Social and Political Theory

Manipuri theatre in postcolonial India owes its evolution and
acclaim to three director-dramaturgs–Lokendra Arambam,
Heisnam Kanhailal, and Ratan Thiyyam. Through exploration of
three plays – Macbeth: Stage of Blood (1997), Draupadi (2000), and
Chinglon Mapan Tampak Ama (2006) – this article locates the form,
content, and context of each of them, interweaving analyses of the
staged works and performances with narratives of everyday life
gathered through ethnographic practices to offer new theoretical
possibilities of reading performance in the context of violence.
Beyond myth and lore, these plays indicate an understanding of
the socio-cultural activities of the communities which reflect the
militarism, pursuit and repression of self-determination movements,
and internecine conflict in the region. While offering
a critical dimension to the study of how violence acts as a framing
device in Manipuri proscenium theatre, this article contextualises
how unsettling disruptions are cited as en/k/counter or encounter in
everyday life and performances. It explores how the interweaving of
anthropological and performance-based research locates the coevalness
of violence and art within interconnected narratives on
agency and resistance in everyday life and on stage. Further, it
proposes how such narratives might interpellate official narratives
of violence and counterviolence while offering glimmers of refuge
and repair.

La polarización no sólo bloquea la cooperación: distorsiona la percepción de los hechos, convierte el desacuerdo en guerra simbólica y paraliza la deliberación pública. A partir de ejemplos como el aborto, la posesión de armas o la vacunación, se muestra cómo incluso los desacuerdos fácticos se vuelven insolubles cuando los marcos morales se cierran sobre sí mismos. La argumentación pública, entendida como compromiso cooperativo, puede resistir este estancamiento si se evita la lógica adversarial —aquella que convierte el diálogo en competencia. La clave no está en imponer civilidad, sino en construir normas inclusivas que permitan pensar juntos sin exigir rendición.

Abstract The Theory of Humanism is a brand new theoretical system of philosophy. It provides a new interpretation of philosophy, reorganizes and redefines the main subjects involved in philosophy, and in particular provides the final answer on how society should develop. This paper will start with the four main subjects of philosophy: what is philosophy? what is man? what is the world? what is society? so as to outline my whole philosophical theory. And in the subject of what philosophy is, it briefly describes the four core propositions of philosophy: ontology, epistemology, essentialism and the theory of human nature, so that you will have a general grasp of my philosophy. In my opinion, philosophy is just the way of human survival. I also refer to the way as principle. Therefore philosophy is a discipline to study principle. Of course, from a broad perspective, this paper of mine are discussing the issue of this principle and providing an overview. But from a narrow perspective, this principle is actually that remark: In the reciprocity criterion of man-oriented mutual trust and mutual concession, achieve the maximization of everyone's interests! The main purpose of this paper is that let people know the basic content of that perfect philosophical theory, and thus achieve the fundamental goal of it: under the guidance of correct principle, there will naturally be no wrong people or wrong things, and everything will become so perfect!

The ethical structure of the Albanian customary code, the Kanun, is deemed to represent the ethical value system of a society without state power. In spite of the appearance of civilizations and the resultant advent of an incipient state power, humans seemed to have known only the ethical value system of a society without state power until Gotama, Socrates, Plato and Jesus proposed new religious and philosophical doctrines. The basic trait of these religious and philosophical doctrines, which try to antagonize the ethical value system of a society without state power by eliminating the emotional aspect of humanity from the ethical value system, has been inherited by western philosophers such as Descartes, Kant and Hegel. The discourses by Descartes, Kant and Hegel were reviewed while paying attention to how they dealt with the sensuous and emotional aspects of humanity. The metaphysical implications of the ethical structure of the Kanun surfaced through the critical reviewing of their philosophy, and a hypothesis concerning its origin was presented.

