Small pendant discs known as Scandinavian gold bracteates are visually impressive indicators of status and identity during the early medieval Migration Period (c. 450–550 CE). Much of the emphasis in bracteate studies has been on typological classification and iconographic interpretation of the pictures, along with decipherment of the inscriptions, yet the sensory impression made by bracteates has been neglected. For decades, archaeologists considered it futile to speculate on the experiential; however, recent research has begun to contend with the materiality of (...) senses and emotions in the past. In this paper, I focus on the both sensory effect of experiencing the pendants and the emotional impact of the objects on those who wore and handled them. Since bracteates are often discovered in women’s graves and show evidence of wear on their suspension loops, it is assumed that these objects were actually used in life. A spotlight on agency turns the study of bracteates from an emphasis on typology, iconography, and runology to trace instead the agency and multisensory effects of these objects on people and the effects of people’s actions on these items. This allows an examination of how bracteates were entangled with the senses and emotions of those who made, wore, and gazed upon these small but important objects. I consider what it may have felt like to make, receive, wear, lose, or bequeath a bracteate – or to deposit it into a bog or a grave. (shrink)

New Blackfriars, Volume 102, Issue 1101, Page 763-771, September 2021.

THIS ESSAY will examine the connection between the subjectivity of man as a person and the structure of the human community. That relationship was tentatively explored in The Acting Person, especially in the chapter entitled "Participation." The present study is an attempt to develop insights initially introduced there.

Since its original identification as a component of the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) complex, K protein has been found not only in the nucleus but also in the cytoplasm and mitochondria and is implicated in chromatin remodeling, transcription, splicing and translation processes. K protein contains multiple modules that, on one hand, bind kinases while, on the other hand, recruit chromatin, transcription, splicing and translation factors. Moreover, the K‐ protein‐mediated interactions are regulated by signaling cascades. These observations are consistent with K (...) protein acting as a docking platform to integrate signaling cascades by facilitating cross‐talk between kinases and factors that mediate nucleic‐acid‐directed processes. Comparison of K across species reveals that it is an essential factor in metazoans, but not in yeast. Although some of the K protein interactions and functions are conserved in eukaryotes from yeast to man, the mammalian protein seems to play a wider role. The greater diversity of mammalian K protein interactions and function may reflect gain of novel docking sites and expansion evolutionary of gene expression networks. BioEssays 26:629–638, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The paper offers an attempt at an introduction to the political theory of Eric Voegelin, the political scientist, philosopher and social scientist, whose thought has been increasingly recognized in both the USA and Europe ever since shortly after his death in 1985. It explores the political dimension of Voegelin’s thought from a purely secular point of view, but could also be helpful to those looking to find a religious meaning in politics.

Financial misconduct has come into the spotlight in recent years, causing market regulators to increase the reach and severity of interventions. We show that at times the economic benefits of illicit financial activity outweigh the costs of litigation. We illustrate our argument with data from the US Securities and Exchanges Commission and a case of investment misconduct. From the neoclassical economic paradigm, which follows utilitarian thinking, it is rational to engage in misconduct. Still, the majority of professionals refrain from misconduct, (...) foregoing economic rewards. We suggest financial activity could be reimagined taking into account intrinsic and prosocial motivations. A virtue ethics framework could also be applied, linking financial behavior to the quest for moral excellence and shared flourishing. By going beyond utilitarian thinking and considering alternative models, we offer a fuller account of financial behavior and a better perspective from which to design deterrence methods. (shrink)

What, if anything, has art to do with the rest of our lives, and in particular with those ethical and political issues that matter to us most? Will art created today be likely to play a role in our lives as profound as that of the best art of the past? A Theory of Art shifts the focus of aesthetics from the traditional debate of "what is art?" to the engaging question of "what is art for?" Skillfully describing the social (...) and historical situation of art today, author Karol Berger argues that music exemplifies the current condition of art in a radical, acute, and revealing fashion. He also uniquely combines aesthetics with poetics and hermeneutics. Offering a careful synthesis of a wide breadth of scholarship from art history, musicology, literary studies, political philosophy, ethics, and metaphysics, and written in a clear, accessible style, this book will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in the arts. (shrink)

This article identifies the contemporary criteria of imperiality and then considers the normative aspects of the existence of certain great powers (empires) in international relations. It is argued that there is a body of norms valid among empires that may be referred to as interimperial law, in the sense of a normative order that is intended to lower the costs and dangers of competition between empires. The article outlines a basic theory of coexistence between the emerging interimperial law and the (...) existing international law, derived from theoretical and historical models of the coexistence of various legal orders within one territory. (shrink)

The ArgumentCassirer's analyses of twentieth-century physics from the perspective of the philosophy of science focuses on the concept of the object of scientific experience. Within his concept of functional knowledge, he takes a structural stance and claims that it is specifically this concept of the object that has paved the way for modern science. This article aims, first, to show that Cassirer's interpretation of Felix Klein's “Erlanger Programm” provided the impetus for this view. Then, it analyzes Kant's conception of objectivity (...) in order to examine whether Cassirer can rightfully claim that his view is a further development of transcendental principles. Finally, it is argued that it is Cassirer's concept of the object that enables him to integrate one decisive feature of scientific progress, namely, the increasinggeneralizationof the basic concepts of a science, into his conception of knowledge. This is illustrated in more detail through the example of the progression from Newton's mechanics to relativity theory. (shrink)

