In this paper I will tackle three issues. First, I aim to briefly outline the backbone of semantic minimalism, while focusing on the idea of ‘liberal truth conditions’ developed by Emma Borg in her book ‘Minimal Semantics’. Secondly, I will provide an account of the three principal views in legal interpretation: intentionalism, textualism and purposivism. All of them are based on a common denominator labelled by lawyers ‘literal meaning’. In the paper I suggest a novel way of viewing this common (...) denominator as almost identical to the Borgian ‘liberal truth conditions’, at least at a conceptual level. In the third section I will focus on the conceptual similarities between the two ideas. I intend to depict that, although legal theorists do not admit it explicitly, they treat literal legal meaning as minimal propositional content that can be ascribed liberal truth conditions. There are two main objections to liberal truth conditions: their under-determinacy and unintuitive character. Both objections can be applied to ‘literal meaning’. However, the idea of liberal truth conditions gives an adequate account of what lawyers call literal meaning and is helpful in explaining the mechanism of understanding of provisions and reasons leading to the necessity of statutory interpretation. (shrink)

I investigate: to what extent do folk ascriptions of lying differ between casual and courtroom contexts? to what extent does motive to lie influence ascriptions of trust, mental states, and lying judgments? to what extent are lying judgments consistent with previous ascriptions of communicated content? Following the Supreme Court’s Bronston judgment, I expect: averaged lying judgments to be similar in casual and courtroom contexts; motive to lie to influence levels of trust, mental states ascriptions, and patterns of lying judgments; retrospective (...) judgments of lying, after being presented with the state of the world, to be inconsistent with previous judgments of communicated content: participants hold the protagonist responsible for content she did not communicate. I performed a survey experiment on the Qualtrics platform. Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. I employed standard Likert scales and forced-choice questions. I found that: average lying judgments are similar in casual and courtroom contexts; motive to lie decreases trust ascription and increases lying judgment; judgments of lying are inconsistent with previous judgments of communicated content: participants hold the protagonist responsible for content they did not communicate. Perjury ascriptions are inconsistent. The Supreme Court’s worries expressed in the Bronston judgment are well founded. This article helps reforming jury instructions in perjury cases. (shrink)

In the present paper we argue that although the semantics of both legal and moral statements can be explained with the use of a unified framework called hybrid or quasi-expressivism (Finlay & Plunkett, 2018), there still is an important difference in the semantics of moral and legal terms. Namely, while the truth conditions of legal statements are widely intersubjectively shared, this is not the case with moral statements. We demonstrate this difference using the example of the ex aequo et bono (...) adjudication method. In the first background section we explain what is hybrid or quasi-expressivism as well as what is the standard account of the semantics of moral and legal statements. In the next section, we explain in detail how we aim to demonstrate that the semantics of legal terms and the semantics of some moral terms, such as ‘goodness’ or ‘fairness’, differ importantly. In order to illustrate the difference, we next explain the ex aequo et bono adjudication method and provide examples of cases in which this method has been employed. Crucially, this method is extremely rarely used, which highlights the difference between the semantics of legal and moral statements. Finally, we provide our interpretation of why ex aequo et bono adjudication is so seldom employed and what consequences this has for a theory of the semantics of legal and moral terms. (shrink)