The ethical structure of the Albanian customary code, the Kanun, is deemed to represent the ethical value system of a society without state power. In spite of the appearance of civilizations and the resultant advent of an incipient state power, humans seemed to have known only the ethical value system of a society without state power until Gotama, Socrates, Plato and Jesus proposed new religious and philosophical doctrines. The basic trait of these religious and philosophical doctrines, which try to antagonize the ethical value system of a society without state power by eliminating the emotional aspect of humanity from the ethical value system, has been inherited by western philosophers such as Descartes, Kant and Hegel. The discourses by Descartes, Kant and Hegel were reviewed while paying attention to how they dealt with the sensuous and emotional aspects of humanity. The metaphysical implications of the ethical structure of the Kanun surfaced through the critical reviewing of their philosophy, and a hypothesis concerning its origin was presented.

The ethical structure of the Albanian customary code, the Kanun, is deemed to represent the ethical value system of a society without state power. In spite of the appearance of civilizations and the resultant advent of an incipient state power, humans seemed to have known only the ethical value system of a society without state power until Gotama, Socrates, Plato and Jesus proposed new religious and philosophical doctrines. The basic trait of these religious and philosophical doctrines, which try to antagonize the ethical value system of a society without state power by eliminating the emotional aspect of humanity from the ethical value system, has been inherited by western philosophers such as Descartes, Kant and Hegel. The discourses by Descartes, Kant and Hegel were reviewed while paying attention to how they dealt with the sensuous and emotional aspects of humanity. The metaphysical implications of the ethical structure of the Kanun surfaced through the critical reviewing of their philosophy, and a hypothesis concerning its origin was presented.

This essay revisits Karl Marx’s early and late writings to develop an anthropological perspective on the relationship between humans and machines. Focusing on the concepts of species-being, life-activity, and the inorganic body articulated in the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, and linking them to the “Fragment on Machines” in the Grundrisse, the paper interprets machines both as organs of capital and as potential organs of the collective worker. Through close readings of Marx and engagement with contemporary commentators such as Judith Butler, Matteo Pasquinelli, and Nick Srnicek, the essay argues that the integration of machinery into capitalist production intensifies alienation by transforming living labor into the inorganic substrate of capital. At the same time, Marx’s dialectical framework reveals the possibility of overcoming this alienation: as machine-based productivity reduces necessary labor time, it also creates conditions for the free development of human capacities beyond wage labor. By reframing the machine as part of humanity’s “inorganic body,” the essay suggests that appropriating machinery as a collective organ of species-being is essential for addressing the crises of late capitalism, including environmental degradation and the precaritization of labor.

The notion of a post-ideological era, famously articulated by Daniel Bell in The End of Ideology (1960), marks a pivotal moment in modern political thought. Bell argued that the grand ideological battles of the 20th century-fascism, communism, and liberalism-had exhausted their transformative potential, giving way to a pragmatic, technocratic consensus. This diagnosis, while contested, resonates with the gradual consolidation of neoliberalism as a hegemonic framework, characterized by market-driven governance, deregulation, and the erosion of collective political agency. The crisis of ideology is not merely an absence of competing visions but a deeper malaise: the collapse of meaning-making systems capable of mobilizing societies toward transformative ends.

According to Kant, the lack of progress in metaphysics is due to the fact that philosophers tried to solve metaphysical problems without examining the limits of our reason, and the outcome of these endeavors has been a dogmatic metaphysics fraught with contradictions and tensions. Then, after examining the types of cognition, he concludes that in order to determine the limits of reason's capacity, one must answer the question: "How are synthetic a priori judgments possible?" Some contemporary Islamic philosophers have sought to answer this question inspired by the teachings of Islamic philosophy. One solution involves resorting to conceptual relations that make the synthetic a priori judgments possible, while another solution is to deny outright the a priori/a posteriori and analytic/synthetic distinctions of cognition. In this paper, using a comparative-analytical method, I demonstrate that these two solutions are unsuccessful. The proposed alternative is to consider the possibility of such propositions as fundamental and in no need of further explanation. This suggestion seems to be simpler and fully consistent with the teachings of Islamic philosophy.

