In their insightful article, Brent Kious and Margaret Battin (2019) correctly identify an inconsistency between an involuntary psychiatric commitment for suicide prevention and physician aid in dying (PAD). They declare that it may be possible to resolve the problem by articulating “objective standards for evaluating the severity of others’ suffering,” but ultimately they admit that this task is beyond the scope of their article since the solution depends on “a deep and difficult” question about comparing the worseness of two possible (...) scenarios: letting someone die (who could have been helped) with not letting someone die (whose suffering could only be alleviated by death). In our commentary, we argue that creating such standards is more difficult than the authors assume because of the many types of deep uncertainties we have to deal with: (1) diagnostic, (2) motivational, and (3) existential. (shrink)

While agreeing with the main conclusion of Dominic Wilkinson and colleagues (Wilkinson, Butcherine, and Savulescu 2019), namely, that there is no moral difference between treatment withholding and withdrawal as such, we wish to criticize their approach on the basis that it treats the widespread acceptance of withdrawal aversion (WA) as a cognitive bias. Wilkinson and colleagues understand WA as “a nonrational preference for withholding (WH) treatment over withdrawal (WD) of treatment” (22). They treat WA as a manifestation of loss aversion (...) and refer to Kahneman and colleagues (1991), which defined this effect as follows: “the disutility of giving up an object is greater that the utility associated with acquiring it” (194). In a previous work, Wilkinson and Savulescu understood nonequivalence between treatment withholding and withdrawal as a reflection of slightly different, although related, phenomena: status quo bias or omission bias (Wilkinson and Savulescu 2012, 130–131). In neither of these two papers do they describe precisely the relation between these well-known psychological effects and WA, nor do they explain why they treat these effects as examples of nonrational preferences, despite the fact that these issues have been the subject of wide-ranging discussions on the intersection of psychology, economy, and philosophy. (shrink)

There is a current effort to borrow the concept of trauma from medicine and psychiatry and to introduce it into sociological theory. The author explicates the notion of cultural trauma as applicable to the theory of social change. He defines cultural trauma as the culturally defined and interpreted shock to the cultural tissue of a society, and presents a model of the traumatic sequence, describing typical conditions under which cultural trauma emerges and evolves. Drawing on the work of Robert K. (...) Merton on anomie, and of Anthony Giddens on risk, he suggests a number of typical strategies by which societies cope with cultural traumas. Cultural trauma is treated as a link in the ongoing chain of social changes; depending on the number of concrete circumstances, cultural trauma may be a phase in the constructive morphogenesis of culture or in the destructive cycle of cultural decay. (shrink)

Was Heidegger a 'realist' or an 'idealist'? The issue has been and continues to be hotly debated in Heidegger scholarship. Here it is argued that the much more desirable realistic interpretation of Heidegger can be sustained, provided his theory of moods is given its due. Moods, I argue, are not only 'equiprimordial' with Dasein's understanding of being, but are also irreducible to the latter. It is often held - correctly, as it seems to the author - that Heidegger's idealism is (...) all but inevitable if Dasein's awareness of entities is grounded only in Dasein's understanding of being. But in Being and Time Heidegger speaks also of how what there is is 'disclosed moodwise'. The essay closely analyzes this specifically moody mode of disclosure, and shows both its autonomy vis-à-vis the understanding of being and its function of securing, for Dasein, an access to a truly independent reality. (shrink)

The article presents the question of understanding divine causality and its analogical character in the context of Thomas Aquinas’s teaching on Divine Providence. Analyzing Aquinas’s texts concerning the relation of God’s action towards nature and its activities it is necessary to emphasize the proper understanding of mutual relations between secondary causes and the primary cause which are not on the same level. Influenced by the reflection of M. Dodds and I Silva, the author of the article refers to Aquinas’s biblical (...) commentaries which have not been discussed so far from the perspective of the character of God’s action. In the final part of the article, metaphors used by Thomas in reference to the relation of God towards the world will be presented. (shrink)

In the paper some consequence operations generated by ukasiewicz's matrices are examined.

