e - Social Sciences

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Ján Šimko - Dušan Šlosár

The monograph is dealing with the issue of homosexuality and homophobia in the context of social work and it is divided into five chapters, which are devoted to individual fields of the tackled issue. The first chapter is describing the phenomenon of homosexuality in the society; the focus is put on human sexuality and sexual orientation. The following chapter is clarifying the formation of homosexual identity in connection to coming out and it describes its frequently utilized models. The third chapter is devoted to the concepts of heteronormativity and heterosexism in the social context.

Furthermore, the chapter is dealing with the formation of attitudes towards this issue from the point of view of religion and masculinity. Another chapter is describing homophobia as the result of heteronormativity, stereotypes and prejudice.

In the last chapter, the authors are introducing selected social work theories dealing with the homosexual minority, the approaches to LGBT+ community and suggestions towards elimination of homophobia within the social work environment.

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Marián Gladiš - Lucia Jasinská (eds.)

This peer-reviewed collection of papers is a publication output of the scientific colloquium named The Magic of Sounds, which was organized by the Department of Slovak Studies, Slavonic Philologies and Communication at the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, and by the Košice Branch of the Slovak Linguistic Society at the Ľudovít Štúr Linguistic Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of birth of Associate Professor PhDr. Jozef Liška, PhD., the founder of the Slovak logopaedics.

Participants focused their papers on the analysis of the linguistic and speech therapy work of J. Liška, his contribution to Slovak dialectology and orthoepy, presented him as an Anglicist, and they also dealt with the audio aspect of children's speech, exact methods of disturbances and low voice quality measuring, or machine speech processing.

An interpretative paper of the documentary They Will Speak Well, a socially important piece of film work, which was made in 1958 under the supervision of J. Liška, is also included in the proceedings.

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Margita Mesárošová - Miroslava Köverová - Soňa Lovašová

Intervention Program for Supporting Self-Care in Helping Professions: "How Do I Take Care of Myself?" The intervention program "How Do I Take Care of Myself?" was developed as part of the research project APVV14-0921, "Self-Care as a Factor in Coping with the Negative Consequences of Engaging in Helping Professions." Its uniqueness lies in being created based on specific research outputs from the program's authors and project.

In the first chapter, the authors offer insights into the preparation of the intervention program, justifying its theoretical foundations, methods, and specifics of the program participants. They also provide an overview of research on the effectiveness of various intervention programs aimed at reducing the negative consequences of helping and enhancing self-care and other positive effects of engaging in helping professions. Subsequent chapters focus on a detailed analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention program "How Do I Take Care of Myself?" and its comparison with the effectiveness of other programs, which were differently focused, targeted at different populations of helping professionals, and had different theoretical and practical orientations and foundations. Most of these studies demonstrated positive changes only in isolated cases, due to various methodological shortcomings often related to practical application.

What differentiates the intervention program presented in this monograph is the participation of helping professionals actively practicing in the social field, unlike most intervention programs compiled and validated for students of these professions. The student population, being more accessible to researchers, allows for better methodology, including a larger number of participants, as well as experimental manipulation and group balancing. In the case of participants in the validation of the program "How Do I Take Care of Myself?", it involved practitioners who are engaged in the daily work process and completed training during their work breaks, which placed high demands on balancing their work and personal tasks. We believe that the effects we discovered during the validation of the effectiveness of the presented intervention program were not always clearly mathematically graspable but were evident from individual feedback.

We present the text of this monograph to the professional public with the aim of highlighting the benefits, limitations of the intervention program, as well as inspiring researchers and practitioners to further work in this area.

Authors

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Pavol Kačmár - Margita Mesárošová - Ladislav Lovaš (eds.)

This publication introduces a selected body of papers presented at scientific conference School psychology: History and perspectives that took place on October 17 and 18 in Košice.

The conference commemorated two important jubilees. The first was the birth anniversary of prof. Ján Hvozdík (100 years), the second jubilee was related to the opening of the study of psychology at the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik (50 years).

The contributions have undergone peer review.

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Jitka Dobbersteinová - Simona Hudecová - Zuzana Stožická

Educational Text for the Course Publishing Advisor

Effective communication is crucial for the advancement of science and society. Publishing the results of scientific work in a way that makes them credible, visible amidst the information flood, and accessible to everyone who might need them is easy for some, but harder than the research itself for others.

