The article reviews the book Elementy etyki lekarskiej [Issues in Physician Ethics], by Tadeusz Biesaga.

According to the normative approach, speech acts are governed by certain norms. Interestingly, the same is true for classes of speech acts. This paper considers the normative treatment of constatives, consisting of such classes as assertives, predictives, suggestives, and more. The classical approach is to treat these classes of illocutions as species of constatives. Recently, however, Simion (Shifty Speech and Independent Thought: Epistemic Normativity in Context, Oxford University Press, 2021) has proposed that all constatives (i) are species of assertion, and (...) (ii) are governed by the knowledge norm. I defend the classical treatment of constatives and show that Simion’s conclusion is untenable. No taxonomy of speech acts can accommodate such a view. More importantly, we can test whether a particular speech act is an assertion or not. I propose five tests of assertion, the passing of which is a necessary condition for being an assertion. Some constative speech acts fail these tests. Thus, contrary to Simion, not all constatives can be regarded as species of assertion. (shrink)

In the paper Weaver's method is adapted to prove interpolation properties of many-valued propositional calculi standard in the sense of Rosser and Turquette. The case of n-valued Lukasiewicz calculi is discussed in connection with the results obtained.

The article is primarily concerned with the ambiguities which surround the concept of the person. According to the philosophical tradition taking its roots from Locke's definition, personhood depends on consciousness. Therefore, “personhood” can be ascribed to different entities, and only these entities acquire a moral standing. This can entail that a human being may or may not be considered as a person, as well as higher animals and even artificial machines. Everything depends on manifest personal characteristics. In order to sort (...) out different meanings ascribed to “person,” I distinguish between being a person and acting as a person. Then, I show that a human being is a paradigm of the person and his being always precedes his acting. (shrink)

The paper deals with a possible interdependence between bioethics and transhumanism. It seems that nowadays transhumanism is a separate discipline and we can say at most about bioethical aspects of that. However, a more in-depth investigation reveals that transhumanism is a rival of the contemporary bioethics and tends to take control over it. So, this paper tried to prove that this is not a necessity. There are still vital differences between bioethics and transhumanism and they justify keeping the former separate. (...) The main difference concerns the object of investigation: bioethics is about ethical enquiry of the existing, bodily human being, whereas transhumanism is directed toward a future creature called posthuman. Thus, although there are attempts within transhumanism to replace bioethics, they are still two separate fields of investigation and hence the former is not a new and fully-fledged face of the latter. (shrink)

In Dystopia: A Natural History, Gregory Claeys observes that the collectivist ethos is one of the common features of both utopia and dystopia. The crucial difference is that in utopia cooperation is free and voluntary, whereas in dystopia it takes the form of what Leszek Kołakowski has called compulsory solidarity, that is, solidarity imposed by means of coercion and thus deprived of its actual value.1 And yet, just as dystopia and utopia may well be two sides of the same coin, (...) dystopian compulsory fraternity is often counterbalanced by voluntary cooperation within an actual social system or a textual representation thereof. This is precisely what happens in the social science fiction of Janusz A. Zajdel... (shrink)

