For a sign to be a sign it must bond an object, a signifier, and the idea to which it gives rise. The paper focuses on the iconicity of silence as a hypoiconic signifier, exploring the semiotics of silence in light of the notions and studies of iconicity. Fascinating parallelisms hold between iconicity and silence. These raise many challenges to the study of each separately, let alone dealing with them jointly. Some icons and some silences are qualities in the real (...) world, others are semiotic forms standing for or denoting objects. Simple, intuitive qualities of iconicity and of silence are naturally grasped and shared from antiquity to the present by cultures and peoples. The paper employs Peirce’s initial basic trichotomy of iconic classes as well as his later hierarchies for studying the iconic stance of silence as a hypoiconic signifier. Analyzing and illustrating the possible complexities between forms, contents, their relations and their interpretations, group hypoiconic silences into silence as an image, silence as a diagram, and silence as a metaphor. (shrink)

Yonatan Ratosh, a renowned Hebrew poet, made his living as a translator. His translations and lists found in his lexical legacy, contain thousands of his suggestions for new Hebrew terms. Among them many instances stand out that manifest some sort of similarity between the concept and the term proposed by Ratosh, thus raising the issue of iconicity. This paper takes a closer look at these instances, integrating theoretical aspects of iconicity and issues concerning lexicon in general, and Ratosh’s means of (...) lexical innovations in particular. Specifically, we first look at image and diagram. We then move beyond the dyad to consider metaphor. After that discussion we point out the asymmetry caused by omitting folk etymology, metonymy, and ellipsis. We propose, then, that semiotics should restrict iconicity only to intrinsic relations within the sign itself, hence image and diagram, thus not contaminating iconicity with cases of secondness, thirdness, or endless conventionalism. (shrink)

In this article, we address the case of self-tracking as a practice in which two meaningful backgrounds play an important role as the spatial dimension of human practices. Using a phenomenological approach, we show how quantification multiplies backgrounds, while at the same time generating data about the user. As a result, we can no longer speak of a unified background of human activity, but of multiple dimensions of this background, which, additionally, is perceived as having no pivotal role in the (...) process, often being hidden, situated beyond human consciousness, or taken for granted. Consequently, the phenomenological experience of the background turns into a hermeneutic practice focused on the interpretation of representations and descriptions. By adopting a phenomenological approach, we show the problems and limitations of quantification of human activities occurring in self-tracking and the theoretical problems associated with the scheme of human-technology relations. (shrink)

The book Chronicle of Separation is an attempt to write on Derrida, to Derrida and from Derrida on the basis of a pathetic experience, which, in various ways, describes and enacts the pathetic experience of deconstruction itself. The book tackles the weight of emotions that is at the heart of deconstructive reading, treating deconstruction's weak, fragile and parasitic mode of thinking as a deconstruction of emotion, on emotion and as emotion. Chronicle of Separation examines these themes beginning with a descriptive (...) and an analytic reading of Derrida's Memoirs: For Paul de Man and The Post Card, as embodiments of deconstruction's melancholic friendship which inscribes its disillusioned love in what it calls the 'postal condition'. The book then moves on to a feminization of Derrida, experimenting in different modes of writing. It firstly discusses Fred Zinneman's film Julia about a mournful friendship between women. Then it performs a deconstructive meditation on the anorexic person suggesting that anorexia constitutes a paradoxical embodiment of deconstruction. The concluding chapter presents a complete incorporation of Derrida into a fictional text that re-writes the biblical Book of Ruth. (shrink)

The essay examines Scholem's letter-confession on the Hebrew language addressed to Rosenzweig from two perspectives hitherto ignored in the ongoing interpretative consideration of this document: Scholem's repression of the literary space and his consequent exclusion of madness. The essay follows several threads in Derrida's own ‘internal’ reading of the letter, and leans on other Derridean writings such as The Monolingualism of the Other, Schibboleth: For Paul Celan and ‘Cogito and the History of Madness’ in order to suggest two distinct encounters (...) between Derrida and Scholem: In the first encounter, Scholem reads Derrida and proves to be deconstructing his own notions of secular and profane Hebrew, while fighting in vain for his sanity by clinging to liturgical practices against the grain of an ongoing ‘actualization’, politicization or else fictionalization of the sacred language. In the second encounter, it is Derrida who reads Scholem. By transforming the particular conditions of possibility of Hebrew into general conditions of possibility of every language contaminated by a theological-political tension, Derrida contributes some important insights for contemporary Hebrew speakers. (shrink)

A history of logic -- Patterns of reasoning -- A language and its meaning -- A symbolic language -- 1850-1950 mathematical logic -- Modern symbolic logic -- Elements of set theory -- Sets, functions, relations -- Induction -- Turning machines -- Computability and decidability -- Propositional logic -- Syntax and proof systems -- Semantics of PL -- Soundness and completeness -- First order logic -- Syntax and proof systems of FOL -- Semantics of FOL -- More semantics -- Soundness and (...) completeness -- Why is first order logic "First Order"? (shrink)

