Where is world literature?

Author(s): Galin Tihanov / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

This article reflects upon world literature as a socio-cultural construct behind which one can discern particular historical dynamics and tensions. The first part seeks to locate the Anglo-Saxon discourse of world literature vis-à-vis three major reference points: time, space, and language. This chronotopic interrogation allows me to identify focal points of dissent from the currently prevalent liberal mobilisations of 'world literature'. The second part of the article is attempts to locate world literature on the level of literature's self-reflexivity. This is a specific meta-location of world literature which I examine through close attention to a 1930s novel. This enables me to think about dissent as a meta-reflexive position, from which literature itself skeptically relates to the notion of 'world literature'.

Stach from Warta Szukalski and the Tribe of the Horned Heart: though this be madness, yet is there method in it

Author(s): Agnieszka Gajda / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2012

Blîndețea filosofului politic. In amintirea lui Norberto Bobbio

Author(s): Daniel Barbu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2004

In order to individualize Norberto Bobbio as a political philosopher, the ar­ticle explores the meanings and uses the Italian author assigned to political philosophy. In so doing, the paper draws mainly on a later work, Elogio della mitezza e altri scritti morali (Pratiche Editrice, Milano, 1998), which was pu­blished in English under the title "In praise of meekness", in Convivium. Jour­nal of Ideas in Italian Studies, I, no. 1,1995, pp. 21-38. The paper's contention is that Bobbio uses once again his analytical method of understanding a concept by exploring its opposite. Thus, the Italian political philosopher goes against the mainstream that, from Machiavelli to Schmitt, focuses on aristocratic and heroic political virtues as courage, magnanimity, discretion, and the like in­ tended to empower some people to govern most of the people. Bobbio takes the side of a non-political virtue, namely meekness, described as the virtue of the private citizen who has no ambition to rule over things or people. Bobbio argues that a better appraisal of what politics is can therefore be achieved by considering what is beyond politics.

Dialog uniwersalizmu i partykularyzmu. Program atomowy Iranu i rewolucja islamska 1979 roku w ujęciu dialektycznym

Author(s): Daniel Płatek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2005

Ideowe zmagania Stefana Kisielewskiego z polskim komunizmem

Author(s): Miłowit Kuniński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

Stefan Kisielewski (1911–1991) a Polish novelist, composer, music critic, essayist, feature writer and a politician, was an exceptional personage in post‑World War II Poland. In his features, published in Tygodnik Powszechny since 1945, in a light, ironic and allusive way to prevent censorship, he described the Polish reality that his readers were acquainted with, in a way that revealed the real causes of the phenomena he observed. The truth was simple: the communist reality was the result of politico‑economic system that was imposed based on a Marxist theory of economy. Kisielewski’s criticism of communism was not just a matter of a keen observation and sensible conclusions; it was based on his studies of Marxism that he began before World War II. In turn, in Wilhelm Röpke’s Die Gesellschaftskrisis der Gegenwart (1942), he found an accurate characterisation of the socialist economy and an explanation for its non‑functioning. The second important reason for his criticism of communism was Kisielewski’s Catholicism, which operated as a counter‑balance to Marxism, combined with the idea of a liberal‑democratic regime. In his later years, Kisielewski criticised the social teachings of the Catholic Church, and suggested a new idea that they were based on “the theology of profit” (a prefiguration of the encyclical Centesimus Annus) as an ideological justification of the attitudes necessary for the functioning of the market economy in Poland. He even suggested the implementation of a dictatorship to avoid long parliamentary democratic procedures, and in this way to establish a quick and effective market economy on the ruins of socialism.

Kultura liberalna wobec wyzwań współczesności

Author(s): Janusz A. Majcherek,Andrzej Szahaj,Piotr Bartula,Janusz Majcherek,Magdalena M. Baran / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2018

Debates / Debaty: Prof. Piotr Bartula, Prof. Andrzej Szahaj and Prof. Janusz Majcherek.

Осемнадесета национална конференция по етика: Вяра и доверие – етически аспекти и морални ценности

Author(s): Vasil Lozanov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2023

This paper is a review of the 18th National Ethics Conference that took place in November 2022 and was organized by the Department of Ethical Studies of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The aim of this review is to give publicity to the event by informing of the thematic panels, the titles of the reports and the names of the researchers who participated.

