The focus on translational research in clinical trials has the potential to generate clinically relevant genetic data that could have importance to patients. This raises challenging questions about communicating relevant genetic research results to individual patients. An exploratory pharmacogenetic analysis was conducted in the international ovarian cancer phase III trial, AGO-OVAR 16, which found that patients with clinically important germ-line BRCA1/2 mutations had improved progression-free survival prognosis. Mechanisms to communicate BRCA results were evaluated, because these findings may be beneficial to (...) patients and their families. Communicating individual BRCA results was not anticipated during clinical trial design. Consequently, options were not available for patients to indicate their preference for receiving their individual results when they signed pharmacogenetic informed consent. Differences in local requirements, clinical practice, and opinion regarding the ethical aspects of how to convey genetic results to patients are all potential barriers to returning individual BRCA results to patients. Communicating the aggregate BRCA result from this study provided clinical investigators with a mechanism to disseminate the overall study finding to patients while taking individual circumstances, local guidelines and clinical practice into account. This study illustrates the importance of increasing the clarity and scope of informed consent and the need for patient engagement to ensure clinical trial participants can indicate their preference regarding receipt of potentially important individual pharmacogenetic results. This study was registered in the NCT Clinical Trial Registry under NCT00866697 on March 19, 2009, following approval from participating ethics committees. (shrink)

Infinite Hope, rich with inspirational true stories and breathtaking artwork, will bless you with the kind of hope that never fades and always brightens the darkest paths of life. This is no ordinary hope, but instead a life-transforming hope. It is a hope that will fill you with confidence and inspire you to find peace with yourself and your circumstances. Stories and insights about suffering and the goodness of God, along with illustrations from Joni Eareckson Tada and Jill DeHaan, (...) will give you a richer, deeper love for Christ, the Blessed Hope."--Provided by publisher. (shrink)

Recent studies suggest that lucid dreaming might be associated with increased brain activity over frontal regions during rapid eye movement sleep. By applying transcranial direct current stimulation , we aimed to manipulate the activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during REM sleep to increase dream lucidity. Nineteen participants spent three consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory. On the second and third nights they randomly received either 1 mA tDCS for 10 min or sham stimulation during each REM period starting with (...) the second one. According to the participants’ self-ratings, tDCS over the DLPFC during REM sleep increased lucidity in dreams. The effects, however, were not strong and found only in frequent lucid dreamers. While this indicates some preliminary support for the involvement of the DLPFC in lucid dreaming, further research, controlling for indirect effects of stimulation and including other brain regions, is needed. (shrink)

In lucid dreams the dreamer is aware of dreaming and often able to influence the ongoing dream content. Lucid dreaming is a learnable skill and a variety of techniques is suggested for lucid dreaming induction. This systematic review evaluated the evidence for the effectiveness of induction techniques. A comprehensive literature search was carried out in biomedical databases and specific resources. Thirty-five studies were included in the analysis , of which 26 employed cognitive techniques, 11 external stimulation and one drug application. (...) The methodological quality of the included studies was relatively low. None of the induction techniques were verified to induce lucid dreams reliably and consistently, although some of them look promising. On the basis of the reviewed studies, a taxonomy of lucid dream induction methods is presented. Several methodological issues are discussed and further directions for future studies are proposed. (shrink)

Methodological nationalism in sociological theory is unfit for the current globalized era, and should be discarded. In light of this contention, the present article discusses Max Weber’s view of language as a way to relativize the frame of the national society. While a “linguistic turn” in sociology since the 1960s has assumed that the sharing of language—linguistic community—stands as an intersubjective foundation for understanding of meaning, Weber saw linguistic community as constructed. From Weber’s rationalist, subjectivist, individualist viewpoint, linguistic community was (...) a result of social actions, not a prior entity as assumed by German metaphysical organicism (and historicist holism). Indeed, Central Europe in Weber’s era was a battlefield of linguistic nationalism(s); in contrast to the national societies of the Cold War period, national borders were unstable and ultimately the multiethnic empires of the region were dismantled after World War I into ethnolinguistic nation-states. Experience of this contemporary reality brought Weber to the core of the relationship between language and politics: A language community is an imaginary one demarcated not by language itself but by conscious opposition against outsiders, with monolingual contexts within borders created artificially by homogenizing policies like linguistic standardization and national education—the first modernity of language. In this way, Weber felt, language can be a means to domination. (shrink)

