The development of studies on the first- and third-person human experience which took place in the 20th century revealed the need to re-empirize Thomistic anthropology. Among the thinkers who undertook this task were Karol Wojtyła and Mieczysław Krąpiec. This re-empirization was linked with adapting the cognitive tools developed within the modern philosophy of the subject to descriptions of the first-person experience. Wojtyła assumed that the starting point of the cognition of the personal subject was the experience of performing an act, (...) in opposition to what happens within a man. Krąpiec criticized this concept and proposed basing Thomistic anthropology on the subjective experience of existence, in which the ‘I’ manifests itself through ‘my’-acts. The experience of the act, on the one hand, and the immanence and transcendence of the self in relation to ‘my’-acts, on the other hand, allowed these philosophers to build an anthropological bridge to the Thomistic system. (shrink)

The German philosopher Robert Spaemann proposed a complex but incomplete concept of philosophy. It has features of a classical approach, but it is difficult to define what is classical in it. Its comparison to the contemporary version of classical philosophy developed by the Lublin School of Philosophy shows that Spaemann may be considered as a representative of a classical, though not metaphysical, manner of philosophizing. Both in philosophy, systematically perceived as a type of cognition, and history, perceived as a type (...) of discourse, classical influences can be observed in terms of the concept of philosophy, its object, purpose, and method. Despite the tension between philosophy as the cognition and philosophy as the discourse, in his concept these two aspects cannot be reduced one to another and cannot be separate from each other. The awareness that philosophy is an endless and controversial discourse on ultimate problems does not relieve philosophers from their efforts to pursue the truth about reality. And this is how Spaemann looks at his own philosophising. (shrink)

Thomas Aquinas understands providence as the reason of directing things to ends, and as the execution of that directing, i.e. governance. Thus, providence is one of the fundamental attributes of the person that reveals the person's perfection and dignity. Providence consists in a free and reasonable directing of oneself and the reality subject to oneself in order to actualize potentialities of oneself and of other beings in the context of the ultimate goal of existence. Human providence joins the providence of (...) the Absolute with regard to the world. In spite of its deficiencies human providence reveals the essential dignity of the human person. (shrink)

The article discusses the sources of philosophical inspirations of Andrzej Maryniarczyk, one of the most outstanding representatives of the third generation of the Lublin Philosophical School. This school draws on the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition, in which metaphysics plays a central role. Thus, it is not surprising that it was the thought of Aristotle and Aquinas that became Maryniarczyk’s main research subject and a source of inspiration. The author of Metoda metafizyki realistycznej [The Method of Realistic Metaphysics] was also interested in the (...) thought of Mieczysław Albert Krąpiec and Karol Wojtyła, contemporary representatives of the Thomistic tradition, and, at the same time, prominent representatives of the Lublin Philosophical School. From his predecessors, Maryniarczyk learned what philosophy is, what its subject is, and how it should be practiced. He treated these thinkers as his guides in realistic philosophizing, drawing from them inspiration for being a philosopher in the twenty-first century by taking a particular attitude towards reality and ongoing discourse. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to outline the concept of transcendentalising reduction and to demonstrate what role it plays in Thomistic metaphysics. An adaptive interpretation has been used in the analyses by applying phenomenological thinking based on epoche reduction to Thomistic metaphysics. It was used to present the structure of transcendentalising reduction, which consists of several different epoché. Consistently applied, this reduction should lead to a neutralised concept of being as a subject of metaphysics expressed in the formula “being (...) as being”. In conclusion, we note that the proposed interpretation opens the door to further research in which phenomenology could be used in metaphysical studies to a greater extent than has been the case to date. (shrink)

