volumul I. Logica -- volumul II. Metafizica -- volumul III. Filosofia morală.

The aim of the paper is to study socio-ethical aspects of Slovak higher education policy in the context of contemporary discussions on university assessment criteria. I conduct an ethical analysis and assess the criteria introduced in Slovakia that consider employment opportunities and the graduate unemployment rate, publishing in high impact journals, participation in European research programmes, etc., which often discriminates against the humanities and social sciences. On the other hand, I also point to the absence of a social contract regarding (...) the common good provided by Slovak universities, drawbacks of a legislative nature which often provide a basis for unethical behaviour within the Slovak academic community and, most often, problems concerning academic ethics in contemporary Slovakia. (shrink)

Assuming that all cultures have gender roles, religion affects women differently than men. What have Catholic women’s religious lives, roles, and images been like? Although all women share a common experience of being women, differences of class, race, religion, culture, and sexual orientation separate them, and therefore taking into account women’s experiences and views can be a difficult task in complex religious contexts. Religious practices have different significance to men and women and their engagement is different. In foraging and horticultural (...) societies, women and men have more egalitarian and complementary roles and women play significant roles in religion – while in agrarian societies the situation is quite different. Large denominations such as Roman Catholicism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Orthodox Judaism are strongly against the ordination of women to sacramental ministry. Catholic women are left with a God with whom they cannot identify and who cannot identify with them. (shrink)

The ethics of social consequences is a means of satisficing non-utilitarian consequentialism that can be used to approach disaster issues. The primary values in the ethics of social consequences are humanity, human dignity and moral rights, and these are developed and realized to achieve positive social consequences. The secondary values found in the ethics of social consequences include justice, responsibility, moral duty and tolerance. Their role and purpose is given by their ability to help achieve and realize moral good. Fair (...) treatment within moral issues stems from applying primary as well as secondary values. The nature of these values cannot be determined exclusively in ordinary circumstances. However, in extraordinary circumstances (disasters), not all the requirements relating to the value structure of the ethics of social consequences need be considered in its entirety. In extraordinary circumstances, values are prioritised and realized. Primary values are realized prior to secondary ones. When prioritizing primary values, the realization of positive social consequences, or at least minimizing the negative social consequences, takes priority over other primary values. In disaster bioethics especially, it is often necessary to find a way to minimize the negative social consequences; thus, actions where positive social consequences are prevalent are preferred. (shrink)

The paper considers the symmetries of a bit of information corresponding to one, two or three qubits of quantum information and identifiable as the three basic symmetries of the Standard model, U(1), SU(2), and SU(3) accordingly. They refer to “empty qubits” (or the free variable of quantum information), i.e. those in which no point is chosen (recorded). The choice of a certain point violates those symmetries. It can be represented furthermore as the choice of a privileged reference frame (e.g. that (...) of the Big Bang), which can be described exhaustively by means of 16 numbers (4 for position, 4 for velocity, and 8 for acceleration) independently of time, but in space-time continuum, and still one, 17th number is necessary for the mass of rest of the observer in it. The same 17 numbers describing exhaustively a privileged reference frame thus granted to be “zero”, respectively a certain violation of all the three symmetries of the Standard model or the “record” in a qubit in general, can be represented as 17 elementary wave functions (or classes of wave functions) after the bijection of natural and transfinite natural (ordinal) numbers in Hilbert arithmetic and further identified as those corresponding to the 17 elementary of particles of the Standard model. Two generalizations of the relevant concepts of general relativity are introduced: (1) “discrete reference frame” to the class of all arbitrarily accelerated reference frame constituting a smooth manifold; (2) a still more general principle of relativity to the general principle of relativity, and meaning the conservation of quantum information as to all discrete reference frames as to the smooth manifold of all reference frames of general relativity. Then, the bijective transition from an accelerated reference frame to the 17 elementary wave functions of the Standard model can be interpreted by the still more general principle of relativity as the equivalent redescription of a privileged reference frame: smooth into a discrete one. The conservation of quantum information related to the generalization of the concept of reference frame can be interpreted as restoring the concept of the ether, an absolutely immovable medium and reference frame in Newtonian mechanics, to which the relative motion can be interpreted as an absolute one, or logically: the relations, as properties. The new ether is to consist of qubits (or quantum information). One can track the conceptual pathway of the “ether” from Newtonian mechanics via special relativity, via general relativity, via quantum mechanics to the theory of quantum information (or “quantum mechanics and information”). The identification of entanglement and gravity can be considered also as a ‘byproduct” implied by the transition from the smooth “ether of special and general relativity’ to the “flat” ether of quantum mechanics and information. The qubit ether is out of the “temporal screen” in general and is depicted on it as both matter and energy, both dark and visible. (shrink)

