The relations between Russell and three Polish philosophers are considered. Each of them exchanged letters with Russell but their professional interests in philosophy, their meta-philosophical views and their worldviews profoundly varied. Nevertheless, Russell’s wide intellectual horizon enabled him to have fruitful discussions with each of them. Chwistek’s philosophical aim was to improve Russell’s theory of types but he failed to publish his own book in English with Russell’s preface and he never met Russell in person. The English philosopher, however, helped (...) Chwistek in obtaining the post at Lvov University. Lutosławski was unable to develop the professional philosophical discussion with Russell, whom he met at a philosophical congress, but he expressed positive opinion on the chapters on Plato in Russell’s History of Western Philosophy. This opinion was helpful for Russell in his further cooperation with the publishing house. The last of the Poles under discussion was Themerson, rather a writer, artist and a thinker than a philosopher. He met Russell after the WW II in London, while they both lived there. Themerson edited some minor works of Russell, who wrote a preface to Themerson’s novel. Their letters provide evidence that they shared general attitude towards religion, philosophy and the outlook on the world. Key words RUSSEL, CHWISTEK, LUTOSLAWSKI, THEMERSON. (shrink)

W artykule zaprezentowane zostały postaci czterech polskich historyków filozofii greckiej z okresu przełomu XIX i XX w., a także pierwszej połowy wieku XX, którzy podejmowali wyprawy do Grecji i Aten jako do kolebki filozofii. Są to, w kolejności odbytych wypraw: W. Dzieduszycki, W. Lutosławski, T. Sinko oraz W. Witwicki. Każdy z nich wyruszył do Aten na innym etapie swej naukowej kariery, każdy inaczej przeżył osobisty kontakt z ojczyzną filozofii i każdy z nich w innej formie sprawozdawał swoje wrażenia i refleksje (...) czytelnikom. (shrink)

Le lecteur trouvera dans une Introduction substantielle tous les éléments d’érudition et d’interprétation sur lesquels se fonde la représentation générale que se fait l’auteure du Cratyle de Platon. L’authenticité du dialogue attestée par la tradition qui le classifia dans la deuxième tétralogie établie par Dercyllidès-Thrasylle en tête du Théétète, du Sophiste et du Politique, n’est plus mise en doute aujourd’hui, malgré les critiques de C. Schaarschmidt en 1865, écartées par C. Cucuel dès 1886 et plus récemment nuancées par G. Fano (...) qui avance l’hypothèse de certaines reformulations tardives de la terminologie grammaticale dans les sections étymologiques du dialogue. Pour la date de composition du dialogue, Dalimier signale entre les spécialistes un écart de vingt ans, soit de 390 à 370 av. J.-C.. Elle ne prend pas position sur cette chronologie, mais un écart de vingt ans nous semble difficilement tolérable. Nous retiendrions plutôt les dates proposées par W. Lutoslawski en 1896, H. Von Arnim en 1929 et plus récemment par L. Brandwood, soit entre 390 et 386. Le Cratyle se situe très bien à la fin de la période de la jeunesse et avant la composition du Phédon et du Banquet. La date dramatique du dialogue est plus difficile à établir, parce qu’il n’est fait allusion à aucun événement historique qui pourrait servir d’indice à la détermination de cette date. L’auteure retient néanmoins trois passages qui pourraient éventuellement servir de base à la datation dramatique: la présence d’Euthyphron à Athènes, un peu avant le procès de Socrate, la situation judiciaire d’Hermogène qui n’est pas encore libre de disposer de son héritage et dont le père, Hipponicos, serait probablement mort en 423/422, et l’enseignement de Prodicos à Athènes dont Socrate pourrait encore tirer profit et qui nous renverrait aux quinze premières années de la Guerre du Péloponnèse. À partir de ces indices que l’auteure trouve encore «bien minces», la date dramatique du dialogue pourrait être fixée avant 423. (shrink)

Zapoznanie się z nieznanym tekstem filozoficznym zawsze budzi u historyka emocje, wiąże się z poznaniem nowego fragmentu historycznej rzeczywistości, rzuceniem nowego światła na obraz przeszłości, jaki był dotychczas niedostępny. Z pewnością takim tekstem jest Metafizyka W. Lutosławskiego. Warto zadać sobie zatem pytanie, co nowo wydany tekst wnosi do naszej wiedzy o filozofie, jego poglądach, filozoficznej ewolucji, do obrazu filozofii polskiej w XX wieku. Lutosławski, znany jako badacz chronologii Platońskich dialogów, w Polsce był postrzegany przez pryzmat swojej nie zawsze konwencjonalnej działalności (...) pedagogicznej. Był także jednym z ostatnich, którzy z uniwersyteckiej katedry głosili filozofię polskiego mesjanizmu narodowego. Jak wskazuje Metafizyka, Lutosławski pozostał tej filozofii wierny do końca swoich dni, jednak będąc zorientowanym w filozoficznych prądach swojego czasu potrafił filozofię mesjanizmu twórczo przeformułowywać. (shrink)

