O uso dos nomes próprios sem nenhum outro indexador externo aos seus portadores expressa uma escolha narrativa em Úrsula (1859), romance de Maria Firmina dos Reis (1822-1917). Esse uso permite introduzir uma concepção de maternidade como condição para historicidade em contexto patriarcal e escravocrata. A autora não assina a novela, senão sob a descrição indefinida de “uma maranhense”, e, como pretendo demonstrar, essa indefinição é consistente com a vindicação da universalidade na narrativa, em que a autoria de uma história não (...) deve influenciar o sentido da denúncia da escravidão e do patriarcado. O uso dos nomes como descrições, em contraste, desempenha a função normativa de condenar a escravidão e o patriarcado e de condicionar uma historicidade. Primeiro, farei uma breve consideração histórica e biográfica, buscando contextualizar Úrsula, tanto na história do Brasil como na história da literatura do Brasil, com o intuito de situar a natureza abolicionista do texto. Em seguida, tratarei da relação de coextensão entre natureza e liberdade na determinação desse abolicionismo. Depois, chamarei a atenção para o sentido da escolha narrativa pelo uso dos nomes como descrições definidas. Por fim, apresentarei como esse uso permite à autora introduzir uma noção de historicidade, a partir do atrelamento do abolicionismo à função materna. Este último passo é o que constitui o ineditismo e a potência feminista do texto de Firmina, sob o manto da prosa romântica de folhetim. (shrink)

New discoveries in the life sciences have affirmed that the virtual script as well as its context-dependent reading and interpretation determine the final living creature. An extended understanding of Darwinian Theory is crucial for understanding life as semiosis in terms of Peirce and Eco’s semiotic models. The semiosis of living systems is potentially unlimited. Genes are not static and unchangeable scripts, but can always be reinterpreted by new interpretants that illuminate them from different points of view, depending on which properties (...) are relevant in a particular context. The encyclopedia is a term, in Umberto Eco’s semiotics, which represents the multidimensional space of semiosis that is governed by a self-sustaining production of interpretants. The paper will present the idea of understanding the Extended Synthesis in terms of a biosemiotic enyclopedia. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to understand how nurses experience patients’ dignity in Swedish medical wards. A hermeneutic approach and Flanagan’s critical incident technique were used for data collection. Twelve nurses took part in the study. The data were analysed using hermeneutic text interpretation. The findings show that the nurses who wanted to preserve patients’ dignity by seeing them as fellow beings protected the patients by stopping other nurses from performing unethical acts. They regard patients as fellow human beings, (...) friends, and unique persons with their own history, and have the courage to see when patients’ dignity is violated, although this is something they do not wish to see because it makes them feel bad. Nurses do not have the right to deny patients their dignity or value as human beings. The new understanding arrived at by the hermeneutic interpretation is that care in professional nursing must be focused on taking responsibility for and protecting patients’ dignity. (shrink)

The present paper attempts to demonstrate semiotic arguments against the sequence → structure → function paradigm in protein studies. The unidirectional deterministic thinking in biological processes has been challenged by several disciplines of life sciences and philosophy. Biosemiotics comprehends living organisms as actively participating in their present and somehow creating or shaping their future, having a plurality of options for acting. Determinism and unidirectionality are in contradiction with a biosemiotic approach towards life, mostly when considering Peirce’s triadic concept of semiosis. (...) In this paper, a Peircean biosemiotic approach is applied to proteins and to the process of protein folding. Two main concepts are presented to support the arguments against the SSF paradigm in protein studies: the NonReduction Theorem and the notion of folded continuum. A processual approach is proposed as the most suitable for descriptions of proteins and their functions. (shrink)

