Filozoficzne rozważania na temat cywilizacji w ostatecznym rozrachunku stoją pod znakiem zapytania o ich prawomocność. Zdawałoby się, iż studia cywilizacyjne winnioemy zostawiæ antropologom, historykom, politologom i innym przedstawicielom nauk szczegółowych. Filozofie cywilizacji natomiast powinny zostać odłożone do antykwariatu doktryn spekulatywnych. Odpowiedź filozofów na takie pytanie da się łatwo przewidzieć: każda teoria cywilizacji zakłada jakąś jej filozofię. Ale typów tej filozofii jest ledwie kilka, przeto zasadne jest pytanie, czy wobec postępów kulturoznawstwa istnieją jakieś powody – poza antykwarycznymi,które usprawiedliwiałyby referowanie dawnych koncepcji (...) tego czy innego rodzaju, skoro mamy nowsze, w domyśle: zbudowane przy pomocy wyników aktualnych badań, a przede wszystkim jakoś uwzględniające wydarzenia, które zaszły na przełomie XX w. A jednak kumulatywny postęp nauk szczegółowych, szczególnie społecznych nie zawsze koreluje z dopracowywaniem ich paradygmatów. Bywa wręcz odwrotnie, przez co pierwotna postać jakiejś idei filozoficznej może okazać się bogatsza i po prostu ciekawsza niż jej późniejsze formy. Czasami postać pierwotna lepiej ujawnia swój aspekt spekulatywny, zamaskowany późniejszymi, kolejnymi próbami „naukowego udowodnienia”. Zdarza się i tak, że oryginalna idea filozoficzna zostaje zarzucona z przyczyn politycznych albo przeciwnie, ulega upolitycznieniu. Przykładami są dwie doktryny, które zestawiamy w niniejszym artykule. W naszym pojęciu egzemplifikują przeciwstawne a uzupełniające się paradygmaty nauki o kulturze. To, że stworzyli je Polacy: Feliks Koneczny i Erazm Majewski jest z historycznego punktu widzenia znamienne, choć rzecz jasna nie wpływa na ich analizę. Zresztą, o ile wiemy, doktryny Konecznego i Majewskiego nie były jeszcze systematycznie porównywane. A jest to chyba porównanie interesujące samo w sobie, skoro z jednej strony Majewski był, obok Spencera i Znanieckiego, jednym z głównych źródeł inspiracji doktryny Konecznego, a z drugiej sam jest godzien uwagi, niezależnie od paradygmatu, który reprezentuje. […]. (shrink)

At the beginning of the 1990's the American public debate saw the entry of a new participant: the neo-creationist party, or, as they like to call themselves Intelligent Design. Their activities are not limited to critique of these aspects of scientific culture which are dominated by Darwinian evolutionists. The IDers offer alternative concepts, contradicting both Darwinism and many varieties of theistic evolutionism. Creationists often regard the latter as an effect of capitulation of Christianity before naturalism. The ID propaganda rather tends (...) to avoid open conflict with fundamen-talist creationism (mistakenly called creation-science ), they however imply that their proposals are more serious than flood geology or young Universe cosmology. The late are regarded by geologists and physicists as curiosa targeted at the scientifically illiterate. Neo-creationists even try to announce a coming revolution in Weltanschauung of the Western science. (shrink)

Globalization is defined as reduction in world’s diversity due to cultural Gleichschaltung and compactification. A question is asked how the process is linkedwith the presence of universalist ideologies as great religions, utilitarianism, Socialism or ecologism. Some suggestions concerning further research are made.

