Abstracts HEPE 2020, Iasi, Romania
BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
SUAT AKSU
Misconceived gap year process at transition of higher education in Turkey: A videographic study on high school's graduates
The accumulation rate of high school graduates who are in the transition period between high school graduation and the entrance of university has increased each following year in Turkey. A considerable amount of young candidates who are preparing for the higher education exam do not enter any university after their first entrance of the higher education exam. They decide to prepare for the exam again due to various factors and it costs time and effort. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the perceptions and experiences of the high school graduates who decided to take a gap year and prepare for the higher education exam again.
It has been observed that many young people have published thousands of videos regarding their gap year experiences on YouTube that is one of the most visited online video sharing platforms. Therefore, the study group consists of ten YouTube videos that are transcribed and coded under certain categories and themes. The research was conducted in the design of ethnography using peculiar techniques to the qualitative analysis of social media.
The results were gathered under three themes: decision to take a gap year, group culture, studying strategies. According to the results, deciding to prepare for the higher education exam again is a high- tension process. The youth has defined themselves as out of school, economically unemployed, has no social status and has created new cultural codes and supports the decision to prepare for the exam again. Besides, instead of acquiring professional and social skills to achieve their dreams, young people spend time and effort with an exam- oriented mentality as a result of the sociological factors they have mostly exposed to family, relatives, teachers and peer groups.
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ANGELA ALES BELLO
Education and formation: The contemporary relevance of Edith Stein's message
The question of the formation of the human being occupies a fundamental place in Edith Stein's philosophy and idea of praxis. She seeks after what is true in order to offer coherent and meaningful responses to pressing challenges. Her intellectual quest always aims at praxis. This premise permits us to tackle the question of the viability of her message for our contemporary world even though her philosophical and pedagogical work dates back to a century ago.
Certainly, times have changed, and problems are different. Many changes in our customs and habits, due in large part to the ever expanding development and use of various technologies, abound as do new rules and regulations that were once thought inconceivable for human coexistence.
Also important here is the change brought on by the secularization or desacralization of the west. Can we attribute the diminishing attention to the sacred as one of the causes of the moral crisis that is present in our world today, in particular, in Europe? I believe that our moral comportment is in need of the support of what only a religious vision of life can offer. I will defend this claim by examining briefly the message of Edith Stein by specifically referring to young people, especially youth today.
Stein would tell young people what she told them in her own day, but she would not directly do so; rather, she would speak to their educators, parents, teachers, and pastoral workers. Young people are often the last link in a chain of a series of events and effects, and they are often the victims or not responsible for certain behaviours they have inherited. Hence, Stein's ideas can be read as being offered to the varied members and constituent aspects of society that we all live.
Edith Stein's teaching is valid on two counts. First, it can be accepted by all, even those whom do not share a transcendent vision of life, for the communal values she discusses are important for civic life in general as well as the human being. Second, concerning the 2020 International Conference on Higher Education, Philosophy and Ethics (HEPE) Facing Contemporary Challenges religious dimension, especially the Christian vision, Stein advocates, it sustains and corroborates the aforementioned values.
Edith Stein work, person, and life allow us to reflect on the problems mentioned above, which also touch on education and formation, for her writings highlight the importance of the sense of human life, in all of its phases of development, especially the life of youth.
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IOANA CĂTĂLINA ANTĂLUȚĂ
Experiencing the city 'per pedes'
Looking at the entire history of architecture, public space was defined as a center for human interaction, alike in the ancient Greek agora / ἀγορά or the Roman Forum / Forum Romanum, encouraging the development of a lot of activities, from the meditative and recreational ones to the most effervescent actions that were take place in the area. But the positive endowments were gradually disappearing over time. Instead of an evolvement, today we rather find empty spaces, without any function, substance or attractiveness. It can be assumed that the main reason is that, in many situations, public space was and still is at the expense of strange interests; mostly, being used for the large number of automobiles and other vehicles' traffic and parking. Many cities have actually expanded on such a base, facilitating long distance travels.
Beyond undeniable economic benefits, there are also less acceptable or even disadvantageous aspects. One of these is the problem of losing possibilities of maintaining direct human interactions; the complex issue of meeting and knowing “the other” / “the neighbor” threatens to be deprived of its meaning.
The “traditional” and “idyllic” image of city, with narrow street configurations and sidewalks, with uninterrupted frontages of buildings at a “human scale” and peculiar urban furniture, is more and more vanishing in the smog and coldness of modern cities. Street becomes a space of speed and the buildings are designed on a scale that does not favor the interaction of individuals. Optimal cities for cars are offering an array of sequences with a superficial overview, and just a little or even nothing about the essence of human living in a large urban settlement. In these conditions, an opportunity for the one who wants to discover more, beyond a surface image, and to take a good look from within is to experiencing the city 'per pedes'. By walking, one can focus carefully on the whole space and get a deep and complex perception, precisely because he/she has the possibility to encounter and interact with “the other/s”.
Too often, modern cities give the impression of ignoring any coordinates of the ‘protective spirit of a place' / genius loci. As we can easy observe, many of new buildings do not satisfy a peculiar condition: to transmit the authenticity or the essence of a place; both authenticity and essence seem to be lost in the modern urban agglomerations; and even life in the city seems to be forgotten by the urban planners. These aspects have a psychological impact on the daily life of people, leading to unpleasant moods and, doubtlessly, to a curious perspective upon public spaces.
Taking into account such a situation we frequently have to deal with, the paper follows to emphasize the great responsibility an architect of nowadays has to accomplish with reference to the matter of public space. I consider that it is something belonging to the architect's social mission and calling to give back part, at least, of the spirit of living together, by designing quality urban spaces, putting humans and not things in the center of concern; and thus, to offer support intodiscovering the meaning of “self” together with “the other/s”, facilitating the construction and development of best settings for “face to face” connections between people and, also, between people and places.
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HODJJAT ASSADIAN
Knowledge as 'epistēmē' / 'ἐπιστήμη' and its distinction from Germanic 'Wissenschaft' and Latin 'scientia'
The Latin scientia is related to science (knowledge) in the Roman world, and it bears a difference in essence to the Greek epistēmē / ἐπιστήμη and the Germanic Wissenschaft.
