This article focuses on documentary narration in literary prose, which is analyzed with regard to its function and poetics using the example of selected texts of GDR protocol literature and German documentary literature of the post-reunification years. The question of what constitutes the peculiarity of documentary literature and what caused its popularity in the pre- and post-reunification period will be explored. Furthermore, selected examples will be used to illustrate how the levels of the factual and the fictional intermingle and complement (...) each other in the individual texts. The texts discussed in this article are narratives that remain close to factual events, but at the same time fictionalize them and therefore cannot be considered completely and unambiguously in either the category of literary fiction or documentary. (shrink)

Das Problem, wie der Völkermord an den Juden in der Nazizeit in der SBZ/ DDR behandelt wurde, war Gegenstand zahlreicher wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen von Philologen und Historiken. In den Jahren 1990-2000 wurden die Arbeiten von u.a. Mario Kessler, Michael Wolffsohn, Angelika Timm, Thomas Jung und Ulrike Offenberg veröffentlicht. Die dort formulierten Thesen bilden die Grundlage für diesen Artikel. Er schildert die Lage der jüdischen DDR-Bewohner, die sich nach Kriegsende für das Leben in Deutschland entschieden haben. Es wurde versucht, die Kluft zu (...) veranschaulichen, die zwischen der von der Regierung betriebenen Propaganda und dem ostdeutschen Alltag bestand. Die im Artikel dargestellten politischen und ideologischen Grundlagen des ostdeutschen Staates, wie auch die Realität, in welcher die jüdischen DDR-Bürger gelebt haben, bilden wichtige Kontexte für das Schaffen von Jurek Becker. Die angedeuteten Probleme, die die jüdische Bevölkerung zu bewältigen hatte, wie etwa die Unmöglichkeit der Identitätsfindung in der scheinbar homogenen, in Wirklichkeit jedoch deutlich geteilten ostdeutschen Gesellschaft, kommen hier zur Sprache. Da Becker selbst von diesem Problem betroffen war, inspirierte ihn dies bei der Arbeit an seinen Romanen, Erzählungen und anderen literarischen Texten, die oft autobiographische Züge aufweisen. Dies wurde am Beispiel von Bronsteins Kinder dargestellt. Die existenziellen Probleme der jüdischen Bevölkerung wurden hier in Verbindung mit der Kritik der ostdeutschen Gesellschaft geschildert. (shrink)

COVID-19 pandemic occurred as an unexpected experience affecting all countries around the globe. In addition to the obvious health, economic and political effects, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered immense changes in the social spheres. People and institutions were forced to adjust to the new circumstances, change habits and move most or all of their activity online. In the completely virtual world, pandemic became a fertile ground for the bloom of the conspiracy theories already existing, but struggling for the global attention. The (...) aim of the paper is to present three main conspiracy theories rapidly gaining popularity during the pandemic (the QAnon, anti-vaccination movements and anti-5G movements) and to analyse how they developed since the pandemic had been announced. In particular, the rising activity of the representatives of the movements will be analysed, as well as its acceleration in connection with pandemic and the resulting influence on social and political life. Finally, the paper will try examine whether the rapid development of conspiracy theories within societies has had any relations to the level of trust towards government-made decisions. The thesis being verified hereto is that pandemic accelerated the development of conspiracy theories due to the diminishing level of trust towards governments operating in the most difficult period in recent history. There are variety of reasons for the belief in conspiracy theories and they depend on the specificity of the theory and specificity of group of people it originates from. In general, it can be noted that all kind of conspiracies are developed by either (1) people who actually believe in them and are sharing them with good intentions (to warn other about the dangers hidden behind certain actions or institutions) or (2) malignant individuals whose aim is to discord or discredit an opponent or critic or, alternatively, distract attention from misconduct or lack of competence. (shrink)

The detailed story of the passionate and secret love affair between two of the most prominent philosophers of the 20th century--Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger. Drawing on their previously unknown correspondence, Elzbieta Ettinger describes a relationship that lasted for more than half a century, a relationship that sheds startling light on both individuals.

The incidence of obesity, defined as the fraction of persons with BMIs exceeding 30·0, was examined in two birth cohorts of 401996 decade obesity increased dramatically among males with trade school education only; concomitant shifts were much smaller or absent in the college-educated groups. The contrast in obesity between the opposite ends of the educational scale has widened markedly in both genders; and the between-gender gap has declined somewhat.

John Tomasi's Free Market Fairness treats both traditions with depth, nuance, and unremitting fair-mindedness, and then points us toward a synthesis. Social democrats and libertarians equally need to read this book.

