Following the spirit of Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project, this volume acts as a kaleidoscope of change in the 21st century, tracing its different reflections in the international contemporary while seeking to understand both individual and collective reactions and adjustments to change through a series of questions: Is there something significantly different about the way in which ‘change’ occurs in the 21st century?; Is change mainly reflected in the material and visual environment surrounding us or someplace else?; What are the sensibilities (...) through which we perceive change, and more importantly, have those sensibilities been increased or dulled by modern technology? (shrink)

The paper addresses Leon Hen.kin's proposition as a " lighthouse", which can elucidate a vast territory of knowledge uniformly: logic, set theory, information theory, and quantum mechanics: Two strategies to infinity are equally relevant for it is as universal and t hus complete as open and thus incomplete. Henkin's, Godel's, Robert Jeroslow's, and Hartley Rogers' proposition are reformulated so that both completeness and incompleteness to be unified and thus reduced as a joint property of infinity and of all infinite sets. (...) However, only Henkin's proposition equivalent to an internal position to infinity is consistent . This can be retraced back to set theory and its axioms, where that of choice is a key. Quantum mechanics is forced to introduce infinity implicitly by Hilbert space, on which is founded its formalism. One can demonstrate that some essential properties of quantum information, entanglement, and quantum computer originate directly from infinity once it is involved in quantum mechanics. Thus, these phenomena can be elucidated as both complete and incomplete, after which choice is the border between them. A special kind of invariance to the axiom of choice shared by quantum mechanics is discussed to be involved that border between the completeness and incompleteness of infinity in a consistent way. The so-called paradox of Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen is interpreted entirely in the same terms only of set theory. Quantum computer can demonstrate especially clearly the privilege of the internal position, or " observer'' , or "user" to infinity implied by Henkin's proposition as the only consistent ones as to infinity. An essential area of contemporary knowledge may be synthesized from a single viewpoint. (shrink)

In 1922, Thoralf Skolem introduced the term of «relativity» as to infinity от set theory. Не demonstrated Ьу Zermelo 's axiomatics of set theory (incl. the axiom of choice) that there exists unintended interpretations of anу infinite set. Тhus, the notion of set was also «relative». We сan apply his argurnentation to Gödel's incompleteness theorems (1931) as well as to his completeness theorem (1930). Then, both the incompleteness of Реапо arithmetic and the completeness of first-order logic tum out to bе (...) also «relative» in Skolem 's sense. Skolem 's «relativity» argumentation of that kind сan bе applied to а vету wide range of problems and one сan spoke of the relativity of discreteness and continuity or, of finiiteness and infinity, or, of Cantor 's kinds of infinities, etc. The relativity of Skolemian type helps us for generaIizing Einstein 's principle of relativity from the invariance of the physical laws toward diffeomorphisms to their invariance toward anу morphisms (including and especiaIly the discrete ones). Such а kind of generalization from diffeomorphisms (then, the notion of velocity always makes sense) to anу kind of morphism (when 'velocity' mау оr maу not make sense) is an extension of the general Skolemian type оГ relativity between discreteness and continuity от between finiteness and infinity. Particularly, the Lorentz invariance is not valid in general because the notion of velocity is limited to diffeomorphisms. [п the case of entanglement, the physical interaction is discrete0. 'Velocity" and consequently, the 'Lorentz invariance'"do not make sense. Тhat is the simplest explanation ofthe argurnent EPR, which tums into а paradox оnJу if the universal validity of 'velocity' and 'Lогелtz invariance' is implicitly accepted. (shrink)

The edited volume presents new and unconventional views of many traditional moral values, such as humanity, human dignity, moral right (of life), justice and responsibility. The originality of the contributions contained in this book is to analyze these values and approaches from the point of view of non-utilitarian consequentialism and ethics of social consequences as one of its forms. The authors of the chapters present new ways of solving many of the contemporary ethical and moral issues, for example, in bioethics, (...) medical ethics, environmental ethics, teaching ethics, and cyber ethics, based on non-utilitarian consequentialism and ethics of social consequences. They also confront these approaches with other ethical theories and philosophical traditions, which serve them as further incentives for the development of non-utilitarian consequentialism and ethics of social consequences in philosophical, applied and professional ethics. (shrink)