Istnieje spór w obrębie filozofii sięgający już starożytności i polemiki Platona z Sofistami, dotyczący ugruntowania metafizyki jako dziedziny autonomicznej, która byłaby zdolna do badania swoistych elementów rzeczywistości, przysługujących tylko i wyłącznie metafizyce. We wstępnych rozważaniach przedstawiamy sposób, w jaki ten spór można rozumieć oraz jak można go rozwiązać. Tezą metafilozoficzną naszych analiz będzie stwierdzenie, że w celu ugruntowania metafizyki musimy wskazać na swoiste doświadczenie, które mogłoby zapewnić bezpośredni dostęp poznawczy do abstrakcyjnego przedmiotu metafizyki. W niniejszych badaniach, rolę tego doświadczenia będzie (...) pełnić intuicja, którą utożsamiamy z poznaniem apriorycznym – ujmowanym jednak nie jako poznanie pojęciowe bądź dedukcyjne – lecz jako poznanie naoczne, które (używając języka fenomenologii) źródłowo (materialnie) prezentuje nam swoistą sferę przedmiotową. By lepiej zrozumieć zjawisko intuitywnego poznania do którego bardzo często filozofowie implicite się odnosili (rzadziej zaś wprost) zrekonstruujemy stanowisko E. Chudnoffa. W trakcie rekonstrukcji skupimy się na najistotniejszych cechach poznania intuitywnego, które będą kluczem zarówno do zrozumienia wielości tradycyjnych już odniesień i niejawnych odwoływań do intuicji, jak i sposobem poprzez który możliwe stanie się ustalenie warunków możliwości ugruntowania metafizyki jako dziedziny autonomicznego badania rzeczywistości. (shrink)

According to grounding necessitarianism if some facts ground another fact, then the obtaining of the former necessitates the latter. Proponents of grounding contingentism argue against this claim, stating that it is possible for the former facts to obtain without necessitating the latter. In this article I discuss a recent argument from restricted accidental generalisations provided by contingentists that advances such possibility. I argue that grounding necessitarianism can be defended against it. To achieve this aim, I postulate a relationship between grounding (...) and essence by introducing a notion of individual essences understood as a set of essential properties that individuate its bearer. According to a proposed view grounding holds in virtue of identities of its relata, which are in turn determined by their respective individual essences. From there I claim that if grounding holds in virtue of the individual essences of its relata, then it is possible to resist the objection from restricted accidental generalisations and maintain a view that grounds necessitates what is grounded. (shrink)

W artykule rozważana jest koncepcja nagiego substratu w kontekście problemu indywiduacji. Głównym celem tekstu jest obrona teorii nagiego substratu (TNS) przed klasycznymi oraz współczesnymi zarzutami. Tok rozważań jest następujący: Autor we wstępie definiuje problem jednostkowienia i systematyzuje obecną dyskusję nad tym zagadnieniem. Następnie skupia się na porównaniu teorii wiązki i teorii nagiego substratu, ujętych jako alternatywne wyjaśnienia jednostkowości przedmiotów. Celem porównania dwóch teorii jest przedstawienie motywacji stojących za przyjęciem TNS. Głównym elementem tekstu jest punkt 2, w którym analizuje podstawowe założenia (...) TNS oraz odpiera wytaczane wobec niej zarzuty. Autor wykazuje, że warunkiem możliwości przezwyciężenia zarzutów z przeludnienia i regresu jest modyfikacja TNS i postulat teorii identyczności. (shrink)

This book encourages a debate over musical modernity; a debate considering the question whether an examination of the history of European art music may enrich our picture of modernity and whether our understanding of music's development may be transformed by insights into the nature of modernity provided by other historical disciplines.

The article analyzes the process of modification of Japan’s foreign policy after Donald Trump’s election as US president. As short- and middle-range aims of Japan’s diplomatic strategy were outlined with expectation of victory of Hillary Clinton, Tokyo was forced to abruptly change its policy. Relying on the neoclassical realist theory, the article examines the complex interaction between the external factors, such as security threats from North Korea or China, and domestic factors both in Japan and the US, that is personal, (...) institutional, societal and economic determinants. It is argued that while it was strategic convergence between Tokyo and Washington that enabled relatively smooth cooperation between Prime Minister Abe and President Trump, internal factors, such as right-wing credentials of both decision makers, distorted and to some extent facilitated this process. (shrink)

The main result of the paper states that there is a finitely presented group _G_ with decidable word problem where detection of finite subsets of _G_ which generate amenable subgroups is not decidable.

This essay diagnoses the condition of contemporary liberal democracies. It assumes that the current crisis of democracy is not the result of an external ideological threat, but it is the result of the lack of a coherent vision of democracy itself. The author recognises that the key symptom of the contemporary crisis is the decreasing involvement of citizens in public life and their growing reluctance to participate in public debate. He claims that the reason for this is the increasing social (...) polarisation. The article considers two forms of polarisation: vertical and horizontal. The first form is illustrated by Colin Crouch’s considerations, while the second one by Fareed Zakaria’s thoughts. What finds its manifestation in both cases is the phenomenon of citizens’ resignation from participation in the public debate; in the first case it is because of the lack of faith in the effectiveness of this type of opiniongiving mechanism, while in the second case it is because of the lack of recognition of other political and ideological options in society. These reflections are concluded in the postulate that the basic task facing democracy today is to maintain the public sphere as open as possible, i.e. not excluding any ideological position in advance. This kind of conclusion is illustrated with the concepts of Chantal Mouffe and Helmuth Plessner. (shrink)