Teaching ethics in public health programmes is not routine everywhere – at least not in most schools of public health in the European region. Yet empirical evidence shows that schools of public health are more and more interested in the integration of ethics in their curricula, since public health professionals often have to face difficult ethical decisions.

Microbiota-gut-brain research is a fast-growing field of inquiry with important implications for how human brain function and behaviour are understood. Researchers manipulate gut microbes to reveal connections between intestinal microbiota and normal brain functions or pathological states. Many claims are made about causal relationships between gut microbiota and human behaviour. By uncovering these relationships, MGB research aims to offer new explanations of mental health and potential avenues of treatment. So far, limited evaluation has been made of MGB's methods and its (...) core experimental findings, many of which are extensively reiterated in copious reviews of the field. These factors, plus the self-help potential of MGB, have combined to encourage uncritical public uptake of MGB discoveries. Both social and professional media focus on the potential for dietary intervention in mental health, and causal relationships are assumed to be established. Our target article has two main aims. One is to examine critically the core practices and findings of experimental MGB research and to raise questions about them for brain and behavioural scientists who may not be familiar with the field. The other is to challenge the way in which MGB findings are presented. Our positive goal is to suggest how current problems and weaknesses may be addressed, in order for both scientific and public audiences to gain a clearer picture of MGB research and its strengths and limitations. (shrink)

In the twentieth century, due to the development of mechanical reproduction and press, photomontage became a popular means of communication – popular and diverse in its nature and methods of exploitation. It is one of the cultural phenomena related to the change of rhythm of life and a sense of its increased pace, and an impression of fragmentation of reality. This article questions the role of photomontage in such an experience. The said role is complex: sometimes photomontage allows for expression (...) of that experience, and sometimes it is meant to evoke it, in the spirit of modernity; it is both a tool of agitation and critique. In order to answer this question I shall assume the approach of Walter Benjamin, who diagnoses the crisis of experience and the loss of storytelling skills – and describes the potential of photography. This potential is differently approached by artists and scholars who point out contradictory purposes and results of using photomontage. Referring to various works of art shall make it possible to define the tensions characteristic of photomontage. Due to its plasticity and the ambiguity of a photograph, and the potential for contextualization and construction, photomontage can function in a hard to understand, rapidly changing world and address the fragmentation of experience. (shrink)

This book is about beliefs, language, communication and cognition. It deals with the fundamental issue of the interpretation of the speaker's utterance expressing a belief and reporting on beliefs of other people in the form of oratio obliqua. The main aim of the book is to present a new account of the problem of interpreting utterances expressing beliefs and belief reports in terms of an approach called Default Semantics.

The aim of the paper is to explore the interrelation between persuasion tactics and properties of speech acts. We investigate two types of arguments ad: ad hominem and ad baculum. We show that with both of these tactics, the structures that play a key role are not inferential, but rather ethotic, i.e., related to the speaker’s character and trust. We use the concepts of illocutionary force and constitutive conditions related to the character or status of the speaker in order to (...) explain the dynamics of these two techniques. In keeping with the research focus of the Polish School of Argumentation, we examine how the pragmatic and rhetorical aspects of the force of ad hominem and ad baculum arguments exploit trust in the speaker’s status to influence the audience’s cognition. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to provide a model that allows the representation and analysis of circularity in ethotic structures, i.e. in communication structures related to the speaker’s character and in particular, his credibility. The paper studies three types of cycles: in self-referential sentences, embedded testimony and ethotic begging the question. It is shown that standard models allow the reconstruction of the circularities only if those circular utterances are interpreted as ethotic arguments. Their alternative, assertive interpretation requires enriching the (...) existing models with a purely ethotic component related to the credibility of the performer of any (not necessarily argumentative) speech act. (shrink)

Dynamics of perceiving oneself on femininity and masculinity dimensions in diverse contexts The article is about issues related to gender perceived as a result of social context and thus fits in the current, processual gender paradigm. Two studies have been conducted verifying hypotheses about perceiving oneself on the femininity and masculinity dimensions in various types of contexts. Expectations were that generic contexts would make perceiving oneself within the psychological gender dimensions more dynamic. Women were expected to perceive themselves as more (...) feminine and less masculine in contexts matching their gender, i.e. "feminine", comparing to "masculine", and men were expected to perceive themselves as more masculine and less feminine in "masculine" contexts comparing to "feminine" contexts. Research results do not confirm the above hypotheses and indicate dynamism in perceiving oneself on femininity and masculinity dimensions. However, the dynamism is perceived only on dimensions inconsistent with biological gender - situation affects women's perceiving of themselves on the masculinity dimension and men's - on femininity dimensions. (shrink)

In this paper the authors address the issue of investments made by family businesses. Their study attempted to verify the level of investments made by Polish family businesses in comparison with the level of investments made by Polish non-family businesses. The study focused on the analysis of investment flows of Polish listed companies included in the WIG index for the years 2006-2018. A total of 233 companies were analyzed, including 177 non-family businesses and 56 family businesses. The results corroborated the (...) argument that Polish listed non-family businesses invest much more money than family businesses. It was also observed that only a small percentage of companies in both groups invest their finances in research and development. (shrink)

