Dejiny filozofie ako filozofický problém

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Soňa Gabzdilová

The educational system (schooling) is one of the most effective tools for shaping the young generation in any advanced society. Schools not only create the knowledge base necessary for fulfilling the demands of the economy and the social sphere, but they also shape the national and ideological identity of each member of society. The school plays a decisive role in forming positive values, but it can also become a breeding ground for xenophobia and racist attitudes. The school has an irreplaceable role in creating national consciousness, identification with one's own nation, its history, the heroic deeds of ancestors, and the meaning of its existence.

After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, there were fundamental geopolitical changes in Central Europe. One of these was the creation of Czechoslovakia, a state founded on radically different principles than pre-war Hungary. The founders of the Czechoslovak Republic (CSR), the personalities who decisively determined the character of the political system in the newly established republic, did not belong to the privileged classes of the previous regime. Unlike Hungary, where political power was controlled almost without exception by the nobility, the elite in Czechoslovakia consisted of men who were radical critics of Austria-Hungary.

A fitting example was the most influential figure of interwar Czechoslovakia, President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. Despite his origins, Masaryk was perceived by both Czechs and Slovaks as the founder of the state, a legendary figure whose political and social influence far exceeded the powers of the presidential office.

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Jaroslav Marcin - Viktória Marcinová a kol.

This little book started out in a way that probably many other scholarly publications do: When the five of us met as doctoral students and instructors in the Department of British and American Studies, we soon realized that our research overlapped on a number of points. Most prominent among those was our interest in political or politicallymotivated discourse and the study of myths and manipulation that it employed. 

In the end, we decided to pool the results of our research together in order to create a more complex picture, providing a variety of perspectives and voices. In our endeavor, we were greatly aided by the financial support we received from a grant offered by the Šafárik University. The outcome of these efforts is the five chapters of this brief, but hopefully informative and insightful monograph.

In Chapter 1, Viktória Marcinová deals with the impact of totalitarian ideology on the translation of so-called “capitalist” drama during the first stage of normalization in Slovakia (1948-1968). In Chapter 2, the focus shifts to political discourse and manipulation in a democracy, as Jaroslav Marcin takes a closer look at the wartime rhetoric of American presidents. USA remains the focus also in Chapter 3, but this time the question, addressed by Martina Martausová, will be one of the myth of the American Dream and its presentation in post-9/11 United States. A similar idea, though in a different geographical-cultural context, is dealt with in Chapter 4, where Božena Velebná identifies myths of Scottish identity as portrayed in historic films. Finally, in Chapter 5, Eduard Soták will take a look at the role of the mass media within the topic of politically-motivated discourse and spread of political ideology.

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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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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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Alexander Onufrák, Peter Dubóczi, Lukáš Jakabovič

The submitted publication entitled Voľby 2023/2024: výsledky – hodnotenia – dôsledky reflects a wide range of topics related to the electoral processes that took place in 2023 and 2024 in Slovakia and abroad. The publication deals with both the evaluation of the currently valid electoral legislation, including proposals for its further improvement, and the broader socio-political consequences of the elections in connection with democratization and integration processes. The submitted publication is published as an output of the VEGA project No. 1/0474/24 Audit of Slovak electoral and referendum legislation, the project leader of which is prof. JUDr. Ladislav Orosz, CSc. from the Faculty of Law of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice and in which the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice also participates. The authors of the individual contributions analyze all types of elections, from municipal and regional, through parliamentary and presidential, to elections to the European Parliament. While some authors focused primarily on the local or regional level, others chose an approach focused on the national or supranational level, and the geographical scope of the cases examined was extremely diverse. 

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Adriana Jesenková

The textbook "Literary Story as a Tool for Moral Education" aims to contribute to the preparation of future teachers of ethical education, as well as students from other fields, particularly in the humanities. It focuses on an area that remains trivialized and marginalized—gender-sensitive education and training. The author operates under the assumption that applying a gender-sensitive approach in education requires an understanding of what a gender perspective entails.