Recent theoretical work in developmental psychology suggests that humans are predisposed to align their mental states with those of other individuals. One way this manifests is in cooperative communication ; that is, intentional communication aimed at aligning individuals’ mental states with respect to events in their shared environment. This idea has received strong empirical support. The purpose of this paper is to extend this account by proposing an integrative model of the biobehavioral dynamics of cooperative communication. Our formulation is based (...) on active inference. Active inference suggests that action-perception cycles operate to minimize uncertainty and optimize an individual’s internal model of the world. We propose that humans are characterized by an evolved adaptive prior belief that their mental states are aligned with, or similar to, those of conspecifics (i.e., that ‘we are the same sort of creature, inhabiting the same sort of niche’). The use of cooperative communication emerges as the principal means to gather evidence for this belief, allowing for the development of a shared narrative that is used to disambiguate interactants’ (hidden and inferred) mental states. Thus, by using cooperative communication, individuals effectively attune to a hermeneutic niche composed, in part, of others’ mental states; and, reciprocally, attune the niche to their own ends via epistemic niche construction. This means that niche construction enables features of the niche to encode precise, reliable cues about the deontic or shared value of certain action policies (e.g., the utility of using communicative constructions to disambiguate mental states, given expectations about shared prior beliefs). In turn, the alignment of mental states (prior beliefs) enables the emergence of a novel, contextualizing scale of cultural dynamics that encompasses the actions and mental states of the ensemble of interactants and their shared environment. The dynamics of this contextualizing layer of cultural organization feedback, across scales, to constrain the variability of the prior expectations of the individuals who constitute it. Our theory additionally builds upon the active inference literature by introducing a new set of neurobiologically plausible computational hypotheses for cooperative communication. We conclude with directions for future research. (shrink)

SummaryThe author studies the form of philosophical optimism in Slovak Lutheran ethics in the first half of the 19th century in the views of Ján Kollár and Ján Chalupka. Herder’s philosophy of history and his philosophy of historical progress significantly influenced Slovak Lutheran ethics of the given period. In the author’s view, Kollár and Chalupka mainly appreciated human history as progress in all parts of life and refused glorification of the past. However, they did not limit their assessment to a (...) positive evaluation of the present; they used one’s own mistakes and faults to appeal to moral development of man and placed to the forefront the belief in a better future of mankind in the form of humanity. (shrink)

This paper argues that the concept of dignity should be understood as a concept that we use to describe an aggregate of values and qualities of a person or thing that deserves esteem and respect. The primary value that creates the right to have dignity is life. The degree of dignity a life form has depends on its place in the evolutionary scale. Human beings are the highest form of life so they possess the highest degree of dignity.

The authors examine the Slovak ethos of plebeian resistance to the First World War in several of its forms. First, they examine intellectual forms of resistance against war, against its Christian justification. Several Slovak authors emphasized that the First World War was in direct contradiction to Christian ethics, asserting that it served as proof of the failure of all European nations and their elites, who were proud of their humanity and ability to solve problems peacefully. Secular authors who based their (...) opposition to the First World War on universal cultural and moral values represented the second form of resistance. After the end of the war, they also expected the equal rights of the Slovak ethnic group in the new post-war situation. The third form of resistance is literature, and the authors of the article focused mainly on Milo Urban’s novel Živý bič (1927) as the most important anti-war novel of Slovak interwar literature reflecting wartime events in the Orava village of Ráztoky. (shrink)

This study investigates the meaning and contribution of the Slovak Lutheran social ethics to the social ethical thinking in Slovakia. The book attempts to examine the subject in the social, political and spiritual context of the development of the Slovak nation, Slovakia and Czechoslovakia, linking the development of the Protestant social ethics in Europe and the rest of the world.

