Speech acts and the autonomy of linguistic pragmatics This paper comments on selected problems of the definition of linguistic pragmatics with a focus on notions associated with speech act theory in the tradition of John Langshaw Austin. In more detail it concentrates on the relevance of the use of the Austinian categorisation into locution, illocution, and perlocution in locating a divide in between pragmatics and semantics, and especially the distinction between the locutionary act and the illocutionary act and its implications (...) for the definition of pragmatics and its separation from the semantic theory.The relation between form and meaning is further briefly reviewed against dichotomies including the Gricean and neo-Gricean ‘what is said’ versus ‘what is implicated’ or meant, between what can be ‘locuted’, but not said, and what can be said, but not asserted. These dichotomies are related to the theoretical commitments as to the accepted operative forces in speech acts, primarily convention and intention. It is suggested that, roughly, the development of the speech act theory can be viewed as a process by which the theory moves away from its originally sociolinguistic orientation towards a more psychologistic account, which in turn leads towards diminishing the role of semantics and the subsequent juxtaposition of pragmatics and syntax rather than pragmatics and semantics. (shrink)

A Note on the Linguistic Determinacy in the Legal Context This paper discusses linguistic vagueness in the context of a semantically restricted domain of legal language. It comments on selected aspects of vagueness found in contemporary English normative legal texts and on terminological problems related to vagueness and indeterminacy both in the legal domain and language in general. The discussion is illustrated with selected corpus examples of vagueness in English legal language and attempts to show problems of the relation between (...) vagueness and ambiguity in the context of legal institutionalised systems.The discussion also evokes theoretical issues which pertain to the relation between legal texts and their contexts, the problem of how linguistic forms acquire their contextual meaning and how linguistic expressions are disambiguated. These issues are further related to the post-Gricean theory of relevance, its inferential model of communication, and the interplay between the linguistic code and inferential processes in communication. (shrink)

Normativity and Variety of Speech Actions embraces papers focused on the performative dimension of language. While all texts in the volume recognize speech primarily as a type of action, the collection is indicative of the multifaceted nature of J.L. Austin’s original reflection, which invited many varied research programmes. The problems addressed in the volume are discussed with reference to data culled from natural conversation, mediated political discourse, law, and literary language, and include normativity, e.g. types of norms operative in speech (...) acts, speaker’s intentions and commitments, speaker-addressee coordination, but also speech actions in discursive practice, in literal and non-literal language, performance of irony, presupposition, and meaningful significant silence. -/- Contributors are: Brian Ball, Cristina Corredor, Anita Fetzer, Milada Hirschová, Dennis Kurzon, Marcin Matczak, Marina Sbisà, Iwona Witczak-Plisiecka, Maciej Witek, and Mateusz Włodarczyk. (shrink)

The many faces of speech act theory — editorial to special issue on speech actions.

Recent debates within broadly considered posthumanities have been populated by various conceptual personae. One such figure is the diplomat. First proposed in this context by Isabelle Stengers in her Cosmopolitics series, the diplomat has been subsequently taken up and further developed by Bruno Latour, particularly in his AIME project, and most recently by Baptiste Morizot in Les Diplomates. This article traces the metamorphosis of this conceptual character in the work of Stengers, Latour and Morizot. As all three versions are relatively (...) close to each other, this article proposes three companion figures: the heretic (for Stengers), the designer (for Latour) and the amateur (for Morizot) that allow us to carefully examine the differences between, and the specific stakes of, each iteration of the diplomat. Furthermore, the article critically evaluates the theoretical pertinence of the diplomat figure for each philosopher’s project and considers its potential for thinking about the future of our more-than-human worlds. (shrink)

The article presents an analysis of the notion of debt in the context of Deleuzean philosophy of affect. The interpretation presented on the following pages is “indebted” to Lazzarato’s conception of the notion of debt as a figure of subjectivity typical for capitalism. Debt is understood as an assemblage of sad passions and considered in relation to social transformations, that have led to contemporary societies of control. The article shows the connection between the concept of debt and the process of (...) individualization characteristic for contemporary society. Firstly, the concepts of control, debt and affect in the philosophy of Deleuze are put into consideration. Secondly, their relation to the forces and assemblages typical for contemporary societies is discussed. In order to grasp the social significance of the philosophical analysis, the article involves a sociological excursion that demonstrates sociological interpretation of the processes that were described in terms of philosophical analysis in the main body of the text. (shrink)

We present three examples of topological semantics for intuitionistic modal logic with one modal operator □. We show that it is possible to treat neighborhood models, introduced earlier, as topological or multi-topological. From the neighborhood point of view, our method is based on differences between properties of minimal and maximal neighborhoods. Also we propose transformation of multitopological spaces into the neighborhood structures.

