Quality is usually considered to be an attribute of an object, its degree of excellence or, more subjectively, fitness for use. Stemming from this point of view, the goal of most ranking systems is to find efficient ways of discovering, or rather uncovering, the quality of specific products or services. However, from a social psychological perspective it seems that the notion of quality belongs predominantly to the realm of social relationships. We argue that quality exists mainly between the users of (...) an object, not within the object itself, and its functions are predominantly social, i.e. promoting interactions, creating a shared reality, or building social relationships. Quality is constructed in social interactions and used as a token therein. In the present paper we outline the social functions of quality, and discuss the implications of this perspective for designing more useful recommendation systems. (shrink)

Modern technology offers an increasing number of tools for teaching mathematics, but technology adoption in schools encounters many barriers. The Technology Acceptance Model explains that technology usage is dependent on intentions, which rest on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Less is known about the relationship between intentions and actual behaviour. In the current study we show that the level of cognitive investment on the part of the teachers, captured by the construct of Need for Cognition (NC), is crucial (...) in the use of technology in mathematical instruction, while controlling for a variety of background factors. Furthermore NC moderates the relationship between intentions and technology use, such that high NC weakens the relationship between the perceived usefulness of technology in pedagogy and its actual use. (shrink)

The paper has two goals. First, I reconstruct Nowak's model of provincialism. Second, I argue that there is no room in this model for an intellectual superpower. An intellectual superpower is not simply a paradigm that is buttressed by economic, political, and social resources. Rather it is a network of paradigms that recognize one another as such. In so doing, they create a new quality on the scientific arena that surpasses all single paradigms.

Contents: Leszek NOWAK, Marcin PAPRZYCKI: Introduction. ON THE NATURE OF SOCIAL SYSTEM. Ulrich K. PREUSS: Political Order and Democracy. Carl Schmitt and his Influence. Katarzyna PAPRZYCKA: A Paradox in Hobbes' Philosophy of Law. Stephen L. ESQUITH: Democratic Political Dialogue. Edward JELINSKI: Democracy in Polish Reformist Socialist Thought. Katarzyna PAPRZYCKA: The Master and Slave Configuration in Hegel's System. Maurice GODELIER: Lévi-Strauss, Marx and After. A reappraisal of structuralist and Marxist tools for analyzing social logics. Krzysztof NIEDZWIADEK: On the (...) Structure of Social System. Waldemar CZAJKOWSKI: Social Being and Its Reproduction. ON RATIONALITY AND CAPTIVITY. Marek ZIO??L??KOWSKI: Power and Knowledge. Leszek NOWAK: Two Inter-Human Limits to the Rationality of Man. Marcin PAPRZYCKI: The non-Christian Model of Man. An Attempt at a Psychoanalytic Explanation. Robert EGIERT: Toward the Sophisticated Rationalistic Model of Man. ON SOCIAL REVOLUTION. Leszek NOWAK: Revolution is an Opaque Progress but a Progress Nonetheless. Katarzyna PAPRZYCKA, Marcin PAPRZYCKI: How Do Enslaved People Make Revolutions? Grzegorz TOMCZAK: Is It Worth Winning a Revolution? Krzysztof BRZECHCZYN: Civil Loop and the Absorption of Elites. Richard C. MCCLEARY: What Makes Marxist Historical Materialism Objective? Grzegorz KOTLARSKI: Classes and Masses in Social Philosophy of Rosa Luxemburg. ON REAL SOCIALISM. Ernest GELLNER: The Civil and the Sacred. Witold MARCISZEWSKI: Economics and the Idea of Information. Why socialism must have collapsed? Leszek NOWAK, Katarzyna PAPRZYCKA, Marcin PAPRZYCKI: On Multilinearity of Socialism. Achim SIEGEL: The Overrepression Cycle in the Soviet Union. An Operationalization of a Theoretical Model. Krzysztof BRZECHCZYN: The State of the Teutonic Order as a Socialist Society. DISCUSSIONS. Richard MCCLEARLY: Socioanalysis and Philosophy. W??l??odzimierz HELLER: The Public and the Private in Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy. Methodological Remarks. Krzysztof BRZECHCZYN: Unsuccessful Conquest and Successful Subordination. A contribution to the theory of intersocial relations. (shrink)

Table of ContentsAndrzej KLAWITER, Krzystof #ASTOWSKI: Introduction: Originality, Courage and Responsibility List of Books by Leszek NowakSelected Bibliography of Leszek Nowak's WritingsScience and Idealization Theo A.F. KUIPERS: On Two ...