La mia discussione di due libri di Yohann Douet su Gramsci:  Y. Douet, L’Histoire  et la question de la modernité chez Antonio Gramsci, Paris, Classique Garnier, 2022; Id., L’hégémonie et la révolution. Gramsci, penseur politique, Paris, Amsterdam, 2023.
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Pur trattando di due argomenti distinti del pensiero gramsciano – la teoria della storia e la teoria della politica – i due volumi vanno letti insieme. Entrambi partono da una domanda filosofica che assume uno spiccato carattere politico: «la pensée de l’histoire de Gramsci, une réponse au postmodernisme?».

This paper critically examines Richard Rorty’s Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, focusing on the conceptual tensions within his vision of a liberal society grounded in private irony and public solidarity. While Rorty proposes that individuals should adopt an ironic stance in their private lives while embracing liberal principles in public, this duality reveals inconsistencies that undermine his overall argument. First, Rorty's dismissal of rationality and science in favor of a poeticized society neglects their instrumental role in understanding and engaging with the world beyond language. Second, his valorization of poetic language overlooks the structural inequalities in linguistic access, which in turn hampers the inclusive solidarity he envisions. Lastly, his preference for public liberalism over private irony betrays the transformative potential of ironist thought, reducing it to a privatized aesthetic rather than a politically generative force. By highlighting these contradictions, the paper argues that genuine solidarity requires not only the celebration of contingency but also the cultivation of autonomy and linguistic inclusion across both private and public domains.

This teaching document introduces students to Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, focusing on the ethical and dialogical dimensions of understanding. It emphasizes the concepts of conservation (Bewahrung) and recognition of the other, showing how Gadamer’s thought challenges the illusion of neutrality in interpretation and underscores the historicity of human understanding. Designed as a pedagogical resource for courses in philosophy of law and hermeneutics, the text highlights the role of dialogue, tradition, and openness to alterity as central to interpretive practice. By situating Gadamer’s philosophy within the context of democratic education, the document encourages students to reflect on interpretation not merely as a cognitive act, but as an ethical responsibility that shapes law, politics, and community life.

Elimination is one of the key topics in the thought of Western and sometimes Islamic philosophers, with this concept, the analysis of modern human problems is done more easily and accurately. In alienation, man feels the other from himself and loses self-awareness and suffers from a kind of (false self-awareness), which also means the loss of real and innate existence. Marx borrowed the term from the two Hegelian words Entäusserung and Entfremdung. Hegel used these two words to describe dissatisfied consciousness in Roman and medieval Christian civilization. Marx used the term to describe wage workers who do not have a satisfactory standard of living, because their activity of life -as a productive social factor -is devoid of any group action or consent and has no ownership over their lives or products. Among the Iranians who have mentioned this issue, in addition to Ali Shariati, who addressed alienation (alienation) in the discussion of "selfless man", we can mention Gholam Hossein Saedi, nicknamed Gohar Morad, a contemporary playwright and screenwriter. According to Shariati, anything that takes man away from his human characteristic, which has a special definition, is considered a factor of objectification. According to Shariati, instrumental rationality, bourgeoisie and mechanism have alienated man in the twentieth century and he criticizes it from this perspective. But in this article, I have tried to compare and apply the concept of alienation with other concepts of belief and unbelievable reason in order to extract the roots of abstract forces Alignment and sequencing of concepts MAHAN KAVEH 3 from the concept of alignment and match it with metaphysics, if applicable.

This dissertation scrutinizes the post-structuralist Essex School of Discourse Theory in the ideology-critical analysis of politics of education and Finnish education policies. In educational research, there is a notable shift of the turning away from theories of ideology and its categories. The use of ideology and hegemony as concepts is also marginal in education policy studies and policy sociology. However, ideologies will not disappear if we turn away from them; the workings of ideology will then remain on an implicit, tacit level in educational institutions and practices. In fact, one of the principal characteristics of ideology is precisely the naturalisation,
decontestation, and normalisation of certain meaning, norm, culture, and order instead of any other alternative.

