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Information has been omnipresent and all-powerful for almost two centuries, and now possesses sophisticated and invasive means of imposing itself and creating opinion. It was crucial in the Enlightenment and in the preparation of the French Revolution by the intellectual and bourgeois elites. Its characteristic is to be the opposite of intangible truths, to be moving, malleable and adaptable. It is the new replacing the old. It is bracketed by history, because it ignores tradition and no longer needs the past. The creation of opinion in the 18th century introduced a concept of freedom that in fact conceals totalitarianism. People are told what to think. Information is a weapon against all forms of personal reflection and inner life. It imposes itself and imposes, making it impossible to distance oneself. It even kills the democracy it boasts about.

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This study systematically investigates the primary issues and obstacles impeding the establishment of a functional and credible judiciary in Kosovo, adopting an international perspective. The research methodology includes a combination of qualitative and empirical analytical approaches to concrete actions based on a review of relevant literature, reports, and legal documents. This paper concludes that Kosovo should be ready to reach compromises, strengthen the independence, pro­fessionalism, transparency and accountability of judges and prosecutors, and increase public confidence in justice, to achieve a successful reform in the judicial system. The paper offers several recommendations for improving the quality and efficiency of justice in Kosovo, such as promoting cooperation and coordination with international factors in this field.

This paper aims to present the specific functioning of the emotion of hatred from the point of view of the Aristotelian-Thomistic concept of emotions. This perspective is particularly relevant to the issue at hand because of its holistic and integral view of understanding human beings, including their emotional functions. In this paper, I consider the issue of the emotion of hatred in relation to other emotions against the backdrop of the structure of human action. When analyzing how hatred functions, I consider the notion of good and evil, which are linked to emotions and acts of will that play a vital role in the sphere of emotions. By correctly channeling one’s will towards the good, one is able to notice hatred arising within, and thus reflect upon it. Understanding how the emotion of hatred functions is essential for further research into how it is expressed.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The research investigates how young boys progress in life after the loss of their fathers. It explores the adjustments they make, the coping mechanisms they develop to navigate life, and the male roles they assume in the family. Additionally, it examines how family can aid and support their coping and adjustment process. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: This study utilises a case study methodology focused on gaining an understanding of the lives of two adolescent boys who experienced the death of their fathers in the early formative years of their lives. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The paper focuses on five themes- family dynamics, life transitions with and without their fathers, post-loss reassignment of family roles, present circumstances, and future goals. RESEARCH RESULTS: A qualitative analysis of the data revealed that participants’ belief systems, family support, and striving toward future goals helped them to be resilient in this event. CONCLUSIONS RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: While most research typically emphasises the negative impacts of death on people, this study demonstrates how individuals’ can be resilient, dependent on both person-related factors and environmental factors. To help adolescents who are grieving become resilient, the paper offers intervention and coping strategies through counselling, the availability of support networks, and combined efforts by the state and educational institutions.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: Governments across the world were forced to impose social distancing and lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that emerged in December 2019. Following the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, the disruptions, including restrictive measures such as school closures had severe impacts on the physical, emotional and mental health of all people, especially children with special needs. There was also scant data, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries. Existing literature stems mostly from western countries, thus the need to perform a comprehensive review on this topic. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The primary objective of the systematic review is to understand the impact of COVID-19 and restrictive measures such as school closures on the educational outcomes and physical and mental health of school-going children with special needs. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: This systematic review used the PRISMA 2020 checklist where four databases and grey literature were searched for full text articles, peer reviewed publications in the English language that were published during January 2019–December 2021. RESEARCH RESULTS: The literature search identified 1294 publications, of which 25 key papers were selected. These studies investigate the impact on children with special needs across the globe, with a majority of papers from Europe. We found that COVID-19 and the digitalization of schooling had severe impacts on the physical and mental health of children with special needs and their parents/caregivers. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: These studies highlight the need for an inclusive school environment to ensure that the learning outcomes for children everywhere are achieved. Further, a hybrid model that includes classroom learning with novel inventive methods would be beneficial for children with special needs.