The author studies selected fundamental literary records from Great Moravia of the 9th century (The rules of the holy fathers [Zapovědi svatych otcov], Judicial law for laymen [Zakon sudnyj ljudem], Nomocanon [Nomokanon], Adhortation to rulers [Vladykam zemle Božie slovo velit]) presumably compiled, translated or created by Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius, the Thessaloniki brothers. In the context of defining early and medieval Christian ethics, the author concluded that the texts in question contain elements of the Christian code of ethics, by means (...) of which Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius, following the model of the Byzantine Emperors Leo III and Constantine V, wished to form the social morality of Great Moravia. Based on this, the author holds the opinion that the history of Christian ethics in Moravia, Slovakia and Bohemia goes as far back as the activities of Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius and the period of Great Moravia. (shrink)

Martha C. Nussbaum, in the context of ancient philosophy, formulated ethics of human development based on 10 basic human capabilities as a precondition of meaningful human development, i.e. the ability to live a dignified human life. The paper, thus, deals with a capabilities approach with the aim of analysing the content of the idea of human dignity in Nussbaum’s understanding and its place in the conception of ethics of human development, since human dignity is the very core of the conception (...) in question. (shrink)

RésuméLa personnalité, ľactivité et ľoeuvre de Gonseth peuvent être interprétéd organiquement dans une instructive pédagogie de dialogue. Ľauteur évoque a) la structure dialogale intime de Gonseth, b) les dialogues peu fructueux qu'il a entretenus avec le Cercle de Vienne, puis lors des Entretiens de Zurich, c) les dialogues qu'il a imagines dans Les mathématiques et la réalité entre trois personnages: Parfait, Sceptique et Idoine, auxquels vient s'ajouter à la fin le Nouvel Idoine, d) les rencontres avec les néo‐scolastiques à Rome, (...) e) la ≫doctrine≪ explicite du dialogue exposée dans La loi du dialogue.Ľauteur s'interroge aussi sur les conditions ?un dialogue fécond et sur les obstacles qui peuvent s'y opposer, .SummaryGonseth the man, his life and his work can be interpreted organically in an instructive account of dialogue. The author treats the following topics: a) Gonseth's intimate dialogical structure, b) the fruitless dialogues he had with the Vienna Circle and then at the Entretiens de Zurich, c) his imaginary dialogues in Les mathématiques el la réalité between the characters Perfect, Sceptic and Appropriate, and finally New Appropriate, d) his contacts with neo‐scholastics at Rome, e) the explicit ‘doctrine’ of dialogue presented in La loi du dialogue. The article is also concerned with conditions for a fruitful dialogue and with obstacles that can stand in the way. (shrink)

The author examines the motives for the behaviour and actions of Dr. Skreta, the main character of Kundera’s novel The Farewell Waltz. The starting point of the novel was the social and political situation in totalitarian Czechoslovakia at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. He compares it to the situation in the developed western world and comes to a realization that there were many similarities in medicine; however, there were significant differences with regard to external factors. The health care (...) system in western democratic societies were placed in contrast with Czechoslovakia, where a doctor’s activities and the system of health care were subordinated to the political, ideological, and social intentions of totalitarian power. In this context, the author has come to the conclusion that Dr. Skreta’s motives for acting arose from his moral responsibility for the country’s future. Dr. Skreta waged a latent personal “moral war” against the totalitarian regime. This was also reflected in his opposition to the preferred morality of socialist health care professionals. Part of this was his eugenics project. According to the author, in the context of ethics of social consequences, Dr. Skreta was a responsible moral agent seeking a better future not only for the country and its people, but his personal selfish interests. (shrink)

Ethics of social consequences as a form of satisficing non-utilitarian consequentialism can be one of the methodological basis of bioethics education. The primary values in ethics of social consequences are humanity, human dignity and moral rights, which are developed and realized in correlation with positive social consequences. Secondary values in ethics of social consequences include justice, responsibility, moral duty and tolerance. The author analyses human dignity and humanity as principles of bioethics education.

