The experimental philosophy of law is a recent movement that aims to inform traditional debates in jurisprudence by conducting empirical research. This paper introduces and provides a systematic overview of the main lines of research in this field. It also covers the most important debates in the literature regarding the implications of these findings for the philosophy and theory of law. It argues that three challenges arise when addressing (old) legal-philosophical questions in (new) experimental ways by drawing normative implications from (...) empirical data: such implications are value-driven, depend on explanations of empirical findings and vary across legal systems. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie Jahrgang: 97 Heft: 2 Seiten: 196-233.

The article explores the idea that according to Spinoza finite thought and substantial thought represent reality in different ways. It challenges “acosmic” readings of Spinoza's metaphysics, put forth by readers like Hegel, according to which only an infinite, undifferentiated substance genuinely exists, and all representations of finite things are illusory. Such representations essentially involve negation with respect to a more general kind. The article shows that several common responses to the charge of acosmism fail. It then argues that we must (...) distinguish the well-founded ideality of representations of finite things from mere illusoriness, insofar as for Spinoza we can have true knowledge of what is known only abstractly. Finite things can be seen as well-founded beings of reason. The article also proposes that within Spinoza's framework it is possible to represent a finite thing without drawing on representations of mind-dependent entities. (shrink)

The chief concern of the paper is to initiate discussion on the difference between the private and public power of judgement. The inspiration comes from Kant and his conception of the power of judgement, customs, morality and provisional law.

At least many conditionals seem to convey the existence of a link between their antecedent and consequent. We draw on a recently proposed typology of conditionals to revive an old philosophical idea according to which the link is inferential in nature. We show that the proposal has explanatory force by presenting empirical results on two Dutch linguistic markers.

The paper explores situational and dispositional underpinnings of cooperative behavior. According to psychological research, cooperation is strongly related to affective states and personality dimensions. In an experimental study we examined the conditions under which people cooperate with each other. The dispositional traits of co-workers, the contribution to a collaborative effort, and a situational factor – ambient odor condition were taken into consideration. A one-way ANOVA revealed that compared to a malodorous condition, both the pleasant odor condition and the natural odor (...) condition showed higher rates of cooperation. Further analysis indicated that only malodors influenced affective states which in turn determined social decisions. Although we found effects for the participants’ agreeableness and the coworker’s contribution to a joint work, they appeared to play a less critical role than affective states induced by the experimental odor conditions tested here. (shrink)

Im Mittelpunkt dieser Festschrift für Professorin Joanna Jabłkowska stehen Fragen, die im Zusammenhang mit dem kulturwissenschaftlichen ethical turn in der rezenten literaturwissenschaftlichen Forschung diskutiert werden. Der Zusammenhang zwischen Ethik und Literatur wird sowohl theoretisch erfasst als auch in zahlreichen Einzelanalysen literarischer Werke diskutiert. Die literaturwissenschaftliche Perspektive wird ergänzt durch philosophische und politische Betrachtungsweisen.

The main purpose of this article is to show some processes of the growth of knowledge. An astrophysical case: a problem of planets around pulsars formation is studied. In the first part reasons for taking this problem are presented. Then some historical facts about discoveries of planets around pulsars are mentioned. The paper focuses on three cases: PSR1257+12, PSR1620-26 and PSR J 1719-1438. In second part of the article the changes in the theoretical point of view, which occured during the (...) last twenty years, are presented. At the end the attempt is made to describe the process of the growth of the planets around pulsars within the framework of formation. (shrink)

According to the Principle of Conditional Non-Contradiction (CNC), conditionals of the form “If p, q” and “If p, not q” cannot both be true, unless p is inconsistent. This principle is widely regarded as an adequacy constraint on any semantics that attributes truth conditions to conditionals. Gibbard has presented an example of a pair of conditionals that, in the context he describes, appear to violate CNC. He concluded from this that conditionals lack truth conditions. We argue that this conclusion is (...) rash by proposing a new diagnosis of what is going on in Gibbard’s argument. We also provide empirical evidence in support of our proposal. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze technical and internal aspects of one particular type of human moral enhancement, i.e. enhancement of moral motivation via direct emotion modulation. More precisely, it challenges the assumption that modifying certain emotions will have the results desired by the advocates of this theory. It is argued that neuropsychological understanding of the role and function of emotions, as well as of underlying cognitive mechanisms, might be relevant for the discussion about biomedical enhancement of moral capacities. Moreover, typical (...) claims about direct emotion modulation seem to be contradicted, or at least seriously challenged, by available neuroscientific data. Particular attention is paid to the theory that emotions are evolved and functionally specialized programs whose task is to coordinate other adaptive mechanisms of human psychology in order to promote one’s fitness. If this view of emotions is plausible, it can be argued that several difficulties for moral bioenhancement theory ensue. Neuroscientific and evolutionary-psychological perspective seem to indicate that emotions don’t fulfill necessary requirements to serve as the vehicles of moral enhancement and it should, therefore, take into account role and function of entire cognitive modules associated with moral decision-making. (shrink)

