Summary. Religious differences may rise and actually historically rose tensions and even wars. In the history, Christians also caused wars and were a threat to social integration and peace, despite the fact that Christianity is a religion of peace. God in Christians’ vision is a God of peace, and the birth of Son of God was to give peace «among men in whom he is well pleased». Although Christians themselves caused wars, died in them, were murdered and had to fight, (...) the social doctrine of Christianity is focused on peace. Also the social thought of the Roman Catholic Church strives to build peace. Over the years, the social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church was formed, which sees the conditions and foundations for peace. These are: the dignity of the human person, the natural law, human rights, common good, truth, freedom, love and social justice. The development of the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on peace was contributed by popes of XX century: Pius XI, Pius XII, with high impact – John XXIII, Paul VI, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. After Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation, the most important role of the preceptor in the Church of Rome fulfills Francis – the pope from Argentina. Although his pontificate is not long, and teaching is not complete, but you can tell that he continues to build the social doctrine of the Roman Church in matters of peace through the development of so-called «culture of encounter». Based on selected speeches and letters of two years’ pontificate of Francis, the first figure of «culture of encounter» can be lined out as a way of preventing and resolving tensions in the contemporary world. Fundamentals of the concept of dialogue Francis created in the days of being a Jesuit priest and professor at Jesuit universities. He based it on the concept of Romano Guardini’s dialogue. Foundations of the look at the dialogue – in terms of Jorge Mario Bergoglio are strictly theological: God enters into dialogue with man, what enables man to «leaving himself» and enter into dialogue with others. Bergoglio dealt with various aspects of the dialogue: the Church and the world, culture and faith, dialogue between religions and cultures, dialogue inter-social and inter-national, dialogue rising solidarity and co-creating the common good. According to him the dialogue is a continuous task, not a single event; is overcoming widespread «culture of effacement» and «culture of fight» towards a «culture of encounter»; it releases from autism, isolation, gives strength and meaning of life, renews the ability to listen, lets looking at community in the perspective of the whole and not just selected units. As Bishop of Rome Jorge Mario Bergoglio continues and develops his idea of «a culture of dialogue and encounter». In promoting dialogue, he sees his own mission and permanent commitment imposed on him. He promotes the atmosphere – a kind of «music» – of dialogue, by basing it on emotions, respect, intuition, lack of threat and on trust. The dialogue in this sense sees a partner in each person, values the exchange always positively, and as a result it leads to making life ethical, bringing back respect for life and rights of every human being, granting the world a more human face. «Culture of encounter» has the power of social integration: it removes marginalization, the man is the goal not the means of actions, it does not allow a man to be reduced to a mere object, tools for profit or authority, but includes him into a community that is created by people and for their benefit. Society integrated in this way, constantly following «culture of encounter» rule, renews itself all the time and continually builds peace. All people are called to such building: believers and those who do not believe, all of good will. Also, the heads of state have in this effort of breaking the spiral of violence and a «culture of conflict» – both in economic and political dimension – big task and responsibility. Pope Francis reminded about this in a special letter to president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on September 14, 2014 year. In the letter he wrote: «it is clear that, for the world’s peoples, armed conflicts are always a deliberate negation of international harmony, and create profound divisions and deep wounds which require many years to heal. Wars are a concrete refusal to pursue the great economic and social goals that the international community has set itself, as seen, for example, in the Millennium Development Goals. Unfortunately, the many armed conflicts which continue to afflict the world today present us daily with dramatic images of misery, hunger, illness and death. Without peace, there can be no form of economic development. Violence never begets peace, the necessary condition for development». On thebasis of the current teaching of PopeFrancisthe following conclusion can be drawn, thatthe key topeace in the worldin many dimensions- evenbetweenreligions–isadialoguedeveloped under «cultureof encounter». (shrink)

Morality is an indispensable element of social life. Norms and values - socially embedded and determining the foundations of a culture – decide of individual and massive behaviors. Despite the cultural changes and the discourse around the ways of conceiving the ethics and morality, despite relativization of certain values and norms and consolidation of other, culturally new, morality is an integral building block of society. It is considered both as an essential component of political, economic and social life, as well (...) as permanent element of solving social conflicts in public life and in the international field. (shrink)

The article reviews the book The Problem of Evil, by Peter van Inwagen.