The basis of Latin scientia was firm upon ratio that this matter finally reached consummation in scientism and the analytic philosophies. In opposition to Roman scientia, Germanic Wissenschaft rallied as a synthetic matter with the part being the manifestation of the whole and the spread of the whole throughout the incorporate partitions of the part; and following this, a manner of intellectus arose and appeared in opposition to pure and unalloyed ratio. Wissenschaft cannot be reduced and brought down, as science can be, to the level of being merely a whole comprised of individuals, and a collection of positive units of knowledge and everything cannot be considered as a whole in as much as it is a whole to be annihilated and demolished in the scientistic theories of the “unity of the sciences”, and also as mere plurality and plurality pure and simple during the cycle of the consummation and completion of philosophy and metaphysics. However, knowledge as Greek epistēmē was a manner of a standing and a comprehending of all things and matters in different respects and it was viewing plurality in unity and unity in plurality. It is for just this reason that Greek epistēmē approaches Germanic Wissenschaft rather than Latin scientia.
The world of today is bereft and lost and wandering in various manners of science with Latin traditions, a matter which has not resulted in anything other than the desolation and ruin of humanity.
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Vicențiu Buzduga
On the need to recover our authentic moral values
In the context of social and individual dysfunctions generated by moral relativism and bureaucratic ethics, this article emphasizes the need to return to a solid base of authentic moral values in the personal life and the organizational environment. Regaining moral integrity (the highest virtue from which others derive) will enable us to comprehend contemporary experiences and transition to a more just and sustainable society. To help us discern genuine ethics from its artificial imitations, I propose a set of criteria that act as an ethical filter.
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LEONARDO GUSTAVO CARABAJAL
The collective memory and the Aristotelian ‘phronesis’ as elements of social cohesion
Living in community entails some conflicts of social cohesion that call into question the grounds of consensus and pluralism in democratic societies.
The aim of this paper is to show the mode in which collective memory constitutes itself as a key element of cohesion between groups. The analysis of traumatic memories is tackled beginning with Paul Ricoeur’s phenomenology of memory. After exposing the conception of the French thinker, it follows the interpretation of Jeffrey Barash as regards the Ricoeurian approach of Aristotle’s ‘phronesis’ – the practical wisdom – at the level of collective memory; thereby allowing forms of social cohesion.
Making traumatic memories of the collective memory within the public life enables to build an ethos – to be understood as a network of symbolic significances – that does operate like a whole of constructive dispositions which support the links defining social cohesion; thus, balancing the legitimacy crisis that affects democratic societies.
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CARMEN COZMA
In search of the meaningfulness of 'academic ethics':
Make ethics count in the modern university!
An important contemporary worldwide movement that follows to enhance and mark the positive results of the activity in colleges and universities is that of introducing ‘Academic Ethics’ as a matter of study in the higher education’s curricular activities.
Regardless of the different specializations, this subject became a priority for the entire process of instruction and education, and that of scientific research and publishing alike. Undoubtedly it engages a serious challenge for the main implied agents: decision makers of education policies, lecturers and students. Which raises the question: What is the purpose of teaching-learning ‘Academic Ethics’? And, connected to this: Who are the competent persons to teach it?
Considering the great importance of university to educating moral characters and to giving role models for society – beyond or, better, because the difficult context resulted from the profound moral crisis we have to deal with in the last decades -, the study of such a subject is completely entitled.
To accomplish its desired ends, first of all is required the responsibility of educators working in the academic environment. They must be professionals in philosophy. Why? Because ‘Academic Ethics’ is part of the complex and complicated matter that registered a long history of evolution, namely Ethics. And this, in its holistic and dynamic meaning, is precisely Moral Philosophy. In this paper we try to unfold a kind of exhortation by emphasizing some articulations as regards: what ‘Academic Ethics’ does mean; why does it matter; how come an intimate relation between ethics and morals / morality is vital to be understood, considering these basic concepts.
Such an approach is needed seeing that there are more and more frequent attempts to delete their mutual support (which doesn’t mean to not recognize the subtle distinctions between them), to assert the possibility of an ‘ethics without morality’ or an ‘ethics of amorality’ as the one and only functional professional ethics; letting at least strange (to not say anymore) assumptions like ‘It’s only ethics, not morals!’ to 2020 International Conference on Higher Education, Philosophy and Ethics (HEPE) Facing Contemporary Challenges pervade the intellectual but no less the usual language. We must be aware of the danger made by an inadequate situation we find in some real cases the modern university shows because the dilettantism of alleged ‘ethicists’ without philosophical education who are establishing in lectures of ‘Academic Ethics’. What about a responsible teaching activity and what about care and respect for young people? What about the mission of educators to work into unceasingly moulding and strengthening moral personalities; to essentially contribute to guiding and supporting men and women of integrity able to not fail in dishonesty (even though it seems to live in times touched by the so-called ‘cheating culture’), and to developing a so necessary healthy social morality?
Briefly, we plead for teaching-learning ‘Academic Ethics’ on the ground of an authentic competency and morality; merely on this path justifying and fulfilling the role of such a subject matter in the modern university. We think that it is the only way to making Ethics really count in academic education and, moreover, within a society marked by moral chaos and panic.
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ANTONIO DE LUCA
The consideration of the existential condition in the psychopathological field
as an ethical, epistemological and clinical problem
Starting from classical phenomenology (E. Husserl, E. Stein, M. Scheler) and from phenomenological psychopathology (K. Jaspers, L. Binswanger, E. Minkowski, B. Callieri) and others, such as M. Zambrano, S. Weil, M. Buber, R. Guardini, A. Camus, the author reflects on the importance of considering the existential condition in the psychopathological field.
In the clinical setting, it is not possible to help a person if you do not know him. To know the human being is necessary to suspend all judgment and prejudice (Epoché) and evaluate the subjectivity of the person, his experience (Erlebnis), his world, in a phenomenological sense, the suffering, the problem of intersubjectivity and empathy, in the sense of E. Stein, the existential coordinates, ultimately the existential condition of the human being.
