Path Of Liberation Research Articles

The unfinished existence of man

This article focuses on the term unfinished existence, accepted by both Christian and secular anthropology; however, both perspectives differ in their understanding of how to reach existential fulfillment. Acquiring such fullness implies a liberation, both external and internal, but the attainment of personal autonomy depends on which path of liberation is given priority. According to the contemporary philosopher, Byung-Chul Han, in the new postmodern paradigm, the oppression of the person intensifies when the fruits of technical-computer progress are internalized (self-optimization). When this praxis is established as a proposal for liberation and as a way of acquiring autonomy, the contradictory and devastating nature of self-aggrandizement becomes evident. The traditional path of theosis, especially if one considers the Steinian interpretation, not only seems reasonable but acquires a particular appeal, since for it, conversion is a complete reintegration of the individual person and is the path to the reconstruction of human community, i.e. social and political life including resilience, which is opposed to the destructive economic power of the liberal market.

Historicised exploration and middle-range theoretisation of the housing regime in urban China

In comparative housing studies, the positioning of the Chinese housing regime is contested as to whether it converges to a (neo)liberal path or is a unique hybrid model. This paper argues that these disputes derive from the static and ethnocentric nature of welfare regime typologies and the inadequate political vision in explaining the housing regime in urban China. This study is dedicated to advancing the discussion with a historicised inquiry and a more holistic view of a balance of causes. The grounded theory methodology is adopted to avoid the omissions and biases of the priori knowledge. The materials analysed include 473 national policy documents, conference reports and official media reports in housing, economic, political and other related areas. We summarised three progressive stages of housing regime in the (quasi-)authoritarian and post-developing contexts, from 1) an underinvested social housing sector to reserve sufficient funds for industrialisation, 2) a real estate boom with a residualised social housing sector, to 3) enlarging social housing provision for productive groups under the overinvested and crisis-ridden real estate market. We attribute China’s housing system to the productivist feature with authoritarianism and the pursuit of nation-building and economic development in a post-developing state, with the underlying logic of capital switching.

From liberalisation to regulation: managerial political work in the European digital copyright policy (2014–2019)

ABSTRACT The 2019 Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market represents an intriguing departure from the anticipated path of liberalisation in public policy. While it includes provisions seemingly aligned with the liberalisation of the Digital Single Market by relaxing digital copyright enforcement, it also introduces mechanisms that bolster digital copyright protection, signalling a shift towards market regulation. This paper explores why and how Jean-Claude Juncker’s European Commission proposed a directive featuring robust regulatory elements despite initial promises of copyright deregulation within the Digital Single Market. Combining insights from political economy and political sociology, I examine the concept of ‘political work’ as the practice of promoting, defending, and implementing a choice of public action. Within this framework, I identify a managerial dimension of political work involving political practices that influence the institutional structure and management of public action. Utilising a qualitative methodology involving twelve in-depth interviews with Commission officials conducted between 2018 and 2021, alongside document analysis, I demonstrate how Jean-Claude Juncker and his cabinet’s managerial political work, encompassing organisational reforms within the Commission, played a pivotal role in steering the proposed policy towards regulation.

Agribusiness and Supply Chain Development Policies in Nepal: A Review from Temporal Dynamics

A critical review of agriculture policies during different plan periods, aligned with political changes, has been conducted out to understand the shift in priorities, technology transfer ,support products, and private sector engagement. Firstly, in the 1950s, the policies were influenced by the first five-year plan and focused on the import and dissemination of technology. During the three decades of the Panchayat era, there was an emphasis on state mechanisms for technology transfer, agribusiness, and research, with limited incentives for the private sector. After 1990, agricultural policy products followed a path of liberalization and focused on defining the state’s role and promoting pluralism. This period witnessed the establishment of a wide range of private and cooperative-led agribusinesses, although their growth was hindered by political conflict. Subsequently, policies began to incorporate priorities such as nutrition security, comparative advantage, competitiveness, climate change adaptation, agrobiodiversity conservation, and sustainability. However, with the federalization of the state and establishment of a three-tier governance system in 2015, agriculture policies, priorities and strategies a became fragmented, diversified, and localized, and lack harmonization. This review demonstrates that agriculture policies were largely influenced by domestic political developments and structural changes at the international level. Nonetheless, a consistent focus on increasing production and productivity, as well as achieving food security and self-sufficiency, can be observed.. Throughout all policy periods, supply chain development, a crucial component of agribusiness, received limited prioritization, which remains a major impediment to agricultural transformation. Despite seven decades of policy evolution, Nepal has been unable to create an enabling policy environment to attract significant private and cooperative sector investments that could drive substantial growth in agribusiness. This situation calls for further research in the field of policy formulation capacity among the three tiers of government to foster agribusiness and promote supply chain development for agricultural transformation.

