Sinodul Bisericii Ortodoxe Române a declarat anul 2017 ca Anul Omagial al sfintelor icoane, al iconarilor și pictorilor bisericești, dar și Anul comemorativ Justinian Patriarhul și al apărătorilor Ortodoxiei în timpul comunismului în Patriarhia Română. Având în vedere tema propusă de organizatorii acestei dezbateri, dar și anumite reacții negative după Sfântul și Marele Sinod al Bisericii Ortodoxe, desfășurat în Creta între 18–26 iunie 2016, prezentarea mea va avea ca subiect legătura dintre Biserica Ortodoxă Română și Consiliul Mondial al Bisericilor (...) (CMB) în perioada comunistă dintre anii 1948–1989. Voi analiza critic anumite momente cheie din istoria acestei legături, care au lăsat anumite amprente în istoria Bisericii Ortodoxe Române și de care nu trebuie să uităm așa curând. În același timp, personalitățile care au marcat această perioadă nu pot fi trecute cu vederea, printre care personalitatea Părintelui Patriarh, Justinian Marina, rămâne una de amintit. (shrink)

The academic History of Philosophy in Lithuania in three volumes will be published by the Institute of Culture, Philosophy and Art. The first presented volume covers the development of Lithuanian philosophy from the 16th to the 18th centuries. It includes late medieval and Renaissance philosophy, the second scholasticism and modern philosophy. The first Lithuanians to be introduced to philosophy were young members of the gentry who studied in European universities at the end of the 14th century. The recently baptized Lithuania (...) strove to adopt Western culture and to present itself as a Western state. Some graduated from the universities as bachelors or masters of philosophy and returned to their country. At the end of the 14th century, Vilnius Cathedral School was founded. The elements of logic were probably taught there. The growth of the political and economic power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania brought about the need for higher education. That need was significantly increased by the growing activity of various religious orders. In 1507 the Dominicans started teaching philosophy and theology to their novices. They were able to teach late medieval philosophy in its thomistic interpretation. We can regard 1507 as the year Lithuania benefited form a new phenomenon, professional philosophy, and the Dominicans as its initiators. They taught not only the disciplines of late medieval philosophy but also the basics of the other sciences. The Dominicans, and later the Jesuits, Franciscans, Bernardines, Carmelites, Trinitarians and other monastic orders, enriched intellectual life in Lithuania by teaching philosophy in their schools. (shrink)

The academic History of Philosophy in Lithuania in three volumes will be published by the Institute of Culture, Philosophy and Art. The first presented volume covers the development of Lithuanian philosophy from the 16th to the 18th centuries. It includes late medieval and Renaissance philosophy, the second scholasticism and modern philosophy. The first Lithuanians to be introduced to philosophy were young members of the gentry who studied in European universities at the end of the 14th century. The recently baptized Lithuania (...) strove to adopt Western culture and to present itself as a Western state. Some graduated from the universities as bachelors or masters of philosophy and returned to their country. At the end of the 14th century, Vilnius Cathedral School was founded. The elements of logic were probably taught there. The growth of the political and economic power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania brought about the need for higher education. That need was significantly increased by the growing activity of various religious orders. In 1507 the Dominicans started teaching philosophy and theology to their novices. They were able to teach late medieval philosophy in its thomistic interpretation. We can regard 1507 as the year Lithuania benefited form a new phenomenon, professional philosophy, and the Dominicans as its initiators. They taught not only the disciplines of late medieval philosophy but also the basics of the other sciences. The Dominicans, and later the Jesuits, Franciscans, Bernardines, Carmelites, Trinitarians and other monastic orders, enriched intellectual life in Lithuania by teaching philosophy in their schools. (shrink)