This consideration is in fact ethical for the premises and outcomes that it creates from time to time. It is not just a deontological question. Depending on how the human being is considered, therefore, as a subject, and not only an object of investigation, we will act accordingly on the clinical and therapeutic level. It is important to understand the type of assessment (implicit or explicit) of the human being by the professional who works, and to understand that this assessment initiates a particular mode of knowledge and therefore of intervention on the individual, relational, social and neurological level.
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ROBERT DOLEWSKI
Auto-creation as inhabiting and discovering new worlds - in the scope of Friedrich Nietzsche and Paul Ricoeur's concepts of narration and identity
The modern human being faces the challenge of continuous self- development and constant verification within the everchanging social, market and cultural reality. Quite often it is also said that the condition for professional and personal success is autocreation; conscious creation of one's own image - “being the best version of oneself”.
The paper will be an attempt to present the philosophical aspects of auto-creation in the context of selected threads of Nietzsche's thought and Paul Ricoeur's concept of narrative identity. As I will try to stress out, both thinkers formulate a similar standpoint from which auto- creation can be understood as a narrative action, in which a human being reassess oneself and the reality he lives in. In both cases, narration is used in the meaning of consolidating the constantly changing human identity at the same time being a kind of experiment in which one tries to discover and inhabit new, narrated worlds. For both Nietzsche's thought experiments and Ricoeur's philosophical hermeneutics, the narrative turns out to be a way to reintegrate human identity in the face of inevitable constant cultural changes.
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ION GAGIM
A true encounter on the heights: About the spiritual living of music, or: About the need of switching from a horizontal towards a vertical experience
The educational function of music has become a truism. But: Does really music educate? Or, we just have to deal with a beautiful statement? Admitting an affirmative response to the previous question, a thorny inquiry is raising, inoculating us much more doubt: Are there 'uneducated' (in the sense of: small and envious, resentful, liar and phantasist, etc.) persons even among elevated experts in the theory and practice of music? If the answer is 'Yes', then: How come such a paradox can be explained? Perhaps, indeed, music has a power of educating human being; but it does it only in certain conditions. And if, again, we came with an affirmation in this regard, we are asking: Which are these conditions?
Certainly, many questions are coming to the fore; and they are meaningfully for anyone who tries to better understand what music can do.
Starting from such inquiries, I attempt to identify the source of the problem under discussion here and to offer a path of overcoming some natural bewilderments. The series of arguments and solutions engages the following accounts: a) enlightening the intrinsic meaning of „musical education”; b) delineating the significance of „spiritual experience of music”; c) grounding the necessity of moving from the „horizontal” to the „vertical” level in accomplishing the musical- educational action; d) describing the „musical feeling”; e) articulating and elucidating the process of passing from the „artistic” to the „supra- artistic” (spiritual) plan within the musical education; f) explaining the syntagma of „understanding music”; and g) making clear, as much as possible, the „musical-spiritual transfiguration” that is the final purpose of the musical education.
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CODRUȚA HAINIC
Philosophical insights into embodied experience and education
This paper argues, from a philosophical perspective, that there is a strong connection between the body and education.
After a brief introduction to the embodiment theory, more specifically to the theory that has to do with the materiality, corporality, or bodily nature and the embodiment of signs, a topic that has become a center of interest, mainly after the cognitive turn in semiotics, I will try to highlight some of the practices involved in the comprehension and acquisition of meaning in the educational process.
In doing so, I will emphasize the distinction between a semiotic concept of embodiment and the body understood as a phenomenal body, which provides the condition of possibility for investigating and understanding the body as a source of symbolizing process and a product of cultural inscriptions.
My conclusion is that the bodily nature of signs is not only apparent in nonverbal and paralinguistic communication, where the human body is the sign vehicle, and hence the embodiment of signs, but also in the process of cognitive, neuronal and cerebral processing of visual, acoustic, and other types of signs, where the human body reveals itself as an interpreter of signs.
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ANA MĂDĂLINA HRISCU
Fashion and the fashion consumer facing contemporary challenges
The picture of contemporaneity presents the image of people more closely connected than they have ever been in the history of mankind. Exposure to messages mediated by the Internet, mass-media, social media has become a matter of everyday life in most spheres of activity, the phenomenon having strong implications on the decision-making capacity of individuals.
The contemporary lifestyle raises the issue of losses and gains for humanity, and the disappearing of borders through globalization creates certain tendencies of universalization and homogenization, patterning of the lifestyle, of the way of thinking, of acting. In the context of the well-known crisis of morality that the present society faces, of the powerlessness feeling increasingly pressed by the loss of the milestones of education for values, the appearance of material pleasures built within a background of increasing existential dissatisfaction becomes a natural result.
As a cultural phenomenon and act with educational value, part of the creative industries, fashion is undoubtedly an intrinsic pillar of the moral and social construction of the self, having implications in the process of continuous training and education of individuals. Being in the apanage of a values-based education, the domain of fashion has been established as a form of manifestation that manages to successfully transmit, from one generation to another, material and spiritual values created by humanity, enhancing social unity and integration in the community by developing personality and self- respect, knowledge and appropriation of good manners and behaviour in society according to these.
Is it the propulsion of fashion originality a way of cauterization and to compensate the feeling of experiencing decline, of uncertainties and deficiencies of existential and moral order? How many of the historical functions of fashion are still applicable today, and what is the position of the fashion consumer facing the challenges of globalization, hyper- consumerism society and the crisis of morality?
These are some of the questions that we intend to analyse and which challenge us to appeal to a professional ethics, stressing on the particularities of morals and morality we take care in the fashion domain, in the effort to seek finding relevant answers in the context of contemporary challenges.
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BIANCA IOAN
Essential values in higher education: The horizon of encounter with the 'other' - A model
Living in a globalizing world in which the gaze is especially oriented toward the modern requirement of self-overcoming, higher education appears as a network of themes, meanings and values. The search of the knots belonging to this network becomes an important one (among others).
The present paper emphasizes the idea that the horizon of university education is, par excellence, a kind of horizon to encountering 'the other'. Therefore, our aim is to look at the educational environment as a vehicle of culture that necessarily operates under the influence of a strong axiological core.