Unfounded—conspiracy and health—beliefs about COVID-19 have accompanied the pandemic worldwide. Here, we examined cross-nationally the structure and correlates of these beliefs with an 8-item scale, using a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. We obtained a two-factor model of unfounded (conspiracy and health) beliefs with good internal structure (average CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.04), but a high correlation between the two factors (average latent factor correlation = 0.57). This model was replicable across 50 countries (total N = 13,579), (...) as evidenced by metric invariance between countries (CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.06, SRMS = 0.07) as well as scalar invariance across genders (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03) and educational levels (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03). Also, lower levels of education, more fear of COVID-19, and more cynicism were weakly associated with stronger conspiracy and health beliefs. The study contributes to knowledge about the structure of unfounded beliefs, and reveals the potential relevance of affective (i.e., fear of COVID-19) and cognitive (i.e., cynicism) factors along with demographics, in endorsing such beliefs. In summary, we obtained cross-cultural evidence for the distinctiveness of unfounded conspiracy and health beliefs about COVID-19 in terms of their structure and correlates. (shrink)

In this study, we analyse the notion of “differential heterogenesis” proposed by Deleuze and Guattari on a morphogenetic perspective. We propose a mathematical framework to envisage the emergence of singular forms from the assemblages of heterogeneous operators. In opposition to the kind of differential calculus that is usually adopted in mathematical-physical modelling, which tends to assume a homogeneous differential equation applied to an entire homogeneous region, heterogenesis allows differential constraints of qualitatively different kinds in different points of space and time. (...) These constraints can then change in time, opening the possibility for new kinds of differential dynamics and the emergence of distinct entities and forms. Formally, we show that operators with different phase spaces can be assembled on the basis of a result of Rothschild & Stein (1976. Hypoelliptic differential operators and nilpotent groups. Acta Mathematica 137. 247–320). Furthermore, operators with different dynamics can be assembled by means of a partition of the unit.After stating the concept of differential heterogenesis in terms of contemporary mathematics, we show that this construction sheds light on the constitution of the semiotic function. In fact, both the Merleau-Pontian and the Deleuzian approaches share a common conceptualisation of the semiotic function and its emergence in terms of amorphodynamics of heterogeneous assemblages with a divergent actualisation. This divergent actualisation allows the co-constitution of various expression and content planes. Finally, we show that the divergent actualisation can be interpreted as the directions of principal eigenvectors of the actualized flow. (shrink)

Identity, self-sufficiency and disability in the context of educational and vocational activity This study focused on relations between identity and sense of self-sufficiency. These relations were analysed in the context of educational and vocational activity. 204 persons without disabilities and 230 persons with different kinds of disability participated in the study. Participants were divided into three groups: 18-24-year-olds - students, 25-30-year-olds - unemployed and 25-30-year-olds - employed. The results revealed that unemployed people have significant problems with identity formation. This group (...) obtained the highest scores on ruminative exploration and the lowest scores on the scales of commitment making and identification with commitment. Self-sufficiency proved to be a moderator of the relations between educational/vocational activity on the one hand and exploration in breadth and exploration in depth on the other hand. In students, level of exploration was high in individuals with a high sense of self-sufficiency whereas in the unemployed strong exploration was observed in the group with low sense of self-sufficiency. The need to conduct studies where participants are recruited from populations which seldom attract researchers' interest, such as the unemployed and people of low social status, is also noted. (shrink)

Theories of discourse bring to realism new ideas about how knowledge develops and how representations of reality are influenced. We gain an understanding of the conceptual aspect of social life and the processes by which meaning is produced. This collection reflects the growing interest realist critics have shown towards forms of discourse theory and deconstruction. The diverse range of contributions address such issues as the work of Derrida and deconstruction, discourse theory, Eurocentrism and poststructuralism. What unites all of the contributions (...) is a sense that it is essential to provide a realist alternative to the hitherto dominance of social constructionism, hermeneutics and postmodernism, over many of the issues discussed. By developing a realist perspective the different authors attempt to embed discourse within the structured nature of the reality of the world. Realism can situate language, discourse and ideology within context specific, or 'causally efficacious' circumstances. Realism can help to uncover issues of power, representation, and subjectivity and how discursive and other social practices produce real effects. This can help us understand the manner in which social structures are reproduced through various forms of ideology and discourse. And by knowing this, we can start to address questions concerning human emancipation and how the world is to be transformed. (shrink)

