The increasing trend concerning loosing respect towards honoured authorities can nowadays be observed in most of the areas of social life. This refers also to universities and decreasing respect towards academics. The study at Karol Adamiecki Univeristy of Economics in Katowice, focused on structure and hierarchy of values declared by its students, were expected to reveal whether this assumption is true. The study characterized reasons for and directions of change in the declared hierarchy of values among the young. It was (...) of high importance to diagnose the core of interactions between students and academics, i.e. to answer a question whether academics employed by the University are perceived by the students as persons whose personal approach and behaviours could be followed. The results show that nowadays academic is not respected as an authority for her/his students. The way to regain respect seems to be based on reinforcement of traditional master (tutor) – student relations, as university is this particular place where this kind of interrelations should develop. The task of building this relation needs time and efforts, as well as sets a high standard for academics to present unimpeachable ethical approach as well as openness towards students and dynamic changes in the environment. (shrink)

Prestige of academic teacher’s activities and his or her authority, should most of all result from moral attitude. Thus there is need in this kind of activity to use ethic virtues. Thanks to them human improves internally, but also can realize the concrete property outside. Virtues are necessary for person both for him or her as an average human being and also as a scholar and an educator. By setting own example one can have the most influence on students’ moral (...) attitudes. Consequently an occasion arises to improve cardinal classic virtues, which include: prudence, deliberation, justice and courage, but also in the virtues that are related to them. These activities drive to form yourself in giving good example and have a huge impact on academic environment’s advancement. (shrink)

The subject of responsibility has lately become very important in the context of the economic crisis. In economy, it took the form of social responsibility. It concerns activities additionally undertaken by organizations in order to establish correct relations with their employees and society, as well as with regard to the natural environment. Therefore, a very important role is played by the ethos of the undertaken socially responsible actions. To a large extent it is reflected in the ethical dimension. Thus, in (...) enterprises, codes of ethics have become a base of axiology in building of the organization cultures. Unfortunately, Polish companies – as shown in the paper – still attach a minor role to the ethical dimension of business. (shrink)

Global changes in the world enforce to undertake various transformations also in the area of higher education. The aim of academic education is not more preparing to work in particular occupation, but rather to form appropriate abilities which are useful at the labour market. This kind of education must embody overall, multi-aspect character, because it prepares to lifelong learning. Therefore creating “learning society” one should make an effort into axiological dimension of scientific-technical advance. One ought to take heed of human (...) elements of education and first of all of ethical issues. Practise shows that human relations bereft of transcend and ethic dimension, but concentrating only on financial economical goods, on profit, market and competition, don’t bring anyone happiness. Hence there is an enormous demand in the academic community an ethical reflection. Thanks to it human being is not only improved in anthropological dimension, but also in social-economical aspect. (shrink)

The article reviews the book Elementy etyki lekarskiej [Issues in Physician Ethics], by Tadeusz Biesaga.

Bioethics is a relatively young discipline. Within it, discussion is still taking place concerning the methodological status of the subject. Nevertheless, putting aside this inner aspect of bioethics, one thing appears striking. The short-lived existence of bioethics is surprisingly associated with a great number of bioethical projects, aimed at tackling complex problems, arising in the realm of health care. It seems that the rapid enhancement of biomedical sciences and biotechnologies - carrying with it many moral dilemmas - creates a pressure (...) leading to a new sort of ethical reflection, as well as deepening further existing reflections. Looking more generally and somewhat superficially at existing approaches to bioethical matters, one can distinguish two tendencies. One of them puts forward creating a general ethical system drawing upon a specific notion of morality, and drawing up a set of moral rules and principles. The second one finds its starting point in separate cases, in their analyses, playing down the role of general moral theories. The best example of such an approach is a modern casuistry catching on especially in English speaking countries. The spreading tendency of casuistic analyses does not eliminate the fact that many bioethicists still make an effort to pursue the first of the mentioned trends by building up a general bioethical framework. Hugo Tristram Engelhardt is a good example of such a thinker. He is a medical doctor and philosopher working at Rice University in Houston. In the course of over 30 years of his medical and philosophical research, Engelhardt has outlined two bioethical projects: the project of secular bioethics and the project of Christian bioethics. (shrink)

