ETNOPOLITIKA U DOBA NJEZINOG „GRAĐANSKOG PREVLADAVANJA“

Author(s): Ugo Vlaisavljević / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2015

If there is indeed a national issue in post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina, then it is the Croatian issue. Already with the Dayton Agreement that issue has been changed to a state issue with Bosniaks and Serbs: their main national political interest is a final national statehood. For Bosniaks it is Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereas for Serbs it is the Republic of Srpska, as their nation-state. Since the dominant Bosniak national politics is focused on strengthening the state as a whole, the national in that politics is intertwined with the civil. That is why it seems that their national issue does not exist anymore and that there is only the issue of the statehood and civil political participation. In the dominant Serbian politics the national refers only to the statehood of exclusively Serbian entity, so that the national issue is indeed the state issue, but also national. If we see it as a national issue, Croatian issue is then an issue of constitutionality and sovereignty of the nation, of their collective rights. It is raised by the fact that Croats are not constitutive in the Federation, let alone in the Republic of Srpska. That is why Croatian national politics focuses on statutory changes, but that is how it is directly confronted with the Bosniak national politics, because the latter wants to escape the chaos of collective rights in this way. We can assume that Croats, being a minority, do not have their national issue solved. Serbs and Bosniaks do not put up their national issue qua national, in the areas where they are majority – in the two entities. In that case is Croatian entity the only solution? Or is it a delusion of the proponents of the collective rights politics?

Doświadczenie muzyki, doświadczenie w muzyce. Refleksje na podstawie książki Przeciw muzykologii niewrażliwej Macieja Jabłońskiego

Author(s): Iwona Sowińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2015

Review: Maciej Jabłoński, Przeciw muzykologii niewrażliwej [Against Insensitive Musicology], Wydawnictwo Nauka i Innowacje, Poznań 2014.

Na początku był błąd…

Author(s): Monika Rudaś-Grodzka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2016

Plato’s Timaeus, a dialogue on the creation of the world and the soul of the world, mentions a hidden mistake or defect inscribed into the structure of the cosmos. Gnostic philosophers examined this passage in the first and second centuries. In the Syrian-Egyptian writings of the Nag Hammadi Library, this mistake, on which matter is founded, becomes key to understanding the world as emptiness (kenoma). A similar perspective can be found in Isaac Luria’s Kabbalistic ideas as well as in the works of Franz Kafka. The latter’s short story ‘The Cares of a Family Man,’ a testimony to spiritual experience in which the author approaches the limits of what is human, has been variously interpreted by Theodor Adorno and other philosophers. Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem have made Odradek a reference point in their theological discussions. Rudaś-Grodzka’s anamorphic approach, meanwhile, presents a new reading of the story.

Привязанность в действии: психологическая теоретизация связи ребенка и матери в (пост) социалистической Чехии

Author(s): Victoria Schmidt / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1/2016

Attachment theory has been subject to sustained critique by radical psychologists and feminists. The critical stance towards attachment theory among western experts is a matter of long-term analytical practices; neither the work of John Bowlby nor the popular socialist version of attachment theory by the Czech psychologists Zdeněk Matějčekand Josef langmeier has been the subject of such revision. Attachment theory still provides the key arguments in favor of deinstitutionalization and developing family placement in postsocialist countries. This obvious idealization of attachment theory by Czech psychologists limits access to the western critical tradition and blocks the deconstruction of Matějček and Langmeier. This essay attempts to overcome these limitations. A review of critiques of John Bowlby’s theory and his adherents is juxtaposed with a reconstruction of the history of attachment theory in socialist Czechoslovakia. In the first part, the essay embeds Western arguments within the concept of epistemic in justiceas developed by Miranda Fricker. In line with the principle of historicization, the next part explores the combination of forces that drove the formation of attachment theory in Czechoslovakia. The final part investigates contemporary attempts to apply attachment theory to the issue of forced removal of Roma children from their families and examines the options for preventing this practice and the placement of Roma children into residential care settings.

