Charles Taylor is currently one the most renowned and influential contemporary philosophers. He is also widely quoted and discussed both in the social sciences and humanities. Taylor earns this attention through his remarkable capacity for presenting his conceptions in the broadest possible intellectual and cultural context. His philosophical intuition is fundamentally antinaturalistic, and tends toward developing broad syntheses without a trace of systematizing thinking, or any anarchic postmodernist methodology. His thought unites the past with the present, while culture is treated (...) as a broad mosaic of discourses. Religion, art, science, philosophy, politics and ethics are all fields through which the Canadian philosopher deftly moves about in his search for their hidden structures and deepest sense. Taylor's philosophical output is prodigious. Recently, as his monumental study A Secular Age (2007) indicates, he has been concentrating much of his attention on the problem of secularization.. The selection of contributions in the current volume proffer a penetrating cross section of Taylor's thought. They are derived from a conference held in October 2008 in Lublin, Poland Although some of the articles are focused on a reconstruction of the philosopher's concepts, most either engage in a polemic with elements of his thought or find inspiration in it for their own reflections. The contributions are grouped in four parts: 1) philosophy and the modern self; 2) the problem of secularization; 3) between liberalism and communitarianism; and 4) language, literature, and culture. (shrink)

The rapid development of empirical science and theoretical grounds related with them, results in many theories on the origin, evolution and nature of the world, sometimes interpreted as contradictory to the theological conception. Consequently, under the influence of these achievements, within theology itself, an opinion about autonomy of both domains and their complementarity seems to be more and more popular. Facing this relation, it is theology that should present the possibility of such understanding of the revealed truths that they could (...) coexist with scientific discoveries. Based directly on biblical texts, the sophiological vision of origin and nature of the world seems to be very interesting among other theological conceptions regarding this topic. The present article attempts to confront the sophiology’s presumptions on the eternal creative Wisdom with scientific thesis on the world’s nature, its development and on human existence in order to demonstrate the possibility of coexistence of these discourses with no contradiction. (shrink)

Infertility is a serious social problem. Very often the only treatment possibility are IVF methods. This study explores the possibility of outcome prediction in the early stages of treatment. The data, collected from the previous treatment cycles, were divided into four subsets, which corresponded to the selected stages of treatment. On each such subset, sophisticated data mining analysis was carried out, with appropriate imputations and classification procedures. The obtained results indicate that there is a possibility of predicting the final outcome (...) at the beginning of treatment. (shrink)

Uniwersytet jako biurokratycznie i rynkowo zarządzane przedsiębiorstwo był obiektem krytyki od lat 80. minionego wieku — w Stanach Zjednoczonych Allan Bloom nazwał go wtedy multiwersytetem, a trochę później Bill Readings pisał już o „uniwersytecie w ruinie” (in ruins), który ukrywa się za szyldem „doskonałości”. Polski uniwersytet przejął ekonomiczne kryteria ewaluacji nauki — wymierne w liczbach grantów i punktów. Merkantylizacja wiedzy stwarza szereg problemów także natury etycznej — prowadzi do zaniżenia lub porzucenia wszelkich standardów akademickich, do degradacji autorytetu w nauce, krytyki (...) naukowej, faktycznej jakości badań i nauczania. Czy na współczesnym uniwersytecie jest w ogóle miejsce na zachowania podlegające ocenie moralnej? Jakie są umiejętności wymagane do — i warunki możliwości — stosowania norm moralnych w życiu akademickim? (shrink)

The Polish philosophy of mathematics in the 19th century is not a well-researched topic. For this period, only five philosophers are usually mentioned, namely Jan Śniadecki, Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński, Henryk Struve, Samuel Dickstein, and Edward Stamm. This limited and incomplete perspective does not allow us to develop a well-balanced picture of the Polish philosophy of mathematics and gauge its influence on 19th- and 20th-century Polish philosophy in general. To somewhat complete our picture of the history of the Polish philosophy of (...) mathematics in those times, we here present the profiles of some lesser-known Polish Romantic philosophers of the 19th century, namely Karol Libelt, Bronisław Trentowski, and Józef Kremer. We discuss their contributions to the philosophy of mathematics and their metaphysical perspectives, and we also show how their metaphysical ideas have found some continuity in the studies of some Catholic philosophers. (shrink)

Book review: Adam Adamandy Kochański, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Korespondencja Adama Adamandego Kochańskiego i Gottfrieda Wilhelma Leibniza z lat 1670-1698, D. Sieńko, wyd. Muzeum Pałacu Króla Jana III w Wilanowie, Warszawa 2019, ss. 256.

