Teoretichni proektorii -- Situat︠s︡ionni proektorii -- Ontologicheski proektorii.

This text tries to shed some light on the origin of the idea of moral enhancement, on its epistemic and moral foundations. This requires a comparative analysis of similar ideas present in various trends of bioethics today - the analysis of the very roots of Poter?s global bioethics, the idea of moral enhancement, as well as the break between advocates of moral enhancement and John Harris, their transhumanist colleague, with whom they used to share the same perspective. In this article (...) we identify some basic starting points, similarities and differences between global bioethics and moral enhancement, and draw lines of demarcation between transhumanism and moral enhancement. (shrink)

The social and institutional background of this research can be summarized as the relation between public and governmental policies on the one hand, and the experience of patients and IVF experts on the other. Namely, one third of all pregnancies achieved in state-funded in vitro fertilizations obscure some ethical and health issues, especially among patients who abandon the state-funded IVF programme in Serbia. The goal of the current research is to identify, describe and understand ethical and social issues that parents (...) encounter in attempts to fulfil their idea of a sovereign life through IVF. The method comprised a tri-level analysis based on semi-structured interviews with participants who exhibit personal experiences of basic ethical principles and social and health needs within IVF. The results obtained indicate that all three explored levels of patients' experience build a picture of Assisted Reproductive Technology as a means of a sovereign or good life. However, the cultural image of the fulfilment of expected parental social roles resulted in a denial of autonomy and led to self-abnegation through silent acceptance of unethical practices. There is an overlap of the margins of secular ideas and roles on the one hand, and religiosity on the other, making such consent socially acceptable and more easily explainable. Finally, the conclusion reached is that apparently a decrease in sovereignty of parental decisions causes a loss of trust in state clinics and medical procedures, reduces solidarity and establishes norms and patterns of social injustice and inequality. (shrink)

Whatever we speak about enhancement as the, just, one array of the wide range of the bioethical fields, or as the kind of ideological and theoretical field, it is necessary to emphasize relevant ideological and theoretical distinctions between different approaches. Trying to give some fundamental shape to debate among them, as well within themselves, I specified three possible streams with more or less arbitrary boundaries. First one is transhumanistic stream , whose representatives openly promote the practice of genetic, prosthetic and (...) cognitive enhancement of human kind - transition from human to a post human society; bioconservative, whose representatives perceive a threat in the violation of human dignity, meddling in “God’s business” ( playing God ), and in changes to the nature of human beings; representatives of the “middle standpoint” consider that danger lies within the dialectic relation of “capitalism and medicine.” I present the tree ideological standpoints trying to building consistency through different ethical arguments. Discussing the relevant theoretical/ideological distinction between standpoints and their claims, I will argue that ideological distinction among standpoints is less relevant than contingency within their arguments. Such mutual contingence creates some similarity regarding epistemological and social issues. (shrink)

This text tries to shed some light on the origin of the idea of moral enhancement, on its epistemic and moral foundations. This requires a comparative analysis of similar ideas present in various trends of bioethics today - the analysis of the very roots of Poter?s global bioethics, the idea of moral enhancement, as well as the break between advocates of moral enhancement and John Harris, their transhumanist colleague, with whom they used to share the same perspective. In this article (...) we identify some basic starting points, similarities and differences between global bioethics and moral enhancement, and draw lines of demarcation between transhumanism and moral enhancement. (shrink)

The question of education is as old as life itself, and its elements, which have been questioned throughout history, still occupy the minds of many pedagogues, psychologists, philosophers and sociologists today. There are many different experts dealing with education, but one name is particularly important, the name that links the notion of contemporary education and education reform – John Dewey. The aim of this paper is to present his theory and its application in the domain of the philosophy of education, (...) emphasizing the importance of education as a social function in the service of civilizational survival and progress. Social and technological advancement prompted Dewey to the idea of education reform, with focus on practical work and experimental method and with the aim of achieving a balance between knowledge and skills. A significant part of Dewey's philosophy of education is devoted precisely to education. This paper presents general reflections on education, its goals, purpose and definition, and morals as a significant educational aspect, all combining pragmatic approach, making experience and knowledge gained with practical work a priority. (shrink)