Sceptyczne tropy Wittgensteina i transcendentalizm

Author(s): Witold Marzęda / Language(s): Polish Issue: 36/2016

The article concerns the rule-following paradox, which, according to Saul Kripke, was formulated in “Philosophical Investigations” (PI) by Ludwig Wittgenstein. The article indicates that an interesting starting point for the discussion of the paradox may be the concept of structure from Principia Mathematica and used in the Tractatus. It makes it possible to show how extracting a set of rules and a set of actions designated by them (which together form structure) can lead to paradoxical consequences and difficulties, as well as to identify three sceptical clues based on famous paragraph 201 of the PI. These are: (1) An action can be coordinated with a rule only for a finite number of steps. (2) A specific rule can be coordinated with any action. (3) A specific action can be coordinated with any rule. In order to analyse the first of them, the author evokes Wang’s finitism paradox. The second and third clue refer to the semantic difficulties identified by Saul Kripke in his famous book Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language and to the problem of recognition of the sign, which Kripke does not mention and which makes the scepticism of the clues more radical. Wittgenstein’s paradox was already implicitly present in the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant, as well as in the later discussions on the foundations of logic and mathematics — in the works of Ernst Schröder and David Hilbert, who pointed out the necessity of the principle of recognition of the sign as a kind of protection against doubt. Although transcendental philosophy, from its Kantian origins, was to be an alternative to both skepticism and dogmatism, transcendentalism is not the only possibility to escape the paradoxical sceptical consequences that Wittgenstein presented. Another solution may be to reject the distinction between rules and actions.

Funkcje toposu Szatana we współczesnym polskim dyskursie religijnym

Author(s): Marzena Makuchowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2016

In the contemporary Polish Catholic discourse one can notice increased presence of figure of Satan and Biblical topos of his fight with God. The figure appears not only in strictly religious texts but also in discussion on up to date phenomenon of social life, such as abortion, in-vitro fertilization, homosexual partnerships and others. The article is trying to answer the question about functions of this topos. The answer is being searched with usage of sociological findings on the role of language in religion and the role of religion in social life – both issues are discussed in the first chapter. The second chapter, based on fragments from catholic press, presents ways of language construction of analyzed figure. The third chapter focuses on four functions of the topos. The first one is to support religious vision of the world; the second is to strengthen so called nomos, which is the conjunction of rules on which the society is based; the next two functions have rhetorical, persuasive character. The Biblical topos is a kind of a rhetorical formula, which enables in an easy and simple way to explain and to judge the reality but at the same time it gives a very schematic and simplified picture.

Postulat more geometrico w filozofii matematyki Charlesa S. Peirce’a

Author(s): Hanna Michalczyk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

W tekście przedstawiona została ogólna charakterystyka filozofii matematyki Charlesa S. Peirce’a (1839–1914), ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem relacji między matematyką a metodeutyką (metodologią). Związek ten jest o tyle interesujący, że w świetle filozofii nauki Peirce’a metodeutyka jest nauką normatywną, jedną z gałęzi logiki (semiotyki), wskazującą reguły prowadzenia badań naukowych, którym matematyka winna czynić zadość. Z kolei, zważywszy na formalne rozwiązania proponowane przez Peirce’a, a obowiązujące w „królestwie nauk” – matematyka poprzedza metodeutykę, jest pierwszą wśród dyscyplin poznawczych. Na tle relacji, która łączy matematykę i metodeutykę, wyłania się interesująca reinterpretacja metodologicznego postulatu René Descartesa, głoszącego konieczność uprawiania filozofii metodami matematycznymi, pozwalającymi na osiągnięcie wiedzy ścisłej i pewnej, a wyrażonego krótko w słynnym more geometrico. Śledząc meandry matematyczno- metodeutycznego związku, można wyczytać, jak Peirce – zasadniczo krytyk kartezjanizmu – uwspółcześnił naukową wskazówkę Kartezjusza. The paper gives a general characteristic of the philosophy of mathematics of Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914), with particular attention to the relation between mathematics and methodeutic. This relationship is specially interesting in the light of Peirce’s philosophy of science, which says that methodeutic is a normative science, one of the branches of logic (semiotics) and it defines the rules of scientific research, that also mathematics should complies with. On the other hand, according to the formal construct proposed by Peirce and apply in the “realm of science” – mathematics (“the Queen of the Sciences”) is the first among all scientific disciplines therefore it precedes methodeutic. While studying the relationship between mathematics and methodeutic, emerges an interesting reinterpretation of a methodological postulate of Rene Descartes, who proclaiming the necessity of doing the philosophy according to the mathematical methods; the only ones, as Descartes was convinced, that make it possible to achieve a real (“clear and distinct”) knowledge. He expressed this principle briefly, in the famous: more geometrico. Following the twists and turns of mathematics – methodeutic compound we can easily find how Peirce – essentially a critic of Cartesianism – modernized the scientific (methodological) rule of Descartes.

