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Particleboard and MDF are the most usable materials for furniture production, where emission of formaldehyde should be as low as possible. In order to improve aesthetic properties of particleboard and MDF they are covered with appropriate surfacing material. In most cases, melamine impregnated paper is used for face layers. But covering faces should be accompanied with covered edges, as due to low density of core layer formaldehyde much more easily emits from edges than from faces. The presented research shows differences in formaldehyde emission rate at unsurfaced and surfaced MDF and particleboard. For face layer, melamine impregnated papers with grammages of 130 g/m2 and 200 g/m2 were used, while for covering edges, melamine edge-banding tape was applied. In the research it was determined that higher barrier effect was achieved when impregnated paper with a grammage of 200 g/m2 was used. When surface was completely covered with impregnated paper and melamine edge-band tape, formaldehyde emission was lowered by between 83 % and 94 %.

Sotto questo titolo è apparsa nell'autunno del 1999 un'antologia curata dai quattro editori,. contenente 29 brani ( ad opera dei curatori e altri collaboratori). Le linee direttrici sono esposte nella prefazione (Preface, 2 pagine introduttive fuori paginazione). La base è l'antologia Early Romance Texts: An Anthology (1980) di Rodney Sampson, definita invaluable, ma ormai di difficile accesso. Perciò, con la presente scelta di testi si cerca di ovviare a questa situazione. Ci sono però determinati limiti: infatti, sono stati tralasciati i testi più noti, canonici, già bene studiati, ma nel contempo si è desistito anche dall'includere soltanto testi finora non pubblicati. In tal modo si è scelta una via di mezzo, includendo i testi meno noti e meno discussi, tutti pubblicati, è vero, già prima ma in places now considered relatively obscure e parecchio tempo (perfino tutto un secolo) fa. La struttura di tutti i contributi è identica: ad una succinta introduzione (dati essenziali sul relativo testo) seguono il brano, i commenti, la bibliografia e la traduzione inglese. In tal modo l'antologia è coerente, di facile orientamento ed altrettanto facili confronti tra i singoli testi, il che è di notevole importanza scientifica e pedagogica. Infine, i curatori fanno risaltare il ruolo delle ricerche filologiche negli studi più propriamente linguistici.

The subsequent three papers in the present volume (viz. Snedec', Teržan's, and Trobevšek-Drobnak's) have arisen from the research in historical syritax conducted since 1986 by us in the Department for Germanic Languages and Literatures of the University of Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, under the advisorship of J. Orešnik.

L'Università Autonoma di Barcellona ha inserito fra le sue Publicacions del Departament de Filologia Hispànica il volume che reca il titolo citato e che è desti­ nato ad avere carattere periodico (p. 6). Nel Prologo (pp. 5-6) i curatori affermano che fino agli anni 70 la linguistica «en aquest nostre país» non era arrivata al grado di maturità che permettesse la formazione di una scuola né di un sufficiente numero di ricercatori. Dall'inizio della scorsa decade le cose sono cominciate ad andare me­ glio: nel giugno del 1983 è stato spedito un invito a collaborare al volume miscella­ neo (qui recensito) e a Sitges è stato o ganizzato un colloquio internazionale dedica­ to ai problemi di linguistica teorica e agli aspetti (sincronici e diacronici) della lingui­ stica romanza che presentano interesse teorico. Il volume recensito raccoglie tredici contributi, di cui sei sono stati presentati al colloquio citato. Con le parole dei cura­ tori (collaboratori dell'Università Autonoma di Barcelona /U. A. B./: Joan Masca­ ró, Anna Bartra, Josep M. Brucart, Josep M. Nadal e Gemma Rigau): «d'aquesta manera volem fer plataforma que contribueixi a la consolidació, al nostre país, d'aquella pràctica científica "normal" que esmentàvem abans» (p. 6). Insomma, si cerca, e si riesce, a portare la linguistica catalana ed ispanica ad un livello internazionale e nel contempo si presentano i suoi risultati al pubblico linguistico mondiale.

In the paper, the author presents the theoretical starting point of the discussion on cyborgization. The phenomenon of cyborgization can be regarded from different angles of view – technical, medical, legal, ethical, etc. In the article, the author approaches the phenomenon of cyborgization from a philosophical point of view. Cyborgization means the process of connection artificial systems with the human body. In the article, the author displays the origin of the term cyborg, the areas of development and different interpretations of the term. The term cyborg originated in astronautics in the 1960s, soon entered American popular culture through comics, novels, and film, and underwent a theoretical transformation. The term entered philosophy at the end of the 20th century, and today it attracts attention due to the modern possibilities of connecting artificial systems with the human body. In the paper, author suggest clarification of cyborgization and cyborg and points to the existing transhumanist interpretation of the terms.

In this article, we focus on Biblical stories and, within them, on the connection between emotions and bodily sensations. We use a cognitive theory of emotions, which understands emotions as based on value judgments. The focus is on stories involving conflict in which emotions, including bodily sensations, are key to conflict resolution and to the orientation toward moral action. In the Bible, emotions play a multifaceted role. They are a natural and essential part of the human experience and of the relationship between man and God. This paper argues that bodily sensations are the building blocks of emotions or play an important role in the formation of emotions. A theology of emotions contributes to an understanding of this aspect of the body that is related to our emotions. The paper shows the hermeneutical potential of these stories for understanding emotions as embodied cognition and their relevance for morality.

