In The Birth of Reason Louis Dudek establishes the link between ancient pre-Socratic Atomism and modern quantum mechanics. In characteristically unencumbered terms, Dudek shows how this revolutionary philosophy, the invention of thinkers from Ioanian Greek trading cities, has been consistently misrepresented and resisted. Atomism nevertheless marks the transition from primitive mythological thinking (mythos) to the abstract, concept-based rationality (logos) that informs our modern approach to an ultimately unknowable reality. This essay ìis a kind of summation of myself (...) ó gnothi seautÛn.... I am neither a materialist nor a theist, really, nor am I altogether an agnostic. As I say in [the] essay, ëthe ultimate reality is unknowable,í but I am sure that if it were knowable it would satisfy both the materialist and the theist, and much more that we cannot imagine.î Identified by Wynne Francis as Canadaís first ìman of letters,î Dudek once again ventures into new intellectual territory ó and reveals the underpinnings of his own remarkable cultural, social, and economic thought. Critical Comment ìIf anyone could make the Ionian skeptics palatable to a generation raised on music and television, itís Louis Dudek.î ó The Ottawa Citizen ì...the highlight is ... 39 fragments from the pre-Socratics that Dudek astutely describes as reading ëlike a philosophical poem.íî ó The Montreal Gazette ì...includes the thesis that the scientific conception of the universe ... is the most advanced stage of religious evolution.î ó Canadian Book Review Annual. (shrink)

Sleep-related experiences [Watson, D. . Dissociations of the night: Individual differences in sleep-related experiences and their relation to dissociation and schizotypy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 526–535] refer to a host of nocturnal altered-consciousness phenomena, including narcoleptic tendencies, nightmares, problem-solving dreams, waking dreams, and lucid dreams. In an attempt to clarify the meaning of this construct, we examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of sleep-related experiences , altered-consciousness tendencies , psychological distress, childhood maltreatment , and life stress in young adults. Both (...) types of SREs were found to be distinguishable from altered-consciousness tendencies. Transliminality emerged as a longitudinal predictor of both general SREs and lucid dreams. Psychological distress and an increase in life stress predicted an increase in general SREs over a 3-month interval. We conclude that transliminality is a general altered-consciousness trait that accounts for some of the individual differences in sleep-related experiences, and that general sleep experiences are an outcome of psychological distress and life stress. (shrink)

Treating mathematical science as a distinct cultural entity subject to environmental factors which influence its evolution, the author examines the creation and development of its major concepts since early times.

Empathy remains poorly understood, under-theorized, and subject to conflicting and opportunistic uses. Its systematic role in human experience has not been analyzed and interpreted from top to bottom. In this book, the author attempts to provide such an analysis in the philosophical traditions of hermeneutics, phenomenology, analytic philosophy of language, and psychoanalysis. applying his interpretation of empathy to the philosophical issues of intentionality, the emotions, and the checkered transformations of empathy itself. In doing so the author aims to rescue empathy (...) from the margins of intelligibility and reveal its central role in our understanding of the emotions, the integrity of our relations with others, and human community (“intersubjectivity”). -/- The work draws on both the Anglo-American (“analytic”) tradition of ordinary language philosophy and the continental ones of phenomenology and hermeneutics. This work follows the movement of empathy from the periphery of ethics, aesthetics, and theory of mind to a key place in establishing and maintaining the integrity and emotional equilibrium of dynamic interrelations with other individuals. Beginning with the philosophical infrastructure of the hermeneutics of empathy, this work thoroughly explains the complex architecture of empathy, tracing it downward through the levels of authentic human interrelations, empathy with unexpressed emotions, the empathic penetrability of cognitively impenetrable affect, the first-ever intentional analysis of both the empathizer and the “empathasand” in interrelation, and the hermeneutic infrastructure. The consequences of empathy are exposed in the context of the emotions, cognitive impenetrability, empathy and altruism, and the intentionality of empathy as accessed through language and story telling. Drawing on the multi-method approach of hermeneutics, phenomenology, and story telling, this work demonstrates that empathy forms the foundation for community in ways not clearly appreciated in the on-going debate. In a bootstrap operation that is guided by Heidegger’s call for a “special hermeneutic of empathy,” this work achieves a delicate balancing act of unpacking the rich intellectual traditions from which empathy - the phenomenon itself, not the concept - emerged historically. The result is an exposure of the deep structure of empathy as a fundamentally human capability for creating possibilities of community and human relations. (shrink)

This article discusses a rare instance of the highest national courts explicitly addressing traffic signs in their judgments or decisions. It critically examines the standpoint expressed by the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Court, according to which the basic traffic sign categories in Poland—obligatory, prohibitory, informative and warning—are not separable [e.g. prima facie non-normative signs can also be normative ]. These courts formulated this idea when addressing the legal question concerning the applicability of legal provision penalizing failure to comply (...) with a traffic sign to parking a car without paying a fee in an area marked by an informative sign that indicates the need to charge a fee for parking. The article analyses and criticizes the relevant standpoint of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Court. It shows how many negative consequences can result from frivolous treatment and neglect of traffic signs. It also reconstructs some possible practical recommendations concerning not only traffic signs but also visualizations of legal rules in general. (shrink)

A milestone in the development of post-war Marxist thought.