In the framework of Stewart Shapiro, computations are performed directly on strings of symbols (numerals) whose abstract numerical interpretation is determined by a notation. Shapiro showed that a total unary function (unary relation) on natural numbers is computable in every injective notation if and only if it is almost constant or almost identity function (finite or co-finite set). We obtain a syntactic generalization of this theorem, in terms of quantifier-free definability, for functions and relations relatively intrinsically computable on certain types (...) of equivalence structures. We also characterize the class of relations and partial functions of arbitrary finite arities which are computable in every notation (be it injective or not). We consider the same question for notations in which certain equivalence relations are assumed to be computable. Finally, we discuss connections with a theorem by Ash, Knight, Manasse and Slaman which allow us to deduce some (but not all) of our results, based on quantifier elimination. (shrink)

Przedmiotem artykułu są teorie pierwszych ontologów greckich: Ksenofanesa, Parmenidesa i Melissosa na temat bytu, jego jedności i tożsamości, z uwzględnieniem niektórych poglądów Zenona. Naczelnym problemem artykułu jest pytanie o naturę relacji bytu względem świata u filozofów eleackich. Celem jest opis sposobu rozumienia tego powiązania, zaproponowanego przez każdego z nich. W rezultacie analiz porównawczych, opierając się na badaniu zachowanych fragmentów tekstów starożytnych, okazało się, że Ksenofanes jest autorem koncepcji Jedno-Boga tożsamego ze światem, zaś Parmenides sformułował oryginalną teorię bytu transcendującego świat cielesny, (...) ale stanowiącego jego rację tożsamości jako całości. Przedstawiona w artykule interpretacja poglądów Parmenidesa stanowi ujęcie odmienne od powszechnie przyjmowanego. Melissos natomiast wykorzystując Parmenidejski sposób rozumienia bytu jako czegoś jednego umieszcza go w świecie. Zbliża to poglądy Melissosa do poglądów Ksenofanesa. Każda z tych teorii nastręcza jednak wielu problemów interpretacyjnych, wynikających przede wszystkim z niewielkiej ilości tekstów źródłowych. ------------------------- Zgłoszono: 06/11/2022. Zrecenzowano: 13/12/2022. Zaakceptowano do publikacji: 20/12/2022. (shrink)

Die Kritische Sozialtheorie sowie die kommunistische Herrschaftsphilosophie haben in der posthegelianischen Befreiungslehre ihren Ursprung. Die Kritische Theorie versuchte diesen Denkansatz gegen seine totalitären Konsequenzen anzuwenden. Dieselben Weltdeutungschemata, die man an der Sowjetideologie anstößig fand, galten aber als akzeptabel, sobald man nur zur Kritik der westlichen Industriegesellschaft überging. Der Hauptpunkt der neomarxistischen Kritik des Sowjetsystems bestand darin, daß man die besondere institutionelle Form, in der der reale Sozialismus das Heil zu verwirklichen beanspruchte, in Frage stellte, ohne andere Lösungen der institutionellen Probleme (...) anzubieten oder das zugrundeliegende Denkprogramm aufzugeben, in dessen Kontext diese Probleme durchaus legitim gestellt werden konnten. Die relativen Leistungen der Kritischen Theorie sind in ihren sozial-politischen Folgen zu suchen, u. zw. darin, daß sie zwei Grundlagen der totalitären Ideologie, von der die Legitimierung des Gesellschaftssystems herrühte, erschütterte: (1) Verfügung über die Tradition; (2) Verfügung über die Sprache, in der über heilsrelevante Fragen gesprochen wurde. /// Both critical theory and communist philosophy arise from the posthegelian theory of salvation. Critical theory undertook the effort to preserve the hard core of this theoretical background and at the same time to criticize by its means the totalitarian consequences the communist ideology had derived from it. In effect, the very same patterns of thought which critical theory believed to denounce as instruments of totalitarian manipulation were accepted as soon as they proved useful to contest advanced industrial society and its world view. The crucial point of the new-leftist criticism of the Stalinist ideology was the rejection of a central claim of the latter according to which the salvation predicted in the leftist-revolutionary tradition has found its actual fulfilment in the institutional framework of the Soviet state. Challenging this claim, the Neomarxists neither abandoned this tradition nor offered another solution to the institutional problems which result from it. The relative achievements of critical theory lie in the damage it has caused to the two foundations of the totalitarian ideology, i.e.: (1) its authority over tradition and (2) its authority over language. (shrink)

