Philosophical Dialogue Research Articles

The Logos of the Communicating Silence

The following thesis is an attempt to establish the communicative dimensions of silence. In it I put forward a thesis in the spirit of Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue and Max Scheler's phenomenology of emotion , according to which true dialogue does not convey specific content, but modes of existence born of the experience of presence. This kind of normative transmission of existence makes communication a communion. Underlying tacit communication are various forms of affection , through which emotionality becomes one of the main dimensions of communicating silence.

‘How are rainbows made?': profiles of early childhood teachers' beliefs and their associations with responses to young children's causal questions

ABSTRACT This study investigates how early childhood teachers in China respond to children’s causal questions and explores the relationship between their belief profiles and response patterns. Grounded in Martin Buber’s dialogic philosophy and complemented by constructivist theories, latent profile analysis revealed three distinct belief profiles: leaders, followers, and polyphonists. Multilevel logistic regression showed that leaders were more inclined to provide explanations, followers tended to encourage exploration and information seeking, and polyphonists used a balanced combination of response types. These findings highlight the complex interplay between beliefs and practices in early childhood education, reflecting the cross-cultural exchange, collision, and integration of global educational ideas. The study underscores the importance of fostering critical and creative thinking in teacher education to help navigate the complexities of education.

Philosophy in Dialogue with Other Sciences on the Example of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas

Philosophy in Dialogue with Other Sciences on the Example of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas

Transhumanism and evolutionary psychology: a dialogue about the future of human nature

The article explores the philosophical dialogue between transhumanism and evolutionary psychology regarding the limits and consequences of the technological transformation of human nature. The growing relevance of this debate is analyzed in the context of the rapid development of genetics, nanotechnology and robotics, which open up unprecedented opportunities for changing human nature. The main provisions of transhumanism are considered, which, continuing the ideas of the Enlightenment, offers a radical vision of the future, where humanity can consciously direct its own evolution with the help of technology. The position of evolutionary psychology is highlighted, which, based on an understanding of the natural mechanisms of the development of the human species, warns against hasty intervention in a complex system of adaptive mechanisms that have been formed over millions of years. The paper analyzes in detail the works of leading representatives of both directions, including J. Huxley and Gr. Flow from the side of transhumanism, as well as critical views of F. Fukuyama and L. Kass. Special attention is paid to the research of evolutionary psychologists, who provide scientific justification for the concept of universal human nature and warn against the risks of “planned evolution”. A fundamental contradiction has been revealed between the views of transhumanists, who consider human nature as plastic and ready for technological changes, and evolutionary psychologists, who consider it a fixed reality formed by long evolution. It is emphasized that modern technologies create fundamentally new conditions for human existence that go beyond the traditional enlightened understanding of science. The study shows that although technological development of mankind has already changed our nature, further radical changes require careful consideration and study. The main problem of “planned evolution” is determined by the risk of uncontrolled acceleration of natural evolutionary processes without understanding all possible consequences.

The Position of Contemporary Hybrid Art Practices in Shaping Ethical Response to AI Vladan Joler and Kate Crawford – Case Study

The thesis of this paper rests on the premise that the role of contemporary hybrid art practices, employing technology as a means of expression, has extended to active engagement in the complexities of societal conflicts and shaping philosophical dialogue, which is evident in its subversive endeavors, that have become the points of intersection between power dynamics, technology, and ethics. Namely, the position of art has become the pragmatic and utilitarian one, and art aims at confronting society with the antagonisms of the mechanisms of power and the consequences of high technology development. With a view to support the thesis of this essay, I will analyze Vladan Joler's and Kate Crawford's art project “Anatomy of an AI System”. The aim of this essay is to show that the role of hybrid art is reflected in its contribution to the society, by helping it to anticipate and develop policies and systems of rules with a view to regulate behavior in borderline situations of advanced technology and ethics. Research methods applied in this paper are analysis, synthesis, observation, generalization, and comparative text analysis.

The Teacher as Listener: A Theory of Pedagogical Listening in the Literature Classroom

ABSTRACT Getting students talking about a work of literature — sharing and interrogating their own and each other’s textual interpretations and responses — is vital for the teaching and learning of literature. If a classroom community of readers is constituted by such talking, then responsive teaching involves a lot of listening. What, precisely, might be the role(s) of the teacher as listener? Beginning with three classroom vignettes, and then drawing from psychoanalytic theory, pragmatist aesthetics, and philosophy of dialogue, this article theorises a distinctly pedagogical listening. One role of the teacher as a listener in the literature classroom can be interpreting and intervening in ‘textual problems’ that typically arise in moments of confusion or surprise — students’ and/or their teacher’s — throughout interpretive discussion. Such pedagogical listening can instantiate, among other qualities discussed in this article, a double consciousness or divided attention. This article concludes by suggesting specific classroom practices and conditions for pedagogical listening.

