Since Hans Blumenberg developed his metaphorology, there has been a constantly growing interest among philosophers in the function of metaphorical language in philosophy. In this tradition of a positive approach to philosophical metaphors, the publication of Ralf Konersmann's Wörterbuch der philosophischen Metaphern (2007, third edition 2011) is a landmark, that testifies to the actuality and importance of the problem of the relationship between philosophical rationality and its roots in pre...

Since his seminal work on the relationships between law and sciences in 1992, Serge Gutwirth has been exploring numerous scholarly paths, and reinventing the ways in which academia intersects with activism. Full Professor at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of the Vrije University Brussel (VUB), legal scholar, criminologist, founder of the Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) research group, he has been not only a pioneering mind and a multifaceted writer, but also a mentor and inf...

War is coming. In Tribalization Koert Debeuf depicts war as an inevitable outcome should the current decreasing of democracy and globalization continue. To describe this worldwide process towards more authoritarian nationalism and fundamentalism The author coins the term tribalization to describe this worldwide process, towards a more authoritarian nationalism and fundamentalism, and reminds his readership of the highly similar 1930s. The election of Donald Trump as president of the United St...

Art and science are both ways of understanding the world and orientating oneself in it. Scientists and artists are society's visionaries, and this unlikely collaboration between the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and KVS aims to reconnect these different disciplines, sending the strong message that tomorrow’s society will only be built on the basis of dialogue and the search for common ground.

Mindblowers is structured around four themes: Resistance, Imagination, Time and Beauty. The 39 contrib...

The future is now—and it is female. Women and women’s rights are the key to progress. We believe in the West that we have already solved gender issues; it is the rest of the world that still has a problem. Nothing could be further from the truth! We have to do better. Through his work as Deputy Prime Minister and Belgian Minister of International Development, Alexander De Croo has discovered that the role of women worldwide is filled with too little opportunity and too much bias. In this ...

Diplomacy aims to make the world a somewhat better place. And for that to happen, we need thoughtful people, which most diplomats happen to be. But thought alone does not carry us very far. Thought needs to result in action. It is not thinking about the world but changing it that makes for an effective diplomat. Diplomacy is not a science, but a practice. It is what diplomats do. They write reports, make public speeches, debate, negotiate, preside over meetings … For all that they need dipl...

This volume is part of the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project (BDMP), a collaboration between the Centre for Manuscript Genetics (University of Antwerp), the Beckett International Foundation (University of Reading) and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (University of Texas at Austin), with the support of the Estate of Samuel Beckett.

The BDMP (www.beckettarchive.org) digitally reunites the dispersed manuscripts of Samuel Beckett’s works and facilitates their examination. The projec...

Brussels is a small world city. It is the third richest region in Europe but has a poor population in its central neighbourhoods; it is the capital of Belgium, a nation fading away; it has high cosmopolitan potential but lacks an integrated urban governance and is in need of an inspiring urban project ... Moreover, the European institutions settled in Brussels over fifty years ago and their presence has not been an absolute success story. Today the international functions of the city are very...

This 4th CROSSTALKS book documents 100 tangible local initiatives from all over the world that fit into a constructive and holistic movement for social and ecological change. Drawing from a pool of personally driven research and bottom-up projects, the book singles out 100 cases in different, yet interrelated domains. The selection itself was motivated by scientific researchers, architects, artists, political thinkers and entrepreneurs who try to make a positive difference in our quest for a ...

The BDA Currents: Where Diplomacy Meets Business, is the Brussels Diplomatic Academy’s annual report covering the wider geopolitical and other factors influencing and affecting the world of diplomacy, international relations and global business. The journal focuses on issues of topical interest around the centers of global power, influence and importance, including the continents of Europe and Africa, the Middle East, China, India & Asia, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States an...