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school in an age of consumerism promotes a relation to the self based on truth-telling or whether this relation has been replaced by another primary ethos: happiness, security, survival, success, ‘self-improvement,’ wealth.’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 Żyro / 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 „másik” esztétikai jelenléte Hobbes szerződéselméletében

Author(s): Mihály Szilágyi-Gál / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2019

In several of his works, Thomas Hobbes contrasts rhetorical and scientific speech. Although in Leviathan his position is changed, Hobbes continues to emphasize the inordinate, excessive nature of rhetorical speech in politics and distinguishes it from sovereign scientifically true and legally correct speech. According to my thesis, both models of persuasion, the rhetorical and the anti-rhetorical model, have an aesthetic character in Leviathan. This fact is evident in the doubling of the person who represents both his/her self and his/her fellow citizens as dependent subjects in their public/political roles. This self-representation as the inherent imaginary act of the political man echoes the rhetorical hierarchy of the difference between the private and the public.

A „politikai” és a „kivétel” kategóriája Claude Lefort politikafilozófiájában

Author(s): Lajos András Kiss / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2019

The present paper focuses on a central issue of the political philosophy of Claude Lefort, namely the special forms of the formation and functioning of modern democracy. Lefort distinguishes clearly the ontic level of politics (parties of the parliament, government and other institutions, etc.) and the ontological level of the political (the symbolically constructed forms of rule). According to Lefort, the rule moves to an empty place, as a consequence of the modern democratic revolutions. From this moment, the rule belongs to those who speak on behalf of the people, but the people is actually formed from the mass of the residents, by their speeches. Therefore, the modern democracy lives under conditions of constant uncertainty, because of its continuous pressure of legitimacy. Sometimes, it can bring modern democracy close to the edge of a precipice; and a kind of totalitarianism seems to be a solution.

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.

A politika élő húsa

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

A populizmus és a népszuverenitás paradoxonja

Eszmetörténeti vázlat

Author(s): Botond Bakcsi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2019

In The Social Contract, Rousseau outlined very accurately the problem of the foundation of the social order, a problem that was rather revolutionary in its era from a theoretical point of view, and since then has had several significant implications in modern political thought: “before we examine the act by which a people elects a king, it would be good to examine the act by which the people is a people.” Examining this very act has not lost anything of its relevance, particularly if we imply that contemporary populism brings again into the foreground the question referring to the concept of the ‘people’, which has serious political implications and which could have even more ones worldwide in the future. An analysis of Donald Trump’s inaugural address may raise some fundamental issues relevant to the connection between populism and democracy. The concept of the ‘people’ generated by the performative speech act of “You the People” renders a particular interpretation to the idea of popular sovereignty. The present essay attempts to consider the topic of populism setting off from the paradox lying within the concept of popular sovereignty.

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 sokféleség két formája és a homogenizáció

Author(s): János Tóth I. / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2019

Diversity is the unity of sameness and non-sameness (difference). In a basic situation, the more significant the difference, the greater the diversity. However, the organic systems based on relatively homogeneous groups, sub-units and structures are governed by special rules. The heterogenization of groups, that is, their dissolution decreases diversity. I propose to present this paradox effect of homogenization through examples taken from biology and social studies. The structural diversity of humanity is closely linked to the objective and subjective sameness and identity of individuals. There are three fundamental, political approaches to relate to human diversity: hierarchy, the approach that emphasizes difference; equality that emphasizes sameness, and equality that emphasizes difference. The first approach belongs to the outworn past, therefore the battle for defining the future takes place between the remaining two approaches. The aspect that these approaches are debating is whether it is the individual form of diversity (globalization, deconstruction) or its structural form (emancipation, sovereignty) that must be promoted.

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 Theory of Argumentation: The Case of Ethical, Political, and Utopian Thinking

Author(s): Łukasz Perlikowski / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2021

A relevant problem in political philosophy and political theory is the distinction between political and utopian arguments. The boundary between these two types of argumentation may be blurred, which leads us to the point when we often deal with contaminations of both ways of thinking in individual positions. This involves, for example, presenting a utopian argument as a political argument and vice versa. The main purpose of the article is to organize these issues by applying the argumentation model developed by Stephen Toulmin to the analysis of both theoretical approaches. The three main problems of this work are: 1) the distinction between political and ethical arguments; 2) identifying the proper structure of political argumentation; 3) evaluation of the coherence of the idea of a realistic utopia (proposed by John Rawls).