This paper develops a proof theory for logical forms of proofs in the case of monadic languages. Among the consequences are different kinds of generalization of proofs in various schematic proof systems. The results use suitable relations between logical properties of partial proof data and algebraic properties of corresponding sets of linear diophantine equations.

The growing significance of technology in both everyday life and professionalised practices has brought important volume of philosophical works. However, it is somehow surprising that this current is barely reflected in virtue ethics. This paper highlights two aspects of the issue as seen from the MacIntyrean perspective. Firstly, the rise of technologisation in most areas of human life demands reflection on its influence on the autonomy and unity of the agent’s quest for a good life. Here, the new perspectives for (...) phronesis need to be pointed out. Secondly, a methodological question shows up concerning the way in which virtue ethics may find an adequate response to the technical augmentation of the agency. For this, I argue, resources might be found in the Extended Mind thesis. (shrink)

Cognitive semiotics is often characterized as the study of meaning- making. This brief statement is at best a bit unclear and requires an elaboration. First, some interpretation of the extremely ambiguous term “meaning.

The paper concerns the origin and early stage of development of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Kraków. Center for Interdisciplinary Studies was founded by Michał Heller and Józef Życiński in the late 1970s. It was an informal institution which focused on conducting scientific activity in the area of philosophy of nature, relationship between mathematical & natural sciences and philosophy, history of science, as well as relationships between science and religion. In this paper I (...) would like to present how this institution developed, I will discuss various forms of its activity and discuss—very generally—what kind of philosophy was promoted by M. Heller, J. Życiński as well as their pupils and close associates. An important part of the paper will also concern the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies as a unique institution, which has developed—in difficult historical period in Poland—philosophical research in the spirit of freedom and respect for the new achievements of science, and also promoted interdisciplinary dialogue between scientists and philosophers. (shrink)

The issue “Human being in the digital era” is not superfluous. Every technology, i.e. literacy, print etc., gives tools, but at the same time impacts deeply human being. The article attempts to answer the following questions: what kind of change is taking place nowadays? what are the associated challenges? Is it true what Einstein once said: “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them”?

The article focuses on the anti-naturalism of Menger and Mises. It presents a methodological approach formulated by both scholars as stemming from epistemological anti-naturalism and demonstrating similarities to social phenomenology. The article also discusses the development of the anti-naturalistic perspective on the basis of Hayek’s conception of sensory order. The latter allowed addressing the problem of validity of methodological dualism and established a sound foundation for the methodological approach of the Austrian School of Economics.

We present several naturally defined σ-ideals which have Borel bases but, unlike for the classical examples, these ideals are not of bounded Borel complexity. We investigate set-theoretic properties of such σ-ideals.

Przedmiotem artykułu jest rozważenie znaczenia zmian, jakie dla form działania podmiotowego (duchowości) mają zmiany technologicznie. Przyjmując, że pewne punkty zaczepienia takiej refleksji dostępne są w popkulturowych formach oswajania postępu, jako osiowe wybieram pojęcie „dżihadu buteriańskiego” z powieści Diuna Franka Herberta, scalające kilka istotnych aspektów tak rozwoju technicznego, jak i refleksji nad nim. W części pierwszej, koncentrując się na drugim składniku tego wyrażenia, omawiam pogląd Samuela Butlera oraz wskazuję na znaczenie wystąpienie luddystów w początkach XIX w. W części drugiej rozwijam ten (...) wątek, omawiając krytykę społeczeństwa technologicznego formułowaną przez współczesnych anarchoprymitywistów. W części trzeciej zwracam uwagę na pierwszy element wyrażenia Herberta by wskazać na podmiotowe aspekty zmian technologicznych. W konsekwencji wskazuję kierunki analizy, dzięki którym etyka cnót może wypracować adekwatną odpowiedź na zagrożenia płynące ze strony technologii przy akceptacji korzyści zeń płynących. (shrink)

In my paper I present a critique of Dorota Brylla’s interpretation of the dialogue by Nicholas of Cusa - De Deo abscondito, and a critique of her stance on apophatic theology. I consider Brylla’s position an exemplification of a more widespread philosophical point of view in terms of both the interpretation of Nicholas thought and the apophatic tradition as such. I also present an alternative reading of both his dialogue and apophatic theology. Finally, I point out some implications of adopting (...) my position for philosophical theology and the philosophy of religion. (shrink)

The paper presents the possibility of using the lifestyle concept for better recognition of the employee motivation attitude towards work leadership and managerial behaviours. That could result in better human capital management in different types of organizations. Different approaches to the lifestyle concept are presented in the paper. Also the linkage between the motivation theory, here the Douglas McGregor theory, and the lifestyle based theory VALS is examined.

