This paper contains a discussion of striking similarities between influential philosophical concepts of the past and the approaches currently employed in selected areas of computer science. In particular, works of the Pythagoreans, Plato, Abelard, Ash’arites, Malebranche and Berkeley are presented and contrasted with such computer science ideas as digital computers, object-oriented programming, the modelling of an object’s actions and causality in virtual environments, and 3D graphics rendering. The intention of this paper is to provoke the computer science community to go (...) off the beaten path in order to find inspiration for the development of new approaches in software engineering. (shrink)

Obszerna antologia Logika i język z analitycznej filozofii języka, do której J. Pelc wybrał i przełożył teksty, była przez wiele lat wykorzystywana w nauczaniu i badaniach w Polsce. W udany sposób przedstawia niektóre dyskusje toczone w ramach filozofii analitycznej. Jednakże obok tekstów kluczowych, które weszły do kanonu tej tradycji, zawiera także prace marginalne i mało znaczące. Zaskakujące jest pominięcie przez Pelca kilku bardzo ważnych filozofów i ich dorobku, a podane we wstępie do antologii uzasadnienie tych braków jest niekompletne i mało (...) przekonujące. (shrink)

Two studies were performed to test the relationship between readiness for self-improvement and selected measures of well-being. The first study investigated whether readiness for self-improvement is related to the selected measures of overall subjective well-being. The second one investigated in what way readiness for self-improvement is related to subjective well-being at workplace. The results obtained in both cases showed that readiness for self-improvement is indeed related to and does account for well-being. In the first study, readiness for self-improvement accounted for (...) overall life satisfaction within important human life domains and satisfaction with the present and future life. In the second study, work engagement, was significantly linked to readiness to improve oneself but was not with readiness to take care of one’s health. (shrink)

Artykuł porusza problematykę buntu człowieka przeciwko ograniczeniom ludzkiej, ziemskiej kondycji i odnosi się do poświęconych temu zagadnieniu prac Hanny Arendt. Autor wychodzi od analizy przypadku niemal 200 tysięcy osób z całego świata, które w 2013 roku zgłosiły się do projektu „Mars One” i tym samym wyraziły chęć bezpowrotnego lotu na Marsa. Następnie omawia przemiany w sferze nauki, technologii i zbiorowych wyobrażeń, które mogły do tego doprowadzić, pisząc o narodzinach wizji Ziemi jako „więzienia” związanych z eksploracją naszej planety, a także o (...) ujednoliceniu obrazu wszechświata, które dokonało się za sprawą newtonowskiej fizyki. Dalej autor przedstawia koncepcję „kondycji ludzkiej” w rozumieniu Arendt i wskazuje na inne współczesne przykłady zmagania się człowieka ze stałymi ograniczeniami ludzkiej egzystencji, takimi jak nasza śmiertelność czy przymus pracy. Na koniec autor powraca do wyjściowego pytania o przyczyny tak powszechnej woli „ucieczki z Ziemi” i zastanawia się nad możliwymi konsekwencjami jej realizacji, przywołując tezę Arendt o obniżeniu rangi człowieka postępującym wraz z rozwojem nowożytnej nauki. (shrink)

Despite changeability of the world, the human mind also ponders on those quantities that remain constant over time. This was the case in ancient times, in the middle ages, and the same applies in modern physics. This paper discusses i.a. Zenon paradoxes, the principle of inertia, and the Emma Noether theorem, ending with the modern, so-called Zeno’s quantum effect. The foot-notes concern the ancient “Achilles” paradox, spot speed, as well as some of the facts taken out of the life-history of (...) Emma Noether, as well as the example of applying her theorem. (shrink)

This article examines the interaction of ideas of Modern Western philosophy, including Polish philosophy, and Ukrainian philosophy in Eastern Galicia in the late eighteenth century through the early twentieth century. The authors argue that during this period the methodological foundations of Ukrainian philosophy and its history, both in periodization, and the development of philosophical terminology, were intensively elaborated. This is proved by the analyzing works of such Galician thinkers and cultural figures as Klym Hankevych and Ilarion Svientsits’kyi. Both were able (...) to involve Ukrainian philosophy in Central-Eastern philosophical discourse. Such an involvement was fruitful because it contributed to the development of Ukrainian philosophy and its methodology for both historic-philosophical researches and the formation of philosophical terminology. (shrink)

The article analyzes aspects of the relationship between evolution and biological complexity and the attempts made by scholars and theologians to interpret it within the limits of reductionist scientism or theism. For this purpose, firstly, attention is focused on explaining the meaning of the concept of "evolution" and its historical and philosophical transformation in the context of the idea of complexity. Secondly, the notion of complexity in theology is used as evidence to support teleology. This approach is criticized by some (...) scholars who consider evolution as a random prosses. They give it the status of a universal metaphysical assumption in evolution. The scientists and theologists both formulate metaphysical assumptions differently to interpret evolution. (shrink)

