Purpose – This paper aims to focus on the modern development of bionics and linking new technologies with the human nervous system or other biological systems that cause changes of the human biological structure. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a discursive evaluation of technological progress and new systems where computers and machines integrate, making a single matrix entity – the cyborg. Here fundamental questions arise, such as what it means to be human and what is and what should be a (...) human being? Findings – The paper argues for the value of twenty-first century human enhancement techniques and other emerging technologies that promised to “help” humans become “more than human”, trying to create human beings with greatly enhanced abilities, to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities. Modern man is gradually disappearing as a natural being and increasingly turning into an artificial creature “cyborg” that leads into the question, what will ultimately remain human in a human body? Originality/value – The paper contributes to the existing debates about further development of cyborgisation and examines boundaries that will strictly divide man from a cyborg in the near future. In order to protect man from the omnipotence of technology and its unethical application is necessary to establish cyborgoethics that would determine the implementation of an artificial boundary in the natural body. (shrink)

U članku se na temelju teze njemačkoga teoretičara i pionira filozofije tehnike, Ernsta Kappa, o projekciji organa prilikom početnoga stvaranja oruđa, nastoji pokazati kako ta teza ima svoje implikacije još i danas, posebice u pogledu njezine reverzibilnosti. Naime, kada Kapp tvrdi da su sva oruđa nastala tako što je čovjek promatrao svoje organe i njihovu funkcionalnost, a da je među svim organima napose ruka oruđe svih oruđa, onda isto tako valja ustvrditi kako se je danas od projekcije organa prispjelo tome (...) da je čovjek s aspekta tehnike dospio u poziciju da projicira tehnički sofisticirana oruđa za zamjenu ljudskih organa. Sve je prisutnija pojava zamjene ljudskih organa kao pripomoći i u mnogočemu olakšavanja čovjekova života, ali isto tako i svjesne i koordinirane kiborgizacije i robotike s ciljem pospješivanja i unaprjeđenja toga istoga života do razine izazivanja novoga stupnja njegove evolucije. Tako se stvaraju aktualni okviri filozofije tehnike, koja je uvelike započela sa naznačenom Kappovom tezom. (shrink)

Publication date: 25 October 2017 Source: Author: Ivana Slavoljub Domazet, Darko Milivoj Marjanović The main aim of this work is to determine, on the basis of empirical research, whether and to what extent foreign direct investment has impact on the overall economic development of selected countries in the Western Balkans. Analyses made for the purpose of this paper were performed on the basis of available secondary data possessed by the World Bank for the period of 2000-2012. The research methodology (...) involved the use of the techniques of linear regression and correlation analysis. The first task was to determine whether there is an impact of foreign direct investment on the overall economic development of these countries. Where such influence occurred, it was necessary to define its level in comparison to the influence of other variables. The results of the analysis in this paper suggest that inflow of foreign direct investment does not affect to a significant extent the economic development of selected countries in the Western Balkans. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In 1588 Tycho Brahe proposed a new cosmological system keeping a motionless Earth at the centre of the world. In the first half of the following century the reception of Tycho’s model within the Society of Jesus was characterized by a strong resistance at the beginning, followed by a long and winding path, and then a good fortune, whereas heliocentric models were increasingly investigated in European observatories. In 1651 a Jesuit astronomer, Giovan Battista Riccioli, published the Almagestum novum, an (...) encyclopaedic synthesis of astronomical knowledge where the Earth’s motions or rest were extensively discussed in order to prove the Earth's immobility. However, through the period 1650–1687 the Almagestum novum did not entirely fulfil its aims, rather seeming like the dying swan’s song of Tychonic or semi-Tychonic models. Contemporary scholars appreciated the encyclopaedic effort by Riccioli, but many were critical of his proofs. Even influential Jesuit astronomers showed a remarkable interest in the Copernican model, accepting geocentric models only on the basis of Holy Scripture’s authority. This conduct and the tacitly allowed circulation in Catholic Europe of openly Copernican books, indicate that Catholic science tolerated heliocentric theory, when presented as a computational device rather than a representation of reality, more frequently than we usually think. (shrink)

