In this paper the life phenomenon is analysed from cybernetic point of view. The Korzeniewski’s approach is discussed and complemented. The analysis is based on autonomous systems theory and information metabolism theory. Philosophical aspects of the problem are taken into consideration as well.

A classic of phenomenology and existentialism and arguably Jonas's greatest work, The Phenomenon of Life sets forth a systematic and comprehensive philosophy -- an existential interpretation of biological facts laid out in support of Jonas ...

The purpose of the study is to assess the phenomenon of longevity as a particularly important component in the study of increasing life expectancy and reducing mortality. The article reveals the possibilities of increasing life expectancy and reducing mortality through research in the field of the phenomenon of longevity, self-preservation behavior and social information systems. The scientific novelty lies in substantiating the possibilities of changing demographic behavior through the prism of the study of longevity as a (...) kind of model of natural physiological aging of the population, as well as using the system of social "programming" of the population as a special social management tool. As a result of the study, unique opportunities for changing the demographic behavior of the population have been identified, which should be used in the development of practical measures for the implementation of social and demographic policy. (shrink)

In the article of Natalia Kovalchuk «Sanctity phenomenon of St. Feodosiy Pecherskyi in context of holy persons life» the spiritual way of St. Feodosiy Pecherksyi as a search of time, which bring him closer to the sanctity and search of his personal dimension as a holy place are regarded. Through the analysis of food and cloth, which connect St. Feodosiy with world, his life is researched. Spiritual way of St. Feodosiy Pecherskyi brings him closer to the sanctity.

Is life a property of the material structure of a living system or an abstract form of organization that can be realized in other media; artificial as well as natural? One version of the Artificial Life research programme presumes, that one can separate the logical form of an organism from its material basis of construction, and that its capacity to live and reproduce is a property of the form, not the matter (Langton 1989). This seems to oppose the (...) notion of a cell within contemporary molecular biology, according to which "form" and "matter" do not represent separate realms. The information in a living cell is intimately bound to the properties of the material substrate. This condition may represent a restriction on the validity of formal theories of life. (shrink)

When posing the question "is artificial life possible?", our immediate answer is that on the one hand : of course it is - people make it, and indeed very interesting and even breathtaking structures have already been constructed, such as `aminats', self-reproducing patterns and the other things, we have seen already. In this sense we are forced to take artificial life as a fact (at least as a fact about a new branch of research), nearly in the same (...) way that the philosopher Kant took the theoretical physics of his days, Newtonian physics, as a matter of fact, and then asked: What are the conditions of possibility for this kind of theoretical science? On the other hand: The situation differs from Kant's. Artificial Life does not confront us with an analogy of theoretical mechanics within the field of biology. We face a curious situation: It is not obvious to the majority of biologists that Artificial Life is possible at all, at least in the purely computational sense of `software life'. Probably, most biologists would never call these artificial constructs `living'. Why not? Because the intuitive notions of life and living systems within biology implies, among other things, that living beings are a result of a long, ongoing evolutionary process that have created autonomous organisms, single-celled and multi-celled, that are highly organized, open (non-equilibrium), material thermodynamic systems based on metabolism and some kind of genetic information supported by macromolecules, that only metaphorically resemble a computer program. It is not that.. (shrink)

Contemporary architecture is increasingly grounded in science and mathematics. Architectural discourse has shifted radically from the sometimes disorienting Derridean deconstruction, to engaging scientific terms such as fractals, chaos, complexity, nonlinearity, and evolving systems. That's where the architectural action is -- at least for cutting-edge architects and thinkers -- and every practicing architect and student needs to become conversant with these terms and know what they mean. Unfortunately, the vast majority of architecture faculty are unprepared to explain them to students, not (...) having had a scientific education themselves. Here is an architecture book by an architect/scientist, just in time to help architects in the new millennium. Alexander discusses many of the scientific terms arising in cutting-edge architecture, and explains them to those who don't have scientific training or advanced mathematical knowledge. We find discussions of the evolution of forms; the importance of process in design; iteration; genetic algorithms; sequences of transformations; different levels of scale (i.e. fractals); etc. They are explained here by an architect who is also a scientist, because he wants to change the way architects think and build. Alexander is not merely popularizing other scientists' results and making them accessible to architects: he is in fact presenting new and original scientific work that ties many of these concepts together in a way that will be useful to architects. (shrink)