Objective: Present research examined children’s behavioural and cognitive functioning by using data from a screening study based on reports given by parents and teachers, and investigated the strongest predictors of children’s fluid intelligence. Method: Scales: Conners Early Childhood Behaviour Scale and Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool were filled out by parents and teachers of preschool children. Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices was used to measure fluid intelligence among preschool children. Results: Parent-teacher concordance was low to moderate. Working memory in BRIEF-P (...) estimated by teachers and parents mediated the relationship between inattention/hyperactivity in CEC BEH [S] and fluid intelligence among preschoolers. The difficulties with working memory assessed by teachers and parents were significant predictors of Raven scores; however, predictions based on teachers’ assessments were stronger. Conclusion: Clinicians should collect reports from various observers in order to implement prevention programs and optimize clinical diagnoses for children. Information from both parents and teachers give significant and complementary contribution to understanding difficulties with cognitive and behavioural functioning of preschoolers. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest poszukiwanie takiej interpretacji obecności i działania Boga w świecie, jaka pozwoliłaby zharmonizować istotne prawdy wiary z naukowym obrazem świata, którego ewolucja jest rządzona przypadkiem i pozbawiona kierunku. Poszukiwanie to jest realizowane w kilku krokach. Odwołując się do różnych koncepcji celowości wskazuje się najpierw, że jeśli można mówić o tym, że świat ma taką cechę, to nie w sensie zmierzania w określonym kierunku, lecz w sensie celowości wewnętrznej: świat ze swej natury jest skierowany na Boga. Współcześnie o Bożej (...) celowości w świecie mówi się często w kategoriach ogólnego lub szczególnego działania Boga. Artykuł, podejmując tę kwestię zmierza do wniosku, że odróżnienie aspektu naturalnego od nadnaturalnego w danym zdarzeniu jest przypuszczalnie niemożliwe. Na jeden z powodów tej niemożliwości wskazuje tzw. zasada domknięcia przyczynowego, dlatego jest ona analizowana w kolejnym punkcie artykułu. Wskazuje się tutaj między innymi na konieczność zrewidowania niektórych klasycznych koncepcji cudu. W odniesieniu zaś do takich przełomowych zdarzeń z dziejów świata, jak powstanie życia czy pojawienie się człowieka, proponuje się hipotezę niedookreśloności celu stworzenia: Bóg może realizować swoje cele w świecie rządzonym przez autentyczny przypadek, jeśli cele te są rozumiane odpowiednio subtelnie. Na przykład, jeśli celem Boga jest pojawienie się w świecie istoty zdolnej do nawiązania z nim świadomego kontaktu, to istota taka niekoniecznie musiała przyjąć postać przedstawiciela gatunku Homo sapiens. Na koniec wskazuje się na panenteizm jako na właściwą, prawdziwie chrześcijańską wizję świata, który jest „losem i przeznaczeniem” samego Boga. W tej perspektywie, detale ewolucyjnego rozwoju świata przestają być religijnie istotne, a sama religia uwalnia się ostatecznie—po części pod wpływem współczesnej nauki—„od błędu i przesądu”. (shrink)

The paper is a study of properties of quasi-consequence operation which is a key notion of the so-called inferential approach in the theory of sentential calculi established in [5]. The principal motivation behind the quasi-consequence, q-consequence for short, stems from the mathematical practice which treats some auxiliary assumptions as mere hypotheses rather than axioms and their further occurrence in place of conclusions may be justified or not. The main semantic feature of the q-consequence reflecting the idea is that its rules (...) lead from the non-rejected assumptions to the accepted conclusions.First, we focus on the syntactic features of the framework and present the q-consequence as related to the notion of proof. Such a presentation uncovers the reasons for which the adjective inferential is used to characterize the approach and, possibly, the term inference operation replaces q-consequence. It also shows that the inferential approach is a generalisation of the Tarski setting and, therefore, it may potentially absorb several concepts from the theory of sentential calculi, cf. [10]. However, as some concrete applications show, see e.g.[4], the new approach opens perspectives for further exploration. (shrink)

The speech act of inquiry is generally treated as a default kind of asking questions. The widespread norm states that one inquires whether p only if one does not know that p. However, the fact that inquiring is just one kind of asking questions has received little to no attention. Just as in the declarative mood we can perform not only assertions, but various other speech acts, like guesses or predictions, so in the interrogative mood we can also make various (...) speech act types. I propose a speech-act-theoretic account of a distinct kind of question that I label exam questions. According to the proposed account, one performs an exam question p only if (i) one has access to the answer to p, and (ii) one does not officially know whether the hearer knows the answer to p. Exam questions satisfy all the necessary requirements of being a distinct kind of speech act. Additionally, my proposal contributes to the recent expansion of the normative approach to a variety of speech acts. (shrink)

We investigate definable topological dynamics of groups definable in an o‐minimal expansion of the field of reals. Assuming that a definable group G admits a model‐theoretic analogue of Iwasawa decomposition, namely the compact‐torsion‐free decomposition, we give a description of minimal subflows and the Ellis group of its universal definable flow in terms of this decomposition. In particular, the Ellis group of this flow is isomorphic to. This provides a range of counterexamples to a question by Newelski whether the Ellis group (...) is isomorphic to. We further extend the results to universal topological covers of definable groups, interpreted in a two‐sorted structure containing the o‐minimal sort and a sort for an abelian group. (shrink)

This book provides an incisive, basic introduction to many-valued logics and to the constructions that are "many-valued" at their origin. Using the matrix method, the author sheds light on the profound problems of many-valuedness criteria and its classical characterizations. The book also includes information concerning the main systems of many-valued logic, related axiomatic constructions, and conceptions inspired by many-valuedness. With its selective bibliography and many useful historical references, this book provides logicians, computer scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians with a valuable survey (...) of the subject. (shrink)