The author examines how the Oberammergau Passion Play, which the Slovenian writer Ksaver Meško (1874–1964) attended in 1910, influenced his 1936 drama The Passion Play. In the first part of the paper, the author introduces the genre of the Passion play, places Meško’s Passion Play in his literary oeuvre, explains the broader cultural-historical background of its creation, and presents the centuries-old tradition of the Oberammergau Passion Play. In the second part of the paper, the author analyses and compares Meško’s Passion Play with the so-called official text of the Oberammergau Passion Play, which was published especially for the performances in 1910. The author identifies possible influences that manifest themselves throughout Meško’s text both on a formal level and on a content level: in the prologue, in the prefiguration scenes, in the central plot and also at the end of his Passion Play.

Pope Francis focuses on essential topics for the Church and society in his pontificate. To describe the relationships between different social subjects, he often uses the metaphor of the polyhedron to highlight the importance of each individual and each social group for the equitable development of the entire society. Nowhere does it systematically describe this metaphor, but it uses it in different contexts: societal, ecclesial, ecumenical, and theological. The literature also lacks papers that systematically and critically question this metaphor, presenting possible consequences for the Church’s life, i.e., pastoral care, liturgical practices, morality, doctrine, etc. This paper aims to describe this metaphor of the Church as a polyhedron. The metaphor of the polyhedron that he uses in his documents will be described first. Then, the key features, advantages, and disadvantages of the metaphor of the Church as a polyhedron will be brought out. According to this metaphor, the Church can be understood through her main characteristics: as synodal Church, unity in diversity, missionary Church, and charity.

In a world increasingly marked by ideological and theological divisions, this paper aims to foster intercultural and interfaith dialogue by examining the resonances and dissonances between Charles Taylor’s communitarianism and Confucian philosophy. Focusing particularly on their theological and spiritual dimensions, the paper explores how both traditions conceptualize selfhood in terms of authenticity, community, and transcendence. Employing a multi-disciplinary approach, the study incorporates Warren G. Frisina’s critique of Taylor, shedding light on the interconnections among value, identity, and theological beliefs. Ultimately, this paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of selfhood across different cultural and theological contexts and offers constructive insights for bridging the existing epistemological and ethical divides that separate Eastern and Western religious and philosophical thought.

In the second half of the 1980s, Tine Hribar developed a distinctive interpretation of Sophocles’s Antigone, which he presented in 1991 in the monograph Tragična etika svetosti (The tragical ethics of sacredness). Here he developed an original concept of the sacred, on which he built an ethical system that has become – particularly through its determined defense of the so-called sanctity of the dead – a cornerstone of the Slovene reconciliation project. This paper deals with some of the fundamental problems that stem from Hribar’s enigmatic definition of the sacred as “the world itself in itself,” showing that, in the conclusions Hribar draws from that definition, the clear distinction between being and life is lost. The central aporia of the Tragična etika svetosti is also closely intertwined with other problematic dimensions of the work that are analysed in the paper: the unfounded appropriation of the ethical characteristics of traditions from which he distances himself in principle; the unreflecting distinction between being and action in relation to the sacred; and not least, the unexplained oscillation between vitalism and Antigone’s ideal of self sacrifice.

The paper introduces a close reading of Eco’s article “Generazione di messaggi estetici in una lingua edenica” (1971), in which he fictionalized the biblical story from Gen 2 to show that the aesthetic use of language generates internal contradictions (self-contradictions), as well as that any such contradiction at the level of expression/form also entails a contradiction at the level of content. Furthermore, the basic postulates of Eco’s semiotic theory revolving around the sign-function are discussed, followed by outlining certain theological-semiotics of language based on the text from the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles (descent of the Spirit). It is based on an original sign – which is not, as with Eco, a sign associated with another sign (interpretant) within a sign system (code) nor a “dynamic object,” but it is the Mystical Body. The paper concludes by arguing that it is this very Body, and not the poetic invention, that generates “other languages” (ἑτέραις γλώσσαις) and consequently a communion, which is not multiethnic nor multilingual, but a Catholic community.

The article discusses Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a disruptive power, i.e., a power that – as the dictionary SSKJ states – “because of its otherness, its visionary conception in relation to the status quo, acts boldly and unexpectedly”. At the beginning of the paper, the theoretical background of AI tools is presented, along with some examples of the potential and problems of their use in foreign language teaching. The use of AI-powered tools in foreign language teaching must be thoroughly considered, researched, and regulated at national and supranational levels – e.g., the ethical aspects of using AI in teaching, intellectual property, data protection, and the actual impact of AI-assisted learning. Beyond these challenges, it is worth highlighting, exploring, and, above all, exploiting the potential of AI-based tools and the potential and constructive use of these tools in and for foreign language teaching. In the second part of the paper, the selected AI-based tools suitable for foreign language teaching are briefly presented and analysed through a use case. The advantages and disadvantages of these tools and their use for language learning, chatbots (including ChatGPT), AI-based tools for writing and text proofreading (grammar and spelling), and machine translation tools are illustrated using examples. Despite the advantages, disadvantages, and problems that the use of AI-powered tools entails, the paper aims to highlight their benefits and potential with regard to optimizing users’ — i.e., teachers and learners – time, and, above all, we want to encourage their constructive use.