Albanian first-year university students’ knowledge and acceptance of evolution

Evolutionary theory provides the foundation for modern biology with evolution as a core concept and unifying principle. This research aimed to examine evolutionary knowledge and acceptance among first-year university students. The<b> </b>participants considered for analysis consisted of 87 students enrolled in the first-year bachelor’s in biology and biotechnology at the University of Tirana, Albania. The respondents’ average age was 18.95 ± 0.78 years, with a pronounced dominance of females (90.2%). The study used the standardized research instrument “evolution education questionnaire on acceptance and knowledge” to measure knowledge and acceptance about evolution in an international context. We employed descriptive statistics to analyze the collected data.<b> </b>The findings of research revealed that over half of the respondents, 61%, fall into the ‘<i>very low knowledge</i>’ category on evolution and none fall in the ‘<i>high knowledge</i>’ category. Only 60.9% accept evolution. The need for a revision of the evolutionary concepts and topics in the curricula, from primary school, is recommended coupled with the incorporation of philosophical dialogue into teaching practice.

TikTok Videos, Carnivalesque Provocations for Teachers: Political Responses to Populism’s Right-Wing

Abstract This article explores how TikTok videos, situated in a postdigital space and means of engagement, visibilise divergent responses to right-wing, populist political governments with anti-liberal, anti-socialist policies, offering video-based provocations for teachers. Even traditionally left-wing havens are shifting to right-wing populism, seemingly exemplified by the Aotearoa Coalition Government, implicating the prevalence of this phenomena. Due to education being an ideological battlefield, teachers are heavily implicated by such shifts, encouraging a visibilising of spaces and strategies for their responses. In this article, Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogic philosophy, with special attention to his concept of carnivalesque, is brought into conversation with TikTok videos, facilitating a means to conceptualise and analyse this postdigital, divergent underground as a mirthing means of speaking back. These mocking, visual responses to right-wing governments are then signalled as provocations for teachers experiencing a rise of populist policies. This article concludes by suggesting how teachers may utilise TikTok videos to politically speak back in divergent ways to right-wing governments, encouraging creative and diverse engagements in this postdigital platform.

Martin Buber's Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Dialogue (First of Two Parts)

Martin Buber's Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Dialogue (First of Two Parts)

Rebirth of Socratic Origins of Philosophy in the Digital Era

It has been proven that philosophical dialogues and debates using digital information dissemination tools now play a leading role in popularizing philosophy beyond the academic community. It has been established that the main differences between oral dialogue and printed interviews are the degree of text editing, the possibility of changing the positions of dialogue participants, the presence of speech intonational and emotional colouring, and stylistic communication limitations. The perceptual advantages of oral dialogue lie in its accessibility to a wide range of people, deeper immersion in the communicative situation, and a better understanding of the personal traits of the communication participants.

Capitalizing Networked Learning: Connectivism, Multiliteracies and the Architectonics of Pedagogy

As connectivism is increasingly accepted as a theory of learning for the digital age, scholars and practitioners in education often overlook the dilemma that this creates for its most ardent advocates. In the academic literature, we increasingly find scholarly works that present insouciant descriptions of connectivism. However, such practices often underplay or ignore critiques of connectivism, allowing many of our contentions about its epistemological character and pedagogical effectiveness to calcify. In fact, it is becoming increasingly difficult to rationalize why so many educators have endorsed connectivism as a new theory of learning when there continues to be a need for more empirical testing and greater philosophical substantiation. To illustrate this paradox, this paper examines Stephen Downes’s consideration of connectivism and his connectivist model of literacy. Using the dialogic philosophy of Mikhail Bakhtin, it introduces an architectonic model of connectivism and multiliteracies as an alternative discourse and pedagogical paradigm. A key finding from this study suggests that the lack of attention to capitalist practices, power, and the intermediality of texts in networked learning help to conceal the ways in which connectivist practices rearticulate behaviorism.

