Analele Universității „Dunărea de Jos” din Galați. Fascicula XX, Sociologie / The Annals of ”Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati. Fascicle XX, Sociology
This study is part of a project funded by the European Union aimed at supporting equal opportunit... more This study is part of a project funded by the European Union aimed at supporting equal opportunities and professional promotion of women in the project implementation counties: Galaţi, Brăila, Vaslui and Călăraşi. Our research starts from the premise that employment, pay or promotion conditions may limit women's participation in the labour market. In today's Romanian society, multiple inequalities between women and men persist on the labour market, in professional and social life. Even though the status of women in society has changed considerably compared to previous decades, women and men do not have the same opportunities in terms of educational and professional path or family life. The aim of this study is to analyse gender inequalities and discriminatory practices that affect both employed women and those who want to enter the labour market. Although anti-discrimination laws and measures exist, they are neither sufficient nor effective to ensure equal opportunities for ...
Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala
One of the fundamental objectives of higher education is to prepare students to think analyticall... more One of the fundamental objectives of higher education is to prepare students to think analytically in order to develop and create knowledge, thus going beyond receiving information and building simple knowledge. That is why higher education must adapt its teaching and learning process to cultivate critical thinking of students. In order for academia to ensure the effectiveness of the development of critical thinking skills, student perceptions cannot be neglected, given that they are the ultimate receptors. In addition, investigating students’ perceptions of critical thinking skills could guide future training methods that promote their development. The purpose of this research is to explore students' attitudes and beliefs regarding critical thinking skills, as well as aspects of their development in academia and their transfer to other contexts. The study is conducted at the Dunarea de Jos University of Galaţi and uses the questionnaire survey method to assess students' per...
Analele Universității „Dunărea de Jos” din Galați. Fascicula XX, Sociologie / The Annals of ”Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati. Fascicle XX, Sociology
The large volume of information and the variety of daily situations require new cognitive functio... more The large volume of information and the variety of daily situations require new cognitive functions, which combine knowledge, experience and intellectual skills. Critical thinking, as a type of higher-order reasoning and transversal ability, can be considered an important resource to manage the challenges of the contemporary world. However, critical thinking is not a self-developing ability, it must be practiced and encouraged in a correct learning environment. Critical thinking has become one of the most important educational goals, which must be achieved by the various educational institutions through all the programs studied by students in the different educational cycles, but also by students in the university environment. Starting from these considerations, this article analyses different types of actions aimed at introducing critical thinking skills in professional training activities by rethinking the perspectives on instructional paradigms, the integrated approach to the cur...
In today's complex world, influenced by information bombardment and rapid technological devel... more In today's complex world, influenced by information bombardment and rapid technological development, professional training cannot remain limited to the idea of passing knowledge. There is a need to shift the students’ view towards the true spirit of research, which targets the scientific thought on certain social phenomena, and to form critical thinking skills to produce effective individuals in the current labour market, who not only receive information, but go further and analyze problems in the workplace, presenting solutions to identified problems and applying these solutions in concrete situations. For this reason, critical thinking is considered a top skill, being highly appreciated by the business world and organizations. But to think critically is a capacity that does not develop by itself, it must be practiced and encouraged in a correct learning environment. Critical thinking has become one of the most important educational goals, which must be achieved by the differen...
Rethinking Social Action Core Values in Practice, 2018
From a chronological point of view, the original discourse of Marx on money has been marked, firs... more From a chronological point of view, the original discourse of Marx on money has been marked, first of all, by the ethical tradition that considers money as a source of corruption in human relations, and connects directly to individual vices such as the greed for money and selfishness. Thus, in the Manuscripts of 1844, Karl Marx adopted the principle of Moses Hess regarding the support to the critical issues of alienation over a certain conception of money (the distorted representation of human activity, an agent of corruption of social life and responsible for a reversal of the normal order of life). In this article, we argue that through Marx's philosophical criticism of money in his third manuscript, through his report on two literature references, he tries to prove the abstraction power specific to money. I have developed this thesis by studying in three times the way in which money generates a triple abstraction-alienation: the abstraction and alienation of the object, the a...
