3/2023
EDITORIAL
NON OMNIS MORIAR.
ALICJA KUCZYŃSKA AND LESZEK KUŹNICKI
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333330
This year Dialogue and Universalism suffered irreparable losses: two outstanding persons closely related with the journal died, persons to whom the journal owes a lot: Professor Alicja Kuczyńska (1931–2023) and Professor Leszek Kuźnicki (1928–2023). For many years they both were playing significant roles in Dialogue and Universalism, although—and this was specific for their commitment to the journal—they operated in the shadow, almost hidden, and, it may be supposed, almost unnoticed by its readers.
Professor Alicja Kuczyńska did not hold any official position in Dialogue and Universalism; although she was invited to join the the Advisory Council of the journal, she refused for complex reasons. She rarely published in Dialogue and Universalism either. A spectacular exception is the monothematic issue of Dialogue and Universalism devoted to her work—on the initiative of her friends and collaborators. This issue, 28 (1), 2018, includes 10 texts authored by her and 7 studies on her views, ideas and conceptions. Despite her substantial invisibility in the journal, Professor Kuczyńska was undoubtedly one of the important figures co-creating it and involved with a passion in its development. For many years she was an invaluable, although publicly invisible non-official advisor to her husband, Professor Janusz Kuczyński, the founder and editor-inchief of Dialogue and Universalism for 44 years. It was mainly thanks to her decisions that the journal did not end its editorial activity when illness excluded Professor Kuczyński—the unique spiritus movens of Dialogue and Universalism—from active editorial life. Professor Kuczyńska then accepted—on behalf of Professor Kuczyński—the proposed modified program line of the journal. With her guidance and approval, and with her excellent knowledge of the International Society for Universal Dialogue community, Dialogue and Universalism effectively became the journal of this Society. Professor Alicja Kuczyńska was a wise and kind friend—of the International Society for Universal Dialogue, of Dialogue and Universalism, and of people acing in these two closely interconnected communities.
Professor Kuczyńska was one of the most distinguished Polish aestheticians. She established the journal Sztuka i Filozofia [Art and Philosophy], published by the University of Warsaw since 1989, and was the chairwoman of its Program Council. She published 7 books, over 100 scientific articles, and was the editor of 8 monographs on aesthetics. She wrote a theatre play devoted to the life and work of the Polish avant-garde sculptor Katarzyna Kobro (of RussianGerman origin), entitled Kobro or the Madness of Love, which premiered at The John Raitt Theatre in Los Angeles in 1999. She also wrote the novel Carissime, the topic of which is the defence of one’s own identity as a philosopher surrounded by the influx of knowledge and noise of information.
Her analyses of the Greek, medieval and Renaissance understanding of beauty also refer to the present—she demonstrated the degradation of the aesthetic category of beauty in modern times. Beauty ceased to be the most important aesthetic category and “became one of many, as important as, for example, ugliness or expressiveness, […] it lost the moral dimension traditionally assigned to it, the connection with cognitive and ideological values,” and, moreover, especially since the Renaissance—its scope is more and more clearly associated with art, not with nature. Professor Kuczyńska also researched the phenomenon of imitation of social patterns and the social functions of art and others.
Leszek Kuźnicki was a long-time Chairman of the Advisory Council of Dialogue and Universalism and a steadfast and faithful friend of the editorial team. Thanks to his authority in the scholarly community and commitment to the journal’s mission, he helped us effectively navigate through the turmoil that Dialogue and Universalism fell into from time to time (through no fault of its own). He also helped in the best institutional positioning of the journal (Dialogue and Universalism is, let me remind, the journal of the International Society for Universal Dialogue, but its official publisher has always been another academic institution—the Polish Academy of Sciences, then the University of Warsaw, then Société europénne de culture (European Society of Culture), and currently the Institute od Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Professor Leszek Kuźnicki’s beliefs were consistent with the mission of the journal—he believed unwaveringly that philosophizing cannot be limited to a selected philosophical school or fashion, that philosophy is a forum for thought united by problems and specific ideas, but not a way of conducting discourses forced into narrow frames, sometimes to the detriment of the proclaimed content. Throughout his life, he cultivated intellectual openness and freedom—which were extremely important to him—without cultural or political barriers and without unquestionable axioms. This outstanding biologist with a Renaissance worldview belonged to a category of philosophizing scientists that are receding into the past—he considered philosophy a necessary complement to scientific research. For years he was working at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences; this institute was his additional place of work. His philosophical texts have a lasting significance, they are also important for the current generation of both philosophers and biologists.
