Topic of the issue: PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY (https://doi.org/10.58945/EPAM1823)
Issue editors: Valeri Lichev
CONTENTS & Abstracts & Keywords & Authors in the issue
THINKING AND METAPHYSICS
Heidegger’s Political Anthropology
https://doi.org/10.58945/YENK3962
Abstract: The article is an in-depth review of the origin and development of Martin Heidegger's philosophical ideas with a main emphasis on his political anthropology. The basic concepts of Heidegger's philosophical system, as well as the social and political conditions of their formation and change, are examined in detail. In the text, lines are devoted both to the influence of Heidegger's philosophy and to the evaluations of it by the philosopher's contemporaries and later researchers. The idea that the story of Heidegger's life cannot be separated from his thinking is successfully defended, especially since his political ideas or delusions have a concrete origin in the social and conceptual processes of Europe in the middle of the 20th century.
Keywords: Martin Heidegger; being; phenomenology; anthropology; ideology; hermeneutics; politics; history of philosophy; political philosophy
PHILOSOPHY, MORALITY, ECONOMICS
Digital Nomads: Philosophical-Economic Discourses
https://doi.org/10.58945/XMPT4722
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine some tax challenges faced by digital nomads. Structurally, it is divided into four parts and a conclusion. The first part is an introduction to the issues, outlining some general and specific features of digital nomadism. The second part briefly reviews the international taxation of digital nomads. The third part examines the measures taken in some countries on this matter. The fourth part draws recommendations through the prism of Bulgarian tax law. The authors are of the opinion that digital nomadism is gradually becoming the preferred lifestyle of more and more people around the world. This determines the necessity of improving legislative measures, including in Bulgaria.
Keywords: digital nomad; tax incentives; DTT
Dimitar Stankov (Prof. Ph.D. at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), Sofia)
Conscience and its Moral Dimensions
https://doi.org/10.58945/IWDR5468
Abstract: This article is intended as an essay about consciousness. The logic of morality leads humans to turn to their deepest essence, which is consciousness, as the highest faculty of human reason. Consciousness gives humans their intransitive value as the only moral beings gifted with mind, intellect, and reason, heart and soul, free will, faith, and love. Conscience is our personal god, our inner person/"homo interior", demon, oracle, and judge.
Keywords: conscience; mind; reason; moral being; free will; faith; love; personal god; demon; oracle; judge
AFRICAN CULTURE AND PHILOSOPHY
‘Ubuntu’ African Philosophy or ‘Ubuntu’ as a Philosophy for Africa
https://doi.org/10.58945/UYHB1683
Abstract: This paper tries to develop a tenable philosophical idea of Ubuntu, that is, more specifically, a crystallized and sanitized African indigenous ethical perspective. Africa as an idea seems to be a “contested” concept in this contemporary post-colonial era due to the influx of different nuances, races, values, and beliefs that are in contention. Should this be a source of worry? So far, Ubuntu theory and practice in Africa seem to have become emotive, politicized, and not inclusive enough due to grandstanding about ownership, poor conceptual and theoretical articulation, as well as antagonism from other related foreign dominant worldviews that wish to become the development paradigm for most African social and political systems. This raises relational and dialogical issues about meaning from an African viewpoint. The search for an African endogenous paradigm for development is urgent given the real consequences of a (neo)colonial tendency that has threatened and disadvantaged the development of most countries due to its dominant paradigms of alienation, exploitation, and marginalization. These values have altered or affected African behaviour and thinking. This transformation of the African personality raises issues about agency. The underlying values of a development paradigm or philosophy of development for Africa require an ethical basis for human existence in political and social order. Generally, social order in most parts of Africa is beset by the problem of a negative dominant social paradigm (DSP) or core social values of hatred, intolerance, the abuse of human rights, dehumanization, exploitation, authoritarianism, poverty, and oppression. This often leads to tension, violent conflicts, and wars. So to build a viable and stable endogenous paradigm for development in most African sociopolitical environments, we attempt to use the main pillar of interconnectedness among human beings, which is central to Ubuntu as a humane and humanistic social system, to underscore some key moral and democratic values required for human liberation and transformation. The research question is: What concrete elements or values of Ubuntu can be useful as paradigms of endogenous African development? Specifically, our findings suggest that Ubuntu ethics is defined by a set of human values central among which are reciprocity, the common good, peaceful relations, an emphasis on human dignity and the value of human life, as well as consensus, tolerance, and mutual respect. Thus, the paper argues for the possibility of utilizing Ubuntu ethical correlates as materials for establishing stable and viable development worldwide and specifically in Africa.
Keywords: Ubuntu; ethics; communalism; community; human person; human dignity; moral values
PHILOSOPHICAL OPTICS
Time Attitude as a Cultural Norm
https://doi.org/10.58945/YWQP7869
Abstract: The attitude toward time is seen as a cultural norm that is essential for the harmonization of intercultural communications. A philosophical-anthropological study of the perception of time is provided here. Different types of time are considered. The constructs of time perspective and cultural intelligence are introduced. It is being discussed whether "slow" is a Bulgarian cultural norm, i.e., whether "Despacito" is the national anthem of Bulgaria, according to the Siri app – the errors propagated by the computer programs going around the world should be refuted. As a way to achieve this, in the article, a systematic philosophical and analytical review of the concepts of relation to time is presented. Specifics related to the concepts of mental models, cultural intelligence, and cultural clusters are proposed. They can be helpful in understanding cultural differences and communicating more effectively.
Keywords: time attitude; time perspective; types of time; M-time; P-time; mental models; cultural intelligence
Nikola Ginev (Doctoral student at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”)
Utopia and Myth in the Philosophical Prisms of Benjamin and Adorno
https://doi.org/10.58945/WAQS7439
Abstract: This paper examines the dialectical relationship between myth and utopia, fantasy and reason. The text presents 'interpretive keys' that enable historical consciousness to interpret the past and critically decipher glimpses of utopia in the traces of the present. The presented theoretical models are primarily those of the Frankfurt School philosophers Benjamin and Adorno, who base their positions on Hegel’s philosophy.
Keywords: myth; utopia; allegory; Hegel; Benjamin; Adorno
NEW BOOKS
On the New Book by Prof. Dobrin Todorov on Techno-Scientific “World Views”
https://doi.org/10.58945/JWER4023
Liliya Sazonova (Ch. assistant doctor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, BAS)
A Guide to Philosophical Literacy
https://doi.org/10.58945/QDUO9130