The distinction of whether real or counterfactual history makes sense only post factum. However, modal history is to be defined only as ones’ intention and thus, ex-ante. Modal history is probable history, and its probability is subjective. One needs phenomenological “epoché” in relation to its reality (respectively, counterfactuality). Thus, modal history describes historical “phenomena” in Husserl’s sense and would need a specific application of phenomenological reduction, which can be called historical reduction. Modal history doubles history just as the recorded history (...) of historiography does it. That doubling is a necessary condition of historical objectivity including one’s subjectivity: whether actors’, ex-ante or historians’, post factum. The objectivity doubled by ones’ subjectivity constitute “hermeneutical circle”. (shrink)

I am not trying to present a full concept of professional ethics of an academic. I would like to focus on philosophical and ethical reflection of the specific area of an academic work in Slovakia. Almost two hundred years ago, the Slovak enlightenment philosopher Ján Feješ (1764 - 1823) responded to the situation of his era and he stated that a reviewer must, in the given area, be even better educated than the author himself. A different example can be found (...) in Honoré de Balzac’s great novel Lost Illusions where he also described journalistic practice of the first half of the 19th century. Part of the novel was based on his own experience with acrimonious critique. The situation concerning, for example academic reviewing in Slovakia in the present day is, possibly in some instances, even more critical than Feješ or Balzac suggested. This no longer concerns the quality of papers and book of essays but the number of works published; and evaluation of academics is partly dependant on whether they have published in a reviewed or a non-reviewed book, indexed journals, worldly known publishers, etc. There has to be a just requirement placed on critical reviews, as Feješ and others cautioned, and that is that they should not be informative reviews only for the sake of someone getting a reviewed work but truly critical reviews from people qualified in the given area of academic subjects and the aim of which should not lie in settling scores or expressing personal preferences but a constructive view of the issue. The problem in Slovak academic community (especially in humanities and social sciences), however, lies in the fact that critical reviews are not considered a challenge for discussion or polemics but are shifted to the personal level including settling scores with the critical reviewer. Quoting and referencing is another problematic area in Slovak academic life, which, in the present period, has almost become a fetish, as it is a criterion of qualification enhancement and evaluation of academics. That is why quotations and references are artificially made for colleagues, friends and acquaintances, or even already published works are faked to contain quotes and references for the needs of future qualification enhancement. To summarise, I would like to propose three aims which could become a part of professional ethics of the academics (in Slovakia). (shrink)

Ethics of social consequences as a form of satisficing non-utilitarian consequentialism can be one of the methodological basis of bioethics education. The primary values in ethics of social consequences are humanity, human dignity and moral rights, which are developed and realized in correlation with positive social consequences. Secondary values in ethics of social consequences include justice, responsibility, moral duty and tolerance. The author analyses human dignity and humanity as principles of bioethics education.

От гледна точка на литературно философски анализ се обсъжда особения наратив на предание, в който са написани редица от произведенията на класика на българската литература, Йордан Радичков. Разказаните истории са сякаш от "памтивека". подобно на народни приказки и легенди с неизвестен автор и видоизменяни при всеки устен преразказ. чрез какъвто са единствено предавани.

This study emphasises the cosmic dimensions of the Church understood as the Throne of God, analysing its understanding in this way by the great writers and thinkers of the ancient world, for example, Philo the Alexandrine, Saint Dionysius the Areopagite and Saint Irene of Lyon. The reconstitution of all the cosmological contexts and understanding of the Throne of God inspired by the texts of the ancient authors is opening a very interesting perspective over the existence of the Church as a (...) cosmic Throne of God and reassembling of all the heavenly and intelligible creations sustained and vivified by the primal light of God transmitted in this way towards the lower degrees of the heavenly angelic and churchly hierarchy. Thus, the real source of primacy in the Church is originated, as Saint Dionysius pointed out, in the primal light of God poured over the Church. The Church as the Throne of God helps to discover the real cosmic and heavenly perspective over the heavenly power and authority, the bishops of the Churches are called frankly by God from the beginning (Rv 3:21). (shrink)

This book of essays focuses on the new approaches to moral issues from two perspectives. The first part, ‘Various Concepts of Morality’, analyses certain central approaches to moral study, and creates the methodological starting point for the more specific enquiries of the second part. ‘New Trends in Understanding Morality’ contains five articles focusing on these new approaches, especially as they are related to their conceptions of scientific knowledge. This section deals with selected special issues of morality in biology, natural sciences, (...) but also in humanities. (shrink)

