During the last half of the twentieth century, legal philosophy (or legal theory or jurisprudence) has grown significantly. It is no longer the domain of a few isolated scholars in law and philosophy. Hundreds of scholars from diverse fields attend international meetings on the subject. In some universities, large lecture courses of five hundred students or more study it. The primary aim of the Law and Philosophy Library is to present some of the best original work on legal philosophy from (...) both the Anglo-American and European traditions. Not only does it help make some of the best work avail able to an international audience, but it also encourages increased awareness of, and interaction between, the two major traditions. The primary focus is on full-length scholarly monographs, although some edited volumes of original papers are also included. The Library editors are assisted by an Editorial Advisory Board of internationally renowed scholars. Legal philosophy should not be considered a narrowly circumscribed field. (shrink)

In this volume, key contributors consider various elements of constitutional theory, creating a work of immense interest to legal scholars and political scientists alike.

Artykuł ten wykorzystuje okazję, jaką jest bezprecedensowe wydanie w Polsce Nowej Justyny – jednego z najbardziej niesławnych i skandalicznych dzieł Markiza de Sade (Kraków: Eperons, 2022, przeł. Krzysztof Matuszewski, tom 1-6) – aby zarysować szczególną historię towarzyszącą publikacji tego dzieła, a także by przypomnieć ewentualnym czytelnikom o jego znaczeniu literackim i filozoficznym w opozycji do popularnych aczkolwiek trywialnych twierdzeń, że twórczość Sade’a to nic więcej jak pornografia. Konsekwentny rozwój myśli sadycznej ukazuje filozoficzną odyseję ludzkiego poszukiwania suwerenności. Ma ona swój początek (...) w oświeceniowej negacji Boga, lecz nie zatrzymuje się na niej. W pełni zautonomizowany rozum wchodzi w sojusz z Naturą, lecz jego również musi zakwestionować, tak jak musi zanegować Innego oraz samo Ego, by ostatecznie osiągnąć stanowisko nihilistycznego immoralizmu przejawiającego się apatycznym ponawianiem zbrodni. (shrink)

In the paper, there is presented the theory of logical consequence operators indexed with taboo functions. It describes the mechanisms of logical inference in the environment of forbidden sentences. This kind of processes take place in ideological discourses within which their participants create various narrative worlds (mental worlds). A peculiar feature of ideological discourses is their association with taboo structures of deduction which penalize speech acts. The development of discourse involves, among others, transforming its deduction structure towards the proliferation of (...) consequence operators and modifying penalty functions. The presented theory enables to define various processes of these transformations in the precise way. It may be used in analyses of conflicts between competing elm experts acting within a discourse. (shrink)

Kazimierz Twardowski attributed high cognitive value to introspection because he believed it plays a fundamental role in psychology, the primary philosophical discipline. He believed that basing philosophy on inner experience would allow it to obtain universal and justified results. Internal experience consists of perceiving one’s own mental facts; it is non-sensual and selfevident. Twardowski referred to introspection in his investigations in various ways, which is presented in the article.

Unifiability of terms (and formulas) and structural completeness in the variety of relation algebras RA and in the products of modal logic S5 is investigated. Nonunifiable terms (formulas) which are satisfiable in varieties (in logics) are exhibited. Consequently, RA and products of S5 as well as representable diagonal-free n-dimensional cylindric algebras, RDfn, are almost structurally complete but not structurally complete. In case of S5n a basis for admissible rules and the form of all passive rules are provided.

Spinoza is often presented as an important source for Kant’s view on Judaism and the Old Testament. This claim is often made on the basis of the alleged affinity between the relevant ideas of the two thinkers. In this article, I agree with scholars who point out that Spinoza’s direct influence on Kant’s view of the Old Covenant can be doubted, and further argue that the substance of their ideas about the Hebrew Bible is fundamentally different. I discuss their views (...) on biblical hermeneutics (here showing some affinity between them), the Mosaic law (its content and divinity), and especially the significance of Judaism for Christianity, where the discrepancy between Kant and Spinoza regarding the Old Covenant becomes particularly evident. (shrink)

Książka wybitnego znawcy problematyki filozofii, socjologii i politologii profesora i akademika Włodzimierza Kokluchina zwraca uwagę przede wszystkim czymś, co określić można mianem „pozaczasowości", a co polega na tym, że mimo swego uwikłania w konkretną rzeczywistość początku XXI wieku ogarnia ona prawidłowości rządzące polityką w procesie jej przemian w czasie. Odniesienia do konkretnych sytuacji maja tu na ogół charakter egzemplifikacji i służy głównie ukonkretnieniu rozważań dotyczących problemów poza tą konkretność wykraczających. Owa „pozaczasowość" odnosi się zresztą w równym stopniu do przeszłości, jak (...) i do przyszłości, w równym bowiem stopniu Autorowi udaje się ująć politykę jako proces wyrastający z przeszłości, jak i jako proces, który rozwijając się kształtował będzie rzeczywistość społeczną bliższej i dalszej przyszłości. Traktując politykę w ten właśnie sposób Włodzimierz Kokluchin nie traci z pola widzenia faktu, iż sama ta polityka jest czymś, co wciąż wymaga dookreślania i poznawania - jest tworem kształtowanym między innymi poprzez refleksję nad nią. (shrink)

