Philosophical Dialogue Research Articles

<i>Kathāvatthu</i> (“Points of Controversy”) as a Primary Source of Early Buddhist Philosophy

This article focuses on the under-researched Buddhist textKathāvatthu(“Points of Controversy”) and aims to better determine its place within Indian philosophy. We consider how the text was compiled, its contents, and main characteristics (such as its genre, its classification lists –mātika). To understand some of those characteristics, we suggest viewing them as shared with the whole Pali Canon (a large body of heterogeneous texts, of which theKathāvatthuis part). This article also illustrates the issues of translating religious and philosophical texts from the Pāli language. Particularly, we highlight that theKathāvatthubelongs to the part of Pāli Canon known as theAbhidhamma Piṭaka, and consider how this influences the philosophical discourse presented in this text. We analyze the historical and philosophical content of theKathāvatthu. We argue that such content of this work is consistently revealed in the discussion of issues controversial for the schools of Early Buddhism. At the beginning of the text, there are the most significant questions for Early Buddhism (about the subject (pudgala), about the one who has reached perfection –arhat). As we get closer to the end of the text, the importance of the issues discussed diminishes. Its final part contains the latest questions. The discussion in each question depends on the logical method of the eight refutations, the use of lists (mātika), and the position of the Theravada school to which the final version of the text belongs. In the article, special attention is paid to the determination of theKathāvatthugenre. We conclude that the genre of this work can be considered as a unique example of religious and philosophical dialogue in Early Buddhist literature.

Financial management and phenomenology: The role of dialogue, accountability and context in investment decisions

In this article, it will be argued that subjective assumptions play a prominent part in the way valuations are conducted and investment decisions are made by financial managers (FMs) from the perspective of agency theory. The problem is that there is a general absence of rules of compliance for financial management. Quantitative calculations are based on theories, models and accepted practices that guide FMs in their decision-making process. The selection criteria that inform these theories, models and practices rely on qualitative assumptions, which are informed by the presuppositions of the FM. The problem is that this understanding framework has traditionally not been assessed because of the assumption that the theories, models and practices are value neutral. Value neutrality generally implies that calculations, processes and projections are based on factual information and rational procedures that are objective. The scrutiny of the assumptions involved in financial management assumes that the individual has philosophical sensitivity. However, this is not traditionally part of the expected competencies of finance professionals. Philosophical competency means that the FM is capable of evaluating decision-making processes in order not to fall into the trap of circular logic or solipsism as highlighted by Gadamer. Maurice Merleau-Ponty identified that the limitations of such an understanding of reality result in a failure of responsibility and accountability. From the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, there are three principles for philosophical analysis, namely, dialogue, accountability and context. These principles are applied to the purchase of Gourmet Burger Kitchen by Famous Brands in 2016.

Process and Relation: Origins of the Autonomist Theory of Individuation

Any political theory is built on the foundation of a certain ontology, an integral part of which is the problem of an individual. For a long time, the ontological primacy in the European thought was attached to the concept of an individual that was understood as a complete and selfsufficient unit. However, today one can talk about the growing popularity of the approach that views an individual as a relative reality in a state of continuous formation i.e., the process of individuation. This approach is developed by the Italian intellectuals, whose general ideological view is known as autonomism (P.Virno, M.Lazzarato, A.Negri etc.). The article examines the origins of the theory of individuation and its political implications within the autono mist thought. The first part of the article examines the ways of representing an individual in the ontologies of B.Spinoza and G.Simondon. The author demonstrates that the procedural and relational understanding of an individual proposed by these philosophers contributes to bridging the gap between the collective and the individual not only in politics, but also in thinking. An individual is a consequence of the concretization of the general and retains a connection with it. The second part analyzes the psychological and linguistic aspects of individuation, elaborated in L.Vygotsky’s psychology and M.Bakhtin’s philosophy of dialogue. Individuation is interpreted as a movement from the social to the individual, carried out with the help of various tools, primarily by the means of the language. The author evaluates the reception of these thinkers’ ideas in the context of autonomism. The author concludes that the autonomist concept of individuation is a synthetic theory that brings together the general aspects of the consi dered above schools of thought into a single perspective. In fact, the concept is a large-scale revision of the ontological and anthropological foundations of thinking about politics. Its goal is to destroy the idea of a “sovereign individual”, which was born within the liberal tradition, and, as a consequence, to liberate the sphere of the collective from the control of capital.