A substantial amount of research showed that agency and communion are two basic dimensions of content in social cognition. Based on the well-supported idea that people typically think about themselves and close others in agentic rather than communal terms, we tested the hypothesis that agentic thinking about unknown others makes them subjectively closer. This hypothesis was confirmed in four experiments differently priming agentic versus communal thinking on others. As predicted, increases in closeness resulting from the agentic thinking about others were (...) constrained to cognitive load conditions where participants were occupied with a parallel task. We conclude that the agentic content of thoughts about others serves as an intuitive, heuristic cue of their psychological closeness. (shrink)

How to estimate the randomness in random sequence generation tasks? The aim of the paper was to discuss the accuracy of the multiple indexes used for random sequences generation results calculation. In the first part of the paper the models explaining deviations from randomness were presented. The key role of the structural limitations interpretation was suggested. Secondly, the multiple indexes of the deviation from randomness used in random sequence generation task studies were presented. The authors concluded that too many indexes (...) are used in the studies of deviation from randomness. In order to avoid such problems two indexes were proposed: entropy and correlation function. The last part of the paper presents the preliminary version of the mathematical of random sequences generation in which the limited capacity of the short-term memory assumption was introduce. (shrink)

A high risk of morbidity-mortality caused by a harsh and unpredictable environment is considered to be associated with a fast life history strategy, commonly linked with criminal behavior. However, offenders are not the only group with a high exposure to extrinsic morbidity-mortality. In the present study, we investigated the LH strategies employed by two groups of Polish men: incarcerated offenders as well as soldiers and firefighters, whose professions involve an elevated risk of injury and premature death. The subjects were asked (...) to complete the Mini-K and a questionnaire which included a number of biodemographic LH variables. Although biodemographic and psychosocial LH indicators should be closely linked with each other, the actual connection between them is unclear. Thus, this study was driven by two aims: comparing LH strategies in two groups of men with a high risk of premature morbidity-mortality and investigating the relationship between the biodemographic and psychosocial LH dimensions. The study showed that incarcerated men employed faster LH strategies than soldiers and firefighters, but only in relation to biodemographic variables. No intergroup differences emerged regarding psychosocial LH indicators. Moreover, the correlation analysis showed a weak association between biodemographic and psychosocial LH indicators. The results strengthen the legitimacy of incorporating biodemographic LH traits into research models and indicate the need for further research on the accuracy of the Mini-K. The possible explanations for the intergroup differences in LH strategies are discussed. (shrink)

A sourcebook for developing and facilitating collaborative groups capable of continuously adapting to anticipate the evolving learning needs of students. Based on a theoretical foundation of schools as complex systems in which linear management models are no longer sufficient.

Develops a theory of culture based on a metaphysics that elaborates on the Platonic and Confucian traditions. In Metaphysics of Goodness, Robert Cummings Neville extends Alfred North Whitehead’s project of cultural studies, which was based on a new metaphysics that Whitehead developed in Adventures of Ideas. Neville’s focus is value or goodness in many modes. The metaphysics treated in this book derive from the Platonic and Confucian traditions, with significant modifications of Whitehead, Peirce, Dewey, Confucius, Xunzi, and Zhou Dunyi. (...) Part one develops a theory of form based on a metaphysics of harmony. Part two elaborates a theory of art based on a metaphysics of beauty. Part three sketches a theory of personhood based on a metaphysics of obligation. Part four discusses civilization in a systematic way based on a metaphysics of flourishing. Throughout the book, Neville elaborates a theory of interpretation that is inspired by Peirce, Dewey, and Xunzi but is not limited to their ideas. While the reasoning of the book is concise, it employs methodologies from many kinds of philosophy, art criticism, ethics, and cultural studies, and sees philosophy as needing to learn from all these disciplines. “Neville’s work is informed by a lifelong engagement with the most important philosophers in history, including Plato, Aristotle, Whitehead, and Dewey. Here, he offers an important argument that there is beauty not only in how people see the world, but also in the world itself.” — Kevin Schilbrack, Appalachian State University. (shrink)