The IVF ET method is a scientifically recognized infertility treat- ment method. The problem, however, is this method’s unsatisfactory efficiency. This calls for a more thorough analysis of the information available in the treat- ment process, in order to detect the factors that have an effect on the results, as well as to effectively predict result of treatment. Classical statistical methods have proven to be inadequate in this issue. Only the use of modern methods of data mining gives hope for (...) a more effective analysis of the collected data. This work provides an overview of the new methods used for the analysis of data on infertility treatment, and formulates a proposal for further directions for research into increasing the efficiency of the predicted result of the treatment process. (shrink)

In this review, we present the philosophical blog “Cafe Aleph”, which was founded by Witold Marciszewski in collaboration with Paweł Stacewicz. The blog contains numerous expert entries on issues from the border of philosophy, science and technology. “Cafe Aleph” is an area for developing, popularizing and discussing the idea of philosophy of computing.

This review article presents an important, newly published study of Popper's critical method by Zbigniew Liana. The review emphasizes the very high level of the study, points to its originality, and explains why the book is recommended mainly to specialists of Popper's thought. It is also explained how the book manages to contain so many original and valuable analyses in a small volume.

Review of book: Bondecka-Krzykowska I., Brzeziński K.M., Bulińska-Stangrecka H., et al., Przedmioty wirtualne, P. Stacewicz, B. Skowron, Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Warszawskiej, Warszawa 2019, pp. 135.

Recenzja książki: Michał Heller, _Ważniejsze niż Wszechświat_, Copernicus Center Press, Kraków 2018, ss. 128.

The article deals with the perception of the Pope John Paul II and Poland in the two speeches of the Presidents of the United States of America. The George W. Bush’s speech given on the occasion of the dedication of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington DC on March 22, 2001 and the Donald Trump’s speech delivered in front of the Warsaw Uprising Monument on the Krasinski Square in Warsaw on July 8, 2017 were used as the (...) sources for the study. The former speech is a laudation in honor of the Pope from Poland, whose biography was considered by the 43rd President of the United States as one of the most interesting in human history. Among the most notable episodes of the pontificate, George W. Bush listed the 1979 pilgrimage to his homeland, the 1995 visit to Manila in Philippines, the unprecedented visits to a synagogue and a Muslim country, the forgiveness shown to Ali Ağca – the would-be assassin, and the visits to the United States during which the Pope from Poland reminded the people of human dignity and the virtues of a just society. The latter speech is a laudation on the spirit of the Polish nation. Donald Trump emphasized the steadfastness of the Poles in the struggle to preserve their cultural identity despite the loss of their homeland. He recalled the period of partition and extermination of the Polish nation by the German Nazis and the Soviet Communists during World War II. The 45th President of the United States reminded the world about famous Poles: Nicolaus Copernicus, Frederic Chopin, Casimir Pulaski, Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Saint John Paul II. He also spoke about the lasting ties between the Americans and the Poles and about the common values cherished on both sides of the Atlantic. On the example of social transformations in Poland and Europe initiated by John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Poland in 1979, Donald Trump emphasized the influence of faith in God on political and social transformations in the world. He also expressed hope for the survival of Western civilization based on faith in God and the preservation of family and freedom. (shrink)

Vision of the Historical role of Poland in Jan Hempel’s Sermons The article presents the vision of the role of Polish nation presented in two works written by Jan Hempel – Polish Sermons and Piast Sermons. The main purpose of the article is to provide the reader with Hempel’s reinterpretation of the role of Poles elaborated by the authors of the Romantic period who regarded Polish nation as the God’s chosen people. Hempel, being a lifelong critic of Christianity, thought of (...) Poland as the Antichrist of nations. With this view in mind he interpreted Polish history and the role of Polish nation in the history of world. Author of the article presents Hempel’s vision of the aforementioned role of Polish nation and seeks its sources in the writings of other thinkers. (shrink)

This article is an overview of the philosophy of informatics with a special regard to some Polish philosophers. It juxtaposes the informationistic worldview with the long-prevailing mechanical conceptualization of nature before introducing the metaphysical perspective of the information revolution in sciences. The article shows also how ontic pancomputationalism – regarded as an update to structural realism – could enrich the philosophical research in some classical topics. The paper concludes with a discussion of the philosophy of Jan Salamucha, a philosopher from (...) the Cracow Circle whose ideas could be inspiring for today’s philosophy of informatics in Cracow. (shrink)