Scholars in multispecies ethnography, the ontological turn, new materialisms, science and technology studies (STS), assemblage urbanism and other movements within the posthumanities broadly considered often treat cosmopolitics, initially proposed by Isabelle Stengers and subsequently taken up by Bruno Latour, as a single coherent concept. However, Stengers’s cosmopolitics differs considerably from Latour’s. The difference is most clearly visible in their contrasting positions on the concept of universality. Even though their divergence on universality could be considered a minor philosophical dispute among intellectual (...) allies, it should not be underestimated. It determines what sort of political practice each of these philosophers envisions with cosmopolitics. Their visions of political practice are substantially different. This article will examine Latour’s and Stengers’s diverging positions on universality, delineate the two types of cosmopolitics, and, finally, analyze what sort of political practice each of these cosmopolitics implies. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Center Blossoms, Part 1:The Pneumatological Fruit of the Incarnate Word in Bonaventure's BreviloquiumBr. Thomas A. Piolata OFM Cap. (bio)This paper asks the following question: What is the fruit of Saint Bonaventure's theological focus on Christ as the center of all theology? While Bonaventure's christocentric vision has rightly received ample scholarly attention and recognition, a clear and robust explication of the fruit—i.e., the culmination or goal—of this vision yet (...) remains to be articulated.1 The above question has not received a full answer. There is thus a lacuna and a need within the secondary literature on the Seraphic Doctor's thought. This study addresses and begins to remedy this lacuna. It offers a preliminary answer to the above question.2 To this end, I will argue that Bonaventure's christocentrism yields a theology that accentuates the Spirit's role in salvation—a pneumatological soteriology.To argue this point, I focus principally on Bonaventure's systematic masterpiece, the Breviloquium. I have chosen this text for two principal reasons. The first reason: the Breviloquium makes manifest the Seraphic [End Page 195] Doctor's distinctive christocentrism.3 After all, in a work consisting of seven parts,4 it is precisely Part 4—De incarnatione Verbi—that constitutes the text's undeniable structural center. Bonaventure's treatment of the Incarnate Word constitutes, as Part 4 of the text, the centerpiece of the seven-part theological synthesis developed in the Breviloquium.The second reason: the Breviloquium makes explicit the inherent— and specifically pneumatological—fruitfulness of Bonaventure's christocentrism. Significantly, that is, the centrality of Christ in the text does not end in Christ. Already in Part 4, the text's structural center, the centrality of Christ culminates and finds its fullness in a pneumatological, pentecostal reflection: "Postremo, ut inflammaret ad caritatem, misit [Christus] ignem Spiritus sancti in die Pentecostes."5 These words reveal the pneumatological climax of Christ's mission. They are taken from the tenth and final chapter of Part 4, where Bonaventure makes explicit reference to the "Spiritus sanctus" nine times.6 This pentecostal conclusion and cluster of references to the Spirit imbues this final chapter of Part 4 De incarnatione Verbi with a pronounced pneumatological accent and culmination. The centrality of the Incarnate Word already—within its own structure—begins to blossom into the Spirit. Indeed, the centrality of Christ is a blossoming center.This pneumatological apogee of the centrality of Christ does not go unnoticed by Joshua Benson in his careful study of the Breviloquium's Christology. Benson utilizes as a structural hermeneutic Bonaventure's triadic division of ortus, progressus/modus, and status/fructus introduced in the prologue of the text,7 and arrives at the following synthesis: "This chapter [Chapter 10 of Part 4] is the ultimate fructus of Bonaventure's investigation of the incarnate Word and also establishes Christ further as the ortus of the life of grace that Bonaventure will examine in part 5 [De gratia Spiritus sancti]."8 Benson thus eventually concludes: "The paschal mystery is the foundation for the pneumatological mystery of the church."9 [End Page 196]Ultimately, then, Benson's comments bear witness to the inherent trajectory of the Breviloquium's distinctive christocentrism. Indeed, the center not only anticipates, but even reaches into the subsequent parts that follow: Part 4 does not stand alone as an isolated monad, but betrays directionality, a movement toward the Spirit. Put differently, the text's undeniable christic center is a vibrant center that bears fruit, a center that breathes forth the mystery of the Spirit. In a word, the center blossoms: pneumatological presence pulsates within and so blossoms forth from the reality of the Incarnate Word.This insight motivates the present study. After all, it is this basic insight that lies at the genesis of, formulates an initial answer to, and evinces the theological gravity within the very question that opened this essay: What is the fruit of Bonaventure's theological focus on Christ the center? Answering this question constitutes the goal of this study. To answer it, I will explicate the—pneumatological—fruit of Christ the center. In brief, the answer I propose lies in what I will... (shrink)

The topic of the article is the perspectives of CSR in Polish companies. The article contains the definition of corporate social responsibility, the state and dynamics of ethical reporting and the factors that can influence the dynamics of CSR in Poland – both in a favourable and adverse way.