In the processual approach to identity, the role of the interaction between subjective and contextual factors in the process of its development is emphasized. Based on the model of Luyckx et al. relationships between identity and educational context, as well as the tendency to experience shame and guilt were analyzed.. 821 people aged from 14-25 and belonging to six educational groups: lower secondary school, basic vocational school, technical upper secondary school, general upper secondary school, post-secondary school and university, took part (...) in the research. Two questionnaires were used: The Dimensions of Identity Development Scale, to allow the measurement of the five dimensions of identity postulated by Luyckx et al and The Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 to measure of the shame and guilt proneness. The results show that general upper secondary school students in terms of the dimensions of identity are closer to lower secondary school students rather than to their peers from technical and vocational schools. Among general upper secondary school students not only was a higher intensity of an identity crisis observed, but also a strong tendency to experience shame and guilt. Among lower secondary school students and general upper secondary school students, people with diffusion and moratorium as identity statuses prevailed, while in the remaining groups the achievement and foreclosure identity were observed more frequently. A general relationship was also observed, namely, a greater tendency to experience shame was associated with a higher intensity of an identity crisis. (shrink)

Looks at accounts by Locke, Fodor, Dretske, and Millikan concerning the nature of mental representation, and discusses connectionism and representation.

Robert Batterman examines a form of scientific reasoning called asymptotic reasoning, arguing that it has important consequences for our understanding of the scientific process as a whole. He maintains that asymptotic reasoning is essential for explaining what physicists call universal behavior. With clarity and rigor, he simplifies complex questions about universal behavior, demonstrating a profound understanding of the underlying structures that ground them. This book introduces a valuable new method that is certain to fill explanatory gaps across disciplines.

"This is an important new Cummins work.

From the ferment of recent debates about the intellectual virtues, Roberts and Wood develop an approach they call 'regulative epistemology', exploring the connection between knowledge and intellectual virtue. In the course of their argument they analyse particular virtues of intellectual life - such as courage, generosity, and humility - in detail.

Resilience may be referred to as the capacity for positive adaptation and to quickly recover from difficulties and significant adversity. After examining operational definitions of related concepts, the article discusses resilience building exercises for functional fitness at the individual soldier level, to include among others, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-reinforcement, emotional regulation exercises, mindfulness training, relaxation and grounding exercises and importance of maintaining discipline and routine in the military. Using an acronym CARRIES, the article examines efforts to enhance resilience building through empirically (...) validated cognitive, behavioural and intrapersonal skills originating from best practices learned in the military. (shrink)

Black Monday and the National Women’s Strike in 2016 caused a new wave of feminist/women’s activists to appear. One of the main determinants of the success of these protests was their geographical distribution: most of the demonstrations took place in small towns and cities. The main aim of this article is to present the civic practices of activists – organizers of the above-mentioned protests – from small towns and cities. On the basis of 24 in-depth interviews the authors intend to (...) present the characteristics of civic practices in provincial Polish cities. The proposed article will present a look at civic practices from a completely new perspective, using the dividing lines so far ignored in research on social movements, especially pro-women’s movements in Poland. (shrink)

The article presents both the classical and contemporary approaches to the analysis of identity formation. Special emphasis has been placed on the processual approach, in which identity is regarded as a dynamic construct that remains in constant, mutual relations with personal and contextual factors. Since research on identity has been predominantly based on studies conducted on individuals in adolescence and early adulthood, i.e. in the time of transition to adulthood, the article focuses on adulthood markers that may be found in (...) this particular phase of human development. The authors have distinguished different markers of adulthood and have described their links to identity. In the conclusion of the present paper, it has been stressed that future research on identity should to a large extent include factors originating from these different categories of conditions, and that researchers ought to consider the interactions of these factors as predictors of identity formation. (shrink)

This paper deals with the problem of semiogenesis in the light of Saussure’s and Merleau-Ponty’s approaches. Semiogenesis here stands for the emergence of differentiated moments of expression taking form in the semiotic flow through various boundaries and polarities, therefore going far beyond the usual lexico-grammatical picture. Grounded on the Generalized Diacritical Turn of the Merleau-pontian phenomenology, we suggest to set up a critical examination, as well as a few proposals, of : the gestural approach of speech, the negativity of the (...) linguistic identity in Saussurian theory, the paradoxical status of the notion of value, the horizon of a system as a secondary effect of the ‘parole parlante’, meaning seen first as the unfolding of a figural field induced by an essentially ‘incomplete’ linguistic apparatus. The paper ends up with a set of questions and presumed limitations left by this Merleau-pontian diacritical frame. (shrink)