This study emphasises the cosmic dimensions of the Church understood as the Throne of God, analysing its understanding in this way by the great writers and thinkers of the ancient world, for example, Philo the Alexandrine, Saint Dionysius the Areopagite and Saint Irene of Lyon. The reconstitution of all the cosmological contexts and understanding of the Throne of God inspired by the texts of the ancient authors is opening a very interesting perspective over the existence of the Church as a (...) cosmic Throne of God and reassembling of all the heavenly and intelligible creations sustained and vivified by the primal light of God transmitted in this way towards the lower degrees of the heavenly angelic and churchly hierarchy. Thus, the real source of primacy in the Church is originated, as Saint Dionysius pointed out, in the primal light of God poured over the Church. The Church as the Throne of God helps to discover the real cosmic and heavenly perspective over the heavenly power and authority, the bishops of the Churches are called frankly by God from the beginning (Rv 3:21). (shrink)

The reduction, reuse, collection and recovery of recyclable materials are sustainable behaviors and people’s awareness of them plays an important role in implementing strategies and policies in this field. The quantitative analysis performed on a group of 816 students of Politehnica University of Timisoara, aimed at finding answers to important environmental concerns and observing the students’ behaviors of reuse and selective collection of the waste resulted from plastic containers, paper, aluminum, batteries, iron packaging waste, electronic equipment, used cooking oil and (...) printer toner. The research has shown that ‘increased amounts of waste’ is among the first three concerns Romania has to deal with, besides ‘air pollution’ and ‘deforestation’. Moreover, the study highlights the existence of the behavior toward the selective waste collection among students. although there are some areas that students still need to be familiarized with through different campaigns, trainings, courses, etc. The results can be used in the development of institutional strategies or of strategic documents targeting environmental protection and sustainable development. (shrink)

G. E. Moore’s critical analysis of right action in utilitarian ethics and his consequentialist concept of right action is a starting point for a theory of moral/right action in ethics of social consequences. The terms right and wrong have different meanings in these theories. The author explores different aspects of right and wrong actions in ethics of social consequences and compares them with Moore’s ideas. He positively evaluates Moore’s contributions to the development his theory of moral/right action.

In his Education of a Christian Prince Erasmus applies ancient and Christian virtues to the functions of a Christian prince. Slovak humanist writer Ján Milo- chovský , who new Erasmus’s work, expanded in his Ornamentum Magistratus Politici the scope of the ethical and moral functions of a prince, focusing on three fundamental virtues: piety, justice and tolerance.The paper offers an analysis of Erasmus’s political ethics and examines the impact of the latter on the Slovak humanism of the second half of (...) the 17th century, especially in the writings of Ján Milochovský. (shrink)

The author discusses issues of evil in Doležal’s Tragoedia (1791) influenced by Leibniz’s Theodicy (1710). Despite the fact that, in Doležal’s work, emphasis is placed on theological and religious aspects, he was able to be above too strict a theological-religious scope of the contemporary interpretation of Adam and Eve’s sin and he was even able to find a number of positive features and values that emerged for man from the origin of evil and sin. Finally, we can say that Doležal’s (...) work can be seen as man’s attempt to gain autonomy from God (although only an unintentional one). On the other hand, it can also be possibly interpreted as an eternal temptation or an eternal desire for knowledge, for exposing of which so far has been undiscovered or unknown. Humanity is attracted by mystery, unsolved or unanswered questions and as the primary sin resulted in evil, it was also the origin of much good that was appreciated by Doležal even more than primary evil. It may sound rather heretical to state what Doležal only implied that „thanks“ to the primary sin or desire for knowledge, for the discovery of the newand unknown, man became a full person able to realize his potential, to develop his knowledge and skills. (shrink)

Author applies four models of professional ethics of politicians (Aristotle’s virtuous citizen, Machiavelli’s prince, Erasmus’ man of values and Weber’s responsible politician) to politics and politicians in Slovakia since the first half of the 20th century to the present. According to author, there is possible to identify Milan Hodža with Weber’s model, Alexander Dubek with Aristotle’s one, Vladimír Meiar and Robert Fico are identified with Machiavelli’s model and Iveta Radiová with Erasmus’ model of professional ethics of politician in Slovakia.

