Volume XIV (2009)

In this paper I will consider the sublime an aesthetic category not only naming but symptomatically expressing and interpreting an experience of boundaries that reveals our relating to nature, and I will attempt to explore the possibility of this alternative notion of the sublime. First, I will use this approach for a critical reading of the Kantian sublime, and its postmodern counterpart in Lyotard’s thought, and I will introduce the notion of the sublime understood as boundary-experience. Second, based on some Heideggerian insights I will show how this aesthetic experience is rooted in underlying ontological questions. Third, I will reveal the existential implications of conceptualizing the sublime as a boundary experience of nature.

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The present study relies on the basic assumption that individual differences in attachment are involved in organizing one’s experience by means of the cognitive-affective models represented by the internal working models of relationships. Suggestion is conceptualized as a special modality of social influencing, [1] which is ubiquitous in all relationships and works through the activation of cognitive-affective schemata. We examined the effects of controlling versus informative feedback on the size of improvement in performance on a mental states recognition test in a group of psychology students, as well as the involvement of adult attachment in these effects. Results are discussed mainly in terms of educational implications.

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[1] Lars-Gunnar Lundh, “Normal Suggestion. An Analysis of the Phenomenon and Its Role in Psychotherapy”, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy 5 (1998): 24–38.

My paper offers a special approach of the environmental thought: an analysis of the possible parallels between the protection of our terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments. The first problem is the status of the objects of dead nature on Earth and in outer space, in three regards: (a) the dangers of the effects of a human activity for other humans; (b) our obligation to preserve an object for a research in the future; (c) preserving an object because of its inherent beauty. In this article I will interpret some elements of the reasoning of the environmentalist regarding the cosmic pollution as analogies of similar ideas about the protection of the biosphere. By my analysis the basis of this analogy has its roots in an element of the tradition of the western philosophy, the parallelism of the description of humans as parts of the macrocosm, mesocosmos, and as microcosms in the Stoical philosophy. Finally, I will reason for the impossibility of any value which is independent from human interests.

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This study claims that the concept of sustainability is threatened by being closed into generalities and void promises. Insofar as this concept is satisfied to urge the linear convergence of the environment and economic development, it will hardly be able to grasp the tendencies of modernity. There is a need to differentiate between strong and weak sustainability, because weak sustainability may only repeat existing tendencies at most. The study attempts to approach the concept of strong sustainability, pin down its criteria, shed light on the pertaining normative measures, and show that weak sustainability is only a subsidiary case of strong sustainability.

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With the theoretical premise of stylistic interferences as a starting point, the present study wishes to answer the following question: Why and how did Renaissance art influence the icons of Transylvania and the Land of Maramureş in the 16–18^th centuries? Analyzing the icons of this period I shall demonstrate that the reception of Renaissance art was manifest in the field of decorations, due to the nature and characteristics of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine painting. I shall also indicate the models and sources of inspiration coming from different directions. Studying thoroughly the reception phenomenon, I tried to explain how the Renaissance plastic repertoire was assimilated by the religious painting of these regions. The elements taken over were reformulated according to local necessities, and in time these elements became traditional, being preserved also in the 18^th century icons.

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The study presents three alternative possibilities of the philosophical interpretation of man-environment relationship, each of which formulates its standpoint in opposition to the ruling trends. All three “counter-discourses” deny the concept that the sole reason of human life is to unrestrictedly rule over nature. Novalis, Gaston Bachelard, and Peter Sloterdijk draw our attention to the fact that the technological and capitalistic interpretation of man and the environment (both “original” and “artefactual”) is the source of countless dangers and misunderstandings, and all three thinkers stress the symbiotic interdependence of man and environment. The thoughtful confrontation with these – sometimes seemingly extreme – approaches is an especially timely endeavour due to recent, increasingly more serious ecological problems.

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This philosophical experiment freely unfolds Martin Heidegger’s dialogical approach to poetry – primarily the poems of Hölderlin, Rilke, and Trakl – with reference to the paradigms of existential history connected to nature and therefore environment. These paradigms originating from the Greek physis, and leading through the Jewish-Christian natura have long proved to be in need of an existential historical criticism in which the accomplishment of a revealing concern for initial and original possibilities is becoming increasingly unavoidable.

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The history of the German minority in Romania is older than eight centuries. Although in the last two decades the number of Romanian citizens of German nationality living in Romania has decreased dramatically due to migration, the cultural heritage of this population can still be observed in large parts of Transylvania. The schools and high schools in German language that still function today are certainly part of this heritage. The aim of this research is to analyze both the media use of high school pupils in general and the role of German language in their media use in particular.

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Today, when the scope of mass media has evidently outrun that of philosophy, being equalled with culture itself, the issue is how and to what extent the philosopher may share his “wisdom”, “truth”, or “knowledge” with the par excellence representative of these mass media: the journalist. Philosophy cannot confront itself with media unless it becomes an effective communication practice, meaning that it can change the way we communicate with ourselves and, by our own existence, with others as well. Due to the recent overtness of culture as a result of electronic media, the philosopher has the chance of becoming once more, albeit in communication alone, the old existential actor that he had once been, incorporating into his own existence the preceding text of his own thinking or of tradition.