The Haitian Revolution and Afromodernity: Political Speech, Euromodernity & Black Universalism

The Haitian Revolution introduced a seismic shift in political constellations, leading to the constitution of the first free Black republic within the New World. Revolutionary Haiti communicated the content of that freedom as it embarked along the path of revolutionary liberation. This article examines the nature of that communication by demonstrating how political speech is implicated at the formative levels of Black selfhood and statehood through the construction of a Black universalism, which disavows speechlessness and its sublimation as Black barbarism. Ultimately, the article contends a decisive shift transpires from Euromodernity to Afromodernity and with it, the (re)humanization of Blackness.

Angela Merkel’s Last Term – An Introduction

ABSTRACT This introduction to the special issue first describes the cumbersome process of forming the fourth and final Merkel government. Both coalition partners experienced severe electoral losses in 2017 and were not particularly close to one another programmatically. This made the formation of a new coalition difficult. Next, the to-do-list is discussed. It turns out that, as a response to the Fridays-for-Future protests, voters considered climate change to be the most important problem in 2019, while the Corona pandemic dominated the agenda from early 2020. Interestingly, none of the coalition parties ‘owned’ either of these issues and this could have made policy-making even more intricate. In the third part, we summarise the policy profile of the fourth Merkel government, based mostly on the contributions to this special issue. It turns out that the policies of the fourth Merkel government mirrored those of its predecessor. In the socio-economic dimension a gentle de-liberalisation continued, while the policies on the social dimension followed a moderately liberal path. In the final section, the plan of the special issue is outlined.

The Consolations of History: Themes of Progress and Potential in Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung Alexander H Shapiro

‘Was Hegel a liberal?’ read an undergraduate examination question I once answered (not very well). It was far from an unreasonable question, given one then-recent vein of Hegel scholarship; yet it was a complex one, at least beyond straightforward observations concerning the French Revolution, guild abolition, and Hegel’s conception of the state. Unless, though, one jettisoned Hegel’s ontology, after a weird caricature of Charles Taylor, the answer surely had to be ‘no’. (If only I had had that confidence then.) ‘Was Wagner a liberal?’ seems far more unlikely. Of all the sins of which Wagner has stood accused, from political right to left, liberalism seems one of the least plausible. ‘My German heart … swelled when we took the liberal path of “free trade”’, Wagner wrote sarcastically. ‘Of course there was and is much poverty in the country; the worker starves and industry ails. But “business” … does well’ (‘Was ist deutsch?’, in Sämtliche Schriften und Dichtungen, ed. Richard Sternfeld and Hans von Wolzogen (Leipzig, 1912–14), x. 53). The charge or, so it would seem, the plaudit of being a liberal—somehow, vaguely on account of Hegel—seems nonetheless to be the focus of Alexander H. Shapiro’s book on, of all Wagner’s works, Götterdämmerung.

The Buddhist Pramāṇa-Epistemology, Logic, and Language: with Reference to Vasubandhu, Dignāga, and Dharmakīrti

