Personal Philosophy Research Articles

Vaccination, Transplantation, and a Social Contract.

Vaccination, Transplantation, and a Social Contract.

Personalist Foundations of the Common Good. Views of Mieczysław A. Krąpiec and Karol Wojtyła

This paper aims to draw attention to the personalist meaning of the category of common good. The discussion begins with consideration of possible interpretations of the fact of society and principal foundations of the philosophical concept of common good. The person’s structure, the most perfect form of being in light of the personalist theory, is shown against this background. It is also a fundamental common good of each social structure. The reflection will be guided by two main proponents of Polish philosophical personalism, who present an interesting theory of man and society which is important to contemporary culture: Mieczysław Albert Krąpiec and Karol Wojtyła.

F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy on the relationship of personality, individual and society

The main subject of this article is the relationship of a human as a personality or as an individual and society in the artistic and philosophical creativity of F.M. Dostoevsky and L.N. Tolstoy. The main goal of this work is, in comparison with the structuralist approach, to analyze the main provisions of the approaches of F.M. Dostoevsky and L.N. Tolstoy, which touched upon the problem of the relationship of a human as a personality or as an individual and society. The main objectives of this article: to analyze how the concepts of the personality and the individual differ, and what is the correlation of the personality and the individual with society as a whole. Then it is determined what is the understanding of the individual and his purely functional role in the society of the structuralist approach. Finally, the understanding of a person as a unique personality, created in the image and likeness of God in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky and L.N. Tolstoy. It is determined what is the advantage of such an existential-personalist approach of two Russian thinkers over the structuralist direction and its approach to the individual as just a "cog" of a systemically-functionally regulated society. So, as shown in the article, structuralism presupposes the domination of the general, the whole over the individual, the particular and grades a human as a personality, turning him into only an atomic social individual. In contradiction to structuralism, F.M. Dostoevsky and L.N. Tolstoy develop an approach to man as a person and offer an original model of society as an interconnected community of personalities. As the study proves, thinkers also influenced the personalist philosophy of the 20th century, and their approach as a whole allows a human to realize himself as a genuine, independent personality, and not as an individual governed by a social system, enslaved by the society.

Философиялық ойлар тарихындағы адам мәселесі

This article examines the problem of a man in the philosophy of different historical periods — the philosophy of the Ancient World, antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the philosophy of the New Age, modernity. Initially, the first philosophical views on the problem of person developed in ancient Eastern philosophy (in the philosophy of Ancient India and China) are considered. A man as an object of study in the beliefs of ancient people is characterized. The main Western European approaches of ancient philosophy to the allocation of a person as a separate and special philosophical problem (Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) are determined. It is also emphasized that the Western European Middle Ages were marked by the most powerful influence of the Christian worldview on all aspects of people’s lives, particularly on the spiritual life, which was inseparable from the religious worldview (A. Augustine). It is shown that the philosophy of the New Age is formed by the fact that the path to the rational interpretation of human essence was opened (J.O. La Mettrie, P. Holbach, D. Diderot, I. Kant). Features in the philosophy of person of the nineteenth century are highlighted. In addition, the pecularities of Russian philosophy in the second half of the XIX — early XX century and anthropological problems of the 20th century are presented (Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Berdyaev, Soloviev). Finally, the article also considers the problem of man in Kazakh philosophy and describes viewpoints of Abu Nasr Al-Farabi and Abay. Anthropological problems of the XX century in Western philosophy are presented.

The Value of a Personal Philosophy of Citizenship Education

Social studies educators have long advocated using history and the social sciences for the development of citizens. However, vigorous debate continues over what kinds of citizens are needed and who should decide. Where does this leave us as social studies teachers and scholars? And where does it leave our students? In this paper, I argue that teachers need to develop their own philosophies of citizenship education. We can no longer wait for others—vested in systems of power and privilege—to determine what needs to be known for the well-being of students, the good of society, or the health of the planet. However, developing a personal philosophy does not mean that anything goes. I identify additional factors that must also be considered as we reclaim our rights as transformative intellectuals.