This article touches the notion of alienation from Rousseau’s, Hegel’s and young Marx’s perspecti... more This article touches the notion of alienation from Rousseau’s, Hegel’s and young Marx’s perspective, Althusser’s critique being its offset, which, according to, this concept stems from an abstract, metaphysical view of history and human agents’ activities. According to Althusser, alienation is indeed the humanistic expression of a back-to-origins philosophy and of lost human essence retrieval. Hence, the philosophy of contractual alienation (as a foundation of political community as per Rousseau), the interrogation of historical positivity from young Hegel’s writings and, last but not least, the alienated work critique elaborated by young Marx in Manuscripts of 1844 can be interpreted as variations around the same essential concepts of human history. In the attempt of overcoming such an undifferentiated approach, the study tries to highlight the original and particular reflection that each of these authors develop on the subject and highlights, at the same time, what they have in co...
This article touches the notion of alienation from Rousseau’s, Hegel’s and young Marx’s perspecti... more This article touches the notion of alienation from Rousseau’s, Hegel’s and young Marx’s perspective, Althusser’s critique being its offset, which, according to, this concept stems from an abstract, metaphysical view of history and human agents’ activities. According to Althusser, alienation is indeed the humanistic expression of a back-to-origins philosophy and of lost human essence retrieval. Hence, the philosophy of contractual alienation (as a foundation of political community as per Rousseau), the interrogation of historical positivity from young Hegel’s writings and, last but not least, the alienated work critique elaborated by young Marx in Manuscripts of 1844 can be interpreted as variations around the same essential concepts of human history. In the attempt of overcoming such an undifferentiated approach, the study tries to highlight the original and particular reflection that each of these authors develop on the subject and highlights, at the same time, what they have in co...
Rethinking Social Action Core Values in Practice, 2018
Starting from the way Martin Luther relates to vocation and its wider implications for society, M... more Starting from the way Martin Luther relates to vocation and its wider implications for society, Max Weber will later develop an understanding of the relationship between the teachings of Protestant morality and vocation. Starting from the ethics of a specialized and ascetic profession, the carrier of a normative and responsible commitment in the world, Weber builds a personality model capable of responding to the political and intellectual challenges of his time. In this paper, I argue that the secularization of vocation, as the epiphenomenon of the disenchantment of the world, and its departure from an ethic of specific religious behavior allowed Weber to shape a portrait of the professional man as an ideal type of ethical personality, inspired by the archetypal example of the ascetic Protestant. It will be necessary to understand how vocation, as a way of articulation between ethics and conduct, generates a distinct type of man engaged in the social struggle. We have developed thi...
In rural areas, the paid employment opportunities are quite rare. So, the majority of the populat... more In rural areas, the paid employment opportunities are quite rare. So, the majority of the population is involved in subsistence agriculture and in taking care of their own household, a fact which is far from the mechanisms of the market economy. The theory behind the present article is that entrepreneurship might prove to be a form of social innovation for the rural area, a solution to the problems linked to labor for the categories that find it difficult to re(insert) in the labor market. The difficulties and the opportunities to initiate a business in the rural environment will be pinpointed from the perspective of the direct social actors present on the labor market: the entrepreneurs, the unemployed, the stay-at-home people, the people in charge with the subsistence agriculture. The present study is part of a more complex research project, funded by the European Union. It was aimed at increasing the socio-professional re(insertion) opportunities by developing professional and en...
