This article identifies two strands of thinking about sexuality and identity within queer theory: culturalist and naturalist. First, the article critically assesses culturalist queer theory penned by Judith Butler and Lee Edelman by showing that their theories, even when acutely aware of the traps of exclusionary identity politics, remain indebted to thinking on the basis of exclusion and separation by positing a rigid identity and the untouchability of the ‘human’, of the ‘cultural’. The article proceeds by taking acts of sex (...) as objects of analysis and, with the help of Leo Bersani, elaborates how naturalistic thinking might help us break with the double edict of both culturalist thought and contemporary identity politics, i.e. sociocentrism and the injunction to the untouchability and unbespeakability of the singular (‘human’, ‘cultural’, ‘queer’, ‘gay’, ‘lesbian’, ‘trans’, ‘black’, etc.). (shrink)

National decline is typically blamed on special interests from the demand side of politics corrupting a country's institutions. The usual demand-side suspects include crony capitalists, consumer activists, economic elites, and labor unions. Less attention is given to government insiders on the supply side of politics - rulers, elected officials, bureaucrats, and public employees. In autocracies and democracies, government insiders have the motive, means, and opportunity to co-opt political power for their benefit and at the expense of national well-being. Many storied (...) empires have succumbed to such inside jobs. Today, they imperil countries as different as China and the United States. Democracy - government by the people - does not ensure government for the people. Understanding how government insiders use their power to subvert the public interest - and how these negative consequences can be mitigated - is the topic of this book by Mark A. Zupan. (shrink)

This paper argues that the concept of intrinsic motivation has been used by economists in inconsistent ways because the underlying theories of intrinsic motivation, imported into economics from psy...

V prispevku raziščem, kaj je o Homerju in arhaični epiki trdil Matija Murko. Čeprav je Murko v sodobnem homeroslovju razmeroma poznan, vsaj kot predhodnik Milmana Parryja in Alberta Lorda, pa ni še nihče temeljiteje analiziral, kaj je zapisal o homerski epiki. V prispevku obravnavam njegove najpomembnejše ugotovitve, ki neposredno ali posredno zadevajo Homerja in homeroslovje. Osre­dotočim se na raziskovanje kompozicijskih tehnik in pevcev, na literarne primerjave, na razumevanja slepih pevcev in na Murkov odnos do sočasnega homeroslovja. Kot pokažem, je Murko (...) v svojih spisih postavil precej različnih tez o homerski epiki, do katerih so se klasični filologi po vsem svetu dokopali šele več desetletij kasneje. (shrink)

This paper analyses the personal documents of two early explorers of the Eastern Desert who recorded several monastic monuments in the area: Sir John Gardner Wilkinson and James Burton. We argue that these papers are an important source for the history of early monasticism as they record many of the monuments now destroyed, severely damaged, or forgotten. It is also suggested that Burton preceded Wilkinson in visiting and documenting some of these archaeological sites, even though Wilkinson was the first to (...) publish them. (shrink)

Why philosophize about comedy? What is the use of investigating the comical from philosophical and psychoanalytic perspectives? In The Odd One In, Alenka Zupancic [haceks over both cs] considers how philosophy and psychoanalysis can help us understand the movement and the logic involved in the practice of comedy, and how comedy can help philosophy and psychoanalysis recognize some of the crucial mechanisms and vicissitudes of what is called humanity. Comedy by its nature is difficult to pin down with concepts and (...) definitions, but as artistic form and social practice comedy is a mode of tarrying with a foreign object--of including the exception. Philosophy's relationship to comedy, Zupancic [haceks over both cs] writes, is not exactly a simple story. It could begin with the lost book of Aristotle's Poetics, which discussed comedy and laughter. But Zupancic [haceks over both cs] draws on a whole range of philosophers and exemplars of comedy, from Aristophanes, Molière, Hegel, Freud, and Lacan to George W. Bush and Borat. She distinguishes incisively between comedy and ideologically imposed, "naturalized" cheerfulness. Real, subversive comedy thrives on the short circuits that establish an immediate connection between heterogeneous orders. Zupancic [haceks over both cs] examines the mechanisms and processes by which comedy lets the odd one in. Alenka Zupancic [haceks over both cs] is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, Slovene Academy of Sciences, Ljubljana. She is the author of The Shortest Shadow: Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Two. (shrink)

