Participáciou k zmene: Možnosti a príklady využitia metódy PhotoVoice v sociálnej práci s ľuďmi so zdravotným znevýhodnením

E-book

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.

Download the e-book for free  (pdf)

E-book

Vladimír Leško - Pavol Tholt (eds.)

Proceedings of the Third International Philosophical Conference Hegel in the Contexts of Heidegger's and Patoček's Philosophy, held on 1-2 October 2009.

The Philosophical Proceedings is a presentation of the results of the work of the research teams of the research projects VEGA 1/0650/08 - Heidegger and the History of Philosophy and VEGA 1/4679/07 - Jan Patočka's Asubjective Phenomenology and the History of Philosophy solved at the Department of Philosophy and the History of Philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Applied Sciences in Košice.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Pavol Tholt

The work presented in the following text is an attempt to analyze Patočka's perspective on the emergence and essence of mathematical natural science in the 17th century. During this period, Patočka's attention was particularly drawn to Descartes' philosophy and Cartesianism, as well as the philosophies of Galileo, Bacon, and Leibniz.

Patočka himself devoted continuous and exceptional attention to these questions, as evidenced by several monographic works and numerous articles and studies he wrote on the subject.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Zuzana Kolaříková - Helena Petruňová - Renáta Timková

The publication contributes to an active acquisition and development of language skills in the area of academic English.

Individual lessons include tasks in which the user will find a lot of useful vocabulary in the form of collocations, phrases and sentences which can be applied in practice. The tasks are focused on the area of English pronunciation, grammar, word formation, vocabulary, improving communicative competence in written and verbal communication, improvement of professional skills of presentation, academic writing, etc.

The publication provides space for complementing and creating own database of vocabulary (topic pages).

Download the e-book for free  (pdf)

E-book

Margita Mesárošová

Giftedness and creativity represent closely interconnected phenomena that attract attention in various contexts from the perspectives of different scientific disciplines. Psychologists have long been engaged in understanding giftedness and creativity, as well as in developing them through scientific methods, in order to provide valuable insights to educators, parents, students, and even policymakers, with the aim of fostering the potential of gifted and creative individuals.

This textbook offers information about the essence of giftedness and creativity, about model approaches used for their identification, development, and support, with an emphasis on psychological aspects. In addition to theoretical knowledge, the text also includes various types of exercises—self-discovery activities, activities focused on development, case study solutions, as well as questions and tasks for problem-solving.

The textbook is intended for psychology students and anyone interested in the issues of giftedness and creativity.

Download e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

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.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

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.

Download the e-book for free  (pdf)

E-book

Božena Velebná

The following material has been created during the two years of teaching English for Chemists at the Faculty of Science of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University and is therefore designed to meet the needs of this course. The main motivation was the lack of appropriate materials, especially as the groups generally comprise students with a very diverse level of English. This diversity therefore became the main criterion determining both the form and the content of this text.

In the ten units that provide material for a one semester course, the emphasis is put on teaching the students vocabulary and terminology, which is introduced via authentic texts, depending on the topic of each unit. Students are encouraged to learn the meaning of new words in context. Grammar is included too, with the aim of demonstrating and explaining grammatical rules by means of examples taken directly from the texts. For the more advanced students, grammatical exercises in this material can serve for revision while the beginners might need more supplementary materials.

I hope that this material, the preparation of which has been a challenging as well as enjoyable experience will be useful for future teachers and the students of this course.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Jana Balegová - František Šimon

The university textbook "Lingua Latina – Exercise Book for Philosophers" is a parallel study material to the textbook "Lingua Latina – Cursus Communis." It is designed for practicing grammatical lessons at home. The content of the exercises corresponds to the focus of each lesson in the mentioned textbook, both in terms of the covered grammatical phenomena and vocabulary. For this reason, only vocabulary not included in the lessons of the textbook is presented in the exercises.