Peirce’s sign model is introduced as incompatible with structural semiology in the majority of semiotics textbooks. In this paper, I would like to argue against this general polarization of the semiotic discipline. I focus on compatibilities between Lucien Tesnière’s syntactic theory (verbal valency) and Peirce’s logic of relatives. My main argument is that structural linguistics is not necessarily dyadic, and that Peirce’s sign doctrine is perfectly structural. To define the structural approach in Peirce, I analyze the notions of form (structure) (...) and substance in Hjelmslev and Peirce. The aim of my argument is to contribute to attempts to introduce Peirce’s theory to the field of linguistics in the hope that such an integration will be beneficiary for general linguistics. To extend and support my argument, I provide some examples from biology where Peirce’s theory has been applied. I demonstrate an analogy between the biological structures of proteins and the structure of a sentence with Peirce’s own writings. I consequently introduce Peirce as the first structural semiologist and as the first biolinguist. (shrink)

Bare particulars have received a fair amount of bad press. Many find such entities to be obviously incoherent and dismiss them without much consideration. Proponents of bare particulars, on their part, have not done enough to clearly motivate and characterize bare particulars, thus leaving them open to misinterpretations. With this paper, I try to remedy this situation. I put forward a much-needed positive case for bare particulars through the four problems that they can be seen to solve—The Problem of Individuation, (...) The Problem of Change, The Problem of Having a Property, and The Problem of Subtraction. I then distinguish and characterize three possible types of bare particulars—genuinely bare, constitutively bare, and thinly clothed—and consider how each of these cope with some classical and recent objections to bare particulars. I argue that the most troubling objections do not come from familiar quarters, but from examining how well such entities address all four of the ontological problems outlined. I ultimately conclude that the best contenders among the three types of bare particulars are the constitutively bare variety, but argue that, if they are to earn their keep, they must either share or turn over their individuating role to the ordinary particulars that they constitute. (shrink)

In this paper I attempt to study the notion of “folding of a semiotic continuum” in a direction of a possible application to the biological processes. More specifically, the process of obtaining protein structures is compared in this paper to the folding of a semiotic continuum. Consequently, peptide chain is presented as a continuous line potential to be formed in order to create functional units. The functional units are protein structures having certain function in the cell or organism. Moreover, protein (...) folding is analyzed in terms of tension between syntax and semantics. (shrink)

We investigate how people ascribe responsibility to an agent who caused a bad outcome but did not know he would. The psychological processes for making such judgments, we argue, involve finding a counterfactual in which some minimally benevolent intention initiates a course of events that leads to a better outcome than the actual one. We hypothesize that such counterfactuals can include, when relevant, epistemic intentions. With four vignette studies, we show that people consider epistemic intentions when ascribing responsibility for a (...) bad outcome. We further investigate which epistemic intentions people are likely to consider when building counterfactuals for responsibility ascription. We find that, when an agent did not predict a bad outcome, people ascribe responsibility depending on the reasons behind the agents’ lack of knowledge. People judge agents responsible for the bad outcome they caused when they could have easily predicted the consequences of their actions but did not care to acquire the relevant information. However, when this information was hard to acquire, people are less likely to judge them responsible. -/- . (shrink)

The aim of this study is to evaluate the level of select ethical issues in Visegrad Four (V4) countries (Czech republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary) and quantify the differences in the attitudes of entrepreneurs in the field of business ethics in these countries. Empirical research was conducted in June 2022 in the V4 countries. Data collection was carried out by the renowned external company MNFORCE using "Computer Assisted Web Interviewing" (CAWI Research Method), according to the questionnaire created by the research (...) team. The total number of respondents was 1,398, of which 347 were from the Czech Republic, 322 from Slovakia, 381 from Poland, and 348 from Hungary. Statistical hypotheses were verified using descriptive statistics, chi-square, and Z-scores at a α = 5% significance level. The preliminary results of this study can be evaluated as follows: The ethical level of entrepreneurs in V4 countries is high because the dominant group showed a positive attitude towards the defined issues in the field of business ethics. The attitudes of these entrepreneurs showed that they not only perceived the importance of business ethics, but also implemented and promoted these practices in managerial decision-making. Moreover, they feel good when they behave ethically, which is a significant motivating factor. In this study, it was found that Hungarian SMEs presented the highest level of business ethics. In contrast, the Czech Republic presented the lowest level of perception and enforcement of business ethics. (shrink)

