Nöel Carroll has been one of the most eloquent proponents of an anti-essentialist view of art, in particular, of cinema. He seems to think that Stanley Cavell holds an essentialist view of film, put forward in his foundational work, The World Viewed, and developed in later essays and books. While Carroll admires Cavell’s philosophical readings of…[Read more]

In the ten years following the publication of the infamous Reports on the State of Education in Wales (1847) that had classified the Welsh population as a vice-ridden nation of working-class drunkards and promiscuous hoydens, the middle-classes in Wales strongly rejected this Anglo-centric condemnation at first in the press and, later on, in…[Read more]

In this essay, I shall examine VR technology so as to ascertain the kind of human-technology relations therein. This will be done using the framework provided by Don Ihde and Peter-Paul Verbeek (who are currently seen as postphenomenologists). My choice of VR technology, as an instantiation of technological advancement, is due to its impact on…[Read more]

In this essay, I examined the idea of ‘technological revolution’ to confirm whether it connotes a sort of incorporation of existing technologies as new ones emerges or whether it portrays a ‘sharp discontinuity’ from the prior technologies. I began by exploring the dictionary definitions of ‘revolution’ in order to appropriate its usage in re…[Read more]

During comparative discourse, some scholars have ridiculed African indigenous concepts, phenomena, beliefs, and worldview in a forceful attempt to allow it to fit into western framework and to avoid the charge of irrationality. It is against this background this essay attempt to establish the basis for the rationality of discourse within the…[Read more]

This essay focuses on Patricia Churchland contribution to this interdisciplinary approach towards gaining a holistic understanding of our human nature and realities surrounding us, with specific reference to the perceived framework needed for the development of a unified theory of the mind-brain. A critical engagement with Churchland’s ideas s…[Read more]

Philip Kitcher is one of the most influential philosophers of science of the past two decades. In “The Advancement of Science (1993)”, he endeavor to probe the notions of progress and rationality in science. His position, in line with his teacher, Thomas Kuhn, was a critique of what he called ‘a legendary view of science’. Thus, he gave new int…[Read more]

This paper is a critical appraisal of Karl Marx’s theory of historical materialism and a deployment of its emphasis on economic factor in addressing Nigeria’s socio-economic situation. As we applaud Marx’s materialistic approach to history as an account that is rich enough to promote contextual understanding of past events in various part of the w…[Read more]

In an article that exposes the roots of Brexit-era Germanophobia, Rita Singer details how Welsh press coverage and poetry about U-Boat attacks on Welsh ships evolved into racialised depictions of German U-Boat combatants as ‘Huns’, monsters, ghouls and Satanic fiends

“Ideology” has fallen out of favor as a term of art. Terms like “equity,” “bias,” “gap,” “discourse,” “norm,” various “isms,” “consciousness,” “experience,” and “policy” tend to appear in scholarly and mainstream education dialogue when it comes to social-political practices. Yet the term is important both historically and for the present day. A…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: Algunas reflexiones sobre (auto)engaño e ideología por vía de un comentario sobre el libro Ideología de Teun A. van Dijk. Los poderosos engañan. Creen tener un acceso privilegiado a la realidad, y utilizan esa perspectiva dominante (‘topsight’) para dominar. Con frecuencia para dominar engañando. Pero también se engañ…[Read more]

This paper was presented as part of an online symposium titled “Research as a Radical Act of Creativity” organized by the School of Arts, Design and Architecture at Aalto University. As a response to “radical creativity” – one of the current cross-cutting, strategic themes of Aalto University – the paper addresses the need to learn from dec…[Read more]

Over the last four decades of the 18th century, the image of Sparta began to include a few characteristic elements that later became an important point of reference for 19th-century writers, philosophers and historians. Issues of Spartan equality of citizens, fully responsible for their country, and also soldierly honour and Sparta’s military c…[Read more]

Over the last four decades of the 18th century, the image of Sparta began to include a few characteristic elements that later became an important point of reference for 19th-century writers, philosophers and historians. Issues of Spartan equality of citizens, fully responsible for their country, and also soldierly honour and Sparta’s military c…[Read more]

Friedrich Nietzsche was among the figures from the history of nineteenth-century philosophy that, perhaps surprisingly, some of the Vienna Circle’s members had presented as one of their predecessors. While, primarily for political reasons, most Anglophone figures in the history of analytic philosophy had taken a dim view of Nietzsche, the Vienna C…[Read more]

Is ethics innate to human nature? In Ethical Life Webb Keane tries to answer this question on the basis of empirical research. He attempts this through an analysis of natural and social histories—that is, the analyses of naturalistic research like “neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, developmental psychology, and biological ant…[Read more]

Az orosz történetírásban hagyományosan szmutá-nak, “zavaros időszaknak” nevezett évtizedek három legmarkánsabb, művészi szempontból a legerőteljesebb feldolgozásának mindegyike különböző szemléletet és műfajt képvisel, ám egy dologban egyek: a kérdéses időszak adekvát elbeszélésére illetőleg megjelenítésére Borisz Godunov cár uralkodói pályáj…[Read more]

English abstract: A paper arguing the relevance of a cognitive narratological perspective and a retrospective stance attentive to hindsight bias in order to clarify the debate on racial differences and population diversity in biology. The issue is discussed with reference to the dichotomy between ‘lumpers’ and ‘splitters’ in paleoanthropology as…[Read more]

English abstract: A paper arguing the relevance of a cognitive narratological perspective and a retrospective stance attentive to hindsight bias in order to clarify the debate on racial differences and population diversity in biology. The issue is discussed with reference to the dichotomy between ‘lumpers’ and ‘splitters’ in paleoanthropology as…[Read more]

España tiene una relación traumática con su guerra civil. Del franquismo ni hablamos: es para el discurso oficial del régimen político actual la personificación abyecta del mal, y esa versión oficial es defendida por el actual gobierno izquierdista como la única verdadera y aspira a ser impuesta como la única autorizada. En 2020, y con Franco y…[Read more]