In recent years, development practice has seen that microfinance institutions are starting to consider their environmental bottom line in addition to their financial and social objectives. Yet, little is known about the characteristics of institutions involved in environmental management. This paper empirically identifies the characteristics of these MFIs for the first time using a sample of 160 microfinance institutions worldwide. Basing our analysis on various econometric tests, we find that larger MFIs and MFIs registered as banks tend to perform better (...) in environmental policy and environmental risk assessment. Furthermore, more mature MFIs tend to have better environmental performances, in particular in providing green microcredit and environmental non-financial services. On the other hand, financial performance is not significantly related to environmental performance, suggesting that ‘green’ MFIs are not more or less profitable than other microfinance institutions. (shrink)

Consistent application of dialectical materialism leads Marxism-Leninism to the assertion that matter is infinite in its properties. However, the history of physics shows that the various levels of matter possess geometric dimensions that originate at the lowest level and continue through the others. The search for absolute natural constants -- which Planck called the most pleasant task of physics -- shows the conviction of the physicists that there is a limit to the parameters, a limit beyond which matter is no (...) longer divisible. (shrink)

The paper outlines ongoing research on logic-based tools for the analysis and representation of legal contracts, of the kind frequently encountered in large-scale engineering projects and complex, long-term trading agreements. We consider both contract formation and contract performance, in each case identifying the representational issues and the prospects for providing automated support tools.

The years in which Piłsudski headed the Polish state marked his “golden age” in Polish history, a period considered as the least controversial in his career despite the failure of his federation concept and troubles with Polish national leaders in the west, especially Upper Silesia. Piłsudski’s achievements in those years are numerous and important, they include among others: the definition of Poland’s borders after military victories over the Ukrainian, Bolshevik and Lithuanian armies and in result of insurgencies in Wielkopolska and (...) Silesia, the securement of international recognition for Poland, the construction of parliamentary democracy and local government, the promotion of a national service ethos through schools, the church, the armed forces and the media. (shrink)

Descriptions of bodies within the literature of the enactive approach to cognitive science exhibit an interesting dialectical tension. On the one hand, a body is considered to be a unity which instantiates an identity, forming an intrinsic basis for value. On the other, a living body is in a reciprocally defining relationship with the environment, and is therefore immersed and entangled with, rather than distinct from, its environment. In this paper I examine this tension, and its implications for the enactive (...) approach, particularly the enactive conceptions of life and bodies. Following the lead of others, I argue that enactive cognitive science can benefit from a deeper reading and integration with extant work on the complexity and multiplicity of the living body within feminist philosophy and feminist science studies. (shrink)

W projekcie badawczym, który w zamyśle będzie składał się z dwóch merytorycznie i logicznie powiązanych artykułów, formułujemy taki schemat pojęciowy, w którym adekwatna staje się charakterystyka struktur fraktalnych w kategoriach filozoficznej koncepcji emergencji. W pracy pierwszej przedstawiamy główne idee filozofii emergencji oraz dokonujemy prób uchwycenia w procesie generowania fraktali jednostek emergentnych. Pozostajemy jednak w obrębie klasycznego rozumienia badanej relacji. W pracy drugiej, na podstawie zademonstrowanych słabości ujęć klasycznych, jako niewystarczających w specyficznym kontekście badanych struktur matematycznych, pokazujemy, że dyskurs nad emergencją (...) w matematyce staje się sensowny i uprawniony w ugruntowanym w filozofii nauk formalnych quasi-empirycznym podejściu do niektórych zagadnień w matematyce. (shrink)

Jeden z kontrargumentów do argumentu z ukrycia Boga, który zyskuje popularność w ostatnich latach, odnosi się do niepojętości Boga. Jeśli Bóg jest transcendentny, twierdzą zwolennicy tego argumentu (tj. Michael Rea i Roger Pouivet), to nie wiemy, czy Boska miłość wyraża się w otwarciu na osobiste relacje ze skończonymi istotami, jak twierdzi pierwsza przesłanka argumentu o ukrytości. Oskarżają J. L. Schellenberga o kształtowanie koncepcji Boga na wzór współczesnych koncepcji człowieka. W odpowiedzi wskazuję na fakt, że chociaż w pismach Schellenberga istnieje niebezpieczeństwo (...) antropomorfizmu, personalistyczny teizm musi zaakceptować pierwszą przesłankę argumentu z ukrycia. Uzasadniam swoją tezę, odwołując się do zasady scholastycznej, która pozwala przypisać Bogu wszystkie doskonałości, i argumentując na rzecz tezy, że osobowość (rozumiana w kategoriach racjonalności i wolności) jest jedną z doskonałości. (shrink)

Proofs of two interpolation theorems for Sentential Calculus with Identity as well as some general comments on sentential interpolation are given.