To determine the basis of this core we will start from a model that is highly relevant in terms of values and morality; it is the model proposed by André Scrima at the end of the 20th century, in an area seriously affected by the crisis due to religious and socio-cultural diversity. This model constitutes the educational plan implemented at the Institute of Islamic-Christian Studies, established in 1975, at Saint- Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon. The lectures are still held in nowadays according to the same model proposed many years ago, namely: double seminars provided by both Christian and Muslim teachers on the same topic. Thus the offer of a complex perspective of two different traditions on the same subject is successfully realized. Their purpose is easily to understand, and the effects have not been delayed. These effects are the basis of the present work that will directly address the need for an 'ethics of discourse' and a 'philosophy of encountering the other' in the environment of higher education.
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ANNA KAWALEC
“Enchantment”, or... What is the purpose of aesthetics?
Alfred Gell (The Technology of Enchantment and the Enchantment of Technology, 1992) paved the way for the notion of 'enchantment' in anthropology of art. The British scholar gave it a specific meaning, which was constituted by agent's intentional acting on a recipient by means of an artefact (index) (Art and Agency: an Anthropological Theory, 1998). The social-philosophical-psychological character of 'artwork' characteristically marks Gell's theory of art, but also exposes it to numerous criticisms, even from anthropologists. I attempt to legitimize Gell's theory by indicating pertinent analogies with the original, although Kantian, aesthetic conception of Nick Zangwill (The Metaphysics of Beauty, 2001). Despite their divergent starting points and using different methodologies, they both claim that aesthetic qualities are abstract categories and they supervene on basic real and concrete environmental relations. I claim that the realism of those relations strengthens the rule of 'enchantment' in the life of human being and humankind.
I apply the re-interpreted elements of Gell's theory to the rule of “enchantment” in aesthetics and anthropology, which embraces mysterious the society of some tribes (esp. Native Americans), their artefacts, and the natural environment.
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TETSUYA KONO
Philosophy for/with children for revitalizing the local region in the Tohoku District in Japan
Since 2016, in collaboration with colleagues and graduate students, I have been conducting an educational program for students in primary and middle schools called “Regional Revitalization Education by Intergenerational Philosophical Dialogue and Project-Based Learning” in the coastal areas of the Tohoku district. These rural areas in Japan have come to face increasingly dire circumstances owing to aging, depopulation, and economic stagnancy. This tendency has terribly accelerated in the Tohoku (northeast) district in Japan in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. How can we stop the decline of rural parts of the country and lessen the economic impact of the distance between urban areas and rural areas? Can philosophical practice provide a solution to conflicts and oppositions in a local area?
Philosophical practice, started by Toshio Kuwako, a former professor at The Tokyo Institute of Technology, provides an excellent answer to our question. He has been engaged for a long time in the practice of consensus building, referred to as “collective argumentation (Dangi)”, in local regions where conflicts occur and where there is opposition between the administration and the citizens and/or among local residents concerning environmental preservation, exploitation, and revitalization of local communities. Inspired by Kuwako's practice, I conducted an educational program based on the method of philosophy for /with children for revitalizing local region in Tohoku. The revitalization of the rural areas ultimately depends on nurturing of younger people. Our program consists of three parts: learning by experience of local nature and cultural tradition, intergenerational philosophical dialogue, and through research in local public library. The purpose of my talk is to report the consequences of this educational program. We shall conclude that our program can encourage students to interact with different people and help them discover the specificity and values of the local district.
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NIKOLAY KOZHEVNIKOV
Elements and structures of the universal hermeneutic triangle
The hermeneutic triangle reveals three types of self-organizations: things, essences and being. A thing organizes itself in a quasi- equilibrium formation, the limits of which become the essence. The texts of the essence are transformed into being. Self-organization of being allows revealing the things are existence and its texts. The lasts ensure the self-organization of things and close all these processes into a single whole. These three self-organizations complement each other and cannot exist without one another.
Deterministic chaos and deterministic order are two faces of the same phenomenon, which belong to different elements of the universal hermeneutic triangle. For example, if deterministic chaos takes place for a thing, then for the being there is a deterministic order, etc. Thus, the self-organization of any element of the hermeneutic triangle can be considered from the inside and outside.
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CRISTIAN-CONSTANTIN LUPAȘCU
The antics of vocation: A question of who gets to choose the curricula of education
In our modern times, we live with the impression that the individual has the liberty to pursue whatever undertaking it wishes for the benefit of whomever he wishes. This includes the freedom to choose its education and professional formation. Sadly, this is proven a mere ideal for it has become more and more obvious that the freedom of a vocation dominated, albeit rational, professional pursuit in a seemingly open and transparent society is wholly incompatible with the deterministic and programmatic nature of the economy. In European history, there has always been a powerful struggle to shift the responsibility of one's formation from the benefit of the individual to the benefit of the state. To displace the focus from a philosophy of education concentrated on instilling the love of learning and one's sense of fulfillment to that of one concerned merely with the objective utility of the individual, often by and to an entity other than itself. Treating education as a public good is severely limiting the individual in its choice of sanctioned paths. Thus we are left to ask ourselves the question on who rests the power to decide one's education? And why?
We argue that investing the authority of such a decision on anyone other than the individual in question is highly unethical and overall inefficient. Thus we advocate the benefits of a system less concerned with the needs of an ever changing market, but rather centered first on the educational need of the individual. That one may be enabled to find and pursue its vocation, thus ultimately being able to bring genuine contributions to the overall betterment of one's community.
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CHRISTINE MCNEILL-MATTESON
Phenomenon of existence: A poet's observations in the synchronicity of death
My paper looks at the swell of reflections of death and time in the universe and how we are not left without, even as we perceive the end. Energy from the intuitive artist, philosopher or phenomenologist is passed through them without end, it is fluid. Death does not take away sentience and sentience is in every atom that exists now and into the universe.
The works left behind, the energy and sentience of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (1923-2014) is here as we continue the study of her work in 'phenomenology of life' and that of others. When we first heard of Professor Tymieniencka's passing, we were saddened. Most of us have felt loss in our memory and relationship for some time now. Her works and life's devotions were/are resident in our having known her; it is energy without ending; it is a part of the universe.
