Communal Existence Research Articles

Political Obligation and Self-Sufficiency in Leonardo Bruni's History of the Florentine People

Abstract Leonardo Bruni (1377–1444), chancellor of Florence, is today more famous as an initiator of civic humanism and a proponent of early modern republicanism than as a historian of medieval Florence. He owes this position most of all to Hans Baron, who argued that Florentine civic humanism—an exemplary mode of communal existence dedicated to the active life—as found particularly in Bruni's writings, stemmed from the resurgence of interest in antiquity, which pointed forward to a liberating, civilizing, and progressive modernity. Though James Hankins has recently argued that the dual theses of civic humanism and republicanism are mischaracterizations of the larger thrust of Italian Renaissance political thought, the scholarly literature overwhelmingly portrays Leonardo Bruni as incipiently modern and, by definition, un-medieval. But in emphasizing the role of antiquity in Bruni's “modern” thought, scholars have overlooked the importance of medieval history in the formulation and the content of Bruni's arguments. This article seeks to rectify this misappreciation by demonstrating how that quintessential medieval struggle, the conflict between popes and emperors, plays a central role in Bruni's political thought as it is found in the History of the Florentine People, written from 1415/16 to 1444.

Philosophy of Religion among Bidakho

The receptivity and practice of foreign religions in Africa is the source of socio-cultural and spiritual disintegration of African spirituality, communal existence, both relational-participatory and interdependence metaphysics. The resultant features of this disintegration are religious conflicts and persecutions, divisions in the families, break down in morals and values, promotion of vices and separation of the dead in the afterlife. This expose applies process philosophy to unearth bidakho’s religious spirituality as the best alternative to foreign religions. It is a qualitative article that applies phenomenology, critical analytical and rational methods. This article demonstrates that bidakho’s religious spirituality is the best because it unites people, respects environment, promotes morals, virtues and communal existence hinc et nunc and in afterlife. This article is a viable source of information for students, both scholars of philosophy and religion and social policy makers.

Unveiling Maja Labo Dahu: a Local Wisdom in Implementing Character Values

This study focuses on the importance of imparting character values by incorporating local cultural wisdom, specifically Maja Labo Dahu, within the curriculum of Al-Maliki Islamic Junior High School. This research aims to uncover and evaluate the application of the moral principles associated with religious beliefs among students, using Maja Labo Dahu as a reference point. This particular study falls under the category of qualitative research. Data collection methods include conducting interviews, making observations, and gathering documentation. Data analysis techniques involve using reduction, presentation, and conclusion. The findings indicated that: Firstly, integrating the significance of Maja Labo Dahu into all pertinent materials; Secondly, enhancing educational methods that foster critical thinking, integrity, collaboration, appreciation for diversity, respect for differing viewpoints, reliability, tolerance, democracy, bravery in expressing ideas, and accountability. Maja Labo Dahu's character values are implemented when converting information for students and arranging programs, education, and specialized training centered around Maja Labo Dahu's character values. After that, assessments conducting observations are conducted concurrently to evaluate the progress of the learning process that has been executed with techniques that can promote Maja Labo Dahu's character. Utilizing Maja Labo Dahu as a form of indigenous cultural heritage can be a valuable asset to the communal existence. When viewed as a reflection of one's personality and beliefs, this particular value is highly suitable for nurturing a religious character.

Service and Care in the Johannine and Akan Conceptual Schemas: Inculturation Hermeneutics

The Johannine and Akan ideologies pertaining to communal existence place significant emphasis on the cultivation of values such as reciprocal service and care. Nevertheless, upon careful examination of the Akan conceptual framework, it becomes apparent that these principles are espoused and upheld due to Akan belief in the indispensable nature of interdependence of human beings. This belief stems from their recognition of the inherent insufficiency of the human being which consequently gives rise to imperfect expressions of service and nurturing. Thus, the study aims to provide a biblical response to these challenges by employing Ukpong’s inculturation hermeneutics. This approach presents a framework for interpretation that enables an exploration of sociocultural matters in a manner that not only enhances the comprehension of the biblical text but also permits the text to function as a discerning evaluation of the Akan culture and propose possible remedies for its sociocultural challenges. The findings reveal that the Akan concepts foster a form of reciprocal care that is propelled by individual motivations and also service that is incentivised by rewards. Consequently, this paper proposes that the Akan believers must emulate the servanthood of Jesus and see reciprocal care as a response to divine instruction. This pursuit should be undertaken with the intention of fostering a sense of familial unity, rather than with the anticipation of receiving equivalent treatment in return. This article makes a valuable contribution to the field of African Biblical Hermeneutics and the ongoing discourse surrounding the integration of the New Testament into the African cultural framework. Keywords: Inculturation Hermeneutics, Johannine Concept of Service and Care, Akan Proverbs

