Nielegalne pozyskiwanie danych przez państwo. Korupcja czy konieczność?

Author(s): Bronisław Sitek,Wincenty Bednarek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2013

The changes caused by globalization lead to a conflict of cultures, which may affect the security of individuals and society. The most obvious change of the globalization is weakness of the position of the State for the benefit of international organizations and individual rights. The State which had been the guarantor of security is increasingly becoming an enforcer of judgments or decisions of external bodies. The State also begins losing against the rising claims of citizens, especially in terms of ensuring safety. In this case the knowledge is needed, so first of all information acquired in a legal way. However, due to the threat posed by terrorists who obtain information mainly in informal way by using illegal methods of operation, the moral dilemma about boundaries of security service’s actions is born. May security justify actions of security service conducted on the border of the law or with its breaking?

The American Dilemma 70 years later

Author(s): Hieronim Kubiak / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2013

Základy etické a právní regulace reklamy

Author(s): Tibor Skalka / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/1997

The document discusses the ethical and legal regulation of advertising in the Czech Republic. It highlights the importance of advertising in modern society, serving both as a competitive tool for businesses and a guide for consumers in a market flooded with similar products and services. The primary legal frameworks governing advertising include the Act No. 40/1995 Coll. on the Regulation of Advertising, the Act No. 468/1991 Coll. on Radio and Television Broadcasting, and the Act No. 634/1992 Coll. on Consumer Protection. Additionally, the Commercial Code plays a significant role in regulating advertising within the context of economic competition. The document also emphasizes the role of the Code of Advertising Practice, which outlines moral principles and norms for advertising activities. This code, while not legally binding, complements legal regulations by addressing ethical issues in advertising. The relationship between ethical and legal norms is explored, particularly how ethical standards can influence legal interpretations and vice versa. The document underscores the necessity of defining boundaries for advertising practices to ensure they are truthful, decent, and respectful of legal and ethical standards. It also discusses the role of various stakeholders, including advertisers, advertising agencies, and media owners, in adhering to these regulations.

Bosanskohercegovački mediji u današnjem vremenu

Author(s): Belma Buljubašić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 2/2007

State in journalism in Bosnia and Herzgeovina is mediocre to say the very least. Lack of more educated and creative individuals engaged in journalism is obvious. There are very few who have good mind and will to make their work quality and interesting for the audience. Instead, in Bosnia and Herzegovina media we can see foreign commercial programs offering us entertainment only. Political magazines are one-sided, offering on cover pages biased content. They lost their primary function - to make information for ordinary folks and now they are more like tabloids. More and more, journailsts become only tools in hands of their editors (who are owners or majority shareholders of newspapers or TV houses). There is a lack of information concerning culture or education and there is a lack of professionals who would be engaged in critique of such issues. It leads to the question - Does journalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina had lost its educational function? And - Is it role now to amuse masses?

Do We Really Exist? Eastern Inspirations in Thomas Metzinger’s Self-model Theory of Subjectivity

Author(s): Wojciech Kościuczyk / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

This paper is an analysis of Thomas Metzinger’s self-model theory of subjectivity (SMT). Metzinger claims that beyond the biological organism and its properties, there is no individual and distinct entity that can be regarded as “self”. What really exists is the phenomenal sense of being self, which creates the illusion of the existence of something permanent. Taking the concepts of David Hume and certain early Buddhists thinkers as his starting point, Metzinger claims that during introspection, which is a type of phenomenal experience, we find nothing stable, but only impermanent impressions. As he argues, this hypothesis is supported by empirical neuroscience research, which should be considered when studying human subjectivity. Drawing extensively from the results of science and philosophy of mind, he proposes a concept of a phenomenal self-model (PSM). The PSM integrates information about the whole biological organism and makes it available from the first-person perspective.The first part of the paper presents the key issues of the SMT and the four aspects of Metzinger’s critique of the concept of the substantial self. The paper also offers a critical analysis of some of Metzinger’s ideas. The second section discusses the common features as well as differences between the SMT and the Buddhist concept of non-self (s. anātman, p. anattā). It also aims to analyse certain problematic issues of the notion of anattā and demonstrate some of the challenges connected with the use of a comparative method.

