This paper aims to present how logic may undermine a parliamentary assault on democratic institutions based on the analysis conducted with reference to the so-called Polish constitutional crisis. I analyse whether a law can be reviewed on the basis of this law itself. The Polish Constitutional Tribunal faced such a problem while passing the verdict of 9th March, 2016, regarding the constitutionality of the amendment to the Statute on the Constitutional Tribunal from 22nd December, 2015. This problem, called a ‘verdict (...) paradox’, was claimed to be a type of the Liar paradox. I argue that, contrary to the common view, the problem of the verdict paradox is not based on the Liar paradox; for this purpose, a logical analysis is applied to four variants of a reasoning with regard to the constitutionality of the said amendment. The distinction between two levels of analysis concerning emerging reasonings, namely an abstract level and a concrete level placed in the context of the legal system, is also introduced. This paper demonstrates that although only two variants of the reasoning concerning a law’s judicial review based on the law itself involve logical contradiction, the possibility of employing reasonings from other variants must be excluded, albeit due to alternative reasons. Therefore, the Constitutional Tribunal’s decision to avoid the verdict paradox by passing over the reviewed provisions in the review process was correct and might be perceived as an example of how logic and reason can defend the institutional guarantees of political freedom. (shrink)

The aim of the paper is to present two natural deduction systems for Intuitionistic Sentential Calculus with Identity ( ISCI ); a syntactically motivated \(\mathsf {ND}^1_{\mathsf {ISCI}}\) and a semantically motivated \(\mathsf {ND}^2_{\mathsf {ISCI}}\). The formulation of \(\mathsf {ND}^1_{\mathsf {ISCI}}\) is based on the axiomatic formulation of ISCI. Its rules cannot be straightforwardly classified as introduction or elimination rules; ISCI -specific rules are based on axioms characterizing the identity connective. The system does not enjoy the standard subformula property, but due (...) to the normalization procedure non-subformulas can label only leaves of proofs. In \(\mathsf {ND}^2_{\mathsf {ISCI}}\), we propose only two general identity-related rules, in reference to the treatment of the identity connective in First-Order Logic. (shrink)

Assume that there is no quasi-measurable cardinal not greater than 2ω. We show that for a c. c. c. σ -ideal [MATHEMATICAL DOUBLE-STRUCK CAPITAL I] with a Borel base of subsets of an uncountable Polish space, if [MATHEMATICAL SCRIPT CAPITAL A] is a point-finite family of subsets from [MATHEMATICAL DOUBLE-STRUCK CAPITAL I], then there is a subfamily of [MATHEMATICAL SCRIPT CAPITAL A] whose union is completely nonmeasurable, i.e. its intersection with every non-small Borel set does not belong to the σ (...) -field generated by Borel sets and the ideal [MATHEMATICAL DOUBLE-STRUCK CAPITAL I]. This result is a generalization of the Four Poles Theorem and a result from [3]. (shrink)

The contour of a family of filters along a filter is a set-theoretic lower limit. Topologicity and regularity of convergences can be characterized with the aid of the contour operation. Contour inversion is studied, in particular, for iterated contours of sequential cascades. A related problem of continuous extension of maps between maximal elements of sequential cascades to full subcascades is solved in full generality.

The article concentrates on motifs and ideas of biblical origin in the post-war literary output of Roman Brandstaetter, presented at different textual levels. The author of the paper considers motifs which are the most frequent and significant for writer’s artistic visage, like the prodigal son, the sacrifice of Isaac, the fight against the angel, the abyss, the imitation of God, the incarnation. The aim is to describe the transformations of the motifs and the ideas, to trace them to their biblical (...) source, and to interpret their functions in the texts. Brandstaetter’s work is interpreted in the light of the Catholic theology, the Christian tradition (included mysticism) and the whole text of the Bible, both Old and New Testament. (shrink)

Polish science fiction creates the presented world as dominated by totalitarian system. The government controls the distribution of information. Oposing that, citizens create their own means of diffusing information, designated as the Book. The Book makes readers realize the contradiction between the rules imposed by government and their own conscience. Besides, the act of reading symbolizes the process of growing to reach the truth. The very motif of the Book may be understood as allusion to unofficial literature, that emerged in (...) the early 80. years, while Polish science fiction was caming into being. (shrink)