Professor Kuźnicki served as president of the Polish Academy of Sciences for two terms, in the 1993–1998. It should be noted that the presidents of the Polish Academy of Sciences are elected by the members of the Academy, and the Polish Academy of Sciences is the most important scientific institution in Poland conducting only basic (non-utilitarian) research in 69 of its scientific institutes.
In addition to his basic activity, i.e. research in the fields of protozoology, cell biology and evolutionism, Professor Kuźnicki participated extraordinary actively in scientific life. He was, among others, a member of the International Commission of Protozoology, co-founder of the All European Academies of Science and Humanities (ALLEA), member of the Management Board of the European Science Foundation, chairman until 2007, and honorary chairman of the POLSKA 2000 PLUS Forecasts Committee (a problem committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences at the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences).
Non omnis moriar! Both Professor Alicja Kuczyńska and Professor Leszek Kuźnicki will remain in our warm memories—as great authorities as well as tried and true friends, committed to Dialogue and Universalism. We have enormous and undying gratitude and respect for both of them.
***
This issue of Dialogue and Universalism is not monothematic. The topics of the presented texts do not fit into the area of one problem, they do not even belong to one way of philosophizing or one philosophical school. However, the included texts belong to the problem areas that attract the attention of philosophers today. These threads are the human condition and its concepts that reflect the entanglement of man in the present human world, which is changing, in some areas, dramatically, especially in the world of economics, politics, culture, and social relations (constituting human nature—according to today prevailing anthropological conceptions). Ecological problems are moving to the first line in today’s philosophy. It recognises these problems broadly as the questions about whether humanity will survive or self-destruct itself in pursuit of the fulfilment of its inauthentic interests, which have their source in the deviations of the human psyche and disturbed social relations—the unrestrained lust for power, the desire for possession that is not motivated by either biological or constructive cultural factors.
Małgorzata Czarnocka
Dialogue and Universalism editor-in-chief
ABSTRACTS
Stanisław Czerniak
KARL MANNHEIM’S SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE VERSUS THE PROBLEM OF RELATIVISM AND THE OBJECTIVITY OF COGNITION
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333336
Below I ask whether the theoretical assumptions of the sociology of knowledge imply a subjectivistic and relativistic approach to cognition theory—a matter that has already been discussed in Polish subject literature (among others by Adam Schaff). Does the “social conditioning of cognition” conception propounded by the sociology of knowledge deny the existence of objective truth and adequate knowledge? Karl Mannheim himself called the sociology of knowledge an anti-relativist position. The critics of his anti-relativist argumentation say it is full of ambiguities and contradictions. I will attempt to take a closer look at this problem, and, at the same time, at the relation between Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge project and such measures of the adequacy of knowledge as the coherence and general consensus criterion. The main question I will try to answer is whether the Mannheimian sociology of knowledge project is a form of epistemological relativism (in the specific meaning of the term I use here), and if not, in what sense and to what degree it can be considered a position convergent with the relative truth conception.
Keywords: Sociology of knowledge, ideology, relativism, relationism, absolute truth, agnosticism, false consciousness.
Affiliation: Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Nowy Świat 72, 00–330 Warsaw, Poland.
E-mail: stanislaw.l.czerniak@wp.pl
Kaveh Dastooreh
AFFIRMATION—ANOTHER NAME FOR THE ART OF LIFE
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333335
Our purpose in this paper is to argue how the idea of affirmation of life embodies the practice of the art of life. The yes-saying attitude towards life can provide an enormous support for the self-formation practices. Our attempt, then, consists of demonstrating the subjective character of the aesthetic marked by pleasure, and especially a new approach to the relationship between “I” and the other. We comprehend that this sort of life is individually relative or subjective. Meanwhile, there is a political reconfiguration of “I” and the other which ends in freedom. Politics becomes possible in a simultaneous caring for I and the other through the practices of self-constitution. In order to clarify our discussion further, this challenge is accompanied by a presentation of three real lives that are exemplary for us in the art of life; a way of being that stands for a political affirmation of life.
Keywords: Affirmation, aesthetics of life, freedom, political, multiple, life.
Affiliation: Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, University of Sulemani, Sulemani, Kurdistan-Iraq.