Introduction. A man of today inevitably acquires the status of a patient in the context of preventive medicine, even when he is healthy. But at the same time, he or she becomes an object of influence both from medicine itself and from numerous social institutions and commercial structures, in addition to health institutions, which proclaimed their mission to ensure human well-being. The purpose of the study is to comprehend the philosophical and anthropological aspects of the patient’s phenomenon and clarify (...) basic foundations of transforming a patient’s consciousness in the context of progressive life medicalization. Methods. The methodological basis of the research comprises sociocultural, hermeneutic, existentialphilosophical and phenomenological approaches. The research is based on M. Heidegger’s anthropological ontology, E. Giddens’ existential ontology; M. Foucault’s concept of life medicalization; P.D. Tishchenko’s concept of transforming bio-power in modern culture. Scientific novelty of the research. The author has developed a hypothesis for the principles of forming individual and mass patient consciousness, which determines a modern person’s way of being in the context of life medicalization. Results. Suffering from the fear of the existence finiteness becomes the existential foundation of the modern patient’s consciousness, while the existential and rational foundations of the patient consciousness of the modern enlightened individual are mutually mediated. The link in their mutual mediation is believing in the possibility of achieving the ideal health, formed in modern socio-cultural conditions. In the situation of total life medicalization, in which health is understood as a prosperous existence, a special way of human being is formed on the basis of the individual patient’s consciousness. The “effect” of the life medicalization is the emergence of a mass patient consciousness - the fear of losing health forms the ideology of a medicalized society in which every individual becomes a patient. Conclusions. The progress of biomedicine is able to determine the crisis of human identity. In this regard, it is important to clarify the philosophical concepts of health and illness in the context of the modern sociocultural situation, which allows to determine the possible ideal of health within the framework of medical interventions that are safe for the human essence and capable of providing “ontological safety” when healing an individual. (shrink)

Hans Jonas est né en Allemagne et il fut l’élève de Bultmann, Husserl et Heidegger. Sa vie est placée sous le signe du voyage. Il émigre d’abord, en 1933, en Palestine, puis au Canada où il enseigne, au début des années 1950, aux Universités de Montréal et d’Ottawa avant de s’installer aux États-Unis où il occupe la chaire de philosophie à la New School for Social Research de New York. C’est durant ces années new-yorkaises qu’il rédige ses deux principaux ouvrages: (...) Das Prinzip Verantwortung. Versuch einer Ethik für die technologische Zivilisation et The Phenomenon of Life dont la première publication remonte à 1966. On assiste aujourd’hui à la redécouverte de ce livre qui non seulement fait l’objet d’une nouvelle édition aux presses de la Northwestern University, mais vient aussi d’être publié dans une première traduction française chez De Boeck Université. (shrink)

Marjorie Grene's work expresses the conviction that what is called "the new philosophy of science" will not become viable until it is rooted in an understanding of the knower and the known which breaks with the familiar Cartesian dualisms. In order to provide this understanding, she has sought to restore central significance to the phenomenon of life -- to the distinctive ways in which animals, including human beings, perceive and act in their worlds. It is argued that her (...) fundamental premise is that humans, as living beings, bring a shared experience of the world with them into scientific activity. On this basis, she is able to show how scientific objectivity may be seen as a form of pre-scientific exploration and how the scientifically known world may be seen as the pre-scientific life-world interpreted and enriched in scientific terms. (shrink)

Origin of life on earth transpired once and from then on, it emerges as an endless eternal process. Matter and energy are constants of the cosmos and the hypothesis is that the origin of life is a moment when these constants intertwined or interacted. Energy from the cosmos interacted with inorganic matter to support matter with retention of this riveted energy, as energy to be circulated within the primitive channelized structures to conserve energy by the materialization of the (...) proton homeostasis mechanisms developed from the obtainable inorganic matter. The driver for these processes as we now confirm, exists in the quantum world and through quantum phenomenal processes could have combined these constants to create the magic of life. Primitive earth was a chemical reactive system that triggered a macromolecular evolution by means of open thermodynamic systems, driven by cyclic gradients of temperature, electromagnetic radiation and chemical potentials which sustained life and proto-consciousness in the first life forms driven by the quantum processes. The origin of life is always an intriguing topic but the purpose for finding the cause should never be inclined towards obliterating it; for if that is the case, the further we seek, the farther it will go. (shrink)