This dissertation argues that it is indispensable that we theorise the ideological and use concepts of theories of ideology in educational research to grasp these issues. In this undertaking, it will apply the Discourse Theoretic framework and conceptual toolkit in the analyses of empirical case studies and further develop frameworks of ideology-critique while also exploring the advantages, but also some limitations of this framework in educational research.

The dissertation consists of four case studies published as research articles and the integrative chapter summarising and expanding the investigations of the articles. The case studies include: I a cross-section of the education reforms of the Sipilä Government and a comprehensive review of their ideological tenets, II an investigation of inclusion ideology in the Finnish National Curricula, III an analysis of Finnish higher education reforms from the perspective of university workplace ethnography, and IV an investigation into the governance of higher education and science policy futures through the Vision Development for Research and Science 2030 -reform.

The main contribution of this dissertation is the reactivation of the concepts of ideology, ideological and hegemony in educational research and contemporary contexts. These concepts have an explanatory relevance especially when approached from the perspective of Discourse Theory, since they make it possible to explore the explicit normative surface of hegemonic discourse and political ideologies as well as their implicit affective persuasion, the power to speak to one’s desire, which is the
ideological.

This dissertation critically examines the Finnish education policy reforms of the 2000–2010s, enhances the understanding of the ideological features of education, and opens up political value choices to public debate. Furthermore, it contributes to the discussions on ontological, temporal and affective turns in education policy studies and proposes a (re)turn to the ideological in education research in general.

Keywords: Education policy, politics of education, educational theory, Essex school of Discourse Theory, ideology, critical policy studies, policy sociology, social and political theory, theoretical and methodological development

Open access: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-3662-2

Her iki paradigmanın da anarşi kavramının sebep ve sonuçlarına ve onu ortadan
kaldırmak için ileri sürdükleri çözüm önerilerine odalanacağımız bu çalışmada konuyu
teoriler bağlamında ele alacağız. Bunu yaparken temel uluslararası ilişkiler teorilerini
pozitivist ve post-pozitivist ayrımına tabi tutacağız. Pozitivist teorilere idealizm, realizm,
liberalizm,Marksizm ve Wendtçi inşacılığı dahil ederken eleştirel yaklaşımların belli
başlılarını da –tarihsel sosyoloji, postmodernizm, post-kolonyalizm ve feminizm- postpozitivist teoriler grubuna yerleştireceğiz.

Írásomban röviden bemutatom a Replika 132. számában megjelenő Társadalmi ontológia blokk legfőbb kérdéseit, problémáit, irányait és fogalmait. Ezzel párhuzamosan vázlatosan kitérek a kérdéskör legfőbb filozófiatörténeti állomásaira, amelyek segíthetnek megérteni a társadalmi ontológia előzményeit, történeti alakulását és kontextusát, továbbá röviden ismertetem a blokkban megjelenő tanulmányok kérdéseit és eredményeit.

Kulcsszavak: Társadalmi ontológia, természeti fajták, társadalmi fajták, a társadalomtudományok módszere

Psychoanalysis has produced an ensemble of institutions, expertise, procedures, and practices for rendering the psychoanalytic subject legible and, through this, psychic life as an actionable site of intervention, dislocation, and struggle. This article examines how diverse psychoanalytic communities in Buenos Aires have produced unique grammars that influence how individuals articulate ideas about health and well‐being. Descriptive, culturally specific, historically informed, and always provisional, this grammar is empirically grounded in lived experience. Through presenting several case studies, I flesh out how this grammar, as a deictic expression of/for the unconscious is deployed, reworked, and embodied in everyday interactions. I demonstrate how psychic life is enmeshed within social and political experience. In doing so, I consider how interpersonal, existential, environmental, social, and political contingencies shape divergent notions of well‐being and structure desires of ...