Emails: kaveh.dastooreh@gmail.com; kaveh.husain@univsul.edu.iq
Charley Mejame Ejede
THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF LIFE AND THE EXPERIENCE OF AFFECTIVITY IN MICHEL HENRY, INDIAN AND LEOPOLD SÉDAR SENGHOR’S THOUGHT
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333337
Michel Henry is regarded as one of the most important French philosophers of the second half of the 20th century. Yet, he is still not widely cited as Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida and Jean Paul Sartre are. His thought constitutes a philosophy of life, distancing itself not only from the phenomenology of the 20th century, but also from the science and technology inaugurated by Galileo Galilei and Rene Descartes. Furthermore, Leopold Sedar Senghor is an African philosopher whose philosophy has often been misunderstood in both African as well as in most Western philosophical scholarly circles. Critiquing representation in Western thought only makes sense if it is made clear that it is entirely conceivable that this critique squanders its meaning elsewhere, in the East. It is inherent in it. However, very few academics have felt that this should be done. It is essential to make connections, because what Henry discovers puts him in an immediate proximity of the radical approach of Vedanta and the approach of Senghor’s Negritude theory of emotion. The objective of this article is to find significant points of convergence between absolute subjectivity, the idea of affectivity, and Negritude and Vedanta in Henry’s speculative thought. The reading of Henry, Indian philosophy (Vedanta) and Negritude (Senghor) allows for establishing a bridge between Indian philosophy (Vedanta) and phenomenology, most notably a bridge between Negritude and the phenomenology of life.
Keywords: Affectivity, auto-affection, Negritude, Indian thought, passion, phenomenology.
Affiliation: Michigan, Technological University.
Email: cemejame@mtu.edu
Lidiya Gaznyuk, Yuliia Semenova, Olena Orlenko, Nataliia Saltan
ENVIRONMENTAL ANTHROPOGENIC ANTIBIOSIS AS A CONSEQUENCE OF URBANISATION
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333333
Modern ecological risks associated with the anthropological crisis of nature, leading to the paradoxes of the ecological state of humanity, are analyzed. It is substantiated that the unlimited use of natural resources causes a misbalance between human actions and the riches of nature. The question of the necessity of exploring the man-nature relation in the context of humanistic revolution is raised; it allows us to perceive the relation to nature as caring which includes such existential elements as agreement, tolerance, respect, and care. We are discussing an alternative view of the relationship between man and nature in anthropologies of exploitation and violence. It is necessary to realize the value of nature precisely in its ontological intentionality and not because it is valuable solely in terms of utilitarianism and pragmatism. It is determined that over technological human activity has led to catastrophic changes in large natural areas, destruction of natural water resources, and global warming, which threatens the biosphere and may lead to fundamental changes in the state of nature. The assumption is made that it is impossible to exclude the situation on the existence of the threat of catastrophe between man and nature; at that, the human search for the options of communication and preservation of nature and man, and their anthropological characteristics becomes expedient.
Keywords: nature, anthropologeme of exploitation and violence, environmental risks, anthropological crisis, technological disaster.
Affiliation:
Lidiia Gaznyuk — Humanities Department in Kharkiv State Academy of Physical Culture, Klochkivska str., 99, 61058, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Email: lidiagazn@gmail.com
Yuliia Semenova — Humanities Department in Kharkiv State Academy of Physical Culture, Klochkivska str., 99, 61058, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Email: semenova.yuliia.a@gmail.com
Olena Orlenko — Humanities Department in Kharkiv State Academy of Physical Culture, Klochkivska str., 99, 61058, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Email: helen.m.orlenko@gmail.com
Nataliia Saltan — Humanities Department in Kharkiv State Academy of Physical Culture, Klochkivska str., 99, 61058, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Email: nataliiasaltan@gmail.com
Aklim Khaziev, Fanil Serebryakov, Zulfiya Ibragimova, Elena Uboitseva
WORLDVIEW FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL WELL-BEING IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA. A PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333332
The very occurrence of post-Soviet Russia necessarily dictates the need to study ideological foundations of its existence. What are they? How did they influence and continue to influence the social well-being of the country: do they corrupt or contribute to the unity of society; do they strengthen Russians in pondering over the historical path of the country’s development, or, on the contrary, bring confusion into the souls of people and prophesy trouble? The purpose of the paper is to study the language of everyday life as a kind of mirror reflecting the social well-being of the post-Soviet Russian Federation. The authors conclude that this social value is associated with the prosperity of both individuals and society as a whole, but of primary importance is the preservation of cultural and civilizational identity, sovereignty of the country, and solidarity. In modern conditions, cohesion seems to be the first step to social well-being of the country.
