In Horizons of Contemporaneity, Dean Komel focuses thematically on understanding meaning, a topic he discussed already in Features of Sense (2016) and Totalitarium (2019). In his new book he conceives it as a way thinking in parallels. This allows him to develop a hermeneutic topic that goes beyond the framework of philosophical logic in the parallel of thought and word. Another defining topic pertaining to the interweaving of horizons of experience is the parallel of being in time and space. The central question – What is happening with our modernity? – arises in the context of unfolding the contemporaneity of the cognitive context as possible bases for the shaping of humanistic knowledge. Humanistic knowledge is never value-neutral insofar as it pays attention to the meaning of a cognition, action or creation for us, and is further defined by the transmission of meaning in language. Komel significantly reveals both the value and communicative aspect of understanding meaning, first in the context of humanistic, and then in broader social discussion. Regarding the latter, he considers that the more it forces information into the centre of topicality, the more the form of modernity deviates from it. In this way, he does not want to challenge the importance of social criticism, which from the Enlightenment onwards was set precisely from the point of view of the contemporary; rather, the question is this: On which grounds and from which horizon are criteria set? Furthermore: What fills out this space if the reference to it does not go beyond emptied-out meaning and nihilism? Is it possible to oppose humanism in another sense? The attempt to answer these questions is presented in the concluding chapters of the book in parallels of contemplation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 56809475
The article, on the basis of a comparative and interdisciplinary research of a case study of vengeful murder and acquittal from 1401 in Landar (Slavia Veneta or Slavia friulana), analyses the transformation of the social system of control and the exercise of the justice on the turn from the Middle Ages to the Modern period. The case study clearly shows the characteristics of the common practice of dispute resolution system and juridicial trials, that allowed vengeance if the side of the perpetrator was not prepared to negotiate for peace making. Although the present case already shows elements characteristic for judicial proceedings of the Modern period, the judicial process and the judgment itself have been conducted in accordance with customary law. The article also comparatively shows how the legislation changed in the early modern period, with special regard to the events in the Holy Roman Empire and the Venetian Republic. In addition to fiscal and military reorganization, the centralization of justice was of fundamental importance in the eff orts of European rulers to establish supreme control over the entire territory under their jurisdiction. In order to achieve this goal, however, the rulers had fi rst to restrict, by means of legislation and other coercive means, the arbitrary confl ict resolution system by custom. For this purpose, they established a judicial system, i. e. punitive control over both, individual, infl uential families and clans, as well as the population in general.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1531525
The Lost Memory of Vipava: Major General Johann von Maasburg and his Family is dedicated to recouping the lost legacy of a high-ranking officer of the Austro-Hungarian army who was also a painter with half a century of links to Vipava. The family of his wife Rosa Tribuzzi had been here since the mid-18th century. It was in Vipava that the couple raised their sons, instilled in them a love for Slovenian places and people, and it was from Vipava that they saw their sons leave for the Great War. Between the time of his retirement in 1909 and his death in 1923, Vipava was the centre of Maasburg’s life. He left a diary about it, which he wrote also during the war. At war’s end, he lived through the disintegration of the Habsburg Monarchy, the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and the annexation of Vipava to Italy. Since 1916, that is, after Italy had joined the Entente, Maasburg had opposed and condemned the threat that Slovenian places would be annexed to Italy. The possibility of annexing Slovenian places to Italy, which became a threat after Italy’s entry into the war on the side of the Entente, was something he rejected and condemned from 1916. His widow Rosa and their son Willi, who survived World War I as an active officer (their younger son, also an officer, was killed in the war), lived to see the end of the next world war, in Vipava. Here they witnessed the events and measures that followed the outbreak of freedom.
COBISS.SI-ID: 56939011
This book by Dr. Bernard Nežmah is a reflection on journalism, its history, genres and the consequences stemming from a paucity of the humanities in mass media. Nežmah’s analyses prove that without humanistic breadth and a complex approach to understanding the individual and society, and above all without the tendency to discover the truth, a journalist simply cannot carry out their professional mission of making it possible for citizens to have comprehensive knowledge and understanding of social events. The work, thus, has not only scholarly weight but also wider potential for raising awareness of key media reporting issues and acceptance thereof. It addresses issues that are constantly unfolding in within a humanistic horizon, therefore inviting dialogue.
COBISS.SI-ID: 304320256
Since Anton Korošec was both Catholic priest and the foremost political leader in Slovenia for more than twenty years, he is often regarded as a living anachronism. But already a quick comparison with the contemporary European situation shows that his positon was not that peculiar at all. In the beginning of the twentieth century, Catholic politicians and priests among them in Europe operated in at least four fundamentally diff erent types of cultural environments. The fi rst type was characterized by the undisputed role of the Catholic church in the society, to the point that a separate Catholic political movement was deemed almost unnecessary. This holds true particularly for Ireland and Poland. The second type comprised countries where where Catholic majority was taken for granted, but Catholic political parties had strong rivals of liberal and socialist provenience (e. g. Belgium or Austria). The third group of environments was marked by a traditional Catholic majority, opposed by a strong anticlerical current in politics which used to dominate (Italy, Czechoslovakia, France). In the fourth group of countries, Catholics only represented a strong minority of population and were met by a strong tradition of anti-Catholic prejudices (Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland and also Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes after 1918). Contrary to the assumption that priests-politicians are mainly a feature of East Central Europe during the fi rst half of the twentieth century, they were pretty common in all of the mentioned areas. The political biographies of the Austrian chancellor Ignaz Seipel and Czechoslovak prime minister Jan Šramek bore particularly striking resemblances to that of Anton Korošec.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1537669