In recent years a lot of metaphilosophical attention has been paid to the role of thought experiments in philosophical inquiry. According to the popular picture, thought experiments are among the most prominent methods for conceptual analysis. However, it is also often claimed that thought experiments in ethics differ from those that are used in other fields of philosophy as being of a different nature—they are not about the concepts, but rather about the things in the world (what those things exactly (...) are depends on the particular metaethical theory one subscribes to). In the paper I argue that this claim is wrong. Conceptual analysis is of a huge value to ethics for it substantially helps to clarify the concepts one uses while making a moral judgment. It is very often the case that the apparent moral disagreement between two subjects turns out to be superficial since it is rooted in the misunderstanding on the conceptual level, for example when one uses some concept equivocally. Moreover, through thought experiments conceptual analysis can help to bring out the tacit assumptions that relate to the concepts involved. (shrink)

Zygmunt Bauman was unquestionably one of the most popular contemporary thinkers. His writings provoked not only worldwide acclaim but also severe criticism, while the complexities of his personal life gave rise to international controversies. On the basis of three recently published biographies of Bauman, as well as a personal acquaintance and scholarly cooperation, in this paper I attempt to explain the sources of his astounding popularity, but also try to dispel mysteries and controversies surrounding his difficult carrier, especially those pertaining (...) to the critical assessments of the scholarly quality of his work. I argue that having been released from academic duties, gradually and ever more boldly he abandoned the regime of scientific explanatory poetics in favour of an interpretative narrative of the social world, helping himself to the results of science, but also to idiosyncratically read works of poetry and fiction. Flouting academic orthodoxies, Bauman developed a unique art of transforming scientific knowledge into wisdom, and transformed himself from a scientist into a sage. (shrink)

The paper deals with Pico’s conception of man, especially with regard to his use of Jewish sources. This is mostly apparent in Pico’s works Oratio (1486), Conclusiones (1486) and Heptaplus (1488/89). Firstly, we point out his collaboration with Flavius Mithridates, who was Pico’s Hebrew teacher and an intepreter of some Jewish mystical texts (Gersonides, Nahmanides, Recanati). Secondly, we emphasize that at the same time Pico was in contact with another Jewish scholar Yohanan Alemanno as well. For this reason, modern interpreters (...) (Idel, Lelli) believe that one of the main sources not only for Pico’s Oratio but also for his late work Heptaplus were some of Alemanno’s writings (particularly his Heshek Shlomo and Hay ha-‘Olamin). Therefore, I examine Pico’s syncretic model of dignitas hominis, which was inspired on one hand by Neoplatonic philosophy and Aristotelianism, and on the other hand by Jewish and Christian mystical tradition. (shrink)

This article presents an outline of the views of a little-known but apparently extremely important and influential in antiquity Medioplatonic philosopher — Eudoros of Alexandria. Factual material in the form of translations of surviving testimonies and fragments is also included.

In my work I present a version of the semantics of relative preference for the logic of ought-to-be and for the logic of ought-to-do. I draw the philosophical inspirations for this semantics from Elzenberg’s axiological papers. In the semantics of relative preference I check which deontic principles are valid—especially those which Wolniewicz extracted from Elzenberg’s papers. I also check if it is possible in this semantics to fulfil the condition of the moral dilemma.

We argue that the relationship between Kant’s theory of imagination and his moral philosophy has not been well understood. Missing is an adequate connection between his idea of sensus communis and the power of imagination to exceed the senses. This connection is close and important, and it has serious implications for how we are to apply and further theorize moral relations among human beings. Especially important in this regard is the ability among humans, in their social setting, to imagine other (...) persons. We do this pre-cognitively, at the level of feeling. The effects of imagining other persons prior to all knowledge of them (as, for instance, rational agents), grounds the autonomy of other persons in a relationship that is far broader than knowledge. (shrink)

The topic of the article is the confrontation of the vision of surveillance capitalism, as outlined by Shoshana Zuboff in 2019, with Friedrich von Hayek’s neoliberal doctrine. The main research goal is to answer the questions whether Hayek has been rightly accused by Zuboff as being responsible for the rise of this threatening form of capitalism and for his alleged hostility to democracy. Similar objections against Hayek have also been raised by Andrzej Szahaj. The juxtaposition of the characteristics of surveillance (...) capitalism with the analysis of some selected threads, inherent in Hayek’s socio-economic conception, leads to the conclusion that Zuboff’s and Szahaj’s critical arguments do not seem thoroughly justified. (shrink)

This paper undertakes the question concerning methodological consequences of understanding phenomenology from the viewpoint of the category of the gift. In regard to the philosophical enterprise of Jean-Luc Marion, manifestation is understood as an act of givenness, which has a radically non-objective character. Next, this paper points out the classical source of the concept of givenness. It also mentions that givenness is a result of material interpretation of the Husserlian term “Gegebenheit.” Then, givenness is presented as a figure that requires (...) a phenomenological method to bracket mere terms that phenomenology employs. This mechanism helps to describe reduction as a radical method of bracketing metaphysics. (shrink)

In this article, caring, remembering and sharing memory are presented as moral responses, the case study being Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Memory connects memories and images, while care connects individuals, which is an ethical issue. When a person’s memory is lost, the care of others becomes the only thread connecting them to the world. AD deprives a person of memories, body control, makes it impossible to remember, communicate, move, recognize the environment, and disrupts consciousness. Caring for a patient with a neurodegenerative (...) brain disease requires constant reminding and reiteration; the presence of a caring person reminds of what the patient themselves can no longer remember. Lost memories do not mean that life or relational values have also lost their meaning. The description of the memory movement emphasizes the importance of repetition in the moral act. Highlighting the matter of care, also in scientific work, is the aim of this text. To care is to remember, on behalf of the AD patient, about the patient’s life. Within bioethical research, moral responses are an important point for projects which seek to improve the condition of patients—not only the condition of health but also the comfort of life. This improvement will not be possible without attentive, committed caregivers and their responsible attitude in the face of the phenomenon of memory loss. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is consideration about issues of work of art’s autonomy in regard to its creator and issue of artistic freedom according to privative theory of art connected to Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy. Presented philosophy of art emphasizes analogical feature of art, and it includes in art’s domain every intentional type of creation in unlike modern tendency to unification arts around idea of beauty whilst distancing from twentieth-century anti-essentialism. The main function of art understood in this way is replenishing (...) privations found by man in the world. The essence of art is realization by creator his concept. From this point of view the aim of whole creation is good of work for itself which leads to recognition of autonomy and self-sufficiency of work of art. (shrink)