INTRODUCTION Building upon the "preliminary conception of Phenomenology" introduced by Heidegger in Section II of the Introduction to Sein und Zeit,1 one ...

Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument was received within the Pittsburgh School of Philosophy as raising new and interesting difficulties for the traditional empiricist model of knowledge justification. While McDowell’s attempt to solve the difficulties in question is still debated, I claim that a different solution to the same difficulties might have been suggested by Wittgenstein himself in On Certainty.

The paper contains a conceptual proposal, its key idea being that the successful functioning of a rule embedding artifact designed to regulate a practice (not pertaining to its use) produces the same result as the successful performance of the rule-invoking non-communicative actions belonging to the practice in case.

In the aftermath of various corporate scandals, management research and practice have taken great interest in ethical leadership. Ethical leadership is referred to as “normatively appropriate conduct” (Brown et al. in Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 97(2):117–134, 2005), but the prescriptive norms that actually underlie this understanding constitute an open question. We address this research gap by turning to relational models theory (Fiske in Structures of social life: the four elementary forms of human relations, Free Press, New York, 1991), which (...) contextualizes four distinct moralities in four distinct interactional norms (i.e., the relational models). We expect that the norms inherent in each model dictate the type of leader relationship that followers deem ethical. Specifically, we hypothesize that, for each norm, followers will perceive leaders as less ethical the more discrepant, i.e., the more incongruent, followers’ ideal relational norm is with the perceived norm that they attribute to their actual leader–follower interaction. We tested the respective incongruence hypothesis in a cross-sectional survey of 101 Dutch employees. Polynomial regression and surface response analyses provide support for the hypothesized incongruence effects in each of the four relational models, suggesting that normatively appropriate conduct should not be limited to caring (i.e., community-oriented) behaviors. Indeed, all four relational models can predict ethical leadership perceptions. We discuss the implications in the context of ethical leadership research and managerial practice. (shrink)

In international arbitration, timely application and enforcement of interim measures can have a substantial effect on the possibility of the enforcement of final arbitration award, especially when issues relating to the protection of assets or evidence arise before or during the course of arbitration proceedings. Though the substantive amendments to the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration concerning the application and enforcement of interim measures in international arbitration were made in 2006, the legal regulation of these matters in Lithuania (...) by the Law on Commercial Arbitration remained as previous. Hence, the purpose of this article is to provide a brief analysis of the contemporary universal legal doctrine and international practice regarding the availability, application and enforcement of interim measures in international arbitration; to examine and evaluate the Lithuanian law and court practice, their compliance with the analyzed contemporary universal legal doctrine and international practice on the application and enforcement of interim measures in international arbitration. (shrink)

This article analyses one of the variations of classic mediation,64 which is mandatory mediation. In foreign countries mandatory mediation is often used as a tool to encourage the use of mediation and to popularize this method of alternative civil dispute resolution. Started in 2005, mediation faces difficulties in Lithuania. Thus, making mediation mandatory at least in certain categories of disputes could give new impetus to the development of mediation in Lithuania. Therefore, the article deals with the concept of mandatory mediation, (...) analyses experience of foreign countries in the field of mandatory mediation, deals with practical problems while implementing mandatory mediation and presents a review of arguments for and against mandatory mediation. On the basis of a study performed, the author of the article submits proposals for the introduction of mandatory mediation in the Lithuanian legal system. In this article mandatory mediation is defined as a form of mediation where the parties are directed to use mediation by judge or by law. Mandatory mediation can also be imposed on the parties by procedural and economic sanctions against parties for the unjustified refusal to use mediation. In all cases, the main condition for the application of mandatory mediation is the right of the parties to the dispute to go to court. Under this condition, mandatory mediation for its expected social and economic benefits is not considered to be an obstacle to access justice. The practice of foreign countries that implemented mandatory mediation shows that drastic imposition of mandatory mediation naturally induces rejection. Thus, consistent, systematic, based on the results of the interim analysis of the gradual introduction of mandatory mediation, starting with certain categories of disputes particularly susceptible to the effects of mediation is necessary. The author of the article proposes to promote mediation in Lithuania by introducing mandatory mediation for at least certain categories of disputes. The introduction of mandatory mediation in Lithuania could be started from the family disputes including interests of children. At a later stage it is possible to decide on the feasibility of application of the mandatory mediation for other categories of disputes, as well (e.g., labour, small sum property disputes, disputes between relatives and neighbours, etc.). In order to encourage not only the parties to use mediation, but also judges to direct parties to mediation, it would be appropriate to introduce mandatory mediation by the law (the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Lithuania) that would have an exemption provision to allow a party to petition the court for good cause to be exempt from the referral to mediation. (shrink)