An introduction to three modern positions on environmental ethics: 'shallow' ecology, deep ecology, and social ecology.
Chapter 4 of _Environmental Ethics and Behavioural Change_, B. Franks, Hanscomb, S. and Johnston, S. F. (Routledge, 2018)

In this paper, I will discuss the ontology of opposites, their relationship and how Lao Tzu uses them. I will use D. C. Lau’s (Lau hereafter) article, The Treatment of Opposites in “Lao Tzu”, as a starting point for this paper. I will also utilize Sung-Peng Hsu’s (Hsu hereafter) article, Two Kinds of Changes in Lao Tzu’s Thought, to discuss the opposites as Lao Tzu uses them in the Tao Te Ching (the Lao Tzu hereafter).

These days many people travel hundreds or thousands of miles to see or hear Zen masters. Some meet them. Some study with them. Few have a chance to ask them: What shall I do with my anger, jealousy, hate, fear, sorrow, ambition, delusions-all the problems that occupy human minds? And how shall I deal with my work, my mother and father, my children, my husband or wife, my servants, my employers-the relations that make up human life? Can Zen help me? If the Zen Master Bankei were available for consultation at a nearby street corner today, he'd be saying much the same things he did to comfort and enlighten the parade of housewives, merchants, soldiers, officials, monks and thieves who sought guidance from him three centuries ago. Bankei, the enlightened human being, shares his own experience with us as a real person, speaking his own real words. The advice he gives strikes right to the heart. It is highly personal, not theoretical or abstract. The nature of human beings has changed very little through the centuries, despite numerous efforts to change it. Nor does it seem likely to be less full of passion, jealousy and hate in the next thousand years, here or in outer space. When Bankei had completed his spiritual training and monastic career, which included the founding of a number of temples and the training of innumerable monks and priests, his true concern was with the problems of ordinary people. He had wanted to share what he had discovered with his mother, his first audience, and, I believe, was finally able to do so before she died, a very old lady. He wants us to have it too. Peter Haskel has found Bankei's real voice. In this fine work by a young translator who has lived intimately with Bankei for the last ten years and knows him through and through, we are brought smack into Bankei's world. It seems to be no translation at all. Although all the tools of scholarship have been meticulously used, no traces of them mar the polish. No one needs to explain what Bankei means. His seventeenthcentury metaphors and logic can be used or discarded without disturbing the substance of his teaching. What comes through is often just good hard common sense. Except for one thing: the Unborn Buddha Mind. Whether called by this name or any other, it is the heart of Zen as well as the core of Bankei's teaching. Bankei's approach shows that there is no need to be Japanese or imitate the Japanese to appreciate or acquire it.

Abstract: Supomo put forward the idea of political integralism (Staatsidee Integralistik), in the Indonesian State Establishment Session (1945), by referring to three Western philosophers: Spinoza, Adam Muller, and Hegel. The questions from an academic perspective that have not been answered until now are: Why integralism must be based on these three philosophers and not others, and why must it start with Spinoza and end with Hegel and not another arrangement? With this philosophical study method, I would like to explore why Supomo mentioned the three philosophers in such an arrangement: was it because of chronological or study method reasons? There are two possible answers for this question. First, Supomo took the appropriate elements from each philosopher according to the needs to fill the philosophical substance of his integralistic idea; so, it is an eclectic method. Second, considering that the three philosophers cannot simply be connected, let alone equated, and supported by the structure of Supomo's speech which is also dialectical, so he used the dialectical method. I argue in this study that integralism uses the dialectical method with its central idea of religion: Spinoza (thesis) rejects a religious state; Adam Muller (antithesis) accepts a religious state; and Hegel (synthesis) defines the co-existence of both, thus recognizing that religion exists in the state but the state does not have to be a religious one. Hegel's answer is the optio fundamentalis of Supomo's politics, namely rejecting the Islamic State demanded by Muslims and wanting to build a nation-state that includes all groups.
Keywords: integralistic state, organic state, dialectic, religious state, nation state

