The Theory of the Cheating of the Masses in Modern Times: The Institutional Roots of Social Immorality under Capitalism and Socialism

1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 3-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anghel N. Rugina

The unity of our spirit makes it impossible to work toward a certain end without thinking that this end can and must be achieved, even if only in the distant future and through the work of later generations… Objective examination in the ups and downs in the history of law cannot and must not extinguish our faith in justice as a supreme human ideal. Even in the face of events which represent a setback or a deviation, that ideal remains unshaken as a criterion of value; without it, deviation would be meaningless. Even if contradicted by empirical facts, this ideal does not lose its ethical and deontological truth. These contradictions between “is” and “ought to be” can be neither permanent nor general. Giorgio del Vecchio, Man and Nature

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Hopwood ◽  
Staffan Müller-Wille ◽  
Janet Browne ◽  
Christiane Groeben ◽  
Shigehisa Kuriyama ◽  
...  

AbstractWe invite systematic consideration of the metaphors of cycles and circulation as a long-term theme in the history of the life and environmental sciences and medicine. Ubiquitous in ancient religious and philosophical traditions, especially in representing the seasons and the motions of celestial bodies, circles once symbolized perfection. Over the centuries cyclic images in western medicine, natural philosophy, natural history and eventually biology gained independence from cosmology and theology and came to depend less on strictly circular forms. As potent ‘canonical icons’, cycles also interacted with representations of linear and irreversible change, including arrows, arcs, scales, series and trees, as in theories of the Earth and of evolution. In modern times life cycles and reproductive cycles have often been held to characterize life, in some cases especially female life, while human efforts selectively to foster and disrupt these cycles have harnessed their productivity in medicine and agriculture. But strong cyclic metaphors have continued to link physiology and climatology, medicine and economics, and biology and manufacturing, notably through the relations between land, food and population. From the grand nineteenth-century transformations of matter to systems ecology, the circulation of molecules through organic and inorganic compartments has posed the problem of maintaining identity in the face of flux and highlights the seductive ability of cyclic schemes to imply closure where no original state was in fact restored. More concerted attention to cycles and circulation will enrich analyses of the power of metaphors to naturalize understandings of life and their shaping by practical interests and political imaginations.


Diogenes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolay Alexandrov ◽  
◽  
◽  

The article is devoted to a key moment in the history of British liberalism when, under the influence of the Industrial Revolution, the need arose for a revision of classical liberal teaching. On the border between classical and social liberalism stands the figure of the British philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill who attempted to update the basic tenets of liberal ideology. Taking into account the socio-economic reality of his time, he set out to revise the foundations of liberal ideology, rethinking in modern times the problems of freedom, property and governance by expanding their perimeter in favour of the masses. This article also details Stuart Mill’s concept of individualism and collectivism in the context of freedom and the right to self-determination.


Adeptus ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 18-28
Author(s):  
Iga Łomanowska

Orestes as a resistance fighter, or the myth of the Atreides in Theo Angelopoulos’s film The travelling playersThe paper examines the use of the Atreides myth in Theo Angelopoulos’s film The travelling players (1975) in the context of the director’s interpretation of the phenomenon of myth. Angelopoulos treated myth as a set of archetypical situations and patterns of conduct constantly reproduced in the history of the world. He intertwined elements of classical stories with the history of Greece and the Byzantine tradition, thus showing their universal character. In The travelling players, Angelopoulos used the story of betrayed and murdered Agamemnon, who is avenged by his children: Orestes and Electra, but he moved it into modern times, setting the film in Greece of the 1940s and 1950s. The myth is reproduced with modulations: the most important events take place as a result of interventions of History, not fate or decisions of the gods. Moreover, the characters’ conflicts are enriched with a political dimension, as Angelopolous portrays the discord between their ideological stances. But the members of the acting company are as helpless in the face of events as the family of the king of Argos. Orestes bojownikiem ruchu oporu, czyli mit Atrydów w filmie Podróż komediantów Theo AngelopoulosaArtykuł jest analizą sposobu wykorzystania przez Theo Angelopoulosa mitu Atrydów w filmie Podróż komediantów (1975) w kontekście dokonanej przez niego interpretacji zjawiska mitu. Grecki reżyser traktował mit jako zbiór archetypicznych sytuacji i wzorów postępowania odtwarzanych nieustannie w dziejach świata. Elementy antycznych opowieści splatał w filmach z historią Grecji i tradycją bizantyjską, ujawniając ich uniwersalny charakter. W Podróży komediantów wykorzystał historię zdradzonego i zamordowanego Agamemnona, który zostaje pomszczony przez swoje dzieci: Orestesa i Elektrę, ale przeniósł ją w czasy współczesne, portretując Grecję lat 40. i 50. XX wieku. Mit zostaje zreprodukowany z modulacjami: kluczowe wydarzenia następują w wyniku interwencji historii, nie fatum czy decyzji bogów. Ponadto konflikty między postaciami zostają wzbogacone o wymiar polityczny, ponieważ Angelopoulos ukazuje rozdźwięk między ich postawami ideologicznymi. Jednak członkowie trupy aktorskiej pozostają wobec wydarzeń tak samo bezradni jak rodzina władcy Argolidy.