Von Marburg nach Pittsburgh-2: Anschauung in der Struktur der Erfahrung

Author(s): Maja Soboleva / Language(s): German Issue: 35/2016

The paper focuses on the problem of constitution of our cognitive experience. Two approaches to this problem proposed by Ernst Cassirer and John McDowell are central for the analysis. Both authors use Immanuel Kant’s theory of cognition as a foundation for their own conceptions und they develop their independent interpretations of it according to the traditions they belong to. Although McDowell’s interpretation emerged within analytical philosophy, we can see similarity with Cassirer’s theory. Comparative studies of these theories will point out the convergences and divergences between them.

Obraz krytyczny (obraz krytyki)

Author(s): Georges Didi-Huberman / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2016

The anthropological image of criticism (the image of the individual filtering truth from untruth) focuses on the power and meaning of the gesture, which seems more essential than merely ‘conceptual’ philosophical categories. Negative dialectics proposes a new definition of criticism: in view of the catastrophes of the twentieth century we need a vision of criticism that makes it possible to voice our despair and to create a ‘sad science’ in the place of Nietzsche’s ‘gay science’. To make this possible we must draw on the imagination and the image, for it is images that are brittle enough to elude the totalizing power of conceptualization and at the same time strong enough to become agents of criticism.

System; Input; Output: A Critique of Science from the Standpoint of Waste

Author(s): Ana Bazac / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

In this paper it is not so much about the epistemology of waste, but about the epistemology of science from the standpoint of the system theory. Although science meant from its beginning the search for causes and correlations –thus necessarily considering the systems it has focused on – its modern history presents rather a kind of dialectic of holistic and fragmentary approach. In other words, the inherent analytical approach in the construction of scientific theories, the deepening of the professional character of science and special disciplines have seemed to leading to the separation of the main results from the aggregate of results and phenomena. No one has aimed at discussing the residual/secondary phenomena, because what seemed to be respectable in the scientific research was the correlation between the laws or regularities, emphasised through difficult measuring and arguments, and the main phenomena “reflecting” the laws or regularities and targeted and pursued by the scientists. As we know, the accumulation of data, information and aimed theories emphasises the shortcomings and contradictions in the given corpus of science. At the same time, the coherence of theories is confronted with the real phenomena, irrespective here of the definitions we forge for “reality”. In the middle of the last century, the current of the integrationof fragmentary theories related to the sub-systems targeted by scientists into a general system theory has appeared and, obviously, has shaped the scientific outlook on the world, with all the inertial continuation of fragmentary research.Nevertheless, the systemic tackling had –and still has –a serious deficiency: the much weaker attention to the residual/”unintentional”results. But the thesis of the paper is that this deficiency is not so much generated by the internal logic of science than by the extra science logic of decision-makers who control science. Illustrating this thesis, the scientific view of Aristotle-Ludwig von Bertalanffy line is counter-posed to the present distortion of the real world full of all kinds of waste.The epistemological conclusion is that the problem of waste/consequences imposes the re-thinking and transformation of the whole model of input-processing-output system.

