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Dialogue and Universalism

Volume 19, Issue 6/7, 2009
Spain, Poland and Europe

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Displaying: 1-15 of 15 documents


1. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Eugeniusz Górski Foreword: Spain, Poland and Europe
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spain and europe
2. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Concha Roldán Enlightenment, Philosophy of History and Values: A Critical Approach to the Idea of Europe
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Philosophy of history has been condemned in recent times; however, it is becoming increasingly evident that a new Europe cannot do without a critical philosophy of history that analyses values and gives hierarchical structure to diverse experiences and historical memories. From this hypothesis, a result of previous projects, the project “Philosophy of History and Values in the Europe of the 21st century” has these fundamental objectives: 1) critically analyze the complex forms of conceiving science, history (society), culture (languages, religion), law, ethics and politics, in order to understand the full scope of the idea of Europe in which we find ourselves; 2) systemize them with the proposal for a new critical philosophy of history, based on a “practical turn” that contemplates the elements (real responsibility, solidarity and justice) that should form the foundation of social and ethical political relations; 3) apply them to the constructionof a new Europe, in which implicit diversity and the demands of internationality, interculturality and dialogue between the genders can reconcile itself with the basic principles of universality, equality and justice and with the establishment of minimum human rights. The conclusions of our research will help to provide solutions to conflicts that are occurring in the heart of Europe, which at the high point of globalization, transcend European borders.
3. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Eugeniusz Górski Europe in Spanish History and Thought
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This essay is an introduction and summary of my detailed study under preparation on the idea of Europe in contemporary Spanish thought. An historical interpretation of Spanish civilization from its earliest beginnings to the present time is presented in the article. I undertake the problem of Spain’s European vocation, specific features of its Christian culture, especially Iberian links with the Islamic world and the question of changes in Spanish identity. The article presents reflections on Europe by the Generation of ‘98 Spanish writers and thinkers (chiefly Angel Ganivet, Miguel de Unamuno and Ramiro de Maeztu) who, in the face of defeat (1898) in the Spanish-American War, proclaimed a program of moral and cultural rebirth for Spain. Their ambivalent attitude towards Europe was rejected by José Ortega y Gasset and Salvador de Madariaga, both the most pro-European 20th century Spanish intellectuals. The problem of Spanishrelation to Europe was also widely discussed after the Civil War under General Franco regime. The evolution from initial isolation to a fuller integration with Europe of the regime and its conservative Catholic culture are also shown in the article. Much attention is devoted to the present-day civil and European Spain led by democratic socialists.
4. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Maja Biernacka Power, Symbols and the Transformation of Public Discourse. The Case of Spanish Isomorphism
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The article presents the processes of public discourse construction and dynamics. On the national level, symbolic processes are related to the position of the country in the international environment. Being a collective political actor on the discursive scene, the country is involved in legitimation mechanisms in the interaction stream with other political actors, i.e. its foreign counterparts. Upon intentions to enter the mainstream European culture after the transition period, Spain became discursively involved in the mutual legitimation procedures involving a number of political partners and based on the requirement of institutional isomorphism. Consistently presented within the propitious approach of new institutionalism on the corporate level (e.g. Meyer and Rowan 2006), it is advanced herein on the national level of Spanish discursive policies.
5. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Krzysztof Polit José Ortega y Gasset—Spaniard and European
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José Ortega y Gasset not only expressed his views on subjects such as art or mass culture but he was also one of the promoters and founders of a United Europe which he considered a cultural unity. However, his view on the proper functioning of multicultural societies was as skeptical as his attitude towards the possibility of constructing an unified world that could be based on cultural coexistence of the Western World societies.
6. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Mieczysław Jagłowski The Idea of Europe in the Modern Spanish Philosophy
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During the last thirty three years which elapsed from General Franco’s death there disappeared cleared divisions into two camps which saw relationships between Spain and Europe as well as Europe itself from disparate perspectives. For the sake of social peace and normalizing the political situation which ensued after the fascist coup on 18 July 1936 and which continued till the death of caudillo in 1975, or even a bit longer till funding the new constitution in 1978, the Spanish left behind clear exposition of their political visions and their aggressive imposition on their adversaries. This common agreement resulted in, what is important, Spain’s access to the European Union in 1986. It can be seen as an unambiguous sign of its citizens’ agreement to subject their country to the processes of Europeanization (since such an opportunity appeared the Spanish saw EU accession as a solution to their homeland’s problems). Thus even the slogan from the 1960s aimed at tourists and saying: España es diferente (“Spain is different”, “eccentric”, different than other European countries) was forgotten. Undoubtedly, the modern Spain is in all the aspects of life a fully European country, and even, as it is often proudly emphasized by the Spanish authors, in many spheres of political, economic, cultural or social life it belongs to the European avant-garde. Of course, Spain has kept its national identity, its national culture (which, despite all this, has become cosmopolitan to a certain degree, as it is in the case of other European national cultures in the era of globalization) and its political, economic, social and other structures are the ones which characterize a modern, liberal, secular, democratic European state.
the individuality of polish thought
7. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Lucyna Wiśniewska-Rutkowska Polish Philosophy—its Goals and Mission
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The article is an attempt to analyze the current trends of the development of Polish philosophy. It does not give a detailed description or systematization of Polish philosophy. The attention is focused on some vital issues: individuals, groupings, topics that determine its character and contribute to its native character and universal dimension. Polish culture follows an alternate pattern of development. Periods of idealistic vows, heroic deeds and great literature were followed by the time of “minimalism” restricted to the world of facts and practicalities. At the times of cultural maximalism, philosophy accompanied literature (art) and tended to take the form of a world outlook, while in minimalistic phase it searched for connections with science and transformed into meta-science.The author believes that the period of scientific philosophy (the Lvov—Warsaw School of Philosophy) is over so it can be presumed that the future will belong to world outlook philosophy.
8. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Tadeusz Kobierzycki The Concept of National Character and the Problem of Humanity (in Kazimierz Dąbrowski’s Perspective)
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The author of this text introduces to Kazimierz Dąbrowski’s views on the subject of national character as a category describing the structure and character traits of individual and collective identity. The Polish psychiatrist and existential psychotherapist K. Dąbrowski (1902–1980) distinguishes positive and negative traits of the „national character” of Poles, based on a typology of characters by Ernst Kretschmer and his own theory of psychical over-excitability types. My text verifies the introduced psychological arguments with the concept of “humanity”, finding that the concept of „national character” can be included into the complex or the ego defense mechanisms.
9. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Ireneusz Ciosek Universalism and Particularity of the Polish Political Thought
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Christianization of Polish territories, according to the Western rite, incorporated these lands into the Western European civilization and emerging there political and legal doctrines, which were used in creating Polish political-legal thought. At the time of establishing social bonds and structures of the state, the political elite came into being and the Polish political thought developed. It corresponded with the main political thought and ideas of the West, but the Polish ideas displayed characteristics, necessary for protecting the Polish raison d’etat. Development of political thought, original and particular for Polish conditions, dissimilar from the main European trends, may be a testimony to richness of intellectual and political ideas of past Polish generations. It was this political thought, that allowed the Polish national identity to survive, and caused that the fight for political independence was successful. Many contemporary researchers, including those from Western Europe, see influences of the past political ideas in the contemporary attitudes of Poles.
europe and the world
10. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Adam Zamojski The Origin of Europe. The Minoan Civilization
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The article explains the origins of European civilization in relation to Minoan (Cretan) civilization. In a synthetic form, it outlines phases of Minoan civilization (prepalatial, protopalatial, neopalatial, postpalatial). It also describes the circumstances and causes of the fall of Minoan civilization. It concludes with an outlook of the Minoan heritage.
11. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Maciej Krasuski The European Imperial Idea
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Neither the origin, nor the meaning of the notion of “empire” are obvious for historians. The same obscurity affects the notion of “Europe”. A presentation of different types of European empires and of their legitimacy enable a synthetic expression of ideological identity of Europe. The evolution and the main versions of both notions are reviewed.
12. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Arkadiusz Modrzejewski The European Nation State in the Face of Challenges of the Postindustrial Civilization
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This paper is dedicated to a problem of power of European nation state during the process of shaping the postindustrial civilization. The author points that the nation state is a relic of an industrial era. Globalization is a real fear for relatively small European states. So, integration is a necessity. But the integration does not mean the centralization of rules. Today we can see a comeback to preindustrial political paradigmatics: decentralization and deconcentration of authorities. The future of Europe is in three-level system that has been built by supranational institutions, e.g. EU, decentralized states (federations and regionalized states) and regional (quasi-states) and local community. But the European Union will not become a federation. It would be a conservation of industrial models. The Europeans must rather think of a new formula of integration. Neo-medieval empire is an adequate to changes’ direction proposal. The author also notices that we are the observers of essential change of identity. The national identity has been relativized by globalization and uniformitarian character of American cultureas well as by aspiration of regional and ethnic groups. European national identity and consensuses could be rather a supplement than an alternative for today’s national identification.
13. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Ryszard Stefański On the Universality of Values
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We can speak about individual and social (characteristic for a population) values, but it is difficult to present universal, specifically human values, except for biological needs. The reason of it follows from the fact that superior values, related to two human needs (world model cognition and the meaningful sense of life) depend upon a world-view, in advance accepted and inculcated in us. From this world-view we as its followers draw our notions of good and bad, we shape our ideas on proper human relations and on what for us should be the most important. So what can be of universally human character? It seems that only the possibility of possessing a system of values, of forming its features and defining its components.
14. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Maja Biernacka Spanish-Polish Mutual Perception Since the Democratic Transition
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15. Dialogue and Universalism: Volume > 19 > Issue: 6/7
Dr. Bogumiła Żongołłowicz The Death of Jan Tadeusz J. Srzednicki
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