Purpose. To examine the existential anthropology of G. Marcel and E. Minkowski, in order to demonstrate the necessity of distinguishing the universal-spiritual, as human in human being, apart from the individual-existential in him, and to reveal the hierarchical correlation of biosocial, existential and spiritual spheres in personality. Theoretical basis. Within existential philosophy the author differentiates two separate traditions and proceeds from the insufficiency of the distinction of existential sphere, proposed by phenomenological tradition, showing the necessity of its correlation with the (...) spiritual sphere as a sphere of humanity, proposed by non-phenomenological tradition of G. Marcel and E. Minkowski. Originality. The author presents the anthropological conception of G. Marcel and E. Minkowski, in which human personality is understood as unity of individual-existential and universal-spiritual, which requires a special trans-empirical field of culture, which contains senses, images and symbols of humanity. Also, the author presents the recent developments of existential thinkers in distinguishing existential and spiritual dimensions, both not reducible to the physical and social dimensions. Conclusions. In both existential traditions, the specifically human was founded as a trans-biological and trans-social phenomenon, which appears as indefinable and non-predetermined. But in first tradition, humanity is understood as an existence, as a unique individuality, "project", variant of humanity, equivalent to other variants, and universal is understood as a community of human condition in the world. While in the second tradition, the universal is understood as spiritual. Thus, horizontal level of our private existence, as the process of movement from birth to death, is supplemented by vertical of human, universal ideals and images. Humanity appears as a task, on the way to which human being transcends beyond the limits of his individual "self" to the "super-individual", through inclusion into spiritual community, into universal culture. (shrink)

The article deals with the development of E.Minkowski’s concept of «morbid rationalism», as a cause of the alienation of consciousness from lived experience, by his followers R.D. Laing and J.Gabel. R.D. Laing considers the existential alienation as the alienation of the «false» or «outer self» from the «true,» or «inner self.» According to Laing, «false self» forms in the process of socialization as a socially acceptable image of thyself, which gradually suppresses and supersedes the true image. According to J.Gabel, the (...) concept of the «morbid rationalism» should be extended to the «normal» state of a person, who doesn’t live, but leads an alienated reified existence as a thing, instrument, and social function. Both Laing and Gabel agree, that the «norm» is only a socially legalized form of alienation, while psychopathology is all, that differs from the first one. But if Laing considers schizophrenia to be the way to freedom from social masks, to return to the true self, for Minkowski schizophrenia, as a rebellion of existence against the violence of reason, is not a solution. So, the way out is not in the destruction of the subject, but in overcoming the alienation of one's consciousness from the world and people, in transcending one's partial «ego». Marcel and Minkowski overcome the dichotomy of consciousness-vs-the-world (and-vs-body), seeking to bother the person with his consciousness. They return consciousness to the body, treating man not simply as embodied consciousness, but as the oneness of body-existence-consciousness-spirit. And in this way, the absolutization of freedom is an obstacle. A person involved in the world (bodily, sensual), and in humanity (existentially, spiritually) - inevitably depends on them. (shrink)

The main purpose of this article is to prove that one can become a personality only through culture. The authors propose to regard culture as a relatively autonomous spiritual sphere, which transcends the narrow requirements of the concrete society in its historical limitations. They argue that personality is the highest level of human development to emerge in culture, whereas the level of a biosocial organism is provided by society. The authors claim that only culture, be it religious or secular, contains (...) an existential and spiritual imperative which demands each human being to realize one’s own potential humanity. They explain why in a postmodern world culture becomes an “existential choice” of each human being, depending on one’s free will: to inherit the culture, to become a human being of humanity or not. In the Free school of philosophy and culture seminars, the authors propose to enter the field of culture through the mutual interpretation of a chosen masterpiece of world literature and to link its message with our lives. (shrink)

This introduction to the basic ideas of structural proof theory contains a thorough discussion and comparison of various types of formalization of first-order logic. Examples are given of several areas of application, namely: the metamathematics of pure first-order logic (intuitionistic as well as classical); the theory of logic programming; category theory; modal logic; linear logic; first-order arithmetic and second-order logic. In each case the aim is to illustrate the methods in relatively simple situations and then apply them elsewhere in much (...) more complex settings. There are numerous exercises throughout the text. In general, the only prerequisite is a standard course in first-order logic, making the book ideal for graduate students and beginning researchers in mathematical logic, theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. For the new edition, many sections have been rewritten to improve clarity, new sections have been added on cut elimination, and solutions to selected exercises have been included. (shrink)

