Social and Political Thought

The main objective of this course is to understand, analyze, and critically evaluate the contemporary challenges facing political science in today's world. Issues such as the crisis of democracy, authoritarian tendencies, migration and refugee movements, global inequality, identity politics, disinformation, artificial intelligence, and digital surveillance have become central to contemporary politics. The course aims to provide students with a foundation to approach these topics from an interdisciplinary perspective, enabling them to both strengthen their theoretical knowledge and critically assess current political developments. Students will be encouraged to evaluate the social, economic, and technological dimensions of political issues, compare different perspectives, and develop critical thinking skills. Thus, the course is designed not only to promote academic knowledge production but also to foster active citizenship and a sense of social responsibility.

This article is a historical commentary on Herodotus' account of the funerals of the Spartan kings. It is an attempt on the author's part to explain why for centuries the royal funerary ritual continued unchanged despite its being too lavish for ascetic Sparta. The study focuses on the socio-economic composition of the funeral attendees. In the author's opinion, the participation of representatives of the lower classes -the helots and perioikoi -in the ceremony facilitated the evolvement of elites from both categories of the Spartan subordinate population. The funeral ceremony performed an important ideological and propaganda function serving as a unifying factor for all the social classes and indoctrinating the masses with the belief in the eternal and immutable nature of the royal authority and, by extension, of the Spartan state. Rezumat. Articolul de față reprezintă un comentariu asupra informațiilor oferite de către Herodot asupra funeraliilor regilor Spartei. Mai concret, este vorba despre o încercare a autoarei de a explica motivul pentru care ritualul funerar a a continuat să persiste sub aceeași formă, deși era mult prea lasciv raportat la ascetismul spartan. Studiul este concentrat pe coordonatele socio-economice ale participanților la astfel de ritualuri. Conform opiniei autoarei, participarea unor reprezentați ai claselor inferioare -hiloți și periioikoi -la ceremonie a facilitat dezvoltarea unor elite în rândul ambelor categorii ale populației aflate pe treptele inferioare ale societății. Ceremonialul funerar a avut o importantă funcție ideologică, servind ca liant pentru toate clasele sociale. De asemenea, acesta avea rolul de a îndoctrina masele pentru a crede în natura eternă și de neclintit ale autorității regale și, prin extensie, a statului spartan.

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.

Sahodaran Ayyappan emerged as Kerala's most radical social reformer, extending Sree Narayana Guru's teachings to their revolutionary conclusion through his slogan "Jathivenda, Mathamvenda, Daivamvenda Manushyanu" (No Caste, No Religion, No God for Man). A pioneering rationalist and humanist, Through the Sahodara Sangham and "Yuktivadi" journal, he promoted atheism, scientific thinking, and complete social equality. As a legislator in Cochin State, he advocated for temple entry rights and educational reforms. Ayyappan's uncompromising stance against all forms of social hierarchy established him as a catalyst for radical change and pioneer of rationalist thought in Kerala.

Vagbhatananda  emerged as a revolutionary intellectual leader who uniquely blended Advaita Vedanta philosophy with rationalist social reform during Kerala's Renaissance. Founding the Atmavidya Sangham in 1917, he challenged caste-based oppression and religious superstition through the principle that all souls are inherently one. His organization promoted rationalism, self-respect, and inter-caste unity while establishing schools and ashrams for marginalized communities. Through his journal "Sivayogi" and writings like "Adhyatma Yudham," he systematically critiqued orthodoxy and casteism. Vagbhatananda taught followers to question authority and seek truth through reason rather than blind faith, creating an intellectual foundation for Kerala's secular and progressive political movements.

Education has been influenced by great educators from India and West. This review examines the educational contributions of Indian educators Savitribai Phule, Swami Vivekananda, and Sri Aurobindo, as well as Western educators Maria Montessori, Paulo Freire, and Nel Noddings. Savitribai Phule, an early advocate for women's education in India, strove for inclusive education by challenging societal norms and championing the rights of marginalised communities. Swami Vivekananda championed the concept of education aimed at developing individuals, with an emphasis on character development, self-reliance, and spiritual advancement. The idea of integral education was stressed by Sri Aurobindo, who concentred on nurturing the physical, mental, and spiritual facets of a child. Maria Montessori transformed early childhood education in the West through the Montessori method, which emphasises self-directed learning. Nel Noddings, an important figure in the philosophy of care, highlighted the importance of relational learning and promoting an education system grounded in kindness and emotional health. A Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, pioneered the idea of critical pedagogy, urging students to interrogate social injustices and participate in transformative education. Their philosophies continue to shape modern education across the globe, promoting holistic learning, critical thinking, and a sense of social responsibility.