Straipsnio tikslas – atskleisti įrankio (Zeug) ir technikos (Technik) skirtumą M. Heideggerio technikos filosofijoje. Analizuojami skirtumai nurodo pasaulio konstitucijos problematiką. Dasein santykį su įrankiu M. Heideggeris pristatė kaip parankų (Zuhandenheit), o štai santykį su technika įvardijo priešingai. Technika, kylanti iš gamtos mokslų, susaistytų machinacija (Machenschaft), filosofo pristatoma kaip Dasein kūrybines galias nuostatyne (Gestell) slopinanti terpė. Straipsnyje atskleidžiama dvejopa problematika. Pirma, parodomi įrankio ir technikos ontologiniai skirtumai. Antra, atskleidžiamas nuostatyno ontologijos ambivalentiškumas. Nuostatynas M. Heideggeriui nėra tik techniškai orientuoto pasaulio užvaldymo mechanizmas, (...) bet ir „gelbstintis“ pradas. (shrink)

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama dvejopa machinacijos (Machenschaft) samprata Martino Heideg-gerio technikos filosofijoje. Pirmoji susijusi su Vakarų metafizikos destrukcija (Destruktion) ir jos kulmi-nacija reflektuojama moderniosios technikos plotmėje. Pirmiausiai machinaciją Heideggeris pristato kaip pačios Būties atsivėrimo būdą „pirmoje pradžioje“ (ersten Anfang). Machinacija lemia μετά judesio pamatą, nurodantį į nuolatinę transcendencijos aspiraciją bei „techninį“ esinių atvėrimo pobūdį, nors savo „pajėgumų“ prasme machinacija graikų metafizikoje dar glūdi implicitiškai. Eksplicitiškai machi-nacija pasirodo tik moderniojoje technikoje. Kiek kitokią machinacijos sampratą galime aptikti Heideg-gerio „Juoduosiuose sąsiuviniuose“ (Schwarze Hefte), rašytuose 1931–1938 (...) m. Juose pačią modernybės epochą filosofas pristato kaip machinaciją. Taigi straipsnyje siekiama išryškinti šių dviejų Heideggerio sampratų jungtį, kuri yra machinacijos galios (Macht) augimo tikrovės atžvilgiu nuoroda. (shrink)

Daśapadārthī is a text of Indian philosophy and the Vaiśeṣika school only preserved in the Chinese translation made by Xuánzàng 玄奘 in 648 BC. The translation was included in the catalogs of East Asian Buddhist texts and subsequently in the East Asian Buddhist Canons despite clearly being not a Buddhist text. Daśapadārthī is almost unquestionably assumed to be written by a Vaiśeṣika 勝者 Huiyue 慧月 in Sanskrit reconstructed as Candramati or Maticandra. But is that the case? The author argues that (...) the original Sanskrit text was compiled by the Buddhists based on previously existing Vaiśeṣika texts for an exclusively Buddhist purpose and was not used by the followers of Vaiśeṣika. That would explain Xuanzang’s choice for the translation as well as the non-circulation of the text among Vaiśeṣikas. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to explore how a self-referential social system, although it is not a human being, can be said to “observe.” For this purpose, the article reformulates Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems as sociological phenomenology, or the de-consciousness philosophized phenomenology, because a social system has the same structure of intentionality as consciousness: Just as consciousness is always consciousness of something, communication is always communication of something. In correlation to this communicative intentionality, communicated environments come and (...) go as social phenomena. A social system is not a thing, but an autonomously observing subject. Hence, this systems theory takes on the role of a second-order observer: It observes how social systems as first-order observers observe self-referentially because phenomena given to the natural attitude of the first-order observer constitute multiple social realities in daily life. Therefore, the theory of self-referential social systems is not objectivism, but a variation of mundane subjectivist phenomenology. (shrink)

