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Research Article
Rut Björkman's Spiritual Strategy of Dealing with the Existential Contradiction
Imre Koncsik*
Issue:
Volume 13, Issue 3, September 2025
Pages:
89-94
Received:
28 May 2025
Accepted:
16 June 2025
Published:
4 July 2025
Abstract: Spirituality is not identical to religion, but implies a life in the spirit as a result of a religious experience. Spirituality leads to "spiritual knowledge" in contrast to "intellectual knowledge". It is that "search, practice and experience..., through which the subject makes the necessary changes in himself to gain access to the truth." Primary are of course religion beliefs. They are based on a) an existential experience and b) the existential response to it in the act of faith. Subsequently, whether spirituality - here: by Rut Björkman - does justify the religious experiences of a deep contradiction, will be considered and reflected.
Abstract: Spirituality is not identical to religion, but implies a life in the spirit as a result of a religious experience. Spirituality leads to "spiritual knowledge" in contrast to "intellectual knowledge". It is that "search, practice and experience..., through which the subject makes the necessary changes in himself to gain access to the truth." Primary...
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Commentary
Silences and Solitudes, Between the Human and the Divine
Issue:
Volume 13, Issue 3, September 2025
Pages:
95-98
Received:
4 June 2025
Accepted:
16 June 2025
Published:
7 July 2025
Abstract: The attempts at dialogue, in the 1950s and 1960s, between the journalist Sergio Zavoli and the cloistered nun Maria Teresa offer us the opportunity to dwell on the connections between experiences such as solitude, dialogue, silence, listening. Phenomena on which philosophers such as Aristotle and Hume shed light. In Hume, the Aristotelian philía, based on utility and/or pleasure and/or virtue, is accompanied and almost replaced by that linked to joy and the need to share. And involuntary solitude becomes a painful condition and a torment of the body and soul, a real misfortune. What happens, however, when solitude is voluntary, for example aimed at listening to God? In reality, as the life of Sister Maria Teresa shows, there can be an intimate and fruitful tension between silent conversation with God and interhuman dialogue. She seeks and loves men in God for a long time, then slowly learns to seek and love God in men. Here, among other things, André Neher's intuition is confirmed, according to which dialogue is nourished by both silences and words, sometimes accompanied by a meta-silence dimension, which transcends both. At a certain point, Sister Maria Teresa feels a sort of vertigo: the silence of the cloister is too silent, that isolation risks translating into arid solitude, that silence, more silent than any noise and any silence, becomes an abyss, a chasm, a limit.
Abstract: The attempts at dialogue, in the 1950s and 1960s, between the journalist Sergio Zavoli and the cloistered nun Maria Teresa offer us the opportunity to dwell on the connections between experiences such as solitude, dialogue, silence, listening. Phenomena on which philosophers such as Aristotle and Hume shed light. In Hume, the Aristotelian philía, b...
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Research Article
Carl Schmitt and Jacques Derrida, Dialogue Tests
Issue:
Volume 13, Issue 3, September 2025
Pages:
99-102
Received:
2 June 2025
Accepted:
20 June 2025
Published:
15 July 2025
Abstract: Carl Schmitt and Jacques Derrida are rather distant authors. The first is an expression of continental Europe, the second is Franco-Algerian, nourished by Jewish culture. Yet, for example, both take the biblical lesson seriously. Schmitt moves through an articulated discourse, attentive to nuances, exceptions and particularities. Derrida is more inclined, with Nietzsche and, in some ways, with Marx and Freud, to reversals, assonances, paradox. The genesis of Derrida's thought and his work of deconstruction, however, particularly in the ethical field, owe something to Schmitt's conceptualizations. Ultimately, for example, it is precisely the rigid friend/enemy dichotomy, typical of the German jurist's concept of "political", that opens the way to the idea of sexual difference, thanks to the observation that the "friend" or the "enemy", in the feminine, is not mentioned. And the differences between the two authors with respect to the idea of eventuality, of possibility, with respect to "perhaps" and the event are interesting and suggestive. Derrida's is not an unproblematic praise of friendship, but rather a passionate analysis of the scenarios opened up even in the public sphere by that apparently entirely private feeling that is philía, together with "pure reciprocity and generosity without return", to quote Maurice Blanchot. A definition, linked to the Greek world, ever open, suggestive and ready to welcome others.
Abstract: Carl Schmitt and Jacques Derrida are rather distant authors. The first is an expression of continental Europe, the second is Franco-Algerian, nourished by Jewish culture. Yet, for example, both take the biblical lesson seriously. Schmitt moves through an articulated discourse, attentive to nuances, exceptions and particularities. Derrida is more in...