The importance of male dominance in the scientific community is no strange to us all. Science, as a source of respected and influential information is a staunchly guarded male domain for millennia. What is specific for our time and place is the nervousness with which female presence is accepted. It is also the time of great changes in the axis of power, and the struggle for control is very aggressive. What is even more so in Serbia and Montenegro one of (...) the pieces of ruins of the late SFRJ, is that the dysfunction of the war and sanctions brought about more inequality than before. And science is a field of professional achievement with slow and uncertain rewards, vast investment of time, effort and funds, for a career that is beneficial more to vanity than to the bank account. Women are seen as frivolous when they devote a huge amount of work and other resources to self-improvement and personal achievement and not to the comfort of the immediate family. Osnazivanje zena i njihovo ravnopravno ucesce u drustvenom, ekonomskom politickom i kulturnom zivotu kao i eliminacija svih oblika porodicne ekonomske, politicke, obrazovne i svake druge rodne diskriminacije i nasilja nad zenama spada u milenijumske ciljeve Ujedinjenih nacija prihvacene od Evropske unije i preporucene vladama svih zemalja u formiranju njihove nacionalne strategije. (shrink)

Gender roles are changing with the change of priorities and spheres of social influence in great historical upheavals. Transitional societies have undergone significant changes in social structure and gender roles have been influenced accordingly. Retraditionalization and globalization play important roles in that process.

In this short paper I would like to open discussion on the prevalence of political and ideological considerations in most of contemporary social theory in and pertaining to the Southeastern European context. With the significant political changes in this region the relevance of ideology has grown significantly.

This is an anthology. Each contributor discusses an aspect of Wittgenstein's philosophy considered still relevant in the context of current philosophy.

Aim of the article is to present our research dealing with virtual reality modeling and education activities. It involves a chain of development steps: taking pictures of objects, collecting information, creation of 3D models and panoramas, setting up the interactive virtual reality environment along with educational support and testing the user experience with students. Methodology/methods of work: the creation of 3D models and panoramas is done by taking pictures of real objects and using them as textures. The education materials are (...) created as interactive presentations and the usability testing of these presentations should be planned. Scientific goal is to measure the quality of interaction by this education support in order to derive rules testing effectiveness of support, interactive applications and presentations. Findings: 3D models and other educational support materials may be created voluntarily by teachers. The open source library for many different models should be created by whole community provided suitable interfaces of modeling tools will be arranged. Conclusions: Complex educational and interactive materials including virtual reality and panoramas are satisfactory when combined with easy 3D models that are made from taken pictures, which could be made by teachers themselves and/or open communities by existing cameras. (shrink)

This a special issue collecting papers on the philosophy of logic, written by some young Romanian philosophers, on a variety of topics like the grammar of first-order logic and the axiomatization of evolutionary biology.

In this paper we try to give some further evidence concerning the chronology of Palamas’ treatise Contra Beccum. Taking into consideration different parameters, external and internal, we incline to think that this treatise was composed – or, at least, reworked – in 1355, approximately at the same period when Palamas published the second edition of his Logoi apodeiktikoi.

Utilizes Heidegger in rethinking common environmental paradigms.

Abstract. The strong similarity between the use of ostension and that of a simple demonstrative to predicate something of an object seems to conflict with equally strong intuitions according to which, while “this” does usually refer to an object, the gesture of holding an object in your hand and showing it to an audience does not refer to the demonstrated object. This paper argues that the problem is authentic and provides a solution to it. In doing so, a more general (...) thought is given support by the approach used. Namely, the thought that our abilities to directly refer to things require some basic referential abilities exhibited in ostension and the use of demonstratives which, in their turn, rest upon our abilities to cooperate in performing non-communicative actions on our environment. Several concepts introduced in order to solve the initial problem can be used to articulate this thought in more detail. (shrink)

My aim in this paper is to suggest a new outlook concerning the nature of Zeno’s paradoxes. The attention is directed towards the three famous paradoxes known as “Dichotomy,” “Achilles and the Tortoise,” and “The Arrow.” An analysis of the paradigmatic proposals for a solution shows that an adequate solution has not yet been reached. An answer is provided instead to the question “How Zeno’s paradoxes emerge in their quality of aporiae?,” that is to say in their quality of impasses, (...) of problem situations without an exit, what is the original meaning of the Greek word “aporia.” It is my claim that this is the correct rational approach for solving these conceptual puzzles. In other words, I am not proposing formal solutions by criticizing and/or altering their premises assuming the continuous or discrete nature of space and time, but I try to draw the philosophical attention to the way we possess the phenomenon of motion as a result of the perception of space-time in human experience. (shrink)

My aims here are, firstly, to suggest a minor amendment to R. I. G. Hughes’ DDI account of modeling, so that it could be viewed as a plausible epistemological “model” of how scientific models represent and secondly, to distinguish between two epistemological kinds of models that I call “descriptive” and “constitutive”. This aim is achieved by criticizing Michael Weisberg’s distinction between models and abstract direct representations and by following, at the same time, his own methodological approach for such a distinction.