I‐J has been regarded as a polymorphic genetic marker controlled by a locus in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) which is expressed only on functional T cells. However, this antigenic determinant has been found not to be directly encoded by the MHC gene per se but is somatically generated according to the MHC of the cellular environment during ontogeny. This explains the apparent linkage of I‐J to MHC, despite the failure to find the structural gene for I‐J within the MHC. (...) The I‐J paradox provides an instance of a polymorphism that does not follow the standard genetics of Mendelian structural genes. (shrink)

A Correction to this paper has been published: 10.1007/s11186-021-09436-2.

The aim of this article is to explore how a self-referential social system, although it is not a human being, can be said to “observe.” For this purpose, the article reformulates Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems as sociological phenomenology, or the de-consciousness philosophized phenomenology, because a social system has the same structure of intentionality as consciousness: Just as consciousness is always consciousness of something, communication is always communication of something. In correlation to this communicative intentionality, communicated environments come and (...) go as social phenomena. A social system is not a thing, but an autonomously observing subject. Hence, this systems theory takes on the role of a second-order observer: It observes how social systems as first-order observers observe self-referentially because phenomena given to the natural attitude of the first-order observer constitute multiple social realities in daily life. Therefore, the theory of self-referential social systems is not objectivism, but a variation of mundane subjectivist phenomenology. (shrink)

Although initiation of DNA replication is considered to be highly coordinated through multiple protein–DNA and protein–protein interactions, it is poorly understood how particular locations within the eukaryotic chromosome are selected as origins of DNA replication. Here, we discuss recent reports that present structural information on the interaction characteristics of the archaeal orthologues of the eukaryotic origin recognition complex with their cognate binding sequences.1,2 Since the archaeal replication system is postulated as a simplified version of the one in eukaryotes, by analogy, (...) these works provide insights into the functions of the eukaryotic initiator proteins. BioEssays 30:208–211, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

When Thomas Luckmann, a pioneer of the “linguistic turn” in sociology, regarded Émile Durkheim as a source for the sociology of language, he had lifeworldly community–building in mind. However, the French sociologist himself understood language in the context ofcivil society–building. To Durkheim, language was a “social thing in the highest degree” that enabled general ideas and intermediated them to people. Abstract human ideals like the civil religion since the French Revolution could be shared through (a common) language. Thus, Durkheim took (...) the exclusive use of French in the Third Republic’s laic public education for granted, ignoring the patois in the country: This “child of the Enlightenment” considered French to be a universal language ofGesellschaftand, beyond ethno-communal elements, to work as a basis for the organic solidarity of French national civil society where the social division of labor was progressing. Durkheim’s theory was predicated on civil-linguistic, not ethnolinguistic, nationalism. (shrink)

Ca2+ transients in myocardial cells are modulated by cyclic AMP‐dependent phosphorylation of a protein in the sarcoplasmic reticulum. This protein, termed phospholamban, serves to regulate the Ca2+ pump ATPase of this membrane, thus altering the mode of Ca2+ transients and the myocardial contractile response. Elucidating the structure of phospholamban and its intimate interaction with the Ca2+ pump ATPase should provide the basis for understanding, at the molecular level, how the cAMP system contributes to excitation‐contraction coupling in muscle cells.

This article aims at clarifying the philosophical (=phenomenological) implication of Talcott Parsons’s analytical realism. Generally, his theory is understood as being confrontational to phenomenology; however, in his first book, The Structure of Social Action, Parsons positively referred to Husserl’s Logical Investigations. They shared a sense of crisis: Husserl thought that there was no certain basis in modern science, and Parsons had the feeling that there was no common theory to establish sociology as a science. Thus, both of them criticized the (...) factual sciences of positivism (positivistic empiricism) and showed a strong orientation to the general theory. For this, they depended on conceptual realism (Platonic realism). According to Husserl, scientific knowledge will be arbitrary if the Ideal is not there as the norm of fact. He believed that in truth all people always see Ideas. Similarly, Parsons thought that in truth all people always act toward the Ideal, because the Ideal element is necessarily found through the logical framework of sociology, i.e., the action frame of reference. Hence, he maintained that the Ideal element that gives a normative orientation to actions is real, though analytical, insofar as the social order is established. (shrink)