Diagram, diagrammatics, and diagrammatology in semiotics

Author(s): Karl Joosep Pihel / Language(s): English Issue: 24/2023

The objective of Pihel’s chapter is to introduce the concept of the diagram, as found in contemporary semiotics, especially after a renewed interest in its role in Charles S. Peirce’s epistemology and logic, spearheaded by scholars such as Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen and Frederik Stjernfelt. This entails a re-evaluation of both diagrams and iconicity in Peirce’s thought, but also their role in modern semiotics, where the concept of the diagram can be seen to bridge Peircean semiotics and iconicity with studies on discrete symbolic systems such as natural language, bridging the gap with Saussurean semiotics, and between semiotics and cognitive linguistics and sciences, which rely on a similar schematism as being inherent to cognition. The chapter proceeds by giving an overview of Peirce’s conception of the diagram-sign and its role in his semiotics and sign-typology. Following that undertaking, the chapter considers conceptual parallels between diagrams and other developments in modern semiotics and humanities. Finally, it considers an alternative conception of the diagram concept, as found in works by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Pihel’s main academic interests are in music semiotics, Peircean semiotics in general, and the study of diagrammatic signs in music in particular. He has divided his time and interest between both practice and theoretical study of music and semiotics, having previously written on the modelling of space and motion in music, and on the narrative analysis of classical music. More recently, he has devoted time to Deleuzean and continental philosophical thought.

Wiedza boska a wiedza ludzka. Boska synestezja w filozofii Ksenofanesa z Kolofonu

Author(s): Sebastian Śpiewak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 49/2023

The aim of the present article is to analyze the poetry of Xenophanes of Colophon concerning his epistemological considerations with the notion of god proposed by him. Traditionally, Xenophanes is well known as a philosopher engaged in the debate on the meaningfulness of mythological ideas. At the same time, he advocates the concept of god, which is different from pictures transmitted through The Greek epic. It shall be shown how the theological approach of the Colophonian finds its justification in his remarks on cognitive abilities, especially in creatively used opposition between human and divine knowledge. Recently indicated, the connection between Xenophanes’ theology and his epistemological theses is not exhausted in the critique of religious anthropomorphism but is more profound, and based on the awareness of the impossibility of clear knowledge (saphes) for a human being. The latter is, however attributed to god alone, who gains the knowledge in the manner of synesthesia.

On the Indeterminacy of the Concept of Beauty and the Reasons for its Use

Author(s): Andrej Démuth,Slavka Demuthova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The study explores the etymological and semantic challenges associated with the term beauty. The authors highlight that beauty is among the most vague and multifaceted concepts. As a result, its users often grasp completely different aspects/dimensions of it. After addressing etymological differences and conducting a conceptual analysis of its synonyms, the authors present empirical findings and a model outlining the semantic space of the term beauty. In the second part of the study, the authors shed light on the reasons behind the use of this ambiguous term, particularly focusing on its evolutionary and existential significance. The conclusion of the study draws attention to the fact that, despite the vagueness of the concept, beauty continues to play a key role in our lives, reflecting our need to share it, and portraying the human being as homo aestheticus.

O niezbędności humanistyki w zinstrumentalizowanym świecie. Humanistyka jako projekt kształtowania wrażliwości

Author(s): Magdalena Szpunar / Language(s): Polish Issue: 48/2024

In the text, the humanities are understood as the only realistic counterbalance, but also resistance to the dominance of instrumental mind. Devaluation and marginalization of the humanities herald cultural regression and cultural autism of individuals. The humanities are treated as an important project for the formation of sensitivity, social integration, but also emancipation, the creation of a common universe that protects society from atomization. The humanities makes us realize that despite its focus on pragmatism and efficiency, the most important thing always is and has to be the human being. Although it can sometimes be inconclusive, although it leaves many things open, uncompleted, this is where its strength lies, breaking us out of certainties, breaking the hegemonic discourse of what is oppressive, speaking up for the human being.

Kant a problematický pojem věci o sobě

Author(s): Jiří Chotaš / Language(s): Czech Issue: 66-67/2024

The paper discusses Kant’s distinction between appearances and things in themselves, phenomena and noumena, and the problem of affection. The difference between appearances and things in themselves is understood as a methodological difference between two manners in which an object can be viewed: either as an appearance, or as a thing in itself. The author claims that this double-aspect view is a consequence of Kant’s conception of space and time as a priori forms of sensibility. The difference between phenomena and noumena, on the other hand, cannot be explained only by the double-aspect view; Kant understands it also as an ontological difference between two different kinds of objects. The paper concludes with a discussion of the problem of affection. The author claims that this problem is a pseudo-problem if we understand the difference between appearances and things in themselves as double-aspect view. Kant had maintained only an empirical affection. Passages in which Kant seems to advocate a transcendental affection can be brought in line with Kant’s critical philosophy.