Las fuentes de la tradición indirecta de las Vidas (βίοι) de Alejandro se distinguen entre las más creíbles, enmarcadas en los límites de la historiografía y de la biografía imperiales, y aquellas de invención, más cercanas a la novela de viajes y la paradoxografía. Este trabajo propone ir más allá de esa categorización genérica para pensar la dualidad historia / ficción como material coexistente en las diferentes versiones en torno a la fundación de Alejandría según tres autores griegos de la (...) época imperial: Anábasis de Alejandro Magno de Arriano, Vida de Alejandro de Plutarco, Vida y Hazañas de Alejandro de Macedonia del Pseudo Calístenes. The sources of the indirect tradition of Alexander's Lives (βίοι) are distinguished among those more credible, framed within the limits of imperial historiography and biography, and those of invention, closer to the travel novels and paradoxography. This paper attempts to go beyond these genre categories to understand the duality history / fiction as material coexisting in the different versions about the founding of Alexandria by three Greek authors of the imperial period: Anabasis of Alexander the Great by Arrian, Life of Alexander by Plutarch and The life and exploits of Alexander the Great by Pseudo- Callisthenes. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine whether it is possible to improve democracy by encouraging ordinary citizens to participate in political decision-making and if participation in deliberative institutions can make citizens more competent decision-makers. By using qualitative data, we analyze the discussion from the Belgrade citizens? assembly focused on the topic of expanding the pedestrian zone in the city center. The CA was organized in Serbia for the first time, as part of a research project aimed at promoting and advancing innovative (...) democratic practices in the Western Balkans. The goal was to encourage the involvement of citizens in discussions of public interest. Our hypothesis was that, through the process of participation and deliberation in CA, ordinary citizens can make reasonable and informed choices, increase their knowledge of the issue discussed, and become more motivated to participate in political decision-making on the local level. Our qualitative content analysis suggests that deliberation had a positive impact on participants? knowledge of the chosen topic of the assembly. It also shows that citizens used exhaustive explanations rather than brief statements, could differentiate the good arguments from the bad, and more often appealed to general rather than private interests. Participants in the assembly reported a significant increase in interest in political decision-making that affects their lives, as well as a sense of being informed about politics. Finally, we wanted to draw attention to the challenges and open questions that remain, namely those that concern the impact of a deliberative body on political decision-making in the real world. (shrink)

This article focuses on the work of Czech Jesuit Cardinal Tomáš Špidlík (1919-2010), continued in his pupils, both in Rome, where he taught for most of his life, and in the Czech Republic. It explores in particular how studies of hesychasm marked their understanding of deification. It asks in which sense their work can be seen as a Western attempt to rehabilitate the doctrine of deification in its experiential and theological complexity, where they contribute to the renewal of the communication (...) between the Christian East and the Christian West, and what are the complications present in their attempt expressed against the background of uniatism. (shrink)