The paper presents the main idea of point-free theories of space based on Tarski's system of point-free geometry. First, the general idea of the so-called point-free ontology was discussed, as well as the epistemological and methodological reasons for its adoption. Next, Whitehead's method of extensive abstraction, which is the methodological basis for the construction of point-free theories of space, is presented, and the fundamental concepts of mereology are discussed. The main part of the paper is a discussion of Tarski’s geometry (...) of solids, its postulates and metatheoretical properties. The paper ends with a short description of the contribution of Polish researchers to the development of research on point-free theories of space. (shrink)

The aim of this article is an attempt to diagnose the current condition of the philosophy of history, as well as to show its potential in explaining contemporary phenomena and constructing a rational image of the world. Two recent works by Steven Pinker (The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined and Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress) and the methodological work of Karl Raimund Popper provide a point of reference. And although the works (...) mentioned are not classed as historiosophical (even by Pinker himself), it is the author’s opinion that they fully deserve this title by showing that philosophical reflection on history is something that is sorely needed today, in an age of multiple contradictory diagnoses and radical prophecies. (shrink)

W dotychczasowej popularyzacji w\iedzy oraz w badaniach naukowych nad dziejami kościoła oo. Bernardynów we Lwowie dużo miejsca poświęca się ogólnej historii i walorom artystycznym zabytku. W przypadku epitafiów i tablic pamiątkowych zwraca się przede wszystkim uwagę na ich stan zachowania i wygląd, z pominięciem informacji o okolicznościach powstania i fundacji. Niniejszy artykuł uzupełnia tę lukę i przybliża na podstawie zachowanej dokumentacji archiwalnej okoliczności ich wmurowania, nazwiska fundatorów i charakterystykę dokumentacji w odniesieniu do epitafiów i tablic wykonanych w XIX i XX (...) wieku. Jak dotąd aspekt ten oraz dokumenty nie były przedmiotem analiz i publikacji. (shrink)

The article examines the figure of the spy—alongside themes related to espionage—as employed in two books by the Northern Irish writer Ciaran Carson : the volume of poems For All We Know and the novel Exchange Place. Carson’s oeuvre is permeated with the Troubles and he has been hailed one of key writers to convey the experience of living in a modern surveillance state. His depiction of Belfast thematizes questions of terrorism, the insecurity and anxiety it causes in everyday life, (...) as well as the unceasing games of appearances and the different ways of verifying or revising identities. In Carson’s later work, however, these aspects acquire greater philosophical depth as the author uses the themes of doubles, spies, and makeshift identities to discuss writing itself, the construction of subjectivity, and the dialogic relationship with the other. Taking a cue from Paul Ricoeur’s and Julia Kristeva’s conceptions of “oneself as another,” the article examines how Carson’s spy-figures can be read as metaphors for processes of self-discovery and identity-formation, tied to the notion of “self-othering.” Carson employs the figure of the spy—who juggles identities by “donning” different clothes or languages—to scrutinize how one ventures into the dangerous territory of writing, translation and love, as well as to reconsider notions of originality and self-mastery. Ultimately, Carson conceptualizes literature as specially marked by deceptions and metamorphoses, defining in these terms the human condition. (shrink)

This article attempts to investigate the potential resonances between Paul Ricoeur’s and Julia Kristeva’s theories of otherness as applied to the study of poetry by the Northern-Irish poet Sinéad Morrissey. In all of her five poetry books she explores various forms of otherness and attempts to sketch them in verse. She confronts alterity in many ways, approaching such subjects as the relationship with the body and children, encounters with foreigners, and coming to terms with what is foreign within us. This (...) article engages primarily with her experiences of China, which she recorded in the long poem “China” from her third collection, The State of Prisons. Firstly, this article tackles the question of the body, which is interpreted on the basis of Morrissey’s “post-mortem” poems. Their reading prepares the ground for further explorations of otherness, which Morrissey locates at the very heart of human subjectivity. In this way, she also manages to establish a poetic framework for an ethical consideration of otherness. By investigating the working of the human psyche, Morrissey seems to go along the lines of Kristeva and Ricoeur, who claim that otherness is inextricably linked with the formation of human subjectivity. Taking a cue from their philosophical enquiries, the article also attempts to establish where Kristeva’s and Ricoeur’s philosophies overlap. (shrink)

