The 19th century saw a dramatic transformation in the basic categories of knowledge, both in metaphysics and in physics the notions of time and matter became intertwined, following the industrial revolution. In a crucial sense, both dialectical materialism and entropic physics reflect the changes induced by the industrial revolution. In this paper, I will examine the notion of entropy so as to form a dialectical concept of it. In doing so, I will relate dialectical materialism and entropy to demonstrate their (...) shared ground. The goal of this will be to show what the consequences of the industrial revolution have been on the form of time itself. Rather than the formal time, linear time of Newtonian mechanics and Kant’s transcendental idealism, time today has become an unorientable surface, relating back to itself in important ways. Taking some topological ideas from Deleuze’s treatment of the third synthesis of time in Difference and Repetition (1969), as well as Žižek’s concept of dialectical materialism from Sex and the Failed Absolute (2019), I will show how these disparate notions of material time bear on the topology of time after the industrial revolution. (shrink)

The article explores the relationship between two different approaches to happiness and knowledge, that is, the contemplative model and the economistic and instrumental model. Whereas the former equates happiness with the contemplative life, the latter separates happiness from knowledge and subordinates both to what present-day policy-makers call “the economy of well-being.” While biopolitical modernity seems to have rendered the contemplative model obsolete and purposeless, the article suggests reviving the contemplative lifestyle, by putting forward three arguments. First, it contends that we (...) should challenge the economistic and instrumental model, by reaffirming the principle that knowledge and happiness are primarily intrinsic values and ends in themselves. Second, the two models do not necessarily exclude each other and we should strive to combine them. Third, the envisaged integration of the two models requires that we revise them significantly. The elitist and metaphysical character of the traditional contemplative model must be abandoned as it is no longer palatable to modernity. Also, the primacy of economic and instrumental rationality that defines the modern biopolitics of knowledge must be questioned. (shrink)

This article analyzes the artwork of two seemingly distant contemporary artists – Toomas Altnurme and Cao Jun – elucidating their creative processes through the theoretical frameworks of Martin Heidegger, Sigmund Freud, and Henri Bergson. In Section 1, I offer reasons for a side-by-side examination of Altnurme’s and Jun’s art. In my discussion of Altnurme’s art in Section 2, I argue that his process exemplifies Heidegger’s view that artists must abnegate themselves in order for their creations to come into being. In (...) Section 3, I elucidate Jun’s painting in its power to decenter the usual, object-oriented, circumspection of the mind. I ground my analyses in Freud’s concept of dream logic. Freud’s work on dreams allows me to approach Jun’s creative process as a work of translation whereby the artist translates the preconscious elements into images that we – the audience – then see on canvas. In Section 4, where I offer a comparative examination of both artists, I rely on Bergson’s articulation of the importance of intuition in order to show that both Altnurme and Jun create artworks that disclose to us the non-objective dimension of life wherein action or process and possibility take precedence over objectively existing things. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that the contemporary pathologizing of old age is directly tied to the notion of uselessness, understood entropically as that which cannot contribute energy for useful work. The elderly are configured as socially useless and thus threaten the health of the body politic. As a result, they are marginalized, ignored, and treated as waste to be jettisoned from the system. Because understanding bodies as machines able or unable to perform work accords with the second law of (...) thermodynamics, the first half of this paper discusses entropy as both scientific law and philosophical concept. The second section explores the lived experience of aging and the pathologized position of social uselessness through Simone Beauvoir’s analysis of old age. As she herself ages, the place of senescence comes to play a more pronounced role in her philosophical inquiry. Writing about the lived experience of aging adds a vital dimension to the scientific and philosophical perspectives, insofar as it foregrounds the various ways that entropy is felt: slowing, dissipating, and ultimately dying. While these should be viewed as part of the normal life cycle, they become markers of abjection which are judged harshly against the standard of social utility. (shrink)

This article addresses ontological negotiations in the Global South through three case studies of community-based research in Brazil and Ghana. We argue that ontological perspectives of Indigenous people and local communities require an ontological pluralism that recognizes both the plurality of representational tools and of ways of being in the world. Locating these two readings of ontological pluralism in the politics of the Global South, the article highlights a wider dynamic from ontological paternalism to ontological diversity to ontological decolonization. We (...) conclude by arguing that this dynamic provides important lessons for the state for social ontology in academic philosophy and for the design of politically reflexive development interventions. (shrink)

In our global neocolonial and neoliberal present, so-called solutions to settler-Indigenous conflict are often framed as a reconciliation achieved through a multicultural democratic society. However, this conception of resolution frequently adopts a superficial understanding of culture that ultimately understands cultural difference as reconcilable in the sense that other cultures can be folded into or made compatible with dominant cultural norms. On Turtle Island (North America), especially within the settler colonial context, such reconciliation as resolution becomes a differently fashioned form of (...) domination as assimilation especially from the vantage points of Indigenous nations and Afro-descended peoples. This essay explores the ontological incommensurabilities of cultural difference that resist assimilation or translation into dominant Euro-Western cultural frameworks. It does this through examining the way culture and ontological orientation, or world-senses, are made and live on through various modes of cultural preservation and practice. I examine these ideas through Indigenous practices of orality, origin stories, ceremony, and cultural revitalization. (shrink)

This paper explores the intricate relationship between the concept of “savage knowledge,” its significance during the ninteenth and twentieth centuries, and the emerging field of ethnoscience. It specifically focuses on the Amazon region as a pivotal area in the development of ethnoscience, examining the contributions of renowned naturalists Carl von Martius, Richard Spruce, and Richard Schultes, who each conducted scientific expeditions to the Amazon during this era. Their works are crucial in reevaluating the dynamic interplay between the Western perception of (...) the “savage,” the scientific principles that underpin it, and the geopolitics of knowledge exchange between countries in the global north and south. I argue that the contextual conditions which made possible the emergence of ethnoscience, including imperial assimilation, extraction, and coloniality, continue to exert influence on twentieth century political discourses concerning the integration of indigenous cultures into global politics. This influence is evident through the analysis of a UNESCO document in the second part of the paper. The study concludes that the incorporation of indigenous knowledge, systematised by ethnoscience, has often served as a pretext for controlling geographical areas historically regarded as “natural resources,” ultimately transforming them into reservoirs of indigenous epistemologies. (shrink)

What is philosophically interesting about how soil is managed and categorized? This paper begins by investigating how different soil ontologies develop and change as they are used within different social communities. Analyzing empirical evidence from soil science, ethnopedology, sociology, and agricultural extension reveals that efforts to categorize soil are not limited to current scientific soil classifications but also include those based in social ontologies of soil. I examine three of these soil social ontologies: (1) local and Indigenous classifications farmers and (...) farming communities use to conceptualize their relationships with soil in their fields; (2) categorizations ascribed to farmers in virtue of their agricultural goals and economic priorities relied upon in sociological research; and (3) federal agency classifications of land capability employed by agricultural scientists. Studying the interplay of these social ontologies shows how assessing soil properties and capabilities are the result of previous agricultural strategies informed by culture, agroecological history, weather, soil biodiversity, crop rotation, and the goals held by decision-makers. The paper then identifies the soil relationships and interactions that constitute ontology-making activities. Building on recent work, I outline a novel interactive account of perspectival realism grounded in agricultural extension research and ethnopedological data that captures the haptic nature of farmers’ soil strategies. This interactive account explains how ontologies are chosen, why they are chosen, and how they interact and inform soil management decision-making. The paper concludes by examining the values laden in these ontologies and those which are causally implicated in the choice of soil management strategies. (shrink)

This article charts a path between those who champion the culture concept and those who think it dangerous. This path navigates between two positions: realists who adopt realist conceptions of both the culture concept and the category of cultural groups, and fictionalists who see such efforts as just creative and fictional extrapolation. Developing the fictionalist position, I suggest it overstates the case against realism: there is plenty of room for realist positions that produce well-grounded empirical studies of cultural groups. Nonetheless, (...) I stress the importance of one element of the fictionalist critique: that the choice of ontology can lead to downstream harm. Developing an extended case study around the work of the anthropologist Julian Steward, I show how ontological decision making is an important element of contemporary scientific and policymaking work. I conclude by arguing that greater attention should be paid both to the processes by which ontologies are adopted and the potential consequences that may result. (shrink)

We are at the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, characterised by the interaction of so-called disruptive technologies (biotechnology, synthetic biology, nanotechnology, neurotechnology and artificial intelligence). We believe that the challenges posed by technoscience cannot be met by the three generations of human rights that already exist. The need to create a fourth generation of human rights is, therefore, explored in this article. For that purpose, the state of the art will be analysed from a scientific and ethical perspective. We (...) will consider the position of academic doctrines on the issues that a fourth generation of human rights should tackle. And, finally, in this fourth generation, we will propose the principles of identity and precaution as reference values, equivalent to the role played by freedom, equality and solidarity in the first three generations of human rights. (shrink)

The paper discusses ecological grief as a particular affective phenomenon. First, it offers an overview of several philosophical accounts of grief, acknowledging the heterogeneity and complexity of the experience that responds to particular personal points of importance, concern and one’s identity; the loss triggering grief represents a blow to these. I then argue that ecological grief is equally varied and personal: responding to what the grieving person understands as a loss severe enough to present intelligibly a degradation of her life (...) and the world, to their meaningfulness or even sustainability. More specifically, both personal and ecological grief may manifest in an eroded sense of the future as a space in which one would invest oneself with plans, projects, ideas, desires, and endeavours. On the other hand, personal grief is, in some cases, conceptualised as having embedded the inherent possibility to come to closure or “move on” (e.g., by marrying again), while with ecological grief, the intelligibility of overcoming (replacing) the loss may be, depending on its scale, severely limited. I argue that this erosion of the future need not take the shape of paralysing sadness but rather of a disruption of taking some options of projecting oneself into the future seriously or as real. (shrink)