An erotetic calculus for a given logic constitutes a sequent-style proof-theoretical formalization of the logic grounded in Inferential Erotetic Logic ). In this paper, a new erotetic calculus for Classical Propositional Logic ), dual with respect to the existing ones, is given. We modify the calculus to obtain complete proof systems for the propositional part of paraconsistent logic CLuN and its extensions CLuNs and mbC. The method is based on dual resolution. Moreover, the resolution rule is non-clausal. According to the (...) authors knowledge, this is the first account of resolution for mbC. Last but not least, as the method is grounded in IEL, it constitutes an important tool for the so-called question-processing. (shrink)

We define Kripke semantics for propositional intuitionistic logic with Suszko’s identity. We propose sequent calculus for ISCI along with cut-elimination theorem. We sketch a constructive interpretation of Suszko’s propositional identity connective.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused university education to transition from face-to-face contacts to virtual learning environments. Young adults were forced to live an entirely new life online, without valuable and enjoyable social interaction. We examined subjective perspectives towards life online during the pandemic. We identified four viewpoints about life mediated by computers. Two viewpoints express “struggling”: Viewpoint 1 (Angry, Depressed and Overwhelmed), and Viewpoint 3 (Restricted to and Overwhelmed by Virtuality). A third feeling-state conveys experiences of “surviving”: Viewpoint 4 (Isolated and (...) Powerless in Convenience). Surprisingly, Viewpoint 2 is about “thriving” (Comfortable and Convenient Routine with Computers). The research shows that virtualization, confinement, and anxiety are taking a toll on the mental health of some members of the younger generation, while at the same time other members feel they are thriving in a situation of limited resources, virtuality, and reduced face-to-face human interaction. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest namysł nad sposobami reinterpretacji w powieściach Ryszarda Ćwirleja znamiennej dla kultury PRL formuły powieści milicyjnej która zdominowała rodzimą literaturę kryminalną lat 1955–1989, a która obecnie przeżywa „drugą młodość” jako zjawisko literackie i socjologiczne, pozbawione wymiaru ideologicznego. Rekonstruując dawne realia, pisarz ten tworzy obraz epoki zanurzony w „kulturze nostalgii”. Powieść neomilicyjna jest jednym z przejawów tęsknoty za PRL, w której sentymentalny wymiar powieści wyraża się w dążeniu do odzyskania dla współczesnego czytelnika etosu sprawczej władzy. Jednak jego przedstawiciele, którzy (...) są oficerami MO, stosują dalekie od legalności sposoby postępowania. Wyłaniający się – dzięki wykorzystaniu metody filologicznej i badań kulturowych, umożliwiających lekturę kontekstową – z twórczości Ćwirleja wizerunek stróżów prawa dość często naznaczony jest piętnem korupcji. Można zatem traktować go jako „uzupełnienie” zideologizowanego wzorca, do którego pisarz się odwołuje. (shrink)

The introduction discusses the contents of the volume devoted to Polish crime literature. Individual articles have been characterized. The ways in which they were arranged in the volume according to different keys (thematic and genological) were also discussed.

The aim in this paper is to define an Abductive Question-Answer System for the minimal logic of formal inconsistency \. As a proof-theoretical basis we employ the Socratic proofs method. The system produces abductive hypotheses; these are answers to abductive questions concerning derivability of formulas from sets of formulas. We integrated the generation of and the evaluation of hypotheses via constraints of consistency and significance being imposed on the system rules.

We introduce a notion of ideal type such that any two ideals with the same ideal type are isomorphic. From this we infer, under the axiom t = h, that each ideal which consists of all nowhere Ramsey sets contained in some family of infinite subsets of natural numbers is isomorphic with the ideal of all nowhere Ramsey sets.

Our main inspiration is the work in paper (Gitik and Shelah in Isr J Math 124(1):221–242, 2001). We will prove that for a partition \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal{A}}$$\end{document} of the real line into meager sets and for any sequence \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal{A}_n}$$\end{document} of subsets of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal{A}}$$\end{document} one can find a sequence \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} (...) \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal{B}_n}$$\end{document} such that \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal{B}_{n}}$$\end{document}’s are pairwise disjoint and have the same “outer measure with respect to the ideal of meager sets”. We get also generalization of this result to a class of σ-ideals posessing Suslin property. However, in that case we use additional set-theoretical assumption about non-existing of quasi-measurable cardinal below continuum. (shrink)

p-consequence is intended as a formalization of non-deductive reasoning. So far semantical or general properties have been presented more thoroughly ([2]–[5]). In the present paper we would like to focus on its syntactic properties.