Philosophy of Medicine

Author(s): Julia Vasseva-Dikova / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2024

In and Out of the Text: Polish 1920s Avant-garde Poetics of Pleasure

Author(s): Agnieszka Jeżyk / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

“We are related to enjoyment as something which intimately belongs to us, to our corporal existence and inner vitality, yet is separated from and independent from us, and thus can be surprising, bewildering, burdensome, disgusting, overwhelming, terrifying, thrilling, conflicted, uncanny, uncontrollable (and sometimes even pleasurable)” – claims Aaron Schuster (2016: 44). According to the theorist, enjoyment can manifest as its opposite, especially in the context of its representations in literature. In this essay, I would like to look at avant-garde erotic poems from the interwar period that address the fascinating entanglement of the bodily and the textual. The metaphors of reading and writing, lyrical dialogue between some of the poems, metatextual reflections on the nature of erotic poetry, and the problem of embodiment are some of the strategies that Bruno Jasieński (Moja nieśmiertelność [My Immortality], Słowo o słowie [A Word about a Word], Na bis [An Encore]), Tadeusz Peiper (Naga [Naked], Ja, Ty [Me, You]), and Mila Elin (Książka [The Book], Głód [Hunger]) use to discuss the joys and challenges of trying to represent jouissance in the text. The starting point for my reflection is Alenka Zupančič’s diagnosis of a similar type of satisfaction coming from sex and talking about sex and her insights on the procedures of intellectualizing sexuality.

Между Омир и ChatGPT

Author(s): Nikolay Tsenkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

The article aims to trace the impact that artificial intelligence has on the contemporary communication paradigm. The relationship between the “large language models” (LLM) and the speech, its sense and the current speech situation is investigated. Elucidation of this relation is revealed by suggesting answers related to the questions of whether artificial intelligence is an unprecedented phenomenon to speech; how artificial intelligence is integrated into a new speech situation; does artificial intelligence disrupt the unity between “word” and “sense”?

Współczesna apokalipsa Ludmiły Ulickiej. O symbolice i wymiarze mądrościowym cyklu opowiadań "Шестью семь" („Sześć po siedem”)

Author(s): Monika Sidor / Language(s): Polish Issue: 34/2024

The study offers an analysis of the latest work of Ludmila Ulitskaya from the point of view of cognitive poetics, considering the conditions of the book’s publication, the situation of the recipients’ first encounter with the Шестью семь cycle and associations related to the author’s current activity. Ulitskaya is among the most recognizable authors of contemporary Russian literature, and her emigration from the country which started a war is perceived as a political and moral declaration. This has led to some new ways of reading her works published after leaving Russia. In this article, the symbols contained in the plots of short stories and the structure of the cycle form the basis for the interpretation of the apocalyptic sense implied in the work. The author of the study states that the specific narrative, resembling Olga Tokarczuk’s concept of “the tender narrator” and including some traits close to the Eastern tradition of wisdom literature, strengthens the positive message of the work. Thus, the apocalyptic vision presented in the last part of Ulitskaya’s work opens to the eternal perspective and assumes waiting for salvation.

Advocating for environmental law – grounds for its status as an independent branch of law in Slovak legal doctrine

Author(s): Matúš Michalovič,Michal Maslen / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

The article traces the historical development of environmental regulation in Czechoslovakia, and subsequently Slovakia, highlighting the transition from fragmented legal frameworks to comprehensive legislation, notably Act no. 17/1992 Coll. on Environment. It explores theoretical debates on whether environmental law constitutes an independent legal branch, examining criteria, such as subject matter, objectives, distinct principles, regulatory methods, and international dimensions. While advocating for environmental law’s recognition as a distinct branch, the article acknowledges ongoing debates and emphasizes the need for continued inquiry to reach consensus. Overall, it provides insights into environmental law’s evolution, challenges, and potential role within legal theory and practice.