Abstract: Chairs, cups, books, and utensils populate our everyday lives and are protagonists of much of our ordinary aesthetic experience. It would seem natural, therefore, for the philosophy of design and everyday aesthetics to constitute intersecting fields of inquiry. Yet the contemporary philosophical debate on the aesthetics of design, articulated through three…
Abstract: I will defend a thesis about the proper way to aesthetically appreciate instances of design that incorporate natural elements. My main case studies will be drawn from the work of fashion designer Alexander McQueen, such as a bodice incorporating mussel shells from the Voss collection (Spring/Summer 2001). I will defend a version of cognitivism about the proper aesthetic…
Abstract: This essay proposes a visualist ontological framework for understanding design, rooted fundamentally in the theories of emergent properties and affordances. Opposing functionalist and intentionalist paradigms, the framework underscores design’s visuality and relational engagement as its core ontological elements. The concepts of emergent properties and affordances are presented as deeply interconnected, reflecting their philosophical…
Abstract: The aim of my paper is to provide a phenomenological outline of solidarity understood as a social phenomenon. I will defend the thesis that solidarity cannot be properly understood either as a concept, or as some institutionalized mechanism grounded in a legal-political order. It precedes and grounds such orders. Solidarity belongs to the social realm within which it can be properly understood only as an…
Abstract: This paper discusses the liberation process of Lithuanian society that led to the restoration of independence in 1991, followed by three decades of integration into Western democratic liberal economies. It focuses on the predominant emotional responses and experiences of Lithuanian society as it faced historical choices – such as participating in the constitutional referendum of 1992…
Abstract: This paper offers a Latvian perspective on the challenges faced by Latvia in its efforts to create a united society after its independence was restored in 1991. Despite corrections made to policies and the paraphrasing of the approaches, social integration in Latvian society has been evaluated as having failed. The renewed identification with democratic values has also brought along…
Abstract: The rapid development of AI technologies will bring about revolutionary changes in the labor market. When considering the possible impact of AI based technologies on the labor market it is important to consider the region-specific cultural differences in Europe, especially those differences which are relevant to understanding the attitude(s) toward work in the region in question….
Abstract: This article, written at the intersection of social philosophy and anthropology, explores a mode of self-identification found in the narratives of the older generation of Lithuania who experienced or only witnessed the coercion of an occupational regime. This mode is named the “weak identification” and prescribed to forms of resilience. It is evident in life…
Abstract: The article undertakes a critical examination of the relevance of interpreting Belarusian identity through the conceptual framework of being “in-between” East and West. In the aftermath of the 2020 protests in Belarus and the onset of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the author reevaluates Ignat Abdziralovich’s early twentieth century theory of “in-betweenness”…
Abstract: The aim of this essay is to answer the question of what philosophy has to offer for the de-traumatization of unreflected history, or the historical sediments of the undifferentiated continuum of our consciousness. Often the historical sediments of everyday anxieties and imaginings have never been subjected to proper critical reflection, and the official…