This article is a presentation of the problem of human nature in Dostoevsky's writings. Its author does not agree that the great Russian thinker would give his assent to any of the two opposing ideas: neither that man is good by nature nor that his fate from the moment of birth is tragic. Dostoevsky has proved that freedom constitutes the core of human being. When this freedom is used in a wrong way man becomes bad, and if it is used (...) according to Jesus Christ teachings, he may attain righteousness due to His Grace. In such circumstances, there is no space for any predetermination. Man is free, if he wants to be free. He has got free will. He is always responsible for everything he has done. Dostoevsky uses the term n a t u r e in two different meanings. The first one is essential and refers to the notion of freedom. Consequently, Dostoevsky claims, human nature is beyond full cognition. The second meaning of the term nature refers to the attributes of a particular nation. The differences between nations are further evidence of freedom, which manifests in an infinity of ways. Nature understood as such can be changed and comprehended. The change requires much effort over a long period of time but can by achieved. To capture the full picture of the problem of human nature in Dostoevsky's ultimately it works, both meanings of the above notion should be the taken into consideration. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it aims to confront Hegel's ideas on the interaction between universality, particularity and singularity with those of Butler and to show that Butler's universal is dynamic and infinitely self-renewing. Second, it aims to engage with Butler's politics of translation and to demonstrate how a Levinasian perspective on Hegelian dialectics changes the functioning of the universal. In relation to this claim, the article will also demonstrate how the structural failure in translation and performativity (...) allows for the constant circulation of the universal and, as a consequence, brings about social and political transformation. (shrink)

The book is a reflection over how art functions in late modernity. It emphasizes processes of fictionalizing reality and exposes, how phenomenology can be used to extract this problem on a foundation of aesthetics. It is a panoramic outlook over existing views, but also a self-sufficient theoretical proposal.

IntroductionThe world pandemic of the virus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19 infection was announced by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. Due to the restrictions that were introduced in order to minimize the spread of the virus, people more often suffer from stress, depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders. The aim of this study was evaluation of the stress levels and sleep disorders among nursing students during the pandemic SARS-CoV-2.Materials and Study MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study conducted among 397 nursing (...) students on March 2020. The research tools used were original questionnaires, Perceived Stress Scale, and the Athenian Insomnia Scale, as well as Coping with Stress Inventory.ResultsRespondents felt a high level of stress, which occurred in 68.8% of interviewees regarding whether there was a danger of contracting COVID-19. Respondents experienced 84% stress levels when a family member suffered from COVID-19. Sleep disorders were determined mainly by the fear of infection and contact with someone who might be infected with the virus. Nursing students who felt a high level of stress often suffered from sleep disorders more frequently than students who felt a low or average stress level. The respondents decided to cope with stress by denial, taking psychoactive substances, ceasing action, or blaming themselves. The greater the intensity of stress experienced by students, the more often they undertook avoidance behaviors or showed helplessness.ConclusionDuring the pandemic, students experienced severe stress, which resulted in sleep disorders and avoidance behaviors. (shrink)

Fiodor Dostoyevsky in his oeuvre indicates certain attitudes, which are often recognized in the process of man's thinking and behavior. They are conditioned by the manner he perceives reality and they in themselves appoint simultaneously this way of world perception. Some of those occurrences resemble in a great manner the defense mechanisms, which are described in the later literature. A first mechanism that was analyzed is pursue simplification, which causes a man to believe that thanks to the achieved knowledge he (...) will be able to set in order and fix imperfect reality. Such attitude enforces simplified vision of the world, which in turn helps in self-deception. Dostoyevsky's heroes have problems to recognize true motives of their own behaviors or they intentionally attribute nobler incentives to themselves. Therefore the next described attitude is reluctance to acknowledge the truth. The Russian writer rejects generally accepted disjunctivity of the 'truth and false' category and he attributes the final might to acknowledge something as true or false to the man's will. On account of innate laziness and refractoriness, man chooses the simplest solutions, which in point of fact dismiss possibility to see real reasons for all failures. It makes impossible to undertake activities, which could indeed change something. Man is characterized by irresponsibility for his actions and words. A word looses its causative meaning and becomes purely a decoration, an ornament. All these make that learning the truth, as one of the elements propelling development of the philosophy, was not impossible but it was unwanted. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric Jahrgang: 45 Heft: 1 Seiten: 265-276.