The essay “Practising ‘cruel optimism’: Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel” delves into Mantel’s novel through the lens of Berlant’s concept of cruel optimism. Berlant’s construct, rooted in the pursuit of conventional notions of a fulfilling existence, highlights the protagonists’ endeavors in Saudi Arabia as a postcolonial adventure bound to end in disillusionment. Mantel’s portrayal of Frances Shore and her husband Andrew illuminates the tension between their aspirations for financial security and the disconcerting realities of cultural displacement and (...) legal constraints under Sharia law. The city’s architecture mirrors Frances’s sense of unease, resembling oppressive structures associated with fascist regimes. The portrayal of Jeddah’s construction environment, echoing totalitarian aesthetic reminiscent of fascist regimes, serves as a compelling allegory for Frances’s sense of entrapment within a society where her agency is circumscribed by gendered and legal strictures. Casting Frances as a contemporary iteration of the Gothic heroine ensnared within her domicile, Mantel explores the disjuncture between the alleged benevolence of religious doctrine and the punitive nature of its legal apparatus. Frances’s interrogation of this dissonance not only underscores the pervasive nature of cruel optimism but also hints at the inherently paradoxical nature of faith systems that simultaneously offer solace and impose constraints. Through its fluid engagement with concepts of cruel optimism, urbanity, and gender dynamics, the essay invites readers to contemplate the multifaceted interplay between individual aspiration and systemic coercion within the affluent and autocratic socio-cultural landscape. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie wyzwań i trudności, jakie mogą pojawić się w procesie oceny przez komisje etyczne projektów badawczych bazujących na jakościowych technikach gromadzenia danych uzyskiwanych od osób świadczących różnego rodzaju usługi seksualne. Badania te zwykle podlegają ocenie komisji etycznych ze względu na ryzyko krzywdy dla uczestników, którzy postrzegani są jako szczególnie „podatni na zranienie”. Jednocześnie ze względu na stygmatyzację społeczną, jaka wiąże się ze świadczeniem usług seksualnych, zarówno badacze, jak i osoby uczestniczące w badaniu i wchodzące w skład komisji (...) etycznych mogą mieć swoje wyobrażenia i oczekiwania co do tego, jak powinny przebiegać etyczne badania w tym obszarze. Odwołując się do doświadczeń badaczek anglosaskich, omówię, jak te oczekiwania oraz wymagania komisji etycznych zderzają się, stawiając badaczy przed koniecznością spełniania rozbieżnych czy wręcz sprzecznych oczekiwań różnych aktorów społecznych. Zaproponuję także, w jakim kierunku mógłby zmienić się sposób działania rodzimych komisji etycznych, aby proces uzyskiwania ich aprobaty był bardziej demokratyczny i otwarty na zróżnicowane potrzeby tak badaczy, jak i osób uczestniczących w badaniach. (shrink)

Le livre d’Alexandre (Zeke) Mazur [= AZM] est une édition posthume de sa thèse de doctorat soutenue en 2010 à l’Université de Chicago. Cette publication était très attendue, car, bien avant que la soutenance ait eu lieu, les vues originales d’AZM sur la mystique plotinienne attiraient l’attention des spécialistes. Dans les années 2003-2004, le jeune chercheur a fait une entrée remarquée dans le débat universitaire, en publiant un long article en deux parties : « Unio Magica, Part 1 : On (...) the M... (shrink)

The original text of the Constitution of the United States of America, written over 200 years ago, constitutes the supreme source of law in the American legal system. The seven articles and twenty seven amendments dictate understanding of fundamental principles of the federation’s functioning and its citizens’ rights. The paper aims to present the evolution of the U.S. Constitution’s language interpretation as provided by its final interpreter - the Supreme Court of the United States. Example of the Second Amendment will (...) be analyzed to present the change in understanding of the language grammar and, as a consequence, the sense of the right to keep and bear arms in the light of the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of District of Columbia v Heller ). It will argue for the accuracy of statement of Charles Evans Hughes, former Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: “We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is...”. (shrink)

O COMPARECIMENTO ELEITORAL FACULTATIVO E O RETROCESSO DEMOCRÁTICO.

In his critic of the doctrine of Bardaisan, Ephrem the Syrian devotes a lot of space to reflection on the meaning of the terms ītutā and ītyā which, as he denounces, are used inaccurately by his opponent. These Syriac terms can be translated by “being” or “essence”, but also by “substance”. This observation leads us to propose the comparison with the Greek term οὐσία, taking into account many difficulties raised by its uses in theological discourse. The article is devoted to (...) the analysis of the uses of the terms ītutā and ītyā ‑ by Ephrem and by Bardaisan ‑ in their different ways of describing the divine essence. This comparison reveals the peculiarities of the two systems of thought and also their connections with the Greek philosophical doctrines. (shrink)

In the present study, clinically depressed and non-depressed adults described the events that happened to them each day for two weeks, and these descriptions were content analys...

Bullying has damaging short-term and long-term consequences. Research suggests that perpetrators have low empathy and high moral disengagement, but relations between these variables are unclear and are rarely integrated in a single study. Thus, the objective of this study was to discover if empathy and moral disengagement mechanisms were related to bullying perpetration. This study was conducted with 904 Polish adolescents enrolled in 6 rural and urban upper secondary schools. High affective empathy predicted lower bullying perpetration. Moral-disengagement mechanisms such as (...) moral justification, euphemistic language, advanced comparison, and distorting consequences were uniquely related to increased bullying perpetration. Low affective empathy was also uniquely related to increased perpetration. These findings have important implication for school policy and practice. (shrink)