China in Later Enlightenment Political Thought examines the ideas of China in the works of mid- to late-eighteenth century European Enlightenment political thinkers.

Like its predecessor volume, China in Early Enlightenment Political Thought, this book is distinctive in providing in-depth comparative analyses of works by seminal late Enlightenment thinkers that specifically link their views on China to their political concerns. It traces the shifts between metaphysical, naturalistic, economic, technological, cultural, idealist, and materialist accounts, and philosophical histories of Chinese politics, society, and culture. It argues that, unlike earlier thinkers, most of the later Enlightenment authors assessed in this book—including Christian Wolff, Voltaire, François Quesnay, Adam Smith, contributors to the Encylopédie, Abbé Raynal, Denis Diderot, and Johann Gottfried Herder—developed conceptions of history which increasingly depicted China as unprogressive and even stagnant. Even later Enlightenment enthusiasts of China such as Voltaire were deeply ambivalent about the lessons European societies could draw from China when viewed in relation to progressive visions of world history. The book also discusses the ways in which later Enlightenment theorists who were critical of aspects of European imperialism, especially Diderot and Herder, nevertheless regarded China as backwards and despotic and concludes with the influence of Enlightenment conceptions of China on the philosophies of G.W.F. Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as Mao Zedong’s reappropriation of post-Enlightenment philosophy of history.

This book will appeal to scholars and advanced students of Chinese history, Chinese philosophy, Chinese politics, and political philosophy more generally.

Baseado na Análise de Discurso materialista e na História das Ideias Linguísticas, o artigo analisa como a Enciclopédia negra (2021) ressignifica a intelectualidade negra no Brasil, contrastando-a com obras anteriores, como o Diccionario biobiblographico brazileiro (1883-1902), que invisibilizava a negritude de sujeitos negros produtores de conhecimento. Enquanto o DBB omitia a condição negra de sujeitos expoentes ou subalternizava sujeitos negros partícipes da produção de saberes, destacando apenas intelectuais brancos e europeus (bem como seus descendentes), a Enciclopédia negra se propõe a uma recuperação e valorização de mais de 550 personalidades negras, assim supostamente combatendo o epistemicídio. Entretanto, ao comparar as biografias de dois intelectuais negros (Antenor Nascentes, cuja trajetória é narrada sem ênfase em sua negritude, e Hemetério dos Santos, cuja militância negra é central em sua representação), o artigo diagnostica que, apesar do avanço da Enciclopédia negra, ela perpetua discursos estereotipados, não destacando as barreiras estruturais do racismo.

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.

Primarily developed within political philosophy, comprehensive theories of justice are often considered abstract and transcendental for sociological, political, or economic applications and thus, often require further conceptual and analytical clarifications. This need is apparent in recognition theory, a contemporary theory of justice pioneered by Axel Honneth. In it, he underlines the importance of recognition in intersubjective and mutual relations with significant others, legal institutions, and wider society, the denial of which leads to particular forms of injustice, conceptualised as moral injuries. To overcome the functional weakness inherent in recognition theory’s relatively abstract nature, this article clarifies the distinction between its “space” and “object” of evaluation to advance its practical usefulness in assessing disadvantage. In doing so, it first examines the theory of recognition as well as the concept of moral injury and addresses issues researchers and prac...