The Roma are often approached by researchers and public opinion as a group whose ethnic identity ... more The Roma are often approached by researchers and public opinion as a group whose ethnic identity is ”obvious”. As their way of life is considered as completely different from the groups surrounding them, any image of the non-gypsies about the gypsies is built in order to account for this radical difference. And this difference is naturalised and essentialised by the majority. But the case analysed in the present study – the gypsies in Toflea – is an attempt at deconstructing this naturalised difference by examining the strategies of identity construction and assertion: identity practices and symbols, the identity message of the Roma’s palaces, etc. Among the Roma and about the Roma, the issue of identity often brings forth discordant opinions. It is a fact supported by the different position adopted by specialists, and the Roma themselves in regard to the identity message they send by their oversized residences. To grasp the manner of identity construction in practice for the gypsie...
Moral sentimentalism can be defined as the philosophical theory according to which emotions are t... more Moral sentimentalism can be defined as the philosophical theory according to which emotions are the source of our value judgements, in general, and of our moral judgements, in particular. It follows that, from a historical and conceptual point of view, moral sentimentalism has emerged and developed in opposition to moral rationalism, according to which reason allows us to formulate and understand value judgments from a psychological point of view and is also the source of our axiological knowledge from an epistemic point of view. In this article we present the theoretical issues related to the sentimentalist approach to morality and evaluative judgments, starting from the diverse theories of the classical representatives of sentimentalism, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume and Smith, and especially the three theses they defended: psychological perspective, the theory of moral sense and the theory of moral feelings. I also argue that the first moral sentimentalism emerged from the confron...
Rethinking Social Action. Core Values in Practice, Dec 14, 2017
With modernity, artificiality is developed: people become aware of the fact that society does not... more With modernity, artificiality is developed: people become aware of the fact that society does not represent a natural grant, a gift from God, but the product of their own actions. On the one side, as a counterweight of artificiality, the modern individuals have uncovered the strength of the social empowerment. They "put" society "in motion", but their actions and reactions trigger unexpected effects, they multiply, interfere and they develop their own dynamics which contributes inevitably to the empowerment of the processes that they have started. The individuals lose any control they have had over society, and their interventions have unwanted results. Because of its inert artificiality and its structural opacity, society appears to humans as "a second nature" that opposes their plans and that imposes certain constraints. This is the classical theme of alienation: human products become objectified, are dehumanized and end up by opposing their own creators. These alienation phenomena can be connected to the concept of anomie, defined as the distinction between the objective situation generated by the weakening of the normative rules from a certain society and the subjective feeling of confusion and ignorance regarding the means to action, causing thus anxiety. In this article our main focus is to emphasize two well established orientations from which inevitably start all present day approaches related to alienation and anomie in interpreting the effects of the social empowerment. More precisely, we will look on Marx's alienation theory which emphasizes the human's impossibility to control his social relationships, and also his estrangement from society (it appears to him as a foreign and hostile power). Instead, Durkheim-who is the creator of the term anomie-lays emphasis on the fact that society in itself has reduced the means to control the individual and his actions.
In the past decades, the European and Romanian economies have been strongly affected by major cha... more In the past decades, the European and Romanian economies have been strongly affected by major changes which have influenced also the labor market: the alert pace of the international economic integration, the creation of work division in order to protect some economic sectors, the accelerated development and implementation of new technologies, the increase of the demographic aging trends. In the context of the amplified labor force crisis, the present paper will analyze some dysfunctions which have affected especially the regional labor market: the chronic unemployment, the mismatch between the demand and the offer of jobs and the localized consequences of the labor migration. The approach on these aspects was done in a vaster context intended to analyze the regional labor market of Galati and Braila, starting from the existent imbalances on these markets. The present paper starts from the premise that the proposal of some measurements which should lead to a balancing of the regional working market, must take into account the way in which the direct actors involved are defining these obstacles and opportunities for professional (re)insertion. In order to highlight both the opinions and the perceptions of the participants on the labor market, the research had to take place on two levels: among the groups with a difficult position on the labor market and among the employers.
