This paper presents an analysis of learning effectiveness for the courses “Selected issues in visual rehabilitation” and “Ophthalmology and ophthalmic nursing” taught in the years 2009-2011 at the Medical University of Bialystok, Poland. We compared the effectiveness of traditional and distance learning methods; an e-learning platform was implemented experimentally for the purpose of this study. We assessed the usefulness of online learning in terms of organization, knowledge gained and students’ satisfaction with the course. The study was conducted among 75 second (...) year master degree students in the nursing field in the academic years 2009/2010 and 2010/2011. The students were divided into two groups. For the study group of 39 persons, lectures and seminars took place on an e-learning platform, while 36 persons in the control group attended traditional classes. 80% of students in the e-learning group and 89% of students in the traditional group assessed the organization of both forms of courses positively. The fact that the majority of students in both the e-learning and traditional classes gave positive feedback indicates that for both forms there was a high level of content and technical preparedness. The mean scores of the final exam for both courses were 82% in the e-learning group and 79% in the traditional group in the years 2009- 2011. The above results show that both forms of learning are equally effective. (shrink)

A key question has been underexplored in the literature on conscientious objection: if a physician is required to perform ‘medical activities,’ what is a medical activity? This paper explores the question by employing a teleological evaluation of medicine and examining the analogy of military conscripts, commonly cited in the conscientious objection debate. It argues that physicians (and other healthcare professionals) can only be expected to perform and support medical acts – acts directed towards their patients’ health. That is, physicians cannot (...) be forced to provide or support services that are not medical in nature, even if such activities support other socially desirable pursuits. This does not necessarily mean that medical professionals cannot or should not provide non-medical services, but only that they are under no obligation to provide them. (shrink)

In this chapter we take stock of some of the complexities of the sprawling field of AI ethics. We consider questions like "what is the proper scope of AI ethics?" And "who counts as an AI ethicist?" At the same time, we flag several potential uses and abuses of AI ethics. These include challenges for the AI ethicist, including what qualifications they should have; the proper place and extent of futuring and speculation in the field; and the dilemmas concerning how (...) we use our public and academic resources. (shrink)

Wonderful Knowledge. Aquinas on the Immutability and Eternity of God’s Knowledge The general concept of knowledge is a kind of concept closely akin to transcententals: its use is not restricted to a certain kind of being, and it does not itself designate a kind of entity. Such concepts may be applied to God not as metaphors: when we grasp (through the analysis of cases of finite knowledge) some general traits of knowledge as such, we can show that God has knowledge, (...) and his knowledge, as opposed to ours, is infinitely perfect. We have no insight into this realization of knowledge as opposed to ours, but as far as we know what general traits of knowledge are, it is important to know that God has infinitely perfect knowledge. To grasp the general traits of knowledge, I focus on the topic of mutability and immutability of knowledge analyzed systematically by Aquinas, and thus on the topic of identity criteria specific for knowledge in general: the question of when knowledge that p and knowledge that q are (in a certain knower) one and the same knowledge; the criteria of identity of knowledge vary according to natures of knowers. I think that the problem of the criteria of identity of knowledge is rather neglected in omniscience-immutability discussions. I analyze Aquinas’ arguments for the thesis that human knowledge is mutable, and God’s knowledge is absolutely immutable (they concern the role of tense). The analysis sheds light on some general traits of knowledge: it is always something formulated by the knower which manifests some truth to him, and in general the way it is formulated corresponds to (i) the way it manifests some truth, (ii) its identity criteria, (iii) the way it is propositional, (iv) the way it is related to tense, and finally (v) the nature of the knower. Focusing on the criteria of the identity of knowledge shows that God’s knowledge is absolutely immutable, and that time and change in its objects are nevertheless undoubtedly real. Keywords: God’s knowledge, knowledge, criteria of identity of knowledge, immutability; tense; transcendentals; omniscience-immutability arguments. (shrink)

In this paper we study the status of the arithmetical completeness of dynamic logic. We prove that for finitistic proof systems for dynamic logic results beyond arithmetical completeness are very unlikely. The role of the set of natural numbers is carefully analyzed.