The question of aesthetics in film-theoretical discourse today is split between, on the one hand, a film-phenomenological or “filmosophical” approach that values the putatively immanent relation between film and the mind and, on the other, the naturalizing epistemology of post-theory, which reduces the question of film aesthetics to one of poetics. What unites these otherwise disparate projects is the consideration of aesthetics divorced from the question of politics; in both cases, the social or political significance of the film–spectator relationship has (...) been summarily purged. In this article, I will offer an alternative account of film aesthetics that draws on Jacques Rancière’s theory concerning the mutually determining relationship between aesthetics and politics. In particular, I will consider the relevance of Rancière’s thesis concerning what he calls the distribution of sensible to current accounts, as well as taking up his novel consideration of aesthetic distance and the “emancipated” spectator. With respect to film phenomenology, I will examine how its film-theoretical program rests on the flawed concept of a de-politicized spectator enchained by the film image. With respect to post-theory, I will examine how its appropriation from cognitive science of the rational agent model of meaning making inappropriately limits the political potential of film aesthetics. (shrink)

This article sketches a dialogue between philosophical hermeneutics and deconstruction concerning two important concepts both for Philosophy and International Relations: community and hospitality, which have to do with the Kantian ideas about cosmopolitism. They are crucial for the description and comprehension of what is called the “international society”. The analysis aims to show that both can achieve a better productivity if guided by the paradoxical idea of “strangeness”. This idea could “deconstruct” both community and hospitality by constantly showing their particular (...) “closure”. Then, we can start to see the interactions between them and their philosophical productivity to analyze “international society”. (shrink)

If film immortalises the ephemeral and presentifies the past, this is especially true of home movies, whose content is not the result of a narrative composition or an invention of fiction, but the product of fragments of reality. These three categories – fiction, documentary, and the home movie – have been analysed by Jean-Pierre Meunier and Vivian Sobchack, with an emphasis on the effect that each film mode can have on the spectator, eliciting a particular emotional and cognitive response. But (...) these authors’ models depend entirely on the spectator’s experience to identify each mode, with the home movie being limited to footage in which we can recognise our own families. Nevertheless, a stranger’s home movie can elicit an act of recognition through an intersubjectivity that arises from the footage. On this basis, this article proposes a reading of the home movie as a reliquary of memory, where content and medium intersect to give rise to the particular experience associated with this film mode. (shrink)

Béla Tarr's last feature film The Turin Horse (2011) begins with a prologue that narrates Friedrich Nietzsche's mental breakdown in Turin in 1889, which was allegedly prompted by his witnessing a cab driver brutally whipping his horse. Nietzsche's name is not mentioned again in the film, and the viewer is left wondering what connection, if any, exists between the Nietzsche story and the film's narrative. Scholars often refer to one or another aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy when analysing Tarr's film. Yet, (...) to date, no comprehensive study has been devoted to exploring the connection between The Turin Horse and Nietzsche's philosophy. This article seeks to fill this gap in the literature. The first section examines the connection between the prologue and the film. In the second section, attention is given to the most evident connection between Tarr's film and Nietzsche's philosophy, namely the use of circularity and repetition in The Turin Horse and Nietzsche's idea of the eternal recurrence of the same. The third section interprets the neighbour's monologue in light of Nietzsche's death of God. Finally, the fourth section is devoted to nihilism. (shrink)

This article probes the ways in which returning to Palestine is imagined in Razan AlSalah’s two video works Your Father Was Born 100 Years Old, and So Was the Nakba (2018) and Canada Park (2020). In foregrounding the refusal of configurations substantiated by state concessions and normalisation treaties, the article treats loss as central to the manifold rehearsals of return. In AlSalah’s work, loss is understood not as becoming less, but rather as a proposition for becoming otherwise. Here, the practice (...) of loss is explored through the glitch as both a conceptual framework espousing opacity and a pragmatic tool engaging pixel breaks. Rather than reducing the glitch to a mere erroneous aesthetic, the article underscores the active capacity in encountering a glitch or deliberately engendering it by exploring the tensions between colonial imageries reproduced in digital maps, and, in contrast, montage as AlSalah’s tool for intervention. Finally, the article serves as a theoretical experimentation with what I call “dialectical poethics,” which reads the filmic return through loss as an attempt to go against linearity, intelligibility, and finality, yet insists on a materialist grounding of the glitch as a method that is historically situated rather than always-already emancipatory. (shrink)

In this article, I undertake a close reading of Isabel Rocamora's 2015 film installation Faith, which shows, on three separate screens, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim men simultaneously performing their morning prayers in three distinct, historically significant sites in the Judean desert. Setting the cinematic and installation properties of the work into dialogue with a number of philosophers (Levinas, Derrida, Cavell), film theorists (Bazin, Deleuze, Chion), and art theorists (Fried, Elkins), I argue that it adopts a postsecular approach to religious pluralism. (...) That is, without being a religious artwork, Faith nevertheless deconstructs the conventional liberal secular approach of universalist neutrality towards inter-religious relations and instead configures the relations between the human figures in the work according to an alterity that requires not cognitive certainty but inter-human faith. The work is thereby consistent with Derrida's notion that tout autre est tout autre (every other is wholly other). (shrink)

While experiencing natural beauty is a key appeal of the cinema and other moving-image media, academic film scholarship has rarely paid attention to it. In this article I will use the widespread motif of the gently rustling wind as a pars pro toto to make some general remarks about the experience of natural beauty in film. I will first note the firm place of the motif of the rustling wind in film theoretical debates from the late 19th century until today. (...) Then, I will propose three modes of how viewers can experience this beautiful motif in film. In the following section I will discuss how film's mediation modifies the experience of natural beauty. And in a final step I will explore the reciprocal relation between nature and film, and how one can enhance the appreciation of the other. Ultimately, I follow two – mutually imbricated – goals. On the one hand, I aim to (re)connect the film theoretical discourse about the wind in the trees to natural beauty. On the other hand, I use the motif of the gently rustling wind to say something more general about the aesthetic experience of natural beauty in film. (shrink)

Agnieszka Holland’s Spoor (Pokot, 2017), an adaptation of Olga Tokarczuk’s novel Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead (2009), tells the story of an old woman, Janina Duszejko (Agnieszka Mandat), who advocates for animal rights and uses every measure to fight the local hunting culture. Due to the centrality of the relationship between human beings and the world of nature, Holland’s film refers to the recent debates aimed at de-centralizing the human subject. This article will argue, however, that (...) despite its attempt to alter the human–animal relationship, Spoor conveys anthropocentric perspectives and as such it does not participate in the “non-human turn.” Instead, the film can be linked to the “emotional turn” taking precedence in the humanities during the last two decades, in that it expresses the director’s affective response to the political realities of contemporary Poland, especially its unshaken patriarchal power, which subordinates the social margins. (shrink)

Maurice Pialat (1925–2003) in his Libération article “Éloge de Poussin” (1987) tells us that cinema has made no progress since the Lumière brothers’ first projected images. Provocatively, he informs his readers that only painting has progressed and, as such, remains the far more innovative art form. For all the pointed remarks directed with some force towards French film critics and filmmakers, Pialat’s short notes in Libé offer us something more. It is one of the few opportunities to consider the auteur’s (...) critical and aesthetic approaches to filmmaking. While Pialat emphasises the failure of critics and filmmakers to elevate cinema to the level of art, the article more saliently invites us to analyse Pialat’s understanding of cinematic practice as an intricate enfolding of painterly and cinematic concepts. In this article I contend that, through a reading of the theoretical dimensions Pialat introduces in his “elegy” to the Classicist painter Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), along with an analysis of a selection of the director’s films, we not only discover Pialat’s film-philosophy; moreover, we discover new ways to study Pialat’s acute rendering of fraught manhood. Significantly, I argue, Pialat’s wrestling with masculinity (fatherhood, sexual desire, boyhood, and so on) reveals itself through a key element critical to Poussin’s aesthetic palette: the colour blue. (shrink)

In Chloé Zhao's 2020 film Nomadland, Fern's commitment to eschewing a geolocalizable “home” uproots her from conventional patterns of domesticity and transforms her into an inhabitant of planet earth as a whole, enabling a new way of thinking about identity, environment, and the nature of human freedom. The kind of freedom that Fern's narrative evokes stands in deliberate contrast to the masculinized, heroic style of freedom that American films have done so much to promulgate. In contrast to this conventional representation (...) of freedom, new materialist criticism has examined the many ways that human agency emerges from within a dense web of interconnections that bind together human beings with one another, with other life forms, with inanimate matter, and with the cosmic expanses of time and space. Nomadland can be understood as a film that picks up the iconography of conventional American cinematic freedom in order to redirect this iconography into a new materialist worldview. (shrink)

To the French critics who originally labelled certain films noir it seemed that a class of Hollywood products had gone darker during the war years – as though a dark filter had been placed over the lens. Films were not designed or marketed as noir, and retrospectively noir's status as a genre is still unsettled. Yet there is widespread interest today in experiencing diverse films as noir, and even in using a Noir Filter in Instagram and video games. Pursuing the (...) filter clue, the noir experience can be thought of as subjection to a dark filtering of narrative. Image filtering styles can help to resolve not only the puzzle of noir's quasi-genre status but also an issue of general interest in aesthetic experience. The use of image filters makes a distinctively powerful contribution to the experience of a work or genre, or to the cultural dominance of an aesthetic regime, due to the unobtrusive formative role it plays in the economy of experience. (shrink)

Brady Corbet's Vox Lux (2018) depicts school shooting survivor Celeste's transformation into a singing superstar, connecting the trauma of a terrorist attack to the phenomenon of musical celebrity. In so doing, the film narrativises the relationship between the pop singer and neoliberal resilience discourse that has been explored by music philosopher Robin James. Mobilising Jacques Rancière's definition of political art, this article suggests that, rather than endorsing the resilience that it depicts, the film formally critiques the neoliberal function of pop (...) stardom by disrupting the pleasurable affect associated with pop music and celebrity. Whilst Raffey Cassidy's performance of the soundtrack was praised in many reviews, the performance of Natalie Portman (playing the older Celeste) was criticised for its inauthentic delivery. Far from being a weakness of the film, my reading suggests that it is in the formal discord between the pleasurably resilient affect of the music and Portman's laboured performance that the film's political-philosophical critique of neoliberal resilience discourse comes to the fore. Taking an interdisciplinary approach grounded in the perspectives of political philosophy, girlhood studies, and celebrity studies, this article proposes that Vox Lux interrogates the neoliberal function of celebrity through a formal disruption of the pleasurable affect associated with the resilient pop star's musical performance. (shrink)

This paper offers a defence of sense-datum statements from A.J. Ayer’s perspective that represents a response to Quine’s naturalistic ontology. Starting with Quine’s “On What There Is” (1948), and the following “Symposium” of 1951, I argue that Ayer’s proposed method of establishing sense-datum statements in his “Symposium” piece, which challenges Quine’s ontology of physical objects, is not a viable alternative to Quine’s scientific naturalism. I argue that by taking a broadly intensional approach, Ayer can offer a response to Quine’s position. (...) More specifically, I contend that it is possible to form a distinctly non-scientific, epistemological account of sense-data by employing primitive “sensory predicates” within basic propositions. In terms of ontology, a technical ruling for “existence”, working alongside appropriate “meaning-rules”, legislates for basic sense-datum statements, thus distancing them from the regimented, extensionalised, stimulus meaning strategy indicative of Quine’s naturalistic ontology. (shrink)

Review of Wittgenstein and Aesthetics (Cambridge Elements) by Hanne Appelqvist.