The aim of the paper is to propose an understanding of idealization in terms of Nowak’s unitarian metaphysics. Two natural interpretations of the procedure are critically discussed and rejected as inadequate. The first account of idealization is unable to explain why idealized factors cease to exert influence on the investigated magnitude. The second account of idealization solves this problem but does so at the cost of blurring the distinction between idealization and abstruction. Moreover, it faces the consequence that the (...) process of idealization instead of leading to a sharper understanding of phenomena will normally result in making the picture more and more probabilistic. I propose a third account of idealization in unitarian terms that solves all three problems. (shrink)

Recenzja J. Haidt, Prawy umysł. Dlaczego dobrych ludzi dzieli religia i polityka?, przeł. Agnieszka Nowak-Młynikowska, Sopot, Smak Słowa 2014, 447 str.

Kontakty z innymi narodami na przestrzeni dziejów przyczyniają się do przejmowania przez dany system językowy leksyki obcego pochodzenia. W tym momencie zanikają ich pierwotne powiązania z innymi leksemami, które miały w języku wyjściowym. Wchodzą one w nowe relacje semantyczne w danym polu wyrazowym i w ten sposób stają się jego nieodłącznym elementem. Na płaszczyźnie semantycznej podlegają procesowi asymilacji, co znacznie wpływa na strukturę danego pola wyrazowego i przyczynia się do zmian w jego obrębie. Zapożyczenia z innego języka mogą ze względu (...) na swe znaczenie stać się w danych polach hiperonimami lub też pojawić się w nowym otoczeniu leksykalnym obok rodzimych synonimów i pojawić się tam jako hiponimy i kohiponimy. Ich użycie zależy jedynie od użytkownika języka, w zależności od kontekstu językowego i sytuacyjnego. Niniejszy artykuł obejmuje analizę grupy rzeczowej PRASA I DRUKARSTWO we współczesnej polszczyźnie wraz z jej polami wyrazowymi w aspekcie zapożyczeń ze źródła niemieckiego. (shrink)

MacKay and Robinson (2016) claim that some legal procedures that regulate organ donations (VAC, opt-in, opt-out) bypass people's rational capacities and thus are “potentially morally worse than MAC”, which only employs a very mild form of coercion. We provide a critique of their argumentation and defend the opposite thesis: MAC is potentially morally worse than the three other options.

Na pocz¸a}tku XXI wieku zachodz¸a} istotne przemiany w relacjach pracy i czasu wolnego. Dostrzega siȩ też rozwój gospodarki kreatywnej wraz z wyłanianiem siȩ nowej stratyfikacji społecznej i zmian¸a} czynników rozwojowych. Coraz wiȩksze znaczenie w przemianach społeczno-gospodarczych ma sektor kultury oraz działania na rzecz kształtowania przemysłów kultury i kreatywnych, wraz z ich powi¸a}zaniami z sektorami zależnymi jak np. turystyka, architektura i wzornictwo przemysłowe. Celem artykułu jest odniesienie tych procesów i zjawisk do warunków województwa podlaskiego oraz przybliżenie głównych przesłanek powołania Regionalnego Obserwatorium (...) Kultury. Artykuł wskazuje na potrzebȩ i potencjalne korzyści z zarz¸a}dzania wiedz¸a na temat kultury na poziomie regionalnym poprzez prowadzenie prac teoretycznych i metodologicznych w ramach obserwatorium. Opracowanie na podstawie analizy danych zastanych i wyników badań własnych zwraca uwagȩ na główne cechy regionu, potrzeby informacyjne instytucji kulturalnych i artystycznych, możliwe modele obserwatorium kultury, potencjalne obszary działalności obserwatorium i korzyści z niej wynikaj¸ace. ** At the beginning of the XXI century, there are significant changes in relations of work and leisure time. The development of creative economy is also recognized along with emergence of a new social stratification and changes in developmental factors. Increasingly im- portant in the socio-economic transformation is cultural sector as well as promotion of culture and creative industries development including their linkages with dependent sectors such as tourism, architecture and industrial design. The aim of this article is to refer these processes and phenomena to the conditions of Podlaskie Voivodship and to discuss the main reasons of Regional Observatory of Culture establishment. Article indicates the need for and potential benefits of knowledge management on culture at the regional level by conducting theoretical and methodological work within the observatory. Essay based on an analysis of existing data and own research results highlights the main features of the region, information needs of cultural and art institutions, culture observatory possible models, potential activity areas of the regional observatory and the arising benefits from its activities. (shrink)