Hidden Person Makes Dialogue Present: The Place of It in the System of Dialogue According to Cohen, Buber and Rosenzweig

The philosophy of dialogue is often presented as an attitude towards the world within the framework of the relationship “I and Thou”. Martin Buber represented this approach in his works. Meanwhile, for other philosophers, especially Cohen and Rosenzweig, dialogue is unthinkable outside of a more complete system of person relations, which also includes He, She, They, We. A particularly sharp controversy unfolded between Rosenzweig and Buber around the place of It in the dialogical process. Rosenzweig not only criticized Buber’s belittling of It and ignoring the deep connection of the I–Thou and I–It relations, but also built his own philosophy of the third person, which is an important element of his philosophical system as a whole. In particular, Rosenzweig showed the extraordinary role of the It in the construction of language. Rosenzweig’s concept of It not only challenges Buber’s It, but also echoes Freud’s Id. Rosenzweig’s philosophy can be seen in many respects as an attempt to harmonize the relationship between I and It, i.e., between the selfhood of a separated person and the closeness of the world completed in itself.

The Existential Dilemma as a Philosophical Problem in The Beggar by Naguib Mahfouz

The Beggar (1965) is a story of isolation and depression which is written by the Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz who is considered the father of Arabic Literature in the modern era. Specifically, he refers in his great novel called The Beggar that the man unable to achieve psychological revival after Nasser’s revolution, the man sacrificed his own job and his family for a desire that increases his feelings of alienation and depression which leads him to an emotional outcry against the indifferent. The main aim of the study highlights the concept of existential dilemma as a philosophical problem and personality crisis by the protagonist of The Beggar novel, Omer Al-Hamzawi who had accepted the death instead of living in the real-life, as a result, was looking for the meaning of life, existence and evaded his truth through searching for a new value that renews the meaning of life that guided him to nothing to find himself living in a double personality and could not get rid of it ultimately.

An unexpected epigraph: exploring the personal and philosophical relevance of Ralph Waldo Emerson to Carl Ransom Rogers

ABSTRACT This article takes as its starting point the Emerson epigraph chosen by Rogers for his seminal book Client-Centered Therapy, and discovers that Rogers also acknowledged the ‘deep influence’ that Emerson and the transcendental school had on his personal life and philosophy. It proposes evidence of this influence, noticing similarities in the writings and biographical details of the two men. It also extrapolates a question and proposes it for further research – the possibility that Rogers integrated Emersonian thinking into the development of the person-approach. The limited and interpretive reasoning for such an extrapolation is acknowledged. The article concludes that Emerson was one of many writers in literature, theology, philosophy, psychology, art and science with whom Rogers engaged over his lifetime, an eclectic contributed to Rogers’ fluid, ongoing, and ever-evolving creative synthesis. It also concludes that the question of whether Rogers’ use of the epigraph at the beginning of Client-Centered Therapy indicates a connection between Emerson and Rogers’ person-centered theory, is worthy of being asked.

Attachment Neuroscience and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Nonviolence Philosophy: Implications for the 21st Century and Beyond

This article focuses on the psychology of principled nonviolent activism, specifically ideas associated with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of nonviolence and how they are compatible with attachment theory and related areas of modern neuroscience (e.g., attachment/social neuroscience and interpersonal neurobiology). The proposed Kingian Neuro-Relational Theory (KNRT) recognizes King as having a relational development approach to social justice. KNRT offers a way of understanding King’s ideas to aid research and develop strategies for reducing many forms of societal violence, with eventual outcomes of improving mental and physical health via stress reduction, and subsequent creation of a more socially just world. KNRT is an integrative, multidisciplinary approach, incorporating the philosophy of nonviolence, attachment theory, social neuroscience, ecological systems theory, and personalistic philosophy. The theory highlights developmental and clinical implications of moving beyond tactical/pragmatic nonviolent activism (nonviolent direct action) to activism via embracing nonviolence as a principled way of life (nonviolent daily interactions). This theory is building on an earlier project that conveyed how King’s philosophy of nonviolence is related to modern–day diversity and inclusion efforts.