This is the third republication of Jonas’s original, first published in 1966, and previously republished in 1979 and 1982. The prestige of repeated republication generally designates a classic, and this book, while still known by too few, deserves such acclaim. As a general rule, philosophers of science concern themselves either with explaining what scientists do or with prescribing what scientists ought to do. Jonas has a different aim. He examines the fundamental underlying presuppositions of modern science, particularly biology, locates these (...) presuppositions within the history of ideas, and critiques them. The result is a rich feast of fascinating observations and ideas. While these eleven essays were not initially conceived of as a unified whole, they fit together nicely. Even the very brief transition chapter and epilogue serve as far more than filler. Both are illuminating and contribute substantially to the overall coherence of the book. (shrink)

Eleven previously published essays presenting a moderately unified argument in favor of the general conception of what Jonas calls the "Philosophy of Life," as well as detailed arguments pointing in the direction of a non-dualistic, realistic, and non-naturalistic philosophy of mind. The "nons" are deliberately placed, as Jonas spends the better part of the book questioning the tenability of dualistic and, especially, materialistic and mechanistically oriented theories of mind. With extraordinary historical sensitivity—at times threatening to dissolve a problem by (...) laying bare the conceptual confusions which surrounded its origins—and with a better than working knowledge of biology and physiology, not to mention anthropology, Jonas argues, on the one hand, that the clues to the dynamism and structure of mind are to be found in such organic features as sentience, motility, and emotion: e.g., the conceptual strands that unite in the notions of causality and truth are rooted in the respective experiences of force and resistance, and vision. On the other hand, Jonas argues for the irreducibility of the subject-object structure of man's relation to nature on the grounds that this is the necessary burden of subjectivity. In all, the book is an impressive performance.—E. A. R. (shrink)

A quarter-life crisis (QLC) is a phenomenon that has gained widespread attention in the media and popular literature as a result of the difficulties associated with early adulthood. This study, "Tumatanda na Ako: The Quarter-life Crisis Phenomenon Among Emerging Adults," explored the emerging adults’ experiences of quarter-life crisis and the meaning they make out of their experiences of this phenomenon. The study utilized the interpretative phenomenological analysis of the qualitative data gathered from twenty (20) (...) respondents from a higher educational institution in Bocaue, Bulacan. The findings have been the bases for the development of the developmental program entitled, “KnowNow, Know-How: Unveiling the Quarter-life Crisis Phenomenon and Finding Ways to Conquer!” and for the development of a proposed psychological assessment tool namely “Help! I Am Lost,” A Quarter-life Crisis Scale. (shrink)

Resumo: Este artigo mostra a abordagem hermenêutica realizada por Martin Heidegger dos conceitos de natureza e vida a partir da ontologia fundamental. Em Ser e Tempo, Heidegger elabora as condições hermenêuticas para que se possa apreender ontologicamente a vida através do que ele chama de interpretação privativa da vida. O desenvolvimento sistemático do sentido de ser da vida é apresentado por Heidegger na preleção Os conceitos fundamentais da metafísica : mundo, finitude, solidão, de 1929/1930. Nela, para apresentar o fenômeno da (...) vida, Heidegger parte da tese central de que todo vivente é organismo, de modo a desenvolver uma investigação ontológica em conjunto com pesquisas biológicas e zoológicas. Por conseguinte, após a explicitação dos modos de encontro com a natureza, será evidenciado como a natureza em sentido originário mostra-se a partir de um retraimento na abertura de mundo do ser-aí em sua relação com os organismos vivos. Palavras-chave: Heidegger; ontologia; hermenêutica da natureza; vida; mundo.: This article shows the hermeneutical approach performed by Martin Heidegger to the concepts of nature and life from the fundamental ontology. In Being and Time, Heidegger elaborates the hermeneutical conditions so that we can apprehend ontologically life through what he calls the private interpretation of life. The systematic development of the sense of being of life is presented by Heidegger in the lecture course The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude, of 1929/1930. In this lecture, to present the phenomenon of life Heidegger uses the central thesis that every living being is organism in order to develop an ontological investigation in conjunction with biological and zoological research. Therefore, after the explanation of the ways of meeting with nature, will be shown as nature in the original sense shows itself from a withdrawal in the world opening of the being-there in its relationship with living organisms. Keywords: Heidegger; ontology; hermeneutic of nature; life; world. (shrink)

