Editorial introduction

Author(s): Valentin Cojanu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2007

This Journal comes out from a barely disguised, though deep, anxiety about the way we, the economists, may improve the ways of providing meaningful explanations for what makes and does not make sense in such economic developments as prosperity, globalisation, material imbalances, labour relations, or common property. These issues are usually resuscitated under contemporary labels such as “feminism”, “environmentalism”, “Marxism”, or “liberalism”. However, it can be argued that these issues have represented in fact recurrent threads of economic thinking dating back to ancient times.

Economics, the Structures of Knowledge, and the Quest for a More Substantively Rational World

Author(s): Richard E. Lee / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2007

The “structures of knowledge” designates the long-term intellectual and institutional division in knowledge production, the arena of cognition and intentionality (the “socio-cultural”) that we recognize as the relational hierarchy between the sciences and the humanities, or the “two cultures”, and it is just as integral to the development of the modern world as the realms of material production and distribution (the “economic”) or of decision making and coercion (the “political”). The modern discipline of economics emerged from a medium-term restructuring of the structures of knowledge in the late nineteenth century along with the other, multiple, social sciences between the sciences and the humanities each with proprietary subject matters, theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches. The contemporary crisis in the field of knowledge production is part of the overall exhaustion of the processes reproducing the structures of the modern world-system. Contemporary economics in this “far-from-equilibrium” world should be well placed to contribute to an understanding of the alternative futures available today. But this would entail a reexamination of its inherited theoretical approaches and methodological practices.

European Historical Economics and Globalisation

Author(s): James Foreman-Peck / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2007

Globalisation is here considered as the increasing specialisation or complexity that accompanies extension of spatially limited markets to include larger and larger sections of the world. To the extent that the enlargement of one market brings contact with others, the process is one of market integration. This paper focuses on two millennia of globalisation so defined, from the perspective of the European economies. It shows that there have been several waves of globalisation linked with rising productivity and prosperity, followed by long economic contractions. Expansions took place within new frameworks for internal and external security and the disintegration of these regimes typically reversed the process. Higher incomes were the reward for accepting the greater vulnerability of stronger interdependency.

On Ethics and the Economics of Development

Author(s): Mozaffar Qizilbash / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2007

This paper examines the implications of some of the growing literature at the borderline of ethics and economics for development debates. It argues that this literature has already had considerable impact on development economics, particularly as a result of work on well-being and capabilities. Other areas where there has been considerable growth include population ethics and the area which explores the link between the contractarian tradition in moral philosophy and game theory. Work here has had less impact on development economics, and there is considerable scope for more work. Finally, both ethics and economics have been criticised for taking too abstract a view of human beings. Each has begun to take on this line of criticism and work which responds to it in various ways – such as by taking account of issues relating to identity, allowing for hard choices and fuzziness - is relevant to development.

The origin and development of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. A historical outline by 1993

Author(s): Kamil Trombik / Language(s): English Issue: 66/2019

The paper concerns the origin and early stage of development of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Kraków. Center for Interdisciplinary Studies was founded by Michał Heller and Józef Życiński in the late 1970s. It was an informal institution which focused on conducting scientific activity in the area of philosophy of nature, relationship between mathematical & natural sciences and philosophy, history of science, as well as relationships between science and religion. In this paper I would like to present how this institution developed, I will discuss various forms of its activity and discuss—very generally—what kind of philosophy was promoted by M. Heller, J. Życiński as well as their pupils and close associates. An important part of the paper will also concern the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies as a unique institution, which has developed—in difficult historical period in Poland—philosophical research in the spirit of freedom and respect for the new achievements of science, and also promoted interdisciplinary dialogue between scientists and philosophers.

Althusser... vir ?

Author(s): Jean-Pierre Drapier / Language(s): French Issue: 1/2019

La mise en perspective des écrits d'Althusser et de la récente biographie par Y. Moulier-Boutang interroge les rapports complexes, voire contradictoires, de l'homme et de son inscription dans la psychanalyse, la politique, et la sexualité. On y repère la structure du fantasme, lié à la nature de sa psychose, qui fait effet dans ses engagements toujours marqués d'une position d'antagonisme et d'isolement

From the Ethics of Pleasure to the Ethics of Jouissance

Author(s): Radu Țurcanu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

I will try to address here several questions about issues such as pleasure, (the) good, reality, and (feminine) jouissance, guided in that endeavor by the psychoanalytical discourse and practice. If the main purpose of human life, as Freud argues, is the search for some sort of happiness, clinical experience shows that for any particular individual, the question of the good and that of pleasure are quite distinct. « … The pleasure principle … is nothing else than the dominance of the signifier », writes J. Lacan. Jouissance is that supplement to pleasure which is also transgressive of it. The best description for what jouissance is can be called the void, the chaos which render pleasure and the signifier inconsistent and incomplete. There are several types of jouissance, most of them called phallic. The Other jouissance or feminine jouissance, “not-all phallic” (Lacan), is related to that void. It is synonymous to a particular ethics of the void, a “chaosmotic” ethics (in Joyce’s term), distinct from a “cosmic” ethics which would be that of pleasure and of the signifier

Woman does not exist. A love letter

Author(s): Cristian Bodea / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

In this paper I would like to develop the idea that there is a very clear distinction to be made between hysteria, on the one hand, and what psychoanalysis calls the feminine position, on the other hand. It is to the logic of the not whole that this feminine position corresponds, a logic that the hysteric subject contests at his/her turn. In this regard, hysteria is more close to a position attributed to men. What remains to be shown, in what follows, is what position the woman is in. If she does not exist, as the title of my paper suggests, then where is she?