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The Depression of Transylvania is the largest depression area within the chain of the Carpathians, and by its associated tectonic, lithological, morpho-climatic, morpho-hydrographic, and bio-pedo-geographic relations it defines the specificity of Transylvanian geographical landscapes. The functionality of Transylvanian geographic landscapes is proved by the heterogeneity of the paleo-media of morphogenesis, and the rate and intensity of contemporary geomorphological processes as apparent in Pleistocene “informational” matrices.

The landscape response to climatic and hydrologic changes was highlighted by: the analysis of climatic and hydrologic conditions, the morpho-dynamics of valleys and slopes, land usage types, and the dynamics of rural and urban settlements. The action of Pleistocene, Holocene, and contemporary modelling factors is apparent in the morphodynamic factors of geomorphological landscapes. Contemporary modelling is inscribed into the Pleistocene matrix, while the processes of linear and regional erosion outline a new dimension of the functions of Transylvanian landscape.

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The great majority of geographic hazards developed in the East of the Apuseni Mountains (flash floods, floods and inundations, land instability phenomena, and the pollution of watercourses) are caused by heavy rainfalls. In order to study and statistically analyze the maximum precipitations (monthly and seasonal frequency, quantities with different probabilities of exceedance, maximum intensity) we collected data referring to the highest annual daily amounts of precipitation recorded in a series of raingauge stations in a period of 28 years (1978–2005). The results obtained from the analysis of the maximum precipitations are important starting points for the evaluation of environmental risks.

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Floods are natural phenomena and an element of Earth’s natural hydrological cycle; they have always existed and will continue to exist. From this point of view, flood risk assessment and management is essential. Floods cannot be avoided, but can be managed, and their effects can be reduced by a systematic process of measures and actions meant to diminish the risks associated with this phenomenon. Floods do not know national frontiers, thus the common actions of member states are called for, and the principle of solidarity must play a fundamental role. The initiatives of European officials concretized in Directive 2007/60 regarding flood risk assessment and management. The Directive will be implemented in member states in three stages: a) preliminary flood risk assessment; b) flood hazard mapping and flood risk mapping; c) establishment of flood risk management plans. The target of Directive 2007/60 is the setting of a framework for flood risk assessment and management with a view to reduce negative consequences for human health, environment, cultural heritage, and economic activity.

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Recent studies have shown that methane emissions from geological sources can reach important values in sedimentary basins containing hydrocarbons. The flux of methane from soils situated in the perimeter of hydrocarbon bearing basins is greater than in regular soils. Invisible methane degasifications, known as diffuse soil microseepage from soils related to hydrocarbon production in sedimentary basins, increase the atmospheric methane budget. Methane is formed in a natural way, but it can also be the result of several human activities. In nature, this gas is formed as a result of many processes in the biosphere, atmosphere and geosphere.

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The study intends to analyze the issue of European energy security from a historical perspective and also from the point of view of international relations, as well as the geopolitical, geostrategic and geoeconomic role of Turkey in shaping the European energy security complex besides the EU. Emphasizing that Turkey has the role of an “energy hub” between Central Asia–Caucasus and the EU, our research focuses on the special importance of interconnected oil and gas network projects, such as the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan oil pipeline (BTC Pipeline) or the Nabucco gas pipeline and the Turkey–Greece–Italy Interconnector.

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The present paper is a preliminary study endeavouring to find some possible interpretations, both cultural and historical, for the 17^thcentury decline in publishing popular literature. The basis of this preliminary study is those few extant copies of popular books published by the Heltai press in the 17^th century which are housed by the Special Collections Department of the Lucian Blaga Central University Library in Cluj.

This outline has the purpose of putting forward a problem, namely that something happened after the turn of the 16^th-17^th centuries which radically cut down the number of such works. The paper concludes that, besides economic reasons, this process was rather explained by a complex set of social-historical reasons (religious wars and disputes, influencing both the general “mood” and interest of readers and writers alike), an assumption which indicates the direction of further research.

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The general perception of the profession of librarian is affected by stereotypes due to lack of information. The instruction of a librarian, quite often ignored, must go beyond the limits of the education one gets at the university, the librarian’s main duty being to observe what is new in the international library community and to permanently adapt and update his knowledge and skills. The image of the scholarly librarian of the Middle Ages, frequently encountered until the late 20^th century, has become obsolete nowadays, as the attributes of the profession have changed radically. The direct consequence of the advent of online catalogues was the addition of a new amount of knowledge to the existing librarianship skills, the librarian becoming an information specialist. The combination between traditional librarianship knowledge and the skills claimed by the arrival of new technologies in the library, as well as their harmonization in the library activity has become a sine-qua-non condition for optimal processes and better services. The present library user has also a new image, his behaviour being decisive with regard to the configuration of the information access methods. Since the alternative associated with the library is the Internet, the information existing in the World Wide Web has turned the potential library users into great supporters of the search engines and of some interactive information and editing tools such as: wikis, folksonomies, tagging, blogging. Google and Wikipedia are visited by people quite often without questioning the truthfulness of the data found there. The new technologies may be advantageously employed in libraries, but the time saved must be used sensibly for activities which may attract the users to the library. The offered information has to be diverse and not restricted to bibliographic information. In the present paper a few initiatives are presented to illustrate the wide range of information and services offered to users by the Carol I Central University Library of Bucharest.

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