I am keeping my cultural hat on: exploring a ‘culture-enabling’ philosophy for/with children practice

In this paper, I offer a preliminary sketch of a culture-enabling Philosophy for/with Children practice. It is an approach to engaging philosophically with children that aims to encourage the exercise of critical reflection at the level of their respective cultures. This kind of P4wC practice hopes to address the challenges in facilitating philosophical dialogues with culturally/ethnically-diverse groups, especially when prejudice and negative stereotypes towards cultural/ethnic minorities are prevalent. Its focus is on helping children become cognizant of their cultural situatedness and its impact on their thinking and attitude towards dialogue. Underlying this practice is the assumption that Philosophy is fundamentally a worldview and a method that is embedded in the culture where it is created, validated, and used. Such a manner of doing philosophy recognizes that children are active bearers of culture and are entitled to educational opportunities, like P4wC, that can empower them to think for themselves and with others while staying grounded on their cultural backgrounds. Thus, the Community of Inquiry functions as a caring space where intercultural understanding and critical affirmation of cultures are fostered and sustained. In connection, I suggest that a culture-enabling P4wC teacher should have three desired traits: a) openness to various cultural resources and frames, b) a sense of critical positionality, and c) partiality to the culturally marginalized.

Becoming Thou as transformation in interfaith dialogue

ABSTRACT Within current interfaith dialogue scholarship, perspective transformation towards the religious other is one of the most desired outcomes. However, exactly how such transformed perspectives come about and the characteristics of thistransformation have not been adequately researched. In this study, we examine transformative learning within interfaith dialogue. Using a theoretical framework that combines Buber’s philosophy of dialogue and transformative learning theory, we equate the transformative process with the dynamics of becoming Thou. Through thematic analysis of qualitative interview data, we found that transformative learning within this context is contingent upon the creation of genuine and deep relatedness, that are constitutive of becoming Thou. Our findings report how dynamic relatedness serves as a foundation, a catalyst, and culmination of transformative learning processes. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings and suggestions for future research.

Echoes from the Great Divide: On the Faltering Philosophical Dialogue between Africa and the West

Even in the field of comparative or cross-cultural philosophy, distinctive contributions by African philosophers are often side-lined – that is, relegated to niche publications. Why is it so hard for African philosophers to draw their Western colleagues (other than specialists in African philosophy) into a real dialogue? An attempt is made to describe the field of tension; it is shown that some of the reflexes that manifest themselves in it reveal not just the attachment to specific perspectives or frames of reference, but also implicit ideas about the nature of the “philosophical game”. On the Western side, motives constitutive of practical or traditional life are either ignored or tacitly equated with attempts to realize goals that can be best understood from a reflexive point of view. In this way, the concrete conditions of any human activity, including intellectual activity, are lost from view. This critical lesson has been spelt out by a number of philosophers (Maurice Blondel being one of them), but is seldom taken to heart. As a result, it becomes difficult to penetrate beyond conceptual differences. It will also be maintained that while many African philosophers question intellectualist attitudes, they do not always do so in a way that invites discussion on the central, or basic, issues.

Towards a Platonic critique of ideology

Plato is accused by some of being a totalitarian, “top-down” thinker, a claim that is linked not just to his politics but to his philosophical proclivities more generally. This essay will argue that Plato’s method and metaphysics collectively provide a few avenues for questioning this outcome. I think Plato’s Socratic-style provides resistance to a hegemonic and carapaced metaphysics, and moreover I would argue that there is a greater coherence between Plato’s method and his positive teaching than is allowed for by some. Through an engagement with central Platonic doctrines, namely his account of philosophical dialogue, the transcendental Good, as well as participation, and recollection, it is argued that Plato’s relational metaphysics does not fit seamlessly into an “ideological” or “naïve” rendering of intellectual intuition, an exclusionary dualism of material and spiritual substance, or an uncritical evocation of “innate ideas,” and, moreover, that it allows for a greater plurality of perspectives, all ordered towards a deeper realism and unity within the Good Beyond Being.

