The Baltic States (original) (raw)
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The article discusses the state of academic philosophy in Lithuania after 1989. Post-Soviet Lithuanian philosophy was mainly guided by two impulses: attempts to philosophize freely and authentically, and to become part of the Western and/or global philosophical milieu. Bibliometric data indicates that in their quest toward these goals, academic philosophers in Lithuania almost completely abandoned Marxism and instead became "importers" of the Western philosophical tradition by way of introducing various philosophical concepts and ideas in the form of academic publications and translations of major foreign philosophical texts. Phenomenology and comparative studies became the most popular traditions, while a significant share of attention was also devoted to Christian philosophy. While the first two decades of Independence were characterized primarily by import, the number of international publications by Lithuanian philosophers has been steadily growing in the last decade, which allows one to tentatively conclude that Lithuanian academic philosophy is beginning to fulfil its quest to become a part of the global philosophical milieu.
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Identity is a primary mental construct. Identity is both a reflexive relation, defining an individual ("Who I am") and a relation of belonging to (/being part of) a group. The set of identity characteristics is culture-specific and practically unlimited. Most salient components of ethnic identity are related to the native language, outward appearance, spiritual qualities (such as religion, beliefs concerning origin and kinship) and traits discriminating ego from alter. Traditionally ethnic (and often social) identity is understood as an objective legacy, given from outside ("by god, sucked in with mother's milk", determined by kinship, origin, territory, or even biology, as encapsulated in the German expression Blut und Boden). An opposite point of view stresses an individual's right to determine one's identity by voluntary acts of access to an ethnic, religious or, for instance political or sexual group ("I am who I concern myself to be", "I am a Swede/ German/Russian... by my choice"). The following articles are case studies on identity of two Baltic peoples, lesser known outside the region. Map 12. Belarus. Ill.: Radosław Przebitkowski History The development of the concept of a national identity in Belarus 105
Anti-intellectualism, strongly reinforced in the pragmatic framework of the neoliberal paradigm (as one of its integral, structurally essential aspects), is by no means a new phenomenon. We have known for a long time that with its more or less subtle or deeply naturalised practices it extends into all areas of life and, through the imperative of prescribed knowledge and persistence in the spontaneity of the unthought, marks them decisively. Despite everything, however, its constitution, its structural properties and its generic characteristics remain relatively poorly illuminated zones of this complex social phenomenon. In the social context of Slovenia there are still no notable or penetrating studies that have examined anti-intellectualism with the help of analyses of concrete material and illushated its functioning in a specific provincial Central European socio-historical context. In cases where educational practices are profoundly, systemically and unreflectively imbued with antiintellectualism, non-formal/informal methods of acquiring knowledge would, in this respect, appear to offer a better starting point for coherent knowledge and creativity. The article first presents the circumstances of the birth of the modern "intellectual" in France, in relation to antiintellectual social and discursive strategies. It then offers a brief overview of understanding of the intellectual and intellectual/anti-intellectual strategies in various European environments and contexts. The article ends with a brief account of the destructive dimensions of the long-lasting heritage of antijntellectualism and lack of reflection - destructive for intellectually pertinent critical thought and the creative spirit - in the provincial Central European sphere, to which Slovenia also belongs. KEYWORDS: intellectual, anti-intellectualism, education, formal, nonformal and informal knowledge