This paper describes ways in which political speakers define and legitimize future policies by construing different policy options in terms of ‘privileged’ and ‘oppositional’ futures. Privileged and oppositional futures are conceptual projections of alternative policy visions occurring in quasi-dialogic chunks of speech, revealing specific evidential, mood, and modality patterns. Privileged future involves the speaker’s preferred, or at least acknowledged vision and is articulated through absolute modality and evidential markers which derive from factual evidence, history, and reason. Oppositional future involves an (...) antagonistic and plainly threatening vision, expressed by probabilistic modality and (usually) the interrogative mood. Following the principle of psychological consistency in belief, oppositional future is normally communicated first, allowing for a swift and strong response from the privileged future expressed in the speaker-preferred vision. (shrink)

The question of politics is underdeveloped in René Girard's mimetic theory. This can be fairly easily accounted for. First, mimesis is essentially an ethical mechanism. In Girard, it pertains both to a set of moral prescriptions and to an ethos, understood here as a way of being that exchanges harmful repetitions for favorable ones.1 Throughout his work, Girard advances an ethics of generosity that steers clear of reciprocity, which, in his framework, would lead to violence.2 Second, Girard concentrates on social (...) structures and religious institutions that have been developed over the ages to deal with mimetic crises. These structures of containment protect communities from an all-consuming outbreak of violence by... (shrink)

This contribution considers the question of scale in Peter Sloterdijk’s work in relation to some of the recent tendencies in contemporary French thought. It examines theoretical conditions for approaching philosophy as an exercise in constructing grand narratives and interrogates the legitimacy of such a gesture after poststructuralist critique. What is to be gained from new grand narratives?

The present paper consists of two parts. In the first, some issues related to the character of biological experiments conducted under in vitro cultures are portrayed. The relevant aspects of these procedures are explicated from the viewpoint of the experimental botanist. It is a case study for the considerations in the second part, which presents selected philosophical and legal issues involved in biological experiments from the general perspective of philosophical investigations concerning the problem of plants’ axiology. Obviously, the nature of (...) the considerations is limited; not all important questions from the perspective of biology and philosophy have been raised. Nevertheless, the authors hope that the analyzed issues may be interesting for both biologists and philosophers. (shrink)

This article presents a fragment of the history of psychology in Poland, discussing its development in the years 1945–56, which saw sweeping political and geographical transformations. In that maelstrom of history, psychology was particularly affected by the effects of geopolitical changes, which led to its symbolic ‘arrest’ in 1952, when psychological practice was prohibited and all psychology courses were abolished at universities. Amnesty was declared only in 1956, with the demise of the so-called Stalinist ‘cult of personality’ and the onset (...) of a turbulent period when the crimes of the Stalinist era were prosecuted. We have adopted three time frames for our description and analysis of this dramatic period in the development of psychology in Poland. ‘The past’ is a story about the flourishing of Polish psychology before World War Two and the hopes for the discipline’s restoration after the war. ‘The present’, as the core of this narrative, represents the events of 1950–56. ‘The future’ refers to the period when Stalinist abuses were prosecuted during the Thaw, following the collapse of the Stalinist dictatorship, and the resurgence of Polish psychologists’ hopes for resurrecting their discipline. In all these periods, the narrative is interwoven with the story of the Polish psychologist Mieczysław Kreutz, who offers a model example of the hypothesized dependence of scientific research on sociopolitical change. (shrink)

