Anthropological Foundations Research Articles

Russian conservative philosophy of the second half of the XIX century on the essence of terrorism

Introduction. The article is devoted to the study of the views of domestic conservative philosophers of the second half of the 19th century on the essence of terrorism. The purpose of the article is to extrapolate these views onto the current situation in Russia, characterized by the intensification of terrorism and extremism.Materials and Methods. The material of the article is the writings of Russian conservative authors of the second half of the 19th century, modern scientific research on the problems of domestic conservatism and the formation of Russian self-awareness, liberalism and its connection with nihilism, terrorism; works exploring the essence of terrorism. The author relied on a civilizational approach combined with a dialectical one, on methods: hermeneutic, analytical, synthetic, generalizations, reconstruction of philosophical views, comparative historical.Results. In the course of the work, the identity of the social factors that determined the surge in terrorism in Russia in the last third of the 19th century and at the present time was established. The deep, timeless ontological and anthropological foundations of terrorism are revealed: the discrediting of being and the devaluation of man due to the secularization of the New Age. The metaphysical, irrational essence of terrorism, established by conservative philosophers, is still relevant today. The typological portraits of representatives of various variations of terrorism identified by conservative authors are also topical; the connection between groundless ultra-liberalism and nihilism and terrorism.Discussion and Conclusions. The author managed to update the views of Russian conservative thinkers of the second half of the 19th century on the essence of nihilism and terrorism. And today, the measures to counter terrorism identified by these thinkers are of great importance: negative (fight and prevention) and positive (unity and spiritual improvement of society, educating young people in the spirit of traditional values and patriotism).

Anthropological Foundations in Delineating the Legal Status of Muslim Women (Focusing on Imamiyyah Jurisprudence)

ترسیم جای‌گاه مناسب حقوقی برای زنان، هم‌چون هر بحث مبنایی و اساسی دیگر، منوط به باز‌تعریف مبانی انسان‌شناختی در این حوزه‌ است. وجود دو نگاه تفریطی - سنتی و افراطی -فمینیستی، که یکی زن را جنس دوم می‌داند و دیگری حتا کارکردهای طبیعی زن از قبیل مادر‌بودن را نیز نادیده می‌گیرد، کار در این زمینه را ضرورت بیش‌تری می‌بخشد. هدف از این کار، دست‌یابی به قرائت به‌روز از حقوق زنان در چهارچوب آموزه‌های دینی بوده است. پرسشی‌که این نوشتار تلاش کرده بدان پاسخ دهد، این بوده است که: آیا مبانی انسان‌شناختی می‌تواند در ترسیم جای‌گاه حقوقی زنان، تأثیر کافی داشته و نقش مستقیمی ایفا کند؟ برای رسیدن به پاسخ این پرسش، ما با استفاده از روش کتاب‌خانه‌‌یی و متون نوشتاری، هم‌چون مقالات، و دیداری از نوع میز‌گرد، به تحقیق پرداخته و بدین نتیجه دست یافتیم که: مبانی انسان‌شناختی، در دو نوع مبانی عام و مبانی خاص، نقش مستقیم و فراوانی بر ترسیم جای‌گاه حقوقی زنان‌ ایفا می‌کنند. این مبانی نهایتًا به یک الگوی سوم از زن می‌رسد، که در هیچ‌یک از دو الگوی سنّتی و فمینیستی تبیین نشده است؛ لذا جای‌گاه متفاوت و ویژه‌یی برای زنان ترسیم خواهد کرد.

