Research Programs

Research Program:

1. The Humanities and the Sense of Humanity from Historical and Contemporary Viewpoints: P6-0341 [2006–2020]

The main purpose of the program “The Humanities and the Sense of Humanity from Historical and Contemporary Viewpoints” is to define the situation of humanistic knowledge in the scope of development and research perspectives in the knowledge society, considering the historical and the actual importance of the humanities. Research regarding specific humanistic fields must, therefore, be organized according to historical and contemporary viewpoints, and should intertwine disciplinary and methodological approaches.

With regards to the specificity of the Slovenian region, questions arise that are linked to the role of the language in the humanities and the meaning of the humanities, art, and culture in the formation and development of historical and social identities. However, such a deliberation cannot be appropriately comprehended without the European context, to which Slovenian culture historically and presently belongs. The particular humanistic challenge in Slovenia is the reflection upon the European intercultural horizon.

On this basis, it is also necessary to critically discuss not only social developments on the local as well as the global level, but also to promote the humanistic consciousness in wider society, particularly concerning education, culture, sciences, and media. The activities of the program group in this context include also the publication of humanistic works, the organization of symposia, and the development of a digital archive, serving the purpose of the promotion of the humanities.

Special Programs:

1. Intercultural Dialogue: Europe, World, and Humanity in the 21^st Century – Dialogue of Cultures – Culture in Dialogue

In order for the establishment of the intercultural dialogue to fundamentally contribute to the formation of future European society and appurtenant political decisions it is necessary to enable such a dialogue primarily in the elementary contexts that had historically rendered it possible, but have precisely as historical possibilities become also problematic. Europe, therefore, cannot simply accept the process of the globalization of the world, but should find a response to this development, especially with regards to the responsibility towards humanity, from which our understanding of culture originates. This perhaps represents the central meaning and the sense not only of a dialogue within culture, but also of the dialogue between cultures.

Thematic scope

> Understanding and encountering within culture and between cultures as specific European challenges.

> Historicity as the “identity” of Europe.

> Philosophical presuppositions of European self-understanding.

> Spaces of art as places for European encounters.

> Language of literature and European conversation.

> Christianity and Europe; Europe with regards to the dialogue between religions.

> A common ethos and the ethics of individuality.

> Europe between the own and the alien: geopolitical borders and boundaries.

> Diversity of cultures: strength or weakness of Europe?

> Globalization and the change of the sense of culture.

> Europe as “knowledge society”: a response to globalization?

> Intercultural understanding and the future of common European politics.

2. The Crisis of Freedom

The understanding of freedom has become one of the central problems within the contemporary general social crisis: there exist not only the pronounced tendencies for its limitation, but also the very foundations upon which our comprehension of freedom is based are falling into oblivion. The age of transition after “the end of ideologies” is defined by various social demagogies, capital manipulations, social tensions, and value indifference that under the cloak of the ensured freedom for all cannot disguise the uncertainty of the freedom of individuality.

Thematic scope

> Philosophical aspects of the contemporary crisis of freedom.

> Socio-economic crisis and critical state of humanity.

> Freedom of individuality and social freedom.

> Freedom with regards to historical, religious, and cultural comprehensions.

> Freedom of the media in the grasp of politics and capital.

> Civil society and the freedom of (public) speech.

> Law and the crisis of human rights.

> Freedom as the element of political responsibility.

> Education reforms and academic autonomy.

> Artistic expression as the space of freedom.

> Economic conditioning of scientific research.

> Ecology and economy in the rift of freedom.

3. Cultural and Natural Heritage