The paper examines a relatively neglected element of Spinoza's theory of mind-body relations: the intentional relation between human minds and bodies, which for Spinoza constitutes their “union”. Prima facie textual evidence suggests, and many readers agree, that because for Spinoza human minds are essentially ideas of bodies, Spinoza is also committed to an ontological and explanatory dependence of certain properties of human minds on properties of bodies, and thus to a version of materialism. The paper argues that such dependence would (...) contradict Spinoza's key epistemological commitments, including the explanatory closure of mental and physical realms, and Spinoza’s claim that all knowledge is knowledge of a thing's causes. The paper argues that Spinoza's dual-reality theory of representation allows us to interpret the intentional relation between human minds and bodies in a way that does not commit Spinoza to a problematic dependence of minds on bodies. This is possible if we take Spinoza's references to properties of bodies in his account of the human mind as references to objectively real bodies, that is as references to the immanent representational content of human minds. (shrink)

The article proposes a new solution to the long-standing problem of the universality of essences in Spinoza's ontology. It argues that, according to Spinoza, particular things in nature possess unique essences, but that these essences coexist with more general, mind-dependent species-essences, constructed by finite minds on the basis of similarities that obtain among the properties of formally-real particulars. This account provides the best fit both with the textual evidence and with Spinoza's other metaphysical and epistemological commitments. The article offers new (...) readings of how Spinoza understands not just the nature of essence, but also the nature of being, reason, striving, definitions, and different kinds of knowledge. (shrink)

Reasoning with conditionals is central to everyday life, yet there is long-standing disagreement about the meaning of the conditional. One example is the puzzle of so-called missing-link conditionals such as "if raccoons have no wings, they cannot breathe under water." Their oddity may be taken to show that conditionals require a connection between antecedent ("raccoons have no wings") and consequent ("they cannot breathe under water"), yet most accounts of conditionals attribute the oddity to natural language pragmatics. We present an experimental (...) study disentangling the pragmatic requirement of discourse coherence from a stronger notion of connection: probabilistic relevance. Results indicate that mere discourse coherence is not enough to make conditionals assertable. (shrink)

This essay is about the role of visual surveillance technologies in the policing of the external borders of the European Union. Based on an analysis of documents published by EU institutions and independent organizations, I argue that these technological innovations fundamentally alter the nature of national borders. I discuss how new technologies of vision are deployed to transcend the physical limits of territories. In the last twenty years, EU member states and institutions have increasingly relied on various forms of remote (...) tracking, including the use of drones for the purposes of monitoring frontier zones. In combination with other facets of the EU border management regime, these technologies coalesce into a system of governance that has enabled intervention into neighboring territories and territorial waters of other states to track and target migrants for interception in the “prefrontier.” For jurisdictional reasons, this practice effectively precludes the enforcement of legal human rights obligations, which European states might otherwise have with regard to these persons. This article argues that this technologically mediated expansion of vision has become a key feature of post–cold war governance of borders in Europe. The concept of transterritory is proposed to capture its effects. (shrink)

