Tracing the themes of political economy in Nietzsche’s thought, this article has two main purposes. The first of these is to problematize some narratives such as eternal return, will to power, and revaluation of values, which are the crucial concepts of Nietzsche’s thought, in the critique of political economy. The second is to re-read Nietzsche’s themes of political economy in conjunction with the concept of the virtual political economy of life, to link Nietzsche’s ‘grand politics’ with the overshadowed concept of (...) ‘grand economy’ by making the move that put Nietzsche’s hammer on the idols of the established grammar of political economy. All of these themes are part of an economy of power that goes against the grasp of economics and political economy by grammatical thought. I call this political economy the virtual political economy of life. (shrink)

Research on the meanings of self and others’ perceptions, beliefs, values, and attitudes in intracultural and intercultural relations is of significant social relevance. A micro-analysis of its development as a whole process differentiated by the single substrates from an endophilosophical and ontological viewpoint will allow the implementation of a new definition of the self, being, and other according to the principles of dynamics and interculturality. This new sense of defining being will not only produce a good conception of the impact (...) of culture on identity but also depict how the opposite, or pathogenic identity, should be considered, especially in times of existential crisis and change. Healthy or pathogenic patterns themselves organize situations where the basic needs of interaction with space are constructed and the equilibrium of everyone is maintained. Therefore, depending on the received information, professionals can formulate an objective analysis of the conscious self. (shrink)

From Antiquity to the Postmodern world, the approaches of philosophical and literary thought to death have changed but also remained similar from philosopher to philosopher and from writer to writer. Many of these approaches emphasize the dualities of life/death and soul/body, relying on the argument that everything arises from its opposite through the continuous process of reproduction, just as everything dies. This paper will deal with the concept of death in the work of three authors, Ndre Mjedja, Lasgush Poradeci, and (...) Mitrush Kuteli, who are the main writers and cultural personalities in Albanian literature of the 20th century. The selected authors conceive, create, and promote a plurality of discourses and themes, highlighting the theme of death, through which they reveal the philosophical power of the literary text and the possibilities implicit to literature itself. Their views provide a poetic and cultural background for a theoretical discussion of literary and cultural facets of death. A prelude exploring the concept of death generally will be followed by a discussion of the authors’ works, and finally, a theoretical analysis of these works will round off the investigation of death as a literary and philosophical theme in Albanian letters. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed new light on some significant problems that have been present in the education systems for decades. Тhe lack of various educational methods is becoming more and more evident, leading to a decreasing interest in learning and critical thinking. Оn the other hand, more and more research shows that different types of digital games can enhance creative and critical thinking in students. А closer look at the requirements of the educational programs shows how strict they are (...) in their demands on students. Digital games like role playing games can be a bridge between students’ imaginations and complex educational material. Video games feature a variety of game mechanics that stimulate creative thinking and spark interest in otherwise difficult to understand topics. Motivation and engagement in digital games can be used in a specific way for educational purposes. If we think of teaching as an art in itself, what better method of teaching than through interactive arts. (shrink)

Spinoza’s Ethics is one of the most important works in Western philosophy. Unfortunately, aside from the Vatican manuscript, which is very close to the final printed version, no drafts have been preserved. In this article I shed some new light on the composition of the early draft of Ethics. I argue that there are significant reasons to believe that propositions Ip9 and Ip10 in Spinoza’s Ethics were added to the deductive argument later than the other first propositions: Ip1-Ip8 and Ip11.

