This accessible and comprehensive overview of the work of Stanislav Grof, one of the founders of transpersonal psychology, was specifically written to acquaint...

Discusses current global conditions including peace, changes in society, education, religion, spirituality, and consciousness.

The main goal of the article is to describe selected aspects of the sex trade as viewed by clients who make use of the services provided by sex workers. We use data obtained through a content analysis of selected topics discussed on an erotic forum called Nornik.net. The topics were: Can a person stop “screwing”?; what was your first contact with the sex trade and how can a person hide their visits to sex workers? In the course of the analysis, (...) we identified an additional category that featured in all the topics: “trophy collecting”. The discussants perceive sex workers as a commodity to be purchased and subsequently evaluated. The discussants tended to compete among themselves to visit the most sex workers or to be first to visit the latest sex worker. The discussion forum serves as a support centre and contains hints and tips on different areas of “screwing” and related issues. The forum also displays certain features of a community. (shrink)

Our concern is the completeness problem for spi-logics, that is, sets of implications between strictly positive formulas built from propositional variables, conjunction and modal diamond operators. Originated in logic, algebra and computer science, spi-logics have two natural semantics: meet-semilattices with monotone operators providing Birkhoff-style calculi and first-order relational structures (aka Kripke frames) often used as the intended structures in applications. Here we lay foundations for a completeness theory that aims to answer the question whether the two semantics define the same (...) consequence relations for a given spi-logic. (shrink)

Contemporary social and political theory is not wholly sufficient for dealing with environmental issues unless it will be more informed by political theories of justice. I present the view that environmental justice can be fruitfully approached from the point of view of contemporary social contract theory, mainly the one inspired by the work of John Rawls. Healthy natural environment is indispensable for many reasons for every human society; however, nature possesses also value going beyond pure instrumentality for human beings. Because (...) humans can have great impact on natural environment in either positive or negative way, this entails duties on their part. Society’s dealings with the environment are regulated by laws and other publicmeasures, which in turn have their deeper justification in general theory of justice of that particular society. The article tries to show that contemporary social contract theory can fruitfully grasp principles of environmental justice, which could lead to more environment sensitive policies and be acceptable from liberal point of view at the same time.Politické myšlení nemůže adekvátně reagovat na environmentální problémy současné společnosti, pokud nebude více pracovat s konceptem environmentální spravedlnosti. V tomto článku se snažím ukázat způsob, jak může být otázka environmentální spravedlnosti uchopena pomocí teorie společenské smlouvy v podání Johna Rawlse. Lidé mají svoji činností významný dopad na životní prostředí, což má za následek nerovnou distribuci environmentálních dober a škod. Proto existují vůči ostatním lidem povinnosti vyplývající ze spravedlnosti vztahující se na environmentální oblast. Environmentální otázky se nicméně musí řešit pomocí závazných společenských pravidel, která mají podobu zákonů vynucovaných státem. Tyto zákony mají své hlubší ospravedlnění právě v určité teorii spravedlnosti, která zakládá jejich legitimitu. Ve článku se snažím ukázat, že pomoci teorie společenské smlouvy lze konstruovat soubor principů environmentální spravedlnosti pro společnost, která se chce stát více odpovědnou vůči životnímu prostředí a zároveň fungovat podle liberálních principů. (shrink)

In this paper we examine Interaction-free measurement where both the probe and the object are quantum particles. We argue that in this case the description of the measurement procedure must by symmetrical with respect to interchange of the roles of probe and object. A thought experiment is being suggested that helps to determine what does and what doesn’t happen to the state of the particles in such a setup. It seems that unlike the case of classical object, here the state (...) of both the probe and the object must change. A possible explanation of this might be that the probe and the object form an entangled pair as a result of non-interaction. (shrink)

У статті проведено аналіз впливу зовнішньополітичного аспекту на процес генезису "нової релігійної політики" Й. Сталіна, її інституціоналізації та причин, що призвели до охолодження в державно-церковних відносинах наприкінці 40-х років ХХ століття. Показані роль та місце, яке займали євангельські церкви в цьому процесі.