Despite its popularity in recent theorisations of law as an artifact, the idea that law is an immaterial being, independent from even the documents that contain legal acts, has not been subjected to a focused analysis. This paper fills this noticeable gap. After providing generalizing account of the Immateriality Thesis, based on its different expositions in the literature, the paper criticises it. First, it argues that it is based on the counterfactual assumption that semantic content can exist beyond any carrier (...) for itself. The paper then elaborates on the thesis’ empirical implausibility, particularly its ignorance of how much the law is as it is due to writing. Third, the paper reveals how the thesis is difficult to combine with other jurisprudential issues, notably law’s effectiveness. Following such a critique, the paper considers the possible origins of and reasons for the thesis. Given its highly questionable character, the paper concludes with some general ideas on taking law’s materiality seriously. (shrink)

The need for quantitative measurement represents a unifying bond that links all the physical, biological, and social sciences. Measurements of such disparate phenomena as subatomic masses, uncertainty, information, and human values share common features whose explication is central to the achievement of foundational work in any particular mathematical science as well as for the development of a coherent philosophy of science. This book presents a theory of measurement, one that is "abstract" in that it is concerned with highly general axiomatizations (...) of empirical and qualitative settings and how these can be represented quantitatively. It was inspired by, and represents a generalization and extension of, the last major research work in this field, Foundations of Measurement Vol. I, by Krantz, Luce, Suppes, and Tversky published in 1971. (shrink)

Ayahuasca has become a subject of great interest in recent years. Academics, spiritual seekers, communities, and curious individuals have all been intrigued by this topic through either writing about it or direct participation in the contemporary spiritual phenomenon that is ayahuasca, which holds promises of bestowing upon its users profound wisdom or healing. However, what anthropological (but also popular) writings barely comment on are the deviant perceptions that arise out of experiences seeking amelioration or transcendence, and the subjective ways in (...) which those experiences are interpreted. Consequently, I wish to supplement this scope of representation. In this text, I present fieldwork conducted in the Peruvian Amazon amid the Shipibo, focusing on the experiences of the spiritual seekers who came to them in search of healing or self-discovery. I discovered a unique contradiction—participation in Shipibo ayahuasca practices while simultaneously having or developing a negative perception or attitude towards it. These aberrances are held, as I argue herein, (incognizantly) in the expressed attitudes of the Westerners (especially North American and European) as a result of the positivist notions that emerged from the Age of Enlightenment (but are not limited to it). My priority in this article is to present and expound on these atypical associations and place them against a historical (Western) background to elucidate the origin of the thus found and experienced perceptions. (shrink)

No figure among the western Marxist theoreticians has loomed larger in the postwar period than Louis Althusser. A rebel against the Catholic tradition in which he was raised, Althusser studied philosophy and later joined both the faculty of the Ecole normal superieure and the French Communist Party in 1948. Viewed as a "structuralist Marxist," Althusser was as much admired for his independence of intellect as he was for his rigorous defense of Marx. The latter was best illustrated in For (...) Marx (1965), and Reading Capital (1968). These works, along with Lenin and Philosophy (1971) had an enormous influence on the New Left of the 1960s and continues to influence modern Marxist scholarship. This classic work, which to date has sold more than 30,000 copies, covers the range of Louis Althusser's interests and contributions in philosophy, economics, psychology, aesthetics, and political science. Marx, in Althusser's view, was subject in his earlier writings to the ruling ideology of his day. Thus for Althusser, the interpretation of Marx involves a repudiation of all efforts to draw from Marx's early writings a view of Marx as a "humanist" and "historicist." Lenin and Philosophy also contains Althusser's essay on Lenin's study of Hegel; a major essay on the state, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," "Freud and Lacan: A letter on Art in Reply to Andre Daspre," and "Cremonini, Painter of the Abstract." The book opens with a 1968 interview in which Althusser discusses his personal, political, and intellectual history. (shrink)

Nowożytna nauka nie dysponuje adekwatnymi narzędziami opisu i interpretacji geniuszu oraz szaleństwa. Metody obiektywne i statystyczne oraz racjonalistyczna analiza gubią specyfikę tych zjawisk. Geniusz i szaleństwo można badać i interpretować w oparciu o teorię archetypów Junga, według której są one elementami procesu jakościowej transformacji świadomości (inicjacji), ale ich znaczenie w kontekście procesu kształtowania osobowości (indywiduacja) jest odmienne. W kontekście procesu twórczego oraz kultury jako takiej zagadnienie nabiera dodatkowej rangi. Geniusz i szaleństwo można interpretować konstruktywnie (syntetycznie) w oparciu o metaforę drogi (...) okrężnej, która ujmuje złożoną naturę zarówno aktywności symbolicznej człowieka, procesu twórczego, jak i kultury. Podobnie pomocna jest tu koncepcja circumambulatio (okrążania) Junga. (shrink)

