Társadalmi reprodukció

Author(s): Gergely Csányi,Ágnes Gagyi,Ágnes Kerékgyártó / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 24/2018

The process during which the reproduction of life is integrated into capitalist production is usually referred to as reproduction, social reproduction, or reproductive labour. These concepts include the process during which capitalism transforms and makes use of the practices of love, sex, care and housework in a way that they fit the logic of capitalist accumulation. In our paper, we summarise the theoretical history of social reproduction: following the original concept of social reproduction of Marx and Engels, we look at ensuing waves of research using and critiquing this concept – feminist research, world-systems-focused research, research focusing on informal labour, peasants, or the exploitation of nature. Then we pose the question of what we may gain from these approaches for the understanding of Eastern-European social relations.

Az olcsó természet vége, avagy rájöttem, hogy nem kell félteni "a" természetet, meg is lehet szeretni a kapitalizmus válságát

Author(s): Jason W. Moore / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 25/2019

Does capitalism today face the “end of cheap nature”? If so, what could this mean, and what are the implications for the future? We are indeed witnessing the end of cheap nature in a historically specific sense. Rather than view the end of cheap nature as the reassertion of external “limits to growth,” I argue that capitalism has today exhausted the historical relation that produced cheap nature. The end of cheap nature is best comprehended as the exhaustion of the value-relations that have periodically restored the “Four Cheaps”: labor-power, food, energy, and raw materials. Crucially, these value-re-lations are co-produced by and through humans with the rest of nature. e decisive is-sue therefore turns on the relations that enfold and unfold successive configurations of human and extra-human nature, symbolically enabled and materially enacted, over the longue durée of the modern world-system. Significantly, the appropriation of unpaid work—including “free gifts” of nature—and the exploitation wage-labor form a dialectical unity. The limits to growth faced by capital today are real enough, and are “limits” co-produced through capitalism as world-ecology, joining the accumulation of capital, the pursuit of power, and the co-production of nature as an organic whole. The world-ecological limit of capital is capital itself.

A kapitalocén – avagy mibe kerül az olcsó természet?

Author(s): Attila Szigeti / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 25/2019

In the last decades the Capitalocene discourse was emerging in the Marxist ecological thinking. This approach offers a sociohistorical explanation to the current ecological crisis by questioning the historical narrative of the Anthropocene discourse. Authors of Capitalocene are arguing that climate change and ecological crisis was not caused by the collective and homogenous humanity (predetermined by the human nature). According them capitalism’s accumulative and expropriative socioeconomic relations are responsible for climate crisis.This paper analysis how Capitalocene-arguments are applying the Marxist critique of capitalism, especially the labour theory of value and its contemporary expansions and corrections in the understanding of the current ecological crisis. The first two subchapters are summarizing World-Ecology theory of Jason W. Moore, than I interpret the debate of Moore with the Metabolic Rift school (John Bellamy Foster, Paul Burkett, Andreas Malm and others), and finally I analyse the possible normative ecopolitics from the theoretical perspective of Capitalocene.In the last decades the so-called Capitalocene discourse was emerging in the Marxist ecological thinking. This approach offers a sociohistorical explanation of the current ecological crisis by questioning the historical narrative of the Anthropocene discourse. Authors of Capitalocene are arguing that climate change and ecological crisis were not caused by the collective and homogenous humanity (predetermined by the human nature) in general. According them capitalism’s accumulative and expropriative socioeconomic relations are responsible for climate crisis.This paper analysis how Capitalocene-arguments are applying the Marxist critique of capitalism, especially the labour theory of value and its contemporary expansions and corrections in the understanding of the current ecological crisis. The first two subsections are summarizing World-Ecology theory of Jason W. Moore, than the paper interprets the debate of Moore with the Metabolic Rift school (John Bellamy Foster, Paul Burkett, Andreas Malm and others), and finally it analyses the possible normative ecopolitics from the theoretical perspective of Capitalocene.

