‘We have nothing in common’: Rethinking community and the mechanisms of creating a sense of belonging

Author(s): Giusi Strummiello / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

We live in an era of crisis for community and commonality. Our present experience, as noted by Derrida, is that of an aporia at the heart of belonging. Yet, it is in the very space torn apart by this aporia that we can try to conceive of a new sense of community and transform our way of thinking about being in common, which means the deconstruction of “Us” and of its enunciation. In the light of such a deconstruction, what makes for effective and powerful change in a struggle for emancipation, or in a protest for the recognition of one or more rights, when carried out by a collective movement or a group? This paper aims to answer that question, by seeking to investigate the conceptual and theoretical mechanisms that make a plural subject’s protest or claim concrete in its quest for justice and equality, in the face of a growing and likewise concrete (or real) inequality.

“Building the Future and Keeping the Past Alive Are One and the Same Thing”

A Rhetorical Analysis of the “Metal Gear Solid” Saga

Author(s): Sven Dwulecki / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

“Ceza Sömürgesi” Ve Otor İteryanizme Kafkaesk Bir Yaklaşim

Author(s): Medine Sivri,Fulya Çelik / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 86/2016

In terms of literary history Franz Kafka is included in the new objectivism. He writes in a term that the destruction of the belief of enlightened mind could solve everything and irrational and intuitive dimension take the place of mind reaching the reality. In this term, including 1919-1932, the outcomes of the World War I, developments in the field of industry, science and technology, the impact of the economic structure on people and man’s being crushed under the domination of matter and for this reason turning into mass people are aroused again in the works of Kafka on fictional platform. The boundaries between subject and object are erased. The reality gets into pieces and details become important. In this study, proceeding from Kafka’s story called Penal Colony, who is the pioneer of the modern literary movement, bureaucratic/hierarchical dilemma of the most important component of modern society, man’s being crushed under the domination of matter and turning into authoritarian personality will be tried to analyze in the context of kafkaeskque elements with socio-psychological and autobiographical approach.

“DEMOKRATİK PLATONCULUK”: JOHN STUART MİLL’İN SİYASİ DÜŞÜNCESİNDE ÇOĞUL OY

Author(s): Murat Kaçer / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 10/2017

John Stuart Mill argues that the representative government is the ideal form of government because all people cannot personally participate directly in politics. Mill, influenced by the "tyranny of the majority" in thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, pointed out that educated people should have more votes. Considering Plato's thoughts that kings should be philosophers, or philosophers kings, it seems that Mill’s elitist attitude isn’t new. It is clear that Mill's plural voting conflicts with his egalitarian view towards human nature and the idea of educative role of political participation. Duncan (1973) describes Mill's attitude as "democratic platonism". In this study, Mill's concept of democracy, elitism and elitist theories are explained and Mill's concept of pluralism is examined in the context of Duncan's concept of "democratic platonism". As all of Mill's works have not yet been translated into Turkish, it is paid attention to translate his thoughts on political participation and plural voting. It is believed that this study is significant and distinctive, considering the inadequate interest in Mill in the Turkish literature, focusing on Mill's thought on plural voting, in itself.

“God’s Elect Nation” Myth: Religious and Secular Dimensions

Author(s): Nonka Bogomilova / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2017

The paper analyzes the religious and the secular dimensions of the “God’s elect nation” myth, outlining that associating religion and mythology is one of the social-psychological mechanisms used to create and maintain the nation. The cultural mechanisms of the paradoxical reduction of religious universality to the local/national, the transformation of that which binds into that which separates are explained. The thesis is elaborated that the “nationalization” of God, whereby his transcendence is replaced by historical immanence, holds a potential to engender conflicts even between communities of the same religious confession. A sufficient number of historical instances indicate that most nations and peoples have each their own specific religious or secular myth of divine election or messianic myth of some exclusive mission or value; these myths are activated under conducive conditions. The situations that provoke feelings of ethnic or national unity and activate messianic mythologies are outlined. The religious radicalization is analyzed either as resulting from political and ethnic radicalization, from war, or as involved in these processes. The functions of intellectuals, of rationality and reason are discussed.