Experience from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, along with teaching experiences where ethical questions and themes—such as those related to gender, gender equality, gender justice, and gender relations—are presented, taught, and explored through various media or texts (not only traditional scientific and professional ones but also artistic, especially literary), inspired the author to present such an approach in a relatively coherent form.

This includes summarizing existing knowledge and experiences on the topic so that they can serve as a suitable starting point for enhancing the competencies of future teachers (not only) in ethical education when applying a gender-sensitive approach in education and teaching issues related to gender and gender relations in the context of applied ethics and ethical education.

Autor

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Jana Šutajová Alexander Onufrák

This university textbook, „Political System of the Slovak Republic for Foreign Students“, is designed to introduce Erasmus students and other international students to basic information regarding the historical and political development of Slovakia and the political system of the Slovak Republic. It focuses on political developments since 1918.

It introduces foreign students to pivotal historical events that influenced political developments in Slovakia (the establishment of the First Czechoslovak Republic, the Munich Agreement and the Vienna Arbitration, the Slovak State, postwar developments and the Košice Government Program, the 1946 elections, February 1948, the Prague Spring of 1968, normalization, the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the dissolution of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic, the establishment of the Slovak Republic, and its integration into the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and with the political system of the Slovak Republic (constitutional institutions, the party system, the electoral system). 

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Ingrid Madárová - Lívia Barnišinová - Barbara Mitríková - Zuzana Kolaříková -  Veronika Pálová - Lucia Tóthová

This handbook is primarily intended for university teachers who regularly come into contact with international students. It focuses on supporting effective intercultural communication in the academic environment. Through examples of specific situations from everyday academic life, it offers recommendations on how to prevent potential misunderstandings arising from intercultural differences. It also includes practical advice aimed at building open, culturally sensitive, and respectful communication that enhances mutual understanding and fosters an inclusive educational environment.

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Lucia Tóthová

The monograph offers a comprehensive perspective on the theoretical, methodological, and empirical dimensions of participatory visual research within the field of social work. It is grounded in the understanding that social work plays a crucial role in amplifying the voices of vulnerable groups and promoting social justice, with particular attention paid to persons with disabilities who frequently encounter limited opportunities for participation as well as persistent social, communicative, and environmental barriers. The author analyses the concept of participation in alignment with the principle of “Nothing about us without us” and presents the PhotoVoice method as an interdisciplinary tool that integrates participatory action research, critical pedagogy, feminist epistemologies, and documentary photography. The method is understood not only as a research technique but also as a form of visual advocacy, enabling participants to articulate their experiences, needs, and perspectives in ways accessible to both professional audiences and the wider public. The monograph reflects on the development of PhotoVoice in international scholarship and highlights its potential to transcend traditional academic boundaries toward participatory and transformative practice in social work. The empirical section comprises three projects conducted by the author in the Slovak context, focusing on diverse groups of persons with disabilities and their families, who face specific social needs and everyday barriers. The findings demonstrate the potential of PhotoVoice to strengthen participation through accessible and meaningful visual tools. The monograph also addresses methodological, ethical, and terminological considerations and adopts an inclusive understanding of disability consistent with contemporary approaches in social work.

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Monika Hricová

Despite the fact that a psychologist may have a good moral background, it is necessary for everyone to know and act in accordance with ethical professional principles in order not to harm the clients with whom they work in the course of psychological practice. There are many case studies in the professional literature that describe serious situations of violations of psychological ethics. On the one hand, they depict conscious professional misconduct or ignorance. On the other hand, they have contributed to the introduction of even legal standards for the ethical behavior of psychologists as professionals. Completion of a course or training in the topic of psychological ethics is required by several professional associations abroad, especially in the last years of undergraduate studies. Their goal is to supervise the quality and preparation of future psychologists. The university textbook Do I Have It or Not: Ethics in Psychological Practice provides a summary of essential information on the ethics of conducting psychological practice, the boundaries of the relationship with the client, and the rules of confidentiality. The goal is not for the student, as a future psychologist, to know ethical rules word for word, but for them to be sufficiently ethically sensitive.

