A Celebration of the Wild. On Earth Democracy and the Ethics of Civil Disobedience in Gary Snyder’s Writing

Author(s): Monika Kocot / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

The article attempts to shed light upon the evolution of Gary Snyder’s “mountains-and-rivers” philosophy of living/writing (from the Buddhist anarchism of the 1960s to his peace-promoting practice of the Wild), and focuses on the link between the ethics of civil disobedience, deep ecology, and deep “mind-ecology.” Jason M. Wirth’s seminal study titled Mountains, Rivers, and the Great Earth: Reading Gary Snyder and Dōgen in an Age of Ecological Crisis provides an interesting point of reference. The author places emphasis on Snyder’s philosophical fascination with Taoism as well as Ch’an and Zen Buddhism, and tries to show how these philosophical traditions inform his theory and practice of the Wild.

A Comment on the Ethics Statements of Global Non-Governmental Organizations and their Relation to Sustainable Development Goals

Author(s): Avshalom M. Adam / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

Human endeavors can be understood at the levels of evaluating what is good (values identification) and judging what is right (norms identification). These ethical considerations ideally find expression by becoming embedded in daily activity, with the ideal often buttressed by formal laws and regulations. Commitments to a strategy of sustainable management remain principally an ethical (rather than a regulatory) issue and are addressed primarily by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) rather than states. The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a blueprint for a more sustainable future. Faced with the consequences of climate change, natural disasters, environmental degradation, armed conflicts, and mass migration, NGOs’ commitments to the SDGs may be expressed in their engagement with meeting the immediate basic needs of present generations (e.g., for clean air, clean water, food, clothing, and shelter) and by humanitarian or developmental actions (which are part and parcel of sustainability development strategy and its implementation). In the present paper, I will offer a preliminary exploration of the question, to what extent do NGOs’ ethical commitments encompass strategy-led sustainable development capable of contributing to improving the likelihood of survival of a vulnerable population?

A Comparative Analysis, within the Posthumanist Context, of Compassion and Love in Y. N. Harari’s Thought and C.S. Peirce’s Phenomenology

Author(s): Călin-Ioan Taloş / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

Posthumanism points out the onset of a new existential episode for the humankind. In the epilogue of the first episode one can notice the advance of humanity in knowledge and innovation without, however, identifying a similar progress with regard to altruism and compassion. Wars are still threatening us even in this century, and hard feelings are at home everywhere around us. We have now reached the dawn of an era found under the auspices of artificial intelligence. Shoshana Zuboff draws our attention to „surveillance capitalism”, pinpointing the existence of the deliberate social inequality. Nick Bostrom, Ray Kurzweil and Max Tegmark emphasize the possibility that machines may acquire „singularity”, a situation in which machines will produce machines that are made according to their own will and independent of the human being, in fact against them, and Yuval Noah Harari announces the next stage in human evolution, anticipating the condemnation of homo sapiens. All these realities and predictions signal the evil that man can do to his neighbour and to himself, implicitly. To what extent can the progress of innovation be accompanied by a progress in the practical implementation of moral values such as love and compassion? How can we think in such a manner that the advance in innovation will not become a weapon against man, but an instrument for his own benefit? In this article I am proposing a brief comparative analysis of Y. N. Harari’s naturalist philosophy of meaning and the phenomenology of love in C.S. Peirce’s philosophy, with the purpose of representing thought paradigms that may considerably contribute to a compassion-driven technological transformation.

A Comparative Study of the Foundations of Medical Ethics in Secular and Islamic Thought

Author(s): Mohsen Rezaei Aderyani,Mehrzad Kiani / Language(s): English / Issue: 40/2015

