Moral thinking plays an important role in philosophy of Leszek Kołakowski. The paper examines his ethical position as it was presented in Kołakowski’s writings dealing directly with this subject, against the background of those stances that he opposed. In the scope of the author’s interest is the problem of the persistence of some elements and the development of the position in question. Both Kołakowski’s ethical and metaethical reflection is taken into account. In conclusion, Kołakowski’s position is ascribed to the anti-theoretic (...) current in ethics. (shrink)

The idea of obtaining a pilot-wave quantum theory on a lattice with discrete time is presented. The motion of quantum particles is described by a \-distributed Markov chain. Stochastic matrices of the process are found by the discrete version of the least-action principle. Probability currents are the consequence of Hamilton’s principle and the stochasticity of the Markov process is minimized. As an example, stochastic motion of single particles in a double-slit experiment is examined.

Jerzy Perzanowski s ideas were based on an original blend of logic and ontology in what he called onto/logic, where the slash is meant to suggest a quotient of ontology by logic. Perzanowski began as a logician, his early works being on modal logic, then gradually shifted his interest to logical philosophy, meaning not so much philosophy of logic as philosophy informed by logic. Perzanowski was a rare breed of analytical philosopher who thought that a philosophical theory of everything (...) was worthwhile. In this systematic spirit, he began with method. He presented his method of total analysis and synthesis quite simply: reduce the object of research to its simplest possible constituents, and then combine them in some way. Better still, combine them in every possible way, thereby producing a space of possibilities analogous to (and in certain cases identical with) the logical space. Thus, analysis and synthesis differ from a trivial disassembly and reassembly.". (shrink)

Jerzy Franczak comprehensively presents Jacques Rancière's thought by emphasizing the relations between politics and literature. The detailed analysis considers the context of modern aesthetics and political philosophy, which is why the book introduces further protagonists, such as Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, or Jean-François Lyotard. Franczak first reconstructs Rancière's original philosophy of literature so as to then immediately apply it in readings of select world literature masterpieces by Gustav Flaubert, Max Jacob, Bertold Brecht, Vladimir Nabokov, and Philip Roth.

The axiom of canonicity was introduced by the famous Polish logician Roman Suszko in 1951 as an explication of Skolem's Paradox and a precise representation of the axiom of restriction in set theory proposed much earlier by Abraham Fraenkel. We discuss the main features of Suszko's contribution and hint at its possible further applications.

This note discusses some problems concerning intended, standard, and nonstandard models of mathematical theories. We pay attention to the role of extremal axioms in attempts at a unique characterization of the intended models. We recall also Jan Woleński’s views on these issues.

Herbert widmete der Musik – ganzheitlich oder in bedentenden Teilen – mindestens einige zehn Werke. Der Dichter konzentriert sich in den Gedichten auf die philosophischen und esthetischen Fragen. Er führt ein intelektuelles Gespräch, in dem er festlegen will, was Musik ist und welche Bedeutung sie in der bentigen welt hat. Die überlegungen van Herbert konzentrieren sich prinzipiell auf drei Fragen: die Idee der Musik der Sphären, die Kriese der Werten im 20. Jahrhundert und die Gedanken über den objektiven Wert der (...) Kunst der Klinge. (shrink)

The article analyses the role of Church’s Thesis (hereinafter CT) in the context of the development of hypercomputation research. The text begins by presenting various views on the essence of computer science and the limitations of its methods. Then CT and its importance in determining the limits of methods used by computer science is presented. Basing on the above explanations, the work goes on to characterize various proposals of hypercomputation showing their relative power in relation to the arithmetic hierarchy. The (...) general theme of the article is the analysis of mutual relations between the content of CT and the theories of hypercomputation. In the main part of the paper the arguments for abolition of CT caused by the introduction of hypercomputable methods in computer science are presented and critique of these views is presented. The role of the efficiency condition contained in the formulation of CT is stressed. The discussion ends with a summary defending the current status of Church’s thesis within the framework of philosophy and computer science as an important point of reference for determining what the notion of effective calculability really is. The considerations included in this article seem to be quite up-to-date relative to the current state of affairs in computer science.1. (shrink)

In the first part of the article, Giuseppe Veronese’s concept of arithmetical constructivism is reconstructed from his dispersed remarks. It is pointed out that although for Veronese time is a necessary condition for the construction of natural numbers by an individual subject and the subject cognizes time in an a priori way, it is not a (proto-)intuition of the subject. This is a fundamental difference between the concept proposed by Veronese and the constructivism of Kant and Brouwer. Veronese’s justification of (...) the subject’s ability to cognize infinity, represented in his text by infinite sequences, is analyzed in the second part of the paper. The only condition for the cognition of the infinite sequence is to have a rule according to which its successive terms “follow one another.” The price of the ability to cognize the infinitive “whole” (sequence) may be the uncognizability of certain “parts” (terms of sequence). Infinite sequences, cognizable according to Veronese, are allowed as objects of mathematical research, although they do not meet the condition of constructability. (shrink)