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Mikuláš Jančura - Maroš Melichárek (eds.)

The Student Scientific Conference is defined as a compulsory elective subject within the accredited study programs of the Department of History at the Faculty of Arts, UPJŠ. It was organized for the first time at the department in 2011.

The primary goal of this already traditional event is the presentation of partial results of student-authored research, primarily linked to selected factual parts or theoretical foundations of bachelor’s and master’s theses. This also explains the broad thematic spectrum of the internal content of each conference. Besides awarding credits for participation, the conference offers students a range of added values, which can be understood as its secondary objectives.

On this basis, as organizers, we considered it beneficial to qualitatively elevate the “round” anniversary edition of the Student Scientific Conference and give students the opportunity to publish their contributions. Within the submitted proceedings, 7 texts are published, of which 4 are from the bachelor’s level and 3 from the master’s level of study. The contributions cover a wider spectrum, mainly cultural-historical topics spanning from the Early Middle Ages to the second half of the 20th century, which also demonstrates the wide range of thesis topics processed at the department.

As organizers of the event, we have the ambition for publishing the proceedings to become as much a tradition as the Student Scientific Conference itself, as we consider this meaningful in relation to our work with students. Last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude to our colleague and friend Mgr. Henrich Hrehor, PhD., who has been the long-term main organizer and the “spiritual father” of the entire event since 2011. Thanks are also due to the head of the department for annual support and to the colleagues who undertook the reviewing of contributions within the submitted proceedings.

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Karin Sabolíková

The monograph provides a brief insight into the theory of news structures in the press and, consequently, the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis is applied in an examination of the structures of news. Critical discourse analysis following the theory and methodology of Teun van Dijk is used to analyse the representation of an industrial dispute, the Miners’ Strike of 1984-1985 in the UK, in the Czechoslovak newspaper Pravda.

The aim of the monograph is to examine the ways in which a single news item dealing with an international event was presented in a national newspaper based on its ideological perspective. The presented analysis does not cover all possible aspects of van Dijk’s approach of critical discourse analysis. A variety of issues remains to be explored in order to develop a richer, more complex analysis of the text structures. The monograph also intends to demonstrate that critical discourse analysis can complement more qualitatively the traditional method of quantitative content analysis.

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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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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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Katarína Šiňanská

For a non-governmental organization to be successful, it must focus, among other things, on its main goal of spreading its vision and mission to another area. It can achieve success by increasing its visibility and raising awareness about its activities in society, sending a clear message, and maintaining transparency.

The monograph deals with specific areas in which non-profit NGOs are active, i.e. marketing and fundraising. Both these areas are of key importance for the NGO’s success, therefore they require particular attention. It is well known that NGOs lack proper support in Slovakia and their funding is insufficient given the demand for their services. NGOs therefore search for multiple sources of funding and use marketing as a tool.

The monograph explains the importance of NGOs in the non-profit sector and justifies the tools they employ when navigating the commercial space.

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Magdaléna Hovanová - Dušan Šlosár

The monograph addresses the issues surrounding functional families, dysfunctional families, and those affected by crises. It analyzes various determinants that lead to family dysfunction and identifies factors contributing to family crises and the destabilization of family relationships. Special attention is given to working with dysfunctional families, particularly through family rehabilitation, methods, forms, and procedures employed mainly by helping professionals.

Additionally, the monograph explores contemporary forms of couple cohabitation and the factors that have caused changes in this area. Families are examined from the perspective of helping professions, including psychology, sociology, adult education, health care, law, and economics. These various perspectives create a comprehensive view of the examined issues and establish a multidisciplinary space for addressing problems within the family system. A functional family is seen as the foundation of society; therefore, society must create tools to assist families that are unable to resolve issues affecting their functionality.

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