scholarly journals Assen Ignatov: The Theomachist and the God-Seeker

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Dimitrova

Assen Ignatov: The Theomachist and the God-SeekerThis article aims to trace the evolution of Assen Ignatov’s attitude towards religion and to outline the main features of this change – from an intellectual whose worldview was initially Marxist to being a dissident philosopher known also for his respect for Christianity. The first part of the study is devoted to the early professional stages of Assen Ignatov’s life (as a lecturer at Sofia University), when he attacked the “Bourgeois” philosophy for its affinity to religion. Gradually, these initial attitudes were seriously shaken, partly because he was one of the very few erudite thinkers in Bulgaria during the “socialist” period who witnessed the dogmatism and narrow interests of the Party philosophers. In addition, his escape to Western Europe was a radical break with the past, specifically with regard to religion. Assen Ignatov interpreted communism as a pseudo-religion from the viewpoint of Christian personalism and existentialism. The author concludes that the radical change of Ignatov’s attitude towards religion shows the measure of his general change of worldview. Asen Ignatow – w walce przeciw Bogu i w poszukiwaniu BogaCelem artykułu jest prześledzenie ewolucji stosunku do religii Asena Ignatowa: od intelektualisty, którego światopogląd był początkowo marksistowski, do filozofa-dysydenta, znanego również z jego szacunku dla chrześcijaństwa. W pierwszej części zaprezentowane są początkowe etapy w jego życiu zawodowym, kiedy jako wykładowca na Uniwersytecie w Sofii atakował filozofię burżuazyjną z powodu jej pokrewieństwa z religią. Stopniowo postawy te uległy poważnemu zachwianiu (również dlatego, że był on jednym z niewielu bardzo dobrze wykształconych myślicieli w Bułgarii okresu „socjalistycznego”, który obserwował dogmatyzm i wąskie interesy partyjnych filozofów), a jego ucieczka do Europy Zachodniej oznaczała zerwanie z przeszłością, szczególnie w odniesieniu do religii. Asen Ignatow interpretował komunizm jako pseudoreligię z punktu widzenia chrześcijańskiego personalizmu i egzystencjalizmu. Autorka konkluduje, że radykalny zwrot w postawie Ignatowa wobec religii jest wyrazem głębszych zmian o charakterze światopoglądowym.

Author(s):  
Marcin Piatkowski

In this chapter I explain why Poland and most countries in Eastern Europe have always lagged behind Western Europe in economic development. I discuss why in the past the European continent split into two parts and how Western and Eastern Europe followed starkly different developmental paths. I then demonstrate how Polish oligarchic elites built extractive institutions and how they adopted ideologies, cultures, and values, which undermined development from the late sixteenth century to 1939. I also describe how the elites created a libertarian country without taxes, state capacity, and rule of law, and how this ‘golden freedom’ led to Poland’s collapse and disappearance from the map of Europe in 1795. I argue that Polish extractive society was so well established that it could not reform itself from the inside. It was like a black hole, where the force of gravity is so strong that the light could not come out.


Author(s):  
Michael Anderson ◽  
Corinne Roughley

The principal reported causes of death have changed dramatically since the 1860s, though changes in categorization of causes and improved diagnosis make it difficult to be precise about timings. Diseases particularly affecting children such as measles and whooping cough largely disappeared as killers by the 1950s. Deaths particularly linked to unclean environments and poor sanitary infrastructure also declined, though some can kill babies and the elderly even today. Pulmonary tuberculosis and bronchitis were eventually largely controlled. Reported cancer, stroke, and heart disease mortality showed upward trends well into the second half of the twentieth century, though some of this was linked to diagnostic improvement. Both fell in the last decades of our period, but Scotland still had among the highest rates in Western Europe. Deaths from accidents and drowning saw significant falls since World War Two but, especially in the past 25 years, suicide, and alcohol and drug-related deaths rose.


Author(s):  
Youssef M. Choueiri

This chapter traces the principal historiographical developments in the Arab world since 1945. It is divided into two major parts. The first part deals with the period extending from 1945 to 1970. During this period the discourse of either socialism or nationalism permeated most historical writings. The second part presents the various attempts made to decolonize, rewrite, or theorize history throughout the Arab world. The chapter then shows how in the various states of the Arabic world—some but not all of which have become fundamentalist Islamic regimes—Western models continued to be followed, though often with a more explicitly socialist approach than would be the case in America or Western Europe. By the 1970s, well before the shake-up of radical Islamicization that has dominated the past quarter-century, the entire Arabic world began to push hard against the dominance of residual Western colonial history.


