CONTENTS - NUMBER 2, DECEMBER 2001

A r t i c l e s

MARK BEVIR: The Individual and Society ...101
TIMOTHY J MADIGAN: Sidney Hook: Defender of Democracy ...115
TIBOR PICHLER: "Jánošíčenie" - Rebelling (On the Career of one Concept) ...122
ĽUBICA CHORVÁTHOVÁ: On the Dynamics of Changes in Social and national Identity in Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries ...130
KAROL KOLLÁR: The Development of the Views of Milan Hodža on the Issue of nation and nationalism ...134
MAGDALÉNA PARÍKOVÁ: Ethnocultural and Social Contexts of Postwar Slovak Migration from Hungary ...149
ZUZANA KUSÁ: A Peculiar Contribution of the Slovak Media to the Level of Confidence in Post-communist Slovakia ...162
JAROSLAVA DROZDÍKOVÁ: Is the Only History White? Remembering Franz Fanon Forty Years after his Death ...175
MARIÁN GÁLIK: Is it not Delightful to Have Friends Coming from afar? Professor Ye Ziming and Me ...183

B o o k  R e v i e w s

AFZAL-KAHN, FAWZIA AND KALPANA SESHADRI-CROOKS (Eds): The Pre-occupation of Post-colonial Studies By JARMILA DROZDÍKOVÁ

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THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY

Mark Bevir
Department of Politics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

What is the relationship of the individual to society? This paper argues it is one of mutual dependence. Individuals can not hold beliefs or perform actions apart from against the background of particular social structures. And social structures only influence, as opposed to restricting or deciding, the beliefs and decisions of individuals, so social structures can arise only out of performances by individuals. The grammar of our concepts shows it is a mistake to postulate a moment of origin when either individuals or social structures must have existed prior to the other. Our concepts of an individual and a social structure are vague, and this allows for their existence being dependent on one another.
pp. 101–114

SIDNEY HOOK: DEFENDER OF DEMOCRACY

Timothy J. Madigan
University of Rochester Press, 668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, New York 14620, USA

Sidney Hook was one of America’s most noted pragmatists. A protege of John Dewey, Hook was the first avowed Marxist professor in the United States. After initially trying to unite Marxism and pragmatism, he became disillusioned with communism after seeing it in practice in the Soviet Union, and became a noted opponent of Soviet dominance over Eastern Europe. Hook’s writings on democracy have new relevance as Eastern Europe attempt to enact new democratic institutions after the collapse of the Soviet Union – something which Hook did not himself live to see.
pp. 115–121

”JÁNOŠÍČENIE” – REBELLING (ON THE CAREER OF ONE CONCEPT)

Tibor Pichler
Institute of Philosophy, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

”Jánošíčenie” is a term used in Slovak literature dealing with history. It means a form of social protest as well as a pattern of behaviour conditioned by a certain configuration of social forces. The author investigates its different uses by the historian Ľubomír Lipták and the essayist Vladimír Mináč. Lipták endeavours to explain the social situation to which it is applied, while Mináč tries to mythologize it.
pp. 122–129

ON THE DYNAMICS OF CHANGES IN SOCIAL AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN SLOVAKIA IN THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

Ľubica Chorváthová
Am Ostpark 12, 32105 Bad Salzuflen, Germany

The author deals with the complicated problem of social and ethnic identity in Slovakia throughout the history of the country and pays special attention to its manipulation by the ruling elites.
pp. 130–133

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VIEWS OF MILAN HODŽA ON THE ISSUE OF NATION AND NATIONALISM

Karol Kollár
Institute of Philosophy, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The author in his paper deals with the analysis of the conception of nationalism worked out by a representative of the Slovak intellectual and political élite – Milan Hodža – in the period of the rather closed historical stage of the process of modernization in Central Europe during the first four decades of the 20th century. The analysis proves that though M. Hodža was not the author of a comprehensive and original conception of nation and nationalism, these two mutually corresponding phenomena were permanently present in the field of his theoretical interest. They played a key-role in his theoretical as well as in political activities.
The author in his paper follows the developmental bow of M. Hodža’s views related to the above mentioned issues, especially nationalism. During the pre – First World War period Hodža reflected nationalism as the destructive social pathological phenomenon, during the interwar period within the framework of a newly established state (ČSR) he understood nationalism as a significant constructive, culturally stimulating factor. On the eve of the Second World War Hodža identified nationalism as a militant, aggressive social psychological phenomenon which had to be politically rectified so that it would not take a wrong turn onto its lower dustructive developmental stage.
pp. 134–148

ETHNOCULTURAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXTS OF POSTWAR SLOVAK MIGRATION FROM HUNGARY

Magdaléna Paríková
Department of Ethnology, Philosophical Faculty of the Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

The period of World War II witnessed mass transfers of people.The war resulted in and predetermined the new geopolitical situation in Europe.The migratory movements of millions of people (mostly non-voluntary) that had taken place already during the war for one reason or another (chiefly Jewish people) were among to the greatest demographic changes in modern historical development of central and south-eastern part of Europe in particular. These changes were most markedly reflected in the changes of the ethnic composition of the inhabitants in particular regions. Twenty million Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Germans and other ethnic groups illustrate the extent of the particular waves of migrations, which touched several European countries. They had to abandon their homelands as a result of political decisions taken by the post-war powers (USA, Great Britain, USSR). Only a small number of migrants welcomed the opportunity of voluntary resettlement in another country, including those who were offered the opportunity to live permanently in the country of their mother nation.
pp. 149–161

A PECULIAR CONTRIBUTION OF THE SLOVAK MEDIA TO THE LEVEL OF CONFIDENCE IN POST-COMMUNIST SLOVAKIA

Zuzana Kusá
Institute for Sociology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The author outlines the development of confidence in the institutions of representative democracy in the 1990s in Slovakia. She shows that in its first weeks, the Velvet Revolution became closely intertwined with the process of testing the trustworthiness of various kinds of leaders and managers at all levels of political and economic (working) life. The active participation of people in these processes went hand in hand with increase of social trust and civic self-confidence, documented by the public opinion polls of that period. Then the author focuses on the rapid decline in trust in the 1990 and considers possibility of various factors that might contribute to its decline. She gives the main attention to the Slovak media and puts forwards the hypothesis that the way the media had represented the privatization process of the Slovak economy exerted a negative impact upon the self-confidence of citizens. She suggested that mainly the extensive play with a law of the jungle metaphor could deepen the sense of civic powerlessness in the face of the new economic and ruling élite.
pp. 162–174

IS THE ONLY HISTORY WHITE? - REMEMBERING FRANTZ FANON FORTY YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH

Jarmila Drozdíková
Záhrebská 6, 811 05 Bratislava, Slovakia

Although the ideas of Frantz Fanon, a Black psychiatrist and one of the leading figures of the Third World liberation movement, have lost their political impact, his writings are valued as founding texts of the critique of colonialism.
pp. 175–182

IS IT NOT DELIGHTFUL TO HAVE FRIENDS COMING FROM AFAR? PROFESSOR YE ZIMING AND ME

Marián Gálik
Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia

The aim of this essay is to point out the most important facts concerning common endeavours in the study of modern Chinese literature between Professor Ye Ziming, noted literary historian at Nanking University, and the present writer in the years 1959-1999.
pp. 183–192

BOOK REVIEWS

Afzal-Khan, Fawzia and Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks (Eds.): The Pre-occupation of Postcolonial Studies. Durham & London 2000: Duke University Press. VIII+412 pp. ISBN: 0-8223-2486-5.
pp. 193–196

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