Especially early-career scientists have trouble navigating the complex, peculiar, and sometimes illogical landscape of scientific publishing, shaped by the diversity of scientific disciplines, historical decisions, technological developments, financial pressures, compromises, and the unimaginable amount of voluntary work that authors, reviewers, and many editors contribute to the system without expecting compensation. Those who were not fortunate enough to have a well-informed mentor can accept the helping hand of a librarian-publishing advisor.

A guide through the world of scientific publishing will lead the reader from the dawn of the first scientific journals to the latest open publishing platforms. It follows the path of a scientific article from conception and writing, through finding the right journal and the challenges of peer review, to publication, evaluation of science, management of electronic information resources, and the vision of the future of libraries in the digital age.

Cover author: Ing. Pavol Martinický

Publisher: Vydavateľstvo otvorenej vedy, Centrum vedecko-technických informácií SR, Bratislava

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Štefan Jusko

The goal of the monograph is to highlight the significant problem of interpreting the Socratic question, as its approach represents a method of interpreting the history of philosophy, specifically in our case, the interpretation of Socrates and Plato. The Socratic question can be grasped in diametrically different ways, as shown by Patočka and Nietzsche, among others. The former aligns with Socrates and innovatively updates his question for the present. The latter is ambivalent towards Socrates but ultimately labels him a decadent.

In the first part of the monograph, Patočka's characterization of human existence is presented, which he formulates as unified and morally firm. Patočka interprets the Socratic question as care for the soul, for its well-being, without deriving the concept of good from something positively defined but from the whole world, which can only be defined negatively due to its constant openness. This sphere of negativity is for Patočka something immensely positive because transcendence lifts humans from relative goods to the overall meaning, making them morally capable in the true sense. The good, i.e., the requirement for a surge, for a turn of humans from the world of things to the whole world, is for him a program that Socrates first formulated through his knowing ignorance.

The second part of the work is dedicated to Nietzsche's concept based on the non-unified nature of human existence, which is not derived from the whole world or overall meaning but from situational meaning. Nietzsche strives to prove that in every situation, human existence is exposed to two opposing perspectives, between which it is impossible to decide which is correct. He concludes that both perspectives are equally valid and mutually conditioned, meaning that the opposite of good, what threatens meaning, is a beneficial condition for situational meaning. He labels this level as immoral, as a sphere where human existence creates meaning outside the thinking of good and evil in opposition.

The conclusion of the work is open because, as it turns out, we do not have a common denominator that could decide on the correctness of one or the other concept. Precisely in this lies the fact that the Socratic question remains a serious philosophical problem even today.

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Mária Bačíková - Anna Janovská

The textbook "Foundations of Methodology in Pedagogical-Psychological Research" is primarily intended for students of teaching academic subjects, but it will enrich anyone who needs to familiarize themselves with research methodology focusing on psychological and pedagogical sciences. In the textbook, students become acquainted with the basic principles of conducting research, the process of research implementation, and the basic methods of quantitative or qualitative approaches. The examples used in the textbook are mostly focused on research conducted in a school environment.

By mastering the basic knowledge presented in the textbook, the reader will be able to conduct simple research in school conditions. At the same time, understanding the principles of research methodology helps with the critical evaluation of information from various sources. In preparing the textbook, we utilized our long-term experience with teaching the subject of research methodology, as well as with implementing many research projects. We believe that the simple language of the textbook and the abundance of practical examples will help students understand the basics of such complex issues as research methodology.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the students of the Faculty of Arts and Natural Sciences at P. J. Šafárik University in Košice who attended the course "Foundations of Methodology in Pedagogical-Psychological Research" in the previous academic year for their inspiration, constructive comments on previous versions of the text, and ideas (or mistakes) that we drew upon in the textbook. We also thank other students who allowed us to use examples from their final theses in the textbook. The conclusion of the work is open because, as it turns out, we do not have a common denominator for both concepts that could decide on the correctness of one or the other concept. It is precisely in this that the Socratic question remains a serious philosophical problem today.

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Ivica Hajdučeková et al.  

The four-year grant project VEGA No. 1/0736/15, titled Methodological Approaches to the (Re)Interpretation of Works of Slovak and World Literature (led by Prof. PhDr. Ján Gbúr, CSc.), conducted at the Department of Slovak Studies, Slavonic Philologies, and Communication at the Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice between 2015 and 2018, yielded several outputs during its duration. In addition to individual scientific studies published in journals both domestically and internationally, the project resulted in: A proceedings volume from the international scientific conference Text in Contexts: Text in Interdisciplinary Interpretations (2018). A scientific monograph titled Spirituality in the (Re)Interpretation of Slovak Literary Works (2016). The collaboration culminated in two key complementary publications forming an interconnected whole:

Methodological Inspirations in Literary Research I (a collection of selected lectures and abstracts).