What is it that makes Nietzsche Nietzsche? In The Shortest Shadow, Alenka Zupancic counters the currently fashionable appropriation of Nietzsche as a philosopher who was "ahead of his time" but whose time has finally come -- the rather patronizing reduction of his often extraordinary statements to mere opinions that we can "share." Zupancic argues that the definitive Nietzschean quality is his very unfashionableness, his being out of the mainstream of his or any time.To restore Nietzsche to a context in which (...) the thought "lives on its own credit," Zupancic examines two aspects of his philosophy. First, in "Nietzsche as Metapsychologist," she revisits the principal Nietzschean themes -- his declaration of the death of God, the ascetic ideal, and nihilism -- as ideas that are very much present in our hedonist postmodern condition. Then, in the second part of the book, she considers Nietzsche's figure of the Noon and its consequences for his notion of the truth. Nietzsche describes the Noon not as the moment when all shadows disappear but as the moment of "the shortest shadow" -- not the unity of all things embraced by the sun, but the moment of splitting, when "one turns into two." Zupancic argues that this notion of the Two as the minimal and irreducible difference within the same animates all of Nietzsche's work, generating its permanent and inherent tension. (shrink)

Healthcare professionals working in intensive care units are often involved in end-of-life decision-making. No research has been done so far about these processes taking place in Croatian ICUs. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions, experiences, and challenges healthcare professionals face when dealing with end-of-life decisions in ICUs in Croatia. A qualitative study was performed using professionally homogenous focus groups of ICU nurses and physicians of diverse professional and clinical backgrounds at three research sites. In total, six (...) institutions at the tertiary level of healthcare were included. The constant comparative analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. Differences were found between the perceptions and experiences of nurses and physicians in relation to end-of-life decisions. Nurses’ perceptions were more focused on the context and features of immediate care, while physicians’ perceptions also included the wider sociocultural context. However, the critical issues these specific professional groups face when dealing with end-of-life decisions seem to overlap. A high variability of practices, both between individual practitioners and between different organizational units, was omnipresent. The lack of adequate legal, professional, and clinical guidelines was commonly expressed as one of the most critical source of difficulties. (shrink)

BackgroundDecisions about limitations of life sustaining treatments are made for end-of-life patients in intensive care units. The aim of this research was to explore the professional and ethical attitudes and experiences of medical professionals on treatment of end-of-life patients in ICUs in the Republic of Croatia.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among physicians and nurses working in surgical, medical, neurological, and multidisciplinary ICUs in the total of 9 hospitals throughout Croatia using a questionnaire with closed and open type questions. Exploratory factor (...) analysis was conducted to reduce data to a smaller set of summary variables. Mann–Whitney U test was used to analyse the differences between two groups and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to analyse the differences between more than two groups.ResultsLess than third of participants stated they were included in the decision-making process, and physicians are much more included than nurses. Sixty two percent of participants stated that the decision-making process took place between physicians. Eighteen percent of participants stated that ‘do-not-attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitations’ orders were frequently made in their ICUs. A decision to withdraw inotropes and antibiotics was frequently made as stated by 22.4% and 19.9% of participants, respectively. Withholding/withdrawing of LST were ethically acceptable to 64.2% of participants. Thirty seven percent of participants thought there was a significant difference between withholding and withdrawing LST from an ethical standpoint. Seventy-nine percent of participants stated that a verbal or written decision made by a capable patient should be respected. Physicians were more inclined to respect patient’s wishes then nurses with high school education. Nurses were more included in the decision-making process in neurological than in surgical, medical, or multidisciplinary ICUs. Male participants in comparison to female, and physicians in comparison to nurses with high school and college education displayed more liberal attitudes about LST limitation.ConclusionsDNACPR orders are not commonly made in Croatian ICUs, even though limitations of LST were found ethically acceptable by most of the participants. Attitudes of paternalistic and conservative nature were expected considering Croatia’s geographical location in Southern Europe. (shrink)