In this article, I propose a novel way of understanding the mechanisms of academic transfers in the context of the Second World War by looking at the role of membership and referral systems in determining an applicant’s success. Using largely unexplored archival data from the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning, held at the Bodleian Library, and the British Federation for University Women, held at the British Library of Political and Economic Science, this articles presents the case of (...) Rose Rand. She was a philosopher and one of the core members of the Vienna Circle who spent her professional years in exile, first in the United Kingdom and later in the United States. Her academic journey in the United Kingdom lasted almost 16 years. In that time, Rand never managed to obtain a permanent academic post despite the fact that her philosophical work is deemed relevant today by the experts and historians of her field. By reading and combining new and previously unused biographical data and personal and professional correspondence, this article shows the crucial role that memberships and personal referrals had in determining the success of her academic transfer. (shrink)

The Annual Biosemiotic Achievement Award was established at the annual meeting of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS) in 2014, in conjunction with Springer and _Biosemiotics_. It seeks to recognize papers published in the journal that present novel and potentially important contributions to biosemiotic research, its scientific impact, and its future prospects. Here the winner of the Biosemiotic Achievement Award for 2022 is announced: The award goes to Sigmund Ongstad for his article “Simple Utterances but Complex Understanding? Meta-studying the (...) Fuzzy Mismatch between Animal Semantic Capacities in Varied Contexts”. (shrink)

This special issue addresses question about the place of quantitative methods in the field of biosemiotics. Many standpoints have been taken by contributing authors to demonstrate that the answer to this question is not straightforward. Considering quantitative methods in biosemiotics is necessarily related to inclusion of other scientific fields and interdisciplinary dialogue.

Traditional ethical frameworks are challenged in disaster settings as they are often too rigorous to be applied to such situations. Nonetheless, the role of moral theories in discussions on disasters should not be dismissed. Indeed, some of the ideas and concepts in traditional ethical frameworks and moral theories may be a source of inspiration in such debates. Therefore, the present paper presents the two main concepts in Albert Schweitzer’s philosophical thinking: the concept of cultural crisis and his understanding of ethics. (...) These concepts form the basis of Schweitzer’s formulation of an ethics of the reverence for life as an answer to the cultural crisis and the need for a new ethics for a modern, humane civilisation. His thinking is reflected through the scope of disaster ethics and its potential to enrich discussions on disaster ethics is critically analysed. (shrink)

BackgroundAdverse childhood experiences can cause serious mental problems in adolescents and therefore may expected to be associated with higher use of psychosocial care, potentially varying by type of specific ACE. The aim of our study is to explore the association of the number of ACE and types of specific ACE with entering and using psychosocial care.MethodsWe used data from the Slovak Care4Youth cohort study, comprising 509 adolescents from 10 to 16 years old. We used logistic regression models adjusted for age, (...) gender, and family affluence to explore the associations of number and type of specific ACE with the use of psychosocial care.ResultsHaving three or more ACE as well as experiencing some specific ACE increased the likelihood of using psychosocial care. Regarding experience with the death of somebody else you love, we found a decreased likelihood of the use of psychosocial care.ConclusionExperiencing ACE above a certain threshold and parent-related ACE increase the likelihood of adolescent care use. (shrink)

In this book, Peirce's logical apparatus is used to explain some topics in biology where traditional scientific methods fail to establish the relation between the real and the virtual in the genetic script, the irreducibility of evolution to the genome, and the multidimensionality of the passage from genotype to phenotype. The interdisciplinary nature of this study consists in combining Peirce's triadic logic, linguistics and biology; the author, as a linguist, draws out similarities between sentence construction and protein folding. Three main (...) branches from the biological sciences are focused on: evolution, epigenetics and protein folding. The volume applies Peirce's logical tools to demonstrate the universal validity of his scientific method in the current research. (shrink)

History of Love What is love? We all wish to have the answer to one of the most universal, mysterious, and all-permeating phenomena on this planet. And even if we perhaps have a special feeling and intuitive insight that love “is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things,” as … Continue reading Love, History of →.