This paper proves that the division operation \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $\lfloor a/m\rfloor$\end{document} is provably total in the system \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $S_2^0$\end{document} of bounded arithmetic if and only if \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $m$\end{document} is of the form \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} $2^n$\end{document} for some \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} (...) $n$\end{document}. (shrink)

Arabic language; linguistics; studying and teaching.

“Risk” is all about living a faith filled life. Within the pages of this work you will discover the year-by-year history of the ups and downs of the happenings regarding Foursquare Church. There are no sure things in this crazy epic journey called life. The only constant we can hang our hope upon is the name of Jesus. Christ has called us to live beyond what we can see and lean only to what He has said. In the parable of (...) the talents Jesus was very clear about how He felt regarding those who would not risk. In Matthew 25:28-30 He states, “‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most and get rid of this “play-it-safe-mentality” who won’t go out on a limb. Jesus rewards those who Risk. Foursquare Church and its history is one successive detail regarding progressive risking on God and his faithfulness to reward said risk. I invite you to read and risk on God. You will find great joy in discovering the rewards of a life that is lived by faith. (shrink)

The Texas Advance Directive Act allows physicians and hospitals to overrule patient or family requests for futile care. Purposefully not defining futility, the law leaves its determination in specific cases to an institutional process. While the law has received several criticisms, it does seem to work constructively in the cases that come to the review process. We introduce a new criticism: While the law has been justified by an appeal to professional values such as avoiding harm to patients, avoiding the (...) provision of unseemly care, and good stewardship of medical resources, it is applied incompletely. It allows physicians and institutional committees to refuse “futile” treatments desired by patients and families while at the same time providing no way of regulating physicians who recommend or even push “futile” treatments in similar cases. In this sense, the TADA is incomplete on its own terms. (shrink)

The dispute resolution mechanism in the Texas Advance Directives Act (TADA) fails to comply with core ethical and legal notions of fundamental fairness. Kapottos and Youngner (2015) acknowledge the...

Given the costs of litigation high-profile court cases about withdrawing life-sustaining medical treatment for seriously ill children in England & Wales tend to be followed by discussion about how to avoid similar cases in future. Whilst two proposals, mediation and replacing the best interests standard with a harm threshold, have received broad attention, a proposal to replace the court by a specialist review committee has not been further investigated. This article analyses the effects of a putative replacement of the courts (...) by a specialist review committee using the process enacted by the futility clauses in the Texas Advance Directives Act (TADA) as a model. Under TADA life-sustaining treatment may legally be withdrawn when a review committee deems it futile and no alternative healthcare provider can be identified. The investigation finds that installing a national review committee with the power to decide whether life-sustaining treatment is futile would have reduced the number of court cases about withdrawal thereof in England & Wales to a handful over the last 3 decades. In addition to shorter procedures and costs savings, a national review committee modelled after TADA would have advantages for both clinicians and parents. Advantages for clinicians are more limited exposure to delivery of clinical care that may cause moral distress and less exposure to adverse press and social media content. Advantages for parents are that the process would establish them as ethical decision makers and offer the possibility of a transfer of the care of the child provided an alternative healthcare provider can be found. As such decisions taken by a specialist review committee may be more acceptable for parents than those of the courts. (shrink)

In the United States, authoritative legal guidance remains sparse on whether or when clinicians may stop life-sustaining treatment without consent. Fortunately, several significant legislative and judicial developments over the past two years offer some clarity. We group these legal developments into the following seven categories: 1. Lawsuits for Damages 2. Amendments to the Texas Advance Directives Act 3. Constitutional Attack on TADA 4. Legislation Prohibiting Clinicians 5. Legislation Authorizing Clinicians 6. Cases from Canada 7. Cases from the United Kingdom.

