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INFORMATION ABOUT THE ISSUE:

The date of the publication:
2015-07-05
The number of pages:
43
The issue:
4:1
Commentaries:
0
The Authors
Vincenzo Alfano, Katarzyna Barska, Konrad Szocik, Daniel J. Lasker, Tudor Petcu, Michael Inwood,

4:1:

State and Mafia, Differences and Similarities

The Author: Vincenzo Alfano,
The purpose of this article is to investigate about the differences and, if any, the similarities among the modern State and the mafia criminal organizations. In particular, starting from their definitions, I will try to find the differences between State and mafia, to then focus on the operational aspects of the functioning of these two organizations, with specific reference to the effect/impact that both these human constructs have on citizens` existences, and especially on citizen`s economic lives. All this in order to understand whether it is possible to identify an objective difference – beside morals – between taxation by the modern State and extortion by criminal organizations. With this of course I do not want to argue that the mafia is in any way justifiable or absolvable, nor that it is better than the State. However, I want to investigate whether there is a real, logical reason why the State should be considered by the citizens more desirable than the criminal organizations oppressing Southern Italy, from a strictly logical point of view and not from the point of view of ethics and morality.

Theory of the Whole and the Part – Ontological Perspective (E. Husserl, R. Ingarden)

The Author: Katarzyna Barska,
The purpose of the paper is demonstrate the thesis that Ingarden`s ontological system allows a better understanding of the “part-whole” problem then previous theories. Especially, if we take into account the existential ontology of Ingarden, which refers to Husserl “part-whole” theory, we can see that development of terms made by Ingarden sheds new light on old problems. In this context, particularly important is to distinguish between two existential moments: contingancy/inseparatness, because thanks to them we can talk about many different types of relationships and hence many types of objects.

Research Approaches in the Study of Religion

The Author: Konrad Szocik,
Despite development of secular ideas and concepts in the Western world, we can observe increasing interest in the study of religion. However, this popularity of the study of religion and different research approaches has caused that in some sense scholars that were studying religion came to a dead point. Here I show that the most optimal research approach in the study of religion is pluralistic, integral paradigm which connects old traditional methods with naturalistic, cognitive and sometimes experimental approach.

The Necessity of the Dialogue Between Judaism and Christianity

The interview given by Daniel J. Lasker, the Norbert Blechner Professor of Jewish Values in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Beer Sheva, Israel

The Importance of the Philosophy in our Days

The interview given by Michael Inwood who was a Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Trinity College, Oxford from 1967 until 2011. He is now an Emeritus Fellow of the College and lives in Oxford.