Fermented dairy products such as yogurt contain many bioactive compounds. In addition, probiotic yogurts are an invaluable source of probiotic bacteria and are a group of probiotic products best accepted by children. There is plenty of research indicating an interdependence between yogurt consumption, body mass index, and adipose tissue percentage, which suggests that yogurt consumption may contribute to reducing the risk of becoming overweight or obese. In turn, the occurrence of overweight and obesity may be accompanied by a reduced sensitivity (...) to sweetness, which modifies food preference selection and acceptance, including with yogurt. This study aimed to assess the preferences and consumption of yogurt in terms of sensitivity to recognize sweetness and obesity in a group of 7–9-year-old children. Body mass index and adipose tissue percentage obesity indicators were determined, and the frequency of fermented milk product consumption was assessed about the results of the sweetness recognition test as well as yogurt preferences. There was no significant relationship between body weight and the frequency of fermented milk product consumption. Correlations were found between the values of body mass index and the ability to recognize sweetness, which was significantly better recognized by underweight children or at normal body weight, moreover, those children with a higher ability to recognize sweetness significantly more frequently preferred plain unsweetened yogurt. (shrink)

Tak zwany spór o panteizm był istotnym wydarzeniem filozoficznym w niemieckim krajobrazie intelektualnym dwóch ostatnich dekad XVIII wieku, który spowodował jednocześnie odrodzenie zainteresowania Spinozą w Niemczech. Istnieje ogromna literatura dotycząca tego sporu z perspektywy zarówno filozoficznej, jak i czysto historiograficznej, jednakże pomimo intensywnie dyskutowanej tetralogii Jonathana I. Israela na temat historii oświecenia, wciąż brakuje nowej, szerszej debaty wokół relacji sporu o panteizm do globalnej dynamiki późnego oświecenia i jego wewnętrznych napięć. W artykule omawiane są kluczowe idee sformułowane przez Herdera, Goethego, (...) Fichtego, Kanta, Schleiermachera i Novalisa jako odpowiedzi na 'wyzwanie panteistyczne', które w formie prowokacji przedstawił Jacobi, a następnie pokazane jest, w jaki sposób ujawniają one pewne zasadnicze ideologiczne napięcia typowe dla nowoczesności. Wskazane są dwie podstawowe osie jako środki ciężkości całego sporu: oś transcendencji/immanencji oraz oś autonomii/heteronomii. Twierdzi się, że historyczny fenomen 'panteizmu' nie powinien być a priori wiązany z pewnym konkretnym emancypacyjnym potencjałem, lecz raczej potraktowany jako rodzaj 'soczewki' albo 'narzędzia sondującego' słabe punkty oświecenia i jego zaniedbane problemy, które w wielu przypadkach zostały wykorzystane przez kontroświeceniową reakcję. Podkreśla się jednak, że panteizm jako idea odegrał fundamentalną rolę w szybkim procesie de-eschatologizacji i jednocześnie jest znaczącym symptomem politycznej reorientacji w obrębie nowoczesności w sposób, który jednak nie ma nic wspólnego z tak zwaną klasyczną 'tezą o sekularyzacji' Löwitha, Schmitta czy Taubesa. (shrink)

This study aims to identify various meanings of the expression (name) “dignity”, with particular emphasis on the meanings of this expression as it appears in the text of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The meaning of the name “dignity” is the concept of dignity; in turn, the different concepts of dignity encompass dignity of particular types. Twelve different meanings of the expression “dignity” are indicated – twelve different concepts of dignity, and thus twelve types of dignity. Half of (...) them are meanings (concepts) that recognize dignity as something belonging to a human being as a subject of law. They were considered in the essay Godność jako właściwość osoby. Typy godności – propozycja systematyzacji [Dignity as a Quality of Person – a Proposed Systematisation]. This group of meanings includes three concepts of dignity which recognize dignity as something constitutive of being a person: (1) inherent dignity of the person, (2) dignity established by qualities specific to a thinking being, and (3) dignity as a historically emergent social status of all human beings. The second group of meanings, treating dignity as something with which the human being (the person) is endowed, includes concepts which encompass (4) personal dignity (honour and good reputation), (5) dignity as moral excellence, and (6) dignity as appropriateness of attitude or behaviour. -/- Dignity as an attribute of collective entities and dignity as an institutionally grounded attribute are a subject of this paper. The Constitution of the Republic of Poland speaks of (1) the dignity of the Nation, (2) the dignity of office or function, and (3) public dignity. The expression “the dignity of the Nation” can be understood in four different ways: (i) analogously to the understanding of dignity of the person, (ii) of personal dignity, (iii) of dignity as moral excellence, and (iv) of dignity as appropriateness of attitude or behaviour. The expression “dignity” when designating something institutionally grounded can designate (4) the dignity of social roles, (5) the dignity of a profession, and – specifically to the Polish language – (6) dignity meaning a surname. -/- The author argues that it is unacceptable to ascribe different concepts of dignity to the expression “dignity” appearing in a specific legal provision. (shrink)