Książka ta ma dwa, bliźniacze, tematy: ekspresję i doświadczenie. Ma także dwoje bohaterów: nasłuchujący podmiot i improwizację. Tym, co spaja przedstawioną tu refleksję, jest audioantropologiczna perspektywa, pozwalająca odsłonić kulturowe kryteria słuchania i improwizowania. A jednak z wielu zgromadzonych tu opowieści wyłania się obraz kultury, w której „nikt nie słucha” i „nikt nie improwizuje” – a może, poprawniej, „nikt słucha” i „nikt improwizuje”. Czy jest bowiem „kimś” podmiot słuchania – wystawiany nieustannie na pokusę fantazjowania i, ostatecznie, wydany na pastwę fantazmatów? Czy (...) jest „kimś” podmiot improwizujący, który czyni wiele, by stać się samoorganizującym się procesem improwizowania? (shrink)

Two for the seesaw: requester and requested Research on emotion conducted so far has usually ignored situations where the person experiences a certain emotion, but where the external stimulus that evoked and upholds this emotion suddenly disappears. This kind of situation, however, is relatively common in everyday life. This article attempts to recognize certain consequences of those conditions under which the stimuli justifying our experience of such emotional states as fear or anxiety suddenly disappear. Research done to data by the (...) author and his colleagues indicates increased compliance of the subject when addressed with various requests, commands or suggestion in the situation termed here "emotional see-saw" or "fear-then-relief". (shrink)

This contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium “Fuzzy Studies” considers how the ultramodernist aesthetics of Central Europe has related to and reacted against the region's political history and cartography. Central Europe has been a rich source of “soluble” realities that can be observed as they emerge, mature, and rapidly decay. Central European modernism, represented here by Adolf Loos in architecture and by Arnold Schoenberg and Leoš Janáček in music, experimented with blurry regions between presence and absence, light and shadow, sound (...) and silence. Loos disrupted the logic of architecture, while Schoenberg and Janáček nearly dissolved the acoustic paradigm of sound. This essay argues that the curious positioning of Central Europe, with its frequently changing borders and national entities, conduced both to positive experiments in cultural vagueness and to a corrosive reaction against existing and potential identities, parameters, distinctions, foci, and logics. (shrink)

Jednym z głównych wyzwań stojących przed filozofami przyrody XVII wieku było znalezienie odpowiedzi na pytanie, co sprawia, że materia w ogóle działa? Dziedzictwo ‘materii pierwszej’ i jej czystej potencjalności było wciąż żywe, a przyjęcie teorii korpuskularnej czy atomistycznej niewiele tu zmieniało, dominowało wciąż przekonanie o całkowitej bierności ciał. Ich działanie domagało się jakiegoś wyjaśnienia, które stanowiłoby odpowiednik arystotelesowskiej, niematerialnej i aktywnej, formy. Wydaje się, że jedną z tradycji filozoficznych, do których sięgano w poszukiwaniu takiego wyjaśnienia, była emanacyjna metafizyka Plotyna. W (...) systemach XVII-wiecznych ulegała ona różnorodnym modyfikacjom, ale jej główna idea, wskazująca na aktywną rolę pewnych ‘zasad’, czy ‘duchów’ odpowiedzialnych za inicjowanie wszelkich zmian w materii i kierowanie nimi zgodnie z zamysłem Stwórcy, pozostawała fundamentem ówczesnych teorii działania materii. Przykładem takich rozwiązań są systemy Henry’ego More’a i jego dobrego znajomego z Cambridge, Izaaka Newtona. W pierwszym przypadku nie ma wątpliwości co do zasadniczego wpływu neoplatonizmu, w drugim jednak zdania historyków są podzielone. Newton sięga bowiem w poszukiwaniu ‘aktywnych zasad’ do badań alchemicznych, z nadzieją odnalezienia owych zasad nie tylko przy odwołaniu się do filozoficznych spekulacji, ale także do metod eksperymentalnych. Różnica ta jednak nie zmienia faktu, że obaj filozofowie starają się odkryć sposób działania ‘duchów aktywnych’, wahając się między umieszczeniem w cząstkach materii wielu odrębnych zasad a wskazaniem na zasadę jedną, działającą uniwersalnie i będącą niejako przedłużeniem Bożego ramienia – More nazywa ją Duchem Natury, a Newton upatruje jej ostatecznie w Chrystusie. (shrink)

