in force in many parts of the world greatly differ from these declarations. The logical consequence of the general state of uncertainty in the “rat race” of the developed world is the increased demand for psychotherapeutic services. To a large extent, these services en-able the modern day inhabitant of the developed world to compensate for the loss of family, friends, release the tension from the “fight for places” in society or the denunciation of religious beliefs. There is no shortage of signs of globalization in this case, appearing in the concept of other cultural centres – mainly in Asia. Pedagogy should be based on humanistic values. Hinduism and Buddhism could give our contemporary pedagogic important inspiration.

Patologie w kredytowaniu „VIP-ów”. Studium przypadku

Author(s): Andrzej Kucharewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2015

This elaboration applies to analysis of investigation concerning pathology in multimillion cred-iting to important political figures, which was conducted by Central Bureau of Investigation. In the described case the very fact, that person applying for credit was a public figure resulted in aban-doning standard procedures of researching creditworthiness. It caused multimillion losses due to lack of real chance of return on capital. Described dealings show how breaking bank procedures by managers, which were promised public profits, caused the banks to make conscious and unfa-vorable decisions to give politicians nonreturnable financial support. Criminal acts and informal connections between worlds of politics and banking caused multimillion losses, and even worse losses to be covered by treasury – which is us, the citizens

Swastyka – kilka refleksji na temat symbolu

Author(s): Anna Zasuń / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2011

The swastika is one of the most long-lived and, at the same time, obscure symbols. Its origin, as well as the interpretation of its meaning, interest many theorists, just like the phenomenon of the contemporary reception where the swastika lost the original positive meaning and has become a symbol of perhaps the most tragic period of modern history associated with the existence of Nazism. This article presents two perspectives of interpretation of swastika – firstly, it included universal and widespread throughout the world historical (and evenprehistoric) meaning and attempts to identify its source; secondly, it was presented a modern interpretation of swastika as an emblem of the Nazi ideology, as a symbol which “produces cultural context”, and also as a symbol whose over ten years’ relationship with the Nazis led to a loss in the European mentality of positive reactions associated with the ancient, benevolent motive of the swastika. Attention was also returned to the ambivalent reception of the swastika in the modern world – the history of the Western world dictates the emotional, negative attitude to the swastika symbol, while many eastern cultures (for example, the Middle and Far East) still uses this symbol in its original cultural background for the sense. Completion for this considerations is a reminder of key issues related to the concept of “symbol” and the recall of various terms (for example, gammadion), which are used to describe the swastika, or different symbols (for example, a cross or a spiral), with which the swastika is sometimes combined.

Geopolityka w wydaniu Napoleona. Tylża 1807 – wizja nowego ładu europejskiego

Author(s): Maciej Trąbski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2011

Napoleonic era in the history of Europe was crucialin many considerations. One of them was an attempt to bring a new political order. It had to rely on a change of multilateral system, in which five countries (UK, France, Austria, Prussia and Russia) decided about European issues, on bilat-eral, where the rule had only two – France and Russia. While in Poland it was a time of great hope, connected with an attempt to rebuild an independentand sovereign state in pre-partition borders. Turning point was the year 1807, when the French Emperor Napoleon I met at Tilsit with the Em-peror Alexander I of Russia, to negotiate peace andarrange the principles on which it was to build a new political order in Europe.

Războiul civil din Grecia (1946-1949) și emigranții politici greci in Romania (1948-1982)

Author(s): Apostolos Patelakis / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

Les partis politiques dans le postcommunisme roumain

Author(s): Cristian Preda / Language(s): French Issue: 4/2003

Le 12 décembre 1989, dans une réunion commune, le Comité Central du Parti Communiste Roumain et le Bureau Permanent du Conseil Supérieur de Dévelop­pement Économique et Social ont fixé pour le 11 mars 1990 les prochaines élections pour la Grande Assemblée Nationale et les conseils populaires. Les élections devaient être tenues selon les règles d'un «régime de parti monopolistique»1, mais qui avait assoupli, à partir de 19751 2, la contrainte exercée sur les citoyens: en effet, le système des candidatures multiples, mais dépendantes toutes du Front de l'Unité Socialiste3, fonctionne sous une forme, certainement, très limitée, aux trois dernières élections communistes4. Mais la décision du 12 décembre 1989 reste sans effet: pour la troisième fois dans l'histoire politique moderne de la Roumanie, des élections fixées légalement ne se tiennent pas. Cette fois, c'est parce que quatre jours après la déci­ sion du 12 décembre 1989, la Révolution anticommuniste commençait à Timișoara.

