Vytautas Raudeliūnas is Lithuanian law historian, expert of the history of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, pedagogue and Lithuanian patriot. He spent his youth in exile and finished his studies in Russia and in Vilnius. He worked as a fellow in Lithuanian Science Academy, in the Monument Defence Office, the Institute of Culture, Philosophy and Art. V. Raudeliūnas lectured at Vilnius Pedagogical University. He was one of the establishers and publishers of periodical publications “The monuments of Lithuanian law”, “The studies (...) of Lithuanian law history”. The article describes biography of V. Raudeliūnas, collects and disputes his bibliography and evaluates his contribution to the history of Lithuanian law. The article analyzes V.Raudeliūnas’ biography and scientific activity, as well as the main directions of his research: publications and transcriptions of Lithuanian Statutes; development of law institutes in the Great Duchy of Lithuania; peculiarities of development of Vilnius University. (shrink)

Disputes over causes play a central role in legal argumentation and liability attribution. Legal approaches to causation often struggle to capture cause-in-fact in complex situations, e.g. overdetermination, preemption, omission. In this paper, we first assess three current theories of causation to illustrate their strengths and weaknesses in capturing cause-in-fact. Secondly, we introduce a semi-formal framework for modelling causal arguments through strict and defeasible rules. Thirdly, the framework is applied to the Althen vaccine injury case. And lastly, we discuss the need (...) for new criteria based on a common causal argumentation framework and propose ideas on how to integrate the current theories of causation to assess the strength of causal arguments, while also acknowledging the tension between evidence-based and policy-based causal analysis in law. (shrink)

Disputes over causes play a central role in legal argumentation and liability attribution. Legal approaches to causation often struggle to capture cause-in-fact in complex situations, e.g. overdetermination, preemption, omission. In this paper, we first assess three current theories of causation to illustrate their strengths and weaknesses in capturing cause-in-fact. Secondly, we introduce a semi-formal framework for modelling causal arguments through strict and defeasible rules. Thirdly, the framework is applied to the Althen vaccine injury case. And lastly, we discuss the need (...) for new criteria based on a common causal argumentation framework and propose ideas on how to integrate the current theories of causation to assess the strength of causal arguments, while also acknowledging the tension between evidence-based and policy-based causal analysis in law. (shrink)

Disputes over causes play a central role in legal argumentation and liability attribution. Legal approaches to causation often struggle to capture cause-in-fact in complex situations, e.g. overdetermination, preemption, omission. In this paper, we first assess three current theories of causation to illustrate their strengths and weaknesses in capturing cause-in-fact. Secondly, we introduce a semi-formal framework for modelling causal arguments through strict and defeasible rules. Thirdly, the framework is applied to the Althen vaccine injury case. And lastly, we discuss the need (...) for new criteria based on a common causal argumentation framework and propose ideas on how to integrate the current theories of causation to assess the strength of causal arguments, while also acknowledging the tension between evidence-based and policy-based causal analysis in law. (shrink)

Pastaruoju metu pasaulyje vis labiau populiarėja laimės kaip atskiros socialinių tyrimų srities studijos, nes vis daugiau dėmesio skiriama gyvenimo kokybės aspektams. Mokslininkai sprendžia klausimus: kas lemia, kad žmonės jaučiasi laimingi; ar esame laimingi vienodai; ką tai atskleidžia apie mus kaip visuomenę; ar skirtingų kartų žmonėms laimė reiškia tuos pačius dalykus; ar laisvoje aukštesnio gerbūvio visuomenėje formuojasi laimingesnių žmonių karta.Šiame straipsnyje, pasitelkiant 1990, 1999, 2008 ir 2017 metų Europos vertybių tyrimo duomenis, analizuojama laimės lygio dinamika Lietuvoje, siekiant išsiaiškinti, kaip skirtingi sociodemografiniai (...) ir kultūriniai veiksniai susirikiuoja į subjektyvios gerovės lygtį ir kaip tai susiję su gyventojų kartų kaita, ypatingą dėmesį skiriant vadinamosios Pirmosios nepriklausomybės kartos specifikai. Atlikta statistinė empirinių duomenų analizė atskleidė reikšmingus laimės jausenos skirtumus skirtingose Lietuvos gyventojų socialinėse kartose, net ir kontroliuojant kitus jai įtaką darančius veiksnius. (shrink)

