Thinking Europe’s “Muslim Question”: On Trojan Horses and the Problematization of Muslims

Understanding the ways in which Muslims are turned into “a problem” requires an analytic incorporating the insights gained through the concepts of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism into a larger frame. The “Muslim Question” can provide such a frame by attending to the systematic character of this form of racism, explored here through biopolitics. This article develops a conceptualization of Europe’s “Muslim Question” along three lines. First, the “Muslim Question” emerges as an accusation of being an “ alien body” to the nation, often expressed through the Trojan horse legend. Second, the “Muslim Question” is elaborated through demands of integration and assimilation, in which the production of difference entangles with calls and measures to regulate Muslims. And third, the “Muslim Question” is brought to life upon the terrain of gender and sexuality, as the imaginary of threat at the heart of the “Muslim Question” is a replacement conspiracy centered on birthrates.

Gift Game Metatheory: Social Interaction and Interpersonal Growth

This paper analyzes Game Theory (GT) from the point of view of moral psychology and makes explicit some of its assumptions regarding the human person as a moral agent, as well as the ends of human action, and reciprocity. Using a largely philosophical methodology, we will argue that GT assumes an instrumental form of rationality underpinned by a logic of self-interest, hence placing individuals, communities, and their social practices in service of external goods and their maximization. Because of this, GT is not adequate to describe the entirety of human social existence and interaction. Nevertheless, by revealing these assumptions, GT can be amplified with another form of rationality based on realist ethics and a personalist anthropology reinforced by the logic of gift. This rationality values the singularity of each person as a holistic unity, as the center of the social realm and as an end in herself called to growth and flourishing with others, nurturing the human community through giving and receiving. We will thus provide a wider philosophical framework for GT with a series of non-mathematical axioms of what can be called a Game Metatheory (GMt). These axioms refer to society as a complex system, not to particular interactions. GMt axioms are not a model of social games, but rather an axiomatic description of social life as a game, revealing its systematic character, complexity, and possible deterioration.

Propositions pour une psychosémiologie historique du français : quelques réflexions à partir de l’histoire du verbe français

While it is true that the linguistic theory of Gustave Guillaume (1883–1960) is generally designated under the name of psychomechanics because it postulates that the thought in the language action operates through a constantly repeated and formally homogeneous set of movements, which gives it its psychically systematic character, it does not ignore the semiological dimension of language, which also aims at a certain systematization. Hence a place for a psychosemiology, which this contribution aims to define and illustrate from examples taken in the morphological history of French.

MOTIVATION FOR ATTENDING PHYSICAL EDUCATION LESSONS BY 14-15 YEAROLD STUDENTS

The level of motor training of students is not a stable index over a period of time. It degrades if the physical activity of the individual is reduced or the practice of physical exercises does not have a systematic character. This process takes place, for example, at the beginning of the school year, for the students who did not play sports during the holidays. For this reason, one of the tasks of physical school education is to train - educate students and form the stable motivation for practicing physical exercises throughout the year, the formation of the skills and abilities to organize the physical activity independently, based on the consideration that, over time, the motivation for practicing physical exercises will decrease. But the motivation is closely related to the gratification of what students have in relation to the physical education lessons. It has been established that the gratification of the physical education lessons is tested by 60% of the students in the primary classes, while in the secondary classes only 30%. The degree of gratification from the physical education lessons is an important component of the children's attitude towards this discipline. Motivated physical activity is one of the most important characteristics of modern physical culture.

Balancing power in co-production: introducing a reflection model

The role and position of users in health and welfare has recently changed to become more active in co-production of care. When more co-production is preferred, challenges related to power need to be considered. In this paper, power is seen as the possibility to influence. The paper focuses on power in co-produced improvement work by introducing a reflection model based on Franzén’s power triangle, further developed from improvement coaches’ perceptions. First, empirical data from interviews with improvement coaches were analyzed and then the theoretical model was created. Twelve coaches were included in the interviews, all of them with experience of co-production and improvement work within a region in southeast Sweden. By combining the empirical results with the power triangle, a reflection model concerning power dimensions was developed. The results showed the necessity of reflection regarding several power-related factors. Resources were found to be important and depending on contextual settings. Attitudes and perceptions among personnel and users were also vital. To accomplish co-production, the power dimension must be considered, and the power triangle acknowledges different power dimensions and how they affect each other. The model has a systematic character and allows adjustments to the power dimensions within any other context. It can inspire and be used by improvers working with co-production to promote deeper professional and organizational reflection and thereby contribute to new insights on how to balance power in co-producing health and welfare services.

Chrysostomos Papadopoulos and the Russian theological academic landscape of 19th century

In this report I will focus on Archbishop of Athens, Chrisostomos Papadopoulos’ studies in 19th century Russia. More precisely, the Russian theological academic landscape will be specified. This landscape had on one hand certainly been influenced by the western philosophy and the protestant theology, but on the other hand it is nevertheless characterized by an evolution in the theological studies to which a systematic character of translation, study and pinpointing of the works of the Fathers is gradually attributed. Concerning Church History, about which Chrisostomos Papadopoulos is mostly interested in, it will followingly be supported that it particularly flourishes in the Theological Academies of Russia as well, especially in Saint Petersburg, with the presence and the work of the significant historian, B. Bolotov.

Analyzing Memetic Isolation Fantasy Themes during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Normalization of a Previously Unknown Social Problem

The aim of this article is to analyze memes about social isolation introduced in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic. The author’s contact with memes during the first weeks of the pandemic (March–April) was initially motivated only by the desire to fill leisure time in such strange circumstances as the time of quarantine. With time, the observation began to take on a more systematic character, and the images found on the web became an interesting research material illustrating strategies undertaken to normalize and familiarize people with forced isolation and imposed social distancing, measures previously unknown in society on such a large scale. The material thus collected was analyzed using the fantasy themes analysis (FTA) method.

Introduction

The first part of Chapter 1 presents the polemical aim of the book, namely to do away with the understanding of Spinoza’s freedom of philosophizing as a legal permission to express whatever opinion one has—a right to “free speech” in the contemporary meaning—and show how it enshrines a vision of how to better regulate public speech in view of increased collective self-determination. The second part contains methodological reflections on the status of texts, contexts, and historical circumstances in the study of the history of philosophy, and explains two assumptions made about the structure and systematic character of the Tractatus theologico-politicus. This part also includes discussion of so-called esoteric readings of Spinoza. The third and final part is a general outline of the entire book, intended to provide the reader with some guidance to the global argument.

The model of the world in the poetry of ‘the new 2010s’: G. Medvedev, A. Trifonova, A. Kinash

The article considers the motif structure of the books by three young poets: G. Medvedev (A Butterfly Knife [Nozh-babochka], 2019), A. Trifonova (a yellow Ikarus bus in the distance [zhelty ikarus vdali], 2019), and A. Kinash (Fragments from a Dream Dictionary [Otryvki iz sonnika], 2019). A comparative analysis of the three books helps the author to identify typical generational traits — in poetics, themes, the motif structure, as well as ways to interpret the laws of the universe and solve semantic problems. The topic of a child’s world features in the works by Medvedev, Trifonova and Kinash alike; their childhood is shaped by playgrounds in provincial towns, active outdoor games and 1990s children’s folklore, although each of them treats these biographical and literary themes in their own way. Trifonova prefers a linear interpretation of time and space, while Kinash chooses to employ a mythological chronotope; in Medvedev’s book, time and space follow the principles of historical organization with their holistic and systematic character. Childhood appears to be the starting point for creation of the poetic system of each of the poets as well as a destination they keep returning to.