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin was one of the most distinguished thinkers and scientists of our time. He fits into no familiar category for he was at once a biologist and a paleontologist of world renown, and also a Jesuit priest. He applied his whole life, his tremendous intellect and his great spiritual faith to building a philosophy that would reconcile Christian theology with the scientific theory of evolution, to relate the facts of religious experience to those of natural science. (...) The Phenomenon of Man, the first of his writings to appear in America, Pierre Teilhard's most important book and contains the quintessence of his thought. When published in France it was the best-selling nonfiction book of the year. (shrink)

Upshot: The target article suggested that Ashby’s device, the homeostat, embodies and illustrates a conception of life as a passive-contingent phenomenon. It advocated renewed experiments with updated and extended versions of his device that would allow us to understand better what passive-contingent life “would be like.” In assessing the proposal, we should be particularly careful when dealing with the concept of “passivity,” and we should not mistake the proposed theoretical exploration for a substantial metaphysical thesis about (...) class='Hi'>life in general. (shrink)

This book is the first attempt to think philosophically about the comic phenomenon in literature, art, and life. Working across a substantial collection of comic works author Agnes Heller makes seminal observations on the comic in the work of both classical and contemporary figures. Whether she's discussing Shakespeare, Kafka, Rabelais, or the paintings of Brueghel and Daumier Heller's Immortal Comedy makes a characteristic contribution to modern thought across the humanities.

ABSTRACTThat beauty [beauté] pertains to phenomenality, this may have long seemed self-evident. For however conveyed and crafted in sensible experience, beauty is to be seen, heard, touched; in short it makes itself manifest. Not only does beauty make itself manifest by taking shape, but it makes itself manifests par excellence, to a greater extent than what appears in the course of everyday life. The beautiful [beau] should therefore be seen as a phenomenon. Today, however, we can no longer (...) take this rule for granted; nor can we consider to be irrefutable the fact that beauty phenomenalizes itself as such, and that we can experience [éprouver] directly and as such a “phenomenon of the beautiful.”. (shrink)

The received view on the contributions of the physics community to the birth of molecular biology tends to present the physics community as sharing a basic level consensus on how physics should be brought to bear on biology. I argue, however, that a close examination of the views of three leading physicists involved in the birth of molecular biology, Bohr, Delbrück, and Schrödinger, suggests that there existed fundamental disagreements on how physics should be employed to solve problems in biology even (...) within the physics community. In particular, I focus on how these three figures differed sharply in their assessment of the relevance of complementarity, the potential of chemical methods, and the relative importance of classical physics. In addition, I assess and develop Roll-Hansen’s attempt to conceptualize this history in terms of models of scientific change advanced by Kuhn and Lakatos. Though neither model is fully successful in explaining the divergence of views among these three physicists, I argue that the extent and quality of difference in their views help elucidate and extend some themes that are left opaque in Kuhn’s model. (shrink)

Life strategy in personal dimension could be identified as a complex phenomenon, which includes main key dimensions and categories that characterize person’s life and behavior. Life strategy is a way of life self-determining, self-establishing, self-expression and self-organizing as well as the ability to bring living conditions according with personality own values and individual uniqueness. The student life strategies directly connected with higher education. Author’s sociological research examines the main features of life strategies of (...) modern Ukrainian students. In the article, the author's typology of the main types of life strategies of students is proposed. The tipology reflects the crucial connection with the appropriate understanding of the place and role of higher education: career-pragmatic, universal education, and adaptive-conformist. (shrink)

The article deals with the analysis of the experience of calling in the existential and phenomenological aspects. The phenomenon of call revealed in the experience of sensing and understanding of human being towards the world and as an event of a personal existence. The study proves that calling responds to the human need of going over the limits of own self towards the co-existence with people, serving the life-work and the ideals. The author analyses the problem of existential (...) and religious truth. The research discovers the meaning of voices and silence in the phenomenal field of calling. Analyzed the difference between the vocal and visual experience, between the feeling and seeing, the necessity of organization of a sound being in human self-consciousness. The meaning of silence is explicated as an internal space of human experience. Silence is researched as an existential phenomenon, as a special mood making possible for a personality to experience the fullness of being. Silence is revealed as an existential dimension of the origin of language, of the voice of conscience and as a reality of the experience of responsibility of a personality. Therefore, in silence takes place sensing of oneself and occurs the revelation of a call for a person. (shrink)

This volume offers a retrospective of Jonas's life and works by bringing together historians of modern Germany, Judaica scholars, philosophers, bioethicists, ...

