Mark Twain

Mark Twain is one of the most fascinating figures in American history. His literary works have intrigued, illuminated, inspired, and irritated millions from the late 1860s to the present. Twain was arguably America’s greatest writer from 1870 to 1910. In an era of mostly lackluster presidents and before the advent of movie, radio, television, and sports stars, Twain was probably the most popular person in America during the 1890s and competed with only Theodore Roosevelt for the title in the 1900s; his celebrity status exceeded that of European kings. Twain’s varied experiences as a journeyman printer, riverboat pilot, prospector, journalist, novelist, humorist, businessman, and world traveler, combined with his incredible imagination and astonishing creativity, enabled him to devise some of American literature’s most memorable characters and engaging stories. Twain was mesmerized, perplexed, frustrated, infuriated, and inspired by Christianity. He strove to understand, critique, and promote various theological ideas and insights. Twain’s religious perspective was complex, inconsistent, and sometimes even contradictory and constantly changed. While many scholars have ignored Twain’s strong focus on religious matters, others disagree sharply about his religious views, with most labeling him a secularist, an agnostic, or an atheist. The evidence indicates, however, that throughout his life he engaged in a lover’s quarrel with God. Twain was an entertainer, a satirist, novelist, and reformer, but he also functioned as a preacher, prophet, and social philosopher. He tackled universal themes with penetrating insight and wit including the character of God, human nature, sin, providence, corruption, greed, hypocrisy, poverty, racism, and imperialism. Moreover, Twain’s life provides a window into the principal trends and developments in American religion from 1865 to 1910.

Introduction

Twain is one of America’s most popular, renowned, and influential authors. He grappled with major theological concepts and issues and strove incessantly to find meaning in life. Twain extensively analyzed and criticized the biblical God, Christ, the Bible, and Christianity. His constantly changing views of these matters have led scholars to identify Twain as an agnostic, an atheist, a secularist, and a theologically liberal Christian. Twain functioned as a preacher, prophet, and social philosopher. He used his penetrating pen and the lecture platform to proclaim his understanding of the truth, attack a wide variety of social injustices, and present his views on numerous philosophical issues. Twain’s influence on American society extended well beyond providing entertaining, humorous novels, short stories, and essays as he addressed such major questions as is there a God, what is the nature of human beings, what is the purpose of life, and is there an afterlife.

Taboos on the teaching vocation

The work "Taboos on the teaching vocation" was read by the German social philosopher and representative of critical theory Theodor Adorno as a report on May 21, 1965 at the Berlin Institute for Educational Research (West Berlin). In this report, Adorno considered the socio-psychological and socio-cultural reasons that in the context of Western European culture have historically led to the social emergence of many psychological taboos on the pedagogical work of the school teacher. The philosopher theoretically deduced the dialectical connection between human hostility and disgust for the work of the teacher from the cultural tradition of German society, which historically developed as late bourgeois. A characteristic feature of the attitude of the overly materialistic socio-cultural system was aversion to the work of the teacher as a "hungry job", that is, to a poorly paid profession. Another factor of public disgust for the work of teachers, the philosopher called the socio-cultural tradition of society, which as a closed society willingly practiced physical violence as a means of social coercion. According to this tradition, through the use of violence, the teacher must subordinate students to his authority, subordinate to social and school ideology. The historical result of such dialectics was the socio-cultural (ideological) distortion of the image of the teacher, the castration of his image in social psychology, his self-alienation from the professional vocation and the ideological elimination of the power of his spirit. As an ideological alternative, Adorno suggested that society, if it consciously seeks democratic change, first of all take into account such young teachers who demonstrate the impulse of their individual spirit in the performance of their profession. According to the philosopher, only the spiritual freedom of such a young educator, a man who is capable of self-understanding, conscious of himself and his vocation, who reflects and is socially active, can democratize schools, devalue society and destroy dehumanized social traditions. First of all – in order to overcome the barbaric tradition of violence.

The double return of Friedrich Engels: Towards a dialectics of the trace

Two sculptures of Friedrich Engels have recently been installed in Greater Manchester, the city where the social philosopher spent most of his working life and was the focus of his proto-ethnographic account of the early industrial city. The first sculpture is a fibreglass ‘fabricated ruin’ set within a newly rebuilt section of the University of Salford campus. The second is a former Soviet monument that was transported from eastern Ukraine to Tony Wilson Place, a new arts, business and entertainment space in central Manchester. While the appropriation of the city’s radical figures and movements is very much part of Manchester’s narrative of post-industrial regeneration, the ‘homecoming’ of Engels in the decade following the 2008 financial crash and amid the unfolding Brexit crisis raises certain methodological concerns for us. Engels is a figure who has returned and can be returned to. Here, his 'double return' can be read in very particular ways. In this paper, we bring Engels back to Manchester as a figure who will immediately re-signify against the contemporary political, economic and cultural landscape. In doing so, we advocate a dialectics of geographical traces that can grasp the social contradictions and fractures of the present in a way that works both within and beyond the writing and practice of Engels. As we move on from the 2019 UK General Election in which the Conservative party formed a substantial majority government into the fractured British landscapes of 2021 and beyond, this practice becomes increasingly necessary.

David DeGrazia on Animal Rights: A Critical Analysis

The article aims to critically discuss the theory of animal rights developed by American social philosopher David DeGrazia. It consists of two parts. The first one describes the main elements of DeGrazia’s approach, namely his views on animal minds, the principle of equal consideration, the idea of unequal moral status, the concept of border persons, and practical remarks concerning improving the treatment of animals by humans. The second part presents remarks about the points where DeGrazia’s proposals should be supplemented and corrected so as to make them more convincing and widely accepted. The conclusion of the essay is the proposal of a cultural revolution for the benefit of animals, which should be initiated by famous people, like actresses, actors, sportswomen and sportsmen, because of their influential position in contemporary societies.