Quine has been charged with eliminating the normative dimension from his naturalized epistemology. The aim of the paper is to look at the role of empathy in Quine's language learning situation, which in its simplest form is constituted by the parent-child relation. We will explore the normativity of the role of empathy thereof by exploiting the sociality of the language learning situation. Since the sociality of Quine's notion of empathy is implicit, to explore the normativity expression thereof, we will examine (...) the explicit sociality of Wittgenstein's language learning situation-also constituted in its simplest form by the master-novice relation-and the normative character of it. By explicating the normativity of the calibrating role of the master and of rule following generally, we will parse the social dimensions of the empathizing role of the linguist in Quine's language learning situation. Finally, by examining the nature of normativity in empathizing, we will establish that the normativity of empathizing involved in Quine's language learning situation is socially grounded without denying its individual dimension. We will conclude that the normativity objection against Quine's naturalism thus stands refuted. (shrink)

This article addresses the question of whether psychodrama can be viewed as an example of the extended mind thesis and can be applied in an educational context. The extended mind thesis (Clark & Chalmers, 1998) proposes that external artifacts can function as integral components of an individual's cognitive system, augmenting cognitive abilities. The article explores the notion that psychodrama, with its scenes, techniques, and social group dynamics, can be regarded as an extension of the mind. By examining this relationship, the (...) article aims to provide a wider understanding of the implications of the extended mind thesis in the field of education. Viewing psychodrama through the lens of the extended mind thesis emphasizes the role of the environment in shaping cognition, underscores the significance of external resources in the educational process, and highlights the potential of psychodrama as an educational approach. (shrink)

The following paper aims to re-examine the nature of the moral self as expounded by the Care Ethicists with the prime objective of understanding its ontological potential. It will be argued that this philosophical endeavor of examining the nature of the moral self in light of the Care Ethics theory echoes ontological thoughts and ideas that orbit around themes such as relationality, emotionality, and contextuality. The paper seeks to exhaustively explore the moral significance of these detected ontological standards of the (...) Ethics of Care project. Through this engagement, an affinity between the moral and the ontological aspects of Care Ethics shall be identified. Discussing the proposed ontological significance and implication of the care theory, we shall determine if there is a possibility for developing a dialogue between the domain of ethics and ontology, and if so, then consider what the ontological roots of feminist Care Ethics are. Consequently, through this project, we shall present a revised narrative of morality altogether. (shrink)

The relevance and theoretical weight of the mentioned topic of research consists in the definition of the phenomenon metamodernism, which, in modern humanitarian knowledge and in literary and artistic practice, determines the need to distinguish and analyse segments of European humanism as means of in-depth reproduction, nuance and personalisation of historical and cultural stages, in the context of the specified systematisation of the movement of segments from the middle of the 19th to the first two decades of the 21st century. (...) The main goal of this study, considering the creative and research potential of segments that contributed to the gradual layering of specific features of European humanism, is the reconstruction of arguments for and against those processes that caused the development of a single cultural space. The basis of the methodological approach in this study is the principles of historicism with the assignment of analytical, comparative, and chronological approaches to the determination of a wide range of issues that are of significant importance in the context of the stated topic. In the course of carrying out this research, results were obtained that have significant theoretical and practical significance, because they contribute to the further scientific and theoretical understanding of the dynamics of the European humanistic movement from the second half of the 19th to the first two decades of the 21st century, and can be used in lectures on aesthetics, philosophy, cultural studies, history and the theory of art for students of humanitarian and artistic creative universities. The results obtained during the implementation of this research, and the conclusions formulated on their basis, are of significant importance in the context of determining the key trends in the recognition of the creative and searching tendencies of European humanism, which play an important role in the process of forming a single cultural space. (shrink)

I contrast two construals of the thesis that truth is independent of verifiability in principle: a modal one and a non modal one. I argue in favor of the modal construal and then, on that basis, that independence holds across the board, i.e., even for statements that are verifiable by us relative to familiar, customary, non-skeptical standards.

