The development of innovative biomedical technologies that use gene editing tools opens up new possibilities in the treatment of rare diseases, as well as diseases that were not previously treated...

The paper will compare two methods used in the design of diagnostic strategies. The first one is a method that precises predictive value of diagnostic tests. The second one is based on the use of Bayes’ theorem. The main aim of this article is to identify the epistemological assumptions underlying both of these methods. For the purpose of this objective, example projects of one and multi-stage diagnostic strategy developed using both methods will be considered.

The present paper deals with the problem of evaluating empirical evidence for therapeutic decisions in medicine. The article discusses the views of Nancy Cartwright and John Worrall on the function that randomization plays in ascertaining causal relations with reference to the therapies applied. The main purpose of the paper is to present a general idea of alternative method of evaluating empirical evidence. The method builds on data analysis that makes use of rough set theory. The first attempts to apply the (...) method show that it is an interesting alternative to randomized controlled trials. (shrink)

Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) offer hope for health benefits in all situations where traditional methods of therapy fail or cannot be used for various reasons. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the concept of innovation as applied to the biotechnologies employed in ATMP. In the analysis of the concept, five main contexts of meaning that contribute to its understanding will be distinguished: a change in the way of thinking about the available spectrum of medical procedures, the (...) short time of recognition of technologies in the experimental and theoretical models, lack of clinical data in advance of used technologies, increase of technologies’ complexity and diversity of substrates used in them. The conducted analysis indicates the need to adopt an attitude of far-reaching caution in the evaluation of the safety of ATMP therapies in which innovative biotechnologies are used. (shrink)

The main purpose of this article is to present the methodological characteristics of a diagnostic process. A proposal is put forward to treat that process as a specific type of a research investigation. The research investigation can be represented in the notional systems of various concepts of the question logic. In this article I attempt to formulate a preliminary notional description of the diagnostic process with the use of terms being questions. Adopting this perspective of deliberations, I maintain that during (...) a diagnostic process a doctor employs a specific type of reasoning, where questions constitute lingual formulations of diagnostic problems. The article describes the structure of a diagnostic question which is used to incorporate diagnostic problems. I provide arguments for a thesis that such questions are meant to correlate information obtained on a patient’s condition. Pointing at various aspects of temporality of a diagnostic process, I intend to present its preliminary characteristics in terms of a research investigation. My deliberations are based on exemplifications in the area of medical diagnostics, mainly in cardiology. (shrink)

New informatics technologies are becoming increasingly important in medical practice. Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) systems enable data analysis and the formulation of medical recomm...

The subject of this article is to discuss epistemological issues related to the pro-cess of obtaining empirical evidence in medicine. This paper will present how N. Cartwright, J. Worrall and P. Urbach describe the function of the randomisation pro-cedure in this process. Based on these findings, it will be possible to define an alter-native method of obtaining empirical evidence for the purpose of making clinical decisions. This method involves data analysis using the Rough Set Theory proposed by Z. Pawlak. By (...) applying this method, a deterministic algorithm for making clinical decisions can be formulated. Being an interesting alternative to statistical approaches that dominate in medicine, the RST method generates specific epistemological problems. Therefore, it seems to constitute an interesting subject of analysis for philosophers of science. (shrink)

The purpose of the present article is to propose a research project which will analyse the issue of theoretization of empirical data which takes place in the process of formulating scientific problems. J. Hintikka’s interrogative model of inquiry will serve us as a starting point for our considerations. First, his proposal of viewing the theory-dependence of facts will be characterized. Then, with reference to the results of K. Jodkowski, three interpretations of theory-laden thesis will be given: a radical, a modest (...) and a weak one. This will render it possible to further develop a critique of certain aspects of Hintikka’s conception. Subsequently, the critique will provide a basis for presenting a new way of viewing theory-dependence of empirical data. Some considerations regarding a possible use of the received conceptual scheme for analyzing certain problems of philosophy of science will close the article. A possibility of analyzing such classical problems as falsification and the use of the principle of auto-determinacy in science will also be offered. Lastly, with reference to A. Grobler’s analyses, a possibility of representing a process of rejecting metaphysical presuppositions in science will be considered. (shrink)

The primary objective of this article is to analyse functions that experimental models have in the process of creating medical knowledge. When fulfilling this objective, we will refer to findings proposed by R. Harre and like this author; we will distinguish a special type of experimental models do called domesticated models. We will claim that constructing such models initiates three independent cognition activities undertaken in the process of establishing medical knowledge that is applied in clinical practice. Stabilisation of the model (...) process is the first activity. Recognising this process is the second one and its extrapolation is the third one. Findings that we will make, will enable us to bring the process of establishing medical knowledge closer and point out at a category of problems that hinder the development of this process. (shrink)