Ad hoc corpora are considered effective to deliver native-like technical (and legal) translation. This paper explores how the translation of a system-specific document such as an Italian procura alle liti (power of attorney to appear in court) can be addressed. Translating this legal document may be problematic due to the fact that it is not recurrent in the common law system, which contemplates other types of special powers of attorney (PoAs). This paper explores whether and to what extent a corpus-based translation is possible when L2 parallel texts are difficult to find in native contexts. To this aim, a translation project with technical translators and lawyers is carried out. The participants compose an ad hoc corpus which they consult as a language reference tool. The paper findings report that the translators' corpus-based translation is mostly a word-by-word rendering of the source text, which may sound unnatural to an expert of the field. The lawyers' translation partly deviates from source words, but addresses the communicative function of the source text. The paper highlights the need for a balance between the two strategies, for example by focusing on textual functionality and/or paraphrasing, although at the cost of a reduced formulaicity.

Forensic Linguistics as a discipline has gone through more than 30 years of development in China, which can be divided into the brewing period, the establishment and development period, and the comprehensive improvement period. Scholars have presented the origin and development of forensic linguistics in the form of papers, monographs, translations, textbooks, seminars, conferences and other forms, which promotes the future development of forensic linguistics. In the past decade, the study of forensic linguistics has mainly focused on the theoretical research of forensic linguistics, the application of legislative and judicial language, the translation and teaching of legal language. This paper will adopt the method of literature research to summarize the origin and development of Chinese forensic linguistics in the past 30 years, and to anticipate the future development direction of forensic linguistics in the light of the current research characteristics and the hotspot of the times, so as to provide references for the theoretical development and application practice of current forensic linguistics, and to better guide future discipline development in China.

In the humanities and social sciences, the concept of the Anthropocene has become the starting point for theoretical analyses of the immediate relationship between the environmental preconditions for the existence of civilization and the human actions whose consequences threaten these preconditions. From the philosophical-anthropological point of view, reflections on the concepts of the Anthropocene focus not only on a critical analysis of the claims about human that originate in the natural sciences but also on an understanding of the overall role of humanity in the new geological-climatic regime of the Earth. The primary purpose of this paper is to highlight two-pronged problem areas, which include both the problem of anthropological constants as specific ways of making statements about humans and the problem of using them to reflect on the conceptual system of the Anthropocene. In particular, this paper emphasizes hypotheses and claims from the Anthropocene concept of Earth System Science that point to humans becoming a geobiophysical force in the Anthropocene. Three areas in which anthropological constants could be subsequently subjected to a deeper analysis are proposed.

This paper is based on the concept of environmental political philosophy and from its perspective, it highlights the weaknesses and contradictions of contemporary, existing democracies. It aims to formulate an outline of the concept of environmental democracy, following the accounts of M. Bookchin, R. Morrison and H. Skolimowski, as well as international environmental law enshrined in United Nations documents and resolutions. It is based on the hypothesis that the preservation of a democratic political system in a situation of a collapsing planetary system (the Anthropocene) requires improving the foundations of democratic theory with the insights of the Earth system sciences, particularly of political ecology and critical environmentalism. Through philosophical analysis, explanation and interpretation, this paper explores an environmental democracy that would, on the one hand, preserve the basic constitutional principles of current democratic constitutional regimes, and, on the other hand, reconcile them with the current state of understanding in the Earth sciences concerning the vulnerability of the planetary system. In a sense, J. Habermas’s understanding of human rights characterizes the concept of environmental democracy as a realistic utopia. The author concludes by drawing up the imperative of sustainability, which he sees as a guiding organizing principle of institutions and public policies for the climatic, demographic and economic regime of the Anthropocene.