Abstract As the title of the present article shows, it highlights the three philosophically integrated areas – (1) pramāṇa-epistemology (theory of comprehensive knowledge involving both perception and inference), (2) logic (although a part of pramāṇa-epistemology, it has two modes, namely, inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning), and (3) language (or semantics, i.e. the double negation theory of meaning, which falls under inference). These are interconnected as well as overlapping within the Buddhist mainstream tradition of the process philosophy as opposed to the substantialist philosophy. The same is the case with the three celebrated Buddhist thinkers – Vasubandhu, Dignāga (also spelt as Diññāṇa), and Dharmakīrti – who develop their radical and critical views focusing on these areas in historical-cum-philosophical order. It is worth noting that within the same mainstream Buddhist tradition, each one of the three thinkers picks up the problematic issues from their predecessors – from the Buddha to their immediate predecessors respectively – for their solutions against the backdrop of the two conflicting mainstream traditions – Buddhist and non-Buddhist. The central focus of these thinkers is first to identify the crucial issues, doctrinal principles, terminology, and methodology in their own ways and conceptual frameworks, which generate not only the mutual conflicts in the course of dialogues but also strengthen their positions by means of their new radical ideas, innovations, terminologies, methodologies, and doctrinal principles. As a result, the three selected areas and their crucial issues are explained, elaborated, and interpretated for better understanding. All of which are rooted in the Buddha’s path of wisdom, ethics, and liberation from the human predicament (duḥkha-nivṛtti). In this grand project of the deepest concerns, the Buddha utilized multiple strategies like understanding and controlling the problematic nature of the mind (Pāli citta, manasa) and its concomitance (Pāli cetasika, dhammā) by means of the concentrative meditation (Pāli jhāna, Sanskrit (hereafter Skt., dhyāna), cultivation of knowledge (Pāli vijjā, Skt. vidyā) and conduct/moral purity (Pāli caraṇa, Skt. ācaraṇa), destruction of afflictions/defilements (Pāli kilesa, Skt. kleśa), critical and logical thinking with valid arguments, and so on. His disciples also treat him as the possessor of valid method, arguments, meaning, practice, and purpose (Skt. pramāṇabhūta, the term used by Dignāga). He believed in the common humanity as the community of sufferers and the autonomy of every human being (Pāli attakāra), but strongly rejected the hierarchy of humanity on the basis of caste, birth, and dogmatic religious identity. For these reasons, following the Buddha and his celebrated followers like Vasubandhu, Dignāga, and Dharmakīrti, my task in this article is how to clearly and elaborately discuss the above identified issues and theories, first to understand them for myself and then logically prove the whole process of knowledge and the designed purpose through communication to those who have the intention to hear and understand the framework of common language for their benefits. I wish the readers like students and young teachers benefit from my research work. Further, since my learning of the Tibetan language is zero, but comfortable in Sanskrit and Pāli, I have been heavily dependent on three great modern thinkers who have widely written independently and also translated the Buddhist Tibetan texts, which were translated from the original Sanskrit texts now lost, into English in the areas of Buddhist epistemology, logic, and semantics. These modern scholars are Masaaki Hattori, Shoryo Katsura, and Richard Hayes. Besides them, I have also little benefitted from some other scholars who have worked in the same areas.

Buddhist Concept of Paṭiccasamuppāda Based on Pāli Manuscripts

The concept of Paṭiccasamuppāda is regarded as one of the most profound and subtle teachings imparted by the historical Buddha (563–483 BCE) since the inception of his teachings. In addition to its doctrinal record in the mainstream Buddhist languages of the Pāli and Sanskrit traditions, the Buddhist concept of Paṭiccasamuppāda has been evolved by numerous scholars over 2600 years and contributed to uplifting doctrinal components in many dialects in South and Southeast Asia. Prior to the Pāli tradition and Nikāya manuscripts, the paper aims to clarify the genesis of Paṭiccasamuppāda, including its meaning, annotated translation, interpretation, and doctrinal significance. An in-depth study of this research reveals why and to what degree the Pāli tradition values the thought of Paṭiccasamuppāda as articulating its insight on how to attain the path of ultimate liberation from a Buddhist perspective.

Mujer, cuerpo, y violencia en Sumar de Diamela Eltit

This text proposes that in the novel Sumar (2018) by Diamela Eltit, counterhegemonic practices or about resistance to power are made visible, which appears configured as an entity of political control. These counterhegemonic practices not only take place in traditionallysubversive activities, such as the protesting march, but also in the protesters' own bodies, which becomes the stage of the systemic violence. On the basis of the above, I can assert that in this novel its characters raise the utopia of emancipation to the neoliberal model, from bodies that operate as refractory signs to a patriarchal-war logic; framed in a context of defeats of doctrines and practices that in the past pointed towards a path of liberation.

Heroines who are rebuilding their country: State–society circumstances and coping strategies of female leaders in post-genocide Rwanda

The labor arrangement of industrial society makes “production and reproduction” a contradiction that is both separate and interdependent. One of the significant consequences is the re-establishment of the responsibilities and boundaries of production and reproduction between the modern state, market, family, and gender. After the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, Rwanda has made world-renowned achievements in advancing gender equality, especially women's participation in politics. It is the “twofold full-time producers” model that continuously sustains this huge achievement, which means that female leaders not only bear a highly demanding responsibility for production, comparable to men, but also undertake significant labor in social reproduction. The public policy of Rwanda has assumed a dual role in this process: on the one hand, the state has promulgated a series of gender equality bills, policies, and measures from top to bottom that actively promote women's equal rights in various fields, especially their political participation. On the other hand, against the background of a severe labor shortage and insufficient public welfare facilities, the responsibility of private families for social reproduction has been maintained and strengthened, while the traditional family structure and community culture's share of responsibility for reproduction has been irreversibly weakened during the conflict and modernization process. While these female leaders rely on their individual strategies and informal social support systems to cope with the dual burden, they still face scrutiny and doubt from the community culture. The consensus on the destiny of the country's development and the sharing of historical responsibilities demonstrated by Rwanda's female leaders shares many similarities with the Chinese women's liberation movement, which also provides an important inspiration and reference point for rethinking the path of women's liberation characterized by economic independence and “the supremacy of production”.

