Since the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 came into operation, courts have come to attach considerable significance to historian expert testimony when ruling on land claims that made it to court. Therefore, a universal approach had to be adopted. Over the years the Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court have developed tried and tested methodologies to aid the courts in determining the weight and admissibility of a witness' testimony. In the Salem Commonage case, both the Land (...) Claims Court and the majority of the Supreme Court of Appeal deviated from these precedents by adopting arguably a broader interpretation of the Act than intended. The case is unique in the sense that the dispute involves a commonage that was subdivided via a court order in 1940, resulting in the removal of the remaining black African population from that land. The question therefore was whether or not this group of people fulfilled the requirements for a valid claim as set out in the Act. The Land Claims Court and Supreme Court of Appeal felt that it had. The landowners applied for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court. The application was granted, but in his judgment, Edwin Cameron agreed with the rationale of both courts, and held that there was a valid claim. This was despite the fact that the testimony of the claimants' 'star witness', Msile Nondzube, was heavily criticised by the landowners as well as a Supreme Court of Appeal judge. The Constitutional Court emphasised that the Act was an extraordinary piece of legislation and had to be interpreted in such a way so as to address the injustices of the past. This included provisions of the Act which dealt with how oral and expert evidence would be dealt with. (shrink)

This article argues that if contemporary philosophical counseling wishes to perpetuate the spirit of ancient philosophy, it must also incorporate metaphysics. This kind of incorporation means, among other things, regarding as essential the implementation of the meditation practices of certain historical schools of philosophy. Meditation was an inherent feature not only of Eastern schools of thought, but also within Western philosophy. These practices lead to a psychophysical state, known as ataraxia, which causes the perception of reality to undergo a radical (...) change, including occasional “altered states of consciousness,” as they are known by psychology. The author calls such practices “live metaphysics.” He also maintains that, without the inclusion of such metaphysical practices, philosophical counselling and coaching lose their eudemonic character and become a means of hedonistic gratification in the service of the liberated ego of the contemporary man. (shrink)

The article discusses the concept of social economy. In the first part, some essential historical sources of the subject matter are described. The second part deals with the concept of social economy, taking into special consideration its definitional problems, founding values and characteristic principles as well as dilemmas and difficulties connected with its implementation.

The aim of this article is to scrutinise the relationship between the moral attitude of an entrepreneur and their possibility to gain a competitive advantage. This declaration leads to the following question: Whether the everyday practice confirms or denies the economic usefulness ofthe postulate of corporate social responsibility. On the one hand, moral desertion is obviously profitable (also in an economic sense). Partners of the deserter, in most cases, are not able to avoid (unexpected and expansive) the consequences of this (...) new attitude towards them. On the other hand, this strategy – in the long run – is unlikely to be profitable. The former victims adjust to their new circumstances and become ready to face the attack. Therefore corporate social responsibility, in the final calculation, should be taken as the only way to protect an active participant of the market against the temptation to neglect his obligation towards people, who can punish or reward him (as stakeholders or whistleblowers). (shrink)

The interest of the contemporary companies is not only in the fulfillment of social responsibility rules but also in the ways to reliably inform the community about their ‘ethical face’. Such possibility is created by, functioning in economy, systems of awarding certificates, distinctions, prizes etc. (e.g. Przejrzysta Polska, SA 8000, Filary Polskiej Gospodarki, Gender Index, Firma Fair Play etc.). The article characterizes and performs a comparative analysis of the most important initiatives of this kind in Poland.

Formal indication is one of the central concepts of Heidegger’s hermeneutics. Formal means that something is to be fulfilled. Indication indicates the direction of fulfilling. Heidegger developed the so-called by him, „formal indication”, respectively „formally indicative concepts” as a methodological justification of the philosophical terminology. The term „formal indication” aroses in the context of the phenomenology of life, where Heidegger introduces his „hermeneutics of facticity”, which is also referred to as „formally indicative hermeneutics“. This is about something crucial for Heidegger’s (...) thinking. The epistemological and transcendental tradition of viewing finds here a turn into the existential and historical. The indication always remains at the distance of pointing, that is, someone to whom something is shown, must see for himself. Formal indication indicates the direction for seeing. What can be seen, one must learn to say, to say in the own words. The old problem of the concretization and the conceptualization, which runs through German idealism, gets here a new expression. (shrink)

