Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Volume 8 / No. 1 / 1998
Ján Szelepcsényi
University of Sts Cyrill and Methodius, Institute for Social Communication,
Ulica J. Herdu 2, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia
The transformation of a post-communist society is mostly regarded as
a change in proprietary relations and the principles of economic life.
Changes in the thinking of citizens are more relevant. And a new attitude
to the history of their country is needed. Without this evaluation and
re-evaluation of the history it is impossible to revive the basic social
and moral values conditioning the introduction of democratic principles
in all areas of the social life. Some basic questions and tasks of the
contemporary historiography in Slovakia are discussed.
pp. 3-20
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Ivan Štúr
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Gondova
2, 818 01 Bratislava, Slovakia
The science of psychology is horizontally associated with biology, which
enables it to elucidate psychological phenomena, and with social sciences
exploring a wide range of human behaviour and interpersonal relations.
The author tries to justify other dimensions of psychology in the vertical
direction. The first is philosophy, as logical and noetic transcendency
of psychology, supporting and looking for the meaning of human life. On
the opposite side, there is the domain of art representing, within the
Crocean hierarchy, the roots of saying yes to life. The closeness of introspection
and poetry but also of clinical psychological evaluation and a literary
critical study means real enrichment of the psychological science.
Psychology integrates in this approach the efforts of humankind to date,
sees human beings within a broader context and much more beautiful proportions,
focusing primarily on the way individuals fulfil their earthly life time.
pp. 21-28
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Viera Bačová
Institute of Social Sciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Karpatská
5, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
The author argues that the content of the concept of "national
identity" is determined by the way how we construe "nation".
She submits two ways of construing the nation as basic ideal types: primordial
versus instrumental. In primordial terminology the nation is primarily
the "ethno-nation", i.e. a community which unites individuals
through "the same blood and common fate". The instrumental way
of construing the nation stresses the pragmatic and situational aspects
of large communities. Thus it approaches the political understanding of
the nation. The beliefs about the character of the nation prevailing within
a particular community, determine the identification of the member of this
community with the nation. Terminological chaos governs this area of life
as well as research on it. The concept of "nationalism" can serve
as an example: it denotes loyalty to the state as an instrumental political
formation. Simultaneously, however, within the ideology of nationalism,
the state is introduced as a primordial community. The aim of this paper
is: 1. the analysis of the ways of construing the "nation" as
a form of social reality by individuals; 2. the use of the construing about
the nation in public, cultural, and political discourses; 3. consequences
of the ways of construing the nation for the national identity of individuals.
pp. 29-43
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Andrej Tušer
Department of Journalism, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Štúrova
9, 811 02 Bratislava, Slovakia
The introduction of the article is devoted to a typological description
of the regional and local press in Slovakia, taking into account the theoretical
opinions of foreign experts on journalism on this subsystem. It is assessed
from the perspective of territory, effect and frequency. Socio-professional
and universal regionality and localness are demonstrated on an etymological
basis. The historical part, against the background of which the subsystem
of the periodical press is studied, is divided into several developmental
stages till the establishment of the Slovak republic in 1993. The focus
of this part is on the development of the regional and local press in Slovakia
from the earliest times to the end of World War II in 1945.
pp. 44-56
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Erika Lalíková
Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts,
Comenius University, Gondova 2, 818 01 Bratislava, Slovakia
The aim of the Philosophical Almanac, as the first Slovak journal, was
to fill the gap in the cultural life at that time, to bring expert solutions
to different philosophical questions, to inform and contact the readers
with modern European philosophical streams. The journal also proclaimed
the effort to direct not only intellectuals, culture, and science, but
also the Slovak nation. The characteristic feature of the Almanac was the
plurality of opinions based on different approaches to philosophical work
itself, closely connected with the political standpoints of individual
authors. The problems discussed in the journal covered the area of closely
specified philosophical issues, articles based on natural sciences, philosophy,
logic, the history of Slovak philosophy, sociology, psychology, etc.
The most frequent ideological-philosophical themes discussed in the Philosophical
Almanac were disputes about nationalism, its ideological and political
function and its relation to humanism. The summit of these efforts was
the discussion on nationalism published in the third issue of the fourth
volume. The reason for its inception was the need to clarify attitudes
to nationalism and racism in relation to national views and humanism. The
active contributors to this discussion were Professor Dr. A. Jurovský,
Dr. A.J. Šurjanský, Dr. A. Hirner and Dr. J. Dieška.
The author gives a review and interpretation of the discussion.
pp. 57-67
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Eva Riečanská
Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Jakubovo nám. 12,
813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
The western part of the state of Pennsylvania and the city of Pittsburgh
as its industrial and administrative centre were the areas of an extensive
influx of immigrants from the territory of Slovakia (formerly part of Austria-Hungary,
and pre-WW II Czechoslovakia). The immigrants settled in this area created
the basis of formation of Slovak ethnic communities, which have left their
imprint on the life-style and cultural identification of the next generation
of American-born descendants of the Slovak immigrants. According to the
US federal censuses of 1980 and 1990 the area of Pittsburgh and adjacent
counties is still, besides Cleveland, Oh. and Chicago, Ill. a territory
with a significant portion of the population declaring Slovak ancestry.
pp. 68-84
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Eva Maliti
Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Konventná
13, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia
The Russian symbolist Andrei Bely was one of the pioneers of experimental
aesthetics. Bely's creative method in the novel Petersburg was based on
his perception of symbolism, which he associated with ethics and religion.
To create the world of the novel, he used symbolic-anthroposophical artistic
approaches. The world of the novel differs from reality, which is, according
to non-materialistic philosophies, apart from God, because it is created
by God. It is as if the symbolic reality of Petersburg were divine, as
if it should have been God or God-Devil, here represented by the author's
subject. Steiner's deity, the most universal being of the human ego, so-called
manas comes to life. It embodies the author's anthroposophical "ego".
The text of the novel, which is simultaneously the author's world, was
created in the disharmonious relation of the author's subject to external
reality. It can be perceived as a form of the occult text that became popular
in twentieth-century literature.
pp. 85-96
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pp. 97-98
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