In this chapter we identify three potentially morally problematic behaviours that are common among users of dating and hook-up apps (DHAs) and provide arguments as to why they may or may not be considered (a) in a category of their own, distinct from similar behaviours outside of DHAs; (b) caused or facilitated by affordances and business logic of DHAs; (c) as indeed morally wrong. We also consider ways in which morally problematic behaviours can be anticipated, mitigated, or even prevented by (...) analysis of the ethical and moral dimensions of technologies and their afforded uses. Finally, we offer some possible directions for future work on these topics in particular and on the ethical consequences of DHAs in general. (shrink)

In mid-2019, the controversy regarding South African runner Caster Semenya’s eligibility to participate in competitions against other female runners culminated in a Court of Arbitration for Sport judgement. Semenya possessed high endogenous testosterone levels (arguably a performance advantage), secondary to a disorder of sexual development. In this commentary, Aristotelean teleology is used to defend the existence of ‘male’ and ‘female’ as discrete categories. It is argued that once the athlete’s sex is established, they should be allowed to compete in the (...) category of their sex without obligatory medical treatment. Indeed, other athletes who possess advantageous genetic or phenotypic traits that fall outside of the human norm have been allowed to compete as humans without restraint. In both cases, if an athlete possesses the essential attributes of being a human or being male or female they should be permitted to compete in those respective categories; athletes’ eligibilities should not be based upon accidental attributes. (shrink)

Wischik presents an extensive reply to our paper on conscientious objection, which explores the implications of distinguishing ‘medical acts’ from ‘socioclinical acts’. He provides an extensive leg...

Kunstmatige intelligentie (AI) en systemen die met machine learning (ML) werken, kunnen veel onderdelen van het medische besluitvormingsproces ondersteunen of vervangen. Ook zouden ze artsen kunnen helpen bij het omgaan met klinische, morele dilemma’s. AI/ML-beslissingen kunnen zo in de plaats komen van professionele beslissingen. We betogen dat dit belangrijke gevolgen heeft voor de relatie tussen een patiënt en de medische professie als instelling, en dat dit onvermijdelijk zal leiden tot uitholling van het institutionele vertrouwen in de geneeskunde.

The book Chronicle of Separation is an attempt to write on Derrida, to Derrida and from Derrida on the basis of a pathetic experience, which, in various ways, describes and enacts the pathetic experience of deconstruction itself. The book tackles the weight of emotions that is at the heart of deconstructive reading, treating deconstruction's weak, fragile and parasitic mode of thinking as a deconstruction of emotion, on emotion and as emotion. Chronicle of Separation examines these themes beginning with a descriptive (...) and an analytic reading of Derrida's Memoirs: For Paul de Man and The Post Card, as embodiments of deconstruction's melancholic friendship which inscribes its disillusioned love in what it calls the 'postal condition'. The book then moves on to a feminization of Derrida, experimenting in different modes of writing. It firstly discusses Fred Zinneman's film Julia about a mournful friendship between women. Then it performs a deconstructive meditation on the anorexic person suggesting that anorexia constitutes a paradoxical embodiment of deconstruction. The concluding chapter presents a complete incorporation of Derrida into a fictional text that re-writes the biblical Book of Ruth. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to analyse a particularly influential case of memory continuity in Portugal, that of _Padrão dos Descobrimentos_. Spaces of collective memory (such as public monuments) raise questions about what we celebrate, remember or rescue from oblivion, providing an opportunity to rethink the trauma. As such, care for public spaces is associated with ethical and cultural values. One of the difficulties with certain monuments has to do with the fact that they recall actions that today we (...) see as traumatic acts. Thus, it is important to reflect on a critical use of memory. On August 8, 2021, _Padrão dos Descobrimentos_ was the subject of a graffiti. One of the sides of the monument could read: “Blindly sailing for money, humanity is drowning in a scarlet sea”. A great controversy immediately arose around the meaning of this gesture, as well as the role played by a monument that, after being temporarily built in 1940 for the Portuguese World Exhibition, was, in its current version, inaugurated in 1960, on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the death of Infante D. Henrique. This episode reignited a deeper cleavage around the uses of history and memory, the Portuguese colonial past, and the role of the _Padrão dos Descobrimentos_ as an instrument for the reproduction of nationalism. In this sense, and with the authors proposing a new theoretical frame of reference based on the thought of Arendt and Ricoeur, its critical reading becomes relevant. (shrink)