Artykuł dotyczy dość mało popularnych, aksjologicznych teorii choroby. Autor opisuje cztery drogi, które mogą doprowadzić do uznania choroby za moralne zło. Wśród tych dróg, reprezentowanych przez różnych autorów, znajdują się: droga fenomenologiczna, kantowska, psychiatryczna i quasi-historyczna. Po zaprezentowaniu ich głównych cech i inspiracji, artykuł rozważa pewne obiekcje, które można im stawiać oraz stara się wskazać możliwe rozwiązania. W podsumowaniu autor umiejscawia aksjologiczne teorie choroby na ogólnej mapie bioetyki.

The paper is a critique of Professor Anna Jedynak's claim, propounded in her article "The structure of scientific theories and value systems" (Filozofia Nauki, no. 31-32/2000, pp. 31-44), that there exist some significant analogies between scientific theories perceived from the viewpoint of various scientific methodologies and systems of normative ethics considered from the perspectives of various metaethical theories. The authors attempt to justify the thesis that principal structural similarities postulated by Professor Jedynak are questionable, thus challenging her proposition that metaethics (...) can incorporate into its domain a number of problems which were hitherto seen as specific to the philosophy of science. (shrink)

In the course of human history worldview controversies often bred conflict. The author attempts to show that an indubitable achievement of the second half of the twentieth century is that many of these conflicts remained in the Popperian world three. Resolution of disputes by way of rational discussion can be inscribed in the critical tradition that evolved in the Ionian school of natural philosophy. The United Nations Organization can be conceived of as an institutionalization of this critical tradition with respect (...) to the political sphere. In other words, it is an organ established to prevent world three conflicts from spinning into world one. The end of the Cold War saw the critical tradition and the corresponding ethic of compromise prevail over the dogmatic approach. This situation was overturned with the advent of American neoconservative thought, which is an expression of quite a divergent normative stance. The far-reaching change in popular moral attitudes, i.e. the departure from the critical tradition, seems to necessitate an overhaul of the UN Security Council in order that it can accommodate the new geopolitical climate. However, the author argues, even the most comprehensive UN reform is bound to fail if the sides do not a priori accept the critical tradition underlying this organization’s functioning. (shrink)

In the vast literature on architectural theory and practice, the ways in which architectural knowledge is actually taught, debated, and understood are too often ignored. The essays collected in this groundbreaking volume address the current state of architecture as an academic and professional discipline. The issues considered range from the form and content of architectural education to the architect's social and environmental obligations and the emergence of a new generation of architects. Often critical of the current paradigm, these essays offer (...) a provocative challenge to accepted assumptions about the production, dissemination, and reception of architectural knowledge. Contributors: Sherry Ahrentzen, U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Stanford Anderson, MIT; Carol Burns, Harvard U; Russell Ellis, UC Berkeley; Thomas Fisher, U of Minnesota; Linda Groat, U of Michigan; Kay Bea Jones, Ohio State U; David Leatherbarrow, U of Pennsylvania; A. G. Krishna Menon, TVB School of Habitat Studies, India; Garth Rockcastle, U of Minnesota; Michael Stanton, American U, Beirut; Sharon E. Sutton, U of Washington; David J. T. Vanderburgh, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium; and Donald Watson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. (shrink)

Robert Stalnaker draws together in this volume his seminal work in metaphysics. The central theme is the role of possible worlds in articulating our various metaphysical commitments. The book begins with reflections on the general idea of a possible world, and then uses the framework of possible worlds to formulate and clarify some questions about properties and individuals, reference, thought, and experience. The essays also reflect on the nature of metaphysics, and on the relation between questions about what there (...) is and questions about how we talk and think about what there is. Two of the fourteen essays, plus an extensive introduction that sets the papers in context and draws out the essays' common threads, are published here for the first time. (shrink)