Among pioneers of Latin American socialism, Juan Bosch (1909-2001) stands out. As a founder of Dominican democracy, a prominent member of the Caribbean Democratic Left and a prolific and internationally recognised writer and intellectual, Bosch devised theoretical solutions to the social and political problems of his time that continue to resonate in the Dominican Republic. This essay analyses the development of his political thought with particular attention to his ideas on democracy, dictatorship and imperialism. It places these ideas in the context of the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo (1891-1961), the authoritarian government of Joaquín Balaguer (1906-2002), the imperial influence of the United States and the development of the Dominican democratic party system. Nuancing conventional visions of Bosch as a die-hard democrat, the text explores how his thought on democracy evolved in the context of the Latin American anti-dictatorial struggle of the 1950s, the 1963 coup d'état that evicted him from power, the United States' 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic, his discovery of Marxism-Leninism, global movements for national liberation and the maturing of Dominican democracy in the 1980s and 1990s. In the process, the article provides one of the very first English-language analyses of Bosch's political theoretical development in intellectual and historical context.

Daniel A. Bell’s searching for possible alternatives to liberal democracy in light of the political progress in the Asian countries spans two decades, culminating in his proposal of the so-called Chinese political meritocracy or xianneng zhengzhi. This article indicates the conceptual asymmetry between xianneng zhengzhi and “meritocracy” in three aspects. Firstly, in their respective cultural traditions, xianneng zhengzhi remains at the brighter end of the spectrum of political ideas while “meritocracy” is bogged down in a highly polarized reception. Secondly, “meritocracy” lacks the quintessence of xianneng zhengzhi, namely, an explicit stress on priority of moral worthiness. Thirdly, “meritocracy” is built upon foundational individualism and focuses on the individual performance and achievement. Although Confucian political tradition and the Western conception of meritocracy share some functional similarities, using the synthesized term “Confucian meritocracy” to introduce the Confucian political tradition may commit a cross-cultural hermeneutic fallacy.

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)

Existe-t-il une réflexion sur la nature chez Karl Marx ? C’est la question que les chercheurs peuvent légitimement se poser. La pensée de Karl Marx montre que le système théorique et pratique anthropocentrique peut coexister avec celui écocentrique. Elle témoigne également de l’évolution de la « nature » dans l’acception occidentale, d’un point de vue philosophique et économique. Sans être connu pour sa thèse écologique, Marx met en évidence la manière dont l’humain s’approprie la nature afin de créer de la richesse et un système d’exploitation, ce qui a généré, au fil des siècles, de grands déséquilibres naturels. Plusieurs écrivains français contemporains, qui ne se réclament pas de la pensée marxiste, publient des romans organisés dans un dialogue interdisciplinaire et en référence aux problèmes que Marx n’a pas hésité à identifier. Les déchets, la rareté des ressources, la pollution, la diminution de la productivité des sols s’installent en raison d’une rupture métabolique entre les êtres humains et la nature (terre).

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.

At the beginning of 2025, the Fact Finders Group, which gathers Ambassadresses and Ambassadors as well as diplomatic staff in Portugal, invited Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta to give a lecture about planetary transformations, at the Palácio das Galveias in Lisbon (16th century), with reference to some of the books and texts written by the architect and composer over the last forty years. The conference, held on February 10, 2025, was produced and directed by philologist Margarida Monteiro Ruas, MA and PhD in communication sciences, founder of the Lisbon Water Museum and a leading European expert on water and culture. The Palácio das Galveias is a heritage site of the City of Lisbon and today an interesting library. The text of the lecture: Individual - The Metamorphosis of the Planet, deals with the birth of the figure of the "individual" in Classical Antiquity, its gradual and rapid dissolution in the 21st century and the impact on contemporary societies. At the time of the lecture, the president of Fact Finders was Cypriot Ambassador Despina Christodoulidou.

Scholars of the history of disciplines such as anthropology and geography have long been interested in their colonial origins and co-emergence with different imperial projects of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But what about sociology? George Steinmetz argues that it, too, emerged in the context of colonial rule. The Colonial Origins of Modern Social Thought is a comprehensive guide for anyone interested in understanding the colonial underpinnings of French sociology, the social sciences, and social thought more broadly. Steinmetz’s monumental book does more than revise histories of sociology that privilege the urban and industrialized West. It furthers a program for interdisciplinary work in the social sciences that bridges sociology and history and is bound to generate debate for years to come.

