Rumour News and Its Features

Author(s): Valdas Pruskus / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2007

The magic of rumours and their background are discussed in the paper. The features of rumour news, which make them interesting to an individual who can fulfil his creativity here as a creator of information and potential of a transmitter, are revealed here. It is shown that joining information “enlargers” turns an individual into the hostage of the news interchange net because of two main reasons: firstly, because of difficulties to uphold moral discretion while conveying the news, and, secondly, because of the rumour’s incompletion due to absence of a complete mechanism that makes it insatiable, requiring a new and ever “fresher” information. Factors impeding the individual’s withdrawal from the rumour’s space are analysed.

Language Policy and Language of Cultural Pluralism

Author(s): Basia Nikiforova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2007

The aim of this article is to challenge the problem of the formation of national identity through the prism of cultural pluralism and language policy. On the example of the principle of liberal neutrality as a part of the hybrid theory of language policy, (which means the right of a national minority to develop and use its national language within reasonable limits which will be understandable for them), it is shown how to realize cultural pluralism policy. Two basic models have been established for language policy: a common public language model (which views language policy as a primary tool for national education and views that a common language is to be shared by all citizens) and language maintenance model (public institutions recognize the right of separate groups to be able to use their own minority languages as a tool for a state-level dialogue). Language policy dilemmas facing the European Union (EU) and the most important documents of the EU on problems of the rights of national minorities and its language policy are analysed in the article.

Kitcher’s Mathematical Naturalism

Author(s): James Robert Brown / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2003

Recent years have seen a number of naturalist accounts of mathematics. Philip Kitcher’s version is one of the most important and influential. This paper includes a critical exposition of Kitcher’s views and a discussion of several issues including: mathematical epistemology, practice, history, the nature of applied mathematics. It argues that naturalism is an inadequate account and compares it with mathematical Platonism, to the advantage of the latter.Recent years have seen a number of naturalist accounts of mathematics. Philip Kitcher’s version is one of the most important and influential. This paper includes a critical exposition of Kitcher’s views and a discussion of several issues including: mathematical epistemology, practice, history, the nature of applied mathematics. It argues that naturalism is an inadequate account and compares it with mathematical Platonism, to the advantage of the latter.

On the Usefulness of Arts and Sciences

Author(s): Ferenc Huoranszki / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2003

The paper addresses the problem whether arts, sciences and humanities can be regarded as useful. First it examines the means-ends relation and argues that some means are not causally but rather constitutively connected to ends. Second, it specifies two dimensions along which the problem of values will be addressed. One is the issue about the relation between values and desirability, the other is the active and affective conceptions of valuation. Third the paper offers a concise reconstruction of the answers to the question of usefulness formulated during the enlightenment. It will be argued that traditionally usefulness was understood causally and not on the individual, but rather on the social level. In the final section the paper contends that values should be understood in terms of activities rather than in terms of desire satisfaction and that this interpretation can bring us closer to answering the question whether and why arts and sciences are useful.

In memoriam Srđan Lelas (1939-2003)

Author(s): Tihomir Vukelja / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2003

Timothy Williamson, Knowledge and its Limits

Author(s): Mladen Domazet / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2003

James O. Young, Art and Knowledge

Author(s): Iva Vlah / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2003

Equality and Morality

Author(s): Edo Pivčević / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2003

Arguments for and against social equality have been advanced on various grounds, but the central issue remains to what extent, if at all, the pursuance of social equality should be seen as morally binding. Why should it be incumbent upon everyone to treat it as a moral virtue? The paper considers some of the best known egalitarian views and argues that the case for equality as a morally binding principle has not been made.

Elvio Baccarini, Bioetica: Analisi Filosofiche Liberali (Bioethics: The Liberal Philosophical Analysis)

Author(s): Snježana Prijić-Samaržija / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2003

Some Externalist Strategies and Their Problems

Author(s): Howard Robinson / Language(s): English Issue: 7/2003

I claim that there are four major strands of argument for externalism and set out to discuss three of them. The four are: (A) That referential thoughts are object-dependent. This I do not discuss. (B) That the semantics of natural kind terms is externalist. (C) That all semantic content, even of descriptive terms, stems from the causal relations of representations to the things or properties they designate in the external world. (D) That, because meaning is a social product and no individual can capture the whole social practice that defines a concept, what the speaker means always outruns what he can know. I briefly discuss (C) and (D) and conclude that they cannot be correct, because, if they were, the content of every thought would permanently transcend the reflective grasp of all thinkers. Then I discuss (B) and conclude that, though Putnam shows something interesting about natural kind terms—namely that a real verbal definition requires science—this has none of the con-sequences for philosophy of mind that it is normally supposed to have.