. Taking vaccine regret and hesitancy seriously. The role of truth, conspiracy theories, gender relations and trust in the HPV immunisation programmes in Ireland. Journal for Cultural Research: Vol. 25, What should academics do about conspiracy theories? Moving beyond debunking to better deal with conspiratorial movements, misinformation and post-truth., pp. 69-87.

The family of a child with cancer - changes within the family system This study aimed to describe the functioning of families of children with cancer. A semistructured questionnaire was used to interview 116 parents from 58 such families. Changes occurring within the family system from the parents' perspective have been determined and recorded. Most of the changes turned out to be directed at internal relationships within families. Families with much self-orientation have been shown to be prone to transforming into (...) hermetic systems. Polish version of FACES-III was applied to map families as balanced, mid-range or unbalanced. Results of the study underline the importance of illness duration for functioning of the family. Cancer persisted for the shortest time in balanced families, slightly longer in mid-range and the longest in unbalanced families. The difference between balanced and unbalanced families was significant. (shrink)

This article takes up, but in a different key, an argument of postmodernists that the over-rationalized conception of society tends to ignore important phenomena such as those belonging to the symbolic domain. It is suggested that the emerging programme of symbolic sociology may contribute toward a new synthetic and interdisciplinary thinking in social sciences. The concept of symbolism as a social phenomenon rather than as an autonomous linguistic or semiotic system is presented; and the argument is made that if social (...) knowledge is constitutive of society, similarly collective sentiments, temporality and collective memory are also symbolically produced. They are created from and create discursive symbolism, symbolic objects and symbolic behaviours. Finally, the article focuses on collective actions where the sociology of symbolic processes is most promising. (shrink)

Elżbieta Walerich The Nature of an Idea according to A. Arnauld’s On True and False IdeasIn the work On True and False Ideas Arnauld attacks, above all, the part of Malebranche’s theory which concerns the ontological status of ideas. The French Jansenist claims that in this doctrine the perceiving mind is completely cut off from the real world created by God. The most important aim of the book is to prove, using geometrical method, the falsity of ideas if one (...) understands them as representative beings where the term representative being signifies a representative archetype different from the act of perception. Arnauld also criticizes the doctrine of seeing ideas in God. Nevertheless, he does not attack the representative standpoint in general but rather its radical version. He does not negate the division into an idea understood as mental perception and a physical thing being perceived. Like René Descartes, the French Jansenist thinks that all objects are known by means of perceptions which are modifications of our mind and, moreover, that we have the idea of God and the idea of the soul. Ideas are then our soul’s modifications and are the same thing as our perceptions. These are psychological beings having representative character, they make objects present to our intellect. So there are not two different entities but only one entity in two relations. When Arnauld claims that representative ideas are the same thing as the acts of perception, he means that modifications of our mind stay in relation to our mind which they modify and, at the same time, in relation to objects which they represent. The term perception underlines the ontological status: it is the modification of the mind. And the term idea indicates that it relates to external objects. The acts of perception represent external things but they do not imitate these objects like pictures do; their objective existence in the mind is different from the real existence of physical objects. When a thing is present to the mind in an objective manner, it does not mean that it is present as an object immanent to our mind but that it is known by our intellect, so that it is the object of the act of perception. The thing is present in our mind objectively when it is represented by the act of perception and then it becomes the intentional object of this act. Keywords: idea, perception, representation, representative being, modification of the mind, representationalism, objective existence. (shrink)

Cloninger's Psychobiological Model of Personality and Strelau's Regulative Theory of Temperament - analysis of their associations in a Polish sample The present study explores the relationship between Cloninger scales and Strelau's Regulative Theory of Temperament traits. Cloninger's psychobiological model identifies four dimensions of temperament and three dimensions of character. RTT proposes the traits of Briskness, Perseveration, Sensory Sensitivity, Emotional Reactivity, Endurance and Activity as the basic dimensions underlying individual differences. The relationships between the dimensions of Cloninger's Temperament and Character and (...) Strelau's Regulative Theory of Temperament are investigated in a sample of 282 participants. Data analysis demonstrated some significant correlations between the two models. The strongest associations were found between the dimension of Harm Avoidance from Cloninger's concept and Strelau's RTT traits. However, there is not enough evidence to suggest that the two models offer an alternative way of explaining individual differences. According to RTT, temperamental traits are expressed in formal characteristics of behavior and every kind of behavior can be described in the same formal categories. In the Psychobiological Model of Personality the traits are characterized rather by the content or goals of behavior. In this model, in addition to underlining the biological variation of heritable traits, the social, cultural and phenotypical levels of behavior are reflected. (shrink)