Discussion on Two Remarks on Ondřej Švec’s Note regarding Philosophy of History.

Petr Dvořák hájí ve své knize Kauzalita činitele libertariánské pojetí svobody lidské vůle. Vůli považuje za duševní schopnost člověka a její svobodu spatřuje v možnosti její sebedeterminace. Tuto tezi autor tohoto příspěvku kritizuje. Dokazuje, že sebedeterminující schopnost je contradictio in terminis. Libertariánsky pojatá svobodná vůle je možná jen, pokud není schopností. Takovou vůlí je pouze vůle Boží (za předpokladu, že Bůh existuje). Autor připojuje historické upozornění, že autorem omylu zaměňujícího lidskou vůli s Boží je renezanční teolog Ludvík Molina, že k (...) jeho stoupencům náležel i René Descartes. (shrink)

The materials and spirit of the Second Vatican Council have largely outstripped the comprehension of the extremely important religious, social, economic, and spiritual problems faced by the modern globalized world. This concerns in many respects the problems of labor, the understanding of the value-motivational factors of attitude towards it. Moreover, the attitude to work has its own social, economic, spiritual and, of course, religious studies. All this can not but correct the problem of attitude to work as a Christian phenomenon (...) in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. In this regard, the very fact that in our time the socio-philosophical science is not sufficiently adapted to the Ukrainian needs and realities of the idea of ​​the II Vatican Council of the Catholic Church and the council documents of this Church. (shrink)

У статті аналізуються джерела ідей відкритого православ’я, що стала стратегією розвитку Православної Церкви України. Доводиться, що сучасне українське відкрите православ’я розвивається внаслідок спроб відродити ідентичність київського християнства, контекстуалізувати соціальну доктрину вселенського православ’я та концепції сучасної православної теології, а також завдяки зверненню до ранньохристиянського бачення відносин церкви і суспільства. У статті доводиться, що українське відкрите православ’я стало виразником ідей поміркованого консерватизму, налаштованого на діалог із суспільством, іншими конфесіями і релігіями. Українське відкрите православ’я типологічно схоже до ідейної позиції Константинопольського патріархату та інших (...) помісних православних церков, які перебувають у протистоянні з фундаменталізмом Російської Православної Церкви. Джерелами українського відкритого православ’я стали сучасна православна теологія, київська традиція християнства, православний лібералізм, проєвропейська риторика лідерів українського православ’я. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with a two-sorted probabilistic language, denoted by $\textsf{QPL}$, which contains quantifiers over events and over reals, and can be viewed as an elementary language for reasoning about probability spaces. The fragment of $\textsf{QPL}$ containing only quantifiers over reals is a variant of the well-known ‘polynomial’ language from Fagin et al. (1990, Inform. Comput., 87, 78–128). We shall prove that the $\textsf{QPL}$-theory of the Lebesgue measure on $\left [ 0, 1 \right ]$ is decidable, and moreover, all (...) atomless spaces have the same $\textsf{QPL}$-theory. Also, we shall introduce the notion of elementary invariant for $\textsf{QPL}$ and use it to translate the semantics for $\textsf{QPL}$ into the setting of elementary analysis. This will allow us to obtain further decidability results as well as to provide exact complexity upper bounds for a range of interesting undecidable theories. (shrink)

The second half of the twentieth century was marked by the appearance of a new and original school in Russian sinology which uses the so-called methodology of ‘structural analysis’ in studying Chinese classics and attempts to find an authentic methodology among Chinese philosophers themselves. Its most influential representatives are V.S. Spirin, A. M. Karapetyants, A. I. Kobzev and A. A. Krushinsky. The main thesis of Russian ‘structuralists’ is that the composition of the ancient Chinese text influences its content directly. A (...) composition of a text is derived from a configuration of its parallel passages. The method of ‘structural analysis’, therefore, aims to detect and describe these parallelisms, and then makes some interpretation of them. The present paper gives a short introduction to the history of this school, its main representatives and concepts, and also shows how the method of ‘structural analysis’ works on some concrete examples. (shrink)

