Work from the Perspective of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. Pedagogical Implications

In his abundant teaching, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński devoted a lot of attention to the question of work, its significance in human life and the role it plays in the process of education. The Primate claimed that education for work cannot be brought down to developing manual competences necessary to perform a given profession, but that it should be a process aimed at discovering the meaning of work itself. In order to understand that meaning properly, Cardinal Wyszyński analysed the text of the Book of Genesis, which tells about the Creator and His “work” in terms of creating the world. Man is a “child of God”, that is, a thinking being endowed with an inquiring mind and capable of grasping the transcendent dimension of his existence. The work performed by man cannot be senseless duplication of the Creator’s deeds, but rather independent human thinking and action. Education for work must be complemented by virtue, for it is virtue that enriches man and allows him to become the performer and creator of work, and not the other way around.

Development of algorithms that simulate the solution of a problem by a person

Some algorithms, which are often based on the use of elements of higher mathematics, possessing high speed and compact coding in algorithmic languages, are poorly mastered by most students. It can be assumed that this is due to the difficulty of presenting the principles of their work in the form of human actions in ordinary situations. Thus, a certain contradiction arises between the way of solving the problem that a person resorts to without using a computer and the way we force our computer to solve this problem. Comparison of the process of explaining algorithms speaks in favor of algorithms imitating human thinking. The discussion of the advantages of the algorithms themselves is beyond the scope of this article and undoubtedly deserves a separate study. If artificial intelligence is created, then its creator or creators will certainly be ranked among the outstanding geniuses in the history of civilization, no matter what algorithms it uses. However, so far there is no one to solve problems for us and create algorithms, so we will use all available means and try to teach this to children.

Cognitive prediction of obstacle's movement for reinforcement learning pedestrian interacting model

Recent studies in pedestrian simulation have been able to construct a highly realistic navigation behaviour in many circumstances. However, when replicating the close interactions between pedestrians, the replicated behaviour is often unnatural and lacks human likeness. One of the possible reasons is that the current models often ignore the cognitive factors in the human thinking process. Another reason is that many models try to approach the problem by optimising certain objectives. On the other hand, in real life, humans do not always take the most optimised decisions, particularly when interacting with other people. To improve the navigation behaviour in this circumstance, we proposed a pedestrian interacting model using reinforcement learning. Additionally, a novel cognitive prediction model, inspired by the predictive system of human cognition, is also incorporated. This helps the pedestrian agent in our model to learn to interact and predict the movement in a similar practice as humans. In our experimental results, when compared to other models, the path taken by our model’s agent is not the most optimised in certain aspects like path lengths, time taken and collisions. However, our model is able to demonstrate a more natural and human-like navigation behaviour, particularly in complex interaction settings.

Narrative essence of language content in the expression of the composer evaluation of their own creativity

The purpose of the article is to investigate the narratives of contemporary Ukrainian composers in the context of their assessment of their own work and the actual existing musicological components of each work: its purpose, the whole conglomeration of musical means of expression, and their multidimensional and multifunctional context. Attention is focused on the problem of inconsistency of the author's linguistic content in expressing his own ideas about his work, with the actual state of affairs, in terms of musicological logic, psychology, etc. The research methodology is based on the analysis of the sphere of expression of human thinking by R. Bart, K. Bremon, F. Jameson, T. Tytarenko, Ts. Todorov, E. Tshebinski and others. Also, studies by G. Gadamer, M. Heidegger, P. Reeker, R. Harre, which consider the narrative as a discursive structure, formed on the basis of their own experience. In the field of musical art, the problem of narratology is paid attention to in the works of N. Gerasimova-Persidskaya, O. Zinkevych, Y. Chekan, and some other musicologists. Scientific novelty. For the first time in the work a comparative analysis of the subjective-authorial understanding of composers of the narratives of their own work with the musicological, culturological, and socio-political context of the existence of the individual, to establish the artistic conceptuality of some of their works. Conclusions. It is established that the assimilation and awareness of meaning are possible only through certain messages that can have many meanings, and decoding them together can take any form. Thus, at the junction of the meanings of the narrator and the listener, his interpretive understanding appears, which becomes the basis of the final conclusion. Keywords: language content, creative narratives, artistic conceptuality, decoding.