Although we are not aware of many spontaneous sensual experiences, we learn about the surrounding world through our senses. One of the objects of sensual experience is smell. It influences our decisions, shapes social interactions and is also a carrier of social meanings. Unfortunately, long-term conviction about the domination of sight over smell led to a belief in the pictorial character of our contemporary culture. Moreover, constant fluctuations between the promotion and ignoring of olfactory data have played a role in (...) the neglect of the importance of smell in social studies. In this article I show how important the sense of smell has been through many centuries of science, and point out that the alleged linguistic and methodological difficulties of this topic, as well as the subjective interpretation of smell, should not be an obstacle in the development of research on smell in social studies. (shrink)

Koopman’s book revolves around the notion of transition, which he proposes is one of the central ideas of the pragmatist tradition but one which had not previously been fully articulated yet nevertheless shapes the pragmatist attitude in philosophy. Transition, according to Koopman, denotes “those temporal structures and historical shapes in virtue of which we get from here to there”. One of the consequences of transitionalism is the understanding of critique and inquiry as historical pro...

Artykuł stanowi krytyczne omówienie książki Kevina Duttona zatytułowanej Mądrość psychopatów. Lekcja życia pobrana od świętych, szpiegów i seryjnych morderców. Celem pracy jest przybliżenie zasadniczych tez stawianych przez autora oraz zaproszenie do namysłu nad psychopatią – zarówno jako fenomenem naukowym, jak i egzystencjalnym.

"1. Philosophy, taken from the point of view of its problems and methods is the collection of distinct philosophical disciplines. In fact meta-philosophical analysis leads to rather troublesome questions: Are philosophical disciplines methodologically and/or essentially related and connected? Are particular philosophical disciplines scientific? And, if the answer is not definite, to what extent is this so? Do philosophic disciplines form a uniform and organized (at least in its depth) system?

The article is an attempt to pinpoint the areas of Ludwig Wittgenstein aesthetic thought, in which he is crossing the borders principally imposed upon the method and the language of his philosophy. I am directing my attention to metaphysical and mystical motifs of his reflection devoted to aesthetics, the essence of art and the essence of reality. I wish to discuss this issue based on the texts of Arthur C. Danto containing analysis of chosen notions of Wittgenstein’s aesthetic investigations. Additionally (...) in this matter I am appealing to appropriate theses of Leszek Sosnowski and Wojciech Sady, concerning above issues. (shrink)

There are many ontologies of the world or of specific phenomena such as time, matter, space, and quantum mechanics1. However, ontologies of information are rather rare. One of the reasons behind this is that information is most frequently associated with communication and computing, and not with ‘the furniture of the world’. But what would be the nature of an ontology of information? For it to be of significant import it should be amenable to formalization in a logico-grammatical formalism. A candidate (...) ontology satisfying such a requirement can be found in some of the ideas of K. Turek, presented in this paper. Turek outlines the ontology of information conceived of as a part of nature, and provides the ‘missing link’ to the Z axiomatic set theory, offering a proposal for developing a formal ontology of information both in its philosophical and logicogrammatical representations. (shrink)

The aim of the presented article is to provide an in-depth analysis of the adequacy of designating Penrose as a complex Pythagorean in view of his much more common designation as a Platonist. Firstly, the original doctrine of the Pythagoreans will be briefly surveyed with the special emphasis on the relation between the doctrine of this school and the teachings of the late Platonic School as well as its further modifications. These modifications serve as the prototype of the contemporary claims (...) of the mathematicity of the Universe. Secondly, two lines of Penrose’s arguments in support of his unique position on the ontology of the mathematical structures will be presented: their existence independent of the physical world in the atemporal Platonic realm of pure mathematics and the mathematical structures as the patterns governing the workings of the physical Universe. In the third step, a separate line of arguments will be surveyed that Penrose advances in support of the thesis that the complex numbers seem to suit these patterns with exceptional adequacy. Finally, the appropriateness of designation Penrose as a complex Pythagorean will be assessed with the special emphasis on the suddle threshold between his unique position and that of the adherents of the mathematicity of the Universe. (shrink)

The International Year of Chemistry, intertwined with commemoration of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded in 1911 to Marie Skłodowska-Curie, made me to ask about the philosophical background of this outstanding woman. The first factor which I could see was the positivism, launched by August Comte in France and developed a few decades later by his Polish followers. Another factor which seemed to me important was the interplay between the emotional and intellectual attitudes among the Poles in the 19th century. (...) In her research, Marie Skłodowska-Curie used the positivistic, rationalistic method. This has led her to elucidation of the radiation phenomena discovered by Henri Becquerel in 1896. The research initiated by the Curies caused a subversion of the 19th century’s views on the structure of Matter. The way to such spectacular results must have been paved not only by the positivistic intellectual discipline but also by a dose of romantic enchantment. In the applicative terms, Marie Skłodowska-Curie became a pioneer of the evidence-based medicine. In moral terms, she represented a rare example of the practical altruism, inspired indirectly by Christianity, and directly by the Comte’s “religion of Humanity”. (shrink)