The Interaction of Continental and Analytical Philosophy in the Development of the Philosophy of Dialogue

The Interaction of Continental and Analytical Philosophy in the Development of the Philosophy of Dialogue

Research on Gnosticism in Cinema

Gnosticism regards the material world as an illusion generated by a god triggering existential questions in movie storylines. This research explores the current cinematic use of Gnostic concepts of their depiction to dig into filmmakings reactions to topics of knowledge, spiritual duality, and ancient belief mechanisms. The study focuses on how movies adopt ideas to change audiences reality viewpoints frequently instructing characters on trips to disclose realities and individual cultivation similar to the Gnostic route. By exploring the movies with these topics, the research offers an understanding of Gnosticism's approach to forming storytelling approaches and thematic diversity in cinema. Meanwhile, this paper takes into account viewer responses and wider philosophical dialogues triggered by films in its analysis, as well as reflecting on the influences of these Gnostic-stimulated narratives on movie tendencies. The research lays a foundation for an investigation into factors in movie and their association with current audiences primarily knowing the intersection between ancient wisdom and modern artistic expressions.

Measuring the quality of philosophical dialogue: a high-inference rating instrument for research and teacher education

Various studies have shown that philosophizing with children at school can have a positive effect on cognitive, language and social skills. However, previous studies have not considered how the quality of the dialogue influences these outcomes. Addressing this gap, our article introduces a high-inference rating instrument to assess the quality of philosophical dialogue. This instrument features four quality dimensions: Philosophical Richness, Co-construction, Focus, and Restrained Facilitation. It was applied to evaluate 63 class dialogues from a Swiss study involving secondary-school students. The article presents the instrument using excerpts from the study, along with initial validation information, showing its reliability in measuring philosophical dialogue quality. The significance of this research lies in its focus on the quality of philosophical dialogue, an aspect often overlooked in educational settings. By providing a tool to assess this quality, we open up new pathways for analyzing the effectiveness of philosophical dialogues in schools. This is especially relevant as educational systems increasingly recognize the importance of developing students' critical thinking and discussion skills. The findings highlight the potential of high-quality philosophical dialogues to enrich students' educational experiences and offer insights for educators and researchers into enhancing these interactions. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how philosophical dialogue can be used as a powerful educational tool, not just for engaging students but for fostering meaningful and impactful learning.

Teaching value-loaded critical thinking in philosophy education

Value-loaded critical thinking refers to a combination of critical thinking, moral value development and reflection. It is important to teach value-loaded critical thinking in secondary education and philosophy seems the pre-eminent subject to do so. This article describes the theoretical foundations of value-loaded critical thinking, its educational objectives, and what is known about effective teaching strategies. Value-loaded critical thinking is best taught in teacher-led philosophical dialogues. Four design principles summarize effective teaching strategies for teaching value-loaded critical thinking in dialogue: teachers should (1) explicitly address moral values in dialogue; (2) apply moral values to engaging or realistic examples; (3) promote critical reasoning about moral values; and (4) provide opportunities for reflection.

Spiritual Disciplines in Philosophical Counseling Clinical Education with the Self-Dialogue Seminar

In order to contribute to the discussion of pathological problems that occur in today’s “phase transition phenomenon of relationship,” this article focuses on “self-deception”—an example of a distorted relationship with oneself. It explores ways to overcome such issues through philosophical counseling. The specific measure is the Self-Dialogue seminar, a part of the Philosophical Counseling Clinical Education (PCCE) program. The second Section, therefore, begins with the question “How do we deal with the phenomenon of self-deception (on the part of the counselor or client) that we might actually encounter in philosophical counseling?” and discusses where and how philosophical counseling can intervene in the entire process of self-deception. In preparation for the possibility of encountering different levels of self-deception, the third section examines the contexts of three types of self-deceptions. The fourth section explores the possibility that a client or philosophical counselor can discover and change their own points of deception through the Records of Self-Dialogue seminar. Finally, the article argues that philosophical dialogue, if attained within a community predicated on individual equality and mutuality, can be a valid prescription for self-deception in the modern world.

W. SHAKESPEARE’S “HAMLET” IN CONTEXT OF E. LEVINAS’S PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT OF MAN: DISCOVERING ‘THE OTHER’ AS A MEANINGFUL SUBTEXT OF THE TRAGEDY