Benjamin Constant and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were both Swiss-French political thinkers who had a significant influence on the subsequent development of political thought. Constant is known not only as a political philosopher but also as an active politician, who today is considered one of the founding fathers of liberalism. Rousseau, in turn, is considered one of the most controversial thinkers of the Enlightenment, who has been accused of laying the foundation for many revolutionary political movements and repressive regimes. The main objective (...) of this work is to illustrate Benjamin Constant’s liberal objections to the political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. First, it is important to focus on Rousseau’s main ideas for the full disclosure of the topic. Likewise, it is also crucial to take into account the historical context, which will be useful for understanding the motives for the formation of Constant’s liberal views. Thus, in the first part of the work, we will briefly consider the main concepts developed by Rousseau in his book, The Social Contract, such as popular sovereignty, the state of nature, and direct democracy. In the second part, we will analyze the main political concepts of Constant and his critique of Rousseau, based on his books The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns and Principles of Politics Applicable to All Governments. (shrink)

What makes the paper relevant is modern strategies of neoliberal politics, according to which the political life of citizens is replaced by everyday politics of individuals. It has been established that the modern concepts of everyday politics of homo sacer and homo sucker contain the limit of ideas about the political life of citizens. The paper considers an ontological model of the political life of citizens built on the basis of thinking as form-of-life (Agamben). The return to the ontological level (...) of research can be explained by the fact that in modern conditions, the survival of a person depends directly on the person’s ability to think. Thinking as the form-of-life of a community is seen as a force that allows citizens to resist not only the inertia of social existence, but also the life watched carefully by the authorities. The paper presents two interpretations of political life based on the following statements: ‘I think, therefore I resist’ (Badiou) and ‘I resist, therefore I think’ (Arendt). (shrink)

The aim of teaching philosophy to children ultimately is not to teach them the history of philosophy, but rather to teach them to think, starting from philosophical concepts. This will help to develop high-level skills in children such as questioning, research, understanding and interpreting knowledge, establishing meaningful relationships between knowledge, creating original ideas, and problem-solving. Models of philosophizing with children have been developed, and systematic application attempts have been made, producing successful results in many countries of the world. According to (...) Matthew Lipman, these skills should be developed at a very young age with use of the model of philosophy for children (P4C). Our aim is to show and explore how to develop and sustain creative thinking, which is one of the achievements of P4C. If Lipman is right, children participating in these activities will start to gain creative thinking skills from an early age and will apply this foundation in other knowledge acquisition processes at more advanced developmental stages. This presentation aims to reveal the interrelation between P4C and creative thinking activity. First P4C will be explained, and then creative thinking and the interrelation between the two will be expanded upon in the conclusion. (shrink)

The author discusses the problem of what AI is and how we can understand the “anthropocentrism” of AI from a philosophical point of view. Three interpretations of the relationship between humans and technology are presented: 1) AI-aided human intelligence, based on the extension theory of technology (Stiegler, 1998); 2) human-aided AI intelligence, based on ideas related to political economy (Crawford, 2021); and 3) the relativity of the anthropocentric frame of reference (AFR), based on the taxonomy of species. The purpose of (...) the article is to provide considerations of the three different interpretations of the relationship between humans and technology and how they lead to different opportunities to answer the question of how we can understand AI’s creativity. (shrink)

This paper proposes a deep analysis of the latest research of digital humanities scholar Beatrice Fazi, and especially her critique of computational automation, to understand the roles of digital creative technologies, and more specifically of creative software. After a close analysis of Fazi’s main contribution to a new understanding of computational aesthetics, we will briefly outline the potential implications of her work to understand the contemporary evolution of creative software, and especially the implementation of machine learning algorithms in these kinds (...) of software. This will lead us to contextualise the contemporary anxieties regarding how machines could replace humans in the act of artistic creation. (shrink)

The review emphasizes the main topics and ideas in Nonka Bogomilova’s book, The Balkans: Marked Roads (1991-2016), and especially the humanist message of the book, which demolishes stereotypes and prejudices about our living space. Special attention is paid to the author’s contribution to Balkan Religious Studies as a personal, experience-based insight into the culture and characterology of the Balkans and the Balkan people.

