A comparison of the maps of Europe from 1935 (Piłsudski’s death) and 1867 (his birth year) is the best testimony to the importance of his life’s societal creations: Piłsudski and the political side he had formed established a state that was missing on the maps of the 19th century. And yet, when describing Piłsudski’s activities, is it right to apply the category of creating, understood so broadly as to encompass military concepts alongside the economic reconstruction of the country? This question must be answered with another question: whatever other category is adequate? Piłsudski himself said: Human soul is meant to create: conceptions is sudden creativity, a kind of inspiration. Allow us to inquire about Poland, an organized creative effort that would eventually result in notonly a state but also an organized nation. What we are dealing with here, then, is a creator and his associates. Any creation is self-creation.

Judaism was a mythical, strongly tribal religion with anthropomorphic God in which the leading element was the concept of a covenant between God and the exceptional “chosen people.” Such views produced a strong emphasis on tribal unity and attitude of election and moral superiority vis-à-vis the rest of humanity. Philo must have felt inadequacy of the ancient Judaism and its limitations to compete for the minds of Hellenes with their universalistic philosophical thought. Philo represented a trend in Jewish ideology which attempted, in confrontation with the Greek culture, to assert itself as a valid cosmic view to support the existence of a community. He attempted to reevaluate Hebrew ideology found in the scriptures adopting Greek metaphysical, ethical, and religious doctrines to Judaism.The focus of this article is on Philo’s introduction of the Greek concept of Logos, in the modified version of Xenocrates into Judaism. Philo developed this concept further and transformed from a metaphysical entity into an extension of a divine and transcendental anthropomorphic being and mediator between God and men. Thus Philo produced a synthesis of both Hebrew and Greek traditions developing concepts that were used for future Hellenistic interpretation of messianic Hebrew thought by providing foundations for Christianity.

The paper presents political views of Roman Dmowski, an leader of integral nationalism in Poland. The author of the paper analyzes also contemporary interpretations of Dmowski’s ideas and their influence on nowadays held political ideas in Poland. Antiliberal, anti-democratic, one-sided trends in the current receptions of Dmowski’s ideas are stressed.

The purpose of this investigation is to define the central issues of the current and future relations between the Western and Chinese civilizations through the evaluation of the myths and realities of these relations. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary big-picture view of the world scene, driven by the global economy and civilization with an attempt to compare both civilizations according to key criteria. Among the findings are: Today China has become a “robot” of the West. Due to its old culture and ability to invent important civilizational tools, China is becoming an independent developer of its own economic power, and it is very probable that it will surpass its master sooner or later. Due to its transformation to a global civilization, Western civilization has lost its Christian values and adopted new ones based on business. It is probable that the economic success of China will lead to a clash between civilizations, both grasping for access to the strategic resources. Practical implication: Society should elaborate the path to the development of wise civilization driven by a new political system, ecoism.Social implication: It is probable that if the “1%” won’t self-correct its misbehavior, a social revolution by the “99%” cannot be excluded from the current calendar ofWestern civilization. Originality: This investigation, by providing the interdisciplinary and civilizational approach, expands the scope of the traditional relevant approach.

The years in which Piłsudski headed the Polish state marked his “golden age” in Polish history, a period considered as the least controversial in his career despite the failure of his federation concept and troubles with Polish national leaders in the west, especially Upper Silesia. Piłsudski’s achievements in those years are numerous and important, they include among others: the definition of Poland’s borders after military victories over the Ukrainian, Bolshevik and Lithuanian armies and in result of insurgencies in Wielkopolska and Silesia, the securement of international recognition for Poland, the construction of parliamentary democracy and local government, the promotion of a national service ethos through schools, the church, the armed forces and the media.

In this paper the author seeks to clearly define the distinctions between religion and theology in the interest of furthering the discussion on religion. The author defines the two phrases, as well as the term empathy and how the former two relate to the latter. The author uses both ancient and modern references to establish the nature of empathy, and discuss how religion and theology have been confused in the past. Lastly, the author discusses the future of theology in civilization.

Visions of reality and supernatural powers accompanied man closely throughout his pre-history and recorded history. The role of the higher religions in the history of human civilization is outlined in an appealing theory developed by Arnold J. Toynbee. Toynbee sees the need for a synthesis of today’s higher religions, a synthesis which should take effect in a trans-rationalistic spirit. The author of the article notes that, although there can be no greatness without the awareness of participating in greatness, uniting Europe is making no effort to build a modern metaphysical awareness to support its ambitious plan.