Yoruba Folksong Philosophical Approach to Health Education: Curbing the Spread of COVID-19

Throughout the world's history, there are cases of epidemics in nearly every country, state, and community at various times. During the dark ages in Africa, a number of diseases led to the premature deaths of young ones, adults, and even the elderly within clans and communities. Back then, people believed that outbreaks were caused by the wrathful gods of their communities, whereas it was the unsanitary living conditions and lack of hygiene that served as catalysts for these epidemics. Consequently, the people constantly remained at risk of incessant outbreaks. However, the Yorubas in Southwest Nigeria, among others, have a rich traditional culture that permeates their daily lives and surroundings. Music, as an integral part of their culture, accompanies all aspects of individual and communal existence. Education is deemed crucial for a good life and health. The Yoruba people have employed diverse methods to instil education in their growing citizens, dating back to the neo-colonial era. These methods include teaching folk songs, folk tales, poems, proverbs, and imitating societal values and norms.
 The emergence of COVID-19 with its deadly implications has instilled fear worldwide. Everyone pondered preventive measures through education before considering treatment and cure. Preventing the virus spread became the responsibility of individuals and organizations all levels. This discussion examines the impact of an educational Yoruba folksong that promotes self-restraint to mitigate contact with this deadly disease and recommends their adoption at the local level of human habitation to enhance understanding and adaptation to disease prevention and control measures.

IN QUEST FOR INDIVIDUAL-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP IN CONTEMPORARY AGE: LESSONS FROM AFRICAN (YORUBA) THOUGHT SYSTEM

The contemporary African society is infiltrated with the consequences of post-independence cultures of individualism: terrorism, corruption, climate change, unstable and irresponsible government, poverty, greediness, etc. This has adversely affected the cherished African communal existence from her social through political to religious values. As a result of this, there is an urgent need to addressing these anomalies in African society through a genuine alignment between the individual and the community as embedded in Yoruba thought system. This study employed both the expository and analytical approaches in philosophy. These will undoubtedly promote and revamp, in Africa again, the spirit of individual initiatives within the framework of the communal structure without suppressing one for the other. This balancing strategy is basic towards achievement of human personality formation, reformation and development in Africa continent today.

Impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria

PurposeIn Nigeria, insecurity has been breeding very rapidly given the Nigerian economic conditions in the recent past. Insecurity exposes enterprise development and survival to a serious threat. It has serious effects on lives and properties, obstructs business activities and discourages local and foreign investors, which in turn militate against Nigeria’s overall economic growth and development. This rising wave of insecurity has assumed an unsafe facet to enterprise development and its subsequent survival, hence, if unchecked, it can threaten the overall communal existence of the country as one entity. The purpose of this study is therefore, to examine the impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThis study used the most recent Nigeria Enterprise Survey data (2014) and applied multi-nomial logistic regression model to examine the impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria.FindingsIt was found among others that all the captured insecurity variables in this study have negative significant impact on enterprise development and as such significantly retards enterprise growth and development except for corruption and availability of strong, fair and impartial legal system (comparing partnership and limited partnership enterprise to the sole proprietorship), which were found to have positive impact on enterprise development in Nigeria.Practical implicationsThis study therefore recommended among others that government at all levels – federal, state and local – should try harder to live up to its primary constitutional function of providing adequate security of lives and property to its citizenry.Originality/valueThere is no known study that has investigated the impact of insecurity on enterprise development in Nigeria. There is dearth of literature in the study area, hence this study enormously contributes to the growing literature on insecurity and enterprise development.

