In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:LettersZbigniew Szawarski and Jacek A. PiatkiewiczPolish Code of Medical EthicsMadam:In the December 1992 issue of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal you published the Polish Code of Medical Ethics with introductions by Jacek A. Piatkiewicz and Robert Baker. Jacek Piatkiewicz writes (p. 362), and Robert Baker follows him, that the new code "was approved by an overwhelming majority (449 for, 75 against, 58 abstaining)." I am afraid that these (...) figures are inconsistent with the data supplied by the Polish mass media. The leading Polish newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza (16 December 1991), states that 354 delegates voted for the new code and 317 against it. The same figures are quoted by the most authoritative Polish political weekly, Polityka (4 January 1992).Mr. Piatkiewicz does not mention either that 40 delegates left the convention before the vote in protest over the undemocratic proceedings. If we add those 40 potentially negative votes to the 317 votes against, then the result is not at all "an overwhelming approval" for the new code.I am not a physician myself, and I was not present at the Second National Congress of Physicians in Bielsko-Biala, however, I find this discrepancy disturbing. Respect for facts seems to me equally imperative as respect for human life.Jacek A. Piatkiewicz Replies:In his letter Mr. Szawarski denies the data I presented on the vote approving the Polish Code of Medical Ethics. He has quoted the figures published by the Polish mass media as the true ones. Interestingly enough, he did not try to confirm them with the Polish General Medical Chamber, which has the original documents on the Extraordinary Second National Congress of Physicians. The figures I cited regarding the Code's approval are clearly stated on page 63 of the Congress proceedings.So where do the figures presented in Mr. Szawarski's letter come from? As Mr. Szawarski states, these figures have been published in some Polish newspapers, among them "the most authoritative Polish political weekly, Polityka" (a description that was especially accurate during the Communist period of Poland's history). The figures are simply untrue. The figures presented refer only to the result of the vote on article 37 of the Code, which concerns abortion. The very narrow margin (354 for, 317 against, 38 abstaining) decided the formulation of the exceptions to the abortion ban, which are "saving the mother's life and health" and "when pregnancy is the result of a criminal act." But what was the alternative considered in the vote? It was the single exception, "to save the mother's life," that was in the [End Page 355] original draft of the Code (page 44 of the Congress proceedings).Mr. Szawarski finds the discrepancy in the figures cited disturbing. I am disturbed too, but the cause of my concern is of a completely different nature. Why does Mr. Szawarski not try to reconcile "the discrepancy" by asking organizers of the Congress for an explanation?Zbigniew SzawarskiCentre for Philosophy and Health Care University of Swansea, WalesJacek A. PiatkiewiczGeneral Medical Council of PolandCopyright © 1993 The Johns Hopkins University Press... (shrink)

The most famous medieval controversy over the power and the temporal dominion took place between the papacy and the empire. One of the greatest advocates of the imperial domination was Marsilius of Padua, the author of an original work that demonstrated the advantage of acknowledging the emperor’s superiority over the Pope’s. The Defensor pacis, written between 1319 and 1324, was devoted to the dispute on such sovereignty issues as proving that the Pope should be subordinate to the Emperor, and not (...) vice versa. The Defensor pacis takes issue with numerous arguments and views uttered by the papal camp and uses the appropriate quotations from the Bible and Aristotle to show their weakness and inconsistency. The work comprises three parts. The first part is a description of the ideal system, i.e., an elective monarchy, with the specified role of a ruler and a clear indication of the sovereignty of the people. The second and third parts present a challenge to the arguments of the papal camp and analyze the general situation of the Church, suggesting the necessary reforms. Thus, the whole work becomes a compendium of knowledge on appropriate governance. (shrink)

This book focuses on the standards of philosophical rationality, corresponding to a philosophy that aspires to be more than the wisdom that stems from and addresses everyday human needs. It is a search for standards that would, as it were, show the way to philosophical wisdom for anyone who is willing and able to assess it. One of the problems is that people have had a different understanding of the basic concept of rationality, which is the rationale. (Series: Development in (...) Humanities - Vol. 1). (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to present a conception of the triple nature of mathematics. It is argued that the nature of mathematics is best served by distinguishing deep ideas (of concepts or propositions), their surface representations (signs which can be perceived by senses) and their formal models (in axiomatic theories). For instance, the concept „number π” has several different models in set theory (those based on Dedekind cuts and on Cantor's equivalence classes of Cauchy sequences) and yet all (...) working mathematicians in the world have the same object π in mind. They have a common deep idea of π. Generally, the deep idea of a concept X is a well-formed mental construction of X which controls reasoning. It manifests itself in a characteristic, definite feeling of purpose, in firm certainty of the meaning of X in various contexts, and in robustness of understanding of X in cases of typical cognitive conflicts. Epistemic deep ideas are intersubjective and have been formed in phylogeny whereas individual deep ideas (or deep intuitions) are formed in ontogeny. In certain situations a deep idea may be described in terms of intuition, of meaning or sense, or of understanding, but none of these terms can provide a satisfactory description fitting all cases. (shrink)