The paper contains an attempt at formulating the project of logic comprised in Jan Łukasiewicz's article „On determinism” and a construction of a logic which would realise this project. Such a logic consists of three consequence-operations build upon a four-element algebra. The values of the algebra have been defined by means of the following set of sentences: true and true today, true but not true today, false but not false today and false and false today. It turns out that only (...) one of the consequences is different from the classical consequence and all of them are logically two-valued. It is proved moreover, that the assumption that tautologies consists of sentences-forms which are „always” true today, results in the non-existence of such tautologies. (shrink)

By the late 1920s in Europe new art directions were regarded as already completed phenomena, a part of “avant-garde tradition.” Such views were expressed by Jean Arp and El Lissitzky’s in their book Kuntismen, and by Amédée Ozenfant’s in Art. Bilan des arts modernes en France. Similar opinions were also voiced by Jan Brzękowski, a Polish poet and critic, who regarded this time as a period of “establishing certain values” rather than new breakthroughs. In this article I discuss Brzękowski’s strategies (...) as a spokesman of modern art, an intermediary between the Parisian artworld and Polish avant-garde, an author connected with constructivism, and also with surrealist circles in Paris. My main focus is his magazine “Sztuka Współczesna – L’Art Contemporain” and his series of articles “Mileages,” in which he summarizes the developments of modern art. Conscious of the “wearing up” of avant-garde ideas and critical about seeking “novelty” for its own sake, Brzękowski tried to establish a progressive position based on the idea of formal discipline and creative construction. While rejecting a mimetic conception of art, he argued for abstract artistic form that would be “anchored to the bottom of life,” thus emphasizing the interplay of abstract and figurative elements and their dialectic. (shrink)

The following text is a voice in the discussion around normative problems of innovative therapies. It particularly refers to legal and ethical problems related to the advertisement of experimental medicinal products and medical procedures, also discussed in this issue in the article by Paweł Lipowski "Advertisements of experimental medicinal products and medical procedures in the light of Polish law and media ethics.".

Jan Paweł II wielokrotnie odnosił się do relacji między Kościołem a sztuką. Dostrzegał, że dialog między Kościołem i sztuką wygasł lub został naznaczony sprzecznościami na przełomie XIX i XX wieku. W niniejszym studium koncentruję się na dwóch kluczowych kwestiach: czy Kościołowi potrzebna jest sztuka oraz czy sztuka potrzebuje Kościoła? Odpowiedź na drugie pytanie nie jest ewidentna i odnosi się do innej kwestii sformułowanej przez Jana Pawła II:,,Czy sztuka ulega ograniczeniu lub zostaje pozbawiona istotnego znaczenia, jeżeli pomija rzeczywistość Kościoła?”. Sztuka (...) w istocie potrzebuje Kościoła, jeśli ma lepiej rozumieć prawdziwe powołanie człowieka oraz jeśli ma rozumieć, że jej ostateczny cel nie tkwi w prezentacji tego, co złe i niemoralne. (shrink)

rzemiany kulturowe ostatniego okresu przyniosły głęboką zmianę wartościowań dotyczących społecznej roli nauk przyrodniczych. Podczas gdy w początkach XX wieku pozytywizm upatrywał w nauce jedyne źródło wartościowej poznawczo wiedzy, postmodernizm z początku obecnego stulecia traktuje teorie przyrodnicze przede wszystkim jako formę narracji literackiej. W antyintelektualnych nastrojach, wyrażających krytykę oświeceniowej afirmacji racjonalności, ceni się pragmatyczne zastosowania nauki, nie zaś jej funkcje poznawcze. Sytuacja taka stwarza pilną potrzebę interdyscyplinarnej współpracy między filozofami, teologami i przedstawicielami nauk przyrodniczych. W ostatnim okresie podjęto w wielu ośrodkach (...) interdyscyplinarne programy badawcze, które dotyczą różnych aspektów teorii ewolucji, związków między przetwarzaniem informacji w komputerach a neurofizjologią, relacji między naturalizmem metodologicznym a różnorodnymi wersjami naturalizmu ontologicznego. Rozwijane badania stanowią nową jakość we wzajemnych relacjach nauk przyrodniczych z myślą chrześcijańską. Przezwyciężają one zarówno złudzenia scjentyzmu, jak i dominującą w pozytywizmie cząstkową koncepcję prawdy, w której brakuje odpowiedzi na pytania istotne dla całościowej wizji świata. Równocześnie stanowią one również odpowiedź na wizję interdyscyplinarnego dialogu, którą Jan Paweł II ukazał w encyklice Fides et ratio oraz w Liście do George \'a Coyne \'a SI, skierowanym z racji 300-lecia publikacji Principiów Newtona. (shrink)