The author describes briefly the activities of different ethical centres and gives a survey of the principle directions of ethical research in Romania. These include primarily normative problems, the theoretical problems and translations of classical ethical works. The recent publication of a project for a code of socialist morality gives evidence of the advance and significance of ethical research in Romania.

The GOOGLE and XPRIZE $5,000,000 for the practical and socially useful utilization of the quantum computer is the starting point for ontomathematical reflections for what it can really serve. Its “output by measurement” is opposed to the conjecture for a coherent ray able alternatively to deliver the ultimate result of any quantum calculation immediately as a Dirac -function therefore accomplishing the transition of the sequence of increasingly narrow probability density distributions to their limit. The GOOGLE and XPRIZE problem’s solution needs (...) the initial understanding that the result of any quantum calculation is a wave function, or respectively, a probability (density or not) distribution unlike the Turing machine one, and only a “calculating ray” is able to transform the former into the later without any “curving” disturbances. Thus, the unique capability of the quantum computer due to its inherent quantum parallelism can be conserved for all Gödel unresolvable problems, only on the fast “NP” track of which the quantum computer “Achilles” is able practically to overrun the Turing machine “Tortoise” since the latter can “sprint” only by any “P” calculating speed even on it and unlike “Achilles” himself able for “NP” velocities as well. The way for any material body to “calculate” the certain trajectory of least action also resolves the “traveling salesman problem” in fact, therefore illustrating furthermore what the “NP” output of a quantum computer by a “calculating ray” should mean. Another example is the problem of the number of all prime numbers less than “N”, which is suggested to visualize once again the quantum computer capability to resolve problems by a “NP” speed and thus qualitatively to overrun any competing Turing machine. The technically implemented idea of laser is now reinterpreted to “radiate a wave function” in order to explain the “calculating ray” option for a quantum computer “NP” output. The generalization of an entanglement “trigger ray” described by any non-Hermitian operator (unlike a laser) is suggested as well as those “sci-fi” horizons which it reveals. One of them is meant for elucidating the practical meaning of the “Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem”, one more of the CMI “Millennium Problems” after that of “P vs NP”. -/- . (shrink)

This book of essays focuses on the new approaches to moral issues from two perspectives. The first part, ‘Various Concepts of Morality’, analyses certain central approaches to moral study, and creates the methodological starting point for the more specific enquiries of the second part. ‘New Trends in Understanding Morality’ contains five articles focusing on these new approaches, especially as they are related to their conceptions of scientific knowledge. This section deals with selected special issues of morality in biology, natural sciences, (...) but also in humanities. (shrink)

The author studies the role of Christianity in two forms of 9th century political ethics in the history of Great Moravia, represented by the Great Moravian rulers Rastislav and Svatopluk. Rastislav’s conception predominantly uses the pre-Erasmian model of political ethics based on the pursuit of welfare for the country and its inhabitants by achieving the clerical-political independence of Great Moravia from the Frankish kingdom and, moreover, by utilising Christianity for the advancement of culture, education, literature, law and legality, as well (...) as by spreading Christian ethics and morality in the form of the Christian code of ethics expressed in ethicallegal documents. Svatopluk’s political conception was a prototype of Machiavellian political ethics, according to which one is, in the interest of the country and its power and fame, allowed to be a lion and/or a fox. Svatopluk abused Christianity in the name of achieving his power-oriented goals. Great Moravia outlived Rastislav; it did not, however, outlive Svatopluk, as, shortly after his death, it broke up and ceased to exist. The author came to the conclusion that Rastislav’s conception was more viable, as its cultural heritage lives on in the form of works by Constantine and Methodius. (shrink)