Methodological Inspirations in Literary Research II (a monograph).

An electronic collection of abstracts and video recordings from ongoing lecture colloquia—featuring notable figures from Slovak and Czech academia—and the scientific monograph were conceptually aligned, as evidenced by their shared titles differentiated numerically. This approach adhered to the project's aim of continuing a tradition of precision in literary research while emphasizing methodological pluralism. It also sought to promote contemporary, generationally diverse research within the academic environment of Eastern Slovakia, historically linked to Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

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Renáta Orosová - Lucia Diheneščíková - Katarína Petríková - Lívia Nemcová

Proceedings of Abstracts from the International Scientific Conference: Education and Training 2018: The 21st Century Educator and Their Perspectives in Educational Practice

The international scientific conference focuses on issues related to education and training in primary, secondary, and higher education institutions from the perspective of educators.

It emphasizes the current state and future perspectives of 21st-century educators in educational practice, addressing pedagogical and sociological aspects of education within foundational educational institutions. Additionally, it explores contemporary aspects of pre-service teacher preparation.

The conference is aimed at researchers, young university lecturers, doctoral students, as well as professional and educational practitioners. Its goal is to present the educator—whether a teacher, social pedagogue, or special educator—in a modern perspective, highlighting their essential collaboration in the context of education. Furthermore, it seeks to stimulate discussions on pressing issues within the fields of education and training in light of the current situation in the education sector.

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Lucia Tóthová - Dušan Šlosár

The publication "Manifestations of Radicalism and Extremism in Social Relations" is an input analysis of the individual areas that the authors want to focus on in their research activities in the study of radicalism and extremism. The context of the study is in the possibility of social work in influencing radical and extremist tendencies in those areas that we can designate as working fields of social work.

The authors of the individual papers focus on the theoretical definition of extremism and radicalism, types and forms of extremism, factors affecting the formation of the radical and extremist thoughts, focusing on specific target groups (especially youth) and the role of social work in the issue of radicalism and extremism, and they also represent the results of research in the field.

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Renáta Orosová (executive editor)

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The scientific-professional journal Edukácia focuses on issues of education and upbringing in primary, secondary, and higher education. It emphasizes the current state and perspectives of educational practice, current aspects of pre-graduate teacher training, social pedagogy, special education, as well as pedagogical and psychological aspects of education in basic educational institutions from the perspective of the broader pedagogical community. It is intended for researchers, young university teachers, doctoral students, as well as professional and pedagogical staff, with the aim of presenting trends in education and stimulating discussion on current issues in the presented areas of upbringing and education.

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Veronika Vasiľová - Soňa Lovašová

The formation of social work as a scientific discipline is not a completed process because of with changes in society also change social problems that need to be identified and analyzed with the intention to develop methodological solutions aimed at preventing and interventing these social problems.For this reason, the field of social work as such is constantly expanding, as its dynamic nature makes it possible to respond to emerging social problems and react to the needs of society.

Social work in the school environment is a functioning science field abroad.In the conditions of the Slovak Republic, this area of social work is still missing.Therefore, the monograph deals with the possibilities of social work in the school environment in Slovakia. 

The monograph is primarily intended for the professionals working in the field of social work and in the third sector with children and youth.

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Tomáš Dvorský - Lucia Laczkó - Mária Petriková  (eds.)

The collection of articles from the VII. International Scientific Conference for Students and Young Scientists, organized by the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, in cooperation with the Res Publica Civic Association the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, held on 17 May 2019 in Košice.

The aim of this publication, entitled The Turning Eights, is to point out the importance of the years ending with number eight, which have significantly affected historical development and appear to be justified in the current political context.

The almanac consists of 11 articles, which are primarily in the Slovak language. The individual contributions deal with aspects of national and foreign policies that are united in theme called The Turning Eightswith the individual interest of each author.

The topics of the almanac are the municipal elections, the position of municipalities at the public administration system, development in self-governing regions and the non-governmental organizations. The presented publication also contains articles that deal with topics in specific countries, such as China, Israel and Russia.