Artykuł jest odpowiedzią na polemikę Stanisława Ruczaja z argumentem z Wcielenia, który został zaprezentowany w książce Ukrytość i Wcielenie. Teistyczna odpowiedź na argument Johna L. Schellenberga za nieistnieniem Boga. Ruczaj zarzuca tzw. obronie inkarnacyjnej, że nie rozważa ona możliwości, zgodnie z którą Bóg jest zarazem wcielony, jak i nieukryty. W niniejszym artykule koncentruję się na uzasadnieniu, dlaczego uważam, że jest możliwe, iż owa opcja jest dla Boga wykluczona. Według mnie istnieją racje przemawiające za tym, że jest ona (a) logicznie sprzeczna, (...) (b) niespójna z doskonałym moralnie charakterem Boga, (c) nie skutkowałaby wyeliminowaniem niewiary bez oporu we Wcielenie. (shrink)

While traditionally identified as a practice-based endeavour, the many dimensions of teacher education raise important philosophical issues that emphasise the centrality of ethics to questions of relationality and professional practice. This second volume of the Educational Philosophy and Theory reader series demonstrates the continuing relevance of philosophical approaches to the field of teacher education. The collection of texts focuses on a wide range of topics, including teacher education in a cross-cultural context, the notion of unsuccessful teaching, democratic teacher education, the (...) reflective teacher, the ethics and politics of teacher identity, and subjectivity and performance in teaching. Chapters also explore teacher education based on experiential learning as ‘experience’, demonstrating the continuing relevance of philosophical approaches to the field. In Search of Subjectivities will interest academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of philosophy of education, philosophy, education, educational theory, teacher education, experiential philosophy, ethics, policy and politics of education, and professional practice. (shrink)

Celem, jaki stawiamy sobie w drugiej części naszego filozoficznego dyptychu, jest próba podjęcia dyskusji nad usytuowaniem refleksji o charakterze metaprzedmiotowym dotyczącej struktur fraktalnych w klasycznej problematyce filozofii matematyki. Pokażemy, że struktury fraktalne prowadzą do istotnego poszerzenia wskazanej problematyki poza tradycyjne ramy wyznaczane przez pytania o naturę obiektów matematycznych (ontologia matematyki) czy status wiedzy matematycznej ( epistemologia matematyczna). Interesują nas specjalnie dwie kwestie: (1) czy, i w jakim sensie, proces generowania struktur fraktalnych świadczy o quasi-empirycznym charakterze tzw. nowej matematyki; (2) czy (...) rozwijana w filozofii koncepcja emergencji nadaje się jako narzędzie badawcze do charakterystyki własności wspomnianych struktur. (shrink)

This paper commemorates thepresentation of the honorary doctorate, in May2001 by the University of ód, toProfessor Andrzej Walicki. On this occasion,the Honorary Graduate delivered a lecturedevoted to his first philosophy teacher –Sergej Iosifovich Hessen, a prominent RussianNeo-Kantian philosopher and a liberal inmatters social and political. I try to analyzethe main features of Hessen''s philosophicalneo-Kantianism, in particular the inevitabilityof a choice between the absolute and therelative both in epistemology and in ethics inthe context of contemporary philosophy.