Based on material from Rush Rhees’ Nachlass, this article reconstructs, in PART I, the circumstances that motivated Rhees to include “The Study of Philosophy” as the concluding chapter of his 1969 publication Without Answers. As originally conceived, this chapter was longer than the version that eventually appeared in print. The reconstruction references the correspondence between Rhees and the editor of Without Answers, Dewi Z. Phillips. It outlines the central ideas of “The Study of Philosophy”, including Rhees’ clarifications of Wittgenstein’s call (...) to “Go the bloody hard way”. The original, somewhat longer version of the chapter is reproduced in PART II of the article. It consists of two text extracts from two letters to Maurice O’C. Drury from July and September 1963. Drury’s “intermediate” letter to Rhees from August 1963 is also reproduced. This article is also a “narrative” about the way one of Wittgenstein’s editor’s experiences being edited and published via an editor. (shrink)

Review of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy in 1929, edited by Florian Franken Figueiredo.

Amongst the attendees at Wittgenstein’s lecture to the Heretics Society in November 1929, there was also Alethea Graham, a student in her fourth year at Girton College who attended also his lectures in Lent Term 1930. Excerpts from her diary mentioning the philosopher are here transcribed and commented upon. A sharper focus on the audience of Wittgenstein’s Lecture on Ethics and his first academic class is then added.

Review of Salla Aldrin Salskov, Ondřej Beran and Nora Hämäläinen (eds.), Ethical Inquiries after Wittgenstein.

We analyze two problems in mathematics – the first (stated in our title) is extracted from Wittgenstein’s “Philosophy for Mathematicians”; the second (“What set of numbers is non-denumerable?”) is taken from Cantor. We then consider, by way of comparison, a problem in musical aesthetics concerning a Brahms variation on a theme by Haydn. Our aim is to bring out and elucidate the essentially riddle-like character of these problems.

Review of Cavell’s Must We Mean What We Say? at 50, edited by Greg Chase, Juliet Floyd and Sandra Laugier.

This article explores two concepts of akrasia and their relation to the ascription of responsibility in Douglas Husak’s theory of criminal responsibility. Ever since Plato’s Protagoras, the problem of akrasia has been tightly related to the issue of moral knowledge. By using influential texts of ancient and Christian ethics, as well as contemporary research on akratic behavior, this article outlines a different conception of akrasia, one that is based on intrapersonal conflict. In his theory, Husak employs the concept of akrasia (...) related to moral knowledge-ignorance, albeit sourcing its presuppositions from contemporary skeptics rather than from ancient philosophy. Yet, Husak’s theory is not skeptical. The article highlights the main drawbacks of this theory. These drawbacks are grounded in Husak’s conception of the akratic agent and the ascription of responsibility to such an agent. Their analysis reveals the advantages of the concept of akrasia based on intrapersonal conflict for constructing a non-skeptical theory of criminal responsibility. (shrink)

In this article, I use the dialogical ideas of Hans-Georg Gadamer to evaluate whether generative AI is ready to join the ontological conversation that he considers humanity to be. Despite the technical advances of generative AI, Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics reveals that it cannot function as a proxy human dialogue partner in pursuit of understanding. Even when free from anthropomorphic projections and reimagined as the “other”, generative AI is found to have a weak epistemology, lack of moral awareness, and no emotions. (...) Even so, it evokes a response in some users that places it on the threshold of being. The most promising dialogical role identified for generative AI is as a digital form of Gadamerian “text” currently constrained by copyright and technical design. Generative AI’s shortcomings risk inhibiting hermeneutical understanding through greater access to summarised knowledge. Nonetheless, the new technology is on the brink of joining the ontological conversation of humanity. (shrink)

In the wake of Black Atlantic terror, enslavement, colonialism and violence, is there a place for literature? Where is there a place for the author? In other words, to rethink poet Muriel Rukeyser’s question, where is there a place for Black Atlantic literature and authorship? Proposing Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic as the window through which to answer these questions, this essay focuses on the place for/of literature and authorship as Gilroy thinks them through an engagement with Richard Wright’s life (...) and work, and also through the work of other Black Atlantic authors, primarily C.L.R. James, Toni Morrison, Aimé Césaire and Édouard Glissant. These figures show that the Black Atlantic author must persist in tenaciously writing through and within the violence that defines their experiences, revealing the necessity of such literature and the importance of producing such a literary practice. This essay poses that there is no place for Black Atlantic authorship if the author is not grappling, writing, and “living with,” as Toni Morrison would suggest, the unspeakable violence and absolute terrors of experience—scenes of horror must be (re)made through cultural production or there can be no poesis. This process of transformation amid (dis)location is grounded in the Black Atlantic experience of terror and diaspora, about which Gilroy writes, concluding his final chapter with an analysis of the Jewish diasporic experience. Because this essay engages a Jewish poet’s provocation in order to think the Black Atlantic, it is crucial to interrogate both the significance of this invocation and Gilroy’s assessment of the intimate interconnection and solidarity between the Black and Jewish experiences. (shrink)

While Henry and Levinas are often juxtaposed, little attention has been given to their shared views on pain and pleasure. Both phenomenologists converge on the argument that an adequate account of pain and pleasure requires a critical confrontation with the theory of intentionality. This raises further questions. What roles do interiority and exteriority play in pain and pleasure? Should they be conceived as different tonalities of one essence or as heterogenous phenomena? Despite their shared critique of intentionality, Henry and Levinas (...) respond differently to these questions. We argue that Henry’s account suffers from an imprisonment in immanence, leading to a homogenous account of pain and pleasure as derivatives of one essence. In our view, Levinas points toward a more fruitful phenomenological account, both in so far as he does not divorce pain and pleasure from exteriority, and also in the way his phenomenology preserves the heterogeneity of pleasure and pain. (shrink)

Nietzsche’s metaphor of seduction suggests that language catches philosophers in the trap of metaphysics. Nietzsche uses the poetic powers of language to fight against this metaphysical language. However, his use of the metaphor of truth as a woman seems to seduce him back in metaphysics. Metaphors become seductive because of their rhetorical and performative power. One must therefore be wary of the seduction of metaphors when attempting at revaluating the metaphysics of language. Hélène Cixous undertakes such a task, using a (...) poetic language in order to escape the metaphysical dualisms embedded in language without falling back into its traps. (shrink)

While Ricœur's œuvre is commonly known as hermeneutic philosophy, it is evident that he also deals with major problems dialectically - a discipline often put in opposition to hermeneutics. In this paper, I offer an interpretation of the relationship between dialectic and hermeneutic regarding Ricœur's early theory of the self, which he developed in the 1960s, beginning with the second volume of his Philosophie de la volonté, Finitude et Culpabilité. I argue that hermeneutic and dialectic refer to each other by (...) combining a structural model of reflexive self-consciousness and a mediation of consciousness with a transcendent other. Only their interrelation allows for a sufficient theory of concrete reflexion. (shrink)

This article seeks to explore the relevance of compromise in Raymond Aron’s essays. The concept of compromise has never been subjected to critical scrutiny in his works. The paper offers a new interpretation of R. Aron’s democratic theory by arguing that “the sense of compromise”, mainly set out in Democracy and Totalitarianism, is a foundational and pivotal concept to highlight the specifics of his liberal thought and his understanding of democratic pluralism. It aims to provide a critical analysis, presenting a (...) focused exploration of three types of compromise, broken down into three areas (the political-pluralist compromise; the economic compromise; the foreign policy compromise). In each of these cases, key qualities and limitations of compromise solutions for deadlocked controversies are outlined. The article argues that, for R. Aron, economic compromise is the easiest to achieve. The paper further discusses possible criteria that can help to discriminate moral from immoral compromises. It concludes that “the sense of compromise” is inseparable from any serious attempt to think afresh R. Aron’s democratic theory. (shrink)

A number of claims made by Derrida concerning Merleau-Ponty’s interpretation of Husserl will be carefully considered and evaluated here. First, Derrida’s claim that Merleau-Ponty’s mis-interprets Husserl’s letter to Lévy-Bruhl will be challenged. Secondly, Derrida’s claim that his criticism of Husserl’s phenomenology can be applied just as well to Merleau-Ponty’s will be challenged. Thirdly, it is a careful consideration of textual evidence that will be used to support these challenges. Finally, Merleau-Ponty’s late lectures will take us back to the Lévy-Bruhl letter (...) and finally to Merleau-Ponty’s own phenomenology of language, one that integrates perception and language and yet that still privileges not eidetic essences or linguistic expression but perception as its primary term. (shrink)

Conventionally distinguished as a problem for medical professionals, experiences of embodied pain have prompted a significant set of themes and perspectives in the Continental tradition of philosophy. The discipline of phenomenology, in particular, offers thought-provoking approaches for understanding the fullness and diversity of living one’s pain in everyday life. In contrast to scientific practices that tend to take for granted the subjective structures of human consciousness in action, the phenomenological framework of lived experience offers profoundly subtle accounts for explaining how (...) a person’s pain alters their ways of relating to themselves, to others, and to the wider world around them. In recent years, scholars of phenomenology have undertaken extensive research on the complex relationality between health and human consciousness, including the behavioral grids and existential textures that come with that relationship. Greatly influenced by twentieth century phenomenology, this new development in the scholarship has undergone three distinct waves. The first wave focused on the work of Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer to develop a hermeneutic of healthcare practice; the second wave incorporated Maurice Merleau-Ponty to understand illness from an increasingly carnal point of view; and the third and most recent wave has relied primarily on Edmund Husserl to construct the intentionality involved with the consciousness of pain. (shrink)

