The books under review exemplify some of the finest recent work on the historically informed political economy of Central and Eastern Europe. While different in their conceptual frameworks and geographical foci, the titles converge in the advancement of nuanced and convincing arguments, displaying both theoretical acuity and empirical depth to great effect. Bartel, Fabry, and Pula all share a resolute dedication to illuminating the under-explored provenances of neoliberalism and/or globalization in the region, that predate the annus mirabilis of 1989. Their (...) contributions situate the ‘Eastern bloc’ states within the contours of evolving global political economy and the existential crises engulfing capitalism and ‘actually existing socialism’ during the 1970s and beyond. The authors expound on the intricate web of global capital accumulation, geopolitical competition, and skilful diplomatic strategy, which served to dismantle the ‘Iron Curtain’. Two contributions further assess the postscripts of the 1989 revolutions. (shrink)

Straipsnio tikslas – išplėtoti Ludwigo Wittgensteino mintį apie mistinius moralės elementus. Tai daroma remiantis Blaise’o Pascalio ir Immanuelio Kanto idėjomis. Pascalis kalbėjo apie meilės fenomeno mistiškumą. Kantas samprotavo apie praktinio proto mistiką. Šių dviejų autorių moralės samprata leidžia kalbėti apie mistinius moralės elementus. Remiantis Pascalio ir Kanto idėjomis, bandoma įrodyti, kad mistika nėra vien religinio mąstymo dalis, bet gali būti traktuojama kaip svarbus moralinio patyrimo elementas. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: moralė, mokslas, mistika, meilė, transcendentalizmas. Mysticism of Morality Alvydas Jokubaitis Summary The aim (...) of this article is to develop Wittgenstein’s idea of mystical elements of morality. This is done by invoking the thoughts of Blaise Pascal and Immanuel Kant. Pascal talked about mysticism of love. Kant philosophized about the mysticism of practical reason. The conception of morality developed by these two thinkers allows us to speak about mystical elements of morality. Building on from the ideas of Pascal and Kant one can try to prove that mysticism is not exclusively part of religious mode of thinking but should be treated as important part of moral experience. Science demands the usage of empirical facts. Religious people are mystics, they acknowledge entities that are not describable in scientific terms. Discussions about mysticism do not necessarily have to be based on religion. Scientists cannot accept the proposition “God exists” or “the soul is immortal”, there is no sense in talking about mysticism with them. Another way of defending mysticism looks much more promising – to prove that moral judgement has mystical elements. Ludwig Wittgenstein thought that ethics cannot be expressed in ordinary scientific language but directs towards something that is absolute and mystical. Wittgenstein thought that science is capable of exhausting the entirety of valid propositions. In his opinion, sentences about morality center on things that are absolute, transcending the world of empirical facts. This viewpoint is in agreement with the basic intentions we find in philosophy of morality of Pascal and Kant. Ethical judgement can be interpreted as one of many forms of mystical thinking. Mystical approach to ethics is dislodged to the margins of Western philosophical discourse. This has very much to do with philosophers’ distrust in religion. This article presents arguments, which prove that we can reasonably talk about mysticism of morality. Keywords: mortality, science, mysticism, love, transcendentalism. (shrink)

Leibnizian metaphysics is traditionally held to be idealistic. It means that reality is composed of soul-like substances whereas material bodies are mere phenomena. The traditional interpretation presupposes that Leibniz’s view has not changed during the mature period (from 1683 onward). Some commentators have recently challenged this view. They claim that either Leibniz (despite inconsistency) was both a realist and an idealist (Hartz), or changed his view on the nature of substance (Garber). The aim is to defend the traditional interpretation and (...) to reply to the arguments by realist commentators. (shrink)

Whenever we think of impostors, we tend to think of liars. Yet impostures cannot be phenomenologically reduced to lies. Every lie presupposes a distinction between true and false, and it operates through a negation of reality, presenting falsity as truth and vice versa. An imposture, on the other hand, seeks to erase the distinction between true and false altogether. An impostor constructs a fiction that aims at substituting reality. In this process, an entire network of lies is put to work (...) in order to attain the ontological status of the real. This results in a dynamic that deprives truths of their authority, while making untruths highly potent in terms of their capacity to produce effects. (shrink)

As the title suggests, Breeur’s project is to discuss three key ideas: lies, stupidity, and imposture. The book is organized into two parts of two chapters each, followed by an appendix. The individual chapters and sub-sections are well-written and philosophically sophisticated. However, the reader will be disappointed if they expect a sustained analysis of the relations among the book’s titular ideas or a unified account of their role in the breakdown of respect for truth more broadly. Breeur’s approach is more (...) episodic, laying out valuable considerations and enticing formulations, but often breaking off before spelling out their full implications or connecting them to previous discussions in the book. His discussion clearly opens up these additional avenues of thought, but the task of going down them is left largely to the reader. This review briefly takes up each of Breeur’s themes: lies, stupidity, and imposture. (shrink)

Deleuze, G., Guattari, F., 2019. Kas yra filosofija? Vertė Daina Habdankaitė, Nijolė Keršytė. Vilnius: Jonas ir Jokūbas, 242 p. ISBN 978-609-8236-06-4.