A concept of Pagan Theology has been producing a number of discussions throughout the last decade and particularly in the last few years both inside and outside Pagan community. In this paper, the author analyzes three aspects of the phenomenon of Pagan Theology and discussions emerged around it. The first aspect is the genesis of the idea of Pagan Theology. It includes an examination of academic and religious roots of this research programme. The second aspect is a view on Pagan (...) Theology from the perspective of the academia. While for some scholars Pagan Theology appears to be a legitimate field of study and/or research programme in Pagan Studies, others describe it is an attempt of Pagan intervention in the academia. Finally, the third aspect is a discussion on Pagan Theology emerged among Pagans, whose reflections of this topic are very ambiguous too. In spite of this fact, the author concludes that the idea of Pagan Theology was a necessary stage of development, both in the conceptualization of contemporary Paganism itself and in Pagan Studies at the same time. (shrink)

In this article, the author analyzes dominating contemporary approaches to the study of esotericism including those of W. Hanegraaff that is popular today among European scholars and its alternatives developing in the USA and the United Kingdom. The author argues that these methodologies should be understood as competitive „research programmes‟ inside the complex field of the academic study of esotericism and can‟t be described in terms of „old‟ and „new‟ paradigms like Hanegraaff tends to do it.

The concept of “going native in reverse” reflects the fact that nowadays more and more people involved in new religious movements and esoteric groups participate in academic activities related to the study of religion in general and particularly in the study of their movements. On the one hand, these people bring insider’s perspective in the academia. On the other hand, they bring academic knowledge and critical mind in esoteric community and change it. This situation seems to be a positive tendency (...) in the development of modern spirituality both for insiders and for the society in general, because contemporary knowledge and critical mind can make religious and esoteric currents more subtle and adequate for the modern world. But what is the future of this tendency in regard to an insider/outsider problem? Maybe they can change the academia by bringing new unexpected perspectives in the study of religion and esotericism. However, conservative academic elites can finally reject researchers who try to bring the insider perspective in the academia and even expel them from academic circles. In this case they will turn into a marginal group inside the academia, and for their skeptical colleagues they will remain to be those eccentrics who want “to wear the esoteric and the scholarly hat simultaneously”, as W. J. Hanegraaff put it. On the other hand, such researchers may try to form a new discipline, so to speak an “esoteric divinity” that will fight for the place both in the academia and in the esoteric community in the next decades. However, the esoteric community itself may reject this tendency, because many of its participants today seem to have an inimical attitude toward to rationalism and the academia. (shrink)

t. 1. Lubi︠a︡nka-Ėkibastuz ; Sozidateli i razrushiteli -- t. 2. Teorii︠a︡ gustot : opyt khristianskoĭ filosofii kont︠s︡a XX veka ; Mekhanika na kvantovom urovne -- t. 3. K teorii gustot ; Postulaty marksizma i zakony prirody ; Pustota bezbozhii︠a︡ ; Politėkonomii︠a︡ na ėnergeticheskoĭ osnove ; Derzhava sozidateleĭ ; K edinenii︠u︡ khristian -- t. 4. Mysli o raznom ; Solzhenit︠s︡yn i deĭstvitelʹnostʹ ; Statʹi v zapadnoĭ presse.

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

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

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

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

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

Studie nejprve stručně rekapituluje obsah knihy Mariana Kuny (Etika a politika v perspektivě Alasdaira MacIntyra) a snaží se ji kriticky zhodnotit. Poté se krátce věnuje dvěma tématům, klíčovým jak pro MacIntyra, tak pro jmenovanou knihu: otázce „univerzálních ctností“ a otázce pravdy. Zdá se totiž, že právě tyto dvě oblasti nejsou ani u jednoho ze zmiňovaných autorů uspokojivě řešeny.The study summarizes the book by Marian Kuna (Etika a politika v perspektivě Alasdaira MacIntyra) and aims to critically evaluate it. Then it gives (...) a brief account of two topics crucial to both MacIntyre and Kuna: the problem of “universal virtues” and the problem of truth. It seems that neither of these is handled adequately in the works of the mentioned authors. (shrink)