HUMAN RIGHTS Evolution in the digital era

This publication contains studies conducted by authors from several European countries that have cooperated with each other for many years in the field of human rights. The fruit of this cooperation are numerous conferences and publications in various languages. What is most important, however, is the exchange of experiences and opinions on understanding and application of individual human rights from the perspective of the experiences of societies living in the European cultural circle, and at the same time functioning in different historical and geographical conditions. This publication is an attempt to look at human rights from the perspective of the dynamic progress that is connected with the development of ICT tools. It is not only about digitization or automation of human work, but above all about creating a virtual society, in which artificial intelligence plays an important role. A significant part of human activity, especially interpersonal communication, takes place with the use of social media. Moreover, individual contact with public authorities are being gradually replaced by intelligent computer programs. In the United States, there is already an IT system, which adjudicates in minor misdemeanor cases. Modern researches in IT sector aim to build programs that allow to support human thinking through recommendation algorithms or suggesting automatically learned solutions, and even aim at autonomous decision-making. This last level of shifting responsibility for decisions to artificial intelligence is assessed extremely positive by many people, but also brings many fears. A virtual society built with the use of artificial intelligence changes the perception of many human rights, such as the right to good name, the right to freely express one’s opinion, the right to property, the right to state or national identity. Hence this publication contains various opinions on the artificial intelligence and its role in the functioning of society and importance for the life of an individual. The added value of this publication is the fact that it contains balanced views and assessments of authors from various European countries and academic societies conducting research on digital reality. This publication will certainly allow the reader to form his or her own opinion on human rights in the context of artificial intelligence.

What transcends the Algorithm - A Critique of the Notions of a Postdigital and a Subsymbolic

Computational logic has, although since its breakthrough with the emergence of digital computers there has always been doubt, mostly been seen as something very different from human thinking; one can e.g. refer to Dreyfus’ famous criticism about what computers can’t do. Facing statistical machine learning as a new paradigm of computing, many seem to think that these lines are getting somewhat blurry. Learning algorithms, their functions not longer explicitly coded, but acquired via optimization methods, are seen as a kind of third mode, located somewhere between classical computational paradigms and human thinking. This view seems to manifest itself in the notions of postdigital and subsymbolic computing. I will argue that this view is mistaken, and machine learning does not soften boundaries posed by the digital and the symbolic, as they were already in effect regarding classical computational logic.

PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE DIGITAL HYGIENE OF LIFE

Автор статьи утверждает, что вопрос А. Камю о том, стоит ли человеческая жизнь того, чтобы её прожить, потому до сих пор не нашел убедительного ответа, что на него нельзя ответить сугубо теоретически. По мнению автора статьи, надо не только обосновать необходимость любви к жизни, но и научиться её практиковать. Он полагает, что практика любви к жизни предполагает следование гигиене жизни. Пребывание в цифровой реальности сильно влияет на жизнь человека. Поэтому современный человек должен следовать цифровой гигиене жизни. Цифровая гигиена жизни не может быть сведена к набору ряда рекомендаций, поскольку их выполнение должно стимулироваться убедительными мотивами. Эти мотивы, согласно автору статьи, являются философскими основами цифровой гигиены жизни и представляют собой приятие трех взаимосвязанных утверждений: мир природы ценнее цифровой реальности, должно воспитывать в себе все большую любовь к живым существам, противодействие механизации человеческого мышления. The author of the article claims that the question of A. Camus whether a human life is worth living, has not yet found a convincing answer, because it cannot be answered purely theoretically. According to the author of the article, it is necessary not only to justify the need for love of life, but also to learn how to practice it. He believes that the practice of loving life involves following the hygiene of life. Being in a digital reality greatly affects a person's life. Therefore, a person, who is often present in a digital reality, should follow the digital hygiene of life. Digital hygiene of life cannot be reduced to the implementation of a number of recommendations, because their application must be stimulated by convincing motives. These motives, according to the author of the article, are the philosophical foundations of digital hygiene of life. They represent the acceptance of three interrelated statements: the natural world is more valuable than digital reality, it should cultivate an increasing love for living beings, and it should resist the mechanization of human thinking.

