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Dynamic social processes of the beginning of the 3rd millennium are linked with a myriad of fundamental changes in the behavior of human entities. The concept of linear causal perception of social relations is not considered to be sufficient any more. The need for complexity in the perception of evolutionary intricacy of current processes is associated with the need to understand the functional interdependence of autonomous and heterogeneous aspects of sociopolitical values. By recognizing layering of autonomous processes in time-space levels we are approaching the concept of fractal organization of society.
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This article compares two philosophical traditions and their attitudes to war and violence within the context of international relations. The first refers to Hobbes’ political realism, the second to the Grotian idea of international community. Each of these traditions understands the role of violence and war at an international level differently. From the perspective of political realism, violence is part of anarchistic relations between states and a means for achieving their goals. From the perspective of international community, violence is a factor that needs to be minimized via the mechanisms of peaceful international cooperation between states. Based on the analysis of these two approaches, it is claimed that the Hobbesian perspective can be partly included in the perspective of the English School, which is based on the Grotian tradition.
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Using the methodology of discourse theory, this chapter aims to analyse how Romanian society evolved after 1989 with special regard to the tension between direct and representative democracy. The author’s main hypothesis is that in time the absence of the demos from the actual decision-making process fuelled a rhetoric based on direct democracy, and that beginning in 2004 that rhetoric succeeded in establishing itself as a hegemonic discourse. To test the hypothesis, the author uses the logical framework of discourse theory, analysing the constitutive modalities of the rhetoric about democracy and the people, paying close attention to the tensions that have arisen between direct and representative democracy and charting the sociocultural background of those tensions. He uses the methodological arsenal of discourse theory, focusing on its five key arguments. Finally, he suggests a series of preliminary conclusions derived from his analysis.
More...z Franciszkiem Czechem rozmawiają Wojciech Hamerski i Krzysztof Hoffmann
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The article attempts to analyze in philosophical terms the integral ties between conspiracy theories and the process by which the cultural and political paradigm of Modernity is constituted, equated by the author with a wider project: the rational emancipation of the subject. The author argues that conspiracism represents an important element in the ideas that provide philosophical concepts with their power to affect reality and is a constant element accompanying theoretical constructs representing subsequent stages in this process of emancipation and demarcating their hidden structure. The ideas outlined here are based on an original conceptual model of how conspiracy narratives are constructed.
More...Mesjanizm a teorie spiskowe w polskiej przestrzeni medialnej
The article represents an attempt to explain the relationship between the modern phenomenon of conspiracy theories and nineteenth-century messianism. This relationship is not confined exclusively to the diagnosis of a need to return to a symbolic and romantic style in political performance. Messianism, understood as a philosophical and religious project for redefining progress, makes use of the same compensatory and emancipatory functions as conspiracy theories. Both phenomena, supported by metaphysical schema, tellingly point to a crisis in the means of representing national identity and its instability in Polish society.
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The article is devoted the material “infrastructure” of conspiracy theories, co-created by the same technical artefacts and recorded on various material media “traces”. Following Wolfgang Ernst, the author assumes that the tools used to record and read data have their own non-human, machine temporality, which affects our understanding of time and history. Paranoid thinking therefore does not have to be merely the result of content circulating in media networks, but is also a result of human encounters with material technical artefacts. The article also addresses this issue from within the context of the contemporary media landscape, in which the materiality of media is increasingly hidden by ever-“thicker” layers of interface, limiting our control over the devices and tools we use.
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In this article, the author deals with the ideological myth of the Recovered Territories in terms of both its historical context and the lasting power of this cultural concept as a means for domesticating these former German lands in modern political discourse. The current migration crisis in Europe leads us to scrutinize more closely the largest movements of people in the continent’s modern history, that is, the wartime and postwar displacements and resettlements in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly those associated with the loss of Poland’s eastern territories and the incorporation of German lands. After 1989, these issues could be presented honestly and examined without the limitations imposed by censorship. Although this process has been ongoing for more than a quarter of a century, it remains an issue whose multidimensional cultural significance demands a fuller description – in connection with this, the article reviews the most important recent books related to this topic.
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In the present article I address the problem of Nietzsche’s self-identifi cation with the fi gures he created in his writings, which determined both the shape of his philosophy and his spiritual development. I argue that, in the whole array of these self-identifi cations, the image of Socrates was of special importance to Nietzsche. The philosopher himself does not appear a mere imitator of Socrates though, neither may he be considered as his staunch opponent. While the Socrates Nietzsche created may be occasionally appraised negatively, as representing the type of the ‘theoretical man’ or the ‘decadent,’ he may simultaneously aspire to the role of a ‘tragic,’ ‘music-making’ man. However, it is owing to the figure of Socrates that Nietzsche may analyze the condition of science, or such phenomena as morality and decadence. All this simultaneously shows that the complexity of Nietzsche’s attitude to the protagonist he created determines the ambiguity of his own image as a philosopher, a theoretical man as much as an ironist and a philosopher of life.