W Encyklice Fides et ratio Jan Paweł II nawołuje do współpracy teologii z filozofią. Podkreślając inspirującą rolę teologii dla filozofii, większy nacisk kładzie jednak na potrzeby dowartościowania filozofii, zwłaszcza metafizyki, która w wielu środowiskach, nawet w uczelniach kościelnych, została zaniedbana. Wśród licznych antymetafizycznych nurtów współczesnych, Papież wymienia pozytywizm, materializm, scjentyzm i relatywizm. Różniąc się od siebie nurty te maja jednak z sobą coś wspólnego. Pozytywizm za źródło i kryterium prawdy uznaje doświadczenie zmysłowe. Zdania o zjawiskach danych w doświadczeniu maja (...) wartość prawdopodobną. Zawsze istnieje możliwość ich zakwestionowania. Stąd relatywizm prawdy. Prócz tego ograniczenie poznania de empirii implikuje zamkniecie się na rzeczywistość pozazmysłową, duchową. Z nieuprawnionego metodologicznie przekonania, ze to co niepoznawalne zmysłami nie istnieje, rodzi się materializm. Konieczność dotyczy systemów formalnych, one jednak nie mają charakteru ontologicznego, nie mówią same z siebie niczego o rzeczywistości. Opierają się na konwencjach. To stanowi inne źródło relatywizmu. (shrink)

In the individual, social, and political dimensions, the shaping of the liberal tradition has met up with and will continue to meet up with the presence of the Roman Catholic Church with its own philosophy. Yet has this always led to sharp conflict between Catholicism and liberalism? Has the social thinking of the Church evolved in its assessment of the liberal tradition and vice versa? Have there been points in common in the two systems of thinking? In contrast, where have (...) sparks appeared? Does Catholicism support the stability of liberal democracy? A response to these questions comprises the primary aim of the work at hand. Herein is a presentation and appraisal of one of the most interesting and continually lively clashes, accompanied by a portrayal of both Catholicism and liberalism. Analysis will be conducted at the level of social philosophy, through incidental political practice, and from the historical perspective – all of which together will enable illustration of the dynamic relationship between Catholicism and liberalism. Due to the scope of liberalism, the analysis of the Catholicism-liberalism relationship will be limited solely to the philosophy of politics and of economics. Such a restricted social philosophy involves the following issues: the genesis, essence, and characteristics of social policy; its ultimate justification or lack thereof; the relationship between the political society and its members; the types of structured political communities; the genesis, nature and duties of political authorities; the definition of the law, its foundations and limitations; the essence and properties of economic life; types of ownership; and, finally, the relations taking place between politics and economics. The problem inherent in an encounter between the social thinking of the Roman Catholic Church and liberalism appear to be especially meaningful in the context of the Polish discourse regarding the new order, its theoretical bases and institutions, projects for the realization of individual freedom, and the superiority or inferiority of values in today’s pluralistic universe. This matter is of great consequence and significance – not only intellectually but above all practically – and manifests itself in political, economic, and cultural life. Nonetheless, for decades now, Polish research into this issue has been entangled in occasional conflicts of a worldview and political nature. In turn, there is a lack of understanding and objective theoretical reflection on the subject. In fact, there are no publications which attempt to understand liberalism and assess the validity of the accusations against it. The vast amount of literature devoted to this problem most frequently opens, right from the start, with arguments stemming from either a Marxist or Catholic apologetics. The liberal credo is not identified with the philosophy of politics, but rather the theory of pro-capitalist economics. This, as a result, not only misrepresents the crux of liberalism, but also narrows the catalogue of responses by the Church on this very topic – starting with the encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) by Pope Leo XIII. In order to resolve this problem, the analysis will be rooted in the broader philosophical and historical context. In other words, it will look into liberalism on the one hand, and into those Church documents in which that institution first spoke of liberalism on the other. The discussions and deliberations contained within this volume are laid out in an introduction, four chapters, and a conclusion. The introduction includes the theoretical bases and methodological assumptions of this work, taking into account the principles of philosophical reflection and analysis. The fundamental chapters present the evolution of an attitude towards liberalism in the social teachings of the Roman Catholic Church – from Pius VI to John Paul II – taking under consideration the key moments and figures in the development of liberalism (e.g., John Locke, John Stuart Mills, John Rawls). In this time period four stages of a Catholic reference to liberalism will be distinguished. The first three constitute: 1) animosity and condemnation (from Pius VI to Pius IX), 2) criticism accompanied by tolerance (from Leo XIII to Pius XII, and 3) criticism accompanied by limited concord (from John XXIII to Paul VI). Today, and with increasing frequency, voices are heard speaking of the teachings of John Paul II as marking a new caesura in the Catholic-liberalism relationship. Hence it is worth re-evaluating and re-analyzing if such opinions are justified. The volume closes with a conclusion comprising an attempt to answer the following questions. Are Catholic accusations addressed at liberalism correct or not? Has liberalism turned out to be a philosophy open to criticism and capable of modification as the weak points in liberal theory and practice are disclosed? Can Catholic values enrich the liberal political order? Can Catholic moral-religious norms, introduced into the realm of political responsibilities, endanger the foundations of the liberal system? Reviewing the evolution of Catholicism as well as liberalism, has Catholicism found its place amidst the pluralistic harmony of liberal democracy? Kształtowanie się tradycji liberalnej napotykało i będzie napotykać na promowaną przez Kościół rzymskokatolicki filozofię, zarówno w wymiarze indywidualnym, społecznym, jak i politycznym. Czy zawsze prowadziło to do ostrego sporu między katolicyzmem a liberalizmem? Czy społeczna myśl Kościoła ewoluowała w swojej ocenie tradycji liberalnej i vice versa? Czy w obu systemach myślowych istniały punkty wspólne? Czego dotyczyły ogniska zapalne? Czy katolicyzm wspiera stabilność liberalnej demokracji? Te pytania sprawiły, że głównym celem niniejszej pracy jest prezentacja i ocena jednego z najbardziej interesujących i wciąż aktualnych sporów, a pośrednio przedstawienie dwóch filozofii – katolicyzmu i liberalizmu. Analiza tego sporu prowadzona jest na płaszczyźnie filozofii społecznej, incydentalnie – praktyki politycznej w ujęciu historycznym, co umożliwia ukazanie dynamiki relacji między katolicyzmem i liberalizmem. Z powodu zakresu liberalizmu w analizie relacji katolicyzm – liberalizm praca ta ogranicza się jedynie do filozofii polityki i filozofii gospodarki. Tak okrojona filozofia społeczna interesuje się następującymi problemami: genezą, istotą i cechami społeczności politycznej, jej ostatecznym uzasadnieniem lub brakiem takowego oraz relacjami między społeczeństwem politycznym a jego członkami, typami ustrukturyzowania wspólnoty politycznej, genezą, naturą i zadaniami władzy politycznej, definicją prawa, jego podstawą i ograniczeniami, istotą i właściwościami życia gospodarczego, rodzajami własności, stosunkami zachodzącymi między polityką a ekonomią. Problem spotkania myśli społecznej Kościoła katolickiego z liberalizmem wydaje się szczególnie znaczący również w kontekście polskich dyskusji o tworzącym się ładzie, jego teoretycznych podstawach i instytucjach, projekcie realizacji indywidualnej wolności oraz wyższości i niższości wartości w dzisiejszym, pluralistycznym uniwersum. Problem ten ma olbrzymie znaczenie nie tylko intelektualne, ale przede wszystkim praktyczne, objawiające się na poziomie życia politycznego, ekonomicznego i kulturowego. Jednak od wielu dziesięcioleci polskie studia nad tym zagadnieniem są uwikłane w doraźne konflikty o charakterze światopoglądowym i politycznym, natomiast brakuje rozumiejącej i obiektywnej refleksji teoretycznej na ten temat. Właściwie nie ma publikacji próbujących zrozumieć liberalizm i ocenić zasadność stawianych mu zarzutów. Ogrom literatury poświęcony temu problemowi najczęściej zawiera prace już na wstępie wychodzące z pozycji apologetycznie marksistowskich czy katolickich. Utożsamia się w nich credo liberalizmu nie z filozofią polityki, lecz z teorią ekonomii prokapitalistycznej, co nie tylko zakłamuje istotę liberalizmu, lecz także zawęża katalog wypowiedzi Kościoła na jego temat, rozpoczynając je od encykliki Rerum novarum (1891) Leona XIII. Aby sprawę wyjaśnić w niniejszej książce, analiza jest umieszczona w szerszym kontekście filozoficznym i historycznym, czyli „ma wgląd”, z jednej strony w liberalizm, z drugiej – w dokumenty Kościoła, w których on po raz pierwszy zabrał głos w sprawie liberalizmu. Rozważania zawarte w niniejszej pracy podzielone są na wstęp, cztery rozdziały i zakończenie. We wstępie prezentuję podłoże teoretyczne i założenia metodologiczne rozprawy, przestrzegając zasad refleksji i analizy filozoficznej. Rozdziały przedstawiają ewolucję stosunku do liberalizmu w społecznej nauce Kościoła rzymskokatolickiego, od czasów Piusa VI do Jana Pawła II, z uwzględnieniem ważniejszych momentów rozwoju myśli liberalnej (John Locke, John Stuart Mill, John Rawls). W omawianym okresie wyróżniam cztery etapy katolickiego odniesienia do liberalizmu: pierwszy – wrogości i potępienia (od Piusa VI do Piusa IX), drugi – krytyki, ale zarazem tolerowania (od Leona XIII do Piusa XII), trzeci – krytyki, choć i ograniczonej zgody (od Jan XXIII do Pawła VI) i czwarty – powszechnie oceniany jako przełom w katolickiej percepcji liberalizmu (pontyfikat Jana Pawła II). Całość rozważań zamknie zakończenie, którego treścią jest próba odpowiedzi na pytania: czy katolickie zarzuty pod adresem liberalizmu są trafne czy też nie? Czy liberalizm okazał się filozofią otwartą na krytykę, zdolną do modyfikacji pod wpływem ujawniania słabych stron teorii lub praktyk liberalnych? Czy wartości katolickie mogą wzbogacić liberalny porządek polityczny? Czy też katolickie normy moralno-religijne, wprowadzone w obręb obowiązków politycznych, zagrażają fundamentom ustroju liberalnego? Czy zarówno wobec ewolucji katolicyzmu, jak i liberalizmu katolicyzm odnalazł się w pluralistycznej harmonii liberalnej demokracji? (shrink)