Na podstawie prześledzenia genezy Dzieci nędzy (1913) i historii komponowania tekstu dokonano ciekawych ustaleń z zakresu działań twórczych najgłośniejszego autora Młodej Polski – Stanisława Przybyszewskiego. Badania ujawniły m.in. niechęć pisarza do (czy może: nieumiejętność) radykalnej modyfikacji raz dokonanych zapisów tekstowych i wzrost literackiej efektywności z dala od wielkich miast. Kolacjonowanie przekazów powieści oraz lektura dokumentów osobistych pozwoliły stwierdzić, że znaczący wpływ na ostateczny kształt Dzieci nędzy miały powikłania osobiste i przykre okoliczności życiowe, które znacząco determinowały (czy raczej: destruowały) proces pisarski (...) Przybyszewskiego, oraz ingerencja domagającego się uzupełnień wydawcy, któremu pisarz skwapliwie przyznał rację, dopisując kilka rozdziałów. Te sumiennie dokonane poprawki świadczą o tym, jak ważne były dla pisarza uwagi redakcyjne w udoskonalaniu tekstu. Najważniejsze odkrycie, do jakiego prowadzą badania tekstologiczne, dotyczy jednak autorskiej rezygnacji z zamierzonego pierwotnie poematu prozą i przetransponowania jego idei w formę powieściową. Ta decyzja – będąca rodzajem kapitulacji w zmaganiach z tworzywem – świadczyła de facto o nowatorskim myśleniu Przybyszewskiego o powieści i sprawiła, że Dzieci nędzy to niezwykle ciekawy artystycznie, nowoczesny zapis stanów psychicznych. Od strony rozwiązań konstrukcyjno-narracyjnych to niewątpliwie jedna z najciekawszych powieści Przybyszewskiego. (shrink)

The dynamics of changes in science inevitably, but also increasingly urgently begins to include ethical reflection. These issues include such problems as: the gap between the prestige of scientific and didactic activity, building scientific achievements solely through the prism of their carrying capacity, or the lack of influence of science on social and cultural life. The dominant role in shaping teaching standards is played by such phenomena as parameterization, indexing, coefficients or accreditation, while the normative space of scientific activity is (...) no longer subject to such obvious standardization. The educational and cultural role of the people of science devalues towards entrepreneurship and effectiveness. Based on Henryk Elzenberg’s views on the excess of the importance of science to the detriment of evaluative thinking, it can be noted that contemporary academic expertise does not seem to pursue any axiological connotations, which in the long run is a highly disturbing advantage for culture. (shrink)

This paper presents the results of the semiotic analysis in which the story of Krystian Bala, a Polish author who was convicted of murder, is studied in detail. The presented case study focuses on the interactions between real and fictional worlds, in particular, on the possibility of amalgamation of a real author’s and a fictional storyteller’s roles. Furthermore, the double-dimensional analysis of reality and fiction is complemented and broadened by an in-depth examination of how this story has inspired other authors. (...) By discussing real events and texts of culture based on them, this paper aims at presenting the process in which the writer who had turned to be the murderer became the protagonist of artistic creations of others, and, in consequence, a part of a broader socio-cultural phenomenon. (shrink)

This paper aims to investigate the differences between the concepts of libel and slander as understood by the Polish statutory and English common law. As it turns out, the above terms are not only divergent with regard to language but also with regard to corresponding acts in the real world. Western cultures cherish such values as dignity, honour and self-fulfillment as the underlying rights of a citizen in democratic countries. The above terms are being constantly referred to in international treaties (...) and conventions but the question which should be asked is whether they receive due attention in legal practice. As regards interpretation, not only in theory, but also in practice the important issue is not how the defamatory statement makes the person referred to feel, but the impression it is likely to make on those reading it. The subsequent analysis of particular cases in the practical part supports the above claim. Although it is reiterated by the Polish legal academics that civil regulations are not sufficient to guarantee legal protection of dignity, there is an equal or even greater amount of supporters of the broadly conceived “freedom of speech”. The discussion might be summarized as involving the proponents of liberal and democratic policies on the one hand, and those who wish to avoid complete decriminalization of libel and slander and deem them necessary components of balance in a democratic state. (shrink)

In the paper, we address the question of the relation between language and culture from a Cognitive Linguistic perspective. While accounting for the role of language as an aid to cultural transmission in maintaining the community’s conceptual order, we address the question of whether the concept of a linguistic worldview aptly captures the interplay between language and culture. We suggest that, due to cumulative cultural evolution spurred by the incessant development of human knowledge, layers of conceptualisations accumulate over time. It (...) is proposed that this palimpsest of conceptualisations results from human interaction that transcends the constraints of the present moment, encompassing the past and present, as well as delineating possible developments of the community’s future conceptual order. (shrink)