One of Tymieniecka's close collaborators over the years in the field of phenomenology, Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) felt - and he wrote about it - that interpretation of literary work is a dialogue between the past and present. This linking is made together to a continuum called tradition. In this essay I propose great works of such authors as Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka have no past or present. They were / are carried into the beginning and will be to the end. Just remind a saying attributed to Homer: “Muse speaks through me”.
As it is known, great philosophers and theologians have studied death / time. But no less the theme is frequently approached by poets and artists in general. The paper will mention a few ancient doctrines and Western scholars who have expressed their thoughts on death (personal and professionally); but none without considering time and the cosmos inter-related to sentience and the laws of physics as Tymieniecka has done throughout her treatises on the “Fulfillment of the logos of life”. As in my poetry, time is without a place, just a being / an active verb, as I will express in many of my poetic works: “An hour of time, / a lifetime, / a pause, / a moment, / a second, / memories measured, / by who remembers the times...”
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SHAHID MOBEEN
“All creatures are connected”: A philosophical proposal for harmonious human growth through higher education
It is necessary to define the integral human being who is the protagonist as educator and the educated. The history of several educational methods or systems, at all levels of individual age, based on religious, political, ideological or empirical-scientific principals prove that the centre of each educational system is the human person with his/her physical, psychic and spiritual dimensions which constitute the integral reality of what human being is.
Since the main focus of the education is to consider the integral growth of the human-subject so his/her individual and interpersonal well-being is also necessary. The ethical implications of individual's growth require also the reciprocal responsibility which transforms a mass or groups of people into a community. This individual human subject who is member of a community is part of a wider family which human being is and is a living reality among others present on earth.
So an ecological perspective of the whole is to be delineated which educates individuals not only towards one another but also towards all the existing creatures because all are connected. A harmonious growth requires a precise distinction to elaborate a philosophical anthropology which can orient the three dimensional reality human being, as a totality, is essential.
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LYUDMILA MOLODKINA
The aesthetics of nature in 'phenomenology of life' of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka: A Contemporary Philosophical Vision
The paper is dedicated to the famous work of Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka's “The Aesthetics of Nature in the Human Condition” where she considered the phenomenological analysis of Nature and arts in human life.
According to Tymieniecka the main role of aesthetics of Nature is precisely in its “spontaneous ingeniousness”. It can't be compared with artist or creator “because it does intend to produce an aesthetic object”. But in spite of that we can find in our communication with Nature “we entrance to the springs of the 'ontopoiesis of life', to actually human significance of life”. That is the Human Condition.
Following such phenomenological discourse I consider three basic modes of the aesthetic improvisation of Nature that Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka emphasized in her work:
- The Aesthetic Spectacle of Nature;
- The Symphony of the Garden, and
- The Drama of Nature.
The philosopher notes that Nature has its roots in the “unity of everything there is alive”, in “...the exploration of the poetics of the Elements in their interplay with the Imaginatio Creatrix”.
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ADRIAN MURARU
Defining 'academic citizenship' in Eastern Europe: A case study on a higher education institution (HEI) in Romania at the end of the second decade of the 21st century
Usual definitions of the 'academic citizenship' in prestigious academic institutions are based on interpretations of the civic dimension of the university.
In Eastern Europe, given some particularities as regards the history, the type of organizations, the civic culture ingrained, etc., the concept of 'academic citizenship' requires a peculiar definition.
At stake is, eventually, an academic ethos that, first of all, emerges from the dominants and responsibilities decision makers are able to impart within the entire community working and studying in a university; and, in general, concerning all the stakeholders a higher education institution (HEI) share, under the claimed ideal of contributing to the common good of society.
The paper tries to delineate some notes of the 'academic citizenship' taking into account a larger investigation applied to a HEI of Romania in the year 2020.
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BOGDAN OLARIU
Encountering the 'other/ness' in the architecture of public space
An architect is often seen or compared to a peculiar entity that possesses the great gift of creation; being able, unlike a lot of other people, to create his/her own universe and to follow a set of rules, which are carefully elaborated by himself/herself. What does make this 'created world' to be fit and worthy of others' appreciation is, undoubtedly, the intellectual and emotional implication, and the creative imagination that are activated through any real architectural work; so, bringing to life the architect's own self-giving.
Although such a direct involvement of the one who must decide how a place will be composed and ordered is strong, sometimes it is not enough to realize a project to be successful in terms of use. In many cases, the architect has to decide the project in its wholeness, from premises to the final construction details. In these situations, just a little is left for public opinions and for direct implication of the future beneficiary.
One of the hardest missions the techno-science and art of architecture encapsulates is the permanent challenge of professional's self-transposition, in order to understand the 'other/ness' with the complexity of each type of life experience engaging distinct needs, aspirations, doubts, worries, etc.
A path to overcome possible contradictions and to assure a better comprehension of all the stakeholders' position, implied in the achievement of an architectural project, is the active participation of interested people in all the stages of the process to complete an architectural project: from imagining and sketching the first ideas and intentions, to actually building what the design concept has displayed.
In this manner, an example-based study will be given; taking into account part of the work belonging to a contemporary Spanish architect, Santiago Cirugeda, who succeeds to bring people together and to make them active part in constructing sites. It will be exposed an experimental project that has already confirmed the potential to revive an unused space of the city for the benefit of community, without great financial or 'exhibiting' effort. All is tackled from the viewpoint of participatory architecture practices.
At the same time, a meaningful example we'll insert in this paper as regards the involvement of community in the architecture of public space is the Romanian Project Someș Delivery (started in 2015). We have chosen it for the impact on the raising and mobilizing community awareness in protecting the environment and promoting the quality of life, on long term, taking care of the good of a very important Nature's (and Life's) element: the water; in this case, depending on a renewed architectural perspective about Someș river.