Some remarks on Spinoza’s theory of the eternity of the mind and his notion of consciousness

Author(s): Cristina Criste / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

In establishing the guidelines for an ethical existence, Spinoza offers a theory of the eternity of the mind and differentiates between an intellectual order and the order of the imagination. The analysis and understanding of these notions involves two different approaches regarding the notion of mind and that of existence. A further analysis of the mind’s eternity, together with several key notions of Spinoza’s philosophy as they appear in various contexts - conatus, infinity, essence, the nature of knowledge – leads to a specific contour of this particular philosopher’s view on the notion of consciousness

From the Principle of Least Action to the Conservation of Quantum Information in Chemistry: Can One Generalize the Periodic Table?

Author(s): Vasil Dinev Penchev / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2019

In fact, the first law of conservation (that of mass) was found in chemistry and generalized to the conservation of energy in physics by means of Einstein’s famous “E=mc2”. Energy conservation is implied by the principle of least action from a variational viewpoint as in Emmy Noether’s theorems (1918): any chemical change in a conservative (i.e. “closed”) system can be accomplished only in the way conserving its total energy. Bohr’s innovation to found Mendeleev’s periodic table by quantum mechanics implies a certain generalization referring to the quantum leaps as if accomplished in all possible trajectories (according to Feynman’s interpretation) and therefore generalizing the principle of least action and needing a certain generalization of energy conservation as to any quantum change. The transition from the first to the second theorem of Emmy Noether represents well the necessary generalization: its chemical meaning is the generalization of any chemical reaction to be accomplished as if any possible course of time rather than in the standard evenly running time (and equivalent to energy conservation according to the first theorem). The problem: If any quantum change is accomplished in all possible “variations (i.e. “violations) of energy conservation” (by different probabilities), what (if any) is conserved? An answer: quantum information is what is conserved. Indeed, it can be particularly defined as the counterpart (e.g. in the sense of Emmy Noether’s theorems) to the physical quantity of action (e.g. as energy is the counterpart of time in them). It is valid in any course of time rather than in the evenly running one. That generalization implies a generalization of the periodic table including any continuous and smooth transformation between two chemical elements.

The Concept of Truth (Satya) in the Philosophy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Author(s): Dezső Szenkovics / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Nevertheless, he never considered himself a philosopher, inmy vision Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi – as regards his oeuvre – canbe considered one of the most important Indian thinkers of the 20thcentury. Being a symbol of non-violent resistance and an iconic figure of India’s independence struggle, we tend to look on him as a hero of the anticolonial struggle, as father of the modern India, forgetting that all these appellations are deeply rooted in his special way of thinking and acting, which could be characterized through words like simplicity,truth (satya), non-violence (ahimsa), love etc.In my paper, I will try to synthetize the philosophical thought of Gandhi, so that from the three core concepts of the Gandhian philosophy (satya, ahimsa and satyagraha) at this time the accent to be put on the truth (satya), which constitute in fact the corner stone of the Gandhian philosophy. Analyzing these concepts is very important because of two reasons: first of all because these concepts either are rooted in the Indian religious traditions (Jainism, Hinduism or Buddhism), and semantically redesigned by Gandhi, or concepts created by himself, but being based on categories provided by India’s philosophical-religious traditions. On the other hand, the concept of truth – by the other two core concepts – had a very important role both in awakening nationalist sentiment and shaping the Indian nation in the early decades of the twentieth century, and in the anti-colonial fight characterized by nonviolent resistance.Therefore, it will be analysed in brief the etymology of satya (truth),highlighting the changes made by Gandhi in the semantic content of the concept. It is worth noting that in the Gandhian thought and discourse the old notions taken from the Hindu religious tradition acquires new semantic layers that make possible their interpretation in a new, sociopolitical context and not a religious one.

Initiatory Death in the Hindu Rite of Passage called Upanayana

Author(s): Hilda-Hedvig Varga / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

In world cultures, the individual’s transition from one stage of existence to the other is marked by specific ceremonies.When a youth is on the verge of entering adulthood, this milestone is touched upon through rites – more or less challenging from aphysical, mental and emotional point of view – meant to prepare him for the active participation in the community’s life, of which he is a member, and take on the specific responsibilities of his new identity.I have used the term identity since, we shall see, the transition from one stage to the other involves the casting off of one’s old garb and bedecking one’s self anew, a fundamental reconfiguration of the individual. Starting from the philosophical framing of the rites, in order to understand the concept of initiatory death we shall, first,reveal the origins of Upanayana, the context of its birth, its development stages, goal, and lastly, stop at some relevant passages for this rite from the sacred texts.