Nichifor Crainic ,portret de (re)cunoaştere în filosofia rom ânească de azi

Author(s): Gabriel Hasmatuchi / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2013

In this study we emphasize some traits based exclusively on the philosophical contribution of the theolog Nechifor Crainic. We will also point out what made the thinker have an attitude framed in the sense of tradition and in the autochthonal spirit, but also the reason why his work has still a national cultural value and, why not, an universal value.

Mircea Vulc ănescu –dimensiunea rom ânească a genera ţiei

Author(s): Ion Dur / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2013

Imaginea Fiinţei Supreme în sistemele religioase

Author(s): MARCEL SABADOS / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2013

Supreme Being is in Heaven. Heaven reveals directly the transcendence, strength and sacredness. For primitive men the original power of Supreme Beings lies in the fact that they had created the world, life and man. For the religious man the Divine Being is conceived in two coexisting aspects: angry and gentle, forgiving and relentless, terrifying and restful. Any goddess aspires to be a Mother Goddess, spanning all her attributes and functions. For archaic peoples a several number of Supreme Beings were androgynes; androgynia represents the perfection of unconditional primordial status.

Basmul şi modelul cultural al temporalităţii

Author(s): Marian Nencescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2013

The Romanian traditional culture has successive layers and makes up what Lucian Blaga called a vernacular philosophical constant, or a form of proto-philosophy. This cultural model, actually the first Romanian view upon the world, is a synthesis of logos and mythos, but rather a form of Romanian ethos . Seen in this context, the process of humanization of the ancient world, based on the cultural model of temporality, is the foundation of the cyclic evolution of the world, and finds its full structure in the traditional fairy tale. Keywords: traditional culture, recent culture, proto-philosophy, vernacular humanism, temporality, myth, legend, fairy tale.

Despre câteva permanenţe ale filosofiei româneşti

Author(s): Teodor Vidam / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2013

The study captures the effort made by the academician Theodore Dima to reveal the gnoseological demarche of Blaga, the hermeneutical- dialectical attitude instituted and professed by Noica and P. Botezatu. The study also captures other relevant aspects of the Romanian philosophy. In this study we tried to disclose some of the ideatic arborescent relief of a particularly complex book through the problems load, the elegance of writing, through the effort made to reveal the perennial valences of the Romanian philosophical spirituality.

Mit Lucian Blaga ins 21.Jahrhundert Überlegungen zum Zeitgeist und dem gegenwärtigen philosop hischen Diskurs

Author(s): Ullrich Zeitler / Language(s): German Issue: 1-2/2013

Constructivism and pragmatism are the most popular responses to postmodernism as we are approaching the limits of our reflective capacities. Consequently, in science practice, not theory is now the primary concern. The Romanian philosopher Lucian Blaga has anticipated this development in his epistemological writings, where he combines pragmatism with constructivism. However, I shall argue that he misses some important points by delimiting himself from phenomenology. I shall argue, that phenomenology has an important contribution to make to our modern “Zeitgeist” and can be a supplement to the pragmatic and constructivist mind.

Războiul Marelui Anonim împotriva lui Lucifer

Author(s): Ionel Narița / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2013

The Romanian thinker, Lucian Blaga, makes a distinction between two types of knowledge. The first type represents the empirical knowledge while the second form corresponds to the theoretical or hypothetical knowledge. Although the last one is uncertain and problematical, it wakes up the reaction of the Great Anonymous, (a totalitarian authority), which tries to stop it using the instrument of censorship. This study analyses various forms of censorship during history till to Romania of our days.

Neodrživosti logičkog pozitivizma

Author(s): Ita Šakota,Zoran Primorac / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 38/2007

Jezik i simbol u Wittgesteina, s naglaskom na tractatus

Author(s): Zdravko Kordić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 38/2007

Cyrkularność w definiowaniu przez postulaty pojęcia wiedzy logicznej [przełożył Janusz Maciaszek]

Author(s): Javier Vilanova Arias / Language(s): Polish Issue: 17/2005

In this paper I critically evaluate the Implicit Definition Theory and its possibility of resolution of two main problems concerning logical knowledge: the explication and the justification. I point at five results that can be obtained: apriority, factuality, normativity applicability and non-circularity. I argue that in case of explication all mentioned results can be obtained but in case of justification the circularity is inevitable. In the last paragraph I propose a solution of this problem.