Antropologia filozoficzna w teologii św. Tomasza z Akwinu

Author(s): Artur Andrzejuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 12/2023

Thomas Aquinas (122/25-1274) recognized up to the present day as the most significant Catholic theologian, dedicates approximately half of his major theological work, Summa theologiae, to anthropological issues among which a vast majority consists of philosophical anthropology. In this paper we present main anthropological issues treated in the aforementioned work. The analysis allowed to formulate the general conclusions regarding the character of Thomistic theology and its place in the structure of theology. The place of anthropology in theology of Thomas Aquinas shows that he would accept an opinion, (outspoken however on the other occasion) that theology is more of a God’s vision of man than a human vision of God. This God’s vision of man is for St. Thomas, first of all, an understanding a human being as entirely different from the other creatures, a unique being of spiritual-bodily structure. This structural unity of spirit and body, possible by distinguishing immaterial in Thomism potentiality, eliminates difficulties which derive from the radical hylomorphism of Aristotle, the concept which Aristotle himself failed to overcome, and who in search for the origins of human spirituality turned to aether, the fifth element. Aquinas, when adopting the same starting points more precisely presented the structure of man in which spirituality and corporeality at the same time derive from its essence. Thus we may suggest that in philosophical anthropology Thomas is a consistent Aristotelian (and even more consistent that Aristotle himself). We need to add that this spiritual and bodily vision of man is reflected in Thomism in the ethical, pedagogical, social and even political conceptions. Predominant principle of these conceptions is wisdom. This indicates at the radical Thomistic intellectualism, which means that the intellect dominates over all other human faculties including the will as the faculty of decision-making at the head. It does not mean replacing of these faculties but their final assignment to the intellect as this faculty which is able to recognise adequately and approach being surrounding a man and the entire reality. In reference of man to this reality, especially to reality of reasonable beings – other persons – the primary relation is love. Love, according to Thomas, dominates in both, relation of man to Gog and to the other human beings. All further, that is all capabilities and virtues, a even God’s grace are assigned to love, their goal is to build community whose bonds (relations) are grounded in love. We may thus assume that virtues are a kind of „technology” of accomplishing this fundamental relation. In each place of his Summa theologiae Thomas reminds this and what is surprising, many moralists focus more on this technology and fails to recognize love as the relation in the light of which all other relations and activities make their sense and set objectives.

IZAZOVI I KOMPLEKSNOST NORMATIVNOG UREĐENJA EUTANAZIJE I POTPOMOGNUTOG SAMOUBOJSTVA

Author(s): Ninoslav Gregurić-Bajza,Melanija Dijanić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2024

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are undoubtedly phenomena that provoke a series of controversies, discussions, and divergent viewpoints in many scientific fields today. Given its controversial nature, there are numerous and diverse ethical, theological, political, medical, and particularly legal aspects of euthanasia. Discussions about its universal decriminalization and legal regulation are primarily based on fundamental human rights and the protection of these rights in various international and national legal documents. These range from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the practices of the European Court of Human Rights, and national constitutions and laws. In these documents, the right to life is presented as a counterbalance to the right to euthanasia and assisted suicide. Consequently, different legal solutions exist globally for the phenomenon of euthanasia and assisted suicide, from legislations that do not regulate them normatively or treat them as criminal acts to those that have decriminalized and de facto legalized them through legal solutions. Considering the numerous uncertainties related to this phenomenon and the fact that euthanasia entails human life and the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms, it is unrealistic to expect a swift and universal legal regulation of this phenomenon. The paper initially explains the concepts of euthanasia and assisted suicide, followed by a brief comparative overview of the normative regulation of euthanasia and assisted suicide in some European Union countries. The fundamental part of the paper focuses on the analysis of the normative regulation of this phenomenon in the Republic of Croatia and the attitudes of surveyed Croatian citizens on whether euthanasia and medically assisted suicide should be decriminalized and legalized in the Republic of Croatia.

Polizey und Publikation: Joseph von Sonnenfels und Der Mann ohne Vorurtheil

Author(s): Magdalena Matzneller / Language(s): German Issue: 01/2013

The paper focuses on the links between the doctrines taught by Joseph von Sonnenfels at the University of Vienna and his moral weekly Der Mann ohne Vorurtheil. The hypothesis that Sonnenfels uses his publication to divulge his academic findings to a wider public is supported by a comparison of his academic and literary works, and three of the many aspects are presented. Sonnenfels writes not only about moral issues but also about the ideal relationship between the state and its citizens, and he uses the moral weekly to express his ideas about the Viennese theatre and the way it should be censored. With regard to censorship there exist some differences between the theory defended by Sonnenfels and his personal experience as an author. In fact some pieces of his moral weekly got him in trouble and he was forbidden to address certain topics, such as the Church and the situation of the peasants. The most prevalent themae, however, is marriage and gender relations. According to his doctrines high ethical and educational standards as well as a high population keep a state safe from within and that leads Sonnenfels to concentrate on this issue.

