This book probes the extreme variation in discourses on violence and punishment. Its comprehensive examination brings together normative political-theoretical discourses on punishment, historical changes in violence and punishment, and perspectives on punishment from political powers, world religions, literature and film, criminology, and theodicy.

Truth and Compassion offers an integral and inter-disciplinary view on truth and compassion, their mutual connectedness, the meaning of their cultivation, and the devastating consequences of their neglect and destruction. The authors analyze their various forms, their origins, and concrete ways and attempts of their repression. Essays focus on the attention to truth and compassion under communism, but this is only one of its segments. As a whole, topics range from basic theological and philosophical analysis to concrete historiographic treatments of (...) particular cases. The central message is that speaking about grievances, communication, dialogue, empathy, and solidarity are necessary for living in truth and compassion. (Series: Theology East-West / Theologie Ost-West, Vol. 20) [Subject: Philosophy, Ethics Studies]~. (shrink)

Sentences with slifting parentheticals The formal analysis of natural language, Mouton, The Hague, 1973) grammaticalize an intriguing interaction between truth-conditional meaning and speech act function. In such sentences, the assertion strength of the slifted clause is modulated by the parenthetical, which provides evidential support :480–496, 1952; Asher in J Semant 17:31–50, 2000; Rooryck in Glot Int 5:125–133, 2001; Jayez and Rossari in: Corblin, de Swart Handbook of French semantics, CSLI, Stanford, 2004; Davis et al. in Proc Semant Linguist Theory 17:71–88, (...) 2007; Simons in Lingua 117:1034–1056, 2007; Murray in Semant Pragmat 7:1–53, 2014; Maier and Bary in: Brochhagen et al. Proceedings of the 20th Amsterdam colloquium, 2015; AnderBois in Semant Pragmat 9:1–55, 2016; Hunter in Dialogue Discourse 7:1–35, 2016). Starting with the idea that assertability comes in degrees, this paper develops a probabilistic updatemodel that captures the role of parentheticality as a language tool for qualifying commitments. A crucial role here is played by the rule of Jeffrey conditionalization, which factors in the uncertainty of the parenthetical information itself. The model also derives certain effects of parenthetical modification not found in regular embedding constructions, including the fact that slifting parentheticals are limited to creating upward-entailing environments. (shrink)

We prove that the additive group of the rationals does not have an automatic presentation. The proof also applies to certain other abelian groups, for example, torsion-free groups that are p-divisible for infinitely many primes p, or groups of the form ⊕ p∈I Z(p ∞ ), where I is an infinite set of primes.

This article discusses the Bulgarian response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Bulgarian case is characterized by an ineffective constitution of the individuals as subjects of responsibility for the health of the population, which resulted in a vaccine coverage considerably lower than the European average. The article argues that the fragile responsibilization is an effect of the response to the pandemic that, building on older post-socialist regulations of the access to healthcare, instead of restricting the circulation of bodies in general, tried (...) to differentiate between economically productive and unproductive circulation and to limit only the latter by progressively increasing its differential costs (both in terms of time and efforts and in terms of risks). An analysis of the legal actions against quarantine violators, however, suggests that such a strategy stimulated the public to respond to the pandemic by calculating risks, and if the social actors nevertheless behaved irresponsibly, it was often because they took into account not only the risks posed by the virus but also smaller-scale risks affecting their social support networks. The authorities, however, tried to repair the unreliable responsibilization by articulating an ad hoc right to health defined at the level of the population. That biopolitical right to health was crucial to the implementation of certificate requirements. It was harmonized with individual rights by opening up fields of choice such as the choice between vaccination and daily testing. However, since the differential costs of the higher-risk options seemed irrational, the constellation of individual rights and right to health left a growing residue of irresponsible conducts justifying a further intensification of control. (shrink)

This paper deals with the latent religious aspects of the tremendous impact that the Inter­net manifests in every single segment of contemporary culture. Through comparative research of the ways primordial, archetypal cognitive matrices migrated throughout different modalities of our thinking and behavior in the 20th and 21st centuries, the following research argues that deep religious longings might have been hidden (ignored, even abused) in the various ways the planetary informational network is exploited in our times. As a consequence, an alarming (...) need for philosophical and theological rethinking and re-inspiring of this prodigious, unprecedented and omnipresent social prosthesis is recognized. (shrink)

Review of H. Biesenbach: Anspielungen und Zitate im Werk Ludwig Wittgensteins (2011).