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Concept of citizenship is a dynamic matter which has been continuously argued depending on the development process of human rights since the beginning of living in a society. In this sense, many philosophers have developed various thoughts and models about the ideal citizenship perception. Jean Jacques Rousseau is definitely one of those leading philosophers. The basic aim of this paper is to determine the similar and different sides between Rousseau’s citizenship thoughts of the 18th century and the modern citizenship perception of the 20th century. As the modern citizenship perception, three-stage citizenship model of famous British sociologist T. H. Marshall which still keeps its gravity in current discussions is going to be applied.
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Current debates about racism seem to be dominated by two main approaches: theory of cultural racism and the Marxist problematization of racism as a result of contradictions in economic and political spheres. The most recent conceptualization of the first orientation build on anti-essentialist notion of culture and identity developed by a number of authors disputing the problem of multiculturalism in the 1990s. One can refer to researchers such as Zygmunt Bauman, Ash Amin and Simon Weaver as representatives of this approach suggesting that race is a category constructed as the consequence of complex political and historical-cultural processes. Marxist perspective should be understood to a large extent as a criticism of the first orientation. Adherents of this camp (Edna Bonacich, Eric Hobsbawm or James Blaut) argue that all the „discursive strategies of racialization” analyzed within the cultural racism paradigm are a reflection of – or, more precisely: the façade hiding – more basic mechanisms in the sphere of production and productive relations (economic base): the exploitation of labor as a consequence of the capitalist pressure to minimize costs and maximize capital accumulation, made possible thanks to the existence (and maintenance) of „reserve army of labor” (displaced residents of villages during the industrial revolution as described by Marx; and cheap labor in the colonial plantation-slavery system and in peripheral zones and within postnational civic-immigrant societies of the contemporary world-system). I would like to emphasize a need to provide an approach combining, synthesizing together the two above theories where racism would be defined as a common thread of racist phenomena in concrete, historical narratives and practices. It is necessary to avoid both the „liquidation„ of the problem of racism, reducing it to a set of elusive tensions between social and discursive positions on one hand, and translating it exclusively (while looking for a „subject of emancipation”, ways to end the economic exploitation and complete the process of „national liberation”) onto the domain of instrumentalization of ethnic and cultural differences – on the other hand. This strategy may prove fruitful in reflections on contemporary racist tendencies avoiding oversimplifications on one hand and too hasty analogies – on the other.
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The article discusses some problems of classical Marxist reflection on war and military service. Wewill some military writings of Friedrich Engels and his some Karl Marx's historical analysis of therole of war in the process of economic transformation of society. Engels is also the author of a richlegacy on military history. We will also discuss will some problems with militarism in writings ofleading representatives of social democracy such as Wilhelm and Karl Liebknecht's August Bebel,Franz Mehring and Rosa Luxemburg.
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This paper analyzes Caryl Churchill’s play in the light of Riane Eisler’s theory of Cultural Transformation, expressed in The Chalice and the Blade: Our History Our Future and centered on the shift from “the partnership model“ to “the dominator model” of society. Churchill’s play The Hospital at the Time of the Revolution, Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth on which it is based, and Aime Cesaire’s Discourse on Colonialism, show how colonialism functions as a manifestation of “the dominator model”, represented by the blade. In keeping with Naomi Wallace’s view that writing should be a transgression and liberation from ideologica prejudices, and Harold Pinter’s view that the search for truth should be the subject of art, this paper higlights the links that exist between imperialism, colonialism, and Nacism, and exposes the traumas that destructive social organizations continue to inflicts upon man.
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The article focuses on the materiality of ideology and the idea of art and life as an ideological accident, using the specific example of the (anti)artistic activism of the Alytus DAMTP (Duomenkasių ir psichodarbininkų sąjūdis, Eng. the Coalition of Data Miners and Psycholabourers). The article discusses the specific situational concept of art blending in with life and generating alternative meanings. Ideology is specifically material. This means that even though this ideology does not ‘exist’, it manifests itself through the subject and for the subject, to be more precise, it creates the subject, questions it through a certain situation or daily practical rituals and through material forms of being and institutions, creating the material or substance of the ideology. However, this matter is also a “falsifying conscience” that institutionalises and falsifies the (daily) situation in the broader sense, creating a regulatory structure of alienation and spectacle. Ideology is related to the logic of theatre performance (let us not forget that there is always a relationship between theatre, acting and daily life). A “great accumulation of plays” is generated, where everything that was ever experienced withdraws into the area of representation. Besides, the play or spectacle is not simply an entirety of events, but the social relationship established by these events between individuals made to act out a certain (social) role. 161POLITINIO ĮVYKIO REMATERIALIZAVIMAS MENINIO AKTYVIZMO PRAKTIKOSE The falsification of daily life is undertaken by the modern bureaucracy and the netocracy of today’s worldwide web. However, despite the tendency for societal power to become more virtual, softer and an ever more streamlined falsifying conscience, the intersectionality of social relationships is still an issue, in other words, the problematic question of social class emerges once again. This also means the reemergence of political/aesthetic situations such as the importance of a method of revealing this falsifying conscience. Withdrawing from the level of daily falsification, the “societal play”, and the transferral of expression to the proletariat level or the level of direct action was a relevant issue for many (anti)artistic activist movements after World War II, from the Lettrists and situationists up to the early (political) fluxus movements and present-day activism/sabotage tactics. Jacque Rancière discusses the internal structure of politic and its core, which can also be called “aesthetic”. It can be interpreted as a certain internal and basic structure that (dis)organises and questions space, time and society’s activity within these dimensions. Certain political/aesthetic situations reemerge, such as the importance of a method of revealing this falsifying conscience. One of the methods that an artist or intellectual can use to escape this falsification, is by betraying their (small) bourgeois social class. The Alytus DAMTP invokes a similar logic in its activity. It could be called a complex or network art strike or a similar activist phenomenon.
