A Discussion of Aristotelianism and Machiavellianism in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies as a Children’s Dystopic Novel

Author(s): Nilay Erdem Ayyıldız / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2019

The present article analyses the representation of the political regimes in William Golding’s children’s dystopic novel, “Lord of the Flies”. Therefore, it, first of all, underlines the dystopian nature of the novel along with the features of plot, setting, characters and content to facilitate the reader to grasp the warning against totalitarianism throughout the novel. The study finds Aristotelian and Machiavellian philosophies of politics as highly convenient approaches to examine the political endeavours of the boys in the novel. As the key intention is to interrogate to what extent they fail or succeed in following the Aristotelianism and Machiavellianism, the paper presents a detailed comparative analysis of two separate philosophies to reveal their weaknesses and strengths in controlling people. The article then affirms that the order, set up through Aristotelianism, necessitates the repression of the evil, which is considerably tough for a ruler while the evil empowers Machiavellian totalitarians who turn citizens’ lives into a nightmare.

A disztópiák Alkonyatjától a disztópiák alkonyáig?

Author(s): Péter Gombos / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 02/2019

In my study I would like to present the status of juvenile dystopias in literature proceeding from the past and having assumptions about its possible future. First and foremost my intention is to show how they became dominant in juvenile literature and what factors contributed to the sweep of this genre (starting from the appearance of anti-authoritarian literature and the disappearance of taboo topics). I would like to highlight the role of anti-utopias in the 21st century, especially that of “the Twilight of dystopias”, The Hunger Games, the series that helped counter-utopia become a dominant genre. Here I cannot avoid talking about the importance of The Giver in the process. I am also trying to find the reasons of this almost unbelievable popularity, mostly with the help of American findings, taking into consideration the phenomenon of “white dystopias”. Last but not least, with the help of several studies and analyses, I make an attempt to predict the future of the genre.

A Foray Into the System of Anthropological Sciences

Author(s): Cristian Bocancea / Language(s): English / Issue: 22/2018

In philosophy, theology or modern social sciences, we can always identify an anthropological axiom, that refers to the genesis, the evolution of the human species as well as the ”human nature”. Starting with the modern period, this type of thinking found itself organized as part of some positive sciences, that can be seen as an actual ”system of anthropological sciences”, put together by British, American, French and German scientists. The English have developed what we call ”social anthropology”. In the United States, several academic disciplines have thrived as part of the ”general anthropology”: archeology, physical anthropology, linguistic anthropology, cultural anthropology and applied anthropology. The French are mostly known for their work in the field of ethnography and ethnology. As for the Germans, they focused on studying popular culture (Volkskunde).

A gonosz arcai a szcientológiában

Author(s): Izabella Demeter / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 07/2012

„A Szcientológia egy vallás, amelyet L. Ron Hubbard fejlesztett ki, és amely az ember való- di szellemi természetének és önmagához, családjához, csoportokhoz, az Emberiséghez, minden életformához, a fizikai univerzumhoz, a szellemi univerzumhoz és a Legfelsõbb Lényhez való viszonyának teljes és biztos megértéséhez kínál pontos útvonalat”1 – válaszolja a Mi a szcientológia? kérdésre a nemzetközi hivatalos honlap tájékoztató része. Napjaink egyik leggyorsabb ütemben terjeszkedõ egyházáról lévén szó, jelen írásban nem vállalkozom a kérdésre adott feleletek átfogó összegzésére – maga az egyház több ezer kötetet jelentetett meg, az ellene felszólalók is majdnem ugyanennyit –, ehelyett a vallás kialakulása és meghirdetett alapelvei kerülnek e gondolatmenet fókuszába, Alain Badiou Etikájának2 lencséjén át szemlélve.

