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Anthropos 3–4 (231-232) 2013
PHILOSOPHY RESEARCH
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Often we read about the Sufism being a mystical, esoteric branch of Islam, an approach which results in presenting the mode of knowledge in Sufism either reduced to philosophical investigation with an emphasis on introspection, or in making parallels with other Eastern (or even New Age-ish) spiritual praxes that focus on the enlightenment and the loss of Self. This article, on the contrary, draws attention to Sufi c knowledge as integrated in the moral-ethical attitude whose task is to read the acts of God in the world via experiencing the Divine. The door opens for the Sufi to this kind of personally experienced knowledge by heart, a locus of Intellect and Spirit, self-engagement and, last but not least, submission.
Key words: Sufism, Quran, knowledge, faith, certainty, heart
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France Bučar is an author indispensable for the debate about a new scientific paradigm that will include both quantitative and qualitative approaches. His unique system theory, which is classified within the ‘critical system thinking’ approaches, brigs new aspects to the debate between positivism and non-positivism. Bučar preserves positivistic structure (quantitative view), to which he adds nonpositivistic personalistic content (qualitative view). Namely, he stresses the role of an individual and ethics. Writing about international relations, Bučar adapts his ‘level of agency’. Individual is replaced by nation and ethics of responsibility is replaced by what is referred to as ‘geopolitical ethics’. Since Bučar applies new norms into international relations his system theory is classified within normative theories of international relations.
Key words: France Bučar, system theory, post-positivism, individual, ethics
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The article analyses Kierkegaard’s notion of subjectivity as summarized in the thesis that the innerness, i.e. subjectivity is the truth. Constantly confronted with the ancient Greek pantheism and its transfixed gaze directed into eternity on the one side, and with the Christian gaze into the future, Kierkegaard manages to offer a third solution by introducing the moment, conceived even as the intrusion of eternal into history. In certain aspects, Kierkegaard’s philosophy might be said to function as the philosophy of the moment.
In many ways, Kierkegaard’s ethics is even more central to his thought than religion, the latter hardly being his only self-determination, since the paradox of such a free choice consists in the peculiar fact that it evades the annihilation by the absolute. What is absolute is solely the human being’s “choice of myself is my freedom.” Kierkegaard here persistently claims that the only truth conceivable is the truth which builds. Nowadays, even an atheist sees clearly that the ethical is cultivated from out of freedom rather than necessity; and his concepts such as choice, decision, responsibility, hereby markedly become a subjectivist trait as self-preservation and self-appropriation, which at times push Kierkegaard into close vicinity with religious atheism or even pseudo-atheism. This is why the paper strongly emphasizes the fact that, in Kierkegaard, the basic dilemma is not the one between religiosity or non-religiosity, faith or atheism; rather, it is exclusively and primarily about the humanism itself.
Key words: hope, utopia, metaphysics, subjectivism, self-preservation, critique of capitalism, ethics
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The article analyses the relationship between mystical and psychopathological (particularly psychotic) experiences. Firstly, a provisional definition of mystical experiences is provided: it is claimed that the latter comprise experiences of oneness and/or nothingness characterized by a breakdown of subject(self)-object(world) dichotomy. Secondly, mystical experiences are incorporated into a broader category of mysticism understood as a set of beliefs, rituals, practices etc. (the so-called “mystical path”) that help the practitioner realize the above-mentioned experiential and existential transformations. Thirdly, a brief presentation of current approaches (both reductionist and integrative) to the relationship between mysticism and madness are presented, followed by a tentative conclusion that the main problem of establishing similarities and differences between the two is the ambiguous nature of the term “experience”: it is argued that the two experiential categories do, in fact, meet at the level of (dualistic) “experience” (phenomenology), but part ways at the level of (non-dualistic) “being” (ontology).
Key words: mysticism, mystical experience, psychosis, psychiatry, epistemology, ontology
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Heraclitus‘ one-word fragment B 122, which in Greek reads “άγχιβασίη”, is all too often translated simply as “coming near”, while the interpretations usually consider it – due to the lack of context – as poorly comprehensible or not comprehensible at all. The exception here is Heidegger, who nevertheless remains within the horizon of the meaning which relates the word only to nearness: “to go near.” The less considered dictionary meaning of the word and its synonyms, however, and the early use of the verb άμφισβητείν in Herodotus indicate that the meaning of this word basically has to do with “going apart”, even “disputing, wrangling.” Probably, taking into account the etymology of the word (especially the prefix άγχι), this reduction will not be completely satisfactory. Therefore, άγχιβασίη – especially within the context of early wisdom of Heraclitus – is likely to be understood in both senses, as “coming near in going apart” and “going apart in coming near”.