This book examines the importance of flat ontologies for law and sociolegal theory. Associated with the emergence of new materialism in the humanities and social sciences, the elaboration of flat ontologies challenges the binarism that has maintained the separation of culture from nature, and the human from the nonhuman. Although most work in legal theory and sociolegal studies continues to adopt a non-flat, anthropocentric and immaterial take on law, the critique of this perspective is becoming more and more influential. Engaging (...) the increasing legal interest in flat ontologies, this book offers an account of the main theoretical perspectives, and their importance for law. Covering the work of the five major theorists in the area - Gabriel Tarde, Bruno Latour, Manuel DeLanda, Karen Barad and Graham Harman - the book aims to encourage this interest, as well as to explicate the important problems of and differences between these perspectives. Flat ontologies, the book demonstrates, can offer a valuable new perspective for understanding and thinking about law. This book will appeal mainly to scholars and students in legal theory and sociolegal studies; as well as others with interests in the posthumanist turn in philosophy and social theory. (shrink)

W artykule pragnę zwrócić uwagę na oddziaływanie twórczości T. Kotarbińskiego na dorobek naukowy M. Ossowskiej, w perspektywie polemiki, którą prowadzili między sobą uczeni, a także wskazać na znaczące podo bieństwa między ich stanowiskami, zwłaszcza w sferze wartości. Wskazuję również na dzielące ich różnice m.in. w podejściu do przedmiotu etyki, ujmowaniu charakteru oceny i normy moralnej oraz w wymogach metodologicznych. Zwracam uwagę na wspólną obu filozofom postawę wyrażającą konieczność kształtowania „kręgosłupa moralnego”, niezależnie od okoliczności, polegającą na wierności wyznawanym wartościom. Prezentuję podobieństwa (...) w poglądach etycznych T. Kotarbińskiego i M. Ossowskiej dotyczących etyki walki, w pojmowaniu idei godności i jej wtórności względem innych wartości, w rozumieniu sumienia jako rodzaju wstydu przed pogardą, wreszcie wspólny pogląd na rolę i naturę cnót. Staram się pokazać, że w przypadku obojga myślicieli kompetencje naukowe szły w parze z kompetencjami moralnymi — jasność myślenia z jasnością działania. (shrink)

Mimo iż przestrzenie miejskie nasycone są dziełami sztuki, pełniącymi ważne funkcje estetyczne, społeczne, edukacyjne, historyczne, obiekty te często są przez odbiorców niezauważane, nierozu­miane lub nieidentyfikowane jako sztuka. Autorka stawia tezę, że jedną z przyczyn takiego stanu rzeczy jest brak profesjonalnych podpisów. Celem tekstu jest analiza tablic informacyjnych wybranych obiektów znajdujących się w Łodzi. Porównanie zebranych przykładów wskazuje na różnorodne braki w treści podpisów, ich nieczytelność, niewłaściwe umiejscowienie, a nawet zu­pełne pominięcie jakiegokolwiek tekstu informującego o danym dziele. Poddane analizie zostały dwadzieścia (...) dwa obiekty wykonane po II wojnie światowej, reprezentujące różne gatunki sztuki i typy przestrzeni. Artykuł kończą lista postulatów, których spełnienia wymaga prawidłowe oznaczanie dzieł sztuki (sporządzona na wzór dziesięciopunktowego przewodnika opracowanego przez Muzeum Wiktorii i Alberta w Londynie) oraz propozycja przykładowej tablicy (dotyczącej konkretnego muralu), która mogłaby stać się rozwiązaniem standardowym. (shrink)

Drug abuse is a growing social problem in Poland and is a particularly serious problem in the Military. The conditions of military service may be a factor that stimulates drug addiction among soldiers, particularly those who are psychically and physically weak and not adapted to team work. The psychical stress that results from the abrupt breaking of existing bonds and social relationships (family, colleagues, partners) is intensified by spatial limits (military barracks), and the character of military units (personal freedom limitation). (...) Another important aspect is, natural in this situation, access to weapons and the nature of tasks performed by a modern army. Yet the army continues to recruit young people who are physically and mentally weaker and weaker. In face of this problem, the commanders, supervisors and teachers are required to possess not only psychological and pedagogical knowledge, but also ethical and moral awareness. The article is based on empirical results of the test conducted in 2007 among 100 conscription soldiers of the Lublin Garrison of the Polish Army. (shrink)

