NATO’s Role in Ensuring Security in the Conditions of Changes in the Global Energy Landscape

The article identifies key problems on the path of energy security and the role of NATO in solving them. The Alliance’s position on the energy issue has been determined. The documents of the NATO summits in Bucharest in 2008, in Chicago in 2012, and the NATO 2010 Strategic Concept have been analyzed. It turned out that the Alliance has divided its role into three areas: raising awareness; protecting critical energy infrastructure and deepening energy efficiency in the military. The role of Centers of Excellence, their specialization, and goals have been investigated. The impact of hybrid wars on energy security has been also considered. The actions of the Russian Federation to deteriorate energy security through cyberattacks in order to weaken the role and defensive actions of NATO have been highlighted. It is noted that cooperation with Ukraine is a promising direction for ensuring the energy security of the Alliance. The key tasks that Ukraine faces for the stability of its energy system have been identified. It is concluded that the work of NATO occupies an important place in protecting energy security, because the Alliance managed to clearly define the directions of its activities in this area.

“Soft” Power of China: Efficiency and Response to the Current Challenges

The features of the “soft” power of the PRC, which are significantly based on its indicators of "hard" power – economic and military power, – have been studied. It is noted that there is a difference in the assessment of the state of “soft” power of China by Western countries and, accordingly, by China itself. Emphasis was placed on the prospects for the embodiment of China’s cultural “soft” power and its obstacles. Vulnerabilities in China’s “soft” power have been explored, including the political system and civil society. The importance of the tools of "mask" and "vaccine" diplomacy in the arsenal of "soft" power of China used to minimize the negative effects of the pandemic on China’s image and elevate its status as a leader in global health, have been analyzed. The effectiveness of the Chinese “soft” power has been analyzed through the studies conducted by the “Pew Research Centre” and “Portland Communication” agency. The importance of economic “soft” power in China’s conquest of new allies, including Asia and Africa, has been noted. It is emphasized that the most successful “soft” power is among countries where China is not burdened with accusations of human rights violations. It is noted that one of the main problems in China’s implementation of “soft” power policy is the dissonance between the image that China seeks to project and the country’s actions.

Axiological Dimension of the Concept of the Soul in Pamfil Yurkevych’s Philosophical Works

In the article, the author analyses Pamfil Yurkevych’s vision of the interaction between the heart and the reason as well as analyzes his axiosphere, which is absolutely necessary for the development of our country. The author argues that Pamfil Yurkevych is the founder of the axiosphere, which was in compliance with the European Continental Philosophy’s understanding of the being-with-other (Mit-Sein) and it remains also relevant nowadays. Therefore, the main emphasis in the article is placed on the value component of Pamfil Yurkevych’s philosophical reflection and significance of the concept of the soul as a bearer of axiological foundations for the development of spirituality in society. The author interprets the concept of the soul as the interaction between the heart and the reason. At the same time, the heart is a kind of value filter, and the reason plays the role of an instrument of intentional activity in the field of values, involvement in which enables the real development of society. The author relies on the representation, interpretation and analysis as operations of cognition with the help of which it is possible to reproduce a holistic picture of Pamfil Yurkevych’s axiosphere and prove its significance for the formation of value priorities in the contemporaneity.

Does Philosophy Form or Inform? (Review of the Monograph Pierre Ado “Philosophy as a Way of Life”. Transl. by O. Yosypenko. Kyiv: New Acropolis, 2020).

The review includes a book by Pierre Ado, a French philosopher, philologist and researcher for ancient and medieval philosophy. The main idea of the book is to find an answer on the question: does philosophy form or inform? In this way, the author tries to actualize the fact that philosophical discourse and philosophical life are inseparable. He believes that the recognition of philosophical life as one of the poles of philosophy will help to find a place in our modern world for philosophers who will not only renew philosophical discourse, but also direct it into their lives. This book is addressed to everyone. Ado is convinced that anyone who dares to live in a philosophical way can become a philosopher.

Meaning and Other Problems of the Semantics of Ordinary Language (Foreword to the Ukrainian Translation of H.P. Grice’s Article “Meaning”).

The foreword to the very first Ukrainian translation of H. P. Grice’s article “Meaning” deals with the personality of the famous British-American philosopher, a representative of analytical philosophy, and the importance of his work in the field of semantics and ordinary language philosophy. Translators of this article focus on the features and subtleties of translation into Ukrainian. They drive attention to some concepts, for instance “belief”, “intention”, that cannot be unambiguously translated into Ukrainian, therefore a contextual translation of such concepts is methodologically justified.

Reffering to the Life and Work of Roman Ingarden ((Review of the collective monograph “Philosophy of Roman Ingarden and the Modernity”. Ed. by Dm. Shevchuk. Ostroh: Publishing House of the National University “Ostroh Academy”, 2021).

