Flora of Singapore precursors, 28: Taxonomic and nomenclatural clarification of Kadsura species (Schisandraceae) in Singapore

Recent taxonomic and floristic accounts list Kadsura scandens (Blume) Blume as the sole native Kadsura species in Singapore. However, these works have overlooked Ridley’s earlier documentation of another species, Kadsura verrucosa (Gagnep.) A.C.Sm., which was recorded under the misapplied name K. cauliflora. The reduction of Kadsura cauliflora to a synonym of K. scandens led to the uncritical acceptance of a single Kadsura species in Singapore. The confusion between Kadsura scandens and the morphologically similar K. verrucosa may be partly attributed to the demonstrably ambiguous lectotype of K. scandens. An epitype is therefore designated for Kadsura scandens. Key differences between the two Kadsura species and brief propagation notes are provided here.

Hermann Cohen and His Idea of the Logic of Pure Knowledge

Hermann Cohen, as it is well known, criticised the Kantian notion of the thing-in-itself. And before him the Kantian thing-in-itself was criticised by Fichte and other German idealists. Probably for this reason, Hermann Cohen is sometimes regarded as a person who said things similar to Fichte. This gives a completely wrong perspective, making it impossible to understand the philosopher's ideas. The basis for his critique of the Kantian thing-in-itself is quite different from the motives, determining the criticism of Kant in the classical German Idealism. Such interpretation does not allow to see close connection of Cohen's theoretical philosophy with revolution in physics which took place at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The article explains how Cohen's demand that pure thinking must form its own content is connected with transformations taking place in physics and mathematics, and the peculiarity of Cohen's understanding of idealism is demonstrated: for him, correct idealism must realize that autonomous, free thinking should work seriously with sense data. The closeness of Cohen's ideas to the postpositivist thesis of the theory-ladenness of observation is explained. For Cohen, serious work with sense data is opposite to uncritical acceptance of them as given. The origin of scientific thinking is thinking itself. It responds to the challenge of sensory material by creating its own constructs. Mathematized natural science becomes for Cohen both an example and a confirmation of this thesis. For him, what is real is what is described in the language of mathematical analysis, i.e. continuous processes, in spite of the fact that any data are discrete. It is shown that the source of Cohen's assertions on this issue is in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, namely in the doctrine of the Principles of pure natural science and, more specifically, in the Anticipations of Perception. Cohen's conviction of the constructive character of the theories of mathematized natural science is confirmed in the article by references to the authority of A. Einstein.

Decolonizing Tribal “Genealogies” in the Middle East and North Africa

The continued use of the term “tribe” to describe groups with segmentary organization in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has long been recognized as problematic, albeit without viable alternative English translations of the local terms: qabīla, ‘ashīra, sha‘b, ‘ilt, and others. Yet the equally problematic but enduring uncritical acceptance of genealogical classification of MENA's tribes leads to fundamental misunderstandings of the basic principles of tribal organization as well as the multiple roles of kinship in the region. This propensity is not only misleading but is loaded with social evolutionary assumptions about presumed “stages of development” that hinder scholarship on tribes and have a negative impact on international policy toward countries like Yemen with significant self-identified tribal populations. Key to this essay is the wide diversity and flexibility in the terminology applied to tribal segments and in the sizes of segments.

The Conceptual Foundations of Vojin Matić's Paleopsychology in the Context of Serbian Ethnology

Vojin Matić was a leading figure in Serbian post-war psychoanalysis, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. Paleopsychology, looked upon extremely favorably, even in a revolutionary way, by the Serbian psychoanalysts of the time, was the last and indisputably most problematic part of his oeuvre. The absence of necessary anthropological methodology, the uncritical adoption of discredited and rejected concepts (such as matriarchy), the promotion of 19th-century unilineal evolutionism viewing prehistory as the childhood of mankind – these are just some of the problems of Matić's paleopsychological oeuvre. Nevertheless, this did not prevent him from leaving an indelible imprint on the thinking of numerous generations which would go on to position Serbian psychoanalysis on the international stage. Although untenable by contemporary anthropological standards, Matić's paleopsychology is interwoven with the Serbian psychoanalysis of the 1970s and 1980s, exerting a decisive influence on its application in the humanities, from Vladeta Jerotić's psychoanalytical culturology to Zoran Gluščević's literary criticism. Matić, in turn, actively adopted some outdated positions from the Serbian ethnology of the time. By providing this broader theoretical, historical and academic context, the paper seeks to shed light not only on the occurrence of this scientifically questionable theory, but also on its (surprisingy "uncritical") acceptance outside the anthropological community. The paper therefore presents, in turn: 1) the tenets of Matić's paleopsychology, with emphasis on the features it shared with contemporary anthropology; 2) the biographical and disciplinary/historical background of paleopsycholgy in the works of world psychoanalysts and anthropologists, and in the practices of Serbian ethnology; it is pointed out that Matić's paleopsychology merely provided a psychoanalytic perspective to conventional Serbian ethnology; 3) a reading of Matić's paleopsychological system as a "strong" paranoid theory, that is to say, a theory which, through specific mechanisms os associativity and anticipation, absorbs every ethnographic, anthropological and archaeological fact, thus metastasizing into a self-contained and hermetic system (something that Matić himself noted as a possible structure of his own thinking).

