NotaBene

NotaBene е електронно списание за философски и политически науки. Повече за нас

Total and Totalitarian

In this issue

Journal NotaBene Issue 32(2016)Editor: Gergana Popova

Topic of the issue: Total and Totalitarian

Derrida's Deconstruction and the Judaic God who writes alone

Abstract: The paper reflects on Derrida's views on deconstruction in the context of Judaic tradition. It focuses on the Jewish relation to the Holy Scripture and Judaic emphasis on the written words. In this sense some ideas of Cabala are analysed. The article puts accent on the idea of infinite interpretation of Holy words in Cabala and lays stress on its influence upon Derrida.

Keywords: deconstruction, cabala, infinite interpretation

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Sexuality in the Socialist Discourses in Bulgaria: the Silence and the Illness

Abstract: The main goal of the paper is to analyse the presence and absence of sex and erotica in the public discourses in Bulgaria in the socialist period. First part of the paper reflects on the censorship of sexuality as a mean of its subjection. In its second part the article studies the usage of the metaphor of illness from the communist regime. The metaphor of illness is showed as an important element of the communist disciplinary practices. The article focuses on its importance for the communist constructions of the ideal human body.

Keywords: metaphor of illness, body-machine, body-organism, censorship of sexuality

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I Don't Believe in the Fantasy of the Author. Interview with Danilo Kish

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Alexis De Tocqueville: Development of Bourgeois Revolution and Democratic Dictatorship

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Disintegration of the Universal in the Global Era

Abstract: This paper raises questions about an invisible characteristic of the globalization – the lack of universality. There is a deep crisis in the very heart of human rationality -- crisis both ontological and epistemological: crisis of conceptuality. The contemporary individual has lost his in-dividable essence because now he is incapable of making identification and self-identification. The crisis is deeper than the crises of postmodern thinking, because it is a crisis in a crisis.

Key words: globalization, identification, self-identification, postmodern, concept

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Podium

The Euroscеpticism and the Thomas Theorem

Abstract: In the article the Euroscepticism is seen as a mixture of distrust in the EU institutions, rebellion against the status quo and pessimism about the future of the EU. The article analyzes the factors that contribute to expanding the influence of Euroscepticism - the presentism, i.e. the dictate of the present over the past and the future; the nationalism as nostalgia for clearly delineated borders; the crises in the functioning of the EU. The article briefly outlines several Euroscepticism's manifestations - electoral apathy, support for nationalist parties, and mistrust towards the EU institutions. Euroscepticism is treated on the one hand as a consequence of the crises in the EU and on the other as a factor in deepening the crisis. Euroscepticism is both a result of the crises and their root. Thomas theorem ("If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences") serves as an explanation of the role of Euroscepticism in the deepening the crisis in the EU. Incorrectly defined situation of the EU generates destructive impacts on his future.

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The Living Memory and the Nonliving Bodies in Biographical Narratives of Death

Abstract: The present paper focuses on the individual and collective representations of the afterlife in the context of the recent developments of the death study, which blend psychological constructivist and social constructionist approaches. The latter could be applied to representations of “heaven”, “hell”, “nothingness” among others in culture, as well as to the „traces“ of the presence of the dead in the reality of the living people – from the expectations for one’s own funeral and for the contents of the posthumous memory to the projections of the dead bodies such as „encounters with spirits“ and fear of worms. The analysis of these representations relies on a specific interdisciplinary terminology, flexible enough to describe the intertwinement of various types of socialization, (non)religious beliefs, cultural practice and biographical trajectories. It introduces notions such as posthumous reputations, postselfs and postbodies.

Based on a sample of 60 biographical interviews of men and women (75 years old and over) from UK, Bulgaria and Romania and turning to the terminology of the psychological constructivism and the social constructionism this paper discusses the construction of the nonliving body and living memory of the deceased person. It shows how the gaining of existential meaning of the death presupposes an exchange and interchange of cultural models of mourning and personal experiences, of public instructions and individual strategies for coping with the loss of the innermost image of the loved ones and the fear of the disintegration and decay of the dead body.

Keywords: death study, posthumous reputations, postbodies, postselfs

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Religion between Reason and Feelings: Immanuel Kant and Rudolf Otto

Abstract: The world of religion is often partitioned between the two main human abilities, feeling and reason. The experiencing of sacred places, objects, people, etc. undoubtedly involves intense feelings. But the understanding of this experience and the ability to classify it presumes thinking. During the Enlightenment and rational critique of religion began a series of reductionist attempts to relegate the religion only to reason. The purpose of this paper is to explicate one such attempt by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, and also to display an opportunity to outdo it by the German theologian and philosopher Rudolf Otto, author of one of the most famous theological books of the 20th century “Das Heilige”, 1917.

Keywords: sacred places, religion and reason, Rudolf Otto, Immanuel Kant

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Advertising of Consumer Electronics in Bulgaria1930-1945. Aspects of its Effects

Abstract: The paper analyses different aspects of the Bulgarian print advertising in the period 1930-1945. The main accent is put on the advertising of consumer electronics (radio receivers and gramophones). The thesis defended in the paper is that the language, the symbols, the product presentation, the images, the communication with the recipients and the style of advertisement are very different than those of the contemporary advertising environment. The analyzed adverbs could be found in books, dedicated to radiotechnics, electrical engineering, telewriters and electronics; in popular science and technical journals and also in some other papers and magazines.

Keywords: Bulgarian print media advertising, history of print advertising, old print advertising, old technics advertising, advertising strategies, informative advertising, graphic advertising

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A Structuralist Exercise: in honour of Georges Dumezil (1898-1986)

Abstract: Georges Dumezil's trifunctional hypothesis is considered as a subject of various attempted revisions and extensions. It appears that in its original form there is enough logical coherence to resist modifications.

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Research of the Characteristics of the Society that Influence the Radicalization and Terrorism

Abstract: The article presents the political and psychological analysis of the problem of the terrorism in view of the threats to national security. Solving this problem should not be done by military means and methods, and through understanding and elimination of psychological and political reasons for his birth.

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Minima moralia

"The Young Hegelians"

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RECESSION of the Monograph Procedural Philosophical Adventures of Applied Ontology From Prof. Veselin Petrov

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Babylon

I Heard They Were Telling How

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Announcement

The “Existential Freedom” of Nikolai Berdyaev and the Shackles of the Society, Technology and Sex

Abstract: The paper analyses the philosophical and religious ideas of Nikolai Berdyaev about existential freedom applied in the context of his views of the society, technology and sex. In this sense the article also focuses on other important Berdyaev’s concepts – those of objectivation, androgyny, humanism and dehumanization.

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Poiesis

Photography: Yana Paneva - Paintings from life in the village of Polyana

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Poems

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