A hit eredendő hibája és ennek társadalmi kihatásai

Author(s): Mátyás Brendel / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 05/2014

A Kantian Critique of Grotius

Author(s): Macarena Marey / Language(s): English / Issue: 95/2019

During the last few years, it has become usual to turn to some seventeenth century readings of the traditional idea of an original common possession of the earth for philosophical aid to explain and support the rights of persons in situations of extreme need, including refugees. Hugo Grotius’s conception of this idea is one of the most cited ones. In this paper, I hold that a Grotian reading of the idea of an original common possession of the earth is not a fruitful principle if we want to elaborate a solid defence of the rights of the ones in need. I reconstruct and analyse the role this idea has in Grotius’s theory of private property and present objections to it from a Kantian perspective.

A kapitalocén – avagy mibe kerül az olcsó természet?

Author(s): Attila Szigeti / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 25/2019

In the last decades the Capitalocene discourse was emerging in the Marxist ecological thinking. This approach offers a sociohistorical explanation to the current ecological crisis by questioning the historical narrative of the Anthropocene discourse. Authors of Capitalocene are arguing that climate change and ecological crisis was not caused by the collective and homogenous humanity (predetermined by the human nature). According them capitalism’s accumulative and expropriative socioeconomic relations are responsible for climate crisis.This paper analysis how Capitalocene-arguments are applying the Marxist critique of capitalism, especially the labour theory of value and its contemporary expansions and corrections in the understanding of the current ecological crisis. The first two subchapters are summarizing World-Ecology theory of Jason W. Moore, than I interpret the debate of Moore with the Metabolic Rift school (John Bellamy Foster, Paul Burkett, Andreas Malm and others), and finally I analyse the possible normative ecopolitics from the theoretical perspective of Capitalocene.In the last decades the so-called Capitalocene discourse was emerging in the Marxist ecological thinking. This approach offers a sociohistorical explanation of the current ecological crisis by questioning the historical narrative of the Anthropocene discourse. Authors of Capitalocene are arguing that climate change and ecological crisis were not caused by the collective and homogenous humanity (predetermined by the human nature) in general. According them capitalism’s accumulative and expropriative socioeconomic relations are responsible for climate crisis.This paper analysis how Capitalocene-arguments are applying the Marxist critique of capitalism, especially the labour theory of value and its contemporary expansions and corrections in the understanding of the current ecological crisis. The first two subsections are summarizing World-Ecology theory of Jason W. Moore, than the paper interprets the debate of Moore with the Metabolic Rift school (John Bellamy Foster, Paul Burkett, Andreas Malm and others), and finally it analyses the possible normative ecopolitics from the theoretical perspective of Capitalocene.

A liberális demokrácia védelmében?

Author(s): Zsolt Kapelner / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 01/2020

Kis János: Alkotmányos demokrácia. Kalligram, Budapest, 2019., 576 oldal, 5990 Ft

A marxi kritikai társadalomelmélet

Kialakulása, fejlődése, teljesítményei és érvényessége a globális kapitalizmus korában

Author(s): Péter Szigeti / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 0

A megvalósult utópiák földjén

Author(s): Dénes Tamás / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 02/2019

The essay tries to interpret the effacement of the utopian thinking through drafting the features of the digital world. Utopia is being defined as epoch-marking, a mark that can indicate best the orientation towards the future of any era. The Enlightenment, Postmodernity, and the information societies can all be examined by this criteria. The central thesis of the essay claims that utopias seem to have disappeared today because we’ve already entered the world of utopias, of non-spaces. In order to explain this, the author analyzes the space and time related experiences of the information society. In this regard time simplyfies itself to instantaneousness, places become “non-spaces” – using the terms of the antropologist Marc Augé. Through this transformation, as a horizon is being eliminated, and even if not, the future can be conceived without the human factor.