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Suprotno Sloterdijku Habermas smatra da je Hegel svojom Jenskoin filozofijom nadmašio svoje stajalište iz Fenomenologije duha i Enciklopedije, te da teze iz Jenskih predavanja mogu biti dobra osnova za njegovu Teoriju komunikativnog djelovanja. Teoriju koja na području stvarnog života i neporecivih oblika egzistencije traži istine i zakonitosti, neprolazni um i konstituciju smisla života uopšte. To je područje jezika, rada i interakcije (međusobnih odnosa) koje se ne da izvoditi iz nekih temeljnih pretpostavki i osnova datih po sebi. To nije područje na kome se iskazuje i objektivira apsolutni duh, nego obrnuto: to je polje neponovljivih istina na kome se udomaćuje sve u ljudskom svijetu pa tako i ono što je Hegel nazvao apsolutnim duhom. Ali značaj Hegelovih jenskih spisa je prvenstveno u tome što je ova "tri dijalektička obrasca”, pojmio kao međusobno nezavisna i heterogena među kojima nema nužne dijalektičke veze. Svaki ima svoju "logiku” i svoju zakonitost.
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The aim of the paper is to draw politico-aesthetic consequences from Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach. It is argued that this can be achieved by focusing on the notion of vulnerability implied by the idea of capabilities. The recognition of the vulnerability of the human good inspires a new model of practical rationality based on perception. This idea, in turn, explores the aesthetic connotations of perception implied by its etymology (the ancient Greek for perception being aesthesis). Thus, political aesthetics is understood as the inquiry into the political consequences of the affinity between ethics and aesthetics, as well as the political relevance of the notion of beauty.
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The article describes the model developed by Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), founder of English utilitarianism, for a way of life based on the principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Bentham’s ideas are worthy of attention because they “helped to cast doubt on the validity of the ethical and political doctrines which held sway at the time, such as moral intuitiveness, social contract, state of nature and natural law.” It is an undeniable truth that Bentham’s counterarguments and the range of problems he elaborated occupied many moral and political philosophers of subsequent generations. Today as well the debate has not ended on the subject of Bentham’s theoretical legacy. The varied estimations of Bentham’s ideas are inescapable. But what is clear is that they fit perfectly within Western Europe’s contemporary cultural tradition, where society’s intellectual, social and political arrangement encourages one to seek life’s truths without skirting the eternal question of morality. Bentham treats the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people as the purpose of life, its moral criteria and the rationally organized form of being, which is formed by people’s actions, interests and inner preferences. Bentham’s utilitarianism of action identifies rationality as the essential moral quality and the condition for morality to exist. For him, morality is prior to action, in that moral intellect not only evaluates a utilitarian action according to its consequences, that is, according to how and how much it contributes to the increase in happiness, but also dictates certain rules of behaviour which depend on circumstantial utility and therefore acquire an ever changing meaning. In this way, Bentham treats material wellbeing as the basis for morality, noting that moral good becomes good only due to its capacity to produce physical wellbeing. Bentham asserted the relativity of moral norms, not taking any of their judgements as absolute. Bentham treats morality as a social product whereby the individual and society understand the ideal of the greatest happiness in the context of another’s interests. He grounds morality on arguments by reason, but morality is not an outcome of reasoning nor a simple calculation. Its origins lie in intelligent egoism, which is conscious of the utilitarian capacity to sacrifice on behalf of other people’s happiness. Bentham unjustifiably believes that an individual, consciously heeding society, with a guaranteed enthusiasm accepts and applies society’s dictated moral principles related to the pursuit of the greatest happiness. Such an enlightened interest is as if necessarily guaranteed by the modus vivendi of that state which seeks the greatest happiness. The lack of such motivation arises from the lack of education. Bentham’s person, though an independent, rational, passionless calculator of happiness, is not a free creator or a former of new meanings. Their rules for behaviour and their inner dynamics depend only on the utility of the situation. Thus Bentham as if dooms to inertia the society which seeks the greatest happiness through its most just regime. Such a society monitors the dynamics of life, sensitively reacts to all possible changes in reality, and responds to the challenges of an increasingly complex world. It aims at a useful social engineering and acts only as a catalyst of an evolutionary change.
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