This collection of articles is a tribute to Nenad Smokrović, our friend and colleague from the Philosophy Department. He has been working on human rationality for over 25 years. Consequently, articles in this collection are either directly or indirectly related to this subject matter. In this volume, 19 authors from Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Italy, Israel, USA, and GB write about human rationality. What human rationality consists in? What is the relationship between its normative aspect (logic) and its descriptive aspect (psychology)? (...) Do people in fact reason according to the laws of logic? What is the nature and the function of reasoning, argumentation, and inference? ... We are publishing this volume in the hope that it will provide further contribution to the research in the field. (shrink)

This book engages in a critical discussion on how to respect and promote patients’ autonomy in difficult cases such as palliative care and end-of-life decisions. These cases pose specific epistemic, normative, and practical problems, and the book elucidates the connection between the practical implications of the theoretical debate on respecting autonomy, on the one hand, and specific questions and challenges that arise in medical practice, on the other hand. Given that the idea of personal autonomy includes the notion of authenticity (...) as one of its core components, the book explicitly includes discussions on underlying theories of the self. In doing so, it brings together original contributions and novel insights for “applied” scenarios based on interdisciplinary collaboration between German and Serbian scholars from philosophy, sociology, and law. It is of benefit to anyone cherishing autonomy in medical ethics and medical practice. (shrink)

In 2005 The Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory has undertaken a reputed interview, based on identical methodology but on a reduced sample in six towns in Serbia. The objective was to examine how citizens see the circumstances in society today, five years after the October turn, and what conditions their attitudes towards: the policy of new democratic powers, of democratic parties and those of the ex-regime, as well as towards the problems they are confronted with, and whether the initial (...) optimism has gone and why. The results obtained by this interview show that after five years of experience with democratic transition the interviewees are more critical regarding the actual democratic policy, and more likely to forget the reasons created by the former regime as obstacles to a successful democratic transition. For this reason, disappointment has grown, and an initial optimism gives its place to pessimism, with vanishing of the hope in the possibility of radical democratic change. This makes it possible to give a chance to the Radical Party in a future election. But, in spite of current confusion among citizens produced by the examined state of affairs, as well as the ambiguities in certain attitudes, this inquiry suggests that the interviewees have provided a quite realistic evaluation of the actual conditions in Serbian society today, and that their criticism, which arises from disappointment, does not completely cancel a positive attitude towards democratic transition, since their criticism results from dissatisfaction with the unrealized democratic principles and values after October 5th. Institut za filozofiju i drustvenu teoriju je obavio 2005. ponovljeni intervju, radjen istom metodologijom, ali na skracenom, desetoprocentnom uzorku i u sest gradova Srbije, sa ciljem da se proveri sta se promenilo u vidjenju gradjana o politici u drustvu posle pet godina od oktobarskog prevrata i sta uslovljava njihove stavove prema: politici demokratskih vlasti, prema strankama bivseg rezima i problemima sa kojima se suocavaju, kao i da li je nestao pocetni optimizam i zasto. Rezultati pokazuju da su posle petogodisnjeg iskustva ispitanici kriticniji prema politici demokratskih vlasti, skloniji da zaborave razloge koje je proizveo bivsi rezim kao prepreke za demokratski preobrazaj drustva, te da je poraslo razocaranje i nezadovoljstvo postignutim, a pocetni optimizam sve vise ustupa mesto pesimizmu i gubljenju nade u mogucnost radikalnijih demokratskih promena, sto uslovljava i stav o mogucem davanju sanse radikalima na sledecim izborima. Ali i pored zbunjenosti gradjana zbog nastale nepovoljne situacije i ambivalentnosti izvesnih stavova, istrazivanje sugerise da su ispitanici realnije procenili aktualno stanje drustva i da kriticnost, koja proizlazi iz nezadovoljstva zbog neostvarenih obecanja, ali i zbog neartikulisanih ciljeva razvoja, ne potire u potpunosti pozitivni stav prema demokratskoj transformaciji, buduci da se kritika uglavnom pokazuje kao rezultat razocaranja sto se ne ostvaruju demokratski principi posle 5. oktobra. (shrink)

Molly Farneth, Hegel’s Social Ethics: Religion, Conflict, and Rituals of Reconciliation, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 2017 Slobodan Golubović.