The body-mind problem goes back to the beginning of philosophy. However, the most known contemporary formulation of this problem comes out of the linguistic investigations of Anglo-Saxon analytical philosophy, which leaves the natural sciences their specific mode of analysis, but also uses the results of interdisciplinary investigations. The various aspects of the body-mind problem point up a whole range of questions, such as the existence of mental universals, the problem of ontological mental states and their epistemological availability, intentionality and so (...) on. (shrink)

In this paper, I discuss some philosophical problems connected with the notion of regarding the aggregates (_khandha_) as self in the Nikāyas. In particular, I focus on the attitude represented by the formula “I am this” (_esohamasmi_) which may be labeled as that of identifying with the aggregates. In the first part of the paper, I point out and analyze certain similes contained in the Nikāyas which may be read as implying the existence of a distinction between the aggregates and (...) the individual who regards them as self. Then, I consider a hypothesis that the aggregates are not objective constituents of a human being but subjectively experienced representational phenomena. I argue that several Nikāya texts imply the existence of important aspects of a human being, in particular cognitive ones, which are not conceptualized in the terms of the five aggregates. I also discuss the possibility of interpreting _khandha_s as not active in character but as resultant of other cognitive processes. In the last part of the paper I offer a hypothesis that one of the key aspects of regarding the aggregates as self lies in the identification of a human individual with one’s own phenomenal self-representation which results in a mistaken projection of the notions of agency, identity and subjectivity onto something that is inherently devoid of it. I also consider certain parallels between the ideas present in the Nikāyas and the concepts of the modern philosophy of mind. (shrink)

According to the normative approach, speech acts are governed by certain norms. Interestingly, the same is true for classes of speech acts. This paper considers the normative treatment of constatives, consisting of such classes as assertives, predictives, suggestives, and more. The classical approach is to treat these classes of illocutions as species of constatives. Recently, however, Simion (Shifty Speech and Independent Thought: Epistemic Normativity in Context, Oxford University Press, 2021) has proposed that all constatives (i) are species of assertion, and (...) (ii) are governed by the knowledge norm. I defend the classical treatment of constatives and show that Simion’s conclusion is untenable. No taxonomy of speech acts can accommodate such a view. More importantly, we can test whether a particular speech act is an assertion or not. I propose five tests of assertion, the passing of which is a necessary condition for being an assertion. Some constative speech acts fail these tests. Thus, contrary to Simion, not all constatives can be regarded as species of assertion. (shrink)

This paper offers a normative account of the speech act of explanation with understanding as its norm. The previous accounts of the speech act of explanation rely on the factive notion of understanding and maintain that proper explanations require knowledge. I argue, however, that such accounts are too demanding and do not reflect the everyday practice of explanation and the attribution of understanding. Instead, I argue that the non-factive, objectual attitude of understanding is sufficient for a proper explanation. On the (...) normative level, explanations are governed by an audience-centred norm, i.e., they are sensitive to the epistemic position of the audience. According to the proposed account, an explanation is a communicative act in which one puts the audience in a position to understand the explained phenomenon. This proposal fits into the recent wave of applications of the normative account and makes space for the pluralism of illocutionary acts. (shrink)

The speech act of inquiry is generally treated as a default kind of asking questions. The widespread norm states that one inquires whether p only if one does not know that p. However, the fact that inquiring is just one kind of asking questions has received little to no attention. Just as in the declarative mood we can perform not only assertions, but various other speech acts, like guesses or predictions, so in the interrogative mood we can also make various (...) speech act types. I propose a speech-act-theoretic account of a distinct kind of question that I label exam questions. According to the proposed account, one performs an exam question p only if (i) one has access to the answer to p, and (ii) one does not officially know whether the hearer knows the answer to p. Exam questions satisfy all the necessary requirements of being a distinct kind of speech act. Additionally, my proposal contributes to the recent expansion of the normative approach to a variety of speech acts. (shrink)

I propose an analysis of lying with uninformative speech acts. The orthodox view states that lying is restricted to assertions. However, the growing case for non-assertoric lies made by presuppositions or conventional implicatures challenges this orthodoxy. So far, the only presuppositions to have been considered as lies were informative presuppositions. In fact, uninformative lies were not discussed in the philosophical literature. However, limiting the possibility of lying to informative speech acts is too restrictive. Firstly, I show that standard, uninformative presuppositions (...) can also be lies. Secondly, I extend this picture into uninformative lies made by declarative statements. To implement my proposal, I do not need a new definition of lying. Recently popular commitment-based definitions of lying are able to properly handle uninformative lies. (shrink)