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Margita Mesárošová - Jozef Bavoľár - Miriam Slavkovská 

The current situation in the world education system, which declares the need to educate students for knowledge society, for improving the graduate employability is behind the motivation of authors to address competencies and key competencies for the knowledge society.

The authors present theoretical and empirical investigations based on the application of scientific methods of competency assessment and the use of contemporary scientific paradigms. The starting point is the concept of competencies in the context of current approaches of scientific psychology, which resonates in the official documents of the European Union and has been elaborated and enriched by the authors. The monograph focuses on a selected set of competencies, namely: competence to act as a self-regulated person, self-development, decision-making competencies, social and metacognitive competencies in the context of motivation. Knowledge about nature, the structure of competencies are presented, as well as their relations with personal and environmental variables.

The effort of the authors is also aimed at making available knowledge about the possibilities of assessing these competencies using current methods. Authors communicate the results of the creation and verification of competency assessment methods. The implementation of the research results presented in the monograph is perspective in the education and counseling of the target group of university students.

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Lenka Lukáčová - Eva Žiaková

The burnout syndrome in the simplest sense is a state of total physical and psychological exhaustion. Its cyclical course may be misleading, often underestimated and neglected on the part of a burned-out individual, as well as by its surroundings. The neglection of warning signals strengthens the field of its occurrence and impact.

Monography is one of the methods with which we strive to draw attention to the problem of burnout syndrome in the performance of a helping profession. Based on this, we have focused on determining the frequency of occurrence of burnout syndrome in assisting professions based on predetermined risk factors (specific profesion, length of practice, motivators) in order to verify, confirm or refute  predefined factors. The subject of this research was also to examine the correlation between the aforementioned factors, the quality of professional life and the strategies for managing stress and stress situations.

The monography is intended for helping profesions e.g. social workers, nurses, doctors etc. We also believe that, this monography will be also benefit for a wider range of helping professions, as well for all those involved in the his problematics.

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Ivica Hajdučeková - Peter Getlík (eds.)

Proceedings of Selected Lectures and Abstracts

Grant project VEGA No. 1/0736/15 Methodological Basis of Literary (re)interpretation in Slovak and World Literature (the head of the project: prof. PhDr. Ján Gbúr, CSc.), whose realization lasted for four years (2015 – 2018) at the Department of Slovak Studies, Slavonic Philologies and Communication of Faculty of Arts of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, brought several lecture events with the participation of experts from Slovak and Czech academical space. The original and progressively accomplishing project goal was to continue the tradition of exactness and support its implementation into our everyday scientific thinking and literary-scientific exploration. Each of fourteen invited lectures was a unique, professionally inspiring and humanly enriching meeting.

On that account there is a nontraditional project output: the proceedings of selected lectures and abstracts (abstracts were translated into English language by Mgr. Dominika Petáková, internal postgraduate student of literary science at Department of Slovak Studies, Slavonic Philologies and Communication) titled Methodological Inspirations in the Research of Literary Science I., which is intended for academical and study purposes at universities. The topics of the lectures were completed successively according to interest and demands of research team and current scientific research of invited guests.

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Vladimír Lichner - Dušan Šlosár

Issues of punishment are directly linked to a state’s criminal policy, which is an inseparable part of its social policy. Historically, the state has held a unique dominant position in the realm of punishment. Once the conditions for imposing a penalty are met, the state fulfills its obligation by sentencing through independent courts. However, it does not address questions of satisfaction, which belong to the victim. The victim may be a specific physical person or legal entity that suffered harm due to the criminal act. This harm simultaneously affects civil society as a whole. The state prioritizes its duty to punish and decide on the matter over compensating the harmed individual or civil society.

By mediation in criminal cases, we mean extrajudicial facilitation of resolving disputes between the offender and the harmed party, with the assistance and personal participation of a mediator. The mediator, as an independent and impartial person, helps parties identify their interests and supports them in finding shared, practical, and realistic solutions to the points causing their conflict. Probation refers to monitoring, supervising the accused, defendant, or convicted individual, as well as providing individual assistance to the offender and encouraging them to lead a lawful life. This reduces the risk of recidivism, or repeated criminal behavior.

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Gabriel Eštok - Gabriela Szabariová - Matúš Béreš (eds.)

Presented publication is an outcome from the scientific conference for students and young scientists that took place on 12th and 13th May 2016 at the Department of Political science, Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. The main aim of the presented is to bring up outcomes of research of young scientists and students from Slovakia, as well as from abroad. Many of the presented papers have become integral part of qualification theses of their authors.