When selecting between applicants for a job, when and how should we take into account the reactions that they elicit from others? On one hand, applicants’ “reaction qualifications” often speak to their merit, in which case we seem required to consider them. On the other hand, others’ reactions are often rooted in prejudicial attitudes, in which case considering reaction qualifications can make the hiring process prejudicial. According to a popular view, we should refrain from considering reaction qualifications just in case (...) there are weighty moral reasons against doing so. I argue that this morality-based approach fails. Instead, we should refrain from considering reaction qualifications just in case considering them would render a selection procedure non-transparent or discriminatory. If consideration of a reaction qualification would have either effect, the reaction qualification does not confer merit and so should not be considered by selectors. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to study the level of knowledge and declared behaviour towards the environment among academic teachers at one of the Polish universities. In the theorertical part the main assumptions of the grounded theory are presented. Next, research methodology is presented. The research was conducted in September 2017 among twenty academic teachers in the faculty of humanisties and natural sciences. As the result of the analyses of the data, two hypotheses were verified. They concerned knowledge and (...) attitudes. Academic teachers of the natural sciences presented broader natural knbowledge than the academic teachers of the humanities. The declared behaviour of respondents did not depend on the state of their knowledge. Both naturalists and humanists advocated for the need to protect environment and take action for the environment. As the result of the analysis two hypotheses were adopted. (shrink)

Moral bioenhancement (MBE) is often associated with a consequentialist, especially utilitarian, framework, owing to its capacity to prevent great harm and motivate acts in accordance with basic moral principles such us universal impartial altruism or benevolence. However, it remains unclear whether we could de facto justify MBE on utilitarian grounds. This article examines whether there is a plausible utilitarian case for MBE and what the obstacles for justifying MBE on utilitarian grounds could be. More specifically, it explores the relationship between (...) MBE and basic utilitarian principles, as well as its effects on utilitarian moral judgment. It seems that MBE could modify moral agents in ways that would accord with the main utilitarian demands and facilitate the adoption and realization of utilitarian prescriptions. Although MBE would, in principle, create preconditions for achieving utilitarian ends, I argue that there are certain limits to this claim. I identify and elaborate several ways in which MBE could undermine utilitarian moral judgment. (shrink)

Due to the growing importance of local pro-development attitudes and non-governmental organizations for development, it is important to look at their activities in different subregions. In this work the author presents the results of research carried out in the Leszno subregion on the presence of elements of social capital, the organizational and financial sustainability of NGOs, and their cooperation with public administration in the context of their impact on local development. In addition, through a comparative analysis of selected issues, it (...) recalls the good practices of NGOs in Switzerland which, because of the long tradition of their operation and the experience gained, can also be used in Polish settings. (shrink)

This text refers to the reluctance Polish philosopher, Marian Zdziechowski, to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Zdziechowski ignored Nietzsche’s achievements, thoughthim to be overtly harmful. The text argues that if he paid a little more attention to the thought of German philosopher, he could noticed a lot of valuable thoughts to yourself. These are mainly: criticism of German society, pessimism as a starting point in reflections, the criticism of the Church, as well as analysis of the Jewish people.

Zrozumienie i zastosowanie zasad projektowania graficznego w plakacie naukowym może dostarczyć korzyści praktycznych, takich jak przyciągnięcie i utrzymanie uwagi odbiorców, a także korzyści merytorycznych, czyli pomocy w komunikowaniu treści. Te drugie opierają się między innymi na koncepcji wizualnej gramatyki (opisanej przez Kress i Van Leeuwen [2006] i zastosowanej do analizy plakatu naukowego przez D’Angelo [2010]), wedle której elementy wizualne przekazują znaczenie w sposób podobny do języka, i tak jak język posiadają swoją gramatykę: zasady ich zastosowania i prezentacji, które mają wpływ (...) na wyrażany przez nie sens. Poster pokazuje zastosowanie wizualnej gramatyki w plakacie naukowym na przykładzie jednego z elementów wizualnych plakatu, który często jest niedoceniany: pustej przestrzeni. (shrink)

The main aim of this article is to show how the notion of refutation has been changing in logic for the last few years. The idea of refutation was known to Aristotle, but the formal concept was introduced by Jan Łukasiewicz. Afterwards this notion was investigated by the Polish group of logicians headed by Jerzy Słupecki. Several interesting articles about refutation have appeared in the last years. In this article, I present in outline the history of the notion of refutation (...) and I discuss recent applications of refutation systems both in the theoretical and practical approach. (shrink)

This book offers a welcome synthesis of what we may tentatively label as ancient Greek conceptions regarding the world after death. It assumes a dual methodological perspective, that of historical anthropology and that of the history of religions. It is aimed at a general reader, especially Italian (e.g., p. 11), but scholars of many disciplines will undoubtedly benefit from the variety of interesting observations and the perspective on the topic it provides. The book opens with an introducti...