Drafts by Filip Boicu
I was trying to raise some epistemological and organizational issues for discussion in light of t... more I was trying to raise some epistemological and organizational issues for discussion in light of the 2040-2050 decade.
Starting from literature on Communist Romania this paper proposes as an underlying mechanism for ... more Starting from literature on Communist Romania this paper proposes as an underlying mechanism for the frequent use of the hero image a certain archetypal structure that seems central to Communist culture in general. The first part introduces this mechanism via examples from Romanian Communist culture. The second part posits its origin within the domain of religion, re-imagining it as a theological device. Theoretical considerations regarding the nature of this mechanism and issues of methodology are then covered in the third part. In the fourth section, the notion is confirmed at the level of Stalinist material culture via Stephen Kotkin’s analysis of Magnitogorsk. This search for the roots of the hero-mirror mechanism in Russian Communist culture continues in the last two sections.
The Bahá’í Faith is one of the newest world religions. Its extensive corpus of teachings deals di... more The Bahá’í Faith is one of the newest world religions. Its extensive corpus of teachings deals directly with themes that today we can summarize under terms such as that of ‘globalization.’ One key principle that speaks directly to the theme of globalization, and which can even be imagined as its spiritual correspondent in religious discourse, is the principle of the oneness of humankind. This paper seeks to review some of the ways in which the concept has been framed in the recent past. You can inbox me with comments or suggestions.
Table of Contents CONCLUSION p.75 BIBLIOGRAPHY p.84 sometimes results in avantgarde works (see Tr... more Table of Contents CONCLUSION p.75 BIBLIOGRAPHY p.84 sometimes results in avantgarde works (see Tristan Tzara and Dadaism). 2 The fragmentary essay is the preferred form of intellectual production (when it is not a poem) because it is free flowing, allowing for a diversity of themes, and inviting an immediate conversation. All theories are experiments at best, they all hurt humanity in some way, and there could always be a better one. Writing and theorizing is not a precise, linear, calculated operation that operates sequentially, and which stems only from one perspective. The act of writing is a search in which the argument develops, more often than not, in a spiral. Rather than attempting to directly tackle a problem one navigates the unknown space around it from distance hoping to get closer and closer via a helical trajectory. It is not that one chooses the spiral but that this is how the gravity pull of knowledge works when no reliable map of its territory is yet available. Sometimes, this also happens because none of the existing maps can be trusted, and one must rely on several of them at once. Such an investigation has no beginning and no end because knowledge is infinite. To such an intellectual, introductions and conclusions appear, therefore, as useless repetitions, attempts to have someone defend the indefensible, a formality that wastes time. Such artificial conventions hide the never-ending process of knowledge-formation and the constant presence of incertitude that slowly but surely dissolves it, the fact that the real truth of our existence is how much we do not know. If I were to describe a Romanian intellectual along these lines, I would describe them as an intellectual on the run. The precarity that is beginning to characterize academic work in the West has always been the province of the Romanian intellectual, whether at home or abroad. On the other hand, if there are no boundaries to the terrain of knowledge, and no solid and stable local traditions to build on, how is one to cover some of that ground meaningfully? The question of how to engage with the West and catch up with modernity while understanding the global (and the interrelated global problems due to peak in the 2040-2050 decade) means there is very little time available to redesign everything we know as human culture and civilization. The process of disintegration is increasing in its intensity and spread, while the process of integration is too feeble and often sabotaged by even the last sectors of society enshrining our hopes for change. And yet, this is just one side of the coin. The other side is the old Western ideal of the intellectual as a Renaisssance Man, working from within different fields of knowledge and treating knowledge as a path towards the fulfilment of our humanity. More than that, this is a journey towards a mathesis universalis, timeless truths, universal peace and the Divine. Here, elaborate theoretical constructions replace the fragmentary, and comparison, integration and synthesis take over. Mircea Eliade, Ioan-Petru Culianu, Matei Călinescu and Basarab Nicolescu are examples of Romanian intellectuals who have pursued this tradition to international acclaim. 3 A Romanian intellectual, it could thus be said, oscillates between liminality and synthesis while trying to conform to the Western ideal of specialization and to writing introductions and conclusions. Often our intellectual work is misjudged in the West for not having a structure. But there is always a structure, just not the linear one; a polycentric one, rather than one with a single center.