This article examines the concept of “perspective” as an embodied metaphor with ontological and epistemological implications for the modeling of historical understanding of contested pasts. The metaphors employed in modeling past reality shape how we make sense of the controversial past. In particular, I explore how perspectival metaphorical models conjure the notions of presence/proximity/engagement and absence/distance/detachment. To open this up, the paper juxtaposes two distinct models of seeing and knowing as sources of embodied metaphor: 1) static and distancing optical metaphors (...) of cognition, and 2) a “post-cognitive” process of interaction. I argue that the shift towards the affective, experiential and immersive forms of engagement in historical representation is indicative of the growing importance of dynamic, embodied and interactive features in mediated models of the past. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of virtual reality as an emergent medium that offers a new way of modeling the past. Despite its novelty, however, virtual reality raises age-old questions about the dynamics of engagement and detachment in historical understanding. (shrink)

This book provides a new approach to the intersections between music and philosophy. It features articles that rethink the concepts of musical work and performance from ontological and epistemological perspectives and discuss issues of performing practices that involve the performer’s and listener’s perceptions. In philosophy, the notion of essence has enjoyed a renaissance. However, in the humanities in general, it is still viewed with suspicion. This collection examines the ideas of essence and context as they apply to music. A common (...) concern when thinking of music in terms of essence is the plurality of music. There is also the worry that thinking in terms of essence might be an overly conservative way of imposing fixity on something that evolves. Some contend that we must take into account the varying historical and cultural contexts of music, and that the idea of an essence of music is therefore a fantasy. This book puts forward an innovative approach that effectively addresses these concerns. It shows that it is, in fact, possible to find commonalities among the many kinds of music. The coverage combines philosophical and musicological approaches with bioethics, biology, linguistics, communication theory, phenomenology, and cognitive science. The respective chapters, written by leading musicologists and philosophers, reconsider the fundamental essentialist and contextualist approaches to music creation and experience in light of twenty-first century paradigm shifts in music philosophy. (shrink)

Diskurso analitinis požiūris propagandos tyrime gali padėti ne tik ištirti propagandos turinį, žodyną, bet ir jo kūrimo kontekstą, kurio analizė tampa vis svarbesnė, plėtojantis sunkiau atpažįstamoms propagandos formoms. Šiame straipsnyje, taikant pusiau sisteminę literatūros apžvalgą ir dedukcinę teminę analizę, nagrinėjama, kaip jungiant propagandos ir diskurso terminus suvokiama propaganda bei kokiose tyrimų tematikose, interpretaciniuose kontekstuose ir kokius metodus pasitelkiant naudojama tokia jungtis. Į apžvalgą įtraukti anglų kalba 2012–2021 m. publikuoti mokslo darbai, kurių pavadinimuose minimi propagandos, diskurso ar propagandinio diskurso terminai. Tyrimo (...) rezultatai rodo, kad propagandos analizei pasitelkdami diskurso analitinį požiūrį, tyrėjai propagandą daugeliu atveju suvokia kaip neigiamą reiškinį, todėl jos analizei dažniausiai pasitelkia kritinę diskurso analizę. Propagandos ir diskurso terminų jungtis moksliniuose tyrimuose naudojama vis dažniau ir yra ypač būdinga visuomenę poliarizuojančių propagandinių pranešimų analizei. Tačiau moksliniuose darbuose propagandos ir diskurso terminų jungtis ne visada išplėtojama tinkamai. (shrink)