The paper offers an analysis of the interview data collected in the project "Politics and everyday life: Three years later" in terms of three main topics: attitudes to the political sphere, change of social system, and the democratic public sphere. The analysis focuses on ambivalences expressed in the responses which, under the surface of overall disappointment and discontent, may contain preserved results of the previously achieved "social learning" and their positive potentials. The main objective was to examine to what extent (...) the processes of political maturation of citizens, identified in the 2002 study, have continued. After pointing to a number of shifts in people?s views of politics which generally do not contradict the tendencies outlined in 2002, it is argued that the process of rationalization of political culture has not stopped, but it manifests itself differently in changed circumstances. The republican euphoria of 2002 has been replaced by resignation, with a stronger individualist orientation and a commitment to professional achievement. Clanak analizira gradju dobijenu intervjuima u okviru istrazivanja "Politika i svakodnevni zivot - tri godine posle" u pogledu tri krupne teme: odnos prema politici, promena drustvenog poretka i demokratska javnost. Analiza se usredsredjuje na ambivalencije izrazene u iskazima ispitanika koje, ispod opste atmosfere razocaranosti i nezadovoljstva, mogu kriti ocuvane rezultate prethodnog "socijalnog ucenja" i njihove pozitivne potencijale. Osnovni cilj je ispitati u kojoj meri su procesi politickog sazrevanja gradjana, uoceni u istrazivanju iz 2002, nastavljeni i u kasnijem razdoblju. Posle izdvajanja jednog broja pomaka u odnosu na stavove prema politickoj sferi iz 2002, koji u osnovi ne protivrece tada ocrtanim tendencijama, zakljucuje se da proces racionalizovanja politicke kulture nije prekinut, ali se u novim uslovima ocituje na drugaciji nacin. Republikansku euforiju iz neposredno postpetooktobarskog razdoblja zamenila je rezignacija, uz narastanje individualizma i okretanje profesionalnom postignucu. (shrink)

Este trabajo investiga las interrelaciones entre la regulación y los as-pectos económicos y ambientales en una comunidad de agricultores familiares en la región conocida como Zona da Mata Mineira, en el estado brasileño de Minas Gerais. El estudio es producto de una acti-vidad de extensión realizada entre 2016 y 2018, y tuvo como objetivo asesorar a los pequeños productores en el proceso de adecuación legal de la producción. Durante este período se realizaron cerca de cinco reuniones entre investigadores y comuneros, (...) en las que se analizaron las dificultades encontradas por los pequeños productores en relación con el referido proceso. Las experiencias reportadas fueron confron-tadas con el régimen legal regulatorio para la actividad acuícola en Brasil, tomando como categorías de análisis los atributos de norma-tividad y facticidad del sistema legal. Se concluyó que la regulación ambiental en el área de la acuicultura en Brasil, diseñada para grandes productores, carga de manera desproporcionada a los pequeños pro-ductores, generando un desequilibrio económico injustificado. Como aporte a la teoría, se propone, en definitiva, la formulación de un con-cepto de regulación jurídica inclusiva, cuyos rasgos distintivos inclu-yen la participación social y la promoción de la alfabetización jurídica como derecho fundamental. (shrink)

