Two Theories of Natural Justice in Plato’s Gorgias

In Plato’s Gorgias 482c4–484c3, Callicles advances a concept of natural justice: the laws of the polis must agree with nature, that is, human nature. Since human nature is characterised by its desire to get a greater share (pleon echein), nature itself makes it legitimate that stronger human beings get a greater share than weaker ones. Socrates objects: Callicles’ theoretical approach to civic life poses a threat to the polis’ community, its citizens, and to the friendship amongst its citizens. However, Socrates accepts Callicles’ premise, that the laws of the polis must agree with nature (again, human nature). Still, he disagrees with Callicles about the nature of human nature and proposes an alternative theory of human nature, eventually leading to his alternative concept of natural justice. The article explains the arguments underpinning these two concepts of natural justice, including the conflicting understandings of human nature.

The Science of Politics

In 1576 Louis Le Roy published a new and expanded edition of his translation of Aristotle’s Politics. In the late-sixteenth century, the starting point for academic political reflection remained the Politics, a text which underlined the importance of participation in the constitution. Although Bodin’s alternative concept of sovereignty was widely admired, many readers were troubled by Bodin’s political and religious ideas and wanted to preserve a role for the Aristotelian idea of political justice and for the Church. The effect was a revitalization of politics as an academic disciple or science, in which the civil community was examined alongside the Church. Leading figures in this process include John Case and Richard Hooker in England and Pierre Grégoire in France. In Emden, Johannes Althusius developed a political theory which he described as a reworking of Aristotle; he emphasized the concept of ‘consociation’ and used it to defend the sovereignty of the people. Henning Arnisaeus challenged Althusius’s claims, preferring to see sovereignty as divisible, shared in the Holy Roman Empire between the Emperor and the Princes, and requiring the use of arcana imperii or secrets of state. This chapter shows that the Aristotelian tradition remained important as a way of portraying a hierarchically organized political society as natural to human beings, but that in the wake of Bodin’s writing there was a shift in emphasis away from questions of virtue and distributive justice and towards a discussion of the nature of sovereign power.

Restraining the fox: Minimalism in the ethics of war and peace

Peace plays a central role in the ethics of war and peace, but this proves to be an enormous challenge. In a recent article, Elisabeth Forster and Isaac Taylor grapple with this important topic. They argue that certain concepts in just war theory—aggression, legitimacy, and peace—are essentially contested and susceptible to manipulation. Because the rules are interpreted and applied by the very states that wage war, it is as if the fox is asked to guard the chicken coop—a recipe for disaster. To avoid manipulation of the theory and make the goal of peace attainable, they defend “minimalism” in the ethics of war and peace. This paper responds to and builds on their article. After nuancing the analysis, I will argue (a) that their minimalism does not solve the problem since the proposed alternative concept is equally prone to misuse, and (b) that their minimalism is mistargeted. What I propose is to specify and ground the rules of war without raising the standard too high, to disentangle jus ad bellum and jus post bellum and see peace as guiding principle for jus post bellum, and to interpret that in a minimalist way.

ANALYSIS OF THERMOLUMINESCENCE GLOW CURVES RECORDED UNDER THE HYPERBOLIC HEATING SCHEME BY USING AN ALTERNATIVE CONCEPT OF SYMMETRY

Usually, the order of kinetics of thermoluminescence (TL) glow curve is evaluated by using the concept of traditional symmetry factor (μ_g) in which only three points of a glow curve are used. From the statistical point of view of the reliability of any method of analysis of glow, curve improves if instead of a few points the method can use a larger portion of the glow curve. In the present work, a technique is proposed to determine the order of kinetics associated with a TL peak by using the concept of skewness. The method is applied to experimental thermoluminescence (TL) curves recorded in a hyperbolic heating scheme.

A noble anarchy. Musil and the metaphor between Spengler and Rilke

This paper aims to examine the relationship between stupidity and massification in Robert Musil’s thinking moving from the speech Über die Dummheit (1937). According to the definition of stupidity as a historical epidemic associated with emotions, I take into account the essays of the earlies twenties of the XX century, in which the author interrogates the connection between the “non rational sphere” and the nationalist identity in the context of civilization (Zivilisation). To explain this connection, I highlight the centrality that Musil ascribes to the method of “analogy” in criticizing Spengler’s thought to clarify how the welding of the dimension of “feeling” (Gefühl) and the abstract idea of “national identity” occurs. Based on Musil’s essay dedicated to Rilke (1927), I illustrate the different type of bonds produced by “metaphor” (Gleichnis) to define an alternative concept of community based on the common lack of quality and foundation.

Towards a social pedagogic approach for social care

The term ‘social care’ has come to be applied in England to a variety of policies and services for children and adults deemed, for a variety of reasons, in need of support and assistance. The field to which it is applied is widely recognised to be in crisis, as demand grows, funding lags and a poorly qualified, low-paid workforce shows increasing signs of strain. The article argues that a further dimension to the crisis is the very term ‘social care’. It has little substance and is of limited value in addressing the practice involved in working with children, young people and adults, while its continued use has encouraged a simplified and commodified understanding of what this work entails. The article introduces an alternative concept – social pedagogy – long established and well developed in continental Europe, which, it is argued, could provide a more substantial basis for everyday practice, and a strong foundation for future policy, including reforming the workforce. The conclusion questions whether ‘social care’ can play any useful role in the evolution of policy and practice, discussing some issues that a turn to a social pedagogic approach might raise.

“Who should we hate today?”: Notes from an illiberal laboratory

Similarly to other ethnofuturistic movements (e.g. Afrofuturism, Blaccelerationism, Sinofuturism, Gulf-Futurism, Baltic Ethnofuturism) Hungarofuturism is an experiment in identity-poetical imagination, based on a radically ironic exaggeration of minority identity. As opposed to notions of Hungarianness currently hegemonic in Hungary, this is an alternative concept of what it means to be Hungarian, the discovery of a post-Hungarianism. The Hungarofuturist reprogramming of the hegemonic “nation-machine” does not create organic knowledge and narratives, but anachronisms, phantom-like events in which the incompatibility of the various elements hybridizes history and the cosmos until the very moment of “overidentification” (Slavoj Žižek). One of the primary examples of Hungarofuturist “overidentification” is best demonstrated in the example of hijacking and appropriating the most common pseudo-myth of the esoteric subcultures of the Hungarian far-right: Hungarians—as the so-called “chosen ones”—originating from outer space, namely from the Sirius star system. One of the primary aims of this article is to decipher, hijack, and deweaponize the core of this conspiracy theory, thus demonstrating how Hungarofuturist’s ways of (counter-) narrative-making are capable of deconstructing the phantoms of 1 This essay is partially based on our following previous texts: “Hungarofuturist Manifesto”, in Technologie und das Unheimliche, 2017; “Terraforming PostHungarianness”, WUK, 2020; “Parapolitik der Außerirdischen Interessen”, Kunst und Kirche, 2021. ethnographic authenticity promoted not only by FIDESZ, but by contemporary nationalist political agendas all over the world.