Let ΩΩ be the semigroup of all mappings of a countably infinite set Ω. If U and V are subsemigroups of ΩΩ, then we write U≈V if there exists a finite subset F of ΩΩ such that the subsemigroup generated by U and F equals that generated by V and F. The relative rank of U in ΩΩ is the least cardinality of a subset A of ΩΩ such that the union of U and A generates ΩΩ. In this paper (...) we study the notions of relative rank and the equivalence ≈ for semigroups of endomorphisms of binary relations on Ω.The semigroups of endomorphisms of preorders, bipartite graphs, and tolerances on Ω are shown to lie in two equivalence classes under ≈. Moreover such semigroups have relative rank 0, 1, 2, or in ΩΩ where is the minimum cardinality of a dominating family for . We give examples of preorders, bipartite graphs, and tolerances on Ω where the relative ranks of their endomorphism semigroups in ΩΩ are 0, 1, 2, and .We show that the endomorphism semigroups of graphs, in general, fall into at least four classes under ≈ and that there exist graphs where the relative rank of the endomorphism semigroup is 20. (shrink)

This article utilises feminist technoscience studies’ notions of bodily ‘materialisation’ and ‘ontological choreographies’, offering a cyborg feminist account of ‘bioavailability’ as embodied becomings, rather than a fixed ontological state of being. Drawn from 2 years’ ethnographic study in in vitro fertilisation clinics in Spain with migrant women who provided eggs to the cross-border in vitro fertilisation industry, this work explores how global understandings of race and inequalities, clinical practices and women’s own emotional and physical labours collectively produce bioavailability. Through examples (...) from observations and interviews in in vitro fertilisation clinics, we examined women’s embodied stories to understand the ways in which bioavailability becomes. The article demonstrates a novel way in which to think about ‘bioavailability’, a concept which has already been of enormous use to the social sciences since its introduction by Lawrence Cohen. We examine recent configurations of bodily extraction in the reproduction–migration nexus that help us rethink the concept of bioavailability. (shrink)

In this article, we address the case of self-tracking as a practice in which two meaningful backgrounds (physical world and technological infrastructure) play an important role as the spatial dimension of human practices. Using a (post)phenomenological approach, we show how quantification multiplies backgrounds, while at the same time generating data about the user. As a result, we can no longer speak of a unified background of human activity, but of multiple dimensions of this background, which, additionally, is perceived as having (...) no pivotal role in the process, often being hidden, situated beyond human consciousness, or taken for granted. Consequently, the phenomenological experience of the background turns into a hermeneutic practice focused on the interpretation of representations and descriptions. By adopting a (post)phenomenological approach, we show the problems and limitations of quantification of human activities occurring in self-tracking and the theoretical problems associated with the scheme of human-technology relations. (shrink)

The text presents the results of a qualitative study focused on the issue of using nanomaterials in the extraordinary circumstances linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly referring to the “Roušky s TULkou” initiative. Within several weeks, this initiative managed to launch the production of highly efficient nanofiber filters using the original AC Electrospinning technology on an industrial scale. The goal of the research was to analyse both the regional experience and the value-based challenges, conflicts and ethical dilemmas posed by an (...) emergency situation. The theoretical starting points of the research were the Turnerian understanding of liminality, communitas and antistructure and Stenner’s concept of liminal spaces. The results of the research show that the pandemic situation contributed to the emergence of an unexpected potential of the new technology and that the realisation of the activity was influenced not only by know-how and the university’s technical facilities, but particularly by social capital, thus uncovering the potential of the anti-structural character of the initiative and the temporary suspension of hierarchically established university structures. (shrink)

In the framework of Stewart Shapiro, computations are performed directly on strings of symbols (numerals) whose abstract numerical interpretation is determined by a notation. Shapiro showed that a total unary function (unary relation) on natural numbers is computable in every injective notation if and only if it is almost constant or almost identity function (finite or co-finite set). We obtain a syntactic generalization of this theorem, in terms of quantifier-free definability, for functions and relations relatively intrinsically computable on certain types (...) of equivalence structures. We also characterize the class of relations and partial functions of arbitrary finite arities which are computable in every notation (be it injective or not). We consider the same question for notations in which certain equivalence relations are assumed to be computable. Finally, we discuss connections with a theorem by Ash, Knight, Manasse and Slaman which allow us to deduce some (but not all) of our results, based on quantifier elimination. (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 paper contains a comment on the criticism of the author's book Początek jest wszędzie (Prószynski i S-ka, 2002) by Marek Lagosz ("Przegląd Filozoficzny - Nowa Seria, 14, 2005, 121-133). The comment focuses on the following issues: (1) the conception of philosophy of physics; (2) some methodological questions, especially the role of models in physics; (3) some explanations concerning the model proposed by the present author and his coworkers. A few "ideological remarks" are also made.