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

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

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

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

Can matter, things, nonhuman organisms, technologies, tools and machines, biota or institutions be seen as creative? How does such creativity reposition the visionary activities of humans? This article is an elaboration of such questions as well as an attempt at a partial response. It was written as an editorial for the special issue of the Digital Creativity journal that interrogates the conception of Post-Anthropocentric Creativity. However, the text below is a rather unconventional editorial. It does not attempt to provide an (...) overview of the issue’s theme but, instead, samples it via a particular example. The idea of the issue was to think about post-anthropocentricism by considering (1) agents, recipients and processes of creativity alongside with its (2) purpose, value, ethics and politics. This article addresses the first subtheme by puzzling at the paradoxes of “field learning” and picks at the second by considering the texture of “automated beauty”. Both of these parts use chess for an example. The narrative on chess is intermitted by a section “on creativity” that attempts to contextualize the case-based discussion in the wider context and to consider motivations and implications. (shrink)

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

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

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

The author considers two additions to analysis of technoscience, suggested by Olga Koshovets and Igor Frolov. First, technoscience is not just regime of knowledge production, which brings into play enormous technological and organizational resources, but is a regime, regulated by mandatory requirement to produce knowledge, which should be transformed into endowed with market value goods and services (technoobjects). Second, technoscience is an ever-faster colonization of natural and social worlds by technoobjects. In the author's view, the main problem with technoscience is (...) not to hold the next round of conceptual clarification and theoretical reorganization of previous distinctions (nature/society, basic science/applied science, scientific fact/technoobject, social connections/technological connections) or introduction of new ones. The challenge is how to turn the concrete realization of technoscience into empirical research objects. The complexity of such enterprise is demonstrated in the case of research biobanking, which has become one of exemplary embodiment of technoscience and contemporary mode of biopolitics. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:1. IntroductionThe scientific efforts of Jesuits were the hot topics of the history of science. It was said that you could find a Jesuit behind most of the scientific accomplishments of the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. The idea was not far from the truth because Athanasius Kircher of Rudjer Josip Bošković proved to be among the best. But Jesuit studies seem to have passed their peak and it is (...) time to research the early modern science successes of other religious orders. The Parisian Franciscan Marin Mersenne with his worldwide correspondence was the German-Roman Jesuit Kircher’s match and several other Franciscans were not less important. Therefore it is time to give the Franciscan scientists of the past centuries the fame they deserve.We celebrated the 800th anniversary of the Franciscan order in the year 2009. The Franciscans of Ljubljana were mentioned for the first time in 1242 as already established and resident in Ljubljana, soon after the establishment of Franciscan order. Later they were unable to survive the protestant challenge in 1569,1 when almost all citizens of Ljubljana accepted Luther’s Christianity. Although they never really left Ljubljana, the Franciscans officially returned to Ljubljana after several decades.Between the years 1646 and 1660 the Augustinian church of Annunciation of Our Lady was erected on behalf of the Baron Konrad Ruessenstein from the Upper Carniola castle Strmol. The front walls were finished in 1700, and half of a century later the famous Italian sculptor Francesco Robba made the main altar. The Emperor Josef II suppressed the Ljubljana Augustinians in 1784 and somewhat later gave their friary and church to their Franciscan neighbors from the opposite side of Ljubljanica River. The Barons Ruessensteins were not offended by the change and still took care for the church. The Baron Alexis Ruessenstein gave his important alchemical manuscripts to the new friary owners, the Franciscans.2After the death of the Emperor Josef II, Gabriel Gruber’s best student Jožef Marija Šemerl redesigned a former Franciscan Friary for a Lyceum. Gruber, who later became the General of the Jesuit Order, was among the best engineers in Habsburg Monarchy. The church of the Assumption of Our Lady was removed and leveled.3 After the earthquake Ljubljana got the market place in the former site of the Lyceum.The church of Annunciation of Our Lady or simply the Franciscan Church remains one of the most typical sightseeing posts in Ljubljana, even if the name of the square in front of it passed from Mary to France Prešeren, the greatest Slovenian poet, in the time of Communist regime in 1949.Click for larger viewFigure 1. The first page of the index of the copy of alchemistic manuscript of Alexis Baron Ruessenstein’s, the son of Konrad Baron Ruessenstein from the castle Strmol, Ruessenstein, ibid. FSLJ-29 F 54, 234–35 .Click for larger viewFigure 2. Alexis baron Ruessenstein about the Quicksilver in the copy of his original handwriting kept in Ljubljana Franciscan Library .Škerpin’s booksThe Ljubljana Franciscan Library was established in 1233.4 Žiga Škerpin renewed the Franciscan Library which was located on the right side of the Ljubljanica River during his lifetime. He was the provincial of Croatian-Carniolan province between the years 1732–1735 and again between the years 1745–1748. He became the court’s secret advisor,5 and acting general definitor of all Franciscans. During his numerous foreign travels, including Italy and Spain, he collected books. Between the years 1733–1746 Škerpin brought to Ljubljana no less than 1668 titles of.. (shrink)

