What are the main results of Bocheskiinvestigations in ethics and moral philosophy?In his own view, he contributed to threematters: his treatise on miltary ethics, hisclear delineation of morals, ethics, andreligious morality, and, finally, hisdemonstration of the potentialities of analysisin matters moral and ethical. This view isdiscussed and verified in the paper.

This book introduces an important chapter of Polish 20th century philosophy, by analyzing the studies that contributed to value theory; i.e. the studies of Kazimierz Twardowski, Tadeusz Czeżowski, Tadeusz Kotarbiński, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Roman Ingarden, Henryk Elzenberg, Maria Ossowska, and Józef Maria Bocheński.

Bertrand Russell was one of those moralists who advocate a broad concept of ethics, including both social and individual ethics. This latter ethics is composed of prescriptions relating to the various ways of attaining happiness and perfection. Since however both happiness and perfection, i.e. the creative experience of one’s own existence can be attained by the same way, the requirement of self-realization may contribute to the harmonious coexistence of all people an effect that is desirable from social point of view. (...) Russell believed that if all people an effect that is desirable form social point of view. Russell believed that if all individuals are granted possibilities of unrestrained self-realization armed conflicts will cease. The requirement of self-realization will be fulfilled above all when the barriers that have up to now handicapped the free development of human possibilities are pulled down. The barriers to self-realization include the restrictions connected with the specific living conditions pertinent to the industrial civilization, the commonly accepted false picture of human nature, and traditional morality. (shrink)

The author starts with recalling, primarily in reliance on Du Contrat social the main clauses of the social contract. Then he advances arguments to show that the text of The Social Contract admits of two interpretations of Rousseau’s theory of the social contract. In the first interpretation, the state which is produced as a result of the contract is viewed as the environment in which man fulfils his moral calling; it is the state that by social actions people can discover (...) and pursue moral values while preserving their individual freedom and sovereignty. The other interpretation implies that Rousseau had little respect for the individual person’s freedom and moral sovereignty, because both the construction of the “political machine” and its first decisive motions are dependent on the law-maker, a factor independent of the contracting parties, who is expected to take care of the unenlightened masses to transform them into a society reminiscent of those of Republican Rome or Sparta. In conclusion, the author advances the conjecture that the tensions pervading the theory of the social contract bad their source In certain deeper beliefs by which Rousseau abode also e his literary and educational work. Those beliefs included his distaste of modern civilization, his belief in the unconditional supremacy of moral values, his admiration of freedom, moral sovereignty and integrity, his belief that freedom is a most fundamental value, and his commitment to the kind of social ties which he saw embodied first in Geneva and most perfectly in Sparta. (shrink)

Polish philosophers’ contribution to the philosophy of our times is not limited to logic. Neither was Polish philosophy mainly one more form of analitical school. The scope of this philosophy was broader, and its methods were much more diversified. This may be confirmed by many examples. One of these is Polish value theory as represented by Ingarden, Tatarkiewicz, Czezowski, and Ossowska.The differences in their methods are striking: we have Ingarden’s phenomenolgy as a tool of axiological inquires into the nature of (...) works of art, various analytical procedures presented by Tatarkiewicz, Czezowski and Elzenberg, the descriptive method of Ossowska. In spite of deep substantial differences these thinkers have much in common: subtlety in their philosophical work, faithfulness to the facts that are the point of departure in their axiological investigations, clearly objectivist tendency in solving the problems of value theory (except for Maria Ossowska). Another common feature: these thinkers tested their views with their lives opposing - when need arose - the outbursts of totalitarian barbarity. (shrink)

This article examines the topic of approaches to personal development that aim at achieving the highest possible level. Such approaches are considered here in the context of Kazimierz Dąbrowski “Theory of Positive Disintegration”. The shaping of the personality is accomplished by the dynamic integration and disintegration of the individual, and also by considering his/her five levels of development. The first level is called the stage of primary integration, whilst harmonious secondary integration refers to the highest level of development itself. The (...) discovery of the highest level of personal value in one’s progress is one of the most effective stages in protecting the individual from any unacceptable moral or ethical standards present in society. It is also effective in the resocialisation of cases involving social pathology. Each person has the task of promoting their personal values to the highest level of development. When the individual conclusively fulfils this task, he/she reaches an optimal stage of harmoniousness and peacefulness. (shrink)

Credibility and reliability of counter-partners are the most important features required for the efficient functioning of financial markets. Violating these requirements is an important aspect of the operational risk, posed by the human factor – both internal (managers, employees) and external (customers, shareholders, competitors, supervisors). Therefore, having a limited impact on the behaviour of outside persons, the financial institutions formulate high standards towards their own personnel. It concerns formal qualifications and professional experience, as well as specific personality traits and appropriate (...) behaviour in various situations. These standards are specified in numerous recent ethics codes – documents formulating the socalled ‘corporate governance best practices’ in internal and external relations to other people. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the fact that some of these standards generate in praxis a number of dilemmas or even conflict situations, when there appears a question of to what extent the application of a given rule does not breach other rules. Theoretically, corporate governance practices should be internally consistent. However, everyday experience brings such a multitude of real situations, diverse human characters or individual reactions that there appears a need for a sensible compromise between values of equal importance which, in some cases, prove contradicting. (shrink)

Philosophical Sources of Marxism in Engels' Retrospection If Anti-Diihring is the first popular and systematic exposition of Marxist philosophy, ...

The use of experimental animals, mostly rodents, in biomedical research and especially in oncology and immunology should be acknowledged with respect, recognizing the contribution of animal experimentation in the fascinating scientific progress in these disciplines of research. It is an obligation of the investigator to justify the scientific and ethical aspects of each study requiring the use of animals. The international guiding principles for using animals in biomedical research are well defined and have been distributed worldwide by the International Council (...) for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) since 1956, when this Organization was founded. In Poland the ICLAS philosophy and principles are highly respected and were implemented firstly by the members of the Commission on Biology of Experimental Animals appointed in 1962 by the Department of Medical Science of the Polish Academy of Science in Warsaw. Animal Protection Acts, first proclaimed in 1928 were gradually modified and improved. Actual legislation (enacted in 1997, 2003 and 2005) is consistent with EU Directives (86/609/EEC) and follows the internationally recommended principles that include ICLAS guidelines concerning animal welfare and care condition in biomedical research. The problem of “alternative methods” is briefly discussed. Dr. Donald Boisvert, CCAC — Canadian Council on Animal Care. (shrink)

Obiektywna podstawa prawa według św. Tomasza z Akwinu -- Moc obowiązująca prawa a teoria Kelsena -- Problem filozofii prawa , filozofia prawa, jej przedmiot, metoda i podział.

It is rather uncontroversial that gender should have no influence on treating others as equal epistemic agents. However, is this view reflected in practice? This paper aims to test whether the gender of the testifier and the accused of assault is related to the perception of a testimony’s reliability and the guilt of the potential perpetrator. Two experiments were conducted: the subjects (n = 361, 47% females, 53% males) assessed the reliability of the testifier in four scenarios of assault accusation, (...) in which the only difference was the gender of the people presented. During the study, we have observed dependencies of gender and ascription of reliability, but only marginal differences in guilt attribution. The results of our research may constitute an argument for the existence of different epistemic status endowed on people depending on their gender and existing gender stereotypes. Our results suggest that gender bias may be situated at a deeper level than the linguistically triggered representation. (shrink)