W swojej ostatniej monografii Piotr Stanisław Mazur podejmuje problematykę metafizyki klasycznej, starając się ją zaktualizować, rozszerzyć, uwiarygodnić, zwłaszcza w odniesieniu do antropologii filozoficznej, która miałaby być budowana na jej podstawach. To zainteresowanie metafizyką, jako wiedzą o całości rzeczywistości, badanej w aspekcie istniejącego bytu, ma kilka swoich przyczyn. Do najważniejszych z nich należy współczesna krytyka metafizyki klasycznej oraz coraz częściej podnoszone kwestie dotyczące tego, jak rozumieć realność istnienia. W swojej najnowszej monografii Mazur podejmuje próbę obrony tomistycznej metafizyki przez (...) wskazanie na jej nowe, poznawcze możliwości związane z podstawami antropologii. Formułuje szereg pytań dotyczących istnienia człowieka, a konkretnie, na czym polega specyfika istnienia człowieka i co je charakteryzuje. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to present the application of the lean management method as appropriate for the management of the organizational system of psychiatric care in the Zealand region of Denmark. The organizational solutions of the Danish psychiatric care system presented in this paper are individualized and adapted to the regional needs of the residents. In Denmark, there are five administrative regions, in which each independently organizes its own system of medical (psychiatric) care. This means that the regions (...) have considerable independence in choosing the acceptable and necessary methods of management, including – as is clear from the conducted research – the use of methods put-upon other areas of economy. Although the national laws in Denmark define certain conditions and guidelines for the functioning of psychiatric care (e.g. regarding the use of direct coercion/restrains for patients treated in the centres), there is a distinct separation of structures and methods of functioning throughout the whole country, which constitutes unique observation material – from the cognitive point of view. The authors of this paper conduct extensive research and analyse the systems of psychiatric care organizations in various countries (including Spain, Italy and Japan) and, as a result, the obtained results may lead to the selection of the best models from other systems (good organizational practices and management, the management methods in use), which can be applied in the currently reorganised system of the Polish psychiatric care. The choice of Denmark for the observational study is not accidental and is related not only to the fact that there is a large degree of systemic identity within the country and between the regions, but also because the country applies solutions addressed to patients with very different cultural conditions and needs, resulting from their descent, religion, and (world)-views. Denmark is one of those European countries that express a significant acceptance of diversity and tolerance, which is why communities with very different imponderables, denominations, and worldviews co-exist. In the area related to the organization of the psychiatric system, these conditions are of key importance. In the period from January 2015 to December 2017 the authors participated in study visits in Denmark, conducting research aimed at identifying the key success factors of the psychiatric care organization system in the country. The conducted analysis is also based on the analysis of literature and own and participant observations. The conclusions concerning this subject are also the result of interviews conducted with employees of the visited hospitals and system users, both professionals and patients. As the search for an optimal organizational model of psychiatric care is currently an ongoing concern in Poland, it seems justified to review the existing solutions in Europe and perform their critical analysis. A comparison of the adopted solutions was performed, in the context of, above all, the improvement of the quality of these services, their availability, and the satisfaction of patients and their families from the proposed organizational changes. The economic benefits of these solutions are also significant. (shrink)

Editorial note about the project entitled "Polish Christian Philosophy of the Twentieth Century," which inspired philosophers from Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow to organise the international conference "Christian Philosophy: Its Past, Present and Future." This issue of Forum Philosophicum collects edited and blind-reviewed papers from this conference.

Last year marked the appearance of an English-language book entitled Philosophical Anthropology: Outline of Fundamental Problems. It is, in actuality, an English translation of the most frequently reprinted work of the distinguished philosopher and expert on the history of Jesuit philosophy in Poland, Father Professor Roman Darowski. Although Philosophical Anthropology: Outline of Fundamental Problems is, excluding some of its parts, a translation rather than a new book, the fact of its appearance in English deserves to be noted and discussed, as (...) the new English-language version will allow it to reach a significantly wider range of readers than before. (shrink)

As the concept of recognition shifts from philosophical theory to other fields of the humanities and social sciences, this volume explores the nature of this border category that exists in the space between sociological and philosophical considerations, related as it is to concepts such as status, prestige, the looking-glass self, respect, and dignity - at times being used interchangeably with these terms. Bringing together work from across academic disciplines, it presents theoretical conceptualizations of recognition, demonstrates its operationalization in historical and (...) literary research, considers recognition as a fundamental problem of sociological theory and examines the concept as a marker of social distances and redistribution. An examination and demonstration of the full potential of recognition as a category, Understanding Recognition: Conceptual and Empirical Studies explores the contemporary meanings and manifestations of recognition and sheds light on its capacity to complement the notions of status, class or prestige. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory, philosophy, history and literary studies. (shrink)

This study was designed to determine the quality of service through the evaluation of hospitalized patients. An analysis of hospitalized patients’ subjective feelings towards service quality was carried out, in the context of the application of the SERVQUAL method. The pilot study was conducted in a Silesian hospital in a group of 29 young patients diagnosed with kidney disease. The study used a standard sheet of 22 SERVQUAL statements and an analysis of the significance of the 5 areas of quality (...) material important for the patient. According to the respondents, the most important of the 5 features that influence the quality of life is the ability of the ward staff to provide adequate medical services The least important were the aesthetics and ergonomics of rooms. Service quality gaps were seen in all the five dimensions as well as in the overall service quality. Hence, the following conclusions could be made: 1. The SERVQUAL method helps to identify discrepancies between perceptions of patients’ expectations in all the dimensions of quality of medical services. 2. For patients, the least important is the material dimension, whereas the one most affecting them is the dimension associated with the reliability of medical services. 3. An improvement of the level of satisfaction with the quality of medical services requires proper planning and effectiveness of implementation of health care services. 4. Research should be conducted on a larger population of patients. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest rekonstrukcja hipotezy odnowionego traducjanizmu. Hipotezę tę sformułował o. Stanisław Ziemiański, polski jezuita, przedstawiciel filozofii chrześcijańskiej. Przedmiotem badań naukowych przedstawionych w artykule były artykuły i książki, w których autor sformułował hipotezę odnowionego traducjanizmu. Sformułowana hipoteza była także przedmiotem debaty, która jednak nie doprowadziła do żadnego rozstrzygnięcia merytorycznego. Artykuł jest podzielony na dwie części. W pierwszej przedstawiono argumenty, które wspierają hipotezę traducjanizmu. W sposób szczególny skoncentrowano się na omówieniu sposobu wykorzystania nauk przyrodniczych w argumentacji filozoficznej. W drugiej części dokonano (...) krytycznej oceny przedstawionych argumentów. Wykazano za pomocą argumentacji filozoficznej, że koncepcja o. Ziemiańskiego ma charakter naturalistyczny i prowadzi do eliminacji pojęcia duszy. W artykule zastosowano metodę rekonstrukcji treści tekstu z uwzględnieniem analizy logicznej i metodologicznej. Dzięki zastosowanej metodzie uporządkowano materiał badawczy i poddano go ocenie logiczno-metodologicznej. W zakończeniu wskazano, że warto jest rozwijać nawet tak kontrowersyjne koncepcje jak o. Ziemiańskiego, gdyż inspirują one do twórczego myślenia i prowadzą do rozwoju filozofii chrześcijańskiej. Tego typu hipotezy mają wartość, gdyż prowokują do twórczej debaty, której owocem może być modyfikacja niektórych rozstrzygnięć w zakresie antropologii i etyki, podtrzymywanych mocą samej tradycji. Przykład z hipotezą odnowionego traducjanizmu wyraźnie pokazuje, że można swobodnie wrócić do przeszłości i wydobyć z niej coś wartościowego, a następnie przedstawić to w taki sposób, aby przyciągnąć uwagę współczesnego czytelnika, którego cechuje niechęć do zbyt wyrafinowanych spekulacji filozoficznych. (shrink)

This is a review of the book "A Companion to Polish Christian Philosophy of the 20th and 21st Centuries", edited by Piotr S. Mazur, Piotr Duchlinski, Pawel Skrzydlewski. Krakow: Ignatianum University Press, 2020, written by Curtis Hancock.

In the article I attempt to specify the uniqueness of the key aesthetics categories. The argument is based on the concept of Pure Form put forward by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. I provide an argument for a claim that aesthetic terms categories must remain open, and I try to explain how to understand their openness. My attempt is based on my own interpretation of Pure Form as a concept belonging to aesthetic theory and associated not only with the creation of a (...) work of art. I argue that the proposed interpretation may be accepted on the condition that we would never be able fully to understand how an object becomes a masterpiece. Pure Form has a dynamic, living, open, performative nature and thus will never be fully understood. (shrink)

Part of a series of books devoted to Polish Christian Philosophy in the twentieth century, this latest study introduces the life and work of Piotr Lenartowicz. Lenartowicz, a member of the Jesuit order, held several professional positions, but spent most of his career at the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow. Approaching philosophy from an Aristotelian- Thomistic perspective, his interests ranged over the philosophy of animate nature, the theory of evolution, topics in the philosophy of science, and epistemological issues, especially (...) concerning the nature of human cognition. (shrink)