Informed consent, when given by proxy, has limitations: chiefly, it must be made in the interest of the patient. Here we critique the standard approach to parental consent, as present in Canada and the UK. Parents are often asked for consent, but are not given the authority to refuse medically beneficial treatment in many situations. This prompts the question of whether it is possible for someone to consent if they cannot refuse. We present two alternative and philosophically more consistent frameworks (...) for paediatric proxy consent. The first allows meaningful consent (parents may say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to treatment), provided that parents are medically informed/competent and intend the health and well-being of their child. In the second solution, medical practitioners or the state consent for treatment, with parents only being consulted to help give insight to the child’s circumstances. While we contend that either of these two options is superior to the insincerity of the present paradigm, we suggest that the first solution is preferable. (shrink)

This article utilises feminist technoscience studies’ notions of bodily ‘materialisation’ and ‘ontological choreographies’, offering a cyborg feminist account of ‘bioavailability’ as embodied becomings, rather than a fixed ontological state of being. Drawn from 2 years’ ethnographic study in in vitro fertilisation clinics in Spain with migrant women who provided eggs to the cross-border in vitro fertilisation industry, this work explores how global understandings of race and inequalities, clinical practices and women’s own emotional and physical labours collectively produce bioavailability. Through examples (...) from observations and interviews in in vitro fertilisation clinics, we examined women’s embodied stories to understand the ways in which bioavailability becomes. The article demonstrates a novel way in which to think about ‘bioavailability’, a concept which has already been of enormous use to the social sciences since its introduction by Lawrence Cohen. We examine recent configurations of bodily extraction in the reproduction–migration nexus that help us rethink the concept of bioavailability. (shrink)

We present a short account of the early history of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Cracow. These beginnings go back to the inter-war period when the tradition was established of close interactions between philosophers and scientists, especially physicists (Smoluchowski, Natanson). In the post-war period, under the communist regime, this tradition was continued at the Theological Institute (later the Pontifical Academy of Theology) in Cracow, erected by Cardinal Wojtyła, the then archbishop of Cracow, after the Theological Faculty had been removed (...) from the Jagiellonian University by the communists. The collaboration of the Cracow Center with the Catholic University of Lublin and with the Warsaw Academy of Theology is briefly described, and the style of philosophy in Cracow presented. (shrink)

Epistemology, confronted with a rapid development of individual branches of science, has been pressed to establish its own status and position as well as to define its relation with science. The multiple perspectives on this issue can be grouped into two major positions: integrism (postulates a close co-existence between epistemology and science) and separatism (argues in favour of a full independence of science and epistemology).In the paper I analyse the two views and try to prove that the debate between integrism (...) and separatism cannot be resolved, as the two approaches belong to different and incompatible philosophical traditions: analytical and transcendental. In the article these issues are examined, and arguments in favour of the separatist view are offered. It is argued for the clear separation of epistemology from science. (shrink)

This book elaborates a new framework for considering and understanding the relationship between law and memory. How can law influence collective memory? What are the mechanisms law employs to influence social perceptions of the past? And how successful is law in its attempts to rewrite narratives about the past? As the field of memory studies has grown, this book takes a step back from established transitional justice narratives, returning to the core sociological, philosophical and legal theoretical issues that underpin this (...) field. The book then goes on to propose a new approach to the relationship between law and collective memory based on a conception of 'legal institutions of memory'. It then elaborates the functioning of such institutions through a range of examples - taken from Japan, Iraq, Brazil, Portugal, Rwanda and Poland - that move from the work of international tribunals and truth commissions to more explicit memory legislation. The book concludes with a general assessment of the contemporary intersections of law and memory, and their legal institutionalisation. This book will be of interest to scholars with relevant interests in the sociology of law, legal theory and international law, as well as in sociology and politics. (shrink)

