Main Elements of H.-G. Gadamer’s Communication Hermeneutics

This study explores the communication articulations of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics. The research method that was used is a mix between the meta-analytic method, comparative method and hermeneutic method. It starts from the assumption that in order to understand the communication universe, this has to be judged in relation with some pre-determined axes. The corpus of analysis is hermeneutical work of Gadamer. We prove that, founder of the philosophical hermeneutics, Gadamer is also one of the founders of communication hermeneutics. The thetic articulation radiography of the Gadamerian work highlights that activities of hermeneutics inevitably occur within communication; communication includes strong interpretive-hermeneutic flows. Gadamer considers the interpretation as an intrinsic process of communication: no communication can exist without interpretation. The work reveals as main elements of Gadamerian hermeneutic conception of communication: universality of interpretation (of reason, language and understanding), hermeneutical situation (addressing, fusion of horizons), the principle and the canon of interpretation.

Crisis and Meaning: F. Kafka and the Law

The parable “Before the Law” is a pivotal text in the work of Franz Kafka. It tells of a man who looks for the law as the quintessence of his life. But his quest for meaning comes to a crisis because of a fundamental deception. Instead of interpreting the law as a personal mystery, he somehow objectifies it. His abstract view on life begets the obstacle-character that embodies all those who could bar him from finding the law. In this narrative, the failure of finding the law results in a murder in which human life is reduced to bestial death. In this sense, Kafka’s narrative is a tale of anti-creation. In a close reading we analyze the text with attention for the ternary structure, i.e. the intertwined complex of the I-Thou relation and the I-It relation (Martin Buber). The literary text is interpreted for its philosophical relevance. Franz Rosenzweig and Emmanuel Levinas but also Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida have an important role in this way of reading.

The Influence of Heritage Sites as Filming Locations on Tourists’ Decisions to Visit Sites and Their Perceptions of Them. Case Study: Game of Thrones

This paper provides an overview of the authors’ master thesis and addresses the effects of World Heritage Sites and heritage sites which are used as filming locations on visitor perceptions of a site and their decision to visit a site. Film-induced tourism is becoming increasingly popular and it is important to assess its impacts on World Heritage Sites and heritage sites used as locations. The integration of the different aspects of heritage and filming at a site including elements and the communication between all the different parties involved are also addressed. The case study used is the popular television series Game of Thrones focusing on various locations in Northern Ireland and Dubrovnik, Croatia. The paper aims to provide a starting platform for future research on heritage sites used as filming locations and the possible impacts that this may have.

From the Guilty City to the Ideas of Alternative Urbanization and Alternative Modernity: Anti-Urbanism as a Border-Zone of City-Philosophy and Cultural Criticism in the Interwar Hungarian Political Thought

The phenomenon of anti-urbanism has accompanied the process of modernisation since the emergence of modernity. The city, the modern metropolis played a vital role in this transition from premodern world to modern era. The metamorphosis of archaic structures, including the fields of economy, society and thinking, are inevitably associated with tensions engendering aversion against the city. Anti-urbanism appeared sporadically everywhere, as a continuous tradition, it emerged at two remote corners of the world: in United States and Germany. Hungarian anti-urbanism of the interwar period had been motivated by the shock of the disintegration of the “Historical Greater Hungary”. The motif of guilty city emerged in the atmosphere of scapegoating: Budapest appeared as incompatible with Hungarian national character. These ruminations about the role of city were embedded in a special context mixing city-philosophy, cultural criticism, German-origin crisis philosophy, political philosophy and national characterology. It was a peculiar mixture in the Central European region: Hungarian interwar thought, from this respect, follows the regional patterns.

Amsterdam Residents and Their Attitude Towards Tourists and Tourism

In Amsterdam, the phenomenon of overcrowding is increasing, and tourism is one of the causes. Both the public debate and the municipal authorities are pointing to an increasing need for more expertise and knowledge regarding ways of achieving a healthy balance for various stakeholders. This article focuses on the stakeholder role of city residents and discusses their attitudes to tourists and tourism-related developments in their own neighbourhood and in the rest of the city. The term “attitude” can be divided into three components: feeling, behaviour and thinking. The results of this study are based on both quantitative and qualitative fieldwork (surveys and semi-structured interviews) and on desk research. It can be concluded that, for the most part, residents have a positive attitude to tourists and tourism. Differences in attitude are mostly determined by the city district where respondents live and by personal feelings and thinking. Follow-up research in the coming years will examine the complexity of the issue of overcrowding in more depth.

Figurativeness in the Sense of Distraction (Studies by Lithuanian Authors)

The phenomenon of the sense of distraction and the feature of figurativeness in it are analysed with the help of phenomenological description, the concept of sense of Juozas Mureika and the conception of imagination of Kristupas Sabolius. The position is followed that the acts of sense and the being of those existing found in them cannot be known in a purely rational way. Knowing is reached with intuitive insights. The experiencing of distraction is approached as one of the norms or intentions of consciousness. The sense of distraction is acknowledged to be a basic value becoming more and more important in a modern stressful life. The article indicates that the intentional beings of the sense of distraction are expressed in really various human activities and are distinguished with mono-subjectivity and unrepeatable feeling. Figurativeness is perceived as the result of imaginary, creative activity of the imagination and aesthetical quality. The peculiarities of the formation of figurativeness are revealed through the phenomenological description of imagination by Sabolius. Four features of the act of visualisation, determining the quality of figurativeness, are emphasized: intentionality, power of transformation, relation with emotions and the symbolism of the image. The conclusion is made that figurativeness, being the result of the creative act (visualisation) of imagination, appears as aesthetical quality or the ensemble of qualities. Figurativeness sharpens the sense of distraction and calls the wave of new experiences.

Review of the Monograph

Author’s collective. Philosophy in the Border Zone. 2015. Orkana Akademisk.

Review of the Book a Rift in the Everyday: a Dialogue that Lasted for 300 Cups of Coffee and Three Cartons of Cigarettes by A. Sergeev and B. Sokolov

A. Sergeev, B. Sokolov. Razryv povsednevnosti: dialog dlinoyu v trista chashek kofe i tri bloka sigaret [a Rift in the everyday: a dialogue that lasted for 300 Cups of Coffee and Three Cartons of Cigarettes]. 2015. Sankt-Peterburg: izdatel’stvo Aleteya.

Shattering the Screen: Embodied Narrative in Digital Media

This illustrated phenomenological inquiry into storytelling in screen media identifies important media transformations of experience. Viewers embody, or situate their experienced selves, according to screen requirements. A viewer’s compelled perspective on the screen causes fundamental spatio-temporal transformations of narrative experience, including horizontal stretching of screen space and time compression or leakage. Virtual media have the potential, as yet unrealized, to break out of the screen and to restore narrative to its primordial, experiential roots.

Borders and Tolerance in Contemporary Political and Cultural Discourse

Chronicle.