Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Volume 8 / No. 2 / 1998
Jozef Kelemen
Department of Applied Informatics, University of Economics,
852 35 Bratislava, Slovakia and
Institute of Computer Science, Silesian University, 746 01 Opava,
Czechia
Rationality has accompanied people since they have set out
on their journey through history. Every age perceives the route
in a different way and attaches a different importance to it.
The following lines are an attempt at introducing one of the possible
views of rationality in the modern age, the age we have lived
in since the advent of rationalism. It will concern specific views
of rationality dictated by the struggles for formally correct
accounts of what we observe in human actions and in organized
communities, economic units in particular, and the struggles for
technical reconstruction of rational systems we meet in the area
of advanced technologies, for example in artificial intelligence
and robotics. I will ultimately try to find connections between
these modern approaches to rationality and the possible understanding
of rationality in the period, the character of which is discussed
within the framework of postmodernism and which will come only
after the modern age has been internally exhausted.
pp. 101-111
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Eduard Kostolanský
Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Faculty
of Natural Science, University of Sts Cyrill and Methodius, Nám.
J. Herdu 2, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia
Information technology (IT) penetrates into all areas of human
activity. The automated analysis of literary texts aimed at problem
identification and problem solving in these texts is a unique
challenge to IT. The success of IT in the analysis of the works
of art would confirm IT to be a breakthrough in technology
also in the direction of the integration of natural, technical,
and artistic knowledge and their optimum use in the evolution
of society. The complexity of computer modelling of literary texts
and the demand for the formation of extensive corpora require
concentrated efforts which might be coordinated, for example,
by UNESCO.
pp. 112-120
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Ladislav Franek
Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Konventná 13, 813 64 Bratislava
and Department of Romance Languages, Faculty of Arts, Comenius
University, Gondova 2, 818 01 Bratislava, Slovakia
The article analyses an important essay by O. Paz `The Labyrinth
of Solitude' from several points of view - moral, philosophical-historical
or cultural-anthropological. The author uses the notion of national
identity for a wider explanation of mythological and universal
interpretation of human existence which enables Paz "to become
someone else within one's own self" on a psychoanalytical
basis. In this sense he observes especially his bonds with German
Romantic poetry and philosophy (Hegel, Goethe, etc.). As he points
out, from a literary point of view it is important that Paz
goes beyond formalist and structuralist principles towards catching
individual signs of the spiritual culture of nations (cf. his
book `Shadows of Works', 1996). To a considerable extent
it enables us to fruitfully connect determinism with dialectics,
scholarly view with the poetic view one whereby, he also fulfils
a deeper methodological framework of the term historical
poetics.
pp. 121-136
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Alexander I. Sich
Faculty of History, J. Fedkovich State University, Kotsiubinsky
Street, 273032 Chernivtsy, Ukraine
The author states that there is a radical transformation
going on in the national historiography. He also states that some
historians inadequately call this transformation period as critical.
According to him, the reputation of the historians' profession
is in crisis. Teaching of history is not about telling fortunes,
it is about encouraging man to think, about education of the spirit,
and about the formation of a citizen's opinion of things.
If this is true, then history will help us to have a better
life, to be more tolerant, and to understand other people.
pp. 137-146
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Rudolf Dupkala
Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Prešov University,
17. novembra 1, 080 78 Prešov, Slovakia
Emil Višòovský
Department of Social and Biological Communication, Slovak Academy
of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 813 64 Bratislava,
Slovakia
An overview of the main features of the development and the
character of Slovak philosophy from early times to the nineteenth
century is provided. The authors stress the European and Christian
cultural context of Slovak philosophical thought. The development
of culture in the territory of what is today Slovakia gives safe
evidence of the tradition of philosophy existing there. Slovak
philosophers have always had knowledge of and scholarship in Western
philosophy which they not only accepted but also interpreted in
their own way and used for their own purposes.
pp. 147-160
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Viktor Krupa
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of
Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
Slavomír Ondrejoviè
¼udovít Štúr Linguistics Institute,
Slovak Academy of Sciences, Panská 26, 813 64 Bratislava,
Slovakia
This article is a reaction to the paper published by a team
of Hungarian linguists concerning the Slovak language law. In
the opinion of V. Krupa and S. Ondrejoviè language planning
and language policy can and often is influenced not only by explicit
legal means but also by implicit and much less transparent measures.
The latter may sometimes cause more serious difficulties to linguistic
(or ethnic) minorities than explicit laws that are much easier
to criticize. When judging language laws, one has to take into
account not only their wording but also their implementation in
everyday life.
pp. 161-169
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Ladislav Deák
Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
The events which led to the arbitration verdict of Germany
and Italy in Vienna on November 2, 1938 are elucidated on the
basis of domestic and foreign sources. By this verdict Czecho-Slovakia
had to cede part of its territory to Hungary. The author concentrated
on the shaping of the Magyar revisionist policy, its particular
manifestations in 1938 and the cooperation of Hungary, Germany,
Italy, and Poland with respect to the Czecho-Slovak Republic.
On the basis of the conclusions of the Munich Agreement, the author
points to the strategy of Hungary in the enforcement of territorial
demands during negotiations with Czecho-Slovakia in October 1938
and its share in the preparation of the Vienna verdict. The Vienna
arbitration is studied from the perspective of both the solving
of the minority issue between the two countries and the Diktat
of Munich, of which the Vienna verdict was part and a direct
consequence.
pp. 170-181
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Andrej Tušer
Department of Journalism, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University,
Štúrova 9, 811 02 Bratislava, Slovakia
The second part of the study analyses the development of individual
subsystems of the press (regional, district, town, and company).
The regional and local press is estimated within the context of
the structural changes in Czechoslovak society after World War
II during the past more than 50 years. Special emphasis is laid
on the period after November 1989, when the publication of the
means of mass communication, their content and typology changed
substantially. Attention is also devoted to the situation after
the introduction of the new territorial division of Slovakia in
1996.
pp. 182-191
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O¾ga Danglová
Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Jakubovo
nám. 12, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
The social and economic transformation in the post-socialist
countries including Slovakia has brought the legitimization of
poverty. The paper deals with poverty in the agrarian milieu of
southern Slovakia and with the manifestation of poverty in material
and social deprivation. The author has tried to find an answer
to the question whether it is caused by external factors - shortcomings
of the social and economic system, whether it is individually
conditioned or, finally, the consequence of both kinds of factors.
pp. 193-200
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