Tongan people in Aotearoa New Zealand experience higher rates of mental health challenges than Tongans born in Tonga. Engagement with services is lower for Pacific Island groups than it is for the dominant population in Aotearoa New Zealand. Meanwhile, the Pacific population is growing in Aotearoa New Zealand year after year. This paper explores how services could use evidence to support more appropriate responses for Pacific Islanders, in particular, Tongan communities. It takes recovery in mental health and explores the relevant (...) concepts that would better support engagement and response for Tongans in Aotearoa New Zealand. (shrink)

Today, for cultural institutions, in particular, for libraries, the issue of evaluating the effectiveness of their activities is particularly relevant. There is still no single assessment methodology that takes into account the interests of all stakeholders: outside experts, library managers and staff, investors and sponsors of library activities. The purpose of the study is to develop an integrated methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of state cultural institutions, taking into account the needs of all potential users. The scientific novelty lies in (...) the development, based on the results of an empirical study, of an indicator for measuring the effectiveness of the activities of state cultural institutions, as well as an integrated methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of the library, taking into account the economic and non-economic interest of the activity and providing a comprehensive application of financial and managerial, information and organizational, control and analytical measures, which together contribute to improving the effectiveness of the activity. As a result, the author proposed a unified methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of state cultural institutions on the example of the Kostroma Regional Universal Scientific Library. (shrink)

This study aims to establish ideological effects of the pre-pandemic metaphor use in the mainstream media on users’ perceptions of their relationship with technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve that, 120 media articles from global mainstream media sources during the pre-pandemic period were collected and analysed at three levels: (1) metaphor identification; (2) deconstruction of conceptual source domains; (3) the coding of metaphorical expressions into psychological types of interpersonal relationships that are projected on technologies. The established metaphorical patterns were (...) tested in an online survey with 100 young adults and adults from Lithuania during the COVID-19 pandemic period of 2019-2020. The research findings resulted in the ideological perceptions of Reversed Agentivity and Mechanised Action characterising our relationship with technology and pointing out to the loss of individual autonomy, a lack of personal growth and more fragmented personal identity during the pandemic. (shrink)

Veganism is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon. In addition to being viewed as a dietary choice, it is also studied in various disciplines as a cultural movement, lifestyle, or even as a climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy. Due to its complexity, there is a growing interest in studying veganism through sociological lenses. The aim of this research is to provide a systematic overview of the current sociological literature on veganism. This analysis follows the PRISMA systematic literature review protocol and (...) includes academic articles published in English between 2000 and 2022. The study has been organised around 3 main research questions to reveal the scope and intensity of sociological research on veganism, its methodological aspects, and the conceptualisation of veganism. The results suggest an emerging discourse of veganism as a lifestyle movement and the orientation of studies toward qualitative research. A variety of veganism concepts used in the sociological literature indicate the potential of different strands of research. (shrink)

The article examines the subjective attitudes towards life chances of the Lithuanian youth (aged 18–35). Following the concept of life chances introduced by M. Weber (1920) (cited by Grusky 2001), the theoretical aspects of life chances are analysed. The empirical part of the paper is to survey the research results on the life chances of young people in Lithuania in 2023. Based on the analysis of scientific literature and survey research data, we can state that the subjective attitudes of young (...) people to life chances vary depending on age, gender, employment, and parents’ socio-economic status when the respondent is 14–15 years old. The survey research revealed that young people, who are currently not working or studying, or who identify themselves and their family with the lowest social class, most unfavourably evaluate their life chances. The scientific research is funded by the Lithuanian Science Council researchers group’s Project ‘Socio-economic Factors of Youth Life Chances Differentiation in Lithuania’ (Reg. No. S-MIP-22-42, contract date 18.03.2022). (shrink)