Everyday aesthetics, at its core, is based on the supposed dichotomy between art and life, considering life as something routine-like, and art as the breaking of the routine, something charismatic. Different authors of everyday aesthetics use different words to describe this dichotomy. For example, in his article “What is ‘Everyday’ in Everyday Aesthetics?”, Ossi Naukkarinen simply uses everydayness and non-everyday-like, while Arto Haapala, in his “On the Aesthetics of the Everyday: Familiarity, Strangeness, and the Meaning of Place” uses the terms familiarity and strangeness. The authors also propose different ways of bridging this dichotomy. However, as the paper shows, the real question is not how to bridge the dichotomy itself but rather whether the dichotomy exists in the first place. Moreover, the paper suggests a change of direction in future investigations of everyday aesthetics, and focusing on the nuances that exist on the routine-charisma and charismatic-routine spectrum, supported by academic research and the personal account of the paper’s author art project. Moreover, the implications of this shift extend beyond the boundaries of everyday aesthetics.

Building on the ongoing debates surrounding the archaeological application of New Materialism, posthumanism, speculative realism, object-oriented ontology, and the anthropological ontological turn, this paper examines sexual interactions between deities and humans, as well as among deities represented as statues in ancient Egypt. Acknowledging the existence of such sexual encounters and providing detailed descriptions of the involved entities alone does not fully recognize the underlying gender and class structures. This paper argues that these analysed sexual encounters were shaped by gender and class-based power asymmetries, revealing that the ancient Egyptians and contemporary perspectives are not as distinct as they might seem.

In the national archaeologies formed after the dissolution of Yugoslavia there emerged new reflections of old archaeological ideas, especially about the ethnogenesis and identity of the Illyrians, topics which dominated Yugoslav archaeology. The new ideas varied from those which continued and reaffirmed older theories to those which attempted to deconstruct them, among which the most influential was that of Danijel Džino. The topic of our paper – how the initial archaeological knowledge about the Illyrians was created – adds another component in deconstructing of Illyrians. The paper analyses the first and most massive excavations at Glasinac in the 19th century which served as an empirical base for creating the narrative of the Illyrian Glasinac and Illyrians in Yugoslav archaeology in the 1950s and 1960s.

The paper focuses on heritage value systems, particularly investigating the archaeological understanding of heritage values and evaluation. The literature review shows that the postmodern archaeological paradigm predominantly covers the topic, while the perspective of the intrinsic value is less explored. The starting point of our research is the thesis that archaeological paradigms obstruct better public support if they refrain from using axiological considerations. By archaeological paradigm, we refer to the processual and post-processual ones (the latter focusing on understanding past social phenomena). Axiology, as the theory of values, developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its approach is now used in many areas of social sciences (for example, education and medical care). Public archaeology is more open to societal needs than processual and post-processual archaeology but has yet to apply a values-based approach consistently. To clarify our thesis, we analyse the theoretical and practical considerations on the values of (archaeological) heritage, including the issues of the categorization of values, reflection on who assigns values to heritage and how this affects the reception of archaeological knowledge in society. The paper addresses some critical aspects of the evaluation in archaeological heritage conservation, management and building alliances with locals and communities who identify with heritage. I outline a comprehensive archaeological evaluation system considering systemic, extrinsic and intrinsic archaeological values in the conclusions.

The issues of conjugal communio amoris and the implications of this relationship in Christian marriage, i.e., the path to holiness, are the subject of this paper. Communio amoris in relation to marriage and family comes from the theological thought of John Paul II, from the “Familiaris Consortio” exhortation. In three parts of the paper, there are presented in turn: conjugal communion of love, conjugal love as the fruit of that communion, and communio sanctorum - holiness in marriage as the realization of the communion of love. The history of the Church shows that the holiness of spouses was practiced “despite” marriage, “in” marriage and “thanks to” marriage. However, a special emphasis in this paper is placed on the third model. Communio amoris is the principle of sanctification for spouses entering into a sacramental union; it is the path to communio sanctorum.

On Two Kinds of Physics. The Embodied Formality of Mathematical Sciences The article challenges the core ideas that underlie the interpretation of the scientific revolution as presented by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. By examining the ancient Greek number theory and mixed sciences alongside modern algebra and mechanics, the paper highlights the significance of symbolization, which was overlooked by the two mentioned modern philosophers. Drawing upon the ideas of Jacob Klein, the paper presents a fresh approach to the comprehension of scientific idealizations, closely linked with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concept of symbolic behavior.

Aristotle and Descartes on the Capacities of the Soul The purpose of this paper is to illuminate Aristotle’s and Descartes’s understanding of the capacities of the soul. This understanding, however, paves the way for a broader reflection on Aristotle’s and Descartes’s philosophical anthropology. Accordingly, the text is conceived in such a way that we first follow Aristotle’s understanding of the capacities of the soul. Alongside, we discuss Descartes’s understanding, always with regard to the individual capacity of the soul highlighted in Aristotle. The capacities of the soul, which we discuss in this paper, follow Aristotle’s division of the soul into vegetative, sensory, and rational capacity. The starting point of the paper is the question of the connection of soul and body in Aristotle’s and Descartes’s philosophy.