CHURCH AND STATE IN THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF K. BART AND S. HAUERWAS. AN ATTEMPT OF COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

The paper provides analysis of the teachings of K. Barth and S. Hauerwas on the relations between church and state. Unlike the Reformers, Swiss theologian proves the possibility of a positive connection between church and state and points out some ways of its realization. According to K. Barth, both church and state, belong to the Christological sphere, which legitimizes the latter for the church community, as well as calls for mutual service. According to S. Hauerwas, the criterion of power is the legitimization of violence, while the special feature of the church is the ability to make peace. In addition, Hauerwas demonstrates the danger of uncritical acceptance of dominant narratives on the example of liberalism. Thus, on the one hand, the paper demonstrates, the differences in the views of K. Barth and S. Hauerwas, and on the other hand, reflects on common grounds of both theologians, making this research highly relevant today.

Whither Humanity?

Rami Gabriel and Stephen Asma’s book The Emotional Mind: The Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition sketches an ambitious research agenda that centers the explanation and understanding of human experience in our embodied, emotional makeup. It argues for a new evolutionary paradigm that naturalizes the understanding of mind, knowledge, and culture, and emphasizes the affective over the cognitive. I argue that they mischaracterize the role that rationality and philosophical theories of rationality play in understanding and shaping our experience. Furthermore, I argue that the book is insufficiently critical about the emotional origins of the theories it explores, which leads to its uncritical acceptance of androcentric ideas and it all but ignores the great and growing problems of group-based inequality whose roots are in the overriding effect of affect.

Editorial

The field of academic development in South Africa has produced a wealth of research over the thirty years of its existence. The impact of globalisation, however, has meant that local research in the field of academic development is often regarded as being of lesser value than knowledge from the global North and the so-called ‘best practices’ that emerge from it. The impact of uncritical acceptance of ‘best practice’ approaches from the global North is that understandings of teaching and learning tend to be divorcedfrom the context of practice. As a result, the application of such approaches often failsto accommodate the diverse learning needs of students and are not responsive to complex institutional and global South contexts.

ЗЛОУПОТРЕБА КОНЦЕПТА УНИФИКАЦИЈЕ ОБРАЗОВАЊА И КРИЗА НАЦИОНАЛНОГ ИДЕНТИТЕТА

The authors of this paper address the problem of education which in its transformation, when small countries are concerned, means openness towards the uncritical acceptance of Anglo-Saxon educational and cultural norms. Western society, with its economic supremacy and political aspirations, has managed to include contemporaries into the process of transformation, which among other things involves uniformity of education and culture. This enables it to maintain that supremacy. The authors emphasize the difference between internationalization and globalization of education. Special attention is given to the Bologna process in terms of the neoliberal integration strategy which essentially involves the neglect of national identity. They criticize the ongoing commercialization of education and in this sense the marginalization of science in society, which further leads to decadence. Ethical goals are being neglected on account of abstract individualism.

„Tłumacz między kulturami” – o Macieju Zarembie-Bielawskim

The paper refers to this trend of hermeneutics, whose representatives understand the interpretation as "articulated understanding". The texting, including paraphrase, the translation of someone else's language, is a prerequisite for the existence of cultural space, so that a critical view and cognitive verification of another narrative is possible. In the case of Maciej Zaremba, we are dealing with a reporter who writes Swedish about Swedes as an outsider, that is – keeping the distance and ability to see what the Swedes do not want or cannot see with their own eyes. It explores the areas of action of the "Swedish norm", visible from the outside, invisible "from the inside", just as the recognition of otherness and a peculiar value of some culture is possible for foreigners. Natives themselves are not able to recognize their standards (also assess) without the participation of outsiders. For Zaremba, writing is an act of disagreement with the uncritical acceptance of otherness, while using critical negation language and analytical tools with a more conceited intention than an overtly damning one. In this new incarnation, the author himself calls himself a "translator between cultures", whose strength lies in the fact that he has retained the ability to marvel, to expand his imagination and to seek new language means, to clearly separate facts from opinions. It is a vision of a man building a bridge between two cultures, and his ideal is subjects of resistance and non-toxic communication standards are his ideal.

Beyond Onto-theology and Metaphysics: the Cases of Heidegger and Nietzsche

Two recent works will be considered that discuss Heidegger and Nietzsche in the context of the problem of overcoming metaphysics and the onto-theological tradition. A common criticism will be that these works in their attempt to retrieve a conception of religion, politics or faith beyond onto-theology and metaphysics tend to justify or idealize particular historically and culturally conditioned perspectives, which are not immune from further philosophical critique. Simon Oliai’s approach to countering the burgeoning fundamentalisms in our global age is ultimately not very convincing, representing as it does, a Western, liberal, Eurocentric worldview. The author’s use of Nietzsche or Heidegger for this purpose is also not very compelling. The remainder of this review essay appraises the volume edited by Cimino and van der Heiden, which attempts to rethink faith beyond onto-theology in several interesting ways. Although meant to be a comparative study, several contributions subscribe to a general Heideggerian (or Heidegger-inspired phenomenological-hermeneutical) theoretical framework, which itself is not rigorously scrutinized. A problematic implication is that Nietzsche’s own critical and constructive views of philosophy, his critique of religion and history, and his positive appraisal of faith and divinity are not seriously considered on their own terms: they are either mostly ignored, or they are selectively interpreted through a Heideggerian lens, with the result that this volume puts forward a mostly unfavorable view of Nietzsche. Some of the conceptual moves credited to Heidegger in the volume have their equivalents in Nietzsche’s philosophy, which a comparative and evaluative study such as this one must seriously take into account by resisting the uncritical acceptance of Heidegger’s own view of Nietzsche.