Przedmiotem artykułu jest recepcja filozofii Schopenhauera w Czarodziejskiej górze – najbardziej znanej powieści Tomasza Manna. Wpływ Schopenhauera na twórczość Manna jest sprawą znaną i omawianą w różnych kontekstach przez historyków literatury niemieckiej. W tym przypadku relacja głównych protagonistów powieści Hansa Castorpa i Kławdii Chauchat, zostaje przedstawiona jako literacka „ilustracja” doktryny filozofa. Tomasz Mann posługuje się „mistyką ciała” jako próbą doświadczenia Schopenhauerowskiej transcendencji. Analogiczną funkcję w oparciu o estetykę Schopenhauera wypełnia w powieści muzyka. Czarodziejska góra zostaje ukazana jako przykład koncepcji artystycznej (...) wyrosłej z systemu filozofa, choć traktowany jest on raczej jako punkt wyjścia, a nie jako cel. (shrink)

Wilhelm Roux (1850–1924) was the follower of mechanical philosophy in biological recognition. His research strategy focusing exclusively on the physical and chemical rights should be considered as strictly scientific. Reductionist perspective of organisms by Roux as closed complexes and physiological activities occuring in their range are in the completely new light of modern biology where the experimental method was introduced. In spite of the faulty methodological assumptions and the failed experimental attempt, the research attempt of Roux was the inspiration for (...) vitalist Hans Driesch. (shrink)

Divine Omniscience and the Problem of Evil from the Perspective of Open Theism In the first part of the article, I present the argument for theological fatalism consisting in the thesis that if God has an infallible knowledge of future contingents, then whatever happens in the world happens necessarily. Next, I discuss the open theism view, whose rejection of theological fatalism rests on the claim that God does not know future contingents in advance. In the second part of the paper, (...) I analyze the open theism view in the context of the evidential argument from evil. The evidential argument from evil says that the occurrence of great and pointless suffering in the world makes the existence of God very improbable. The open theism view implies that since God does not know the future contingents (great and pointless evils included), the occurrence of such evils does not compromise his omnipotence or his benevolence, and, hence, it does not make his existence improbable. In the last part of the article, I make some critical remarks on the theodicy of open theism recently put forth by William Hasker and I emphasize that this theodicy is based on axiological assumptions which are not evident enough in themselves. Keywords: problem of evil, open theism, evidential argument, divine omniscience. (shrink)

Nowa Zelandia to jedno z najlepiej rozwiniętych państw świata. Pomimo ogromnej odległości od Polski zamieszkuje tam, począwszy od XIX w., wielu polskich migrantów. Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie aktualnej sytuacji zachowania archiwaliów dotyczących działalności Polaków w Nowej Zelandii oraz stanu ich cyfryzacji. Materiał źródłowy do tego typu badań posiadają archiwa oraz biblioteki państwowe w Nowej Zelandii. Jest on również dostępny w niewielkiej ilości jako cyfrowy zasób polskich organizacji w Nowej Zelandii, obecny na ich oficjalnych stronach internetowych. W Polsce kilka instytucji na (...) własnych stronach internetowych także posiada cyfrowe wersje materiałów Polonii nowozelandzkiej. Dzięki zastosowanym metodom badawczym wskazano poziom cyfryzacji materiałów polonijnych. Podstawową tezą pracy jest stwierdzenie faktu znacznego rozproszenia dorobku kulturowego Polonii nowozelandzkiej, nie tylko pomiędzy instytucjami państwowymi w Nowej Zelandii i miejscowymi organizacjami polskimi, ale również poza jej granicami, w tym nad Wisłą. Głównym wnioskiem artykułu jest utworzenie na antypodach jednego, centralnego archiwum Polonii nowozelandzkiej posiadającego doświadczonych pracowników i dysponującemu środkami pozwalającymi na konsekwentne zachowywanie śladów naszej obecności w Nowej Zelandii. (shrink)

In this article, we will discuss the concept of logical determinism and arguments in favor of determinism based on the law of excluded middle and the principle of causality. We will also discuss minimal tense logic and tense logic of branched time, constructed to reject the thesis of logical determinism.