This conference proceedings contains 22 papers in Slovak, Czech and English language thematically creating four different parts.

Papers regarding international relations or issues exceeding a level of state power are dealing with issues of globalization, counterculture, international terrorism, extremism and a role of the EU in the Arctic. Papers dealing with the situation in the Slovak republic and abroad cover reform of security in Slovakia and in Romania, issue of dealing with totalitarian history of the states of the Visegrad group as well as development of funding of education system in Slovakia since 1919. In case of authors focusing on the socio-political situation in Slovakia we can find papers analyzing role of a reeve in city of Košice, first great political conflict during a rule of Vladimír Mečiar in Slovakia, role of Roma population in political environment in Slovakia, but also those concerning local activist or action groups and examining attitude of nursing care students towards euthanasia. The conference proceedings contents also four papers regarding theoretical or philosophical issues.

Their authors focused on topic of social state, social equality, democratic theories and transformation of human nature in “post-human” era.

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Milena Barinková (ed.)

The complex of legal norms protecting work, ensuring safety and health protection at work, is very broad in scope, extending beyond the Labour Code to include other specific legal regulations, collective agreements, executive legal regulations, and internal corporate normative acts.

Health protection of employees from hazardous workplace influences is a central requirement stemming from fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. To ensure its universal enforcement across all employers in both private and public sectors, strict regulation through cogent norms is fully justified. The European Commission’s Communication to the European Parliament, Council, European Economic and Social Committee, and Committee of the Regions on the EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work 2014–2020 (COM(2014) 332 final) addresses the need to account for labor market changes arising from demographic shifts, aging populations, and technological advancements.

Work pace demands are intensifying, and all age categories of employees must adapt to new technologies, organizational changes, and evolving job structures. This increases requirements for maintaining health fitness throughout entire professional careers. Mental health fitness, which receives insufficient specific attention, is an inherent part of health fitness requirements. Prevention plays a critical role in mental health protection.

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Eliška Župová et al.

Research into justice in public administration organizations has not yet been conducted in Slovakia, not even in the scope of respondents addressed. Therefore, we consider the project cross-sectional, current, and beneficial for deeper exploration of this area.

The project is designed as interdisciplinary, combining insights from legal perspectives in defining justice from labor law aspects, psychological and ethical evaluations of fairness levels, and knowledge from public administration management fields.

The inspiration for selecting this topic stems from its academic relevance, confirmed by both domestic and international studies, as well as its public relevance, where laypeople most intensely perceive justice/injustice in relation to remuneration and appropriate labor-law conditions – exemplified by teachers’ strikes (2003, 2006, 2016), nurses’ strikes (2003, 2006, 2012, 2016), ŽSR employees’ strikes (2003), and doctors’ strikes (2011).

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Eva Výrostová (ed.)

Proceedings of the International Scientific Seminar "Public Administration as a Provider of Public Services of a Social State - Utilising Foreign Experience for Reforms in the Slovak Republic" held at the Faculty of Public Administration, UPJŠ, Popradská 66 in Košice on 24 November 2017

Public services represent an increasingly expanding segment of the public sector. This growth can be identified primarily horizontally – from services related to general security and other forms of state functionality, through technical infrastructure, postal and telecommunications services, transportation, and information services, to increasingly emphasized healthcare, cultural, educational, and social services. Simultaneously, the entire structure of public services is expanding vertically, particularly in depth: within each area, the range of provided services is broadening.

In this context, the importance of optimizing the structure of service providers is growing, which is the focus of such reform processes as decentralization, deconcentration, privatization, or other forms of structural transformation. The outcome may vary under different conditions, resulting in diverse provider structures for public services of the social state, where the state and its bodies or organizations continue to hold a significant position.

Consequently, the significance of the public administration model as the primary state provider of these services is increasing: due to these processes, countries develop distinct and sometimes incomparable systems of public service providers, even within state bodies or organizations acting on behalf of the state. However, the varying effectiveness of public service delivery systems by public administration bodies remains a persistent reality.

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Štefan Jusko

The stimulus for this monograph was my two studies on Heidegger’s interpretation of Nietzsche’s ideas of the will to power and eternal return of the same, published in Heidegger and Modern Metaphysics (supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency, APVV-14-0706, under the leadership of V. Leška and M. Sobotka). In the submitted monograph, I present both studies in expanded (particularly “Will to Power as Art”) and refined versions (“Eternal Return of the Same”) and add a third chapter addressing the question of the meaning of interpreting philosophical texts, which themselves are interpretations of other texts.