Following Ricoeur and referring to some contemporary phenomenological studies I demonstrate—perhaps differently than others do—that Husserl’s phenomenological undertaking has also hermeneutic aspects. With Husserl, we are in a meaningful world which reveals its sense in intentional acts. The interpretation of senses can be treated as experiencing them. In particular, I examine the peculiar hermeneutics of affectiveness and sensation, i.e. the hermeneutics that is broadly understood as a project of demonstrating the origin of meaning. This project reaches the difference founding all (...) the articulations of meaning rather than some aprioric basis of understanding. The difference is a source that flows in experience of sense, even in their mature culturally articulatedforms, which are, however, forever permeated by sensation and the affective. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:NEWMAN'S PSYCHOLOGICAL DISCOVERY: THE ILLATIVE SENSE (Continued) VI THE FACULTIES OF COGNITION AND APPETITION Since the Grammar of Assent gives us a phenorhenological analysis of the art of thinking and often refers to the influence of other faculties in our reasoning processes, it will be very instructive to examine what the author holds about our faculties of cognition and appetition. This will make us better acquainted with the nature (...) of the illative sense. I. THE SENSES 1. The External Senses and their Objects. We had already arrived at the conclusion that Newman rejects the mere subjectivity of our knowledge. When he writes about this matter he explicitly deals with sensation or sensuous cognition. Although he takes exception to the word "immediate perception," 1 we may nevertheless call him an adherent of direct or immediate realism according to Scholastic terminology, because he emphatically excludes the intervention of a reasoning process from sense perception and uses the term "mediate perception" only to express the instrumentality of experience. In this meaning our perception of external objects is mediate or indirect indeed.2 The fact is that as early as 1839 he wrote in his University Sermons: "Of the material we have direct knowledge through the senses"3 and in 1843: "The senses are direct, immediate, and ordinary informants, and act spontaneously without any will or effort on our part."4 On the importance of sense perception for our mental activities he writes in a series of hitherto unpublished notes, entitled Elements of Thought:6 "I grant or I assume that the soul would not think without some external stimulus; that if it were cut off from all communication from the external world, it would pass this life in a sort of torpor... But then, as soon as it is roused, it reflects upon itself, and thereby gains a number of ideas..." 1. See supra V, 14.2. Supra V, 14.3. P. 205. 4.P. 303 ; cf. Gramm., p. 260. 5.See the unpublished Philosophical Papers, note Fcbr. 24, 1859. 40 DR. ZENO, OJM. CAP.41 Apart from the passages already referred to, Newman nowhere enlarges on the doctrine about the senses. He does not speak about the distinctions between sensible objects; he does not explain the difference between sensation and perception, and uses those terms promiscuously.6 There are no statements on the subject which contradict current Scholastic notions, although sometimes his vague terminology may be an occasion for misunderstandings. For instance, some passages in connection with "images" and "impressions," when read apart from the context, would appear to imply that he identifies them with the Scholastic species a sensibili accepta. However, we shall show further on that. Newman means something quite different. He deals with these species and the so-called sensibilia per acci· dens by the way when describing our knowledge of God7 and teaching that we have evidence of the presence of individuals or substances in the phenomena which occur to our senses. We picture those things to ourselves in those phenomena. They are like pictures, he says, but at the same time "they give us no exact measure or character of the unknown things beyond them." "Therefore when we speak of our having a picture of the things which are perceived through the senses, we mean a certain representation, true as far as it goes, but not adequate." 2. The Internal Senses and their Objects. Newman nowhere gives a distinction between external and internal senses, but nevertheless he speaks about those faculties of the mind which by the Scholastics are called the internal senses. These philosophers distinguish a common sense or rather a central sense (sensus communis), which unites the impressions of the external senses into one whole, makes us conscious of the conditions of our body and notifies to us the sensations of our external as well as internal senses; — the imagination or the faculty which preserves and reproduces things perceived; — the sensuous memory, i. e., the power to retain and to reproduce sense images; — and the vis aestimativa or the instinctive faculty, which discovers without any intellectual means, what is good and what is bad for our welfare. 6.It would seem that he generally... (shrink)

Background Trust is an essential phenomenon of relationship between patients and healthcare professionals and can be described as an accepted vulnerability to the power of another person over something that one cares about in virtue of goodwill toward the trustor. This characterization of interpersonal trust appears to be adequate for patients suffering from chronic illness. Trust is especially important in the context of chronic cardiovascular diseases as one of the main global health problems. Research Aim The purpose of the qualitative (...) study was to gain a deeper understanding of how people with chronic cardiovascular disease experience and make sense of trust in healthcare professionals. Research Design Eleven semi-structured interviews with participants analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore in detail their lived experience of trust as a relational phenomenon. Participants and Research Context Participants with chronic cardiovascular disease were purposively recruited from inpatients on the cardiology ward of the university hospital located in central Slovakia. Ethical Considerations The study was approved by the faculty ethics committee. Participants gave their written informed consent. Findings Four Interrelated Group Experiential Themes Sense of co-existence; Belief in competence; Will to help; Ontological security with eight subthemes were identified. The findings describe the participants' experience with trust in healthcare professionals as a phenomenon of close co-existence, which is rooted in the participants’ vulnerability and dependence on the goodwill and competence of health professionals to help with the consequence of (re)establishing a sense of ontological security in the situation of chronic illness. Conclusion Findings will contribute to an in-depth understanding of trust as an existential dimension of human co-existence and an ethical requirement of healthcare practice, inspire patient empowerment interventions, support adherence to treatment, and person-centred care. (shrink)