The paper presents the multifaceted identity of the Hindu goddess Mahādevī, the dynamic feminine absolute of the religious tradition Śāktism, whose philosophical foundations have shaken several assumptions of established religious and social norms. Śāktism remains an integral part of the philosophical-religious landscape of the complex totality of Hinduism, while also stretching beyond narrow religious contexts and critically examines normative patterns of patriarchal social reality. In the first chapter, the paper outlines the origins of the formation of the goddess cult, from the earliest period of Indian civilization to the Purāṇas, and then introduces the key ideas of the goddess myth in the Devīmāhātmya, where, for the first time in the spiritual history of India, a goddess is defined as the Supreme Reality, who reconciles all opposites within herself. The interpretation of the most significant segments of the goddess myth is built on the basis of an analysis of the changes in metaphysics, specifically the transition from the pre-Tantric dualistic metaphysical system to the non-dualistic one in Tantra. This is followed by an outline of the two branches of Śāktism that were formed out of the two seemingly incompatible poles of the identity of the Supreme Goddess: on the one hand, as a benevolent mother and obedient wife, and on the other as a fierce, ruthless and independent female, which is discussed in more detail in the last chapter through a case study of two goddesses, Lakṣmī and Kālī.

The Current European Digital Competence Framework for Lifelong Learning (DigComp 2.2) includes five areas with 21 sub-competences, and most of them are included in the European Master’s in Translation (EMT) 2009-2022 frameworks. Which of these will be included in the curricula depends on the level of the study program (BA or MA) and the needs of the students, who we tend to believe are digital nomads. In the educational context of our study various areas of digital competences (DC) are developed implicitly as part of translation assignments and are not specifically acknowledged and assessed. In this paper we investigate how the students perceive their DC and whether this is connected to the number and type of translation courses taken and their view of themselves as future translators. The data was collected via an online questionnaire. The informants (N=58) assessed 25 statements on a five-point Likert scale, thereby reporting how skilled they believed they were with respect to various digital practices. The data was coded and analysed with the SPSS software package. The statistical tests include descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, a one-way ANOVA and a two-way ANOVA. The results show that the students have a high perception of their DC, but no significant connection can be established between the pedagogical input and the students’ perception in this regard. The paper ends with the analysis of the pedagogical implications of this finding for teachers and course developers.

This paper presents the blessed Anton Martin Slomšek as a man who lived a virtuous life to an above-average degree. In addition to a general view of Slomšek’s life from the perspective of virtue, the author offers in the main part of the paper a concrete presentation of the realization of the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity in his life. He additionally reveals the extraordinary influence of Slomšek’s personality as a kind of “radiance” of faith, hope and charity around him; or, as we might say in modern terms, that he was an extraordinarily “resonant” personality. Slomšek’s extraordinary pastoral zeal was not based on theoretical teaching alone but was rooted in a personally realized life of infused virtues, which shaped him into an extremely harmonious and positive personality.

Individuation and Ontological Experience. The Philosophical Development of the Early Fink in Light of His Confrontation with Heidegger Eugen Fink’s philosophy confronts us with a complexity of conceptual constellations that, in their integrity, are specifically aimed at a deep questioning of our way of thinking and of the metaphysical foundations of our experience and understanding of the world. Taking account of the newest materials in Fink’s Collected Works, the following paper 1) proposes a brief distinction of the denominations of Eugen Fink’s early philosophical project, in order to describe the basic lines of his philosophy and to characterize its basic features by approaching “the deepest philosophical problem of all,” as Fink itself affirmed, namely the question of individuation. Thereby, the paper will unveil 2) an essential aspect of Fink’s early confrontation with Heidegger, in order to trace the premises and consequences of Fink’s “cosmological thinking.”

Labor as a Worldly Relation. Approaches to Fink’s Fundamental Phenomenon of Labor This paper makes an attempt in exploring the relationship between world and labor in Fink’s philosophy. Although Fink considered labor as a “human basic phenomenon,” the worldliness of labor remains unevolved. I suppose that Fink implicitly deals with this matter in his reflections upon labor and nature. Hence, this paper examines Fink’s critical stance towards the traditional notion of labor/nature and his alternative proposition: “wilderness.” An analysis of the latter shows that labor does not simply create products (artificial objects), but regional ontologies (“Seiendheiten”) of the natural and artificial as such. In so doing, labor reveals itself as an ontological activity. I propose that “wilderness” is governed by an eminent but unthematised spatial sense, which will be unfolded by interpreting “wilderness” as a frontier, thus pondering the limitations of both labor and entities as such. The application of the concept of “Umwelt” enables us to approach labor’s worldliness.

The paper aims to argue that the question of home (das Heim) is one of the crucial elements of Martin Heidegger’s philosophy, which has been tackled by the German philosopher throughout his lifework in close connection to its opposition, namely the uncanny (das Unheimliche). The paper discusses the different understandings of home in Heidegger’s philosophy starting from the seminal works, such as Being and Time (1927) and Introduction to Metaphysics (1935), as well as Hölderlin’s Hymn “The Ister” (1942) and “Letter on Humanism” (1946) including “Building Dwelling Thinking” (1951). In his argumentation on the topic from 1935 onwards, Heidegger developed the question of home within the hermeneutical analysis of Sophocles’s Antigone, specifically the first verse of the famous choral song and the term δεινόν. In the conclusion, the standpoints of Jacques Derrida and David Farrell Krell on the subject are confronted, in order to discuss the paradoxical structure of the topic of home in Heidegger’s philosophy and, more generally, within philosophy of architecture.