Keywords: social well-being of post-Soviet Russia, social cohesion, cultural identity, civilizational identity.
Affiliation:
Aklim Khaziev —FGBOU VO Kazan Federal University.
Email: aklim.haziev@yandex.ru
Fanil Serebryakov — FGBOU VO Kazan Federal University.
E-mail: fanserebr@yandex.ru
Zulfiya Ibragimova —FGBOU VO Kazan Federal University.
E-mail: yuldyz@rambler.ru
Elena Uboitseva — FGBOU VO Kazan State Power Engineering University.
E-mail: elvl2006@mail.ru
Pankojini Mulia
GANDHI’S ECOSOPHY: A PROBLEM OR PANACEAS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333334
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is not just a name today but a philosophy, lifestyle, and A symbol of peace and harmony worldwide. Having clairvoyance regarding the dreadful consequences of modern technology and consumption patterns of his time, Gandhi said, “Nature has everything for Human beings’ needs, not for their greed.” Gandhi represents a culture of truth and non-violence. His ethical perfection is exemplary for us and generations to come. His philosophical and ethical transformation as an individual will also encourage generations, though his political life is criticized severely. The paper talks about environmental sustainability as the end, and the ecosophy of Gandhi is the means to achieve that while critically discussing a few models of sustainable development and their limitations. It also gives a narrative on the application of Gandhi’s fundamental virtues/philosophies in the context of ecosophy models as a. the philosophy of Satya (Truth) and Ahimsa (Non-violence), b. the philosophy of Sarvodaya (welfare of all or Humanism), c. the philosophy of Swarajya (Village Economy), d. the philosophy of Aparigraha (Non-possession) and e. the philosophy of Trusteeship.
Keywords: Gandhi’s ecosophy, Satya (truth) and Ahimsa (non-violence), sarvodaya (welfare of all or humanism), swarajya (village economy), aparigraha (nonpossession), trusteeship.
Affiliation: Department of Philosophy, Rajendra University, Bolangir-767002, Odisha, India
Email: pankojinim@gmail.com
Vitaly Vladimirovich Popov, Oksana Anatolyevna Muzika, Lyubov Mikhailovna Dzyuba
ON THE QUESTION OF THE SUBJECTIVE TIME OF AN INDIVIDUAL WITH DISABILITIES: FEATURES OF INTENTIONAL-ORIENTED ACTIVITY
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333339
This article explores contemporary approaches to the understanding and interpretation of the formation of inclusive society. The focus is on the investigation of the everyday experiences of individuals who face various limitations in their living conditions such as limited opportunities, special needs, and disabilities. The paper highlights the importance of considering the unique aspects of subjective time when systematically analyzing the functional characteristics and existential mechanisms of an inclusive society, which constitutes the living environment for people with disabilities. It points out that the temporal intentionality of a mentally challenged individual manifests in a unique form of ordering, synchronization, and existence within various phenomena and events within the individual’s mental imagery and inner experiences. The authors emphasize the necessity to differentiate two primary stages in an individual’s perception and understanding of their actual existence—the evaluation stage and the stage of identifying prospects. The study shows how intentional temporality inherently transforms into individual time, revealing the peculiarities of internal experiences and the unique aspects of an individual’s mental imagery. These are integral steps in the formation of a system of social events that are marked within the individual consciousness. The novelty of this study lies in the examination of intentionality within the framework of a disabled person’s subjective time, a characteristic that is fundamentally individual yet resonates with the collective daily consciousness of disabled individuals within an inclusive micro-society.
Keywords: intentionality, subjective time, inclusion, intersubjectivity, temporal reference, the world of everyday life, inclusive society, disabilities.
Affiliation:
Vitaly Vladimirovich Popov —Department of Theory and Philosophy of Law of the Taganrog Institute named after A.P. Chekhov (branch) of the Rostov State Economic University (RSEU).
Email: vitl_2002@list.ru
Oksana Anatolyevna Muzika —Faculty of Psychology and Social Pedagogy of the Taganrog Institute named after A.P. Chekhov (branch) of the Rostov State Economic University (RSEU).