La bourgeoise respectable.

Author(s): Ionela Băluţă / Language(s): French Issue: 3/2004

19th century Romanian society experienced a reconstruction of individual and collective identities due to the numerous social, cultural and political changes. This study focuses on the political effects of normative scientific standards, i.e. on the ideological stakes underlying the hygienist discourse. The reshaping of social hierarchies and the emergence of new actors - i.e., the "experts", who seek to legitimize the new political discourse - call for a re-evaluation of the status of hygiene and of the hygienist specialists during the 19th century. Taking the Western analyses treating similar topics as a starting point, this study suggests that respectability and national ideology are the vectors in the process of elaborating new social models and new gender identities. A careful examination of the hygiene treatises - whose specific object and audience were bourgeois women - allows the reconstruction of a comprehensive normative model pre­scribing a systematic control of feminine gestures, stances and sentiments. As those treatises repeat the stereotypes of the dominant ideology - e.g., the impor­tance of demographic growth and the emphasis on work and savings - the author develops the intrinsic link between the political order and the corporal order.

Pre-State Israel. The evolution of Jewish political and institutional system in Yishuv. From Community to State: 1897-1949

Author(s): Gabriela Andreana Dumitrescu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

The emergence of World Zionist Organization at the end of 19th century and the increasing sympathy of world Jewry for political Zionism have strengthened the sense of the need to obtain a Jewish national home in Palestine. In a positive way, the end of the First World War and the decision of the League of Nations to place Palestine under British mandate favored regional development, especially of the Jewish community living there. Under the foreign administration, the Jewish people borrowed the proper aspects of the British model of parliamentary democracy and adapted them to the needs of the Yishuv, at a time when Jewish ideal enjoyed support and admiration, due in particular to Zionist diplomacy in Western Europe and the United States. Trying to maintain a good relationship with the British administration in order to fulfill its interests, the Jewish community in Palestine has thrived in various areas such as: political-institutional organization, economy, defence and demography, rapidly reaching a high level of development. These factors contributed tremendously to the birth of a modern democratic Jewish state. The reality of the simultaneous operation in Palestine of the three sets of institutions, those of the Yishuv, those of the Zionist Organization and those of the British administration represented a unique and remarkable fact. After Israel gained independence, the attempt to provide continuity to pre-state institutions represented a reality that was reflected in the flawless formula of the permanent institutions, in order to meet the needs of the new state in a situation of internal and international crisis.

United States's new enemy. China and the conquest for world influence. A comparative study of current Chinese and US approaches to foreign assistance, investments, and trade in Africa

Author(s): Roxana Hanganu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

China’s new diplomacy has been a topic of heated discussions both within academic scholarship and political circles across the globe. Particularly controversial has been its economic development and its conquest for world influence, which created tensions with the US. The United States of America has been accusing China of borrowing and assisting foreign countries in order to gain more influence worldwide and especially over Africa. Both China and the US emphasise the centrality of economy in their domestic and external policies. Despite their common attachmentto economic development the US and China have diverged considerably in their respective promotion of economic and strategic interest abroad. This study compares current Chinese and US approaches to economic diplomacy, with an emphasis on their foreign assistance, investment and trade in Africa. To this end, the research outlines the intricacies behind US and China’s implication in Africa, and delves into the specificities of their current economic diplomacy. Moreover, it measures their efficiency in engaging with the African continent through FDI, foreign assistance and trade.

A Brief Incursion in the Realm of Institutional Organization of the American Cultural Diplomacy from World War I to 1946

Author(s): Bogdan Antoniu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

The institutional organization of the American cultural diplomacy from the end of the First World War and the full engagement of the United States in the Second World War was an experimental, reactive, and unsubstantial policy. Even though the idea of using culture or arts as diplomatic tools was rejected by many governmental officials, there were many personalities like President Roosevelt, who foresaw that the power of art and culture represents an important part of states’ foreign policy. In fact, since the Cold War till now, cultural diplomacy has acquired special significance becoming an important instrument that operates among the other diplomatic methods.