The academic History of Philosophy in Lithuania in three volumes will be published by the Institute of Culture, Philosophy and Art. The first presented volume covers the development of Lithuanian philosophy from the 16th to the 18th centuries. It includes late medieval and Renaissance philosophy, the second scholasticism and modern philosophy. The first Lithuanians to be introduced to philosophy were young members of the gentry who studied in European universities at the end of the 14th century. The recently baptized Lithuania (...) strove to adopt Western culture and to present itself as a Western state. Some graduated from the universities as bachelors or masters of philosophy and returned to their country. At the end of the 14th century, Vilnius Cathedral School was founded. The elements of logic were probably taught there. The growth of the political and economic power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania brought about the need for higher education. That need was significantly increased by the growing activity of various religious orders. In 1507 the Dominicans started teaching philosophy and theology to their novices. They were able to teach late medieval philosophy in its thomistic interpretation. We can regard 1507 as the year Lithuania benefited form a new phenomenon, professional philosophy, and the Dominicans as its initiators. They taught not only the disciplines of late medieval philosophy but also the basics of the other sciences. The Dominicans, and later the Jesuits, Franciscans, Bernardines, Carmelites, Trinitarians and other monastic orders, enriched intellectual life in Lithuania by teaching philosophy in their schools. (shrink)

The first Lithuanians to be introduced to philosophy were young members of the gentry who studied in European universities at the end of the 14th century. The recently christened Lithuania strove to adopt Western culture and to present itself as a Western state. At the end of the 14th century, the Vilnius Cathedral School was founded. The elements of logic were probably taught there. The growth of the political and economic power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania brought about the (...) need for higher education. The need was significantly increased by the growing activity of various religious orders. In 1507, the Dominicans started teaching philosophy and theology to their novices in Vilnius. They taught late medieval philosophy in its Thomistic interpretation. We can regard 1507 as the year Lithuania began to benefit from a new phenomenon, professional philosophy, with the Dominicans as its initiators. The Dominicans and later the Jesuits, Franciscans, Benedictines, Carmelites, Trinitarians, and other monastic orders enriched intellectual life in Lithuania by teaching philosophy in their schools. The most important event in the development of philosophy in Lithuania was the foundation of Vilnius University in 1579. The disciplines belonging to scholasticism of the second level were taught in its philosophy department. (shrink)

In classical Latin, luxuria means 'desire for luxury'; it is linked with the ideas of excess and deviation from a standard. It is in most cases labelled as a vice which contrasts with the innate frugal nature of the Romans. Latin authors do not see it as endemic but as an import from the East in the aftermath of military conquests--and as a cause of fatal decline. Following these etymological and semantic origins, Roman Luxuria: A Literary and Cultural History discusses (...) the influence of Greek culture on the Roman concept and the peculiar characteristics of Roman luxuria. It analyses Roman views on luxuria through close readings in historical order from Cato the Elder, who regards luxuria as the opposite of the ideal Roman way of life, to the Christian poet Prudentius, who represents it in an allegorical fight with Sobriety. The book attends both to key authors and to wider literary genres, such as historiography and satire. Particular consideration is given to the rhetorical device of personification, which can be traced from the first appearances of luxuria in Latin literature to those of late antiquity. Berno devotes detailed attention to Seneca the Younger, whose work is often preoccupied with this passion. Seneca both defends himself from the charge of luxuria and violently attacks it in others, describing it as the archenemy of a philosophical life. Along the centuries, the focus on luxuria shifts from the economic sphere (and the waste of money) to the erotic, to the extent that in the Christian world it becomes one of the Seven Capital Sins representing the vice of lust. (shrink)