“TEMELJI MUDROSTI O UREĐENJU SVIJETA” HASANA KAFIJE PRUŠČAKA I NIKOLO MAKIJAVELIJEV “VLADAR”

Author(s): Muhamed Fazlovic / Language(s): Bosnian / Issue: 64/2015

The article presents a lecture delivered at the conference on the occasion of “400 years of the legacy of Hasan Kafi Pruščak (1615.-2015.)” in Gazi Husrev-bey’s library in Sarajevo and in methodological sense it is of a comparative character. In the introduction part of the text we bring some general comparative biographical data of Hasan Kafi Pruščak, Bosnian author and a thinker of late Ottoman period and Niccolo Machiavelli, representative of early Renaissance political turmoil in Europe. The main part of the article deals with the second chapter of Kafi’s most renowned work Principles of Wisdom for the Order of the World about – “counseling, istihara, thinking and contemplation” and chapters “of the Princes ministers” or “how far reaching is the effect of fortune within a domain of human and how we can resist it” from Niccolo Machiavelli’s Prince. The intention was to point out, on the bases of these examples, without any further pretentions, to the individual style and historical and geographical background in contemplating political and social motivations and causes, that were to bring about different, or opposing historical processes and contemporary political conclusions. The article suggests that the attention has to be drawn to the significance of political consultations with learned and aware young people in order to develop a politically and socially responsible vision.

„Kim przez swe życie stajemy się dla innych”. Myślenie i miłość, filozofia i polityka w życiu Hannah Arendt i Martina Heideggera

Author(s): Jacek Grzybowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2016

The article presents the biographies and philosophical views of two German thinkers of the twentieth century—Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger. Two world wars during the lifetime of one generation, not crowned neither with the final triumph of peace nor respite, formed, but in a very different way, these two philosophers. Hence the philosophy and politics influenced their life path, choices, decisions and pains. How did it happen, however, that Hannah Arendt came the way from theoretical to political philosophy, becoming one of the most important voices of political philosophy in the twentieth century, while Martin Heidegger, although made a dramatic attempt to create in his philosophy the foundations for a policy stuck in his hermetic language, unable (and after the war, not having had validation of life) to analyze on the basis of philosophy the political issues? Taken reflection is an attempt to answer the question of why the Jewish thinker became a philosopher of politics, and the German philosopher, although he wanted the metaphysics as a historical metapolitics of the nation has never had the right to do it. What was the source of the variability of these two thinkers? Was it only a difference of characters? Or maybe somewhere at the roots of their life choices lied the ideas they have lived and preached? Maybe that's why Heidegger after the war, chose the escape, unwilling or unable to deal with who Adolf Hitler turned out to be, what was the final solution, Auschwitz, genocide, while Arendt remained faithful to thinking and love showing people of twentieth century the origins of totalitarianism.

„Leteći filozof“

Author(s): Nenad Dakovic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 181/2014

„Minden egész eltörött…”

Author(s): Gábor Budai / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 02/2017

„Vojnička vladavina” kao poseban (okcidentalan) tip despotije u Monteskjeovoj teoriji

Author(s): Aleksandar Molnar / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 15/2015

Montesquieu writes about “military rule” in all of his three main works: in the Persian Letters, in Considerations on the Causes of the Grandeur and decadence of the romans, as well as his magnum opus on the Spirit of the Laws. However, only in the last work he defined it as a special type of despotism. Montesquieu analyses this type of despotism by reference to ancient rome and comes to a conclusion that the roman example differed significantly from what he usually meant by despotism – that is oriental despotism. He claims, namely, that oriental despotism could be perceived as timeless, simple and devoid of any notion of freedom, while “military rule”, as “occidental” type of despotism, would be characterized by its complexity and historicity in the context of perversion of freedom. the “occidental” type of despotism, claims Montesquieu, could be understood only as a stage in a deterministic political development that starts with a collapse of the monarchy that is itself a result of a collapse of the aristocratic and democratic republic.