In this article we consider a thesis that is quite typical of the philosophy of dialogue: namely, that it is in dialogue that the person comes to be. We present the thesis drawing upon the ideas of Martin Buber, John Macmurray and Calvin Schrag. (The last of these is not himself a fully-fledged philosopher of dialogue, but he does shed some light on the ideas of the others.) We also analyze the ideas developed by Karol Wojtyla, who – although he (...) cannot be classified as a member of this philosophical school – offered his own interpretation of the thesis. The paper shows that philosophers from various schools can find themselves considering much the same thesis, and that this can lead to positive and constructive outcomes. Moreover, the person occupies the center of attention for personalists as well as philosophers of dialogue, so a mutual exchange of insights between them regarding the structure of personhood may well prove vital to a better understanding of the person as an existing reality. (shrink)

The concept of personhood has been recently strongly criticized by some bioethicists. The present article aims at refuting these criticisms. In order to show how the notion of personhood operates in bioethics, two understandings of it proposed by an Italian bioethicist Maurizio Mori are sketched: a person as a part of the cosmological order and a person as an autonomous-like entity. It is argued that none of the proposed understandings is adequate. The cosmological concept perceives the person as a derivative (...) of the empirical processes. The autonomous-like, in turn, conceives the person as a freely acting subject. This paper endeavours to prove that both conceptions are one-sided. In order to do that, the thought of German philosopher Robert Spaemann is deployed. He convincingly points out that the person must be considered from a so-called “modus existendi” stance. It means that to be a person is to possess a unique way of being. That being encompasses the material content not as a casual factor but as an indispensable mean of expressing itself. The final thesis is that the person's being is man's life. Drawing upon such a conclusion, it is taken up a critical discussion with the views rejecting the usefulness of the concept. (shrink)

This article is about the philosopher as a potential therapist. It starts from tendencies exhibited by a group of contemporary philosophers involved in a so-called human enhancement. Drawing on the newest discoveries of genetics, genetic engineering and pharmacology, they offer a set of therapies aimed at the extensive ‘improvement’ of the human condition. In the second part of the paper, selected ideas concerning philosophical therapy by the Ancient philosophers are presented. They basically employed personal contact, conversation, and wise counselling. Then (...) these two approaches to this kind of therapy are compared and contrasted. The contemporary approaches offer novel, technical ways of intervention but are blind as far as far-reaching goals and the essential goods of human life are concerned. Despite serious cultural differences, the contemporary therapy can learn a lot from the ancients. If the human being is to be treated by philosophers, an integral picture of who the former is must be taken into account. This means that both his interiority and exteriority should be subjects to the therapy. (shrink)

Artykuł przedstawia zarys historii stosunku Niemiec do Europy Środkowej od osiemnastego wieku po koniec wieku dwudziestego. Należy podkreślić, że od samego początku (tj. od epoki oświecenia) na relację tą wpływały dwa najważniejsze czynniki: prymat Realpolitik ukształtowany przez egoistyczną politykę Prus, a od 1871 roku Rzeszy Niemieckiej wobec Europy Środkowej oraz przez niemiecką (pruską) kulturę polityczną akcentującą „kulturową misję” Niemiec w tej części Starego Kontynentu. Jak podkreśla się w artykule, to ostatnie stanowisko jest charakterystyczne dla niemieckich elit politycznych i intelektualnych aż (...) do końca dwudziestego wieku. Zadaniem badawczym jest zweryfikowanie do jakiego stopnia te dwa czynniki wpływają również obecnie na politykę Niemiec wobec Europy Środkowej. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to apply a general methodology for constructing statistical methods, which is based on decision theory, to give a statistical description of preferential rankings, with a focus on the rankings’ dependence on categorical variables. In the paper, I use functions of description errors that are based on the Kemeny and Hamming distances between preferential orderings, but the proposed methodology can also be applied to other methods of estimating description errors.

Celem artykułu jest zaprezentowanie sylwetki wielkiego uczonego czeskiego doby pobiałogórskiej – jego życia oraz działalności naukowej i pisarskiej. Bohuslav Balbín jest najwybitniejszym czeskim humanistą XVII w., którego twórczość odegrała wielką rolę zarówno w swojej epoce, jako inspiracja dla innych twórców, jak również w następnej. Dzieła jezuity, z których najważniejsze opublikowano dopiero w sto lat po jego śmierci, wpisywały się w nurt czeskiego odrodzenia narodowego, którego celem było utrzymanie językowej i kulturalnej odrębności Czechów. Twórczość Balbína rozwijała się dwóch zasadniczych nurtach – (...) religijnym i świeckim, które spajały ideały narodowe. Cechował tę twórczość głęboki patriotyzm i świadomość słowiańska, a głównym celem pisarza i uczonego było zachowanie tożsamości narodu, jego kultury i języka oraz podkreślenie i utrwalenie odrębności Królestwa Czeskiego – historycznej, geograficznej i prawnej. W sposób znaczący zasłużył się dla rozwoju historiografii, krajoznawstwa, literaturoznawstwa i bibliografii. Choć był gorliwym katolikiem, nie odrzucał dorobku czeskich innowierców. Jego najbardziej ambitnym i – niestety – nieukończonym dziełem są _Miscellanea historica regni Bohemiae_, które miały stanowić summę wiedzy o kraju i narodzie, najsławniejszym zaś _Dissertatio apologetica pro lingua Slavonica, praecipue Bohemica_. (shrink)

