ÜBER DIE EIGENMACHT DER LITERATUR

Author(s): Tomislav Zelić / Language(s): German Issue: 18/1/2017

This article tries to answer the question as to the poetic and political self-empowerment of literature. It takes into consideration the theory, history, and critique of ‘political literature’. Firstly, the theory of ‘political literature’ runs into difficulties in defining its key concept univocally. Secondly, this is because the history of ‘political literature’ draws a polymorphic and irregular picture. Thirdly, the critique of ‘political literature’ illustrates that differentiations and demarcations between unpolitical literature, engaged literature, and politically operative, tendentious or propagandistic literature are problematic. The same applies to the structuralist analysis of political implications of literature. In conclusion, literature empowers itself both poetically and politically, however, the poetic and political evaluation of its content and form, intention and impact may vary from case to case.

Rational Actors? Hippias and Aristogeiton

Author(s): Eleni Panagiotarakou / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

This paper seeks to address the extent to which ancient historical actors might be seen to have exhibited what might be described as rational motives. In particular, it examines a number of strategic interactions employed by the Athenian tyrant Hippias in his interactions of Aristogeiton, the protagonist of an unsuccessful coup d’etat. A secondary objective of this paper is to explore Hippias’ reactionary policies following his brother’s assassination, namely, whether Hippias’ choice of external allies, in the face of possible exile, were irrational as suggested by some ancient authors.

Większość źródłem prawdy o dobru?

Author(s): Piotr Andryszczak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 50/2018

The goal of politics is to establish the right legal order. Today according to a very influential standpoint its sources are to be found in opinions dominating in the majority of citizens. The basic principle for people making laws is the will of the majority. This approach is attractive but also contains a serious error. The author critically analyses this position and then gives a solution which goes beyond the interplay of the majority and the minority.

„Kryzys” we współczesnej historii i historiografii

Author(s): Rüdiger Graf,Konrad H. Jarausch / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2018

While crises are omnipresent in history and historiography, the meaning of the concept of ‘crisis’ is becoming more elusive than ever. The authors scrutinise how historians use this concept with respect to contemporary history, the twentieth century and modernity in general. After briefly sketching the conceptual history of ‘crisis,’ the article addresses the questions of how the concept structures historiographical narratives, what types of crises historians distinguish, and whether we should retain the concept or refrain from using it, considering its vagueness, suggestive power and political instrumentalisation.

Epistemologiczne źródła kryzysu demokracji liberalnej – dwa argumenty

Author(s): Barbara Markowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2018

The starting point of the article is an attempt to describe the socio-economic changes that serve as the context in which the crisis of liberal democracy is currently discussed. In this article, the author puts forward the thesis that this crisis primarily concerns the narrative legitimising the system of liberal democracy. She points out that the reason for this situation is not so much the exhaustion of a language but the exhaustion of the formula describing the world at the epistemological level. The purpose of this analysis is to reconstruct two arguments that support this thesis. Firstly, it is the ambiguity of the notion of democracy and its self-reference indicated by Giorgio Agamben; secondly, it is the scope of the concept itself, or the inability to set its limits. The second argument is based on Bruno Latour’s concept of nature and his criticism of Plato’s allegory of the cave.

Utopia i kryzys. Lars T. Lih i rozważania wokół komunizmu wojennego

Author(s): Bartosz Wójcik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2018

The article concerns the policy of ‘war communism’ in Soviet Russia during the civil war. In historiography, there are two dominant views regarding this phenomenon – while some researchers argue that it was a crisis policy (pragmatic and determined by external circumstances), others are inclined to claim that it was a utopian policy (a frantic attempt to immediately implement the communist ideal). Based on the revisionist works by Lars T. Lih, the author argues with the interpretation of the Bolshevik utopian policy, focusing on the analysis of three basic elements of this interpretation, namely: the contingent policy in the countryside, Leon Trotsky’s book entitled Terrorism and Communism and the work entitled The ABC of Communism by Nikolai Bukharin and Yevgeni Preobrazhensky. Thus, the article is an attempt to create a different picture of the Bolshevik policy in the first years after the revolution from the one that is popular in the Polish historical discourse.

Genocidal Bifurcations: The Innocent Sources of Criminal Choices

Author(s): Lech M. Nijakowski / Language(s): English Issue: 22/2018

The present paper aims to investigate the causes of genocidal mobilization associated with the involvement of ordinary people. I discuss the “innocent causes” of criminal choices made by perpetrators who are not leaders, sadists or radicals. To this end, I compared three total genocides, of Armenians, Jews, Romani, Tutsi and Twa, and selected partial genocides. My analysis proves that entire nations or ethnic groups may be exterminated because many people make criminal choices which are motivated by values and norms that in other circumstances would be considered acceptable or even commendable. These choices are made partly due to the structural pressure of circumstances (an ongoing war, a change in the rules of the game [les champs], a new distribution of capital) and are partly derived from dispositions shaped in the course of primary and secondary socialization. Yet, they always require the refl exive mediation of “objective” social forces.