This article discusses the use of Bayes’ Theorem in medical diagnosis with a view to examining the epistemological problems of interpreting the concept of pre-test probability value. It is generally maintained that pre-test probability values are determined subjectively. Accordingly, this paper investigates three main philosophical interpretations of probability (the “classic” one, based on the principle of non-sufficient reason, the frequentist one, and the personalistic one). This study argues that using Bayes’ Theorem in medical diagnosis does not require accepting the radical (...) personalistic interpretation. It will be shown that what distinguishes radical and moderate personalist interpretations is the criterion of conditional inter-subjectivity which applies only to the moderate account of personalist interpretation. (shrink)

Przedmiotem analizy podjętej w artykule jest procedura wyjaśniania statystycznego. Dla potrzeb prowadzonych rozważań omówiony został szczególny typ badań biomedycznych, jakim jest analiza podgrup randomizowanych badań klinicznych. Pokazane zostało, że poprawności wyjaśnień statystycznych nie można ustalić, analizując wyłącznie strukturę eksplanansu, jak jest to przyjmowane w modelu istotności statystycznej (R-S), zaproponowanym przez W. Salmona. Procedura wyjaśniania statystycznego jest zatem, w przeciwieństwie do pozostałych form wyjaśniania, zależna od procedur badawczych stanowiących podstawę formułowania twierdzeń statystycznych.

The paper deals with the procedure of explaining the secondary immune response. First, the basic concepts of the mechanistic account of explanation developed by Machamer, Darden and Craver will be considered. Subsequently, I will focus on the concepts describing the activation of the elements of the immunological system viewed as a signal decoding process. The analysis will make it possible to argue for the thesis that the explanations of the secondary immune response, formulated in immunology, aim to describe the possible (...) procedures of simplifying the signal decoding process. The following considerations will make it possible to show the specificity of the mechanistic explanations formulated in immunology, and to demonstrate their significance for medical sciences. (shrink)

Decision-making procedures in medical practice are often analysed by both philosophers of science and ethicists, as well as statisticians, clinicians and methodologists. The paper focuses on decisions made by patients in situations of moral dilemma. The main purpose is to analyse the strategies used in resolving such dilemmas. First, the concept of a ‘situation of moral dilemma’ is clarified. Then, two types of strategies for resolving such situations are distinguished. The first strategy requires revising the patient’s belief system or moral (...) orientation. The second one includes a group of non-revision beliefs strategies (NRB). The authors argue in support of the thesis that NRB strategies are, in fact, the patient’s first choice when it comes to resolving moral dilemmas. The paper analyses situations where the NRB strategies may prove effective, as well as situations where they fail and where the solution of the moral dilemma must be addressed by revising the accepted belief system. The findings will help to better understand patients’ decision-making processes. (shrink)

The following text is a voice in the discussion around normative problems of innovative therapies. It particularly refers to the meaning of the concept of innovation, also discussed in this issue in the article by Tomasz Rzepiński "Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) as products of innovative biotechnologies.".

We examined the influence of identity fusion and status of evaluator on willingness to fight for one’s group after group-descriptive or not group-descriptive feedback. The valence of evaluative information was varied as well: feedback either support negative group-stereotype or contradict negative group-stereotype. In two studies we partially replicated previous findings on self-verification. Individuals fused with one’s group were more prone than non fused to fight for group members after receiving, challenging, not group-describing feedback, but only when evaluator’s status was high. (...) When the evaluator’ status was low, fused participants engaged in self-enhancement strategies: that is they endorse radical behavior after negative, even if group-describing, feedback. We discuss the importance of identity fusion and evaluator’s status for determining when self-enhancement and self-verification will and will not be evoke. (shrink)

Braddon-Mitchell and Miller put forward the claim that the relation of being-the-same-person is gradable: a person can be the same person tomorrow as today, but only half the same. To justify their thesis, they propose a model of persons that is intended to be metaphysically neutral. This article sets out to show that such a model implicitly contains strong metaphysical assumptions that run contrary to the authors’ own statements. Using Roman Ingarden’s phenomenological ontology, we aim to demonstrate that within the (...) model in question persons exist intentionally, where this leads to a caricature rather than an adequate account of persons. In opposition to Braddon-Mitchell and Miller, we argue that the justification presented for the thesis of the gradability of the relation of being-the-same-person in fact makes it reasonable to demand that an adequate model of persons be posited. We present Kurt Lewin’s holistic topological-dynamic model, and show that in this context it is not being-the-same-person that is gradable, but rather the characteristic (of persons) that is dimension. Thus, we reject the thesis of the gradability of the relation of being-the-same-person involved in personal identity. (shrink)

