This is an argument with an idea that faith and religious practices are fading away, the influence of the Church on the life of society is coming to an end, and that it is a process that is inevitable and irreversible. The author shares Jose Casanova’s pro-position that the ever increasing dechristianization of the hitherto Christian societies seems to be more of a hypothesis than an empirical fact. Moreover, on the one hand, he puts forward questions about the positive sense of the process of secularization that has been wearing down European Christianity for three centuries now, and on the other, he recalls cases, described in the Bible and known in the history of the Church, of a dramatic depopulation of God’s people. And the question, whether we are to expect an increase of the secularization process, rather than its reversal, he answers with the following, specifically Polish, 17th century, formula: Fortuna variabilis, Deus mirabilis (the world goes round at random, and God is admirable!).
Karl Marx (and also Friedrich Engels, by the way) was – contrary to his own opinion – an author of several utopias which played a role in the 20th century. The question (which is of both historical-philosophical and historical-empirical character) therefore arises how important this role was. The author focuses on the characteristics of Marxian utopias, and specifically – on their axiological content and current relevance. According to the author, Marx’s utopias can be a convenient starting point for searching for various projects (political, economic, technological etc.) necessary to cope with global challenges that mankind faces in our time. The author is also considering Marx’s motives for a critical approach to utopias and points to those of them which in his opinion should be accepted, while distinguishing them from others which should be rejected.
The article presents possible ways of development of decision-making processes in autonomous vehicles. The highest degree of autonomy means that it is not the driver but the system, machine or artificial intelligence that makes decisions about road activities. The total autonomy of vehicles gives them predictability, limits the number of accidents they cause, but also highlights the need to develop an ethical system that artificial intelligence will be able to refer to in a critical situation. It is not possible to foresee all the situations that will occur on the roads, so it is necessary to create robot- -human rights that will be a new and binding kind of decalogue. The key issue is that robotic-human rights should be universal, transparent and really applicable to everyone, otherwise there will be chaos on the road and the expected decrease of the number of accidents due to the introduction of autonomous vehicles will not come to pass.
In the extensive polemic with the book Haunting History: For a Deconstructive Approach to the Past by Ethan Kleinberg, the reviewer comments on the innovative potential of deconstruction as it enables the conception of various scenarios of the future. Kleinberg’s reflections on the ontology (or hauntology) of the past are located within the current discussion about “the ontological turn.” The reviewer compares Kleinberg’s take on a deconstructive approach to the past with similar considerations presented by Sande Cohen in the US as well as by Keith Jenkins, Alun Munslow and, more recently, Berber Bevernage in Europe.
German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, is one of the great-est Catholic theologians of the 20th and 21st century. The main field of his theological activity is fundamental theology, which is perceived by him as the area of a broadly understood dialogue on the credibility of Christianity in the modern world. This article attempts to analyze the views of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI on the Christian identity of Europe. The various issues of this study are as follows: Europe as a phenomenon of cultural interaction; Right to the place of Christianity in the Europe of tomorrow; European crisis of values; European Homo oeconomicus and the Gospel; Dismissing former Eurocentrism; Courage in the struggles of the new face of Chris-tian Europe. In the conclusion the author emphasizes validity of Joseph Ratzinger’s/Benedict XVI’s thoughts on the future of Europe in the context of the ongoing changes in the European Union and the migration crisis.
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