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

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

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

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

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

What can the creation of artificial habitats to replace old-growth forests tell us about the process, value and future of design? This chapter takes a concrete and provocative example and uses it to rethink design as a gradual, ecological action. To illustrate this understanding, the chapter begins with a description of a proposal to provide artificial habitats for wild animals such as birds, bats and invertebrates. The controversial idea to replace rapidly disappearing old-growth trees with artificial structures puts in doubt (...) habitual assumptions about the clients, procedures and goals of design. This example is of relevance to all design because the need to provide artificial habitats to nonhumans will be increasingly common under the influence of such phenomena as global warming or urbanisation. … The invention of artificial structures in place of natural habitats is described in this chapter as an incitement that highlights the need for further research into values, participants and methods of design. This discussion concludes with a proposal for an attitude of modesty in the face of increasingly overwhelming volumes of information as well as in the presence of an even greater ignorance about the futures of nondeterministic, volatile and incompletely controllable natural systems. The dilemma of design in these conditions is in the tension between its remit to act and the uncertainty that inescapably underlies any creative endeavour. (shrink)

In order to understand what happened to Russian philosophy in our country, let us perform a thought experiment: let us imagine that the same thing happened to Russian literature. That is, that we were left with only "revolutionary democrats" and the writers in agreement with them—the materialist atheists. To keep the experiment pure and simple, let us take only the greatest names. Thus we will publish, esteem, and study only "progressive" writers in the above sense. Only two writers would perhaps (...) remain: Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin and Nikolai Nekrasov, and even with these two we would be stretching the point a bit—Shchedrin is after all the author of Provincial Sketches [Gubernskie ocherki] and Nekrasov is the author of Vlas, in which there is so much love for holy Rus' with its God's fools [iurodivye] and its beggars. Now let us look at whom we would leave out, whom we would not publish or study. First, of course, there are Tolstoi and Dostoevskii; their religiosity leaves not the slightest doubt. (shrink)

In his theory of society Protagoras, one of the most influential sophists thinkers, applies a contractarian approach, similar in many respects to those of Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau. Protagoras, unlike Aristotle or Plato, was convinced that individual perceptions and beliefs as well as those of the body political are relative, because there is no uniform ground on which things could be perceived or experienced. He offers an evolutionary account of the development of human species, arguing that society is a result (...) of a contract among its members, based on commonly shared and taught social virtues. On the other hand, Protagoras is not a nihilist: In his account there is still a possibility of an expertise within the polis, related to the good of the particular community. (shrink)