The paper discusses the relation of philosophy and meta-philosophy. With the use of Jerzy Perzanowski’s notion of characteristics of science and Jan Woleński’s meta-methodological typology, the author aims at presenting meta-philosophy as part of philosophy itself. Seen along such lines, meta-philosophy is part of methodology of philosophy which relates classical problems of epistemology to philosophy, just as philosophy of science does it for science. The author argues that the problems of meta-philosophy are in fact philosophical problems and sketches possible meta-philosophical (...) positions analogous to the standpoints in methodology already given. Obviously, this way of presenting meta-philosophy is only one of its possible programs. Yet, the benefit of it is an already given conceptual framework taken from philosophy of science. (shrink)

Paradoxically, in contemporary human and social sciences, dominated by materialist philosophy, the bodily dimension of the human person is often underestimated. Hence, for example, the idea for pro...

In my paper I present David Hume's philosophy from the perspective of Charles Sanders Peirce's theory of signs. I argue that by interpreting impressions and ideas as iconic signs it is possible to avoid many inconsistencies in Hume's philosophy. Apart from that it makes possible to avoid Hume's scepticism about the existence of the external world by introducing Peirce's concept of the dynamic and immediate object. What is more, the generative structure of signs helps us to deal with the "gmissing (...) shade of blue" problem. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest porównanie szczególnej odmiany teorii spiskowych, tzw. globalnej teorii spiskowej do sławnego eksperymentu myślowego autorstwa H. Putnama o mózgach w naczyniu. Uznanie istnienia złowrogiego spisku światowego stawia wierzącą weń osobę w podobnej sytuacji do tej, w której znajduje się człowiek próbujący rozstrzygnąć, czy jest mózgiem w naczyniu. Dzieje się tak, ponieważ conspiratio maligna ma niczym nieograniczoną moc wywierania wpływu, kontrolowania, a nawet tworzenia dowolnych aspektów naszego społecznego, politycznego i ekonomicznego życia. Wszechmoc tej tajemniczej organizacji jest powodem, dla którego (...) jej ofiary nie mogą nikomu ufać, ani rządowi, ani naukowcom, a nawet innym wyznawcom teorii spiskowych. Wszystkich – ludzi i instytucje – podejrzewa się o to, że są przekupieni, kontrolowani lub zastraszeni przez spisek. Zachować sceptycyzm wobec wszystkiego, to jedyne wyjście z tej sytuacji. (shrink)

This paper’s primary purpose is to show that there is a peculiar alternative to scientism whose central thesis is not about sources of knowledge or the existence of various objects, but it aims at setting out a strategy to help decide which of the two mutually exclusive beliefs is the better one to adopt. Scientophilia, to coin a term, recommends preferring, without any discussion, a position consistent with the consensus of credible and reliable experts in a given domain. In case (...) there is no such agreement, mainly because peers disagree with each other, or experts are difficult to identify, it is recommended for a scientophile to suspend judgment. Scientophilia is not a position on science or human knowledge boundaries, but it deals with the practical side of belief change. Verdicts made by this approach are partially similar to those offered by mild scientism, as scientophilia puts scientific knowledge as one of the most reliable sources. However, it is also consistent with mild antiscientism, as in some particular cases (for example, Moorean truths), it assigns reliable expertise to non-scientific experts. Therefore it is a third way. (shrink)