The anthropological approach to the concept of identity is needed because “identity” is not naturally “given”, but it is culturally defined and constituted, for human beings live in cultural settings as “a second nature of man”; so they are humanly conditioned and conceptualised in different “ways of peoples’ lives”. Being that culture makes an essential context of social life and of the personality foundation, it provides the pattern of the common way of living and thinking of the communal experiences as (...) a value-referential framework upon which definitions and interpretations of identities rely. Thereby, cultural paradigm enables researches to understand what identity expresses in different socio-historical conditions and ideological connotations, assuming that this concept is dynamic vs. the other one, e.g. national pattern of identity which is narrow as well as exclusive; and as a static category, it does not suppose possibility of change. In the paper a traditionally oriented conceptualisation of identity in Serbia will be also treated, together with its influence upon the slow changes within a democratic transition during the new millennium. (shrink)

Der anthropologische Ansatz zum Identitätskonzept wird benötigt, da die „Identität“ nicht von Natur aus „gegeben“ ist, sondern für Menschenwesen kulturell definiert und konstituiert ist, die in dem kulturellen Rahmen als der „anderen Natur des Menschen“ leben; so existieren sie menschlich bedingt und konzeptualisiert in verschiedenerlei „menschlichen Lebensarten“. Diese Kultur zu durchleben bildet den essenziellen Kontext des Soziallebens wie auch der Persönlichkeitsgründung, es liefert die Muster der gemeinschaftlichen Lebens- und Denkweise der kollektiven Erfahrung, und zwar als wertmäßig-referenzielles Gerüst, woran sich die (...) Definitionen und Interpretationen der Identitäten anlehnen. Aufgrund dessen befähigt das kulturelle Paradigma die Erforscher zum Verständnis, welche Identität sich in diversen sozialhistorischen Gegebenheiten sowie ideologischen Konnotationen offenbart, vorausgesetzt, dass dieses Konzept im Vergleich zum anderen dynamisch ist, wie zum nationalen Identitätsentwurf, welcher sowohl begrenzt als auch abschließend wirkt und als statische Kategorie keinerlei Änderungsmöglichkeiten duldet. In dem Artikel wird ebenso die traditionell ausgerichtete Identitätskonzeptualisierung in Serbien behandelt und ihre Einwirkung auf die Wandelträgheit innerhalb der demokratischen Transition im neuen Millennium. (shrink)

Potreba za antropološkim pristupom pojmu identiteta javlja se zbog prirode kako osobnog tako i kolektivnog identiteta, budući da nije riječ o fenomenima koji su »prirodno dani«, već o kulturno definiranim i konstituiranim formama ljudskog života u kulturnoj sredini kao »drugoj prirodi«, koja na ljudski način uvjetuje i konceptualizira različite »načine života« pojedinaca i naroda. Budući da kultura predstavlja bitan kontekst ljudskog socijalnog i individualnog života, ona osigurava obrazac zajedničkog načina života i načina mišljenja kolektivnog iskustva, kao vrijednosno-referentni okvir na koji (...) se oslanjaju definicije i interpretacije identiteta. Stoga kulturna paradigma omogućuje istraživačima da razumiju što znači identitet u različitim društveno-povijesnim uvjetima i ideološkim konotacijama, pretpostavljajući dinamičan koncept nasuprot nacionalnog obrasca identiteta koji se vezuje za etničke grupe i postaje ekskluzivan te isključuje mogućnost promjene. U tekstu će se razmatrati i tradicionalno orijentirana konceptualizacija identiteta u Srbiji i njen utjecaj na sporost promjena u demokratskoj tranziciji u novom tisućljeću i ukazati na probleme i dileme u tom kontekstu. (shrink)