A presente comunicação procura pensar a ideia de hermenêutica como filosofia prática, a partir das semelhanças que Gadamer estabelece entre a racionalidade hermenêutica e a fronesis aristotélica. A ideia chave é esta: o núcleo fundamental da razão hermenêutica é a unidade de compreensão, interpretação e aplicação; a aplicação é o cerne da racionalidade hermenêutica, que sempre foi susci.tada por casos de tensão entre situações singulares. de vida e textos ou leis com sentido universal, que melhor permitem entendê-las. Neste sentido, (...) a tarefa hermenêutica é semelhante à da ética aristotélica: medir uma situação concreta à luz das exigências éticas mais gerais. Tal é de facto a condição da praxis ética e política do ser humano, aquela que hoje é absolutamente necessário pensar face à inflação contemporânea de uma praxis guiada por mecanismos automáticos de índole técnica. Quer isto dizer que é necessário hoje clarificar absolutamente o que distingue a praxis conduzida pela technê da praxis ética e política como condição da liberdade humana. Segundo Gadamer, esta tem uma natureza hermenêutica que urge clarificar, pois, ela parte sempre de regras, tradições, leis que são recriadas em acto na situação hermenêutica da sua aplicação. Aplicação hermenêutica e froairesis têm uma estrutura semelhante que é necessário perceber pois também a praxis técnica é uma forma de aplicação, embora de natureza bem diferente. P. Ricoeur sabe também que a praxis concreta do ser humano nada tem de semelhante à praxis técnica, a produção e que pensá-la exige a mediação de uma simbólica e de uma mítica concreta. (shrink)

Straipsnyje pristatomas žmogaus somatikos mokslas, kuris pirmiausia susiejamas su ankstyvaja Husserlio somatologijos samprata, o vėliau pasiūloma transcendentali šio mokslo pagrindinių prielaidų kritika. Kritiškai nagrinėjama psichofizinė apercepcija ir jos nuoroda į išgyvenamą mirties patirtį. Tada kaip alternatyvi somatikos prielaida pateikiama Husserlio kinestetinės sąmonės samprata. Straipsnnis užbaigiamas fenomenologine kinestetinių sistemų analize susiejant somatikos tyrinėjimus su įsikūnijimo etika bei pagarbos kinestetika. Esminiai žodžiai: fenomenologija, Husserlis, transcendentalumas, somatika, psichofiziologija, gyvenamas kūnas, kinestetinė sąmonė, kinestetinės sistemos, įsikūnijimo etika. After introducing the field of somatics as (...) a human science, I first link it with Husserl’s earlier notion of somatology, then offer a transcendental critique of the root assumption of such a science – the psychophysical apperception – and trace the origin of the latter to the lived experience of death. Next I present Husserl’s notion of kinaesthetic consciousness as an alternative assumption for somatics, concluding with some contributions to a phenomenology of kinaesthetic systems as well as some suggestions for approaching somatic work in the spirit of embodied ethics and the kinaesthetics of respect.Key words: phenomenology, husserl, transcendental, somatics, psychophysical, lived body, kinaesthetic consciousness, kinaesthetic systems, embodied ethics. (shrink)