This is a reprint of the chapter “Prelude: Antitrinitarianism in Poland before Socinus” by Zbigniew Ogonowski in his "Socinianism: History, Views, Legacy" (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2021), 3–56. Reprinted with the permission of Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura. We are grateful to Valentina Saraceni for her permission to reprint this material in the present volume. The paper takes an in-depth look at an early, pre-Socinian stage of Polish antitrinitarianism. First, it outlines the historical reasons for the emergence (...) of antitrinitarianism in Poland. Second, it explains how the early Polish antitrinitarians were able to develop a view substantial enough to provide a basis for Socinianism, a philosophical and religious movement with a pan-European reach. Third, it discusses similarities and differences between the two stages of Polish "Arianism", pre-Socinian and Socinian. (shrink)

Published in 1542, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s La relación is a chronicle of the Pánfilo de Narváez’s 1527 expedition to the New World in which Cabeza de Vaca was one of the four survivors. His account has received considerable attention. It has been appreciated and critically examined as a narrative of conquest and colonization, a work of ethnographic interest, and a text of some literary value. Documenting and fictionalizing for the first time in European history the experience of travelling/trekking (...) in the region which now constitutes the Southwest in the United States, Cabeza de Vaca’s story testifies to the sense of disorientation, as well as to the importance of psychological and cultural mechanisms of responsiveness and adaptability to a different environment. What allows the Moroccan-American contemporary writer Laila Lalami to follow that perspective in her book The Moor’s Account is an imaginative transfer of the burden and satisfaction of narrating the story of the journey to the black Moroccan slave whose presence in the narratives of conquest and exploration was marginal. In Lalami’s book, Estebanico becomes the central character and his role is ultimately identified with that of a writer celebrating the freedom of diversity, one who survives to use the transcultural experience of the past creatively in ways well suited to the needs of the current moment. (shrink)

In the paper, I present the achievements of the outstanding female representative of the Lvov‑Warsaw School Izydora Dąmbska in the field of philosophy of science. The following issues are analysed: the concept of the philosophy of science, the question of irrationalism in scientific cognition, the problem of scientific laws, and the meaning and role of analogy in science. Following the development of the issues classified as the philosophy of science in Dąmbska’s works, it is easy to notice that she takes (...) a realistic view as far as the concept of knowledge is concerned. However, she also has a tendency to emphasize the importance of subjective factors and the role of so‑called operators in scientific cognition. (shrink)

It is worth underlining that the poem by Koblański discussed in here expressed the reaction to the first partitions of the country and it was received as a voice which rendered accurately feelings, misgivings and hopes the inhabitants of cordoned-off areas. It is proved in the commentary to the text in the mentioned edition, Political poetry of the first partitions and the delegation seym 1772-1777, in which we read, “About 1795 Karpiński refered to Koblański s poem in his work “To (...) A(ntoni) D(zieduszycki) on the occasion of his arrival from Warsaw in Rus, Galicia” and Naruszewicz did it in a poem, “Replay from Dzieduszycki to Karpiński”, Strong connections of the text with Autumn 1773 are not accidental. Thus, the patriotic elegy by Koblański, beside Sokalski beggar's song in emperor's cordon by Karpiński, occured the second significant though less known nowadays reaction to the news about ratification of the partitions treaty by the Seym; the news coming from the areas whose centre was Lwów. (shrink)

Der Artikel handelt von den ausgewählten Problemen, die sich mit der Einrichtung des Textraumes in folgenden Romanen: Granatowy Goździk, Rudolf Pątnicy z Macierzyzny, Gość beschäftigt. Jeder von den gennanten Romanen ist au f Grund eines Gesprächs-Dialogs aufgebaut, den ständig die Hauptdarsteller miteinander führen. Das Gespräch der Protagonisten weist auf verschiedene Arten der Weltanschaung hin, zielt auch au f die konfrontierung der verschiedenen kulturtraditionen. Prosa von Marian Pankowski erscheint aJs moderne Werkstattlösung. Es folgt unter anderen als Aussagegröße, die einen übertextlichen Charakter (...) hat. Diese Aussagen decken dem Leser die Geheimnisse des Schaflensprozes au f und erlauben damit seinen Verlauf zu verfolgen. Eine wichtige Eigenschaft des Autors des Romans Rudolf ist seine Autobiographie. In seinen phantasmatischen Erzählungen, der Dichter, in einer Gombrowiczartigen Weise, die authentischen Erlebnisse mit der literarischen Fiktion. Schließlich erreicht sein Schriftum die Form der Seelenautobiographie. (shrink)