„Zdrowie” i „choroba” w perspektywie studiów nad dziejami pojęć społeczno-politycznych (szkic problematyki)

Author(s): Bartosz Hordecki / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 5/2013

The aim of the text was to characterize selected contemporary ways of conceptualizing „health”and „disease”.„Health” and „disease” were treated as the basic concepts in the sense given to this term byR. Koselleck. This means that the content of „health” and „disease” remain a constant subject ofdisputes and negotiations. Their users variously understand „the state of health” and „the stateof disease”, try to spread and even impose its own definitions.The contemporary debate on „health” and „disease” is shrouded in a peculiar aura of suspicion.Many of its important participants don’t think about „disease” and „health” as a unifyingphenomena. Their comments suggest, however, that the sick and the healthy are separated withthe wall of incomprehension, impossible or nearly impossible to break through. Such an approachmay limit the social desire to talk, understood as a serious remedy for loneliness and themany ills of modern man. Meanwhile, by talking the doctor and the patient are able to create anatmosphere of mutual respect and kindness, which greatly simplifies life, making it better.

„Между историята и вечността“: философският избор на Мишел Фуко през 50-те години

Author(s): Elisabetta Basso / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 3-4/2016

This article examines the manner in which Foucault is being related to the existential psychopathology during the 50s, according to the newly deposited Foucauldian archives at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in 2013. In particular, the text concentrates its attention on an unpublished and unedited manuscript: one of the courses of lectures at the University of Lille done by Foucault in 1952–1954, and especially the course on “Phenomenology and Binswanger” (1953–1954). While analysing this Foucault’s course of lectures where the emphasis lies on the philosophical reflexion on the anthropological problem of psychopathology, we are becoming finally able to throw some light upon Foucault’s project of analysing the historicity of the ‘forms of experience’ – a project that has been placed in the very heart of Foucauldian “archaeology” of madness in 1961.

Ідеологічний стан сучасного українського суспільства

Author(s): Olena Postol / Language(s): Ukrainian / Issue: 4/2012

Examines the ideological state of modern Ukrainian society by clarifying the specifics of the process of socialization and ideological coverage of political and administrative aspects of the doctrinal systems. Suggested interpretation of the new discourse of the implementation of the ideological policy of the state. We consider the ideology of solidarity as one of the most promising areas of the post-classical ideology in Ukraine.

Інтэрв'ю з Рычардом Рорці

Author(s): Richard Rorty / Language(s): Belarussian / Issue: 02/2003

Історичні інтерпретації принципу справедливості

Author(s): Irina Sydorenko / Language(s): Ukrainian / Issue: 2/2014

In our article we considered the variability of equity principle in different historical periods. The principle of equity does not have an unambiguous interpretation. We are analyzing its new meaning according to the social needs. We are researching the maintenance of this fundamental principle in context of negative forms of the basic rules of morality to the forms of positive understanding of moral law; from the equity like a morality "for yourself" to gaining the meaning of universal moral and ethical principles. Thus, the Old Testament equity is written drawn clearly, unambiguously and has the form of law, but does not provoke the reflection on the act. Determinism of cause-effect relation is clearly detected in pairs "act- award" or "done- punishment". In moral action, based on the own understanding, there is no need. By the Gospel the reasonable for the personal moral responsibility is not regulatory opposition of evil and good, but an absolute imperative of own conscience. Blind imitation of the God’s Laws is not a moral act. Such acting are moral just in form, it can’t exist out of individual morality. Moral philosophy turns to the free of will, to the freedom of choice between good and evil. Classical understanding of equity was developed by Aristotle. The ancient Greek philosopher came out of the fact that the basis of equity is in the definite reward for the merits of everybody. The equity had a meaning of taming of the one individual ambitions and to get what belongs to another. So, in basis of European civilization is a system of individual interconnection between the person and its social environment that combines individualism of interests and common human values. In modern times, the equity is considered as a political and juridical, that is realized in principle of equality of civil right and freedoms and form the basis for bourgeois and liberal implemented in the of civil rights and freedoms, the foundations for bourgeois-liberal principle of "equality of possibility" and provides for equivalence of goods and services exchange. The equity within social and conventional understanding at first was regarded as a social phenomenon. It helped further development of this theory of equity in context of social regulation. The government should guarantee the maintenance of moral duty to eliminate actual inequality and equity in the distribution of public goods. A new form "social morality" was formed during this period in the society of Modern age. The social interaction is the basis of "social morality". The major social institutions appeared at the period of formation of industrial market economy. Regulation standards were aimed to achieve the individual aspirations, new forms of interaction between the individual and society. A new social experience needed the new methods of regulation of social relations. The competitors on the market had to coordinate the adverse interests, find the common values. The interests of market relations came together in common things: tolerance appeared profitable for all competition sides. A regulation of social relationships contributed to public organizations. Legislation was written that took into account the real needs of society. The citizens unions got a power to control the government. An important achievement of that time was the understanding of individual freedom and its reasonable restriction for the harmonious social interaction. Economic prosperity guarantees political, civil and social stability. Interested in it a state authorized itself to control the maintenance of equity and legality. In fact, Aristotle’s’ understanding of equity changed from the entities’ ownership to the social institutions, as mentioned J. Rawls in his "Theory of Justice". We analyzing the Rawl’s concept of justice. He considers the theory of justice as the theory of fairness. According to J. Rawls, a cooperation on mutually beneficial terms would become more effective, to ensure the welfare of all people. So, personal life plans of individuals should be consolidated because their activity is common. A level of the social collaboration can guarantee just socially oriented state with a democratic organization of all institutions and systems. Ethics occurred with the task to open its potential on the empirical level. A pace of life is accelerating: before the society appeared new and new challenges. Yesterday's rules are not always effective. Economic, industrial, political, medical, scientific, educational practice expects its moral standards which can quickly react on the change of social and cultural context. As for social equity today, we mean the basic foundation of any society – its economic success. Thus, there is a need of normative partnerships between business and civil society; measure of moral responsibility of the government to ensuring fair conditions for business; giving social defense of workers, and so on. The state, social institutions and business should be interested in formation of the culture of social relations. It was showed in the experience of advanced countries. The moral of which is "live", involved in the structure of industrial relations. It is noticed, that with its modern context like a "social equity", this principle is obliged to the development of business relations, formation of civil society and their interactions.