Some notions of the logic of questions (presupposition of a question, validation, entailment) are used for defining certain kinds of completeness of elementary theories. Presuppositional completeness, closely related to -completeness ([3], [6]), is shown to be fulfilled by strong elementary theories like Peano arithmetic.

The paper presents a new argument supporting the ontological standpoint according to which there are no mathematical facts in any set theoretic model (world) constructed on the grounds of second order arithmetical theories founded upon set theory. Slingshot arguments directed against facts, situations and other propositional entities are usually blocked by rejecting one of the main inference rules used in various versions of this argument. Authors distinguish two types of main inference rules used in these variants: (i) for non-propositional expressions: (...) iota-conversion rules (ι-conv), iota-substitution rules (ι-subs), lambda-conversion principle (λ-conv); and (ii) for propositional expressions: the principle of substitutivity for logical equivalents (PSLE). Even if strategies for defending facts by the rejection of one of the mentioned rules are accepted, it may be shown that the acceptance of the requirement that mathematical facts (situations or truth-makers) differing with regard to their constituents are different facts, leads to the contradiction in meta-theories of set theoretic models for first order arithmetical theories. In the paper, a new type of slingshot argument is presented, which may be called hyper-slingshot . The difference between meta-theoretical hyper-slingshots and conventional slingshots consists in the fact that the former are formulated in the semantic meta-language of mathematical theories without the use of the iota-operator or the name-forming lambda-operator, whereas the latter require for their expression at least one of these non-standard term-operators. Furthermore, in hyper-slingshots PSLE is not used, whereas in conventional slingshots, PSLE plays a crucial inferential role. Hyper-slingshots implement simpler language tools in comparison with those used in conventional slingshots. (shrink)

Action logic of Pratt [21] can be presented as Full Lambek Calculus FL [14, 17] enriched with Kleene star *; it is equivalent to the equational theory of residuated Kleene algebras (lattices). Some results on axiom systems, complexity and models of this logic were obtained in [4, 3, 18]. Here we prove a stronger form of *-elimination for the logic of *-continuous action lattices and the –completeness of the equational theories of action lattices of subsets of a finite monoid and (...) action lattices of binary relations on a finite universe. We also discuss possible applications in linguistics. (shrink)

Pentus (1992) proves the equivalence of LCG's and CFG's, and CFG's are equivalent to BCG's by the Gaifman theorem (Bar-Hillel et al., 1960). This paper provides a procedure to extend any LCG to an equivalent BCG by affixing new types to the lexicon; a procedure of that kind was proposed as early, as Cohen (1967), but it was deficient (Buszkowski, 1985). We use a modification of Pentus' proof and a new proof of the Gaifman theorem on the basis of the (...) Lambek calculus. (shrink)

Law and Evil presents an alternative evolutionary picture of man, focusing on the origins and nature of human evil, and demonstrating its useful application in legal-philosophical analyses. Using this representation of human nature, Wojciech Załuski analyses the development of law, which he interprets as moving from evolutionary ethics to genuine ethics, as well as arguing in favour of metaethical realism and ius naturale.

Early twelfth-century logicians invoked past-tensed statements with future-oriented contents to undermine the assumption that every proposition ‘about the past’ is determinate. In the second half of the century, the notion of future-dependence was used to restrict the scope of necessity per accidens. At some point, this idea began to be applied in theology to solve puzzles surrounding predestination, prescience, prophecy, and faith. In the mid-1160s, Magister Udo quotes some thinkers who insisted that the principle of the necessity of the past (...) should exclude dicta that ‘relate to the future’, such as that he has been predestined. Peter of Poitiers adopted this ‘Ockhamist’ strategy around 1170. We find similar accounts in Simon of Tournai and Alan of Lille, who invoked it in other contexts as well. By the time of Praepositinus of Cremona, Hubert of Pirovano, and Stephen Langton, the restricted principle became something of a common view at Paris. (shrink)

The following text is a voice in the discussion around normative problems of innovative therapies. It particularly refers to the amendment to the Polish Act on the Professions of Physician and Dentist, also discussed in this issue in the article by Rafał Kubiak "Criminal liability for crimes related to the illegal conduct of a medical experiment.".