In an effort to complicate the human subject, this article considers the critical insights of psychoanalytic thinker Jacques Lacan, focusing in particular on his essay, “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I As Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience” (1949). ‘The Mirror Stage’ explains how we break from nature, differentiate ourselves from the animal and graduate from primordial subsistence as psychically folded into the first lightning strike of recognition that arrives with/as self-reflection. Curiously however, in sustaining his argument (...) about the human specificity of the mirror stage phenomenon, Lacan relies upon ethological research on nonhuman self-recognition. This reliance of his argument on the figure of the animal has largely been interpreted in two ways: as an inconsequential detail, undeserving of theoretical exploration, or, as confirmation of Lacan’s self-evident anthropocentrism. For instance, Buse (2017) and Ziser (2007) have noted the significant discrepancies within ‘The Mirror Stage’ between Lacan’s understanding of primate self-recognition, and that of his main source, Wolfgang Köhler. Although, both thinkers hold the position that Lacan’s treatment of the animal in ‘The Mirror Stage’ provides sufficient textual evidence for a reading that endorses human exceptionalism. Departing from this prior research, I focus on these same textual irregularities within ‘The Mirror Stage,’ yet see something quite different taking place in these moments. In order to preserve the complexity of Lacanian material, in a detailed examination utilising close reading, I pick apart long passages of both Lacan and his sources and conclude that Lacan’s position on the animal is both ambivalent and ambiguous in character. This culminates in a lack of clarity regarding how to understand Lacan’s position on both the animal, and correlatively the human. In turn, acknowledging this uncertainty provides a novel way to approach this seminal text, and a justification to revise accusations of anthropocentrism, alongside dominant interpretations more broadly. (shrink)

Recent literature regarding how Ricoeur’s work relates to the philosophy of technology appears prima facie to be contradictory. In one established interpretation, Ricoeur’s contributions are merely indirect as he did not engage with the empirical turn of the discipline in the 1980s and maintained a suspicious view of technology based on a profound concern with the distinction between persons and things. In this view, Ricoeur’s work does not add anything new to the discipline but is still valuable to the philosophy (...) of technology through other features of his corpus, such as his critical hermeneutics and narrative theory. In another interpretative approach, some argue Ricoeur adds to the field by directly thematizing technology when studying ethics and human capability–he cannot be thought of as merely ignoring the complex relationship between the social sphere and technology. The present paper offers a dialectical analysis of these interpretative approaches and argues that these positions are not mutually exclusive, but rather capture complementary aspects about the nature of Ricoeur’s hermeneutic and political projects. At one level, Ricoeur engages with core themes of philosophy of technology by exploring the ambiguity of specific technologies and techniques and their implications to social, cultural, and political spheres; in doing so, Ricoeur contributes directly to the field by avoiding the reduction of meaning into merely technical questions. On the other hand, it is also true that Ricoeur, particularly in the main thematic areas of his great works since the 1970s, has not been directly involved with specific questions of how different recent technologies are intertwined with social, political, and ethical aspects, and his emphasis against a reductionist type of technical mentality distanced him from a closer engagement with specific technological issues. In this sense, most of his contributions to the philosophy of technology are indirect. Nevertheless, this paper wants to emphasize that this dialectic analysis invites us to recognize the richness and potential of Ricoeur’s thought to understand how technologies are shaping our experiences in the world. The recently published volume Interpreting Technology, edited by Wessel Reijers, Alberto Romele, and Mark Coeckelbergh, is a powerful example of such potential. (shrink)

Frege maintains that there are not two distinct acts, assertion and denial; rather, denying p is one and the same as asserting not-p. Wittgenstein appears not to recognise this identity in Frege, attributing to him the contrary view that a proposition may have one of two verbs, "is true" or "is false". This paper explains Wittgenstein’s attribution as a consequence of Frege’s treatment of content as theoretically prior to the act of judgment. Where content is prior to judgment, the denial (...) of p—what is rejected in asserting p—is distinct from the assertion of not-p. Wittgenstein’s own embrace of Frege’s identity is then considered, an embrace explained in part by his repudiation of Frege’s theoretical order. (shrink)

This text will deal with the issue of the benefit of biodiversity in the polemic context of the works of Czech and Central European philosophers and environmentalists with the essential ideas of selected world thinkers and with environmental practice in Central Europe. To validate this thesis, the authors of this work chose an essay dealing with professional monographs and professional articles on this topic, focusing on the continuity of ideas of the authors of the Central European region. For the comparison, (...) forestry was used as an exemplary major field. Based on the article, the premise can be accepted that the benefit of biodiversity appears as a basic assumption, thesis, or paradigm. We need a new definition of life that is not limited to carbon-based organisms. Humankind does not live in harmony with nature but uses its culture to deplete natural resources in the false belief that man is no longer a part of nature. Environmentalists and philosophers agree on the need for a turnaround to save the environment, maintaining, biodiversity, and life on Earth. But the predatory paradigm of culture may appear to be a temporary condition and perhaps even necessary to cope with that turn. The effort to preserve biodiversity is related to the effort to preserve the life of the human species. Popularization, or environmental education, leading to biodiversity preservation and development and sustainability of life on Earth should coincide from above and below. Therefore, it could be stated that biodiversity (not only the macroscopic one) is beneficial to sustain life as we know it now. (shrink)

The article compares different versions of individual-based models of single population dynamics with overlapping generations with results of the model of population with non-overlapping generations. In all models, various versions of global competition for common resources and their unequal partitioning between competing individuals are analysed, i.e., when juveniles and adult individuals compete for the same resources, when juveniles and adult individuals use different resources, and a case called mother’s care. The article analyses the relationship between individual variability and population persistence (...) measured by the time of population extinction. Persistence of a population is increased by all forms of competition between individuals not weakened by any environmental factors (e.g. diversification of resources of competing individuals) or factors arising from evolutionary history of the species (e.g. mother’s care) and related in an appropriate way to the mechanism shaping individual variability in the population. Any form of weakening competition leading to decreasing individual variability will adversely affect the persistence of the population. However, differences between versions of the model are not very big. (shrink)

The state of the environment is getting worse worsening, despite the efforts of international community and individual states aimed at its improvement and achieving environmental sustainability. Moreover, the current crises – the COVID-19 pandemic and the armed conflict in Ukraine – have many negative effects on these efforts. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the most significant impacts of these crises on achieving environmental sustainability. We assume that they have strongly negatively affected the progress towards this goal, (...) which we see as very dangerous given the urgency of the environmental crisis and the severity of its consequences. The paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, we outline the importance of environmental sustainability, focusing on the profiling of environmental pillar of sustainable development. The second part focuses on the analysis and mapping of the most significant environmental impacts of the COVID-19 crisis and the armed conflict in Ukraine on the very achievement of environmental sustainability. In this part, we demonstrate that both crises have strongly negatively influenced it and set the global community back in these efforts. In the third part, the findings as well as several possible future strategies are discussed. (shrink)

The topic of this paper are sustainable habits and attitudes of the religious population in Croatia regarding the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’. Empirical work is based on CRO Laudato Si' project using survey method on a non-probabilistic sample of the religious population in Croatia, which in this paper are operationalized as active and occasional believers according to their regularity of attending religious ceremonies (N=1305). The analysis showed that active believers have a more pronounced sustainable profile (as they throw away less (...) food, separate waste more, show greater readiness for saving water, electrical energy and have a more pronounced critical attitude about the need for greater application of the Laudato Si' within the Church and society) than the occasional believers. Given the nonrepresentative sample, the presented data cannot be generalized to the religious population in Croatia, shaping its fundamental contribution in stimulating future scientific analyses and reflections on the Church's relationship with religious practices, and emphasizing active believers as potential social leaders of sustainable lifestyles. Therefore, the sustainable habits of the surveyed believers represent a relational good and serve as the basis for building a culture of moderation that respects key principles of Catholic Social Teaching. In that perspective, we conclude that it is important for the Church to speak more often about the socio-environmental crisis and encourage strong responses to the crisis at all social levels, from households and families to the macro level. (shrink)

In the light of the biblical message, food is God’s gift to all people. Church’s documents emphasize that food is a natural human need, and every human has a natural right to food. This, however, presents new challenges to humanity today, because market-oriented agriculture often prevails, which does not focus so much on the quality and availability of food for all people, especially the poor, but puts profit at the center. The first part of paper attempts to concisely present the (...) attitude of the Holy Scriptures towards food, which contribute to today’s reflection on solving the problem of production and availability of healthy food. The second part presents church’s guidelines, aimed to overcome today’s injustices in the world and provide everyone with access to food, and highlights the importance of producing healthy food for the protection of health. The third part of the paper deals with certain decrees on food production and control and the promotion of ecological production in the Republic of Croatia. Nevertheless, adopting the legislation of the European Union and accepting its guidelines on the development of agriculture has brought a certain shift in recent years. This legislative framework will contribute to the strengthening of the Croatian rural community, the encouragement of small family farms, and the increase of food production, especially healthy, ecologically grown food. (shrink)

This is a brief but focused literature review of articles centered around pyrolysis and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) using various feedstocks, including residues from industries, agriculture, and landfill waste. The deployment of bio-wastes will be the cornerstone of circular bio-economies in the future. The main emphasis is on gleaning how these two technologies can contribute to a sustainable circular (bio) economy, by understanding the process parameters influencing the quality, type and quantity of the final output. HTC and pyrolysis, it may be (...) undeniably stated, can support the progress towards a clutch of sustainable development goals (SDGs), as they operate right at the confluence of solid waste management and renewable energy production. As mentioned in many of the articles reviewed in this paper, a high process temperature usually results in higher yields of bio-oil and biogas/pyrogas (and thereby less biochar), implying a higher energy recovery. HTC trumps pyrolysis on many counts – economy, energy-efficiency and product (hydrochar) quality. However, pyrolysis is a simpler method to regulate, and pyrochar, has a higher market value vis-à-vis hydrochar. While both these technologies generate valuable end-products regardless of the type of feedstock used; the articles reviewed clearly show that the feedstock does influence the quality of the output and thereby the application to which it can be directed. The review leads to recommendations for future research in collecting data and creating a model to investigate various process parameters. Some of these recommendations are detailed comparative life cycle assessments (LCAs) to study the environmental impacts of technology-choices,, research into tailoring the optimal method and temperature to the feedstock deployed, and comprehensive forecast-based economic analysis of commercial-scale pyrolysis and HTC projects, are called for. As stated at the beginning, this is a brief review, which can also be expanded to take more published articles into its fold. (shrink)

