CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENTS AND TYPES OF APPROACHES IN RESEARCHING THE NEEDS

Author(s): Cristian Nicula / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

The present article is an approach of conceptual clarification and exploration in an ongoing research on the relationship between motivation, aspirations, values and needs in the Romanian society in a determined context. As a scientific category, the need/the needs is/are used in different disciplinary areas, from sociology to marketing, for example. In the contexts in which it is used, the term/category acquires different connotations. The present article proposes somewhat a methodological reduction of the definition of the term (i.e. negative meaning and affirmative meaning) as well as two ways of its thematization (the descriptive approach and the constructive approach) in the disciplinary researches.

Kant’s System of Judgments

Author(s): Silviya Kristeva / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2019

In the Transcendental Analytic of Critique of Pure Reason Kant realizes a remarkable achievement – he derives the system of logical functions of judgment. This is namely the “legal claim”, which Kant’s investigation of the judgment has to prove in front of the court of reason. For this purpose, we will undertake a reconstruction of the course of proofs on which Kant generates this system. We will start with its initial grounding – by introducing the pure concepts, which divide “the entire field of the understanding”. From here, we have to reveal the connection between the pure concepts of the understanding and the judgments in thinking. In this consideration, Kant acquires a new definition of judgment and a new establishing of its constitution. Finally, a solid proof must be presented for the logical principle and the completeness of the system of logical functions of judgment in thinking.

Colonialism, Ethnicity and the Quest for Community Development in Africa

Author(s): Temisanren Ebijuwa / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2019

The aspirations of post-colonial political elites in Africa can be summed up as the quest for development. This quest since independence, involves, in part, the pursuit of a common citizenship, shared nationality and common interests and values, the evolution of which provide the bedrock for mutual co-existence and the commitment of all to the common good. It also involves the establishment of institutions that will guarantee peace, justice, and fairness. However, the process of realizing these goals of broadening the scope of socio-political interactions have been vitiated by our colonial experiences and consequently unleashed certain centrifugal forces that have made the quest for community development in most African states a daunting task.The divisive tendencies of the colonialists created communal identities, which provided a new symbolic and ethnocentric focus for each group where none existed and thus complicated the task of welding diverse elements in each colony into a coherent whole. This became the source of the proliferation of many life threatening conflicts which has impeded the process of community development in Africa. But why has these conflicts persist in spite of the several attempts to meet them? This paper argues that the above account fails because it ignores the values Africans place on human worth given expression in their communal context. The attempt here is to explore South Africa`s indigenous unifying social ethic of Ubuntu in arriving at a humane society that has a participatory value; founded on co-operation, charity, reconciliation and justice rather than the individualism of the West. This paper will, therefore, employ the analytic descriptive method to examine the above in a manner many scholars have ignored in an attempt to develop a viable sense of community in Africa. Hence, it is expected that this paper will initiate a perspective that will challenge extant interpretation of this discourse.

Академичната автономия в контекста на съвременната университетска идея – философски и правни аспекти

Author(s): Veselina Slavova,Andriyana Andreeva,Darina Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2019

The subject of the present paper is academic autonomy as one of the fundamental principles for the functioning of the higher education institutions. The need to examine it is necessitated by changes in public attitudes and the resulting new requirements for higher education institutions. This demands the implementation of a multi-disciplinary (philosophical and legal) approach, through which both the notion of academic autonomy and its relationship with the idea of the university are to be explored. The changed attitudes towards the notion of knowledge, motivated by a number of factors (scientific, political, economic), have an impact on the idea of its free distribution and acquisition. This calls for the creation of new models of higher education and the necessary legal regulation of the relations between the higher education institutions and the state, based on a balance between the freedom and autonomy of the academic community and the state control.

Древноиндийският философ Бхартрихари за първи път на български език

Author(s): Mitko Momov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2019

The first part of the treatise On the Sentences and Words (Vakyapadia) – Brahmakanda, of the Ancient Indian Philosopher Bhartrihari is presented. It was first published in Bulgarian in 2019. The treatise is described as one of the most emblematic products of the metaphysical philosophy of the language created in the framework of the Advaita Vedanta School. According to Professor Bratoeva, the translation of this remarkable philosophical text into Bulgarian was done by M. Patseva with professional skill. The analytical introduction to the text is a valuable attempt to bridge the ancient Indian and contemporary interpretations of the mechanism of language processes.