Email: omuzika@gmail.ru
Lyubov Mikhailovna Dzyuba —Department of Civil Procedure, Rostov State University of Economics (RSEU).
Email: Dzuba017@mail.ru
Emily Tajsin
PHILOSOPHIZING IN THE NEW MIDDLE AGE, OR, A STORY OF A FATHERLESS CHILD
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333340
This is an essay-review One with the Father: A Novel of Mysticism, Heresy, and Rebellion in the Middle Ages Resource Publications, Eugene, OR, 2023.
Affiliation: Kazan State Power Engineering University, Krasnoselskaya, 51, Kazan, Russia
E-mail: Emily_Tajsin@inbox.ru
Dzhamilya M. Turgunbaeva, Guldana S. Tokoeva, Rakhat D. Stamova
TRANSFORMATION OF THE INSTITUTION OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE CONDITIONS OF GLOBALIZATION
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333331
The purpose of this study is a philosophical analysis of the phenomenon of social responsibility and the peculiarities of the process of its transformation, which took place in the context of globalization. The objective of the study is to determine the nature of the impact of the globalization process on the transformation of the institution of responsibility. In the course of the research, systematic, formal-logical and historical methods of scientific cognition were used. A civilizational approach was also applied, in which the analysis of the object and subject of research was carried out taking into account civilizational features. As a result of the research, we came to the conclusion that globalization in its modern form is a process of modernization within the whole of humanity. Currently, in the vast majority of the most economically and technologically developed countries of the planet, there is such a negative phenomenon as negative demographic dynamics. In turn, this phenomenon is accompanied by a deep crisis of the institution of the family, and with it a massive departure from traditional norms and values. In such conditions, such an important institution and instrument regulating public relations as the institute of social responsibility inevitably undergoes a serious transformation. In the course of this process, there is a transition to the so-called modern society, the fundamental difference of which from the traditional one is that it is focused on the innovative component of culture, which in fact means the ever-increasing predominance of innovative elements over traditional ones, the secular nature of public life, development, which has a progressive, and not cyclical, the formation of democratic institutions, the mass nature of education, the dominance of the universal over the local, etc. All these innovative elements of culture, taken both separately and in combination, have a decisive influence on the entire Worldview of people, including their perception of justice and responsibility.
Keywords: Responsibility, social responsibility, civilization, globalization, modernization, institution of responsibility, information revolution.
Affiliation:
Dzhamilya M. Turgunbaeva — Jalal-Abad State University named after B. Osmonov 57 Lenin Street, Jalal-Abad, 715600, Kyrgyz Republic.
E-mail: djamilya0770@mail.ru
Guldana S. Tokoeva —Jalal-Abad State University named after B. Osmonov, 57 Lenin Street, Jalal-Abad, 715600, Kyrgyz Republic.
E-mail: tokoeva69@mail.ru
Rakhat D. Stamova —National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, 256-a Chui avenue. Bishkek, 720071, Kyrgyz Republic.
E-mail: stamova.naskr@ro.ru
Žilvinas Vareikis
THE CONCEPTS OF RESPONSIBILITY AND SYMPATHY IN THOMAS KASULIS COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202333338
The author of the article explores the views of Lithuanian–American thinker Thomas Kasulis on the interaction between emotions and ethical principles. This interaction is revealed in the contexts of the concepts of intimacy and integrity analysed by the philosopher. Intimacy is perceived as a framework of sociocultural structures of society, which determine the behavioural patterns and choices of individuals. In the ethical sphere, Kasulis attributes responsibility to integrity, which he links in his comparative analysis to Western and Eastern philosophies. Another philosophical concept, namely intimacy, is associated by the philosopher with relationships between people and values revealed in them. In communication, values are expressed not only through language but also through emotions. Kasulis particularly emphasizes sympathy, which is inherent in the cultural orientation of intimacy. For this reason, the article also analyses the nature of sympathy and its relationship to love, compassion, favour and trust. The article is based on the assumption that in the hermeneutics of the texts of comparative philosophy, it is possible to find both differences and similarities in the ideas of heterogeneous civilisations, and that the emotional-value vision emerging in these contexts makes it possible to look differently at cultural phenomena that appear in everyday life.
Keywords: intimacy, integrity, emotions, comparative philosophy, responsibility, sympathy.
Affiliation: Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, 58 Saltoniškės str., LT08105, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Email: ilvinasvareikis @yahoo.fr