This article analyses implementation of freedom of assembly within Lithuania and in some other States of the European Union. Attention is paid to the differences in the implementation practices for this freedom while analysing probability of restriction of freedom of assembly in the light of legal, political and social factors. The article aims to substantiate that the quality of decision while adopting spreading ideas and expressed views during peaceful meetings, or adopting them later, or dismissing in general, is determined by (...) the democratic society being formed in the state during a particular period. On the other hand, although physical restriction of diffusion of ideas while implementing freedom of assembly is legitimate, it should not become the main control tool, since the development of the state in this direction is absolutely opposite to the expansion of democratic ideas in the society. Legal education should become the priority area of the policy conducted by the state. Particularly since this priority provides the security for the spread of best practices in democratic states, thus laying the grounds for effective prevention of expression of illegal behaviour. Such illegal behaviour may occur in the form of incitement of hatred and aggression in respect of persons who have different faith, race, nation or sexual orientation. The article substantiates that the real challenge faced by the modern democracy is security for practical implementation rather than the formal recognition and regulation of rights and freedoms. It has been found in practice that the implementation of freedom of assembly can be faulty restricted by the procedural justice. After evaluating experience of the States of the European Union and the way in which their national legal system is structured, the recommendations are made enabling a timely dispute settlement concerning the right of assembly, i.e., in order to prevent decision making process from becoming an obstacle for the implementation of freedom of assembly. It is pointed out that settlement of the dispute concerning the permission to hold a peaceful assembly after the date of the assembly is pointless and denies social importance of right of the assembly. (shrink)

The article provides an analysis on how much the standard court proceedings can be regarded as the research, which is performed by investigating by what manner and measures the justice in a procedural sense is implemented. It is generally acknowledged that the court, as a subject, solving a legal dispute, implements justice only in the case, when it ensures the impartiality towards all persons. The appropriate legal proceedings form a constituent part of the constitutional right to apply in the court. (...) The article aims at introducing certain aspects of the implementation of the principle of justice in the court proceedings of Lithuania. It is indicated that the lack of legal methodology results in different arguments of the rendered decisions and their unpredictability, therefore, it does not encourage to opt for the legal peace. The article is topical in a sense that it has not provided an analysis, on which the aspects of impartiality reveal themselves in the nowadays case law in particular cases and how it produces an effect on the approach to justice. In Lithuania, doctrinal presumptions were created for the freedom of the courts, upon which the courts started to formulate new procedural regulations. The freedom of the actions of judges is based on the aim to ensure a stronger safety in regard to the rights pertaining to one of the public groups, i.e. to disallow the domination of certain subjects over the others by eliminating inequality between the parties. The freedom of the actions of judges is also justified by the aim to render the right decision. However, the formulation of the new regulations according to the actual situation by too freely interpreting the norm of the proceedings, without having the doctrinal basis for that, causes the legal confusion, thus inconsistency in the case law appears, the inner contradictions arise and, in addition to that, there is a failure to follow the standard of impartiality. The individualisation of each legal dispute pursuant to the newly established procedural regulations creates the presumptions for legal instability. Upon the absence of doctrinal substantiation for the newly formulated procedural regulations, the risk arises for the courts to unduly avail of the competence granted to them, thus there will be no implementation of the justice attained. The approach, based on the demand for an individual safety, encourages to refuse the regulations, which are universally applied. Such conception of justice is characteristic for legal individualism, which is grounded in consumerism, by means of which the standard court proceedings are refused, while the extended sympathy theory becomes the starting point. The comprehension and observance of the legal methodology is one of the conditions for the development of the consistent case law. The presence of a clear method in the case law will allow to prevent from pursuing different legal conceptions, i.e. different reasoning of a court decision upon the similar circumstances, as well as it will prevent from speculating on the accepted legal position by refusing the legal argument. (shrink)

The article analyses enforcement of freedom of assembly, draws attention to faults of legal regulation of dispute settlement, and revises a possibility of restriction of freedom of assembly. The authors provide evidence that restriction of freedom of assembly by refusing to grant permission to hold a peaceful assembly, is not an effective measure, therefore, it is suggested to educate the public on legal issues in order to enlighten the society about detrimental effect of publicly expressed ideas that provoke national or (...) racial discord, to disclose actual intentions of people who instigate aggression, force and violence so that they do not attract and rally a sufficiently large part of the public. People usually believe that the society enjoys freedom of knowledge and the right to obtain all information, as well as all news that originate and spread across the market, as it creates a pre-requisite for strengthening the best and most useful culture projects resulting in the development of culture and, alongside, the law. (shrink)