In this paper, we present two experimental studies on reference of complex demonstratives. The results of our experiments challenge the dominant view in philosophy of language, according to which demonstrative reference is determined by the speaker's intentions. The first experiment shows that in a context where there are two candidates for the referent—one determined by the speaker’s intention, the other by some “external” factors—people prefer to identify the referent of a demonstrative with the latter object. The external factors for which (...) this prediction has been confirmed include the speaker’s demonstration and the descriptive content of a demonstrative. The second experiment shows that while this preference can be explained in terms of the speakers’ having different sorts of referential intentions, the relevant kind of intentions are fully opaque to the subjects. At the end of our paper, we point to some alternative accounts of demonstrative reference, including a pluralistic and hybrid approach, which can accommodate our experimental results. (shrink)

The phenomenon of luck poses a problem for ethics for two reasons. First, it makes it difficult to formulate homogeneous moral judgments for two or more actions which seem to be similar to each other in every morally relevant aspect except of some successful or unfortunate events that take place in one case and not in the other. The occurrence of these events wasn’t under control of any of the agents but for external observers it tends to be the basis (...) for more rigorous or more tolerant moral judgment in one case and not in the other. Second, luck can affect our sense of life through success or failure of ours existentially important life projects. This fact suggests necessity of conditions for morally permissible relying on luck in formulating and pursuing one’s life project. In this paper I present possibilities of applying main views on luck to resolve the above problems. (shrink)

Axiomatics which do not employ rules of inference other than the cut rule are given for commutative product-free Lambek calculus in two variants: with and without the empty string. Unlike the former variant, the latter one turns out not to be finitely axiomatizable in that way.

This is a completely revised and updated second edition of Rights Before Courts (2005, paper edition 2008). This book carefully examines the most recent wave of the emergence and case law of activist constitutional courts: those that were set up after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to most other analysts and scholars, the study does not take for granted that they are a "force for good" but rather subjects them to critical scrutiny against a (...) background of wide-ranging comparative and theoretical analysis of constitutional judicial review in the modern world. The new edition takes in new case law and constitutional developments in the decade since the first edition, including considering the recent disturbing disempowerment of the Hungarian Constitutional Court (which previously was probably the most powerful constitutional court in the world) resulting from the fundamental constitutional changes brought about by the Fidesz government. (shrink)

In this paper, I present a new account of Richard Rorty’s interpretation of Michel Foucault, which demonstrates that in the course of his career, Rorty presented several diverse (often mutually exclusive) criticisms of Foucault’s political thought. These give different interpretations of what he took to be the flaws of that thought, but also provide different explanations as to the sources of these flaws. I argue that Rorty’s specific criticisms can be divided into two overall groups. Sometimes he saw Foucault’s rejection (...) of bourgeois democracies and bourgeois utopias as a specific case of his general critique regarding the structures of social life as inherently oppressive. At other times he seemed to attribute to Foucault a view that—while not all forms of social life are inherently oppressive—bourgeois democracies certainly are, in a very specific and radical way. In conclusion I show that Rorty’s interpretation of Foucault should be understood in the context of his approach toward the ‘American Cultural Left.’. (shrink)

Self-esteem and emotional reactivity may be important personality determinants of human functioning in situations of social exposure. In this study, we compared the levels of these personality variables in a group of professional theater actors and a group of professional illusionists with a control group of participants who were neither actors nor illusionists and had no artistic education. We also examined the correlations between emotional reactivity and self-esteem in the three groups. For emotional reactivity, we found (1) very strong evidence (...) that the level is less for magicians than for controls, (2) substantial evidence that the level is less for magicians than for actors, (3) anecdotal evidence that the level is less for actors than for controls, and (4) decisive evidence that the average score is less for males than for females. For self-esteem, we found (1) anecdotal evidence that the level is higher for magicians than for controls, (2) substantial evidence that there is no difference between actors and magicians, (3) anecdotal evidence against a difference between actors and controls, and (4) anecdotal evidence against a difference between males and females. Based on the entire sample we found a moderate correlation between self-esteem and emotional reactivity (r = -.30, p < 0.001). Our results are compatible with the notion that emotional reactivity – as part of the temperament concept – is a factor influencing the choice of an artistic profession. (shrink)

Wojciech Torzewski What Kind of ‘History’ are We? – the Historicity of Human from Ethical PerspectiveThis article presents the ethical aspect of the concept of narrative identity, especially in relation to the concept of Charles Taylor. The author makes also attemption to reconstruct the two main objections that can be drawn at this concept. Namely, firstly, the complaint relativization of the ethical and, secondly, the complaint absolutizing ethical perspective. Both objections to the concept of narrative identity shall be regarded (...) as irrelevant. Keywords: ethics, narrative identity, historicity, history. (shrink)