W Encyklice Fides et ratio Jan Paweł II nawołuje do współpracy teologii z filozofią. Podkreślając inspirującą rolę teologii dla filozofii, większy nacisk kładzie jednak na potrzeby dowartościowania filozofii, zwłaszcza metafizyki, która w wielu środowiskach, nawet w uczelniach kościelnych, została zaniedbana. Wśród licznych antymetafizycznych nurtów współczesnych, Papież wymienia pozytywizm, materializm, scjentyzm i relatywizm. Różniąc się od siebie nurty te maja jednak z sobą coś wspólnego. Pozytywizm za źródło i kryterium prawdy uznaje doświadczenie zmysłowe. Zdania o zjawiskach danych w doświadczeniu maja (...) wartość prawdopodobną. Zawsze istnieje możliwość ich zakwestionowania. Stąd relatywizm prawdy. Prócz tego ograniczenie poznania de empirii implikuje zamkniecie się na rzeczywistość pozazmysłową, duchową. Z nieuprawnionego metodologicznie przekonania, ze to co niepoznawalne zmysłami nie istnieje, rodzi się materializm. Konieczność dotyczy systemów formalnych, one jednak nie mają charakteru ontologicznego, nie mówią same z siebie niczego o rzeczywistości. Opierają się na konwencjach. To stanowi inne źródło relatywizmu. (shrink)

Tematem artykułu jest symbolika krzyża i miecza, wyznaczająca dzieje chrześcijaństwa. Jan Dobraczyński w powieściowej biografii apostoła Pawła wskazuje, że pierwotnym symbolem żydowskiego mesjasza miał być miecz, który wyzwoli naród wybrany spod władzy cesarstwa rzymskiego. Jezus tę ideę zmienił w ideę pokoju i miłości, której zwieńczeniem była jego zbawcza śmierć za grzeszników; w ten sposób miecz został zastąpiony krzyżem. Z tego powodu chrześcijaństwo można uznać za religię krzyża,a nie miecza, w której dobrowolna ofiara zastępuje przemoc; odkąd jednak stało się ono oficjalną (...) religią cesarstwa, było wykorzystywane jako ideowe usprawiedliwienie prześladowania wyznawców kultów pogańskich. W ten sposób nie tylko wróciło do miecza, lecz wprost zastąpiło krzyż mieczem, a nawet uświęciło krzyż jako miecz. Symbolicznym potwierdzeniem takiej interpretacji dziejów chrześcijaństwa jest końcowa scena powieści Dobraczyńskiego Święty miecz, w której apostoł – chrzcząc rzymskiego żołnierza – zamiast krzyża daje mu do pocałowania miecz. (shrink)