Despite their affinities in criticizing the Cartesian subject, contextualizing texts, and upholding dialogue as integral to interpretation, there are differences between the hermeneutic projects of Gadamer and Habermas. While Gadamer emphasizes real dialogue and continuity with tradition, Habermas highlights ideal communication and critical distance. With regard to the underexplored feminist intervention in their debate, it can be said that there are greater affinities between feminist thought and Gadamer arising from their commitment to historically situated thought. But the vantage position of tradition in Gadamer has generated its set of feminist apprehensions. The paper scrutinizes the consequences of intervening in the Gadamer–Habermas debate on the hermeneutics of tradition from a feminist perspective. Analyzing women characters in the Indian epic Mahabharata, it argues that the intersectionality between their gendered identity and varied social locations of class and caste leads to diverse feminist perspectives. In conclusion, the paper ponders over whether they are all equally critical and the extent to which they can be reconciled.

The first part of the paper is the author’s contribution to the hermeneutics–deconstruction debate on the status of the literary work and the role of the reader. The author’s considerations head towards a conception of “deconstructive hermeneutics of poetry,” stating that the literary text both requires understanding and guards itself against the violence of its uniformization. The second part of the paper involves deconstructive-hermeneutic interpretations of the works of three Polish poets: Aleksander Wat, Tadeusz Różewicz, and Krystyna Miłobędzka. The author notices their “touching acuteness,” i.e., their refusal of an all-encompassing reading. More important, however, is the way all the poets cultivate their own “deconstructive hermeneutics” of existence. In Wat’s case, it is a hermeneutics of the suffering body. Różewicz is approached from the side of the problem of “the death of poetry.” Miłobędzka turns out to be a poetess who delivers her idea of “releasement.”

Being, Seeming, and Mere Seemingness. From Parmenides Towards Plato The present paper is an attempt to rethink the relationship between being and seeming at the outset of metaphysics as demonstrated in Heidegger’s history of being. Following Heidegger’s interpretation of Parmenides’s poem On Nature, the paper demonstrates the original ancient Greek relationship between being and seeming, when both were understood in terms of the proto-metaphysical phýsis. It illustrates crucial moments in the search for being from Parmenides to Plato, which lead to the abandonment of seeming. It is shown how the movement from cave-like seeming to knowing transformed the notion of seeming and drew it away from being into mere seemingness.

Margaret Atwood’s short story collection Wilderness Tips contains ten stories that, among other topics, deal with the way the past and the present overlap in human life. In most of them, middle-aged characters look back at the events from their childhood or adolescence that shaped them as human beings, changed their destiny, and affected their present life. These characters, at a safe distance from their past and with the benefit of hindsight, are finally able to understand these crucial events and, as a result of this, they revise their personal histories and retell their stories. This paper will explore how stories from this collection tackle the relationship between the past, tradition, and history on the one hand and the present time on the other. In order to analyze this relationship, the paper will survey some of the discoveries that postmodern literary theories, such as new historicism, made regarding the study and representation of history, the truthfulness of fiction, the selection and interpretation of facts, and the possibility of different perspectives, etc. The focus of the paper will be the story “The Age of Lead” since it presents both the personal (hi)stories of its characters and a true historical event connected to their lives.

This paper is an attempt to develop a design-oriented approach to ELT coursebook evaluation, with a particular focus on the internal organization of coursebook units at both intra-unit and inter-unit levels. We believe that looking at coursebooks from the position of the materials designer sheds some additional light on ELT coursebook evaluation. The design-oriented approach to ELT coursebook assessment proposed in the paper goes well beyond the immediate, and often superficial, ‘check-list’ methods commonly used to help teachers select coursebooks. In other words, the design-oriented approach to ELT coursebook assessment enables teachers an insight into ‘the architecture’ of textbooks. On this ‘journey to the centre of ELT textbooks’, we try to highlight how language teaching materials have been resolving the conundrum of the dynamic combination of the What (content), and the How (pedagogy/methodology). In presenting a materials design process, we start off with the assumption that there has always been a broad basis of theoretical and pedagogical notions that can inform the content and organization of ELT coursebooks, and upon which coursebook writers can build when designing instructional materials. The article then discusses three stages of the design process, offering a more detailed analysis of the complex issue of unit structure at intra- and inter-unit levels. We explore different formats of unit structure, its components, ways of creating coherence throughout the unit, and its underlying methodology/pedagogy. The last point prompts the conclusion that today’s ELT materials are produced in response to a perceived market demand that is often at variance with the latest theoretical developments in ELT.

This paper analyses morpho-syntactic interference errors committed by learners of French as a foreign language in four Tanzanian universities: UDSM, UDOM, DUCE and Makumira. The paper has three specific objectives: (i) to identify morpho-syntactic interference errors, (ii) to account for their sources and (iii) to recommend a corrective treatment. The study included a total of 61 respondents. The data was collected through learners’ written texts in French from which a corpus was developed. The study was guided by the interlanguage theory and the error analysis approach. Data analysis was qualitative. The findings reveal that errors included the use of nouns with English origins (18.87%), omission of prepositions (36.79%) and absence of determiners (44.34%). The findings further show that these errors are due to previously acquired or learned languages: Swahili, ethnic community languages and English. Different recommendations are given following the findings. As regards the use of definite and indefinite articles in French, teachers should provide a guided reading of different French texts through which learners will be able to understand how articles are used. To master the use of prepositions, teachers should encourage learners to read a variety of texts in French as this can make them understand and internalize the different prepositions. Moreover, through regular exercises on word formation in French, learners may be able to familiarize themselves with French nouns, hence internalizing their forms. Finally, the learning of French nouns should be done in context.

