This article argues that the Paraphrasis of St John’s Gospel by Nonnus offers a response to late antique concerns as to why the salvific message of Jesus failed to be recognised by authorities of the Roman Empire in the Gospels. By reworking the portrait of Pilate found in John’s Gospel, Nonnus transforms the governor into an unambiguously late antique pepaideumenos, one who ultimately participates in the promulgation of Christian salvation and truth. The analysis shows that Nonnus accomplishes this portrait through (...) the use of Homeric parallels and allusions to Plato’s Apology of Socrates, which transform Jesus’ trial before Pilate from John 18 into a philosophical dialogue about justice, kingship, and truth. The poem invites its late antique audience to better identify with Pilate and to see his inscription of the title (titulus) on Jesus’ cross as an early gentile confession of faith, ultimately making Pilate into an apostle avant-la-lettre and rehabilitating the role of Rome vis-à-vis Christianity for late antique audiences.This work is part of a project on the reception of John’s Gospel in Late Antiquity under the direction of Prof. Michele Cutino and his research group, GIRPAM, at the Faculté de théologie catholique, Université de Strasbourg. (shrink)

The 1994 US spectrum auction is now a paradigmatic case of the successful use of microeconomic theory for policy-making. We use a detailed analysis of it to review standard accounts in philosophy of science of how idealized models are connected to messy reality. We show that in order to understand what made the design of the spectrum auction successful, a new such account is required, and we present it here. Of especial interest is the light this sheds on the issue (...) of progress in economics. In particular, it enables us to get clear on exactly what has been progressing, and on exactly what theory has – and has not – contributed to that. This in turn has important implications for just what it is about economic theory that we should value. (shrink)

The article discusses the features of Kant's project of descriptive metaphysics and its development in Husserl's transcendental phenomenology. Kant's project of descriptive metaphysics can be seen in three senses: as a transcendental philosophy in General, which deals with the study of cognition, as a metaphysics of experience, aimed at studying the first principles of world experience, and as revealing the structure of our thinking about the world. All these variants of descriptive metaphysics were developed in Husserl's transcendental phenomenology. The author (...) pays special attention to the analysis of the phenomenological doctrine of consciousness, since in Husserl's approach one can see the development of the project of descriptive metaphysics in all three senses Husserl understands consciousness as cognizing consciousness, that is, as cognition; the phenomenological understanding of consciousness also includes a mode of thinking about the world; consciousness is considered by Husserl as a real everyday experience. (shrink)

Addresses the place of addiction in modern art, literature, philosophy, and psychology, including its effects on the works of such thinkers and writers as Heidegger, Nietzsche, DeQuincey, Breton, and Burroughs.

We live in a world of technologies. Classical Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Technology, Episte- mology, etc. philosophical disciplines appear insufficient for valid reflections on today's world. The Philo- sophy of Engineering and Design (Technological) Actions is seen promising to become a fruitful field of philosophical reflections and is offered from the perspective of the Philosophy of Action and Agency (Practical Philosophy). The foundations of the latter are presented in Part II. In the Part I, the Phi- losophy of Engineering (...) and Design (Technological) Actions is outlined in a comparative with Philo- sophy of Technology, Humanities Philosophy of Technology, Philosophy of Engineering, Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, etc. plane. The paradoxes of E. Feenberg's technique, the interpretation of which is proposed in the part III, are involved for the illustrating of the maintained understanding. In the conclusive part (IV) the general danger of distortive philosophical understandings about the tech- nological common world of today are mentioned. (shrink)

This special issue focuses on the developments in ethical standards in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe including the former Soviet Union. Over thirty years have elapsed since the demise of the Soviet Bloc and, despite some common institutional features, the societies have had very different experiences with uneven developments across the region since the collapse of communism. In this special issue, the authors explore business and management ethics situated within the context of the challenges that face these (...) still transforming post-communist societies. The papers cover a range of issues and countries including Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia. Potential further avenues for research are identified in the field of business ethics in post-communist societies. (shrink)

This study of the Sicilian Questions of the philosopher and mystic Ibn Sabٴ īn of Murcia interprets the structure and sources of the text as a reflection of intellectual life in the late Almohad Arab West.