Public opinion has it that ethics should be concerned with studying and providing precise and reliable rules of conduct. This view is based in a long philosophical tradition which begins with the Stoics and continues at least to Kant; it is, however, a false view. There are good reasons to turn our attention to these aspects of moral thinking which refer to and emphasize the element of risk and uncertainty. In the article I briefly discuss two of such reasons: the (...) problem of moral luck and the problem of action based on ignorance. Consideration of these two problems leads to the conclusion that the most tricky element in moral thinking is the firm belief of the subject in the truth of the premises on which they base their actions and in the irrelevance of external factors to the assessment of their deeds. In this light I argue that the basic requirement for a moral justification of a particular action is not its conformity to a certain set of rules but the subject’s critical reflection on their course of action. Indeed, what turns an attitude into a moral attitude is an amoral, epistemological factor: criticism and openness to uncertainty. (shrink)

The present paper constitutes an introduction to a special issue of Diametros devoted to Setting Health-Care Priorities. What Ethical Theories Tell Us by Torbjörn Tännsjö. The book in question states that there are three moral theories which have valid implications in the field of the distribution of medical resources in a healthcare system: utilitarianism, the maximin/leximin view, and egalitarianism. A number of authors have contributed to this special issue with papers which challenge this thesis. Robert E. Goodin argues that, besides (...) general moral theories, some local principles of justice might be valid. Quinn Hiroshi Gibson states that Tännsjö should have considered the Rawlsian view on justice in its contractualist reading. Jay A. Zameska argues that his “revised lexical sufficientarianism” constitutes a more reliable moral view than prioritarianism. Finally, Lasse Nielsen points out that there is more to say about distributive justice than consequentialist theories can grasp. Moreover, he puts forward an argument in defense of prioritarianism. The final article in this issue constitutes Tännsjö’s replies to his critics. (shrink)

The article reflects on the use of autoethnography in researching football fan culture. It identifies the benefits and challenges of using autoethnography as a strategy and a research method for understanding football fan culture. Despite numerous examples of the use of autoethnography in football research, including supporter studies, it has yet to be considered from a strictly theoretical perspective on the methodological dilemmas of the researcher–football fan. The article critically analyses the entire process of autoethnographic research, which led to the (...) conceptualisation of a research project on perceptions of football competitions. This paper is the result of a clash between a junior scientist’s original research concept and a more experienced ethnographic researcher’s critical approach and reflects the discussion between them. The authors believe that the conclusions reached may be helpful for researchers in the field of humanities and social sciences considering using autoethnography in their research. (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)

Panentheism and classical theism. Comments on the basis of Jacek Wojtysiak’s criticism of Józef Życiński’s position The article was inspired by the tenth anniversary of the death of Archbishop Życiński and the article containing polemic with his panentheism published by Wojtysiak. Wojtysiak claims that the essence of theism is the thesis about the existential selfsufficiency of God and the resulting asymmetry of his causal relationship with the world, which consists in the fact that God can exert causal influence on the (...) world, but the world cannot influence God in this way. Since Życiński contradicts this thesis, according to Wojtysiak, his panentheism is not theism at all. I do not agree with this judgment, and what Wojtysiak calls ‘theism’ I call ‘classical theism’. Both panentheism and classical theism constitute legitimate versions of theism. Ishow that the classical theism in the version proposed by Wojtysiak is entangled in serious difficulties. One of them is that on cosmological level it harmonizes best with occasionalism, that is, with full theological determinism. Another one is connected with the thesis t that God is impassible, which deprives him of the possibility of fulfilling these pro-religious functions, which are crucial for Christianity, such as God’s experiential involvement in the history of the world. I propose that the recognition of divine passibility be the minimum condition for any panentheism or position similar to it. Meeting this condition does not require the rejection of the thesis about the classically understood divine immutability, omnipotence or the creation of the world ex nihilo, but it is conducive to the revision of these notions. I point out that revisions proposed by Życiński in his version of panentheism were incomparably smaller than those proposed by Whitehead or especially Hartshorne, but still they cannot be treated as a minor supplement to classical theism. They constitute version of panentheism or neoclassical theism, which is a much better philosophical basis for Christianity. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to address the possibility of explaining the nature of moral cognition as being rooted in an agent’s involvement in a social practice. Seen along such lines, not only does the recognition of the extent of moral standards show up as based in the agent’s experience that has been gathered in the process of education and developing their capacities for acting autonomously, but it is also thanks to the engagement in the set of such social (...) practices that the agent is able to define the moral aspect, which exceeds the practical aims of a certain area of life. Hence, I argue that in order to redefine the borders of shared morality, a practical experience is necessary to link the various practices that enable ethical reflection based on the moral resources that are obtained in this way. (shrink)