Literature is an open concept and a creative art which expresses human history, experiences, imagination, observations, predictions and suggestions at a particular time in a given society. Either as fiction or non-fiction, literature can be rendered in both spoken and written words. It is often argued whether literature is for itself or the development of the society that produces it. This study, therefore, interrogates how the selected Francophone African novels, namely Sembène Ousmane’s Les bouts de bois de Dieu, Mariama Bâ’s Une si longue lettre, Ferdinand Oyono’s Le vieux nègre et la médaille, Aminata Sow Fall’s La grève des bàttu, Patrick Ilboudo’s Les vertiges du trône and Fatou Keïta’s Rebelle, depict the function of literature. The novelists are selected because of their inclination towards the social transformation paradigm. The purpose of this paper is to raise people’s awareness and mobilize them towards positive change. Based on close reading, the paper is built around Marxist theory which is interested in the class struggle as demonstrated in a literary text, with a view to deconstructing the existing capitalist tendencies in a given society. The findings reveal that the selected novels are focused on the poor conditions socio-politically, economically, culturally and psychologically that exist both during and after the colonial era. The paper concludes that literature helps readers to cope with the socio-cultural, political, economic, religious and other challenges of their immediate as well as remote environments through the process of self-discovery. As such, positive social change is possible through literature.

The paper gives a comprehensive insight into the peculiarities of concept profiling through defining the related etymological domains. The aim of the paper is to reveal the peculiarities of the profiling of the concepts GOOD / EVIL and JUSTICE through elucidating their source domains from an etymological perspective. The choice of the analysed ethical concepts is stipulated by their higher contextual actualization frequency, as compared with the other ethical concepts, according to the data obtained from British National Corpus. The research method of trajector / landmark alignment used in this work is based on R. Langacker’s views on the profiling of concepts in language utterances and on the tenets of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The novelty of this approach consists in the fact that it was elaborated and tailored for the analysis and explanation of the onomasiological principles of ‘wrapping’ abstract ethical concepts into the language form. The underlying idea is that abstract categories were conceptualized on the basis of background central life experience and knowledge of concrete things. It is argued that such things were the source domains in ontological cross-domain mappings for the target ethical concepts. The current research into the source domain etymons of the ethical categories made it possible to determine the underlying images, which are the core for drawing metaphorical correspondences between source and target concepts. The etymological layer of source domain lexicalizers revealed the intrinsic psychological mechanisms of human cognition and perception of the world, which consist in the inherent proclivity of the human mind to make metaphorical parallels in the direction from daily, central experience to complex abstract ideas and notions. The results made it possible to develop the matrix model of the analysed concepts, which was further developed into a ‘conceptual edifice’ multi-layer model, which reveals the conceptualization paths along which the human mind classifies and categorizes abstract ethical ideas.

The central question of the article is already formulated in the title. The author advocates a minimal definition of intelligence: intelligence is independent problem solving. The level of intelligence depends on the complexity of the problems and the degree of independence in solving them (Klaus Mainzer). According to this definition, the author notes that intelligent machines already exist. These are AI systems that are capable of deep learning. In the paper, the author presents criticisms of the claim that AI is intelligent in the literal sense and not just in the metaphorical sense. These criticisms are based on objections that can be divided into two basic groups. Proponents of the first line of criticism cite mental abilities (such as phenomenal consciousness and awareness) and aliveness as essential attributes of intelligence, rejecting the notion of artificial life as nonsense. Inanimate and non-mental systems are merely adaptive, not intelligent systems. Representatives of the second group claim that the indispensable characteristics of intelligence are generality, intuition, common sense and abduction. The author analyses the aforementioned criticisms and concludes that their proponents have not given good reasons against the minimal definition.

This paper explores the evolving perception of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in our increasingly AI-driven world, focusing on conversational AI or chatbots. With the rise of human-like robotic AI systems, there is a growing need to understand the identity these machines assume as they take on roles previously reserved for humans, such as caring for the elderly and educating children. The central thesis posits that comprehending the identity of such AI systems necessitates considering the aspect of our own identity that we shape and project onto them in our interactions with these systems. In an era defined by AI, these inquiries into identity and AI-human interactions are of paramount importance and are also vital for the very development of AI.

One of the first pioneers to try to reconcile the Catholic doctrine of creation, salvation and redemption with the idea of evolution was the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. He believed that humanity has an important role to play in the further development of the universe, since human consciousness or thought represents the highest stage of the evolution of the universe. This evolution was to be completed by reaching the Omega Point, which draws the universe and humanity towards the perfect complex interconnectedness. This is a distinctly teleological, finalistic view of the evolution of the universe and of life in it, and the Omega Point is associated with Christ, as depicted in some of the writings of the New Testament. In this paper, two hypotheses are put forward on the basis of Teilhard’s philosophy and proved by scientific facts. The first is that in the evolution of nature, that is, of the material universe (cosmogenesis), of life (abiogenesis) and of thought or spirit (noogenesis), we can see the solution of the original theological problem, namely, the evil of disconnectedness, by means of the integration of simple parts into a complex whole. The second hypothesis argues that modern technology is one of the phenomena of evolution, specifically of noogenesis, because by facilitating the flow of information and transdisciplinary learning, research and collaboration, it can foster the interweaving of simple thoughts and thinking persons into a complex whole. This is not to overlook the pressing problem where technology is not only connective but also disruptive, not because it is inherently bad, but because of the unhealthy spirit of a society that is immature to the new gains of humanity due to a weak moral consciousness. In this article we suggest that guidelines for the ethical use of technology should also be developed from the perspective of the Omega Point, namely from the ultimate full complex interconnectedness of creation, and that the motivation for following them should be found in the meaningful and realizes identity of the persons who use them.