This article explicates the border as a metaphor for an English Canadian nation and for Canadian philosophy in English Canada. The concept of the nation is explicated with reference to Winthrop Pickford Bell. The role of metaphor in philosophy is justified while maintaining its distinction from literature or poetry. Key features of the concept of "border" are division, distinction, and relation. The fact that the border is open to two different interpretations testifies to its viability. Use of the border as a metaphor in philosophy and related cultural expressions suggests that it has a limited, though persisting, duration. Résumé Cet article explique la frontière comme la métaphore d'une nation canadienne-anglaise et de la philosophie canadienne au Canada anglais. J'explique le concept de nation en référence à Winthrop Pickford Bell. Le rôle de la métaphore en philosophie se justifie tout en conservant sa distinction avec la littérature ou la poésie. Les principales caractéristiques du concept de frontière sont la division, la distinction et la relation. Le fait que la frontière soit ouverte à deux interprétations différentes témoigne de sa viabilité. L'utilisation de la frontière comme métaphore dans la philosophie et les expressions culturelles associées suggère qu'elle a une durée limitée, bien que persistante.

“The Tragedy, or the Beginning of a Significant Decline...” (1600/1601): an episode in the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania social thought".
The article considers the problems of an associative life of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which were comprehended in Christopher Zianovič’s work. The author shows that Zianovič highlighted the danger of internal conflicts between magnate groups and the destruction of the peaceful coexistence of various confessions for the further development of the polity. The negative role of the Jesuit Order in inciting political intrigues was also emphasized in the work. The novelty of the study is that Tragedy is examined namely as a product of social thought. The paper’s results are important for the detailed research of the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania political discourse in the late 16th – early 17th century.

The establishment of this multilingual journal is called upon to facilitate the enhancement of International cooperation among the centers of Armenian Studies, to stimulate the multifaceted research of Armenian History and Culture, to add new focal points to the critical analysis of historical events, to counter the distortions and manipulations of the Armenian history, to discuss the methods of refuting the factors impeding further development of Armenian Studies, so as to shed a new light on the principal issues of Armenia’s history, helping to get rid of the stagnant templates and to present the truth to the scholarly circles and the public at large.

Michael Novak’s The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (1982) is considered to be an irrefutable and foundational work for the ethics of economics in our time. In a unique and original approach, Novak presents the intellectual-historical genesis of capitalist systems, which he locates decisively in certain spiritual and moral principles. This hermeneutic opens up an insight into the interplay between economy, society, religion, and politics – it is in particular able to utilize Catholic Social Teaching for the development of economically just systems. By unfolding the connections between democracy and market economy, Novak is able to illuminate the individual’s responsibility for the social and economic challenges faced by society. From a German perspective, Novak’s work is especially relevant in comparison with the German Social Market Economy system. Both approaches are based heavily on Catholic Social Teaching, yet the differences in their historical and contextual origins offer the opportunity to mutually enrich each other.

شیوه حل مسائل اجتماعی و عمومی یکی از موضوعات اولویت‌دار در حوزه پژوهش‌های کاربردی است. اگر در برخورد با مسائل اجتماعی روشی صحیح اتخاذ نشود، جامعه دچار آسیب‌های اجتماعی فراوانی خواهد شد که هنجارها و ارزش‌های اجتماعی را به خطر می‌اندازد. در مقاله پیش رو این مسئله به‌عنوان پرسشی اساسی با استناد به قرآن کریم و بر اساس نظریه سنت‌های قرآنی و با روش توصیفی تحلیلی مورد کاوش قرارگرفته است. یافته‌های پژوهش نشان می‌دهد سنت‌های الهی در قرآن کریم را می‌توان به سه دسته سنت‌های مادر، سنت‌های تابع و سنت‌های مبتنی بر رفتار انسان تقسیم کرد. انسان مؤمن در مواجهه با مسائل اجتماعی احساس می‌کند با این سه نوع سنت الهی احاطه‌شده است و باید در مسیر یافتن راه‌حل مسائل اجتماعی این سنت‌ها را به رسمیت بشناسد و سبک زندگی خود و جامعه را بر اساس این سنت‌ها سامان دهد. زندگی بر اساس سنت‌های الهی به انسان حیات دوباره‌ای می‌بخشد که بر اساس آن، از نوعی علم و قدرت برخوردار می‌شود که می‌تواند در مسیر حل مسئله اجتماعی از آن‌ها بهره جوید، درحالی‌که انسان غیر مؤمن که سنت‌های الهی را به رسمیت نمی‌شناسد از چنین معرفت و قدرتی برخوردار نیست و موفقیت‌هایش در مسیر حل مسائل اجتماعی نیز مقرون به شکست خواهد بود هرچند در بدو امر به این حقیقت آگاه نباشد. پایبندی به سنت‌های غیر مؤمنانه و غفلت از سنت‌های مؤمنانه، فرد و جامعه را در معرض سنت‌هایی مانند املا، مکر، استدراج و اضلال قرار می‌دهد که باعث می‌شود فرایند حل مسائل اجتماعی نتیجه‌بخش نباشد و جامعه به انحطاط فرهنگی و تمدنی دچار شود.