The article deals with the theme of updating of Cuba’s economic model mainly from the perspective of economic and political philosophy and its interdisciplinary contexts. First, it examines the historical origins of Cuba’s socialist model and the subsequent changes after the fall of the Eastern Bloc. Second, it analyses the actualization of Cuba’s model in the first two decades of the 21st century, that is, mainly the introduction of market and private ownership to complement planning and public ownership. Third, it (...) explains the codification of these changes in the new constitution. Forth and finally, it focuses on an interpretation of international cooperation both in Latin America, especially within the framework of the two pink tides, and with other partners in global interactions, particularly China. This will make it possible to understand the updated Cuba’s model, which the author has coined strategic socialism with Cuban characteristics. (shrink)

Multi-agent systems where the agents are developed by parties with competing interests, and where there is no access to an agent’s internal state, are often classified as ‘open’. The members of such systems may inadvertently fail to, or even deliberately choose not to, conform to the system specification. Consequently, it is necessary to specify the normative relations that may exist between the members, such as permission, obligation, and institutional power. We present a framework being developed for executable specification of open (...) multi-agent systems. We adopt a bird’s eye view of these systems, as opposed to an agent’s perspective whereby it reasons about how it should act. This paper is devoted to the presentation of various examples from the NetBill protocol formalised in terms of institutional power, permission and obligation. We express the system specification in the Event Calculus and execute the specification by means of a logic programming implementation. We also give several example formalisations of sanctions for dealing with violations of permissions and obligations. We distinguish between an open multi-agent system and the procedure by which an agent enters and leaves the system. We present examples from the specification of a role-management protocol for NetBill, and demonstrate the interplay between such a protocol and the corresponding multi-agent system. (shrink)

W artykule analizuje się pojęcie „proposition" (sądu w sensie logicznym) wprowadzone w pracy D. Vandervekena "What is a Proposition", stosując metody algebraiczne. Analiza ta umożliwia głębsze zrozumienie tego pojęcia, prowadzi m.in. do uogólnienia pojęcia „mocnej implikacji" (§5), jej głównym rezultatem jest pewna reprezentacja pojęcia „proposition” (§ 6).

W książce Źródło i noc. Wprowadzenie do współczesnego absconditeizmu (Kraków: Wydawnictwo WAM 2020) Miłosz Hołda wnikliwie przedstawia poruszaną problematykę i proponuje ciekawe rozwiązania. Stanowiąc ambitną próbę wypracowania oryginalnego stanowiska w ważnym obszarze myśli chrześcijańskiej, publikacja domaga się krytycznej refleksji i uwypuklenia istotnych problemów, co jest celem niniejszego tekstu. Chodzi zwłaszcza o dwie kwestie o kluczowym znaczeniu dla teizmu: (nie)działanie Boga w świecie oraz godzenie „Boga filozofii” z „Bogiem objawienia”. W pierwszym z wymienionych zagadnień podstawowym problemem jest (częściowo) niewłaściwe podejście do (...) przyrodniczego obrazu świata oraz do filozofii nauki i teologii nauki. W drugim obszarze głównym mankamentem analiz Hołdy jest rozbieżność między manifestowanym poparciem dla teizmu klasycznego a brakiem krytycznego spojrzenia na te jego elementy, które utrudniają, w niektórych zaś aspektach uniemożliwiają, wyrażenie istotnych treści judeochrześcijańskiego objawienia. Zawarte w artykule uwagi nie obalają w całości głównych tez stawianych przez Hołdę, lecz prowadzą do ich modyfikacji, dowartościowującej przyrodniczy obraz świata. (shrink)

Artykuł jest odpowiedzią na krytyczne uwagi zgłaszane pod adresem książki Ukrytość i Wcielenie. Teistyczna odpowiedź na argument Johna L. Schellenberga za nieistnieniem Boga przez Stanisława Judyckiego, Ryszarda Mordarskiego, Marka Peplińskiego i Jana Sochonia. Główny zarzut wobec mojego stanowiska głosi, że jest ono zbyt przychylne wobec argumentu J.L. Schellenberga, który niekoniecznie powinien być wzorem ujęcia problematyki ukrytości. Jednym z przejawów przyjęcia założeń kanadyjskiego autora jest zgoda na tezę o istnieniu niewierzących przy braku oporu.

The book deals with distorted humanities and social sciences and examines alternatives. The topic is analysed in a way that is ground-breaking in its global comparison of research in Central Europe, Latin America, China, Russia, Africa and India.

