W artykule analizuję znaczenia, jakie można przypisać pojęciu i doświadczeniu obcości.Najpierw przypominam dwa opisy fenomenologiczne tego doświadczenia, z których wynika, iż już na tym abstrakcyjnym poziomiedoświadczenie obcości ma sens ambiwalentny: obcy może być doświadczany jako zagrożeniedla mojej podmiotowości, ale również jako wezwanie do jej pogłębienia. Następnie przyglądamsię bardziej empirycznym sposobom doświadczania obcości w świecie społeczno-politycznym,stawiając tezę, iż kryje się za nimi polityczna konstrukcjaobcości. Wreszcie pytam o moralny sens doświadczenia obcości, konkludując, że również natym poziomie jest to sens ambiwalentny: chociaż słuchanie (...) obcego można uznać za obowiązekmoralny, to moralnie dopuszczalne, a czasem konieczne jest również traktowanie go jakowroga w imię uniwersalnych wartości. (shrink)

By defining consciousness as nothingness or simply as “nothing,” Sartre plays with several meanings of these terms: negativity and negation, distance, indetermination, irreducibility. The nothingness of consciousness takes on an ontological meaning: it is a “tearing away” from being-in-itself, a transcendence understood as the capacity to transcend what is, while retaining an epistemological meaning: it is what cannot be positively determined as “something” or as a property of being. Still, on the epistemological level as well as on the ontological level, (...) it is indeed from “something,” from physical and social being, that the nothingness of consciousness draws its existence and its capacities. In my article, I examine different meanings that can be given to the “nothing” of consciousness in the light of the thought of Sartre himself, emphasizing the difference between two major meanings of negation: as opposition and as indetermination. Then I confront Sartre’s concept of consciousness with more recent considerations of different inspiration, notably from researchers like Chalmers, Damasio, Gallagher, and Zahavi. My thesis is that the Sartrean concept, semi-transcendental and semi-naturalist, does admit the search for a naturalist explanation of consciousness, but assigns its limit precisely through the concept of nothingness. En définissant la conscience comme néant, néantisation, ou simplement comme un « rien », Sartre joue avec plusieurs acceptions de ces termes : négativité et négation, distance, indētefmination, irréductibilité... Le néant de la conscience prend un sens ontologique : c’est un « arrachement » à l’être-en-soi, une transcendance entendue comme capacité de transcender ce qui est, tout en gardant un sens épistémologique : c’est ce qui ne peut pas être déterminé de manière positive comme « quelque chose » ou comme une propriété d’être. D’autre part, sur le plan épistémologique comme sur le plan ontologique, c’est bien de « quelque chore », de l’être physique et social, que le néant de la conscience tire son existence et ses capacités. Dans mon article, j’examine différents sens qu’on peut donner au « rien » de la conscience à la lumière de la pensée de Sartre lui-même, en mettant l’accent sur la différence entre deux sens majeurs de la négation : comme opposition et comme indétermination. Ensuite je confronte le concept sartrien de la conscience avec les considérations plus récentes et d’inspiration différente, notamment chez les chercheurs comme Chalmers, Damasio, Gallagher et Zahavi. Ma thèse est que le concept sartrien, semi-transcendantal et semi-naturaliste, admet bien la recherche d’une explication naturaliste de la conscience, mais lui assigne la limite précisément par le concept du néant. (shrink)

The article discusses research conducted in a valuable biocoenosis in the Gnieźnieńskie Lakeland in central Poland. Protected within the Natura 2000 network, the area is simultaneously affected by climate change and anthropogenic pressures. The article suggests reconsidering the conservation site as engineered by the underwater stonewort meadows, rather than understanding it as an object managed by external experts. It is argued that a broader recognition of how the site is co-created and sustained through ecological processes, rather than solely through human (...) investments, fosters a sense of belonging and responsibility towards the environments that people share with others. (shrink)

<I>Dialectics beyond Dialectics is a study of contemporary French philosophy from Bataille to Derrida. It analyses, on the first level of generalization, the decomposition of Hegelianism understood as <I>philosophy of totality. Many French philosophers of the 20<SUP>th century deconstruct Hegelian dialectics and harshly criticize the very idea of totality as either dangerous or impossible. The thesis of the book is that, on doing so, they do not really break with dialectics, but transform it. On the second level of generalization, the (...) issue of the book is modernity and the thesis is that transformations of dialectics reveal transformations of modern consciousness which - despite hasty declarations on the <I>end of modernity - still remains ours. (shrink)