The author of this book speaks out again in regard to the Enlightenment. His inspiration comes not only from new observations occasioned by own studies, but also from the recently read material as well as opinions and appraisals of the era articulated lately at academic conferences. Although they have not led the author to perform a fundamental revision of his views in regard to the nature of Enlightenment and its crucial contributions to the Western culture, they did afford a better (...) understanding of its complexity. They also made him more aware that his interpretation and presentation of that era depends considerably on what its prominent representatives had to say, as well as on the worldview-based assumptions and methods of appraisal adopted by its later observers and interpreters. (shrink)

The article deals with the attitude of Marx and Engels towards the appraisal of labour as a value, and the relation between labour and the implementation of the principle of universal development of the individual personality. First, the changes in their views on the appraisal of labour are discussed. In his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts Marx understood labour as a spontaneous expression of human thought and the formation of a new environment in which man recognizes his own qualities. In that (...) period Marx considered value to be an affirmation of human life and a requirement put to the individual and to society. In his later, mature works Marks refused to consider an act of labour as value and defined it as conquering nature. The act of labour was to Marx no longer a value but a process which is giving value to human products and, therefore, is a necessary condition of human existence in all social systems. Marx did not regard the act of labour as a postulate or an ideal. In his opinion, the act of labour acquired value depending on its effects for the universal development of all individuals. The Marxian ideal of a perfect man implied a series of postulates relating to the organization of labour. The author criticizes Raymond Aron’s interpretation of Marxian humanism. In the works of Marx, Aron perceives a contradiction between the postulate of universal labour and the postulate of leisure in the meaning of condition in which the idea of the perfect man is realized. According to the author, from the ideal of a perfect man results the postulate of obligatory labour for all members of the society, i.e., that everybody should contribute to the development of the productive forces in order to secure the material conditions for the development of their personality. The realization of Marxian humanism requires also the maintenance of definite proportions between labour determined by the social division of labour, and leisure which should imply not only resting but also activity towards a free development of various individual abilities. In the works of Marx there is no contradiction but a complementary relation between labour and leisure. Pobierz. (shrink)

Scanlon grounds all moral principles in claims about "what individuals have reasons to agree to." Analyzing Scanlon's groundwork, I discuss his central reason for being concerned with morality and why personal and impersonal reasons for moral conduct cannot co-exist in his contractualism. I demonstrate that personal values and reasons are incommensurable with impersonal values and reasons. Thus, Scanlon needs to exclude impersonal reasons from the moral theory he advocates. But I argue that there may be a means of inclusion of (...) both the personal and impersonal values and reasons. I propose Aristotelian virtue ethics as a plausible foundation for subordinating the impersonal values and reasons to the value of human rationality in its full capacity. This subordination may provide the defensible condition that Scanlon's contractualism requires to justify moral principles to each person on the grounds of respect for human rationality. (shrink)

Carl Jung paid a short visit to Taos, New Mexico, in January 1925. A brief account of his stay at the Pueblo appeared in Memories, Dreams, Reflections, edited by Aniela Jaffe in 1963. Remembering his conversations with Mountain Lake, Jung wrote of the confrontation between the “European consciousness,” or the “European thought,” with the Indian “unconscious.” My article provides a reading of Jung’s text as a meeting ground of the aesthetic, emotional, visionary and of the analytical, rational, explanatory. Like many (...) other European and Anglo-American visitors to Taos Pueblo, Jung rediscovers its capacity to mirror the inner needs of the visitor; he examines the significance of the encounter with the Southwestern landscape and with the Pueblo Indians’ religious views in terms of self-reflection and of the return to the mythical. As Carl Jung’s “inner comprehension” of the Pueblo Indian’s philosophy is mediated through language, aware both of its desire and its inability to become liberated from the European perspectives, Mountain Lake’s attitude towards his visitor from Switzerland remains ultimately unknown; Mountain Lake does, however, communicate his readiness to assume the archetypal role of a teacher and a spiritual guide whose insights reach beyond the confines and mystifications of language. According to Jung’s account, during this brief encounter of the two cultures, he and his Indian host experienced a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, the sources of which, as they both understood them in their own individual ways, resided in the comprehension of universal sharing. (shrink)