Physics is inseparably connected with western philosophy. From the seventieth century, physics began to play the role similar to that of ontology. Moreover, many notions and problems moved from philosophy to physics. That way it came into being something that is now called „philosophy in physics”. It means that some traditional philosophical questions, like for example the problem of individualization, emerge in physics in a new, exact and mathematical form. Therefore, physics will in the future become gradually philosophy.

Space, time and probabilities not only form the arena of many physical theories, but also the arena of our everyday life. Therefore, the problem of their ontological status becomes even more interesting. It seems that this problem cannot be solved before we have the final physical theory ("theory of everything"). However, various methods of looking for such a theory lead to converging results, and are able to elucidate the problem in question. We analyze noncommutative algebraic methods, and show that, when (...) applied to model the fundamental level, they suggest a nonlocal regime in which there is no space and no time, in their usual sense, and which is essentially probabilistic (in a generalized sense). In the noncommutative approach there are many probabilistic measures (not just one "probability" as in macroscopic physics), and none of them seems to be distinguished in any way. The tentative conclusion is that space, time and probability are not "absolute categories", but rather aspects of the world structure emergent from the fundamental level. One should expect that the ultimate theory will be well off our traditional philosophical categories. This shows that our mind has a peculiar property allowing it to reach far beyond its usual limitations. (shrink)

Zygmunt Zawirski, a member of the Lwow-Warsaw Philosophical School, in 1927-28 published an extensive paper (in three parts) devoted to the critical examination of the eternal return hypothesis - the idea that the history of the universe is fundamentally a cyclic process. After presenting the development of this idea throughout the ages Zawirski discusses arguments on its behalf coming mainly from the second law of thermodynamics and from the Poincaré recurrence theorem. Zawirski's criticism is confronted with the present state of (...) art. in this domain. Three new theoretical inputs are taken into account: first, our present knowledge of the global structure of space-time geometries with closed timelike curves; second, some results of relativistic thermodynamics; third, Tipler's no-return theorem (relativistic counterpart of the Poincaré theorem). Our knowledge regarding the eternal return, although not less hypothetical, is more „formalized” and more sophisticated than it was in Zawirski's time. (shrink)

Noncommutative geometry is quickly developing branch of mathematics finding important application in physics, especially in the domain of the search for the fundamental physical theory. It comes as a surprise that noncommutative generalizations of probabilistic measure and dynamics are unified into the same mathematical structure, i.e., noncommutative von Neumann algebra with a distinguished linear form on it. The so-called free probability calculus and the Tomita-Takesaki theorem, on which this unification is based, are briefly presented. It is argued that the unitary (...) evolution, known from quantum mechanics, could be a trace of noncommutativity on a deeper level. Philosophical significance of these results is also discussed. (shrink)

In the previous paper (Filozofia Nauki No 3-4, 1994, pp. 7-17) we have shown how the initial and final singularities in the closed Friedman world model can be analysed in terms of the structured spaces in spite of the fact that these singularities constitute the single point in the b-boundary of space-time. In the present paper we generalize our approach by using methods of noncommutative geometry. We construct a noncommutative algebra in terms of which geometry of space-time with singularities can (...) be developed. This algebra admits a representation in the space of operators on a Hilbert space, and the initial and final singularities in the closed Friedman model are given by its two distinct representations. The striking feature of this approach is its analogy with the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

How to define space-time singularities is a serious problem in general relativity. Schmidt's b-boundary construction was commonly regarded as leading to the best (and very elegant) definition of singularities: space-time is said to be singular if it contains at least one b-incomplete curve. Unfortunately, Bosshard (1976) and Johnson (1977) demonstrated that the b-boundary of the closed Friedman universe consists of the single point. This means that the initial and final singularieties (i.e., the beginning and the end of the Friedman world) (...) coincide. So far no remedy to cure this disaster was known. In the present paper, the author reviews the results obtained by himself and W. Sasin (1994) which clarify the problem. The closed Friedman space-time together with its singularities is not smooth manifold but it turns out to be a structured space which is a strong generalization of the manifold concept. Consequently, if the problem is considered within the correct category, i.e. the category of structured spaces, the patologies dissapear. If one remains within the space-time everything is all right. It is only if one attempts to „touch” the singularity (to extend the differential structure from the inside of space-time to the singularity) when the beginning and the end of the universe coalesce. From the perspective of the Demiurg creating the closed Friedman universe the cosmic history is but a single point. The methodological significance of this result is briefly discussed. (shrink)

Essay delivered at 4th Embassy of Poland Annual Lecture, University of Ottawa, on November 6, 2002. It renders main studies on Janusz Korczak published in special issues of Dialogue and Universalism (nos. 9-10/1997, 9-10/2001), putting emphasis on the philosophical dimensions of Korczak’s vision of society.