Ernst Lubitsch, the great author of Hollywood comedy and pioneer of such genres as the sophisticated romantic comedy, the musical, and the screwball comedy, is a relatively overlooked figure in mainstream film theory. In this collection, renowned world thinkers and philosophers position Lubitsch as the premium director of subversive cinema, reflecting on his attitude toward love and politics which correspond to contemporary issues.Followers of the Hegelian, Marxist, Freudian, Lacanian, and Deleuzian traditions discuss thephilosophical, political, and ethical dimensions of Lubitsch's late (...) Hollywood work. They focus on love as stealing, the ethics of style, and comedy in times of austerity in the director's masterpiece, _Trouble in Paradise_ (1932); answer the question of why comedy is always polygamous; discuss links between masochism, melancholia, and ideology in _Ninotchka_(1939); celebrate the ethical gesture of comedy in _To Be or Not to Be_ (1942); and promote the revolutionary comic spirit of Lubitsch's last directorial effort, _Cluny Brown_ (1946). These essays' witty, subversive, and provocative approaches highlight Lubitsch's unique understanding of love, sex, comedy, and politics and idiosyncratic conception of totalitarian"nightmares" and capitalistic "paradise," countering the non-dialectic and politically correct discourse of mainstream and independent cinema today. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between three temperament dimensions: strength of excitation, strength of inhibition and mobility measured by Pavlov’s Temperament Survey, and amplitudes and latencies of evoked brain potentials measured by a visual oddball paradigm in two blocks. The participants were female psychology students with mean age of 20. Significant positive correlations were determined between amplitudes of N1-P2-N2-P3 components and strength of excitation and mobility in the first and second block, mostly on parietal electrodes, (...) as well as significant negative correlations of amplitudes of N1-P2-N2-P3 components and strength of inhibition. Considering measurement limitations important future study directions have been given. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por objetivo descrever a representação simbólica da Pomba-gira Cigana de um terreiro de Umbanda na cidade de Maracás. As relações que os ciganos estabeleceram nos sertões da Bahia influenciaram o imaginário de sua população, contribuindo na construção de ritos incorporados pela religiosidade de matriz africana naquela cidade. Além disso, gerou correspondências simbólicas com mitos de origem africana, como os de Oxum, Iansã e Exu. Isso ajudou a compor o arquétipo peculiar desta Pomba-gira, na casa de Pai (...) Zé Pezão. O referido texto discute essas relações simbólicas, tomando como base a entidade espiritual e o seu caráter erótico, desordeiro, brincalhão, mas, acima de tudo, sagrado. Por meio dessa pesquisa etnográfica, obtivemos registros, transcrições de entrevistas, de rituais, de festas, de cantigas e sambas de caboclos. Os resultados desse estudo apresenta a relação da entidade com os seguintes símbolos: cabelo, dinheiro, amor, paixão, sexo e subversão. (shrink)

One of the fundamental questions of legal philosophy and theory is what it means to have a legal right, i.e. who can be considered a legal right holder. With the parallel development of bioethical doctrine, this question about rights holders is becoming increasingly relevant, raising the question of whether rights holders can be animals, trees, foetuses, future generations or machines (artificial intelligence). This question also applies to the dead, where the difficult question of the end of life and the final (...) occurrence of death also arises. By critically elaborating the positions of contemporary legal theorists in the context of two key theories of rights, the Will Theory and the Interest Theory and their mutual differences, the paper attempts to offer an account of the dead as potential right holders. In this context, the above legal theory elaboration is reflectively considered in the context of civil law doctrine of legal rights, as one of the fundamental areas within the general part of civil law. The legal subjectivity of the deceased is also observed in the field of (post-mortem protection) personality rights, but also in a pragmatic way in relation to recent domestic case law practice, as well as the case law practice of the European Court of Human Rights, where interesting legal issues have arisen that imply the question of the deceased as legal right holders. (shrink)

Right to water as a fundamental human right.

Corporate social responsibility research has burgeoned in the past several decades. Despite significant advances, our review of the literature reveals a problematic gap: We know little about how culture, practices, and interactions shape CSR. On further investigation, we discover that limited research utilizes ethnography to understand CSR, which may provide some explanation for this gap. Thus, the purpose of this article is to illustrate the utility of ethnography for advancing business and society research via a multistage framework that demonstrates how (...) three different types of ethnography may be applied to the exploration of CSR. We specifically focus on the alignment between stages in the research process, or methodological fit, as a key criterion of high-quality research. In doing so, we provide researchers embracing different worldviews a tool they may utilize to conduct and evaluate ethnographies in business and society research. (shrink)