In seeking an appropriate approach to the meaning of interpretation, I conclude that—generally—the purpose of interpretation is to uncover the productive dimension of the interpreted text, which can only be revealed if the interpreter enters the text openly and as neutrally as possible. If the interpreter does not open themselves to the text, allowing it to interpret them in turn, interpretation remains trapped. I believe that without mutual openness between interpreter and interpreted, interpretation has no meaning and typically becomes either rejection or misinterpretation—a form of violence.

In the third chapter, which I consider foundational, I attempt to “balance” the interpretive context of “Heidegger–Nietzsche” from the first two chapters through a reversible context of “Nietzsche–Heidegger,” albeit with the risk that my interpretation of Nietzsche’s thought—specifically his ideas of eternal return and will to power—may remain subjective, even if unintended as misinterpretation. Ultimately, the ambition of the third chapter is to explore intersections between the two philosophers, one of which—a rudimentary yet significant overlap—I identify as Heidegger’s concept of being-in-the-world, reinterpreted through Nietzsche’s lens. It is Nietzsche who challenges us to adopt a self-defined stance toward the world, to confront what it means to be in the world.

The challenge for me—and perhaps the reader—is to remain faithful to oneself, which is only possible by persisting in the context of mutual interpretation between interpreter and interpreted, regardless of who/what is interpreting or being interpreted. For the context of being-in-the-world is always co-created by both sides.

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Vladimír Lichner - Dušan Šlosár et al.

It is very difficult to refer to any act of extremism or action having extremist characteristics, or to exclude it unambiguously. The boundary between extremism and accepted, conformal behavior is very broad and vaguely worded. Each company tends to set certain criteria to determine what can be considered as unwanted, violent, radical or extreme, or what signs of such a manifestation do not have. Therefore, when comparing the individual countries of the European Union in this area, we come across a different definition of what is or is not considered to be radical or extremist. In essence, the level of tolerance to some of the manifestations and the setting of indicators for the evaluation of the proceedings as extremist.

The presented monograph aims to present the basic social contexts of extremism and radicalization in the form of their philosophical and theoretical backgrounds, influencing the factors, the basic directions. In the author's work, the authors focus on the target group of adolescents, which they consider to be one of the most endangered groups in society in terms of development of the radicalization process. At the conclusion of the monograph is also offered the criminal level of these phenomena, which is not unavoidable in terms of complex analysis.

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Lukáš Šutor (ed.)

The proposed anthology represents for many doctoral students their first entry into the publishing environment of scientific genres. The studies in such cases contain the essence of future dissertation works, which represent the creative pinnacle of doctoral studies. In addition to providing doctoral students with the opportunity to publish scientific outputs, we also consider the anthology a space for interdisciplinary encounters and mutual enrichment. However, interdisciplinarity is not merely a characteristic of the anthology as a whole but also of some studies.

Most notable interdisciplinary approaches are observed in literary studies. The traditional subject of research into artistic texts is enriched in individual studies by examining theatrical and film works (Peter Getlík), linguistic aspects of phrasemes (Ivana Hudiková), musical elements (Terézia Kulíková), visual art (Dominika Petáková), and digital spaces of new media (Alexandra Popovičová). From other disciplines, we highlight Miroslava Süčová Vernarská’s study, which extends psychological research into sociological and linguistically communicative contexts (the concept of metaphor), or conversely, Zuzana Šoltésová and Dušan Šlosár’s contribution, analyzing eating disorders from their disciplinary background in social work.

Both mentioned disciplines also include contributions with traditional research subjects. Nikola Fabiny from psychology analyzes consequence expectations in the context of goal selection and achievement. Jana Plavnická and Dušan Šlosár’s co-authored study from the Department of Social Work presents a multi-perspective analysis of integration barriers for immigrants in Slovakia. Within their own disciplines, both philosophy contributions operate: Juraj Brenišin interprets the ethical aspects of Avicbron’s Fons vitæ, while Michal Kručko examines Edmund Husserl’s unfinished work through a comparative lens of his students Jan Patočka and Roman Ingarden. The anthology concludes with Lukáš Lukačín’s study (written in English), which explores the semantic-grammatical category of modality in the verbs MAY and CAN within legal-administrative documents of the European Union.

