ONTOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF TECHNOLOGY: CATEGORIAL ANALYSIS

The article reveals the ontological essence of technology on the basis of identifying categories that reflect the meaning of technology at various stages of the development of society. Categories: copying, serving, overcoming, production, progress, process, revolution, science, technogenic environment, technosphere, noosphere, alienation force, pollution factor, collective intelligence, technical reality, technotronic civilization, transformation - they consistently reveal the ontology of technology. The significance of the Kappa concept of technology, which defines technology as an extension of a human being, is shown. The influence of the historical context in the formation of categories describing the essence of technology is revealed. Much attention is paid to the inconsistency, multidimensionality of the phenomenon of technology. The article defines the specifics of using the categories of technogenic environment and technosphere. The significance of the natural scientific concept of the noosphere is shown. The analysis of the features of the fifth technological revolution is given, the prospects for the formation of a technotronic society are shown. It has been established that the most important ontological basis of the phenomenon of technology is the anthropological component, which does not remain constant. The question is raised about the possibility of self-sufficiency of technology in the ontological sense, the formation of its independence from a person and the likelihood of such a scenario. The technotronic civilization is just being formed and the prospects for its development are not unambiguous, technology can acquire new, completely unexpected qualities, which requires further research.

Literary Serial Killer Fiction: The Evolution of a Genre

<p>This study examines the dynamics of post-war American serial killer fiction as it relates to social and literary contexts. In the context of history and development, this study considers the impact and origins of particular works and how they have influenced the stylistic and thematic evolution of a particular subgenre I have called literary serial killer fiction. Emphasis is placed on select narratives that directly (or indirectly) transform, challenge and critique the genre conventions in which they are written. Of interest is the evolution of general serial killer fiction as a postmodern phenomenon, in terms of its popularity with the reading public, and in line with the growth of media interest in representations of serial killers. I draw on literary theory (in particular, ‘new historicism’) to demonstrate that the appeal and tropes of serial killer fiction reflect socio-political interests indicative of the era from where they were produced, and to show how the subgenre of literary serial killer fiction can be categorized using its own particular set of defining features. I examine these aspects in detail in relation to the following selection of fictional serial-killer narratives: Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, James Ellroy’s Killer on the Road, and Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. For brevity’s sake, I have selected American narrative works that employ first-person narration and are transgressive in the way they focus on characters who defy convention and push boundaries, as do the narratives within larger genre traditions and protocols. In my view, these works are the purest examples of literary serial killer fiction in that they are characteristically unlike other examples that can easily be categorised under other literary genres. The appeal and popularity of the genre, alongside the functional aspects of the trope, leads me to conclude that it is an ideal form to interact with popular cultural narratives, while also allowing subversive interplay between both real and fictional concerns. The appeal of the genre to those authors who usually write outside of it, particularly in regard to its transgressive and allegorical qualities, is also of particular interest to this study. Because of the hybrid nature of the genre and the ease with which the central trope of the fictional serial killer transcends genres, the resulting possibilities provide a transgressive outlet for authors who wish to test boundaries, in both a literary and an ontological sense, in regard to the commentary serial killer fiction allows on the state of contemporary American literature and society.</p>

Literary Serial Killer Fiction: The Evolution of a Genre

<p>This study examines the dynamics of post-war American serial killer fiction as it relates to social and literary contexts. In the context of history and development, this study considers the impact and origins of particular works and how they have influenced the stylistic and thematic evolution of a particular subgenre I have called literary serial killer fiction. Emphasis is placed on select narratives that directly (or indirectly) transform, challenge and critique the genre conventions in which they are written. Of interest is the evolution of general serial killer fiction as a postmodern phenomenon, in terms of its popularity with the reading public, and in line with the growth of media interest in representations of serial killers. I draw on literary theory (in particular, ‘new historicism’) to demonstrate that the appeal and tropes of serial killer fiction reflect socio-political interests indicative of the era from where they were produced, and to show how the subgenre of literary serial killer fiction can be categorized using its own particular set of defining features. I examine these aspects in detail in relation to the following selection of fictional serial-killer narratives: Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me, James Ellroy’s Killer on the Road, and Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. For brevity’s sake, I have selected American narrative works that employ first-person narration and are transgressive in the way they focus on characters who defy convention and push boundaries, as do the narratives within larger genre traditions and protocols. In my view, these works are the purest examples of literary serial killer fiction in that they are characteristically unlike other examples that can easily be categorised under other literary genres. The appeal and popularity of the genre, alongside the functional aspects of the trope, leads me to conclude that it is an ideal form to interact with popular cultural narratives, while also allowing subversive interplay between both real and fictional concerns. The appeal of the genre to those authors who usually write outside of it, particularly in regard to its transgressive and allegorical qualities, is also of particular interest to this study. Because of the hybrid nature of the genre and the ease with which the central trope of the fictional serial killer transcends genres, the resulting possibilities provide a transgressive outlet for authors who wish to test boundaries, in both a literary and an ontological sense, in regard to the commentary serial killer fiction allows on the state of contemporary American literature and society.</p>

From Being to Existence – The Beginning 0f Hegel’s Logic

Der Artikel legt dar, was "Anfang" im kreisförmigen System Hegels bedeutet, und untersucht kritisch die ersten Schritte seiner Logik: Sein, Nichts, Werden, Dasein. Die These lautet: das Sein als Sein wird hier in seinem ontologischen Sinne nicht gedacht und ein dialektischer Übergang zwischen Sein und Dasein ist nicht möglich. The article exposes what "beginning" means in the circular system of Hegel, and critically studies the first steps of his logic: being, nothing, becoming, existence. The thesis is that being as being is not there thought in its ontological sense, and that a dialectical transition between being and existence is not possible.