Role of “Indianness” in International Location choice – The effect of religion and langauge

Unlike other countries’ firms that have undergone the path of liberalization since the 1990s, Indian Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) have registered exceptional cross-border activities. Originating from the institutional void, a large majority of successful Indian MNEs are generally part of a single business family’s portfolio of businesses, commonly known as business groups (BGs). MNEs are embedded in their home country environment before their internationalization. Thus, acknowledging the role of home country institutions in shaping the culture of the organization, we adopt the concept of “Indianness” and unpack it in the form of linguistic and religious diversity which shapes the organizations in their formative years. This study aims to understand the impact of Indianness on the foreign location choice of the most deeply entrenched organizational forms, that is, the Indian BGs. Here we show that Indian firms prefer to internationalize to nations that are least distant linguistically and religiously and have a less diverse set of languages and more diverse religiously. Additionally, as the religious distance seems to dissuade the location choice in high distant nations, international experience gained by the same BGs’ affiliate in the same or psychically similar host nations aids in choosing religiously distant nations. These results are contrary to the belief that high religious or linguistic distance dampens the prospects of foreign location choice. This study also highlights the role of prior experience in the same or psychically similar nations in aiding the reduction of the negative impacts of religious differences. This study brings to fore the importance of home country (informal)institutions or as we term them Indianness in the case of Indian MNEs internationalization.

Cyberfeminisme: Pembebasan Psikologi Perempuan di Ruang Digital

Cyberfeminism emerged as a feminist response to cyberpunk politics, as well as the development of communication technology in the digital space. The agenda of women's liberation in cyberfeminism, echoed by feminists, is to fight subordination. In practice, subordination refers to, among other things, gender inequality. Sexual violence that often afflicts women is often a manifestation of the position of women who are considered weak. Moreover, sexual violence is also targeted online. This is evident from the rise of Online Gender-Based Violence (KGBO). Thus, in this study, the author attempts to describe how cyberfeminism is a way to liberate women from sexual violence. This research uses descriptive qualitative method. The data is obtained through books, papers, or related articles as a support to clearly describe the formula used by feminists. The results of this study indicate that as a way to liberate women in the digital space, it is necessary to have a media with a gender perspective. In addition, feminists and women need to have the power of data as a basis for carrying out the path of liberation.

Jaina Ethics and Meditation: Self Purification Process through Karmic Cycle

The main concern in this paper is to explore the relationship between Jaina ethics and meditation techniques proposed in the Jaina scriptures and its foundations. Meditative practices have been practiced in Jaina tradition for centuries. We also find a difference between the interpretation of scriptures (especially Digambara and Svetambara) regarding meditation, and it also sometimes gets translated into the practice of meditation. In the case of Jaina tradition, it is challenging to separate ethics from the spiritual path of liberation and meditation as a practice. In this paper, based on Tattvartha Sutra , Uttaradhyayana , and Acaranga Sutra, I have tried to show that ethics in its restricted sense can be seen as only one aspect of meditation, but in its broader sense, the whole spiritual path suggested in the Jaina scriptures can be seen as meditation. The fourteen stages suggested in the Jaina scriptures can be considered the stages of ethical path or meditation. We can see preksha dhyana - a recent form of meditation that translates these stages into more acceptable to the laymen - a popular and simple form of the spiritual path in modern times. Nevertheless, in the end, the ultimate aim remains the same - self-purification through the Karmic cycle.

Modern Belarusian strategy of society development

The paper presents a realised analysis of the formation and content of the modern strategy of socio-economic, cultural and political development of the Belarusian society. The tasks of the social policy of the Republic of Belarus are defined. The reasons why the liberal path and liberal tendencies are not supported in Belarus are exposed in the article. The liberal approach assumes some incorrectness, which lies in the fact that the strategic choice of each ethnic group can be made not by deciphering the historical question: Quo vadis? («Who we are, where we are from and where we are going?»), and by a certain joining to the models of some other peoples. And this incorrectness is emphasised. The main characteristics of the modern Belarusian strategy are revealed. They are the social orientation of the state, protection and guarantees of life support, the priority of a person, social groups and categories of the population. They also include the most significant foreign policy dispositions – a course to maintain integration with Russia within the framework of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, friendly relations with all countries and peoples who are ready and agree to equal relations in the field of trade and cultural exchange.