Launched in 1974 by the comparativist Edgar Papu, protochronism, it is generally agreed, originat... more Launched in 1974 by the comparativist Edgar Papu, protochronism, it is generally agreed, originated 1 as a concept in literary theory. The term, derived from Greek ("protos" = first and "chronos" = time) referred, in Papu's designation, to the notion of 'priority' or 'precedence' in cultural discovery. "This idea," as Verdery (1991, p.167) observed, "encouraged critics and literary historians to look for developments in Romanian culture that had anticipated events in the better-publicized cultures of Western Europe." As such, the concept, reminiscent of attempts made earlier by Bogdan Petriceicu Haşdeu and Nicolae Densuşianu to establish the Dacians as an important reference point for national identity and as foundational to European culture (tendency identified as 'dacomania 2 ' or 'thracomania' by its critics and 'dacology' by its advocates) (Wikipedia 3 , "Protochronism"), established the priority of certain major
Papers by Filip Boicu
anti-foundationalists (meaning, those affiliated with post-structuralist and postmodernist theori... more anti-foundationalists (meaning, those affiliated with post-structuralist and postmodernist theories, social constructionism, critical theory, and with those movements or theories considered by those on the Right to be associated with 'identity politics' and with Marxism, such as race theories, feminisms, queer theory, postcolonial theories, decolonial theories etc.) operate with a very problematic concept of power that must be rejected or resisted. According to both Karlberg and Farid-Arbab 2 , power can be defined in negative or positive ways as either 'adversarialism' or 'mutualism' (this is a view derived from Farzam Arbab 3 and FUNDAEC). The concepts of 'power over' and 'balance of power' constitute 'adversarialism' while the concepts of 'power to' and 'power with' constitute 'assisted empowerment' and 'mutual empowerment.' 'Power to' denotes power as a capacity in individuals that needs to be nourished or assisted from the outside. 'Power with' manifests itself when people act "in a cooperative or mutualistic manner in the pursuit of a common goal." 4 (p.58) The key claim here is that 'adversarialism' leads to oppressive structures (this includes both social structures and knowledge structures) while 'mutualism' leads to "emancipatory structures" (again, this refers to both social structures and knowledge structures). (p.105) The Bahá'í Faith, Karlberg
The Futurian, 2022
What are short to long-term implications of geopolitical dissonance in global Covid-19 vaccine di... more What are short to long-term implications of geopolitical dissonance in global Covid-19 vaccine distribution?
In his book “Constructing Social Reality. An Inquiry into the Normative Foundations of Social Cha... more In his book “Constructing Social Reality. An Inquiry into the Normative Foundations of Social Change” (2020) Michael Karlberg proposes a particular “consultative epistemology” as central to the Bahá’í methdology for social change. This “consultative epistemology” constitutes the main argument of the book, its backbone, and its most significant claim. Karlberg’s key contention is that this ‘consultative epistemology’ manages to finally reconcile the tensions between “truth and relativity, knowledge and power, science and religion” (p.VIII) and thus transcend the main crises and fault lines of modernity. The claim, therefore, is that a new model for civilization building has thus been born, one that transcends previous limitations.
The section you will read is a revised short fragment from an article entitled “Strong Foundationalism in the Bahá’í Faith? With an Analysis of Michael Karlberg's ‘Ontological Foundationalism.’”