Moreana ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 34 (Number 131- (3-4) ◽  
pp. 10-24
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Finan

The article recalls some notable Irish contributors to the modern revival and continuation of interest in Thomas More. It begins with a commemoration of William J. Kinsella, late president of the Thomas More Society of Ireland. It goes on to recall briefly the contributions of a number of distinguished Irish-born lawyers since the nineteenth century. All those students of More had one thing in common: they saw in him a man of special interest for modern times –as a witness to unchanging values in an age of change. The article gives particular notice to Richard O’Sullivan– for the range and depth of his legal learning, and his sense of the importance of More in the history of law.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-173
Author(s):  
Andrzej Lorkowski ◽  
Robert Jeszke

The whole world is currently struggling with one of the most disastrous pandemics to hit in modern times – Covid-19. Individual national governments, the WHO and worldwide media organisations are appealing for humanity to universally stay at home, to limit contact and to stay safe in the ongoing fight against this unseen threat. Economists are concerned about the devastating effect this will have on the markets and possible outcomes. One of the countries suffering from potential destruction of this situation is Poland. In this article we will explain how difficult internal energy transformation is, considering the long-term crisis associated with the extraction and usage of coal, the European Green Deal and current discussion on increasing the EU 2030 climate ambitions. In the face of an ongoing pandemic, the situation becomes even more challenging with each passing day.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Sandford

This article begins by outlining contemporary anti-work politics, which form the basis of Sandford’s reading. After providing a brief history of anti-work politics, Sandford examines recent scholarly treatments of Jesus’ relationship to work. An examination of a number of texts across the gospel traditions leads Sandford to argue that Jesus can be read as a ‘luxury communist’ whose behaviour flies in the face of the Protestant work ethic. Ultimately, Sandford foregrounds those texts in which Jesus discourages his followers from working, and undermines work as an ‘end in itself’, contextualising these statements in relation to other gospel texts about asceticism and the redistribution of wealth.


Author(s):  
Begüm Tuğlu

Feminist authors have long been trying to alter the patriarchal structure of the Western society through different aspects. One of these aspects, if not the strongest, is the struggle to overcome centuries long dominance of male authors who have created a masculine history, culture and literature. As recent works of women authors reveal, the strongest possibility of actually achieving an equalitarian society lies beneath the chance of rewriting the history of Western literature. Since the history of Western literature relies on dichotomies that are reminiscences of modernity, the solution to overcome the inequality between the two sexes seems to be to rewrite the primary sources that have influenced the cultural heritage of literature itself. The most dominant dichotomies that shape this literary heritage are represented through the bonds between the concepts of women/man and nature/culture. As one of the most influential epics that depict these dichotomies, Homer's Odysseus reveals how poetry strengthens the authority of the male voice. In order to define the ideal "man", Homer uses a wide scope of animal imagery while forming the identities of male characters. Margaret Atwood, on the other hand, is not contended with Homer's poem in that it never narrates the story from the side of women. As a revisionist mythmaker, Atwood takes the famous story of Odysseus, yet this time presents it from the perspective of Penelope, simultaneously playing on the animal imagery. Within this frame, I intend to explore in this paper how the animal imagery in Homer's most renowned Odysseus functions as a reinforcing tool in the creation of masculine identities and how Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad defies this formation of identities with the aim of narrating the story from the unheard side, that of the women who are eminently present yet never heard.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-112
Author(s):  
Pierre Legendre

"Der Beitrag reevaluiert die «dogmatische Funktion», eine soziale Funktion, die mit biologischer und kultureller Reproduktion und folglich der Reproduktion des industriellen Systems zusammenhängt. Indem sie sich auf der Grenze zwischen Anthropologie und Rechtsgeschichte des Westens situiert, nimmt die Studie die psychoanalytische Frage nach der Rolle des Rechts im Verhalten des modernen Menschen erneut in den Blick. </br></br>This article reappraises the dogmatic function, a social function related to biological and cultural reproduction and consequently to the reproduction of the industrial system itself. On the borderline of anthropology and of the history of law – applied to the West – this study takes a new look at the question raised by psychoanalysis concerning the role of law in modern human behaviour. "


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