I will try to illustrate the problems which Gunther Stent and others have raised about the hang-ups in science; what we do wrong and what we miss. Striking examples have occurred in radio astronomy and in development of the maser and laser. As I've had some contact with these fields, I'll develop these ideas from a very personal point of view. That may help to provide some specific insights. Radio waves were detected in outer space by Karl Jansky, an engineer at Bell Labs who was assigned the idea of finding out from where radio noise was coming. 1 He was a good engineer and found some strange noise which, he determined with the help of astronomers, arose from the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. That was a tremendous discovery. He was very interested, and continued to work on it. Astronomers essentially did very little follow-up work, yet it was the first detection of anything at the center of our galaxy. Astronomers, who normally worked with visible light, had never seen anything there because it is surrounded by dust clouds. Obviously the first radiation detected coming from the center of the galaxy would seem highly important. I read about this when I was an undergraduate student and felt it was tremendous. And nobody could explain the source of such radiation. Another engineer, Grote Reber, built a radio telescope in his backyard to detect this radiation. 2 He commented, "Well, it sounds like waves beating on the shore." While he obviously didn't get much of the astronomy, he was making measurements and the astronomers weren't.  . Jansky . . Reber . . E. Robert Pail () has written that Oort during his lifetime "was considered by many as the greatest living astronomer of the twentieth century.

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

El artículo intenta contestar a dos preguntas centrales acerca delrol de las ciencias sociales latinoamericanas: ¿Cuáles son los principales desafíosque enfrentarán las Ciencias Sociales en nuestro continente? ¿Cuáles son las princi-pales preguntas que deberemos hacernos para contribuir al futuro de la democracia,de la paz y de la sustentabilidad en nuestras sociedades? Para ello, buscamos hacerun balance histórico y epistemológico de las ciencias sociales desde mediados delsiglo XX, sus distintos métodos y matrices teóricas. A la vez se presentan otrostemas emergentes y estrategias plurales basadas en alternativas metodológicas ynuevos compromisos éticos y políticos.

In this presentation we explore conceptions of social justice and of mathematics education for social justice (MEfSJ). We recover examples from research literature that both attempt a definition and/or link MEfSJ to a set of concerns related to gender equity, access, democracy, ethnicity, and social background. Other examples show a link between MEfSJ and notions of Critical Mathematics Education/Pedagogy. And other examples show more or less substantial challenges to, and tensions in, our attempt to conceptualize MEfSJ. Positioning ourselves in a socio-political understanding of ME, we also explore the origins of the notion of social justice in the 19th century. Finally, we attempt to articulate that historical understanding of social justice with a socio-political approach on ME, testing that articulation with some present-day concerns and research examples

This paper analyses the relationship among eco-philosophy, praxis, and the deconstruction of anthropocentrism in Powers' (2019) The Overstory, utilizing the theoretical framework of Deep Ecology as advanced by Arne Naess (1989). Powers' work challenges the prevailing anthropocentric perspective, presenting an eco-realm in which trees and ecosystems serve as primary protagonists, questioning the hierarchical distinction between humans and nature. This study, informed by Naess's concepts of Deep Ecology, such as intrinsic value, ecological self-realization, and biocentric equality, examines how The Overstory (2019) promotes a transition from anthropocentric ethics to a life-centered environmental ethos. The study examines the praxis derived from Power's narrative, highlighting the novel's advocacy for environmental action, shared responsibility, and a redefinition of humanity's position within the biosphere. It emphasizes the metamorphic capacity of the story in cultivating ecological awareness, suggesting that the novel acts as a medium for reevaluating, redefining ecological ethics, and prompting action against environmental degradation. This study argues that by integrating Naess's (1989) theoretical framework with literary analysis, the novel challenges anthropocentrism while proposing a realistic approach to biocentric life, encouraging readers to adopt ecological interdependence and activism. Integrating the ecophilosophy of deep ecology and practice highlights the novel's importance in contemporary environmental discourse.