Moderate Communitarianism and the Idea of Political Morality in African Democratic Practice

Author(s): Hasskei M. Majeed / Language(s): English Issue: 61/2019

This paper explores how moderate communitarianism could bring about a greater sense of political morality in the practice of democracy in contemporary Africa. Moderate communitarianism is a thesis traceable to Kwame Gyekye, the Akan philosopher. This thesis is a moderation of the infl uence of the community in the Akan, an African social structure. In ensuring good political morality in the Akan, and therefore the African community, Gyekye proposes moral revolution over the enforcement of the law. I perform two main tasks in this article: (i) I reinforce the view that in a democratic framework (such as the framework within which many African states now fi nd themselves), moderate communitarianism offers lessons on political morality, and (ii) I challenge the notion that moral revolution has greater prospects for bringing about political morality than law enforcement.

From the category theory in mathematics to bio-cosmology

Author(s): Milan Tasić / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

We argue that philosophy and mathematics could accomplish far more fruitful encounter with the Being, since by number it is possible to go to such an extent behind the reality (Pythagoras) and if the four causes of Aristotle would be (especially in the human sphere) over again actualized. Alain Badiou has already pointed that "mathematics is ontology," and now we have that the category theory in mathematics – having already covered other fields of this science – continues to find applications in a series of "non-traditional" domains of reality. In that correlation, philosophy could express too, its (primary) need for truth, justice, beauty, as well as for an overall development in the sense of human purposes – due to the undreamed power of the technological progress (say of hardware and software in informatics) today. In that manner, the philosophy of mathematics could radicalize its claims from the perspective of the slogan ''One and All'' of the first philosopher Thales and of such a (powerful) mathematical idiom in front of the reality of Being – this time, in the spirit of bio-Cosmology (neo-Aristotelism).

The resilience of modern neoclassical economics – a case study in the light of Ludwik Fleck’s ‘harmony of deception’

Author(s): Arne Heise / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

In this paper, Ludwick Fleck’s philosophy and sociology of science will be briefly outlined in order to establish a ‘theory of the resilience of scientific misapprehension’. This theory will be use in order to gain insights into the modes of operation of defence and resilience of modern neoclassical economics in the face of recent harsh critique by singling out a case of extreme deviation of theoretical prediction from empirical evidence: minimum wages’ impact on employment.

Reconsidering economics in relation to sustainable development and democracy

Author(s): Peter Söderbaum / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The challenge of sustainable development can be approached from different angles. In this essay it is argued that one also needs to examine the present close to monopoly position of neoclassical economic theory at university departments of economics in many parts of the world. An open debate is needed about paradigms in economics as well as ideological orientations.An alternative to neoclassical theory is outlined where individuals and organizations are regarded as political actors, each guided by an ideological orientation or mission. Reference is made to the 17 UN sustainable development goals suggesting that impacts need to be seen in multidimensional terms and an alternative definition of economics as “multidimensional management of limited resources in a democratic society” is proposed. It is argued that economics need to move away from its technocracy-oriented tendencies to democracy-oriented approaches. This is exemplified by a move away from neoclassical Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to Positional Analysis as approach to decision-making and sustainability assessment.

The unrealistic realist philosophy. The ontology of econometrics revisited

Author(s): Mariusz Maziarz / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The argument put forth in this article shows that the hitherto scientific-realist approaches to econometrics are incongruent with the realistically reconstructed empirical macroeconomics. The SR approaches share in common being realist about the relations depicted by (successful) models. The economic models of data are sensitive to minor changes in sample and estimating methods what creates the ‘emerging contrary result’ phenomenon: the community of econometricians accept models that are inconsistent. Being SR about econometrics equals committing oneself to the following trilemma: (1) it is feasible to indicate the successful models that rightly isolate/idealize the regularities of the economy (the knowledge thesis); (2) econometric models are about the economic world (the independence thesis); and, at least in some areas of application, (3) successful econometric models contradict each other.

Economic essays (part one): toward a realistic concept of choice

Author(s): Frederic B. Jennings Jr. / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

These essays were originally drafted 30 years ago between 1988 and 1990, and then they were filed away and rediscovered just this year. They represented an attempt to offer a simple and unadorned version of fundamental issues in economics pertaining to our urgent need for a realistic concept of choice on which to found our constructions. The first essay introduces the notion of ‘opportunity cost’ and our use of caeteris paribus in the process of partial analysis. The second essay offers two metaphors for economic behavior: the ‘neighborhood store’ where virtually all neoclassical choice occurs; and the ‘chessboard’ that opens three issues simply ignored in orthodox settings. The third essay addresses the problem of interdependence, since choice in this setting confronts our range of awareness as bounded where outcomes spread forever with externalities everywhere, ruling out additivity.

A Review of Piero Ferri, Minsky’s Moment. An Insider’s View on the Economics of Hyman Minsky, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019, 252 pp., ISBN 978-1-78897-372-4

Author(s): Andreas Stamate-Ştefan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

IN MEMORIAM: Immanuel Wallerstein (1930-2019)

Author(s): Richard E. Lee / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019