In my paper, I reconstruct Jerzy Wróblewski’s theory of interpretation. My goal is to show that this theory has the characteristics of a paradigmatic theory because of the importance of the presumption of common language, which is a fundamental element of this theory. This presumption is decisive in shaping the picture of interpretation and, consequently, gives the theory in question the status of a model theory defining a postulated model of legal interpretation. In the paper, I discuss various aspects of this presumption, highlighting its importance in preserving the principle of universal access to practical (legal) discourse. At the same time, I question the views that challenge this presumption by claiming that the language of law is a code accessible only to a cognitively privileged group of professional lawyers.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the paper was to discuss a function of passion in professional personal lives of eminent Cracow musicians. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The paper raises the problem of the role of passion in the process of shaping musical eminence, answers the question of the scope of experiencing it as well as it manifesting in activities of outstanding individuals. In conducted research and interpretations, the qualitative perspective and biographical method were applied. The leading technique was problem-concentrated qualitative interview, partially structured, carried out with ten eminent instrumentalists. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The theoretical basis for this reading of the experience of educational biographies was provided by the Model of Authentic Vocation of J. Weller and the Dualistic Model of Passion of A. Bonneville-Roussy, G. Lavigne and R. Vallerand. The interpretations of the research material described the topography of experiencing passion. RESEARCH RESULTS: The article describes autonomous passion associated with musical mastery, instrumental motivation to practice, as well as distinguishes important factors that determine the experience of passion, persistence or burnout (tenacity, ambition, community transfer, conflict of motives, work overload), and concretizes the qualities of musical passion of outstanding musicians: professionalization, love of music, integrity, creativity, strength and determination in pursuit of goals, as well as humility in the face of challenges. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Deciphering the senses and meanings that prominent Cracow musicians attributed to passion suggests that it was autonomous, harmonious and instrumental, motivated by the pursuit of mastery, and that the trajectories of the musicians’ professional biographies were a manifestation of a “professionalization of passion,” which formed the core of their educational experience and constituted and defined their life creed.

The aim of this paper is to propose a reinterpretation of the meaning of the lost colossus of Constantine the Great from the Forum of his name in Constantinople, in the light of the iconography of the emperor on the cameo from the cathedral in the Pomeranian town of Cammin. Although the gem was lost during the last war, it is known to us thanks to archival photographs and the plaster cast housed at Göttingen University. On this basis, Gerda Bruns associated the jewel with the statue of Constantine on the porphyry column in the New Rome, and her identification has since been widely accepted by the scholarly milieu. In recent years one has been able to observe growing popularity of this interpretation among researchers, who however refrain in their studies from pointing to the consequences of such a reconstruction of the statue’s form. The author of this paper points out that Constantine purposefully chose the iconographical type of Alexander-ktistes as a model for his own representation in order to allude to his great predecessor and the founder of a number of cities which bore his name. The iconography of the statue became then a part of the programme of the celebrations arranged on the occasion of the dedication of Constantinople, in which numerous references to Alexander played the key role. This new understanding of the colossus, placing its significance within the frames of political propaganda, better matches the actual historical circumstances and the ruler’s attitude towards Christendom than traditional interpretations which recognised the statue as Helios or Apollo, and thus introduced an incoherence — difficult to explain — in Constantine’s attitude towards the new religion. This cumbersome question, which baffled the inquisitive minds already in the Constantinople of the Byzantine era, will be considered unsubstantial if we correctly interpret the monument on the Forum solely in the political and propagandistic context.

Paul de Lacvivier This paper aims to highlight how the trial of Louis XVI expresses a complete inversion of the legal principles of Old Christian France, where the authority of the absolute King submits to superior customary and divine laws, against the Revolution, which makes the ‘general will’ a God allowing for unrestrained legal positivism. After recalling how the assassination of the King allowed the vicious circle of terror, the trial of Marie-Antoinette and the revolutionary trials, we propose an explanation of the legal principles that can lead to this kind of totalitarianism. To do so, we present some cases from 19th century Japan, which, when compared with the revolutionary trials and the pre-revolutionary Christian world, provide a key to understanding: the hierarchy of positive, natural and divine laws greatly explains how such and such a legal system can allow or not the justification of mass crimes or totalitarianism. Jason Morgan In his 2022 volume Common Good Constitutionalism, and in a series of essays and other works prior to the book’s release, Harvard Law School professor Adrian Vermeule advances a new vision for the American republic. Against the two dominant strains of constitutional interpretation in the United States, namely originalism and progressivism (“living constitutionalism”), Vermeule argues for common good constitutionalism, a return to the ius commune pursuit of that which is good for all in accordance with the natural law. While Vermeule’s work is ambitious and his intervention into originalist-progressivist debates welcome, a question remains: will common good constitutionalism be able to overcome America’s Enlightenment civil religion? In this paper, I consider the challenges which America’s Enlightenment civil religion poses to common good constitutionalism (and any other attempt to think past the Constitution from within a constitutional framework), concluding that common good constitutionalism, insofar as it is predicated on the pre-existing Constitution and deployed within the American politico-theological domain, cannot overcome America’s Enlightenment civil religion to effect the common good.