Quantum information is discussed as the universal substance of the world. It is interpreted as that generalization of classical information, which includes both finite and transfinite ordinal numbers. On the other hand, any wave function and thus any state of any quantum system is just one value of quantum information. Information and its generalization as quantum information are considered as quantities of elementary choices. Their units are correspondingly a bit and a qubit. The course of time is what generates choices (...) by itself, thus quantum information and any item in the world in final analysis. The course of time generates necessarily choices so: The future is absolutely unorderable in principle while the past is always well-ordered and thus unchangeable. The present as the mediation between them needs the well-ordered theorem equivalent to the axiom of choice. The latter guarantees the choice even among the elements of an infinite set, which is the case of quantum information. The concrete and abstract objects share information as their common base, which is quantum as to the formers and classical as to the latter. The general quantities of matter in physics, mass and energy can be considered as particular cases of quantum information. The link between choice and abstraction in set theory allows of “Hume’s principle” to be interpreted in terms of quantum mechanics as equivalence of “many” and “much” underlying quantum information. Quantum information as the universal substance of the world calls for the unity of physics and mathematics rather than that of the concrete and abstract objects and thus for a form of quantum neo-Pythagoreanism in final analysis. (shrink)

If the concept of “free will” is reduced to that of “choice” all physical world share the latter quality. Anyway the “free will” can be distinguished from the “choice”: The “free will” involves implicitly certain preliminary goal, and the choice is only the mean, by which it can be achieved or not by the one who determines the goal. Thus, for example, an electron has always a choice but not free will unlike a human possessing both. Consequently, and paradoxically, the (...) determinism of classical physics is more subjective and more anthropomorphic than the indeterminism of quantum mechanics for the former presupposes certain deterministic goal implicitly following the model of human freewill behavior. The choice is usually linked to very complicated systems such as human brain or society and even often associated with consciousness. In its background, the material world is deterministic and absolutely devoid of choice. However, quantum mechanics introduces the choice in the fundament of physical world, in the only way, in which it can exist: All exists in the “phase transition” of the present between the uncertain future and the well-ordered past. Thus the present is forced to choose in order to be able to transform the coherent state of future into the well-ordering of past. The concept of choice as if suggests that there is one who chooses. However quantum mechanics involves a generalized case of choice, which can be called “subjectless”: There is certain choice, which originates from the transition of the future into the past. Thus that kind of choice is shared of all existing and does not need any subject: It can be considered as a low of nature. There are a few theorems in quantum mechanics directly relevant to the topic: two of them are called “free will theorems” by their authors, Conway and Kochen, and according to them: “Do we really have free will, or, as a few determined folk maintain, is it all an illusion? We don’t know, but will prove in this paper that if indeed there exist any experimenters with a modicum of free will, then elementary particles must have their own share of this valuable commodity” “The import of the free will theorem is that it is not only current quantum theory, but the world itself that is non-deterministic, so that no future theory can return us to a clockwork universe”. Those theorems can be considered as a continuation of the so-called theorems about the absence of “hidden variables” in quantum mechanics. (shrink)

Математическата величина на вероятността се определя стандартно като положително реално число в затворения интервал от нула до единица, еднозначно опредимо в съотвествие с няколко аксиоми, напр. тези на Колмпгоров. Нейната философска интерпретация е на мярка за част от цяло. В теорията на квантовата информация, изследваща явленията на сдвояване [entanglement] в квантовата механика, се въвеждат отрицателни и комплексни вероятности. Статията обсъжда проблема какво би следвало да бъде тяхното релевантно философско тълкувание.

The author analyses the theology of Saint Maximus the Confessor and its interpretation in modern theology. The great work of Hans Urs von Balthasar “The Cosmic Liturgy” began a new theological focus on the profoundness of Saint Maximus synthesis which was continued by several scholars: Policarp Sherwood, J. M. Gariguess, J. C. Larchet, Andrew Louth etc. The author analyses especially the work “Theologie de l’agonie du Christ” belonging to François-Marie Lethel (Paris, 1979). In a critical approach to this work he (...) finds major misinterpretations and established several erroneous trends in the Maximian studies. (shrink)

The author studies Leibniz’s views of vindicating God for the existence of evil in the world, as well as the idea of the best of all possible worlds, including the past and present criticism. Following Leibniz, he opted for the presentation of Herder’s philosophy of history as one of the most significant forms of philosophical optimism that influenced the first half of the 19th century, including contemporary debates on and critiques of the topic. He defines Herder’s concept as the philosophy (...) of historical progress, which also significantly influenced Slovak philosophy of the given period. The main goal of the article is to present Leibniz’s and Herder’s views as a starting point for the Slovak philosophy of optimism and historical progress of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. (shrink)

Author applies four models of professional ethics of politicians (Aristotle’s virtuous citizen, Machiavelli’s prince, Erasmus’ man of values and Weber’s responsible politician) to politics and politicians in Slovakia since the first half of the 20th century to the present. According to author, there is possible to identify Milan Hodža with Weber’s model, Alexander Dubek with Aristotle’s one, Vladimír Meiar and Robert Fico are identified with Machiavelli’s model and Iveta Radiová with Erasmus’ model of professional ethics of politician in Slovakia.