In one of his papers, Moti Mizrahi argues that arguments from an expert opinion are weak arguments. His thesis may seem controversial due to the consensus on this topic in the field of informal logic. I argue that its controversy is framework-dependent, and if translated into a different framework, it appears to be a correct, however trivial, claim. I will use a framework based on Douglas Walton’s argumentation scheme theory and his conception of examination dialogue to demonstrate that it is (...) so. It appears that Mizrahi’s idiosyncratic framework provides an excessively restrictive conception of an argument from expert opinion than Walton’s scheme does. There is no quarrel between both frameworks, as they yield analogous, almost identical, outcomes of argument evaluation. The actual and crucial disagreement is on the topic of argument classification. Mizrahi’s conception of arguments from an expert opinion imposes exact conditions that such argument must fulfil: an expert’s opinion o truth-value must be unknown; o must be unsupported by any evidence; an expert’s peers neither accept o nor reject it. These exclude, by definition, every possible strong, in Walton’s terms, variant of such an argument. Therefore, if rephrased with the notions of the examination dialogue framework, Mizrahi’s thesis sounds as follows: weak arguments from expert opinion are weak arguments. (shrink)

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

The question arises whether the coherence between Democracy and the Christian vision of the person and Society as something much more essential or is it simply a matter of chance? It is only with Christianity, with its teachings on the concept of inviolable rights of the person, equality, political rights of the people, and the absolute value of relationships based on law and justice as the basis of society and based on fraternal love, created a new Vision of political order (...) which all contemporary nations aim to implement. If not for the Christian concept of democracy, the democracy that we know today, would probably have taken a different form. The Church’s support for democracy is something unquestionable. However, not every kind of democracy automatically is in keeping with the teachings of the Church. This depends on a democracy’s relation to truth and freedom. The Church supports democracy today, however it does not support one, concrete vision of the political system of the State. It respects the just autonomy of the democratic order, and it does not have a concrete reason for supporting one particular institutional and constitutional solution or another. (shrink)

The article is dedicated to ways in which authors of the socialist realism novel used the poetics of the non-fiction literature (mainly reportage). Perceiving a work of art as a cultural fact of political character had serious consequences. The literary creation was to be replaced by a reportage storyline. The outer reality was depicted in accordance with top-down guidelines of propaganda. Two strategies were used: linking poetics of documentary with belles lettres and incorporating elements typical of non-fiction literature to fiction. (...) At the same time genological “light-heartedness” of authors of socialist realism makes it now difficult to decide about typological affiliation of those works. (shrink)

This article addresses the issue of the relationship between God’s law and secular law, and presents a thesis for the legitimacy of the right to the objection of conscience “in which the voice of God speaks.” Considerations relate to conscience as the power of knowing good and duties, the universality of this knowledge, its legitimacy and conditions for its reliability. By referring to stoicism and neo-Platonism, but especially to the elements of St. Paul’s theology and the views of Benedict XVI, (...) the author shows how important it is to introduce the category of nature and conscience to a secular, rationalist reflection on law. He presents the position of Christian theologians who spoke out against religious law and his own arguments, as well as the view expressed, among others, by Benedict XVI about the corrective role of religion with respect to human reason, as well as the importance of human reason for religion. The author also highlights the significant lack of reflection on natural law in modern science and the dramatic consequences thereof, such as the denial of the right to conscientious objection. (shrink)

Artykuł poświęcony jest jednej z najbardziej wieloznacznych powieści Stanisława Lema — Pamiętnikowi znalezionemu w wannie. Świat bohatera Pamiętnika, pozbawiony łączności z tym, co zewnętrzne, zawiera się w umyśle postaci. Samoidentyfikacja wiążąca się nierozerwalnie z odosobnieniem, jest paradoksalnie niemożliwa do osiągnięcia w labiryncie korytarzy budowli. „Ja” bohatera, dążące do „bycia sobą”, nie może zdobyć pełni tożsamości, ponieważ niezdolne pozostaje do dookreślenia siebie w relacji do struktur Gmachu.

Dharmakīrti argues that there is no pramāṇa (valid means of cognition or source of knowledge) for a thesis that is a self-contradiction (svavacanavirodha). That is, self-contradictions such as ‘everything said is false’ and ‘my mother is barren’ cannot be known to be true or false. The contemporary scholar Tillemans challenges Dharmakīrti by arguing that we can know that self-contradictions are false by means of a formal logical inference. The aims of the paper are to answer Tillemans’ challenge from what we (...) take to be Dharmakīrti’s or Dharmakīrtian (someone who is like Dharmakīrti) perspective and to demonstrate the unique features of Dharmakīrti’s view of inference. By so doing, we show that the epistemology in relation to the formal conception of logic that underlies Tillemans’ challenge is problematic from Dharmakīrti’s or Dharmakīrtian perspective. The paper, thus, presents Dharmakīrti’s view of inference and logical reasoning as well as a Dharmakīrtian challenge to the formal conception of logic that is the dominant contemporary conception. (shrink)

Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way (Madhyamaka) doctrine met with the objection that it is a mere verbal attack (vitaṇḍā) against other philosophical positions. As one of the Madhyamaka critics pointed out: because Nāgārjuna does not hold own position, he is not able to justify his criticism of the essence (svabhāva). The article is an answer to the question whether, in the context of Indian philosophy, it is possible to know things devoid of essences. Theory of knowledge of this kind, i.e. the concept (...) of omniscience (sarvajña) was presented in Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā sutra. Associations between Nāgārjuna’s texts and the sutra suggest that omniscience could be a substrate for epistemological position of the Middle Way. (shrink)

In this paper we are applying certain strategy described by Negri and Von Plato :418–435, 1998), allowing construction of sequent calculi for axiomatic theories, to Suszko’s Sentential calculus with identity. We describe two calculi obtained in this way, prove that the cut rule, as well as the other structural rules, are admissible in one of them, and we also present an example which suggests that the cut rule is not admissible in the other.

In this paper we are applying certain strategy described by Negri and Von Plato :418–435, 1998), allowing construction of sequent calculi for axiomatic theories, to Suszko’s Sentential calculus with identity. We describe two calculi obtained in this way, prove that the cut rule, as well as the other structural rules, are admissible in one of them, and we also present an example which suggests that the cut rule is not admissible in the other.

Stereotype accuracy is a contentious topic. Part of the problem is that typically stereotypes are generic statements whose truth status is unclear due to the fact that they are ill-defined quantitatively. The article focuses on the epistemic aspect of stereotypical beliefs. In the ongoing debate, I side with those who argue against stereotypes being wrong or inaccurate by virtue of definition alone. I propose that, when possible, stereotype accuracy should be assessed in probabilistic terms by inspecting how likely a generic (...) statement is to be true when applied to individual representative of the relevant group. This approach applies equally well to investigating the actual and the perceived accuracy of stereotypes. (shrink)

PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE AND ITS COGNITIVE FUNCTION Among the features marking a mystical experience facilitated by certain kind of psychedelic substances researchers singled out the so-called noetic quality, which indicates that mystical experiences can have a cognitive significance. The main goal of my article is then to address the question, whether this cognitive capacity of mystical experience has only a subjective/psychological value, or it should be rather treated as a legitimate kind of cognition. The philosophical aspect of this issue enters the (...) domain of ontology and epistemology, since it concerns the question, whether an object of any cognitive experience has to belong to the physical reality, or a proper cognition can be realized in the reality of symbols. In order to deal with these questions I will refer to the philosophy of H.-G. Gadamer. Even though Gadamer did not investigate altered states of consciousness, I believe his hermeneutics can support a hypothesis that altered states of consciousness provide recognition of reality of symbols. (shrink)

E. T. A. Hoffmann is one of the most famous representatives of early German horror literature. He has been both, inspired by its predecessors, as well as having influenced the work of many of his successors, and hence the development of the whole genre. The present article examines a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann, “Vampirismus” from the collection of short stories “Serapions Brüder”. Emphases are, on the one hand, on the mechanisms that cause readers’ fear and uncertainty and, on (...) the other hand, the peculiarity of the vampire or Nachzehrer figure and their function in the story. Firstly, it will be shown that the vampire depicted in the work is not actually a vampire. We find here a ghoul; that is a demon from Arab culture. However, the ghoul has more to do with the monster outlined by Antoine Galland in his translation of the “One Thousand and One Nights” than with traditional folk beliefs. Secondly, the author comes to the conclusion that Hoffmann has functionalized the Horrible. This element does not work by itself, but serves the author as the background of the action. And he is using this background to let the characters reveal all their weaknesses and dark sides. The violation of the order ruling in the world as it is represented engages the reader and at the same time raises his fear. The resulting excited feelings and general alienation are further reinforced for the figure of the Nachzehrer that occurs instead of a formerly innocent, graceful girl. The emergence of the supernatural – the final confirmation of the breach of order – is responsible for the effect just described. (shrink)