The article concentrates on the study of the relationship between literary-artistic and philosophical discourses in the process of verbalizing universal cultural meanings of existence and building a holistic concept of man as an uppermost task of creation and re-creation (interpretation) of a literary work through the example of W. Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”. The article aims to interpret W. Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet” in the context of ideas of the French thinker E. Levinas, one of the founders of the philosophy of dialogue. The tasks of the study are to characterize the significance of the dialogical vision of personality for the contemporary interpretation of the classics of world literature, to reveal the importance of dialogue between artistic and philosophical discourses while cognizing the human being in his interaction with the world and to consider the system of images in W. Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet” with regard to the philosophy of the Other, developed in E. Levinas’s works “Time and the Other” and “Humanism of the Other”. The main research methods include culture-historical and hermeneutic methods applied in addition to the fundamental ideas of the philosophy of dialogue. The article deals with the tragedy “Hamlet” by W. Shakespeare as a prototext for E. Levinas’s philosophical work “Time and the Other”. Shakespearean reminiscences are characterized as important in terms of the development of the Levinasian concept of man. According to Levinas, the essence of the person is revealed in the dialogical interaction with the Other, which allows one to go beyond the present as captivity, discover the connections with the future in which the subject no longer exists, and achieve the eventful fullness of being, which leads to harmony and opens the way to the transcendental subject and eternity. The system of images in W. Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet” allows one to associate the title character with different variants of the Other, which become significant for him as he fulfils the Ghost’s will. The unfolding of the action can be interpreted as such that it features the establishment of dialogical interaction between the father and the son in its meaningful subtext. At the level of events, the achieved interaction is seen as the fullness of the characters’ personal existence (above all, that of Hamlet and the Ghost), which manifests itself in overcoming the boundary between life and death, restoring the normal course of history and asserting the necessity for the superiority of good over evil. Horatio, the actor (i.e. the First Player), and jester Yorick (an offstage character in the prince’s memories), each of whom represents the conditions necessary for genuine dialogical interaction (belonging to a tradition, empathy, carnival freedom and, therefore, the familiarity of contact with another person), become significant variants of the Other to Hamlet, metonymically equivalent to his father the king.

The Squirrel, Omelette, and the Truths: An Ethnographic Narrative Exploration of Philosophical Dialogue and Literacy with Young Learners

Abstract: This paper explores the innovative approach of engaging young learners in philosophical dialogue through creative storytelling. Employing an ethnographic narrative methodology, it examines storytelling sessions between the first author and her eight-year-old son, focusing on the emergent discussions about multifaceted truths inspired by the whimsical tale of “Omelette”, a fish that, according to the young storyteller, lays pre-cooked omelettes. By integrating narrative theory and elements of folklore and mythology, this paper reveals how such narratives can significantly enhance literacy and philosophical understanding in children. This research highlights the potential of storytelling as a dynamic educational tool, offering insights into the development of critical thinking and literacy skills.

An Encounter Between Engaged Pure-Land Buddhism and the Dialogical Philosophy of Martin Buber

Abstract Engaged Buddhism emphasizes the translation of dharma teachings into social engagement. A proper understanding of Buddhadharma rejects the duality between the realm of the individual and the realm of the social. Therefore, a dharma that does not create a dharmic society will not create dharmic individuals. Martin Buber (1878–1965) was one of the most important and consequential philosophers of 20th-century spiritual thought. The Dialogical philosophy of Martin Buber represents a creative confluence between Western Humanism and some aspects of Zen Buddhism. Buber translated and studied Taoist texts and “oriental” wisdom systems, such as Buddhism and Hinduism. This article argues that Buber’s concept of “God as the between of I and Thou” can be posed in Buddhist terms as “Buddha is the between of I and Thou.” This primordial social spirituality resembles in many respects the teachings of engaged Buddhism, particularly the Pure Land teachings of Master Sheng Yen.

Teleological links between Philosophical Counselling and Logotherapy

This paper will indicate the methodical and subject tangents between philosophical counselling on the one hand, and logotherapy – a psychotherapeutic direction developed in the middle of the last century by the Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist Viktor Frankl – on the other side of the evaluation spectrum. Three main points will be settled in the focus of the elaboration. The first is a technique of the Socratic dialogue, special characteristic of both approaches set forth in the title of this presentation. Yet we can also comfortably say – of almost all psychotherapeutic schools and techniques. With an emphasis on maieutic as the basis of the psyche-hermeneutic process – dynamic disclosure of the person’s essence and its intentional telos. The second point refers to reaching the meaning and purpose of a person as the intentional core. The third point is aimed at reaching the spiritual dimension of the person, viewed as a teleological synthesis and reachable aim of the both approaches. In conclusion, the paper will be put forward that now it is a fruitful time for the therapeutic relationship on the global scene to return to its philosophical foundations methodologically and subjectively. Opening the doors for providing and spreading the “philosophical spirituality” as the global paradigm, enabling humanistic encounter and the philosophical dialogue on the wide global horizon.