Badania prezentowane w niniejszej publikacji miały na celu dostarczenie danych koniecznych do prowadzenia polskiej polityki zagranicznej rozszerzonej o wymiar samorządowy i obywatelski w województwie podlaskim. Głównym celem diagnozy było zbadanie, jak jednostki samorządu terytorialnego, organizacje pozarządowe, przedsiębiorstwa oraz uczelnie wyższe nawiązywały współpracę transgraniczną z partnerami na Litwie, Białorusi, Ukrainie i w Rosji (Obwód Kaliningradzki). W publikacji wskazano miejsca największego potencjału, jak również barier na drodze do takiej współpracy w regionie. Zwrócono szczególną uwagę na kooperację tych podmiotów, łączenie swoich potencjałów i (...) tworzenie wspólnych projektów. * Studies presented in this publication were aimed at provide data necessary for the conducting of local government and citizenship dimension of the enlarged Polish foreign policy in Podlaskie region. The main objective was to investigate the diagnosis, as the local government units, non-governmental organizations, businesses and universities alluded cross-border cooperation with partners in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia (Kaliningrad). The publication indicated areas of the greatest potential, as well as barriers to such cooperation in the region. Particular attention was paid to the cooperation of these entities, combining their potentials and create joint projects. (shrink)

(1998). Collectivism on the horizon: A challenge to Pettit's critique of collectivism. Australasian Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 76, No. 2, pp. 165-181.

I have two aims for the present paper, one narrow and one broad. The narrow aim is to show that a class of data originally described by Lynsey Wolter empirically undermine the leading treatments of complex demonstratives that have been described in the literature. The broader aim of the paper is to show that Wolter demonstratives, as I will call the constructions I focus on, are a threat not just to existing treatments, but to any possible theory that retains the (...) uncontroversial assumptions that relative clauses always form a constituent with the nouns they modify, and that semantic composition proceeds sequentially and locally, with the inputs to interpretation having the structure syntax tells us they do. (shrink)

There are exactly two nonfinitely axiomatizable algebraic matrices with one binary connective o such thatx(yz) is a tautology of . This answers a question asked by W. Rautenberg in [2], P. Wojtylak in [8] and W. Dziobiak in [1]. Since every 2-element matrix can be finitely axiomatized ([3]), the matrices presented here are of the smallest possible size and in some sense are the simplest possible.

Two different kinds of multiple-conclusion consequence relations taken from Shoesmith and Smiley and Galatos and Tsinakis or Nowak, called here disjunctive and conjunctive, respectively, defined on a formal language, are considered. They are transferred into a bounded lattice and a complete lattice, respectively. The properties of such abstract consequence relations are presented.

In this paper, I argue that the ‘social meanings’ associated with sociolinguistic variation put pressure on the standard philosophical conception of language, according to which the foremost thing we do with words is exchange information. Drawing on parallels with the explanatory challenge posed by slurs and pejoratives, I argue that the best way to understand social meanings is to think of them in speech act theoretic terms. I develop a distinctive form of pluralism about the performances realized by means of (...) sociolinguistic variants, and I claim that engagement with such performances is an utterly pervasive feature of our linguistic activity. (shrink)