HUMANIZAR LA EDUCACIÓN PARA HUMANIZAR A LA PERSONA

This paper is framed within the thematic line of Education at the IV Ibero American Congress on Research in Society, Education, and Psychology, specifically within the line of work on Teaching Innovation. The starting point lies in the social and educational problems and challenges described in reports from leading international educational institutions. UNESCO (2015; 2017; 2022), the OECD (2023b), the European Union (Council of Europe, 2021), and the Holy See (Dicastery for Culture and Education, 2013; 2014; 2017; 2022; Pope Francis, 2019; 2020b) emphasize the seriousness of the dehumanization of society and the individual, as well as the problems arising from multicultural coexistence. The social issue, turned into an anthropological issue, urgently requires education (Benedict XVI, 2009, n. 75; UNESCO, 2015; Marope, 2017) from a strategic approach (Council of Europe, 2021; OECD, 2020). It is considered that the shift in the educational paradigm requires educating young generations in the Competence in Integral and Solidary Humanism. Through this competence, it is possible to enhance the student profiles proposed by the LOMLOE, advance towards achieving SDG 4 Quality Education, and promote the construction of students' social personality and their understanding of life, the world, and people. The study aims to contextualize, translate, and synthesize all this educational thought. To achieve this, firstly, the current social and educational scenarios are presented; secondly, the foundations of the new anthropology described in the Global Compact on Education are presented as a proposal to initiate the shift in the educational paradigm; thirdly, the design of the Key Competence in Integral and Solidary Humanism is offered as a didactic innovation. Finally, it justifies how educating in the classroom in the culture of dialogue, encounter, and care from an early age becomes an indispensable element in the service of the new humanism, building the social dimension of the new generations and providing an alternative model of coexistence to the current culture of waste and individualism.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL-ANTHROPOLOGICAL IDEA OF THE WORLD AS A THEORETICAL PROGRAM: THE BEING OF THE COGNITIVE RELATION

The article examines some features of the philosophical-anthropological approach to the cognitive activity of a person, which is presented in it primarily as the «of-being-relationship» of a person to his world. The peculiarities of this approach to cognition are primarily due to the following. All contemporary philosophical trends, such as the transcendental-critical approach, evolutionary theory, existentialism, or various representatives of the linguistic turn, always come from the (cognitive) achievements of culture (intentional, intersubjectively constituted, immersed in the specifics of the subjectivity of consciousness, language, etc. ) and from there they try to investigate the factors enabling the subject's achievements; or, like the evolutionary theory, ultimately level out the essential difference in the principle of organization of human life, limiting it to the adaptive self-preservation of the organism. The philosophical-anthropological approach is based on the laws of the organic as a prerequisite for all cultural formations, from the vital process, and precisely from its fateful breakthrough for the human figure, from which it tries to derive the cognitive relationship as one of the mediators, which contributes to overcoming this gap and restoring the vital cycle in the human world. Accordingly, the cognitive relationship acts as a relationship that emerges in the very being, woven into the specific functionality of a living being, a person. And reflexively decisive here is not "exclusively" the internal status of the subject-object-splitting of the fact of knowledge, but its, so to speak, fully cognitively capable presence as an essential relation. The being of cognition does not arise, it only "does not disappear"; it "accompanies" the entire process of anthropogenesis, during which only an increase in the intensity of the unity of being is observed. As a conclusion, it would be appropriate to demand: scientific thinking, by its type of organization and objective intent, must resort to methodological and conceptual self-criticism, and pay attention precisely to the substantive importance of its anthropological foundations, that is, not simply to certain personal or community circumstances in which a scientist or the scientific community work, and on the anthropic principle as an internal principle, on the basis of which the constitutive interpretation of knowledge as such takes place.

Countering Religious Violence with a Better Theory of Religion Following Nicholas of Cusa

Dissent within and among religions can provoke much violence. Nicholas of Cusa encountered this and countered it with a differentiated theory of religion, implicit in his De pace fidei from 1453. I propose four different levels of interpretation: the dominant philosophical approach, inspired by a high trust in the intellect and enlightened by a self-critical epistemology; the anthropological foundation of all religion in the desire for truth, goodness, salvation and peace, in conjunction with the character of the human mind as a living image of the divine mind; the rational hermeneutical interpretation of particular religious ideas and texts in view of a philosophical theology, and finally its reintegration in the perspective of a Christian. This is in line with Cusanus’s epistemological perspectivism and allows for interreligious dialogue from enlightened religious perspectives instead of violence.