The exploration of hunting tourism reveals its multifaceted benefits, encompassing nature preservation and tourism expansion. This study delves into the dynamics and prospective trends within hunting tourism, specifically in Prlekija's administrative unit of Gornja Radgona, Slovenia. It commences with a comprehensive international comparative analysis, followed by insightful semi-structured interviews involving key stakeholders within the destination. Hunting tourism emerges as a pivotal facet of tourism within this locale, exhibiting substantial potential for further growth, particularly in terms of diversification, regional integration, and (...) synergy with other tourism offerings. However, it's imperative to address the adverse impacts of hunting tourism on biodiversity. As a counterbalance, the study underscores the increasing global emphasis on sustainable variants of hunting tourism, such as wildlife photography, fostering a more conscientious approach to animal tourism practices. (shrink)

In this essay, we contend that the relationship between human society and physical environment is not gender neutral, as men and women are treated inequitably. There exists an inequitable binary structure between the two polar values, as human society often exploits and degrades the environment, and women are undermined in various occasions. The role of women is undermined in environmental management and monitoring. Our strategy in dealing with this issue of negligence would be to expose the misconception that women have (...) little or nothing to contribute in environmental management beside biological reproductive roles, and activities such as cooking, washing, fetching firewood and nursing of children. We will also show the negative impacts of these forcefully assigned female duties on the climate, and how this leads to pollution, which in turn, obstructs the biospheres (plant and animal species). Using the principle of complementarity, the paper insists on the need to eradicate all socio-culturally perceived superlative attributes of distinction between human society and environment or masculinity and femininity. The paper calls for mainstreaming of gender perspective, expansion of women’s opportunities and participation in environmental management, at all levels, for environmental sustainability. (shrink)

Introduction to Technē and Feminism, Vol. 2 No. 1 (2023).

In this article I will try to suggest a transdisciplinary framework in order to analyse the contemporary ecological polycrisis which is usually described as the Entropocene era. According to French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, the Anthropocence can be understoodas an Entropocene, because the current ecological crisis consists in a process of massive increase of entropy in all its forms : thermodynamic entropy (that is, dissipation of physical or chemical energy), biological entropy (as the destruction of biodiversity), and psycho-social entropy (as the (...) reduction of knowledge to data and calculations, through digital disruptive technologies). In order to analyze this situation, we need a transversal conception of entropy : from Bergson’s philosophy of life to Stiegler’s philosophy of technics, going through Schrodinger’s physics, Wiener’s cybernetics, Lotka’s biology and Levi-Strauss’s anthropology, I will try to build a conceptual history of entropies and to explore its economic and political consequences, in order to open new paths beyond the Entropocene era.In this article I will try to suggest a transdisciplinary conception of entropy in order to analyse the contemporary ecological polycrisis which is usually described as the Anthropocene era. According to French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, the Anthropocence can be understood as an Entropocene, becausethe current ecological crisis consists of a process of massive increases of entropy in all its forms: thermodynamic entropy (that is, dissipation of physical or chemical energy), biological entropy (as the destruction of biodiversity), and psycho-social entropy (as the reduction of knowledge to data and calculations, through digital disruptive technologies). In order to analyse this situation, we need a transversal conception of entropy: from Bergson’s philosophy of life to Stiegler’s philosophy of technics, through Schrodinger’s physics, Wiener’s cybernetics, Lotka’s biology and Levi-Strauss’s anthropology, I will try to build a conceptual history of entropies from a Stieglerian point of view and to explore its economic and political consequences in Stiegler’s thought, in order to open new paths beyond the Entropocene era. (shrink)

If, as Canguilhem argues, the emergence of exosomatic life involves the introduction of a new inconstancy into life’s environment, then both juridical and scientific law can be understood as a response that aims at a new constancy or fidelity, but one that always requires interpretation. Today, however, there is a crisis of law, due to a speed differential between the speed of legal change and the speed of digital network technology. This crisis can be understood in relation to Stiegler’s account (...) of exosomatic life as involving three kinds of memory that struggle against the entropic tendency, but here we argue that there is also a fourth memory: the immune system. Taking this into account can further elucidate Stiegler’s claim that the pharmakon has a third, psychosocial dimension: the pharmakos. By understanding immune function not just as discriminating proper and foreign elements, or friend and enemy, but rather as a retentional and interpretive system, we can understand phenomena such as the designation of a scapegoat as a fault of interpretation that can be compared with accounts of the onset of paranoia. This in turn makes it possible to understand the crisis of contemporary experience as an anaphylactic reaction resulting from a collapse of resonance that amounts to a loss of the knowledge and desire required to live in tension, where the latter is the only meaningful definition of peace. (shrink)

Entropy, often defined negatively as disorder or randomness within a system, is vital for organisation while also posing a threat to cyclical reproduction. Entropy is not equivalent to disorganisation, but rather a source of creativity at the local level, even if the tendency towards entropy persists globally. In this article, we build upon Bernard Stiegler’s understanding of entropy, and argue that the interplay of entropy and anti-entropy can be comprehended through Hegel’s notion of negativity, and draw upon the organisational approach (...) to biological systems, which introduces anti-entropy as akin to organisation. Thus, we address Stiegler’s lopsided criticisms of dialectical accounts and argue that the interplay between entropy and anti-entropy is inherently dialectical. We also employ the concept of habit to understand the dialectic of entropy and anti-entropy in the life of organisms, and the delicate balance between stability and plasticity that must be upheld for the thriving of both organisms and their environments. (shrink)

In non-modern biocultures, contextual human technicity has played a key role in shaping the behaviors and the morphology of non-human species, which in return has simultaneously modulated human morphology and behavior: behavior affords behavior. Studies intersecting anthropology and ecology have framed this process as a biological feedback in which species co-evolve through the constitution of biocultural diversification, thus producing negative entropy through technical activities.

A dominant strand of second wave feminism, represented in this essay by Firestone, is tied to a belief in technology to achieve reproductive justice, echoing Western somatophobic rationality. As such, it has difficulty formulating a critique of institutionalized reproductive technologies that have the capacity to perpetuate systemic racializing and misogynous violence, and envisioning a philosophy of reproductive justice where care for the body takes central stage. In this essay, we offer a perspective on achieving reproductive justice from an age-old position (...) largely neglected by feminism: that of midwifery. Midwifery has always been wary of technology in the field of reproduction, having first-hand experience with its consequences in birth and pregnancy, and has developed a field of scholarship critiquing its misuse. Simultaneously, midwifery negotiates technology from a position that prioritizes experiential, embodied, and tacit knowledge. Midwifery’s epistemological standpoint is that of a somatophilic rationality of thinking with the body, guarding women and birthing people’s reproductive autonomy through a specific technē that uses both technology and nature. A certain tendency in midwifery is, however, developing more and more towards an anti-technological essentialism. This essay therefore brings into dialogue Firestone’s Marxist women’s liberation through the elimination of biological sex with the help of technology, and midwifery’s somatophilic epistemic standpoint, to develop a feminist rational engagement with nature that can achieve reproductive justice, on the basis of their shared biological materialism. (shrink)

This paper aims to explore the concept of entropy in Ivan Illich’s overall thinking and deliver a dialog with other authors. Our goals are twofold. First, we aim at pointing out how Illich's early work is relevant for critically thinking about entropy in its relationship to forms of social organization and technology usage. Secondly, we point to how Illich’s later works consider a planetary responsibility. By gathering matter, energy and information, technology is an ambiguous force of both hominization and alienation, (...) world-building and world destruction. For an early Illich, liberation from such new heteronomy was possible. The late Illich, however, adverts against the dangers of a collective responsibility. The attempt to “save life” is a necrophiliac manipulation, dependent on a planetary extension of promethean power. Instead, humankind must nurture the return of Epimetheus: a powerless relationship with the future that places hope as the constitutive force of social fabric. (shrink)

Originating from nineteenth century physics, the concept of entropy—a measure of disorder, randomness, and/or the dissipation of useful energy—underlay a cosmology where order and complexity were seen as highly improbable phenomena in a universe tending toward chaos and disorganisation. Nearly a century later, theoretical frameworks were developed for understanding the production of entropy as an enabling feature of self-organized complexity in the natural world. These ideas would contribute to establishing connections between the origins, development, and evolution of life and the (...) principles of a thermodynamic universe. For some, they also supplied the conceptual foundations for theorizing about a universal natural tendency driving the development of increasingly complex and ordered systems which amplify processes of entropy production and energy dissipation and dispersal. In this paper I chart a path through the aforementioned ideas and present their relevance in framing a relationship between our technological civilization and the Earth system. I then speculate about the prospect of a technosphere whose constitution and activity are aligned with thermodynamic principles of dissipation and entropy-production, drawing on theoretical biology and recent developments in bioengineering to envision a paradigm where technology becomes living matter itself. (shrink)

Technofeminism has long known that it must be a multi-scalar feminism, that is, able to think, encounter, and negotiate these increasing scales of complexity that comprise our world, from the pharmacological to the planetary-computational. We read technofeminism as constitutively defined by its commitment to both realism and anti-essentialism, and contemporary technofeminisms to be epitomised by, on the one hand, the flat vitalist ontology of new materialism, and on the other, the trans-scalar rationalism of Xenofeminism. By examining these contemporary technofeminisms through (...) contemporary theorisations of the concept of scale, we show that they have a problem with what the latter identify as ‘scalar collapse’; these technofeminisms conceptualise the multi-scalarity of reality, in the last instance, via a collapse into either the ‘master scale’ of new materialist ‘matter’, or via the ‘trans-scalar zoom’ of Xenofeminist rationalism. As such, they recoil from the reality of scalar differences, undermining their commitment to realism (and therefore technics), as well as reducing scalar difference to one unitary, ‘metaphysical’ ground, placing them back within an essentialist collapse. Through examining contemporary theorisations of scale, we claim that in order to avoid such scalar collapse, any truly multi-scalar theory must think difference as both ontogenetic, in the Simondonian sense, and irreducibly at-least-two, in the sense of Irigaray’s concept of sexuate difference. Against any concerns that Irigaray’s notion of sexuate difference may be essentialist or determinist, we show that the ontogenetic character of this difference means it is irreducible and yet also open-ended, that is, open to multiply complex, topologically scalar transformations throughout subsequent individuations. It is this thinking of difference as this ontogenetic ‘at least two’ that can enable contemporary technofeminisms to be truly multi-scalar feminisms. (shrink)