The representation of academic disciplines and doctoral students’ individual creative outputs in Doktorandské miscelaneá 4 is thus appropriately diverse. We present this publication to the broader academic community as a representative overview of trends in young scholars’ thinking across the spectrum of humanities and social sciences doctoral programs at the Faculty of Arts, UPJŠ in Košice.

Lukáš Šutor

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Martin Bačkor - Miriam Bačkorová

The proposed text focuses on the history of studying biology, medicine, and pharmacy as scientific disciplines from prehistoric times through antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the modern era. The text chronologically organizes the most significant figures in the history of biological scientific disciplines, outlines key characteristics of major historical discoveries, and reevaluates their significance from the perspective of 21st-century science.

The educational text is chronologically divided into the most significant periods of civilization development. The last two completed centuries—the 19th and 20th—are subdivided into major life science fields due to the unprecedented growth of biological disciplines and the resulting volume of acquired information.

Since it can sometimes be challenging in science to define what constitutes the past versus the present of a particular discipline, we have excluded significant biological discoveries from the early 21st century, which are typically regarded as the “present” of biology.

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Linda Babušík Adamčíková - Gabriel Koscelanský - Mária Petriková (eds.)

Proceedings of the VI. Annual International Scientific Conference of Students and Young Researchers organized on May 11–12, 2017 by the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, the Department of Political Sciences and Public Administration at Uzhhorod National University, the Research Institute of Central Europe, and the Res publica Association.

Presented publication is an outcome from the international scientific conference for students and young scientists that took place on 11th and 12th May 2017 at the Department of Political science, Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. The main aim of the presented is to bring up outcomes of research of young scientists and students from Slovakia, as well as from abroad.

This conference proceedings contains 19 papers in Slovak, Czech and English language. Papers are dealing with current issues of theory and practice of politics and international relations. We can find paper analyzing globalization, international terrorism, topic of EU or development of European states. The conference proceedings contents also papers regarding the far-right parties, role of women in  politics and integration migrants in Slovak republic.

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Dušan Šlosár - Vladimír Lichner

This university textbook aims to provide readers with knowledge of the philosophical foundations, meaning, and purpose of mediation, based on research and analysis of mediators' activities. In countries where mediation services operate, their staff often include graduates of social work departments.

An individual approach to both the perpetrator and victim of a criminal offense requires knowledge and skills from social work, psychology, sociology, communication, and related fields tied to social work. The principles of social work apply not only in social policy and social care but also in justice. A mediator’s mission is to facilitate alternative resolutions to unlawful acts while preserving the purpose of legal proceedings as defined by valid legal norms. They fulfill this mission through specific methods of individual social work applied in the justice sector. The mediator’s focus extends beyond the current conflict to uncover related issues, activate parties to resolve disputes, and prevent new conflicts.

Special attention is devoted to the philosophical foundations of mediation in Slovakia. We provide an overview of mediators’ core activities and mediation types used to uphold justice in Slovakia. We analyze mediation goals, the roles of parties involved, and procedural steps. In applying mediation, we explore its potential and implementation in both legal and social work contexts.

As indicated, mediation cannot be understood solely as a specialized activity in criminal justice, as it has broader applications in non-judicial dispute resolution, such as family or community work, which are often overlooked by the public. The mediator’s approach to diverse target groups is grounded in theoretical frameworks. From this foundation, we derive activities expected of mediators in the future. Expanded activities arise from concrete situations encountered during mediation.

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Tatiana Žiaková - Dušan Šlosár

The last decade marks not only the average life expectancy increase in healthy population, but also life expectancy increase in group of people with intellectual disorders/disabilities. Due to their diagnosis that defines and classifies them into specific categories, people with intellectual disability are finding themselves in a constant confrontation with obstacles negatively affecting the saturation of their existential needs. It creates mostly educational, social, cultural, psycho-social and economical disadvantage in the context of their lives. Consequently, their active potential is weakened, making it unable for them to influence public affairs in society from a position of an adult or elderly citizen. Building up on this condition, the focus of this monograph is on understanding and explanation of prevailing concept of social inclusion and related concepts of social exclusion. These concepts influence the way we tend to define and think about the character of society, as such.

Simultaneously, we are examining that the quality of coexistence between dominant population and people with intellectual disabilities is dependent on the development of attitudes and opinions of major population towards this specific minority. These attitudes reflect the extent of social tolerance and at the same time serve as a quantification of moral values and equity in the society, whether it concerns any type of small everyday help or professional and institutionalised long-term support.