Background: Although attention to healthcare ethics in rural areas has increased, specific focus on rural palliative care is still largely under-studied and under-theorized. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the values informing good palliative care from rural individuals' perspectives. Methods: We conducted a qualitative ethnographic study in four rural communities in Western Canada. Each community had a population of 10, 000 or less and was located at least a three hour travelling distance by car (...) from a specialist palliative care treatment centre. Data were collected over a 2-year period and included 95 interviews, 51 days of field work and 74 hours of direct participant observation where the researchers accompanied rural healthcare providers. Data were analyzed inductively to identify the most prevalent thematic values, and then coded using NVivo. Results: This study illuminated the core values of knowing and being known, being present and available, and community and mutuality that provide the foundation for ethically good rural palliative care. These values were congruent across the study communities and across the stakeholders involved in rural palliative care. Although these were highly prized values, each came with a corresponding ethical tension. Being known often resulted in a loss of privacy. Being available and present created a high degree of expectation and potential caregiver strain. The values of community and mutuality created entitlement issues, presenting daunting challenges for coordinated change. Conclusions: The values identified in this study offer the opportunity to better understand common ethical tensions that arise in rural healthcare and key differences between rural and urban palliative care. In particular, these values shed light on problematic health system and health policy changes. When initiatives violate deeply held values and hard won rural capacity to address the needs of their dying members is undermined, there are long lasting negative consequences. The social fabric of rural life is frayed. These findings offer one way to re-conceptualize healthcare decision making through consideration of critical values to support ethically good palliative care in rural settings. (shrink)

According to classical theories of language and cognition, human cognition is characterized by strong universal commonalities built around notions such as object, space, agency, number, time, and event (Clark, 1973; Miller & Johnson‐Laird, 1976). Languages select from this prelinguistic conceptual repertoire the concepts that become encoded in their lexical and grammatical stock. Language acquisition, on this view, is a mapping process in which the learner needs to figure out which sounds in the language spoken in the environment correspond to which (...) concepts from the ones already in the mind (Fodor, 1975; Gleitman, 1990; Pinker, 1994). (shrink)

What do we mean by theory in the arts, and what role does it play in that sense? Theory appears as an active, transformative, fluid, and communicative element of art practices, and research in the arts in particular. Theory is the fluid that perfuses and connects the territory of fine art and design, as well as other art forms such as music, architecture, writing, moving images, dance, and theatre. At the heart of this publication is the new field of research (...) in theory and the way the ArtEZ Theory in the Arts research group investigates its possibilities and extends its boundaries. Editor Peter Sonderen currently chairs the professorship Theory in the Arts at ArtEZ University of the Arts. (shrink)

This paper critically analyses one of the unexpected results of qualitative research aimed at detecting the presence of unethical business practices in Slovakia. The authors seek to find out why entrepreneurs participating in this research do not take responsibility for the development of business ethics and why, in their primary reflections on unethical practices in the Slovak business environment, have they shifted it almost completely to the State level (1), and whether their attitude is morally justified (2). The main theoretical (...) foundation in the following analysis is the theory of development of business ethics on three levels (micro, mezzo and macro), also known as the “subject-matter of business ethics” approach. The paper discusses attitudes of the research sample, including Slovak entrepreneurs and company representatives, towards the State, and the consecutive critical reflection of their opinions shows that businesspersons tend to give up on their own proactive approach to the development of business ethics and position themselves in the role of an “expectant” instead of a “creator” of ethical standards in society. Furthermore, the paper points out that businesses lack ethical self-reflection in relation to corruption, more precisely, they lack reflection of their place in the corrupt relationship with the State. Given these findings, the paper concludes that an essential basis for the long-term development of business ethics in our country is the establishment of partnerships between the State and business entities, while recognizing the place of nongovernmental democratic institutions. (shrink)