Relying on the systematic, logical, and analytical methods, national legislation and some internationally accepted guidelines, as well as on the research conducted by the Lithuanian scientists and law practitioners, this article consistently and comprehensively deals with the problems arising in the areas of interpretation and application of tax law. The article examines the relevant tax concepts, studies the tax law system, deals with the relevant issues arising in the field of application of legal regulations on taxation, and provides a particularly (...) detailed analysis of court jurisprudence within the context of the relationship between tax and law. On the basis of the analysis conducted, it was established that the basis for the Lithuanian tax law system consists of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania; the Law on Tax Administration; tax laws that lay down specific taxes and of by-laws adopted on their basis; national legal regulations that contain a consideration attribute and set mandatory payments to the State budget; the Law on Customs; ratified international agreements; the European Union legal regulations to the extent they are related to the duties, import excise duty, and value added tax; and the European Union directives in respect of direct and indirect taxes and the extent to which they are related to tax administration. When relationships in public law are directly regulated by the relevant public law regulations, it is not private law regulations, but the corresponding public law regulations that must be applied. In order to determine the need for tax authorities to rely on the regulations of the Civil Code, it is necessary to state the necessity to assess legal relationships from the point of view of private law or to identify a gap in legal regulation of public law due to which the norms of the Civil Code are subsidiary. Prior to establishing the tax base, the tax authority does not have to rebut transactions in civil procedure. The taxpayer’s obligation to fulfil tax liabilities that are properly prescribed by tax laws is not called into question by unlawful acts of other persons which constitute grounds for their civil (non-contractual) liability for the damages caused. The factual circumstances of tax relations established in the court cases heard in criminal and/or administrative procedures, do not need to be proved again – they are relied on in the course of tax inspections or when hearing tax disputes. The principle of equality of taxpayers requires tax administrators to give equal treatment to the facts with respect to all participants regarding the same tax relationship and obliges taxpayers to pay taxes honestly, because non-payment of taxes is a breach of public interest and therefore of this principle. In accordance with the principle of general applicability and equality, each taxpayer has an obligation to pay taxes as prescribed in tax legislation observing the calculation and payment procedures stipulated in the tax legal regulations, whereas the amount payable as established by the tax administrator shall be regarded as well-founded to the extent that it does not exceed the criterion of equality and reasonableness. The principle of clarity of taxation requires the tax administrator to adopt clear and comprehensive decisions with respect to the taxpayer and therefore to ensure their rights and legitimate interests. In the calculation of tax by applying the principle of primacy of content over form, it is necessary to establish that a transaction, an economic deal or indeed any group thereof has been concluded for the purpose of obtaining tax benefits. (shrink)

Unul dintre cele mai importante subiecte de dezbatere în contextul deliberărilor publice privind revizuirea Constituției a fost lansat, fără îndoială, de solicitările de revizuire a ei in sens creștin. Solicitările în discuție au fost făcute, după cum este cunoscut, de Sinodul mitropolitan al Mitropoliei Moldovei și Bucovinei în 5 martie 2013. Potrivit acestor solicitări, ar fi dezirabil ca, printre altele, noua Constituție „să facă referire la numele lui Dumnezeu”, să „sublinieze ... importanța tradiției creștine a poporului român”, să evidențieze „rolul (...) pe care Biserica Ortodoxă Română l-a avut și îl are în istoria țării” și – nu în ultimul rând – să recunoască „necesitatea predării religiei în școală.” In acest articol, explorez, în limitele spațiului pe care îl am la dispoziție, fiecare dintre aceste solicitări. Obiectivul meu fundamental este acela de a arăta că – și de a explica de ce – niciuna dintre ele nu este o solicitare „rezonabilă”. Prin aceasta înțeleg că niciuna dintre solicitările Sinodului mitropolitan al Mitropoliei Moldovei și Bucovinei nu este suficient susținută argumentativ și – mai ales – că niciuna dintre ele nu este compatibilă cu idealul unei societăți organizate și guvernate în baza unor valori precum libertatea, egalitatea și echitatea în relațiile dintre cetățeni. Ceea ce sper să arăt este, cu alte cuvinte, că, dat fiind respectul pe care îl datorăm acestor valori, România trebuie să rămână și în viitor un stat laic sau, poate mai corect spus, unul neutru din punct de vedere religios, așa cum statuează în prezent articolul 9 al Legii nr. 489/2006 privind libertatea religioasă și regimul general al cultelor. Articolul precizează, reamintesc, că în România „nu există religie de stat” și că „statul este neutru față de orice credință religioasă sau ideologie atee”. (shrink)