We shall be concerned with two natural expansions of the quantifier-free ‘polynomial’ probability logic of Fagin et al. (A logic for reasoning about probabilities, Inform Comput, 1990; 87:78–128). One of these, denoted by ${\textsf{QPL}}^{\textrm{e}}$, is obtained by adding quantifiers over arbitrary events, and the other, denoted by $\underline{{\textsf{QPL}}}^{\textrm{e}}$, uses quantifiers over propositional formulas—or equivalently, over events expressible by such formulas. The earlier proofs of the complexity lower bound results for ${\textsf{QPL}}^{\textrm{e}}$ and $\underline{{\textsf{QPL}}}^{\textrm{e}}$ relied heavily on multiplication, and therefore on the (...) polynomiality of the basic parts. We shall obtain the same lower bounds for natural fragments of ${\textsf{QPL}}^{\textrm{e}}$ and $\underline{{\textsf{QPL}}}^{\textrm{e}}$ in which only linear combinations of a very special form are allowed. Also, it will be studied what happens if we add quantifiers over reals. (shrink)

Sahlqvist formulas are a syntactically specified class of modal formulas proposed by Hendrik Sahlqvist in 1975. They are important because of their first-order definability and canonicity, and hence axiomatize complete modal logics. The first-order properties definable by Sahlqvist formulas were syntactically characterized by Marcus Kracht in 1993. The present paper extends Kracht's theorem to the class of ‘generalized Sahlqvist formulas' introduced by Goranko and Vakarelov and describes an appropriate generalization of Kracht formulas.

We carry out a study of definability issues in the standard models of Presburger and Skolem arithmetics (henceforth referred to simply as Presburger and Skolem arithmetics, for short, because we only deal with these models, not the theories, thus there is no risk of confusion) supplied with free unary predicates—which are strongly related to definability in the monadic SOA (second-order arithmetic) without × or + , respectively. As a consequence, we obtain a very direct proof for ${\Pi^1_1}$ -completeness of Presburger, (...) and also Skolem, arithmetic with a free unary predicate, generalize it to all ${\Pi^1_n}$ -levels, and give an alternative description of the analytical hierarchy without × or + . Here ‘direct’ means that one explicitly m-reduces the truth of ${\Pi^1_1}$ -formulae in SOA to the truth in the extended structures. Notice that for the case of Presburger arithmetic, the ${\Pi^1_1}$ -completeness was already known, but the proof was indirect and exploited some special ${\Pi^1_1}$ -completeness results on so-called recurrent nondeterministic Turing machines—for these reasons, it was hardly able to shed any light on definability issues or possible generalizations. (shrink)

The European Union’s funding of electricity made of biogas that is obtained from purpose-grown plants accelerated the global boom of renewable energy two decades ago. Tens of thousands of biogas plants were built in EU farms soon after. As this specific trend toward renewable energy globally spreads, it has the potential to alter the features of agriculture in the future. Such conceptual changes are related to a variety of socio-economic and environmental implications that manifest itself over a large time scale. (...) Regarding renewables made of purpose-grown plants, a majority of reservations are related to its production economy, particularly since these biofuels are expected to compete with food or feed. So far, little attention has been paid to the fact that the fields of farms that run biogas stations are subject to shortly repeated erosive crops followed by the intensive application of the fermentation residues obtained. The various types of soil on different European farms, which have been operating biogas stations for at least two decades, were analyzed. It was revealed for the first time that such practices cause soil degradation and pose a threat to food production, which has been overlooked until now. The relations between ethical and economical points of view are discussed. (shrink)

The proposed text develops a number of provisions of N.I. Kuznetsova’s article “Oxymoron of the Vienna Circle”. Special attention is paid to the intellectual heritage of the Vienna Circle, which is in many ways paradoxical – rejected and simultaneously operational.