What Scaffolds Good Technology Teaching and Learning?

"Within a six-week full time practicum experience, these candidates put their own personal philosophies of what it means to educate a student alongside their own presuppositions of how an increasingly digital classroom may improve or deter learning."

A Dutch example of New Education: Philipp Abraham Kohnstamm (1875–1951) and his ideas about the New School

ABSTRACT Philipp Abraham Kohnstamm (1875–1951) was one of the founders of Dutch educational science and a key figure in the New Education movement in the Netherlands. This article has three aims: first, to depict Kohnstamm as an insightful example in the process of sharing and adopting ideas around New Education and the implementation of these ideas in the Dutch context. Second, to demonstrate that the New School ideas Kohnstamm embraced − such as the Dalton Plan (of Helen Parkhurst, 1887−1952) and the Gary Plan (of William Wirt, 1874–1938) − fitted in with his philosophy of personalism; this philosophy also explains why he did not choose Montessori education, which was very popular in the Netherlands during his time. Third, that this philosophy at the same time partly explains the initial limited impact Kohnstamm had on Dutch education.

The Queer-Cyberspace of Jeanette Winterson’s’ The Powerbook: A Critique of St. Augustine’s Metaphysical Philosophy

ABSTRACT Jeanette Winterson’s The PowerBook is about the cyber and story-making experience of Ali/Alix, the main character and the narrator of many interwoven narratives who experiments with time and retells well-known historical literary texts in the novel. Toward the end of the novel, while he knots himself into time, Ali calls to mind St. Augustine and thinks that St. Augustine might be right when he said “the universe was not created in time but with time.” St. Augustine, one of the most important Fathers of Christianity whose writings had a great impact on shaping the Western prejudices about sex and the body, is also important for his ideas of time. In spite of the short reference to St. Augustine in The PowerBook, Ali/Alix’s story-telling experience can be read not only as a deconstruction and encarnalization of St Augustine’s metaphysical philosophy, but also as reconstructing his personal life and philosophy in the queer spatio-temporal cyber world of the novel.

Professional training and development: The bedrock of ethical, competent, and sustainable sport psychology

To ensure public safety, duty of care, and professional advancement, scholars need to consider the competence, ethical practice, and well-being of sport psychology practitioners (SPPs). Despite the growth of sport psychology as a profession, scholars have predominantly focused on how to do applied sport psychology, with issues of professional formation, development, maturation, and SPPs’ well-being receiving limited attention. Yet, to safeguard the future of the field, we must better understand how SPPs develop as individuals and as professionals, the contextual factors that may affect their development, and how training and supervision may contribute to professionals’ experiences and development. In this invited article, we review “what we know” and “what we need to know” regarding the professional development of SPPs. In doing so, we hope to inform the reader on the critical developments in this area while presenting a commentary that facilitates discourse and future action. Lay summary: A field that aims to grow and evolve must understand the development of ethical and competent professionals. To aid in this understanding, we provide an overview of what we know and what we need to know about the development of sport psychology professionals. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE SPPs need to focus their attention on the development of themselves as persons and professionals regarding their competence development. SPPs may need to integrate who they are with what they do to promote an enriching, sustainable, competent, ethical, and effective practice. Supervisors on graduate and training programs should be aware of practitioner developmental processes and the factors that influence this for SPPs. Those leading training programs might adopt a developmental approach within their curricula, with priority given to assisting trainees to integrate their personal beliefs and professional philosophy into their service delivery.

Nurse leader agency: Creating an environment conducive to support for graduate nurses.