“The Meaning of War” by Vladimir Solovyov and Russian Society

The article tells about ideological premises and circumstances of appearance of the famous article The Meaning of War by Wl. Solovyev published in 1895. It states, that this article which was later included into the Wl. Solovyev’s trea­tise The Justification of Good as a special chapter, reflected not only the devel­oping conflict of the thinker with religious and ethical views of Leo Tolstoy but also the increasing alienation of Wl. Solovyev from his liberal circle. It points out the reasons by which the Wl. Solovyev’s justification of war was not adopted by Russian liberals who didn’t want to come into polemics with Tolstoy’s ideas which were popular in the populist camp. The article pays special attention to the significance of the phenomenon of intellectual class and to the factor of increas­ing of its role in society for the proper understanding of the rise of pacifism in Russian society in the 1890-s. It brings out a close connection between the so­cio-political views of Wl. Solovyev in 1890-s and the views of his father, the prominent Russian historian Sergey Solovyev, and in particular, his conception of war between the West and the East as the leitmotif of the world history. It puts forward the thesis that the main task of Wl. Solovyev as a social philosopher and public figure was the rebirth of the complex of ideas which was symptomatic for the 1840-s in Russia. That complex included a statesmanship tinged with roman­ticism, belief in the positive role of Russian empire in the history and the percep­tion of Russia as a keeper of European unity.

“Leviathan”, or an essay on the doctrine of the state by T. Hobbes

The study focuses on individual episodes of the biography, the most notable ideas and main socio-political views of the outstanding English scientist, social philosopher, theorist of the origin of the state – T. Hobbes. On the basis of the classic work “Leviathan”, his backbone thoughts on the processes of state building, the development of a balanced normative and legislative system and specific motives for striving for power are highlighted. In particular, attention is focused on the search by the researcher of the optimal balance between freedom and the duties of a citizen. The aspiration of the classic to a comprehensive study of the most effective mechanism, optimal forms of public administration, primarily for the establishment of stable social order and safety, is noted. The scientist emphasized that an authoritative, sovereign, legitimate state is able to effective cope with the tasks set. In which those in power are obliged to be guided by norms of morality and law. Characterized, according to the researcher, the socio-psychological traits of both average citizens and sovereigns for the full life support of the country.Highlighted his heuristic principles of anthropomorphism, which more metaphorically, expressively detail the likely destructive diseases of the state, among which he considered the lack of frugality and the processes of oligarchization of the socio-political system to be especially unsafe. Scientists emphasized the absolute rejection of corruption, lack of social justice, abuse of power. Thus, the advantages and disadvantages of various forms of government were highlighted, in particular, monarchical, aristocratic, democratic. The scientists himself was an active supporter of absolute monarchy and the unshakable authority of the state. At the same time, he focused not so much on the duties of citizens to the state, as on the duties of state representatives to their citizens, the implementation of which can state structure effective, authoritative and legitimate. At the same time, the contribution of T. Hobbes to the development of the philosophy of law is highlighted. In general, it was emphasized that the English scientist comprehensively substantiated his own thought about the immutability of human nature in the form of manifestations of selfishness, individualism, insatiable appetites, unrestrained passions, and the desire for social change. According to the philosopher, only a just, sovereign, authoritative state is capable of curbing the negative manifestations of human nature. In addition, attention focused on the state-forming nature of his philosophy and the scientist’s significant contribution to the development of the theory of the social contract or the contractual origin of the state is highlighted.

David DeGrazia o prawach zwierząt – analiza krytyczna

The article aims to critically discuss the theory of animal rights developed by American social philosopher David DeGrazia. It consists of two parts. The first one describes the main elements of DeGrazia’s approach, namely his views on animal minds, the principle of equal consideration, the idea of unequal moral status, the concept of border persons, and practical remarks concerning improving the treatment of animals by humans. The second part presents remarks about the points where DeGrazia’s proposals should be supplemented and corrected so as to make them more convincing and widely accepted. The conclusion of the essay is the proposal of a cultural revolution for the benefit of animals, which should be initiated by famous people, like actresses, actors, sportswomen and sportsmen, because of their influential position in contemporary societies.

Początki kryminologii w Polsce. Od ery prepozytywistycznej do pełnego pozytywizmu

The publication of Cesare Lombroso’s The Criminal Man in 1876 is generally considered the birth of criminology. The new science did not emerge all of a sudden but resulted from a longer process. Various attempts, feasible for the scientific method at successive stages of its development, were made to explain the reasons for criminality before the arrival of the era of positivism and contemporary science, and the construction of Lombroso’s theory of the born criminal. Franz Joseph Gall proposed the theory of phrenology, claiming that the shape of the brain is decisive for criminal tendencies. Philippe Pinel perceived the cause of crime in “mania without delirium”, and James C. Prichard in “moral insanity”. The developing social sciences and the positivist physicalism governing them made it possible to handle the statistical aspects of the phenomenon (A.M. Guerry, A. Quetelet). Such novel scientific information reached Poland mostly through physicians, yet was hardly interesting for lawyers brought up on the foundations of the classical school. In criminal law, they a priori rejected determinism together with the achievements of contemporary science. The first of the Polish lawyers to support the concept of determinism in human and social behaviours was professor of criminal law Józef MichałRosenblatt. He also realised that the new discipline of criminology, distinct from criminal law, was being born. In 1888 Ludwik Krzywicki, a social philosopher, teacher, and sociologist could have been the first to use the term “kryminologia”in Poland. He also challenged Lombroso’s theory, criticising it from Marxist and sociological positions. However, one of the most fascinating Polish criminologists of the late 19th century was professor of forensic medicine Leon Wachholz.