We construct an algebra of generalized functions endowed with a canonical embedding of the space of Schwartz distributions.We offer a solution to the problem of multiplication of Schwartz distributions similar to but different from Colombeau’s solution.We show that the set of scalars of our algebra is an algebraically closed field unlike its counterpart in Colombeau theory, which is a ring with zero divisors. We prove a Hahn–Banach extension principle which does not hold in Colombeau theory. We establish a connection between (...) our theory with non-standard analysis and thus answer, although indirectly, a question raised by Colombeau. This article provides a bridge between Colombeau theory of generalized functions and non-standard analysis. (shrink)

The paper problematizes the work and evolution of a Bulgarian artist from the point of view of the biographical approach, his artistic interventions and his re-legitimization as a contemporary artist. It discusses various aspects of contemporary art from the point of view of the artist, his interventions, market demands, the underlying contradictions, as well as the transformative tendencies in the small graphics. The paper argues that it is necessary to expand the understanding of contemporary art with certain actions of artists.

Empirical advances have been made in understanding how human language, in its combinatorial complexity and unbounded expressivity, may have evolved from the communication systems present in our evolutionary ancestors. However, a number of cognitive processes and neurobiological mechanisms that support language may not have evolved specifically for communication, but rather from abilities that support perception and cognition more generally. We review recent evidence from comparative behavioural and neurobiological studies on structured sequence learning in human and nonhuman primates. These studies support (...) the notion that certain sequence learning abilities are evolutionarily conserved and engage corresponding inferior frontal brain regions across the species, regions also involved in processing language in humans. Alongside the cross-species similarities is evidence for human specialisations, illuminating the likely evolutionary pathways towards language in modern humans. We argue that cognitive abilities that were in place for animals to learn combinatorial relationships in the sensory world were available and co-opted for language in humans. (shrink)

t. 1. Otrazhenie, poznanie, tvorchestvo.

This paper studies the epistemic failures to reach understanding in relation to scientific explanations. We make a distinction between genuine understanding and its negative phenomena—lack of understanding and misunderstanding. We define explanatory understanding as inclusive as possible, as the epistemic success that depends on abilities, skills, and correct explanations. This success, we add, is often supplemented by specific positive phenomenology which plays a part in forming epistemic inclinations—tendencies to receive an insight from familiar types of explanations. We define lack of (...) understanding as the epistemic failure that results from a lack of an explanation or from an incorrect one. This can occur due to insufficient abilities and skills, or to fallacious explanatory information. Finally, we characterize misunderstanding by cases where one’s epistemic inclinations do not align with an otherwise correct explanation. We suggest that it leads to potential debates about the explanatory power of different explanatory strategies. We further illustrate this idea with a short meta-philosophical study on the current debates about distinctively mathematical explanations. (shrink)

The natural law is a overempiric law that does not owe his dignity to the legal norm than to the intrinsic qualities of a human being. This paper presents a different hierarchical position of the natural law in the critics of capitalism from K. Marx to our days and its different intonation as a superpositive framework of justice. One should analytically differentiate between theoretical search for social justice in the philosophy of the natural law and empirical identification of power relations (...) that allowed or hindered social justice in the reality. The paper provides analysis of historically different relationships between positive and radical natural law in both the compressed 20th century epochal conscience and today?s neoliberal one. In addition, it compares role of the natural law in capitalism and socialism and differentiates between social justice from above and social justice from below. The first one is gratuitous, paternalistic and limited, the second one is radical and has to be conquered. Radical natural law should express itself as a fully developed social justice liberated from capitalism. Critic of social unjustice from the viewpoint of natural law has no practical effects in our days, and in spite of it, it is not anachronistic. (shrink)

Rad je deo kritike vladajuceg diskursa o smrti i o umiranju. Razmotreni su dublji segmenti kod poimanja smrti u ideologiji levice i desnice. Kao neosnovano je uoceno i problematizovano antitotalitarno izjednacavanje vidjenja smrti kod komunista i fasista. Mistifikovanja i pravdanja zrtve koja je pala u slavu bozje volje, rasne krvi ili klase nisu istovetna. Razlicit je stupanj iracionalizacije i drugaciji je sadrzaj nade u spasenje. Razlicita politicka upotreba smrti prikazana je na primerima ideologije i prakse fasizma i socijalizma. Za razliku (...) od konzervativnog i melanholicnog gledanja da je smrt pravedna i nepotkupljiva otuda sto nas sve pogadja, levica istice da su smrt i umiranje nerazdvojivo povezani sa uslovima zivljenja. Vlast, a ne bog, ideoloski uoblicava strah od smrti, tumaci ga i koristi. Kriticka teorija vidi suocavanje sa smrcu kao deo emancipatorske prakse i kritike kapitalizma. Izneta kritika antitotalitarne neoliberalne tanatologije deo je istog nastojanja. PR Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 149005: Drustveni akteri i drustvene promene u Srbiji 1990-2010. (shrink)