The article contains a critical analysis of two conceptions of “the nature of things”, as found in publications of West German philosophers of law: G. Radbruch and W. Maihoffer. In the first stage of the evolution of his thought Radbruch spoke of the “influence of the matter on the legal idea”. The function of “the nature of things” is identified by Radbruch with resistance by social reality to the implantation of the legal idea. In the next stage of his views (...) Radbruch conceives of the nature of things as an objective sense of a certain social relationship, perceived from the point of view of a certain value. Now the nature of things serves as a bridge between the real world and the world of values. The nature of things has a minor role according to Radbruch, in legal thought. He emphatically opposes recognizing it as a source of law. (shrink)

Presented paper is my reply to Prof. Andrzej Biłat’s review of the book Przewodnik po metafizyce (A Companion to Metaphysics) edited by myself and published by WAM Press. It contains answers to both general and particular remarks and comments risen by Prof. Biłat.

We present the (Lascar) Galois group of any countable theory as a quotient of a compact Polish group by an F_σ normal subgroup: in general, as a topological group, and under NIP, also in terms of Borel cardinality. This allows us to obtain similar results for arbitrary strong types defined on a single complete type over ∅. As an easy conclusion of our main theorem, we get the main result of [K. Krupiński, A. Pillay and T. Rzepecki, Topological dynamics and (...) the complexity of strong types, Israel J. Math.228 (2018) 863–932] which says that for any strong type defined on a single complete type over ∅, smoothness is equivalent to type-definability. We also explain how similar results are obtained in the case of bounded quotients of type-definable groups. This gives us a generalization of a former result from the paper mentioned above about bounded quotients of type-definable subgroups of definable groups. (shrink)

My paper builds on the conceptual tools from three interrelated philosophical debates that—as I believe—may help structure important if chaotic discussions about surrogates for living human brains and resolve some practical issues related to regulatory matters. In particular, I refer to the discussions about the “moral precautionary principle” in research ethics (Koplin and Wilkinson 2019); about normative uncertainty in ethics (MacAskill, Bykvist, and Ord 2020), and about the inductive risk problem for animal welfare scientists (Birch 2018). I elucidate upon the (...) possible meanings of the phrase “a too good human brain surrogate” used by Henry T. Greely (2021), and I demonstrate that the evaluation of the practical and regulatory implications of the “goodness” of such surrogates created for research purposes should be sensitive to the possible consequences of two types of errors: the under-attribution and over-attribution of moral status to such beings. Many authors writing about this topic (including Greely 2021, but see also, e.g., Koplin and Savulescu 2019) concentrate only on the first type of error, neglecting the negative consequences of the second type, i.e., over-attribution. (shrink)

In this interview, Tomasz Zarębski speaks with Allan Janik, co-author of _Wittgenstein’s Vienna_ (1973, with Stephen Toulmin), on the occasion of the 50 th anniversary of the publication of this pathbreaking book. The conversation concerns the circumstances, motivations and reasons for his undertaking the work on the book, as well as its reception and place in Wittgenstein scholarship. A large part of the discussion refers to his perspective of Wittgenstein, Toulmin’s philosophical writings, and Janik’s own vision of philosophy. The (...) interview took place in Innsbruck on 23 rd and 25 th August 2023. (shrink)

In the late 2010s, various international committees, expert groups, and national strategy boards have voiced the demand to ‘open’ the algorithmic black box, to audit, expound, and demystify artificial intelligence. The opening of the algorithmic black box, however, cannot be seen only as an engineering challenge. In this article, I argue that only the sort of transparency that arises from critique—a method of theoretical examination that, by revealing pre-existing power structures, aims to challenge them—can help us produce technological systems that (...) are less deceptive and more just. I relate the question of AI transparency to the broader challenge of responsible making, contending that future action must aim to systematically reconcile design—as a way of concealing—with critique—as a manner of revealing. (shrink)

Here, we discuss historical, philosophical and technical problems associated with relating logic and relating semantics. To do so, we proceed in three steps. First, Section 1 is devoted to providing an introduction to both relating logic and relating semantics. Second, we address the history of relating semantics and some of the main research directions and their philosophical applications. Third, we discuss some technical problems related to relating semantics, particularly whether the direct incorporation of the relation into the language of relating (...) logic is needed. The starting point for our considerations presented here is the 1st Workshop On Relating Logic and the selected papers for this issue. (shrink)

The mathematical notion of a permutation of indices in the state description admits different physical interpretations. Two main interpretations analyzed in this paper are: exchange of essences and exchange of haecceities. It is argued that adopting the essentialist approach leads to the conclusion, contrary to the conventional wisdom, that quantum particles of the same type are sometimes discernible by their properties. The indiscernibility thesis can be supported only by the alternative interpretation in terms of primitive thisness.