Patologia władzy

Author(s): Maria Jarosz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2018

Samobójstwa

Author(s): Maria Jarosz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2018

Wszyscy tej samej wysokości! Historyczno-socjologiczny esej o realizacji idei egalitaryzmu

Author(s): Marcin Kula / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2018

For centuries, inequalities between people were considered normal. The French Revolution was in favour of equality of all. It was not a completely consistent position. The idea of equality was betrayed in the areas of women’s rights, the preservation of slavery in the colonies and the preservation of the French colonies. The idea of equality was also abandoned in the matter of the mutual relationship between the people (nation) and the revolutionary elite, which was supposed to lead the people. The idea of equality of people before the law – even if poorly implemented – proved to be a lasting effect of the French Revolution. The idea of equality in other areas, particularly in the economy, was scarcely followed up anywhere. Later in history, the communist movement attached importance to equality of people and, in a sense, German fascism also paid attention to equality of German people. The systems born of these movements profoundly betrayed this idea. After the fall of European communism, the question of the scale of approved social inequalities remains valid.

Kopiec z kredy. Co proces decyzyjny w sprawie reformy szkolnictwa mówi o polskiej demokracji?

Author(s): Ewa Nalewajko,Barbara Post / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2018

The article refers to the results of the survey of representatives of the Polish political elite carried out in 2003 and 2004. All of them were convinced that the negative social consequences of the political and economic transformation could threaten the standards of the democracy being built. They also pointed to similar remedies aimed at stopping the occurring undesirable phenomena in the relations between the authorities and citizens. The most important question posed in the article is whether, in the over fourteen years that have passed since that time, politicians have managed to block the negative tendencies and make up for their effects; whether the political elite have managed to avoid a kind of ‘transformation trap’ caused by the negative consequences of their previous actions. This question is answered based on the analysis of one decision. Evidence that the previously recorded dysfunctions were overcome and traces of the effectiveness of the remedies applied are sought in the study of the decision-making process. This decision concerns the education reform, finally approved by the President of Poland in 2017. It had extremely strong social resonance. It is thus a convenient field of observation of the nature of relations between politicians and society as well as between politicians. The fact that the ruling class pushed their own reform bill without taking into account the interests of the social groups contesting it – which is symbolised by a chalk mound made during one of their protests – indicates the elite’s failure.

Problem przestępstw bez ofiar w filozofii politycznej Waltera Blocka

Author(s): Łukasz Święcicki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2018

Walter Block, an American economist and political philosopher, is a special case among libertarians, including anarcho-capitalist ones. His defence of certain behaviours that are considered to be immoral and often unlawful, such as prostitution, drug trafficking, blackmail and voluntary slavery, makes a typical libertarian anti-state rhetoric quite moderate. In his work entitled Defending the Undefendable, Block defends those whom society has made scapegoats by assigning all the worst behaviours to them. He re-evaluates the traditional way of perceiving ‘villains’ who turn out to be the heroes of the free market in libertarian ideology. This article analyses two cases defended by Block and explains their grounding in the doctrine of libertarianism. These are prostitution and the distribution of drugs. The concept of victimless crime is used to explain the essence of the problem, which is radically different from the dominant images of some unlawful acts.

Nielegalna imigracja jako narzędzie polityczne

Author(s): Maria Kądzielska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2018

The Critique of Democracy in the Writings of Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913 – 1994)

Author(s): Susana Calderón Vizcarra de Kevans / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The Western world is experiencing the "death of God" and is living in a self-proclaimed "postmodern era”, which boasts of "liberating" the human being, thanks to the cult of reason and the rejection of religious dogmas. In the twentieth century, in Latin America; in the heart of Colombia, Nicolás Gómez Dávila lived and thought. The thinker emphasizes the limitations of human reason, in opposition to the modern cult of reason, freedom and the aspiration to build an earthly paradise. The objective of this article is to present this "illustrious unknown", considered by many researchers as one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century, who played the role of philosopher-writer in the modern world in a unique style; and his critical view of democracy.

FARABİ’NİN FÂZIL ŞEHİR’İNDE AMAÇ VE ARAÇ DEĞERLER

Author(s): Mehmet YAZICI / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 16/2018

Farabi is one of the most outstanding philosophers of school of thought that he supported and Islamic Civilization in his age. His most well-known work is “al-Madina al-Fadila” with its common use, which is accepted as a utopia work. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the book of Farabi, al-Madina al-Fadila in the context of terminal and instrumental values that take place in the inventory of Milton Rokeach who is an American social psychologist and comes from a Jewish family. With a specific evaluation, it is tried to determine what kind of values that is what kind of statements of human aspirations are addressed in this work. After the evaluations, it was found that, Farabi focuses on “mature love”, “wisdom”, “helpful”, and “responsible” values and mostly states the values that the leader of al-Madina al-Fadila (Perfect State) must have.

Must Right-Libertarians Embrace Easements by Necessity?