The main idea of the article is that in our „postmodern” world ideologies are not at all dead but adopt new forms which I call both cynical (in Slotedijk’s sense of the term) and naïve. I start with reflecting on the very meaning of the term “ideology” and propose to adopt its broad and “dialectical” sense, embracing ideology as false knowledge and as false consciousness, but emphasizing its connection with power. After recalling some theories of the “end of ideology”, from (...) Aron to Lyotard, through Polish thinkers such as Leszek Kołakowski, all based on a rather narrow sense of ideology. I argue that ideologies understood as a complex interconnection of desire and power have regained a crucial role, after the fall of the communist utopia, in the context of consumerist and technological capitalism and its conservative opponents. (shrink)

Les auteurs contribuant à ce recueil réfléchissent sur notre condition postmoderne, non pas tant sur les sens différents qu'a pris le terme du postmoderne que sur l'heure qu'il est. La réflexion se déroule dans l'horizon de la pensée des classiques du postmodernisme et dans l'horizon des questions qui y sont, explicitement ou implicitement, posées.

This article sets out to propose some characteristic features of the intellectual and ethical attitudes which, in the popular belief and scholarly communities alike, stand for ideals worthy of promoting as ones which could underpin a modern society where both believers and unbelievers can feel at home. The “ethos” is construed to be about the sort of behaviour logically stemming from a tolerant outlook on the one hand, and an intellectual commitment to a noble cause worthy of one’s efforts, on (...) the other. (shrink)

The author juxtaposes two extreme approaches to the relationship between consciousness and the physical world: phenomenological-idealistic (represented by Edmund Husserl) and radically naturalistic (represented by Paul Churchland). These two positions are interpreted in terms of opposite if symmetrical types of reduction (on the one hand, the reduction of the world to a sense for consciousness, and on the other hand, the reduction of consciousness to an element of the physical world). They emerge as two ways of abstracting from the ambivalence (...) of ordinary experience, in which consciousness and the physical world are both mutually entangled and non-identical with each other. In conclusion, the author argues that contemporary philosophy, which follows both the idealistic and the naturalistic path, fails to solve the problem of this relationship. (shrink)

Despite changeability of the world, the human mind also ponders on those quantities that remain constant over time. This was the case in ancient times, in the middle ages, and the same applies in modern physics. This paper discusses i.a. Zenon paradoxes, the principle of inertia, and the Emma Noether theorem, ending with the modern, so-called Zeno’s quantum effect. The foot-notes concern the ancient “Achilles” paradox, spot speed, as well as some of the facts taken out of the life-history of (...) Emma Noether, as well as the example of applying her theorem. (shrink)

In this paper the author evaluates the situation of women in contemporary Polish society. Using statistical data and information from different disciplines, evidence is given that the situation of women today, in Poland, is worse than before 1989. Although, in general, women are better educated than men, adapt better to modern life, and have access to a growing variety of professional careers, the traditional image of women and of family life persists. Women still endure the double burden of professional work (...) and care for the household. They earn less and are more easily affected by unemployment and weak social assistance. They are also more affected by the dysfunctional aspects and low quality of public medical health care and face more risks due to weak access to medical services and high additional costs. This picture contrasts strongly with the situation of women in Western European countries, enjoying more personal autonomy, democratic freedom, social and economic security, financial independence, and access to the consumer market. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was a diagnosis of the attitudes of students of Warsaw universities towards people with disabilities and the variables which impacted on these attitudes. Additionally, we examined the relationship between the need for social approval and explicit attitudes towards people with disabilities. The study focused on two components of attitudes: behavioural and cognitive. 318 students completed a survey including a demographic sheet, a social desirability scale, the SDSB and SDSO. The results indicate that students expressed positive (...) attitudes towards people with disabilities. The impact of such variables as gender, the type of disability and the need for social approval was registered and were differentiated in regard to components of attitudes. The results are discussed with reference to earlier research and cues for further studies are suggested. (shrink)