A Time of Crisis—A Crisis of (the Sense of) Time: The Political Production of Time in Communism and Its Relevance for the Postcommunist Debates

Author(s): Costica Bradatan / Language(s): English / Issue: 02/2005

A haunting theme in today’s debates over postcommunism is the necessity of facing the past. Ironically, what those people in East Europe and Russia having to face their past lack most is precisely a proper understanding of what the past is. This is because one of the major losses they suffered under communist regimes was their proper sense of time. In my article, I analyze how in the communist context, time (and people’s sense of it) was produced politically and how the communist political imaginary presupposed as one of its essential ingredients a systematic disruption of (and interference into) people’s sense of time. In the final part, I briefly point to the fact that a successful confrontation with the past can start only with a recovery of these people’s sense of their temporal situation in the world.

A timeline, interrupted

Author(s): Mateusz Mazzini / Language(s): English / Issue: 06 (44)/2020

The past does not exist. It is what one makes of it. From a purely axiological point of view, every one of us is constructed of different pasts and we have different memories at our disposal. The non-existence of the past as a tangible point of reference is a subject of individual or collective creation and interpretation; it is the founding assumption of any sociological research devoted to mnemonic subjects. That is the case because, put simply, we all have a past – and it does not matter how that past came about in our minds. It has been somehow socially constructed. It is a result of much more than a mere sum of our individual memories. As observed by all the great theoreticians of collective memory – ranging from the early writings of Emile Durkheim to our contemporary Jeffrey Olick – memory is inherently plural and inherently social. Collectivities, argues Olick, have memories just like they have identities. The relation between the two is of mutual intertwining – they construct each other and they are mutually complementary. What makes the content of both is, however, beyond the control of an individual, especially if the past employed in the process is a past which we have no direct recollection of.

A többség zsarnokságától a szelíd önkényuralomig

Author(s): Vasile Prahovean / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2019

Tocqueville’s thought-world is decisively influenced by the conviction that modern democracy that is based on the will of the majority is rather appropriate for creating equality than freedom. Moreover, the mass democracy leads to oppression if the coercive force of the public opinion is extended over all the aspects of social life. Democracy in America discusses in two different contexts the problem of totalitarianism supported by the public opinion. The tyranny of majority is supplemented by the hypothesis of soft despotism, by recognizing that the horizontally extending oppression can be generated by a state power that is manipulating the democratic ideas. The administrative despotism reconciles the omnipotence of the public opinion with the centralizing tendencies and under the aegis of the benevolent state power will take control over private lives. The individuals isolated from each other are less capable of restraining its power, therefore it is essential that the exertion of individual rights and freedom has to be supplemented with collective values.

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.

ABOLICIJA RODA: NOVI SUBJEKTI KLASNE BORBE

Author(s): Matej Nikolac / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 2/2020

The aim of this paper is to present understandings of gender in particular feminist discourses which I find problematic for the future of feminist theory; but which permeate the spheres of academic, political, and activist feminism. The discourses of contemporary feminism, imbued with essentialist thought, are in political and theoretical conflict with the booming wave of trans-feminism. In the first part of the paper, I will focus on the hetero-normative imperative through which radical feminist discourse derives the definition of a category of „woman“ and try to show in what ways such an understanding of gender produces and maintains exclusivity across the whole spectrum of sexual and gender identities. The work continues, setting the stage for the confrontation of conflicting theories of radical and trans-feminism in the space opened up by LGBT studies – a neutral space from which we can critically see the gender imperatives produced within an essentialist stream of feminist thought. In order to bring the abolitionist impulse, as a potential solution to the gender problem within radical leftist thought, I will present a potential theoretical solution which culminates with the idea of abolishing gender. Accordingly, the paper will take into account the fields of power on which the problem of gender and gender relations arises: the field of naturalized sexuality, the sphere of traditional family models, and the materialistic discourse that assumes the „natural“ body and gender as the basis of reproductive exploitation. I am convinced that the work as a whole will provide a unique perspective on the possible trajectory of the development of gender theory and further feminist discourse that is subverted by socialist and radical-democratic worldviews.