pKuzminski’s bookem Pyrrhonian Buddhism: A Philosophical Reconstruction/em presents a comparative study of Buddhism and Pyrrhonism. Pyrrhonian Buddhism, Kuzminski’s novelty, designates a synthesis of Greek and Indian influences on Pyrrho’s thought—namely Democritean atomism and Buddhist phenomenalism. It is a philosophical construct that reveals the similarities between the Buddhist and Pyrrhonian models of enlightenment (viz. bodhi and ataraxia). The book examines striking similarities between both Pyrrhonism and Buddhism, suggesting their virtual identity. In Kuzminski’s opinion, it is essentially the Buddhist practice and the (...) description of the Buddhist experience adopted by Pyrrho of Elis that resulted in the original synthesis he calls Pyrrhonian Buddhism. Putting Pyrrhonism in the setting of Buddhism and its practice brings a new understanding of Pyrrhonism as the ancient Greek school influencedbrby the east./p. (shrink)

Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) is seen as a tool for increasing evidence-based policy making and as such it is being integrated into decision-making procedures on a wide range of issues. Based on systematic consultation, clear criteria for policy choice, and economic analysis of how costs and benefits impact on a wide range of affected parties, this tool operates by using scientific knowledge and technical analysis rather than political considerations. Scientific knowledge can be used to achieve instrumental learning (Radaelli, 2009, OECD), (...) policy change (Sabatier, 1999), to impact on decision making (Caplan, 1979; C.H.Weiss, 1999) but also to seek legitimacy from the policy environment (Edelman, 1985; Schrefler, 2010). This article suggests an analytical framework for analysing RIA documents with insight from knowledge utilization theories. We argue that in order to better understand the RIA itself, we need to look at institutional factors as well. The combination of institutional context variables and variables for RIA document content analysis which make up worldviews in this framework provide the basis for the document analysis and exploration of RIA in its context. (shrink)

Much of the recent metaphysical literature on the problem of the relational unity of complexes leaves the impression that Bradley (or some Bradleyan argument) has uncovered a serious problem to be addressed. The problem is thought to be particularly challenging for trope theorists and realists about universals. In truth, there has been little clarity about the nature and import of the original Bradley’s regress arguments. In this paper, I offer a careful analysis and reconstruction of the arguments in Bradley’s Appearance (...) and Reality (1893). The analysis reveals that no less than three regress arguments against relations can be found. I show that none of them are compelling. I argue that, as a result, it is a serious misstep for philosophers today to offer metaphysical theses based on the unchallenged assumption that Bradley has established his regress result. I further analyze the underpinnings of the Bradley problem as it is frequently cast in contemporary literature and show that they rely on certain confusions and biases, which once brought to light, make current Bradley-inspired arguments against relations unconvincing. (shrink)

Radical right political parties are usually heavily male-dominated; accordingly, previous research has concentrated on the perspective of men. The present study aims to enhance the understanding of the worldview of women within radical right parties. Taking a critical discursive psychological approach, the study looks at how female populist radical right politicians in Sweden and Finland discursively negotiate the tension between the Nordic societal norm of gender equality, on the one hand, and the patriarchal ideology of populist radical right parties, on (...) the other. The analysis suggests that the female populist radical right politicians’ discourse is indeed highly ambivalent. The discursive tension between gender equality and a patriarchal politics is heavily intertwined with two further tensions: first, that of a societal norm against prejudice versus a politics based on xenophobia; and second, that of a culture that cherishes individualism versus a political pressure to homogenize the political or cultural ‘Other’. The study compares the discourse of female populist radical right politicians in the two country contexts. Moreover, it discusses the differences and similarities between this discourse, on the one hand, and that of male populist radical right politicians, on the other. Finally, it analyses the gendered and racialized categorizations accomplished by the discursive patterns, and elaborates on their societal implications. (shrink)

The paper focuses on identifying the possible, and assumed, implications of the concept of the Anthropocene for thinking about the human in a philosophy that accepts the transition from Holocene to Anthropocene thinking. The aim of the paper is to produce a systematic treatment of the philosophical-anthropological presuppositions of the concept of the Anthropocene. Illuminating the relationship between the concepts of the Earth System, the planetary boundaries and the Anthropocene has to be the focus if we are to delineate the (...) basic anthropological issues so that they can be further conceptually elaborated from a philosophical-anthropological perspective. Such an approach aims to highlight the various interpretive disagreements not only in understanding the concept of the Anthropocene but also in understanding the meaning of the concept of humanity as a geobiophysical force. (shrink)