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.

The existential crises humanity faces are primarily crises of ethics. To solve them, I argue, it is therefore to philosophers that we need to turn and not scientists and engineers. But many philosophers throughout history have been part of the problem of the degeneration of ethics. In this paper I will introduce a new approach in ethics to help solve our ethical crises and regenerate ethics, ecopoiesis, created by process philosopher, Arran Gare. Ecopoiesis refers to the processes of home creation. Its roots are in process philosophy and radical ecology, fields which better understand the real complexities of reality. I model the regenerative ethics of ecopoiesis on the regenerative farming movement using the microbiome as an example of how it works.

¿Cómo empezaste a interesarte por la sociología? -Mi iniciación a la sociología tuvo algo de revelación personal, como sucede a veces en los años mozos, cuando uno busca sin saber precisamente qué. La ocasión, si bien no la causa, fue un encuentro fortuito con un libro que, sin cautivarme demasiado, me dio a entender que existía un universo de ideas que requería toda mi atención. Era un ejemplar, en apariencia de segunda mano, hallado en una librería de viejo, de las que había y hay en la calle Aribau de Barcelona: el estudio de Hans Freyer La sociología, ciencia de la realidad. Lo había traducido del alemán don Francisco Ayala en Buenos Aires, en 1944. Pero algún otro libro, muy distinto en su enfoque, podría haber tenido un efecto parejo en mi ánimo. A la sazón, estudiaba en la Facultad de Derecho, a desgana, mientras conspiraba con tanto ahínco como poca fortuna contra las fuerzas del mal que tenían a nuestro país atenazado. Hubo allí un profesor, de fascista obediencia, que ya nos había hablado de la disciplina, en el marco de otra, la llamada de Derecho Político, pero que me dejó indiferente. (Solía decir, entre otras lindezas, que la sociología era una ciencia que estudiaba las élites selectas que regían los destinos de las naciones. Sólo recuerdo que se llamaba Sánchez y que hablaba el castellano con espectacular dificultad, a pesar del apellido y su militancia política.) El encuentro con la sociología sólo podía haber sido libresco: no había entonces cursos que enseñaran la disciplina. Por otro lado, y pese a lo que dice Weber sobre la vocación, lo cierto es que en sus inicios, ésta depende mucho de los recursos con los que se encuentre una persona en su propio itinerario. Se puede llegar a ser muy buen sociólogo sin necesidad de entusiastas descubrimientos privados, sencillamente porque el aprendiz tenga una Universidad a mano que le enseñe bien el oficio. A mí el encuentro me proporcionó un núcleo de atención, una perspectiva para mi dispersa men-

MEHMED ZİYÂ GÖKALP (1876-1924) "Abdu'l-Hamid'in Taht'a Culus ettiği Yıl Diyarbakır'da Tewfiq Efendi'nin Mehmet Ziyâ Adı'nı verdiği Oğlu.. Dayı'sı Diyarbakır'ın Kürt Belediye Başkan'ı.. "Batı'nın Ziyâ'sı" mı, "Doğu'nun Nûr'u" mu? Yorgi Efendi'nin karıştırdığı Kafası'na Kurşun sıktığında daha 18 inde.. Tabib'i midir, Cellad'ı mıdır Abdu'llâh Cewdet... "Ziyâ"da Qarar Kılmasını sağlayan Hayatı'na girmiş bir İttihatçı Fulan.... İstanbul'da Türklüğü keşfeden bir Alp, Durkheim'de Toplumsal Din'i Keşfeden bir Göklü... Ziya Gökalp'i konuşuyoruz. sa.18.30"

