In Spinoza’s philosophy affects illustrate the way human beings interact with each other and the world, where the necessary meetings with other particular things define their being and its expressions. Most human beings don’t know themselves, are not conscious of their affects and, even less, do they know what the affects of others are. Although, they are by their definition as particular things obliged to exist in society and create a minimum of consensus. According to Spinoza, this consensus is built (...) upon the biological substrate defined by human body’s physiology, through the mechanism of imitation and is supported by empathy. Leading researchers in affective neuroscience argue for a theory of embodied cognition and recent research in neurosciences attributes human capacity for empathy to mirror neurons, recognising in Spinoza’s texts the philosophical roots of current scientific thinking on body, mind and feeling. Keeping in mind the debate concerning how different levels of explanation can be related to each other or how different disciplines can form the context for interpreting neuroscience’s data, we attempt to promote an implicit dialogue between Spinoza’s psychological theory and the neuroscientific findings, supporting that is legitimate and necessary to examine these questions from the point of view of philosophy and formulate new research questions that can promote further theoretical and empirical study of the complex phenomena concerning human nature and society. (shrink)

Article is devoted to the problem of scientific study of the Soviet partisans' everyday life on the territory of Ukraine during the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet, foreign and modern historical literature. The author observed works on the matter from the beginning of war and to the present which cover some aspects of partisan everyday life. The main stages of its studying are allocated and characterized within a raised problem. The author pays attention to a thematic variety and the (...) priority directions of research on given subject. Historians highlight different problems such as endowment of the Soviet partisans, political agitation and propaganda campaign among partisans' formations personnel and population of the occupied territory, existence of partisan's territories and zones in the occupied territory, the civilian population aid to partisans, medical care and leisure of activities of the Soviet partisans.The conclusion is drawn that given problem did not become a subject of concrete historical research but works of the Soviet, foreign and modern Ukrainian researchers under this review focused the reader's attention on some separate plots of the Soviet partisans' everyday life. The author comes to the conclusion that given problem is the perspective direction for further historical research. (shrink)

У статті досліджено еволюцію християнських поглядів на рівність у контексті узгодженості антропологічних і соціальних чинників та процесів. Теоретичною основою статті є праці отців християнства, соціальні доктрини церков, енцикліки пап Deus Caritas est, Lumen Fidei, Summi Pontificatus, Саritas in Veritate, праці відомих науковців, богословів (Б. Рассел, В. Лоський, Д. Садовський, Софроний (Сахаров), К. Уер, Ю. Чорноморець та ін.). Здійснено аналіз християнського розуміння категорії «рівність» у діалектиці соціального та антропологічного. Показано, що в християнській антропології тлумачення проблеми рівності в ранньому християнстві мало суттєві (...) відмінності від античної філософії, оскільки набуває онтологічного вияву відповідно до вчення про людину як образ та подобу Бога. Розкрито еволюцію уявлень про рівність від початку християнства до сьогодення. Простежено складний взаємозв’язок соціального та антропологічного в цьому процесі. Доведено, що основною характеристикою еволюції уявлень про рівність є перехід від утвердження рівності людей лише в антропологічному контексті як рівної можливості в досягненні Царства Божого до винесення уявлень про рівність за межі дихотомії антропологічного та соціального і утвердження рівних прав та можливостей людини і в соціальній площині. (shrink)

Autobiographical memory specificity has been associated with cognitive function, depression, and independence in older adults. This longitudinal study of 162 older adults moving to active supported living environments tracks changes in the role of the ability to recall specific autobiographical memory as a mediator between underlying cognitive function, or depression, and outcome perceived health or independence, across 18 months, as compared with controls not moving home. Clear improvements across time in autobiographical specificity were seen for residents but not controls, supporting (...) the role of a socially active environment, and confirmed by correlation with number of activities reported in diaries, although the impact of diary activities on the effect of time on autobiographical specificity was not found. The role of autobiographical specificity in mediating general cognition and outcome functional limitations was clear for social limitations at 12 and 18 months, but its role in mediating effects of executive function and perceived health persisted throughout. The role of specificity in mediating between depression and perceived health, IADLs, and Functional Limitations persisted throughout. Analysis examining autobiographical specificity and depression as joint mediators between cognition and independence showed a forward effect such that higher specificity scores reduced the negative mediation effect of depression on independence. Finally, data showed the reduction of many of these mediations over time, supporting the role of autobiographical memory in times of change in a person's social situation. Data support potential autobiographical memory intervention development. (shrink)

Ancient Lanna text of Buddhist philosophy.

Ancient Lanna text of Buddhist philosophy.

Teachings of Buddhist philosophy in Northern Thai language; a selection of suttas from the Suttapitaka.

On Buddhist ethics of Northern Thailand.

The article describes the implementation of the diacritical principle in the philosophy of László Tengelyi. It is emphasized that not only the method is diacritical, but also the experience in itself, in the description of which Tengelyi sees the main task of phenomenological philosophy. In doing so, the author presents the main ideas of Tengelyi's last book, paying special attention to such structures of experience as I, the Other and the world. The analysis of the categories of experience and their (...) relation is carried out, for which the Kantian term «consonance» used. However, unlike Kant, Tengelyi shows that consonance permeates all experience. Further, the author, developing Tengelyi's approach, examines in detail the diacritical relation between the I and the Other and such types of diacritically structured experience as love, despair and the consciousness of one's own death. (shrink)

nnas' article is the first of three in a "Symposium on Ancient Ethics." She begins with the observation that ancient ethics are "eudaemonist" in form. That is, they assume "that each of us has a vague and unarticulated idea of an overall or final goal in our life," which we label eudaimonia or happiness, "and the task of ethical theory is to give each person a clear, articulated, and correct account of this overall goal and how to achieve it" (p. (...) 241; Annas defends this generalization, which is controversial as applied to Stoic and Epicurean ethics, in her The Morality of Happiness [Oxford, 1993]). Furthermore, whereas modern ethical theories (e.g., those of Kant and Sidgwick) typically distinguish between "moral reasoning" and "prudential reasoning," ancient ethical theories do not. How come? One "widespread" and "traditional" view (pp. 244, 245) is that ancient ethics assimilate morality to prudence: "ethical theory guides the agent from an intuitive, restrictive view of what is in her interests (money, power) to a more expanded and elevated view (the virtues)" (p. 244). This interpretation is sometimes joined with the claim that the Greeks took for granted what Nicholas White terms "fusionism": the view that individual good is not ultimately distinct from social or collective good (p. 245). However, Annas notes, ancient Greek literature provides ample illustration that "fusionism" was not taken for granted. (shrink)