In a series of works published over the last thirty years, Rudolf Makkreel accomplished what can be called a hermeneutical rehabilitation of Kant’s Critique of Judgment. Such a rehabilitation has been formulated in explicit opposition to the negative hermeneutical image of Kant’s aesthetics which originated in the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, and according to which the subjectivization of aesthetics perpetrated by Kant reduced aesthetic judgments to a mere communication of feelings, sanctioning thereby their hermeneutical irrelevance. In this essay I do (...) not intend to evaluate the legitimacy of Makkreel’s considerations about the hermeneutical importance of Kant’s Third Critique. Rather, I aim to question the pertinence of those considerations for Gadamer’s criticism of Kant, specifically in relation to the notion of sensus communis, which plays a central role both in Gadamer’s and Makkreel’s analyses. (shrink)

Over the last few decades, the notion of improvisation has enriched and dynamized research on traditional philosophies of music, theatre, dance, poetry, and even visual art. This Handbook offers readers an authoritative collection of accessible articles on the philosophy of improvisation, synthesizing and explaining various subjects and issues from the growing wave of journal articles and monographs in the field. Its 48 chapters, written specifically for this volume by an international team of scholars, are accessible for students and researchers alike. (...) The volume is organized into four main sections: I. Art and Improvisation: Theoretical Perspectives II. Art and Improvisation: Aesthetic, Ethical, and Political Perspectives III. Improvisation in Musical Practices IV. Improvisation in the Visual, Narrative, Dramatic, and Interactive Arts Key Features: Treats improvisation not only as a stylistic feature, but also as an aesthetic property of artworks and performances as well as a core element of artistic creativity. Spells out multiple aspects of the concept of improvisation, emphasizing its relevance in understanding the nature of art. Covers improvisation in a wide spectrum of artistic domains, including unexpected ones such as literature, visual arts, games, and cooking. Addresses key questions, like: - How can improvisation be defined and what is its role in different art forms? - Can improvisation be perceived as such, and how can it be aesthetically evaluated? - What is the relationship between improvisation and notions such as action, composition, expressivity, and authenticity? - What is the ethical and political significance of improvisation? (shrink)

This paper examines the contribution of Gabrio Piola to continuum mechanics.Though he was undoubtably a skilled mathematician and a good mechanician, little is commonly known about his papers within the international scientific community, principally because a large part of the Italian school of mechanics was isolated in the first half of the XIXth century.We examine and comment on Piola’s most important papers, and compare them with those of his contemporaries Cauchy, Poisson and Kirchhoff.

Analysing Śniadecki’s articles and chapters from his “Philosophy of Human Mind” dealing with the problems of aesthetic taste, style, wit, imagination and essence of beauty, we question a view of Śniadecki as a dogmatic proponent of Classicism and an enemy to Romanticism, which, in our view, is based on in-depth studies of his most famous nevertheless only one article “On Classical and Romantic Writings”. We suppose that French aesthetics is not the exclusive keystone of Śniadecki’s ideas. Therefore, we examine the (...) peculiarities of his thought in the con-text of their relationship with the ideas by philosophers of the Scottish school of common sense and argue that these are close. His descriptions of taste and style, of the roles of imagination and sensory expressions are similar to Reid's and Stewart's ones. We show that Śniadecki strives to substantiate the objectivist view of aesthetics and rationally explain the essence of beauty and art, but, by surprise, his thought about the relationship between genius and rules is recalling Kantian view. Our conclusion is that Sniadecki's ideas might be attributed to at least neo-Clas-sical, or even to pre-Romanticist period. (shrink)