Artykuł dotyczy dość mało popularnych, aksjologicznych teorii choroby. Autor opisuje cztery drogi, które mogą doprowadzić do uznania choroby za moralne zło. Wśród tych dróg, reprezentowanych przez różnych autorów, znajdują się: droga fenomenologiczna, kantowska, psychiatryczna i quasi-historyczna. Po zaprezentowaniu ich głównych cech i inspiracji, artykuł rozważa pewne obiekcje, które można im stawiać oraz stara się wskazać możliwe rozwiązania. W podsumowaniu autor umiejscawia aksjologiczne teorie choroby na ogólnej mapie bioetyki.

Przedmiotem artykułu jest namysł nad kulturą współczesną postrzeganą z perspektywy etycznej, a punktem wyjścia przekonanie o kryzysie kultury europejskiej, którego źródłem miałaby być „śmierć Boga” czy też klęska „projektu oświeceniowego”. Istotą kryzysu kultury jest załamanie się dotychczas obowiązujących systemów wartości, co rodzi szereg dylematów moralnych. Typowy dla kultury współczesnej indywidualizm zaoowocował relatywizmem aksjologicznym, doprowadził do atomizmu społecznego oraz, paradoksalnie, zrodził nowe formy zniewolenia. Inną cechą współczesności jest dominacja rozumu instrumentalnego, który głównym kryterium oceny działań czyni efektywność. Konsekwencją tych przemian dokonujących (...) się w kulturze jest z jednej strony zagubienie etyczne, z drugiej zagrożenie wolności i podmiotowości. Czy istnieje jakieś dobre wyjście z tej sytuacji? Być może lekarstwem na moralne dylematy współczesności byłby powrót do aksjologicznych źródeł. Próbę taką podjął Henryk Elzenberg w swojej etyce perfekcjonistycznej. (shrink)

A comprehensive work that would be focused on the moral dilemmas of the pharmacists has not been published yet. The pharmacist profession is commonly perceived as an occupation associated with such virtues as calmness, precision and accuracy. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the moral dilemmas the pharmacist contends with. One of the reasons lies in the fact that some citizens of our country, especially the younger generation, do not recognise the difference between the profession of pharmacist and (...) the profession of salesperson. On the other hand, as M. Brazier indicates, the majority of scientific works are almost exclusively concentrated on the ethical dilemmas of ‘high drama’ and ‘low incidence’. In that context the work of pharmacist appears to be imbued with the ‘small dramas’ taking place every day. Therefore, it seems to be necessary to point out what duties or conflicts of values the Polish pharmacist faces and to make an attempt to find appropriate ways to solve them. (shrink)

The starting point of these reflections on the personality-creating function of moral examples is a differentiation between two concepts of man: one, which puts stress on the fact that human nature is predetermined and the man’s task is therefore to develop his talents and endowments in order to become a compete man, and the other, which emphasizes the fact that man is himself a specific and uniquely precious value, and thus he should endeavor to learn about himself and how he (...) should realize himself to his own image. In the first instance we have “an ethics of examples”, in the second, “an ethics of authenticity”. In the first case we have a man who creates himself, in the second, a man who is in search for himself. These two conceptions describe different attitudes toward the world and toward oneself. We can reach for their synthesis, however, if we assume that through the search for himself man creates himself, by finding out what his authentic intentions are, man creates himself, and thereby avoids petrification in the established schemes, functioning in social life. Thus he becomes a more valuable individual in his society. (shrink)

The aim of the paper is to investigate into the relations between basic moral categories, namely those of norms, ideals and supererogation. I discuss, firstly, the ways of understanding these categories, secondly, how moral acting can be described using them and thirdly, how they relate within certain moral system. Yet, what is of a special importance is the relation between norms and ideals and their complementary character. For it might be argued that omission of one these categories may lead to (...) posing important limitations on the possibilities of grasping certain moral issue adequately and setting the full range of possible solutions. Hence, I argue that to resign from two-level form of moral analysis may lead to the atrophy of the very idea of ethics itself. (shrink)

In order to characterize the conception of dignity, the author quotes some examples of its derogation. The most drastic is the example of its derogation by the staff of concentration camps. Analysis of such examples leads to a formulation that dignity is manifested by those who know to defend certain values, recognized by themselves, when with the defence of these values the sense of their own value is connected. This is a pure formal characteristic. Its content can vary together with (...) variations of values which are defended. Generally, the observation of Hobbes seems to be justified which permits to associate dignity with the feeling of power and to consider self-degradation as a symptom of weakness. The use of the conception of dignity introduces a new scale of values into morality: it divides behaviour into honourable and degrading, while honour and degradation are not measured by the social effect of a deed. Among the known principles securing the dignity of a man two deserve to be mentioned: the principle of Kant which does not allow to consider a man exclusively as a mean leading to an end and the principle of Marx according to which man should be considered as the highest being. (shrink)

Moral Dilemmas and Deontic Logic In the paper I discuss an argument of deontic logic concerning the problem of the existence of moral dilemmas. First, I draw attention to the philosophical context of this argument and present three proofs which reveal an inconsistency in the nature of moral dilemmas. These proofs, however, are philosophically and logically controversial. Accordingly, I provide an alternative proof, based on the LP-system of deontic logic. The system is described from syntactic and semantic point of view. (...) Assuming only the noncontroversial axiom K and a certain formulation of Elzenberg’s principle, I argue that, from the point of view of the LP-system, there is an inconsistency in the definition of moral dilemmas. (shrink)