Ideology in the Era of “Cynical Reason” (Interpretation of Ideology in Slavoj Žižek’s Works)

The article is devoted to the critical analysis of the concept of ideology developed by Slavoj Žižek, the modern Slovenian philosopher. The author reveals the possibilities and limitations of Žižek’s approach to understanding the phenomenon of ideology and considers the initial presumptions and methodological assumptions that this approach is based upon. The article shows that despite the indisputable originality, Žižek’s theory is not devoid of contradictions, and the interpretation of ideology as an illusion and mystification, which is justified within the framework of Marxist political philosophy, loses its foundations in the context of the post-structuralist methodology. According to I.Demin’s conclusion, Žižek’s philosophical and political thinking falls prey to the scheme that Peter Sloterdijk defined as “mutual tracking of ideologies”. Criticism of ideology here implies criticism of one ideo logy from the standpoint of another, or criticism of “bad” ideology from the standpoint of “good” ideology. The “criticizing” ideology is not clearly articulated, but implicitly assumed. The fact that the “critic” of ideology prefers not to reveal his own bias constitutes an integral part of the strategy of ideological criticism, as opposed to scientific criticism. Ideology as the principle that structures social reality obtains an allencompassing character in Žižek’s interpretation, since it underlies all human actions and human thinking. However, if there is no way to separate ideology from scientific knowledge, to distinguish between ideology, philosophy and religion, it turns out that ideology is everything and nothing at the same time. With this interpretation, “ideology” becomes an unoperationalizable concept for Social and Political Sciences, and therefore useless. At the same time, a number of the provisions formulated by Žižek (on ideological “fastening”, on the role of the enemy figure in the ideological discourse, etc.) may be in high demand in the course of developing an adequate methodological strate gy for studying the phenomenon of ideology, which distances itself from both “naïve” objectivist doctrines and the extremes of the political anti-essentialism and anti-universalism.

The phenomenon of secondary nomination in the term system of fashion and beauty

The factors of formation and tendencies of secondary nominations` existence are considered in the article on the material of the terms of fashion and beauty in the modern Ukrainian language. It has been found that the secondary nomination is based on the associative nature of human thinking. The words reflect the processes of living contemplation of the human environment, there is a semantic rethinking of known names and their gradual codification. The formation and creation of a new concept or a new perception of the subject is carried out on the basis of existing language material. The phenomenon of secondary nomination is also inherent in the term systems. A feature of modern terminology is the desire of professionals to «build» motivated terms with predictable semantics. Information about a fragment of reality, the real, objective world enters the term system indirectly as a flow of information. Terms of broad semantics are words used in many term systems, which, in contrast to general scientific and general technical terms, change semantics depending on the term system and retain only the general, non-terminological meaning. Therefore, they can not always be included in the terms, at the same time without them it is impossible to build a terminological system as a language entity. The development of fashion requires categorizing words for certain concepts and objects belonging to this field. It is established that the terminosphere of fashion and beauty is actively replenished due to borrowings, semantic innovations, transition of terms from one terminological system to another, by transtermination. Particular attention is paid to the development of ambiguity and homonymy, which is primarily due to the migration of tokens from one functional style to another. In this way there is a formation / increase of special meanings of words. Under the condition of complete changes, the meaning that is the starting point of evolution disappears, and the word is fixed in the secondary function. Partial changes involve stabilization of the derived shade, which does not weaken the viability of the original content; usually there is a period of coexistence of meanings and thus the word becomes ambiguous. In the field of fashion industry, metaphorical transfers of meaning based on the principle of analogy are quite common. The more components of meaning coincide with the term concept, the greater probability of the word to become a verbal expression of this concept (in the case of associative-semantic metaphor). It was found that the variability of the semantic potential of the word is only one of the expressive illustrations to the transformation of worldview constructs of cognition of the world, reflected in the language of society.

Metaphors in Crisis (On COVID-19 in Romanian and US Articles)

The aim of the paper is to identify similarities and differences in terms of the metaphors used to present the COVID-19 crisis in Romanian and US articles. The paper is structured in two parts – a theoretical and a practical one. The theoretical framework presents metaphors from the cognitive linguistic perspective as a way to understand and explain reality, metaphors playing a major part in human thinking. They are approached in the paper as a subjective way of presenting reality, being indicative of cultural differences. The practical part analyses thirteen Romanian and US articles taken from broadsheet newspapers, focusing on three areas – the presentation of the virus, people’s reaction to it, and the vaccine – in order to see the types of metaphors and the source domains used.