Speculative Cannibalism: Derrida and Viveiros de Castro on Eating-the-Other

ABSTRACT “Speculative cannibalism” names here some kind of transcendental logic that only works through figuration, in the specific form of an analogical matrix. This article tracks these configurations in the philosophical works of Jacques Derrida and in the anthropological foundations of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. This article states that as transcendental, this analogical matrix is the condition of possibility of the meaning of alterity and difference—but as analogical works as a transcategorial function that is neither beyond nor before experience, only irreducible to a given explanatory category of judgment or being. This function is figurative, that is, constitutes meaning by an operation of comparison in Viveiros de Castro’s nomenclature, and of supplementation, in Derrida’s terminology. In both cases this function posits difference or equivocation as the main operator. Finally, this article argues that even though they are very similar speculative proposals, analogy works a bit differently for deconstruction and for post-structural anthropology: for the first, analogy is based on a supplementary logic that is only taken to be a formal operation, while for the former, analogy it is treated not only as a formal operation, but also as fixed within the material categories of Amerindian thought.

Helmuth Plessner’s Philosophy of the Work of Art in Anthropological and Phenomenological Perspective

This paper aims to explore the theme of art in Helmuth Plessner’s philosophical anthropology and show the possibilities of its use in the analysis of artistic creation and artwork. The article is divided into three parts: in the first part, it presents the background of Plessner’s anthropological project and the intersection of his philosophy with Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology. This strategy enables the synergy of both approaches which can be used for reflection of art. The second part displays the scope and ingenuity of Plessner’s approach through a selection of texts where he addresses art. And finally, the third part delves into a functional elaboration of the anthropology of an artwork, specifically, using Max Beckmann as an example, into the question of anthropological foundations in art making, and the question of new form in art. For the latter question, I use the approach to architecture as an example relying on corporeality and Umwelt as guiding concepts. This analysis provides, on the one hand, description of anthropologically significant phenomena of artistic production of the first half of the twentieth century, and on the other hand, reveals functional determinations of corporeality, the world, and resonance with the world, the so-called equilibrium, which can be used to understand the artwork, and artistic production in the creation of a new form in art.

Anthropological foundations of worker oppression

This article makes an attempt to consider the course of world history from an anthropological perspective. According to the author, the natural essence of individuals in our population is a determining factor that predetermines the emergence of various trends and specific events in social life. However, the evolutionary development of culture, the change in the psyche of the individuals formed by it, gives hope for the transformation of the social structure, the elimination of oppression and exploitation of man by man in the future.

Excavating Whiteness in the African Archive: The Story of Amandus Johnson's 1920s Expedition to Angola for the Penn Museum

AbstractAs we further seek to “decolonize” museum images of Africa, the museum archives of African Collections—the correspondence, ledgers, diaries, photographs, and other documents of White explorers working in Africa—suture the colonial practices that produced ways of seeing Africa—and Blackness more broadly—back onto the objects that museums maintain and display today. As increasing scholarly attention seeks to rectify the anti‐Black colonial violence of the archive, this research aims to situate the pedestrian colonial ethnographic practices and spectacular African explorer mythmaking found in museum archives within the foundation of museum anthropology and the museum itself. It also looks to the possibilities of contemporary museum practice to reframe and repair colonial museum constructions of Africa.

Bioethics and human dignity in the humanities books of secondary education (ESO) and high school in Spain

From 12 to 18 years of age, students in Spain go from a compulsory stage (ESO) to an optional stage (hight school), where issues related to bioethics are addressed in different subjects. Our work analyzes current textbooks from prestigious Spanish publishers in the humanities subjects of "Education in Civic and Ethical Values", "Philosophy", and "Catholic Religion". The objective has been to analyze, following a rubric, the quality and quantity of ethical and bioethical content related to human dignity. Our research provides, as conclusions, first of all, the widespread absence of an anthropological foundation of human dignity, equated with legalized "human rights" and often with the value of other living beings; the uncritical acceptance of the 2030 agenda; the omission of moral judgments in bioethical dilemmas that arise at the beginning and end of human life. Finally, we also detect the dissemination of the an absolute biocentrism, as a way of overcoming anthropocentrism, without considering the option of a relative biocentrism that does not reduce the human being to simple biology.

