Talk:A look at the philosophy of Josef Šmajs

My relationship to Josef Šmajs

I must have talked to Šmajs perhaps in 1995 or 1996 (I think). I must have bought a book by him back then, perhaps Ohrožená kultura. --Dan Polansky (discuss • contribs) 13:49, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

English vs. Czech

I realize that the language of the English Wikiversity is English, not Czech. And most texts about Šmajs and in relation to Šmajs are in Czech. But there is also something available in English, so writing an article on Šmajs in English is possible and seems worthwhile. Heavily referencing Czech texts seems better than ignoring them for being in Czech. In this time and age, the readers can also use machine translations. And people bilingual in English and Czech may find themselves in a comfortable position when dealing with the present article and the texts it references. --Dan Polansky (discuss • contribs) 18:16, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

Culture vs. nature and technology vs. biology

(Perhaps to be added to the main text in some form.)

I think the culture (including technology) vs. nature is not so useful/fruitful a dichotomy as technology vs. biology/living things. Human culture without technology is harmless; cavemen making paintings on the cave walls cannot wreak havoc on the biosphere. And the main target of destruction are not e.g. geoforms but rather living things including species.

The matter is also complicated by the fact that some think culture and technology to be part of natu, and thus, the environmental threat picture does not fundamentally change if one changes the relationship of culture vs. nature from coordinate to subordinate. --Dan Polansky (discuss • contribs) 09:33, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

More items to process

I want to start paying attention to other things than this article for some time now. Here are some items that could still be processed:

1) The article in English from 2015 on the constitution of the Earth would perhaps be the single most as if "nutritional" publicly available article to analyze; it has not only the constitution but also other accompanying text.

2) DONE. The above mentioned article is linked from the middle but could perhaps also be linked from the end, given its probable value for understanding Šmajsian philosophy.

3) https://lindat.mff.cuni.cz/services/catalog/?f%5Bsubject_ssim%5D%5B%5D=evolutionary+ontology features 4 articles on Šmajs' "evolutionary ontology". Some could be added as more links; some perhaps even in English.

4) I could create a section for a list of key concepts, key terms or key phrases. Candidate items: evolutionary ontology, aggressive adaptive strategy, predatory spiritual paradigm and thus spiritual paradigm, entropy, anti-entropic barrier, information, ontic, biophilia and biophilic.

5) Among the older articles, the one from 1973 (in Czech) is covered but others are not. One could perhaps put together a list of pre-1989 publications by Šmajs. That would be quite interesting: the article from 1973 has quite peculiar "texture", so to speak. A list of candidate articles is at https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/sites/default/files/pdf/122318.pdf Sociální funkce vědy 1986.

6) This in particular can be added as a link: https://digilib2.phil.muni.cz/sites/default/files/pdf/106838.pdf Práce a socialistický způsob života.

7) https://digilib2.phil.muni.cz/en/node/63766 lists 68 publications by Šmajs, including some before 1989. What caught my attention was Zu den Voraussetzungen und zur Methode der Kritik der bürgerlichen Konzeptionen einer ökologischen Katastrophe from 1983, which states, from what I understand, that Westerns critics of the technological civilization are wrong to assign the environmental crisis to that civilization and that the crisis is to be assigned specifically to capitalism. This could be used in some way in the article. One thing to consider is to greatly expand the list of publications.

8) Sometimes (or often?), Šmajs is scant on referencing literature and sources of his ideas. For instance, in How Will the Promethean Myth End (see the article itself for a link), he only references his own works. As a result, the task of finding possible sources of his ideas is made more difficult.

--Dan Polansky (discuss • contribs) 07:38, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Updated. --Dan Polansky (discuss • contribs) 12:27, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

Updated. --Dan Polansky (discuss • contribs) 11:17, 4 March 2025 (UTC)

Updated. --Dan Polansky (discuss • contribs) 09:31, 10 March 2025 (UTC)