THE ENDURING VALIDITY OF THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. MARXIAN PRAXIS-PHILOSOPHICAL DIALECTICS

Author(s): Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

Karl Marx is forgotten as a philosopher today not because he failed, but because the praxis-philosophical core of his Critique of Political Economy has not been rightly perceived. Marx’s Critique of Political Economy is a negative theory which takes it upon itself to uncover the negative aspects of capitalist values theory. It is not self-grounded, and substantiated solely by Marx’s earlier writings. It cannot serve as the basis for any kind of common, ecological economy, its importance lies only in its prac-tical-philosophical conclusion that we must overcome the human- and nature-destructive value logic of capitalism.

BARTLEBY AND HIS BROTHERS OR THE POLITICAL ART OF REFUSAL

Author(s): Michał Herer / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The article discusses the political (and potentially emancipatory) meaning of refusal. Against the dominating philosophical perspective, praising participation and sense of community, it argues that the acts of refusal may (or even must) play an important role in resistance against power. Some elements of a possible theory of refusal are to be found in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, especially in his famous essay on Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, but also in Dialogues (with C. Parnet) and Mille Plateaux (with Félix Guattari), where he coins the crucial concept of becoming-imperceptible.

PARTICIPATIVE REASON AS A BASIS OF A DECENT HUMAN WORLD

Author(s): Yuliya Shcherbina / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

Mikhail Bakhtin’s term “participative reason” (uchastnoe myshlenie) means “reason that acts”—a way of thinking in which a person participates because it is not indifferent to the fate of the Other. The article considers two main trends in the understanding of participative reason. The first is connected with the co-being of I and the Other, the second develops the idea of obligation and non-alibi in being. The article aims to show that the unity of these two interpretations could make “participative reason” a basis for a more decent human world.

COSMOPOLITAN CULTURAL CITIZENSHIP AS AN EDUCATIONAL STRATEGY

Author(s): Lyudmyla Stepanivna Gorbunova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

The recent civilization transition generates socio-cultural challenges for humanitari-an policy. How to learn to live in a multicultural world in the face of increasing globali-zation, integration and the information revolution which multiply differences? What cultural concept can be the basis for the transformation of education and humanitarian policy? The article deals with the dynamics of the comprehension of cultural strategies by applying the concepts of interculturality, multiculturality and transculturality. It is concluded that the concepts of transculturality and transversality are descriptively and normatively suitable to form a new educational policy and, in result, a global cultural citizenship.

WOMEN’S PERENNIAL QUEST IN AFRICAN WRITING: IDEALISTIC, REALISTIC OR CHIMERICAL?

Author(s): Chioma Opara / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

When African female writing commenced in 1966, it proffered a vista of female pro-testation of the individuality of woman. The clarion call for a revision and deconstruc-tion of patriarchal values became sonorous and distinct in the politics of gender. Various tools have been employed in this radical political act. Iconoclasm in the bid to destroy the emblems of patriarchy has served as a rude awakening to the dire need for a drastic change of cultural values. In the same vein, utopian devices have opened up a gateway to possibilities of a better world of the evaluation of integrity, probity and development hinged on creativity. There is also a reversal of the hegemonic mode of power where the power process is revaluated and deconstructed. This paper examines the varied thoughts of African female writers and theorists who seem to be entangled in a cultural bind immanent in a measure of ambivalence. It concludes that the female perennial quest for freedom may in point of fact be only chimerical.

METAGOODS, METAVALUES AND METANORMS IN POLITICS

Author(s): Tadeusz Buksiński / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

The paper proposes a metaaxiological political framework, which is the ground for the thesis that the central idea that underlies politics is well-being and its improvement. Every political activity relies on certain goods, values and standards forming its opera-tional framework. The aim and essence of politics is to ensure the realization of consti-tutive values. These values include the normative concept of the human being and con-stitutive values underpinning the functioning of the state and political community (i.e. good life, justice, freedom, security, peace, identity, unity, rule of law, representation, sovereignty, legitimacy). On the one hand, the normative values represent preconditions that have to be present in every political sphere. On the other, they serve as ideals pur-sued by states and political systems. They are investigated by means of normative typo-logical categories.

SECURITY AS A POLITICAL AND SOCIAL VALUE

Author(s): Vihren Bouzov / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

Security can be defined as the process of support of a satisfactory control by the sub-ject over harmful effects of the environment. In this aspect it is a political and social value of the same type as justice, democracy and freedom. Following the analysis of the existing conflicts in the world today, we conclude that the notion of security in its ne-oliberal interpretation has collapsed and it could be rejected and defended successfully only as a communitarian value.