Wilhelm Halbfass and the Purposes of Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Wilhelm Halbfass and the Purposes of Cross-Cultural Dialogue Dimitry Shevchenko (bio) Introduction The subject of this article is comparative philosophy—its goals and methods—as discussed in the work of Wilhelm Halbfass (1940–2000), a prominent German scholar of Indian philosophy. Halbfass' classical works, such as India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding (1988),1 Tradition and Reflection (1991), On Being and What There Is (1992), and Karma und Wiedergeburt im indischen Denken (2000) have left a lasting influence on a generation of scholars and students of Indian philosophy. The appreciation of his work and a testimony to its impact can be seen, for instance, in the voluminous study Beyond Orientalism: The Work of Wilhelm Halbfass and Its Impact on Indian and Cross-Cultural Studies (1997) edited by Eli Franco and Karin Preisendanz, which contains thorough discussions of different aspects of Halbfass' work by twenty-five scholars, with Halbfass' own responses. Karin Preisendanz has also edited a second volume, published after Halbfass' passing, titled Expanding and Merging Horizons: Contributions to South Asian and Cross-Cultural Studies in Commemoration of Wilhelm Halbfass (2007).2 Halbfass' distinguished approach is his acknowledgment of the inevitability of prejudices affecting a researcher's understanding of foreign cultures. It is not possible to adopt an impartial vantage point from which one could assess different traditions, nor is it possible simply to adopt the point of view of someone else, to slip into someone else's skin. The process of understanding begins with preconceptions regarding the object of study, which, nevertheless, can be rectified through constant awareness of one's hermeneutic horizon, and through patient attempts to reach the horizon of the other side. Halbfass argues that the privileged position of European conceptual frameworks of understanding does not yet allow us to determine the proper place of Indian philosophy in relation to Western philosophy. At the present stage of the dialogue, our exploration of Indian philosophy must continue without any determinate purpose in view, other than simply trying to understand what the tradition has been saying. As I will argue, Halbfass' contention that Indian and Western philosophers are still found at the preliminary stage of understanding each other,3 [End Page 793] coupled with his methodical demand to exclude purposes from the dialogical pursuit of understanding, should be seen as an obstacle to fruitful philosophical dialogue qua philosophy. Instead, I propose a model of cross-cultural philosophical dialogue, in which the pursuit of understanding is inseparable from the pursuit of human goals. I will focus on the concept of prayojana, the statement of purpose to be achieved by the pursuit of knowledge, formally required in philosophical literature and debates in classical India. Prayojana implies that the accomplishment of understanding is instrumental in bringing about some desirable result. It follows that philosophical dialogue is considered a goal-oriented activity, the initiation of which ought to be motivated by good reasons. This tension between Halbfass' rejection (even if temporary) of purpose as detrimental to understanding and purposefulness of philosophical dialogue in classical India invites some reflection over the role that human goals play or should play in cross-cultural philosophical dialogue. I will further briefly review the reasons Halbfass attributes to the refusal on the part of some Indian traditionalists to engage in a dialogue with Western philosophy. Halbfass examines the "xenological" frameworks of Indian traditions, responsible for various degrees of closure and openness toward foreign cultures prior to Colonialism, its "inclusivism," and the unequal colonial situation—all affecting the Indian side of the encounter with Western philosophy. However, it is not enough to render the isolationist tendencies described by Halbfass as merely defensive reactions to the imposition of European conceptual schemes or as a form of xenophobia. Without denying these external factors, I will argue that purposes as internal factors of philosophizing in India can play a role in the rejection of the inter-cultural dialogue by some participants of the intra-cultural dialogue in India. By reflecting on the role of prayojana in philosophical interaction, I will demonstrate that the resistance to cross-cultural dialogue can be a rational and, in principle, morally justifiable choice. Comparative Philosophy and Dialogic Approach In Halbfass' own words, his book...