The principles of medical ethics, common as they are in the world at the present time, have been formed in the context of Western secular communities; consequently, secular principles and values are inevitably manifested in all corners of medical ethics. Medical ethics is at its infancy in Iran. In order to incorporate medical ethics into the country’s health system, either the same thoughts, principles, rules, and codes of Western communities should be translated and taught across the country, or else, if the principles and values and consequently the prominent moral rules and codes of Western medical ethics are not consistent with the culture, customs, and religion of our country, then new principles and values should be formulated that are more in harmony with our society. According to the available literature in Iran, the four principles proposed by Beauchamp and Childress do not contradict the Islamic-Iranian culture and can thus be generally applied in the mentioned context. However, the application of these four principles and their derivatives (e.g. regulations and codes) requires careful examination and adaptation to Islamic ethics. A comparison of the ontological, anthropological and epistemological foundations of secular and Islamic attitudes shows the differences between these two attitudes to be deep-rooted. “Rationalism,” “scientism,” and “humanism” are the main foundations of secularism, whereas “Godcentrism,” “pure human servitude to God,” the belief in “returning of humans to God,” “resurrection day,” and also human’s accountability to God are all fundamental beliefs and principles of religion for Muslims of all cults and sects. It can thus be concluded that the principles of secularist thought are different from and to some extent inconsistent with the principles of Islam. Instructions derived from secular thought can therefore not be implemented in an Islamic community; rather, these communities should adopt Islamic foundations as the source for the norms and standards of their medical ethics. The capacities of religious thought (in particular, Islam) make possible the formation of an ethical system consistent with Islamic Ummah.

A CONCEPT OF ETHICAL COMMUNICATION FOR EUROPE

Author(s): Cristiana Senigaglia / Language(s): English / Issue: 18/2016

In contemporary societies, communication plays a paramount role and is an indispensable form of social and political mediation. The function of communication is enhanced in the context of the European Union, since the large territorial dimension, the different countries involved, and the relatively new political institutions with respect to the nation states require an intensive communicative exchange in order to strengthen the process of cooperation, development, and integration. The reference to the principles of communication, as highlighted by the theories of Otto Apel and Jürgen Habermas, offers a concrete possibility to shape communication from an ethical standpoint, and allows for conceiving a pluralistic, democratic process. With the integration of some aspects of the communitarian thinking, the idea of an ethics of communication provides some concrete chances of reflecting on the relation between people and institutions, and of conceiving of a communication which be more attentive to the present challenges and which secure a more effective and respectful interweaving among the different subjects and instances concerned.

A CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF THE CONCEPT OF DE-OBJECTIFIED HATRED

Author(s): Mark Losoncz / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2021

This paper looks at Thomas Szanto’s theory of hatred that suggests that hatred has an indeterminate affective focus and that it derives its intensity from the commitment to the attitude itself. Contrary to Szanto’s theses, this paper claims that the hated properties are not necessarily fuzzy. On the contrary, in many cases we can clearly reconstruct the quasi-rational genesis of hatred, by relying on the deep structures behind the social dynamics (as demonstrated by the example of anti-Semitism). Furthermore, the paper states that even though in certain cases hatred is a truly empty of content, these cases are marginal in comparison to other, more important forms of hatred.

A critical analysis of dialogue in Levinas’ ethics

Author(s): Victor Ogheneochuko Jeko,George U. Ukagba / Language(s): English / Issue: XXX/2018

Levinas’s ethics has not been able to address the plethora of human challenges arising from the ethical quicksand and moral quandaries in our existential world. The problem of ethics in Levinas’ s philosophical cum phenomenological analysis, is the problem of human communication, social interaction, human emancipation, freedom, and existential/ metaphysical relations. Freedom has become not just a hot concept in different fields of study, but a very powerful and a driving concept. For Levinas, freedom is not just the absence of constraints or impediments but obedience to laws and even the laws of nature inclusive. This paper adopted the method of hermeneutic to critically analyze Levinas’s phenomenological ethics. This paper concludes by exposing the facts that human communication or interaction is based on understanding and the ethics of difference is part and parcel of inter-subjectivity. Dasein is always faced with the fulfilment in its lived temporality. A sharing of the world is an essential characteristics of human togetherness. Dasein, in its dialogical engagement and existential commitment is usually based on freedom, strife, world sharing and resistance. Dialogical philosophy is the foremost part of world’s cosmic law of concrete social network.

A Critique of Turri's Experimental Research on Selfless Assertions

Author(s): Grzegorz Gaszczyk / Language(s): English / Issue: 59/2019

In this paper, I show that Turri’s (2015a) experimental study concerning selfless assertions is defective and should therefore be rejected. One performs a selfless assertion when one states something that one does not believe, and hence does not know, despite possessing well supported evidence to the contrary. Following his experimental study, Turri argues that agents in fact both believe and know the content of their selfless assertions. In response to this claim, I demonstrate that the conclusions he draws are premature in this regard. More specifically, I criticize his methodology, showing that his study is not only incomplete but also yields contradictory results. In closing, I propose how such a study should be conducted in order to receive comprehensive results.