A modern political education. Nonviolent perspectives

Author(s): Claudia SECCI / Language(s): English / Issue: 13/2016

The article deals with a nonviolent perspective of political education and with some theories that may conjugate these two domains: Nonviolent Culture and Political Education. Methodologically an approach rooted in the theoretical and bibliographical research has been privileged. The discourse investigates the causes of the actual political disaffection, and follows the purpose to highlight the irrevocable role of a structured nonviolent perspective (like Gandhi’s one), in the rehabilitation of politics. Nonviolence does not remove Marxist elements of legitimation in their entirety – as Gramsci’s theory will highlight – provided that they correspond the “conquest of violence” that needs to succeed first and foremost in the “intimate” individual’s awareness. Moreover, the importance of contemporary ecological theories, which embed the nonviolent perspective in a general epistemological view, will be also discussed to reaffirm the crucial significance of the latter. Through this path, different authors, hailing from diverse backgrounds, such as philosophical, pedagogical and anthropological studies, show meaningful affinities and matching points, presenting, in some case, political education in terms of education and training of the “political emotions”. The reflection highlights the relevance of an expanded political participation and experimentation through praxis, as ways of an actual political education, in the belief that emphasizing the pedagogic dimension of political activity, means nothing less than searching for its deepest fundament.

A multikulturalizmusról és az ún. „kultúrák közötti párbeszédről”

Author(s): Attila Demeter M. / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 09/2015

Using some concrete examples, in my study I try to analyze the political challenges which derive from the presence of immigrant (mostly Muslim)communities in European countries. My aim is not primarily to understand the specific religious identity of those communities, but to analyze our own political identity, in other words, the political identity of European societies. I seek an answer to the following question: which are the unquestionable political values or principles we have to insist upon during our dialogues with immigrant communities, and which are the ones which we could bargain about. The second and final part of my study is critical, and examines the causes of the failure of European multiculturalism. My point of view is that the success of the dialogue between European societies and immigrant communities is threatened, among other factors, by our unconditioned attachment to some values and principles which are seen to be inseparable elements of our democratic political culture(for example, the doctrine of human rights), but which deprive the dialogue between cultures not only of legitimacy,but also of any reason and meaning.

A Mythic-Symbolic Perspective on Politics

Author(s): Sandu Frunză / Language(s): English / Issue: 40/2015

In an era of generalized communication, democratic societies cannot escape the radical changes that the development of different types of communication claims. Political communication determines new types of political practice and adhesion. As in the case of postmodern communication in general, in political communication, expressions of symbolic communication characteristic for traditional societies are still being used, even if those expressions are presented as contemporary symbolic constructs, as for example the construct of “postmodern tribes”. This text focuses on how these elements are highlighted in the socio-analysis of Vasile Sebastian Dâncu, one of the most renowned experts in the Romanian political culture. The public space, shaped in the past by the intellectual elite, bearer of values and symbolic conscience, is being seized by television stars, by the online communication specialists. This leads to new fragmentations in and coagulation of political space, and to a prevalence of sentimentalities, mythical stories, and mystical experiences at the expense of rationality, civic involvement and ideologies. The new configuration of political groups of interest and the new ways of adhesion typical for “political followers” belonging to the Facebook generation are regarded from a mythic– symbolic mentality which links them to a behavior and a kind of solidarity characterizing tribal groups which are acting on a postmodern political scene.

A nap árnyékában

Author(s): Zádor Tordai / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 2000

After the communist system has collapsed, the socio-political and economical situation has changed in Central and Eastern Europe. In his essays Zádor Tordai is focusing on the analyses of the socio-political results of the system change in Central and Eastern Europe and its interpretation – from the view of a philosopher.

A Need for Dialogue to Develop Tolerance

Author(s): Corina Yoris-Villasana / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

The authoress claims that civic education must be grounded in a deep sense of belonging, which, in turn, involves values such as freedom, equality, civility, justice, pluralism and, above all, ensures the development of dialogue and tolerance in the individual, dialogue and tolerance which are essential attributes of a democratic attitude. Tolerance and dialogue are the pivots of citizenship in a society which is to function peacefully. She concludes that by developing these values individuals can better participate in the pursuit of social ideals.

