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On rationalist infallibilism, a wide range of both (i) analytic and (ii) synthetic a priori propositions can be infallibly justifi ed, i.e., justifi ed in a way that is truth-entailing. In this paper, I examine the second thesis of rationalist infallibilism, what might be called ‘synthetic a priori infallibilism’. Exploring the seemingly only potentially plausible species of synthetic a priori infallibility, I reject the infallible justifi cation of so-called self-justifying propositions.
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Nietzsche, in his work On the Genealogy of Morals, argues that human cognition is analogous in certain signifi cant respects to the perspectival nature of optical vision. Because of this analogy, his account of human cognition is often referred to as perspectivism. Brian Leiter argues that Nietzsche’s use of this optical perspective metaphor undermines interpretations that take perspectivism to have radically skeptical implications. In this paper, I examine Leiter’s argument and show that the considerations he raises based on the optical perspective metaphor are insuffi cient to undermine the claim that perspectivism entails radical skepticism.
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The article observes the treatment of soul and hell and torment in hell characteristic of modern scientific and religious thought to describe the linear chronology of macrocosm. First there was the Creation of the world and man, and the Fall, which was followed by the Great Deluge some two millennia later. The temporal scale is halved by the Crucifixion and Ascension of Christ, and the Judgment Day will arrive soon, destining people to heavenly bliss or torment in hell. The discussion questions what happens to soul after death and before final judgment. Modern religiosity exerts considerable influence on contemporary views on science.
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In the article by L. S. Sysoyeva it is shown how disastrous status of majority of Russian people, lack of national idea and transparent democratic politics, as well as national industry and agriculture is concealed by the Russian government or it is feigned that the situation stabilized in the country during V. Putin’s government. In fact the matter is different: the differentiation of population on the rich and the poor has a tendency to increase, in conditions of high inflation the level of life of majority becomes low. There is necessity to save people as every year the amount of population decreases. In the article we discuss a problem of creating social institutes of civil society that would from the bottom introduce national idea of social state, control over the distribution of national property and thus of liquidation of amoral elite that illegally appeared due to the robbery of the country, and that is quite disinterested in patriotic reinforcement of national economics, agriculture and wellbeing of people in Russia.
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The principle of power distribution is directly connected with the theory of power distribution, which was first launched by the philosophers John Locke and Charles de Montesquieu. This principle was first established in democratic constitutions and soon became one of the main factors of the democratic development of countries. After the regaining of independence of Lithuania, the principle of power distribution was established in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania in 1992. Therefore, when analyzing the principle of power distribution as the aspect of democracy, one can take into account the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania of 1992, which had a significant impact on the development of contemporary democratic Lithuania. The aim of this article is to reveal the rarely raised topic of the establishment of the principle of power distribution in the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania of 1992, as well as to discuss its importance in the process of democratizing the independent country of Lithuania.
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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the importance of international scientific networking as an element of political globalization. The significance of international cooperation in science for universities and academies of sciences is highlighted with special emphasis on the European Research Area. In this context, reference to the role of the Austrian Academy of Sciences is made.
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This article raises the question whether the nationality is ontological or cultural problem, that is to say, is nationality the sphere of necessity (basic human need) or freedom (cultural need). With that aim, the matter concepts of basic human need and psychological (cultural) need is disclosed, the principles formation of peoples and nations is carried out, the question of denationalization is raised. After all, is forming the conclusion that in history of development of nations and nationality these objects move from the sphere of nature (basic needs), that is to say, of necessity, to the sphere of culture (cultural needs), that is to say, of freedom.
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The aim of this paper is to reconsider Hannah Arendt’s most influential works from the point of view of her attitude towards democracy and analysis of the way it may contribute to the contemporary understanding and redefinition of the very notion of what democracy is. The paper begins with the reconstruction of Arendt’s anthropology in order to ground her political reflections. The next part discusses the basic characteristics of counsel democracy in forms of spontaneous, local organizations and associations in which every citizen could freely and equally participate, as they show through her analysis of revolutions. The last part deals with different and contradictory interpretations of Arendt’s attitude towards democracy and the question whether her proposition is a practical, revolutionary proposition or an idealist utopia. The interpretation of Arendt’s project emphasizing her democratic and reformative approach is defended. The conclusion states Hannah Arendt’s important contribution to the contemporary reflection on democracy in view of her recognition of the power of grassroots collective actions and their role in contemporary political sphere and the necessity of such formed at grassroots and spontaneous level actions and associations as a unique safety valve for the society, as well as a counterbalance for mass society.
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The article argues for the universal character of human rights. It is demonstrated that they are not of specific value of Western culture but are a universal norm. This norm is valid not only for political practices but, first of all, for the morality and practice of argumentation. Human rights are strictly correlated with Kantian Categorical Imperative and can be substantiated by means of transcendentalpragmatic argument (K.O. Apel). The difference between values and norms are also considered. It is demonstrated that values are always subjective and arbitrary meanwhile final justification is possible for norms.