The expression “Gnostic Empedocles” refers to the summary of the teachings of this philosopher presented by Hippolytus of Rome in the Refutation of All Heresies. Above all, it concerns the notice devoted to Marcion and his disciples, who were accused of following the poems of Empedocles rather than the Gospel. However, Hippolytus is inspired by the readings of Empedocles provided by different groups of Gnostics. This interpretatio gnostica was also known in Christian circles. The analysis of this interpretation, based on (...) the notice about Marcion, allows us to propose a new interpretation of Bardaisan’s thought — mentioned by Hippolytus — as an unknown testimony of the reception of Empedocles. (shrink)

L’article propose d’examiner un cas particulier du rapport entre la métaphysique médio-platonicienne et la doctrine chrétienne de la moitié du ii e siècle, en mettant en rapport trois auteurs appartenant à la même génération : Atticus, Justin et Valentin. Atticus est auteur d’une interprétation singulière du Timée 39e7-9, selon laquelle le Modèle intelligible, dont le Démiurge use pour former le monde, est situé en dehors et au-dessous du Démiurge. Cette disposition, critiquée et abandonnée par les néoplatoniciens, semble cependant connaître un (...) certain succès chez les chrétiens, cherchant à décrire le rapport entre le Dieu Créateur et son Logos-Fils. En ajoutant abondamment des expressions bibliques au vocabulaire platonicien, Justin et Valentin – chacun à sa façon – montrent que l’inspiration platonicienne dans la théologie chrétienne peut se faire de manière très subtile et très variée. (shrink)

Polygynous families had been living legally in Russia in the areas inhabited by Muslims from the October Revolution to the mid-twentieth century. However, such a family model was not common among the followers of Islam. An act penalizing bigamy or polygamy was introduced into the Penal Code in 1960. During perestroika, and later changes in the political system, imams who came from abroad began to visit areas inhabited by Muslims. They contributed to the rebirth of religion and promoted the idea (...) of polygamy. Polygyny is the visible sign of dissimilarity and Muslim identity and was an important point in their teaching. In this context the number of polygynous relationships in Russia has increased significantly. The article is dedicated to the analysis of social and political discourse in Russia that has been taking place for several years. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric Jahrgang: 45 Heft: 1 Seiten: 111-124.

The structure of everyday communication reflects metaphorical thinking. People speak about the presence or absence of problems in terms of weather. Problems appear in every¬day life and so does the weather topic. Bad weather often evokes sadness, therefore it can be to said to constitute a problem; similarly, good weather is often equated with cheerful mood. Thus, in view of the above analysis, weather can be seen as an im¬portant experiential basis for conceptual metaphors.

Nature is frequently operationalized as greenery or water to estimate the restorativeness of the environment. Pursuing a deeper understanding of the connection between representation of naturalness and its relationship with restoration, we conducted an experiment aimed to investigate if the sky is perceived as an element of nature. The main goal of this study was to understand how the composition of the environment guides people’s selection of sky as nature in an explicit task. Moreover, we investigated how the amount of (...) visible sky determines this relationship. One hundred five participants participated in a novel explicit judgment task conducted online. In this task, we prepared a set of images trimmed out of 360-degree high dynamic range images. The images were classified according to two primary independent variables representing type of environment and horizon level. Each participant was asked to select, by clicking on the image, what they consider as “nature.” In addition, they were asked to judge images on five visual analogue scales: emotional response, aesthetic preference, feeling of familiarity, the openness of the space and naturalness. For analysis, images were segmented into 11 semantic categories with each pixel being assigned one semantic label. Our results show that, sky is associated with selections of nature in a specific pattern. The relationship is dependent on the particular set of conditions that are present in the environment rather than the type of the environment. The availability of sky on the image affects the selection of other nature labels with selections more likely when only a small amount of sky was available. Furthermore, we found that the amount of sky had a significant positive association with the naturalness rating of the whole image, but the effect was small. Our results also indicate that subjective selections of sky predict the naturalness better than trees and water. On the other hand, objective presence of trees and water has a stronger positive association with naturalness while objective presence of sky is positively associated with naturalness. The results show that, relative to its availability sky is considered as nature. (shrink)

In the present paper, I argue against the claim that ex aequo and bono adjudication cannot be epistemically objective. I start with a survey of legal rules allowing the parties to resort to ex aequo et bono adjudication. Next, I argue that decisions taken on ex aequo et bono basis are not subjective for three main reasons. First, they are analogous to decision making in hard cases. Second, theories of practical reasoning and hybrid expressivism provide a precise theoretical account of (...) the mechanisms at stake. Third, the context of adjudication provides substantial constraints on judicial tasks. (shrink)