Дигиталните медии и промяната в публичната сфера

Author(s): Nikolay Mihaylov / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 4/2019

The article deals with changes that have taken place in the public sphere as a result of the digital revolution in the dissemination and processing of information. The term “public sphere” is used here in the sense it has for Habermas. Habermas, however, bases his conclusions mainly on studies of the printed media. The digital media have radically changed the way in which information is perceived, systematized, disseminated, analyzed, etc. The changes brought about by the social networks, their impact on the public sphere, are particularly significant. The article attempts to describe the different dynamics of the connection between private and public in the context of the global digital networks, and addresses the question as to how these networks change the very content of the public sphere.

Идеологии за тялото и пола във философската естетика и култура през ХХ век

Author(s): Mitko Markov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2020

The aim of this paper is to show the continuation of the problem related to male nudity (in the form that Western civilization inherits the topic from the Ancient Greeks) during the development of the political and philosophical thought and the aesthetic perception of the same in the 20th century. The modern ‘canon’ concerning the male body is the result of many factors that precede and succeed the rise and fall of the totalitarian fascist regimes, the foundation of modern sports and the rise of gay liberation movement.

Историчност на понятието фигура у Ауербах

Author(s): Kamelia Spassova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5/2020

The term figura gives us the possibility to think about the critical limits of the entanglement between the political and the poetical on the fluctuating trajectories of the passing time (chronos) and the embodied time of the event (kairos). In Auerbach’s article “Figure” (1938) the concept is defined as a dynamic with its own regime of historicity, connecting one particular person/event with another particular person/event. Such a regime presumes the kairotic logic of the right occasion, of the exceptional time of the context, where something that is suggested to happen, just happens. This is the process of real embodiment of figures. The main point of Auerbach is that the figura is a temporal, not only а special topological concept. It is characterized by its dynamic and radiant power, its own historicity inasmuch as it has inherited and preserves several temporal layers. In the end of this paper I shall make a distinction between a literary figure and a conceptual persona. Bartleby, the Scrivener is seen as a conceptual persona by Deleuze and Guattari, Derrida, Badiou, Rancière, Hardt and Negri, Agamben, Zupancic, Zizek, yet Bartleby is still a literary figure above all else – a literary figure that sometimes copies its own formation, and sometimes… simply prefers not to. The task of the current paper is to outline the stakes of modern literary history, composed through literary figures.

Как мислим трансцендентното: диалогът между Карл Юнг и Мартин Бубер

Author(s): Miroslav Bachev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

The relationship between metaphysics and psychology has different dimensions. An emblematic example of this relationship is the literary polemics between Martin Buber and Carl Jung about boundaries between the two areas of scientific knowledge. According to Buber, Jung allows himself to cross the border of psychology and psychiatry through metaphysical assertions, while Yung claims he doesn’t go beyond that, and all his speeches, even about transcendent objects, don’t leave the sphere of empiricism. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct this dialogue and critically analyze it in view of the possibilities of thinking of the transcendence.

The Problem of the Totalitarian Nature of the Information Society in the Context of its Influence on Social Institutions

Author(s): Vladislav Sheleketa,Vasilij Ivakhnov,Irina Dmitrieva,Natalia Revenko / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The article discusses the features of the process of transformation of human consciousness and educational culture in the conditions of the modern information society in the context of digitalization. By using such concepts, the theory of postmodernism and existentialism, the authors prove the legitimacy of the explication of these theories on the processes of transformation of human consciousness and radical changes in educational culture. At the same time, the necessity of critical reflection on the processes and phenomena from the perspective of the basic values of human life, such as love, moral values, creativity, is emphasized. The role of independent and systemic thinking as a condition for self-realization is also proved. The phenomenology of modern consciousness, intertwined with the phenomena of technology, is the basis of the existential analysis of consciousness. According to the authors, it is an utmost technological and utilitarian orientation of consciousness. Consciousness today is a reflection of the technological orientation of society and this cannot but affect the educational culture, which is becoming technological. The information space modulates the independence of thinking as a support for authoritative opinions, awakening the needs for material well-being, to the detriment of the dialogic nature of thinking and the independence of thinking.

