Gertrude Himmelfarb aims at a comprehensive analysis of the condition of American society, in respect of its dominating culture, as possible. She attempts to find the causes of this condition, to describe and explain its basic symptoms and to discover the current trends, as well as to appraise their meaning and significance. The author’s book is firmly set in the American realities. This does not mean, however, that its messages may only be of interest to Americans or Americanists. The conflict (...) between the conservative and liberal world outlooks is at present highly vital, in its various hues and on various planes, to all the societies of the ‘West’, including Poland. It for this reason that the theses articulated by Himmelfarb undoubtedly deserve profound reflection. (shrink)

The reason for my disagreement with Tadeusz Skalski is my objection to his attempts at demonizing the problems connected with the functioning of mind as presented in his essay. In my opinion, the inclination of the author towards demonization stems from the fact that he accepts an extremely limited „natural picture of the world”, a picture which is both reductionistic and mechanistic. It is no wonder then that neither intentionality nor the usage of language fits into this picture and - (...) what amounts to the same thing - can be naturalized. Both seem to be magic phenomena. Moreover, the range of „purely natural” categories in this picture seems to be so limited that even the behaviour of a cat which comes to his master when he whistles for it - i.e. which knows what the whistling means - cannot be described. The behaviour of chimpanzees which have an inborn knowledge that snakes are dangerous and should be avoided cannot be described on this view either. Hence, it is no surprise that each theory of how mind is functioning which has been constructed by a natural philosopher has a status of a „magic theory”. (shrink)

A few side notes on Logic and Argumentation by Andrzej KisielewiczIn the paper we discuss selected philosophical theses presented in the book Logic and Argumentation. Practical Course in Critical Thinking by Andrzej Kisielewicz. In particular, we reflect on formal logic and practical reasoning, their merits and limitations, and we ask about a sensible compromise between the generality of the former and the usefulness of the latter.

Barbara Skarga analyses briefly the views of the authors who took part in a discussion on religion and ethics. She notices that so many critics miss the difference between the deep, esoteric Christian tradition and its popular esoteric version. The pope’s arguments and fears are well reasoned and more tolerant as they seem to be at first sight. The modern world is split by crisis of values, wars, nationalisms, intolerance, positivistic consumerism. Catholic moralists see these dangers and rightly oppose to (...) them. They take however too narrow view as for the primordial role of the catholic religion in the process of coping with them. People in the whole world and especially in Poland are in doubt about whether there is only one credible truth and one institution to carry it on. (shrink)

A particular kind of communication with God is the linguistic form of prayer. The theoretical analysis of each act of communication calls for a reference to the applied theory of communication. In reference to prayer it is appropriate, inasmuch as we accept the standpoint according to which the relations between God and man should be described in line with the achievements of science (A. Peacocke). Thus Peacocke describes the communication between God and man. His description is based on the assumption (...) about God\'s self-limitation to adjust to His recipient. This assumption results from the acceptance of the relay theory of communication. According to this theory, the contents of the recipients\' message (in this case God) must be reproduced by the recipient (in this case man). This theory is inappropriate to describe the acts of communication between God and man. The theory of relevancy is more appropriate for the description of this kind of relation of communication. According to this theory, it is the recipient that decides about the contents of the message. The theory does not require that self-limitation should be assumed when describing prayer as an act of communication with God. According to this theory, God, being the addressee of the acts of prayer fully understands the contents and intentions of the message. Man (the sender) may only hope that he has appropriately performed an act of communication. (shrink)

Kategoria struktur metodologicznych wprowadzona przez Zygmunta Hajduka jest kategorią nową, nieużywaną dotąd w rozważaniach metodologicznych i niemającą w nich ugruntowanego miejsca. Dlatego można zapytać o funkcję, jaką miałaby ona pełnić w metodologii nauk, oraz ojej przydatność jako ogólnego pojęcia metodologicznego. Zasadnicze pytanie, jakie stawiam to: czy wprowadzony przez Z. Hajduka termin struktury metodologiczne może służyć jako najogólniejsza kategoria wyznaczająca przedmiot badań metodologii nauk? Odpowiadając negatywnie na to pytanie, przedstawiam argumenty, jakie przemawiają przeciwko używaniu pojęcia struktur metodologicznych w ten sposób. Moja (...) argumentacja przebiega w następujący sposób. Przywołując funkcjonujące w metodologii nauk zasadnicze sposoby rozumienia nauki, ujęcie metodologii nauk wyznaczone przez Szkołę lwowsko-warszawską i tradycję metodologiczną KUL, będącą jej kontynuacją, typy metodologii, współczesne anglosaskie ujęcia filozofii nauki oraz rozumienie analizy metodologicznej, próbuję wskazać w miarę całościową mapę kategorii metodologicznych wyznaczających przedmiot badań metodologii nauk. Następnie odnoszę do niej kategorię struktur metodologicznych jako wyznaczającą, moim zdaniem zbyt wąsko, przedmiot badań metodologii nauk i przeprowadzam krytykę pojęcia struktur metodologicznych jako najogólniejszej kategorii wyznaczającej przedmiot badań metodologii nauk. Wskazuję także na niekompletność zaproponowanej przez Z. Hajduka listy struktur metodologicznych, którymi zajmuje się metodologia nauk. (shrink)

Anna Kamieńska (1920-1986) rückte in den Band Quellen (1962) ein Gedicht Begrüßung der Adria ein. Dieser Artikel ist ein Versuch der Werksinterpretation unter besonderer Beachtung seines literarischen Umfeldes. Er verdeutlicht die Bedeutung des Schaffens der unterschätzen Dichterin, die sich auf die Suche der Lösungen der menschlichen Existenzfragen machte. Der Artikel ist eine Auseinandersetzung mit Miłosz, der Anna Kamieńska den Namen hervorragende Dichterin absprach.

Author: Czerniak Stanisław Title: CAN WE RIGHTLY SPEAK ABOUT “KAZIMIERZ HOFFMAN’S PHILOSOPHY”? (SOME REMARKS CONCERNING THE PUBLICATION POZNAWANIE KAZIMIERZA HOFFMANA) (Filozofia Kazimierza Hoffmana? Refleksje na marginesie książki Poznawanie Kazimierza Hoffmana) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2011, vol:.15, number: 2011/4, pages: 1038-1046 Keywords: KAZIMIERZ HOFFMAN, IDEA OF DIVINE, EXISTENCE, POETRY Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:The article shows the philosophical background of Kazimierz Hoffman’s poetry. The author points to Hoffman’s idea of the (...) Divine, which creates all possible objects in the world and incessantly sustains their existence, treating it as the crucial point of his philosophical stance. Another question is devoted to a possible relationship between Hoffman’s philosophical views and the traditions of the philosophy of life and phenomenology. Worth examining are also some similarities between Hoffman’s concept of donation and the ethical standpoint of E. Lévinas. In conclusion to those considerations one could claim that in Hoffman’s poetry we experience an interesting kind of mysticism uniting the contemplation of the absolute order with the aesthetic, perfectionist attempts to write the “ideal poem” and to connect the metaphysical insight with the experimental form. In the article the author quotes extensively the most important hermeneutic conclusions contained in the book Poznawanie Kazimierza Hoffmana (“The Understanding of Kazimierz Hoffman”). (shrink)