This monograph focuses on presenting professional care for people with mental disability in form of social services as a dominant type of support in our local environment. We show that the quality of social services inevitably depends on degree of professional competences social workers possess. The significance of professional competences social workers are capable of using is reflected in the degree of the competence and adequacy of their performance. The primary aim, in relation to which professional competences should be accustomed, is to enhance meaningfulness and dignity in life of mentally disabled receivers of the social services.

Competences of social workers are a dynamic phenomenon that modifies along the development of society and also with the frequently altering needs of people with intellectual disability as receivers of the social service. For this reason we designed the presented research to reflect our goal to reappraise the scope of professional competences and define the required professional functions of social workers working with people with intellectual disability.

This monograph is dedicated not only to professionals working with this group of people but also aims at answering basic questions to practical issues that families with a intellectualy disabled member are coming into contact with.

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Ľubov Vladyková

The present monograph titled Evolutionary Ethics: Selected Issues and Challenges discusses a range of problems, theoretical concepts, and beliefs from the perspective of evolutionary ethics. The term evolution has become one of the central terms in contemporary science and philosophy.

In social sciences in general, and in socio-biology and evolutionary psychology in particular, evolution has had great impact on our understanding of the genesis of culture. Evolutionary theories play a similar role within the theory of consciousness and of the mind (evolutionary epistemology). The interrelation between our evolutionary past and our sense of good and evil is also a subject of heightened interest in ethics; it has in fact become one of its challenges. The concept of evolution challenges the way we create thought patterns through which we understand, or hope to understand, ourselves and the world around us.

This monograph represents a general summary of selected issues in evolutionary ethics, touching upon various aspects of current research into evolutionary ethics and the related domains of evolution, science, ethics, and morals. Evolutionary ethics has become a project which presupposes that in order to understand the essence and basis of morals one must turn to the process of evolution of thought, and to the theories put forth by evolutionists, specifically evolutionary biologists.

The structure of this monograph, as well as its potential usefulness for research and education clearly show that the analysis of the problems discussed here has significant implications for domains far removed from the purely theoretical parts of moral philosophy or biology. The advantage of such discourse is that it enables the implementation of evolutionary ethics in social and ethical issues of public interest (for example Sex Literacy, Sex Education), and this should be recognised and welcome.

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Lukáš Katriňák (ed.)

Meeting of Young Historians VII.

Proceedings of contributions from the 7th scientific conference of young historians, organized by the Department of History at the Faculty of Arts of UPJŠ in Košice,

European Network Remembrance and Solidarity,

Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences SAS,

Historical Institute SAS,

and the Slovak Historical Society at SAS, held on October 25, 2017 in Košice.

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Eliška Župová

The scientific monograph examines the issue of competencies among mayors in municipalities of the Slovak Republic. At its core is interpersonal (social) competence, characterized by a set of competencies (interpersonal skills and abilities) formed by comfort in social (interpersonal) situations that mayors encounter daily in performing their duties.

Social (interpersonal) competence is an essential skill for any manager. A mayor should also act as a manager, operating within a social environment, where the level of mastering interpersonal competencies predicts successful behavior in interpersonal situations. Through their actions in these situations, they influence the internal environment of the municipality, including municipal office employees, members of the municipal council, local residents, and external environments—such as collaborations with other municipalities, higher territorial units, contractual agreements with private organizations, or representatives of the third sector.

The central focus of the scientific monograph is the exploration of interpersonal competencies. A pivotal research question addressed was: What is the level of mastery of interpersonal competencies among mayors in municipalities of the Slovak Republic?

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Miroslava Köverová - Margita Mesárošová (eds.)

The publication „Helping professions and self-care from the perspective of psychology and social work“ includes research studies focused on self-care, and the positive and negative effects of helping among specific groups of helping professionals – psychologists and social workers.

A number of Slovak as well as foreign authors contributed to the book of proceedings. The contributions are theoretical studies, research studies and case studies. The theoretical and research studies are focused on important issues of professional helping: self-care, compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, burnout, perceived stress, secondary traumatic stress, mindfulness, empathy, job satisfaction and turnover among psychologists and social workers.

Research interest in the phenomena is especially important in the context of the mental health of helping professionals and in reducing the negative consequences of helping. 

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