Отчуждението като проблем в Хайдегеровата философия

Author(s): Nikolay Pavlov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

The concept of alienation is important part of the 20th century leftwing social criticism and a key theme of Western Marxism and critical theory. It also has a significant impact on various existentialist-inspired cultural criticism. The development of the social and economic dynamics in recent decades has aroused interest for a different interpretations of this classic question. The following text is an attempt for ontological rethinking of the problem through the existential concepts of Martin Heidegger. This happens with the interpretive reading of several of those key concepts.

On striking Similarities between Chapters XIV – XIX of Machiavelli’s The Prince and the Fifth Book of Aristotle’s Politics

Author(s): Aleksandr Mishurin / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

In the article, I try to refute an old and widespread superstition according to which the new political philosophy created by Niccolo Machiavelli breaks with classical political philosophy by taking a novel position toward the political; that is, that classics were idle “idealists” while Machiavelli is a coldblooded “realist”. To do that, I compare the most explicit part of The Prince (chapters XIV-XIX) with the end of the fifth book of Aristotle’s Politics and attempt to show that in the most pivotal chapters of his most famous work, the Florentine, in fact, often borrows Aristotle’s advice on how to preserve a tyrannical rule.

Нравствеността като изграждащ и променящ правото фактор

Author(s): Georgi Mihaylov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

This article studies the specific designation of morals under the conditions of a modern society. Due to the circumstances that morals are able to overcome differences between the social regulatory systems and to unite the perceptions of a regulatory framework, they have become a major contemporary metalegal regulator. Being a significant social regulator, morals also play a mediation role between law and other social regulatory systems. In this role of theirs, they make a substantial factor having an influence on building and changing legal prescriptions. Morals are also studied as a variable in the conditions of a dynamically developing society and changing conditions of living. Some models of behaviours, which were considered to be against moral only several decades ago, are nowadays regarded as completely normal.

Църковният събор от 1360 г. в Търново и българо-еврейският религиозен конфликт от 50-те години на XIV век

Author(s): Hristo Saldzhiev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

The article focuses on problems relating to the Jewish community’s origin in medieval Tarnovo, the reasons that provoked the Bulgarian-Jewish conflict from the 1350ies and its aftermaths. The hypothesis that Tarnovo Jews originated from Byzantine and appeared in medieval Bulgarian capital at the end of the 12th century as manufacturers of silk is proposed. The religious clash from the 1350ies is ascribed to the influence exerted by some Talmudic anti-Christian texts on the local Jewish community, to the broken inner status-quo between Christians and Jews after the second marriage of the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Alexander and to the reactions of part of the Christian population against the breach of this status-quo.

Affect philosophy meets incongruity:

Author(s): Mark Weeks / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The emergence of philosophical affect theory, sourced substantially in Continental philosophy, has intensified scholarly attention around affective potentials in laughter. However, the relationship between laughter’s affect and the comic remains a complicated one for researchers, with some maintaining that the two should be approached separately (Emmerson 2019, Parvulescu 2010). While there is a credible academic rationale for drawing precise distinctions, the present article takes an integrative approach to laughter and the comic. It analyses, then synthesises, points of convergence between key texts in affect philosophy and certain elements of incongruity-based humour theory. Specifically, the article seeks to demonstrate that some integration can bring insight and clarity to discussion of transformative potentials sometimes attributed to forms of comic laughter, especially within cultural studies and social science following the philosophy of Deleuze. This approach may also usefully complicate the concept of incongruity itself.

Promoting the Internationalization of Speech-Language Pathology Education: The Bulgarian-American Cooperative Experience

Author(s): Robert F. Orlikoff,Dobrinka Georgieva / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Several collaborative projects between South-West University in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, and 8 universities in the USA have worked well to improve the overall competence of students in speech-language pathology programs and practicing clinicians to better meet the needs of individuals with fluency and voice disorders. The US Fulbright Senior Specialist and EU Erasmus+ exchange programs serve as effective instruments that provide systemic and long-term impact supporting innovation and fostering contemporary teaching methods. These international projects prepare students and faculty succeed in a global, multicultural society, and in doing so, advance speech-language pathology as an evidence-based allied health science discipline.