Reţelele memetice ascendente şi descendente ca produse evoluţioniste, rolul lor în dinamica polarizării şi a conflictului cultural şi potenţialul lor pentru creşterea toleranţei democratice

Author(s): Doru Valentin Căstăian / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 11/2021

The main goal if this article is to define memetic networks as evolutionary structures that act in cultural and social space like genoms act in natural enviroments. So, memetic networks are assemblies of memes that are saved in cultural memory through various devices and that can become active in peoples` minds dependent on their natural, cultural and social enviroments. These networks are complex, emergent and adaptive, therefore they act like REAC networks, following particular dynamics and having complex interactions with various enviroments. They also have vectorial characteristics, being either ascendent or descedant. Our suggestion is that their vectorial structure is directly linked to old biological evolutionary mechanisms as endostasis and exostasis. We also imply that this understanding of memetic networks as complex tools for adaptation has the potential to lead to increased democratic tolerance and to a different approach to polarization and cultural conflict.

The End of American Exceptionalism Through Two Family Sagas: Breaking Bad and Ozark in the Face of Neoliberal Collapse

Author(s): Francesco Sticchi / Language(s): English Issue: 16/2023

This paper aims to investigate, following a film-philosophical methodology, the politics of two extremely popular North-American TV series. Thesis of the paper is that, by mapping particular narratives and aesthetic patterns concerning family-dramas and the desire of economic emancipation and social mobility, as well as the crisis and decay of the male bread-winner, Breaking Bad and Ozark describe a critical and cynical attachment to the modern American Dream. Passing from the “tragic” arc of Walter White to the dejected and melancholic struggles of the Byrdes, it is possible to detect a declining faith in the individualist, family and ownership-oriented values that have informed the neoliberal ecology and a consequent pervasive sense of loss in the longstanding tenets of American Exceptionalism.

Values, Norms and Social Dynamics

Author(s): Mladen Lazić,Jelena Pešić / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2024

The aim of this paper is to offer a distinct approach to the theoretical conceptualization of values and norms, as well as their relationship to one another. This approach views values as a factor that can hinder the integration of the existing order and potentially contribute to a crisis of its reproduction. The relationship between values and norms is defined as potentially asymmetrical. The concept of normative-value dissonance is derived from this asymmetry, indicating the dynamic character of relations between changes to the dominant system of social reproduction and changes to the order of values and norms. Normative-value dissonance can further be broken down into systemic normative-value dissonance, which occurs when the value and normative order are not harmonized due to changes of the system of social relations as a whole, and intrasystemic, which occurs due to changes in the dominant social order, without changes to the foundations on which it is based.

The House of Pain: The Island of Dr. Moreau and Post/Trans/ Humanism Today

Author(s): Elana Gomel / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2023

H. G. Wells’ novel The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) is a bleak critique of the Victorian notion that evolution can provide ethical or social guidance to humanity. This essay reads the novel in the context of the contemporary debate between posthumanism and transhumanism. By applying theoretical models derived from Braidotti, Agamben, Wolfe and others, the essay argues that Wells’ evolutionary antihumanism provides a corrective to both critical posthumanism’s attempts to articulate a nonanthropocentric ethics, and to transhumanism’s dreams of transcending humanity. The essay considers the chronotope of an island polity in the context of evolutionary antihumanism by comparing Wells’ novel with the contemporary biotech thriller Island 731 (2013) by Jeremy Robinson.

Karkulehto S.A., Koistinen, K., & Varis, E. (Eds.). (2019). Reconfiguring human, nonhuman and posthuman in literature and culture

Author(s): Călina-Maria Moldovan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

Review of: Karkulehto S.A., Koistinen, K., & Varis, E. (Eds.). (2019). Reconfiguring human, nonhuman and posthuman in literature and culture. Routledge. Palgrave Macmillan.

“They are here. They are everywhere. They are us.” – Posthuman Encounters in Samanta Schweblin’s Little Eyes (2018)

Author(s): Heike Missler / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

In Samanta Schweblin’s novel Little Eyes (2018), the latest technological hype that stretches across the globe comes in the shape of cute, pet-like little robots with cameras for eyes. These so-called kentukis are remotely inhabited and controlled by their human users via an online connection which is established at random. As the novel’s blurb - “They are here. They are everywhere. They are us.” - suggests, a kentuki is at once a familiar and unfamiliar creature and users’ experiences range from comforting to unsettling. The novel revolves around the theme of stranger danger and reports several uncanny encounters between humans and not-quite-humans in places around the world, both from the perspective of the kentukis’ owners (so-called keepers) and the voyeurs (so-called dwellers). The representation of these posthuman interactions in the novel remains ambiguous: Even though the potential to challenge or even transgress the human/non-human binary is addressed, the novel follows a classic dystopian narrative, which posits that it is not the technology itself which is inherently good or bad, it is us humans.

Henk Manschot, Nietzsche and the Earth. Biography, Ecology, Politics

Author(s): Pablo Muruzabal Lamberti / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

Review of: Henk Manschot, Nietzsche and the Earth. Biography, Ecology, Politics. Bloomsbury, 2021, 200 pp.