„De incerti aestimatione” („O szacowaniu rzeczy niepewnych”) G.W. Leibniza z 1678-ego roku stanowi próbę wyprowadzenia ogólnej metody dla rozwiązania problemu punktów, czyli podziału puli w dowolnej rundzie gry. Część wyjaśniająca zawiera szereg definicji i pomysłów pojawiających się w pismach Leibniza w poprzednich latach. Wśród nich znajduje się definicja pojęcia prawdopodobieństwa (probabilitas) kojarzonego wówczas z niezakończonym jeszcze sporem o probabilizm moralno-teologiczny. Jest to w tym wypadku skojarzenie uzasadnione faktem, że w korespondencji i późniejszych pismach Leibniz proponuje rozważać prawdopodobieństwo w znaczeniu matematycznym (...) w przeciwieństwie do znaczenia używanego w teologii moralnej. „De incerti aestimatione” jest drugą pracą Leibniza, w której poświęca on uwagę grom, zagadnieniu ich sprawiedliwości i oczekiwanej wartości, którą nazywa nadzieją. W artykule omówiono prawne, moralne i metafizyczne konteksty pojęć probabilitas, jus (prawa) i ratio, jak również ograniczenia moralnego zastosowania pojęcia prawdopodobieństwa. Przedstawiono także rozwiązanie problemu punktów przez Leibniza, które, choć błędne, stanowi niezależną od Pascala propozycję zastosowania do tego problemu metody rekurencyjnej. (shrink)

The aim of this article is an attempt to diagnose the current condition of the philosophy of history, as well as to show its potential in explaining contemporary phenomena and constructing a rational image of the world. Two recent works by Steven Pinker (The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress) and the methodological work of Karl Raimund Popper provide a point of reference. And although the works (...) mentioned are not classed as historiosophical (even by Pinker himself), it is the author’s opinion that they fully deserve this title by showing that philosophical reflection on history is something that is sorely needed today, in an age of multiple contradictory diagnoses and radical prophecies. (shrink)

The paper revisits the old controversy over causality and determinism and argues, in the first place, that non˗deterministic theories of modern science are largely irrelevant to the philosophical issue of the causality principle. As it seems to be the ‘moral’ of the uncertainty principle, the reason why a deterministic theory cannot be applied to the description of certain physical systems is that it is impossible to capture such properties of the system, which are required by a desired theory. These properties (...) constitute what is called ‘the state’ of a system. However, the notion of a state of a system is relative: it depends on a particular theory which one would like to use to describe given kinds of phenomena. This implies that, even in the case where the desired state of a system is fundamentally impossible to be captured, neither ontological nor epistemological determinism may be excluded. Some following critical considerations are also offered with regard to the claim that uncertainty is “rooted in the things themselves”. The cradle of modern discussions about causality and determinism is, of course, quantum mechanics. Because, as it appears, a judgment on deterministic or non˗deterministic character of a theory can be made only after some interpretation of this theory has been given, the paper briefly reminds some chosen interpretations of quantum mechanics (Schrödinger's, probabilistic, statistical, Copenhagen, and the interpretation of quantum ensembles). Many of such interpretations, offered in the past, have now been rejected, and some gained more credibility than the others. Nonetheless, even the claim that indeterminism is irremovable from the description of the micro-world doesn't imply the rejection of the most general formula of the philosophical causality principle. There is no direct implication between theses of the epistemology of scientific knowledge and those of the ontology of the real world. (shrink)

The book deals with the philosophy of the human person as worked out by Karol Wojtyla. It presents a number of fundamental issues necessary to understand Karol Wojtyla's personalism. Thus, first it undertakes Wojtyla's move from the philosophy of the human being to the philosophy of the human person; second, it presents Wojtyla's epistemological approach to the person against the background of other philosophies concerned with the human person; third, it describes the metaphysical structure of the person; four, it analyses (...) the person's selected faculties (consciousness, emotions); five, it presents some aspects of the action of the person (a person's causation, or their role in dialogue); and finally, it tries to sketch the problem of personal dignity. (shrink)