Book review

Author(s): Jennifer Marra / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

Commentary piece

Author(s): Jennifer Marra / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

Many of Ernst Cassirer’s later works are concerned with the dangers of political myth. His analysis speaks at length about the role of philosophy during the rise of the Third Reich, and Cassirer argues that philosophers failed to combat the dominant ideology. Today, philosophers struggle to explain their relevance to greater public and governmental powers that see no intrinsic value. Given the current political situation in the US, we find ourselves at a crossroads as philosophers. We can either retreat and remain within the comforts of academia, or we can take up arms against dangerous and divisive political forces. If we take Cassirer’s prescriptions seriously, we must choose the latter. Fortunately, philosophy has not disappeared from public consciousness completely. An emerging theme in contemporary cultural studies is the exploration of connections between humour and philosophy. I argue we ought to take advantage of the status of the comedian as public philosopher, and for philosophers to take seriously the political power of comedians. To do this responsibly, I analyse a portion of Cassirer’s work that has been widely ignored in scholarship – his understanding of the politics and morality of humour. By analysing these passages in relation to Cassirer’s later works, we are given the tools to understand the power of humour in political discourse, as well as the responsibility of that power. I argue that “joking responsibly”, for Cassirer, means to reveal the motives and values which underlie sophistry, particularly the sort which lends itself to political manipulation.

Основанията на науката в изследванията на руския учен Вячеслав Семьонович Стьопин

Author(s): Nikoleta Mihaleva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The focus of the article is a philosophical and methodological reflection of V.S. Styopin on three main components of the foundations of science: ideals and norms of scientific research, the scientific picture of the world and the philosophical foundations of science. Each of them, in turn, has a rather complex internal structure. Therefore, the task of the article is not limited to the development of perceptions of these three "blocks" of foundations, which has been thoroughly achieved by a number of authors, including Styopin, but mainly to what extent these grounds express important values and goals and dimensions of science.

Артефакти 1. Дефиниция

Author(s): Serghey Gherdjikov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

In this paper I present a definition of artifact based on cases of philosophical and scientific use: anthropogenic abiotic virtual or real object with meaning and/or function. This definition is proposed in a new dimension: real–virtual, which purports to replace the classical opposition material–ideal as a better way of defining what an artifact is. I consider as virtual here not only digital simulations, but all sign forms. I show that my definition works better in explaining artifacts. I follow empirical science as a technique of studying artifacts, and subscribe to the anthropological paradigm.

Култура и политики на паметта в Германия - предпоставки и критика

Author(s): Daniela Decheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The paper analyses the contemporary debate about memory culture and memory policy in Germany which are highly valid for Europe as well. They base on the political consensus that the memory of collective crimes committed in the past, especially of the Holocaust, and the honour to the victims, are a basic prerequisite for the protection of human rights. In the second part of the paper different critical views on the conception and practice of memory culture and memory policy in Germany are discussed.

A pedagógia elnyomottja

Author(s): Tamás Tóth / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 28/2021

The most common way of articulating educational problems and questions is by speaking the language of social sciences, and using the grammar of political logics. What is the proportion of disadvantaged students? Does this and that project for inclusion appear to be effective? Since when has the school been reproducing inequalities? And so on. What I would like to discuss here is that it is possible to talk about education educationally and along educational logics. While the logic of the political refers to the way the social is born, the logic of the educational signifies the way birth becomes social – namely, our collective and political attitude toward the fact that newcomers are constantly coming into our common and old world. I will present four educational logics characteristic of our epoch, which are discussed in depth by the proponents of an experimentative critical pedagogy. They do understand these logics of the educational in a radically different, twisted way if compared to the mainstream educational discourse, thus laying the groundwork for a new kind of radical left-wing pedagogy. In agreement with them, I want to argue here that pedagogy is not the praxis of the future, but of the present, in which it is more important not to know certain things than to want to know everything, because this is how we can break the chains of the prevailing order here and now: by putting gods and masters into brackets, and ignoring the expectations of the society, as well as the hopes of yesterday which constantly defer revolution.