Research collaboration beyond national jurisdiction is one aspect of the globalisation of health research. It has potential to complement researchers in terms of research skills, equipment and lack of adequate numbers of potential research subjects. Collaboration at an equal level of partnership though desirable, may not be practicable. Sometimes, human research specimens must be transported from one country to other. Where this occurs, there should be clear understanding between the collaborating research institutions regarding issues of access and control of the (...) specimens as well as the duration of storage of specimens. The researchers have the duty to inform the research participants about specimen storage and transport across national boundaries. While obtaining informed consent from study subjects if specimens are to be stored beyond the life of the present study could be the ideal, there still remains significant challenges in a multi-cultural world. (shrink)

Open theists argue that God's relationship to time, as conceived in classical theism, is erroneous. They explain that it is contradictory for an atemporal being to act in a temporal universe, including experiencing its temporal successions. Contrary to the atemporalists, redemptive history has shown that God interacts with humans in time. This relational nature of God nullifies the classical notion of God as timelessly eternal. Therefore, it lacks a philosophical and theological basis. Because God is in time, He does not (...) know all future contingencies and, therefore, changes. This study examines open theism's appropriation of the A and B theories of time to the divine-human relationship. The study argues that divine temporality does not solve the tension of divine-human relationships, especially in relation to the future. Further, historical divine temporality does not negate the fact of divine atemporality. It mainly stems from God's choice to create temporal creatures and His relationship with them. Furthermore, if it is not logically and metaphysically contradictory for an omnipresent being to act in space, then it follows that an atemporal being can act in time. Whether time is understood from the metric or psychological point of view, it does not transcend God, and therefore, the limitation it places on human creatures with respect to the future does not apply to God. Lastly, although a few philosophers reject the notion of eternity as timelessly eternal, the doctrine has a philosophical and theological basis in the Scripture. (shrink)

This new edition brings Farquharson's authoritative 1944 translation up to date and includes a helpful introduction and notes for the student and general reader. Rutherford includes a selection of letters from Marcus to his tutor Fronto--most of which date from his earlier years--that offer personal detail and help to fill out the somber portrait of the emperor that is found in the Meditations.

HSÜN Tzu's essay on "Rectifying Terms" is justly considered a work of "great logical interest." For in this essay, one finds a remarkably modern concern with such topics as the rationale for having terms; the empirical and pragmatic bases for the classification of terms; the formation of generic and specific terms; the importance of observing established linguistic practices; the necessity of complying with proper standards for the institution, ratification, and regulation of the uses of language ; the nature of argumentative (...) discourse ; and the problems inherent in successful linguistic communication. A careful examination of some passages in other essays also suggests an awareness of the distinction between deductive, inductive, and analogical inferences, though Hsün Tzu provides us no explicit discussion of the nature of reasoning and its validating rules. (shrink)

Decisions by industry sponsors to end clinical trials early for commercial reasons have been the subject of controversy. I argue that the principal consideration in assessing these decisions ought to be the way in which the termination would affect the trial’s risk–benefit relationship. If there is not yet sufficient benefit to be gained from the study to offset the risks to which participants were exposed and it is expected that important scientific information would be obtained if the trial were continued, (...) early termination constitutes an unethical alteration of the risk−benefit relationship. This violates the grounds on which permission is given to conduct human research, patients consent to participate, and investigators agree to conduct studies. These knowable and avoidable changes in risk–benefit relationship should generally be seen as impermissible. (shrink)

UNTIL RECENT YEARS moral traditions have not been an important topic for moral philosophy. With few exceptions, attention has been directed to the problem of moral justification, to the search for universal criteria for the assessment of moral beliefs or judgments regardless of their traditional provenance. Generally, philosophers aspire to formulate "the view from nowhere." Since the publication of Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue there has been a revival of interest in the concept of a living, moral tradition, especially among moral (...) philosophers concerned with the possibility of an ethics of virtue or character as a viable alternative to the ethics of principle or, say, to deontological, utilitarian, or contractarian ethics. We must observe here that in the three decades prior to 1981, some moral philosophers displayed similar concern with tradition, although terms other than "tradition" were used, for example, "forms of life," "ways of life," "moral practices," and "moral community." Rawls's conception of reflective equilibrium is also developed with an eye on the notion of tradition. Indeed, Rawls has been quite explicit about his tradition-oriented approach to moral theory: "What justifies a conception of justice is not its being true to an order antecedent to and given to us, but its congruence with our deeper understanding of ourselves and our aspirations, and our realization that, given our history and the traditions embedded in our public life, it is the most reasonable doctrine.". (shrink)

Provability, Computability and Reflection.