Designing Generative Dialogue Spaces to Enhance Focus Group Research: A Case Study in the Context of COVID-19 Vaccination

Focus groups are a core method in qualitative research for bringing people together to discuss an issue of concern; however, it has been criticized for not enabling researchers to gain a deep understanding of the participants’ lived experiences or generating in-depth personal narratives that build on those experiences. In this article, the author builds on the shared epistemologies of qualitative research and journalism to introduce the Generative Dialogue Framework. The Generative Dialogue Framework is grounded in the intersection of inquiry, knowledge, and storytelling to design and facilitate remote and in-person focus groups. Informed by phenomenology, the philosophy of dialogue, and design thinking, along with a strong visual focus, the framework aims to surface participants’ lived experiences as a way of understanding their perceptions, thoughts, and perspectives, especially within the context of controversial or polarizing topics of concern. The Generative Dialogue Framework stimulates constructive dialogue by offering a focused framework and a structured yet flexible question guide. The result is intended to be a reflective learning dialogue in which participants jointly develop shared meanings and insights, rather than simply exchanging rationalized opinions. Drawing on insights from a case study that explores people’s perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccination, the article demonstrates the framework’s application and provides a toolkit to structure the design and implementation process. Finally, reflecting on methodological and epistemological perspectives, the author reviews the advantages and challenges of applying the framework in focus group research for both researchers and participants.

The Gamble of Hope

The Gamble of Hope Mark S. Burrows (bio) . . .et sepultus resurrexit: certum est, quia impossibile* —Tertullian In this season of disease every hope seems a gamble at best,a long shot of wondering in a time weighted with uncertaintyand untold suffering waiting as we must through the stressedtumble of long nights and days against the blameless cruelty of an unseen virus longing for life to become something likenormal again and on we go in spite of it all doing whatever wecan and may keeping distance from strangers and friends alike,greeting old neighbors cautiously as we pass on the street: a masked nod an unvoiced wave some simple gesture of silentassent trusting that our troubled eyes might say what the crucibleof words cannot signaling reassurance despite it all impenitent in our hope impatient in facing the seemingly unending distressof these times assenting to an ancient story both certain and impossible:that love is stronger than death and longer even than our duress. [End Page 156] Mark S. Burrows Mark S. Burrows is poet, scholar, and translator, having taught in divinity schools in the US for several decades before being called in 2012 to teach religion and literature at a university in Bochum, Germany. Recent publications include The Chance of Home. Poems (2018) and two volumes of meditative poems co-authored with Jon M. Sweeney, Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart (2017) and Meister Eckhart's Book of Secrets (2019) as well as an edited volume of essays, Prophetic Witness and the Reimagining of the World: Poetry, Theology and Philosophy in Dialogue (Routledge, 2020). He lives in Camden, ME. www.msburrows.com. Footnotes * "And he was buried and rose again; this is certain because it is impossible"; from De carne Christi (ca. 203–205 CE). Copyright © 2021 Johns Hopkins University Press

Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent by Paul Mendes-Flohr

Reviewed by: Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent by Paul Mendes-Flohr Peter C. Meilaender Paul Mendes-Flohr, Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2019. 405 pp. It has been over thirty years since a major biography of Martin Buber appeared in English, and the present volume has been worth the wait. No one could be more qualified to write it than Paul Mendes-Flohr, the dean of Buber scholars and joint editor-in-chief of the twenty-two-volume German Werkausgabe of Buber's writings. Mendes-Flohr's intimate knowledge of Buber's philosophy makes this a valuable book for scholars; its clear and unpretentious prose, lack of jargon, and manageable length make it similarly inviting for the non-academic reader hoping to learn more about Buber. This is sure to be the standard text for anyone seeking an introduction to the life and thought of this important twentieth-century thinker. Mendes-Flohr is especially interested in tracing Buber's intellectual development, which he consistently weaves together with the various stations along Buber's journey. Born in Vienna in 1878, Buber was soon sent to the Galician city of Lemberg (now Lviv, in Ukraine) when his mother abandoned her family. Only three years old at the time, Buber would never escape the haunting sense of loss this event occasioned. In Lemberg he was raised by his devout Jewish grandparents; his grandfather was a Judaic scholar of some repute. Lemberg was an ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse city (Buber himself attended a Polish-language Gymnasium), and it is tempting to suppose that his upbringing there might have shaped the later Buber's philosophy of dialogue. Buber would return to Vienna as a university student, initially interested mainly in literature and art. During his student years, however, he became active in the Zionist movement, the first step in what would become a lifelong and intense, if occasionally fraught, engagement with the faith and culture of the Jewish people. Mendes-Flohr describes the evolution of Buber's early, romantically tinged cultural Zionism into a much more critical engagement with nationalism and with Zionism's political goals. He also shows how intense intellectual and personal friendships with figures such as Gustav Landauer and Franz Rosenzweig, alongside a deepening immersion in Hasidism, helped transform the youthful Buber—who initially, like so many, had enthusiastic hopes that World War I might spark a cultural renewal—into the mature philosopher of dialogue who would inspire so many followers with his profound pursuit of genuine relationship among people of different cultures and [End Page 162] faiths. Buber's relational anthropology finds its most famous expression, of course, in the book Ich und Du, which begins with the distinction between the two "Grundworte"—"Ich-Es" and "Ich-Du"—that express the two modes through which we encounter the world around us, other human beings, and God. Interestingly, although Mendes-Flohr's book is in many ways an intellectual biography, Ich und Du does not loom especially large in his account; to the contrary, he covers it in about five pages. Indeed, I was somewhat surprised, retrospectively, to see how few pages are devoted to the title in the book's index. This is a testimony, however, to how successfully Mendes-Flohr has sketched Buber's entire life—not just a single especially well-known work—as one that was rich throughout in dialogue and relationship: with Jews and non-Jews, believers and non-believers, philosophers and theologians, artists and authors, cultural Zionists and political Zionists, Austrians, and Germans. And, of course, Jews and Arabs. It is this latter relationship that comes to cast an ever-longer shadow over the final third of the book. In fact, it is hard not to conclude that for Mendes-Flohr, the real key to understanding Buber the man and the thinker is his long and difficult struggle with this relationship. Forced to flee Germany for Palestine in the late 1930s, Buber sought consistently to articulate a vision of Palestine as a land that would be home equally to Jews and Arabs, both of whom had deep and justified claims there. Although he...

From Anthology to Authority in the Vita Nova

This essay examines the "mini-anthology" composed of "Venite a 'ntender li sospiri miei," "Deh peregrini, che pensosi andate," and "Oltre la spera che più larga gira," which Dante recounts at the close of the Vita Nova that he sent to two noble ladies. The mini-anthology offers a new juxtaposition of two of the collection's poems, and separates all three from the prose context provided in the book. In a close reading of the three sonnets, the essay proposes that, as a discrete entity, the anthology makes a case for the poet's authority based exclusively on his new understanding of the love of Beatrice in glory, a love that transcends death and the anima sensitiva, as opposed an authority based on the appeal to famous poets for approval made at the opening of the book or on the poetic apprenticeship rehearsed in it. A fundamental shift in the paradigm of conferring poetic authority is also suggested: authority will now arise from the recognition of men and women who are not poets but who have the nobility of mind to appreciate Dante's new spiritualized poetics. Cavalcanti, both a poet and a nobleman, is the exception to this formulation, and the essay's third argument concerns Dante's intense poetic and philosophical dialogue with him, which continues through the three sonnets.

Thomas Mores Utopia als Philosophie: Plädoyer für eine dialogische Lesart

Abstract. Thomas More’s Utopia is an iridescent and enigmatic work which evades a consistent interpretation. Throughout the entire dialogue, many contradictory positions are argued for, and More’s play with telling names makes it difficult to determine which person’s position we should embrace. In order to evade these problems, the paper suggests reading More’s work as a philosophical dialogue with the reader, in which More invites us to evaluate the different positions contained in the work against our own back- ground. In this sense, More’s Utopia is a proper piece of philosophy.