Praca poświęcona jest naturze dobrego życia. Zastosowanie odnowionej w połowie XX wieku myśli Arystotelesa pozwala tu uchwycić i przezwyciężyć zarówno miałkość propozycji „przemysłu szczęścia”, jak i akademickiej filozofii. Autor interpretuje koncepcję starożytnego filozofa przy użyciu współczesnych narzędzi filozoficznych wskazując jak ich zastosowanie pozwala uchwycić węzłowe problemy życia (jak pytanie o szczęście i sens) oraz wskazać te metody myślenia, które umożliwiają krytyczny namysł nad rzeczywistością społeczną. Pytanie o dobro jest zatem zarówno o to, jak kształtować własne życie, ale też jak myśleć (...) o relacjach z ludźmi, z innymi istotami oraz jak współdziałać w dążeniu do dóbr wspólnych. Te ostatnie okazują się przy tym nie tylko dobrami publicznymi, infrastrukturalnymi, ale przede wszystkim formami kooperacji i współżycia. (shrink)

The paper is an introductory essay to the Polish translation of M.E. Bratman's paper The Fecundity of Planning Agency. Instead of summarizing the main drifts of Bratman's work, the author tries to show a few important parallels between his approach to action theory and the so-called praxiology proposed by Tadeusz Kotarbinski. It occurs that there are important similarities between their approaches both to specific problems in action theory and to the general question how to understood agency. A brief presentation of (...) these similarities gives two central results. Firstly, it allows to interpret Bratman as a kind of praxiologist, and, secondly, it shows that praxiological thinking proposed by Kotarbinski is still a vital perspective in contemporary action theory. (shrink)

The chapter has three basic goals. First, it shows why the Kotarbińskian praxiology – despite its terminological connotations, which locate it close to its Misesian analogue – should be understood as an example of the analytic action theory, and not as a "science". The chapter initially gives reasons for this interpretation and outlines the virtues of the theory drawn in Kotarbiński's Treatise on A Good Job. Praxiology occurs to be an action theory that is consistently developed under the sign of (...) agential effectiveness. Second, it focuses on the problem of why praxiology has not been, so far, recognized as a serious party in the mainstream action theory. It gives two main answers which are responsible for this fact: that there were socio-cultural factors that blocked a wider reception of this book, and that the ontological background of praxiology obfuscated it to the extent that such a reception was extremely difficult. In the fourth step, it proposes a therapy that is able to revitalize praxiology and show its true potential. It occurs that praxiology needs an explicitly intentionalistic conceptual framework to show its true value. The chapter also sketches the most important domains of contemporary action-theoretical investigations in which the reinterpreted Kotarbińskian philosophy of agency can have something interesting to say. These domains are explored in the next five chapters. (shrink)

Artykuł zawiera prezentację i dyskusję wybranych zagadnień świadomości śniącej. Pierwsze z nich dotyczy znaczenia adaptacyjnego świadomości podczas snu. Drugie zagadnienie obejmuje charakterystykę kognitywnej świadomości śniącej. Efektem krytycznego przeglądu badań i koncepcji jest teza, że: (1) świadomość śniąca nie ma charakteru adaptacji biologicznej, (2) świadomość śniąca jest formą zdegradowanej reprezentacji kognitywnej w porównaniudo świadomości w stanie czuwania. W szczególności świadomość śniąca zawiera deficyty intencjonalności (uwagi) oraz wyższych form kognitywnych, w tym dysfunkcji wykonawczych.

