A ‘Happy’ Coincidence: Cognitive Capitalism and Well-Being Enhancement in Schools

Author(s): James Reveley / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

‘Almost certainly we are witnessing a shift to...a market individualism of neoliberalism where the self is shaped as a utility maximiser, a free and contractual individual, who is self-constituted through the market choices and investment decisions that he/she makes....In the face of increasingly technical and functional forms of literacy and of schooling, we might inquire whether school in an age of consumerism promotes a relation to the self based on truth-telling or whether this relation has been replaced by another primary ethos: happiness, security, survival, success, ‘self-improvement,’ wealth.’ (Besley and Peters, 2007: 18)

A ’Rump’ Statehood and the Polish Liberalism

Author(s): Tomasz Zyro / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2015

This article is revised version of speech that was given at Oxford University. It deals with the origins of polish liberalism. Author states that there are two sources of liberalism that look like globular clusters. The first one sprung from a tradition of ancient feudal liberties. And the second source: liberalism stemmed from an opposition both to a practice of absolutist state and to the political ideology of absolutism. Finally, article tracks down the intellectual history of Polish liberalism

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 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 Frunza / 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 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.

A politika élő húsa

Author(s): Zsolt Kapelner / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 11/2018

A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF POLITICS AND DEMOCRACY

Author(s): Albert Ogien / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

This paper endorses a pluralist conception of politics, which articulates three proposals : 1) the order of politics is scattered throughout society ; 2) its institutionalization takes place in a multitude of ways which are not confined to those acknowledged by State administrations ; and 3) forms of political action manifest themselves under modes that often go far beyond the usual bounds set by official political. In such a perspective, politics is not conceived of as if it were totally detached from the daily life of the members of a society. It thus contends that in their political dealings citizens make use of an ordinary conception of politics and democracy which endows them with a specific idea of the common good and of the rights a State should guarantee to nationals. This contention is empirically put to test through two case studies of political claim staking: civil disobedience and gatherings (encampments, occupations). The article eventually suggest that democracy should be seen as a method for organizing ordinary social relations on the basis of a principle : respecting the plain autonomy and unconditional equality of any citizen.

A synesis mint politikai fogalom Aristotelésnél

Author(s): Attila Simon / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2015

According to Book 6 of the Nicomachean Ethics, the primary task of phronēsis (practical wisdom) is to deliberate about the things that are good in general for each person. However, phronēsis concerns not only individuals but also the community: practical wisdom is a political virtue as well. In my paper, I argue that the intellectual excellence called sunesis (comprehension) by Aristotle opens up the social dimension of practical wisdom, and thus provides an important means for the political application of phronēsis (EN 6. 1142b34−1143a32). To support my argument I interpret two further passages where sunesis appears in a clearly political context: in relation to legislation (EN 10. 1181a18) and to political deliberation (Pol. 4. 1291a28).

A. BADIOU ANKSTYVOJI SUBJEKTO TEORIJA IR KOVINGO SUBJEKTO IŠKILIMAS

Author(s): Kasparas Pocius / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 94/2018

In the article, while differentiating between the resistance theories of Badiou, Deleuze, and Guattari, the attempt is made to emphasize Badiou’s critique of the theory of asubjective becoming and desire as well as his attempt to develop it into the dialectics between the insurgent students and what Deleuze and Guattari call the “missing people”. Badiou’s theory of the subject, based on the works of Hegel, Lenin and Mao, is regarded as a counterpoint to the theories of revolutionary desire. The revolutionary strategies of Lenin and Mao, based on Hegel’s philosophy, allow them to create the concepts of totality as the unity of the opposites, as the split One, as well as to determine the conflictual dialectical process that conditions the rise and existence of a revolutionary subject – party. While relating the dialectical concepts of the above mentioned authors with Badiou’s concepts of scission, torsion and periodization, Badiou’s logic of the subject is explained. It allows revolutionary forces to constantly resist the institutional practices of placement, destroy stability and immerse into the new cycles of struggle instead of undergoing the process of recuperation and return to the system. The above mentioned concepts meaningfully supplement the vocabulary of social movements and minor politics. Allowing them to spread beyond their comfort zones and to aim at what for them is still a “noumenon”: the sphere of everyday struggles for dignity and survival. We, not the “missing people”, have to be the protagonists of such struggles.

A. Platonov’un “Çukur” Eserinde Umudun Kayiplari

Author(s): Reyhan Çelik / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 76/2013

With the revolution of October 1917 a new political process has begun in Russia. This process has not only changed the daily life of the Russian people, but also has exterminated the humanistic emotions of them. This subject has been the main question of the works of A.Platonov, who observed the sechanges on the people since the begining of the revolution. Although aforementioned difficulties expressed by some writers of that period, due to the tough stance in the works Platonov is considered to be against the regime. However, despite all the pressures he continues to express thoughts clearly. He is one of the most important writers of the twentieth century Russian literature with language, philosophy, as well as the revolution approaches; in his time he reflects the suffering of the people and challenges in society. He attracts attention both the stylistic features of literary art and thoughts of anti-regime. Some of the author’s works have been translated into Turkish. These works are “Dzhan”, “The Foundation Pit”, “Chevengur”. “The foundation Pit” which he has written up in 1930, however, published in 1987 in Russia. In his work “The foundation Pit”, he has drawn the profile of ‘new human’ which has occuerd to get her with the the socialist system. In this work are transferred painful losses, which given to achieve overall collectivization. Voşçev removed from his job because of the thoughtfulness, for the search to truth, will join the ranks of people working for the sake of this hope and in work is expressed what happened in this process. At the same time in work, against the Soviet regime’s utopian thought has created an anti-utopia. In this work the life philosophy of the villagers that live in the Soviet system and their journey to hope has been examined relative to the life philosophy of the period.