Philosophical conceptions and theoretical foundations of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history forming

The article analyzes the impact of methodological approaches of philosophical thought on the formation of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history. The methodology of this work is based on the principles of complementarity, structure, and dialogue. In the study of labor problems, methods were involved: philosophical hermeneutics, systemic- structural, interdisciplinary. Historical anthropology as a version of the philosophy of history, which explores the mental- cultural plane of causes, the essence of historical processes and their possible projection into the future, has a significant potential for understanding the global social- cultural dynamics in past eras through philosophical- historical concepts. An important condition for the implementation of this scientific task is the analysis of the formation of the theoretical foundations of historical- anthropological dimensions of philosophical- historical thought. The study of the specified problem field is based on the study of the philosophical theories of R. G. Collingwood, K. Lévi- Strauss, and M. Foucault. The main ideas of R. G. Collingwood, which are important for the formation of the concepts of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history, include the understanding of the philosophical potential of historical thought; the need to combine philosophical concepts and historical methodologies; the importance of understanding the mental and cultural horizon of the past through the philosophy of history. Among the factors influencing the structuralist concepts of K. Lévi- Strauss on the formation of the theoretical foundations of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history, it is possible to single out the analysis of mythological elements of perception of the world by proto- societies; identification and studies of unconscious components of psychology and culture of societies of the specified type, implementation of scientific interactions of historical knowledge and ethnology. Important concepts of M. Foucault, which influenced the formation of theoretical approaches of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history, includes the analysis of unconscious elements of the psyche of societies in different eras of the past; understanding the phenomenon of «otherness» in history; study of mental representations in European society about mental illnesses; research on the understanding of the phenomenon of madness in Western European art; studies of the mentality of doctors in the Early Modern Time. The theoretical foundations of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history, which were formed under the influence of philosophical concepts, include the ontological, epistemological and axiological planes. The ontological plane is manifested in the formation of the problem field of historical- anthropological studies, the mental- cultural horizon of the past. Its composition includes: analysis of the subconscious foundations of psychology and mythological systems of proto- societies and early- historian societies; understanding the communities’ perception of the specified types of various socio- cultural phenomena, in particular diseases and means of treatment; the attitude of societies to certain social groups, in particular to doctors; analysis of the perception of political power and the mechanisms of formation of its social- psychological foundations. The epistemological plane is revealed in the formation of historical- anthropological concepts of methods of analysis of deep, unconscious aspects of the psychological and cultural dimension of past eras; effective application of an interdisciplinary approach in the analysis of mental phenomena and social behavior; realization of cognitive interaction of methodological approaches of ethnology and historical anthropology. The axiological plane consists in stimulating the spread in the understanding of the mental- cultural horizon of historical processes of the values of humanism, pluralism and the equality of cultures and civilizations of the past and the present; dialogue of various cultures, worldview systems and intellectual traditions.

Biblical Foundations for Business Ethics

The article explores biblical sources of ethics principles of business. It demonstrates that in the contemporary pluralistic world, principles of biblical business ethics can be valuable in the communication and interaction among representatives of different countries and cultures, as they encompass fundamental foundations for building business relationships. Due to the influence of Christian morality on the culture of many nations, biblical values have the potential to significantly impact individuals and their economic behavior, contributing to the dissemination of important economic categories in society. The study reveals that important anthropological foundations for fruitful economic relations have been formed within the framework of biblical theocentrism, including considerations of human dignity, honesty, diligence, responsibility, and charity. The biblical perspective on property as a temporary stewardship has significant implications for awareness and education about responsibility not only towards other people but also towards the environment, holding crucial relevance in the context of corporate social responsibility in the modern world.