Kniga "Dar Blagorodstva" posvyaschena problemam vlasti i Upravleniya, dovol'no spetsificheski ponimaemym avtorom, kotoryj protivopolagaet ih drug drugu prezhde vsego v ih "germenevticheskih" i "politicheskih" aspektah. Pri etom, odnako, on ukorenyaet dannuyu problematiku v ekzistentsial'nom, "edinichnom" izmerenii, poskol'ku problema vlasti est', po mysli avtora, ekzistentsial'naya problema. Kniga "Dar Blagorodstva" est' neposredstvennoe prodolzhenie knigi "Filosofiya Bazilevsa" i yavlyaetsya ee svoeobraznym "vtorym tomom.".

Обсъден е преходът към пазарна икономика в Русия: от края на СССР до първия мандат на Путин, както и песпективите за социално-икономическо и политическо развитие.

The reduction, reuse, collection and recovery of recyclable materials are sustainable behaviors and people’s awareness of them plays an important role in implementing strategies and policies in this field. The quantitative analysis performed on a group of 816 students of Politehnica University of Timisoara, aimed at finding answers to important environmental concerns and observing the students’ behaviors of reuse and selective collection of the waste resulted from plastic containers, paper, aluminum, batteries, iron packaging waste, electronic equipment, used cooking oil and (...) printer toner. The research has shown that ‘increased amounts of waste’ is among the first three concerns Romania has to deal with, besides ‘air pollution’ and ‘deforestation’. Moreover, the study highlights the existence of the behavior toward the selective waste collection among students. although there are some areas that students still need to be familiarized with through different campaigns, trainings, courses, etc. The results can be used in the development of institutional strategies or of strategic documents targeting environmental protection and sustainable development. (shrink)

Der slowakische Autor Martin Kukučín (1860-1928) reflektiert in seinem Werk das zeitgenässische Leben des slowakischen und kroatischen Dorfes sowie die Lebensumstände in Prag und Súdamerika am Ende des 19. und in den ersten drei Jahrzehnten des 20. Jahrhunderts. Vor dem ersten We1tkrieg strebt er noch nach einer Symbiose aus Schänheit, Wahrheit und Gúte, die er im Dorfleben verwirklicht sieht. In seinen im slowakischen ländlichen Raum angesiedelten Werken idealisiert er in dieser Zeit das Dorf und das Leben der Dorfbevälkerung mit warmherzigem (...) Humor. Es erscheint ihm als eine Form von Proto-Kommunitarismus. Nach 1918 rúcken dagegen Fragen der slowakischen Nation und Arbeiterschaft in der neugegrundeten Tschechoslowakischen Republik in den Mittelpunkt seines CEuvres. Damit avanciert Martin Kukučín in seinem literarischen Werk zum praktischen Philosophen, der ethische Grundfragen nach dem guten Leben aufwirft. (shrink)

Recent theoretical work in developmental psychology suggests that humans are predisposed to align their mental states with those of other individuals. One way this manifests is in cooperative communication ; that is, intentional communication aimed at aligning individuals’ mental states with respect to events in their shared environment. This idea has received strong empirical support. The purpose of this paper is to extend this account by proposing an integrative model of the biobehavioral dynamics of cooperative communication. Our formulation is based (...) on active inference. Active inference suggests that action-perception cycles operate to minimize uncertainty and optimize an individual’s internal model of the world. We propose that humans are characterized by an evolved adaptive prior belief that their mental states are aligned with, or similar to, those of conspecifics (i.e., that ‘we are the same sort of creature, inhabiting the same sort of niche’). The use of cooperative communication emerges as the principal means to gather evidence for this belief, allowing for the development of a shared narrative that is used to disambiguate interactants’ (hidden and inferred) mental states. Thus, by using cooperative communication, individuals effectively attune to a hermeneutic niche composed, in part, of others’ mental states; and, reciprocally, attune the niche to their own ends via epistemic niche construction. This means that niche construction enables features of the niche to encode precise, reliable cues about the deontic or shared value of certain action policies (e.g., the utility of using communicative constructions to disambiguate mental states, given expectations about shared prior beliefs). In turn, the alignment of mental states (prior beliefs) enables the emergence of a novel, contextualizing scale of cultural dynamics that encompasses the actions and mental states of the ensemble of interactants and their shared environment. The dynamics of this contextualizing layer of cultural organization feedback, across scales, to constrain the variability of the prior expectations of the individuals who constitute it. Our theory additionally builds upon the active inference literature by introducing a new set of neurobiologically plausible computational hypotheses for cooperative communication. We conclude with directions for future research. (shrink)

