The paper examines the interplays between logic and politics in the Polish School of Logic starting from 1914. The Polish School of Logic flourished between 1920 and 1939. Philosophically, it was influenced by Kazimierz Twardowski (1866–1938). For Twardowski logic is fundamental for every kind of human activity, professional and private and this means that every argument should be formulated and proceed by correct inferential rules. These rules involve semiotics, formal logic and methodology of science. The paper shows how this position (...) was shared by Twardowski’s students, including Jan Łukasiewicz, Stanisław Leśniewski, Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz and Tadeusz Kotrabiński, as well as by the next generation of logicians and philosophers and especially by Alfred Tarski. These authors considered logic, philosophy and science as completely neutral with respect to politics and ideology but they also considered logical skills as indispensable in political activities. (shrink)

Humanitarian aid’s psycho-therapeutic turn in the 1990s was mirrored by the increasing emotionalization and subjectivation of fund-raising campaigns. In order to grasp the depth of this interconnectedness, this article argues that in both cases what we see is the post-Fordist production paradigm at work; namely, as Hardt and Negri put it, the direct production of subjectivity and social relations. To explore this, the therapeutic and mental health approach in humanitarian aid is juxtaposed with the more general phenomenon of psychologization. This (...) allows us to see that the psychologized production of subjectivity has a problematic waste-product as it reduces the human to Homo sacer, to use Giorgi Agamben’s term. Drawing out a double matrix of a de-psychologizing psychologization connected to a politicizing de-politicization, it will further become possible to understand psycho-therapeutic humanitarianism as a case of how, in these times of globalization, psychology, subjectivity and money are all interrelated. (shrink)

Les Premiers Analytiques sont pour Lukasiewicz un livre de logique et non de philosophie. Il dit meme que cet ouvrage de pure logique ne contient aucune contamination philosophique. Mais cela ne veut pas dire qu'il n'a rien a apprendre aux philosophes et aux metaphysiciens sur les formalismes et sur les modalites. Comme le dit Lukasiewicz: Il reste encore des philosophes en activite auxquels il ne serait peut-etre pas impossible de suggerer qu'ils devraient acquerir une bonne connaissance de la logique dite (...) mathematique avant de traiter de la logique et de son histoire; ils eviteraient ainsi de perdre leur temps, leurs lecteurs de meme, ce qui n'est peut-etre pas denue d'importance pratique. Lukasiewicz est l'un des philosophes de l'Ecole de Lvov-Varsovie, courant philosophique majeur du XXe siecle. Son premier livre portait sur le principe de contradiction chez Aristote. Il en montrait l'importance, mais aussi la fragilite logique. Son dernier livre, consacre a la syllogistique, une partie de la logique, porte de nouveau sur Aristote. Pour peu qu'elle n'ignore pas Frege, les matrices logiques de Peirce, les Principia Mathematica de Russell et Whitehead ainsi que les apports considerables des logiciens polonais, comme Lesniewski, Sfupecki, et Lukasiewicz lui-meme, l'histoire de la logique, et en l'occurrence l'etude des Premiers Analytiques, constitue une voie d'acces privilegiee pour comprendre ce que sont les formalismes. (shrink)

The paper discusses some logical problems concerning analogy. The traditional understanding of analogy as _proportion_ (proportion) is inadequate, at least if proportionality is taken in mathematical sense. This situation is clear if we considered various special cases of analogy for instance _analogia legis_ and _analogia juris._ Since analogy assumes a similarity of analogata (items being or investigated) as analogical, a general analysis of analogical relation must begin with the concept of similarity. It can be defined as possessing a common property. (...) This idea is formalized by devices borrowed from logic and set theory. (shrink)

Important sceptical arguments by Sextus Empiricus, Hume and Boghossian (concerning disputes, induction, and relativism respectively) are based on circularities and infinite regresses. Yet, philosophers' practice does not keep circularities and infinite regresses clearly apart. In this metaphilosophical paper I show how circularity and infinite regress arguments can be made explicit, and shed light on two powerful tools of the sceptic.

Annehmlichkeit gilt auch für vernunftlose Thiere; Schönheit nur für Menschen, d. i. thierische, aber doch vernünftige Wesen, aber auch nicht blos als solche (z.