Author(s): Łukasz M. Dominiak / Language(s): English Issue: 60/2019

The present paper investigates the question of whether right-libertarians must accept easements by necessity. Since easements by necessity limit the property rights of the owner of the servient tenement, they apparently conflict with the libertarian homestead principle, according to which the person who first mixes his labor with the unowned land acquires absolute ownership thereof. As we demonstrate in the paper, however, the homestead principle understood in such an absolutist way generates contradictions within the set of rights distributed on its basis. In order to avoid such contradictions, easements by necessity must be incorporated into the libertarian theory of property rights and the homestead principle must be truncated accordingly.

Hearing Voices of Care. For a Juster Democracy?

Author(s): Alessandro Serpe / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

The purpose of this paper is not to provide an overall picture of care ethics, but, rather, to reflect upon the concept of care, which has gained significance in particular scientific con- texts. Undoubtedly, the importance of the subject of care represents a challenge on the level of fundamental philosophical positions and a diversified look into the occurring forms of the psychological and social suffering, dependency, and vulnerability. I will shed light on tenets that are considered central to the care ethics and that have led to the setting up of the relationship between care and democracy. By introducing the basic aspects of Carol Gilli- gan’s and Joan Tronto’s theories, I will emphasize their vocation to be politically relevant. A discussion on the relationship between care and justice on the one hand, and needs and rights on the other, will follow. Can hearing voices of care make democracy more just? How can care ethics provide a concrete support for democracy? On the political level, care ethics builds on the assumptions of the necessary relatedness and equality between individ- uals who are decisive in the light of the welfare state perspective. Upon closer examination, one may see that the setting up of these relationships is not new to the liberal perspective. Liberalism is historically rooted in the fundamental interconnection between freedom and equality. Virtues such as care and meekness can be formulated in the language of politics, but they still remain unpolitical. On the one hand, engaging in a critical reflection upon such virtues might be an indispensable measuring instrument for distinguishing a good de- mocracy from a bad one. On the other hand, care ethics does not prove to be a real alterna- tive to the ethics of justice. In this regard, care ethics seems to show its feet of clay.

The idea of positive law – Immanuel Kant’s transcendental argument

Author(s): Tomasz Bekrycht / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

In their philosophical projects that address the concept of law, Immanuel Kant, Johann G. Fichte, and Georg W. F. Hegel all employ transcendental argumentation to demonstrate the sovereignty of community and the existence of power. They do this in the attempt to conceptually ground the idea of freedom and reconcile it with the notion of coercion within the framework of the idea of positive law. This article focuses solely on the Kantian pro- ject, since the approaches of Fichte and Hegel take on a more speculative turn in addition to their transcendental form.

‘Verdict paradox’ and Liar paradox – how logic can defend the rule of law. A study of the Polish constitutional crisis

Author(s): Szymon Mazurkiewicz / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

This paper aims to present how logic may undermine a parliamentary assault on demo- cratic institutions (representing legal guarantees of the rule of law and political freedom) based on the analysis conducted with reference to the so-called Polish constitutional crisis. I analyse whether a law can be reviewed on the basis of this law itself. The Polish Con- sti⁠tutional Tribunal faced such a problem while passing the verdict of 9th March, 2016, regarding the constitutionality of the amendment to the Statute on the Constitutional Tri- bunal from 22nd December, 2015. This problem, called a ‘verdict paradox’, was claimed to be a type of the Liar paradox. I argue that, contrary to the common view, the problem of the verdict paradox is not based on the Liar paradox; for this purpose, a logical analysis is applied to four variants of a reasoning with regard to the constitutionality of the said amendment. The distinction between two levels of analysis concerning emerging reason- ings, namely an abstract (logical) level and a concrete level placed in the context of the legal system, is also introduced. This paper demonstrates that although only two variants of the reasoning concerning a law’s judicial review based on the law itself involve logical contradiction, the possibility of employing reasonings from other variants must be ex- cluded, albeit due to alternative reasons. Therefore, the Constitutional Tribunal’s decision to avoid the verdict paradox by passing over the reviewed provisions in the review process was correct and might be perceived as an example of how logic and reason can defend the institutional guarantees of political freedom.

Друштвено-историјски развој и политика западне социјалдемократије и Социјалистичке интернационале (део први: период од I св. рата до 1989. године)

Author(s): Mario Kalik,Ratko Mitrović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2019

The history of Western social democracy and the Socialist International shows that it can hardly be a matter of true socialism and internationalism. On the inner and outer plan, it was primarily aimed at preserving capitalism and its defence against communism, while in the policy towards developing countries, marked by the association with imperialism and colonialism, it turned out that there was virtually nothing left of internationalism. Abandoning these principles (even in their weakened social-democratic form) unsurprisingly led the "modern" left in the West today to a major historical defence again. Consciously allying with the dominant neoliberal capitalist stream, Western social democrats gathered around the Socialist International explicitly saying they would not work on any alternative, or even a more radical break with the order of neoliberal capitalism. They thus become and remain a conservative social force. Therefore, they cannot be of any help to those who are still struggling against this order.