According to the mainstream position in the bioethical definition of death debate, death is to be equated with the cessation of an organism. Given such a perspective, some bioethicists uphold the position that brain-dead patients are dead, while others claim that they are alive. Regardless of the specific opinion on the status of brain-dead patients, the mere bioethical concept of death, according to many bioethicists, has the merit of being unanimous and univocal, as well as grounded in biology. In the (...) present article, we challenge such a thesis. We provide evidence that theoretical biology operates with a plurality of equally valid organismic concepts, which imply different conclusions regarding the organismal status of a brain-dead patient. Moreover, the theoretical biology concepts of an organism are very distant from the view on an organism that appears by way of bioethicists theorizing on death. We conclude that if death is to be understood as the cessation of an organism, there is no single correct answer to the question of whether a brain-dead patient is alive or dead. (shrink)

We show that the variety of equivalential algebras with regularization gives the algebraic semantics for the -fragment of intuitionistic propositional logic. We also prove that this fragment is hereditarily structurally complete.

In the paper, tracing the traditional Hilbert-style syntactic account of logics, a syntactic characteristic of a closure operation defined on a complete lattice follows. The approach is based on observation that the role of rule of inference for a given consequence operation may be played by an ordinary binary relation on the complete lattice on which the closure operation is defined.

According to explanatory individualism, every action must be explained in terms of an agent's desire. According to explanatory nonindividualism, we sometimes act on our desires, but it is also possible for us to act on others' desires without acting on desires of our own. While explanatory nonindividualism has guided the thinking of many social scientists, it is considered to be incoherent by most philosophers of mind who insist that actions must be explained ultimately in terms of some desire of the (...) agent. In the first part of the paper, I show that some powerful arguments designed to demonstrate the incoherence of explanatory nonindividualism fail. In the second part of the paper, I offer a nonindividualist explanation of the apparent obviousness of belief-desire psychology. I argue that there are two levels of the intelligibility of our actions. On the more fundamental (explanatory) level, the question "Why did the agent do something?" admits a variety of folk-psychological categories. But there is another (formation-of-self) level, at which the same question admits only of answers that ultimately appeal only to the agent's own desires. Explanatory individualism results from the confusion of the two levels. (shrink)

The Nuremberg Trial is of paramount importance, first of all, in historic and legal terms, as it laid the foundations for an international justice system that had no precedent in history, but also in linguistic terms, as it marks the very beginning of simultaneous interpretation and the modern profession of interpreting. By analysing the testimonies of those exceptional interpreters who were ensuring the communication in four languages before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, we will highlight the linguistic and technical (...) challenges they were facing as well as the deeply personal struggles they had to overcome, in particular on a psychological and ethical level, while taking part in a worldwide historic event. The aim of this article is to deepen the current state of research on simultaneous interpretation, but above all to pay tribute to these remarkable interpreters and translators who made history with their pioneering work and their legendary accomplishments in Nuremberg.RésuméLe procès de Nuremberg revêt une importance capitale non seulement sur le plan historique et juridique, car il permet de jeter les bases d’une justice internationale sans précédent dans l’histoire, mais aussi sur le plan linguistique, car il marque l’avènement de l’interprétation simultanée et de la profession moderne d’interprète. L’analyse des témoignages de grands interprètes assurant la communication en quatre langues devant le Tribunal Militaire International à Nuremberg nous permet de mettre en exergue des problèmes linguistiques, les difficultés techniques et les obstacles liés à la nature humaine, tant psychologiques qu’éthiques auxquels étaient confrontés les interprètes et les traducteurs assistant à cet événement à l’échelle mondiale. Le présent article vise à approfondir l’état actuel des recherches sur l’interprétation simultanée, mais surtout à rendre hommage aux interprètes et traducteurs pionniers dont le travail remarquable à Nuremberg a marqué l’histoire du métier. (shrink)

Standard semantic theories predict that non-deictic readings for complex demonstratives should be much more widely available than they in fact are. If such readings are the result of a lexical ambiguity, as Kaplan (in: Almog, Perry, Wettstein (eds) Themes from Kaplan, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1977) and others suggest, we should expect them to be available wherever a definite description can be used. The same prediction follows from ‘hidden argument’ theories like the ones described by King (Complex Demonstratives: a Quantificational (...) Account, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2001) and Elbourne (Situations and Individuals, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2005). Wolter (That’s That; the Semantics and Pragmatics of Demonstrative Noun Phrases. Ph.D. thesis, University of California at Santa Cruz, 2006), however, has shown that complex demonstratives admit non-deictic interpretations only when a precise set of structural constrains are met. In this paper, I argue that Wolter’s results, properly understood, upend the philosophical status quo. They fatally undermine the ambiguity theory and demand a fundamental rethinking of the hidden argument approach. (shrink)

The first comprehensive study of Santayana’s political thought as connected to his cultural criticism. It ranges over topics such as Santayana’s political ontology, his criticism of democracy, liberalism, and communism, his views on freedom and forms of human servitude.