Przedmiotem artykułu jest pojęcie pamięci zbiorowej, rozpatrywanej przez pryzmat ‘historii przeżytej’ – występującej w dwu postaciach: ‘przeżytej w sensie przedmiotowym’ i ‘przeżytej w sensie treściowym’ – oraz ‘historii zobiektywizowanej’. Uwzględniając polskie kontrowersje wokół książek Jana Tomasza Grossa: Sąsiedzi. Historia zagłady żydowskiego miasteczka i Strach. Antysemityzm w Polsce tuż po wojnie, autor kwestionuje pojęcie jednolitej pamięci zbiorowej i jej normatywne roszczenia. Pamięć kolektywna i dominująca narracja historyczna są często przedmiotem manipulacji politycznych jako sposobu na potwierdzenie jedności społecznej poprzez wykluczenie cudzych wspomnień. (...) Pamięć o przeszłości jest w rzeczywistości podzielona między różne grupy społeczne i etniczne, które nigdy nie tworzyły spójnej jedności. Nie ma możliwości pogodzenia tych przeciwnych wspomnień; jedynym możliwym sposobem nadania pamięci zbiorowej kształtu pożądanego w porządku demokratycznym jest konfrontacja i negocjowanie tych rozbieżnych poglądów, czyli dokonywanie ‘transakcji dialogicznych’. (shrink)

Western civilization is over. So begins Jan Zwicky’s trenchant exploration of the root of global cultural and ecological collapse: a way of thinking that is also linked to some of the West’s most noted achievements. The Renaissance merged imperial enterprise with Islamic algebra and recently recovered Greek mathematics to precipitate mechanized industry and resource extraction; these in turn made possible the growth of capitalism, the military-industrial complex, and Big Technology. Despite its self-image as objective, Zwicky argues, the West’s style of (...) thought is not politically neutral, but intensely anthropocentric. It has led those who adopt it to regard the more-than-human world as nothing more than timber licences and drilling sites, where value is not recognized unless it is monetized. Oblivious to context and blind to big-picture thinking, it analyzes, mechanizes, digitizes, and systematizes, while rejecting empathy and compassion as distorting influences. Lyric comprehension, in Zwicky’s view, offers an alternative to this way of thinking, and she provides a wide range of examples. Once upon a Time in the West documents how a narrow epistemological style has left Western thought blind to critical features of reality, and how the terrifying consequences of that blinkered vision are now beginning to unfold. (shrink)

This chapter starts with the Socratic definition — loving knowing that you do not know — and explains what it would be to make loving anything a way of life. It examines what is Alcibiades in love with? What is the moral beauty that overwhelms Alcibiades? To encounter philosophy is first to discover that we are not what we thought we were: that what we think most important has little to do with our true nature. The chapter relates that moral (...) beauty is the paradoxical combination of vulnerability and integrity, a clarity and directness of vision, a limpid honesty that results when the skill is exercised. What makes that beauty possible is the same analytic and discriminatory expertise that we cultivate in attempts to determine how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. That expertise is at the heart of the elenkhos, which we still must practice. (shrink)

Článek analyzuje argument Pascalovy sázky a některé klíčové námitky proti ní – kritiku Antonyho Duffa, Alana Hájka a tradiční námitku mnoha Bohů. Pascalův argument je reformulován tak, aby těmto námitkám co nejlépe odolal. Analýza ukazuje, že revidovaná podoba sázky zůstává otevřeným problémem teorie rozhodování.The article analyzes some important reasons pro and contra Pascal`s wager argument. Many gods objection and objections by Antony Duff and Alan Hájek are discussed. A reformulation of Pascal`s wager is offered in order to make the case (...) for Pascal`s conclusion stronger. It is shown that some form of wager could still represent a serious problem for rational decision theory. (shrink)

The monograph deals with several fundamental issues of modern evolutionary biology in an accessible form. It focuses mainly on the issue of evolvability and proves that the very ability to evolve is subject to evolution. As the "domestic" theory of frozen evolution notes, the evolution of evolvability is influenced by a number of interesting processes, including, among other things, the accumulation of further invariant elements. It is the ambiguous nature of these processes that may explain the (un) obvious fact that (...) we encounter such diverse products of biological evolution on Earth.--Publisher's website. (shrink)

Das Buch eröffnet ein neues Forschungsfeld praxeologischer Demokratieforschung. Statt von bestimmten theoretischen Konzeptionen auszugehen, was Demokratie ist oder sein soll, wird untersucht, wie Demokratie praktisch gemacht wird. Wie wird der,,demos" zum Subjekt des Regierens gemacht, als politischer Akteur mit kollektivem Willen und Handlungsmacht? Das Buch verfolgt den Ansatz, nach konkreten praktischen Formen zu suchen, in denen Repräsentationen des Willens von kollektiven Subjekten hergestellt und geltend gemacht werden. Dabei entfaltet sich ein Blick auf die Multiplizität und Dynamik der Demokratie. Die Herausgebenden (...) Dr. Jan-Peter Voß ist Gastprofessor für Technik und Gesellschaft an der RWTH Aachen. Dr. Hagen Schölzel ist Universitätsassistent am Institut für Politikwissenschaft der Universität Wien. (shrink)

Articles on Indian philosophy; a Marxist's viewpoint.

'What is real?' has been one of the key questions of philosophy since its beginning in antiquity. But it is not just a question that philosophers ask. This Very Short Introduction discusses what reality is by looking at a variety of arguments, theories, and thought-experiments from philosophy, physics, and cognitive science.