Anarchism is a political ideology that unlocks the slavery chain of an individual from the domination of state or hierarchal authority. It insists freedom of an individual to act upon the evils that prevail in the society and preaches social responsibility and compassion towards fellow human beings. It emerged as a distinct category in the nineteenth century with the writings of William Godwin in England, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in France and Peter Kropotkin and Mikhail Bakunin in Russia. The anarchists use literature as a vehicle to express their principle and voice against the domineering authority and sketch the sufferings of the downtrodden people in their works. Ursula K. Le Guin, an eminent American Science fiction writer, has dealt with anarchist theories both in her science fiction and fantasy writings. In this paper, her work The Word for World is Forest has been taken up for study and it preambles anarcho-pacifism and brings out the harmony that need to exist among human beings.
The Word for World is Forest (1972) depicts the sufferings of Athesean people under the colonist rule. Captain Davidson, the epitome of power subordinates the people and destroys nature of Athse planet. The peculiarity of the inhabitants of Athse is, they are tiny, and greenish hair people, having a lucid dreaming at the day time. They can have just a nap at the night time and can share the dream to a number of people at the same time. Captain Davidson raped the protagonist Selver’s wife and killed her. Humiliated by this event, Shevek attempts to avenge Davidson and at the same time wants to get out of the shackles of the colonizers. He shares the dream of revolution among his people and stimulates them to fight against the colonizers. Although the inhabitants of Athse are noted for passive resistance, they fought a war against the colonizers and at the end they were free from the colonizers. Le Guin uses dream as a metaphor to show the revolutionary attitude of the people. This paper focuses on the major tenets of anarchism and suggests the  genteel anarchy followed by the great anarchist thinkers such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King Jr. and Thoreau and highlights the fact that non-violence and mutual cooperation among fellow human beings is the effective weapon of anarchism to eradicate social evils and for sustainable development.

Keywords: Anarchism - War- Violence - Passive Resistance- Mutual Cooperation- Sustainable development

This talk was given at the conference “Maimon, Cohen, Cassirer: Kantianism in its relationship to Judaism,” in Potsdam, Germany, on Tuesday, December 17th, 2024. It is a draft of a future paper. I show that Maimon, contrary to scholarly consensus, engages seriously with Kant's doctrine of the unity of apperception. He does so mainly in the core chapters of the 'Essay on a New Logic' (1794), but also in 1797, in his last book. In these texts, he shows us how we might best understand the unity of apperception as a philosophical theory and in terms of its relation to formal and transcendental logic.

Godwin consistently addressed historical topics throughout his career. In addition to his “proper” historical work History of the Commonwealth of England (1824–1828) and history books for children, he wrote three biographies on William Pitt the Elder, Geoffrey Chaucer, and the two nephews of John Milton. He also wrote several historical novels and multiple essays offering his thoughts on history and history writing.

Godwin consistently addressed historical topics throughout his career. In addition to his “proper” historical work History of the Commonwealth of England (1824–1828) and history books for children, he wrote three biographies on William Pitt the Elder, Geoffrey Chaucer, and the two nephews of John Milton. He also wrote several historical novels and multiple essays offering his thoughts on history and history writing.

Current intellectual calls for more socially-minded governance often resort to the authority of the experimental and behavioral economists who have provided uncontroversial evidence for the generalized existence of a Homo socialis. For a qualitative social researcher, the narrative of a "discovery" makes little sense. This article provides a more meaningful account of the experimental rationale of prosocial preferences research, interrogating, from a "decolonial" theoretical perspective, the epistemic and normative implications of a method that persuasively claims to have challenged the intellectual imperialism of Homo economicus. Just as the colonial discourse that speaks of the "discovery" of America has shaped the global Eurocentric mentality that splits the world into hierarchical binaries, the academic discourse that speaks of the "discovery" of Homo socialis could reinforce a behavioral range that reduces the interpretation of non-prosocial choices to a binary spectrum still metrologically organized around Homo economicus. The danger is that Southern subjects do not always have the privilege of feeling prosocial and could be penalized for their disadvantage within a socially-minded mode of governance. To address this danger, the article argues, experimental social scientists need to become qualitatively attuned to the methodological question of "range validity" beyond the traditional one of "external validity."