One of the fundamental problems in the philosophy of psychology is to determine the relation between personal and subpersonal explanations of human behavior. The problem of determining the relation between the personal and subpersonal levels is called the “interface problem”. This paper has two goals. The first is to introduce the domestic reader to the interface problem from the perspective of the philosophy of psychology. The second goal is to show that insufficient focus on the interface problem and its potential (...) solutions can lead to uncritical and fallacious reasoning that can have significant consequences for particular debates in philosophy of medicine and philosophy of law. (shrink)

Ziel dieser Untersuchung ist es zu zeigen, wie Platons Verständnis von Lust und Unlust in seinem Dialog Philebus mit Spinozas Theorie der Affekte zusammenhängt. Beide Denker verstehen den Affekt der Lust in Relation zu Werturteilen und dem Charakter einer Person. Ich behaupte, dass Platon und Spinoza gleichermaßen feststellen, dass die Wahl des Individuums für lustvolle Objekte von der Definition und Bestimmung des Guten und des Ideals des Individuums selbst abhängt, und somit auch von der Ursache der Lust. Beide Philosophen stimmen (...) darin überein, dass sich das Vergnügen eines vernünftigen Menschen von dem eines unvernünftigen unterscheidet, da auch ihr Urteil über Gut und Böse jeweils unterschiedlich ist. Ich schließe, dass Platons und Spinozas Bild eines vernünftigen Menschen im Zusammenhang mit den Affekten der Lust und des Unlustempfindens übereinstimmt, weil es hierbei um ein ganzheitliches Bild vom Menschen geht, der Affekte nur entsprechend seiner Natur oder seines Wesens erlebt. (shrink)

Farming is undergoing a digital revolution. Our existing review of current Big Data applications in the agri-food sector has revealed several collection and analytics tools that may have implications for relationships of power between players in the food system. For example, Who retains ownership of the data generated by applications like Monsanto Corproation's Weed I.D. “app”? Are there privacy implications with the data gathered by John Deere's precision agricultural equipment? Systematically tracing the digital revolution in agriculture, and charting the affordances (...) as well as the limitations of Big Data applied to food and agriculture, should be a broad research goal for Big Data scholarship. Such a goal brings data scholarship into conversation with food studies and it allows for a focus on the material consequences of big data in society. (shrink)

In the last year of the Great War, Italy was also hit by the Spanish flu. The Civic Hospitals faced a deadly disaster with insufficient resources. All the heavy workload fell on the female nursing staff, who were the only ones able ensure the continuity of the hospital services. This study aimed to explore the impact of the influenza on the health of the nurses at the Maggiore Hospital in Milan during the second and third epidemic waves. Historical research was (...) conducted between February and May 2020. Primary sources were retrieved from the historical archives of the Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico and the daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. In the autumn of 1918, the Maggiore Hospital in Milan changed its organization to hospitalise patients affected by the influenza pandemic. Although the hospital managers wanted to protect their healthcare staff from the risks of contagion by means of prophylaxis rules, 388 lay nurses and 80 religious sister nurses were affected by this insidious disease. The second and third waves of the pandemic claimed 25 victims of duty. Remembered for their altruism and spirit of abnegation, the hospital community honoured their sacrifice, and the citizens expressed their gratitude. (shrink)

Background:Horizontal violence, defined in the literature as ‘interpersonal conflict between two nurses at the same hierarchical levels in organizations’, often associated with bullying, affects the well-being of nurses, care recipients and the professional image of nursing and the organization due to increased turnover. One in every three newly graduated nurses is a victim of horizontal violence, although they do not always know how to define it.Aim:To investigate the direct and indirect experiences of horizontal violence in newly graduated nurses as well (...) as to shed light on the phenomenon, on its awareness and recognition.Methods:A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted between September and October 2018 with newly graduated nurses, with a work experience ranging between 6 months and 3 years. The interviews were conducted face-to-face, consisting of a first open general question, followed by semi-structured questions.Ethical considerations:The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Institution Review Board.Results:From the analysis of the interviews of the 21 participants, four main themes were identified: the ‘enemies’, that is those who exercised violence, the ‘weapons’ used by them to exercise violence, the ‘effects’ and the types of ‘armor’ identified to protect themselves.Discussion:Horizontal violence is rarely recognized by newly graduated nurses, even though our sample had directly or indirectly experienced horizontal violence. Tackling the phenomenon starting from the undergraduate degree courses, focusing on effective support and more protection by the organization leaders were the silent requests that emerged from this study.Conclusion:Preventing horizontal violence is important for nurses’ professional and private well-being, for professional conduct and for the quality of care provided to patients. (shrink)