This article addresses “Creativity after Computation” by looking into the concept of artificial imagination, namely the machine’s ability to produce images that challenge artmaking and surprise human beings with the aid of machine learning algorithms. What is at stake is not only art and creativity but also the tension between the determination of machines and the freedom of human beings. This opposition restages Kant’s third antinomy in the contemporary technological condition. By referring to the debate on the question of imagination (...) in Kant, Heidegger, and Stiegler, the article suggests that imagination is always already artificial and that it is more productive to develop an organology of artificial imagination. It clarifies the notion of artificial imagination and offers an organological reading through a reinterpretation of Leibniz’s monadology, Kant’s sublime, and Schiller’s aesthetic education against the backdrop of recursive algorithms. (shrink)

Art creates a specific relation to time and especially to the present moment. It opens the experience of the present towards its indeterminacy and emergence. On the contrary, AI does not know the present. It recognizes only the past and future. We could even say that artificial neural networks do not “know” time at all. Instead, they know only logical functions which process patterns of information. Yet, what makes time “time” is genuine transformation, which happens outside of the abstract realm (...) of logic. I support these observations by analysing two works of art: Bill Viola’s The Raft (2004) and Hito Steyerl’s This Is the Future (2019). While artistic creation opens up the intervals “in-between seconds” for an unpredictable and transformative event to occur (The Raft), AI closes these intervals and fastens the future into predictability calculated on the basis of past data (This Is the Future). Although this machinic operation makes the present even more unpredictable and prone to catastrophes, its potential for transformation seems to be withdrawn. (shrink)

This paper questions the notion of creativity found in certain artworks produced with A.I. technologies. The artistic examples concerned are: The Giver of names by David Rokeby, Oscar by Catherine Ikam and Louis Fléri, and Emotion Vending Machine by Maurice Benayoun. These artworks were selected because they stand out for their autonomous behavior in front of the human public. In this context, creativity is revealed as a consequence of the functional autonomy, which is very typical of these pieces of art. (...) The intention is to establish a relationship between the notion of autonomy and that of creativity, reviewing their meanings and applications in philosophy and in the field of life science. (shrink)

Algorithms and automated learning systems have been successfully applied to produce images, pieces of music, or texts that are appealing to humans and that are often compared to artworks. Computational technologies are able to find surprising and original solutions–new patterns that humans cannot anticipate– but does this mean we ascribe to them the kind of creativity that is expressed by human artists? Even though AI can successfully detect humans’ preferences as well as select the objects that satisfy taste, can we (...) ascribe to them the capacity of recognizing the intrinsic value of artworks? To answer these questions, I am first going to explain the kind of creativity that is expressed by contemporary predictive systems, then, in the second part of this paper, I will try to show the difference between the creativity of algorithms and the creativity of artists by expanding on Deleuze’s reflections. (shrink)

Obstructing our engagement with Computer-Generative art is an Authenticity Problem. This is where our engagement with Computer-Generative art is either seen through the prism of fantasy, such as romanticisation, or our engagement is defined by superficial inattentiveness. My aim is to show how a more fulfilling engagement is possible. This is my demonstration of the connection between Computer-Generative art and Authentic Expression. This is done by reorientating our focus away from artwork as primary and towards the artistic-process itself. I do (...) this by conceptualising the CG-artistic-process as expressing a Cyborg Relation. My argument is that the Computer-Generative artistic-process, through the Cyborg Relation, authentically expresses our relationships with technology. (shrink)

Recently, heated discussions about artificial intelligence, creativity, and work have re-emerged. Despite the dominant focus on the novelty of this entanglement, it is rich with history. In this paper, I will first introduce creativity as a historical and socio-culturally embedded concept, looking at how and why we have invented creativity in the guises we have. The focus will mostly be on the political and ideological backdrop of these historical processes–for instance how creativity was repeatedly cast as the positive counterimage of (...) (industrial and bureaucratic) alienated labour, and hence stood in a complex relationship to automation, robotization, and so on. Based on this I will then discuss a series of scenarios that are related to the (perhaps) forthcoming automation of creativity, more specifically four ways in which automation might in different ways impact (the fields of) creative practices and labour. (shrink)