СПЕЦИФІКА ВЕРБАЛІЗАЦІЇ КОНЦЕПТУ ЄВРОПА В МОВНІЙ КАРТИНІ СВІТУ Г. СКОВОРОДИ

The article considers the verbal ways of realization of the concept of EUROPE in Hryhorii Skovoroda’s language model of the world. Various lexical samples of the examined concept were discovered in the works of the outstanding Ukrainian philosopher: e.g. Europe, European, European; numerous names of European countries, cities, their inhabitants; names to denote other geographical phenomena of Europe. Most of these lexical units are found in the author’s philosophical dialogues. During the discussion, their participants show the awareness of realities of Europe at that time, peculiarities of its state system, local customs; history, geography, natural sciences. These fragments of knowledge constitute Hryhorii Skovoroda’s conceptual view of the world and more broadly – educated Ukrainians of the XVIII century. Such marked words instantiate the structural components of the concept of EUROPE: its notional, imaginary, valuative, symbolic, national-cultural and ideal components. Often these lexical units form integral part of comparisons – such as the large group of nouns in the locative case: e.g. in Europe, in England, in Hungary, in Norway, in France, in Rome, in Venice, in Paris, in Florence. Using mentioned words, on the one hand, Ukrainians demonstrate their knowledge about Europe, and on the other hand, compare life “here” and “there” (the paradigm is still relevant nowadays).

ОПЫТ ПСИХОБИОГРАФИИ ФИЛОСОФИИ ПОСЛЕВОЕННОГО ПОКОЛЕНИЯ

The Philosophical Dialogue is dedicated to the analysis of the historical development of Russian philosophy over the past half century. The authors investigated the attitude of ideas and people in the conditions of historical turning point in the late 20th and early 21st century. Philosophy in a borderline situation allows us to compare and evaluate the past and the present. On the one hand, archetypes, attitudes, moods and experiences, formed as a reception of the collective experience of the past era, have been preserved in the minds of thinkers of the post-war generation – in the consciousness, and may be in the neural networks of the brain. On the other hand, the new social reality – cognitive capitalism – radically changes the self-description of society. It is not to say that modernity satisfies people. Despite the talk about the production of cultural, social, human capital, they feel not happy, but lonely and defenseless in a rapidly changing world. Not only philosophical criticism, but also the wave of protests, which also engulfed the "welfare society", makes one wonder whether it is worth following the recipes of the modern Western economy. On the one hand, closure poses a threat to stagnation, the fate of the country of the outland outing. On the other hand, openness, and, moreover, the attempt to lead the construction of a networked society is nothing but self-sacrifice. Russia has already been the leader of the World International, aiming to defeat communism around the world. But there was another superpower that developed the potential of capitalism. Their struggle involved similarities, which consisted in the desire for technical conquest of the world. The authors attempted to reflect on the position of a country that would not give up the competition, but used new technologies to live better. To determine the criteria, it is useful to use the historical memory of the older generation to assess modernity. Conversely, get rid of repeating the mistakes of the past in designing a better future.

One’s Own vs. Other / Another / Alien in the Conceptual and Aesthetic Paradigm of Modernism

This article focuses on the issue of the Other/Alien within the conceptual and aesthetic paradigm of modernism. In the context of modernistic ideas, the author analyses the philosophy of dialogue and phenomenological views on the Other as represented in the intellectual heritage of the twentieth century. Taking into consideration these ideas, the author discusses three mainstream aspects of the Other/Alien in Russian modernist literature: 1) mythological tradition, which provokes the image of the enemy through the image of the Other; 2) Romantic tradition of the double (doppelganger), and 3) philosophical / phenomenological notion of the body, which views personality as “me/Self” and “my body”. Conceptual analysis of these aspects is provided with reference to poetic texts by Alexander Blok, Innokenty Annensky, and Osip Mandelstam. The author stresses the conventionality of such a division, on the one hand, and the influence of the analysed aspects of the Other/Alien onto the conceptual system of Postmodernism. Modernism in European culture, in contrast to other historical periods, is characterised primarily by the fact that many of its ideas and concepts were only proclaimed, but not presented in the form of complete theoretical concepts/systems. In this sense, modernism turned out to be open to the future, which allows us to call it an “uncompleted project” (Jürgen Habermas). Previous eras offered solutions to important existential problems in the form of complete philosophical systems (Immanuel Kant or Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel), ideas or concepts (Kant’s concept of “eternal peace” and a moral imperative, Hegel’s idea of state and law). Modernism, influenced by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, destroyed the systematic nature of thinking, doubted traditional morality, and offered paradoxical solutions to many problems in the form of conceptual questions, which are discussed to this day. One of these uncompleted modernist projects was the concept of the Other/Alien, discussions about which have been going on for over a century.