Max Weber’s thesis on the decisive influence of Protestant ethic on the formation and development of modern capitalism has become one of the best-known and widely shared canonical claims in social sciences. Since its publication at the beginning of the 20th century, this thesis, supported by subsequent great works by the German classic, has rarely been the subject of major controversy. The work of correcting Weber’s thesis was undertaken in the late 20th century by Michael Novak. Novak’s correction is not (...) confrontational, but complementary. The American thinker abandons the research area of minority Protestant communities, which caught Weber’s attention, and undertakes an analysis of the broader religious tradition, developing both before and after the Reformation. In particular, the achievements of Pope John Paul II, interpreted by Novak in terms of the renewal of a liberty current of Catholic social thought, provide important corrective data. (shrink)

The goal of this article is to review some aspects of brain anatomy and neurophysiology that are important for consciousness, and which hopefully may be of benefit to philosophers investigating the conscious mind. Taking as an initial point of reference the distinction between “the hard problem” and “the weak problems” of consciousness, we shall concentrate on questions pertaining to the second of these. A putative “consciousness system” in the brain will be presented, paying special attention to diffuse projection systems. The (...) “center of gravity” will be brain connectivity, since consciousness must, critically, be dependent on coherent activity and timing. “Detectors” of synchronicity and coincidence, like NMDA receptors, also necessarily play a role here. To be conscious, we do not need an entire brain. While even large hemispherectomies need not unequivocally affect consciousness, far smaller brain-stem lesions may be devastating in this regard. Even so, the recent discovery by Matthew F. Glasser et al. of 180 separate areas in the human brain cortex is intriguing from a teleological perspective, as it is quite unthinkable that any of them could be “redundant. (shrink)

Psychiatrists' accounts of clinical significance in depression Clinical significance is a crucial element in the diagnosis of mental illness, yet, it is practically untheorised and significantly under-researched. This article takes up the question of how the criterion of clinical significance is translated into psychiatric practice. More particularly, it examines how psychiatrists account for the threshold between health and depression. The paper is anchored in the constructionist view of discourse underpinned by the assumptions of critically oriented discourse analysis. It is based (...) upon a convenience sample of 39 semi-structured interviews with specialist-psychiatrists in south-western Poland. There is no discursive space for clinical significance in psychiatrists' accounts. There is no boundary, no decision to be taken as to whether the symptoms are clinically significant. Depression, invariably constructed in terms of diagnostic criteria, is always represented as fully developed, appearing out of thin air, with no period of falling ill. The article raises the issue of the validity and usefulness of psychiatric diagnosis. (shrink)

In the paper I discuss the theory developed by Douglas D. Rasmussen and Douglas J. Den Uyl, who try to find new grounds for defending rights. Drawing upon Aristotle and his virtue ethics, they do not, however, employ the Aristotelian point of view, but present the neo-Aristotelian approach. They claim that rights should be conceived of not as normative but as metanormative principles. Rasmussen and Den Uyl argue that the fundamental right to liberty should be protected by the state. The (...) only role of the state is to be limited to the protection of right to liberty and in turn to the protection of self-directness. The authors defend the right to liberty on moral grounds. It seems, however, that the minimal state approach and moralistic defense of self-directness cannot be combined. (shrink)

The book deals with martyrdom understood as a philosophical category. The main question pertains to the evidential value of the Christian witness through death. The author approaches an answer through a philosophical interpretation of the belief in the evidential role of martyrdom. Numerous historical documents confirm that ancient martyrdom might have been considered as a kind of proof also by people unaffiliated with the Church. The author observes the theology and the reality of martyrdom through the perspective of the ancient (...) philosophy of death and radical personal transformation. He believes that the Christian stance in the face of persecutions could have been understood as the realization of the unrealized ambitions of philosophy, thereby proving indirectly the veracity of the teaching revealed by Jesus Christ. (shrink)