A népek önrendelkezési joga

Author(s): Ištvan Balint / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2018

Peoples` right for autonomy has became one of the most complicated questions, a key issue in Europe. We have reached the fourth wave of validation of this right. It was after the World War I, when the validation of the right for autonomy was enacted in a larger extent for the first time, later after the end of colonialism and finally, in the aftermath of the dissolution of three multinational states – The Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Nowadays, we again face the issue of national autonomy due to the rise of nationalism – as a result of the economic crisis. The differences between those who are interested in creating territorial or national autonomies and those who are against such demands are becoming more and more expresses. To make matters worse, the legal framework for setting up autonomies is quite chaotic. Following an overview of the international framework for establishing various types of autonomies, the author puts forward the following questions: Is it possible to provide the right of autonomy of a certain nation only by hurting the rights of another nation and what to do in such situation?

A Physcialist Theory of Managing Impediments to Democracy and Peace Building in the Balkans

Author(s): Rory Conces / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2019

The post-conflict societies of Bosnia and Kosovo continue to be plagued by the deleterious effects of ethno-nationalism and ethnic enclaves. Unfortunately, this mix impedes both democracy and peace building within these Balkan countries. One way to promote such building is for these enclaves to collapse, thereby allowing multiethnic societies to develop. This essay proposes that enclaves be dealt with physically by ridding them of those evocative objects that help to create and maintain enclaves. By getting physical in this way, however, we find ourselves in a dilemma, caught on the horns of legality and expediency. Yet there is a promising path between the horns that involves civic design. This essay offers a physicalist theory of managing these impediments to democracy and peace building, beginning with four hypotheses, followed by an abstraction and mathematization in the form of a matrix, a dilemma arising from

A Physcialist Theory of Managing Impediments to Democracy and Peace Building in the Balkans

Author(s): Rory Conces / Language(s): English / Issue: 03+04/2018

The post-conflict societies of Bosnia and Kosovo continue to be plagued by the deleterious effects of ethno-nationalism and ethnic enclaves. Unfortunately, this mix impedes both democracy and peace building within these Balkan countries. One way to promote such building is for these enclaves to collapse, thereby allowing multiethnic societies to develop. This essay proposes that enclaves be dealt with physically by ridding them of those evocative objects that help to create and maintain enclaves. By getting physical in this way, how¬ever, we find ourselves in a dilemma, caught on the horns of legality and expediency. Yet there is a promising path between the horns that involves civic design. This essay offers a physicalist theory of managing these impediments to democracy and peace building, beginning with four hypotheses, followed by an abstraction and mathematization in the form of a matrix, a dilemma arising from these hypotheses, and possible solutions.

A Pluralist Democracy

Author(s): Göran Rosenberg / Language(s): English / Issue: 68.14/2002

The democracies of today can remain democracies only if they are able to negotiate pluralism and communality, conflict and justice, rationality and identity. What must we do to meet this challenge, asks Göran Rosenberg and presents a possible answer: federation. But where are the political thinkers and leaders who could formulate and win popular support for a power-sharing treaty in Europe?

A Podemos és a baloldali populizmus

Author(s): Omar Hassan / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 22/2017

This article examines the rise of Podemos in 2014 and its trajectory since then. Podemos was born right after the rise and fall of the Indignados movement, which was responding to the global economic crisis and subsequent austerity policies. Hassan argues that Podemos successfully avoided Indignados’ weaknesses, the traps of anti-political and anarchistic sentiments. The essay argues that Podemos’ political activity is more than an instinctive populism, as the party consciously and directly uses Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s post-Marxist theory of populism. However, Hassan formulates a fundamental criticism of both Laclau and Mouffe’s theory and of the politics of Podemos. As he follows the political trajectory of Podemos from 2014 to 2016, Hassan reveals that the party’s politics based on the theory of populism gave up its anti-capitalist stance, weakened its own internal democracy and consequently detached the party structure from the mass movement.