The academic community believes that the ulterior end of science is accumulation of knowledge. Other ethical constraints that pertain to the scientist are not different from those which oblige every other man in society to act decently, except for specifically professional norms which bind academics, but these, in point of fact, have their counterparts in any other profession, too. Thus the specific moral commitment of the academic profession worthy of a careful study and discussion is the claim that knowledge should (...) be accumulated as an ulterior end. Moral underpinnings of this position have to be laid bare together with social and moral consequences of the growth of knowledge. (shrink)

The common opinion is that moral principles act in social life like a lubricant which removes, or at least reduces, frictions occurring among men. The author analyses this opinion. For this purpose she takes into consideration successively: the conception of conflict, its kinds, and its function in the social life, as well as cases in which a moral norm can actually mitigate a conflict or even make it impossible. The author agrees with those views which emphasize the positive function of (...) certain conflicts and which demand that it is by moral norms that we should determine which conflicts ought to be removed and which maintained. Another question is whether all ethical rules perform the pacifying function which is generally attributed to them. To this question the author is inclined to give a negative answer. In the first place, there exist two groups of rules which do not act as a lubricant, that is, rules granting to man some rights which are maintained with full determination, even if they lead to collisions, and other rules putting certain demands on people in relation to a personal pattern, rules which are not abandoned, even if they do engender conflicts. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to present tensions that occur in social, cultural, political, and technological spheres as the result of the development of postmodern societies. The changes that have been taking place in those areas involve, along with unquestionable benefits, a type of risk which, without any moral reflection, can cause a serious global crisis in the world. The postmodern times should be understood as the continuation of the modern formation where all typical features of modernism take a (...) more radical form. The postmodern specific style of life is characterized by: uncertainty, unpredictability of future, decline of traditional values and morals. What is more, the present postmodern tendencies in the area of morals can hinder the right course of development for society, economy and ecology. (shrink)

Cynizm bywa interpretowany na wiele sposobów. Interpretacja przedstawiona w artykule głosi, że cynizm jest etyką postawy i w tym sensie jest wyraźną kontynuacją myśli Sokratesa. Interpretacja ta zostaje odniesiona do tych, które głoszą, że cynizm stanowi perspektywę w patrzeniu na życie, propozycję powrotu do natury, bądź spojrzenie sofistyczne. Cynizm należy postrzegać jako w pełni rozwiniętą filozofię moralności, której korzenie sięgają myśli sokratejskiej i która jest blisko powiązana ze stoicyzmem.

The essay deals with moral problems in Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu. The novel has been viewed by many as a survey of the ruling customs, as an outstanding psychological novel, as a study of human characters, and as a story of the decline of aristocracy. The description of facts has been noted in this way, but not the underlying idea. This essay shows Proust not only as an etologist, but also as a moralist. The essay consists of (...) three parts. The first one deals with Proust’s views connected with the theory of knowledge to be found in the novel. Special emphasis is put on the influence both of the atmosphere of his home and that of his time on the formation of Proust’s views, as his point of departure was the positivistic method as well as scientific and naturalistic approach to all events. Further, it should be stressed – and this has escaped many readers for a long time – that having applied his method Proust arrived at general conclusions which have proved to be in a sheer contradiction with this method. No writer of fiction before him has pointed out the importance of subjective factors in cognition better than he did. In defiance of positivism, Proust denies neither the existence of the essence of things nor of qualitative differences. Considerations relating to Proust’s analysis of the phenomenon of remembering and of different kinds of memory show how important they were for fixing his views on the insufficiency and inadequacy of intellectual cognition as well as on discovering its falsifications, simplifications and utilitarian character. Both the world of common experience and common sense and that of science are worlds of delusion. These conceptions show a striking coincidence with those of Bergson. (shrink)

The article attempts to provide a brief account of the ways in which lawyers carry through their arguments concerning some closed moral evaluations or norms and showing how by reference to those norms and evaluations they argue some legal issues as, e.g., the question of the interpretation of legal norms. The author based his reasoning on examples taken from Polish legal literature.

The article is a continuation of a paper published in “Etyka”, vol. 21, Concepts of Man in the Náhuatlan Culture and contains an overview of the fundamental types of education provided by the Aztecs, with special emphasis on moral ideals. The investigation of Indian education not only furthers historical knowledge but also plays a role in the search of the origins of the specific religious, moral and behavioural expression of contemporary Mexico, due to the fact that some elements of the (...) education preceding the Spanish conquest became an integral part of the culture of that country. The analysis to which this article bears a testimony permits the author to say that before the conquest, the Aztecs had an integral educational system, an ideal to be put into practice, adequate institutions, competent teachers, didactic material elaborated by specialists. Skill formation practised at all levels of education, was complemented by moral instruction and intellectual, religious and aesthetic guidance. The norms inculcated through training had been worked out through the ages in the náhuatl tribes and served to protect the principal values of the family and social life. They had the function of elementary moral rules and emerged from the conditions of the perennial culture of Mexican Indians. Aside from setting models of behaviour and values, the norms that the author finds in all forms of education display some differentiation which is a reflection of the multi-layered, complex structure of that culture. It embraced two different lifestyles and two ideals. Beneath the dominant religious and military habits of the Aztecs survived the old morality of the Toltecs, preserved most conspicuously in the traditional norms of family life. It has also been expressed in the poetry of the 16th and early 17th centuries. (shrink)