Among the composers with whom Wojciech Młynarski collaborated – a brilliant songwriter and penetrating satirist, librettist and translator, as well as a talented singer – was a completely unique artist, often referred to as the “Polish Gershwin” – Jerzy Wasowski. As a result of their nearly twenty years of cooperation, interrupted by Wasowski’s death in 1984, about thirty songs were created, most often being cabaret-satirical works or in the form of “sung columns”. Among the achievements of the Młynarski-Wasowski company (...) there are many “small masterpieces”, which are examples of masterly connections between words and music. The works they wrote together in the last period of their cooperation have been remembered in a special way by Młynarski. These songs were written at a special moment in the history of the People’s Republic of Poland – during the “Solidarity” carnival and during the martial law period. Moreover, the story of their proprietary company closed. The works they wrote last – in 1982 and 1983 – were described by Młynarski as “interesting songs”. During the martial law period, Młynarski decided to suspend public appearances – joining the artists who, in protest, decided to boycott the state media. He only took care of writing lyrics for new songs. At that time, he addressed the proposal to compose music mainly to Wasowski, who, like him, believed that one should continue to write, but – for now – “in the drawer”. Eight works were written then, six of which – Ballada o szachiście, Jestem piłeczką pingpongową, Po Krakowskim w noc majową, W miejskim teatrzyku lalek, Róbmy swoje, Ballada o dwóch koniach – had a satirical and journalistic character and entered Młynarski’s repertoire when he resumed his performances. Whereas the other two songs – Mam złe lata i dobre dni oraz Gram o wszystko – were lyrical-reflective pieces with female texts, and became their performers a few years later: Hanna Banaszak and Ewa Bem. This article analyzes one of these songs – Ballada o szachiście – aimed at explaining – in an elementary way – why Młynarski used the word “interesting” to refer to the songs written with Wasowski during the martial law period. This term is primarily intended to denote a work whose words and music were written in order to “give food for thought” to the audience. (shrink)

Roman Godlewski Unjustified Opinions as the Foundation of ActionsThe article concerns the phenomenon of religion. Religious behavior is thought to be an action based on unjustified opinions. Such actions are wrong but there are some exceptions. The exceptional actions are called “superrational,” unjustified opinions they are based on are called “regulative” and facts described in them “superreal.” The author gives a typology of acting in this way. The types go as follows: (1) putting scientific hypotheses, (2) practical pressure, (3) (...) the will of no investigation, (4) the will to regard only some given sources of truth, (5) the will not to know, (6) symbolic or metaphorical behavior (religious included). The latter is described within a wider anthropological and evolutionary context. The author claims that irrationality of religious beliefs in respect to their content does not mean that actions based on them are irrational, but the question is whether a given religious practice fulfills the emotional needs of a particular person. From the evolutionary point of view, it is important to have emotionally stable biological units even if, in order to obtain this, one has to take fiction for reality with reference to facts of little importance for life. Keywords: religion, action, behavior, opinion, belief, justification, rationality, magic, symbol, evolution. (shrink)

Author: Godlewski Roman P. Title: SOURCES OF DUALISM OF CONTENT AND CONCEPTUAL SCHEME I.E. ON SOME FAULTS OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY (Źródła dualizmu schematu pojęciowego i treści, czyli o kilku błędach filozofii zachodniej. Uwagi z zakresu filozofii analitycznej) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2005, vol:.5, number: 2005/1, pages: 243-258 Keywords: DUALISM OF CONTENT AND CONCEPTUAL SCHEME, RORTY, KMITA, WHORF Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:The aim in the article is to explain why (...) we fall in dualism of content and conceptual scheme. The dualism says that there is a relation between languages and the world (meant as an object). The first cause is mechanistic way of thinking which characterizes Indoeuropean mind. The way on thinking is to treat every object as if it had formal properties of physical objects. The term is taken from Whorf’s works. Concequences of mechanistic thinking for research in abstract sciences is considered. It is demonstrated how mechanistic thinking lets to pass from belief that there are some relations between expressions of a language and elements of the world to belief that there is a relation between the language as a whole and the whole world. The fallowing causes of the dualism are also considered: 1. literal understanding of metaphores used in philosophy of language, 2. wrong understanding of suppositions, 4. attempts to explain language in natural terms, e.g. causal theory of meaning. (shrink)