The paper examines the prospects for the development of theoretically reflexive theory in the discipline of international relations. First, the issue of theoretical reflexivity is discussed in terms of the" reflexive turn" associated with post-positivist philosophy of science in ...

Hermeneutika és tradíció "Küldjön reád Zeusz atya minden áldást, még ha nem is kérnéd, és védjen meg téged minden rossztól, még ha imádkoznál is érte!"idézi több alakalommal is Alfred Schütz Aron Gurwitschoz írott leveleiben Platónt. Miért ragadták meg a szociálfenomenológust Platón szavai? Mekkora a relevanciája az ókori bölcs gondolatának korunk társadalomtudományára? Alább megkísérlem megvilágítani azt, hogy igen nagy.

This provocative book interrogates the ideology of capitalism as the "default" narrative underpinning various mainstream ideologies in the contemporary world. The book explores the genesis, structure and functioning of this ideological narrative, provides its critical assessment and outlines a possible alternative, beyond the logic of capitalism and toward a truly free and democratic society.

The book takes a broad view of the major global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and persuasively argue that, in order to resolve any of the major global problems, from the ongoing ecological crisis to economic and geopolitical issues, we need to confront the capitalist system. To unpack the logic of contemporary capitalist ideology, and the way it structures our inter-personal and political relations, the book gives an analysis of the "end of ideology" narrative and offers a critical assessment of the ideas behind the widely used but fundamentally flawed concept of "Liberal democracy." The book revisits metaphysical foundations behind the ideology of capitalism, exposing their secular-religious dimension, and their immanent oppressiveness. Based on this deconstruction of the metaphysical foundations implicit in (Neo)Liberalism and capitalism, the book offers a way in which alternative metaphysical foundations can be constructed to allow for different socio-political and economic models that would be based on a radical affirmation of freedom and democracy, as well as human responsibility for the natural environment.
Beyond Capitalist Dystopia: Reclaiming Freedom and Democracy in the Age of Global Crises will be of great interest to anyone searching for alternatives to the pervasive ideology of capitalism as well as students and researchers active in various fields in the humanities and social sciences.

This paper advocates a move beyond the systemic approach in the field of Deliberative Democracy. It argues that the notion of deliberative ecology can deliver the necessary conceptual elements that deliberative democrats seek in deliberative systems without some of the problems they either overlook or embrace. To advocate the advantages of an ecological perspective to deliberation, the article focuses on six axes of comparison: (i) performances of actants (instead of functions of arenas and players); (ii) articulations and translations (instead of transmission); (iii) vulnerabilities (instead of pathologies and dysfunctions); (iv) practice (instead of institutionally-oriented design); (v) diverse temporalities (instead of linear temporality) and; (vi) hologram-based analysis (instead of systemic analysis). In a nutshell, the article claims that the ecological approach to deliberation has the advantage of conceptualizing an ever-changing web of relations of interdependency, which connects diverse entities that are either relevant to a public discussion or that hinder its enactment.

Il Parlamento del 1355 rappresentò un punto di svolta per la storia della Sardegna medievale e moderna. Durante le riunioni parlamentari, il braccio dei sardi fece alcune richieste al re, ovvero riportare alcune leggi e consuetudini proprie del tempo dei pisani. La lettura di queste richieste può essere un indicatore di come veniva percepita la presenza del comune toscano da parte dei sardi nelle epoche precedenti.