In this paper, we attempt to show the impact of digital technology on the spread of Salafist ideas in the Balkans and to demonstrate that Haykel’s division of Salafists into active and clandestine Salafists is not entirely correct. In particular, we address the reasons for the spread of Salafism in the Balkans and explain how this affects the situation in Slovenia. Finally, we show the dual role of digital technology in Salafism, which is used both to disseminate a particular Islamic doctrine of faith and to search for evidence of preformed beliefs.

Human life has always been understood as an inner tension between the mortality of the human body and the desire of the soul to attain immortality. The tension between mortality and immortality has reached new dimensions with the developments in medicine, technology and artificial intelligence that have the potential to extend our lives in many ways. In this paper, the authors first present a philosophical consideration of the body, which has often been seen as the prison of the soul, and then the modern quest for immortality. In the fourth chapter, they present the good news of Christianity, which is, among other things, that the body enables human beings to live their life in integral relationships and fulfil their vocations, and then the Christian understanding of immortality. They conclude by pointing to the new questions raised by the immense investment in the development of technology, especially artificial intelligence, which deep down is an expression of man’s desire for immortal life. At the same time, they point out that man can overcome his fear of death and discern multiple ways to avoid it if he is willing to accept death as an integral part of his life.

The paper deals with the role of image and beauty in the kerygmatic renewal of catechesis. In today’s technological age, the digital is no longer just part of existing cultures, but is emerging as a new culture that is changing the language and the way we think. The Catechesis is challenged to reflect on the form of the faith quest of digital youth and to adapt its vocabulary to the language of the new generations. The kerygmatic renewal of catechesis underlines the beauty of Christian life and salvation and of relationships in Christian communion and connects with the theology of beauty. Christianity needs to rediscover its beauty, the beauty of life with Christ, if it is to be attractive. The kerygma, the proclamation of God’s love and mercy, helps the individual to overcome fear and absurdity as he enters a new dimension of relationship that does not end in death

In this paper, we present a survey that took place in January 2023, with 68 participants, of which 62 were women and 6 were men, who in 2022 attended educational and practical workshops on the topic of developing positive parenting. The name of the workshop was “Families in the Centrifuge of Modern Times,” and it was organized by the University of Adult Education Celje. The aim was to find out which parents attended the workshops, where they learned about them, what are the reasons for their participation and what is their opinion on the usefulness of and satisfaction with the workshops. The results of the survey showed that the participants are mostly women in the age group of 41–50 years; they are mostly university-educated, married, and mostly found out about the workshops online or through social networks. All participants thought that the workshops were useful and that they gained new knowledge. They believed that the professional content was presented understandably and that the workshops improved their lives in general.

In 2021, all preserved topographical-historical descriptions of the parishes of the Diocese of Ljubljana were published within the framework of AES 43. In accordance with the bishop’s instructions, parish priests or chaplains of individual parishes more or less diligently, i.e., more or less extensively prepared the outlines of their parishes. At the time (if not earlier), data collecting with the help of questionnaires was already established across Europe. The efforts of the Archduke John in Styria and of Bishop Gruber in Ljubljana Diocese are especially interesting for our area, whereby they both probably derived from a similar (if not the same) context and vantage point. Work of both was in some sense upgraded by Georg Göth, who compiled his questionnaires thoughtfully but not too extensively, which helped to ensure that the responses were actually done and submitted by the addressees. The paper wants, first of all, to expose the little known and therefore rarely used material that is often of key value as it is only one that has actually been preserved. The survey questionnaires of the beginning of and middle of the 19th century therefore need to be reexamined and correctly reevaluated, if possible, establish their interdependence or influence that they had on each other, and show the latest findings on the specific case of Hoče parish.

The Modern Barbarianism - In his work, Eugen Fink often confronted the profound problematicity of the contemporary epoch and attempted to illuminate its enigmatic traits in a productive, future-oriented manner. Despite a philosophical fascination with Nietzsche and Heidegger, he apparently did not want to share and radically appropriate for himselftheir views regarding “the European nihilism.” With a reading of the writings collected in the book Zur Krisenlage des modernen Menschen (On the Crisis Situation of Modern Man), the paper seeks to demonstrate that Fink’s contemplations upon the matter compellingly reveal the obscure sense and nonsense of the actual state of contemporaneity, although they predominantly devote attention solely to its phenomenality. To a certain degree, such an attempt needs to take into account also the philosopher’s speculative thoughts concerning nothingness and death.

The usual interpretations of gestuality presuppose that a gesture accompanies the expressive action, whereby it itself almost disappears, in order to make way for what the person gesturing wants to show as appertaining to his or her interiority. The intention of the present paper is to demonstrate how a gesture cannot be considered as something extraneous to thought, but belongs to the human posture in its beingin-the-world, and thus seamlessly gives rise to the manifestation of the self in the symbolic framework of reference to a common meaningful horizon. The gestuality of liturgy serves as a particularly noteworthy example of such a phenomenological hermeneutic interpretation of gesture.