The paper concerns a form of experiencing time which is specific for haiku poetry. Haiku is an expression of the momentary glimpse of time. Haiku poetry treats the moment uninstrumentally, neither as a result of the past nor as a transition to future deeds. Seen this way, the moment arises on the stream of time as a unique, existential experience. It is my attempt to explain the phenomenon of this experience of “now” as I explore the metaphors of “background”, “figure” (...) and “composition”. (shrink)

The problem of charging interest has been discussed since the time of Aristotle. It was condemned in the Christian religion in the Middle Ages. Only when the interest was specified as a payment for productive capital was it considered that the borrower, enriched by the money lent, should let the lender benefit in accordance with the principle of fairness. The borrower should share the profit with the lender, and from this moment the percentage is no longer something shameful and neglected. (...) Religious beliefs and accepted moral values have changed over time, adapting to the circumstances, so has the approach to collecting interest from the capital lent. However, there is still a great deal of criticism of excessive interest rates. The purpose of this paper is to present a discussion related to the charging of interest presented in the tradition of economics and also to show some aspects of the problem in relation to the present times, such as excessive debt and responsible lending. (shrink)

Das Ziel der von mir vorgestellten Arbeit ist zu beweisen, dass Nie-Boska komedia (Die ungöttliche Komödie) von Zygmunt Krasiński eine romantische Moralität ist. In Beziehung auf das mittelalterliche Gattungsmodell weise ich nach, dass dieses Drama des polnischen Romantikers in Anlehnung and Moralitätsschema konstruiert worden ist. Dieses Schema gibt die Voraussetzung für die im Werk enthaltene Vision der Welt und des Menschen. Die Anfangskapitel widmen sich der Rekonstruktion und Analyse der im Werk des Authors von Irydion vorgestellten Visionen von außerirdischen Gegenden (...) des Universums, weil die Erde, wie in einer typischen Moralität, nur sein Teil ist. Aus dieser übernatürlichen Wirklichkeit kommen sowohl gute, als auch böse Kräfte, die sich im Laufe des Dramas bemühen, einen Einfluss auf den Helden zu erobern. Sie möchten ihn entweder zur Errettung oder zur Verdammung bringen, was in Konsequenz eine Übermacht im ewigen Ringen zwischen Gott und seinem großen Widersacher - Satan erreichen lässt. Im weiteren Teil meiner Arbeit versuche ich die Kreationsweise der in Nie-Boska komedia auftretenden Engel- und Dämonwesen zu bestimmen und auch auf eventuelle Inspirationsquellen und Entlehnungen zu weisen. Ich will auch die Methoden und Mittel zeigen, mit Hilfe deren sie auf ihr Hauptziel - den Grafen Henryk einwirken. Besonders interessant scheint die Gestalt von Pankracy zu sein, der vielleicht ein Instrument in Händen der metaphysischen Mächte ist. Das Drama von Krasiński halte ich für geistliche Geschichte vom Grafen Henryk. (shrink)

The expansion of competition on financial services market forces to search for new ways of development. A bank-insurance cooperation, which is more and more popular in the world and in Poland, becomes an effective remedy to this problem and a factor which stimulates rivalry and competition. The final beneficent of this cooperation is a customer for whom a diverse market offer of financial services means creation of added value. The customer’s satisfaction with that kind of services is important to further (...) development of bank-insurance cooperation. The aim of this work is to estimate whether the services of an integrated bank-insurance offer and insurances with mortgage credits are friendly and useful, and also whether they assure comfort and safety or may cause risk. (shrink)

The access of Poland to the EU caused the creation of the consumer protection system which consists of legal controls and different institutions such as e.g. UOKiK, BA, RZu. The aim of the study is to show problem of protection of bank services market consumer. The range of bank services is limited here to mortgage loans. Changes on the mortgage loan market in Poland during 2005–2008 are analysed in this work. The crisis on financial markets and its consequences have also (...) been considered. The author presents the bank actions in the face of consumers during the crisis and the possibilities of the solving the disputes with dissatisfied consumers. (shrink)

System guarantying deposits in Poland was created during the economy transformation. Its founding was resulted from a tough situation in the bank sector, that is why it was supposed to be an antidotum to clients' problems connected with solvency of the collapsing banks and also with adjusting to the European community law. The aim of this work is to present The Bank Guarantee Fund, an institution belonging to a network of financial security, which main task is to protect the deponent’s (...) interests and to secure the banking system's stability. The work concerns some aspects of the growing interest in insurance systems for banks deposits and revived discussions on this subject during crisis on bank markets. In reply on the crisis, which was started on credit market subprime in USA and then spread on other segments of financial markets in other countries, the ECOFIN took a decision for increasing the obligatory guarantee limits for individual persons and also for accelerating the payment of guaranteed means. The aim of above changes is to increase surety of clients and trust to bank sector. (shrink)