Being Alive, Living a Life. The Unity of the Concept of Life in Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

The writings of Corpus Dionysiacum present a concept of life which is different from the one that we profess nowadays. Its view is backed up mainly by the Platonic tradition, which since the times of Plato has tended to see life as an intellectual principle. Therefore, in the Neoplatonic system we can find the conviction that life, in its fullest sense, is intellectual and at its peak is a vision of the One. In the system of Proclus, life, apart from being a principle, is also a god and the main principle of the whole world of intellectual and intellective gods. Pseudo-Dionysius in his writings exploits the concept of the unparticipable and participable principle, and since God is for him Trinity completely beyond participation and knowledge, the divine names play the role of participable henads. However, for Dionysius, names are neither hypostases nor living gods, which is clearly visible in case of the name of Life. All things participate in the name of life and in this name God is the only principle of life in the universe. However, life is not a property to own, but rather a constant struggle to approach the Trinity. Therefore, by committing a sin, an angel or a man loses life, which in the case of a man can be regained through sacramental activity. An analysis of the thoughts of Pseudo-Dionysius reveals a conception of life which is unified contrary to its shattered modern understanding. While biological, mental, moral lives fundamentally differ for us, for Dionysius those are merely aspects of the same thing, and therefore in his view life can be lost and regained not only in the metaphorical, but also the ontological sense.

Environmental Justice

This chapter deals with the evolving quest to attain environmental justice. It demonstrates that there are many facets and manifestations of environmental justice—a concept that sits at the junction of legal doctrine and anthropological realities. Amalgamating these two perspectives permits us to capture examples of such injustices and to analyse how law responds to them. This investigation into environmental justice adopts a three-pronged approach. The first section, ‘The meaning and origins of “environmental justice”’, contemplates the emergence and rise of the environmental justice movement, as well as disruptions and innovations in the ontological sense of the concept itself. The second section, ‘Litigating environmental justice’, lays out concrete facets of environmental justice from a classic anthropocentric viewpoint in a schematically organized format. Four dimensions of environmental justice litigation are delineated. In the third part of the chapter, ‘Expanding environmental justice’, we consider more holistic or ecocentric applications of environmental justice, most notably Indigenous world views and the potential recognition of the rights of nature. We conclude that environmental justice is a moving target—it can mean different things to different people in different contexts, and is constantly adapting to new realities. As topics such as climate change or loss of biodiversity show, the human–nature relationship is, indeed, among the most pressing issues of our time. Environmental justice is, therefore, likely to gain even more importance in the coming decades, and further interdisciplinary research will be required to understand what that justice may entail in very concrete and variegated circumstances.

Qualia, (Private) Language and Experience

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between qualia and language. Author will begin with the explanation of the nature of qualia using the negative method (second and third chapter), which will reveal that qualia are neither ontological properties in a traditional sense, viewed as instances of subjective experience, nor that they possess any epistemological value as such. In the fourth chapter, qualia will be confronted with language on the grounds of experience which we understand as holistic. Experience as such is not differential, which means it does not contain subject-object relationship in an ontological sense. Afterwards, phenomenologically analyzed, experience will be shown in two modes: pre-personal and personal. Pre-personal experience as unreflective cannot produce a subject-object relationship and as such is a birthplace of qualia as a stimuli-response structure. On the other hand, the possibility of personal experience depends only on consciousness. Consciousness is an active function of experience which produces the subject-object relationship by objectifying the relations between itself and the other. Such objectification is only possible within the boundaries of language which is constituted as a relationship of meanings; which is to say that without meaning there is no object at all. The final conclusion of the paper refers to the bridge connection between qualia and language (pre-personal and personal) which is established by consciousness.

Sound, Shape, Space : The Ontology of Space in Architecture

This work embarks on a radically different understanding of space that sheds its preconceived physical attributes. Borne from a criticism of the imbalanced approach to architectural design, which focuses on ‘form’, the aim is to redeem ‘space’ as the inextricably linked partner of form in the design process. Herein, space is re-framed in an ontological manner as it relates to architecture, that is, as having to do with ‘being’. To accomplish this, sound becomes pivotal, constituting a catalyst in the reaction with form that brings ontological space to life within architecture. By using sound in reaction with form, the work will engage in the design of space in the ontological sense; as it relates to being, namely, that of human social practice. At its heart, this work is not really about sound or space, nor even architecture for that matter. It is about the way in which humans exist.

Sound, Shape, Space : The Ontology of Space in Architecture

This work embarks on a radically different understanding of space that sheds its preconceived physical attributes. Borne from a criticism of the imbalanced approach to architectural design, which focuses on ‘form’, the aim is to redeem ‘space’ as the inextricably linked partner of form in the design process. Herein, space is re-framed in an ontological manner as it relates to architecture, that is, as having to do with ‘being’. To accomplish this, sound becomes pivotal, constituting a catalyst in the reaction with form that brings ontological space to life within architecture. By using sound in reaction with form, the work will engage in the design of space in the ontological sense; as it relates to being, namely, that of human social practice. At its heart, this work is not really about sound or space, nor even architecture for that matter. It is about the way in which humans exist.

Creating Being

Heidegger is well known for his arguments that architecture “shelters being,” and allows us to “dwell” in order that we may “think” in his special ontological sense of the term. This chapter takes serious these reflections on the relationship between the built environment and the question of the meaning of Being. Without endorsing such views wholesale, the argument is that there is indeed an existential dimension to buildings—how could there not be?—and therefore that architects have a special responsibility to consider this issue of Being in their work.