The content and main issues of the collective monograph “Philosophy of Roman Ingarden and Modernity” edited by Dmytro Shevchuk, issued on materials of the International Conference, which took place in Lutsk at the National University “Ostroh Academy”. In this monograph covered the views and fundamental problems of the famous Polish philosopher in the field of ontology, epistemology, anthropology, axiology, philosophy of literature. We can assume that the authors of the monograph managed to achieve the goal: outlined the significance of R. Ingarden’s achievement for modern philosophy, compared with the views of representatives of the Lviv-Warsaw School, phenomenology, semiotics, philosophy of dialogue and others. The relevance and prospects of the study of R. Ingarden’s works in Ukraine are noted.

The Role of International Organizations in the de democratization of Elections in Ukraine

The article studies the place and the role of international governmental and non-governmental organizations in the democratization of the election in Ukraine. Using a set of general scientific, logical and empirical scientific methods, the authors have identified the main forms of influence of international organizations on the democratization of the electoral process: regulatory influence (development of legal documents governing compliance with international democratic standards by international organizations; assessment of compliance with democratic principles of national election legislation and creation of recommendations for its improvement); controlling influence (implementation by international organizations of short-term and long-term observation of the election campaign, voting and counting of votes); institutional and functional influence (implementation by international organizations of projects to improve the election in specific countries by providing logistical, advisory, educational assistance, etc.). The peculiarities of international organizations’ implementation of the above-mentioned forms of influence during the elections in Ukraine are analyzed. It is concluded that the most important electoral role is played by international organizations in transit societies, where the promotion of electoral procedures by the international community often becomes a catalyst for democratic change in these countries. The authors argue that international organizations have pursued an active policy to support the elections in Ukraine since independence till now. They have had a significant impact on the democratization of electoral law and electoral practice of our country and contributed to the formation of democratic electoral awareness and culture of Ukrainian citizens.

The Types of Notions in “German Logic” of Christian Wolff

The article discusses the problem of classification of notions (Begriffe) by Christian Wolff, particularly in his “German Logic”. Wolff divides notions – as well as representations (Vorstellungen) in general – into obscure (dunkel, obscura) and clear (klar, clara). The clear notions are divided into distinct (deutlich, distincta) and indistinct (undeutlich, indistincta or confusa). And the distinct notions are divided again into complete (ausführlich, completa) and incomplete (unausführlich, incompleta), and on the other hand into adequate (vollständig, adaequata) and inadequate (unvollständig, inadaequata). The aim of the paper is to analyse and to explain these types of notions and in this way to point out the crucial significance of this classification for Wolff’s philosophy. The paper shows that the starting point for understanding of Wolff’s theory of notions in “German Logic” is the correct interpretation of his definition of notion in this work, above all the correct interpretation of the word “Sache”. It is further explained, what it means to have a notion of something by an image and to have a notion of something by bare words. And it is also analysed the difference between obscure, clear (but indistinct), distinct, complete and adequate notions.

Herbert Paul Grice. Meaning

The Ukrainian translation of Paul Grice's article "Meaning". Translated by Yaroslav Petik and Dmytro Sepetyi: Grice, H., P. (Jul., 1957). Meaning. The Philosophical Review, Vol.66, 3, 377-388.

Political Preferences of the Ukrainian National Minority in Poland in the Elections to the European Parliament

The paper describes, interprets, and characterizes the results of elections to the European Parliament in Poland based on the voting behaviour of the Ukrainian national minority. In the article, four European elections 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019 were considered. The research hypothesizes is that the Ukrainian national minority could have a distinct voting behaviour from their region of permanent living and voted obviously for the representatives of liberal and leftist political forces rather than for far-right and right, or even far-left candidates on the elections to the European Parliament. In the years 2004-2019, an interesting phenomenon could be observed in the elections to the European Parliament in the area of communes inhabited by the Ukrainian population. In the «Ukrainian» municipalities located in the northern part of Poland, where the electorate was rather liberal (Civic Platform) or possibly anti-system (Self-Defence) the election results did not differ from the rest of the regions. This phenomenon was inherent in both the West Pomeranian and Warmia-Masurian voivodships. On the other hand, in the Komańcza commune, which is located in the Subcarpathian voivodship, in which the conservative electorate has been the strongest, the results of the voting in the “Ukrainian” commune were significantly different from other communes of the region. In other words, the results of the elections in Komańcza were much more similar to the results obtained in northern and western Poland than to the results in the South-Eastern Poland. The article concludes that, in general, those municipalities, where the citizens of Ukrainian descent consist at least 10% of the overall population, vote for more liberal parties to the European Parliament. Instead, the support of rightwing political parties like Law and Justice, Kukiz’15, Korvin Confederation as a right-wing parties is much lower. Even during elections to the European Parliament in 2019, Law and Justice, victorious in the rest of the country, evidently had lower support in “Ukrainian” municipalities. The Civic Platform is perceived as a much more moderate party, guaranteeing, in their opinion, representatives of the Ukrainian minority a greater sense of security and comfort of living in the Polish state.