It is known that modern philosophy understands death as a denial of the reality of life and, on the contrary, the establishment of non-being. Death fixes the existence of specific manifestations of life on Earth. For a long time, the explanation of the phenomenon of human death was dominated by a religious point of view, which presented death not as an end but as a prerequisite for the further transformation of life. In the future, we present (...) the very Christian-theological vision of the problem. (shrink)

In this paper I have examined the Saibaba phenomenon which originated in India and now has a global influence. Through fieldwork, I build on the life and works of three faith teachers (gurus) who have contributed to the Sai movement to forward my thesis that sociality and hence tangible social service is an important means to gain legitimacy, social standing and as a response to late modernity. I begin by giving an overview of the Sai phenomena and its (...) peculiarities in terms of syncretism, bricolage and aspects of global proliferation. I then discuss how sociality is a strategy for this genre of faith movement and its implications. Finally I propose that sociality has become a metaphor of Sai sacrality. (shrink)

The explosive spread of mystical ideas and practices in the spiritual culture of modern societies, irrationalism in art and philosophy has long surprised no one. These phenomena have escaped beyond the limits of the local, semi-exotic phenomenon that lies at the periphery of the scientific, artistic and daily practical life of modern man. Figuratively speaking, they are no longer just a separate spot on the mosaic panel of historical ways of human self-comprehension.

Postulated before 1920 to account for observations such as the fluctuating measured half-life of polonium and the unusual migration of polonium causing radioactive contamination throughout laboratories, by 1930 the phenomenon of aggregate recoil had become part of international textbook science. The formation of radioactive aggregates has been confirmed, but their migration is probably due either to volatility and diffusion or to electrostatic polarity and attraction. Knock-on recoil and sputtering may contribute to the release of such aggregates from solid (...) surfaces, whereas carry-along recoil—the type of recoil event associated with the accepted theory of aggregate recoil—is shown here to run counter to known scientific principles. (shrink)

Leadership research has grown into two opposing approaches, the scientific approach and the critical approach. The first is focused on leadership, the second on the leaders. For reasons of practicality, they will be described as the leadership-centric and the leader-centric approach, respectively. Each of the two approaches is characterised by two different perspectives: leadership-centric research highlights science and process; leader-centric research deals with the leader using cognitive faculties and drawing on cultural practices. This opposition has created an unproductive gap in (...) leadership scholarship. The present article focuses on how to reduce that gap by bridging some of the differences that currently undermine scholarship. The concept of habits is used to support an argument in favour of leadership as a social phenomenon. The main idea is that a social phenomenon involves both social interactions happening in everyday shared knowledge and intentionality that influences agents’ experiences. By borrowing from the pragmatist John Dewey, leadership is conceptualised as habits embedded in social life. Habits comprise the social sharing of experience and knowledge in a meaningful world. But it seems difficult, it is further argued, to elaborate on people’s intentionality through habits. To overcome this difficulty, Edmund Husserl’s notion of doxic-theoretical experience is used. Habits, it is concluded, help make leadership-centric research less anonymous, and doxic agency the leader’s intentionality more transparent. (shrink)

In this short contribution we explore the historical roots of recent synthetic approaches in biology and try to assess their real potential, as well as identify future hurdles or the reasons behind some of the main difficulties they currently face. We suggest that part of these difficulties might not be just the result of our present lack of adequate technical skills or understanding, but could spring directly from the nature of the biological phenomenon itself. In particular, if life (...) is conceived as autonomy in open-ended evolution, which would help to explain the highly complex and dynamic organization of the simplest known organisms (i.e., genetically-instructed cellular metabolisms), external synthetic implementations of such systems, or interventions on them, are bound to interfere with some of their characteristic transformation processes, both at the ontogenetic and phylogenetic scales. In any case, this will prove very revealing and productive, technologically and scientifically speaking, since the knowledge gathered from those implementations/interventions will be extremely valuable in establishing our capacities and limitations to fully comprehend, utilize, and expand the living domain as we know it today. (shrink)

The phenomenon of digital differentiation, or stark variations in ability to access Internet hardware and/or infrastructure, has been a feature of provision since its early days. This article explores the impact of digital differentiation on two groups of young people, in England and Germany. It is based on fieldwork that took place during the academic year 2018-2019, just before the global pandemic threw the issue of equality of Internet access into sharp relief. The article begins by describing the empirical (...) design of the My Life Online project, including background, sampling, instruments, ethical aspects and the initial data analysis approach taken to ensure reliability and validity. It then develops a further analysis drawing on Halford and Savage’s hybrid Bourdieu/Actor Network Theory model (2010) to map out the socio-technical network surrounding the young people in our study. In this way we identify areas of change and conflict that compound existing social deprivation. We conclude by making a case for a better education policy awareness of the key issues, and more equitable distribution of national infrastructure moving forwards. (shrink)

