Cover of Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology
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Displaying: 1-11 of 11 documents


1. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Kyung Han You, Jiha Kim Marcuse’s Legacy and Foucault’s Challenge: A Critical Inquiry into the Relationship between Comedic Pleasure and the Popular Media
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The primary goal of this paper is to investigate the theoretical and methodological applicability of the relevant theories of Marcuse and Foucault to analyzing the relationship between comedic pleasure and the popular media. The researchers investigate the similarities of and the differences between the respective positions of Marcuse and Foucault as they relate to power relations, subjectivity, and practice. Likewise, the methodological applicability of these theorists’ work to a discourse analysis of how media content constructs comedic pleasure is considered. Overall, the present study explored the arrangement and deployment of discourses of comedic pleasure as exploited by the power/knowledge mechanism of the media and the entertainment industry. And, through this discussion, the current study argued that three key statements constitute a discursive framework for the analysis of comedic pleasure in the popular media.
2. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Pedro Blas González The Economics of Being: The Struggle for Existence in Prehistory
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This paper takes a phenomenological perspective regarding the difficulties encountered in daily life by man in prehistory. I argue that the economics of beingnecessarily establishes man as a being that must make choices. Of these, man must eventually arrive at the realization that higher, rather than lower choices will safeguard human survival, well being and allow for prosperity. The economics of being is a form of identifying economic choice-making as a natural disposition of man’s. It is the latter condition that makes man act in the world. However, even though man must act, action cannot be blind. Instead, human action is motivated and guided by man’s sense of interiority. That is, man’s existential capacity for self-reflection is also what can deliver us to autonomous rule. This form of reflective choice-making is a creative act. The paper attempts to trace this aspect of the human condition back to prehistory, in order to demonstrate that societies, institutions, invention, technology, artistic creation and economic responsibility come about as the result of human industriousness. None of the aforementioned are creations of modern man.
3. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Luka Zevnik The Discussion about the Universality of Happiness and the Promise of Neuroscience
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The main aim of this article is to contribute to the discussion about the universality of well-being by juxtaposing the theoretical and empirical arguments of the two extreme theoretical positions regarding the possibility of a universal notion of well-being. The article first explains that the question about the possibility of a universal notion of well-being is ultimately a matter of the (differences in the) nature of well-being. While researchers who opt for the universalist position are convinced that their empirical data show that the differences in the nature of well-being are minor enough that a universal notion is possible, the proponents of the culturalist position believe that their research uncovers more dramatic differences in the nature of well-being. Therefore, they reject a universal notion of well-being. By reading one position against the other on theoretical and empirical levels, the article illuminates and assesses the limitations, problems and possible dangers of both and considers which position regarding the possibility of a universal notion of well-being seems more convincing (and possibly less dangerous). The article concludes that currently the culturalist position seems more reasonable, as long as it remains open to a possible discovery of a more universal structure in the nature of well-being promised by the emerging field of neuroscience of happiness.
4. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Peter Mathews The Morality Meme: Nietzsche and A Serious Man
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Pairing together the Coen brothers film A Serious Man (2009) with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, this paper looks at questions about morality, illusion, and the influence of Jewish thought on contemporary ethics. Beginning with a reading of Nietzsche that locates his discussion of the Jews within its properhistorical context, it traces the beginnings of the “morality meme,” the notion of a universal moral reward that, Nietzsche argues, arises during the Deuteronomistperiod of Jewish history. The second part of the paper looks at how A Serious Man also engages in an interrogation of this moralistic overcoding of the universe, with a particular emphasis on how these questions upset Larry Gopnik’s views of both science and religion. The essay then concludes with a look at the poisonous effects of the “morality meme,” showing in particular how it has influenced the psychology of anti-Semitism. Rather than a rejection of Jewishness, the paper concludes that in A Serious Man the Coen brothers engage in a careful but loving criticism of their own culture that requires them to distance themselves from the problematic effects of its religious morality.
5. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Patrizia Torricelli The Cognitive Basis of Value in Grammatical Form: A Case Study of the Italian Verbs vedere volere and avere
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The grammar rules of the modal and auxiliary verbs vedere (see), volere (want) and avere (have) in modern Italian reveal a cognitive scheme underlying thesuperficial linguistic structure that depends on a certain conceptualization of reality within the Western world cultural models. The article therefore puts forward a semantic approach to grammatical rules based on these conceptual and cultural motivations. The principles of structural European semiology, as introduced by Saussure, form the basis of the paper; particularly the understanding of signs as double entities (signifier/signified) whose arbitrary connections are assured by a system of sociocultural values, so that the cultural value of historical linguistic association impacts upon grammatical rules, meaning and social understanding. Grammar enables the actualization of certain semantic meanings amidst the plurality of virtual values contained within a certain syntactic combination of units. The inclusion of certain values within a given discursive isotopy supports a mode of signification, but it does not annul the possibility of the others that might be anchored in alternative discursive isotopies. In other words, there is distinction between the function of a sign in a system (langue) and the function that the same sign possesses in the concrete act of its usage (parole). Thus, this paper revises Saussure’s semiological model from a cognitive perspective, placing particular emphasis on the question of cultural values.
6. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Cyril-Mary P. Olatunji, Olugbenga O. Alabi A Philosophical Comparison of John 1:1-18 and the Yoruba Concept of ÒrÒ
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The concept of ÒrÒ among the Yoruba people in Nigeria has a lot in common with the biblical concept of Λoγos. This paper explores Λoγos as derived from Greek Logos translated as Word into English, and its parallelisms with ÒrÒ a fêted concept among the Yoruba. The paper provides evidence that both conceptsare related to exoteric functions within their distinct cultural communities. Finally, the paper opens these issues to the possibilities of cross-cultural research and semiotics.
7. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Mahdi Dahmardeh, Hossein Timcheh Memar, Abbas Timcheh Memar On Ethics and Culture: A Matter of Variation or Deviation? A study on Top Notch Series
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In pursuit of moralities and beliefs in the grey area of culture, the researchers carried out a study on Top Notch series to pinpoint the trace of ethics. This paper seeks to unfold the representation of ethics as an indubitable part of culture in Top Notch series. After having extracted all culturally and ethically-related topics and texts of Top Notch Series, 25 instances, featuring 6 patterns, were collected. Later these 6 patterns were dubbed as: violence, superstition, modesty,individualised ethics, religion, and modernity. Having analysed these 6 themes, well representing beliefs and moralities, the researchers came to the conclusion that both misrepresentation of ethics and underrepresentation and overrepresentation of different cultures are at work. The results show a reconsideration of therepresentation of ethics, or better to say reconsideration of misrepresentation of ethics which might find its root in wrong dominance of culture over ethics.
8. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Adrian Nita Leibniz on Spontaneity as a Basic Value
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Leibniz sustains three arguments for spontaneity: the argument from the complete notion, the argument from substantial forms and the argument from monadicspontaneity. In order to see the nature of spontaneity and whether the spontaneity is an inferior value with respect to freedom, as it appears in the Theodicy, inthe first part of the paper I will present spontaneity in connection with the theory of complete notion; in the second part, spontaneity and substantial forms; in the third part, spontaneity of monads; then I will finish with a more general view about spontaneity and freedom.
9. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Benaouda Bensaid, Fadila Grine Old Age and Elderly Care: An Islamic Perspective
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A proper understanding of the Islamic perspective on old age with particular consideration of significant current changes and adaptations affecting Muslim elderly’s emotional, cultural and socio-economic needs, transitions and transformations requires a degree of acquaintance with Islam’s religious principles and values. This paper discusses a number of theological and moral concepts and themes pertaining to the elderly in Islam while highlighting the moral and ethical value system underlying Muslims’ position on ageing and old age. This study shows the extent to which the axiomatic perspective of Islam on old age is essentially shaped by religious beliefs, laws and spiritual practice. This inquiry into Muslim values on old age and elderly care would be of benefit to researchers on religious and cultural values; particularly in multicultural contexts, and yet again more instrumental to health professionals, counselors and social workers interacting with the Muslim elderly.
10. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Georg W. Oesterdiekhoff Psychological Stage Development and Societal Evolution. A Completely New Foundation to the Interrelationship between Psychology and Sociology
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Auguste Comte, the founder of sociology, and Norbert Elias, the last classical sociologist, based their sociologies on the idea that humankind has gone from astage of childhood to adult stages. The essay shows that there has actually taken place a psychogenetic evolution of humankind in history. Empirical researchesacross the past generations, namely Piagetian and intelligence cross-cultural researches, have been continuing to support the idea, whether the researchers involved have been aware of it or not. The essay demonstrates further, that the history of society, economy, culture, law, morals, politics, customs, religion, etc. can only be described against the background of developmental psychology.
11. Cultura International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology: Volume > 11 > Issue: 1
Dragos Bigu The Place of Values in Scientific Knowledge
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In this paper I argue that the values supported by scientists can have a role in episodes of theory choice. In the first part, I characterize the value- and the rulebased accounts of theory choice. In the second part, I analyze how the thesis of underdetermination of theory by empirical data can be used to argue for a value-based account. I discuss two versions of the underdetermination thesis, arguing that the weaker version, underdetermination by the evidence available at a particular time, is sufficient for establishing the role of values in theory selection. Many authors distinguish between cognitive and non-cognitive values, considering that only the former ones have a legitimate role in theory choice. I defend this distinction, showing that it has both a normative and a descriptive dimension. I argue that cognitive values must not be seen as indicators of truth, but they can be characterized by their relation to the goal of science. In the end, I argue that, in spite of being justified and useful, the distinction between cognitive and non-cognitive values is not clear-cut.