The present first part about the eventual completeness of mathematics (called “Hilbert mathematics”) is concentrated on the Gödel incompleteness (1931) statement: if it is an axiom rather than a theorem inferable from the axioms of (Peano) arithmetic, (ZFC) set theory, and propositional logic, this would pioneer the pathway to Hilbert mathematics. One of the main arguments that it is an axiom consists in the direct contradiction of the axiom of induction in arithmetic and the axiom of infinity in set theory. (...) Thus, the pair of arithmetic and set are to be similar to Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries distinguishably only by the Fifth postulate now, i.e. after replacing it and its negation correspondingly by the axiom of finiteness (induction) versus that of finiteness being idempotent negations to each other. Indeed, the axiom of choice, as far as it is equivalent to the well-ordering “theorem”, transforms any set in a well-ordering either necessarily finite according to the axiom of induction or also optionally infinite according to the axiom of infinity. So, the Gödel incompleteness statement relies on the logical contradiction of the axiom of induction and the axiom of infinity in the final analysis. Nonetheless, both can be considered as two idempotent versions of the same axiom (analogically to the Fifth postulate) and then unified after logicism and its inherent intensionality since the opposition of finiteness and infinity can be only extensional (i.e., relevant to the elements of any set rather than to the set by itself or its characteristic property being a proposition). So, the pathway for interpreting the Gödel incompleteness statement as an axiom and the originating from that assumption for “Hilbert mathematics” accepting its negation is pioneered. A much wider context relevant to realizing the Gödel incompleteness statement as a metamathematical axiom is consistently built step by step. The horizon of Hilbert mathematics is the proper subject in the third part of the paper, and a reinterpretation of Gödel’s papers (1930; 1931) as an apology of logicism as the only consistent foundations of mathematics is the topic of the next second part. (shrink)

The writings of Martin Rakovský can be seen as a reflection of the problems, including political ones, of his time. His aim was also to offer an idea of a perfect ruler, who would bring peoples the peace and calm down the stormy events of the 16th century. The personal virtues of such a ruler should have been the guarantee of the welfare of all citizens. Given Rakovský’s religious attitude he can be regarded as a re- formation humanist standing between (...) Machiavelli and Luther. (shrink)

The thesis is: the “periodic table” of “dark matter” is equivalent to the standard periodic table of the visible matter being entangled. Thus, it is to consist of all possible entangled states of the atoms of chemical elements as quantum systems. In other words, an atom of any chemical element and as a quantum system, i.e. as a wave function, should be represented as a non-orthogonal in general (i.e. entangled) subspace of the separable complex Hilbert space relevant to the system (...) to which the atom at issue is related as a true part of it. The paper follows previous publications of mine stating that “dark matter” and “dark energy” are projections of arbitrarily entangled states on the cognitive “screen” of Einstein’s “Mach’s principle” in general relativity postulating that gravitational field can be generated only by mass or energy. (shrink)

The distinction of whether real or counterfactual history makes sense only post factum. However, modal history is to be defined only as ones’ intention and thus, ex-ante. Modal history is probable history, and its probability is subjective. One needs phenomenological “epoché” in relation to its reality (respectively, counterfactuality). Thus, modal history describes historical “phenomena” in Husserl’s sense and would need a specific application of phenomenological reduction, which can be called historical reduction. Modal history doubles history just as the recorded history (...) of historiography does it. That doubling is a necessary condition of historical objectivity including one’s subjectivity: whether actors’, ex-ante or historians’, post factum. The objectivity doubled by ones’ subjectivity constitute “hermeneutical circle”. (shrink)

Der slowakische Autor Martin Kukučín (1860-1928) reflektiert in seinem Werk das zeitgenässische Leben des slowakischen und kroatischen Dorfes sowie die Lebensumstände in Prag und Súdamerika am Ende des 19. und in den ersten drei Jahrzehnten des 20. Jahrhunderts. Vor dem ersten We1tkrieg strebt er noch nach einer Symbiose aus Schänheit, Wahrheit und Gúte, die er im Dorfleben verwirklicht sieht. In seinen im slowakischen ländlichen Raum angesiedelten Werken idealisiert er in dieser Zeit das Dorf und das Leben der Dorfbevälkerung mit warmherzigem (...) Humor. Es erscheint ihm als eine Form von Proto-Kommunitarismus. Nach 1918 rúcken dagegen Fragen der slowakischen Nation und Arbeiterschaft in der neugegrundeten Tschechoslowakischen Republik in den Mittelpunkt seines CEuvres. Damit avanciert Martin Kukučín in seinem literarischen Werk zum praktischen Philosophen, der ethische Grundfragen nach dem guten Leben aufwirft. (shrink)