According to the Catholic Social Teaching, tax evasion is ethically reprehensible and people who do it commit sin. The Catholic Church based its opinion first of all on the Holy Scripture (the teaching of Jesus, St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s). Also pope John Paul II, primate of Poland Stefan cardinal Wyszyński and Joseph cardinal Höffner objected to tax frauds. The survey was conducted among the students of the University of Lodz and of the Medical University of Lodz. Its aim was (...) to examine the students’ opinion about tax evasion. The students’ answers were grouped with regard to church attendance in order to trace if there exists a correlation between church attendance and tax morality. Statistical analysis indicated a connection between church attendance and tax morality. The highest tax morality was noticed in the group of regularly practising Catholics, a bit smaller in the non-practising or unbelieving group of people and the least tax morality was noticed among the irregularly practising group of Catholics. According to the students’ opinion, the main reason to pay taxes is for fear of financial sanction. Among other reasons the respondents listed that it is a national duty or that it is necessary to cover national expenditures. It is optimistic, however, that most of the students declared to pay the taxes fairly, if they run their own corporations in the future. (shrink)

Artykuł poświęcony jest koncepcji pacjenta-eksperta i analizie podstawowych charakterystyk Uniwersytetu Pacjentów, istniejącego od roku akademickiego 2009/2010 na Sorbonie w Paryżu. Koncepcja pacjenta-eksperta jest pojęciem, które pojawia się w dyskusjach bioetycznych od lat 70. XX wieku. Mamy tu jednak do czynienia z projektem otwartym, którego ostateczna definicja wykuwa się na naszych oczach. Projekt Uniwersytetu Pacjentów zaproponowany przez filozofkę i pedagożkę Catherine Tourette-Turgis jest szczególnie ciekawym sposobem wykorzystania pojęcia pacjent-ekspert ze względu na swój wielowymiarowy charakter. Z jednej strony mamy rozwiązania podyktowane wymogami (...) praktycznymi, ale mamy też refleksje teoretyczną oraz implikacje polityczne. Francuski Uniwersytet Pacjentów jest zatem instytucją, która pozwala na pokazanie szerokiej skali możliwości zawartych w koncepcji pacjenta-eksperta. (shrink)

Artykuł zawiera szkic ontologicznych podstaw coachingu filozoficznego – nowej dyscypliny praktycznej, która od roku 2016 stanowi składnik oferty edukacyjnej Uniwersytetu Opolskiego. Jest rozwinięciem idei zawartych w moim tekście „Filozofia jako ćwiczenie duchowe – coachingowy model uprawiania filozofii”. W drugim paragrafie przedstawiono ontologię Platona z perspektywy filozofii procesu. Widziana z tej perspektywy ontologia Platona jest rodzajem metafizyki doświadczenia – byt nazywany przez Platona „prawdziwym” nie jest rzeczywistością abstraktów, lecz tym, czego doświadczamy w chwilach, gdy rozpoznajemy znaczenie konkretnych sytuacji życiowych w (...) perspektywie Dobra. Filozofia Platona okazuje się rodzajem filozoficznej logoterapii – praktyki duchowej polegającej na uwalnianiu umysłu przez odwracanie go od pato-logicznych pseudoznaczeń w stronę Sensu. Przyjęcie tej perspektywy oznacza uznanie doświadczenia medytacyjnego za punkt odniesienia refleksji filozoficznej. Oznacza też skierowanie uwagi w stronę doświadczenia wewnętrznego, również w stronę odczuć płynących z ciała jako istotnego składnika tego doświadczenia. Jako konkretny przykład starożytnego coachingu filozoficznego opisano w tekście stoicką praktykę „wytyczania teraźniejszości”. Dla zilustrowania idei współczesnego coachingu filozoficznego opisano ćwiczenie „Moje tu i teraz” – jedno z narzędzi opracowanych na potrzeby indywidualnej praktyki coachingowej. Opiera się ono na założeniach zarysowanej wcześniej ontologii doświadczenia. Tekst kończy opis kompetencji uzyskiwanych przez absolwenta kierunku Coaching filozoficzny. (shrink)