PRINCIPLES AND METHODS FOR THE MANAGEMENT AND REGULATION OF FINANCES IN ISLAM: AN APPROACH TO MAULANA ASHRAF ALI THANAVI

In light of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanavi’s discussions and deliberations, the purpose of this study is to analyze the principles and methods for financial management in Islam, with a focus on three essential areas of finance: obtaining wealth, securing wealth, and spending wealth. For this aim, several of M. Thānavī’s written works were searched, and his discussions on Islamic economic teachings were collected and expanded upon, and references to all primary and secondary sources were provided. The entire content is presented here in a systematic and academic manner, culminating in a five-point conclusion. The findings show that the state of contentment in economic and financial concerns is the result of complete trust in God, the Creator and the Provider of all creatures, as well as belief in the Day of Judgment. This state of contentment and confidence is attained through practical measures such as avoiding extravagance, squandering, and ostentation while adopting a balanced and moderate lifestyle. Similarly, the data reveal that adhering to business ethics outlined in the Sharī‘ah ensures a safe, peaceful, and prosperous individual and communal existence, and bring about abundant barakah (benediction). The current paper will thus serve as a compendium of Islamic economic and financial teachings, as well as related moral and ethical precepts.

Innováció, etika, felelősség az információ korában. Adalékok az innovációetika fogalmi megalapozásához

Innovation, ethics, responsibility in the information ageTibor Gulyás – Péter Szendrő – Gábor Szécsi Traditional communities can be regarded as moral entities that transform the individual through group pressure. Communal existence allows the individual to transcend himself and find partnership with humanity, and determinates the individual’s moral decisions and judgements. A community is based on dynamic reciprocity and responsibility, and is a fountainhead of social capital, that is, of a common set of shared moral values, norms and expectations that can be described as social trust that facilitates cooperation for mutual benefit. We argue that since this social and cultural process leads to a new conceptualization of responsibility and innovation in the information age, it is an important task to create a general ethical framework, value and norm system of innovation.

Designing Dissensual Common Sense: Critical Art, Architecture, and Design in Jacques Rancière’s Political Thought

How can design be socially engaged and politically efficient, as proposed by discourses labeled as critical design? This article introduces a conceptualization and historiography of politically charged design discourse based on philosopher Jacques Rancière’s work on the intersections of politics, aesthetics, and critical artistic practices. By focusing especially on Rancière’s reading of the genealogy of design from Ruskin to constructivism and the Bauhaus, the article aims to show that there is an important connection between design and politics present in Rancière’s thought. Rather than solely revealing the oppressive dimension embedded in designed forms, for Rancière, design is itself a profound process of aesthetical and sensorial reconfiguration of the way in which we perceive and articulate our communal existence in “the shared material world.” The article suggests that this connection is useful for examining the broader encounter of critical design with political theory.

Studi Antropologi-Teologi “Ritus Arumbai Raja” di Ullath-Saparua

This study aims to describe the Arumbai Raja Rite, a religious style built on the cultural foundation of the Ullath community. In this case, the Ullath people transformed their myth of nobility and gave birth to a new mechanism in maintaining the order of royal relations. In that sense, the implementation of the Arumbai Raja Rite in Ullath remains framed in an effort to maintain brotherly relations and maintain the balance of the cosmos. The research used is a type of qualitative research, by examining the Arumbai Raja Rite. The practice of cultural rituals in the ullath community contains an important goal for the communal existence of the ullath community. This mechanism is also a social mechanism through which the Ullath people are able to integrate permanently with the Iha and Tuhaha communities. This is proof that the brotherhood between them that was built by their ancestors is an ideal type that is to be achieved and maintained continuously. The results of the research on the views of the Arumbai Raja Rite were then analyzed in culture, customs and rites and resulted in the findings: The Arumbai Raja ritual in Ullath has values contained in it, namely proof of true brotherhood. and a symbol of nature conservation. Besides this ritual is almost extinct, and in all countries on the island of Saparua, only Ullath country that still maintains and carries out this ritual.