This article attempts to respond to the fractional presence of feminist discourse around René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire. I will first briefly examine the relevant critical stands on mimesis and then proceed to rehabilitate it for feminism via an analysis of Judith Butler’s theory of performative gender. By bringing together selected aspects of Girard and Butler’s work, it will be possible to build a constructive dialogue between the two thinkers. Due to the scope of the paper I will not (...) be able to give an exhaustive account of the respective theories, and hence I will discuss only the most relevant aspects. Girard is concerned with giving an account of conflictual mimetic desire in social and cultural.. (shrink)

TO SEE BEYOND THE HORIZON. BLAISE PASCAL AND THE QUESTION OF PERSPECTIVE The main purpose of this paper is to present some aspects of Blaise Pascal’s thought, especially his skeptic theory of human natural cognition, as related to his comments on the question of perspective and his technique of permanent changing the points of view. I argue that Pascal’s practice as well as his theoretical considerations on the art of perspective and geometrical optics demonstrate not only some kind of skepticism (...) but a possible starting point to get to the metaphysical, invisible order from the visible world (irrespective of the grace of God). The fundamental condition of such metaphysical discovery is the situation of the lack of sense, of the impossibility to find any definitive answer to any of the questions that our reasoning has to cope with. Pascal finds the paradigmatic example of this “reading the world” in which any visible or intelligible meaning is available in the figural interpretation of the Bible, as opposed to its literal interpretation. At the same time Pascal does not propose any privileged point of view, any other perspective that human being could perceive as established, but always confronts us with Deus absconditus and his paradoxical traces. Keywords: BLAISE PASCAL, SKEPTIC THEORY, HUMAN NATURAL COGNITION, GEOMETRICAL OPTICS, METAPHYSICAL DISCOVERY, HORIZON. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to present the application of the lean management method as appropriate for the management of the organizational system of psychiatric care in the Zealand region of Denmark. The organizational solutions of the Danish psychiatric care system presented in this paper are individualized and adapted to the regional needs of the residents. In Denmark, there are five administrative regions, in which each independently organizes its own system of medical (psychiatric) care. This means that the regions (...) have considerable independence in choosing the acceptable and necessary methods of management, including – as is clear from the conducted research – the use of methods put-upon other areas of economy. Although the national laws in Denmark define certain conditions and guidelines for the functioning of psychiatric care (e.g. regarding the use of direct coercion/restrains for patients treated in the centres), there is a distinct separation of structures and methods of functioning throughout the whole country, which constitutes unique observation material – from the cognitive point of view. The authors of this paper conduct extensive research and analyse the systems of psychiatric care organizations in various countries (including Spain, Italy and Japan) and, as a result, the obtained results may lead to the selection of the best models from other systems (good organizational practices and management, the management methods in use), which can be applied in the currently reorganised system of the Polish psychiatric care. The choice of Denmark for the observational study is not accidental and is related not only to the fact that there is a large degree of systemic identity within the country and between the regions, but also because the country applies solutions addressed to patients with very different cultural conditions and needs, resulting from their descent, religion, and (world)-views. Denmark is one of those European countries that express a significant acceptance of diversity and tolerance, which is why communities with very different imponderables, denominations, and worldviews co-exist. In the area related to the organization of the psychiatric system, these conditions are of key importance. In the period from January 2015 to December 2017 the authors participated in study visits in Denmark, conducting research aimed at identifying the key success factors of the psychiatric care organization system in the country. The conducted analysis is also based on the analysis of literature and own and participant observations. The conclusions concerning this subject are also the result of interviews conducted with employees of the visited hospitals and system users, both professionals and patients. As the search for an optimal organizational model of psychiatric care is currently an ongoing concern in Poland, it seems justified to review the existing solutions in Europe and perform their critical analysis. A comparison of the adopted solutions was performed, in the context of, above all, the improvement of the quality of these services, their availability, and the satisfaction of patients and their families from the proposed organizational changes. The economic benefits of these solutions are also significant. (shrink)

In this paper we analyse logic of false belief in the intuitionistic setting. This logic, studied in its classical version by Steinsvold, Fan, Gilbert and Venturi, describes the following situation: a formula $\varphi$ is not satisfied in a given world, but we still believe in it. Another interpretations are also possible: e.g. that we do not accept $\varphi$ but it is imposed on us by a kind of council or advisory board. From the mathematical point of view, the idea is (...) expressed by an adequate form of modal operator $\mathsf{W}$ which is interpreted in relational frames with neighborhoods. We discuss monotonicity of forcing, soundness, completeness and several other issues. Finally, we mention the fact that it is possible to investigate intuitionistic logics of unknown truths. (shrink)