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FELIX OLUSANJO OLATUNJI
The Catholic Church, religious imperialism and the dethronement of cultural values in Africa
Imperialism, a 'precursor' to today's globalisation, is a concept involving the exploitation of the periphery by the metropoles. The expansion of imperialism essentially in the nineteenth (19th) century was reflected in complex and often subtle ways. The colonisers relied on the processes of acculturation and the transmission of Western culture to the periphery worlds in order to creating a culturally-unified empire. In so many ways and manners, the cultural forces of imperialism were as effective as any military conquest, which characterised their 'intervention' among the colonised.
The very nature of the missionary enterprise reinforced the goals of new imperialism. Missionaries provided essential information needed for conquest. They served as critical communication links in areas remote from the metropoles. And by justifying conquest of other peoples with the purpose of converting them to Christianity, the goals of missionaries stressed their cultural traits, which were embroiled into the 'new religion'. The practice of abstinence from meat on Ash Wednesdays and Good Fridays was subtly compelled on all 'converts' in the Catholic Church, as an 'article of faith' that must be followed by people of certain age. This attitude/law disregards the cultures of the colonised and an acceptance of the new ideology called religion as a form of sacrifice in order for them to be 'saved' and 'redeemed'.
The intent of this paper shall be to argue for the cultural reconstruction of the Africans in the face of religious imperialism by the Catholic Church, which will liberate them from the shackles of European culturally-inclined laws despite the fact that they have accepted the new ideology/religion. It is, therefore, expected that this paper will initiate a new way of thinking of acceptance in order to show the universality of the 'Catholic faith' and a rejection of the Whites' supremacy and dominance.
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ALEKSANDRA PAWLISZYN
Archetypal character of the work of art: On art as play with unconsciousness
I would like to present a specific approach to a work of art by extracting its archetypal dimension. Based on the aphorisms of Heraclitus and their interpretations made by Kazimierz Mrówka, I will pay attention to the soul's ability to change - its possibility of a mysterious transformation, enabling it to reach for the divine, the hidden energy of the Logos Pra-reality.
I will also refer to Eliade's reflections which bring to mind H.-G. Gadamer, describing the temporality of a work of art as a sacred contemporary beyond the limits of time.
I will also ascertain, in the context of the psychology of the depth of C. Jung, the inexplicable nature of the overwhelming influence of a work of art, revealing the inalienable feature of the unconsciousness connecting people. In this context, I will grasp the relationship between collective unconsciousness and archetypes, indicating that this unconsciousness is a kind of reservoir of archetypes hidden within it, possessing inexhaustible wisdom that can lead an individual out of loneliness and incorporate it into the cosmic process, which will allow him to sculpt his own individual path, unique life.
Analyzing the metaphor of the crystal, used both by Jung to describe the peculiarities of the archetype and Gadamer, to convey the specificity of the abstract painting, I will try to show that in the work of art the archetype obtains its public symbolic language, extremely close to all people, regardless of position, they occupy in society.
I will also try to point to the incredible power of art multiplying from the archetypal source of art, both creator and recipient, which can free man from the misery of existence, generating the possibility of a regenerating change. As a determinant of a work of art, I consider his power to play with the unconscious, a game leading us towards eschatology, which is a kind of thought experiment (Jung, Levinas), stating the density of an extraordinary increase in the power of existence.
The resulting conclusion will reveal that the archetypal power of a work of art triggers a channel of access to an unseen, but constantly penetrating zone of existence, allowing man to participate in archetypes shaped, apart from the opposite: life-death, full of Logos.
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ALEXANDRU PETRESCU
The 'problematological' perspective on knowledge: Lucian Blaga and Michel Meyer
With reference to scientific knowledge, one of Lucian Blaga's important intentions was to build an alternative, non-exclusive and non-separate, to the Kantian treatment of the phenomenon of knowledge.
The philosopher will achieve this intention from the perspective of his availability for the situation of alternative thinking, but also from the perspective of the belief that Immanuel Kant can be considered the master himself in conceptual-constructive, systematic philosophy: returning to Kantian philosophy means an unconditional requirement of thought. In fact, Blaga will direct the discussion towards what accounts for the dynamics of science, starting precisely from the assumption that what sustains knowledge as a process, which is the internal motor force of knowledge, specifically refers to the existence of problems.
In the comparative analysis attempted at in this paper, it is found that the need to return to Kant in order to overcome or expand his theory of knowledge also animates the thinking of a new contemporary philosopher, Michel Meyer, also with reference to the “place” and meaning of problem in scientific knowledge.
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MARIUS POPESCU
Challenges of the epistemic discourse in contemporaneity
The goal of this study is to emphasize that the philosophical reflection concerning the nature of the scientific knowledge as well as its associated discourse have been subjected to significant transformations over the last decades. These transformations, with reference to both the general methodological framework and the meaning of some key concepts of the epistemological reflection, such as rationality, truth, objectivity, validity, substantiation etc, are framed and simultaneously support more comprehensive changes that can be noticed within the most diverse cultural areas at present, changes that entailed a meaningful argument about a new, postmodern era.
The changes the new era involve in relation to the theoretical means of conceiving the prospects of human specific knowledge and existence have led some philosophers, such as Richard Rorty, to the conclusion that the epistemic discourse cannot be significantly constituted, thus being replaced by the concept of hermeneutics.
Therefore, I would try to demonstrate, by using the Khunian perspective concerning the nature of the scientific discourse among others, that a determined image of knowledge and its claims of objectivity can be founded within this new conceptual and methodological framework, considering that philosophy still has its own perspective on issues such as truth, rational argumentation and validity.
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BOGDAN POPOVENIUC
Philosophy and ethics for higher (moral) education
The major concerns for the nowadays citizens and society welfare is the problem of fake news, ability to make decision in complex and uncertain information settings, and the rightful interpretation and application of professed values in morally dilemmatic situations.
The critical thinking (CT) is the utmost powerful ability to orient and adapt ethically to the modern society. At the same time, we notice only weak and inconsistent measure, to address in a systematic way, the problems of moral competence and critical thinking in higher education system.
Although, there are already studies that proves the superior efficacy and transfer of CT by explicitly facilitation of CT skills as a separate course, over the implicitly embedding CT into subject coursework only, can be noticed a strong resistance among higher education members, professors and students altogether, toward this approach. One explanation is psychological. Two things are ones cannot conceive he is wrong: his logical judgment and in his moral intuitions. The other, is cultural. In traditional societies, the merely questioning of established values is perceived as affecting the personal identity (and the very correct reasoning capability).