Diplomatic gifts as expression of the colonial trauma. Stories of African wooden and ivory sculptures

Author(s): Horia Iova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

This article offers an analysis of a series of diplomatic gifts of African origin, part of the “Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu Collection” of the ASTRA National Museum Complex in Sibiu, Romania, from the perspective of their capacity of evoking the trauma of the colonial oppression, in an international context. While the collection includes a high variety of objects, of different types and origins, this study will focus on a selection of black wood and ivory sculptures which explicitly refer to catastrophic aspects of the colonialist encounter, such as war and slavery, and belong to a particular kind of political objects offered by African leaders to their counterparts throughout the second half of the 20th century. Although the objects derive from the colonial interaction and may seem, at first sight, an alienation of local artistic traditions, made for an external audience, so as to satisfy foreign tastes and expectations, I argue for understanding them as expressions of the catastrophic realities of the colonial oppression, which belong to the local culture and serve two main purposes. Firstly, they act as parts of a form of cultural resistance, as commentaries upon the endured violence and humiliation. Secondly, they serve as political messages for an external audience, meant to raise sympathy and support for the cause of the people’s liberation. The conceptual framework of performativity and cultural performance, as explained by anthropologist Victor Turner provides an understanding of the way in which social conflicts are memorized and communicated in artistic forms, while the works of Africanists such as Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Harry G. West and Nichole Bridges offer an overview of the aesthetics and functions of African sculpture as objects of communication, throughout the colonial and post-colonial eras. Comparative studies, referring to the contributions of Alexandre Girrard-Muscagorry and Alexander Bortolot, provide concrete example of African sculptures being offered to several state leaders in diplomatic context, hereby offering valuable insights for the interpretation of similar objects in the “Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu” collection.

Ideologiczne, polityczne i filozoficzne podstawy polityki naukowej i przemysłowej niemieckiej partii Zielonych w latach 80. i 90. XX w.: przypadek „miękkiej chemii” (sanfte Chemie)

Author(s): Marcin Krasnodębski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2023

Sanfte Chemie, or soft chemistry, is a scientific and philosophical concept developed in the 1980s under the auspices of the German Green Party (Die Grünen). Its purpose was to thoroughly reconstruct not only the chemical industry but also chemistry as a science in the spirit of environmentalism. Soft chemistry followers wanted to forge a new scientific method and criticized what they called a Baconian-Cartesian paradigm in the philosophy of science. Even though the sanfte Chemie project ceased to be endorsed by the Green Party in the 1990s because of its radicalism, the history of epistemological foundations, on which the soft chemistry was built, gives us a privileged insight into a vision of chemical sciences as advocated by early proponents of sustainability and pioneers of environmental movements.The article analyses sources of sanfte Chemie, highlighting plurality and complexity of scientific, philosophical, political and ideological traditions that served as its basis. The study of the eco-critical narratives on empirical sciences allows us to better understand subsequent political choices concerning science, industry and the environment in Germany. In particular, the article shows that the tradition on which sanfte Chemie was built, gives it the advantage over later concepts, such as green chemistry, that lack philosophical depth.The purpose of the article is to question the relation between the philosophy of science and the practice of science and ponder whether different chemistry is possible at all.

Генеративният изкуствен интелект и промените в политическата икономия

Author(s): Hristo Prodanov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2023

The study aims to explore the economic and political consequences of the introduction of generative artificial intelligence, characterized by its ability to create any type of content. Its object is the generative artificial intelligence, and the subject is about the changes it brings to economy and politics. Politico-economic approach is applied to investigate the interactions of technology with the economy and politics. It is based on the understanding that changes in technology depend on politics and economics, but at the same time they cause changes in both. The study begins with the definition of generative artificial intelligence and its differences from other types of artificial intelligence, what it can do and what its limitations are. The implications for the economy, production, exchange, distribution, consumption are then considered. The questions about the prospects, fears, social controversies it brings are also analyzed. It ends with the role of politics in the development, regulation, limitation, implication, management of generative artificial intelligence, because the social contradictions it brings might become dangerous for the society and politics. The scope of the research is global, and from this comes the main conclusion that the development of artificial intelligence is a global problem that requires global solutions.

Anti-Mafia Code and 231 Models: an Opportunity for Improvement (?)

Author(s): Vittoria Drosi / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The research aims to understand whether, and to what extent, there are currently suitable institutions for the implementation of prevention and restoration of legality in the corporate sphere in the Italian legal system. These, if properly applied, should enable the enterprise to transform a negative event, such as mafia infiltration in its various forms, into an opportunity for improvement itself. More specifically, an attempt will be made to assess the ability of institutions such as judicial administration (Art. 34 of the Anti- Mafia Code - Legislative Decree No. 159/2011), judicial control (Art. 34-bis), voluntary judicial control (Paragraph 6, Art. 34-bis), preventive cooperation (Art. 94-bis), and organizational and management models under Legislative Decree No. 231/2001 (so- called Models 231) adopted ex post facto to put the company back on the correct path of legality.