Społeczeństwo i kultura jako definicyjny kontekst badań nad wpływem technologii na ponowoczesnego człowieka

Based on an analysis of selected definitions of the terms used for society and culture, the author creates the sociological theoretical framework for the article. In conjunction with the characterized phenomenon of digital transformation, extensive and far-reaching conclusions are formulated on the impact of new technology for postmodernity. In relation to the scientific achievements of Buber and Tischner, the author deeply analyzes the assumptions of philosophy of dialogue. This allows the observation of a wide dimension in the relationship between the relational nature of social relations, the condition of the individual, the durability of the systems humans create, the technocratic direction of civilizational development and the consumerist attitude to reality in contemporary society of the 21st century. The author describes technological worship and presents the negative consequences of digital transformation processes. On the example of the service sector, the transition is presented as symbolic culture based on the relations and dialogue with technical and functional culture. The research method used in the article is a review of the scientific literature. In the study, the author set the goal of determining the impact of digital transformation on humans in the context of the definition of culture and society. As a result of the research, the author states that technological insight (i.e. looking at technology as a way of resolving all contemporary problems) has the danger of successively weakening man, and could lead to a deepening of social inequalities. The author also emphasizes the need to deepen research on the consequences of the digital transformation on society and culture and to develop models that can reduce the negative consequences of the change process.

WISDOM AND THE ART OF LIVING IN 8 TH GRADE TEACHERS` EXPERIENCES OF PHILOSOPHIZING THE DIALOGOS WAY

This paper discusses teachers` self-reported experiences from participating in a Dialogos philosophizing project over five months, from the perspective of wisdom development. The project involved teachers from 13 upper secondary schools in a municipality in Scandinavia. They were given a course on philosophy and rhetoric over four workshops with five weeks in between. Moreover, they were themselves supposed to facilitate 20 philosophical dialogue sessions with their own 8th grade students during the project. The research methods used were participative observation and analysis of teachers` meta-reflection notes after the last workshop. The paper concludes with that the project did seem to enhance teachers`wisdom. According to the teachers, the students had also become much more reflected due to the project.

Поэма Ч. Милоша «Теологический трактат» в контексте ре­лигиозного мировоззрения Ф. М. Достоевского

The article investigates a religious and philosophical dialogue of Miłosz and Dostoevsky. The antinomic content of Miłosz's poem “Theological Treatise” is analyzed in the context of Dostoevsky's Christocentric worldview, as well as religious and heretical teachings of early Christianity, which aroused Milosz's interest throughout his career. In their works, Dostoev­sky and Miłosz explored the theological problem of apoсatastasis and offered their interpreta­tion of it. The paper also examines Miłosz’s contribution as an essayist to the comparative study of Dostoevsky's works (Dostoevsky — Mickiewicz and Dostoevsky — Swedenborg). The ideological basis of “Theological Treatise” is the dialectical relationship between faith and truth, which is associated with Miłosz's appeal to Dostoevsky's ‘creed’ from his famous letter to Fonvisina. Like Dostoevsky, Miłosz criticizes the natural-scientific concept of truth in its depersonalized and, therefore, dehumanized version, which seems to the author of “Theologi­cal Treatise” as an instrument of ‘devilish theology’. In a dialogue with the traditions of Rus­sian religious philosophy, and above all with Dostoevsky’s legacy, Miłosz turns to the Apoca­lypse, in which the most aesthetically significant the idea for him is that of ​​restoring paradisi­acal existence. However, unlike Dostoevsky, the concept of life after death in “Theological Treatise” is not free from pessimism and skepticism. Miłosz is inclined towards the ideological paradigm of the West, and the concept of “Theological Treatise” includes the ideas of Dosto­evsky's unbelieving heroes.