This study aims to investigate the hypothesis that “thinking in opposites” might facilitate insight problem solving. For example, if the image relating to a problem is oriented horizontally, it may...

This anthology translates eighteen papers by Italian philosopher and experimental psychologist Paolo Bozzi, bringing his distinctive and influential ideas to an English-speaking audience for the first time. The papers cover a range of methodological and experimental questions concerning the phenomenology of perception and their theoretical implications, with each one followed by commentary from leading international experts. In his laboratory work, Bozzi investigated visual and auditory perception, such as our responses to pendular motion and bodies in freefall, afterimages, transparency effects, and (...) grouping effects in dot lattices and among sounds. Reflecting on the results of his enquiries against the background of traditional approaches to experimentation in these fields, Bozzi took a unique realist stance that challenges accepted approaches to perception, arguing that experimental phenomenology is neither a science of the perceptual process nor a science of the appearances; it is a science of how things are. The writings collected here offer an important resource for psychologists of perception and philosophers, as well as for researchers in cognitive science. (shrink)

This article analyzes the structure of the “we relation” drawing on Alfred Schütz's theoretical framework. It argues for a flexibilization of the initial framework in order to capture not only the tension, but also the variations in the relation between the lived experience of the other in lived duration and the reflection upon the other, through which meaning is constructed. In order to do so, it revisits Schütz’s claims about immersion into togetherness as part of the experience of copresence and (...) it bridges them with the apparently opposite Sartrian view of the other as either objectifying or being objectified. This leads to certain shifts in the distinction between consociates and contemporaries and sheds light upon the ways in which the process of constructing the other as meaningful is not an added layer, but a co-constitutive element in the vivid experience of copresence and of absence. (shrink)

La evidencia fenomenológica ha sido caracterizada como cumplimiento de una intención mentante, comprensión que tiende a asimilar la evidencia con la conciencia plena, sin hacer justicia a la esencial implicancia mutua de vacío y plenitud que la constituye por su carácter horizóntico-intencional. El horizonte, configurado típicamente, ofrece el campo de cumplimiento posible, por lo que puede sostenerse que la evidencia tiene lugar en una conciencia de posibilidad, es decir, modal, aunque en sentido originariamente material y no dóxico o posicional, pues (...) es el primero el que compete a las relaciones de cumplimiento. La modalidad que caracteriza esencialmente a la evidencia no se revela entonces en la modalización posible en cuanto modificación posicional de un contenido unitario, sino en su configuración material “perfilada” de plenitud y vacío que da algo como algo remitiendo a otras posibilidades como momentos de su propia validez. (shrink)

The importance of employee social media policies is recognized in today’s increasingly connected organizations. Yet these policies are adopted at varying rates in different sectors and geographical regions. In the present study, an institutional approach was employed to investigate the predictors of the adoption of employee social media policies by organizations. Six predictors were examined, namely, organizational size, industry, and the national culture dimensions of power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. Results of a logistic regression analysis of 558 online (...) survey responses from human resource professionals worldwide showed that all six predictors were associated with the adoption of employee social media policies. These findings have implications for multinational companies, as well as for policy makers in the legal, human resources, information technologies, and public relations departments who are the primary parties involved in establishing employee social media policies. Study limitations are presented and future research avenues are suggested. (shrink)