The Latin-Slovak dictionary at the end of the exercise book contains the entire vocabulary from both the exercise book and the textbook, while the Slovak-Latin dictionary includes the vocabulary from exercises that require translation into Latin. The vocabulary in this exercise book is oriented towards the needs of philosophy students and, with regard to the selection of source materials, also includes non-classical lexicon or non-classical meanings of classical words (this lexicon is marked with an asterisk *).

The exercise book includes a key that allows students to directly verify the correctness of their work. The textbook "Lingua Latina – Exercise Book for Philosophers" is available electronically in PDF format. As part of the educational program, online tests available on the website of the Department of Classical Philology at the Faculty of Arts, UPJŠ (https://www.upjs.sk/filozoficka-fakulta/katedra-klasickejfilologie/katedra/) also serve to practice the covered material.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Dušan Šlosár

The monograph "Risk as a Social Category in Adolescence" by Dušan Šlosár was created as part of the VEGA project No. 1-0285/18, which focuses on risky behavior among adolescents as clients of social work due to their loneliness. The monograph explores the issue of risk in a theoretical context and integrates risk as a component of social relationships, contacts, and information exchange. From this theoretical foundation, it defines risk within helping professions. Assessing the level of risk is left to leading managers; however, it currently affects those helping professionals who work with specific client groups, and thus their involvement in assessing the level of risk cannot be overlooked.

The monograph pays special attention to risky behavior among adolescents and discusses the most serious forms of such behavior, ranging from suicidality to crime, substance abuse (both material and non-material), and issues related to sexuality. The conclusion of the monograph consists of three empirical studies that address the topic of risky behavior among adolescents.

Download the e-book for free  (pdf)

E-book

Eugen Andreanský

The presented monograph aims to critically map the understanding of the concept of possible worlds.

The first chapter describes the formation of the semantics of possible worlds, along with indicating some problems it brings, which were incisively revealed primarily by W. V. O. Quine. In the next two chapters, the work focuses on more modern views on the nature of possible worlds, with the main attention given to the dichotomy between the possibilist and actualist approach to the question of modalities, alongside which it is necessary to assess other distinctions (essentialism - anti-essentialism, realism - reductionism (or ersatzism or fictionalism), naturalism - non-naturalism, etc.). Increased attention in the work is specifically devoted to the possibilism of D. Lewis and the actualist concepts of S. Kripke, A. Plantinga, R. M. Adams, N. Rescher, D. Armstrong, and J. Hintikka.

An unconventional approach to the issue of possible worlds is captured in the fourth chapter. It is primarily dedicated to the significant concept of Jaakko Hintikka, which works with the notion of epistemic possible worlds and documents the inclination towards the modification and relativization of modal discourse. The conclusion provides an evaluation of the discussion that touches on the main problems associated with considerations of possible worlds.

In the presented monograph, some representative concepts of possible worlds, or possible individuals, are clarified, and the overall process is indicated from assessing possible worlds as ideal logical constructs through their relativization by separate domains of individuals for individual worlds and further through the relationship of attainability to financial, impossible, and non-standard possible worlds.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Jana Balegová

University textbook Lingua Latina – Exercise Book for Historians is a parallel study material to the textbook Lingua Latina – Cursus Communis. It is designed for practicing grammar at home. The content of the exercises corresponds to the focus of the individual lessons in the mentioned textbook, both in terms of the covered grammatical phenomena and vocabulary. For this reason, only vocabulary not covered in the textbook's lessons is included in the exercises.

The Latin-Slovak dictionary at the end of the exercise book contains all the vocabulary from both the exercise book and the textbook. The Slovak-Latin dictionary includes the vocabulary from exercises that require translation into Latin. The vocabulary in this exercise book is oriented towards the needs of history students and, given the selection of source materials, also includes non-classical lexicon or non-classical meanings of classical words (this lexicon is marked with the symbol *).