Let us say that an extended object is “composed wholly of simples” just in case it is an aggregate of absolutely unextended parts spread throughout an extended region—that is, just in case there is a set S such that: every member is a point-sized part of the object, and for every x, x is part of the object if and only if it has a part in common with some member of S. Could a truly extended substance be composed entirely (...) of unextended parts? Reflection upon the fact that it must be at least possible for extended objects to touch one another suggests that the answer to this question is: No. (shrink)

Physical boundaries and the earliest topologists. Topology has a relatively short history; but its 19th century roots are embedded in philosophical problems about the nature of extended substances and their boundaries which go back to Zeno and Aristotle. Although it seems that there have always been philosophers interested in these matters, questions about the boundaries of three-dimensional objects were closest to center stage during the later medieval and modern periods. Are the boundaries of an object actually existing, less-than-three-dimensional parts of (...) the object—that is, are solids bounded by two-dimensional surfaces, surfaces by one-dimensional “edges” or “physical lines”, edges by dimensionless “simples”? If not, how does a perfectly spherical object manage to touch a perfectly flat object—what part of the sphere is in immediate contact with the plane, if the sphere has no unextended parts? But if such parts be admitted, are we not then saddled with “actual infinities” of simples, lines, and surfaces spread throughout each continuous object—the boundaries of all the object’s internal parts? Does it help to say that these internal boundaries exist only “potentially”? (shrink)

Some cognitive processes appear to have “phenomenal” properties that are directly revealed to the subject and not determined by physical properties. I suggest that the source of this appearance is the method by which our brain processes sensory information. The appearance is an illusion. Nonetheless, we are not mistaken when we judge that people sometimes fee lpain.

This book addresses two basic questions: What is the proper philosophical analysis of the concept of substance? and What kinds of compound substances are there? The second question is mainly addressed by asking what relations among objects are necessary and sufficient for their coming to compose a larger whole. The first 72 pages of the book contain a short history of attempts to answer the first question, and a brief presentation of the analysis the authors defend at length in their (...) earlier book, Substance Among Other Categories. In the remaining 119 pages, the authors take up the second question. This order of presentation makes sense; but it may help to create a false impression in those who only glance at the first few pages—that this book is just a simplified version of the earlier one, with a little bit of history thrown in. It would be quite unfortunate, however, if very many potential readers get this impression; for it might discourage them from looking closely at the bulk of the book, which is new. The issues discussed in the later chapters are at the center of one of the most lively debates in contemporary metaphysics; and the position Hoffman and Rosenkrantz stake out is appealing and carefully articulated. Their views deserve careful attention from philosophers working on the metaphysics of persistence through time, personal identity, artifact identity, and mereology. (shrink)

I defend an alternative to the two traditional accounts of the relationship between metacognition and social cognition: metacognition as primary versus social cognition as primary. These accounts have complementary explanatory vices and virtues. They also share a natural assumption: that interpretation in terms of mental states is “spectatorial”, aiming exclusively for an objective description of the mental facts about self and others. I argue that if one rejects this assumption in favor of the view that interpretation in terms of mental (...) states also plays important regulative roles with respect to minds and behavior, a new and superior conception of the relationship between metacognition and social cognition comes into view. On this conception, person-level metacognitive concepts are socio-cognitive tools that shape us into better cognitive agents and more predictable cognitive objects, thereby enhancing our abilities at social coordination. Mastery of these metacognitive concepts relies on subpersonal, non-conceptual, procedural metacognition. This reconceptualization of the relationship between metacognition and social cognition combines the complementary explanatory virtues of the two traditional conceptions, while avoiding their complementary explanatory vices. (shrink)

This is a study that investigated the extent of use of the three principles of ethics – utility, morality, and justice – in managerial ethical decision making, in addition to the personal attitude towards them. It involved undergraduate and graduate business students (total N=163) from the Olayan School of Business in the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. Two kinds of measurements were done: self assessment, and testing with the Saschkin’ s Managerial Value Profile (1997). It showed that morality was the (...) overriding ethical principle used, especially in the graduate group (professionals). Business students still believed in the justice system despite the weakness of the country’s law. Utility was the least used, although males were found to be more utilitarian than females. Finally there was no relation between personal attitudes toward the three ethical principles, and the intentional behavior when faced with ethical dilemmas. The findings were discussed and recommendations were given. (shrink)

Although the same environmental regulations apply to all regions in China, legal enforcement can be different due to local economic development priorities. There is still a lack of knowledge about how regional disparities affect the operating performance results of the implementation of corporate environmental management practices, thus providing little information for foreign companies when they invest and develop their production base in China. To fill this research gap, this paper collects data from the Fortune 500 Chinese firms to investigate the (...) moderating role of regional disparities in affecting the performance results of corporate environmental management efforts based on the institutional theory. The disclosed corporate environmental responsibility practices serve as proxy to represent corporate environmental management practices. Content analysis approach was applied to collect and analyze CER practices published in the corporate reports of Chinese manufacturers. The results show that CER has a positive impact on operating income, while regional disparities influence the relationship between CER and corporate operating income. Specifically, CER and operating income are positively related in Eastern China; on the contrary, they are negatively related in Western China. This paper adds to the body of knowledge about environmental discrepancies in the same emerging economy, and provides insights for systematic consideration in terms of the issues of government environmental regulations and corporate environmental strategies. (shrink)