In this globalized world, the educational systems represent essential components of society which... more In this globalized world, the educational systems represent essential components of society which must assure some competitive graduates for the knowledge based economy. The pupils' professional interests regarding the carrying on of their studies at the university level and their choice for their specialization are complex processes which require a psycho-social analysis. The present paper aims at studying the high-school pupils' professional options and at emphasizing the importance that these young people give to carrying on their studies in order to better integrate on the labor market. In order to study the mechanism of taking the decision to go to university, it is needed to analyze the social influences resulted from the interactions with others (family, teachers, friends, colleagues) and also the importance of self evaluation in the decisional process.
The philosophic notion of human vulnerability cannot be pinpointed as such in the corpus of class... more The philosophic notion of human vulnerability cannot be pinpointed as such in the corpus of classic philosophy. Nevertheless, death and suffering as essential philosophical and theological problems make reference to the dimension of vulnerability inherent to the human condition. Since times immemorial, the fear of death, the avoidance of suffering, or the crisis situations of human existence have laid at the basis of philosophical and religious systems. According to Freud, in the futile pursuit of happiness humans often face misery, which stems from a suffering that threatens them from three different directions: their own body, the outside world, and the relationships with other people. Starting from this angle, the present article furthers the notion of vulnerability by identifying its archetypal themes in relation to human life and its conditions of existence. Two main concepts will guide this study of human vulnerability: a vulnerability inherent to human subjectivity, and one c...
The present article aims at evincing the positive valences of the holism-individualism dispute in... more The present article aims at evincing the positive valences of the holism-individualism dispute in the epistemology of social sciences. Like other dichotomous pairs, holism and individualism have become the predominant spaces of academic analysis in social sciences, being vested with a great power of theoretical discrimination. Instead of treating methodological individualism and holism as complete, a-temporal, antagonistic paradigms, it is our presumption that they are but historical evolutions in social thinking, which are under no circumstances definitive, but improvable and possibly complementary. In this context, the present study claims that there is less and less justification for a dispute between a "holist" Durkheim and an "individualism"-championing Weber, all the more so as in the past few decades consensus and synthesis have been sought by the very proponents of these doctrinary oppositions.
Analele Universității „Dunărea de Jos” din Galați. Fascicula XX, Sociologie / The Annals of ”Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati. Fascicle XX, Sociology
This study is part of a project funded by the European Union aimed at supporting equal opportunit... more This study is part of a project funded by the European Union aimed at supporting equal opportunities and professional promotion of women in the project implementation counties: Galaţi, Brăila, Vaslui and Călăraşi. Our research starts from the premise that employment, pay or promotion conditions may limit women's participation in the labour market. In today's Romanian society, multiple inequalities between women and men persist on the labour market, in professional and social life. Even though the status of women in society has changed considerably compared to previous decades, women and men do not have the same opportunities in terms of educational and professional path or family life. The aim of this study is to analyse gender inequalities and discriminatory practices that affect both employed women and those who want to enter the labour market. Although anti-discrimination laws and measures exist, they are neither sufficient nor effective to ensure equal opportunities for ...
Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala
One of the fundamental objectives of higher education is to prepare students to think analyticall... more One of the fundamental objectives of higher education is to prepare students to think analytically in order to develop and create knowledge, thus going beyond receiving information and building simple knowledge. That is why higher education must adapt its teaching and learning process to cultivate critical thinking of students. In order for academia to ensure the effectiveness of the development of critical thinking skills, student perceptions cannot be neglected, given that they are the ultimate receptors. In addition, investigating students’ perceptions of critical thinking skills could guide future training methods that promote their development. The purpose of this research is to explore students' attitudes and beliefs regarding critical thinking skills, as well as aspects of their development in academia and their transfer to other contexts. The study is conducted at the Dunarea de Jos University of Galaţi and uses the questionnaire survey method to assess students' per...
