It has become commonplace to hold the view that virtual surrogates for the things that are good in life are inferior to their actual, authentic counterparts, including virtual education, virtual skill-demanding activities and virtual acts of creativity. Virtual friendship has also been argued to be inferior to traditional, embodied forms of friendship. Coupled with the view that virtual friendships threaten to replace actual ones, the conclusion is often made that we ought to concentrate our efforts on actual friendships rather than (...) settle for virtual replacements. The purpose of this paper is to offer a balanced and empirically grounded analysis of the relative prudential value of actual and virtual friendship. That is, do actual and virtual friendships differ when it comes to enhancing our subjective well-being? In doing so, I will discuss a number of presuppositions that lie behind common criticisms of virtual friendship. This will include, among other considerations, their potential for replacing actual friendship, as well as the possibility for self-disclosure, trust, sharing and dynamic spread of happiness in virtual worlds. The purpose is not to arrive at a firm, normative conclusion, but rather to introduce a number of considerations that we should take into account in our individual deliberations over which role virtual friendships ought to have in our unique life situations. (shrink)

I shall characterize normative functionalism and contrast it with its causal counterpart. After tracing both stripes of functionalism to the work of the classical American pragmatists, I then argue that they are not exclusive alternatives. Instead, both might be required for an appropriately illuminating account of human rational activity.

A review of the literature in philosophy in the past 20 years indicates that relatively little has been written on the connection between friendship, intimacy and humor. This article is intended to begin to address the neglect of this topic among philosophers by focusing on some interesting aspects of the relationship between friendship, intimacy and humor. The author begins his analysis by examining the different types of friendships while highlighting the characteristics of the particular kind of friendship that involves intimacy. (...) The second part of this article discusses the concept of intimacy, which has not received much attention among philosophers. Next, the author takes a close look at the issue of humor while distinguishing it from both joking and laughter. He then moves to the heart of this article, which focuses on the question of: how can humor enhance intimacy in friendship? In the final part of this article, the author briefly outlines some educational implications that can be gleaned from the analysis of the relationship between friendship, intimacy and humor. (shrink)

Extols the virtue of small liberal arts colleges and the liberal arts tradition.

The article focuses on the socially transforming aspect of American pragmatism. In particular, the article highlights the relevance and significance of Ralph Emerson’s transcendentalism and self-reliance for the information society. The key problem of the information society is defined as the general distrust about the truth. The culture of criticism displaces trust in others as seekers of the truth and, ultimately, eliminates self-trust.Based on Ralph Emerson’s essays and William James’ “Pragmatism”, the article distinguishes between two conceptions of truth: optimistic and (...) pessimistic. The first one is grounded on the pragmatist understanding of truth as the “theory that works”. The truth in the pragmatist understanding is not an ultimate and finished truth but the truth in making. Therefore, the truth is subject to amendments. However, this does not mean that uncompleted truth is not true, since it can already work and help us with our self-understanding and orientation in the world. Contrary to this, informational society is the society of spectatorship and criticism, left without the power of individuals to distinguish personally between true and false and take responsibility for such decisions. Informational society, in general, perceives truth as something absolute, unreachable and at the same time impossible to exist.The article considers Emerson’s idea of Man Thinking and the concept of Oversoul, addressing the problem of an autonomous individual in its relation to society and truth. Personality, being central for Emerson, cannot be understood separately at the same time, since an individual is a part of Nature and Society. In addition, in Emerson’s transcendental terminology, personality is the embodiment of the Oversoul of humanity while Oversoul in the world can act only through the actions of persons. Therefore, true self-reliance cannot be separated from the aspirations of an individual to reach Man Thinking through truth, and personally implement it in life. In such a way, self-reliance is also the basis for inter-subjective trust.Manuscript received 25.04.2020. (shrink)

The classical-Christian model of friendship has operated for many centuries from oral traditions and through the age of print. However, technological developments in communication and media rearrange mindscapes. Consequently, values, or, those things that give meaning, can change, such as perceptions of friendship. If one accepts that communication is vital to human relationships, the paradigm for the classical-Christian friendship should operate according to the new vocabulary of expanding communication and media possibilities. This work examines literature and philosophical thought within their (...) historical contexts in order to gauge the operation of the classical-Christian friendship model from the beginning of Western literature to Western literature at the apex of print culture. (shrink)