Artykuł poświęcony jest twórczości jednego z przedstawicieli Młodego Wiednia, legendarnej, barwnej postaci z kręgu cyganerii przełomu wieków. Altenberg był autorem impresjonistycznych szkiców, które nazywał „ekstraktami życia”, „telegraficznym stylem duszy”. Forma szkicu posłużyła pisarzowi do zapisywania pojedynczych wrażeń i do impresyjnego odtwarzania scen z życia wiedeńskich klas niższych. Nieostrość i nieokreśloność gatunkowa szkicu, luźny, niepełny, urywkowy charakter wypowiedzi, a także zamierzona powtarzalność to cechy, dzięki którym Altenberg w pełni wyraził swój stosunek do świata i do swojego w nim miejsca.

The paper is concerned with the epistemological status of testimony and the question of what may confer justification on true testimonial beliefs and enable us to call such beliefs knowledge. In particular, it addresses certain anti-reductionist arguments in the epistemology of testimony and their incompatibility with the grammatical categories of egophoricity (conjunct/disjunct marking) and evidentiality (information source marking) present in the architecture of natural languages. First, the tradition of epistemological individualism and its rationale are discussed, as well as certain attempts (...) within this tradition to include testimony-based beliefs in the body of legitimate and rational beliefs. The next section is concerned with the anti-reductionist approach to testimonial beliefs and some arguments supporting ‘the credulity principle’ grounded in Thomas Reid's philosophy of common sense. The last two sections show how the anti-reductionist argumentation is threatened with an insoluble dilemma when considered in the context of languages with the grammatical categories of egophoricity (conjunct/disjunct marking) and evidentiality (information source marking). Special attention is paid to the justificatory role of egophoric and evidential marking; how these grammatical categories may influence the process of belief formation, and consequently, how this bears upon the nature of justification for testimonial beliefs. The final conclusion of the paper is that the anti-reductionist claim concerning the directness and non-inferential nature of testimonial knowledge is bound to meet objections grounded in the structure of many natural languages. This leads to a paradox: in discussion with reductionism, anti-reductionists do seek support for their arguments in common sense beliefs reflected in everyday language, and, on the other hand, their claims are incompatible with the linguistic data found in a number of natural languages. (shrink)

Perception and conceptualization of space are some of the most basic elements of human cognition. It has been long assumed that human spatial thinkingand frames of reference used to grasp and describe the location of an object in relation to other objects are of universal nature and so are projected in naturallanguages in basically the same manner; three principal dimensions in egocentric perceptual space were distinguished: up-down, front-back and left-right, reflecting our biological make-up. If differences in spatial terminology were observed, (...) they were relegated to surface structure phenomena, but were not regarded as differences in perceptual and conceptual representations in the human mind. That belief in the universal perception of spatial relations among humans was ofconsiderable importance for some philosophical theories, also for Husserl’s conception of the Lebenswelt a priori and his defence of the validity of scientificpropositions and of absolute truth. It now appears that the extent of the diversity in spatial thinking has been drastically underestimated (Levinson 2003), but it does not follow that Husserl’s intuitions regarding the existence of universal constituents in incompatible Lebenswelt experiences were necessarily wrong. (shrink)

There are two aims of the paper. The first is to critically analyse the claim that hope can be regarded as an intellectual virtue, as proposed by Nancy E. Snow in her recent account of hope set within the project of regulative epistemology. The second aim is to explore the problem of rationality of hope. Section one of the paper explains two different interpretations of the key notion of hope and discusses certain features to be found in hope-that and hope-in. (...) Section two addresses the question of whether hope could be interpreted as an intellectual virtue. To develop an argument against that view, a brief account of the notion of epistemic virtue is provided. Section three analyses the problem of rationality of hope and the parallels between rational belief and rational hope; the section focuses on what exactly makes a particular hope-that a rational and justified hope. Belief that p is possible/probable is part of the meaning of hope that p; therefore, it is assumed that rationality of hope cannot be considered in isolation from rationality of belief. It is argued that the “standard account” of the reasonableness of hope, which is found in the analytic literature, does not meet the standards of epistemic responsibility and needs rectifying. (shrink)