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FLORIN GEORGE POPOVICI
The metaphor as a valuable cognitive device in the philosophical research of mind
Metaphor is not merely an act of speech or a rhetorical ornament. On the contrary, the process of metaphorisation could be regarded as a particular type of reasoning and comprehension which is able to provide a new and relevant insight into the workings of a certain phenomenon.
Commonly used by lay persons, experts and poets, systematically studied by scholars and researchers in the areas of rhetoric, literature and linguistics, the metaphor also entered into the realm of philosophy and even science. It changes the way we identify and describe a controversial subject and also opens new theoretical and empirical ways to understand an issue, revealing some unexplored but interesting research routes.
This study is an attempt to highlight the cognitive value of metaphor in the field of philosophy of mind. And to illustrate the assumed perspective I will proceed to describe, in a critical manner, the main strengths and weaknesses of a living metaphor that has already entered into the philosophical domain: the metaphor of mind as a machine or mind as a digital computer. The problematic, abstract and intangible concept of mind is associated with another concept, a very specific or concrete one, the computer. What is the purpose of this conceptual association? Is this a motivated, or a viable and useful key instrument? What intellectual advantages and also what possible limitations could bring to us such a conceptual translation? Does the metaphor of the mind as a computer only create new difficulties in our attempt to provide a philosophical explanation for mental states and events or to understand the nature of human thought?
We hope that our study could contribute to the process of reevaluation of the metaphor as a cognitive device in the philosophical research of mind.
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NICOLAE RÂMBU
The culture as duty by Immanuel Kant
In Kant's theory of ethics the concept of culture (Kultur) plays such an important role, that in The Metaphysics of Morals he refers to culture as a duty.
The present contribution is an attempt to clarify this paradoxical concept. Immanuel Kant gives culture two meanings. First, this term is taken from the Latin cultura with the sense of care, in expressions such as Kultur der Seele, Kultur des Willens or Kultur des Verstandes. Second, Immanuel Kant uses the term Kultur, following the Protestant tradition, meaning Bildung. This term is strictly related to German culture and is almost untranslatable. It derives from Martin Luther's conception of the world and its terminology. “Gott schuf den Menschen ihm zum Bilde” is his translation of the verse about the creation of man in the image and likeness of God.
From this Bilde derives Bildung to which not only Immanuel Kant refers, but also Goethe, Hegel, Schiller, Fichte and other great personalities of German culture. Cultura is an ethical duty precisely because it contains in itself what Immanuel Kant means by Bildung, in its absence it would be a simple civilization (Civilisirung).
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GEOFFREY SCHEURMAN
Let there be Tao on Earth: Coping with a global self-worth pandemic
In The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis prophesied about a dystopian world where people are ruled either by animal appetites or tyrannical reason.
The antidote to this polarizing subservience is to cultivate a sense of “objective value” in which “every object is accorded that ... degree of love which is appropriate to it.” The child trained in Magnanimity, or “emotions organized by trained habits into stable sentiments” learns to value certain objects and reject others not because of some ideological stance or transitory cultural fashion, but because they actually merit our approval or disapproval according to their alignment with universal truths referred to as the Tao.
What Lewis calls “men without chests” - in modern times culture grounded in relative truth - hijack “reality beyond all predicates,” claiming that an ideology or cultural identity is the ultimate truth (Tao). Problems arise when people attach fundamental value to identities constructed by subcultures based on ideology, as well as the fight for rights subcultures claim they are being denied by “oppressors.” The result is a global pandemic of self-worth, destructive competition among fractious subcultures, and even an attempt to conquer Nature (the earth) itself. The only way out of this dilemma is raising children who recognize why some objects deserve “just sentiment” and some don't and compelling adults to sacrifice dogmatic adherence to cultural identities before they become dependent on them as sources of personal value.
There are rays of hope in restoring our search for “The Way” (as opposed to “my way”), including the concept of an “innate image” chosen (by Nature) for instead of by every individual, the archetypal hero's journey shared by every world citizen, trans-cultural ethical standards such as “cowboy codes,” and raised consciousness revealed by the intersection of quantum physics and improvisational jazz music.
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SATSUKI TASAKA
Critiques on arguments for application of germline genome editing (GGE) to human reproduction
The ethical issues associated with the applications of germline genome editing (GGE) to human reproduction are some of the most contentious debates in current international science policy.
In light of the importance of the issue, more philosophical perspectives need to be considered, such as the right to autonomy, the invasion of the female body, and our responsibility to future generations.
The social acceptability of GGE depends on its perceived safety and concepts of respect for reproductive autonomy. However, it is doubtful that prospective parents sufficiently understand the risks of GGE.
In future, the use of GGE in specific situations seems plausible, as it offers couples potential means to safeguard genetically related future children against serious disease and overcome infertility due to gene mutations.
However, should GGE fail, some couples may face the tragedy of being obliged to abort affected fetuses or give birth to adversely affected children. Some children might develop diseases later in life due to overlooked off-target mutations. Compounding this, some parents are unlikely to inform their offspring about the details of conception, which would impede necessary follow-up. Researchers, doctors and governments must provide sufficient information about GGE to major stakeholders. The three parties should design an appropriate consensus building process that presents a balanced view.
In addressing this issue, we should aim for harmonization. We should increase inclusion of input from prospective parents and patients with genetic diseases.
The Academic Council of Japan has held forums and science cafes as opportunities for citizens to interact and learn about GGE.
Furthermore, insightful discussions involving prospective parents and patients with genetic diseases alongside scientists and health government officials could be held at university classes, and by organizing forums, workshops and philosophical cafés around the world. These forums would provide essential opportunities for citizens to learn about and discuss the ethics of GGE.
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LEILA TAVAKOLI
The structure of languages in relation to education in the challenges of the Nostratic global world against the anti-Nostratic global world
The words and grammatical structure of any language teach us how to look at the world. English words and grammatical structure lead to an accidental difference in thinking compared to the Romanian language, because each of these languages belongs to the Indo- European branch of languages. However, in words and grammatical structure, Indo-European languages lie in essential difference to all other branches in the world.