As shown in (Łukowski, Gensler, 2013), the paradox of the stone is a failed attempt to show that “omnipotence” is a contradictory concept. An element of the argument presented there is that God, while unable to lift the stone, can nevertheless annihilate it. This work considers the amplification of the paradox of the stone to the form generated by the question: can God create a stone which He will not be able to lift, nor, once created, will He be able (...) to destroy. (shrink)

W artykule podejmuję zagadnienie relacji między charakterem filozofii Alfreda Northa Whiteheada i Bertranda Russella a intensywnymi transformującymi przeżyciami tych myślicieli, spowodowanymi przez pewne jednostkowe zdarzenia. Według Russella, taki właśnie charakter miało w jego życiu doświadczenie wywołane mocnym napadem bólu Evelyn Whitehead, żony Alfreda, w lutym 1901 r. W zdarzeniu tym uczestniczył też dwuipółletni syn Whiteheada, Eryk. Russell twierdzi, że doznał wówczas czegoś w rodzaju mistycznej iluminacji, która w przeciągu około pięciu minut całkowicie zmieniła jego dotychczasowy sposób myślenia: m.in. wyposażyła jego (...) ateizm w imperatyw przeciwstawiania się wszystkiemu, co powoduje ludzkie cierpienia, zwłaszcza cierpienia dzieci, i skłoniła go do bezkompromisowego pacyfizmu. Dla powściągliwego w ujawnianiu swoich przeżyć Whiteheada, podobnym doświadczeniem była śmierć osiemnastoletniego Eryka pod koniec pierwszej wojny światowej. Według Russella przyczyniła się ona do rezygnacji przez Whiteheada z uprawiania matematyki na rzecz filozofii i do ponownej akceptacji porzuconego wcześniej teizmu. Argumentuję, że hipoteza Russella nie jest bezpodstawna i staram się ją uszczegółowić przez wskazanie, że Whitehead znalazł pocieszenie, którego poszukiwał, w koncepcji Boga zachowującego w pamięci całą przeszłość oraz w idei współkonstytuowania boskiego życia przez byty aktualne. Oczywiście, zarówno zmiany w filozofii Russella, jak i genezę filozofii Whiteheada można tłumaczyć inaczej niż przez odwołanie się do ich jednostkowych intensywnych doświadczeń, na przykład jako wynik argumentacji uwzględniającej aktualny stan wiedzy filozoficznej, naukowej, moralnej i religijnej. Intuicja podpowiada nam jednak, że bez uwzględnienia wpływu owych jednostkowych intensywnych doznań, ich idee filozoficzne miałaby zapewne inny charakter. (shrink)

Leading authors in their fields present an interdisciplinary panorama of vital themes of the philosophy of language and track their historical origins. This book gives new life to historical ideas and additional depth to current debates.

In this essay, I trace different motives in Alicja Kuczyńska’s thought that are linked together in her philosophy of image. According to Kuczyńska, the creative power of forming artistic images is deeply rooted in existential experience that can be described in terms of finitude, fragmentality, evanescence. The desire to find a way out of such a state is the origin of philosophical as well as artistic creation. It is hope which joins together the individual wish or desire and culture. Hope (...) can be treated as yearning for indeterminacy that is characteristic of existence, as longing for the state of lost totality. (shrink)

The articles in this collection focus on philosophical approaches to proper names. The issues discussed include abstract names, empty names, naming and name-using practices, definite descriptions, individuals, reference, designation, sense and semantics. The contributions show the importance and lasting influence of theories proposed by John Stuart Mill, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, Donald Davidson, and Saul Kripke. Individual chapters assess traditional analyses and modern controversies, and contribute to the debate on proper names in contemporary philosophy of language.