Философско-антропологический аспект ментальной безопасности в условиях гибридных войн

The article discusses such a phenomenon as mental security and ways to achieve it. This phenomenon has acquired its significance due to a paradigm shift characterized by human orientation, that is, actualizing the anthropo-logical aspect in the field of security. Dangers, challenges, and threats directed specifically against humans and their security have also intensified. This is how the phenomenon of hybrid warfare has spread, the non-kinetic (non-physical) side of the confrontation of which undermines the anthropological foun-dations of the entire security system. The study draws attention to the high potential of the axiological approach in the study of the philosophical and anthropological aspect of mental security in the context of the activa-tion of hybrid threats in the modern world. When identifying threats, including hybrid ones, cultural and social contexts are of great importance, because different societies react differently to the same threats, therefore, the response to them must also correspond to these unique features. The progressive socio-cultural role of hybrid reality encourages us to rethink the role of man himself in this reality, his place in it and further prospects. The arti-cle describes both methods of hybrid influ-ence on a person and ways to resist him. Non-physical (mental and spiritual) aspects of secu-rity in the 21st century are beginning to play a key role, therefore the humanitarian sphere (including philosophical and anthropological research) is becoming increasingly important in those areas of analysis that are involved in the development of a modern security strate-gy, where one of the key industries is mental security.

Philosophical and Anthropological Foundations of Psychosynthesis by Roberto Assaggioli

Purpose. The authors aim to reveal the influence of philosophical and esoteric principles on the formation and further development of Roberto Assagioli’s concept of psychosynthesis. The theoretical basis of the study is determined by the latest methodological approaches in the study of the relationship between philosophical, psychological, and esoteric approaches in the study of the unconscious and the formation of a harmonious personality. Originality. For the first time, a systematic analysis of the anthropological foundations of Roberto Assagioli’s work has been carried out in Ukrainian philosophical literature, the specificity of the connection between esoteric teachings and psychosynthesis has been revealed on the basis of a thorough study of primary sources and biographical evidence of the life and work of the famous Italian thinker. Conclusions. Psychosynthesis, which is one of the leading directions of modern psychology, has a rather multicultural philosophical and methodological basis. Its founder Roberto Assagioli, while developing his concept, was influenced by theosophical-esoteric, pragmatic kabbalistic, and Eastern religious concepts and practices. Unlike psychoanalysis, which saw the unconscious as physiological-naturalistic determinants of the human psyche and behavior, psychosynthesis considers the unconscious as a hidden potential for self-development of the individual. Roberto Assagioli went through a long and difficult way to finally form his own concept, which became the basis of the psycho-techniques of disidentification and work with subpersonalities, which help to discover the true transpersonal self, which is the source of human self-improvement. Modern discussions about the relationship between psychosynthesis and various forms of parapsychology once again testify to the synthetic nature of Assagioli’s teaching, which combines various psychotherapeutic practices. This is what gives psychosynthesis a new push for development in the conditions of wars, disasters, loneliness, and related psychological disorders.

Pioneers of Color

Popular renditions on the history of forensic anthropology have traced the discipline’s roots back to early European anatomy and nineteenth to twentieth-century American research and applications to the legal system, often highlighting the works of several recurring figures. These forebearers are overwhelmingly composed of white men to the exclusion of, as we argue here, pioneers of color. As a counter to prevailing Eurocentric narratives, we present the biographies of diverse contemporaries who were equally foundational to the field, including Black Americans, immigrants, and luminaries outside of the Western world. Common themes among their experiences involved discrimination, a lack of opportunities and recognition, and a biocultural and humanistic praxis that demonstrate modern discourses within the forensic anthropology community are not novel. Ultimately, this work shows that the historical foundations of forensic anthropology, in both the United States and globally, include a far more diverse cast of pioneers than what the prevailing literature suggests and should serve as a springboard from which our discipline can grow, both in its past and in its future.

Implementing Justice and Realizing Political Process in the Islamic-Iranian Model of Progress

Introduction. The Islamist model of Iran assumes understanding national values and recognizing rights of indigenous peoples, seeks to meet the material and spiritual needs of society. This model has epistemological, ontological, and anthropological foundations rooted in the revelatory and ideological teachings of Islam. Its content, therefore, is based on monotheism, resurrection, and the inseparability of the worlds. The process of political development in the Islamic-Iranian model is progress based on divine and Islamic knowledge, arising from the heart, historical, indigenous, and cultural conditions of our country, which are realized in the context of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The importance of the research is that, by explaining the indicators of political development, it outlines how the will to achieve it forms in society. Methods and materials. To achieve the desired development and stand up against adversities and sanctions, we must identify our needs, limitations, and political, social, and economic harms and take action to solve them, then keep pace with the new global developments. The strategies considered for data analysis in the present study are in the framework of a qualitative method and based on a descriptive-analytical approach. Analysis. The study raises these questions: what indicators comprise the Islamic-Iranian model of progress’s political development, and how can this model achieve sustainable political development? The results of the study show the indicators of political development in the model are in accordance with the Sharia, and the context of sustainable political development is achieved by committing to implementing justice in the policy-making environment of society.