Људска природа и stasis: о Тукидидовом утицају на Хобсову науку о политици

Author(s): Vladimir Ž. Milisavljevic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 159-160/2016

This paper assesses the influence of Thucydides on Hobbes’s conception of man and, more generally, on his model of “Civil Science”. This influence can be traced back to the time when Hobbes worked on his translation of Thucydides’s history of the Peloponnesian War. Already at that time, Hobbes characterized Thucydides as the “the most politic historiographer that ever writ”, i.e. the historian whose work contributed the most to the true knowledge of politics. The main argument of the paper is that Hobbes’s admiration for the author of the History of the Peloponnesian War can be best explained by Thucydides’s ability to portray the essential conflictuality of politics. This thesis is confirmed by a comparative analysis of some important themes in Thucydides’s historical narrative and several major theoretical statements of Hobbes’s anthropology and political theory. There is an unmistakable similarity, which has often been commented on, between Hobbes’s account of the three principal causes of conflict between individuals in the state of nature – Competition, Diffidence and Glory – and the three main human instincts to which the Athenians appeal, in a speech that Thucydides conveys, to justify their striving for power. However, Thucydides influenced Hobbes mostly by his descriptions of internal war. The final part of the article examines in this light two topics from Thucydides’s famous description of the stasis which took place in Corcyra – the impossibility of justice and the perversion of language in time of sedition in the polis.

Швајцарска федерализована демократија за историјски задате заједнице

Author(s): Bojan Kovacevic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 1/2013

In this article the author demonstrates that the relation between federalism and democracy in Switzerland goes beyond the logic of modern statehood. On one hand, the article enlightens link between today’s Swiss federation and political philosophy of Johannes Althusius, thinker whose theory questions the very basic premises of modern statehood. On the other hand, the article demonstrates that Swiss constitutional history resides on essentially different understanding of democracy in comparison to classical modern liberal states. In contrast to today’s widespread instrumental understanding of democracy, conceived as an institutional tool which produces effective majorities, democracy in Switzerland is aimed at enabling as much self- determination of citizens as possible. Swiss constitutional experience, which testifies of inherent connection between federalism and democracy, inspired some scholars to introduce “federalized democracy” concept into theoretical discourse. Realization of federalized democracy concept in Switzerland has proven to be a rather efficient toll for preserving national unity and political autonomy of historically existing communities. In today’s politico- historical reality, however, federalized democracy concept has proven to be extremely rigid and closed for all other kinds of diversity that don’t follow historical lines of separation.