Der folgende Text geh?rt zur kritischen Thanatologie. In allen bekannten Kulturen wurden Normen f?r den guten und den schlechten Tod von der herrschenden normativen Thanatologien aufgestellt und Kontrollmechanismen installiert. Pr?mortales und postmortales soziales Sterben ist eine Art der Exklusion der Anderen und wird unter?schiedlich bestimmt: als damnatio memoriae, atlantische Sklaventum, Randst?ndigkeit, Isolation oder als Rollenverlust. Das soziale Tod hat einen Klassenaspekt, als den ganzen Klassen Ged?chtnis entnommen wurde. Hier werden nur einige Arten und Beispilen des sozialen Mord kritisch er?rtert: damnatio (...) memoriae, politische Mord und Sklaventum. Es handelt sich um die institutionelle Verarbeitung und Kodierung von Sterben und Tod durch Staat, Religion und Politik. In der Geschichte sind verschieden V?lkern und Klasssen einem intensiveren sozialen Sterbeprozess und der sozialen T?tung unterworfen. Mit Identit?tszerst?rung der Beherrschten ist das soziale mit dem physischen Sterben harmonischer zu verbinden. Es ist auch auf die Differenz zwischen sozialen und politischen T?tung hingewiesen. Am Ende sind einige Aspekte der heutigen geheimen T?tung erw?hnt. (shrink)

Der folgende Text geh?rt zur kritischen Thanatologie. In allen bekannten Kulturen wurden Normen f?r den guten und den schlechten Tod von der herrschenden normativen Thanatologien aufgestellt und Kontrollmechanismen installiert. Pr?mortales und postmortales soziales Sterben ist eine Art der Exklusion der Anderen und wird unter?schiedlich bestimmt: als damnatio memoriae, atlantische Sklaventum, Randst?ndigkeit, Isolation oder als Rollenverlust. Das soziale Tod hat einen Klassenaspekt, als den ganzen Klassen Ged?chtnis entnommen wurde. Hier werden nur einige Arten und Beispilen des sozialen Mord kritisch er?rtert: damnatio (...) memoriae, politische Mord und Sklaventum. Es handelt sich um die institutionelle Verarbeitung und Kodierung von Sterben und Tod durch Staat, Religion und Politik. In der Geschichte sind verschieden V?lkern und Klasssen einem intensiveren sozialen Sterbeprozess und der sozialen T?tung unterworfen. Mit Identit?tszerst?rung der Beherrschten ist das soziale mit dem physischen Sterben harmonischer zu verbinden. Es ist auch auf die Differenz zwischen sozialen und politischen T?tung hingewiesen. Am Ende sind einige Aspekte der heutigen geheimen T?tung erw?hnt. (shrink)

In diesem Texte werden die Kriterien zur Differenzierung von historischen, politischen und heroischen Generationen und ihren Hauptarten in USA, BR Deutschland, China, Serbien und Croatien er?rtert. Kriege und Revolutionen werden als zentrale generationsschaffende Ereignisse markiert. Es werden auch die konstruierten wie auch zugeschriebenen Generationsidentit?tsarten dargestellt. Die Generation ist als eine mehr oder wenig klare Gruppe aufgefa?t, die durch Zusammensetzung von biographischem und kollektivem Ged?chtnis entstanden ist. Die Generation als eine Art von Zeitstruktur ist bei der Reduktion und Erkl?rung der Vergangenheit (...) anwendbar. Es ist immer eine offene Frage in welchem Masse die Generationen die realen handelnden Subjekte, oder blo?e symbolische Heimat, dh. eine durchg?ngige Erinnerungsgemeinschaft sind? Es wird auf die Gr?nden der Entstehung der balkanischen heroischen Generationen hingewiesen, auf ihre Natur und Aktualit?t. In Westeuropa ist diese Art von Generation schon lange nicht mehr aktuell. Es wird auch darauf hingewiesen, dass durch die Heroisierung einer Generationserfahrung die Herrschaftsgruppen eigene Werte oktroyieren k?nnen. Razmotreni su kriteriji razlikovanja istorijskih, politickih i herojskih generacija i prikazani njihovi konkretni primeri u SAD, SR Nemackoj, NR Kini Srbiji i Hrvatskoj. Ratovi i revolucije su uoceni kao glavni generacijski formativni dogadjaji, ali su prikazani i oblici konstruisanog i pripisanog generacijskog samoopisa. Generacija je rastumacena kao manje ili vise prepoznatljiva grupa formirana prozimanjem biografskog i kolektivnog pamcenja. Kao jedna od kategorija u mrezi slozenih vremenskih struktura generacija je korisna kod redukovanja i objasnjenja slozenosti proslosti. Otvoreno je pitanje koliko su generacije realni akteri promena, a koliko tek simbolicki vremenski zavicaj, tj. efemerna zajednica secanja? Blize su analizirani uzroci nastanka, priroda i aktuelnost balkanskih herojskih generacija. U Zapadnoj Evropi ova vrsta generacija odavno nije aktuelna. Uoceno je da se heroizacijom iskustva jedne generacije mogu uspesno nametati vrednosti vladajucih grupa. (shrink)