Wenn Sie als Soziologe schreiben, wie gehen Sie dabei vor? Es ist lustig, genau darüber habe ich heute in der U-Bahn nachgedacht. Was mir dann einfiel, war so etwas wie ein fünfstufiges System. Erstens verbringe ich natürlich, wie jeder andere auch, ziemlich viel Zeit mit Lesen. Ich bin ein ziemlich langsamer Leser, der viel unterstreicht, markiert und sich immer gleich Notizen macht. Ich erinnere mich, dass einer meiner Freunde in Frankreich immer zu mir sagte: "Oh, tu as massacré tes bouquins!" In der Tat sehen viele meiner Bücher so aus, als ob sie völlig ‚massakriert' worden wären, weil ich überall Notizen und Farbcodes anbringen muss. Vor allem, wenn es ein neues Buch ist, sieht es hinterher furchtbar aus, da ich den Text sozusagen physisch durchgearbeitet habe. Die zweite Phase beginnt, wenn ich mir Notizen auf meinem Computer mache. Diese sind meistens sehr detailliert. Dabei folge ich einfach der Struktur des Textes. Wenn ich alle meine Notizen gemacht habe, versuche ich, sie neu zu ordnen und ein Argument zu entwickeln. Dabei fühlt man sich fast wie ein gedanklicher Architekt, der sich fragt: "Wie organisiere ich meine eigenen Ideen und meine eigene Argumentation?" Die Texte, mit denen ich am zufriedensten bin, folgen einer sehr einfachen Struktur von These, Antithese und Synthese. Es ist wie ein dialektischer Prozess des Lesens und Schreibens, bei dem ich zuerst herausfinden will, was die These des ursprünglichen Textes ist. Das Element der Antithese ist der Moment, in dem ich mich frage: "Was sind hier die Probleme?" Und dann gibt es in klassischer Hegel'scher Manier den Synthesemoment, wo man überlegt: "Wie kann ich über die Thesen und Differenzen hinausgehen?" Die dritte Phase ist im Grunde ein Niederschreiben (writing up). Das ist ein typisch britischer Ausdruck, bei dem man alles vor sich hat und es ‚einfach' runterschreibt. Allerdings ist die Niederschrift oft nicht so einfach, wie es zuerst scheint. Häufig merkt man erst, was man tatsächlich denkt, wenn man anfängt zu schreiben. Möglicherweise führt mich die Reise dann ganz woanders hin. Durch das writing up stößt man zum Teil auf eine ungeahnte Komplexität. Ich verstehe manchmal nicht wirklich, was ich gelesen habe, bis ich anfange, darüber zu schreiben.

The historical evolution of epistemology is not merely an academic exercise in retracing the steps of long-dead philosophers; it is an essential undertaking. The historical context in which ideas about knowledge emerged is crucial for appreciating their significance and for contextualizing contemporary debates. By examining the historical development of epistemological thought, we can gain deeper insights into how human societies have grappled with the nature of knowledge, belief, and skepticism. Moreover, understanding the past provides us with valuable tools to evaluate and constructively critique current epistemological theories.
The historical survey presented in this paper will unfold through a structured examination of significant epochs, each characterized by its own intellectual climate and unique contributions to the field of epistemology. These periods will encompass pre-philosophical notions of knowledge, the influence of ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, the role of medieval thought and religion, the epistemological transformations of the early modern period, the developments in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the contemporary debates that continue to shape epistemological inquiry. As we embark on this journey through time, we will uncover the rich tapestry of ideas and debates that have shaped our understanding of knowledge.

Immanuel Kant's political philosophy has enjoyed renewed attention as an egalitarian alternative to contemporary inequality since it seems to uncompromisingly reassert the primacy of the state over the economy, enabling it to defend the modern welfare state against encroaching neoliberal markets. However, I argue that, when understood as a free-standing approach to politics, Kant's doctrine of right shares essential features with the prevailing theories that legitimate really existing economic inequality. Like Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, Kant understands the state's function as essentially coercive and, in justifying state coercion, he adopts a narrow conception of political freedom that formally preserves the right to choose while denying that the range of choices one actually has can be a matter of justice. As a result, Kant cannot identify various forms of social pressure as potential injustices even as he recognizes their power to create and sustain troubling inequalities. For both Kant and the neoliberals, the result is that economic relations almost never count as unjust forms of coercion, no matter how unequal they are. Views that identify coercion as the trigger for duties of justice are thus particularly ill-suited to orient us to contemporary inequality.