SOME COMMENTS ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF DICHOTOMIES IN THE CURRENT ARENA OF IDEOLOGICAL CONFRONTATIONS

The history of the development of human communities opens up a large number of chapters of the alliance of rationality and power. The determining power of the implementation of elements of purposeful rationality at the political level is almost always represented by the legitimation of a certain type of interest associated with the greatest power to enforcing them. The primary goal of this paper is in an endeavour to place the normative nature of current (democratic) political regimes where we encounter the need for a more fundamental theoretical argument that would enable us to respond to their dynamic, often contradictory development. We focus on the productivity of dichotomies in the theory and practice of rationalism, irrationalism and liberal democracy. Their interaction in fact defines and creates the conditions for experimenting with different forms of political structures in the search for a better human and the world. At the same time, its performance not only defines the conditions for the theoretical justification of the idea of power, but also becomes a tool for its implementation. The theoretical background of this approach develops monitoring the content turbulences in the political systems of liberal democracies, with an emphasis on political life in Slovakia. Hence, in the present study, in the context of possible effects of the infectious disease COVID-19 on the activities of individual political actors, we point to a unique experience that contributes to addressing the issue of the way of establishing "softer" forms of political communication instead of political struggle, especially at the level of relations between the conservative, socialist, and liberal party-political communities not just in Slovakia, but also in other countries around the world.

THE PANDEMIC, THE RETURN OF POSITIVISM, AND THE FORGOTTEN LESSON OF CRITICAL RATIONALISM

The Covid-19 epidemic was accompanied by the resurgence of a positivist mentality. The idea that science is a human enterprise and, therefore, a fallible one seems to have suddenly disappeared from public discourse. In the second half of the twentieth century, positivism seemed out of fashion, while so-called “critical rationalism” had become the dominant paradigm. The situation now seems to be reversed. Faced with a largely unknown phenomenon, physicians and biologists presented their theories as definitive and unappealable truths. Anyone – even experts – who raised doubts about the plausibility of these theories or the effectiveness of the remedies imposed by the political authorities was immediately censored. This article proposes a reconsideration of critical rationalism, presenting it as a form of gnoseological fallibilism and a forgotten lesson of history. The most famous representative of this epistemological approach is perhaps Karl Popper, whose ideas I will briefly touch upon. However, I will focus above all on Gaston Bachelard’s philosophical thought, to show that critical rationalism is not the theory of a single scholar, but a broad cultural movement that has emerged both in the Anglosphere and in the areas of the Romance languages. Besides, Bachelard’s thought is important because it anticipates themes and ways of analysis of the sociology of science. Indeed, it shows how the cumbersome presence of economic interests in the world of contemporary science constitutes an epistemological obstacle and not simply an ethical problem. This is crucial to understand the response of political institutions, the media, and common citizens to the pandemic emergency. © 2022, History of Ideas Research Centre, Jagiellonian University Krakow. All rights reserved.

The role of religion in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic: the Malaysian multi-faith perspectives.

Social distancing is crucial in breaking the cycle of transmission of COVID-19. However, many religions require the faithful to congregate. In Malaysia, the number of COVID-19 cases spiked up from below 30 in February 2020 to more than a thousand a month later. The sudden increase was mostly linked to a large Islamic gathering attended by 16,000 near the capital, Kuala Lumpur. Another large COVID-19 cluster was from a church gathering in Kuching, Sarawak. Within a few weeks, Malaysia became the worst hit country by COVID-19 in Southeast Asia. While religious leaders have advised social distancing among their congregants, the belief that "God is our shield" is often cited for gathering. There is a need to promote sound decision-making among religious adherents so that they will not prioritize their loyalty to the subjective interpretation of religion over evidence-based medicine. Malaysia, a multi-cultural and multi-faith country, is an example of how religious beliefs could strongly influence health behaviours at individual and community levels. In this article, we detail the religious aspects of COVID-19 prevention and control in Malaysia and discuss the possible role of religious organizations in encouraging sound decision-making among religious adherents in mitigating this crisis. We make recommendations on how to promote a partnership between the healthcare system and religious organizations, and how religion and faith could be integrated into health promotion channels and resources in the response of COVID-19 and future communicable diseases.

[Rationalism and mystification. On the formal pathetic of being against]. / Rationalismus und Mystifikation: Zur formalen Pathetik des Dagegenseins.

The article presents the results of the interpretation of qualitative interviews with coronavirus critics. It focuses on the forms of social criticism manifested in the interviews. The analysis (1) shows that the critique is based on a rationalistic ideal of crisis resolution. The fact that the coronavirus crisis, from this point of view, is not dealt with rationally is seen as an indication that there is something fundamentally wrong with it. It is this problem that the conspirituality of the critics reacts to: a combination of conspiracy theory and esoteric ideas whose unity is based on the interest in the mysterious. The analysis (2) allows to determine the specific style of the critique of counter-measures as formal pathetics: Substantially, it remains relatively empty, while rhetorically it is emphasized all the more emphatically. The rhetorical means are the most drastic comparisons possible, the romanticism of the heroic resistance and the claim to be committed to the well-being of children. Finally, (3) we put forward a socio-theoretical embedding of the critique of counter-measures, which assumes with Eisenstadt that modern society is characterized by an erosion of the foundations of all certainty. This leads to a fundamental credibility problem, manifesting itself in the loss of confidence in central social institutions (politics, science, medicine, media). The criticism of counter-measures expresses that in an ideal-typical way.