Freedom as an authentic and willed process, characteristic of man as a human rational being, enables the individual to act in accordance with the principles of morality, since the individual can choose between good and evil, and in this way to get out of the sphere of the given to which the rest of the living world is limited. We should recall the forgotten Marx and his famous text on the essential difference between the animal world and humanity as a (...) genus: "The animal is immediately united with its vital activity. It does not differ from it. It is vital activity. Man makes his own vital activity the subject of his will and consciousness. He has conscious vital activity. This is not a determination with which he merges immediately. Conscious vital activity distinguishes man directly from animal vital activity. It is exactly in this way alone that he is a generic being. Or a conscious being, i.e. his own life is a subject for him precisely because he is a generic being. It is only for this reason that his activity is free activity...". In other words, while animals live just the life of their species and cannot choose anything else, since the choice has been made by the fact of their belonging to a species, man can choose the world in which to live, overcoming in this way the natural givens. Here lies the core of the anthropological explanation of the principle of morality, inconceivable without man's ability to be an authentic free being. Sloboda kao autenticni voljni proces, svojstven coveku kao ljudskom umnom bicu, omogucuje individui da postupa u skladu sa nacelima moralnosti, buduci da individua moze da bira izmedju dobra i zla i da na taj nacin izadje iz sfere datosti na koju je ogranicen ostali zivi svet. Podsetimo se zaboravljenog Marxa i cuvenog teksta o sustinskoj razlici izmedju sveta zivotinjskih vrsta i coveka kao roda:?zivotinja je neposredno jedinstvena sa svojom zivotnom delatnoscu. Ona se od nje ne razlikuje. Ona je zivotna datost. Covek cini samu svoju zivotnu delatnost predmetom svoga htenja i svoje svesti. On ima svesnu zivotnu delatnost. To nije odredjenost s kojom se on neposredno stapa. Svesna zivotna delatnost razlikuje coveka neposredno od zivotinjske zivotne delatnosti. On je upravo samo na taj nacin genericko bice. Ilije samo svesno bice, tj. njegov vlastiti zivot mu je predmet upravo zato sto je genericko bice. Samo zato je njegova delatnost slobodna delatnost...". Drugim recima, dok zivotinjski svet zivi samo zivotom svoje vrste i ne moze da izabere nista drugo, on je srastao sa vrstom kojoj pripada, covek moze da bira svet u kojem ce ziveti prevazilazeci na taj nacin prirodnu datost. Ovde je sadrzana bit antropoloskog objasnjenja principa moralnosti, koji se bez sposobnosti coveka da bude autenticno slobodno bice ne bi mogao pojmiti.. (shrink)

U tekstu se raspravlja o različitim interpretacijama koncepta globalizacije te se naglašava nedostatak njenog filozofskog utemeljenja. Razmatraju se moguće ideološke konotacije u dominantnom društvenom kontekstu u kojem je dana presudna važnost ekonomskoj racionalnosti. Prezentiraju se stavovi istaknutih autora s ciljem razumijevanja ovoga kompleksnog fenomena te njegovih kontroverzi i dilema.

Der Artikel erörtert den anthropologischen Ansatz bei der Erforschung der Rolle, die die Kultur im Humanisierungsprozess des Menschen spielt: Was sind die Vorteile des modernen Zeitalters, und welche Probleme melden sich in der postindustriellen und immer noch technologischen Zivilisation? Was hat sich im Hinblick auf die fundamentale Rolle der Kultur in der Welt des Menschen verändert, als: a) die Kultur zu einem Industrieerzeugnis im Sinne von „Massenkultur” wurde; und b) sie unter den Einfluss des postmodernen Relativismus fiel ? Die Verfasserin (...) analysiert die Folgen dieser Wandel unter dem Gesichtspunkt substanzialer menschlicher Potenziale wie Kreativiät und Imagination, den L ebenssinn betreffende Referenzgrundlagen, multidimensionale Struktur des menschlichen Charakters, Freiheit der Persönlichkeit im Gegensatz zum vulgarisierten Individualismus usw. Die abschließende Fragestellung lautet: Ist die Kultur hinter den Ökonomismus oder die Politik zurückgetreten, statt deren Grundlage zu sein? (shrink)

Predmet rasprave bit će antropološki pristup mjestu kulture u procesu humanizacije čovjeka: koje su dobrobiti razvoja modernoga doba i koji se problemi javljaju u postindustrijskoj i još uvijek tehnološkoj civilizaciji? Što se promijenilo s obzirom na fundamentalnu ulogu kulture u ljudskom svijetu: a) kad je kultura postala industrijski proizvod u smislu »masovne kulture«, i b) pod utjecajem postmodernog relativizma ? Posljedice tih promjena analizirat će se s gledišta supstancijalnih ljudskih mogućnosti kao što su kreativnost i imaginacija, osnove referenci koje se (...) tiču smisla života, multidimenzionalna priroda strukture ljudskoga karaktera, sloboda ličnosti naspram vulgariziranog individualizma, itd. Postavlja se zaključno pitanje: je li kultura postala potčinjena ekonomizmu ili politici, umjesto da bude njihova osnova? (shrink)