Schelling's Paths of Liberation from Pure Reason

Schelling's Paths of Liberation from Pure Reason

Financial liberalization and the Indian non-financial, corporate sector

A distinct feature of the India’s path of financial liberalization is that it led to the emergence of the corporate, non-financial sector, rather than the financial sector as the key wedge for the penetration of global finance. Neoliberal reforms eroded the traditional role of development banks and state-directed credit and empowered a section of large corporations and non-financial companies in India. The partial, calibrated path to capital account liberalization has meant that this section of the Indian non-financial corporate sector, rather than the commercial banking system came to be the conduit integrating the Indian economy with international financial markets. Where the Indian state had earlier harnessed finance towards developmental priorities, it shifted to channeling finance in service of the internationally embedded segment of the corporate sector that enjoys disproportionate access to both the domestic financial system and international financial markets. JEL CodesE44 G32, F65

«Татпарья-вритти» Падмапрабхи Маладхаридевы и джайнская этика

This publication presents the first translation into European language of the only Sanskrit commentary Tātparya-vrŠ tti of the almost unknown Digambara exegete Padmaprabha Maladhārideva (12th century) on the first chapter-adhikāra of the treatise Niyama-sāra (“Essence of Restraint”) by Kundakunda (3rd–4th centuries), who is one of the most authoritative Jain authors. The first chapter of the commentary introduces the problems of the text and gives a general idea of the “Three Jewels” of Jainism: right vision, right knowledge and right behavior, the latter of which is the main theme of the text. The translation is preceded by an Introduction to the ethical doctrine of Jainism, which is considered by the author of the article as one of the variants of the virtue ethics. Jain ontology, being a descriptive part of the Jain Doctrine, is complemented by a prescriptive one, which includes an extensive system of vows (both “great” and “small”, basic and additional) and restrictions for all members of the community, which is built on the basis of the main prohibition of violence against all kinds of living beings. The observance of vows in Jain ethics is logically integrated into the Path of Liberation of the soul-ātman from the wheel of rebirth and is marked by various steps of the ladder of spiritual self-improvement. In the first chapter of the commentary Padmaprabha Maladhārideva proficiently shows the connection between ontology and ethics, skillfully weaving verses of his own composition into his exegesis and demonstrating deep knowledge not only of the Jain philosophical tradition, but also fluency in various verse meters according to the hermeneutical tasks facing him.

Destiny in Nālaṭiyār and Tirukkuṟal – A Comparative Study

Influence of idea of destiny in Tamil society could be traced back to sangam period. It is regarded that eighteen lesser works (patiṇ̱eṇkḹḻkkaṇakkunūlkal) emerged in the post- sangam period in which Jainism and Buddhism had abundant influenced in life and literature of Tamils. This period is also conceived the period of righteousness (aṟaneṟikkālam) by scholars of Tamil Literature. Tirukkuṟal and Nālaṭiyār comes under the collection works known as patiṇ̱eṇkḹḻkkaṇakkunūlkal (didactic works) Even though the twosome works narrate moral maxims for humanity in universal manner, the concept of destiny occupies prominent place in the aforesaid works. Jainism and Buddhism lay more emphasis on human effort than destiny in the path of liberation and religious life proposed by the two isms is logically vehemently opposed to supremacy of destiny. Pañca mahā vratas of Jainism and eightfold path of Buddhism challenge command of destiny. Ajivikas’ contribution to very concept of destiny cannot be completely ruled out from the sangam period of early Tamils and it can be found that destiny plays a pivotal role in Hindu epics and purāṇas and there is no contradiction between God’s will and destiny in a vaiṣṇava tradition. On the contrary, pure devotion and self-surrender are the unconquerable weapons to conquer destiny in Saivā tradition. This study analyses destiny in Tirukkuṟal and Nālaṭiyār in the wider and complex social, historical and philosophical back ground of Tamil Nadu.

What If the West Died? Global South's Thoughts on Environmental Violence

Global environmental issues have been posing substantial challenges for governments and people worldwide. And western knowledge, grounded in capitalism/coloniality/anthropocentrism, has not been able to provide the answers we need to surmount this existential threat. So, this article links Marxism, decoloniality, and conflict resolution theory to denounce the current environmental violence in Latin America and worldwide by exposing the clashes between the Global North and the Global South in environmental matters. We hope to demonstrate middle-ground theories are found to be more able to explain ongoing global issues and lead to proposals that include alternative paths of liberation.