The term „Lublin Philosophical School” refers to the mode of philosophizing devised in the 1950’s at the Catholic University of Lublin. After a brief history, the paper first discusses some methodological features of this mode and the social role of philosophy as a self-awareness of culture. Employing the School’s philosophy, the paper then considers the issue of post-truth and that of the value-ladenness of science. The post-truth approach replaces evidence with emotions, and in consequence, argumentation is replaced with power. This in turn threatens the human person, her rationality and freedom. Admitting that science is value-laden and values are subjective leads to denying the cognitive status of science. Lublin philosophy offers such a concept of value and scientific knowledge which allows one to solve the problem created by the value-ladenness of science. Thus, the paper shows that the Lublin School’s philosophy can provide answers to contemporary problems and evaluate intellectual developments of culture.

The ‘migration’ of concepts from one language to another, which takes place in cultural exchange, frequently gives rise to changes in the target language, primarily involving the lexical field. The reception of the Romanist legal tradition in China has led to the formation of a specialized lexicon which, along with the translation and production of Roman law-related works, has been subject to constant growth. This kind of terminological transposition has often resulted in the emergence in Chinese of more than one translatant for the same Latin word. As a concrete example of this phenomenon, this paper aims at providing a synoptical overview of the rendering in Chinese of the concepts of dolus and culpa, two legal institutions also largely connected to the field of commercial law. The sources analyzed from a diachronic and contrastive perspective range from the earliest manuals of Roman law published in China at the beginning of the twentieth century to recent documents, translated or directly composed in Chinese. More specifically, this paper will try to answer the following questions: what is the historical evolution of the main terms used in Chinese to express the concepts of dolus and culpa? What are the criteria adopted by Chinese translators/authors in choosing these terms? What are the main features and issues related to the linguistic rendering of the two legal institutions? As for the results of this study, attention will be paid to one of the peculiarities of the linguistic rendering of the concept of culpa, that is the use of two different translatants: guoshi 过失 and guocuo 过错. At the same time, another aspect on which this paper will shed light is the existence of a plethora of translatants related to the concept of dolus (qizha 欺诈, guyi 故意, zhaqi 诈欺, etc.). In this sense, on the one hand, it will be shown how the presence of multiple translatants is acceptable and useful when they are used to express the different shades of meaning conveyed by dolus and culpa that cannot be rendered by means of one single translatant for each of these two notions; on the other hand, this paper will highlight the necessity of a higher homogeneity and standardization of the Chinese Romanist lexicon.

There is some debate among interpreters of Aquinas as to whether he attributed a doctrine of creation to Plato and Aristotle. Mark Johnson has noted many texts where Aquinas does appear to attribute to Plato and Aristotle an understanding of creation. Yet, an initial glance at Summa Theologiae I.44.2 would suggest he did not. This paper first examines what various interpreters of Aquinas have had to say on the matter. Secondly, it argues that Summa Theologiae I.44.2, taken in context with the proceeding article and De Potentia III.5, need not be read as denying such a doctrine to Plato and Aristotle. Thirdly, this paper concludes that because Plato and Aristotle do not actually possess doctrines of creation, they cannot be the chief sources for Aquinas’ own thought on this matter. Instead, to attribute creation to Plato and Aristotle, Aquinas interprets them through Avicenna. Thus, Avicenna is the chief source for Aquinas’ understanding of creation.

This study examines the concepts of rhetoric used in ancient times, using a process of research based upon “Interpretivist Research Philosophy”. Common thinking among rhetoricians and philosophers in general argues that one concept of rhetoric was utilized. This paper argues that there were at least three concepts of rhetoric known in Antiquity. Each was unique in its own right and contributed to what was to be a new body of knowledge. Research conclusions stem from a study of the works of ancient authors, including Plato and Aristotle, and from schools of philosophies, including the writings of Stoics and Sophists. The reviewed literature supports the thesis presented in this paper that at least three concepts of rhetoric were known and used.