Among the main concepts of Michel Henry’s work, it was mostly the immanence concept that has brought more controversy and was Jess understood. It was determinant to Material Phenomenology, due to its radical innovation and it represents the key of its interpretation. To disclose this concept against its opponents means to become aware of the principle of transcendence - not discussed by Husserl and Heidegger - and to legitimate the objective knowledge, science and, at the same time, to oppose to (...) the positivism. However, the main problem here is the inter-subjectivity. Instead of enclosure ego immanence, it enables relationships with others by creating the idea of «inter-immanence». The invisible itself is considered as a fundamental passivity of human subjectivity and of its essential pathos. Thus, the immanence concept is nothing else but self-affection. (shrink)

Au moment où des tentatives parcellaires se font jour au sein de l'intelligentsia occidentale pour débusquer les traces du totalitarisme sous toutes ses formes, on ne se doute peut-être pas qu'un philosophe français - l'auteur de L'Essence de la Manifestation-élabore depuis vingt ans déjà une philosophie de l'individu et qu'il apporte les principes d'une critique rigoureuse de l'entité collective. En consacrant un ouvrage à la philosophie de Michel Henry, G. Dufour-Kowalska a songé à ce qui sans doute manque le (...) plus à la pensée contemporaine: un enracinement métaphysique de la critique des idéologies et une philosophie de la réalité humaine que l'essor de ces idéologies a fini par oblitérer. Une philosophie de la vie et de la praxis est la "répétition" au sens heidéggerien, mais aussi la découverte éblouie d'une philosophie réaliste, sans doute unique en notre temps, d'une ontologie de l'homme, pour laquelle la Pensée, le Savoir, le Monde des Idées, sont toujours l'apparence et qui voudrait saisir derrière ces expressions relatives et précaires de la vie humaine la force tranquille d'un absolu qui est cette vie elle-même. La contribution propre de, la pensée de M. Henry à la philosophie en général, écrit l'auteur dans sa conclusion, réside dans ce retour qu'elle accomplit au pays déserté de la métaphysique, dans cette obstination qu'elle manifeste pour arracher à l'oubli et à l'indifférence, comme le faisaient inlassablement les Anciens, le domaine de l'invisible, la face cachée du monde. (shrink)

In this paper the author evaluates the situation of women in contemporary Polish society. Using statistical data and information from different disciplines, evidence is given that the situation of women today, in Poland, is worse than before 1989. Although, in general, women are better educated than men, adapt better to modern life, and have access to a growing variety of professional careers, the traditional image of women and of family life persists. Women still endure the double burden of professional work (...) and care for the household. They earn less and are more easily affected by unemployment and weak social assistance. They are also more affected by the dysfunctional aspects and low quality of public medical health care and face more risks due to weak access to medical services and high additional costs. This picture contrasts strongly with the situation of women in Western European countries, enjoying more personal autonomy, democratic freedom, social and economic security, financial independence, and access to the consumer market. (shrink)

Les auteurs contribuant à ce recueil réfléchissent sur notre condition postmoderne, non pas tant sur les sens différents qu'a pris le terme du postmoderne que sur l'heure qu'il est. La réflexion se déroule dans l'horizon de la pensée des classiques du postmodernisme et dans l'horizon des questions qui y sont, explicitement ou implicitement, posées.

The purpose of this study was a diagnosis of the attitudes of students of Warsaw universities towards people with disabilities and the variables which impacted on these attitudes. Additionally, we examined the relationship between the need for social approval and explicit attitudes towards people with disabilities. The study focused on two components of attitudes: behavioural and cognitive. 318 students completed a survey including a demographic sheet, a social desirability scale, the SDSB and SDSO. The results indicate that students expressed positive (...) attitudes towards people with disabilities. The impact of such variables as gender, the type of disability and the need for social approval was registered and were differentiated in regard to components of attitudes. The results are discussed with reference to earlier research and cues for further studies are suggested. (shrink)

W artykule analizuję znaczenia, jakie można przypisać pojęciu i doświadczeniu obcości.Najpierw przypominam dwa opisy fenomenologiczne tego doświadczenia, z których wynika, iż już na tym abstrakcyjnym poziomiedoświadczenie obcości ma sens ambiwalentny: obcy może być doświadczany jako zagrożeniedla mojej podmiotowości, ale również jako wezwanie do jej pogłębienia. Następnie przyglądamsię bardziej empirycznym sposobom doświadczania obcości w świecie społeczno-politycznym,stawiając tezę, iż kryje się za nimi polityczna konstrukcjaobcości. Wreszcie pytam o moralny sens doświadczenia obcości, konkludując, że również natym poziomie jest to sens ambiwalentny: chociaż słuchanie (...) obcego można uznać za obowiązekmoralny, to moralnie dopuszczalne, a czasem konieczne jest również traktowanie go jakowroga w imię uniwersalnych wartości. (shrink)