AJIL Unbound ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
Giesela Rühl

The past sixteen years have witnessed the proliferation of international commercial courts around the world. However, up until recently, this was largely an Asian and a Middle Eastern phenomenon. Only during the past decade have Continental European countries, notably Germany, France and the Netherlands, joined the bandwagon and started to create new judicial bodies for international commercial cases. Driven by the desire to attract high-volume commercial litigation, these bodies try to offer international businesses a better dispute settlement framework. But what are their chances of success? Will more international litigants decide to settle their disputes in these countries? In this essay, I argue that, despite its recently displayed activism, Continental Europe lags behind on international commercial courts. In fact, although the various European initiatives are laudable, most cannot compete with the traditional market leaders, especially the London Commercial Court, or with new rivals in Asia and the Middle East. If Continental Europe wants a role in the international litigation market, it must embrace more radical change. And this change will most likely have to happen on the European––not the national––level.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. M. Bruls ◽  
R. M. Kwee

Abstract Background The objective of this study is to investigate the workload for radiologists during on-call hours and to quantify the 15-year trend in a large general hospital in Western Europe. Methods Data regarding the number of X-ray, ultrasound and computed tomography (CT) studies during on-call hours (weekdays between 6.00 p.m. and 7.00 a.m., weekends, and national holidays) between 2006 and 2020 were extracted from the picture archiving and communication system. All studies were converted into relative value units (RVUs) to estimate the on-call workload. The Mann–Kendall test was performed to assess the temporal trend. Results The total RVUs during on-call hours showed a significant increase between 2006 and 2020 (Kendall's tau-b = 0.657, p = 0.001). The overall workload in terms of RVUs during on-call hours has quadrupled. The number of X-ray studies significantly decreased (Kendall's tau-b = − 0.433, p = 0.026), whereas the number of CT studies significantly increased (Kendall's tau-b = 0.875, p < 0.001) between 2006 and 2020. CT studies which increased by more than 500% between 2006 and 2020 are CT for head trauma, brain CTA, brain CTV, chest CT (for suspected pulmonary embolism), spinal CT, neck CT, pelvic CT, and CT for suspected aortic dissection. The number of ultrasound studies did not change significantly (Kendall's tau-b = 0.202, p = 0.298). Conclusions The workload for radiologists during on-call hours increased dramatically in the past 15 years. The growing amount of CT studies is responsible for this increase. Radiologist and technician workforce should be matched to this ongoing increasing trend to avoid potential burn-out and to maintain quality and safety of radiological care.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Palamarchuk ◽  
◽  
Ekaterina Terenteva ◽  
Sergey Fyodorov ◽  

The monograph is a study of main trends of emergence and evolution of the national historical writing in Western Europe in the XVIIth century. Based on a complex analysis of several phenomena which defined the development of the Early Modern historical writing, it provides a comparative analysis of the regional schools of historical writing (particularly those of the English antiquaries and French érudits) in the process of their respective growth and formation accomplished by the end of XVIIth century with the advent of the national historiography. The conceptual unity of the book is verified within the context of the rise of the national states in England and France, which stipulated a consistent demand for reinforcing the nationally orientated discourses not only in a historical writing but also in legal and political thought. The perception of England as an empire, entrenched in the insular historical and legal consciousness, recurring during the reigns of the Stuarts and extending to the whole British archipelago, determined the establishment of chorography as a prevalent form characteristic of the English historiography. Chorographic structure of the narrative unfolding the space of the territorial “empire” to the reader corresponded to the method of “intellectual appropriation” of the British Isles by the English antiquarians which could be defined as “cultural-historical”. A considerable role was devoted to reactualization of ethnogenetic myths at different levels: while some of them (primarily – the Galfridian myth) were regarded as relevant to the pan-British cultural and historical past, others emphasized autonomous dimensions of the past and present of distinct composites (Scotland, Ireland, Wales) The continental French variant of proto-national historiography also utilized the idea of empire but in a different mode defined by the formula “rex in regno suo imperator est”. The emerging school of érudits modelled principles of its narratives on patrimonial structures rooted in the feudal medieval society (dynasty; royal family; aristocratic lineages; seigneurial rights and vassal obligations; the system of offices created by the monarch stemming from the royal household etc.). The unity of the subjects of the French kingdom was ensured not by the shared territorial commonality but by their loyalty to the king. Therefore, the French variant of “intellectual appropriation” was developed in a socio-political direction in contrast to the territorial.