Introduction p.3 Ontological Foundationalism and Nonfoundationalism-'anti-relativism' positions i... more Introduction p.3 Ontological Foundationalism and Nonfoundationalism-'anti-relativism' positions in the Bahá'í Faith p.4
THE WORLD OF THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH, 2022
This article consists of three interrelated sections. The first section touches on four themes ce... more This article consists of three interrelated sections. The first section touches on four themes central to current Bahá’í inspired curricula and highlights them for further exploration:1) the harmony of science and religion 2) the unity of knowledge 3) the oneness of humankind 4) human nature. The second section of this article illustrates both the continuity and the practical applications of these themes by providing a brief but illuminating case study of the Bahá’í schools founded in Iran at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the third and final part, descriptions of three Bahá’í inspired curricula developed over several decades are used to frame the optics for each theme. The aim is to note some curricular applications and challenges in these areas and put forward considerations that could inform a future theory of Bahá’í education.
Table of Contents CONCLUSION p.75 BIBLIOGRAPHY p.84 sometimes results in avantgarde works (see Tr... more Table of Contents CONCLUSION p.75 BIBLIOGRAPHY p.84 sometimes results in avantgarde works (see Tristan Tzara and Dadaism). 2 The fragmentary essay is the preferred form of intellectual production (when it is not a poem) because it is free flowing, allowing for a diversity of themes, and inviting an immediate conversation. All theories are experiments at best, they all hurt humanity in some way, and there could always be a better one. Writing and theorizing is not a precise, linear, calculated operation that operates sequentially, and which stems only from one perspective. The act of writing is a search in which the argument develops, more often than not, in a spiral. Rather than attempting to directly tackle a problem one navigates the unknown space around it from distance hoping to get closer and closer via a helical trajectory. It is not that one chooses the spiral but that this is how the gravity pull of knowledge works when no reliable map of its territory is yet available. Sometimes, this also happens because none of the existing maps can be trusted, and one must rely on several of them at once. Such an investigation has no beginning and no end because knowledge is infinite. To such an intellectual, introductions and conclusions appear, therefore, as useless repetitions, attempts to have someone defend the indefensible, a formality that wastes time. Such artificial conventions hide the never-ending process of knowledge-formation and the constant presence of incertitude that slowly but surely dissolves it, the fact that the real truth of our existence is how much we do not know. If I were to describe a Romanian intellectual along these lines, I would describe them as an intellectual on the run. The precarity that is beginning to characterize academic work in the West has always been the province of the Romanian intellectual, whether at home or abroad. On the other hand, if there are no boundaries to the terrain of knowledge, and no solid and stable local traditions to build on, how is one to cover some of that ground meaningfully? The question of how to engage with the West and catch up with modernity while understanding the global (and the interrelated global problems due to peak in the 2040-2050 decade) means there is very little time available to redesign everything we know as human culture and civilization. The process of disintegration is increasing in its intensity and spread, while the process of integration is too feeble and often sabotaged by even the last sectors of society enshrining our hopes for change. And yet, this is just one side of the coin. The other side is the old Western ideal of the intellectual as a Renaisssance Man, working from within different fields of knowledge and treating knowledge as a path towards the fulfilment of our humanity. More than that, this is a journey towards a mathesis universalis, timeless truths, universal peace and the Divine. Here, elaborate theoretical constructions replace the fragmentary, and comparison, integration and synthesis take over. Mircea Eliade, Ioan-Petru Culianu, Matei Călinescu and Basarab Nicolescu are examples of Romanian intellectuals who have pursued this tradition to international acclaim. 3 A Romanian intellectual, it could thus be said, oscillates between liminality and synthesis while trying to conform to the Western ideal of specialization and to writing introductions and conclusions. Often our intellectual work is misjudged in the West for not having a structure. But there is always a structure, just not the linear one; a polycentric one, rather than one with a single center.