A Dangerous Mind. Lars Von Trier’s “The House That Jack Built”

Author(s): Ştefan Bolea / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2019

In Lars von Trier’s latest movie, The House That Jack Built (2018), the serial killer Jack may be seen as a substitute for God. Following Maurice Blanchot and drawing from Jungian psychology, I will analyze the relationship between murder and sovereignty. Jack’s dream of the perfect crime is reminiscent of the Schopenhauerian project of universal crime. Taking into account the nihilistic works of Philipp Mainländer, Mihai Eminescu, Angernon Charles Swinburne, and others, I will discuss the Antinatalist predilection of non-existence over existence. I shall also examine the possibility of anti-nihilism.

A Discourse on Machiavelli’s New Rome

Author(s): Davorin Žagar / Language(s): English / Issue: 04/2021

In the first part of the paper the author presents the key theses of Vickie Sullivan’s reading of Machiavelli. Sullivan argues that, in order to prevent corruption, Machiavelli innovatively reworks elements of Christian teaching for entirely temporal purposes and offers a specific, modern solution, ‘new Rome’, in the form of an irreligious, fearful republic which early and effectively punishes the ambitious few seeking to establish tyranny. In the internal realm of the city, the Florentine reduces class desires of the plebs and the greats under the common goal of acquisition. A bellicose, tumultuous republic satisfies the desires of all the social actors, resulting in a lasting political order. In the second part the author critically engages with Sullivan’s interpretation, drawing on Claude Lefort’s interpretation of Machiavelli. Surprisingly, Lefort’s groundbreaking work on Machiavelli has been absent in Straussian readings of the Florentine. By highlighting the authentically democratic nature of Machiavelli’s project, in contrast with Sullivan’s reading, an entirely different ‘new Rome’ arises on the horizon.

A Discriminative Ontology for Future Selves

Author(s): Juraj Odorčák / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2021

The article presents a critique of the commonly held assumption about the practical advantage of endurantism over perdurantism regarding the problem of future-directed self-concern of a person. The future-directed self-concern of a person crucially depends on the possibility of the right differentiation of diverging futures of distinct persons, therefore any theory of persistence that does not entail a special non-branching relation of a person to only their future self seems to be counterintuitive or unrealistic for practical purposes of personal persistence. I argue that this pragmatic rationale about future-directed self-concern is equally challenging for both theories of persistence. Moreover, I indicate, that both of these theories fall and stand on the practical feasibility of hidden ontological presuppositions about specific second-order notions of concerns of persons for their future.

A door to the unknown: crossing boundaries through picturebook art

Author(s): Katarzyna Smyczyńska / Language(s): English / Issue: 3 (34)/2016

This paper engages with the question of the ethical implications of, and artistic imagination in picture books. The analysis relies on two visual narratives confronting the theme of cultural difference. The juxtaposition of the two books that share the themes of visiting and hosting, of confronting otherness, and of cultural prejudice indicates differences in their narrative and artistic potential. The analysis of formal strategies in Jemmy Button by Jennifer Uman and Valerio Vidali and in Eric by Shaun Tan serves to point out the role of artistic imagination and narrative wisdom in creating visual literature.

A fair tax (system) or an ethical taxpayer?

Author(s): Tamás Bánfi / Language(s): English / Issue: s1/2015

An interpretation of fairness based on the equal sacrifice principle is not clear; three taxation rules can be derived from it. Instead of searching for a fair tax system, ethical behavior of the taxpayer should be expected and set as a target. Ethical taxation can be encouraged and the propensity to pay taxes could be reinforced by abolishing the secrecy of individual and family tax returns, setting restrictions on cash operations which are associated with corruption, and gradually eliminating tax havens and offshore areas.

A Few Remarks on Equitable Law (from the Perspective of the System of Statutory Law)

Author(s): Wojciech Dziedziak / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2018

The article discusses equitable law with reference to the perspective of the system of statutory law. The author founds the substantive theory of equitable law on the following values: truth, good, justice and human dignity. The paper defines the understanding of these values. Then, it indicates that they should be respected in legislative activities (in lawmaking) as well as in the application of law so that the law (norms) and decisions should be equitable. It is also emphasised that equity is “an instance” that can protect the man and his dignity – the dignity of the human person.

