Philosophical Alternatives 3/2025

Kaloyan Damyanov (Chief Assistant Professor, PhD at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)
The Ethics of Difference and the Philosophical Foundations of Inclusive Education
https://doi.org/10.58945/MPNW4294
Abstract: The evolving understanding of differences within educational frameworks has profound ethical implications, particularly in the context of social justice and inclusion. This article examines difference not merely as an attribute but as a fundamental ethical and ontological category rooted in the philosophical works of Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, and Gilles Deleuze. By critically analysing normative structures in inclusive education, this study challenges integration strategies that often lead to assimilation and control rather than the genuine recognition of diversity. In this context, poststructuralist, posthumanist, and critical pedagogical approaches have been explored as transformative perspectives on inclusive education, positioning it as a dynamic space for diversity. Additionally, the article examines the relationship between Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and person-centred education, questioning whether these frameworks truly uphold the principles of social justice or perpetuate existing educational inequalities. Through this ethical and philosophicallens, this study proposes a reimagining of inclusive education as a transformative process that values difference as a core component of the educational system.
Keywords: inclusive education; ethics of difference; social justice; Universal Design for Learning (UDL); poststructuralism; person-centered education

Nikolay Alexandrov (Doctor of Philosophy of Law and Politics, PhD in Journalism at the University of Veliko Tarnovo “St. St. Cyril and Methodius”)
History and Historicism in the Social Philosophy of Karl Popper
https://doi.org/10.58945/LVLU3586
Abstract: This article is devoted to the socio-philosophical teachings of Karl Popper, presented in the books “The Poverty of Historicism” and “The Open Society and its Enemies” in the context of the neoliberal doctrine and in comparison with the teachings of Ludwig Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Henri Bergson. The text examines not only the features of Popper's “staged social engineering,” but also his views on history and historicism in the socio-philosophical models of Plato, Hegel, and Marx, as well as the negation of the dialectical method of knowledge as the only possible one in the analysis of historical development. Also discussed here is Karl Popper's concept of the type, role, and meaning of governmental institutions, which he classified into democratic and non-democratic.
Keywords: historicism; Historicism; social engineering; Rationalism; democracy; society

Mina Petrova (Senior Lecturer in Latin at Medical University, Sofia)
Clinical Insomnia in the Ancient Tradition of
Scholarly Melancholy: The Case of the Lucubrating Intellectual
https://doi.org/10.58945/YIOZ7731
Abstract: The stereotypе portrait of the intellectual in ancient literature represents a stock-figure of a scholar, physically exhausted and mentally absorbed in his passionate pursuit of knowledge. Cicero associates the progress in the philosophical disciplines with a ceaseless intellectual agitation, exemplified in his portrayal of the insomniac Demosthenes (Cic. Tusc. 4.44). Phenomena such as sleeplessness and mental restlessness are equally related to the ancient physiological concept of insomnia in its aspect of a somatic response. Such connotations are already present in the popular ancient stereotype of the melancholic genius, which could be reconstructed from the pseudo-Aristotelian Problems. Ancient medical literature, in turn, frequently correlates the insomniac state to the melancholic spectrum of diseases, underlining the same relationship between sleepless patients and their excessive intellectual stimulation. The present study seeks to establish the correspondences between theliterary portrayal of insomniac scholars and clinical insomnia as a typical symptom of the ancient medical notion of melancholy.
Keywords: ancient medicine; insomnia; scholarly melancholy; lucubration; night; literature

Anastasia Delcheva (Teacher at Medical University, Sofia)
The Doctor, the Philosopher and the Charlatan in Lucian’s Dialogue “The Lover of Lies”
https://doi.org/10.58945/CCKN7240
Abstract: While today the connection between philosophy and medicine needs argumentation, in antiquity they were inherently connected. This study shows how an ancient author can enrich contemporary perceptions of the relationship between them. In his satirical dialogue “The Lover of Lies” (Philopseudes), Lucian presents the figures of the philosopher and the doctor, but also their inverted image – the charlatan. The article explores their main characteristics and the literary devices employed to depict them. The analysis shows that it is not doctors and philosophers who are the object of criticism in the text, but the distorted version of them in the character ofthe pseudo-scholar and the fraudster. Lucian offers a remedy for ignorance and superstition – sound reason and rational knowledge.
Keywords: ancient literature; philosophy and medicine; Lucian; satire

Kyriaki Grammenou (Post-doctoral researcher at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece)
Philosophy and Physical Pain: A Threshold Between Theology and Science
https://doi.org/10.58945/NCXZ7476
Abstract: Over the last couple of decades, life sciences seem to be gaining ground on other scientific fields. Nevertheless, in a historical circumstance when medicine is more esteemed than ever before, pain dominates people’s lives. Therefore, it is quite surprising that the philosophical study of physical pain tends to remain relatively uncharted. Despite pain’s increasing significance, the philosophy of pain has yet to be established as an autonomous field of study. Although philosophy traditionally deals with the concept of mental suffering, it usually remains indifferent to the question of physical suffering. While taking into account the findings and working hypotheses of neuroscience, this paper explores the social character of the body and its pains, as well as compares modern pain to the traditional art(s) of suffering. My aim is to show that philosophy’s indifference towards bodily pain is significant for two reasons: first, because it reveals the heavy theological burden that still regulates philosophical thought today. Second, because the recent emergence of the concept of bodily pain in philosophical studies marks a radical paradigm shift for philosophy in general.
Keywords: pain; neurophilosophy; philosophy of medicine; transhumanism; scientism