In The Ancients and Shakespeare on Time Piotr Nowak depicts a world where tradition – devoid of gravity, “Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything” – attempts to curb the young and new, while youth resists with all its power, vitality and characteristic insolence. The wars of generations, which Nowak explores in the works of Plato, Aristophanes and Shakespeare, pertain to the essence and meaning of time. They make up the dramatic tensions in the transgenerational dialogue between (...) the old and the young. (shrink)

What determines the meaning of a context-sensitive expression in a context? It is standardly assumed that, for a given expression type, there will be a unitary answer to this question; most of the literature on the subject involves arguments designed to show that one particular metasemantic proposal is superior to a specific set of alternatives. The task of the present essay will be to explore whether this is a warranted assumption, or whether the quest for the one true metasemantics might (...) be a Quixotic one. We argue that there are good reasons—much better than are commonly appreciated—for thinking the latter, but that there nevertheless remains significant scope for metasemantic theorizing. We conclude by outlining our preferred option, metasemantic pluralism. (shrink)

Despite its status at the heart of a closely related field, philosophers have so far mostly overlooked a phenomenon sociolinguists call ‘social meaning’. My aim in this paper will be to show that by properly acknowledging the significance of social meanings, we can identify an important new set of forms that discursive injustice takes. I begin by surveying some data from variationist sociolinguistics that reveal how subtle differences in the way a particular content is expressed allow us to perform importantly (...) different illocutionary actions, actions we use to do things like constructing a public persona and building a rapport with an audience. The social importance of these activities and the pervasiveness of our engagement in them means that the ethical stakes involved are high—substantial injustices may result if speakers from different social groups are differently empowered with regard to the illocutionary possibilities made available to them by variation. (shrink)

Recent literature has suggested that generics can harbor and propagate worrying ideologies in a manner which is often not appreciated by speakers. In this article, I argue that the use of generics to convey information about mental illness is unhelpful, whether the knowledge structure conveyed by the generic is 'accurate' or not. Inaccurate generics contribute to insidious forms of social stereotyping and stigma by encouraging us to simplistically generalize characteristics found in very few category members to other members of that (...) kind.Yet, even where the knowledge structure underlying the generic is accurate, generics remain an unhelpful way of talking about mental illness. This is because... (shrink)

Pragmatics and dialectics are two disciplines which have been amongst the first and most important partners for argument studies in the exploration of the complex realm of communication. Treating argumentation as a construct consisting of premises and conclusion allows for investigating some interesting properties of the phenomenon of reasoning, but does not capture a variety of aspects related to the usage of natural language and dialogical context in which real-life argumentation is typically embedded. This special issue explores some of the (...) fascinating research questions which emerge when we move beyond logic into the territory of the pragmatics and dialectics of argument. (shrink)

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has transgressed biomedical categories. According to Horton, it turned out to be a 'syndrome' that infected virtually all spheres of social life. The pandemic has created toxic social atmosphere highly unfavorable to clinical and clinic-ethical decision making. Constraints and pressures related to micro-, meso-, exo- and macro-environments framing doctors, nurses, and medical students in training were identified. These factors exacerbated moral distress (moral injury) amongst clinicians. In a joint Polish-Lithuanian project (IDUB 2020-2022) we examined predictors of moral (...) distress in pandemic clinical contexts. A survey-based, real-time, correlational and comparative study was conducted in Poland and Lithuania after the first year of pandemic with N=227 participants. Unexpected differences on regular and pandemic-type moral distress levels were found between the two national samples. Polish participants showed significantly higher moral distress levels than their Lithuanian counterparts. The following article discusses these findings and recommends the reinforcement of resilient medical decision making. (shrink)