Integrative Values of Folktales: Igbo Folktale Example

The indigenous language of a people is the most accepted medium of communication. It enshrines and translates the peoples’ life (culture) as domesticated in their norms, values and morals. Adopting the functional perspective to sociological studies, this paper aims at x-raying the values of folktales (Igbo Folktale), for the formation of well behaved, self- reliable, accommodating, responsible and responsive individuals for progress and harmonious communal existence. These virtues which form the bases for training in the society are encapsulated in the people’s folktales shared commonly at family and communal leisure times. Folktale as a genre of oral literature is built into written literature courses in schools. However, modernity, development and quest for greener pasture deny people of the opportunity to enjoy the leisure for cultural learning / training avenues. Schools are no longer performing the expected role. Hence, these cultural virtues are left hanging in the balance. This study therefore tends to illustrate the rich availability of the virtues necessary for national integration with the analysis of three Igbo folktales. Deductions from these folktales confirm the richness of societal values. It concludes by underlining the need for the reintroduction of indigenous language study and folktale in schools

The novel and the myth of the epic: Balestrini, Lukács, and the cathartic experience

In this article, I address the critical reception of Nanni Balestrini's narrative work, focusing in particular on the novel Vogliamo tutto (1971). I compare the interpretative model, which sees this text as overcoming the novelistic form and moving toward the epic, with a similar model in György Lukács' foundational text The Theory of the Novel (1916), which sets up an opposition between the novel, understood as an expression of the irrelevance of private existence in our society, and the idea of a “rebirth” of the epic as a redemptive collective dimension. In order to investigate the textual mechanisms that generate a reading experience that has been defined resorting to the cliché of the epic, I draw on Lukács' later Aesthetics (1962). In this work, he offers a response to the impasses of his earlier thought by using the concept of catharsis, which explains the effects of a work of art on the reader/viewer through the pathetic energy generated by the dissolution of the subjective perspective. Through a close reading of key passages from Vogliamo tutto, I show how the rhetorical structure of the text is grounded in a repeated dissolution of the narrative point of view (the narrator's voice) in the collective voice of the workers. I argue that the “pathetic intensity” produced by this loss of subjectivity inscribes the communal existence of the political struggles of the time in the immediacy of the reading experience.

Personhood and the Cosmos: Exploring Some Similarities Between Traditional African and Western Conceptions of Personhood

The African conceptions of personhood are generally viewed to stand in contrast to the conceptions of personhood that have dominated western philosophy. There is a general consensus that on the whole, the African view holds a communal understanding of personhood where relationships and communal existence defines a person. This is in contrast with the Western view where a personhood is understood in individualistic terms and almost totally outside the group. Notwithstanding this plausible contrast, this article submits that an analysis of the views of some classical and traditional African and Western philosophical views on the nature of relationship between human persons and the rest of nature suggest a favourable comparison of views between the two camps. Thus, both these traditional African and the Western views on personhood and reality put emphasis on the interrelatedness or interconnectedness of human person and everything in nature. This demonstrates that with respect to the specific African and Western traditional views discussed and compared in this work, there is a degree to which some of their conceptions of personhood can be harmonized. Keywords: Personhood, cosmos, African view, Western view, Contrasting view, similar view DOI : 10.7176/JPCR/47-04 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Addiction and addiction recovery: a qualitative research viewpoint

Addiction and recovery from addiction are described by synthesising fifty-two qualitative studies from thirty-two years of research. Based on the lived experience of individuals this approach creates an understanding which emphasises not just the active phase of addiction, but the period before this phase. In addition the interpersonal, temporal, and community aspects of this condition are emphasised. A prominent feature is that addiction destructs the individual’s sense of self. In recovery this damaged self has to be reconstructed while healing of body and relationships are prominent. The individual should also find a way back into communal existence, thus restoring a sense of meaning into their lives.

How Not to Individuate Destiny: a Critique of Segun Ogungbemi’s Conception of Destiny

The social nature of human beings and individualistic characterizing destiny of individuals is contradictory and call for philosophical interrogation. Segun Ogungbemi has unrepentantly argued that destiny is individualistic and neither connective nor collective. This paper critiques Segun Ogungbemi’s conception of destiny, instead, argues for connectiveness and collectiveness of destiny. It argues that destiny, as an individualistic phenomenon, challenges and raises the Yoruba notion of corporate communal existence. The paper concludes that individuating destiny is not only a non-plausible conception; it is also not tenable in any possible social world.