Key words: Heraclitus, anchibasíe, coming near, going apart.
PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH
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A correlational study examined relationship between motivational orientation, motivational beliefs, metacognitive learning strategies and academic achievement in student sample. The study included 307 students (96.4% women and 3.6% men) of the Faculty of Education at the University of Primorska and the University of Maribor. In the study we used a selfreport measure (Motivated Strategies for Learning questionnaire, Pintrich and de Groot, 1990) of student’s self-efficacy, intrinsic value, test anxiety and use of cognitive self-regulated strategies in learning. The results show a significant positive correlation between an individual‘s perception of self-efficacy in learning and perception of self-efficacy with the use of metacognitive learning strategies. Older students reported also significantly higher internal value than younger students. Interaction between academic units and age in test anxiety was also significant. The core issue was to examine the potential predictive value of motivational beliefs and metacognitive strategies for academic achievement. Regression analyses revealed that the individual perception of self-efficacy for learning and had a significant positive predictive value and test anxiety had a significant negative predictive value for academic achievement. At the end we discuss the implications of individual differences in motivational orientation for cognitive engagement and self-regulation in the faculty.
Key words: motivational beliefs, self-regulated learning, meta-cognition, students
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We examined the relationship between decision-making styles and subjective wellbeing. We expected that decision-making styles will predict well-being, even when controlling the influence of demographic variables and personality traits and that decision outcomes would further explain well-being. Data were collected from 189 adult participants that answered the Zuckerman-Kuhlmanov Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ), the Mental Health Continuum (MHC-SF) and the Decision Outcome Inventory (DOI). Demographic variables didn’t predict well-being. Personality traits explained from 16 to 29 %, decision-making styles from 6 to 11 % and decision outcomes up to 2 % of the variance of well-being. According to expectations rational and intuitive styles predicted higher and the avoidant style predicted lower well-being. Contrary to predictions, the spontaneous style predicted higher well-being.
Key words: subjective well-being, Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ), decision-making
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The study examined the measurement characteristics of the Slovenian version of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory NPI. On a sample of 803 participants, we first examined the factorial structure of the questionnaire. Principal component analysis showed one-factor structure, however the confirmatory factor analysis failed to confirm it. Even less plausible was originally proposed seven-factor structure. In order to verify the content validity of the NPI, part of the participants fulfilled the Psychological Entitlement Scale PSE and the Narcissistic Grandiosity Scale NaGS. Th e results confirmed one-factor structure and good internal consistency for both scales. Regression analysis of the NPI total scores showed that grandiosity and entitlement explain only 35 % of the variance, indicating that the total score on a NPI does not reflect well the two essential components of narcissism. Moreover, the overall result is rather uneconomical, as obtained on 40 items, so the use of alternative scales of entitlement and grandiosity seems to be much more reasonable.
Key words: narcissism, Narcissistic Personality Inventory NPI, grandiosity, entitlement, factor structure, reliability
STUDIES
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Donna Winslow was a Canadian anthropologist that focused her research interest also on structures and relations in contemporary military forces and contemporary security. In the article a revision of her most known and interesting works are presented. There are discussions about specialties of the military and similarities between the military and the rest of society, about development of Canadian military and about impact of globalization on conflicts and security concepts. Among the most interesting there are works on rituals and cohesion that arise from the inquiring of Canadian Airborne Regiment in Somalia. She also analysed the project Human Terrain and the issue of science in the military use. According to her works it can be concluded that Donna Winslow was a socially active scientists.