Jednym ze współczesnych sporów światopoglądowych jest konflikt między materialistycznymi ewolucjonistami a zwolennikami projektu w przyrodzie. Co istotne, obie strony sporu twierdzą, że ich stanowiska mieszczą się w obszarze nauk przyrodniczych. Dyskusje toczą się już od ponad stu lat, lecz nie widać szans na ich zakończenie i uzyskanie jakiegoś konsensusu. Źródło takiego stanu rzeczy zdaje się leżeć w tym, że spór ten toczy się w rzeczywistości na płaszczyźnie filozoficznej. W artykule przytaczam argumenty za tym, że zarówno ewolucjonizm materialistyczny, jak i koncepcja (...) inteligentnego projektu nie są teoriami naukowymi. Porównuję także pojęcia ewolucji i kreacji oraz pokazuję, że pojęcie kreacji nie jest pojęciem naukowym. Stwarzanie bowiem jest aktem Stwórcy, który nie jest bytem czasoprzestrzennym. Jego działania zatem nie mogą być badane metodami właściwymi dla nauk przyrodniczych. (shrink)

The aim of the article is the media and political analysis of the political discourse of German Chancellor Angela Merkel regarding refugees, launched by the famous slogan Wir schaffen das! The time study covers the period from 31.08.2015 to 28.02.2017. The author uses the system analysis method and the content analysis method. The research material is the texts published on the “Wirtualna Polska” portal.

The essential for building the society – the category of social capital, becomes a base for educational politics in Poland in new structural conditions after 1989. Author reminding ideological and axiological assumption our oppositional environments from period of socialism, which within the confines of social movement „Solidarity’80” designed educational solutions, that should be introduced in free country. First of all, there was an idea of decentralization the school system and bringing autonomy of school. The most important was the possibility of (...) creating the democratic process of social adaptation for new generation. But surprised our freedom, we forgotten about fundamental principles. In this case actually we have: an agreement for simulative educational changes, substitute ideological centralism for pseudo-democracy, artificial autonomy of school, and manipulating teachers environment by authorities of education departments each and every political party. (shrink)

Czesław Miłosz’s poetry displays two reverberating topics which may be defined as two contradictory existence and world experiences. One of those is admiration for the beauty of the world and awe consequent upon capturing the simultaneous existence of individual entities (Awe), whilst the other is the topic of lack of fulfilment, torment, the feeling of lack of authenticity, blame, and shame (This). Miłosz depicts his “I” (represented by various personae), split between individual consciousness, a strong sense of individuality, distinct from (...) the commune of ordinary people (a strand salient in the pre-war volume Three Winters), as well as nurturing a feeling of strong bonds with the society. The poet’s self-reflection holds for both topics, while the autobiographic discourse is orientated to the questions about the functions of poetic language and about the status and sense of poetry, thereby addressing self-topicality. (shrink)

Fast and intensive development of natural science (especially quantitative physics) and computer science make us think about the philosophy of nature. In this article we would like to show that a new subject of the philosophy of nature is the virtual world. The first step was to analyse some words like the following: virtuality, potentiality, reality. In this context we propose a definition of the virtual world as a real view created or reconstructed by intellectual or technical simulation. The next (...) step was analyzed the objects and levels of virtual world. We emphasise the technical-communicational level and computer technology associated with it (the Internet, chat, blog, virtual shops); the second level is the biological level which is connected with the objects produced by the brain (thinking, imagination, research projects); the third level is the theoretical level with the virtual elements. On the ground of this classification we have shown that the virtual world and the objects are not homogeneous. The last part of this paper presents the beginning of the virtual world (creation or reconstruction in the intellectual and technical simulation). Our analyses are connected with Plato and his idealism, Aristotle and his realism, and Popper’s/Penrose’s proposition. (shrink)

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest wykładnia Jeana-Lu ca Mariona fenomenologii donacji jako swoistej filozoficznej teorii performansu. Inspiracje, kierunek oraz kontekst przedstawionej interpretacji wyznaczają istotne przeobrażenia współczesnej humanistyki, której krajobraz został ukształtowany przez liczne kontrtekstualne zwroty. Artykuł przedstawia główne motywy Marionowskiej fenomenologii donacji, takie jak kontrmetoda, dar, sakrament, objawienie, oddany, wydarzenie, przygodność, fenomen nasycony, świadek itp., doszukując się w nich performatywnych instrukcji. Artykuł kończy się wielowątkową krytyką Mariona fenomenologii donacji, pokazując dlaczego nie zdaje ona egzaminu i musi ustąpić fenomenologicznej zasadzie performancji.