Magda Arnold's understanding of the human person: Thomistic personalism, psychophysical unity of the person, integration of personality, and transcendence.

Magda Arnold (1903-2002) is well known for her research on emotions, motivation, and memory from a neurological, physiological, and psychological point of view. However, her works in the field of the anthropological foundations of personality are less known and discussed. The present study presents some aspects of Arnold's conception of a human's nature as being based or convergent on Aquinas's doctrine: (a) a nonreductionist conception of the human being, (b) the psychophysical unity of the person, (c) the self-ideal as it ought to be as the main factor of personality integration, and (d) God as the origin and ultimate goal of human existence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Socio-spatial Learning Analytics in Co-located Collaborative Learning Spaces:

Socio-spatial learning analytics (SSLA) is an emerging area within learning analytics research that seeks to uncover valuable educational insights from individuals’ social and spatial data traces. These traces are captured automatically through sensing technologies in physical learning spaces, and the research is commonly based on the theoretical foundations of social constructivism and cultural anthropology. With its growing empirical basis, a systematic literature review is timely in order to provide educational researchers and practitioners with a detailed summary of the emerging works and the opportunities enabled by SSLA. This paper presents a systematic review of 25 peer-reviewed articles on SSLA published between 2011 and 2023. Descriptive, network, and thematic analyses were conducted to identify the citation networks, essential components, opportunities, and challenges enabled by SSLA. The findings illustrated that SSLA provides the opportunity to (1) contribute unobtrusive and unsupervised research methodologies, (2) support educators’ classroom orchestration through visualizations, (3) support learner reflection with continuous and reliable evidence, (4) develop novel theories about social and collaborative learning, and (5) empower educational stakeholders with the quantitative data to evaluate different learning spaces. These findings could support learning analytics and educational technology scholars and practitioners to better understand and utilize SSLA to support future educational research and practice.

THE ISSUES OF SYSTEMATISATION AND POPULARISATION OF HISTORIC AND LITERATURE SOURCES CONNECTED WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF BIOETHICAL VALUES AND HUMANE PEDAGOGY IN RUSSIA AT THE TURN OF THE 20TH CENTURY

The topicality of the article is caused by Russian educators’ low awareness of the problematics connected with reassessment of the attitude to living beings, as well as the issues of value attitude to life, balance of general human and national values in pedagogy in the conditions of technical progress and globalisation. The objective is to research the project aimed at systematisation and popularisation of sources that show the development of the non-violence philosophy in Russia at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The objective includes determination of the scope of its development, its connection with natural science, humanities, pedagogical thought. The scientific novelty lies in the research of the approach to personality formation applied in Russia and based on moral treatment to all life. It is revealed that the doctrine was getting anthropological foundation, that popular science, publicistic, pedagogic literature and belles-lettres were being published, that corresponding pedagogic experience was being accumulated.

Elements of the Buddhist Medical System

This article aims to explore the anthropological foundations of early Buddhist medical thought by conducting a comprehensive analysis of Pāli texts and their relationship to the development of Indian traditional medicine, such as Āyurveda. The research investigates the possible existence of an ancient Buddhist medical system and compares it with contemporary medical systems, such as Hippocratic medicine. By examining the Bhesajjakkhandhaka and the Bhesajjamañjūsā, two Pāli texts that discuss medicine, the article seeks to outline the key elements of ancient Buddhist medical conceptions. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of understanding the evolution of Buddhist medical practices and their potential role in defining Indian traditional medicine. The findings could provide a foundation for historians of Indian medicine to delve into even more complex aspects of the medical tradition in ancient Buddhism.