Conference Presentations by Filip Boicu
Although their operations remain crucial at national and local levels, universities should no lon... more Although their operations remain crucial at national and local levels, universities should no longer be presumed to have primarily a national or local function; today they are the knowledge institutions and global actors responsible for our collective survival as humanity. Paradoxically, universities have moved away from notions of public good and have been reconfigured as commercial enterprises competing for economic power precisely at a time when exploding social inequality between different sectors and substrata of humanity demands we redefine the human being in a global manner. From this perspective, a unifying notion of social justice should be developed that can challenge structural inequalities in relation to global processes, engaging directly with long-term processes of marginalization based on nationality, ethnicity, race, social class, gender or disability etc. Such definitions of social justice would have to go much beyond the typical half-heartedly asserted concern with widening access or participation and, essentially, also beyond a focus with inequality at only the level of the nation. As it stands, there are serious limitations. From the outside, universities are severely constrained by an agenda of competition in the world market and their pursuit for global status as well as pressures to act as influential agents on behalf of competing nations. Having been captured for the reproduction of elites and particular social groups in society, they are heavily invested in long-term processes of marginalization. From the inside, universities are constantly being internally reconfigured according to marketization principles and management-type ideologies, while also facing great epistemological uncertainty in terms of their main mission and goals. In this paper, I attempt to explore how notions of social justice be reconfigured and connected to a positive project or ideology for the university through the notion that we are all first and foremost human beings and that the process of globalization can be understood to ultimately highlight this basic unity existing in the body of humanity. While the first part of the paper proposes the notion of the oneness of humankind as a potent overarching concept in addressing multiple aspects of social justice, the second part discusses how this could be attempted through the medium of universities.
Books by Filip Boicu
The World of the Bahá'í Faith is an outstanding guide to the Bahá'í Faith and its culture in all ... more The World of the Bahá'í Faith is an outstanding guide to the Bahá'í Faith and its culture in all its geographical and historical diversity. Written by a distinguished team of international contributors, this volume explores the origin of this religion and contains substantial thematic articles on the living experience of the global Bahá'í community. The volume is organised into six distinct sections:
Leadership and Authoritative Texts
Theology
Humanity
Society
Contemporary Bahá'í Community
History and Spread of the Bahá'í Community
These sections cover such themes as afterlife, artistic expression, Bahá'í institutions, devotional life, diversity, economics, education, the environment and sustainability, family life, gender, human nature, interfaith relations, international governance, law, marriage, peace, persecution, philosophy, race, science and religion, scripture, spirituality, and work. The development of the Bahá'í Faith is outlined in ten regional articles.
This volume provides an authoritative and accessible source of information on all topics important to the Bahá'í Faith. The World of the Bahá'í Faith will be essential reading to students and scholars studying world religions and comparative religion. It will also be of interest to those in related fields such as sociology, political science, anthropology, and ethics.
https://www.routledge.com/The-World-of-the-Bahai-Faith/Stockman/p/book/9781138367722
Talks by Filip Boicu
This is my most important contribution on Baha’i education. I have tried to cover the basics fo... more This is my most important contribution on Baha’i education. I have tried to cover the basics for those interested in a Baha’i inspired field of education or who have any involvement with education in the Baha’i community.
I believe the powerpoint format is much more accessible than a series of academic papers. This format also helped me distill a lot of arguments.
It was made to read as a paper that one can read on their own, without any requirements for educational expertise. It was made to constitute a journey.
This presentation has two parts. The first part sets out the context for the rest of the discussion. Here I share some considerations on the following topics:
- What is education?
- What is Bahá’í education?
- What is the importance of theory and of models for theory building?
- And what are some of the ways in which we can look at science and religion?
In the second part I briefly look at the theoretical models, theoretical sources, and the curricula of three distinct Bahá’í educational projects - highlighting the importance of theory:
- FUNDAEC (Fundación para la Aplicación y Enseñanza de las Ciencias, or Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences),
- the Anisa Model,
- the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE).
Teaching Documents by Filip Boicu
This is not an academic paper (it lacks that rigour and format) but a way to underline the cohere... more This is not an academic paper (it lacks that rigour and format) but a way to underline the coherence of a series of posts on the theory of social change from my blog. However, they are academic in style.