AimThe aim of the study was to gain insight on how nurse leaders manage a culture of safety for graduate nurses.BackgroundCurrent theoretical approaches to safety culture tend towards a checklist approach that focuses on institutional characteristics, failing to examine the quality of interpersonal relationships. These interpersonal interactions are often seen as separate from the institutional realities of resource allocation, nurse–patient ratios, patient acuity or throughput. A theoretical approach is required to illuminate the dialectic between the structure of an organisation and the agency created by nurse leaders to promote patient safety.DesignQualitative exploratory descriptive study.MethodsSemi‐structured interviews were undertaken with 24 nurse leaders from hospital and aged care settings. Thematic analysis and Giddens structuration theory was used to describe the findings.ResultsNurse leaders identified a range of reciprocal communicative and cultural norms and values, decision‐making processes, personal nursing philosophies, strategies and operational procedures to foster patient safety and mentor graduate nurses. The mentoring of graduate nurses included fostering critical thinking, building and affirming formal structural practices such as handover, teamwork, medication protocols and care plans.ConclusionsThe study provides insight into how nurse leaders foster a culture of safety. Emphasis is placed on how agency in nurse leaders creates an environment conducive to learning and support for graduate nurses.Implications for Nursing ManagementNurse leadership functions and decision‐making capacity hinges on multiple factors including practicing agency and aspects of the social structure such as the rules for safe communication, and the various institutional protocols. Nurse leaders enforce these forms of engagement and practice through their legitimation as leaders. They have both allocative and authoritative resources; they can command resources, direct staff to attend to patients and/or clinical tasks, mentor, guide, assign, correct and encourage with the authority vested in them by the formal structure of the organisation. In doing so, they sustain the structure and reinforce it.

The History and Principles of American Personalism: A Comparison of the Harvard and Boston University Schools

The author of this article outlines the background of American personalist philosophy and theology, and then he traces these German roots through to the two primary schools of American personalist thought: the Boston University and the Harvard schools of personalism. Along the way he points to the major points on influence and divergence of the development of American personalism. He summarizes the principles of both schools as well as the views rejected, both philosophical and religious, by personalists.

The impact of dysconscious racism and ethical caring on choral repertoire

ABSTRACT The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate choral directors’ experiences as they navigate Whiteness through their own personal philosophies and practices related to repertoire selection and how those lived experiences may or may not impact their students. Twelve practicing choral directors from middle school through university settings were interviewed. Three important themes arose during analysis including the presence of dysconscious racism with episodes of white fragility, the presence and absence of ethical caring, and the development of a critical consciousness along a spectrum based on experiences. Implications for music educators are offered.

Traces of mysticism and philosophical personalism in Vladimir S. Solovyov, Nikolai Lossky and Pavel A. Florensky

Our paper analyzes the intellectual heritage of three great figures of the Russian (Eastern) theological and philosophical thought, identifying, comparing, and critically appraising the selected traces of mysticism and philosophical personalism in their works. We begin by analyzing the concrete historical background relevant to the intellectual development of each of the three authors. Next, we identify both common and divergent themes and emphases in their works and attempt to understand them in the context of the then-existing discourses that had influenced their thinking. This includes the discourse on Sophiology as well as questions related to Mariological and Trinitarian doctrines debated in the Orthodox Church and beyond. Lossky’s intellectual/spiritual legacy is depicted as one with the highest holistic and integrative potential, which arises from his philosophical personalism that can legitimately be construed as “spiritual personalism.”

Jacques Maritain's Philosophy of Freedom and its Contemporary Relevance

This paper is in three parts. In the first part, I consider Maritain’s definition of freedom. He differentiates between two types of freedom: freedom of choice, which he also calls freedom from necessity, and freedom of autonomy or terminal freedom, also called freedom from constraint. The second part considers the three types of political philosophy of freedom identified by Maritain. They may respectively be called liberal individualism, statesponsored collectivism, and communal and personalist philosophy. The third political philosophy, communal and personalist, is advocated by Maritain. In the third part of this paper, I raise concerns about losses of freedom that have become more evident in the last few years during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I reflect upon how Maritain’s philosophy of freedom may apply in our contemporary situation.

Personal philosophy in glioma surgery and anatomo-functional mapping

Personal philosophy in glioma surgery and anatomo-functional mapping

An ethical perspective to using bone grafts in dentistry

An ethical perspective to using bone grafts in dentistry