A Foucauldian Critique of the Dayton Accords: The Iron Cage of Surreality

Author(s): Keith Doubt / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The manifest function of the Dayton Accords was to stop the sociocidal war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a war that was killing the country’s society. The war was unconscionable and immoral bringing deaths and horrific consequences to the lives of many and their communities. The genocide in Srebrenica stood as the ignoble pinnacle of this war, but some argue, and this author agrees, genocide was occurring at the very beginning of the war in the pogroms in other areas such as Foča and Prijedor of Bosnia-Herzegovina even though these pogroms are not described as genocide. The Dayton Accords stopped the sociocidal war, and for this reason the Dayton Accords is praised as an important diplomatic achievement in our times. And yet the Dayton Accords has an unfortunate way of splitting and separating citizens.

Discernment or representation

Author(s): Andrei Scripcaru,Cristina Furnica,Bogdan-Daniel CHIRILĂ,Diana Bulgaru Iliescu,Vlad Teodor Iacob,Călin Scripcaru / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2023

The field of forensic psychiatry involves the application of psychiatric expertise to legal cases involving individuals with mental illness. However, the use of this expertise raises questions about the rights of mentally ill patients, particularly regarding behaviour control and involuntary hospitalization. In order to avoid abuse of medical authority, it is important to uphold the principles of individual autonomy and the right to be informed about one's detention. Legal regulations must balance the protection of individual rights with the need for social protection, through the promotion of destigmatization of psychiatric patients and the elaboration of national studies to assess mental health and psychiatric-legal liability. Psychiatric forensic expertise must be conducted in accordance with scientific validity, avoiding diagnostic errors and expert iatrogenicity, and promoting only opinions based on proven truths. The expert's responsibility is to maintain scientific neutrality and independence while respecting the rights of the patient, avoiding any suspicion of abuse of medical authority and preserving the ability to explain, exonerate, or indict with truthful conclusions. This requires a balance between expert professionalism and the consciousness of one's own limits while prioritizing the rights and autonomy of the patient. Legal regulations and ethical-scientific requirements of psychiatric-legal exploration must be applied to ensure that the field of forensic psychiatry upholds the principles of justice and human rights.

Fizyczne i społeczno-kulturowe rany bohaterek współczesnej fantastyki młodzieżowej w świetle feminizmu korporalnego

Author(s): Weronika Kostecka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 46/2023

The subject of the article is the wounded body of heroines of young adult fantasy, understood as a socio-cultural construction and an element of female identity. By referring to the key assumptions of corporeal feminism (represented, for example, by Elizabeth Grosz, Ewa Hyży, and Monika Świerkosz), I analyze three novel series: The Mirror Visitor by Christelle Dabos, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, and The Jewel by Amy Ewing. I examine how the heroines’ bodies determine their place in the social hierarchy, how the heroines experience the world through their bodies, and whether they own their bodies in a cultural, social, and political sense. I point to the importance of tormenting the protagonists’ bodies as an obligatory way to female emancipation.

Alexandre’as Kojève’as ir Carlas Schmittas: politiškumas, teologija ir istorijos pabaiga

Author(s): Linas Jokubaitis / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 2 (110)/2023

The aim of the article is to demonstrate that Carl Schmitt’s and Alexandre Kojève’s ideas about the political and the end of history have to be seen in the light of their theological presuppositions. The article defends the position that Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political is based on attempts to look at the problems of political anthropology from theological perspective, in which the dogma of original sin plays a central role. Kojève’s anthropotheistic system presents an inversion of this perspective, his ideas about the end of politics and history are inseparable from attempts to reduce theology to anthropology. His atheistic system of immanence provides a confirmation of Schmitt’s idea that the disappearance of the political is incompatible with the dogma of original sin. Kojève’s notion of the end of history and his concept of universal homogeneous state are formed by attempts to look at the concept of the political ex negativo. For Schmitt Christian theology provides a guarantee that the world will not be depoliticized, that enmity between humans will not be overome. French philosopher’s political theory is based on the idea that the end of history and the disappearance of the political would mark the actualisation of secularized Christian teaching. Kojève’s revised ideas about the destiny of humanity at the end of history, his position that humanity will return to animality, have to be understood in the context of his discussions with Schmitt.

