In late December 2019 and early January 2020 the first cases of a new coronavirus occurred in Wuhan. It is a virus characterised by similarities to SARS and MERS. On January 25, 2020 the initial case of infection by SARS-CoV-2 caused the disease COVID-19 in an Australian patient who later died from it. During my PhD thesis defence in September 2018 I would not have thought that one of the possible security scenarios which I designed for the South Pacific region, (...) related to epidemic threats, would soon come true. Despite some obvious and high indicators resulting, for example, from a geopolitical location in the vicinity of China, the probability of an epidemic outbreak seemed nigh unbelievable. This article focuses on societal security. It is impossible to make a solid analysis of an epidemic impact on societal security in various countries in a single article; therefore, I concentrate specifically on the case of Australia. The goal of this article is to explain how Australians cope with the epidemic and if they are prepared for a drastic change in their lifestyles. Do they put trust in governmental institutions? What issues appear to be main societal threats in Australian society during the pandemic? I conclude with thoughts about new societal directions that are going to be implemented should the scale of the pandemic persist. Due to limited length, my overview is not exhaustive; instead, it focuses on core findings about the condition of Australian society during the pandemic. (shrink)

The present paper focuses on the commentaries attributed to the Indian Yog?c?ra scholar Sthiramati. So far Sthiramati’s work has received far less attention from modern scholars than the texts of other Yog?c?ra authors like Asa?ga or Vasubandhu, possibly because of the erroneous view that as a commentator he has not been an original author in his own right. However, commentators like Sthiramati have shaped the doctrinal development of Yog?c?ra thought by introducing new concepts and reorganizing previous teachings to a similar (...) extent as ‘independent’ authors. In total seventeen works are ascribed to the author Sthiramati in Indian, Tibetan, Chinese and modern Western sources. The main concern of this study is to show some aspects of the relations between three of these works, namely the Madhy?ntavibh?ga??k?, the *S?tr?la?k?rav?ttibh??ya and the Tri??ik?vijñaptibh??ya, and to question the common authorship of these texts. (shrink)

Artykuł jest poświęcony „unikatowości” i „osobliwości” – zarówno jako terminom, które funkcjo­nują w ramach dyskursu teoretyczno-estetycznego, jak i wyrazom odgrywającym istotną rolę w języku potocznym. Poza kontekstem estetyki i filozoficznej refleksji nad sztuką są one powszechnie wykorzystywane przez podmioty realizujące zadania z zakresu polityki społeczno-kulturalnej do promowania wydarzeń, zjawisk i obiektów, mimo iż zarówno ich etymologia, semantyka oraz pragmatyka językowa wskazują, że są problematyczne. Mają bowiem w swoje definicje leksy­kalne wpisane wartościowanie, a także nabierają dodatkowej wartości oceniającej w różnych kontekstach. (...) Ponadto, bazując na słownikowych definicjach dostrzec można, że „unikatowość” i „osobliwość” są wyrazami funkcjonującymi w rodzinie semantycznej stwarzają­cej istotne ryzyko zatarcia znaczeń poszczególnych słów, czego efektem jest także niejedno­znaczność w estetyczno-normatywnej ocenie zjawisk opisywanych za pomocą „unikato­wości” i „oso­bliwości”, nawet jeśli ujmowane są ściślej, jako terminy naukowe funk­cjo­nujących w dyskursie teoretyczno-estetycznym. Analiza źródłosłowów, charakterystyka normatyw­nego potencjału „unikatowości” i „osobliwości” oraz wyrazów, które są im pokrewne, a także podkre­ślenie roli kontekstu, w jakim występują, zestawiona z podstawowym ich zna­czeniem w wy­branych językach nowożytnych, pozwoli uwidocznić kluczowe problemy językowe w doświad­czeniu potocznym, ale również wskazać istotne z punktu widzenia zagadnień specjalistycznych różnice terminologiczne. (shrink)

Previous research on LGB parenting is dominated by comparing the LGB families to traditional families with heterosexual parents. Little is known about personal experiences of LGB parents and psychological consequences of nonheterosexual parenting in a heteronormative environment. This article presents the conceptualization of lesbian, gay and bisexual parents’ minority stress and focuses especially on it’s sources. LGB parents are considered as a multiple excluded minority group. Using a theoretical framework of minority stress the main stressors are described with reference to (...) parental situation: discrimination and violence, perceived stigma, self-concealment and internalized homophobia. These factors’ possible impact on psychological wellbeing is discussed on the basis of research available. The Polish sociocultural context and its potential influence of LGB parents’ stress is also described. The specificity of LGB parents’ minority stress is that it challenges the aspect of identity associated with a parental social role. The most common stressors undermine the status and quality of parent-child bond and involves the child himself/ herself. In conclusion, minority stress of LGB parents is recognized as a risk factor for decrease in mental health, but also as an opportunity for personal development based on the stress - related growth. (shrink)

This paper investigates the Yogācāra notions of “conceptuality”, represented by terms such as vikalpa, on the one hand, and of “non-conceptuality” on the other. The examination of the process of thinking as well as its absence has played a central role in the history of Yogācāra thought. The explanations of this process provided by Yogācāra thinkers in works such as the Yogācārabhūmi, the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra and the Mahāyānasaṃgraha appear to be mainly concerned with the contents and the components of thoughts, categorizing (...) them into different classes. These lists are far more than arbitrary collections. Instead they are meant to represent exhaustive summaries of a person’s conceptual experience. The first part of the paper focusses on conceptuality, exploring definitions of the relevant terms and ideas. The second part is mainly an investigation of the question which parts of the Buddhist path to liberation were considered to involve conceptual activity and which were described as non-conceptual. (shrink)