This valuable text provides a comprehensive introduction to VAR modelling and how it can be applied. In particular, the author focuses on the properties of the Cointegrated VAR model and its implications for macroeconomic inference when data are non-stationary. The text provides a number of insights into the links between statistical econometric modelling and economic theory and gives a thorough treatment of identification of the long-run and short-run structure as well as of the common stochastic trends and the impulse response (...) functions, providing in each case illustrations of applicability.This book presents the main ingredients of the Copenhagen School of Time-Series Econometrics in a transparent and coherent framework. The distinguishing feature of this school is that econometric theory and applications have been developed in close cooperation. The guiding principle is that good econometric work should take econometrics, institutions, and economics seriously. The author uses a single data set throughout most of the book to guide the reader through the econometric theory while also revealing the full implications for the underlying economic model. To test ensure full understanding the book concludes with the introduction of two new data sets to combine readers understanding of econometric theory and economic models, with economic reality. (shrink)

In May 1643 Elisabeth of Bohemia addressed a question to Descartes which inaugurated a six-year Correspondence, until his death. He dedicates his mature metaphysical work to the Princess (Principles of First Philosophy, 1644) and writes Passions of the Soul (1649) as one of the results of the dialogue with the philosopher of Bohemia. The silencing of the last hundred years of historiography on Elisabeth of Bohemia's legacy in this epistolary exchange caused distortions and, in some cases, underpinned the bias as (...) a rule and as the history. One of the consequences of this distortion is the interpretation according to which her first question would consist of a critique of substantial dualism. In this study I suggest an interpretation of the nature of the first question, in order to clarify the philosopher's thinking and her role in dialogue, in a comprehensive way, without subscribing to the literary paradigm of the Cartesian soliloquy, and its bias. (shrink)

This article examines student peer reporting by extending the findings from the business ethics and higher education literature. In the conceptual model we propose that reflective moral attentiveness, subjective knowledge of the code of ethics, and academic dishonesty beliefs antecede ethical judgment of peer reporting, which impacts intentions to report peers’ unethical behavior. The relationships are tested using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that moral attentiveness significantly influences ethical judgment, which in turn affects intention. The relationship between beliefs about (...) academic dishonesty and ethical judgment is partially supported. Based on these results, suggestions for higher education institutions are provided. (shrink)

Whistleblowing is a controversial yet socially significant topic of interest due to its impact on employees, organizations, and society at large. The purpose of this paper is to integrate knowledge of whistleblowing with theoretical advancements in the broader domain of business ethics to propose a novel approach to research and practice engaged in this complex phenomenon. The paper offers a conceptual framework, i.e., the wheel of whistleblowing, that is developed to portray the different features of whistleblowing by applying the whistleblower’s (...) perspective. The framework is based on five “W” questions: Who, What, hoW, Why, and to Whom? The answers to the proposed questions clarify the main aspects of whistleblowing, provide insights into existing studies of the subject, and identify relevant gaps in the literature which, in turn, offer opportunities for future research. (shrink)

This paper articulates and explores in some detail the main features of Whitehead’s early temporal ontology. By ‘early temporal ontology’ I refer to the views Whitehead developed during his London years, more specifically in his Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge (1919) and the more approachable Concept of Nature (1920). These works are not usually read through a heavily ontological lens. It is often said that Whitehead developed his metaphysics later, when he moved to the United States, in 1924. (...) I believe, however, that these earlier works should not merely be read as works in natural philosophy or merely as stepping stones to his later magnum opus Process and Reality (1929). Although Whitehead’s stated goal in these works is not to provide a systematic ontology of time, such an ontology is present and is worth distilling and interpreting. (shrink)