A fordítók szakmai etikájának kihívásai

Author(s): Attila Imre / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2019

Translation has grown into a fully-fledged industry in the online world of the 21st century, and a professional code of ethics may help them do a quality job. Nevertheless, certain challenges must be faced, as complying with a code of ethics is neither compulsory nor does it have legal consequences. Our study discusses factors influencing professional ethics, such as the source text, clients, fellow translators and own personality. The paper ends with a few concluding remarks, followed by the references.

A Forgotten Philosopher Juozapas Čepėnas: Ethic Insights

Author(s): Rūta Marija Vabalaitė,Lora Tamošiūnienė,Liudmila Mockienė / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

The article deals with ethic insights of the priest Juozapas Čepėnas (1880–1976), who published a study cycle on Nietzsche. This cycle is significant in the context of an early reception of Nietzsche’s ideas in Lithuania; however, the author himself appears to remain an undeservedly forgotten thinker of the national school of thought. The article attempts to bring back Čepėnas’ philosophical outlooks and analyse the factors that shaped his philosophical position such as his academic upbringing in German classical universities and Čepėnas’ subsequent activities overstepping the boundaries of a clerical work. The article offers a new interdisciplinary approach in reviewing Čepėnas’ dissertation thesis that earned him a Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Freiburg University. The thesis is analysed in comparison to other Čepėnas’ philosophical writings on Dostoevsky produced at the period of university studies and later during his clerical service in Lithuania. Ethical aspects of Čepėnas’ thesis continue to hold relevance until the recent period of philosophical development. Čepėnas’ writings are viewed in parallel analysis with a spectrum of the Lithuanian existential thought. Critical contemplations on ethical principles in the cycle of articles on Nietzsche’s philosophy are emphasised. The article attempts to clarify Čepėnas’ understanding of the egotism of the superhuman, the reasons and the content of supplements of Christian ethics, and the concept of the secular purpose of life.

A General Overview on the Ethics of Pre-trial Detention

Author(s): Denisa Barbu / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

The measure of pre-trial detention is one of the five preventive measures regulated by the legislator in Title V of the general part of the new Criminal Procedure Code, adopted by Law no. 135/2010 and implemented on February 1st, 2014, along with detention, judicial control, judicial control on bail and house arrest. Preventive measures are institutions of criminal procedural law, and have a coercive character, aimed at the deprivation or the restriction of individual liberty, whereby the suspect or defendant is prevented from undertaking certain activities that would adversely affect the proper conduct of criminal proceedings or achieving the purpose of the criminal trial. Regarding the cases of pre-trial detention and the conditions that must be met in order to take the measure of pre-trial detention, it must be said that they result from the corroborated examination of the provisions of art. 202 para. 1 and 3, and art. 223 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Article 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code regulates the general conditions for taking preventive measures, in general, and the provisions of art. 223 of the Criminal Procedure Code regulates the specific conditions for taking the measure of pre-trial detention.

A Glimpse into a True Democracy. An Interview with Luce Irigaray

Author(s): Luce Irigaray ,Aleksander Kopka / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2020

An Interview with Luce Irigaray. Interview conducted by Aleksander Kopka

A gonosz arcai a szcientológiában

Author(s): Izabella Demeter / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 07/2012

„A Szcientológia egy vallás, amelyet L. Ron Hubbard fejlesztett ki, és amely az ember való- di szellemi természetének és önmagához, családjához, csoportokhoz, az Emberiséghez, minden életformához, a fizikai univerzumhoz, a szellemi univerzumhoz és a Legfelsõbb Lényhez való viszonyának teljes és biztos megértéséhez kínál pontos útvonalat”1 – válaszolja a Mi a szcientológia? kérdésre a nemzetközi hivatalos honlap tájékoztató része. Napjaink egyik leggyorsabb ütemben terjeszkedõ egyházáról lévén szó, jelen írásban nem vállalkozom a kérdésre adott feleletek átfogó összegzésére – maga az egyház több ezer kötetet jelentetett meg, az ellene felszólalók is majdnem ugyanennyit –, ehelyett a vallás kialakulása és meghirdetett alapelvei kerülnek e gondolatmenet fókuszába, Alain Badiou Etikájának2 lencséjén át szemlélve.

A gyűlölet biztonsága

Author(s): Ákos Szilágyi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2017