The modern realities of life in Ukraine, plunged into war by the Russian Federation, as well as those countries that are in a state of ontological threat, with new force actualize the problem unfolding in the social plane (we are talking about the antinomy of “chaos – stability”). In other words, modern social cataclysms – COVID-19 and war – have disrupted the stability of everyday life. The presence of the threat of nuclear escalation of the international conflict expands (...) the metaphysical horizons of thanatological and suicidal problems, the aggravation of which can destroy the established order of the civilized world, which has found itself in a borderline situation. In view of the above, the purpose of this study is to clarify the essence of the phenomenon of chaos and social processes derived from it – the end, catastrophe, according to the philosophical views of the French thinker J.Baudrillard. Achieving the specified goal will contribute to the development of modern methods and technologies of social work in the community to minimize/overcome difficult life circumstances determined by the war situation. J.Baudrillard was deeply convinced that chaos is not completely opposed to rationality. The thinker believed that the dominance of rationality over reality is limited, because in reality it is not the subject who dominates the objective world, but the competition between the subject and the object. This study is focused on the actual existential problem of a person being in a borderline situation of chaos, determined by the reality of a thanatological situation, which enables the perspective of an ontological threat of a planetary scale, the origins of which are contained in the obsessive idea of total control, the realization of which leads to the disappearance of the social and the replacement of reality with an illusion, including even the illusion of security as a fundamental basis of the rescue economy, which is clearly observed in the ideology of the russian federation, which is based on the consumption of disaster in everyday life. The social work specialist’s awareness that chaos is not the end of everything (it is better to define this phenomenon as the end of the old order transformed into disorder, an example of which can be anomie), but the beginning of a new order, will directly contribute to the achievement of effective results in his professional activities in the community, in particular, in the direction of minimizing/overcoming the consequences of anomie as a type of chaos. (shrink)

La philosophie peut-elle changer le monde? À en écouter Wittgenstein, la réponse est non. La philosophie laisse le monde tel qu’il est. Sa tâche consiste en la résolution des « pseudo-problèmes » qu’elle s’est elle-même posée. Pour Hans Jonas, au contraire, cette manière de philosopher est vaine. Oui, la philosophie peut et doit changer le monde, elle doit même s’emparer des problèmes du moment. Après être devenu un érudit du gnosticisme, Jonas comprend les limites de sa tour d’ivoire et rép...

We ordinarily think that, keeping all else equal, a life that improves is better than one that declines. However, it has proven challenging to account for such value judgments: some, such as Fred Feldman and Daniel Kahneman, have simply denied that these judgments are rational, while others, such as Douglas Portmore, Michael Slote, and David Velleman, have proposed justifications for the judgments that appear to be incomplete or otherwise problematic. This article identifies problems with existing accounts and suggests a (...) novel alternative theory: what best accounts for our preference for an uphill over a downhill life (and many other episodes) is that losses of momentary value are themselves bad and gains in momentary value are themselves good. (shrink)

In Monastic Life in Medieval Daoism, a senior scholar of Daoist studies presents for the first time a detailed description and analysis of the organization and practices of medieval Daoist monasteries. Following an introduction to the wider, comparative issues involved in the study of monasticism, Livia Kohn outlines the origin, history, conceptual understanding, and social position of the monasteries, which came into their own early in the Tang dynasty. She examines texts from this period along with the architectural layout (...) of Daoist monasteries, the daily discipline and interpersonal etiquette of monks and nuns, their implements and vestments, as well as the liturgical dimension of monastic life. Throughout, Professor Kohn maintains a high comparative level, linking the Daoist situation and practices not only with Chinese popular, Confucian, Buddhist, and lay Daoist traditions, but also with relevant examples from Indian Buddhism and medieval Christianity. Monastic Life in Medieval Daoism breaks new ground in Daoist studies, the understanding of Chinese religion and medieval society, and the theoretical understanding and interpretation of the comparative phenomenon of monasticism. It will be required reading for scholars of Daoist studies and Chinese religion and medieval history and illuminating to experts in comparative religion and religious studies in general as well as to the wider public interested in questions of monastic life. (shrink)