According to our understanding, when we discuss about the religious life in Romania, one must take into account, first of all, the characteristics of this people, its culture and traditions that are over two millennia old. The similarities and differences with the organization and functioning of other religious systems in Europe and around the world cannot and must not exclude the defining elements of a people that has asserted its origins and defended its spiritual integrity over the centuries. In our (...) country there is a close connection between the history, culture, spirituality and education of this people of Latin origin and mostly of Orthodox faith. Starting from these realities, the Romanian Orthodox Church had an important role in preserving the values and national identity in the face of the frequent stepsons of history. Regarding interreligious education in Romania, it is done in public schools, with the discipline of Religion, where, especially in high school, there are classes in the History of Religions in which one learns about religious traditions around the world and how to interact with people belonging to other denominations, religions and ideologies. The phenomenon of migration increases in our country from one year to another producing important changes in terms of economic, cultural, social and religious realities. Taking into account all these realities, the state must promote policies that protect migrant populations and defend human rights for these communities. At the same time, they must be actively involved in protecting families where one or more members are working abroad and in the process of educating children who remain in the care of relatives. (shrink)

The current phenomenon of migration is a consequence of contemporary globalization, having a major impact on interreligious dialogue. In the beginning of our article, we give a short introduction regarding the most major migrations in the Christian history. We can say today there is no nation on earth that has not experienced migration. Within the Orthodox world, we speak about migration using the word diaspora, those who are outside the national territory of the Church. In connection with the phenomenon of (...) migration and the attitude that Orthodox Christians must have in this regard, the Holy and Great Synod of Crete was also expressed in 2016. In the same time, the phenomenon of migration grows in Romania from one year to the next, producing important changes regarding the economic, cultural, social and religious realities. We will explain in short what was the reaction of the Romanian Orthodox Church to these new situations. (shrink)

Clouds are therefore a fine metaphor for intermediary and automatic beings… Trees too are clouds: only, they are slower at occupying space. In the new landscape of media archaeology—especially variantology, which insists on ramified rather than convergent developments—media, too, appear to be imperceptibly changing from stable trees into metastable clouds. If we accelerate that motion, then the whole McLuhan-Kittler-Parikka media forest of semi-separate specimens starts to look like a self-rearranging ballet—a murmuration across species. At a certain historical rate, in other (...) words, problems of media ontology and phylogenesis tend to turn into animated sequences in which individual or individuated media.. (shrink)

The motive for late eighteenth-century proto-technics of photography and cinema was never quite mimetic representation: it was generating autonomous impressions of natural phenomena within the tradition ofNaturphilosophie. The article analyses a series of connections between ‘natural hieroglyphs’ (von Lichtenberg), Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles’s ‘megascope’, Wedgwood’s pre-photography, Lavater’s silhouettes and antecedents of Marey’s ‘graphic method’. The goal is to document precursor ideas, devices, setups and frameworks of photoimaging medias to show that the genealogy of photography and cinema intersected through many polymath transverses within (...) the ambit of natural philosophy (and the context of slavery). (shrink)

Keď sa ľudia nachádzajú medzi inými, správajú sa viac prosociálne, morálne a štedro. Čo však môže ovplyvniť ich správanie v momente, keď sú sami? Aby sa správali ako medzi inými? Jedna z možností môže byť vyvolať pocit, že sa niekto pozerá. Tento účel môže splniť aj obyčajné zrkadlo. Naše výskumy podporujú vplyv zrkadla na dodržiavanie pravidla na súboroch dospelých a detí. V obidvoch experimentoch prítomnosť zrkadla zvyšovala šancu na dodržiavanie stanoveného pravidla. Ako však niečo tak jednoduché ako zrkadlo môže ovplyvniť (...) správanie? Jeden z prístupov tvrdí, že vizuálny stimul spustí automatickú percepciu „niekto sa pozerá“, aj napriek tomu, že je to iba odraz v zrkadle. Ďalší možný prístup vychádza z predpokladu, že na seba upriamená pozornosť vyvoláva sebauvedomovanie, pričom sa zviditeľňuje prípadný rozpor medzi konaním a štandardom. Porušenie pravidla v takom momente by mohlo ohroziť sebaúctu. V treťom prístupe autori vychádzajú z princípu negatívnej spätnej väzby. Nakoniec by sme radi spomenuli naše experimenty a navrhli ďalšie možnosti skúmania v tejto oblasti. (shrink)

