University of Arts in Belgrade
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Why narcissists are morally responsible
No full textThe paper is a response to commentaries by Ronald W. Pies and Lydia Amir to the initial papere entitled "Narcissism as a moral incompetence". It focuses on the irreducible moral responsibility of narcissists for their choices given that, like everybody else, they are accountable for their own self-development to the extent that they are able to influence it. Some of the responses (including, importantly, arguments by Pies) questioned the assumption that narcissists can influence their own self-development on account of possible heredity in the development of narcissistic traits. This paper is a response to that critique
Joseph Agassi and the various guises of magic
No full textThe paper discusses the various conceptions of magic, with a focus on Joseph Agassi's view that magic is a type of pre-scientific or pre-rational belief that, while it may be true, is still not knowledge. I argue in the paper that magic can also be a post-knowledge type of cognition, based on bodily and intuitive processes, whose truthfulness, usefulness and relevance do not fall behind scientific knowledge, especially in fields such as psychotherapy and religion.Tekst nije open access i ne moze da se uploaduje bez pretplate
Holocaust Industry? The (American) Debate on the Instrumentalization of the Shoah at the Turn of the Century
No full textТема рада је историјска дебата око феномена тзв. индустрије Холокауста. У основи ове дебате налазе се питања „централности", јединствености, универзализације, американизације и инструментализације Шое. Након горуће јавне контроверзе, последично уништених каријера и политичког збијања редова, та питања остала су да лебде као претећи означитељи Zeitgeista савремене културе сећања, као отворена прича о етичности репрезентације Холокауста.In three books published at the turn of the millennium, the authors talk about the phenomenon of the pronounced presence and significance of the Holocaust in American society: Hilene Flanzbaum’s Americanization of the Holocaust (1999), Peter Novick’s Holocaust in American Life (1999) and Norman Finkelstein’s The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (2000). These works describe (and criticize) the post-Holocaust memorial world which is characterized by the commodification, commercialization and instrumentalization of the culture of remembrance. Even though each of these authors invoked/understood the term differently, the effect of their works was the introduction of the term „Holocaust industry“ into the public discourse. Today, it has has become an umbrella metaphor for a whole range of practices that represent the instrumentalization, commercialization and commodification of Holocaust remembrance. The paper deals with the process of (politicaleconomic) instrumentalization of the Holocaust, its normalization, naturalization, normativization and mechanization – in Western societies – and criticism of that process. The aim of the paper is to shed light on what is meant by the Holocaust industry and to open space for further reflection and problematization of the Holocaust discourse in the light of the warning that its current commodification and industrialization sends us
Architecture and Philosophy
No full textWhat might be meant by the phrase “architecture and philosophy”? I distinguish what it might mean from three other possi-bilities, “philosophy of architecture,” “philosophy as architecture,” and “architecture as philosophy.” The first refers to a subfield of academic aesthetics, itself a subfield of academic philosophy; the second to the use of architectural metaphors in philosophical writing; the third to the idea that works of architecture should express abstract, philosophical ideas. I discuss the pitfalls in the last of these. Instead, I argue, going back to Vitruvius, that the phrase “architecture and philosophy” should be taken to connote the architect’s obligation to satisfy through her build-ing ( firmitas) the program for her work, thus the client’s and users’ needs (utilitas) as well as aesthetic considerations (venustas), but beyond that to be sensitive to all ethical issues broached by her work and to have an understanding of the way or ways of life in which her work and its use will become involved.
Conjunction Function
No full textThis essay begins by taking the syntagma “Architecture and Philosophy” at face value. It spends some time working its way into and around various points of view: the role of conjunctions, the differ-ences between architecture and philosophy, the possibility that the andwe have been asked to consider has become naturalized and, therefore, no longer open to question. The essay is short, too short, due to what seems like a global lack of time. However, the essay starts again, at its end, to look at a somewhat different path
Culture as Care and Care for Culture During the Pandemic
No full textImmediately after the COVID-19 virus pandemic broke out in Serbia, there were significant changes in the cultural sector. The pandemic affected the cultural sector in terms of prohibition of organizing events during the states of emergency, reduced number of visitors after the states of emergency, cancellation of projects that depended on international cooperation, and consequently the financial incomes decreased radically. Although the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted a measure of non-refundable financial aid, numerous objections appeared in the public sphere that by this measure the Government did not manage to address problems of cultural workers and some cultural organizations in the pandemics. Despite all the difficulties, including insufficient state support, cultural institutions and organizations tried to adapt to the new conditions and to offer content online, in order to continue their work and active communication with their audience. This paper analyses qualitative data collected in the project "The end of the season before the end of the season? Strategies in the cultural sector in the crisis" conducted by the Institute for Sociological Research of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 20 cultural workers from cultural areas that had been particularly threatened during the pandemic such as theatre, festivals, cinemas, and museums, firstly we examine whether cultural workers conceptualized "culture as care". Specifically, it is analysed how cultural workers connect their professional activities (or the lack of them) during the pandemic with the topic of community welfare in crisis conditions. In the second part of the analysis, the focus is shifted to questions of how this population perceives "care for culture" in crisis conditions. Therefore, it is examined whether they identify the state or the other actors (civil society, citizens) as a provider of this care, and how they evaluate the contribution of the state and the other actors to the maintenance of the cultural sector as a public good in practice
Uncovering the ontology of social change
No full textI start this talk with the following assumption: if we understand the ontology of social change, we are enabled to deliberately initiate it in a socially desired direction. Therefore, the main aim of this talk is to examine said ontology.
To that aim, I first assume that social change happens when there is a change in social norms. For this reason, I argue that to uncover the ontology of social change, we need to understand the ontology of social norms. Further, by understanding the ontology of social norms, I claim that we are able to understand what social actions are necessary for initiating social change.
Second, I use Sperber’s (1985) framework of Cultural Cognitive Causal Chains (CCCC) to explain the metaphysics of social norms. Sperber uses CCCC to elucidate how cultural phenomena (e.g., social norms) exist. He defines cultural phenomena as long-lasting and widely distributed cultural representations. For Sperber, cultural representations are a causal complex of two different kinds of representations: mental representations and public productions. Simply speaking, mental representations include things “in the head” such as beliefs, intentions, desires, etc., and public productions include social objects that are public and include, for example, works of art, utterances, written symbols, etc. Therefore, Sperber argues that cultural phenomena exist as a chain or a complex in which two kinds of things causally interact: individual beliefs and
social objects.
In the last part of my talk, my ultimate goal is to show that CCCC can be used for clarifying how causal and constitutive social construction cooperate in construing social kinds such as social beliefs and social objects. To do so, I first compare Sperber’s framework of CCCC and Haslanger’s (2007) ontology of social structures to demonstrate their similarities. Then, contra Haslanger (2003) and Díaz-León (2013, 2018), I state my reasons for holding that causal social construction is relevant for those who aim to design strategies for achieving social change. Lastly, I claim that social change as a change in social norms can be deliberately initiated in a socially desired direction by manipulating the social objects constituted by causally constructed public meanings