This book proposes a novel, descriptive theory that unveils the linguistic mechanisms lurking behind judicial decisions. It offers a comprehensive account of the ongoing debate, as well as a novel solution to the problem of understanding legal pragmatics. Linguistic pragmatics is based on a theory created by Paul Grice, who observed that people usually convey more than just the amalgam of the meaning of the words they use. He labeled this surplus of meaning a “conversational implicature.” This book addresses the (...) question of whether implicatures occur in the legal language, firstly illustrating why the classic Gricean theory is not applicable to the description of legal language and proposing a novel approach based on a modification of Andrei Marmor’s “strategic speech.” Subsequently, it analyzes neo-Gricean theories and their limited use for describing the mechanisms of legal interpretation, and discusses the possibility of pragmatic enrichment of legal content as well as the notion of completeness of a legal proposition. Lastly, it illustrates how the developed theory works in practice, with examples from penal and civil law cases. The book is helpful to legal practitioners, since it provides insights into the reasons for and linguistic mechanisms behind courts’ decisions, but also to philosophers of law, philosophers of language, linguists and non-experts wishing to better understand the mechanisms of legal decision making. (shrink)

Legal and moral luck goes against the basic principle of criminal law that responsibility ascriptions are based on the mental state of the perpetrator, rather than merely the outcome of her action. If outcome should not play a decisive role in responsibility ascriptions, the attempt versus perpetration distinction becomes more difficult to justify. One potential justification is that we never know whether the attempter would not have resigned from pursuing her criminal intent even at the last moment. However, this paper (...) argues that resigning from criminal intent and trying to stop the criminal outcome, which is called the renunciation defense, can be just as subject to outcome luck as the attempt versus perpetration distinction. And yet the availability of the renunciation defense in court is outcome dependent. I show with a series of experiments (N = 479) that outcome dependence for the renunciation defense is perceived as unjust and discuss the implications for the renunciation defense as well as attempt versus perpetration distinction. (shrink)

Ratio Juris, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 191-222, June 2022.

The education is, no doubt, a fundamental question in Plato’s thought. The Republic, considerate by many people as his masterpiece, takes care of this aspect, not without directing it through a political obliquity. In the greek society that honoured, above all, the formation of free citizens, education and politics were necessarily together. Nevertheless, we want to punctuate how, to Plato, both of them are subordinate to the ontological question.

The novel On the rocks o f Calvados is the first and the greatest achievement of Antoni Sygietyński’s art. The author of this article considered the work worthy of a special attention with regard to the way of presenting the problem of adultery. The writer gives the social explanation of infidelity not concentrating on the psychological side of this phenomenon. He emphasizes the decisive role of such social factors as: the origin, the model of education and the social milieu. From (...) his point of view they exert a great influence on the main heroine’s behaviour. The subject of the novel centres around the moral dilemmas of an individual more cultured than her fellow-citizens, who is forced to live in a primitive world. Sygietyński’s heroine, Berta – educated in a monastic school in Caen – experiences a painful disappointment after coming back to her family village. Her imagination, excited by the lecture of sentimental romances, lets her dream of an ideal, romantic love. She has high expectations of life. Unfortunately, the reality by no means resembles the literary world of stormy feelings and passions. Berta feels alienated in her own society as the lifestyle of its members conflicts definitely with her beliefs. It is worth noting that the writer shows a very striking picture of Grandcamp’s community. Its primitive and monotonous existence overwhelms the novel’s heroine. The marriage with a brutal, devoid of sensibility fisherman – Gabriel Orange – deepens much her loneliness. Small wonder then that the arrival of the French engineer to the sea-town arouses hope in Berta’s heart again. Armand de Coux seems to be an embodiment of all her yearnings. Berta Boudard commits adultery trusting that the lover will soon free her from such common and boring inhabitants of the fishermen’s village. On the Rocks o f Calvados is not the only work that points out the sociological aspect of a marital betrayal. Thus, this opinion encourages the reader to make further literary research. (shrink)