Uploads
Drafts by Filip Boicu
Papers by Filip Boicu
The section you will read is a revised short fragment from an article entitled “Strong Foundationalism in the Bahá’í Faith? With an Analysis of Michael Karlberg's ‘Ontological Foundationalism.’”
Conference Presentations by Filip Boicu
Books by Filip Boicu
Leadership and Authoritative Texts
Theology
Humanity
Society
Contemporary Bahá'í Community
History and Spread of the Bahá'í Community
These sections cover such themes as afterlife, artistic expression, Bahá'í institutions, devotional life, diversity, economics, education, the environment and sustainability, family life, gender, human nature, interfaith relations, international governance, law, marriage, peace, persecution, philosophy, race, science and religion, scripture, spirituality, and work. The development of the Bahá'í Faith is outlined in ten regional articles.
This volume provides an authoritative and accessible source of information on all topics important to the Bahá'í Faith. The World of the Bahá'í Faith will be essential reading to students and scholars studying world religions and comparative religion. It will also be of interest to those in related fields such as sociology, political science, anthropology, and ethics.
https://www.routledge.com/The-World-of-the-Bahai-Faith/Stockman/p/book/9781138367722
Talks by Filip Boicu
I believe the powerpoint format is much more accessible than a series of academic papers. This format also helped me distill a lot of arguments.
It was made to read as a paper that one can read on their own, without any requirements for educational expertise. It was made to constitute a journey.
This presentation has two parts. The first part sets out the context for the rest of the discussion. Here I share some considerations on the following topics:
- What is education?
- What is Bahá’í education?
- What is the importance of theory and of models for theory building?
- And what are some of the ways in which we can look at science and religion?
In the second part I briefly look at the theoretical models, theoretical sources, and the curricula of three distinct Bahá’í educational projects - highlighting the importance of theory:
- FUNDAEC (Fundación para la Aplicación y Enseñanza de las Ciencias, or Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences),
- the Anisa Model,
- the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE).
Teaching Documents by Filip Boicu
The section you will read is a revised short fragment from an article entitled “Strong Foundationalism in the Bahá’í Faith? With an Analysis of Michael Karlberg's ‘Ontological Foundationalism.’”
Leadership and Authoritative Texts
Theology
Humanity
Society
Contemporary Bahá'í Community
History and Spread of the Bahá'í Community
These sections cover such themes as afterlife, artistic expression, Bahá'í institutions, devotional life, diversity, economics, education, the environment and sustainability, family life, gender, human nature, interfaith relations, international governance, law, marriage, peace, persecution, philosophy, race, science and religion, scripture, spirituality, and work. The development of the Bahá'í Faith is outlined in ten regional articles.
This volume provides an authoritative and accessible source of information on all topics important to the Bahá'í Faith. The World of the Bahá'í Faith will be essential reading to students and scholars studying world religions and comparative religion. It will also be of interest to those in related fields such as sociology, political science, anthropology, and ethics.
https://www.routledge.com/The-World-of-the-Bahai-Faith/Stockman/p/book/9781138367722
I believe the powerpoint format is much more accessible than a series of academic papers. This format also helped me distill a lot of arguments.
It was made to read as a paper that one can read on their own, without any requirements for educational expertise. It was made to constitute a journey.
This presentation has two parts. The first part sets out the context for the rest of the discussion. Here I share some considerations on the following topics:
- What is education?
- What is Bahá’í education?
- What is the importance of theory and of models for theory building?
- And what are some of the ways in which we can look at science and religion?
In the second part I briefly look at the theoretical models, theoretical sources, and the curricula of three distinct Bahá’í educational projects - highlighting the importance of theory:
- FUNDAEC (Fundación para la Aplicación y Enseñanza de las Ciencias, or Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences),
- the Anisa Model,
- the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE).