Walter Benjamin is one of the most important figures of modern culture. The authors focus within this book on Benjamin as a philosopher, but also as a writer. Philosophical and philological readings are accompanied by essays presenting his biography.

The subject of this article is the relationship between literature and the text of song. First part of article concerns the songs which texts approach to literature and begin to exist in the listeners' consciousness independently from the melody. In contemporary Polish music are this: Niech żyje bal, Autobiografia, Nie pytaj o Polskę or Wychowanie. Texts of these songs are analysed and interpreted. Second part of article tells about poems which serve as texts of songs. The author of article shows (...) twentieth-century Polish poets, which texts be sung (Julian Tuwim, Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński, Edward Stachura, Ewa Lipska etc.) and using with poems musicians (Czesław Niemen, Marek Grechuta, Ewa Demarczyk, Grzegorz Turnau). The author writes also about methods of adaptation of poems on need of songs. (shrink)

Contra both phenomenalists and anti-phenomenalists, I defend the following thesis in this paper: the epistemic power of perceptual experience is grounded in its presentational property that is (i) uniquely possessed by the experience in the good case and (ii) essentially a phenomenal property. In §2, I set the ground for my argument by elaborating on the phenomenalist account of presentational phenomenology. In §3, I argue (against phenomenalism) for the first part of the phenomenal presentation thesis: (i) perceptual experience’s epistemic power (...) is grounded in instances of a presentational property possessed by perceptual experience in the good, but not in the bad case. In §4, I argue (against anti-phenomenalists) for the second part of the phenomenal presentation thesis: (ii) presentational property is essentially a phenomenal property. In §5, I address some potential objections to the phenomenal presentation thesis. §6 concludes. (shrink)

This paper presents Michael Heller’s notion of “philosophy in science” and re-introduces Michael Heller’s classical text that first presented this concept of philosophy entitled How is “philosophy in science” possible?. The paper discusses the historical context of Heller’s idea as it emerged from the discussions and works of the Krakow philosophical scene and discusses the basic tenants of this philosophy, its analytic character, the role of intellectual tradition in the development of this philosophy, and the critical role played by an (...) interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophy, science, and theology. Despite the idea of philosophy in science having emerged about 40 years ago, this concept still inspires and fuels innovative research. The notion of “philosophy in science” lies at the foundations of the philosophy published in two journals: Philosophical Problems in Science and Philosophy in Science. (shrink)

Paweł Gładziejewski, Is empathy is mental simulation? Remarks on the representative approach based on the concept of mirror neurons., Diametros 27 This paper draws on the theoretical achievements of analytic philosophy of mind and the empirical results of psychology and cognitive neuroscience in order to understand the nature of empathy and the sub-personal mechanisms upon which it is based. The paper distinguishes two types of empathy, which are often not sufficiently clearly distinguished in the literature, empathy as a kind (...) of social perception and empathy as compassion. The argument attempts show to that neither of these can be identified with a mental simulation process understood as a sub-personal process. Nevertheless mental simulation may play a limited explanatory role with respect to these two types of empathy. (shrink)

This paper centers around the notion that internal, mental representations are grounded in structural similarity, i.e., that they are so-called S-representations. We show how S-representations may be causally relevant and argue that they are distinct from mere detectors. First, using the neomechanist theory of explanation and the interventionist account of causal relevance, we provide a precise interpretation of the claim that in S-representations, structural similarity serves as a “fuel of success”, i.e., a relation that is exploitable for the representation using (...) system. Then, we discuss crucial differences between S-representations and indicators or detectors, showing that—contrary to claims made in the literature—there is an important theoretical distinction to be drawn between the two. (shrink)

Author: Bytniewski Paweł Title: “WHAT IS AN AUTHOR?” ON FOUCAULT’S CONSCIOUSNESS OF AN AUTHORSHIP („Kim jest Autor?” O krytycznej świadomości autorstwa) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2010, vol:.10, number: 2010/1, pages: 73-106 Keywords: FOUCAULT, AUTHOR, LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, EXPERIENCE Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:One of the major obstacles to reconstructing Foucault’s attitude towards an authorship issue is multiplicity of his own roles which as an author he fulfilled. An Authorship as a (...) theme of his texts, as a prefiguration of nonexistent “Man” and his own authorship as a problem, as a way of “detaching myself from myself” – all these are the forms of Foucauldian ideas about an authorship and, at the same time, forms of his consciousness of his own authorship. Foucault historicizes and dissipates an authorship: an author is a function rather than the originator of texts. Writing, in this perspective, is a kind of conversion, decomposition of subjectivity into something else and even explosion. To say “I” doesn’t prove to be an ego. Additionally, Foucault notoriously suggests that his books are fiction. To be an author in this way is a way of being within the discourse and, as a consequence of it, to be trapped in its power. Foucault’s own rewriting of his theoretical biography includes turns and returns: as he repeatedly claims, he wrote in order to transform himself. He uses the processes of writing to simulate production of his subjective identity and, at the same time, to summarize, recapitulate his own oeuvre from current position. To cope with this suggestive and bizarre claims one should employ Roland Barthes distinction: écrivains (authors) et écrivants (writers). When Foucault-écrivain decomposes his ego, his own mode of existence by the use of writing, Foucault-écrivant, in an act of writing, writes himself, as an author. When Foucault-écrivain “writes fictions”, Foucault écrivant, in an act of “self-writing” (l’écriture de soi), establishes the object of a critique – Foucault. (shrink)

The first aim of this paper is to remind the reader of a very original theory of meaning which in many aspects has not been surpassed by subsequent theories. The theory in question is Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz’s Directival Theory of Meaning. In the first section I present a version of this theory which, I trust, retains the gist of the original but loses its outdated language. In the second section I analyze some problematic consequences of the directival theory and show how (...) they can be addressed. The second aim of this paper is exploiting some of the similarities between the directival theory and later theories of meaning. In the third section I argue that using the directival theory as an interpretative tool enables us to create explications of some of the notoriously vague notions which contemporary theories of meaning employ. (shrink)

We prove that the homeomorphism relation between compact spaces can be continuously reduced to the homeomorphism equivalence relation between absolute retracts, which strengthens and simplifies recent results of Chang and Gao, and Cieśla. It follows then that the homeomorphism relation of absolute retracts is Borel bireducible with the universal orbit equivalence relation. We also prove that the homeomorphism relation between regular continua is classifiable by countable structures and hence it is Borel bireducible with the universal orbit equivalence relation of the (...) permutation group on a countable set. On the other hand we prove that the homeomorphism relation between rim-finite metrizable compacta is not classifiable by countable structures. (shrink)

According to the predictive coding theory of cognition , brains are predictive machines that use perception and action to minimize prediction error, i.e. the discrepancy between bottom–up, externally-generated sensory signals and top–down, internally-generated sensory predictions. Many consider PCT to have an explanatory scope that is unparalleled in contemporary cognitive science and see in it a framework that could potentially provide us with a unified account of cognition. It is also commonly assumed that PCT is a representational theory of sorts, in (...) the sense that it postulates that our cognitive contact with the world is mediated by internal representations. However, the exact sense in which PCT is representational remains unclear; neither is it clear that it deserves such status—that is, whether it really invokes structures that are truly and nontrivially representational in nature. In the present article, I argue that the representational pretensions of PCT are completely justified. This is because the theory postulates cognitive structures—namely action-guiding, detachable, structural models that afford representational error detection—that play genuinely representational functions within the cognitive system. (shrink)

The main purpose of this article is to outline the idea of the anarchistic egoism included in Max Stirner's "Ego and His Own". I tried to represent Stirner as an original philosopher who visibly distinguished himself among other thinkers of his days. My aim was also defend him from various attacks of his critics and adversaries who reproached him for being inconsistent or perplexed in the very vulnerable spots of his work. In my opinion 'being awkward' which Camus accuses Stirner (...) of, is nothing else than a tough consequence of the egoistic philosophy which forced the author of "Ego and His Own" to stop his deduction in some point. By referring to Nietzsche and existentialists I endeavoured to show Stirner's Egoist as a precursor of the Nietzsche's Superman and the Camus's Stranger. In the evolution of an idea this two directions were two different ways of extending the construction which foundations were laid down by Stirner. That is why I find Max Stirner one of the most influential thinker of the 10th century who had a great impact on formation of the new look on man and his world. This article is about solitude, alienation, egoism, strength and power which born every time when the conscious and sovereign human being is faced with the indifferent, trivial and inert world. (shrink)

N. Cartwright's recent results on invariance under intervention and causality (2003) are reconsidered. Procedural approach to causality elicited in this paper and contrasted with Cartwright's apparently philosophical one unravels certain ramifications of her results. The procedural approach seems to license only a constrained notion of intervention and in consequence the "correctness to invariance" part of Cartwright's first theorem fails for a class of cases. The converse "invariance to correctness" part of the theorem relies heavily on modeling assumptions which prove to (...) be difficult to validate in practice and are often buttressed by independently acquired evidence. (shrink)

Wollen (Libertarianism and conjoined twins) argues that libertarianism premised on absolute property rights founders where physical boundaries between two persons cannot be discerned, as is the case with conjoined twins. In this rejoinder, we make a three-pronged argument against Wollen’s claim. First, it is demonstrated that even if conjoined twins really do not hold self-ownership rights against one another, they still have one bodily ownership right against the rest of the world. Second, two alternative resolutions of Wollen’s hypothetical dispute between (...) conjoined twins that derive from two different versions of libertarianism are set forth. Third, it is shown that the quandaries engendered by the existence of conjoined twins not only are not specific for libertarianism but there also are political philosophies to which conjoined twins pose even greater a challenge. (shrink)

W swojej książce Tropy i uniwersalia: Badania ontologiczne zaproponowałem systematyczną i historyczną analizę problemu uniwersaliów. Odróżniłem trzy podstawowe pojęcia powszechników, rozumianych kolejno jako wspólne własności, wspólne aspekty i wspólne całości, a następnie zastosowałem je do szczegółowej analizy teorii Romana Ingardena, św. Tomasza z Akwinu i Georga Wilhelma Friedricha Hegla. W tym tekście przedstawiam założenia metodologiczne mojej pracy, przyjmowane przeze mnie rozumienie powszechników i główne rezultaty moich interpretacji. Następnie omawiam krótko dyskusje, jakie wywołała moja książka. Katarzyna Barska i Marek Piwowarczyk kwestionowali (...) moje odczytanie teorii Ingardena, a Tomasz Tiuryn i Michał Głowala krytykowali moją interpretację stanowiska św. Tomasza. Na koniec pokazuję, w jaki sposób Karol Kleczka ciekawie rozwinął interpretację pojęcia konkretnego powszechnika w ramach współczesnej teorii uprawdziwiania. (shrink)

The dialog that has been conducted for a few years between a group of Christian social thinkers and economists on moral aspects of economic activity has led to the creation of a new science discipline called economic personalism. On the one hand it stipulates the need to express economic processes within ethical categories, on the other hand it perceives the necessity to elaborate a strong economic theory. Economic personalists refer to the works of those thinkers who returned to the basic (...) economic inspiration as a field belonging predominantly to moral philosophy. This school is sometimes called the Austrian School or the School of Classical Liberalism. A significant role in the economic personalism development was performed by its forerunners who noticed what was lacking in the previous interpretations of Catholic social thought. Among the there are John Paul II, Michael Novak, Rocco Buttiglione and the Acton Institute. The intellectual sources of economic personalism are mainly related to concept of personalism developed in Poland. Its specific thesis, seen in the maxim that “each person ought to be affirmed for the sake of it itself” also relates to the economic life. Economic personalists formulate principles that are spokesmen in order to promote a free society built on virtues. They are expressed in the following way: pre-eminence of a human being: economy and human dignity; human capital: creation and creativity; dignity of human work: calling for enterprise, integral development of human being, manufacture and personalism, participation, economic common wealth, helpfulness, market restrictions; preferential option for the poor: solidarity and social equity. (shrink)

Within the context of the debate between ontological monists and pluralists the paper discusses a number of argumentative strategies that the latter can apply to answer the “there can be only one” argument. I show here that the reply to this argument suggested by J. Turner has its disadvantages and suggest a number of adjustments thereof. In particular, I develop a concept of domain-specific quantifiers that allow the pluralist to elaborate his or her ontological position.

Universals are usually considered to be universal properties. Since tropes are particular properties, if there are only tropes, there are no universals. However, universals might be thought of not only as common properties, but also as common aspects (“determinable universals”) and common wholes (“concrete universals”). The existence of these two latter concepts of universals is fully compatible with the assumption that all properties are particular. This observation makes possible three different trope theories, which accept tropes and no universals, tropes and (...) determinable universals and tropes and concrete universals. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to define the perspective from which a coach should analyze and evaluate personality traits that influence sports performance in team sports. The subjects of the research are Polish players (N= 300) in senior age (20–29 years) from 10 team sports (eachn= 30). A sample of champions (n= 13) was selected from the study population, and the Big Five model was applied to examine their personality with the use of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory questionnaire. Statistical (...) analyses were performed with the IBM SPSS Statistics software, version 25. The study revealed statistically significant differences between team sports in four personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Champions of team sports were characterized by a lower level of neuroticism, a higher level of extraversion, and openness to experiences in relation to other sportsmen. It was also confirmed that the personality traits distribution levels depend on the sport discipline. Therefore, an important role must be assigned to those mental training techniques that favor emotional balance, team communication, and tactical thinking skills and are manifested in triggering start-up readiness. (shrink)

Book review: Adam Adamandy Kochański, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Korespondencja Adama Adamandego Kochańskiego i Gottfrieda Wilhelma Leibniza z lat 1670-1698, D. Sieńko, wyd. Muzeum Pałacu Króla Jana III w Wilanowie, Warszawa 2019, ss. 256.

Recent developments in virtual reality technology raise a question about the experience of presence and immersion in virtual environments. What is immersion and what are the conditions for inducing the experience of virtual presence? In this paper, we argue that crucial determinants of presence are perception of affordances and sense of embodiment. In the first section of this paper, we define key concepts and introduce important distinctions such as immersion and presence. In the second and third sections, we respectively discuss (...) presence, immersion and their determinants in detail. In the fourth and fifth sections, we argue for the importance of perception of affordances and sense of embodiment in increasing the degree of presence. Finally, we show the consequences of our view and discuss possible future implications. (shrink)

After a brief look at Drafts on Polish philosophy of the twentieth century you could get the impression that this is a work dedicated to the most recent works of Polish philosophy. However after a moment of consideration, it seems hard to believe that a contemporary philosopher would write a history of twentieth century philosophy which could be considered neither as his history nor his philosophy. The distinction between history and philosophy in this case is not accidental since Wojciech Słomski (...) does not try to present a completely closed view of philosophical thought in the last century but aims at expressing that which he himself considers most valuable in contemporary Polish philosophy. It turns out that despite first impressions, we are not dealing with a systematic lecture, maintaining a cold and impartial approach to the subject but with a text written by an independent philosopher who cannot write differently about philosophy than Wojciech Słomski has done. For this reason too, the philosophy in Drafts is a living philosophy, made up of the most current propositions considered by W. Słomski as more important than the task of executing clear distinctions and pigeonholing of presented views into categories created by philosophers. (shrink)

This Element offers a new theoretical model of acculturation within the general framework of cultural psychology. It is divided into four sections. First, cross-cultural and cultural orientations are contrasted. The psychology of economic migration (EARN), separate from the psychology of acculturation (LEARN), is the theme of the next section. Berry's model of acculturation preferences is discussed in section three. It serves as a contrasting reference point for the tripartite model of bicultural competencies, developed in the final section. The three interconnected (...) components are symbols, language, and values/practices characterize both enculturation and acculturation. As a second culture learning process, acculturation is not restricted to immigration. It may take a vicarious (remote) shape in the home country. Reaching bicultural competencies and identities, in the long run, is the proposed outcome of acculturation. (shrink)

The article is an attempt to look at the relationship between the state and the market on the example of the prohibition of trade on Sunday through the prism of the personalistic economy. The article has a metaeconomic character. Its aim is to show that state intervention in the market mechanism in the form of the prohibition of trade on Sunday is not aimed at trade as an economic activity, but is a natural consequence of the community-forming function of the (...) state. In the first part, the author presents a personalistic approach to the state and the market as well as relations between them. In turn, in the second part, he describes the essence of the Sunday dispute in the context of a personalistic approach to the market and shows that state intervention, consisting in protecting Sunday from being limited to the seventh working day, protects it against rationalization and marketization, i.e. its derealization. (shrink)

These considerations seek to show whether it is possible to build a formal theory of the state of affairs, which would be sufficiently well founded in philosophy. Our analysis focuses on a case study in the form of the ontology of the state of affairs proposed by Roman Ingarden. The principal part of this analysis is devoted to Ingarden’s exposition. As its result, the author formulates a list of conditions that should be fulfilled by a formal theory, so that it (...) could aspire to be called “Ingarden’s ontology of the state of affairs.”. (shrink)

Although considerable research has been devoted to cognitive functions deteriorating due to diseases of cardiovascular system, rather less attention has been paid to their theoretical background. Progressive vascular disorders as hypertension, atherosclerosis and carotid artery stenosis generate most of all pathological changes in the white matter, that cause specific cognitive disorder: disconnection syndromes, and disturbances in the dynamic aspect of information processing. These features made neuropsychological disorders secondary to cardiovascular diseases different than the effects of cerebral cortex damage, which may (...) be interpreted modularly. (shrink)