This article explores the relationship between metaphysics, politics and aesthetics in its role of technē within the context of equality. It presents two interconnected arguments. Firstly, it emphasises that equality is situated within the framework of ontopolitics, understood as the convergence of metaphysics and politics. This fusion is grounded in a shared systematic structure within the object’s internal dynamics. Secondly, the article underlines the importance of the mode of human cognition and object presentation in implementing equality. It proposes the xenoaesthetics (...) of abstraction as a regime of action for perception to effectively establish the ontopolitical framework of equality. By challenging prevailing notions of transcendence, the article advocates for a non-hierarchical interior of the object that embraces the mutual constitution of object and subject. It recognises the thing’s capacity to reveal itself to us and be realised through us, emphasising the mobilisation of subjectivities as additional manifestations of the object. This perspective offers a complementary pathway to contemporary critical and activist discourses, promoting the advancement of equality through an ontopolitical focus on objects. (shrink)

It is within the framework of situated knowledges in the field of biology and technology studies, in its relation to feminism that the coyote figuration is conceptualized by Donna Haraway. In what respect are they conceived by Donna Haraway to be figures of emancipation? What kind of affinity does it establishes with the figure of cyborg, as figure of posthumanism? Certainly, Donna Haraway hypothesizes the privilege of a ‘partial perspective’ having to play a role in expanding the epistemic horizon of (...) feminist thought. This paper probes into the potential role of coyote figures as metaphors illuminating feminist readings of the relation between philosophy and technology. However, coyote figures have a generic character of transgression, and hence, borders on epistemological reduction of its ontico-ontological phenomenality which Catherine Malabou problematizes. Malabou’s eschewal of flexibility counters this binary by developing the role played by the “fantastic” in the espousal of plasticity of being. Being conceived in this originary mutability eliminates the interior-exterior division of beings. What are the comparable features of coyote figurations and the fantastic? And how does it add to the feminist understanding of philosophy of technology? (shrink)

In this paper, I start by pointing out that despite their differences, Slavoj Žižek and Karen Barad share an understanding of the notions of relationality, processuality, and immanence as central tenets of materialist philosophy. As I argue, however, it is collectivity that acts in both Žižek’s and Barad’s works as a safety valve that lends immanence, processuality, and relationality their materialist quality. To support this argument, I demonstrate that certain forms of collectivity underlie the passage from Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty to (...) Niels Bohr’s indeterminacy in Barad’s interpretation of Bohr’s ‘philosophy-physics’. I call those forms of collectivity "collectivity as ontological necessity" and "collectivity as methodological necessity" respectively. However, I claim that there is a further form of collectivity, which I call ‘collectivity as inclusive and holistic overdetermination’, that Barad overlooks and that conditions the indeterminability of indeterminacy. As I argue, the latter also has implications for political agency. I conclude by briefly sketching out how these forms of collectivity can determine the production of subjectivity and, as a consequence, shape the subject’s collective action. (shrink)

This paper suggests a reading of the early 18th-century philosopher Emilie du Châtelet’s position on the questions of knowledge and matter as a surprising early precursor to technoscience/ posthuman feminism’s stand on scientific methodology and embodiment. In her 1740 book Institution de Physics (Foundations of Physics), du Châtelet, in an enlightenment fashion, turns to empiricism in an attempt to explain how we acquire scientific knowledge with an aim to account for the physical world and specifically for bodily agency. It is (...) empiricism that leads her to criticise both the Cartesians as well as the Newtonians disembodied account of force. Du Châtelet’s main quarrel with Newton’s theory of bodies arises from its insufficiency to account for matter as vital. It is here that she turns to Leibniz’s metaphysics in a move that, in effect, redefines the premise of reason. Having an insight into her intellectual world at the dawn of enlightenment highlights the tendencies of our scientific paradigm to account for bodies as nonlogical and affirms the technoscience/ posthuman feminist transformative project. (shrink)

The following hopes to bring Plato’s unwritten doctrines into proximity with Irigaray’s concept of the Two as found in works like To Be Two or I love to you. By focusing on the the indefinite Dyad, Plato's reported co-archai with the One, it will be evidenced that Platonism begins and ends with a One which is not One (a kind of Two). Further, in this Dyad's failure to be One, it ultimately comes to possess its own productive and destructive power (...) or, to use Irigaray's words, to love toward the Other in such a way as to produce or give birth to other others, real difference. Finally, Irigaray’s conception of the Two has dramatic social implications for her as a feminist, grounding a transformation of the political order of things. Due to this political import, the final section shifts to questioning whether Plato’s reported protological principles, the One and the indefinite Dyad, could perform a similar work. (shrink)

Throughout the sixth chapter of the Aeneid, Virgil conjugates the zigzagging temper of the Cumaean Sibyl as the probabilistic ambivalence of the cosmos itself rather than as its playful or inaccurate duplication. By wrapping “true things with uncertainty”, the Sibyl’s chants cultivate more sensibilities regarding the “paths of fortune” branching the cosmos, thus engaging with the given in multi-linear and inconclusive terms. This essay suggests that, by conceiving such a cosmic fortuity as a public form of subjectivity to be tempered (...) in a sonic key (persona (L.)), the Sibyl’s oracular set-up might be enlivening more ways of engaging with Donna Haraway’s philosophical challenge: the quest for notions of objectivity and subjectivity that constitute one another without abandoning their own purpose. I would like to contend that such a sibylline engagement is an invitation to deploy more feminist lines of flight when it comes to technique’s intertwining with nature. It might offer us instruments to think of the technical and natural as always already enfleshed, yet not so much in keeping with the Promethean claim for “making the given” as in pursuit of enlivening unfamiliar forms of coexistence with the given’s probabilistic ambivalence—a conceptualisation making room for thinking of the technical in terms of syntonization, the calibration of attunement processes involving both gymnastic training and cosmetic fashioning. (shrink)

This article examines three distinct onto-political modes: the human-centric onto-politics of ‘centring the human’, post-human onto-politics of ‘de-centring the human’, and a third mode that rejects and argues against these options in favour of jettisoning the human/non-human dyad altogether. Instead of placing humans ‘in or on the loop’ with other species, a third model would place humans ‘out of the loop’ of command. I argue that contrary to claims, the post-human declaration of ‘de-centring the human’ cannot be considered ‘post-anthropocentric’ (implying (...) the abolition of anthropocentrism), though it can be considered ‘anti-anthropocentric’. Only the onto-politics of abolition would truly be post-anthropocentric, because only it would eliminate the human/non-human conceptual dualism upon which the onto-politics of centring and de-centring is based. (shrink)

This essay examines the ideological parallels between the transhuman pursuit for immortality and xenofeminism’s call for biological manipulation. Paying particular attention to the patriarchal legacy of technoscience, I identify eugenic principles embedded in the discursive emphasis on anti-naturalism, freedom, and alienation. My intention is to recuperate xenofeminism’s more radical manoeuvres by resituating its aims through a historical materialist approach. Specifically, I suggest a reinterpretation of nature as inherently technological. In so doing, I argue for an alliance between xenofeminism and ecofeminist (...) political economy to engage a discursive redirection toward degrowth and dealienation. I then build on Rosi Braidotti’s (2013) posthuman theory of death to suggest an uncomfortable biopolitical expansion: a biopolitics for the Anthropocene should not only seek an equal right to live, but also an equal predisposition to death. My countervailing materialism centres a politics of finitude through an analysis of the vital-fatal entanglement in the body’s reproductive capacities. (shrink)

This article presents an ethnography of alternative currencies that foregrounds the notion of “circulation”. Building upon a long legacy wherein money is equated with a primary life force—being either water or blood—that is contained within a body, “circulation” became a dominant metaphor for the use of money from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. Imagining money as a liquid that flows and circulates means that remedying economic inequalities and injustice is often reduced to a matter of redistribution. Instead, money is itself an (...) institutional project engineered to distribute resources and authority based on a philosophy of growth and accumulation. Alternative currency initiatives aim to re-design, rather than re-distribute, money. Importantly, they believe the technological fix of a circular software system effectively does away with the inequalities of the capitalist mode of production. What happens when on-going practices towards systemic change converge on money and the economic “body” of a local community is imagined as software? (shrink)

The most widespread statement of political philosophy is presented here in the simplified and trivialised form of “man is X; he must become Y. ” Man must do so at the same time for himself, for his own survival, but also for the good of all, of the Community, of the City: the plurality must absolutely, in any way whatsoever, give way to unity, subject to [sous peine] and under threat of chaos. The essential question found confronting political doctrines, moreover (...) since the prominence of the idea of democracy is the following: how to bring about the existence of a united society across a heterogeneous social body? The response from philosophy articulates itself around three principle schemas: the theoretical construction of a unified community under the order of similar laws to those of nature (Platonic schema); the search for the best regime, which will have as its ultimate end the moderation and perpetual regulation of conflicts, by an optimal combination of freedom and stability (Aristotelian schema); and the theorisation of the “end of politics” by the locating of a “social wrong” inscribed in a structure doomed to collapse by the practical negation of its ideological foundations (Marxian schema and derivatives). The mode of thought which imposes itself here is decisional. Beyond the third schema which constitutes in some way a meta-political critique, and necessitates that it alone has a particular analysis, in the two preceding, man constitutes a kind of material – raw or primary, depending – that philosophy will work on, and sculpt to give it a form that harmonises fully with the Whole that it prescribes. In political philosophy, we always turn more or less around the “Let’s make man” of Hobbes, that is, around the technical transformation of a material given. Or to say it otherwise: the creation of an oeuvre from crude and imperfect elements, an oeuvre thought like a masterpiece – that is to say, one that contains within it an idea of perfection and permanence – but doomed here to serial reproduction. (shrink)