Recent scholarship increasingly defines Islamophobia as a form of racism. The possibility that Islamophobia could also manifest itself as religious or cultural bigotry is generally overlooked. This article argues that although anti-Islam bigotry is intertwined with anti-Muslim racism, the two are conceptually distinct. Making this distinction allows us to better analyze, unmask, and critically assess Islamophobia. The article conceptually explores the similarities and differences between anti-Muslim racism and anti-Islam bigotry. It finds that although anti-Islam bigotry implies a prejudicial rejection of (...) an essentialized idea of Islam, it understands religion or culture to be an individual choice and allows for the possibility that Muslims convert or assimilate. As such, it differs from anti-Muslim racism, which implies that the Muslim identity and the negative characteristics associated with Islam are innate and unchangeable. The article argues that contemporary Islamophobic political discourse in Europe is predominantly racist, although it hides behind a cloak of anti-Islam bigotry. (shrink)

It’s been more than three hundred years since William Molyneux posed his now-famous question to John Locke. While it’s clear that Locke agrees with Molyneux that someone born blind and made to see would be unable to recognize at first sight the objects he knew previously only by touch (cross-modal recognition), why Locke thinks this is difficult to understand given Locke’s apparent reluctance to engage much with Molyneux’s question. I argue here that due to the lack of clear textual support, (...) and because previous attempts to account for Locke’s negative answer fail to recognize just how little justification Locke provides, motivate the need for a new approach to explain Locke’s answer to Molyneux’s question. My new approach is to consider what successful Lockean cross-modal recognition might look like given his “Architecture of Ideas,” the work of his Essay to account for mental content, from simple sensory ideas to knowledge. This allows us to identify which ideas and mental faculties he might likely consider essential for success at Molyneux’s task, and which, if lacking, explain the newly sighted man’s failure. Furthermore, this approach yields some surprising results: there is more than one reason the newly sighted person would fail. And adjusting the question to involve a cross-modal comparison of two-dimensional shapes does not suggest Locke would change his answer to ‘yes’. (shrink)

Extant literature on Political CSR and the role of governments in the governance of business conduct tends to neglect key implications of the political-institutional macro-context for public deliberation. Contextual assumptions often remain rather implicit, leading to the need for a more nuanced, explicit and context-sensitive exploration of the theoretical and practical boundary conditions of Political CSR. In non-democratic political-institutional contexts, political pluralism and participation are limited, and governmental agencies continue to play the most central role in regulation and its enforcement. (...) Drawing on a qualitative case study on a nuclear energy project in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, we show how both governments and MNCs co-create a context hostile to socially responsible business conduct in the sense of Political CSR. Utilizing rich qualitative data derived from interviews, public documents, and participant observation between 2008 and 2018, we specifically illuminate how—through which interactions and strategies—the multiple governmental and corporate actors involved counter civil society demands for public deliberation, indicating the limitations of Political CSR in non-democratic political-institutional contexts. We particularly contribute to the development of Political CSR by analysing the role of coercive and discursive forms of power. We thus offer a more nuanced perspective on the role of governments in constraining the room for public deliberation in the sense of Political CSR. (shrink)

How do languages of the world refer to motion? According to one widely held view, languages draw on a pool of common ‘building blocks’ in representing motion events, such as figure and ground, path (or trajectory), manner, cause of motion, and so on (cf. Talmy, 1985). Nevertheless, individual languages differ both in the elements they select out of the available stock of motion ‘primitives’ and in the way they conflate them into specific lexical and clausal structures (Talmy, 1985; Slobin, 1996a; (...) Choi & Bowerman, 1991; Jackendoff, 1990; and many others). (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Discourse as Teaching Subjectivity as Ethical Election to Subjectivity ‐ A Teaching Some Possible Objections The Possibility of Ethical Subjectivity Notes.

We argue that the infinitival complements of subject-control and subject-to-subject raising verbs in Hungarian can have overt nominative subjects. The infinitival subject status of these DPs is diagnosed by constituent order, binding properties, and scope interpretation. Long-distance Agree(ment) and multiple agreement are crucial to their overtness.