W artykule prezentowane są zagadnienia związane z wydawniczymi losami całości literackiego dorobku Stanisława Grzesiuka. Składają się nań trzy autobiograficzne powieści: _Pi__ęć__ lat kacetu_, _Boso, ale w ostrogach _oraz _Na marginesie __ż__ycia_. Wydania, które ukazały się za życia pisarza były poddawane różnego typu ingerencjom. Najważniejszym czynnikiem, który miał wpływ na ostateczna postać tekstu była instytucjonalna cenzura. Ponadto autor zmieniał swoje utwory pod wpływem nacisków wydawcy, rodziny oraz w ramach realizacji sądowej ugody. Redaktorzy nowej edycji dzieł Grzesiuka, która ukazała się w 2018 (...) roku w wydawnictwie Pruszyński i S-ka, podjęli próbę rekonstrukcji tekstów sprzed pozaautorskich zmian. Zestawienie tych wydań z pierwodrukami i rękopisami dowodzi, iż wydawnictwo podjęło wiele niezrozumiałych decyzji, które mogą mieć wpływ na błędną recepcję autorskiego przekazu. (shrink)

The article focuses on the central problem of Kant’s philosophy, namely the separation of aesthetics and transcendental dialectic, or in other words the field of senses and the field of reason, or as seen from the point of epistemology: receptivity and spontaneity. The author attempts to give the most exact picture of the source conception, as presented by Kant, adding only his own systematization and giving an account of later interpretations made from the standpoints of Neo-Kantianism and existential philosophy.

Plato did not express any single and uniform theory of meaning. The paper presents different conceptions of meaning that can be attributed to Plato. The first presents meaning of names as imitating reality. Primary names are phonetic imitations of things, secondary names are built-up with the former ones. The second presents meaning as a representation in mind. There are two kinds of representations: individual and abstract. Individual representation is an imagination of empirical thing and the abstract representation is a picture (...) of idea - a property. The third conception describes the notion of meaning as a denotation. Denotations of general names are ideas. Plato treats names in an extensional manner. If two names about different forms refer to the same thing, they are the same name. The fourth is the association conception of meaning. It is connected with the theory of anamnesis. This theory says that humans remember ideas, which they observed in the time between death and birth. In the last conception the meaning is interpreted as connotation: the meaning of a name is the feature of the object that is referred to by this name. (shrink)

This article considers the main methodological objections against the theory of intelligent design. In general, they claim that it lacks a scientific character and they emphasize that design cannot be detected using scientific tools. The critics focus on showing that intelligent design violates various methodological criteria. In response to these objections, this article examines the methodological claim made by its proponents that the characteristic effects of the designer’s activity do provide a sufficient basis for inferring design. This paper also argues (...) that the procedure of inferring that a certain feature has been designed by a supernatural being does not differ in principle from design-detection procedures in other spheres of research. (shrink)

The main purpose of this article is a presentation of one of the subtheories included in the so-called intelligent design theory - a concept of irreducible complexity of the biochemical systems. The concept says that some features of different biochemical structures indicate that they are designed. It is an alternative concept to naturalistic theories of evolution, and especially to the Neo-Darwinian theory of the development of the life forms that is currently the dominating theory in biology. I shortly discuss the (...) logical and empirical point of the concept of irreducible complexity, whereas I give special attention to the most interesting, from the methodological point of view, part of the concept, namely the explanatory point. The explanatory point is concerned with the issue of design detection in natural sciences. I present also a response of the concept\'s of irreducible complexity critics, in the form of a variety of proposals of the evolutionary scenarios of the irreducibly complex systems origins. Although some of these scenarios describe material processes that, theoretically, are capable of producing the irreducible complexity, I agree with a criticism of intelligent design theory proponents that a high degree of speculativity of the evolutionary explanations presently does not allow for examination if these explanations correspond to the real history of irreducibly complex systems origins. Because, so far, both the evolutionists and design theorists are developing only general approaches to the issue of irreducible complexity that need further detailed analyses, I recognize that the problem of irreducible complexity of the biochemical systems remains unsolved in the advantage of one of the proposed theories. (shrink)