Petko Hristov, Anelia Kassabova, Evgenia Troeva, Dagnoslav Demski (Eds.). Contextualizing Changes: Migrations, Shifting Borders and New Identities in Eastern Europe. Sofia: Paradigma, 2015

Author(s): Stanoy Stanoev / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Възбудени читатели: поезията като средство за коментар в онлайн форумите

Author(s): Orlin Spassov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2019

The text analyses an interesting phenomenon: commentary in poetic form that appears frequently in online discussion forums. What causes the participants in the discussions to switch to poetic means of expression? Why, in some cases, are verses and rhymes saturated with obscene words and hate speech? The use of such language tactics complicates the relationship between the media and their publics, as it opens opportunities for creativity and resistance to imposed norms.

Отвъд колективните въображаеми: разкази без разказвачи

Author(s): Snezhana Popova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2019

The understanding that the social imaginary is not the “opposite” of the real, but a peculiar reality, is among the most important social insights of the last century. For today century, the anxiety of the advance of the imaginaries remains. The article traces their evolution – from collective representations generated in structured communities and reference groups, through virtually formalized subjects, constituted in media, to various forms of narration in virtually collective non-entity. The focus of attention are precisely the “subjectless stories” (conspiracies, social tendencies, social desirability), the imaginary ones launched through them, and the participation of contemporary media in the legalization of arbitrary relationships.

A Virtue-based Model for Medical Ethics and Practice in Edmund Pellegrino

Author(s): Philemon Ayibo / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

This paper deals with the resurgence of interest in virtue ethics in professional ethics, specifically as it applies to Edmund Daniel Pellegrino’s account in medical ethics. Pellegrino investigates in a clear manner the ethical problems of contemporary medicine from a virtue ethics point of view and offers a virtue-based ethic for medicine as an effective tool and a practical guide for confronting the challenges of modern medicine. His account builds on a thesis of the indispensability of virtuous character traits for a sound medical practice. Pellegrino’s virtue ethics offers a plausible and distinctive alternative to utilitarian and Kantian (principle-based) approaches to understanding and evaluating professional roles. It is hoped that our exploration of Pellegrino’s account will underline the place of a virtue ethics in medicine and stimulate a similar inquiry into social welfare, and into other forms of human professions and disciplines.

Modern European Separatism: the Role of the European Union and Wealth

Author(s): Veselin Vasilev / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The article is aimed at the change of the separatist discourse from ethnic self-determination to secession based on public spending and wealth redistribution. Further, it aims to explain the role of the European Union, its legislation and politics, in these processes amongst its Member States. Besides establishing that such role is both increasing and diminishing separatist tendencies due to the Single Market, legislation on regions or siding with Member States against secession, the article argues that the paradigm may change yet again to the notions of human rights, citizenship and immigration, due to the stall of economic secessionist aspirations.

Пепел и сърце – шифрите „следва”

Author(s): Lidia Denkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 40/2020

The question “What next?” is a key one to all philosophical theories that consider causality, continuum, discontinuity, potentiality, and, more generally, probability. The notion of "cause" (aitia) and the rigid causality are based on what was said in the Fifth Book of Aristotle's Metaphysics, but ancient atomists, especially Plato, introduced the possibility of free "bifurcation of consequences", of symmetry and asymmetry of "next", which commence from an absolute new beginning. The principle of an absolute new beginning follows the interpretation of the myth of the deluge in De sapientia Veterum (1609) by Francis Bacon. The "logical pluralism" of numerous cause and effect relationships as well as the continuity principle (as formulated by Leibniz) are encompassed in two ciphers in accordance with the classical definition of cipher by Karl Jaspers. The cipher “sameness” and the cipher “change” suggest that we ask ourselves once again about Aristotle's "probable impossibility", and the starting point is the little-known myth of Dionysus, torn to pieces and restored to a new body thanks to his heart, as well as the creation of humanity from the ashes of the stricken Titans.