Комунальні банки в системі кредитування територіальних громад

У статті досліджено теоретичні основи вітчизняного та зарубіжного досвіду існування комунального кредиту та визначено роль комунальних банків у процесі фінансово-економічного розвитку територіальних громад. З’ясовано, що в Україні розвиток комунальних банків носить фрагментарний характер. Запропоновано визначення законом правової основи створення комунальних банків та залучення до вкладів тимчасово вільних коштів відповідних місцевих бюджетів, що сприятиме підвищенню рівня фінансової стійкості банку та самостійності територіальних громад.

Nanda‐bangshochchhed and Hariraj: Re‐configuring Politics and the Private Mind in Two Bengali Adaptations of Hamlet

AbstractMy essay will examine how two nineteenth‐century Bengali adaptations of Hamlet negotiate the Shakespearean text and try to re‐configure its approach towards politics and the private mind. The two Bengali plays in question are (i) Nanda‐bangshochchhed (“The Destruction of the Nanda Dynasty”; published 1873) by Lakshminarayan Chakraborty, a text that was sparingly staged and is yet to gain adequate recognition as a case of Shakespearean appropriation; and (ii) Hariraj by Nagendranath Chaudhury (first staged in 1897), commercially the most successful adaptation of any Shakespeare play in the nineteenth‐century Bengali theatre. The major point of departure for the first play is the question of political intrigue – which is to a large extent upstaged in the Shakespearean original by the focus on Hamlet's subjectivity. The first play curiously amalgamates the mythos of Hamlet with suggestions of a semi‐legendary past, especially as derivable from the classical Sanskrit play Mudrarakshasa (4th–8th century CE). Accordingly, the Fortinbras‐equivalent of the play is Nanda's half‐brother Chandragupta (identifiable as the historical Chandragupta Maurya, 340–298 BCE), and it has references to the historical figures of Rakshasa, Chanakya and even Alexander the Great. Similarly, the second play, which is set in a pseudo‐historical Hindu state, greatly emphasizes elements of political and sexual conspiracy. It shows the Gertrude‐equivalent as a Lady Macbeth‐like figure who conspires with her lover to kill her husband, later plans against her son Hariraj, and commits suicide when the monstrosity of the crime dawns on her. Thus, the plays revise the dominant reading of Hamlet as a tragedy of deeply interiorized suffering, and alert one to the political catastrophe attendant upon the extinction of Hamlet's family line. These two Bengali adaptations choose to show the Hamlet‐figure as subject to the contingencies of a communal existence, which are not always filtered through his consciousness. However, these two plays, which incidentally embody early attempts in Bengali at adapting the tragic to the received aesthetic repertoire of India, also evoke at key moments Hamlet's celebrated contemplativeness and engage on indigenous terms with a Western model of staging interiority.

Everyday War: Sylvia Townsend Warner and Virginia Woolf in World War II

For Britons during World War II, war was in the air, in the form of bombing raids, but also on the air, in the form of news and propaganda on the radio. “Everyday War” shows how Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Townsend Warner respond to war in the air by turning to the English countryside, reworking the conventions of pastoral under the pressure of the national emergency. Woolf's posthumous novel Between the Acts, written from 1939 to 1941, portrays a “remote village in the very heart of England” on the brink of war; Warner's The Corner That Held Them (1948), also written during the war years, chronicles the collective life of an isolated medieval convent in the Norfolk Broads. Neither author addresses air war directly, but air itself looms large in both their works—in the “airy world” of Poyntz Hall, as Woolf describes the rural setting of Between the Acts, and in the pestilential atmosphere of the Black Death in The Corner That Held Them. Disaffected with subjectivism, both writers look for new ways to open up their fiction to collective, “choral” consciousness. What they seek in the pastoral tradition is not a pristine national identity unsullied by miscegenation but a common folk culture inhering in the habits and ceremonies of everyday life. By focusing on the rhythms of communal existence rather than the inner life of their protagonists, these wartime novels exemplify the “outward turn” that Thomas S. Davis and others identify as characteristic of late modernism.

Community and Morality in the Digital Age

The aim of this essay is to show that the expansion of the electronic communication technologies leads to the appearance of new forms of communities the function of which are to foster communities of interest and equality of status all work to enhance social capital, despite their lack of direct physical orientation. Mediated individuals treat these mediated communities as real. That is, the role of communication as value-based in mediated communities works to create traditional forms of communities as well. To understand why these new forms of communities can be regarded as moral entities, we wish to highlight how communal existence affects our moral decisions and judgements in the information age.