G. E. Moore’s critical analysis of right action in utilitarian ethics and his consequentialist concept of right action is a starting point for a theory of moral/right action in ethics of social consequences. The terms right and wrong have different meanings in these theories. The author explores different aspects of right and wrong actions in ethics of social consequences and compares them with Moore’s ideas. He positively evaluates Moore’s contributions to the development his theory of moral/right action.

Rodney G. Peffer argues that Karl Marx cannot be considered a utilitarian, a consequentialist, or a nonutilitarian consequentialist. Based on ethics of social consequences as one of the versions of nonutilitarian consequentialism, the author examines Marx’s early journalistic articles concerning the common good published mainly in the Rheinische Zeitung. The author verifies the hypothesis that Marx was a nonutilitarian consequentialist in the given period with regard to the common good. By examining Marx’s views on freedom of the press and censorship, (...) as well as his criticism of the feudal experiences of Prussia, the author came to the conclusion that Marx’s views expressed in early journalism are close to ethics of social consequences and thus to nonutilitarian consequentialism. (shrink)

In the article, we analyse ethical and moral issues of public administration in region of Eastern Slovakia through some cases of the last years. We focused on self-governing regions, namely the Košice and Prešov self-governing regions. We identified two fundamental situations where failures on the side of public administrators occur: selection processes for vacant positions, be it directly in public administration or institutions that fall under its domain, and public procurement with regard to the acquisition of goods and services. The (...) year 2009 was the year of elections to self-governing regions which is why a great number of negative cases dealt with the election campaign. Further, we stated that negative cases dealt with failures of bodies of self-governing regions from both the legal (breaking the law) and moral viewpoint. By claiming that public administrators failed morally, we meant breaking moral norms and rules. Contradictions, which were identified (from the ethical viewpoint), predominantly result from the conflict between public and private interests. In many cases, private interests of public administrators are preferred at the expense of public interests. And it is exactly this preference (a conflict of interests) that is sensitively perceived by the public. (shrink)

According to author, value of human dignity has its place in his ethics of social consequences which is a form of non-utilitarian consequentialism. This is so because it is compatible with the value of positive consequences that creates one of the crucial criteria in ethics of social consequences. There exist two aspects of human dignity in this ethical theory. The first is related to the value of life that is worthy of esteem and respect, which brings positive consequences (moral biocentrism), (...) second aspect is related to the fact that human dignity is a function of the positive consequences of our action and behavior prevailing over the negative consequences of our action and behavior. This creates a basis for assigning moral agents with an additional, qualitative value of human dignity. In caseof human beings without developed consciousness and who are only potential moral agents, the first aspect of human dignity is dominant in our judgments about them. In the judgments concerning moral agents the second aspect of human dignity dominates. (shrink)

The author discusses issues of evil in Doležal’s Tragoedia (1791) influenced by Leibniz’s Theodicy (1710). Despite the fact that, in Doležal’s work, emphasis is placed on theological and religious aspects, he was able to be above too strict a theological-religious scope of the contemporary interpretation of Adam and Eve’s sin and he was even able to find a number of positive features and values that emerged for man from the origin of evil and sin. Finally, we can say that Doležal’s (...) work can be seen as man’s attempt to gain autonomy from God (although only an unintentional one). On the other hand, it can also be possibly interpreted as an eternal temptation or an eternal desire for knowledge, for exposing of which so far has been undiscovered or unknown. Humanity is attracted by mystery, unsolved or unanswered questions and as the primary sin resulted in evil, it was also the origin of much good that was appreciated by Doležal even more than primary evil. It may sound rather heretical to state what Doležal only implied that „thanks“ to the primary sin or desire for knowledge, for the discovery of the newand unknown, man became a full person able to realize his potential, to develop his knowledge and skills. (shrink)