The paper delves into the complex dynamics between ancient metaphysical understandings and contemporary transhumanist aspirations. Exploring the roots of metaphysics, it provides a panoramic overview of its key philosophers and concepts, and how it has evolved in the context of modern cognitive challenges. In addition, an in-depth analysis of transhumanism, its biotechnological visions, and influence on classical philosophical thought is provided. Special attention is paid to a critical review of transhumanism through the prism of prominent authors, such as Bishop, Lilley, and Sorgner, and it is analyzed how transhumanism redefines classical philosophical categories. The central part of the research is aimed at synthesizing metaphysical and transhumanist worldviews, exploring points of convergence and separation. The conclusion emphasizes the key findings and implications of the research, pointing to potential directions for future research, and reflects on the permanent role of metaphysics in the age of transhumanism.

Posthuman Science. Husserl, Sellars, modern natural science, and the concept of man - The paper discusses the relation between human experience and modern natural science. The two domains and their relationship are examined with reference to the thought of Edmund Husserl and Wilfrid Sellars. Husserl’s and Sellars’ differing arguments with regard to the epistemological relationship between lifeworld and modern science are confronted. The polemic is steered in favor of Sellars’ position by affirming the discontinuity between the two epistemological domains and in favor of the posthuman nature of scientific experience. Lastly, the paper problematizes the subjective position of the one who takes up the epistemological perspective of modern science. With this enquiry, the discussion again turns to Husserl and explores his conception of the structure of embodied experience. Such a viewpoint is used as a starting point for the clarification of how in the context of modern science man can take up the posthuman position in relation to the world and himself.

This paper is a phenomenological exploration to develop an alternative understanding of the concept of quality of school education. My claim is that the quality of education in schools depends fundamentally on the link between intersubjective relations at school and the self-shaping of students. The paper proposes phenomenological descriptions of pages in school notebooks and biographical stories. These descriptions, enriched by the notions of participation and exemplarity, make the quality of the school emerge from a specific way in which intersubjective relationships make studies and school subjects meaningful, allowing students to experience leaps in quality with respect to self-shaping, aiding them in building a personal and new perspective about the world.

The problematic of education in philosophy is related to the question of reproduction, progression, and transfer of knowledge. In the paper, I examine the Deleuzian interpretation of Nietzschean philosophy. I argue that such philosophy in a certain sense radically rejects teaching in philosophy. The rejection is driven by the recognition that mediation of thought often presents the enforcement of a particular thought. Such thought represents itself as being universal, even if it is merely an expression of particular interest, type or form of living. According to Deleuze, Nietzsche rejected such a dogmatic image of thought and established thought as a singular expression of a concrete living individuum, who resists the enforced universalism of thought (morality, common sense, universal truth). This can be compared with the philosophy of Stirner. Despite the similarities, I argue that the final aim of resistance to teaching is in Deleuze’s version of Nietzsche exactly the opposite as in Stirner: the aim is not the establishment of a nihilistic, in itself enclosed self. On the contrary, the aim is a radical opening of the self towards the outside. This opening is in the conclusion of the paper described with Deleuze’s understanding of the learning process.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the main theses of the Czech philosopher, sociologist, and theologian Tomáš Halík on atheism. He departs from the dogmatic understanding of atheism as the conviction of the non-existence of God or the lack of conviction of His existence and argues on the side of atheism as a way of purification and maturation of faith. The article consists of two parts. In the first one the context of the emergence, sources and main types of dogmatic atheism are presented. In the second part, the concept of atheism as a way of faith’s criticism (criticism of inadequate concepts and ideas about God) and a form of existential experience (experiencing God‘s silence, absence and “death” and the insufficiency of human mental powers in His cognition) is outlined.

This paper attempts to draw a strict Christian vision of forgiveness from Kierkegaard’s religious writings and to present its possible meaning for immanent ethics. The starting point of the considerations presented herein is the presupposition that forgiveness, as an essentially Christian phenomenon, does not refer to immanent interpersonal relations, but has its own deep, transcendent dimension. In this view, forgiveness is founded on the spiritual understanding of love of one’s neighbour as an act in which God always mediates in the relation between two people. It is He who really forgives and, in this act, reconciles and equalizes the one who loves and the sinner with each other. Such forgiveness does not concern some particular sinful act, but the sin of life—living without God in the world. In this sense, forgiveness is a creative work of love which transforms the being of man and recreates it in the new reality of love, opening before the individual the way to salvation. At the end of the text, I argue that such forgiveness may have great importance for immanent ethics if only the epistemic and moral distance between temporal and eternal reality is kept.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already become a ubiquitous and autonomous force transforming our society and how humans interact with the world around them and each other. The staggering development and widespread of AI technology in the last decade raise debates on its evolution potential and social anxiety concerns about its detrimental effects. Techno-optimists expect AI to evolve into a sentient and conscious entity, reaching and surpassing humanlevel and thus challenging our understanding of the world and the fundamental principles of our society. This paper provides theological reflections on AI evolution and its effects on society and Christian spiritual life. It discusses the risks of AI hindering man’s spiritual ascent towards God by autonomously shaping man and society in its image, as expressed by advocates of technological determinism. Finally, it proposes an authentic and liberating Christian viewpoint on AI and today’s disruptive technologies by employing a patristic perspective.