This paper analyses recent calls for so called “neurorights”, suggested novel human rights whose adoption is allegedly required because of advances in neuroscience, exemplified by a proposal of the Neurorights Initiative. Advances in neuroscience and technology are indeed impressive and pose a range of challenges for the law, and some novel applications give grounds for human rights concerns. But whether addressing these concerns requires adopting novel human rights, and whether the proposed neurorights are suitable candidates, are a different matter. This (...) paper argues that the proposed rights, as individuals and a class, should not be adopted and lobbying on their behalf should stop. The proposal tends to promote rights inflationism, is tainted by neuroexceptionalism and neuroessentialism, and lacks grounding in relevant scholarship. None of the proposed individual rights passes quality criteria debated in the field. While understandable from a moral perspective, the proposal is fundamentally flawed from a legal perspective. Rather than conjuring up novel human rights, existing rights should be further developed in face of changing societal circumstances and technological possibilities. (shrink)

The term “personhood” has a long history and is deeply rooted in the bioethical debate. Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby argues that bioethicists should abandon the concept of personhood, because “‘person...

Is knowledge-how, or “practical” knowledge, a species of knowledge-that, or “theoretical” knowledge? There is no comfortable position to take in the debate around this question. On the one hand, there are counterexamples against the anti-intellectualist thesis that practical knowledge is best analysed as an ability. They show that having an ability to ϕ is not necessary for knowing how to ϕ. On the other hand, the intellectualist analysis of practical knowledge as a subspecies of theoretical knowledge is threatened by its (...) own set of counterexamples, which convincingly establish that practical knowledge lacks many of the typical characteristics of theoretical knowledge. Most strikingly it does not even appear to require a belief. In this paper, I develop an account of practical knowledge that avoids these counterexamples. It also manages to preserve both the status of such knowledge as a cognitive achievement and its apparently close conceptual relation to abilities. I start with the counterexamples against the necessity of abilities for practical knowledge and show that they fail because they underestimate the cognitive demands of attempts. I then make use of the logic of dispositions to bridge the gap that counterexamples against the necessity of abilities for practical knowledge open. It is argued that, instead of the ability to ϕ, it is a specific disposition to have the ability to ϕ that constitutes practical knowledge about ϕ. The resulting theory is an anti-intellectualist position that preserves essential intellectualist motivations and thus should be satisfactory for proponents of both views. (shrink)

This book is the first major account of political thought in twentieth-century Europe, both West and East, to appear since the end of the Cold War. Skillfully blending intellectual, political, and cultural history, Jan-Werner Müller elucidates the ideas that shaped the period of ideological extremes before 1945 and the liberalization of West European politics after the Second World War. He also offers vivid portraits of famous as well as unjustly forgotten political thinkers and the movements and institutions they inspired. Müller (...) pays particular attention to ideas advanced to justify fascism and how they relate to the special kind of liberal democracy that was created in postwar Western Europe. He also explains the impact of the 1960s and neoliberalism, ending with a critical assessment of today's self-consciously post-ideological age. (shrink)

We prove that the Gödel incompleteness theorem holds for a weak arithmetic T = IΔ0 + Ω2 in the form where Cons H (T) is an arithmetic formula expressing the consistency of T with respect to the Herbrand notion of provability.

Respecting Persons in Theory and Practice is a collection of essays of the moral and political philosophy of Jan Narveson. The essays in this collection share a consistent theme running through much of Narveson's moral and political philosophy, namely that politics and morals stem from the interests of individual people, and have no antecedent authority over us. The essays in this collection, in various ways and as applied to various aspects of the scene, argue that the ultimate and true point (...) of politics and morals is to enable us to make our lives better, according to our varied senses of what that might mean. (shrink)

Representing the thinking of philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, coaches, and sports writers, these essays bring together a wide range of approaches to ...