Artykuł przedstawia zarys historii stosunku Niemiec do Europy Środkowej od osiemnastego wieku po koniec wieku dwudziestego. Należy podkreślić, że od samego początku (tj. od epoki oświecenia) na relację tą wpływały dwa najważniejsze czynniki: prymat Realpolitik ukształtowany przez egoistyczną politykę Prus, a od 1871 roku Rzeszy Niemieckiej wobec Europy Środkowej oraz przez niemiecką (pruską) kulturę polityczną akcentującą „kulturową misję” Niemiec w tej części Starego Kontynentu. Jak podkreśla się w artykule, to ostatnie stanowisko jest charakterystyczne dla niemieckich elit politycznych i intelektualnych aż (...) do końca dwudziestego wieku. Zadaniem badawczym jest zweryfikowanie do jakiego stopnia te dwa czynniki wpływają również obecnie na politykę Niemiec wobec Europy Środkowej. (shrink)

In Dystopia: A Natural History, Gregory Claeys observes that the collectivist ethos is one of the common features of both utopia and dystopia. The crucial difference is that in utopia cooperation is free and voluntary, whereas in dystopia it takes the form of what Leszek Kołakowski has called compulsory solidarity, that is, solidarity imposed by means of coercion and thus deprived of its actual value.1 And yet, just as dystopia and utopia may well be two sides of the same coin, (...) dystopian compulsory fraternity is often counterbalanced by voluntary cooperation within an actual social system or a textual representation thereof. This is precisely what happens in the social science fiction of Janusz A. Zajdel... (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest zaprezentowanie sylwetki wielkiego uczonego czeskiego doby pobiałogórskiej – jego życia oraz działalności naukowej i pisarskiej. Bohuslav Balbín jest najwybitniejszym czeskim humanistą XVII w., którego twórczość odegrała wielką rolę zarówno w swojej epoce, jako inspiracja dla innych twórców, jak również w następnej. Dzieła jezuity, z których najważniejsze opublikowano dopiero w sto lat po jego śmierci, wpisywały się w nurt czeskiego odrodzenia narodowego, którego celem było utrzymanie językowej i kulturalnej odrębności Czechów. Twórczość Balbína rozwijała się dwóch zasadniczych nurtach – (...) religijnym i świeckim, które spajały ideały narodowe. Cechował tę twórczość głęboki patriotyzm i świadomość słowiańska, a głównym celem pisarza i uczonego było zachowanie tożsamości narodu, jego kultury i języka oraz podkreślenie i utrwalenie odrębności Królestwa Czeskiego – historycznej, geograficznej i prawnej. W sposób znaczący zasłużył się dla rozwoju historiografii, krajoznawstwa, literaturoznawstwa i bibliografii. Choć był gorliwym katolikiem, nie odrzucał dorobku czeskich innowierców. Jego najbardziej ambitnym i – niestety – nieukończonym dziełem są _Miscellanea historica regni Bohemiae_, które miały stanowić summę wiedzy o kraju i narodzie, najsławniejszym zaś _Dissertatio apologetica pro lingua Slavonica, praecipue Bohemica_. (shrink)

Poprzednie Antologie dotyczyły I Rzeczypospolitej, okresu zaborów oraz myśli politycznej po 1989 r., obecna obejmuje okres dwudziestolecia międzywojennego. Naszą – redaktorów – intencją było zapewnienie czytelnikowi możliwości bezpośredniego obcowania ze źródłem. Każde omówienie zawiera bowiem – nawet niezamierzoną – interpretację. Niezależnie od tego współcześnie możemy dostrzec powrót do części idei powstałych w okresie międzywojennym. Dajemy więc odbiorcy możliwość odpowiedzi na pytanie, czy mamy do czynienia z epigonami, czy z twórczymi kontynuatorami dawnych koncepcji. Wśród tekstów reprezentatywnych znalazły się zatem także te (...) nieznane, a wartościowe, sięgnęliśmy do publicystyki mniej znanych reprezentantów oraz grup marginalnych jak anarchiści czy synarchiści. Zdecydowaliśmy się na przyjęcie układu według nurtów politycznych. Z kolei w obrębie każdego z nurtów zastosowano kryterium chronologiczne. Dzięki temu możliwe było zasygnalizowanie kierunków ewolucji opinii i trendów np. w odniesieniu do instytucji państwa. Zbiór nasz adresujemy do szerokiego grona odbiorców: studentów, pracowników nauki, a także wszystkich osób zainteresowanych ideami politycznymi. (shrink)