The exercise book includes a key that allows students to directly verify the correctness of their work. The textbook Lingua Latina – Exercise Book for Historians is available electronically in PDF format. As part of the teaching program, online tests available on the KKF FF UPJŠ website (https://www.upjs.sk/filozoficka-fakulta/katedra-klasickejfilologie/katedra/) also serve to practice the covered material.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Lukáš Šutor

Vedecká monografia Kozmológia čarodejných príbehov (ľudová rozprávka medzi kultúrou a umením) je pôvodnou prácou syntetizujúcou výskum o kozmologických štruktúrach archaických epických žánrov v interdisciplinárnom dialógu medzi literárnou vedou a kultúrnou antropológiou. Výskumne sa sústredíme najmä na ľudovú čarodejnú rozprávku, ktorá sa vždy dotýka základnej ontologickej problematiky, vytvára modelový a poetizovaný obraz sveta; predstavuje neteistickú formu hrdinskej kozmológie, ukotvenú v gnómickom časopriestorovom rámci. Pri jej výskume kombinujeme synchrónnu systémovú interpretáciu semiotických rovín s diachrónnou analýzou vývoja kultúr. Z nášho výskumu vyplýva, že základné konflikty medzi symbolickými formami čarodejných príbehov, tak ako ich poznáme z folklórneho prostredia, vykryštalizovali v epoche šírenia sa prvých historických národov ako dôsledok konfrontácie odlišných kultúrnych komplexov.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Jozef Bavoľár - Ladislav Lovaš - Simona Ďurbisová

The process of achieving goals is one that has traditionally received significant attention in psychology. This attention is not only directed by researchers focused on motivation, with which the process of achieving goals is classically associated, but also from a wide range of other areas (e.g., emotions, personality). One aspect of goal-directed behavior that has received minimal, if not virtually no, attention is decision-making.

It is surprising to realize that various aspects of decision-making are present throughout the entire process of achieving goals - from evaluating different aspects of multiple alternative goals, through selecting among them, deciding on resource allocation (effort, time, finances, relationships...), continuously monitoring progress, to evaluating the outcome and its impact on future goal-directed behavior.

Even more surprising is that decision-making is directly addressed by one of the dominant theories explaining goal-directed behavior - the theory of mental action phases (mindset theory of action phases; Gollwitzer 1999, 2012). This theory distinguishes the pre-decisional and post-decisional phases as the first two phases of this behavior, separated precisely by the decision about which goal to pursue.

Download e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Eva Žiaková - Tomáš Šeďo (eds.)

Peer-reviewed collection of contributions from an online scientific conference (9^th year of Košické dni sociálnej práce) with international attendance held on the 26^th of November 2021.

The present peer-reviewed collection of contributions titled “Metanoia in social work theory and practice” is an output of the 9^th year of Košické dni sociálnej práce, an online conference with international attendance held on the 26^th of November 2021. As the name of the conference implies, the pivotal topic of submitted contributions is metanoia, which represents a change in life attitude. Various interesting and actual issues concerning diverse aspects of social work are discussed in the individual contributions.

The present collection comprises contributions oriented towards the issues of social pathology and its prevention, supervision, the importance of digital technologies in social work, research methods, self-care and so forth. The collection further contains several contributions devoted to the exceptionally actual issues of radicalism and extremism, which are widespread and serious occurrences in the present time. The contributions are highly original and beneficial from the point of view of theoretical conceptions and methodological procedures apart from offering quality empirical processing and interesting results.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Eva Žiaková - Lucia Tóthová (eds.)

Proceedings of the scientific conference with international participation held on December 8, 2017, in Košice

6th Annual Košice Days of Social Work

Social work addresses a wide range of social issues, some of which have been tackled since time immemorial, while others can be considered modern.

The proceedings of the scientific conference with international participation, titled Transformations in Social Work Over Time, are therefore dedicated to diverse perspectives on social work questions that remain relevant across time.

The contributions in this volume highlight not only the broad scope of the proceedings but also the multifaceted nature of social work itself.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)