Kwok-kan TamIbsen, Power and the Self: Postsocialist Chinese Experimentations in Stage Performance and Film

BOOKS IN REVIEW “obstinately refuses to conform to the protocols laid out for it.” Braschi uses “formalist concerns and the potency of style” to question and lay waste to “accepted values and interpretative strategies” at every level of the work, making most straightforward analysis troublesome. Anne Ashbaugh, another of the contributors to the volume, holds that Braschi’s writings participate in a constant motion that “prevents analysis” and makes it “impracticable to resort to traditional hermeneutical strategies.” In other words, both scholars insist that the challenge found between the covers of Braschi ’s books is that these insistently work toward interrupting our literary expectations and critical habits at every twist in the road, making the reader uncomfortable and blowing her out of the water over and over again. The best way to engage with Braschi, for Ashbaugh—and this applies to the tradition of experimental Latinx writing mentioned above—is, instead, to go along for the ride and think with her; to create a conversation between the work and the many other thinkers that pop up among her pages and explore and examine what might result. In her essay, for example, Ashbaugh stages a philosophical dialogue between Braschi and Nietzsche’s Zarathustra , a figure that is also fictionalized in United States of Banana. The comparison allows Ashbaugh to clarify the relationship between freedom and art in the text, and she concludes that whereas Nietzsche “frees the Will that has been colonized by religious paradigms,” Braschi “frees Latinx creativity that has been colonized by empires.” Both Nietzsche and Braschi, she writes, “share this concern for strengthening the human will, and they resort to creative experiences in order to instill selfworth in an otherwise ineffectual will.” Like Ashbaugh’s, the best contributions to Poets, Philosophers, Lovers are those that engage in a similar manner with Braschi’s work, not by strictly analyzing its constitutive elements but by going along with it. Another such trip that deserves mention is Ronald Mendoza de Jesús’s, where a recurrent line in Braschi’s United States of Banana is put into a dialogue with Jacques Derrida that is, surprisingly, a pleasure to read. By unraveling Braschi’s refrain and engaging with her slippery and playful deployments of ideas of freedom, and then doing the same with Derrida’s last works, Mendoza de Jesús sheds light on what is and has always been at stake in Braschi’s (and Derrida’s) oeuvre: a resistance to the politics of power, to any force that preaches the ethics of servitude and obedience. For Braschi, as Madelena González points out, that resistance is embodied in the author’s commitment to art and poetry as practices of an insurgent, critical imagination. Appropriately, Poets, Philosophers, Lovers closes with a conversation between Giannina Braschi and a scholar, Rolando Pérez. At one moment of their sprawling and meandering conversation, Braschi recounts an anecdote that captures something that I believe is essential in her work. Braschi is eighteen and living in Madrid. There, she meets an older poet whom she admires. The older poet applauds Braschi’s own work, sighs, and tells her that “to be a poet when you’re eighteen, twenty, that’s easy, but to be a poet when you’re fifty, that’s something else.” Something about those words echoes with Braschi, now an “older poet” herself, and she tells her interviewer : “How can you continue to believe in poetry, after all the blows that life has dealt you? How does one still believe in feelings and innocence?” She might not have had an answer to the question when she was eighteen, but today, we can say that over the last four decades, her work has offered a solid rebuttal and shown a path to continue believing in poetry’s force, not despite the battery of life and history but because of it. Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón Oberlin College Kwok-kan Tam Ibsen, Power and the Self: Postsocialist Chinese Experimentations in Stage Performance and Film Oslo. Novus Press. 2019. 202 pages. KWOK-KAN TAM’S recent study, Ibsen, Power and the Self: Postsocialist Chinese Experimentations in Stage Performance and Film, dedicated to the centenary of Ibsen...