Sustainability, Distributive Justice, and Law: a Philosophical Inquiry Into the Compatibility of Environmental and Social Goals

Author(s): Alessandro Avagliano / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

This essay aims at addressing the legal philosophy’s uptake on whether environmental sustainability can be integrated with distributive justice. After an analysis of the European legal framework, where the notion of sustainable development has been built, concepts such as the veil of ignorance, the capability approach, and human flourishing will be examined, arguing that sustainability and distributive justice are necessarily linked, as mutually reinforcing goals to human development. However, a transformational change is still necessary in the way we think about sustainability, to work towards a direction that should be holistic and inclusive of the needs of both people and the planet.

Изграждане на устойчивост в европейския съюз във времена на поликризисност и предизвикателства в когнитивната сфера

Author(s): Monika Panayotova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5/2023

This aim of this publication is to draw attention to the need to build resilience in the societies and Member States of the European Union in times of “polycrisis” and challenges in the cognitive domain. Following an analysis of global risks and hybrid threats, as well as the emergence of artificial intelligence in today‘s communication and security environment, certain recommendations and conclusions are drawn to enable the EU to exploit its potential to be a “multidimensional power”, overcoming non-kinetic challenges to vulnerabilities in democratic societies, citizens‘ minds and emotions. In this research, a range of political science analysis methods were employed. In addition, the “mind maps” technique of the British psychologist Tony Buzan was implemented by enabling the synthesis of ideas through visual representations. On the eve of the European elections in 2024, the publication draws key conclusions and recommendations for overcoming the challenges of disinformation, perception management and psychological manipulation, which undermine trust in democratic institutions and prevent decision makers from countering them. These include: building resilience through education, media literacy, critical thinking, digital competencies, mental toughness; the ability to think not only fast but also slow; the application of exponential design to strategic thinking; multilateralism and close cooperation with NATO.

Cognitive and Pragmatic Aspects of Metaphors in the Inauguration Speech of the Spanish 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑙 𝐺𝑜𝑏𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑜 Adolfo Suárez

Author(s): Henrique Dores / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

This article aims at analysing the cognitive and pragmatic aspects of metaphors in the inauguration speech of the Spanish Presidente del Gobierno Adolfo Suárez, in Spain’s first constitutional government. The paper will uses a multi-disciplinary approach and relies on Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Charteris-Black’s Critical Metaphor Analysis, Teun Van Dijk’s context model theory, as well as on other pragmatic concepts that contribute to assessing the coherence and cohesion of the text. This qualitative approach intends to look for the presence of metaphors and conceptual metaphors in the speech, while attempting to identify the pragmatic strategies behind them.

The Republic Electoral Commision as the fourth branch of government – challenges and perspectives

Author(s): Viktor S. Stamenković / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 4/2023

This paper analyzes the current status of the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) and emphasizes the need for change so as to transform it from an existing partisan body with weak capacities into a more neutral, stronger, and more independent institution. Based on solutions from comparative practices, several measures that can be taken on this path are proposed. Firstly, it is necessary to change the current method of electing RIK members in order to reduce partisan influence on this body. Additionally, extending the term of office for RIK members is required to ensure greater independence of RIK from the current configuration of political forces and provide the opportunity for fundamental and concrete steps towards improving the electoral process. Activities related to elections, currently carried out by several other bodies in addition to RIK, should be centralized and entrusted to a professional electoral administration in order to eliminate unnecessary communication between RIK and these bodies. This would make the entire process of organizing and monitoring elections more simpler and coherent. Implementing these solutions could lead to RIK becoming a game changer in contexts of weakened institutional capacities and a limited number of external factors that can influence the improvement of the democratic process, contributing to freer and fairer elections.

The Human Rights Policies of the EU: Political Nature, Existing Incoherencies and Institutional Bifurcation

Author(s): Branimir Stanimirov / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The history of human rights in the context of the European Union (EU) is complex and riddled with contradictions. This was convincingly demonstrated by leading experts in the area who wrote copiously about the existence of elements of institutional bifurcation in the organisation’s policies in the area. Although the EU is an important global actor in the field of human rights and had a positive impact on a number of human rights issues, a number of incoherencies and inconsistencies in its policies continue to have a detrimental impact on its political actions on the world stage. By examining the traditional explanations for these existing deficiencies in the political and institutional system of the organisation through a document analysis, this article sketches their problematic overall impact and argues, concurring to the above-mentioned experts, that these incoherencies resulted in a bifurcated human rights regime produced by the problematic elements of the EU’s own political identity. It also considers the impact of the Union’s enlargement on its human rights policies and the potential challenges this phenomenon poses in political and social terms.