We investigate an aspect of defeasibility that has somewhat been overlooked by the non-monotonic reasoning community, namely that of defeasible modes of reasoning. These aim to formalise defeasibility of the traditional notion of necessity in modal logic, in particular of its different readings as action, knowledge and others in specific contexts, rather than defeasibility of conditional forms. Building on an extension of the preferential approach to modal logics, we introduce new modal osperators with which to formalise the notion of defeasible (...) necessity and distinct possibility, and that can be used to represent expected effects, refutable knowledge, and so on. We show how KLM-style conditionals can smoothly be integrated with our richer language. We also propose a tableau calculus which is sound and complete with respect to our modal preferential semantics, and of which the computational complexity remains in the same class as that of the underlying classical modal logic. (shrink)

Em maio de 1643, Elisabeth da Bohemia endereçou uma questão a Descartes que inaugurou uma Correspondência de seis anos, até a morte do filósofo. Ele dedica à Princesa o seu trabalho de maturidade metafísica (Princípios de Filosofia Primeira, 1644) e redige Paixões da Alma (1649) como um dos resultados do diálogo com a filósofa. O silenciamento dos últimos cem anos de historiografia sobre o legado de Elisabeth da Bohemia nesta troca epistolar causou distorções e, em alguns casos, lastreou o viés (...) como regra e como a história. Uma das consequências dessa distorção está na leitura de que a questão da filósofa consistiria em uma crítica ao dualismo substancial. Neste estudo busco oferecer uma interpretação da natureza da primeira questão, com o intuito de esclarecer o pensamento da filósofa e o seu papel no diálogo, de uma maneira compreensiva, sem subscrever o paradigma literário do solilóquio cartesiano, e seu viés na literatura filosófica. (shrink)

Over the last fifty years a plethora of new spiritual practices has emerged in the Church of Sweden. Many fall within a category of holistic practices, aimed at engaging body, soul, and spirit. Among these, two categories are dominant: meditations and movement-based bodily practices. Some of these practices are contested by other Christians on a theological basis. The article asks: Who are the new ritual specialists teaching these practices? Why do they teach these practices? Why in the church? By using (...) a bottom-up perspective and studying practices which lie outside the traditional Christian religious rites, which has been the focus in research on the Church of Sweden, we find that the holistic practices are framed in a culture of care, focusing on bodily and spiritual wellbeing. We suggest that the predominance of women in body-movement practices should be understood as a generational feature rather than as an expression of the feminization of the church. Many of the leaders are women who were part of new spiritual movements as well as body-mind practices and various forms of dance in gyms and yoga studios in the 1990s and early 2000s, finding an openness to bringing their knowledge into the church. (shrink)

This article develops a feminist critique of liberalism through analyses of the liberal private-public dichotomy, the concept of the individual and liberal individualism, the concept of formal equality, abstract models as the basis of political theory, and through analyses of the liberal neglect of ethics and the practice of care. These analyses show why feminist philosophy usually presents liberalism as a gendered and patriarchal tradition. On the other hand, the article aims to highlight some of the feminist responses to the (...) feminist critique of liberalism in order to present the tradition as heterogeneous and one that has the potential to develop the radical feminist political programme. The concepts that are the subject of analysis in this article are precisely those that demonstrate the possibility or impossibility of adopting or redefining liberal ideas in feminist philosophy and commitment to social change, but also those that represent the limits of liberal discourse in any feminist attempt to adopt and/or redefine key concepts and ideas from liberal theories. (shrink)