Mainly in the 1960s, intellectual life in Poland formed a barrier of resistance against communism. Already before the political upheaval in the year 1989, the works of Western philosophers were read and received in select circles of Polish intellectuals. Neither was Hannah Arendt an unknown person. Despite problems with censorship, three of her books were published in 1988. After the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989 Hannah Arendt's works ceased being something forbidden and mysterious. In this paper, Hannah Arendt's (...) literary reception in Poland before and after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc will be analyzed and evaluated. Afterwards the question will be discussed, how much influence Hannah Arendt's ideas had on the consolidation of democracy in Poland. (edited). (shrink)

Liberal democracy is often considered to be unstable, consisting of two markedly different ideals that remain in tension. Yet the thesis regarding the alleged insta...

Building on our diverse research traditions in the study of reasoning, language and communication, the Polish School of Argumentation integrates various disciplines and institutions across Poland in which scholars are dedicated to understanding the phenomenon of the force of argument. Our primary goal is to craft a methodological programme and establish organisational infrastructure: this is the first key step in facilitating and fostering our research movement, which joins people with a common research focus, complementary skills and an enthusiasm to work (...) together. This statement—the Manifesto—lays the foundations for the research programme of the Polish School of Argumentation. (shrink)

This paper considers the problem of a narrative philosophy according to F. W. J. Schelling and narrative logic according to Franklin Ankersmit. Referring to these examples, I ask whether there is any philosophy to narrative at all. First, I discuss Schelling’s views from his unfinished work “The Ages of the World,” as well as his later dialectics of mythology of revelation from the system of the ages of the world. I focus on a dialectics of figurative and speculative order, which (...) is at the core of Schelling’s project to tell philosophy in the form of poetry and demonstrate the origins of Schelling’s narrative philosophy in his early, transcendental thought. Next, I juxtapose my findings with Ankersmit’s analysis of historians’ language. I also consider whether, and how, some of these ideas can be applied in contemporary narrative research. (shrink)

Personality Dimensions and Nicotine Dependence and Withdrawal Symptoms: the Mediating Role of Self-Directness We analyzed the relationship between personality traits and smoking status and nicotine withdrawal symptoms using two comprehensive models of personality: the Five-Factor Model and the Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. In total 295 people were examined, 149 smokers and 146 who have never smoked. To measure the severity of the nicotine dependence we used the Fagerstroem Tolerance Questionnaire and the DSM-IV criteria of nicotine dependence and to measure (...) the nicotine withdrawal symptoms the Nicotine Dependence History. The results showed significant differences between the groups in particular dimensions: Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The analyse of the TCI demonstrate, that smokers are higher in Novelty Seeking and lower in Reward Dependence than never smokers and show less Self-Directness and Cooperativeness. The mediation analyses showed that Self-Directness is the significant mediator between Extra-Introversion and nicotine withdrawal symptoms measured by NDHIS and between Neuroticism and DSM-IV criteria of nicotine dependence. (shrink)

The author presents a uniform formulation of the Paradox of an Unexpected Ex-amination and classifies proposed solutions of the antinomy. The analysis of the so-lutions and counterarguments found in the literature of the problem allows to point possible further developments and criticism.

Expressivists distinguish between two languages: the descriptive and the normative. The moral sentences belonging to the latter do not state facts, therefore have no truth conditions and only express moral approval or disapproval towards the evaluated object. This proposition faced the charge that it is possible to find unasserted semantic contexts in which moral sentences appear to be true (Frege-Geach objection). The paper shows how Blackburn (1988) dealt with this problem. We go on to argue that in order to accept (...) Blackburn's solution one needs to have a clear concept of what it is 'to express'. We show which conditions this relation has to fulfill so as to make the theory of expressivism coherent. Using as examples two popular notions of expression relation - expression as a symptom (Husserl, Ajdukiewicz, Ossow­ska) and expression as a causal relation (Ayer) - we demonstrate that neither of these notions is adequate for the expressivists' purposes, which leads to the conclusion that expression relation remains mysterious and there is a serious gap in the theory. (shrink)

Focusing on the analysis of Athens' relations with both Greeks and non-Greeks as recorded in extant fourth-century decrees, this paper challenges the applicability of the notion of Greek/barbarian antithesis to the interpretation of formal diplomatic exchanges between Athens and the non-Greek states. A comparison of the types of decrees and honors reveals a remarkable uniformity in the forms of Athens' foreign relations irrespective of the ethnicity of honorands. The distribution of honors among individuals and groups of recipients within single decrees (...) further demonstrates that the Athenian honorific system typically elevated individuals over communities they represented, suggesting that political differences between Athens and non-Greek states did not adversely influence the methods of exchanges between them. Apart from the provisions contained in the decrees, this paper also considers their function within the city as monuments that attest to the important place of philobarbaric discourse and practice in fourth-century Athens. (shrink)