As an example, this paper presents cognates of other language branches with the Bantu languages which belong to the Congo-Saharan language branch. The Congo-Saharan languages include the Niger- Kordofanian (Bantu, etc.) and Nilo-Saharan languages.
In addition to words, the grammatical structure of the (Congo- Saharan Niger-Kordofanian) Bantu languages, as the structures found within other main branches of languages (such as Khoisan, Afro- Asiatic, Dene-Caucasian, Uralic, Altaic, etc.) lies in essential difference with respect to the grammatical structure of all the languages of the Indo-European branch, just as can be seen in Alfredo Trombetti's discussion of grammar where these differences have been delved into, analysed and made clear.
The basis of the Anti-Nostratic Global world refers to two principles:
1- Conceptual thinking, which in its essence belongs to the history of metaphysical thinking from Socrates and Plato through until Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche, and which in the twentieth century entered into the crisis of its consummation, completion and conclusion (katastrophe).
2- After the French Revolution in the 18th century, first the Eurocentrism of the bourgeoisie was adopted as a value for education, and that was followed by imperialist Eurocentrism. Finally after the Second World War (WWII, actually this too has different names), imperialist Americocentrism was taken up as the basis for education.
In this article, Proto-Bantu is considered in two Nostratic Global schools: Primogenio (Alfredo Trombetti) and Proto-Communic (Ahmad Fardid).
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GLORIA VERGARA
The role of art and humanities in the educational challenges of the 21st century
In this presentation we aim to reflect on the roles that the teaching of art and humanities can play in a holistic education, which puts the fundamental values of the human being at the center of training.
We live in a globalized world, full of artificial immediate needs, which has neglected the care of the environment, of others and self- care, as Michel Foucault mentioned in Hermeneutics of the subject. We generate violence, inequity, injustice, when we should train citizens with a deep humanistic sense, more responsible for their environment and their actions. It is necessary to reflect on this problem from our field of study.
Specifically, we are interested in analyzing the contributions of literature as art and its study. That is why we ask ourselves: Can we make something change in the attitudes of young people from the perspective of humanities and art? What is apprehended from the aesthetic experience? Can the work of art give us knowledge of the world, beyond aesthetic pleasure? What can we contribute from literary studies? What is the role of the writer, reader, teacher, critic or literary researcher in the face of this globalized world that has us adrift as human beings?
To carry out our study, we will focus on two authors who scrutinize the subject and work of art. The first, Michel Foucault, talks about self- care and the second, Roman Ingarden, discerns about the literary work of art and its aesthetic experience. With this we hope to open a window to the possibilities of an aesthetic of being.
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GH. VLĂDUȚESCU
Pleading for a history of philosophical ideas
One of the most difficult conundrums for the philosophers of 21st century is: What is a good way to approach the history of philosophy in its impressive richness and variety within an expanse developed in a scenario that encompasses more than twenty-five hundred years?
First and foremost our attention is paid to carefully looking for a productive answer to the major question: How to read and understand philosophy in its in-depth, taking into account significant thoughts that have been formulated, emphasized and asserted over time?
Certainly, we can't avoid the historical perspective (not only about such questions; many others are possible to be raised around the central point we are interested in). But: What does it mean (this historical perspective) with reference to the effort of getting a nuanced response as regards the previous inquiries, which claim a particular manner of dealing with philosophy?
We face a distinctive cultural field to be explored by peculiar awareness and professional knowledge together with skills of comprehensive and advanced analysis. After all, we have to cope with Philosophy: 'one in all and all in one', so saying the least; and it is not at all an easy territory to address, explain, understand and interpret.
In this essay we try to offer our own perspective on the mentioned primary queries. Among other possibilities, we think that Philosophy needs to be tackled as a history of philosophical ideas, in the attempt to really enlighten its scope and functionality by constant rediscovery and valuation, through creative reconstruction, beyond any factual conditionality. But: What does mean idea in philosophy? And: What was meant to be the ideology? We briefly expose our view in the following.
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ARMAND A. VOINOV
Plato and the contemporary aspects of assisted suicide
Usually, Plato is not considered a philosopher that comprehensively treated the matter of suicide.
By studying the Republic and the Laws, we observe that Plato was concerned with the problem of suicide and that he gave an elaborate answer regarding the problem of suicide, laws against its practice as well as exceptions from them, customs and punishments.
This paper, in the light of a trial to overcome the monistic approaches of the matter of suicide, proposes the modest but fundamental goal to point out the resemblance between Plato's position from the Laws and the Republic regarding the matter of suicide and the nowadays reasons invoked by the patients requesting aid in dying in the form of physician-assisted suicide. Looking at the patients from U.S.A which requested physician-assisted suicide we observe that the most invoked reasons are also the cases in which Plato permitted suicide.
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FRĂGUȚA ZAHARIA
'Maiastra' by Constantin Brancusi as existential flight: A phenomenological approach
The study is structured in two parts. Firstly, a 'phenomenology of art as dimension of the existential hermeneutic circle' brings up some elements concerning arts that belong to G. W. Fr. Hegel, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Roman Ingarden. Secondly, 'Maiastra or the concreteness of flight' is a phenomenological analysis of Constantin Brancusi's work; seeing that with the theme of Maiastra (1910-1912), for more than 20 years, the eminent sculptor developed a series of many versions of birds.
Actually, from the early Maiastra, and continuing with the Golden Bird and the Bird in Space, the flight of bird was one of leitmotifs Brancusi has performed throughout his life. According to the Romanian philosopher Constantin Noica, there is “a real syntax” unveiling the peculiar speech of the sculptor with Light and God alike, by configuring inscriptions he has not simply narrated within the material, but he has transfigured them using the entire material for only one sign; and thus Brancusi's works became cornerstones in worldwide visual arts.
Through his 29 birds carved in various forms of polished marble and bronze, between 1912 and 1940, Constantin Brancusi has introduced the word “Maiastra” in the international vocabulary; and he has drawn the singularity of bird symbol from the Romanian folk imagination, revealing it through his original stylization process.