Homo corporalis as the communicated muse and centrepiece of commercialized culture

Author(s): Hana Pravdová,Zora Hudíková,Nataliya Panasenko / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The study deals with the issue of human corporeality in a retrospective outline of the European cultural tradition and in terms of significant features of post-modern culture, post-modernism and pop culture. The authors form the premise that Homo corporalis has represented the muse of artistic imagination and the centrepiece of everything from ancient culture to the present. At the same time, they argue that Homo corporalis was at the centre of culture throughout individual periods of cultural history, and this position has changed in contemporary social, economic and cultural conditions. While remaining the centrepiece, it has now become the subject and object of commercialised culture. Based on a logical and hermeneutic analysis of relevant source materials and based on empiricism, the traits of the individual cultural epochs are defined and conceptualised within the context of broader cultural associations and artistic visual culture. The assertion is that late capitalism, the post-modern, post-modernism, and pop culture have brought about different kinds of extremes, experiments, peculiarities, provocations, attractions, etc., including paradoxicality. Creators abandoned more noble aesthetics in favour of provocation and experimentation and pop art permeated into all cultural levels, including pop culture and the media. Homo corporalis has been transformed into an individual fixated on his own image and focused on his own goals and pleasures. He is in the position of being the object of commercial interests and their products. His personal goals, attitudes and value scale are formed against the backdrop of the ethos of egoism, individualism, hedonism and narcissism.

« Love man love woman – the tale of Master Đức » : le genre comme destin sacré

Author(s): Thi Thanh Phuong Nguyen-Pochan / Language(s): French Issue: 24 (2)/2019

Through an analysis of the movie “Love man love woman” directed by Nguyễn Trinh Thi en 2007, our paper will examine how the media performance allows to demystify the “sacred destiny” fiction of the transgender male mediums within worship of Mother-Goddesses in Vietnam. This analysis is part of the gender performance perspective as well as the semio-pragmatic approach of the media narrative. It is placed in a broader context of hegemonic culture and the mediatization of normative heterosexual discourse.

Đặng Huy Trú‘s Thought of Self-reliance and Autonomy and Its Historical Meaning

Author(s): Cao Xuân Long / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2019

Dang Huy Tru (At Dau 1825 – Giap Tuat 1874) is not only a writer, poet, economist, and politician but also one of the first thinkers of “germination of civilization in Vietnam”. His ideas in many fields are quite rich and distinctive, and self-reliance and autonomy are among the core thoughts. Due to some subjective and objective conditions, such ideas have not become a reality in Viet Nam. However, if the limitations of historical conditions are filtered out, his ideas may be useful historical lessons for the current reform of the country.

Philosophy as an Integrative Component of Educational Culture in the Situation of the Information Society: Socio-psychological Aspects

Author(s): Vladislav Sheleketa,Natalia Kazintseva,Vasilij Ivakhnov,Valeria Zagovenyeva / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

The system-forming significance of philosophical education in the system of humanitarian and technological knowledge, as well as the determining influence of philosophical culture and worldview on the system of meaning and the phenomenon of vitality, is updated in the information society. This problem is especially acute in situations of existential crises especially. The co-authors apply an integrative methodology for combining psychological and philosophical discourses, relying on the conceptual and methodological apparatus of researchers – both psychologists and philosophers, and sociologists. The fundamental existential significance of philosophical worldview in the system of education and training leads to the conclusion that it is necessary to restore the status of philosophical knowledge as an integrative component of educational culture. The considered philosophical sociological and psychological aspects of existential values will help to reveal the axiological potential of the person, which is realized in the process of education and professional activity.