Introduction. The museum provides society with the opportunity for special interaction with space and time for the purposes of acquiring knowledge and the most complete assimilation of codes existing in culture and society. Theoretical analysis. Society’s perception of space and time in the museum will be examined and analyzed from the perspective of myth, which makes it possible to identify archetypal ideas of humanity that developed in ancient times and have largely not lost their infl uence on modern culture and (...) society. The methods of institutionalizing the activities of society, which originated in the past, passed from one era to another in a transformed form, while retaining some characteristic features and at the same time acquiring new ones that became necessary for existence in a diff erent sociocultural context. One of these characteristic features is the idea that space and time in a museum have profane and sacred dimensions. Conclusion. Space and time in the museum are a mirror not only of mythical motifs, but also of the dominant developments of the modern world. These fundamental principles concentrate all the most signifi cant features inherent in human communities for the purpose of their further transmission to society. (shrink)

Introduction. Atheistic literature insists that religious faith owes its origin to human ignorance. In its turn, this ‘ignorance’ of a person is closely connected with the ontological foundations of an institutional person determining the civilizational basis of his or her beingness. Theoretical analysis. Overcoming intellectual limitation the study of the ontological foundations of the formation of social being is now acquiring important scientific and socio-political signifi cance in the development of social space. Considering the existence of a person through the (...) category of an institutional person the philosophical concept of an institutional person involves diverse studies including both the analysis of the civilizational basis of the beingness of the social space and the living space of a person as mutually conditioned categories connected with historical tasks. Empirical analysis. Despite the perfect understanding of the laws of dialectics, the effect of the laws of the development of social being in the context of the tasks of history remains a poorly developed problem at the present time. Revealing the interdependence of the laws of self-organization and organization of being a new knowledge is born, and the civilizational basis of the beingness of an institutional person expands. Conclusion. The expanding possibilities of the civilization that has entered the space entail changes in the organization of social life. New meanings of an institutional person – a person of the universe system – are emerging. (shrink)

Introduction. For fifty years, the topic of artificial intelligence has remained leading within a wide range of scientific fields. Theoretical analysis. Preliminary analysis of the Scopus database results from a rating of publication activity, in which social sciences occupy insider positions along with computer sciences and some other areas. From the 60s of the past century to the present, there has been an exponential growth of scientific publications containing the label “artificial intelligence” in titles, abstracts and keywords. Empirical analysis. The (...) article attempts, based on elementary numerical indicators and qualitative content analytics, to identify trends in the subject of artificial intelligence in Western social sciences, the evolution of key research areas, as well as the main mythologies of scientific discourse. Conclusion. The research is preceded by the hypothesis: social sciences, owing to the specification of discourse and the subject spectrum, contain “naturalized” mythologems associated with other discursive practices and refractive scientific and technical interpretations of the subject of study. (shrink)

Introduction. The article is devoted to the phenomenon of symbiosis of the state apparatus of the Republic of Indonesia and Islam. Theoretical analysis. Throughout its independence from 1949 to the present, the State power and Islamic religious organizations have been in close symbiosis. The article highlights three stages in relation to Islam and the state. Empirical analysis. The first stage was the subordination of Islam to the state apparatus from 1975 to 1997. In 1975, the main coordinating body of Muslims (...) in Indonesia, the Indonesian Ulema Council (ISU), was established. The second stage is the period of struggle for influence in the state during the presidential term of Abdurahman Wahid (1998–2001), who was formerly the leader of the country’s largest Islamic organization Nahdatul Ulama (NU). The third stage of the relationship is a time of symbiosis of the Indonesian state apparatus and Islamic organizations. It began in 2005 after the speech made by the President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on granting autonomy to the Indonesian Ulema Council. Conclusion. The religious and political situation in Indonesia is a unique phenomenon. Despite all the attempts of the democratic government to remove Islam from political and social decisions, it failed. (shrink)

Introduction. The article is devoted to consideration of the state of modern ontological thought. It is no coincidence that after Heidegger there is virtually no systematic consideration of the concept of being in philosophy. Does this mean that the problem of being has lost its relevance? Or does this indicate that the concept of being continues (albeit in a negative way) to determine the face of modern philosophy? The author proposes to consider the history of ontology through the sequential passage (...) of three stages: ”ontology of being” – ”ontology of the due” – ”ontology of declaration”. Theoretical analysis. At the first stage, the example of the four limitations of being according to Heidegger's point of view is considered: ”becoming”, ”appearance”, ”thinking” and ”due”. At the same time, the fundamental difference between what should be and the other three restrictions is pointed out. The origin of the ”due” from the normative-legal mindset is analyzed. Then a brief description of the fundamental differences of the “ontology of declaration” versus the “ontology of being” and the “ontology of the due” is given. It is indicated that the source of the emergence of the “ontology of declaration” should be seen in the works of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, and its consistent development in the projects of object-oriented ontology. Conclusion. As a result, it is pointed out that a “declaration ontology” is not a “declaration of an ontology”. A preliminary forecast for the further development of the “ontology of declaration” is given. (shrink)

Introduction Themain topic of this article is the method of solving a fundamental problem of the relationship between a man and the world. The author proposes to accept the concepts of violence and freedom as such horizons of relations, because these concepts can be understood as main plots of human conscious life. They also may be the sides of the dialectical confrontation. The present study uses the onto-hermeneutic method combined with a historico-philosophical analysis. Theoretical analysis In the course of work, (...) we considered and made clear the concepts of questioning and inquiring, of liberty and freedom, and of violence. Special attention will be paid to clarifying the acceptance of conditions of some question as a fundamental problem. Among them there are: the necessity of occurrence, conditionality of perception for consciousness from the pattern of consciousness, dependence of the way of life on the manner of asking and solving this question. The author claims that the question of the correlation between violence and freedom is a fundamental problem of human activity. During this clarification, the concepts of violence and freedom are explicated in the works of K. Marx and F. Engels, G. V. Plekhanov, B. Spinoza, and Aristotle. Conclusion. In the course of meditation the author offered a number of interconnected definitions of freedom and violence, and concluded on the need for recognizing violence as a systematic phenomenon of social reality. Violence pervades all history of humanity, and can bereflected in the history of thinking and art. (shrink)

Introduction. Advances in digital technology lead to the tendency to adjust the modern education system under the algorithms of artificial intelligence. In this regard the special relevance is acquired by a research of those aspects of human thinking which are not amenable to modeling in artificial intelligence systems. Theoretical analysis. In the concepts of the XX–XXI centuries eidos is transformed into a dynamic pattern. Patterns, unlike eidos-forms of ancient philosophy, fi x not a static, but a dynamic form of a (...) reproducible motion configuration. Patterns, like Plato’s eidos, are indivisible integrities that are not reduced to discrete elements of discourse. It is justified that the eidos configurations are formed not at the macro level of the gestalt, but at the micro level of the bit. The primary “not indifferent differences” of the bits of human intelligence are modifications of the initial organism dichotomy “organism – environment” (“inside – outside”, “inclusion in – ejection from”), differing from the bits of the binary code (1–0) of digital technology. Conclusion. It is concluded that the basic gestalts of creative thinking (“figure – background”) is not a secondary “emergent” quality of integrative integrity, but an elementary and irreducible “primary quality” of human intelligence bits. (shrink)

Introduction. The purpose of the study is to carry out a socio-philosophical analysis of the scientific heritage of researchers of the concept of the “life path of a personality”, to systematize the material, as well as to create a foundation for a socio-philosophical understanding of this category. Theoretical analysis. The article identifies three dimensions through which the concept under study is presented: everyday, artistic and scientific. Their specificity is determined, as well as the existing difficulties in their relationship. The main (...) concepts of S. Buhler, S. L. Rubinstein, B. G. Ananyev are analyzed to identify significant elements of the socio-philosophical understanding of the category. Conclusion. The research uses the potential of social philosophy to comprehend the experience of scientists who have consolidated the concept of a life path in scientific discourse, as well as laid the foundation for its further understanding. Seven grounds were identified: scientific justification, integrity of the path, dynamics and consistency, heterogeneity of direction, points of beginning and end, the subject of the path, socio-historical context. The identified elements in the author’s positions allow us to talk about the chosen phenomenon from the point of view of consistency. The results obtained will allow us to continue the socio-philosophical study of the concept of the life path of a personality, which can serve as a basis for ensuring the stability of the personality of being in modern conditions. (shrink)

Introduction. The image of Napoleon III in philosophical thinking of Chernyshevsky is important for the characterization of ideological struggle in the nineteenth century. Theoretical analysis. From his student years, Chernyshevsky followed the political career of Louis Bonaparte, noted his successes and personal traits. During the Second Empire in France, Chernyshevsky criticized Bonapartism, put forward an explanation of the reasons for its temporary triumph. He mentioned the worship of the peasantry before the glory combined with a famous name, the fear of (...) anarchy and the erroneous calculations of the warring camps. The article shows how Chernyshevsky’s analysis of Bonapartism is related to the theoretical principles proclaimed in his main philosophical works. Just as Chernyshevsky himself, Napoleon III tried to rely on the theory of progress, but at the same time he assigned an important role to the government in the process of moving of society towards a better future. His ideal is an empire symbolizing order and power. Conclusion. In fact, Chernyshevsky and Napoleon III defended two diametrically opposed concepts of progress. They disagreed, first of all, on the question of how the true interests of the nation should be understood. In the question of the vitality of the empire, Chernyshevsky obviously turned out to be right. (shrink)

Introduction. The article reveals some methodological aspects of the phenomenological discussion of the personal subject. The dispute is caused by realistic tendencies in phenomenology, according to which the totality of properties of a thing allows us to assert the existence of their ontological basis, which is contained in the essence of the thing. In the case of a human being, such ontological foundation is the soul, which determines the basic characteristics of the personality that exist prior to any constitution. Theoretical (...) analysis. The article argues for the contradictory nature of such concepts by appealing to M. Heidegger’s method of work. Firstly, justification is associated with the absence of obvious givenness of any essence within immanent perception, secondly, ontological categories of the structure of the personal subject are a tribute to the previous philosophical tradition, not its criticism, and thirdly, postulation of the ontological basis of properties continue the naturalistic explanation of natural sciences. Conclusion. A conclusion is made about the closeness of Heidegger’s method of philosophising to the original beginnings of phenomenology, as well as to the requirements of the phenomenology of the spiritual world set out in the second volume of Husserl’s "Ideas". The hypothesis is put forward according to which further study of the personal subject can be continued beyond the framework of substantialist concepts. (shrink)