I propose an analysis of lying with uninformative speech acts. The orthodox view states that lying is restricted to assertions. However, the growing case for non-assertoric lies made by presuppositions or conventional implicatures challenges this orthodoxy. So far, the only presuppositions to have been considered as lies were informative presuppositions. In fact, uninformative lies were not discussed in the philosophical literature. However, limiting the possibility of lying to informative speech acts is too restrictive. Firstly, I show that standard, uninformative presuppositions (...) can also be lies. Secondly, I extend this picture into uninformative lies made by declarative statements. To implement my proposal, I do not need a new definition of lying. Recently popular commitment-based definitions of lying are able to properly handle uninformative lies. (shrink)

The paper is concerned with the problem of characterization of strengthenings of the so-called Łukasiewicz-like sentential calculi. The calculi under consideration are determined by n-valued Łukasiewicz matrices with superdesignated logical values. In general, Łukasiewicz-like sentential calculi are not implicative in the sense of [7]. Despite of this fact, in our considerations we use matrices analogous to S-algebras of Rasiowa. The main result of the paper says that the degree of maximality of any n-valued Łukasiewicz-like sentential calculus is finite and equal (...) to the degree of maximality of the corresponding n-valued Łukasiewicz calculus. (shrink)

I argue against Milić's (2017) proposal of analyzing “selfless assertions” (Lackey 2007) as proper, i.e., as assertions which satisfy the norm of assertion. In his view, selfless assertions are hedged assertions governed by the knowledge norm. In my critique, I show that Milić does not make a case that selfless assertions constitute such a special class of assertions. Moreover, he does not deliver a clear criterion for differentiating between flat-out assertions and hedged ones. What is more, his proposal leaves some (...) cases of selfless assertions unexplained. The outcome is that we are still left without a satisfactory account of selfless assertions as proper assertions. (shrink)

This paper offers a systematic classification and characterization of speech acts and their norms. Recently, the normative approach has been applied to various speech acts, most notably to constatives. I start by showing how the work on the norms of assertion has influenced various approaches to the norms of other speech acts. I focus on the fact that various norms of assertion have different extensions, i.e., they denote different clusters of illocutions as belonging to an assertion. I argue that this (...) has consequences for theorising about norms of other speech acts and generates certain arbitrary divisions. In the central part, I analyse two groups of speech acts. Firstly, ordinary speech acts, like predictions or retractions. Secondly, I indicate how the normative view can be extended to so-called ancillary speech acts, like presuppositions or implicatures. I end with a discussion of possible extensions of the normative approach, focusing on the debate on lying. (shrink)

We consider definable topological dynamics forNIPgroups admitting certain decompositions in terms of specific classes of definably amenable groups. For such a group, we find a description of the Ellis group of its universal definable flow. This description shows that the Ellis group is of bounded size. Under additional assumptions, it is shown to be independent of the model, proving a conjecture proposed by Newelski. Finally we apply the results to new classes of groups definable in o-minimal structures, generalizing all of (...) the previous results for this setting. (shrink)

Grzegorz W. Kolodko, one of the world's leading authorities on economics and development policy and a key architect of Poland's successful economic reforms, applies his far-reaching knowledge to the past and future of the world economy, introducing a framework for understanding our global situation that transcends any single discipline or paradigm. Deploying a novel mix of scientific evaluation and personal observation, Kolodko begins with a brief discussion of misinformation and its perpetuation in economics and politics. He criticizes the simplification (...) of complex economic and social issues and investigates the link between developments in the global economy and cultural change, scientific discoveries, and political fluctuations. Underscoring the necessity of conceptual and theoretical innovation in understanding our global economic situation, Kolodko offers a provocative study of globalization and the possibility of coming out ahead in an era of worldwide interdependence. Deeply critical of neoliberalism, which sought to transfer economic control exclusively to the private sector, Kolodko explores the virtues of social-economic development and the new rules of the economic game. He concludes with a look at our near and distant future, questioning whether we have a say in its making. (shrink)