The article examines the metamorphosis of the Platonic Principle of Good in the doctrine of Basilides, the 2nd century Christian gnostic. The Basilidian doctrine represents a radical form of dualism, in which the universe ‑ physical and metaphysical ‑ is born from an encounter between Light and Darkness. In his effort to liberate the Light from all contact with Darkness, Basilide refers to several different mediators. Analysing the Basilidian myth in the light of the Platonic writings brings out the paradoxes (...) inherent in any attempts to construct a dualistic metaphysics within the Platonic context. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to present ways in which gestures combine with the verbal layer of an utterance, thus reflecting embodied thinking and the rooting of abstract concepts in human bodily experience. The article discusses two different ways in which gestures, described in the literature as metaphoric, illustrate both linguistically expressed metaphors and abstract concepts that are not verbally expressed as metaphors. The data analyzed in this paper have been taken from speeches of politicians and other public figures.

Comme l’attestent les textes relatifs à la cosmologie de Bardesane, le monde est venu à l’existence à partir des esṭuksē / ītyē, qui correspondraient aux éléments primordiaux de la tradition philosophique grecque. Bien que la cosmologie de Bardesane soit déjà étudiée, les témoignages au sujet des esṭuksē / ītyē contiennent des contradictions difficiles à expliquer. Le présent article propose une nouvelle interprétation de la doctrine de Bardesane, fondée sur la comparaison avec la cosmologie d’Aristote. L’approche aristotélicienne du mouvement des éléments, (...) de leurs qualités et leurs actions réciproques, donne une meilleure compréhension des points obscurs de la doctrine bardesanite et permet de retrouver la cohérence de celle-ci. En outre, le débat engagé par Aristote avec les théories atomistes aide à comprendre la place des perdē – atomes – dans le système de Bardesane. (shrink)

Le Discours contre le Discours « De Domnus » rend compte d’un triple débat, dans lequel trois personnages interviennent sur la question des « incorporels », point difficile de la doctrine stoïcienne. La polémique rédigée par le stoïcien Bardesane, en réaction aux positions du platonicien Albinus, a été examinée par Éphrem le Syrien, chrétien et polémiste antibardesanite. Il est l’auteur du Discours et notre seule source d’information sur cette controverse. Or, la manière dont Éphrem aborde la question litigieuse est spontanément (...) platonicienne, parfois proche du stoïcisme, mais fondamentalement, il s’agit d’une étonnante lecture théologique d’un thème qui fait débat entre les écoles philosophiques. (shrink)

La référence au mythe de Kronos dans l’œuvre de Plotin occupe une place qui n’est pas facile à définir. Ce mythe est peu abordé dans le cadre des travaux sur la métaphysique plotinienne, bien que Kronos - l’Intellect dans ses rapports à l’Un et à l’Âme représente un des points particulièrement sensibles de la doctrine de Plotin. Ce motif est, en revanche, étudié en tant que l’exemple de l’exégèse d’un mythe : consternant, car il n’y a rien de plus éloigné (...) de la version hésiodique des théogonies. L’analyse des quatre fragments relatifs au mythe de Kronos, permet de constater la référence à Platon comme premier objectif de l’exégèse plotinienne. Plotin réalise un étrange « morcellement » du mythe, dont il sépare les personnages et les épisodes pour ensuite les intégrer dans l’architecture de ses discours. Cette attitude a pour résultat des interprétations très audacieuses et parfaitement insérées dans la noétique plotinienne et dans la culture philosophique de son époque. (shrink)

L’oeuvre de Bardesane († 222), un philosophe chrétien gnosticisant de langue syriaque, nous est parvenue sous forme d’un traité, «Livre sur les lois des pays», et de nombreux fragments, souvent transmis par les adversaires de Bardesane et de ses disciples. Tel est le cas des quelques fragments sur la résurrection, conservés par Éphrem le Syrien († 373) dans un Discours contre Bardesane. L’analyse du texte, visant à séparer les positions de Bardesane et celles d’Éphrem, permet de proposer une nouvelle interprétation (...) de l’anthropologie bardesanite dans le contexte de sa théologie de la résurrection. Ainsi on peut noter chez lui une certaine influence de la doctrine stoïcienne de l’âme corporelle, connue également par des auteurs chrétiens du IIe siècle : surtout Tatien († 182) et Tertullien († 220). Le rapprochement avec Justin Martyr († 165) et Athénagore († 190) permet une relecture des idées de Bardesane sur la résurrection et souligne notamment son manque de références aux épîtres de Paul et la conviction que l’âme humaine est la seule concernée par le péché d’Adam et par la résurrection du Christ. (shrink)