There are various contexts in which it is not pertinent to generate and attend to all the classical consequences of a given premiss—or to trace all the premisses which classically entail a given consequence. Such contexts may involve limited resources of an agent or inferential engine, contextual relevance or irrelevance of certain consequences or premisses, modelling everyday human reasoning, the search for plausible abduced hypotheses or potential causes, etc. In this paper we propose and explicate one formal framework for a (...) whole spectrum of consequence relations, flexible enough to be tailored for choices from a variety of contexts. We do so by investigating semantic constraints on classical entailment which give rise to a family of infra-classical logics with appealing properties. More specifically, our infra-classical reasoning demands (beyond ${\alpha\models\beta}$ ) that Mod(β) does not run wild, but lies within the scope (whatever that may mean in some specific context) of Mod(α), and which can be described by a sentence ${\bullet\alpha}$ with ${\beta\models\bullet\alpha}$ . Besides being infra-classical, the resulting logic is also non-monotonic and allows for non-trivial reasoning in the presence of inconsistencies. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is threefold. First, it aims to delineate the flow of resources and the claims on those resources within the humanitarian aid system by locating task structures and functional units across the aid chain. Second, it draws on this account to highlight tensions in the system. Different stations in the organisational process are conditioned by the tasks assigned to them, how those tasks are anchored in a moral economy, and their historical interrelations. Third, it explores how (...) aid organisations are perceived by experts in different parts of the aid chain. Four key agents were invited to recount their work experiences. We then consider how the outlook of the interviewees was shaped by their place in the aid chain. The interviews are an inventory of experiences, a preliminary corroboration of the organisational analysis that preceded them, and a source of future hypotheses. (shrink)

This article discusses and argues for a ‘new’ and inclusive umbrella concept for varieties of experiences that have been called, inter alia, religious, spiritual, existential, paranormal, extraordinary or inexplicable. The umbrella concept to be explored is seen as a means of capturing one kind of ‘lived religion’ in contemporary society and simultaneously expanding the field of the sociology of religion. The discussion is theoretical and anchored in contemporary theories and traditions in sociology of religion, but it is also of pragmatical, (...) methodological, empirical, and ethical concern. The main concepts that are currently in use and considered as offering a possible umbrella term for this cluster of often overlapping experiences, which are difficult to clearly define and distinguish, are summarized, and the main concepts, such as religious, spiritual and paranormal experiences, are elaborated in more detail. Thereafter follows a definition and in-depth discussion of the suggested concept of mystical experiences. In conclusion, I argue that William James’s concept of mystical experiences, with an upgraded and inclusive understanding considering religious, cultural and societal change, has the potential to work on etic, interdisciplinary and emic levels, without offending the experiencers or violating their interpretations and the meaning-making of their experiences. (shrink)

The paper explores the model of sociability, interaction and participation as political elements of postmodern art. The postmodern condition emerged after the failure of the main idea of modernism, which was based on the belief in the progress and emancipation of humanity, namely, after the collapse of large speculative narratives such as idealism, scientism, Marxism or a utopia of changing the world through art. Not surprisingly, therefore, the principal thesis in it is that art no longer has the role attributed (...) to it since the 19th century, the one of political struggle, criticism of society or social engagement, namely, it no longer has the function of criticism, of something that acts as a warning and is avant-gardly opposed to everything that exists. Contrary to this view, this paper seeks to present the critical and political potential of postmodern art, focusing on post-1990s artistic practice and its emphasis on relationships, encounters and interaction with audiences. It is an appropriation of avant-garde strategies, but with a historical distance and in a different context. (shrink)

The identification of contemporary forms of slavery is often problematically demarcated by reference to transatlantic enslavement as the definitive archetype. Such an approach overlooks other historic slaveries and neglects the totality of the maangamizi—the African holocaust. This article addresses the problematics of positioning the transatlantic system as the paradigm and unpacks the constituent elements of de jure slavery to construct an understanding of slavery as a condition as well as a status. By identifying the core features of de jure chattel (...) slavery through time, this paper displaces the assumption that legal status is determinative, giving meaning to the concept of slavery in the contemporary world. (shrink)

In this article I offer a critical examination of Giorgio Agamben’s vision of political liberation as it is articulated in his philosophy of language. Focusing on his affirmative politics as a particular kind of performance, I show that he has in mind a radically ‘pure’ performative that affirms only language as such. This conception is very different from other influential approaches to performativity in the contemporary scene of political thought, such as those developed by Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler. Rather (...) than offering a meaningful alternative to these approaches, however, I argue that this pure performative makes visible the specific problems connected to Agamben’s model. Ultimately, Agamben risks affirming what he sees as problematic in political terms, namely the isolation of his preferred type of experience of language to a separate ‘sphere’. It is, moreover, questionable whether his performative points to a plausible model of political contestation in an age where careless and void utterances have become widespread. (shrink)