Психосоциални и медицински аспекти при проследяване на случай с Lues – норми, забрани и предразсъдъци

Author(s): Milena Dimitrova,Rositsa Doynovska,Dancho Dilkov,Trayanka Grigorova,Galina Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2020

Nowadays, syphilis is both a well-known and a forgotten disease, due to the rarer morbidity and higher effectiveness in the treatment of the infection. Despite that, it poses a challenge, one formed out of, on one hand, the work of the multidisciplinary team/APL, a nurse, an infectionist, a psychiatrist, a dermatologist, a psychologist/and, on the other hand, the prejudices and fears of the patient and his relatives. This is due to the fact that it is most commonly a blood-borne or sexually transmitted and can affect all organs in the human body, causing severe, lasting consequences - both physical and psychological in nature. The high variability of symptoms, the possibility of developing the disease in a wide time range after infection, the need for a complex approach to working with patients all lead to difficulties in the diagnosing and timely treatment of syphilis. This article examines in detail a clinical case of newly-diagnosed neurosyphilis – from the doctor's office to the difficult way out of it, trying to answer the question: Is it possible to have a happy ending in a rather strict, stigmatizing society.

The Moral Education Of Children And Youth From A Pedagogical Retrospective

Author(s): Marianna Marusynets,Zoriana Vakolia,Inna Romanivna Perepeliuk / Language(s): English Issue: 12/2019

Contemporary educational science is actively seeking ways in which it is possible for the growing personality to consciously absorb basic principles of high morale where national and universal human values would be equally combined. The latter serve as guidelines determining the subject of interaction between educators and pupils. In this respect, cooperative pedagogy with its methodology comes into the picture. It involves mutual respect, equality, sociability – all the attributes of the subject-to-subject interaction oriented towards the maximum activity of educators as well as pupils.It brings about a change in the traditional approach to essence, methods and forms used in the educational process. Its ultimate goal has to consist not only in pupils` understanding of a profound meaning hidden in moral values – it is more about moral act commitment through actions, words and feelings. Only such an educational strategy leads to the result when pupils embrace social and natural environment and become true patriots of their country.

PROMOTING ETHICAL VALUES IN THE UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT

Author(s): Daniela Jeder / Language(s): English Issue: 13/2020

The mission of the universities is to build the infrastructure of the social mind, and to provide directions for the evolution of the society, and the promotion and realization of the process of internalizing ethical values are priorities in this particularly complex and important endeavor. The work we propose underlines the importance that must be given to values in order to build an ethical culture in the university environment and the accents that ethical education can put on to eliminate vulnerabilities, to change mindsets, to build benchmarks for normality and to provide support for moral evolution at the social level.

Akaṉānūṟu. Podia for Myths and Legends

Author(s): Raju Kalidos / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The Akaṉānūṟu, listed under the Caṅkam classical anthology, Eṭṭuttōkai, is a logical preamble to the Puṟaṉānūṟu. Akam (domestic environ) and Puṟam (beyond the home, exterior aṟam, righteous war) are keywords in Tamil literary tradition. In a work dealing with domestic behavior, evidences relating to myths and legends may be expected. Specialists in art history are naturally interested in myths. I have tried to show how akam is interlaced with pan-Indian mythologies adumbrated in the itihāsas and purāṇas, while retelling autochthonous cultures, and integrating the southern and the northern of the “Indian Asia”, cf. Tamiḻ-iṇppap pā […] vaṭa-moḻip-paṟṟāḷar “bliss offering Tamil poems, the lovers of the northern language (Sanskrit)” (PT 1.4). This is emotional integration. I guess mahākavi-Kāḷidāsa knew Tamil if Poykai Āḻvār was an expert in the Vedas (TI, 33 maṟai “Veda”, antiyāḷ “Gāyatrī”).

Substance vs. Manifestation: Some Pages of “Person’s” History

Author(s): Kateryna Rassudina / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2020

There are two ways in which a concept of “person” can be considered: substantial and demonstrative-relative ones. The former is based on the apprehension of the person as a being, on the search for the ultimate reasons of its existence. The latter refuses to consider these issues, thus describes the person as a phenomenon, a process of changing the states of consciousness. The danger of demonstrative-relative approach is that, examining only person’s manifestations, we risk not seeing the essence under poorly visible phenomena. Contemporary philosophers therefore should use substantial conception, despite the fact that it may seem ancient and old-fashioned.