Advances in Pig Welfare analyses current topical issues in the key areas of pig welfare assessment and improvement. With coverage of both recent developments and reviews of historical welfare issues, the volume provides a comprehensive survey of the field. The book is divided into two sections. Part I opens with an overview of main welfare challenges in commercial pig production systems and then reviews pig welfare hot spots from birth to slaughter. Part II highlights emerging topics in pig welfare, such (...) as pain and health assessment, early socialisation and environmental enrichment, pig-human interactions, breeding for welfare, positive pig welfare and pigs as laboratory animals. This book is an essential part of the wider ranging series Advances in Farm Animal Welfare, with coverage of cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. With its expert editor and international team of contributors, Advances in Pig Welfare is a key reference tool for welfare research scientists and students, veterinarians involved in welfare assessment, and indeed anyone with a professional interest in the welfare of pigs. (shrink)

Local government is not free from dilemmas arising from ethical but illegal actions as well as legal, however, unethical ones. This breeds situations in which officials must decide whether to be loyal to the government authorities or citizens, whom they are obliged to serve. For instance, they must decide whether to accept the policy imposed by the district council making them change their clerical rules of conduct which, in their opinion, will be less favourably inclined to citizens. Consequently, they will (...) be obliged either to take or refrain from taking certain actions, which stems from the inner imperative. At the root of this dilemma frequently lies a discord between law and ethics. The choice to be made leads to a moral dilemma. What is associated with this matter indeed is the question of revealing the truth about unethical, illegal, immoral or unlawful behaviour in the government that occurs with the employer’s silent approval. The so-called whistleblowing is the means to achieve it. The process is based on informing people or organizations who have the power to influence actions of the criticized individuals or organizations. This creates situations in which officials can no longer take advantage of two values and are made to choose only one of them. (shrink)

History and the philosophy of science have played a very important role in dialectical materialism; their results have been destined to support the correctness of the ideas of Marxist philosophers, especially in their application in historical materialism.From this point of view, the circumstances of the origin of the works of the Marxist classics cannot be neglected: Engels wrote hisDialectics in Nature in the period of classical physics, and Lenin published hisMaterialism and Empirio-Criticism at the beginning of the 20th century when (...) our modern physics first began: shortly before the publication of Lenin's book, Röntgen and Becquerel discovered new kinds of radiation, Balmer published his ideas concerning the regularity of the hydrogen spectrum, Plank wrote his first articles about the elementary quantum and Einstein published his three famous articles (1905). (shrink)

This article aims to apply the main theses of the finitist account of knowledge of the Strong Programme of the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SPSSK) to cognitive neuroscience, understood as a methodologically advanced, transdisciplinary research enterprise belonging to the tradition of natural sciences. The text reconstructs the argumentative line of the Strong Programme’s finitism, pointing to its theoretical sources: the late Wittgensteinian semantic concepts together with his rule-following considerations and the network concept of language proposed by Mary Hesse. The application (...) of the conceptual grid of the Strong Programme to contemporary neurocognitive sciences suggests that the natural science scientific and research enterprise on the neurophysiological substrate of cognition is a collective, institutionalised thought process that can be described as a social practice of concept (kind terms) application. This social process of using concepts proceeds in accordance with the concept of meaning- and rule-finitism. Grounded in this concept, the normativity of reference is explained based on the community thesis. If the finitist approach to meaning and knowledge proposed by the Edinburgh School is correct, two conclusions follow. The first directly follows from the formulation of the theses of classification and knowledge finitism: both the future use of neurocognitive terms and the future implications of neuroscientific beliefs are open-ended. The second is that any potential neurocognitive attempts to establish the neuronal mechanism behind meaning determinism are inevitably conducted in the mode of meaning finitism. Consequently, SPSSK seems to precede, in a logical order, all possible results of neurocognitive research, which turns out, like allnatural sciences, a conceptually open-ended and indeterminate system. In traditional epistemic terms, SPSSK claims that no cognitive neuroscientific claim is ever indefeasibly true or false. The crucial conclusion is that any potential neurocognitive attempts to account for the idea of meaning determinism and pinpoint the neuromechanism of semantic closure must themselves be semantically open-ended. (shrink)

In the article the author would like to draw the readers’ attention to the philosophy of a contemporary French thinker, Renaud Barbaras. The main point in his investigations is the philosophy of life ; however, he does not belong to the movement called “Lebensphilosophie”. Barbaras has built up his own philosophy in long discussions and polemics with other philosophers, especially those who like E. Husserl, M. Heidegger, J. Patočka, E. Levinas or M. Henry are connected with phenomenology. One of the (...) important elements of Barbaras’ original philosophy of life is his conception of the human being. Barbaras points out the role of lack in the life of the human subject. As a result the concept of the subject of desire emerges from the broad perspective of the metaphysics of life. (shrink)