Fighting Social Change

Author(s): Valida Repovac Nikšić / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2022

The following essay analyses Chapter 10, The Background of Plato’s Attack, in the first volume, The Spell of Plato. The focus is on Popper’s interpretation of Plato’s sociological perspective discussing the social change and the role of the Great Generation in it, with the dawn of Athenian democracy. Also, the essay examines Popper’s analysis of the reactionary social events during and after the Peloponnesian war (431-404 BC). The highlight is on Popper’s view of these twitches of tribal, collectivist forces that want to keep their world’s old organic “stable” image at all costs. It is also essential to take a deeper look at the historical context and novelties such as trade and naval communications that Popper believes contributed to the birth of an open society. This new society brings individual responsibility and reason instead of group morale and emotions. Popper presented the tension between these opposites by looking at the first “modern” revolution (as he calls it) in ancient Greece and analysing Plato’s views on the changed social condition. Plato believed he found an argument for a return to the old society. Popper assails Plato’s project and accents the manipulation of Socrates. The first defeats of democracy by autocratic forces (tyranny of oligarchs) demonstrate the fine line between the two opposing concepts of society, the ease with which these retrograde processes take place and lead towards a backslide from an open (democratic) to a closed society.

ASPECTS OF ECCLESIASTICAL RECEPTION OF SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS IN GENETICS

Author(s): Predrag Petrović / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

Ideological nationalism is phenomenon that greatly reflects the ecclesiastical aspects of existence and that has marked the history of European and global civilization in the last two centuries. A no lesser threat lies in the invasive ideology of globalism, which has been being intensively developed for the past half a century. In this respect it is important to note that advances in genetics can contribute to the liberation of many socio-scientific disciplines, liberation from ideological shackles which were first imposed and then inherited. Thus, modern theological doctrine accepts genetic scientific achievements in aspects that are inherent to its ecclesiastical level of existence. In this respect theological doctrine welcomes the developments in the field of genetic research of haplogroups, which is now of much help in scientific and experimental ways to the ecclesiological understanding of the unity of people, which the Orthodox Church has been witnessing throughout the centuries with its own mode of existence.

Political Extremism and Its Implications: An Inquiry into Violence, Struggle, and Self-Sacrifice

Author(s): Yuliy Yuliev / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2024

This research paper draws upon English novelist George Orwell’s observations on human proclivities toward struggle and self-sacrifice, as seen in his criticism of “Mein Kampf”, and uses them to explore the complex nature of political extremism. By analyzing the evolution of the political narrative since the 1970s, from economic to cultural issues, it investigates the foundations of extreme nationalism within contemporary liberal democracies. In order to show the features and motives of this phenomenon, the study observes several European far-right groups through the lens of extreme nationalism, uncovering similar themes of anti-globalization, immigration, and European Union views. It delves further into the examination of human beings by taking a closer look at the way culture shaped our development as a species and the fundamental urge for identification and belonging, providing insights into the psychological underpinnings of extreme beliefs and behavior. It also looks at the foundations of group violence, discussing it as a morally motivated behavior meant to maintain and preserve social ties and the concept of struggle as behavioral mechanisms exploited by extreme nationalists. To thoroughly assess the validity of Orwell’s ideas, the research combines the theoretical framework with a case study of the contemporary tendencies towards extremism in the U.S. political system. The analysis leads to the conclusion that George Orwell’s findings that the attractiveness of political extremism has its roots in basic features of human nature are still applicable in modern democratic societies.

Moraliniai socialistinio realizmo atspindžiai

Author(s): Lukas Alsys / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 118/2024

The article examines socialist realism through the prisms of dual practice and double consciousness. The paper discusses the shift in normative moral convictions and resistance, at the epicentre of which were the games of dual practice - the conflicts between the interests and needs of public and private life. The paper explores the idea of the referential structure of action, which is based on the following logical structure: The goal of the agent, confronted with external conditions, defines action as a tension between a normative and a conditioning factor, which it attempts to overcome by various means. This article discusses socialist realism as a principle of Soviet moralisation, which was used as a tool for implementing the value system of the new Soviet man.