Petar Dimkov (Dr. at Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
Introduction to the Philosophy of Karl Jaspers: A “Phenomenological” Analysis of the Existential-Metaphysical Notions of Reason, Existenz and All-Encompassing
https://doi.org/10.58945/ROXC4392
Abstract: Karl Jaspers is one of the greatest German thinkers of the 20th century. Jaspers and Martin Heidegger are notably known as the two fathers of German existentialism.
There is not a single basic topic of philosophy as philosophia perennis that was not a subject of Jaspers’ titanic scholarly endeavors. Unfortunately, in Bulgaria even today Jaspers remains completely unknown and his name is forgotten. Jaspers as a psychiatrist, as well as an existentialist, was a subject of research of two Bulgarian professors in psychiatry – Prof. L. Ivanova and Prof. V. Ivanov. Six books by Jaspers are currently translated into Bulgarian, but to date his two major philosophical oeuvres – “Philosophie” (1932) and “Von der Vahrheit” (1947) – which contain the very essence of Jaspersian philosophy, remain untranslated. To my knowledge, there are no substantial academic publications on Jaspers in Bulgarian. There are not many authors discussing Jaspers’ philosophy in both English and German literature. Jaspersian existential philosophy, or Existenzphilosophie (Existenz as the metaphysical “soul”),underwent two metamorphoses, namely: 1) the philosophy of the Encompassing and 2) the philosophy of Reason, respectively; their base, however, is one and the same – the dynamic of the life of Existenz, which is kept in incessant spiral dialectical motion by Reason via the following “means”: expression of the inexpressible, translation of the untranslatable, manifestation of the unmanifestable, and conceiving of the inconceivable, respectively. Each of these paradoxical word combinations is identical and Jaspers has a special term for them, namely “existential” or “metaphysical.” Man is able, based on the basic philosophical operation of “transcending,” by solely standing on the limit of the possible, to ascertain himself of the existential, but he could never cognize it as an object in the world. In the current paper, my goal is to present an introduction to Jaspersian philosophy, summarized and accessible to the Bulgarian reader. To this end, a selection of three basic concepts that structurally and functionally represent this philosophy was performed, namely: “Reason”,“Existenz,” and “Encompassing/Transcendence.“
Keywords: Karl Jaspers; existentialism; metaphysics; existential-metaphysical; Reason; Existenz; Encompassing/Trancendence

Monika Panayotova (Senior Assistant Professor, PhD at the University of National and World Economy)
The EU's Ability to Manage Complex Digital Change in the Face of Global Technological Risks
https://doi.org/10.58945/SHVC6255
Abstract: This publication aims to focus readers' attention on the European Union's ability to manage complex digital change in the face of technological risks and an increasingly complex communication and information environment, in which a 'cognitive battlefield,' a 'battle over narrative and who gets to be the bearer of truth,' and the threat of technofeudalism are emerging. Through the Managing Complex Change Model, copyrighted in 1987 by Dr. Mary Lippitt, the publication explores whether the EU has the vision, skills, incentives, resources, and action plan to make effective digital transformation happen. It concludes with recommendations on how the five components of the model could be complemented to achieve a sustainable digital transformation in the EU, in a way that the Union could become a technological power, in addition to a normative one, possessing a European social network platform, the necessary infrastructure and equipment for AI, able to retain its talents and attract new ones, as well as creating a kind of new social contract for its citizens in a digital environment.
Keywords: social network platforms; digital transformation; cognitive superiority; cognitive warfare; technofeudalism; EU

Ani Dimitrova (PhD in Political Philosophy and Master of Economics, part-time lecturer at the University of National and World Economy)
European Integration of the Western Balkans: Social and Political Risks to the Democratic Process
https://doi.org/10.58945/IAAV4244
Abstract: The enlargement of the European Union is considered one of the Union's most successful policies,recognizing that it is a process of mutual benefit for both the EU and the acceding countries. A key player in thisprocess are the countries of the Western Balkans. The European perspective is a driver for reforms and isessential for promoting peace. This is probably why the EU is the largest investor and trading partner in the Western Balkans. It is precisely because of the enormous desire of the political class and the societies in thesecountries that the lack of a clear European perspective in certain periods becomes a cause of political instabilityand caretaker governments, such as in the Republic of North Macedonia. The article
examines the processes andprogress of the Western Balkan countries on their path to the EU and the partnership from the EU side in supportof this process and the effect for Europe of its entire implementation.
Keywords: enlargement; European Union; Western Balkans; reforms

Olanipekun Olusola Victor (Assistant Professor, PhD at the Department of Philosophy, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria)
Philosophical Reflections on the United Nations’ Universal Standard for GoodGovernance
https://doi.org/10.58945/KDAK3441
Abstract: One of the fundamental challenges to the question of good governance consists basically in whatare generally considered to be the major elements or main components of good governance. This is evident in theproblems that surround the conception of the concept. According to the United Nations and its agencies, “goodgovernance is participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient,equitable and inclusive, and follows the rule of law.” Consequently, the problem of good governance seems tohave become a problem exclusively for the public office holders, politicians, public administrators, lawyers,political scientists, Transparency International, and other associated bodies. However, this paper argues that thequestion “What is good governance?” is not primarily a political or economic question. It contends that thequestion is primarily a philosophical question that could be best clarified by investigating the defining features ofthe concept. It emphasizes the need for philosophers to be involved as part of the leading voices in thedebate/discourse about good governance because the word “good” is a value-laden concept that carries aninherent sense of judgement. Also, the paper critically assesses the central elements and the main indices of goodgovernance. It
also examines the nexus between good governance and democracy as well as the implication ofPlato and Aristotle’s critical comments on the latter. Finally, the paper concludes by examining whether theUnited Nations’ global standard for good governance is really universal or relative.
Keywords: Democracy; Good Governance; Moral Philosophy; Politics; United Nations