In this paper I examine the presence of rape myths and gender stereotypes, and the norms of sexuality they reflect and reinforce, in Croatian rape laws, as exemplified by the recent practice of the Zagreb County Court. I begin with a general discussion of the gendered myths and stereotypes that have shaped the content and application of the criminal law of rape everywhere. I then briefly introduce the definition of rape under the 1997 Croatian Criminal Code which was in force (...) at the time of my research, after which I proceed to the critical analysis and the assessment of the Zagreb County Court practice. Next, I turn to the changes in the new Criminal Code to see how they address the identified problems. I offer a model of an affirmative consent standard, based on a communicative model of sexuality, which values reciprocal responsibility, communication and mutuality of sexual desire. I argue that this standard has greater potential to challenge rape myths and gender stereotypes and to promote sexual freedom and gender equality. (shrink)

This work provides an annotated translation, together with a brief commentary, of the “Bao Wei Quan” chapter, the 20th chapter of the Chunqiu fanlu. The Chunqiu fanlu is an important Chinese Confucian text. It is ascribed to a pivotal Former Han (206 BCE – 9 CE) scholar, an exegete of the Gongyang zhuan 公羊傳, Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 (ca. 195–115 BCE). This text offered to readers an ideal of rulership that remained highly relevant to the development of the ethical and political (...) discourse of Chinese Confucianism. Despite its importance, the Chunqiu fanlu has only very recently been fully translated into a Western language, 1 and is one of the rare major classical Chinese texts which still lacks a full Japanese translation. Thus, the purpose of this work is to contribute to the ongoing Chunqiu fanlu translation project and to present to the reader some of the form and content of this influential work. -/- ⟪春秋繁露⟫第20章〈保位權〉的漢文注譯 -/- 本文是對⟪春秋繁露⟫第二十卷〈保位權〉含有短評的注譯。⟪春秋繁露⟫是中國儒學代表作之一。其作者据考据被認為是以注釋⟪春秋公羊傳⟫而聞名的西漢學者董仲舒（公元前195年—公元前115年）。⟪春秋繁露⟫是 一部被公認為有助於理解中國儒學發展史的最重要的經典著作之一。⟪春秋繁露⟫中所倡導的統治理想以及天人感應的概念兩千年以來一直是倫理政治學中的一個核心問題，這部書對中國儒學的倫理和政治論述的發展起著极為重 要的作用。⟪春秋繁露⟫雖然在中國傳統文化中占据著重要的地位，但它最近才被完整地翻譯成任何歐洲國家的語言，不過完整日語翻譯本中仍然缺少的一部。筆者希望本文可以為正在進行中的⟪春秋繁露⟫翻譯工程做出一點貢 獻，并希望通過本文給廣大讀者介紹一點該著作的基本形式和一小部分內容。. (shrink)

Svrha ovog rada bila je utvrditi učestalost sudjelovanja učitelja Glazbene kulture u različitim aktivnostima informalnog cjeloživotnog učenja te saznati njihovo mišljenje o važnosti i doprinosu navedenog razvoju vlastitih kompetencija potrebnih za poučavanje Glazbene kulture. Utvrđeno je da učitelji najviše sudjeluju u informalnim aktivnostima učenja koje ne zahtijevaju dodatno izdvajanje vremena te shodno tome rjeđe sudjeluju u aktivnostima koje zahtijevaju veću njihovu pažnju. Osjećaju se kompetentnima u izvođenju svih glazbenih aktivnosti koje se provode u nastavi Glazbene kulture. Nadalje, vide doprinos i (...) važnost sudjelovanja u aktivnostima informalnog učenja, no podijeljeni su u razmišljaju trebaju li posvetiti više dodatnog vremena aktivnostima informalnog učenja te kada razmišljaju o tome bi li njihova nastava bila jednako kvalitetna da ne primjenjuju nova znanja stečena informalnim učenjem. (shrink)