Over the past 30 years, the partners now collaborating in Europe on fast-reactor development have taken the technology from a theoretical possibility to an engineering reality. In that time there has been a progression from experimental zero energy facilities followed by small power-producing engineering test reactors, to prototype reactors and a large commercial-size reactor. The paper describes the highlights of the reactor programmes in the partner countries and by example illustrates the experience gained from reactor operation and some of the principal activities in the supporting development programme. These include such topics as fuel performance, fast-neutron physics, liquid-metal thermal hydraulics, sodium chemistry, instrumentation and safety aspects. The paper concludes by summarizing some of the main objectives of the current development programme, which is directed to the support of the European Fast Reactor design being prepared by the European design and construction companies.


2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 474-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Hodges

AbstractThis article provides a historical ethnography of an abrupt and transient awakening of interest in Roman vestige during the 1970s in rural France, and explores its implications for comparative understanding of historical consciousness in Western Europe. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Languedoc, and particularly the commune of Monadières, it details a vogue for collecting pottery shards scattered in a nearby lagoon that developed among local inhabitants. The article frames this as a ritualized “expressive historicity” emergent from political economic restructuring, cultural transformation, and time-space compression. It analyses the catalyzing role of a historian who introduced discursive forms into the commune for symbolizing the shards, drawn from regionalist and socialist historiography, which local people adapted to rearticulate the historicity of lived experience as a novel, hybrid genre of “historical consciousness.” These activities are conceptualized as a “reverse historiography.” Elements of historiographical and archaeological discourses—for example, chronological depth, collation and evaluation of material relics—are reinvented to alternate ends, partly as a subversive “response” to contact with such discourses. The practice emerges as a mediation of distinct ways of apprehending the world at a significant historical juncture. Analysis explores the utility of new anthropological theories of “historicity”—an alternative to the established “historical idiom” for analyzing our relations with the past—which place historiography within the analytical frame, and enable consideration of the temporality of historical experience. Findings suggest that the alterity of popular Western cultural practices for invoking the past would reward further study.


Diacronia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sorina-Crina Ghiață

Starting with the independence process of all the territories once colonies and later, overseas territories of the different states of Western Europe, Latin America meant an association of unique paradoxes. Portugal and Spain have dominated in the past, especially from a linguistic and religious perspective,the current space that became avaried cultural environment. In this context, the aim of this study is to capture, in the introductory part, characteristics of the Latin American complex identity(reflected, for example, in the names associated with this space of civilization, in political circumstances and social issues, in particular). In addition, another purpose is to highlight the way in which these aspects are considered in the prose of modern Latin American writers, Rodrigo Rey Rosa and Héctor Abad Faciolince. At the same time,emphasizing the scourge of discrimination or inequality, but especially the perpetual violence, thestudyconcludes with a reference (also found in the literary discourse of the two texts chosen for analysis, Los sordos and El olvido que seremos) to the ethical spirit, but also to the feeling of empathy—subjects approached by both writers—in a world that seems more and more fragmented and depersonalized, as if it has been occupied by a continuous stigma of imbalance.


2008 ◽  
Vol 51 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 299-330
Author(s):  
Janusz Gręźlikowski

The Chapter Cathedral of Włocławek its beginning go back first half of XII centuries and justly be numbered to the oldest chapter in Poland. Her start to go back Chapter of Kruszwica. The Chapter of Włocławek entry in qualifications of the Chapter of Kruszwica consequently transfer the capitol of diocese from Kruszwica to Włocławek. The Chapter of Włocławek come into being about 1148 years. Her history is reach and testify her signify in life of the Włocławek Church the past, in particular assistance the bishop in management of diocese. The change in canon law after the Council of Watykański II and the next in the Code of Cannon Law from 1983 years results that the law statutes of chapters – also Włocławskiej – undergo radical change. The Chapter stop was the assist organ of dioceses bishop in management of dioceses, while stay her decision and consultative character chapter stand the council of priest meritorious for dioceses. The dignity of canon should be grant to priests distinguish honest life, virtue, science, zeal and care about Church. In new law reality the Chapter Cathedral of Włocławek, though destitute now most ancient qualification and competence, lake important element in structure of Włocławskiego and Polish Church. Testify about her statutory law, assignments obligations and also fact that in Poland not destroy chapters but reactivate old and create new council of chapters.


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