Introduction. The article is devoted to the analysis of the relationship between the state and ethnic group, state and ethnic identity. It reveals the mechanisms of state formation based on the development of cultural baggage created within the framework of the ethnic communicative space. Theoretical analysis. One of the distinctive features of modern states is the complex nature of the identities that comprise their citizens. The article shows in what ways and due to what the president of the state asserts (...) the beginning of the state. On the one hand, the state is trying to bring in the best examples of ethnic culture. On the other hand, it seeks to use the possibilities of new types of identity in its manifestations (digital identity). Materials borrowed from other types of identity are improved and adapted to the situation of their use in the process of development. They tend to be integrated into modern mass culture. In the process of development of the state, there is a change in the balance of “I” and “We” identities towards strengthening individual identity. The state is trying to counter this. Conclusion. The state uses ethnic communicative space and ethnic identity as a source of borrowing valuable plots, historical characters, and holidays. It also seeks to attract to its side ethnic activists who are the carriers of this information. (shrink)

Introduction. The development of digital technologies requires the specification of the type of the emerging digital society. One of the development scenarios is the formation of a digital society of swarm intelligence. Theoretical analysis. The concept of swarm intelligence means an optimization algorithm that imitates the behavior of swarms or colonies of insects and bird flocks. Human society is characterized by the manifestation of swarm intelligence as a condition of joint organized activity, but the development of digital technologies brings swarm (...) intelligence to a higher level. Creation of private swarms causes risks in the form of “Byzantine robot” – a hacked particle of the swarm, transmitting false information and jeopardizing the whole swarm. The solution is to incorporate elements of the economic game that support the values of honesty, cooperation and solidarity into the particle interactions. This leads to making privacy a “process” and changing its value status. Protecting privacy in swarm intelligence society has the potential to cause labor to lose its public status and acquire a private, hidden status and anonymize employment. Conclusion. The possible scenario of human society development towards the digital society of swarm intelligence can become a source of profound social changes and, above all, a rethinking of the social stratification based on the division of labor and social hierarchy in general. (shrink)

Introduction. The article presents the results of the study of the main types of military identity of cadets. A new methodology for determining two types of military identity and assessing their significance is proposed as a toolkit. Theoretical analysis. Military identity, as one of the types of identity in the structure of a serviceman’s personality, is interesting to study not only through the prism of the main focus of his security responsibilities. A serviceman always acts as a part of military (...) staff, so military identity should also be studied through the relationship of his personality with the surrounding military team. Empirical analysis. The purpose of the study was to develop a new instrument for identifying and assessing this relationship in the structure of military identity. The hypothesis of the study was the assumption that the proposed instrument is characterized by a sufficient level of validity and reliability to identify and assess the two main types of cadets’ military identity. Conclusion. In the course of the study, two types of cadets’ military identity were identified: general military identity and identity with the military staff. It was confirmed that the proposed methodology is characterized by a sufficient level of validity, reliability and is a reliable diagnostic tool for determining and assessing the significance of the specified types of military identity. (shrink)

Introduction. Modern social challenges make it necessary to adapt the individual to rapidly changing conditions. The concept of generalized readiness of the individual is proposed as a socio-psychological construct that contributes to the effectiveness of such adaptation. Theoretical analysis. The article discusses domestic and foreign works describing the phenomenon of readiness, as well as constructs similar in content: vitality, resilience, tolerance to uncertainty. A comparative analysis of these concepts is carried out. The concept of generalized readiness is proposed as an (...) attitude that presupposes a predisposition to certain social behavior and includes cognitive, motivational, emotional-volitional and behavioral components. The necessity of introducing the construct of generalized readiness for a wide range of social situations is substantiated, which represents a personal resource that helps to cope with situations of social challenge, uncertainty and maintain self-efficacy in changing conditions. The main content characteristics of a person’s generalized readiness are described. Conclusion. The analysis made it possible to formulate a definition of generalized readiness as a system of formed attitudes focused on effective life activity in conditions of uncertainty, manifested in a situation of interaction with Others, taking into account existing experience, self-esteem, ideas about one’s own competence and self-efficacy. (shrink)

Introduction. The article analyzes the psychological state of the modern Yakut society as a part of the Russian society using a composite index. The possibilities of composite indices developed within the framework of macropsychology have not been fully disclosed to date. Theoretical analysis. The paper proposes to consider the composite index of the psychological state of society from the point of view of a systematic approach. The basis for this is the understanding of individual subjects as a part of the (...) Russian macro-community. The analysis is based on data from 93 subjects of the Russian Federation according to official statistical data. Empirical analysis. The results show that the dynamics of indicators of Russian society as a whole is more stable in comparison with the dynamics of indicators of Yakut society. The primary indexes of modern Yakut society have their own unique explanation, which does not coincide with generally accepted interpretations. Conclusion. When interpreting the value of the composite index, it is necessary to take into account both the actual external factors affecting it and its conditionality with traditional culture and living conditions. It is revealed that the composite index of the macro-community as an index of a higher level has a great generalizing potential. (shrink)

Introduction. The article examines the archetypal images of the leader, reveals the concept of the archetype of the leader, shows the image of the leader in the context of different historical and cultural epochs. Theoretical analysis. The analysis of key sources on the topic was carried out, the theory of the archetype and the collective unconscious of K. Jung was chosen as the methodological basis of the research. The author also gives the comparative analysis of leadership archetypes and modern ideas (...) about the archetypes of leaders based on the own typology of leadership styles and V. G. Turkina’s approach to the analysis of the archetypes of the modern hero-leader through the prism of key parameters of mass society. Conclusion. Of particular importance for understanding the content of leadership are the key archetypes of analytical psychology (anima, animus, shadow, self). The author comes to the conclusion that leadership is perceived at all times and among different peoples from common positions: leaders appear in the images of a superman (deity), ruler, hero, sage, transformation. These images can be considered archetypal. Modern images of leadership generated by socio-economic progress and the peculiarities of mass culture, mass production and consumption correlate with the primordial images of leaders, but reflect the current state of society. These are the archetypes of the Achiever, Inspirer, Bureaucrat, Organizer, Team (Project) Leader and Expert. (shrink)

Introduction: the relevance problem of differentiating modes of prosocial behavior is substantiated and the main goal is determined: to identify differences in the recognition and experience of modes of prosocial behavior among psychology students and the role of subjective well-being of the person in them. Theoretical analysis of compassion and kindness made it possible to formulate a hypothesis: the empirical referents of distinguishing between the prosocial scenario of kindness, associated with concern for the future of the Other and the activation (...) of his psychological resources, and the scenario of compassion, aimed at reducing the negative experiences of the Other by providing one’s own resources, are actualized emotions, and the facilitator is the current level of subjective well-being of the person. Empirical analysis. Participants: psychology students (N = 76; M = 24.4; SD = 9.5). Methods: Kindness and Compassion Script Scale (P. Gilbert et al.); Kindness modes technique (D. E. Youngs et al.); Methods of diagnostics of subjective well-being of the person (R. Shamionov, T. Beskova). Conclusions: differences were identified in the recognition of prosocial scenarios of kindness and compassion; emotional markers have been identified that allow them to be differentiated; differences were found in the indicators of subjective well-being of participants with different abilities to recognize kindness and compassion, and a significant connection was established between compassionate kindness and the components of subjective well-being. The results can be used in the educational process for developing the professional competencies of psychology students through training in the practices of mindfulness, compassion, and self-care. (shrink)

Introduction. In teaching foreign languages to Russian students there is a tendency of decreasing motivation in learning European languages because of changes in the geopolitical situation. The aim of the article is to analyze the dynamics of the changes in students’motivation to learn English at Petrozavodsk State University from 2019 to 2022. Theoretical analysis. A comparative analysis of Russian and foreign studies shows that low motivation to learn prevents students from achieving high results. The motivational sphere is infl uenced by (...) such objective and subjective factors as profession, age, gender, learning environment, and university curriculum. Empirical analysis. The study revealed two diff erent trends. If the future historians, political scientists, and social workers still show their interest in learning English for the purpose of self-education and self-realization, then among the students specializing in “Tourism” the decrease in motivation, caused by the reduction of opportunities to use English in their professional activities in the near future, was recorded. Conclusion. The authors conclude that the task of stimulating students’ interest in learning European languages in Russian universities and the search for new non-standard methods of teaching foreign languages does not lose its relevance. (shrink)

Introduction. In the modern educational situation, it becomes relevant to search for and implement effective practices that can become an alternative to traditional methods of transmitting knowledge and forming the skills of preschoolers. These include design that motivates the cognitive activity of children and increases the educational potential of the pedagogical process. In this regard, the expediency of providing methodological assistance to educators in overcoming the deficit of competencies in the design of educational practices is substantiated. Theoretical analysis. When substantiating (...) the model of methodological support, an analysis of theoretical approaches to this problem was undertaken, which made it possible to identify priority forms of cooperation between the methodologist-mentor and teachers: mentoring, tutoring, and coaching. The results obtained give grounds to conclude that it is necessary to create conditions for teachers to master the practices of designing the educational process. Conclusion. In order to build an effective system of support for creative endeavors, both for an individual teacher and for the entire teaching staff, it is important to take into account their readiness to participate in transformations; possess the ability to react quickly and rebuild models of methodological support depending on current conditions. Consideration of the problem made it possible to prove the relevance of the proposed model of methodological support for the design of educational practices in achieving qualitative transformations of pedagogical activity. (shrink)

Introduction. In the realities of modern society experiencing the processes of globalization and informatization, there is an increasing demand for young professionals with the skills and abilities to analyze large amounts of information, able to make decisions based on data effi ciently and quickly. Theoretical analysis. This article discusses the main features of the implementation of the analytical activity of the teacher. One of the key components of a teacher’s professional competence is analytical activity, which allows to analize, predict and (...) evaluate the results of their work, as well as quickly respond to changes in the educational environment. Interpretations of the concept of “readiness” were analyzed, and the essence and structure of the readiness of future teachers for analytical activity were revealed. The novelty of the work lies in the revision of the structural components of the teacher’s readiness for analytical activity, corresponding to modern requirements of educational standards. The necessity of training specialists with the skills and abilities to work with data and information technologies is emphasized. Conclusion. The conclusion is formulated, according to which the formation of the future teacher’s readiness for analytical activity is a necessary factor of his or her successful professional activity, which can be carried out through the use of simulation modeling software in the educational process. (shrink)