This paper’s aim is to promote greater interest in courtroom practices of minute-taking—the preparation of written documents that constitute a record of what was said and done in the courtroom during a case hearing, very often based on a judge’s dictation of rephrased questioned person’s statements to a clerk who records them. This aim is achieved through discussion ultimately focused on the distinguishable aspects of minute-taking, its possible underlying mechanisms, and further consequences, followed by some remarks concerning the judge–clerk relationship (...) outside the scope of minute-taking and more direct discussion of clerks themselves. The discussions and analyses presented here are empirically-grounded, forming a side result of a larger research project conducted in a Polish lower court that combined observations of case hearings with witness interviews. Despite their inadvertent origin, the investigations presented here demonstrate the complexity and multifaceted nature of minute-taking to a greater extent than previous relevant studies have revealed. While minute-taking has not been neglected entirely in legal research, there remain many questions to be addressed. This paper suggests some of these questions as well as potential directions for future research on minute-taking through discussion of how the identified aspects of minute-taking can be utilized and which theoretical frameworks may be applicable. Although the paper is a result of empirical research conducted in Poland, its aims are relevant outside the Polish context, particularly in other continental European countries where minutes are also taken from case hearings. (shrink)

Against the background of studies on redundancy in law that completely omit the visual element in law and of studies on traffic signs that are laconic about their redundancies, the present study proposes more focused investigation into the redundancies of traffic signs. After presentation of the broader context of existing studies on traffic signs and on redundancy in law, and following a discussion of the direct inspiration for embarking upon research into this topic, the article moves to present and discuss (...) six proposed types of redundancies of signs. Utilizing Franciszek Studnicki’s distinction between sign-types and sign-realizations, and given that traffic signs exist in various complicated relationships with each other, with written formulations in legal texts, and with the environments in which they are placed, the study comments on six types of redundancy: sign-type–basic task of road traffic law; of sign-type’s elements; sign-type–sign-type; sign-type–legal text; sign-realization–sign-realization; and sign-realization–environment. Analysis of each type is supported through examples, various subdivisions, and additional lines of inquiry. The study has value for both strictly theoretical and more practical enterprises related both to traffic signs themselves and to the wider realm of visualization of norms. (shrink)

Artykuł przedstawia pojęcia prawa wyjścia, które odgrywa jedną z głównych ról w wielu dyskusjach nad wielokulturowością. Prawo wyjścia to prawo każdego członka opresyjnej lub dyskryminującej wspólnoty kulturowej do opuszczenia jej. Artykuł stanowi próbę rekonstrukcji pojęcia prawa wyjścia, która bierze pod uwagę wiele już dyskutowanych kwestii takich, jak, między innymi, sama możliwość wyjścia, jego koszty, konsekwencje i funkcje.

The most basic aim of the psychological and pedagogical advisory centre is providing the child and its family with support at every stage of the problems arising. The target of such centres is also undertaking preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, counselling and advisory actions. The profession of a diagnostic – therapeutic counsellor triggers ethical dilemma. Two parties meet and interact with each other in the relations occurring in such advisory centres – the counsellor and the person who needs advice and help. To (...) enable such a contact and make it effectively therapeutic instead of destructive, specialists employed in these centres have to be not only competent and highly qualified but also should possess a sufficient amount of knowledge about themselves, their system of values, opinions etc. (shrink)

Reply to John Lewis: Note on "The critique of the personality cult". Remark on the category "Process without a subject or goal(s)"--Elements of self-criticism: On the evolution of the young Marx.--Is it simple to be a Marxist in philosophy? "Something new".

Utilitarianism is one of the most famous ethical doctrines, based on the ideal of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. But Utilitarians and their opponents lack a clear scientific and philosophical understanding of its foundations, the measurement and aggregation of utility. This is what The Pursuit of Happiness now offers.

Empirical evidence suggests that mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and addiction are interrelated in decision making. In our study, we investigated the relationship of the behavioral profile, composed of mindfulness and psychological flexibility, and smoking status on delay and probability discounting. We demonstrated the interaction of the behavioral profile of mindfulness and psychological flexibility and smoking status on delay discounting. We found that individuals who smoked and displayed higher mindfulness and psychological flexibility devalued rewards at a slower rate, compared to smokers with (...) a lower profile. Importantly, in those with a higher profile, smokers discounted rewards no differently than nonsmokers. Smokers with a lower profile did display, however, increased impulsivity, compared to nonsmokers. These results suggest that behavioral interventions aiming to modify the behavioral profile with regard to mindfulness and psychological flexibility can indeed support the regulation of elevated impulsivity in smokers to equate with that of nonsmokers. In probability discounting, we observed that individuals with a higher profile displayed lower discounting rates, i.e., were less risk-averse, with no other significant main effect or interaction. (shrink)