This text focuses on the possibility of acquiring universal knowledge by individual subjective consciousness as determined both corporeally and culturally. Along with the appearance of the “question” of the cultural Other the attempts of European philosophers to establish a kind of a universal sphere—intellectual basis for an intercultural dialogue—became more intensive, but still often limited by their relation to the values and ideas of the only one culture. In other words, the attempts to search the community of human kind in (...) an intellectual sphere often led to the universality being the “universalized particularity”, maintained by the empty signifiers. But there is also another philosophical tradition, in which the “universality” of ideas, concepts or values is being perceived as a quasi-universality or pluri-versality, mediated by human organic and cultural interactions, and is being derived rather from “beyond”—from the condition of embodiment—than from “above,” the pure intellectual cognition. I focus on three instances of moving from the order of body towards the quasi-universal values: on Bartolomé de Las Casas’s posing a problem of the universal values in the context of intercultural dialogue, on Michel de Montaigne’s reflections on human nature and Walter Mignolo’s naturalistic foundation of the comparative studies. I chose these examples, because they offer a clear and expressed attempt to reformulate the very idea of possible universality in the context of the desired intercultural dialogue, but within the optics of the embodied subjectivities. (shrink)

Cathartic-Compensatory Role of an Artwork -/- This article raises the problem of catharsis and its role in arts. It is intended first of all to present, in brief, the controversy about this term in the history of literature and other forms of art and then give a short review of its most important aspects. The article intends to look at catharsis, taking into account its various aspects and different positions as to its role in literature as well as socio-cultural life. (...) It particularly emphasizes the role of Bohdan Dziemidok, who as one of the first researchers to draw attention to the cathartic-compensatory function of art and the role of the recipient’s experience in it. The article, following this trail, presents the latest results of contemporary research on the cathartic-compensatory function of art. A the author argues, they are not only confirmation of Dziemidok’s apt research intuitions but also contribute to the reformulation of our general thinking about art and its role in a contemporary world. (shrink)

A skeletal collection from 105 burials excavated at the Old Kingdom and Ptolemaic Period cemetery in Saqqara, Egypt, was investigated for evidence of ante-mortem fractures of long bones. The collection comprised 57 males, 30 females, 14 unsexed sub-adults, and 4 unsexed mature individuals. The majority of the skeletons were complete or almost complete, despite the disturbance caused by tomb looters in antiquity. Fractures were recorded by bone, side, location, type and state of healing. The prevalence of fractures was calculated in (...) male and female populations, as well as in individual age groups. The state of healing of the fractures was examined in order to investigate the possibility of medical treatment provided. No evidence of fractures was recorded in subadults. Evidence of single fractures were found in fourteen adults, and a further five individuals sustained two fractures to different bones of the upper limb. The frequency of fractures by bone count was the highest among the Middle and Old Adults. Fractures to the radius and the ulna were the most common, while no fractures were recorded in the tibia. Angulation, rotation and shortening were observed among the healed bones. (shrink)

The article presents findings derived from questionnaires administrated to 150 randomly selected inhabitants of Warsaw in November and early December of 1981. They were asked about their preferences concerning different rules of distributing basic supplies in time of crisis. The authors begin by saying that controlled distribution corresponds to a principle that is considered fundamental in the socialist country, namely the principle of redistribution. It determines all sorts of social exchange that may be governed elsewhere by the principle of reciprocity (...) or by market. Deteriorating Polish economy made it necessary after the Agreements of 198O and 1981 to introduce rationing of meat and fat initially and various other commodities later. This rationing is called “universal” by the authors to distinguish it from “situational” rationing that had existed earlier whenever particular sorts of commodities were in short supply and only first in line were served or whenever particular groups of people were given special entitlements to buy things that were not generally available. The authors point out that a complete collapse of the economic system, whether now in Poland or in any other case, leads to a wide acceptance of different forms of rationing. It is not expected that rationing may help to better the general level of individual needs; it is hoped only that it may ensure more equitable distribution of those goods that are supplied in minimum quantities. Just distribution stands in this case for limited egalitarianism which primarily provides for equal distribution but makes allowances for different levels of needs and endorses exclusion of certain categories of people from the distribution system. In case of grave impoverishment the rules of charity ad mutual help are called upon, or the respondents express their trust in the existence of widespread benevolent attitudes in society. (shrink)

The national curricula of the EU member states are structured around learning outcomes, selected according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. The authors of this paper claim that using Bloom’s Taxonomy to phrase learning outcomes in medical education in terms of students’ achievements is difficult and unclear. This paper presents an efficient method of assessing course learning outcomes using Fuzzy Logic.