CULTURE, IDENTITY AND HUMAN VALUES IN AFRICA

Author(s): Temisanren Ebijuwa / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

Without glorifying any cultural standpoint I argue that the best model that accounts for the interests and aspirations of Africa cannot be that which promotes and emphasiz-es traditional ideas since such a model would be unnecessarily insular and prevent us from engaging the aspects of our cultures which are needed in coping with Africa’s challenges. I contend that this does not amount to an imposition of any form of metanar-rative but rather to critically engage those forces that are detrimental to survival and social stability.

Pisma s planine - Sedmo pismo

Author(s): Jean-Jacques Rousseau / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 03/1978

Smatrat ćete da sam bio suviše opširan, gospodine; no to sam i morao biti jer se o temama koje sam obrađivao ne može raspravljati u epigramima. U ostalom, one me — manje nego što se to čini — udaljuju od one koja vas zanima.

Свободата и равенството в ориентираните към гражданско участие теории на демокрацията

Author(s): Olga Simova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2018

The text explores the rethinking of liberty and equality as fundamental principles of liberal representative democracy and the balance between them by the democracy theory oriented towards the intensification of citizen participation. The attempts are traced of reducing the tension between freedom and equality, constitutionalism and democracy through the autonomy principle, through the characteristics of the deliberative procedure and through the discourse theory of law. The analysis gives reasons to conclude that the rethinking of freedom and equality and the quest for synthesis between them in the discussed theories devaluates both principles because it pursues another ideal – the emancipation of society.

Corrective Justice, Freedom of Contract, and European Contract Law

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

Freedom of contract and corrective justice are considered to be the basic principles gov- erning contract law. However, many contemporary legal orders implement various policy goals into private law. The regulatory private law of the European Union is the most strik- ing example of such a trend. This article aims at reconciling the corrective justice theory of private law and the principle of freedom of contract with the regulatory dimension of the EU law. The main argument is that the meaning of the concept of harm, one that is crucial to the principle of corrective justice, should be understood broadly so that it can transform the corrective justice theory from a monistic one into a pluralistic one.

Czy można uniknąć wojny?

Author(s): Emmanuel Małyński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 28/2018

The author claims that it is not enough to repeat that imperialisms are the cause of all evil, but one should consider whether imperialisms have a deeper cause, and whether this root cause can be removed.

Slabé jednání. Od etiky k politice a zase zpátky

Author(s): Jan Bierhanzl / Language(s): Czech Issue: 56/2019

Discussion

Všichni jsme bez tváře. K textu J. Bierhanzla

Author(s): Tereza Matějčková / Language(s): Czech Issue: 56/2019

Discussion

Intellectuals need to compete in quality, not quantity

Author(s): Marci Shore / Language(s): English Issue: 01 (35)/2019

Interview with Marci Shore, associate professor of history at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Interviewers: Kate Langdon and Jordan Luber

Where Eastern European intellectuals sit today

Author(s): Zofia Bluszcz / Language(s): English Issue: 01 (35)/2019

I was once amazed when someone said that without inheriting an apartment it is impossible to pursue an artistic profession, as all your energy would go towards paying off a mortgage. I heard these words in Eastern Europe around the year 2000. They were uttered in a discussion with a group of well-educated artists.

Tsars and boyars on the Muscovite court

Author(s): Tomasz Grzywaczewski / Language(s): English Issue: 01 (35)/2019

Two prominent historians of the second half of the 20th century – Richard Pipes and Edward Keenan – delivered two radically different explanations for the Russian phenomenon. Clearly, these two competing theories are the offspring of their time. The Pipes perspective stems from the harsh 1960s while the Keenan concept of “Muscovite folkways” was the product of the 1970s era of détente.

Can Israel accept Russia in its backyard?

Author(s): Agnieszka Bryc / Language(s): English Issue: 01 (35)/2019

Military intervention in Syria put Russia in Israel’s neighbourhood starting in 2015. This, on top of the 1.4 million Russian-speaking Jews already living in Israel, has made for an interesting dynamic in Russian-Israeli relations.

Sens tradycji

Author(s): Leszek Kołakowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 770-771/2019

Dwuznaczność nieba

Author(s): Hans Blumenberg / Language(s): Polish Issue: 773/2019