The study of civilizations is largely motivated by a single question—what drives and defines a culture or civilization? In an effort to locate a civilization—or, in the case of this chapter, three civilizations—historically, perhaps the best way is to call this drive and defining quality the cultural “sovereign.” Historically, in almost every case, this sovereign takes on a spiritual and religious form in the earliest and most vitalized period of any civilization’s lifespan. Conceptualizing civilizations in two phases, this chapter will seek to show that, as a rule, at some point this spiritual sovereign is usurped and replaced by a human and corrupted sovereign. This transition precipitates the decay of Civilization, first explored by Oswald Spengler, examined here with a focus on the point at which the original and eternal sovereign ceases to be the arbiter of moral and cultural questions, and the State takes over this sovereignty. To understand “sovereignty,” the chapter appeals to Schmitt; the sovereign is one who has the power “to decide the exception.” In this way, the ethos of a culture begins as something in which no exceptions can be made by a human being—the point at which the eternal is sovereign. As civilization declines, however, one witnesses human beings making exceptions,as morality ceases to be binding, social propriety becomes a luxury rather than a necessity, and religion becomes a fixture rather than the core of society. This state of collapse is highlighted in three separate civilizations—the Civic (i.e. Graeco-Roman), the Pharaonic (i.e. Egyptian), and the Ecclesiastic (i.e. Western). The viability of any project aimed at “revival” or “regeneration” is also examined and, the author hopes, soundly denied.

Although modern civilization has brought about great technical achievement, mankind face various problems today. It seems that humans are endlessly pursuing economic development, and they often neglect the preservation of the environment. Japan is not free from this world-wide problem. However, Japanese civilization would be able to offer an important paradigm for the future course of mankind. In particular, animism and tolerance towards religious differences seem to be vital elements for the betterment of this world.

This paper offers a diagnosis of contemporary civilization, characterized by a lack of wisdom and numerous conflicts of various natures, which its decline causes. Saving this civilization in decline consists in promulgating the development of a wise universalcomplementary civilization. Its control component is Spirituality 2.0, which is a Decalogue of complementary values, drawn from the contemporary 9 civilizations. The likelihood of enforcing Wise Civilization is low, but it is possible, providing people demonstrate wisdom in the solution of the problems of the contemporary civilization.

The article defends the view that the role of traditional religions in civilization is ambiguous—at once positive and negative. Religions teach their faithful basic ethics, but they do it in an authoritative manner without consideration for the moral autonomy of the conscience nor the situational aspects of moral choices. They propagate “soft” social attitudes like forgiveness, compassion and peace but are also a frequent source of serious conflicts. The author seeks the reasons behind the dissonances which religion brings into civilization.

Africa prides itself in its ancient civilizations, but the celebratory value of those civilizations is overshadowed by the recurrent challenges of poverty, political and religious wars, ethnic strife, and unrelenting tyrannical rule. Of all these challenges, the inabilities of state institutions to reconcile religious and confessional divisions represent the hardest. Scholars on civilization have in recent years contemplated operationalizing of scientific thinking. The sense of nationalism that tends to look at civilizations as sacred attributes of societies is challenged by the secular features in quantitative analysis. The expansion of global trade and commerce effectively facilitated by the swiftness of Information Technology (IT) provide opportunities for identifying across cultural and civilizational variables of peace and “wisdom”. This analysis focuses on Africa’s religious political experiences to state that Africa’s problems are intractable even to the dynamic theories of IT and globalization.

The division of Christianity into two: Orthodox Christian and Western Civilizations by Arnold Toynbee should be understood to describe not a difference of creedal belief but different spiritualities. Christian spiritualities are the animating forces for the material disposition of religious resources and the motivation that patterns individual behavior. The past offers many examples of how spirituality provides discipline to believers to overcome conflictive social pressures and follow doctrinal obligations. The monastic orders recast the evangelical counsel to holding material goods in common during the Middle Ages and groups like the Franciscans, Jesuits, Methodists, Quakers, etc. have performed similar functions. Despite the erosion of institutional resources since the Enlightenment and contemporary secularism, Christianity has produced various new spiritualities. For the III Millennium, it appears the two major characteristics of Christian spirituality include the discipline to “let go” that rejects the dystopia of contemporary society; and the embrace an earth spirituality that extends respect for life to the environment and an equitable distribution of material resources.