This article is a critical analysis of the most important assumptions of Chantal Mouffe’s political philosophy, along with its original categories such as agonism, radical democracy and hegemony. The sources of her concept are indicated and certain difficulties that the author falls into are distinguished. The thread that is considered central to this philosophy, with the most profound practical consequences, is an attempt to demonstrate the futility of a liberal doctrine that values consensus and deliberation and proclaims an apology for (...) individualism and rationalism. Mouffe’s diagnosis strikes at the most important liberal values with the intention of discrediting them although she tries to creatively adopt others, such as pluralism. She proposes a new paradigm, much fairer than existing ones, because it does not negate the conflictive nature of politics. Does an agonist dispute and radical democracy really have a chance to undermine liberal axiology? Are we dealing with a breakthrough in thinking about politics? (shrink)

Scholars and commentators have noted the frequent inefficacy of "development," and criticized the power relations it entrenches. Aware of these problems, some North Americans choose to disengage from transnational work. But the reality is that we cannot avoid participating in global networks that affect people in many countries, and there are vast inequalities in access to resources that need to be addressed. Through philosophical insights, narrative accounts, and testimony from community members, we can discover a path between development and disengagement, (...) through which relational morality and meaningful action can enrich intercultural collaboration and yield many fruits. (shrink)

How many hairs must a person lose before they become bald? There doesn’t seem to be an easy way of answering this. This is because “bald”, along with a large number of other words, is vague. This vagueness causes problems and Anna Mahtani specialises in thinking very precisely about these problems….

The Power Paradox reveals how mainstream views of power restrict the conceptual insights needed to resolve conflict. Bennett identifies fascinating contradictions within discourses of power and relational dynamics, acknowledging the enduring quandary of power struggles: we are all implicated within them.

The strapline “life finds a way,” from the classic movie Jurassic Park, referred to how the all-female dinosaurs in a theme park had been able to reproduce, despite the laws of nature. Similarly, the participants in the present study described how their lesbian mothers had shown that “life finds a way,” when having children and forming a family, prior to the legal recognition of same-sex parents in Sweden. The study draws on interviews with eight young Swedish adults, aged 17–30 (average (...) age 25). They had been raised by lesbian couples but were born prior to the legal recognition of same-sex parenthood. Prior to a legal change in 2003, a same-sex couple could not share legal parenthood. Further, female couples were excluded from Swedish assisted reproduction programs until 2005. The interviews have been analyzed thematically, and the article presents the results in four themes. The first theme, circumvent, oppose, or adapt to legal obstacles, shows the participants’ reflections on how their parents navigated legal obstacles in order to have children and to live together as a family. The second theme, legal obstacles do not affect everyday life, depicts a common experience of how a lack of legal recognition seldom mattered to the participants during their childhood. Rather, they explained how their parents had been able to form parenthood and close relations without legal recognition. In contrast, the third theme describes occasions when legal parenthood matters. This theme highlights occasions when the lack of legal parenthood was problematic or devastating for the participants, such as when parents divorced, or one parent died. The final theme, the meaning of legal parents in adulthood, explores the participants’ reflections on the meaning and impact of legal ties (or lack of legal ties) between themselves as young adults and their parents. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research on children and young adults with same-sex parents. (shrink)

In his treatise "Elementa harmonica," Aristoxenus of Tarentum formulated a distinctive philosophical framework within the realm of sound exploration, deviating from the harmonics theory advanced by the Pythagoreans. A pivotal disparity lies in the methodological approach to research. Aristoxenus posited meticulous observation of acoustic phenomena as the foundational step in all inquiries, constituting a fundamental criterion for truth. He asserted that perception alone could authenticate the fidelity of the observed state of affairs. Aristoxenus vehemently opposed the Pythagorean disregard for auditory (...) testimony, deeming it a notable methodological lapse. According to him, the harmonikos must serve as a vigilant observer of acoustic phenomena, equipped with a discerning and cultivated musical ear. (shrink)