Analele Universității „Dunărea de Jos” din Galați. Fascicula XX, Sociologie / The Annals of ”Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati. Fascicle XX, Sociology
The large volume of information and the variety of daily situations require new cognitive functio... more The large volume of information and the variety of daily situations require new cognitive functions, which combine knowledge, experience and intellectual skills. Critical thinking, as a type of higher-order reasoning and transversal ability, can be considered an important resource to manage the challenges of the contemporary world. However, critical thinking is not a self-developing ability, it must be practiced and encouraged in a correct learning environment. Critical thinking has become one of the most important educational goals, which must be achieved by the various educational institutions through all the programs studied by students in the different educational cycles, but also by students in the university environment. Starting from these considerations, this article analyses different types of actions aimed at introducing critical thinking skills in professional training activities by rethinking the perspectives on instructional paradigms, the integrated approach to the cur...
In today's complex world, influenced by information bombardment and rapid technological devel... more In today's complex world, influenced by information bombardment and rapid technological development, professional training cannot remain limited to the idea of passing knowledge. There is a need to shift the students’ view towards the true spirit of research, which targets the scientific thought on certain social phenomena, and to form critical thinking skills to produce effective individuals in the current labour market, who not only receive information, but go further and analyze problems in the workplace, presenting solutions to identified problems and applying these solutions in concrete situations. For this reason, critical thinking is considered a top skill, being highly appreciated by the business world and organizations. But to think critically is a capacity that does not develop by itself, it must be practiced and encouraged in a correct learning environment. Critical thinking has become one of the most important educational goals, which must be achieved by the differen...
Rethinking Social Action Core Values in Practice, 2018
From a chronological point of view, the original discourse of Marx on money has been marked, firs... more From a chronological point of view, the original discourse of Marx on money has been marked, first of all, by the ethical tradition that considers money as a source of corruption in human relations, and connects directly to individual vices such as the greed for money and selfishness. Thus, in the Manuscripts of 1844, Karl Marx adopted the principle of Moses Hess regarding the support to the critical issues of alienation over a certain conception of money (the distorted representation of human activity, an agent of corruption of social life and responsible for a reversal of the normal order of life). In this article, we argue that through Marx's philosophical criticism of money in his third manuscript, through his report on two literature references, he tries to prove the abstraction power specific to money. I have developed this thesis by studying in three times the way in which money generates a triple abstraction-alienation: the abstraction and alienation of the object, the a...
This article touches the notion of alienation from Rousseau’s, Hegel’s and young Marx’s perspecti... more This article touches the notion of alienation from Rousseau’s, Hegel’s and young Marx’s perspective, Althusser’s critique being its offset, which, according to, this concept stems from an abstract, metaphysical view of history and human agents’ activities. According to Althusser, alienation is indeed the humanistic expression of a back-to-origins philosophy and of lost human essence retrieval. Hence, the philosophy of contractual alienation (as a foundation of political community as per Rousseau), the interrogation of historical positivity from young Hegel’s writings and, last but not least, the alienated work critique elaborated by young Marx in Manuscripts of 1844 can be interpreted as variations around the same essential concepts of human history. In the attempt of overcoming such an undifferentiated approach, the study tries to highlight the original and particular reflection that each of these authors develop on the subject and highlights, at the same time, what they have in co...
This article touches the notion of alienation from Rousseau’s, Hegel’s and young Marx’s perspecti... more This article touches the notion of alienation from Rousseau’s, Hegel’s and young Marx’s perspective, Althusser’s critique being its offset, which, according to, this concept stems from an abstract, metaphysical view of history and human agents’ activities. According to Althusser, alienation is indeed the humanistic expression of a back-to-origins philosophy and of lost human essence retrieval. Hence, the philosophy of contractual alienation (as a foundation of political community as per Rousseau), the interrogation of historical positivity from young Hegel’s writings and, last but not least, the alienated work critique elaborated by young Marx in Manuscripts of 1844 can be interpreted as variations around the same essential concepts of human history. In the attempt of overcoming such an undifferentiated approach, the study tries to highlight the original and particular reflection that each of these authors develop on the subject and highlights, at the same time, what they have in co...