Pražské jaro jako impulz a inspirace

Author(s): Vlastimil Hála / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2024

The philosophical starting point of the collective work "Pražské jaro: Logika nového světa. Od reforem k revoluci" [Prague Spring: The Logic of the New World. From Reform to Revolution], edited by philosopher Michael Hauser, is, according to the reviewer, the conviction in the real potential for development of historical alternatives that did not materialize. It is through this lens that the five authors (three philosophers, a sociologist and a legal historian) view the phenomenon of the Prague Spring of 1968 and explore some of its aspects. In a way, they follow the debate between the writers Václav Havel and Milan Kundera from the late 1960s, the core of which was the question of the peculiar possibilities of socialism in relation to th etraditional model of liberal democracy, linked to capitalism. The authors develop the ideological line of Kundera’s “pro-socialist” position, and the reviewer comments on the individual chapters, which deal with the “second life” of the Prague Spring, the social dynamics of the so-called revival process, the workers’ councils between 1968 and 1970, the transformation of the Czechoslovak legal system in the 1960s, and the contemporary role of interdisciplinary expert teams in relation to political leadership and citizen initiatives. The last chapter sharply criticizes the direction of Czechoslovak, or rather Czech, socio-economic transformation after November 1989, which, according to the author, through the significant contribution of Václav Klaus and Václav Havel in “building capitalism”, blocked alternative possibilities of development and, with the ideological legacy of the Prague Spring, rejected all left-wing concepts. The authors see the main lasting inspiration of the Prague Spring in the idea of workers’ councils. The emphasis on their direct participationin the management of the economy goes beyond the current social model.

Profeţie şi profesiunea de a fi capitalist

Author(s): Ivan Ivlampie / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 10/2020

The central premise of Karl Marx's work, Capital, boils down to the idea that the employer's profit comes from his employee's unpaid labor. The value of goods delivered to the market is exclusively determined during the working hours of the workers. The capitalist's profit is an unjust and immoral social fact. The entrepreneur does not make any physical or intellectual effort in the production process of goods or services in his field of activity, but only spends his energy squeezing the profit. As a social parasite, he deserves to be eliminated through the communist revolution from humanity's history. Throughout this study, we argue against this ideological perspective on history.

Heidegger’s Political Anthropology

Author(s): Harald Seubert / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2024

The article is an in-depth review of the origin and development of Martin Heidegger's philosophical ideas with a main emphasis on his political anthropology. The basic concepts of Heidegger's philosophical system, as well as the social and political conditions of their formation and change, are examined in detail. In the text, lines are devoted both to the influence of Heidegger's philosophy and to the evaluations of it by the philosopher's contemporaries and later researchers. The idea that the story of Heidegger's life cannot be separated from his thinking is successfully defended, especially since his political ideas or delusions have a concrete origin in the social and conceptual processes of Europe in the middle of the 20th century.

REVERSE DOMINANCE HIERARCHY IN CIVILIZED SOCIETIES. WHY IS IT DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN THE LEX-REX MODEL?

Author(s): Joseph Livni / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The history of civilization consists of empires, kingdoms, oligarchic republics, and city-states; it constitutes a mosaic of human settings and a long succession of rulers who have ruled over their citizenship for the sake of peace and justice. A common characteristic of these cultures is that they were ranked os societies. Rulers, landlords, administrators, officers, philosophers, merchants, or laborers have been individuals who have known their location on a scale of grades; they have respected those above them and demanded respect from those below them. However, there have been civilized societies which have had no ranks, and no ruling class; they have had rules, practices of detecting transgressors, process of proving guilt and institutions of punishment. Several scholars have studied these societies and designated them with various terms. This work uses the term covenantal societies for this societal type and the Lex-Rex model for their style of government. The article focuses on the reasons why it is difficult to explain their stability, their resilience, their functionality and even their very existence.

Обектът res in se като непознаваем по Бъркли

Author(s): Hristiyana Dimitrova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

The report deals with the visible and material world that could prove its existence only via the perception of a specific consciousness and sensorium. The text also refers to the reality of knowledge that can be collected from various material epistolary or graphic monuments, and it is the professionalism and labour of persons of science who struggle to decode the hidden valuable information. This information is seen as knowledge of great capacity and needs to be conveyed from past to present with a focus on the future. This worth-it knowledge could be carried over via material written “monuments” or via spoken, viva voce, means which is filmier but still a method.