This paper offers a systematic classification and characterization of speech acts and their norms. Recently, the normative approach has been applied to various speech acts, most notably to constatives. I start by showing how the work on the norms of assertion has influenced various approaches to the norms of other speech acts. I focus on the fact that various norms of assertion have different extensions, i.e., they denote different clusters of illocutions as belonging to an assertion. I argue that this (...) has consequences for theorising about norms of other speech acts and generates certain arbitrary divisions. In the central part, I analyse two groups of speech acts. Firstly, ordinary speech acts, like predictions or retractions. Secondly, I indicate how the normative view can be extended to so-called ancillary speech acts, like presuppositions or implicatures. I end with a discussion of possible extensions of the normative approach, focusing on the debate on lying. (shrink)

We investigate definable topological dynamics of groups definable in an o‐minimal expansion of the field of reals. Assuming that a definable group G admits a model‐theoretic analogue of Iwasawa decomposition, namely the compact‐torsion‐free decomposition, we give a description of minimal subflows and the Ellis group of its universal definable flow in terms of this decomposition. In particular, the Ellis group of this flow is isomorphic to. This provides a range of counterexamples to a question by Newelski whether the Ellis group (...) is isomorphic to. We further extend the results to universal topological covers of definable groups, interpreted in a two‐sorted structure containing the o‐minimal sort and a sort for an abelian group. (shrink)

The notion of chance plays an important role in some philosophical analyses and interpretations of scientific theories. The most obvious examples of that are the theories of evolution and quantum mechanics. This notion, however seems to be notoriously vague. Its application in such analyses, more often than not refers to its common-sense understanding, which, by definition, cannot be sufficient when it comes to sound philosophical interpretations of scientific achievements. The paper attempts at formulating a ‘typology of chance’. It distinguishes eight (...) different meanings of this notion. Those meanings can be found in classical philosophical accounts of chance, in the common usage of this term, or form logical possibilities of its understanding. Subsequently, the paper points to those forms of the notion in question which may and may not be properly applied to scientific theories and ideas – given usual characteristics of natural sciences. It also shows – by the examples of particular theories mentioned above – which of the distinguished forms of the notion of chance are actually applicable in the context of these theories. (shrink)

The first part of the paper is a metatheoretical consideration of such philosophy of nature which allows for using scientific results in philosophical analyses. An epistemological 'judgment' of those results becomes a preliminary task of this discipline: this involves taking a position in the controversy between realistic and antirealistic accounts of science. It is shown that a philosopher of nature has to be a realist, if his task to build true ontology of reality is to be achieved. At the same (...) time he cannot be a realist ˗ a possibility that science itself is capable of deciding what beings really exist (a typical realistic claim is that scientific notions refer to something external and truly describe its characteristics) has to be denied, if the philosophy of nature is seen as a discipline investigating the natural world, while being epistemologically different from the natural sciences. A possibility of weakening this opposition is explored in the second part of the paper, where the idea of so-called "postulated ontology" of scientific theories is brought to the consideration. This idea appears in the context of a well-known thesis of the underdetermination of scientific theories by empirical data. It is argued in the paper, that the conviction of the existence of some kind of relation between a given theory and ontological ideas can be derived from this thesis, regardless of its particular form. Therefore, certain solutions to classical philosophical questions can be obtained, in principle, by careful inspection of scientific achievements. However, if the thesis of underdetermination holds, such philosophical solutions are not imposed by science itself. In order to arrive at some kind of ontology based on science, it seems necessary to accept certain philosophical presuppositions in the first place. This and the fact that scientific theories change in time show that although such a kind of ontology is possible, and perhaps desirable, it can never be ultimate. (shrink)

This article attempts to investigate the potential resonances between Paul Ricoeur’s and Julia Kristeva’s theories of otherness as applied to the study of poetry by the Northern-Irish poet Sinéad Morrissey. In all of her five poetry books she explores various forms of otherness and attempts to sketch them in verse. She confronts alterity in many ways, approaching such subjects as the relationship with the body and children, encounters with foreigners, and coming to terms with what is foreign within us. This (...) article engages primarily with her experiences of China, which she recorded in the long poem “China” from her third collection, The State of Prisons. Firstly, this article tackles the question of the body, which is interpreted on the basis of Morrissey’s “post-mortem” poems. Their reading prepares the ground for further explorations of otherness, which Morrissey locates at the very heart of human subjectivity. In this way, she also manages to establish a poetic framework for an ethical consideration of otherness. By investigating the working of the human psyche, Morrissey seems to go along the lines of Kristeva and Ricoeur, who claim that otherness is inextricably linked with the formation of human subjectivity. Taking a cue from their philosophical enquiries, the article also attempts to establish where Kristeva’s and Ricoeur’s philosophies overlap. (shrink)