ЭКЗИСТЕНЦИАЛЬНЫЙ ВАКУУМ И КРИЗИС ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ

Author(s): Eduard Anatoliyovych Kalnytskyi / Language(s): Ukrainian / Issue: 2/2017

It is shown that on way of forming the meaning of life the existential vacuum can get, mechanism of getting out of which must be sought in the service of an important cause, love for another human being, self-realization of man. Noted that it is necessary to demark it from the concept of «happiness» to analyze the meaning of life. In this context, it is necessary to indicate what goals we want to achieve when we talk about the realization of the «meaning of life», and also to determine conditions that are worthy of greater pride or admiration, as well as the values that determine them.Emphasized that the opposite concept of nihilism arises when we try to isolate the meaning of life and determine its characteristic features. Pessimism is often associated with extreme pessimism and radical skepticism. Nihilism aims at the destruction of moral, religious and metaphysical beliefs and can fuel an anthropological crisis. And falling into an existential vacuum – to find there fertile soil. Various types of nihilism are considered, such as: political nihilism, which is based on the belief that the destruction of all existing political, social and religious institutions is an indispensable condition for any further improvement of the political system; Ethical nihilism or moral nihilism, which rejects the possibility of absolute moral or ethical values (it is considered that it is not possible to distinguish between good and evil, because their demarcation is nothing more than a product of social and cultural context); Existential nihilism, which postulates the idea that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.Asserted that humanism confirms our ability to self-realization of the individual and responsibility for the sake of the common good for all people. The happiness of an individual is inseparably linked with the well-being of mankind as a whole, in part because we are «social animals» and develop in a «cultural context». Losing the meaning of life leads to a psychological crisis, internal conflict, loss of self-identity, which leads to a new crisis – the identity crisis. The crisis of identity is actualized against the background of the disorientation of its social role, continuity as a result of conflicting expectations and un- certainty about itself and its role in society. The identity crisis is generated by many factors, including economic instability, negative images in the media, as well as the lack of role models, clear ideological programs and blurred values.Reported that in the context of the developed multiculturalism in the globalization world, the question of the hierarchy of values and the system of personal identification becomes particularly difficult, since in recent years the identity crisis, instigated by social divisions, economic difficulties, cultural ill-treatment and political oppression, is becoming an actual problem requiring Attention. The various moods that arise in society, and emotional upheavals provoke an identity crisis in large-scale structures. By personal self- identification, it is suggested to understand the idea that people create meaning through social interaction with other people-that is, the position of symbolic interactionism, in which the individual’s identity acts as a social product formed as a result of social interactions within specific social contexts.

Юрген Хабермас в контексте моделей социально-политической самореализации западных интеллектуалов

Author(s): Vasily L. Chernoperov / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 2/2015

The article deals with the issue of German professor Jurgen Habermas’ social self-actualization in the context of outlined by the scholar three alternatives of European intellectuals political involvement: «powerless people», «independent experts», «outsiders-nonconformists».

األبعاد السياسية ملفهوم الحاكمية

Author(s): Faaiz Salih Mahmood / Language(s): Arabic / Issue: 1/2017

Sovereignty is one of the basic concepts in political science. This term has raised a lot of controversy and discussion. It has been exercised in many ways. It means that in every independent state there is a final authority that has its internal form which is represented by its supremacy in managing its facilities inside the country and the subjection of all who live on its land to its regulations and ruling, as well as its preservation of security and protection of lives and wealth, and its external form represented by its relations and external ties with other countries. The concept of governance is one of the common concepts put forward by some Islamic thinkers. The idea of governance has raised an ideological debate and intellectual dispute among thinkers and advocators. In certain periods, this concept has been the focus of advocacy and movement practices and the basis of the construction of Islamic political theories in the systems of government. Some Islamic movements have taken it as an axis and a goal for their political and ideological movements in our contemporary world. This article will discuss the subject in three sections: the first, on the theory of Islamic governance; the second will be devoted to the theory and concept of governance in language and terminology; the third will focus on the political philosophy of the theory of governance with presenting some ideas in the criticism of the thesis, and finally a conclusion will be established.