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Research Article
An Exposition of W. V. O. Quine’s Ethics and the Nature of African Moral Value
Babatunde Olatunji Oni*
Issue:
Volume 13, Issue 3, September 2025
Pages:
103-107
Received:
19 June 2025
Accepted:
8 July 2025
Published:
28 July 2025
DOI:
10.11648/j.ijp.20251303.14
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Abstract: This paper discusses an exposition of W. V. O. Quine’s ethics and the nature of African Moral Value. The paper explores Quine’s naturalized epistemology and rejection of traditional notions of morality. It examines Quine’s ethical methodological infirmity that rest on observation and relate it to African moral values that emphasize community harmony and relational ethics which can be attained through observation. Through critical and analytical methods of philosophical inquiry, the paper argues that Quine’s naturalised ethics can be aligned with African communitarian moral structures that depend on empirical validation. The paper, while acknowledging Quine’s skepticism regarding the scientific grounding of ethics, African traditions, through communal experience and oral transmission, validate moral norms via social processes. The paper concludes that both Quine’s ethics and African moral values suggest that morality is an evolving, context-dependent and social phenomenon, underpinned by cultural and experiential factors rather than abstract rationalism concept. The paper will contribute to the ongoing discussions in African philosophy, ethics, and cultural studies, highlighting the importance of contextualizing moral inquiry within diverse cultural framework.
Abstract: This paper discusses an exposition of W. V. O. Quine’s ethics and the nature of African Moral Value. The paper explores Quine’s naturalized epistemology and rejection of traditional notions of morality. It examines Quine’s ethical methodological infirmity that rest on observation and relate it to African moral values that emphasize community harmon...
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Research Article
The Role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in Ho Chi Minh City in Building and Promoting Socialist Democracy Through Social Supervision
Dinh Van Chi*
Issue:
Volume 13, Issue 3, September 2025
Pages:
108-115
Received:
9 June 2025
Accepted:
25 June 2025
Published:
30 July 2025
DOI:
10.11648/j.ijp.20251303.15
Downloads:
Views:
Abstract: This article has approached the problem in a comprehensive, scientific way, combining theoretical basis and vivid practice. In order to clarify the object of research, the author applies the Marxist-Leninist philosophical methodology, the analysis – synthesis method, and the practical survey method to clarify the effectiveness of social supervision activities. The article clearly affirms that social supervision activities are one of the key functions and clearly demonstrates the role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front in Ho Chi Minh City in building a socialist state under the rule of law and promoting democracy. Through participating in supervising areas such as the implementation of social security policies, corruption prevention, administrative reform, environmental protection and the legitimate interests of the people, the Front has contributed to enhancing the responsibility of public authorities, enhancing transparency and strengthening social trust. The author also pointed out the limitations that still exist in social supervision such as uneven supervision capacity among Front levels, some supervision contents are still spreading, not keeping up with the urgent needs and problems of the people, and the response mechanism of the authorities to the supervision proposal is not really effective. On that basis, the article proposes key solutions: improving the political level, social supervision and criticism skills for the Front's cadres; perfecting the coordination mechanism between the Front and the government and relevant agencies in supervision activities; at the same time, strengthen the application of information technology to innovate the content and methods of social supervision.
Abstract: This article has approached the problem in a comprehensive, scientific way, combining theoretical basis and vivid practice. In order to clarify the object of research, the author applies the Marxist-Leninist philosophical methodology, the analysis – synthesis method, and the practical survey method to clarify the effectiveness of social supervision...
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Research Article
Cultural Implications of Numbers in the Tang Poems & the Realization of Them in the English Translations
Wang Ruifu*
Issue:
Volume 13, Issue 3, September 2025
Pages:
116-134
Received:
20 June 2025
Accepted:
4 July 2025
Published:
30 July 2025
DOI:
10.11648/j.ijp.20251303.16
Downloads:
Views:
Abstract: As a unique language Phenomenon, numeral expressions are frequently employed in Ancient Chinese poems including the Tang Poems, the most influential and most precious part of Chinese literature. Therefore it is meaningful to study them since numeral expressions in Chinese language bear abundant cultural implications that are deeply rooted in a traditional Chinese culture tradition: Daoism, the ultimate goal of which is to reach harmony between man and nature and this in fact has become the goal of life for many Chinese poets who are nurtured by Daoism. The objective of this article is to study this language phenomenon in the Tang Poems, explain why it is difficult to translate Tang Poems into English language and strive to seek a solution to this problem. In order to reach this purpose, we propose a tripartie model for numeral semantics, namely, numeral expressions in Chinese language may convey three potential meanings: perceptional meaning, notional meaning and aesthetic meaning; while expressed in different languages, the intersections of meanings (co-knowledge, consensus, consonance) vary in degree; among them, the least one is the intersection of aesthetic meanings, by which we mean the aesthetic feeling that can be motivated by language, either the original or the target. Based on our “meaning system” framework and bridging linguistic analysis and cultural philosophy, this article reaches the conclusion: three kind of meaning intersections between the original and target languages must be realized for successful translations, including, undoubtedly, the translations of the Tang Poems. In conclusion, this article points out that whenever translating is regarded as a purposeful activity, only techniques that can transmit cultural implications of the numeral expressions in Tang poems into the target language are ideal options of translation.
Abstract: As a unique language Phenomenon, numeral expressions are frequently employed in Ancient Chinese poems including the Tang Poems, the most influential and most precious part of Chinese literature. Therefore it is meaningful to study them since numeral expressions in Chinese language bear abundant cultural implications that are deeply rooted in a trad...
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