In this paper I discuss some metaphysical consequences of an unorthodox approach to the problem of the identity and individuality of “indistinguishable” quantum particles. This approach is based on the assumption that the only admissible way of individuating separate components of a given system is with the help of the permutation-invariant qualitative properties of the total system. Such a method of individuation, when applied to fermionic compositions occupying so-called GMW-nonentangled states, yields highly implausible consequences regarding the number of distinct components (...) of a given composite system. I specify the problem in detail, and I consider several strategies of solving it. The preferred solution of the problem is based on the premise that spatial location should play a privileged role in identifying and making reference to quantum-mechanical systems. (shrink)

In this paper we investigate Boolean connexive logics in a language with modal operators: □, ◊. In such logics, negation, conjunction, and disjunction behave in a classical, Boolean way. Only implication is non-classical. We construct these logics by mixing relating semantics with possible worlds. This way, we obtain connexive counterparts of basic normal modal logics. However, most of their traditional axioms formulated in terms of modalities and implication do not hold anymore without additional constraints, since our implication is weaker than (...) the material one. In the final section, we present a tableau approach to the discussed modal logics. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to reconstruct and correct one argument in support of the symmetrization postulate in quantum mechanics. I identify the central premise of the argument as a thesis specifying a particular ontic property of quantum superpositions. The precise form of this thesis depends on some underlying assumptions of a metaphysical character. I compare the exchange degeneracy argument with alternative formal arguments for the symmetrization postulate, and I discuss the role and meaning of labels in the symmetric/antisymmetric (...) representations of the states of many particles. (shrink)

Standard deontic logic (SDL) is defined on the basis of possible world semantics and is a logic of alethic-deontic modalities rather than deontic modalities alone. The interpretation of the concepts of obligation and permission comes down exclusively to the logical value that a sentence adopts for the accessible deontic alternatives. Here, we set forth a different approach, this being a logic which additionally takes into consideration whether sentences stand in relation to the normative system or to the system of values (...) under which we predicate the deontic qualifications. By taking this aspect into account, we arrive at a logical system which preserves laws proper to a deontic logic but where the standard paradoxes of deontic logic do not arise. It is a logic of strictly-deontic modalities DR. (shrink)

The paper puts forward a theory of historical modalities that is framed in terms of possible continuations rather than possible worlds or histories. The proposal is tested as a semantic theory for a language with historical modalities, tenses, and indexicals.

The principles that govern the functioning of science and visions of the ethics of scientific research are changing. Many researchers who are examining these changes observe a shift from the academic ethos to the industrial — or “corporate” — ethos. Under the new law on higher education and science, which was passed by the Polish Parliament in 2018, new regulations to the Polish state university system have come into effect. The basic aim of my article has been to examine the (...) scientific ethos in Poland. I based my research on the new statutes adopted by university senates, in which I focused on the value statements and declarations that express the beliefs of university authorities about the most important and desirable model of science. I compared two groups of universities, those which have obtained the status of research universities and colleges from the Upper Silesian Metropolis. My goal was to answer the following questions: 1. What values create the declared ethos of science? 2. What is their hierarchy? 3. To what extent is the ethos of both groups of universities similar? 4. Has the scientific ethos present in the new statutes changed in relation to what was declared earlier? In order to answer these questions, I have applied the technique of document content analysis. My research shows that 1. The ethos of science is changing; 2. The set of declared values in the material under scrutiny is rich and varied. (shrink)

The article shows Sarmatism as an element of the Polish identity discourse in its community dimension, which mainly takes account of its civilisation and cultural aspect, defined by relations with modernity. Although this discourse includes Sarmatism in reflection on the key determinants of collective identity, such as community, Polishness and so on, it generally does so in a simplified manner, not free from prejudices and excessive bias. Liberal thought, which should have the greatest share in shaping the sphere of self-ideas (...) of modern society, shows a clear reluctance towards Sarmatian heritage, which is hardly surprising given its Enlightenment origin. However, one should understand the reasons for this reluctance, taking into account its stricter context, which is determined by the mechanism of programming Polish cultural projects in essentialist codes. Meanwhile, according to the author, the ‘post-mortem’ history of Sarmatism is part of the pan-European struggle of Tradition and modernity. When set on this plane, Sarmatism can be considered in terms of lack and compensation. The Sarmatian heritage, torn out of the vicious circle of stereotypes, myths and silences, should now be included in the debate on the foundations of Polish civic culture, because it belongs to the contingent history of the Polish habitus, and it is also characterised by the syndrome of un-working. It also needs to be made real by being located in the circle of geopolitical discourse. The perspective of the recontextualisation of Sarmatism, which neo-Sarmatism with its essentialist-nostalgic poetics has created in contemporary identity discourse and postcolonial thought with its binary schemas, seems insufficient. (shrink)