U obraćenju i životu svetog Augustina veliku je ulogu odigrala ljubav prema filozofiji. Toliko je značajan njezin utjecaj na njegov životni tijek da se čak govorilo o dva obraćenja: jedno na filozofiju, drugo na kršćanstvo. Ako bi bilo pretjerano govoriti o dva obraćenja, jer se radilo o istom procesu u kojem je filozofija odigrala značajnu ulogu u Augustinovu boljem razumijevanju kršćanstva, ipak se ne može zanijekati važnost filozofije u njegovoj intelektualnoj formaciji. Ako mu je kršćanstvo predstavljalo puninu, onda mu je (...) filozofija predstavljala značajnu dionicu puta, pridonoseći jasnijem poimanju Boga, te razumijevanju mnogih filozofskih pitanja koja do tada nije shvaćao .Iz Augustinova se iskustva vidi da filozofija s jedne strane podrazumijeva, a s druge budi želju za znanjem i povećava žeđ za spoznajom . No, ne bilo kakvom, već spoznajom istine, radi čega Augustin polemizira protiv akademika onoga vremena koji su pali u skepticizam. Svaka spoznata istina, po Augustinu, čovjeka upućuje na okretanje prema vlastitoj nutrini, te na hod prema Istini, koja, osim što se objavljuje kroz proces spoznaje kao Logos, pomaže čovjeku objavljujući se utjelovljenjem, čime postaje vidljiva i opipljiva. Upravo filozofija u prvom trenutku daje Augustinu najsnažniji poticaj da se podigne iz blata nemorala, površnosti i lagodnog života, svjestan da ne može osjetiti čistoću istine ukoliko sama sebe ne očisti, kao što su uostalom držali filozofi platonske i neoplatonske tradicije. Zapaljen žarom za filozofskom spoznajom i slašću koju u njemu ostavlja okus istine, odlučuje se na moralno življenje, podlažući život radikalnoj promjeni koja ga preporađa i usmjeruje njegov život novim pravcem. Rastvarajući jedra filozofije vjetru Duha Božjega i objave, usmjeruje svoju lađu u sigurnu luku vjere, odlučujući potom cijeli svoj život posvetiti izučavanju filozofije u krugu najbližih prijatelja, tvoreći čak svojevrsnu filozofskomonašku zajednicu.Ukoliko je to prvo razdoblje Augustinova života obilježeno ljubavlju prema filozofiji onda se razdoblje nakon obraćenja ne može razumjeti ukoliko se nema pred očima hermeneutiku ljubavi. Cjelokupna Hipončeva misao biva prožeta »filozofijom ljubavi«, čime integrira dimenziju ljubavi u filozofiju kao njezin bitni dio, što nije bio slučaj klasične grčke filozofije. Ovakav je velik korak mogao napraviti samo zahvaljujući kršćanskoj objavi koju shvaća kao nužnu pomoć da čovjek ne skrene s puta istine u pogrešku i zabludu. Shodno tome, Augustin prihvaća Boga ne samo kao vrhovno dobro ili kao jedno, poput uglednih filozofa svoga vremena, već ga prvenstveno spoznaje kao ljubav, koja jedina daje obrazloženje stvaranja i odgovore o smislu ljudskog postojanja.Love of philosophy played a major role in St. Augustine’s conversion and life in general. The influence of philosophy on the course of his life was so vital that it could even be said that he converted twice – first to philosophy, then to Christianity. If, however, it is an exaggeration to talk of two conversions since the two processes are but one, in which philosophy played a key role in Augustine’s better understanding of Christianity, the importance of philosophy in his intellectual development can, nevertheless, not be denied. If, for St. Augustine, Christianity represented fullness, then philosophy epitomised a crucial segment of his path contributing both to a much clearer conception of God and an understanding of many philosophical questions, which he had not understood up to then .St. Augustine’s experience reveals that philosophy, on the one hand, implies and, on the other, arouses one’s desire for knowledge, as well as augments one’s thirst for insight . Not just any insight but insight into truth, due to which St. Augustine polemicised against his contemporary scholars who fell for and into scepticism. According to St. Augustine, each understood truth directs man to turn to his very own inner being, and to take the path leading to the Truth, which – besides unveiling itself as Logos through the process of understanding – helps man, disclosing itself through embodiment, with which it becomes both discernible and tangible. It is precisely philosophy that provides St. Augustine with the most powerful and timely stimulus to rise from and above the filth of immorality, superficiality and an easy life, aware that he cannot experience the purity of truth unless he cleanses himself first, which is, after all, what the traditions of both Platonism and Neo-Platonism claim. Burning with desire for philosophical insight and the delight that the taste of truth leaves him with, he decides to live morally while radically changing his life and thus becoming re-born and directed towards a new course. Hoisting the sails of philosophy before the winds of the Spirit of God and the revelation, St. Augustine guides his vessel into the safe harbour of faith, deciding to devote his entire life to the study of philosophy in the company of his closest friends, thus creating a philosophicalmonastic community of its kind.If the pre-conversion years of St. Augustine’s life are distinguished by his love of philosophy, then the post-conversion years of his life cannot be understood without the hermeneutics of love. His entire thought is imbued with the »philosophy of love«, with which he integrates the dimension of love into philosophy as its essential segment, which was not the case with classic Greek philosophy. He could take this giant step only owing to Christian revelation, which he holds to be a necessary help to man, preventing him from deviating from the path of truth to the path of error and misconception. Accordingly, St. Augustine does not only accept God as the supreme good or as one, as many reputable philosophers of his time do, but primarily understands Him to be love, which is the only concept capable of providing justification of creation and answers to the questions of the meaning of human existence. (shrink)