By defining consciousness as nothingness or simply as “nothing,” Sartre plays with several meanings of these terms: negativity and negation, distance, indetermination, irreducibility. The nothingness of consciousness takes on an ontological meaning: it is a “tearing away” from being-in-itself, a transcendence understood as the capacity to transcend what is, while retaining an epistemological meaning: it is what cannot be positively determined as “something” or as a property of being. Still, on the epistemological level as well as on the ontological level, (...) it is indeed from “something,” from physical and social being, that the nothingness of consciousness draws its existence and its capacities. In my article, I examine different meanings that can be given to the “nothing” of consciousness in the light of the thought of Sartre himself, emphasizing the difference between two major meanings of negation: as opposition and as indetermination. Then I confront Sartre’s concept of consciousness with more recent considerations of different inspiration, notably from researchers like Chalmers, Damasio, Gallagher, and Zahavi. My thesis is that the Sartrean concept, semi-transcendental and semi-naturalist, does admit the search for a naturalist explanation of consciousness, but assigns its limit precisely through the concept of nothingness. En définissant la conscience comme néant, néantisation, ou simplement comme un « rien », Sartre joue avec plusieurs acceptions de ces termes : négativité et négation, distance, indētefmination, irréductibilité... Le néant de la conscience prend un sens ontologique : c’est un « arrachement » à l’être-en-soi, une transcendance entendue comme capacité de transcender ce qui est, tout en gardant un sens épistémologique : c’est ce qui ne peut pas être déterminé de manière positive comme « quelque chose » ou comme une propriété d’être. D’autre part, sur le plan épistémologique comme sur le plan ontologique, c’est bien de « quelque chore », de l’être physique et social, que le néant de la conscience tire son existence et ses capacités. Dans mon article, j’examine différents sens qu’on peut donner au « rien » de la conscience à la lumière de la pensée de Sartre lui-même, en mettant l’accent sur la différence entre deux sens majeurs de la négation : comme opposition et comme indétermination. Ensuite je confronte le concept sartrien de la conscience avec les considérations plus récentes et d’inspiration différente, notamment chez les chercheurs comme Chalmers, Damasio, Gallagher et Zahavi. Ma thèse est que le concept sartrien, semi-transcendantal et semi-naturaliste, admet bien la recherche d’une explication naturaliste de la conscience, mais lui assigne la limite précisément par le concept du néant. (shrink)

The author juxtaposes two extreme approaches to the relationship between consciousness and the physical world: phenomenological-idealistic (represented by Edmund Husserl) and radically naturalistic (represented by Paul Churchland). These two positions are interpreted in terms of opposite if symmetrical types of reduction (on the one hand, the reduction of the world to a sense for consciousness, and on the other hand, the reduction of consciousness to an element of the physical world). They emerge as two ways of abstracting from the ambivalence (...) of ordinary experience, in which consciousness and the physical world are both mutually entangled and non-identical with each other. In conclusion, the author argues that contemporary philosophy, which follows both the idealistic and the naturalistic path, fails to solve the problem of this relationship. (shrink)

<I>Dialectics beyond Dialectics is a study of contemporary French philosophy from Bataille to Derrida. It analyses, on the first level of generalization, the decomposition of Hegelianism understood as <I>philosophy of totality. Many French philosophers of the 20<SUP>th century deconstruct Hegelian dialectics and harshly criticize the very idea of totality as either dangerous or impossible. The thesis of the book is that, on doing so, they do not really break with dialectics, but transform it. On the second level of generalization, the (...) issue of the book is modernity and the thesis is that transformations of dialectics reveal transformations of modern consciousness which - despite hasty declarations on the <I>end of modernity - still remains ours. (shrink)

The main idea of the article is that in our „postmodern” world ideologies are not at all dead but adopt new forms which I call both cynical (in Slotedijk’s sense of the term) and naïve. I start with reflecting on the very meaning of the term “ideology” and propose to adopt its broad and “dialectical” sense, embracing ideology as false knowledge and as false consciousness, but emphasizing its connection with power. After recalling some theories of the “end of ideology”, from (...) Aron to Lyotard, through Polish thinkers such as Leszek Kołakowski, all based on a rather narrow sense of ideology. I argue that ideologies understood as a complex interconnection of desire and power have regained a crucial role, after the fall of the communist utopia, in the context of consumerist and technological capitalism and its conservative opponents. (shrink)

This article sets out to propose some characteristic features of the intellectual and ethical attitudes which, in the popular belief and scholarly communities alike, stand for ideals worthy of promoting as ones which could underpin a modern society where both believers and unbelievers can feel at home. The “ethos” is construed to be about the sort of behaviour logically stemming from a tolerant outlook on the one hand, and an intellectual commitment to a noble cause worthy of one’s efforts, on (...) the other. (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)

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)

Fessard, G. Jeanne Hersch, genèse d'une œuvre.--Muralt, A. de. Phénoménologie et métaphysique.--Philonenko, A. Leibniz et le platonisme.--Christoff, D. Représentation et décision dans la temporalité selon Kant.--Tilliette, X. De l'illusion au savoir, la philosophie.--Widmer, G. Variations kierkegaardiennes sur l'édifiant.--Dufour-Kowalska, G. L'imagination maîtresse de vérité.--Leyvraz, J.-P. Des noms.--Piguet, J.-C. Liberté esthétique et liberté éthique.--Schaerer, R. Le philosophe entre oui et non.--Scheurer, P.-B. Vues nouvelles sur la science du temps et l'histoire.--Starobinski, J. La littérature et l'irrationnel.--Aron, R. De la libéralisation.--Werner, E. La (...) digue et la vie.--Cottier, G. La fascination du vide, éléments pour un diagnostic. (shrink)