This review presents first ever literature survey on historical development of farm animal welfare indicators and assessment in the Danube region. This area, encompassing European Eastern countries and the Balkans, is to a large extent heterogeneous in terms of culture and language. However, international publications were disproportionally small compared to the amount of research institutions and animal welfare activities present in the region. Therefore, the authors aimed at investigating the published literature, focusing on country level and on native languages. Data (...) were collected for the 1980–2015 period referring to scientific papers published in international and national journals, papers and abstracts in proceedings of the international and national conferences, reviews, monographs, short communications, Ph.D., Master and Graduation theses. Welfare assessment of all farm animal species was observed including fish. Over 180 papers were in line with the preselected index. Data collected showed that publishing dynamics grew rapidly towards the last decade. Most of the studies were focused on animal welfare indicators such as stress, injuries and mutilations, behaviour, body condition and management practices. Cattle, chickens, pigs and sheep were the predominant species investigated. The study revealed that experts from the region were greatly involved in the studies of animal welfare indicators and assessment, contributing to development of the currently most widely used animal welfare assessment protocols, thus having an important role in animal welfare research and protection. (shrink)

Integralni komentirani prevod Homerskih himn, ki jih zdaj prvikrat lahko beremo v slovenskem jeziku, je sredi prevladujočega trivialnega slovstva in pojemajočega duha v slovenski kulturi nedvomno izjemen dosežek tako na področju navdihnjenega oživljanja antičnega izročila kot tudi subtilnega ohranjanja in negovanja zbornega poetičnega jezika. V njem izpričuje osupljiv prevajalski talent in redko dovzetnost za religiozno intonacijo grških himničnih poezij, ki se sicer slogovno vpisujejo v Homerjevo epsko izročilo, najmlajša generacija klasičnih filologinj in filologov, ki so smelo zastavili skupni prevajalski projekt (...) pod mentorstvom profesorja in urednika izdaje Braneta Senegačnika, tudi avtorja poglobljenih spremnih besedil ≫Homerske himne: mostovi med ljudmi in bogovi≪ in ≫Misteriji, ki so za zmeraj ostali misteriji≪. (shrink)

v. 1. Religija Njegoša. Besede pod gorom -- v. 2. Reči o svečoveku. Indijska pisma. Iznad istoka i zapada. Srednji sistem. Niče i Dostojevski. Šekspir--svečovek -- v. 3. Homilogija. Simboli i signali. Rat i biblija. Carev zavet. Vasionik. Rahabilitacija tela. U harmoniji sa beskrajnim. Pravoslavna crkva u uzročost u svetu -- v 4. Omilije -- v. 5. Omilije -- v. 6. Nove besede pod gorom. Iznad greha i smrti. Oče Naš. Rajska piramida. Ljubostinjski stoslov. Misli o dobru i zlu -- (...) v. 7. Tesdul. Kroz tamnički prozor -- v 8. Misionarska pisma -- v. 9. Srpski narod kao Teodul. Divan. Emanuel. Kasijana. Zemlja nedođija -- v. 10. Molitve na jezeru. Pesme molitvene. Molitve. Žetve Gospodnje. Ledini čovekoljubac -- v. 11. Vladika Nikolaj u službi Bogu i rodu. Život svetog Save. Članci, besede i poslanice. Sveri srbi. Blažena Stojna -- v. 12. Kosovo i vidovdan. Dobrovoljci. Mudra igumanija Ljubostinjska. O srpskom patriotizmu. O znamenitim ličstima. Konkordatska borba 1937. godine -- v. 13. Ustanak robova. Srbija u svetlosti i mraku. O istoriji. Duhovni preporod Evrope. O Evropi. Agonija crkve. O zapadnom hrišćanstvu -- v. 14. Biblijske teme. Jevanđelske teme. Egzegeza. O vrlinama. Eseji -- v. 15. Bogomoljački pokret. Duhovne pouke. O ekologiji -- v. 16. Besede -- v. 17. Knjiga o Isusu Hristu. Vera obrazovanih ljudi. Vera svetih. Prvi zakon božji. Molitva gospodnja. Misli o dobru i zlu -- v. 18. knj. 1. Ohridski prolog -- v. 19. knj. 2. Ohridski prolog -- v. 20. knj. 3. Ohridski prolog. (shrink)