In this paper I would like to present a brief description of the issues in English-Polish translation in the field of antitrust. Ever since Poland became a part of the broadening European integration, the Polish antitrust laws have been strongly “Europeanised”. Many new linguistic elements exist in both the Polish language of antitrust law and Polish legal language. Whatever the cause, the result is a decrease in the quality of the language. The issues of concern are divided into two groups. (...) The first relates to producing Polish versions of EU legal documents concerning antitrust. The second is related to translating English language of antitrust for the purposes of drafting national documents concerning antitrust, both legal documents and documents that are not legally binding. I will then turn to areas where a change is needed and propose measures that might be helpful in the current circumstances. (shrink)

Languages encode motion in strikingly different ways. Languages such as English communicate the manner of motion through verbs (e.g., roll, pop), while languages such as Greek often lexicalize the path of motion in verbs (e.g., ascend, pass). In a set of studies with English- and Greek-speaking adults and 5-year-olds, we ask how such lexical constraints are combined with structural cues in hypothesizing meanings for novel motion verbs. We show that lexicalization biases generate different interpretations of novel motion verbs across ages (...) and languages; furthermore, they generalize to the domain of caused motion. Crucially, these language-specific effects interact with universal mappings between syntactic structure and semantic content, and these interactions are respected by both adults and young children. (shrink)

The article discusses the importance of practice for conducting research on digital culture. It poses questions about whether one should possess technical competences in the field of digital humanities and in what way they can facilitate research attempting to describe the contemporary world. This issue is analysed using the theory of the third culture developed by Charles Percy Snow. The argument also focuses on other researchers representing various strategies for combining practice with theory, such as: Lev Manovich, Alexander R. Galloway, (...) Jan Stasieńko and Mirosław Filiciak. The aim of the article is to describe the emerging, new image of a humanist studying digital culture, whose new competence may be seen as a remedy for the ongoing crisis of the humanities. (shrink)

The primary aim of this article is to present the rule of law universalism as a relevant theoretical and socio-political issue that critical legal thought needs to contend with. In order to do so, this issue is described through a Marxist theoretical framework, which aids in identifying the consequences of this universalism. Furthermore, the Marxist theoretical framework is suggested as a countermeasure that allows for going beyond it. The rule of law universalism is analysed as a process connected to establishing (...) hegemony and status quo that affects both the way the law is thought of and practiced. The post-communist context serves in fleshing out some of these consequences. Although the transition is not the main subject of inquiry, it is a starting point to a set of philosophical questions directed towards the rule of law universalism, mainly regarding historical embeddedness and socio-political dependency of the rule of law. The transitional context illustrates the tension between the rule of law treated as a generalized blueprint and the reality it is introduced to. The method of approach to this tension argued for in this paper is Marxian theorization of concept as an interplay between concrete and abstract that underlies historical materialism. This movement within concept is juxtaposed to the universalism. The philosophical investigations are followed by findings from Marxist legal theory that pinpoint the importance of concrete interventions into the legal theory that abate its ever-growing abstractness. In particular, the import of knowledges and practices divorced from the capitalist system is brought into focus. The paper concludes with a brief assessment of the possibility of overturning the rule of law universalism and a discussion on the emancipatory potential of law. (shrink)

The article discusses the transformation of the concept of History as it can be traced in the writings of Günther Anders. Anders is primarily known as a critique of modern technology specifically of the atomic bomb, which made him a mentor for the first anti-nuclear movement in West-Germany in the late 1950s. His historical thinking was therefore mainly perceived in its post-historic and apocalyptic dimensions. A closer look at his earlier writings reveals not only that his questioning of the modern (...) concept of History began long before the “ontological cesura” of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The article discusses two unpublished philosophical manuscripts as well as passages from his Californian diaries, both dating from 1940/41 and focussing the concept of progress. To follow his thoughts from two different angles – historical philosophical inquiry (however fragmented) and the literary form of his diary – gives us insight in his specific methodology of writing coined “Gelegenheitsphilosophie”. This specific form between “journalism and metaphysics” enables Anders to review abstract philosophical concepts on the basis of everyday observation. In the crucial year 1941 Anders reviews progress-thought from the perspective of a Hollywood film studio, raising questions of tradition, authenticity and technological progress in cultural production. (shrink)