Rethinking Social Action Core Values in Practice, 2018
Starting from the way Martin Luther relates to vocation and its wider implications for society, M... more Starting from the way Martin Luther relates to vocation and its wider implications for society, Max Weber will later develop an understanding of the relationship between the teachings of Protestant morality and vocation. Starting from the ethics of a specialized and ascetic profession, the carrier of a normative and responsible commitment in the world, Weber builds a personality model capable of responding to the political and intellectual challenges of his time. In this paper, I argue that the secularization of vocation, as the epiphenomenon of the disenchantment of the world, and its departure from an ethic of specific religious behavior allowed Weber to shape a portrait of the professional man as an ideal type of ethical personality, inspired by the archetypal example of the ascetic Protestant. It will be necessary to understand how vocation, as a way of articulation between ethics and conduct, generates a distinct type of man engaged in the social struggle. We have developed thi...
In rural areas, the paid employment opportunities are quite rare. So, the majority of the populat... more In rural areas, the paid employment opportunities are quite rare. So, the majority of the population is involved in subsistence agriculture and in taking care of their own household, a fact which is far from the mechanisms of the market economy. The theory behind the present article is that entrepreneurship might prove to be a form of social innovation for the rural area, a solution to the problems linked to labor for the categories that find it difficult to re(insert) in the labor market. The difficulties and the opportunities to initiate a business in the rural environment will be pinpointed from the perspective of the direct social actors present on the labor market: the entrepreneurs, the unemployed, the stay-at-home people, the people in charge with the subsistence agriculture. The present study is part of a more complex research project, funded by the European Union. It was aimed at increasing the socio-professional re(insertion) opportunities by developing professional and en...
The Roma are often approached by researchers and public opinion as a group whose ethnic identity ... more The Roma are often approached by researchers and public opinion as a group whose ethnic identity is ”obvious”. As their way of life is considered as completely different from the groups surrounding them, any image of the non-gypsies about the gypsies is built in order to account for this radical difference. And this difference is naturalised and essentialised by the majority. But the case analysed in the present study – the gypsies in Toflea – is an attempt at deconstructing this naturalised difference by examining the strategies of identity construction and assertion: identity practices and symbols, the identity message of the Roma’s palaces, etc. Among the Roma and about the Roma, the issue of identity often brings forth discordant opinions. It is a fact supported by the different position adopted by specialists, and the Roma themselves in regard to the identity message they send by their oversized residences. To grasp the manner of identity construction in practice for the gypsie...
Moral sentimentalism can be defined as the philosophical theory according to which emotions are t... more Moral sentimentalism can be defined as the philosophical theory according to which emotions are the source of our value judgements, in general, and of our moral judgements, in particular. It follows that, from a historical and conceptual point of view, moral sentimentalism has emerged and developed in opposition to moral rationalism, according to which reason allows us to formulate and understand value judgments from a psychological point of view and is also the source of our axiological knowledge from an epistemic point of view. In this article we present the theoretical issues related to the sentimentalist approach to morality and evaluative judgments, starting from the diverse theories of the classical representatives of sentimentalism, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Hume and Smith, and especially the three theses they defended: psychological perspective, the theory of moral sense and the theory of moral feelings. I also argue that the first moral sentimentalism emerged from the confron...