The impacts that AI and robotics systems can and will have on our everyday lives are already making themselves manifest. However, there is a lack of research on the ethical impacts and means for amelioration regarding AI and robotics within tourism and hospitality. Given the importance of designing technologies that cross national boundaries, and given that the tourism and hospitality industry is fundamentally predicated on multicultural interactions, this is an area of research and application that requires particular attention. Specifically, tourism (...) and hospitality have a range of context-unique stakeholders that need to be accounted for in the salient design of AI systems is to be achieved. This paper adopts a stakeholder approach to develop the conceptual framework to centralize human values in designing and deploying AI and robotics systems in tourism and hospitality. The conceptual framework includes several layers – ‘Human-human-AI’ interaction level, direct and indirect stakeholders, and the macroenvironment. The ethical issues on each layer are outlined as well as some possible solutions to them. Additionally, the paper develops a research agenda on the topic. (shrink)

The institution of the proskynesis at the Roman imperial court seems to have its roots in the world of Iranian peoples, be it the Parthian Empire or Sassanid Persia. Many hints in our sources point eastwards when we consider the origin of this custom. The contacts between the Graeco-Roman and Persian world had a long tradition by the time of Diocletian. For several reasons, it is hard to imagine that the proskynesis, as an act of obeisance before the late antique (...) Emperors, evolved purely within the Empire and unaffected by Eastern influences. (shrink)

This article attempts to define a historical epistemology not as separate place in disciplinary space, but as rather specific area, which unstable configuration and “stuff" are determined by quite different from philosophy ways of talking and investigation of knowledge, especially in social sciences. More significant than emergence of competitors of philosophy in production of knowledge about knowledge (sociology, history, anthropology) was that they introduce a new regime of this production. This regime became empirical. Within that regime knowledge is objectified not (...) as homogeneous order of representation, but as fuzzy dynamic set of heterogeneous elements, relations between which are complex and historically variable. The claims of non-philosophical disciplines to investigate knowledge generate the field of uncertainties and problematisations. Just this field is referred to as “historical epistemology". But this field is also space of conceptual imagination, where the new ways to investigate knowledge are worked on, when refusing to ascribe to it any ultimate (transcendent or transcendental) specification. (shrink)

The current stage of the development of amateur stayer running practices can be characterized as personality-building, since the main goals of runners (especially marathon runners and super marathon runners) are not so much related to strengthening health, as to the sphere of personal improvement and self-knowledge: the development of will, character, testing yourself in an extreme situation, testing previously inaccessible emotions and states of consciousness. The object of the study is ego texts (books for a wide audience, including the online (...) "samizdat") of modern Russian running enthusiasts. The method of studying these texts is the biographical method, which makes it possible to determine the multidimensional influence of running activity on fundamental changes in personality development and the formation of her life path. The analyzed biographies inherit both the confessional tradition of Augustine (the contrast of the aimless and vicious "pre-race" life, as well as the traumatic experience of running neophyte and significant achievements in many areas of personal development after the adoption of the values expressed through running Coubertin's "religio athleticae"), and the adventurous and heroic biographical tradition noted by M. M. Bakhtin, inherent in the Renaissance, as well as romanticism and Nietzscheanism with their focus on the formation (in our case, through a stayer run) of a new (or "super-") person. The qualitative result of running activity is the achievement by the subject of a new stage of development – a person running (homo currens), which is characterized by activity, mobility, heroism, asceticism, striving for maximum self-realization, achieving harmony of body and spirit. Homo currens opposes both virtual pastime and the fetishization of comfort culture, suggesting, referring to the concept of Viktor Frankl, filling life with new meanings and values through overcoming the inevitable suffering for a stayer run. Amateur running is considered by writers as a publicly available and effective means of gaining physical, mental and social well-being, which expresses its humanistic essence and gives philosophical and anthropological significance to the works under study. (shrink)