Is there a major international crime that the general public has never heard of or even thought about? The answer to this question might be surprising—it is the illicit art trade. The purpose of this article is to analyse the criminal aspect of the global art trade with a special focus on the region of South East Asia. In the first part of the paper, which acts as a backdrop for the rest of the article, the author explains the history (...) and general issues regarding the trade of cultural artefacts, briefly explaining the stages in the illicit antiquities trade, with a special focus on the question of international law regulations, of which he provides a critical overview. The second and third parts of the paper are devoted to a more profound analysis of the antiquities journey from illicit to licit. In the second part of the paper the author provides a case study of the first part of the voyage of Cambodian, Vietnamese and Indian antiquities, i.e. from the source country to the port of first shipment, examining the places and the middlemen they pass on their way. The third part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of legal provisions regulating the art trade in Hong Kong—a global art hub—notably the ‘market overt exception’, which allows buyers in good faith to keep the illicitly obtained cultural objects in spite of any claims made by the previous owners. In the fourth part of the paper the author shows why restitution of looted antiquities is so difficult, analysing a number of successful and unsuccessful attempts. The concluding part of the paper is devoted to the author’s critical overview of the various attempts and suggestions on the curtailing of the illicit international art trade. In the coda the author provides a case study of the journey undertaken by Cambodian antiquities. (shrink)

The paper contains a comment on the criticism of the author's book Początek jest wszędzie (Prószynski i S-ka, 2002) by Marek Lagosz ("Przegląd Filozoficzny - Nowa Seria, 14, 2005, 121-133). The comment focuses on the following issues: (1) the conception of philosophy of physics; (2) some methodological questions, especially the role of models in physics; (3) some explanations concerning the model proposed by the present author and his coworkers. A few "ideological remarks" are also made.

Zaproponowano, by Quine’a kryterium istnienia (teoria zakłada istnienie zmiennych związanych) rozszerzyć na matematyczne struktury. W duchu tego kryterium każdą matematyczną strukturę można uważać za oddzielny świat, w którym istnieją tylko te byty, bez zakładania których struktura straciłaby sens. Niektóre matematyczne światy są używane przez fizyków do modelowania rzeczywistego świata. W takiej sytuacji ontologia danej struktury matematycznej przenosi się na fizyczny świat. Mówiąc bardziej prozaicznie, niektóre matematyczne struktury interpretuje się jako struktury fizycznego świata. Cud rozumienia świata sprowadza się do cudu tej (...) interpretacji. (shrink)

Noncommutative geometry is quickly developing branch of mathematics finding important application in physics, especially in the domain of the search for the fundamental physical theory. It comes as a surprise that noncommutative generalizations of probabilistic measure and dynamics are unified into the same mathematical structure, i.e., noncommutative von Neumann algebra with a distinguished linear form on it. The so-called free probability calculus and the Tomita-Takesaki theorem, on which this unification is based, are briefly presented. It is argued that the unitary (...) evolution, known from quantum mechanics, could be a trace of noncommutativity on a deeper level. Philosophical significance of these results is also discussed. (shrink)

In the previous paper (Filozofia Nauki No 3-4, 1994, pp. 7-17) we have shown how the initial and final singularities in the closed Friedman world model can be analysed in terms of the structured spaces in spite of the fact that these singularities constitute the single point in the b-boundary of space-time. In the present paper we generalize our approach by using methods of noncommutative geometry. We construct a noncommutative algebra in terms of which geometry of space-time with singularities can (...) be developed. This algebra admits a representation in the space of operators on a Hilbert space, and the initial and final singularities in the closed Friedman model are given by its two distinct representations. The striking feature of this approach is its analogy with the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics. (shrink)