Keď sa ľudia nachádzajú medzi inými, správajú sa viac prosociálne, morálne a štedro. Čo však môže ovplyvniť ich správanie v momente, keď sú sami? Aby sa správali ako medzi inými? Jedna z možností môže byť vyvolať pocit, že sa niekto pozerá. Tento účel môže splniť aj obyčajné zrkadlo. Naše výskumy podporujú vplyv zrkadla na dodržiavanie pravidla na súboroch dospelých a detí. V obidvoch experimentoch prítomnosť zrkadla zvyšovala šancu na dodržiavanie stanoveného pravidla. Ako však niečo tak jednoduché ako zrkadlo môže ovplyvniť (...) správanie? Jeden z prístupov tvrdí, že vizuálny stimul spustí automatickú percepciu „niekto sa pozerá“, aj napriek tomu, že je to iba odraz v zrkadle. Ďalší možný prístup vychádza z predpokladu, že na seba upriamená pozornosť vyvoláva sebauvedomovanie, pričom sa zviditeľňuje prípadný rozpor medzi konaním a štandardom. Porušenie pravidla v takom momente by mohlo ohroziť sebaúctu. V treťom prístupe autori vychádzajú z princípu negatívnej spätnej väzby. Nakoniec by sme radi spomenuli naše experimenty a navrhli ďalšie možnosti skúmania v tejto oblasti. (shrink)

The topic of safeguarding against sickness grew in importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. People’s health was more at risk, yet not all had the same capacity and options to deal with it. Therefore, this article focuses on the under-researched topic of choice of strategies and individual practices for safeguarding against one’s sickness among micro-entrepreneurs (with 1–10 employees) before and during the pandemic, namely on the example of Czechia. We analyse 30 qualitative interviews with micro-entrepreneurs to demonstrate how their social location (...) affects the attainability of strategies and individual practices for that purpose. It is primarily their family role (breadwinner vs caregiver) that, along with socioeconomic status, either limits or opens choices of strategies and individual practices or combinations thereof. Although the COVID-19 pandemic posed a high health risk to the entire society, it did not bring the micro-entrepreneurs to revise their often-risky choices in safeguarding against sickness. In contrast, it highlighted some specifics of micro-enterprises, e.g. their unclear organisational structure, which proved a high risk in the context of the health crisis. (shrink)

1. t. Viduramžiai, Renesansas, Naujieji amžiai.

Spätestens seit der berühmten Anekdote vom Bild der schönen Helena gilt körperliche Schönheit als ein Kunstprodukt. Für sein Bildnis der Helena soll der griechische Maler Zeuxis die fünf hervorragendsten Jungfrauen ausgewählt und von jedem Modell den jeweils schönsten Körperteil gemalt haben. Nach dieser Vorstellung ist vollkommene Schönheit erst durch einen künstlichen Eingriff zu erzielen; das gilt sowohl für den lebendigen Körper als auch für sein künstlerisches Abbild. Kunst und Körperpflege stehen damit in einem spannungsvollen Wechselverhältnis. Denn die Grundlagen und Mittel (...) zur Erzeugung und Steigerung von körperlicher Schönheit, die in beiden Bereichen zur Verfügung stehen, überschneiden, ergänzen und beeinflussen sich. Das Buch beleuchtet dieses Wechselverhältnis anhand ausgewählter Grundlagentexte in deutscher Übersetzung, ergänzt um fundierte Kommentare zum historischen Kontext. (shrink)