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognized that “everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits”. As a result, cultural rights have been understood as inseparable from human rights and require protection mechanisms within particular international legal systems. The European continent is proud to have developed one of the most effective mechanisms of the human rights protection by establishing the Council (...) of Europe and adopting the European Court of Human Rights. The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 reformulated many concepts of access to human rights and possibilities to enjoy freedoms. Even if access to culture has been available online for many years, it is the time of globally occurring lockdowns that forced people to stay home and found themselves in a situation when all of a sudden online access to culture became the only way of access to culture. The article aims to analyze the current situation in Europe by asking questions if and how online access to culture is recognized and protected under the Council of Europe’s mechanisms with special emphasis on the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights in this field. (shrink)

The author assumed that a fair understanding of communication is such a reception which is close to the content, intent and mode assigned to it by the sender. That reception depends on the extent of the knowledge of a recipient, and their axiological attitude and view of the world. The analysed examples indicate various aspects of fairness of understanding and trigger questions regarding the method of studying the phenomenon.

Après avoir présenté la conception spécifique de l'idéologie et de l'utopie qui apparaît chez Ricœur en tant que catégories anthropologiques, je passe aux difficultés liées à la compréhension du concept ricœurien d'utopie. En différenciant les utopies “pratiques” de celles “littéraires,“ Ricœur introduit entre elles également une hiérarchie, puisque les utopies présentées comme irréalisables constituent pour lui une distorsion de la fonction de l'utopie. Or, afin qu'une utopie puisse être conçue comme réalisable déjà au moment de sa rédaction, une nouvelle conception (...) de l'histoire est nécessaire, qui n'apparaît que dans la seconde moitié du 18 ième siècle. Une dimension historique doit donc être incluse dans la conception anthropologique de l'utopie. Finalement, en évoquant les catégories méta-historiques de Reinhart Koselleck, horizon d'attente et champ d'expérience, j'amorce une interprétation de la domination du genre littéraire de l'anti-utopie sur l'utopie au 20 ième siècle. (shrink)

In the paper, I show that John Stuart Mill in his work noticed the significance of the social problem posed by violence against women. To achieve that goal, I (1) sketch the theoretical background of his philosophy as a reference point for the issue of violence against women; (2) propose reading The Subjection of Women in a way that is to facilitate noticing the most important issues of violence and showing their topicality in today’s world; and (3) provide several most (...) significant examples of problems of violence against women that should be given some further reckoning. Thus, I prove that Mill’s views on violence against women are up to date, and remain an important point of reference, making him still worth reading, even 150 years after his death. (shrink)

In the present paper we shall first focus on Locke’s and Reid’s understanding of primary and secondary qualities, as these two approaches mark the main dividing line in interpreting this distinction. Next, we will consider some modern approaches to the distinction and try to answer the question of whether, from theperspective of what we know about perception of sensory qualities, Locke’s ontological interpretation or Reid’s epistemological approach to the distinction are tenable ideas. Finally, we will concentrate on the relation between (...) language and qualities of objects and, on the basis of some adjectival systems in the world’s languages, see how languages render, or code, certain distinctions and qualities apparently obvious to our cognition. (shrink)

. What should academics do about conspiracy theories? Moving beyond debunking to better deal with conspiratorial movements, misinformation and post-truth. Journal for Cultural Research: Vol. 25, What should academics do about conspiracy theories? Moving beyond debunking to better deal with conspiratorial movements, misinformation and post-truth., pp. 1-11.

The Elements of Logic is conceived as an academic textbook that includes mainly material for a basic course in logic for students. Based on his own reflections as well as national and foreign literature on the subject. Dr. Józef Bremer, S.J., presents in the following four chapters systematized knowledge of the problems embraced by the titles of each part of the book. The main aim of the author is the presentation of the problem of deductive reasoning. Another aim of this (...) book is not only to teach how to formalize, but also to show why we generally do formalize. The Elements of Logic is a successful attempt to answer this question. Chapter I contains material related to logic and its understanding. In this chapter the author presents some texts on the historical development of the question: „what is logic about?" He also presents short texts on three related sciences: syntax, semantics and pragmatics. (shrink)

The Elements of Logic is conceived as an academic textbook that includes mainly material for a basic course in logic for students. Based on his own reflections as well as national and foreign literature on the subject. Dr. Józef Bremer, S.J., presents in the following four chapters systematized knowledge of the problems embraced by the titles of each part of the book. The main aim of the author is the presentation of the problem of deductive reasoning. Another aim of this (...) book is not only to teach how to formalize, but also to show why we generally do formalize. The Elements of Logic is a successful attempt to answer this question. Chapter I contains material related to logic and its understanding. In this chapter the author presents some texts on the historical development of the question: „what is logic about?" He also presents short texts on three related sciences: syntax, semantics and pragmatics. (shrink)