Rethinking Social Action. Core Values in Practice, Dec 14, 2017
With modernity, artificiality is developed: people become aware of the fact that society does not... more With modernity, artificiality is developed: people become aware of the fact that society does not represent a natural grant, a gift from God, but the product of their own actions. On the one side, as a counterweight of artificiality, the modern individuals have uncovered the strength of the social empowerment. They "put" society "in motion", but their actions and reactions trigger unexpected effects, they multiply, interfere and they develop their own dynamics which contributes inevitably to the empowerment of the processes that they have started. The individuals lose any control they have had over society, and their interventions have unwanted results. Because of its inert artificiality and its structural opacity, society appears to humans as "a second nature" that opposes their plans and that imposes certain constraints. This is the classical theme of alienation: human products become objectified, are dehumanized and end up by opposing their own creators. These alienation phenomena can be connected to the concept of anomie, defined as the distinction between the objective situation generated by the weakening of the normative rules from a certain society and the subjective feeling of confusion and ignorance regarding the means to action, causing thus anxiety. In this article our main focus is to emphasize two well established orientations from which inevitably start all present day approaches related to alienation and anomie in interpreting the effects of the social empowerment. More precisely, we will look on Marx's alienation theory which emphasizes the human's impossibility to control his social relationships, and also his estrangement from society (it appears to him as a foreign and hostile power). Instead, Durkheim-who is the creator of the term anomie-lays emphasis on the fact that society in itself has reduced the means to control the individual and his actions.
In the past decades, the European and Romanian economies have been strongly affected by major cha... more In the past decades, the European and Romanian economies have been strongly affected by major changes which have influenced also the labor market: the alert pace of the international economic integration, the creation of work division in order to protect some economic sectors, the accelerated development and implementation of new technologies, the increase of the demographic aging trends. In the context of the amplified labor force crisis, the present paper will analyze some dysfunctions which have affected especially the regional labor market: the chronic unemployment, the mismatch between the demand and the offer of jobs and the localized consequences of the labor migration. The approach on these aspects was done in a vaster context intended to analyze the regional labor market of Galati and Braila, starting from the existent imbalances on these markets. The present paper starts from the premise that the proposal of some measurements which should lead to a balancing of the regional working market, must take into account the way in which the direct actors involved are defining these obstacles and opportunities for professional (re)insertion. In order to highlight both the opinions and the perceptions of the participants on the labor market, the research had to take place on two levels: among the groups with a difficult position on the labor market and among the employers.
In this globalized world, the educational systems represent essential components of society which... more In this globalized world, the educational systems represent essential components of society which must assure some competitive graduates for the knowledge based economy. The pupils' professional interests regarding the carrying on of their studies at the university level and their choice for their specialization are complex processes which require a psycho-social analysis. The present paper aims at studying the high-school pupils' professional options and at emphasizing the importance that these young people give to carrying on their studies in order to better integrate on the labor market. In order to study the mechanism of taking the decision to go to university, it is needed to analyze the social influences resulted from the interactions with others (family, teachers, friends, colleagues) and also the importance of self evaluation in the decisional process.
The philosophic notion of human vulnerability cannot be pinpointed as such in the corpus of class... more The philosophic notion of human vulnerability cannot be pinpointed as such in the corpus of classic philosophy. Nevertheless, death and suffering as essential philosophical and theological problems make reference to the dimension of vulnerability inherent to the human condition. Since times immemorial, the fear of death, the avoidance of suffering, or the crisis situations of human existence have laid at the basis of philosophical and religious systems. According to Freud, in the futile pursuit of happiness humans often face misery, which stems from a suffering that threatens them from three different directions: their own body, the outside world, and the relationships with other people. Starting from this angle, the present article furthers the notion of vulnerability by identifying its archetypal themes in relation to human life and its conditions of existence. Two main concepts will guide this study of human vulnerability: a vulnerability inherent to human subjectivity, and one c...
The present article aims at evincing the positive valences of the holism-individualism dispute in... more The present article aims at evincing the positive valences of the holism-individualism dispute in the epistemology of social sciences. Like other dichotomous pairs, holism and individualism have become the predominant spaces of academic analysis in social sciences, being vested with a great power of theoretical discrimination. Instead of treating methodological individualism and holism as complete, a-temporal, antagonistic paradigms, it is our presumption that they are but historical evolutions in social thinking, which are under no circumstances definitive, but improvable and possibly complementary. In this context, the present study claims that there is less and less justification for a dispute between a "holist" Durkheim and an "individualism"-championing Weber, all the more so as in the past few decades consensus and synthesis have been sought by the very proponents of these doctrinary oppositions.
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