I. Kant: Svoboda – morálka – náboženství

Author(s): Jakub Sirovátka,Maximilian Forschner,Rudolf Langthaler / Language(s): Czech Issue: 66-67/2024

Interview of Jakub Sirovátka with Maximilian Forschner and Rudolf Langthaler. In September 2023, an international conference titled "Freedom – Morality – Religion: Kant’s Philosophy of Religion – Offering and Challenge for Today" took place at the Catholic University in Linz, Austria. It honored two prominent Kant scholars, Maximilian Forschner and Rudolf Langthaler, both celebrating significant anniversaries. Forschner, a professor emeritus of philosophy, focuses on Stoicism, the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant, with his latest work delving into Kant's practical philosophy. Langthaler, a professor emeritus at the University of Vienna, is renowned for his ongoing dialogue with Jürgen Habermas regarding Kant’s philosophy of religion. This interview explores their reflections on Kant's philosophy, its relevance, and their lifelong engagement with his work.

Посланията на гъбите в творчеството на Олга Токарчук

Author(s): Dimitrina Hamze / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

Mushrooms are not merely delicious edibles, toxic threats to life, or parasitic organisms. Drawing upon in-depth scientific research, Olga Tokarczuk unveils their unsuspected biointegrative potential, which could serve as a model for interhuman relationships. The aim of the study is to unfold the semantic spectrum of mushroom functions, crucial not only for the biopsychic status of the subject but also for their spiritual and psychic evolution. The methods used include biocognitive, comparative, and semantico-analytical.

‘Ubuntu’ African Philosophy or ‘Ubuntu’ as a Philosophy for Africa

Author(s): Philip Ogo Ujomu / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2024

This paper tries to develop a tenable philosophical idea of Ubuntu, that is, more specifically, a crystallized and sanitized African indigenous ethical perspective. Africa as an idea seems to be a “contested” concept in this contemporary post-colonial era due to the influx of different nuances, races, values, and beliefs that are in contention. Should this be a source of worry? So far, Ubuntu theory and practice in Africa seem to have become emotive, politicized, and not inclusive enough due to grandstanding about ownership, poor conceptual and theoretical articulation, as well as antagonism from other related foreign dominant worldviews that wish to become the development paradigm for most African social and political systems. This raises relational and dialogical issues about meaning from an African viewpoint. The search for an African endogenous paradigm for development is urgent given the real consequences of a (neo)colonial tendency that has threatened and disadvantaged the development of most countries due to its dominant paradigms of alienation, exploitation, and marginalization. These values have altered or affected African behaviour and thinking. This transformation of the African personality raises issues about agency. The underlying values of a development paradigm or philosophy of development for Africa require an ethical basis for human existence in political and social order. Generally, social order in most parts of Africa is beset by the problem of a negative dominant social paradigm (DSP) or core social values of hatred, intolerance, the abuse of human rights, dehumanization, exploitation, authoritarianism, poverty, and oppression. This often leads to tension, violent conflicts, and wars. So to build a viable and stable endogenous paradigm for development in most African sociopolitical environments, we attempt to use the main pillar of interconnectedness among human beings, which is central to Ubuntu as a humane and humanistic social system, to underscore some key moral and democratic values required for human liberation and transformation. The research question is: What concrete elements or values of Ubuntu can be useful as paradigms of endogenous African development? Specifically, our findings suggest that Ubuntu ethics is defined by a set of human values central among which are reciprocity, the common good, peaceful relations, an emphasis on human dignity and the value of human life, as well as consensus, tolerance, and mutual respect. Thus, the paper argues for the possibility of utilizing Ubuntu ethical correlates as materials for establishing stable and viable development worldwide and specifically in Africa.

Nie/rad/ość. Felicytologiczna lektura „Dzienników” Franza Kafki

Author(s): Mariusz Jochemczyk,Miłosz Piotrowiak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2024

The article attempts to find states of joy in a writer whom no one suspects of such affects. In a contradictious way, the authors try to catch the „sad person from Prague” in the act: expressing happiness, revealing states of excitement, or even joy. As a result of their research, the authors conclude that moments of well-being in life are shown in Kafka’s diary entries not as experienced but as squandered. That’s why the eponymous „dis/joy” has such a bitter meaning.

Дискурсът за етичното веганство като модел за изграждане на идентичност

Author(s): Silvia Petrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2024

The text explores the ethical components of identity formation in the modern era through popular food practices. The focus of interest is veganism as a model of identity based on (the claim to) an ethical stance towards others and the world. The ways in which food today can act as a substitute for various causes are examined. In the context of contemporary culture, veganism can be interpreted between the poles of moral imperative, the concern for the health and longevity of one’s own body, and the hedonistic promise of enjoyment of food and of life itself. The methodological approach involves a review and critical reflection on the ethical component of identity construction through the prism of nutrition in contemporary culture, as well as an exploration of the manifestations of ethical veganism in specific contexts (e.g. in the debates surrounding the production and consumption of in vitro meat).