La filosofía de la historia se ha debatido durante siglos en una estéril lucha entre idealistas y materialistas. El libro de Ignacio Ellacuría es un intento de superar esa dicotomía clásica. Tomando como punto de partida algunos conceptos fundamentales de la filosofía de Zubiri, Ellacuría cree posible asumir y a la vez criticar ambos extremos, desde una actitud más realista. De ahí el título del libro. Es importante destacar que la historia, para Ignacio Ellacuría, es el lugar de realización de (...) la ética. La historia no está hecha, se construye, es un proceso de creación de posibilidades humanas, y, en tanto que tal, una labor ética. La tesis de Zubiri de que el hombre tiene que hacerse cargo de la realidad, en Ellacuría se transforma en esta otra: el ser humano está obligado a encargarse de la realidad, y a cargar con ella. Este es el imperativo ético. Imperativo que, por otra parte, no sólo le obliga individualmente al hombre, en el reducto de la propia conciencia, al modo del idealismo, ni tampoco sólo en tanto que miembro de una clase social, como en el marxismo, sino como sujeto a la vez individual y específico, como miembro a la vez solitario y solidario de la especie humana. La obra póstuma de Ignacio Ellacuría constituye sin duda su más ingente trabajo intelectual en el campo de la filosofía, y representa, por su calidad y contenido, una pieza clave para comprender no solamente su producción estrictamente filosófica, sino también su pensamiento teológico y socio-político. (shrink)

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was an extraordinarily original thinker, whose influence on twentieth-century thinking far outside the bounds of philosophy alone. In this engaging Introduction, A.C. Grayling makes Wittgenstein's thought accessible to the general reader by explaining the nature and impact of Wittgenstein's views. He describes both his early and later philosophy, the differences and connections between them, and gives a fresh assessment of Wittgenstein's continuing influence on contemporary thought.

This is the first-ever critical history of sociology in Britain, written by one of the world's leading scholars in the field. A. H. Halsey presents a vivid and authoritative picture of the neglect, expansion, fragmentation, and explosion of the discipline during the past century. The book examines the literary and scientific contributions to the origin of the discipline, and the challenges faced by the discipline at the dawn of a new century.

De Sousa's comprehensive two-part review of a diversity of contemporary approaches to the study of consciousness is highly welcome. He makes us aware of a proliferation of theoretical and empirical approaches targeting a common theme, but diverging in many ways. He skilfully accomplishes a classification of kinds of approach, identification of the main representatives, their contributions, and respective limitations. However, he does not show how the desired integration could be accomplished. Besides summarising De Sousa's efficient analytical work, I make critical (...) comments and briefly report my contribution for the integration project. (shrink)

In this short paper I propose that the sensorimotor approach to perception is a tree yielding two distinct theoretical fruits. One fruit is sensorimotor reductionism. The other is sensorimotor integrationism. In this paper I try to explain what makes these fruits different.

We would like to thank Dolega and Dewhurst for a thought-provoking and informed deconstruction of our article, which we take as applause from valued members of our audience. In brief, we fully concur with the theatre-free formulation offered by Dolega and Dewhurst and take the opportunity to explain why we used the Cartesian theatre metaphor. We do this by drawing an analogy between consciousness and evolution. This analogy is used to emphasize the circular causality inherent in the free energy principle. (...) We conclude with a comment on the special forms of active inference that may be associated with selfawareness and how they may be especially informed by dream states. (shrink)

Description from a book review by J. G. Beebe-Center: "Mr. Allen's book develops in detail the view that pleasure and unpleasure are essentially manifestations of the progression and thwarting of impulses. Part one is a brief summary of the principal theories of feeling. Part two is devoted to "sensory" or "bodily" pleasure and unpleasure. These forms of feeling, it is argued, 'depend on an analogue of conation existing in the organism, a nisus to maintain, or to carry out to the (...) full extent, the functioning proper to the bodily system.' Part three -- the piece de resistance (about half the book) -- deals with the relation of pleasure and unpleasure to the main instincts. Parts four, five and six take up a number of classical problems: the relation of pleasure and unpleasure to sensation, their relation to desire, the relativity of feelings, the qualitative variety of feelings, and the psychology of values. The author shows throughout a rare combination of historicophilosophical sophistication and of first-hand familiarity with the modern experimental literature.". (shrink)

Book Information A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition. By John Rawls. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 1999. Pp. xxii + 538. Hardback, £25.00. Paperback, £12.99.

This note gives a new proof of the 'operational extensionality' property of Abramsky's lazy lambda calculus-namely the coincidence of contextual equivalence with a co-inductively defined notion of 'applicative bisimilarity'. This purely syntactic results is here proved using a logical relation between the syntax and its denotational semantics. The proof exploits a mixed inductive/coinductive characterisation of the logical relation recently discovered by the author.