This paper explores and ultimately affirms the surprising claim that artificial intelligence (AI) can become part of the person, in a robust sense, and examines three ethical and legal implications. The argument is based on a rich, legally inspired conception of persons as free and independent rightholders and objects of heightened protection, but it is construed so broadly that it should also apply to mainstream philosophical conceptions of personhood. The claim is exemplified by a specific technology, devices that connect human (...) brains with computers and operate by AI-algorithms. Under philosophically reasonable and empirically realistic conditions, these devices and the AI running them become parts of the person, in the same way as arms, hearts, or mental capacities are. This transformation shall be called empersonification. It has normative and especially legal consequences because people have broader and stronger duties regarding other persons (and parts of them) than regarding things. Three consequences with practical implications are: (i) AI-devices cease to exist as independent legal entities and come to enjoy the special legal protection of persons; (ii) therefore, third parties such as manufacturers or authors of software lose (intellectual) property rights in device and software; (iii) persons become responsible for the outputs of the empersonified AI-devices to the same degree that they are for desires or intentions arising from the depths of their unconscious. More generally, empersonification marks a new step in the long history of human–machine interaction that deserves critical ethical reflection and calls for a stronger value-aligned development of these technologies. (shrink)

We extend stit logic by adding a spatial dimension. This enables us to distinguish between powers and opportunities of agents. Powers are agent-specific and do not depend on an agent’s location. Opportunities do depend on locations, and are the same for every agent. The central idea is to define the real possibility to see to the truth of a condition in space and time as the combination of the power and the opportunity to do so. The focus on agent-relative powers (...) and space-relative opportunities firmly roots effectivity of an autonomous choice making agent in a space–time picture. Our space–time view will be classically Newtonian, since we will assume relativistic phenomena do not play a role in agentive effectivity. We show how our semantics naturally distinguishes between different kinds of histories; histories that reflect real possibilities and histories that reflect counterfactual possibilities. Furthermore, we discuss how the spatial picture sheds light on conceptual problems plaguing the central stit property of ‘independence of agency’. At several points in the article we will emphasise and defend the differences with Belnap’s theory of agency in relativistic branching space–times. (shrink)

Our aim is to model the behaviour of a cognitive agent trying to solve a complex problem by dividing it into sub-problems, but failing to solve some of these sub-problems. We use the powerful framework of erotetic search scenarios combined with Kleene’s strong three-valued logic. ESS, defined on the grounds of Inferential Erotetic Logic, has appeared to be a useful logical tool for modelling cognitive goal-directed processes. Using the logical tools of ESS and the three-valued logic, we will show how (...) an agent could solve the initial problem despite the fact that the sub-problems remain unsolved. Thus our model not only indicates missing information but also specifies the contexts in which the problem-solving process may end in success despite the lack of information. We will also show that this model of problem solving may find use in an analysis of natural language dialogues. (shrink)

Since the turn of the millennium, the major development agencies have been promoting “knowledge for development,” “ICT for development,” or the “knowledge economy” as new paradigms to prompt development in less-developed countries. These paradigms display an unconditional trust in the power of Western technology and scientific knowledge to trigger development—they taste of epistemic and technological determinism. This article probes, by means of a genealogy, how and when development cooperation began adhering to epistemic and technological determinism, and which forms this adhesion (...) has taken over time. The genealogy shows, first, that knowledge and technology have always been integrally part of the very “development” idea since this idea was shaped during enlightenment. Second, while the genealogy reveals that epistemic and technological determinism were embedded in the development idea from the very beginning, it also illustrates that the determinism has always been challenged by critical voices. (shrink)

The paper critically engages with some of the normative arguments in Julian Savulescu and Ingmar Persson’s book Unfit for the Future. In particular, it scrutinizes the authors’ argument in denial of a moral right to privacy as well as their political proposal to alter humankind’s moral psychology in order to avert climate change, terrorism and to redress global injustice.

Cancers often express hundreds of genes otherwise specific to germ cells, the germline/cancer (GC) genes. Here, we present and discuss the hypothesis that activation of a “germline program” promotes cancer cell malignancy. We do so by proposing four hallmark processes of the germline: meiosis, epigenetic plasticity, migration, and metabolic plasticity. Together, these hallmarks enable replicative immortality of germ cells as well as cancer cells. Especially meiotic genes are frequently expressed in cancer, implying that genes unique to meiosis may play a (...) role in oncogenesis. Because GC genes are not expressed in healthy somatic tissues, they form an appealing source of specific treatment targets with limited side effects besides infertility. Although it is still unclear why germ cell specific genes are so abundantly expressed in cancer, from our hypothesis it follows that the germline's reproductive program is intrinsic to cancer development. (shrink)