The author examines the relationships between civilization and organized religion. A new theory of religion spawning civilization instead of vice versa is discussed, as well as the influence of the great organized religions on the development of modern cultures and civilizations. The history of the various large organized religions, including their origins, spread and mindsets are all examined, and the major differences between the Abrahamic and Indic religions are remarked upon as well.

We are in a state of impending crisis. And the fault lies in part with academia. For two centuries or so, academia has been devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and technological know-how. This has enormously increased our power to act which has, in turn, brought us both all the great benefits of the modern world and the crises we now face. Modern science and technology have made possible modern industry and agriculture, the explosive growth of the world’s population, global warming, modern armaments and the lethal character of modern warfare, destruction of natural habitats and rapid extinction of species, immense inequalities of wealth and power across the globe, pollution of earth, sea and air, even the Aids epidemic (Aids being spread by modern travel). All these global problems have arisen because some of us have acquired unprecedented powers to act, via science and technology, without also acquiring the capacity to actwisely. We urgently need to bring about a revolution in universities so that the basic intellectual aim becomes, not knowledge merely, but rather wisdom—wisdom being the capacity to realize what is of value in life, for oneself and others, thus including knowledge and technological know-how, but much else besides. The revolution we require would put problems of living at the heart of the academic enterprise, the pursuit of knowledge emerging out of, and feeding back into, the fundamental intellectual activity of proposing and critically assessing possible actions, policies, political programs, from the standpoint of their capacity to help solve problems of living. This revolution would affect almost every branch and aspect of academic inquiry.

Maxwell’s program is beautiful and noble, but is it realizable?

Philosophers are repeating their ancient mantras. Economists are intoxicating by their pseudo-theories. Politicians are just puppets manipulated by the strings held by others. Ordinary people are lost and confused. This is why our civilization is fatuous and superficial. Is it so by some sinister design? Or is it so because we lost our integrity and our inner worth? From this predicament of darkness and impotence, only spiritual light and deeper wisdom can lead to fulfillment and desirable future for all.

Nicholas Maxwell’s project, among others the character of its philosophical foundations, the notion of wisdom, and its radical post-Enlightenment scientism are discussed, and some doubts regard to it are presented. Above all, it is argued that Maxwell’s proposal of the establishing of world confederations of scientists standing above governments might lead to a totalitarian system.

The purpose of the text is to engage in a well thought critique of the Enlightenment project carried out by Nicholas Maxwell and to reflect upon the proposal of its reconstruction. Maxwell’s intellectual position is not at all obvious: he is neither a radical rationalist, nor a defender of scientific rationality, nor a postmodern and social constructivist. Postmodernists and social constructivists opposed the very idea of reason and rational inquiry, and have been thoroughly critical of what knowledge-inquiry represents. Indeed, such criticisms could not be further from Maxwell’s position. According to Maxwell, what is wrong with knowledge-inquiry is not its embodiment of reason but, to the contrary, its gross and damaging irrationality. From Maxwell’s point of view we suffer not that much from the excess of rationality, but its deficit. Maxwell does not share open criticism of anti-Enlightenment thinkers from Nietzsche to Foucault, but more so he escapes the beliefs of a scientifically focused group of philosophers who see the main force of emancipation of humanity in a narrowly understood science followed by physics, the methodology of verification, and naturalism as a basic ideology. The author of the text thus poses the question: what can save our culture if it is neither sciencenor the rejection of science? Does the replacement of the category of knowledgeinquiry with wisdom-inquiry—which Maxwell converts us to—bring us any closer to a solution in our consideration of knowledge and life, science and politics, facts and values, nature and society? In Western culture wisdom has always been an object of desire, and it was so, inter alia, because unlike knowledge it has never been precisely defined and further specified. Philosophers developed a warm feeling towards wisdom and sought for wisdom, but had they lived by wisdom? Finally, the author challenges the most difficult question: can we rationally excuse our hopes for wisdom and hope that it may one day be embodied in the work of institutions and the actions of individuals?