1. One theory or many? In 2004 a very interesting and readable article by Lenore Blum, entitled “Computing over the reals: Where Turing meets Newton,” appeared in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society. It explained a basic model of computation over the reals due to Blum, Michael Shub and Steve Smale (1989), subsequently exposited at length in their influential book, Complexity and Real Computation (1997), coauthored with Felipe Cucker. The ‘Turing’ in the title of Blum’s article refers of course (...) to Alan Turing, famous for his explication of the notion of mechanical computation on discrete data such as the integers. The ‘Newton’ there has to do to with the well known numerical method due to Isaac Newton for approximating the zeros of continuous functions under suitable conditions that is taken to be a paradigm of scientific computing. Finally, the meaning of “Turing meets Newton” in the title of Blum’s article has another, more particular aspect: in connection with the problem of controlling errors in the numerical solution of linear equations and inversion of matrices,Turing (1948) defined a notion of condition for the relation of changes in the output of a computation due to small changes in the input that is analogous to Newton’s definition of the derivative. The thrust of Blum’s 2004 article was that the BSS model of computation on the reals is the appropriate foundation for scientific computing in general. By way of response, two years later another very interesting and equally readable article appeared in the Notices, this time by Mark Braverman and Stephen Cook (2006) entitled “Computing over the reals: Foundations for scientific computing,” in which the authors argued that the requisite foundation is provided by a quite different “bit computation” model, that is in fact prima facie incompatible with the BSS model. The bit computation model goes back to ideas due to Stefan Banach and Stanislaw Mazur in the latter part of the 1930s, but the first publication was not made until Mazur (1963).. (shrink)

`On Usury`, the treaty by Martin Smiglecki SJ, was the first strictly scientific attempt to show the economic and social background of the bourgeois and peasant social stratum in Poland and Lithuania at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. The author, being an excellent logician, expressed his views in a very precise way, limiting his technical language to a minimum, so that his treatise would be understandable to readers from a range of social positions and circumstances. Its careful (...) analysis of the socio-economic situation and clear formulation of its postulates enabled it to function, over the course of two centuries, as a practical manual imparting guidance to the ruling class as they sought to maintain a just and fair stance in their dealings with the burghers and peasants. Smiglecki’s ideas have become a reference point for many generations of professors of moral philosophy and folk preachers seeking to raise social issues in their own works. (shrink)

In men, high levels of endogenous testosterone (T) seem to encourage behavior intended to dominate other people. Sometimes dominant behavior is aggressive, its apparent intent being to inflict harm on another person, but often dominance is expressed nonaggressively. Sometimes dominant behavior takes the form of antisocial behavior, including rebellion against authority and law breaking. Measurement of T at a single point in time, presumably indicative of a man's basal T level, predicts many of these dominant or antisocial behaviors. T not (...) only affects behavior but also responds to it. The act of competing for dominant status affects male T levels in two ways. First, T rises in the face of a challenge, as if it were an anticipatory response to impending competition. Second, after the competition, T rises in winners and declines in losers. Thus, there is a reciprocity between T and dominance behavior, each affecting the other. We contrast a reciprocal model, in which T level is variable, acting as both a cause and effect of behavior, with a basal model, in which T level is assumed to be a persistent trait that influences behavior. An unusual data set on Air Force veterans, in which data were collected four times over a decade, enables us to compare the basal and reciprocal models as explanations for the relationship between T and divorce. We discuss sociological implications of these models. (shrink)

Zasadnicza teza tekstu brzmi, że możliwość totalnego chaosu empirycznego, która jest rozpatrywana w ramach eksperymentu unicestwienia świata, nie jest możliwością realną, lecz możliwością logiczną. Według Husserla hipoteza totalnego chaosu empirycznego pozostaje w związku z zasadniczą nieadekwatnością doświadczenia świata, która nie wyklucza możliwości nieistnienia świata. Unicestwienie świata jako efekt całkowitego załamania się doświadczenia świata mogę jednak przyjąć tylko hipotetycznie i taka fikcyjna możliwość nie ma charakteru możliwości realnej, ponieważ absolutny fakt mojego doświadczenia poprzedza wszelkie możliwości, nadając im dopiero znaczenie możliwości realnych. (...) Doświadczenie w swej pierwotnej strukturze obejmuje zarówno doświadczenie świata, jak i doświadczenie ego cogito i jest jednym, absolutnym doświadczeniem, tak że możliwość globalnego chaosu empirycznego okazuje się jedynie pustym eksperymentem myślowym i jako taka możliwość ta pozostaje w zasadniczej analogii do możliwości niepoznawalnych rzeczy samych w sobie. Słowa kluczowe: fenomenologia transcendentalna, eksperyment unicestwienia świata, doświadczenie świata, doświadczenie ego cogito, realna możliwość, logiczna możliwość. (shrink)

La chronique dite de Monemvasie se divise en deux parties : la première présente le peuple slave qui a envahi le Péloponnèse et qui y est resté pendant 218 ans de la fin du 6e siècle jusqu'au début du 9e siècle, la seconde relate le contrôle du Pélopponèse par Byzance. Elle décrit notamment la construction de l'église de Patras.

The article reviews the book Ludwig Wittgenstein „przydzielony do Krakowa” [Ludwig Witgenstein „Assigned to Krakow”], edited by Józef Bremer and Josef Rothhaupt.

Każdy człowiek funkcjonuje w jakimś systemie - rodzina, polityka, religia, to tylko niektóre z nich. Trudno określić, na ile pozostajemy niewolnikami systemów, do czasu, w którym zadamy sobie pytanie o prawdę. Jest to jednocześnie pytanie o istoty człowieczeństwa, stanowiące punkt zwrotny w pojmowaniu własnego miejsca na ziemi, w przestrzeni i w czasie, w świecie materii i poza nim. Jesteśmy współtwórcami sieci interakcji i wzajemnych zależności. Aby mimo to określić proporcje naszej wolności do konieczności, jak im podlegamy, musimy poznać prawdy o (...) osobie ludzkiej. Pytanie to przenosi nas w obszary wartości podstawowych - obok prawdy znajdujemy piękno i dobro, stanowiące o treści i jakości życia. Istnieje przy tym duży problem z hierarchizacją wartości, jeszcze większy zaś ze stworzeniem systemu, w którym czerpiąc z pojmowanych prawd nasycalibyśmy egzystencję głębią autentycznego istnienia. Max Scheler - gdyż to jego spojrzenie nas tu interesuje, ukazał nową i odmienną perspektywę widzenia wartości, a mianowicie jako obiektywnej, samodzielnej i nieredukowalnej jakości. To także Scheler wprowadził kategorię iluzji aksjologicznej, będącej poniekąd antytezą ukształtowanego przez pozytywizm przekonania o identyczności wyobrażeń o wartościach z samymi wartościami. (shrink)

Meaning-making processes, understood hierarchically, in line with the Semiotic Hierarchy framework, change on various timescales. To account for and predict these changes, one can take a cognitive view on semiosis. I adopt an interdis-ciplinary approach combining semiotic studies and cognitive studies in an attempt to account for meaning-making activity and to predict the course of semiosis. In this context, I consider meaning-making activity as shaped by both “external” (to a semiotic system) as well as “internal” factors. I also show how (...) both the “external” and “internal” sources of the dynamicity of meaning-making should be framed in terms of studies on cognition.I start with a non-standard, 4e approach to meaning-making. According to this framework, meaning-making processes are constituted by (and not just depen-dent on) environmental and bodily factors. The dynamicity of semiosis can be accounted for in terms of an experiencing, embodied subject (agent) enacting her/his/its own domain of meaningful phenomena. As I argue, this perspective on meaning-making is the cognitive foundation of the first two levels of the Semiotic Hierarchy. In the following sections I present the Peircean view on signs and semiosis, according to which semiosis is a result of the very nature of a sign and a sign system. In this view, the dynamicity of semiosis has primarily “internal” sources: it stems from the unavoidable fallibility of interpretation and synechism of signs. As I show, this aspect of semiosis can be addressed by means of standard (cognitivist) cognitive science and by means of cognitive modelling. Ultimately, I sketch a proposal of an attempt to develop a uniform cognitive framework allowing for integration of the above-mentioned aspects of semiosis – a framework based on Rowlands’ idea of the Amalgamated Mind. (shrink)

1. Wprowadzenie i idea wiodąca -- 2. Człowiek i jego działanie -- 3. Wartościowanie moralne: prawo, sumienie, dobro, zło.