The Philosophy of Integral Education was envisaged by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo was born in Kolkata on 15 August 1972. He went to Pondicherry in 1910 in search of solutions to world problems to uplift humanity to the next level of consciousness. The Mother was born in France on 21 February 1878 and was named Mirra Alfassa by her parents. She came to India in 1920 and never returned and became a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo.  Here is the explanation given by The Mother on the meaning of Integral Education. “Education to be complete must have five principal aspects corresponding to the five principal activities of the human being: the physical, the vital (emotional), the mental, the psychic (innermost being) and the spiritual. Usually, these phases of education follow chronologically the growth of the individual; this, however, does not mean that one of them should replace another, but that all must continue, completing one another until the end of his life” (Mother, The, 1978).

The notions of "concepts of the political" and that of "political concepts" refer to different but intertwined phenomena. As I will argue in this article, the concepts of the political refer to the selfinstitution of societies, while political concepts are those that emerge in the realm of politics, a field some societies institute as precisely the site in which the reversibility of the political takes place. This article will argue that the concepts of the political and the political concepts coming out of South America in its contemporary history spring from the main events and processes-the political and social history-that dominated the period. The events and concepts first discussed will be those related to the conquest and its legacy, only to later move fully to the past fifty years of dictatorships, transitions to democracy, and the emergence of the neopopulist political form.

In this paper, we, members of a dharmic* scholars collective, share the out-comes of our discussions over the last three years centered on the question:what shifts in research and practice are necessary to enable higher educationto address the concerns of dharmic* (Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, and Hindu) studentsin the US? Topics we have focused on in our discussions relate to (1) thepervasiveness of Christian hegemony, normativity, and privilege in US highereducation that leads to a general misunderstanding of dharmic* traditions andthe students from them; (2) systemic and institutionalized challenges to affect-ing change; and (3) racial, ethnic, and political tensions that shape the experi-ences and concerns of dharmic* students. In the end, we describe our hopesfor the future and invite others – dharmic* scholar-practitioners and aspiringallies alike – to join us in working toward greater understanding, appreciation,and care for dharmic* and all religiously minoritized students.

This is the central question that Jürgen Habermas asks himself and us throughout his magnum opus. The two volumes with over 1,700 pages are the summum of his life's work and seventy years of engagement with philosophy and society. It is a kind of self-assurance and can certainly be seen as his intellectual and moral testament, making it essential reading for Habermasians and others interested in Habermas' legacy. After ten years of endeavour, he gave himself this gift on his 90 th birthday. But the question arises as to who takes on 1,700 pages of reading these days. Who reads this on a tablet or smartphone? But after just a few weeks, the third edition has already been published-although the publisher is not revealing anything about the number of copies. 2 Translation rights have already been sold in seven languages, including Chinese, so a global debate is predictable and desirable. The questions that occupy Habermas are obviously fuelled by his own interest in knowledge and thus by the question of meaning in his own life. So who is the addressee of this opus? I think first and foremost the author himself. 3 Given the length of the book, one might be tempted to read only the interim observations and the postscript. That would be a pity, because it is well worth the tedious, exhausting retracing of the argumentation, as it provides many new insights and food for thought. "I do n'ot want to conceal one of the motives that also led me in my retirement to the otiose and quite protracted preoccupation with the history of philosophy. It was simply the pleasure in finally getting to read the many important texts I had previously neglected, and rereading many other texts I had already consumed so often in different contexts-but this 1 Published as 'Was ist ein nichtverfehltes Leben? Zu Jürgen Habermas, Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie',

One of the legacies of Western philosophical thought has been its evolution through movements and slogans such as modernism, postmodernism, existentialism and analyticism. These popular intellectual standpoints have contributed to making Western culture more dialogical and progressive. However, in contrast, exploration of socio-philosophical movements within the Indian philosophical tradition, except for ancient times, remains relatively uncharted territory. Acknowledging this variance, the present article investigates the evolution of contemporary Indian philosophy during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines the core unifying principle that bound together eminent figures such as Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, K. C. Bhattacharyya and numerous others of their category, all classified as Neo-Vedantists. Precisely, the philosophy or movement under scrutiny is Swaraj, illuminated through the lens of Neo-Vedanta, presenting a distinctive perspective on human values and change.