Key Words: Donna Winslow, military culture, civil-military cooperation, Somalia Affair, human security, war in Chechnya, Human Terrain System
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Bei der Suche nach der Antwort, wie in der postmoderner Kultur möglich ist, erfolgreich für Werte und Inhalte einer Religion zu werben ist ein bedeutender Ausgangspunkt die Tatsache, dass der Wert, der in dieser Kultur im Mittelpunkt der Interesse steht, die Frage nach der persönlichen Identität ist. Derjenige, der in dieser Kultur eigene Antworten über den Sinn vermitteln will, müsste sich aus diesem Grund gerade auf diesen Wert und an mit ihm verbundenen religiösen Wunsch nach der Suche nach seinem Grund anknüpfen. Dieser Wunsch, eigene Identität auf den Grund zu gehen, kommt heutzutage deutlich zum Ausdruck z. B. in der großen Popularität von verschiedenen Formen der Meditation. Die Betonung bei der Vermittlung der Werte einer bestimmten Religion ist somit im Übergang zur einer betont perönlichen Ebene, aus dem Gebiet der traditionellen “religiösen Tätigkeiten” auf das Gebiet der persönlichen Identität und der persönlichen Entwicklung jedes Einzelnen. Erneut gewinnt an der Bedeutung “der sakrale Begriff des Menschen”. Die Aufgabe des “(spirituellen) Begleiter” in unserer Kultur müsste aus diesem Grund vor allem die sein, dem Einzelnen dabei zu helfen, dass die Antworten, die er eigentlich schon selbst gefunden hat, sind ihm aber noch nicht explizit bewußt, ihm auch bewußt werden. Es bleibt also die Frage ofen, inwieweit die “Verkündigung” überhaupt noch ein entsprechender Ausdruck z. B. für die sogenannte “Pastoralarbeit” der Kirche in unserer Kultur, weil sich der Schwerpunkt verschiebt vor allem auf die Hilfe den Menschen bei dieser Introspektion.
Schlüsselwörter: Verkündigung, postmoderne Kultur, Introspektion, spiritueller Begleiter, die Frage der Identität, der Sakrale Menschenbegriff
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An insight into the beginning and course of development of the Zagreb School of Literary Study is given by an overview of the systematization and harmonization of academic literary studies at the University of Zagreb with the principles of scientific literary study (“Literaturwissenschaft”) and in respect of the peculiarities and frameworks of European philologies (Germanic, Romanic, Slavic and the national one, Croatian) and as part of comparative literature studies. What lies at the foundations of the Zagreb School are a set of theoretical instruments adopted from Russian formalism, focus on the literary text and its inner laws as well as a breakaway from the impressionistic critical apparatus, positivist biographism and enumeration of literary historical facts which are not directly connected to the literary text. The Zagreb School set focus on the literary text as a starting point of the literary study approach, which was a result of the need for the academic and methodological independence of Croatian scientific literary study as an academic field in its own right, which at the beginning of the 1950s contributed for the first time in the exchange of insights with the wider European scientific literary study circle.
Key words: Immanentism, interpretation, philology, literary historiography, Zagreb School of Literary Study
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In reference to Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht’s distinction between meaning culture and presence culture, the author analyses conditions of existence in Western culture. According to the author, Western culture is defined by gradual progression towards meaning culture. In postmodernity, this is especially characterized by a radical social constructionist definition of discourse, where discourse is defined as social-linguistic measure that absolutely determines human understanding, experiencing and doing. The author argues against radical social-constructionist understanding of discourse and presents a moderate realistic view according to which typical social or discursive conditions and archetypical natural conditions must be understood as corresponding and supplementary.
Keywords: discourse, presence, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, meaning culture, presence culture, social constructionism
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Translational discourse requires at least three participants, therefore it is suggested to consider the universal model of the picture of the world, according to which it is much easier for a translator to combine the pictures of the world of an addressee and an author. An addressee is a mental image existing in the mind of an addresser during the creative process. Having defined its parameters, a translator has an opportunity to deliver the thought of an addresser to an addressee as accurately as possible and to select the means of expression that are clear to an addressee. The type of an addressee correlates with ‘the relation to the new’.
Key words: cognitive linguistics, target text, the language picture of the world, discourse, addresser, addressee, the levels of the structure of the language world picture.
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When discussing alcoholism, it is often assumed that the family member’s (usually a father or a mother) entry into recovery will resolve all family problems. However, researches, which examined the impact of family recovery from alcoholism, show that this process, especially in its early stages, is very traumatic. Families report that this time was very emotionally disruptive, frightening, and dynamic. In family recovery after alcoholism we can find more developmental stages of recovery and also different types of recovering families, which reveal the most vulnerable points for family relationships. Regarding this, a Relational Family Therapy enables to address the family dynamics in their most vulnerable points. The contribution presents the main entry points and premises of RFT in connection with alcoholism and introduces a case from therapeutic practice. Clinical practice shows that the real hard work in the relationships after stopping drinking will only begin, because there can emerge a number of painful issues that were previously, due to alcoholism, avoided, namely dysfunctional regulated.
Key words: alcohol addiction, abstinence, family recovery, psychotherapy, affect regulation
RECENZIJE
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