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The article analyses dialectics of a modern democracy and liberalism through the new (from the quality point of view) subsistence of liberty, the priority element of democracy, in liberal democracies. The significance of such discourse is determined by the existing social inequality and its conversion into political domain. Particular attention is paid to the social issue, which was treated by Max Weber already as the reason of death of the old, fanatic German “national liberalism”, since it has not managed to belong to the German environment. Even today, it still lies in the principles of life and reality of “young” democratic postsoviet states. Conversion of a social issue into political domain disorganises the society, and it is hardly capable to socialise its norms and values in order to be obligated with regard to civic goals. In other words, the social issue significantly adjusts the pace and direction of transformation of the society. Therefore, an immature “young” liberal democracy may become “less liberal” or no longer conform to the “strict” definition of liberal democracy. Referring to the above, we conclude that social composition should become the medium of political reconstruction for “young” democracies. This does not mean, however, the change of the genetic code of liberalism. This is a striving to vest it, as an ideology, additional powers for rationalisation of democracy by delivering to it the content and the meaning, which would answer the challenges and problems of the time. Liberalism should create a new, from the quality point of view, hierarchy of values and become a new context for both political thinking and democracy. This would render new impulses to economic and public politics, meanwhile developing new premises for a new, from the quality point of view, democracy that would help to consolidate the society for the becoming of liberal democracy.
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The core of this article is the ancient question concerning the individual person in relation to his/her society. This fundamental question of ethics and political philosophy is approached from the perspective of phenomenological philosophy. Hence, this article is an attempt to conjoin two prima facie inconsistent (because of category mistake) types of attitude towards reality and action, e.g. democracy and phenomenology. The thesis states that there is a common ground between the basic features of phenomenological method and the fundamental values of democracy. This paper explores the arguments that establish this parallelism between the values of democracy and phenomenology. One of the outcomes of this analysis will be the sketch of a new kind of virtue ethics and a new type of citizen, concerning new approaches to identity problem. In this respect method of phenomenology can be used as a technique (phronesis) for a future citizenship. On the other hand, this perspective helps to reevaluate the treasures of antique democracy and compare them with contemporary transformations of democracy in political, social and everyday spheres.
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Good Governance, Social Market Economy, Culture and Education are the decisive elements for Human Development. We need a third way between the extremes of the Utopian Global Free Market and a new nationalism. A Social Market Economy and the European Model of a Union could be such third way. For a new Social Market Economy we need a renaissance of the European dialectics between culture and society, idealism and materialism, religion and enlightenment, solidarity and profitability. The balancing of those poles is deeply rooted in our best traditions. There are different sectors of public life following different signals and not only one economic signal for all of them. Different sectors of our public life should be in a sustainable balance. We have to search for new compromises beyond flexibility and security (Flexicurity), beyond competition and cooperation (Coopetition).
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The article examines the reduction of architecture to the dimension of utility which results in placelessness. The modern redefinition of science as “knowing-making” is essential to this reduction, although it has fundamental and forgotten importance. Drawing upon Martin Heidegger’s and George Grant’s critique of technology, and the ideas of Alberto Pérez-Gómez and Charles-Francois Viel, the significance of the complex relations between theory and practice in architecture will be explored in the context of Kimberly Dovey’s notion of the cycle of lived-space. A re-definition of modern “knowing-making” reveals a semiotic level which contains new possibilities for meaningful and environmentally attuned architecture within the technological framework. I suggest “designing-building” as an alternative, understood as a process of poetic recreation of meaningful spaces.
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Alienation as an aspect of the human condition has a long and storied history. Much of the attention has been focused, however, on alienation among humans themselves. Yet it is increasingly clear that we are in the process of alienating ourselves from the world and all of the creatures and objects in it. This discussion examines the second choral ode from Sophocles’ Antigone and some analyses of the content and formal aspects of Berg’s opera, Wozzeck, in the context of Adorno’s concept of “distinctness without domination,” as means of providing a brief analysis of the problem of alienation considered in this larger sense. These considerations enable the isolation of several important factors that have inhibited our insight into the seriousness of this form of alienation: First, alienation among humans has effectively distracted us from the increasing urgency of our alienation from the world and the things in it. Second, blinded by our spectacular illusion of “progress,” we continue to pay for it by wreaking destruction upon the planet, the very fount of our existence. Third, morality has only too often been seen as being located in rationalized (hierarchical) relationships among humans rather than as an equally shared, spiritual relationship among the human community, the rest of the biosphere, and the very rocks and water upon which we exist. This final point suggests changes in attitude and behavior that could help us avoid the most devastating effects of this more broadly conceived form of alienation.
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This article examines Heidegger’s account of dwelling while placing it in the broad context of a wide array of his lectures and the constellation of his collected writings. The focus on this question is primarily ontological in character, in spite of the spatial significance of the phenomenon of dwelling, and the bearings it has on a variety of disciplines that interrogate its essence, be it in architectural humanities and design or in geography, which probe the various elements of its architectonic and topological underpinnings. The investigation of Heidegger’s reflections on dwelling will be connected in this line of inquiry with his consideration of what he refers to as “the gathering of the fourfold,” namely as “earth, sky, mortals and divinities,” and the manner they are admitted and installed into “things,” all to be set against the background of his meditations on the origins of the work of art, and on the unfolding of the essence of modern technology as en-framing.
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