Стаття є детальним історіографічним оглядом проблеми політики СРСР щодо євангельських церков у 1940-1960-і роки. У ній розглядається та аналізується науковий доробок як вітчизняної історіографії класичного радянського періоду, періоду "перебудови", так і сучасної пострадянської історіографії. Окрема увага в статті приділяється роботам західних дослідників другої половини ХХ - початку ХХІ століття, які вивчали державно-релігійні відносини в СРСР щодо євангельських церков у 1940-1960-і роки. Розглядається також конфесійна історіографія проблеми, яка з'явилась в останні роки існування СРСР та набула свого розквіту у 2000-і роки.

Nietzschův zájem o tématiku rétoriky dosáhl prvního pomyslného vrcholu na konci roku 1872 a v první polovině roku následujícího. Průsečíkem textů z tohoto období, tedy eseje O pravdě a lži, univerzitních přednášek a osobních skic, se stala myšlenka, podle které nelze rétorickou aktivitu subjektu redukovat pouze na prostor jazyka; ta je totiž přítomná i po celou dobu konstituce naší názorné zkušenosti. Ve snaze po vysvětlení této pro dějiny rétoriky zcela atypické představy se ovšem budu muset dotknout i několika dobových filosofických (...) tradic, na základě kterých si na konci 60. a na začátku 70. let ujasňoval svá epistemologická východiska. Na závěr se pokusím (bez hlubší kritiky) najít možné paralely mezi touto Nietzschovou představou a teoriemi konceptuálních metafor, které v mnohém předznamenal. (shrink)

Trees belong to humanity’s heritage, but they are more than that. Their loss, through catastrophic fires or under business-as-usual, is devastating to many forms of life. Moved by this fact, we begin with an assertion that heritage can have an active role in the design of future places. Written from within the field of architecture, this article focuses on structures that house life. Habitat features of trees and artificial replacement habitats for arboreal wildlife serve as concrete examples. Designs of such (...) habitats need to reflect behaviours, traditions and cultures of birds, bats, and other animals. Our narrative highlights the nonhuman aspect of heritage, seeking to understand how nonhuman stakeholders can act as users and consumers of heritage and not only as its constituents. Our working definition states that more-than-human heritage encompasses tangible and intangible outcomes of historical processes that are of value to human as well as nonhuman stakeholders. From this basis, the article asks how the established notions of heritage can extend to include nonhuman concerns, artefacts, behaviours and cultures. As a possible answer to this question, the hypothesis tested here is that digital information can (1) contribute to the preservation of more-than-human heritage; and (2) illuminate its characteristics for future study and use. This article assesses the potential of three imaging technologies and considers the resulting data within the conceptual framework of more-than-human heritage, illuminating some of its concrete aspects and challenges. (shrink)

Ervin Laszlo's revolutionary concept of the Akashic Field and his connectivity hypothesis offer elegant solutions for the baffling paradoxes associated with "anomalous phenomena" - otherwise unexplainable observations which many scientific disciplines encountered in the course of the 20th century. This article explores the ground-breaking contributions that Laszlo's work has made to psychology by providing a plausible conceptual framework for a large number of observations and experiences amassed by modern consciousness research, which challenge the most fundamental assumptions of the traditional scientific (...) worldview. (shrink)

T. 1. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Nachahmungsästhetik und Affektenlehre sowie der idealistischen Musikästhetik in Deutschland.--T. 2. Die Romantik und der Kampf ästhetische Richtungen.

Among the many outstanding personalities of the Middle Ages, Severin Boethius, a brilliant representative of early Christian culture, stands out. The great connoisseur, sympathizer and popularizer of Aristotle Boethius' classical antique logic culture was, in fact, the first and last thinker of his time to understand so deeply the role and importance of his father's work of logic. He translated into Latin almost all his logical works, which, unfortunately, medieval theology and philosophy could not properly use.