This article explains how Derrida’s notion of an originary or generalised metaphoricity can be understood in terms of the analyses presented in Voice and Phenomenon (1967) in response to Eugen Fink’s question of a ‘transcendental logos’ and of the paradoxical ontological status of phenomenological language. Tracing Fink’s impact on Derrida, as well as the key differences between them, the article shows that underlying Derrida’s reappropriation of the phenomenological concept of ‘life’ is an expansion of indicative relations—which in Husserl (...) typify the function of signs within intersubjective communication and modes of judgement characterised by the non-presence of the intended object—to a general feature of the ‘living present’. While for Fink the indicative or metaphorical nature of the transcendental concept of ‘life’ does not threaten the founding unity it serves to name, for Derrida it is this very unity which is undermined by the proliferation of indication at the core of temporal experience. (shrink)

I argue that life after death (understood as personal survival of one's death) is an appropriate object of one's hope, despite the fact that it may not be an appropriate object of one's belief. That is, the hope for life after death is a reasonable hope. Whereas the belief that there is a life after death may not be a justified belief.I begin by discussing and clarifying the phenomenon of hoping and developing a logical analysis of (...) the concept of hope. Hoping is then distinguished from both wishing and believing. Next I discuss what must obtain before we consider a hope to be a reasonable one or to be justified. Finally I demonstrate that at least one form of life after death meets the conditions for justified hope. (shrink)

Islam is not only a religious system that boils down to dogma and worship, but is a set of principles and norms that underpin the organization and activities of the authorities and regulate the behavior of Muslims. The status of a Muslim consists of two interconnected components: his rights and responsibilities as a believer and as a subject of civil relations. A special and main feature of Muslim law, as a part of Islam, is the interaction of religious and secular, (...) rational and irrational, spiritual and material, mainly as a system of legal norms, which is an important element of the Islamic way of life. (shrink)

This article examines the milestones in the development of cinematography as a phenomenon in Bashkortostan. The author traces the path from the emergence of very first films to the present state of local film production in the republic. Research methodology leans on the methods of systematization and analysis of scientific literature, written and cinematographic sources, historical-typological, interpretation of written and cinematographic material. The peculiarities of the establishment and development of Bashkir cinematography are revealed. The theoretical importance of this article (...) lies in systematization of knowledge and description of the ethnocultural characteristics of the development of cinematography in the context of Bashkir cultural field. Cultural tradition as an example that is being reflexively used by people within the framework of a particular culture for solution of life tasks underlies the national cinematography. The models of lifestyle and perception of the world in a given cultural era are realized in the national cinematographic works and represent cultural paradigm of the nation. The author notes the ethnic peculiarities of the development of the phenomenon of cinematography in the region. Prevalence of the elements of traditional national culture in the films determines the peculiar nature of Bashkir cinematography and impacts the ethnocultural identity of the recipient. The scientific novelty lies in revealing the historiographical and culturological aspects of Bashkir cinematographic works, as well as outlining its role in modern art culture. The study was conducted on the basis of semiotic and interpretational methods of art history analysis. (shrink)

Life strategy in personal dimension could be identified as a complex phenomenon, which includes main key dimensions and categories that characterize person’s life and behavior. Life strategy is a way of life self-determining, self-establishing, self-expression and self-organizing as well as the ability to bring living conditions according with personality own values and individual uniqueness. The student life strategies directly connected with higher education. Author’s sociological research examines the main features of life strategies of (...) modern Ukrainian students. In the article, the author's typology of the main types of life strategies of students is proposed. The tipology reflects the crucial connection with the appropriate understanding of the place and role of higher education: career-pragmatic, universal education, and adaptive-conformist. (shrink)

The “post-truth” phenomenon is not primarily a cognitive problem, but a moral or existential problem, a problem of self-deception. But what does this mean? In order to clarify that, two things need to be discussed. First, if the conception of belief is rejected according to which a belief has sense in isolation from the roles it, and the holding of it, plays in our lives, then the problem of self-deception needs to be met as a problem of life. (...) Second, a problem of life is not something that individuals get into all by themselves. In other words, ways of living can be self-deceptive. The task of the text is hence to discuss some of the ways in which truth, belief and self-deception unfold on this non-individual level, specifically on the political one. Keywords: post-truth, self-deception, belief, democracy, Simone Weil. (shrink)