Nature was the central idea on which Michael Sendivogius based his alchemico-philosophical system. Therefore, the aim of this article is to show what the Polish alchemist understood as Nature and what was its function in the world according to him. Sendivogius believed that the material world originated from the will of the good God. However, the act of divine creation was reduced to the moment of its coming into being through the creation of the matter and general organization of its (...) universum. Nature, on the other hand, is responsible for the present form of the material world. For Sendivogius, Nature is an element with which the world has been enriched by the will of God, and which is responsible for its permanent creation. According to our alchemist, the world is constantly being created and transformed, and Nature is its creative principle. This article explains how Nature creates this world and particular beings existing in it. Furthermore, it discusses the problem of the nature of Nature itself. Sendivogius considered Nature to be not only a creative principle but also a kind of law determining interactions of beings which ensured their unity and harmony. Nature is not everlasting but created in the same way as the world. Therefore, the article presents also what the Alchemist thought about the Nature’s relation to its Creator, that is to God. (shrink)

The question of the beginning of the world, it’s first rule, genesis and structure followed humanity since the dawn of time, becoming a source for philosophy and science. Search for a rational answer to that question lead, throughout the ages, to a creation of many cosmogonic concepts which referenced various philosophical traditions. While they currently hold only historical value, in many cases they contained ideas, sometimes still very inarticulate, which revolutionized the science in later years. One of such concepts was (...) proposed by Michael Sendivogius, a Renaissance polish alchemist. In his approach, creation of world is dynamic and multiphase. In his vision, the world is something, which is subject to evolution (though he does not use this term), inevitably changes, and thus undergoes a permanent creation. In this creation of the world, as Sendivogius describes it, one can distinguish three fundamental stages, responsible for which are three factors: God, Nature and man. The goal of this article is to present how, according to Sendivogius, the world is created, what tasks in this continuous process are carried out by God, Nature or the man, and in what relations they remain, in regards to themselves and the world they create. (shrink)

The paper defends a dynamic view of reality which is founded on the assumption of the existence of the flow of time. This vindication makes use of a metaphysical theory of the flow of time developed by the author which is based on the notion of dynamic existence. It is shown that such a conception allows one to explain the fundamental phenomena connected with the flow of time, namely the continuous changing of the present, the endurance of things, and the (...) asymmetry of time. It is also argued that the proposed approach may be of some virtue for the empirical sciences because it explains the ubiquitous interest of scientists in the evolution of dynamic systems of different kinds, and provides us with an arrow of time which is lacking in theories describing fundamental physical interactions. The argument is advanced which aims to show that physics is unable to provide us with a theory of the flow of time and that we should look for such a theory in metaphysics. Thus, an approach to the relation between metaphysics and physics is vindicated that may help to overcome the difficulties blocking our understanding of reality as a dynamic one. (shrink)

Journal Name: Philologus Issue: Ahead of print.

The old-fashioned concept of state is shown to be inadequate and misleading. Replacing it by a concept of information and taking advantage of the invariance of the mechanical description under time reversal puts the problems of the interpretation of quantum mechanics in a new light. A more realistic interpretation appears to be possible. Moreover, a new explanation of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox is presented, too.

Las jako zespół przyrody o określonych właściwościach pełni szereg wielorakich funkcji gospodar­czych, pośrednio gospodarczych i pozagospodar­czych. Jako przyrodnicza całość jest mało stabilny i ulega wielu czynnikom biotycznym, abiotycznym i antropogenicznym. Z praktyki ochrony lasu w granicach admini­stracyjnych Regionalnej Dyrekcji Lasów Państwo­wych w Olsztynie wynika, że szczególnie niebez­pieczne bywają owady - z grupy szkodników pier­wotnych - żerujące na drzewach żywych i pozornie zdrowych, a osłabionych działaniem jednego lub kil­ku czynników, zwykle abiotycznych. Pojawy nie­których zmuszają do podejmowania zabiegów ratow­niczych. Sposoby sprowadzania liczebności (...) trzech moty­li, tzn. brudnicy mniszki, strzygoni choinówki i zwójki zieloneczki, do poziomu przed laty nazywanego „żelaznym zapasem” przedstawia niniejsze opracowanie. (shrink)

Jerzy Franczak comprehensively presents Jacques Rancière's thought by emphasizing the relations between politics and literature. The detailed analysis considers the context of modern aesthetics and political philosophy, which is why the book introduces further protagonists, such as Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, or Jean-François Lyotard. Franczak first reconstructs Rancière's original philosophy of literature so as to then immediately apply it in readings of select world literature masterpieces by Gustav Flaubert, Max Jacob, Bertold Brecht, Vladimir Nabokov, and Philip Roth.

In the first part of the article, Giuseppe Veronese’s concept of arithmetical constructivism is reconstructed from his dispersed remarks. It is pointed out that although for Veronese time is a necessary condition for the construction of natural numbers by an individual subject and the subject cognizes time in an a priori way, it is not a (proto-)intuition of the subject. This is a fundamental difference between the concept proposed by Veronese and the constructivism of Kant and Brouwer. Veronese’s justification of (...) the subject’s ability to cognize infinity, represented in his text by infinite sequences, is analyzed in the second part of the paper. The only condition for the cognition of the infinite sequence is to have a rule according to which its successive terms “follow one another.” The price of the ability to cognize the infinitive “whole” (sequence) may be the uncognizability of certain “parts” (terms of sequence). Infinite sequences, cognizable according to Veronese, are allowed as objects of mathematical research, although they do not meet the condition of constructability. (shrink)

W publikacji autor analizuje powszechność wdrażania określonych kategorii innowacji w przedsiębiorstwach funkcjonujących w krajach Unii Europejskiej. Analizy dokonano w dwóch przekrojach: 1) państw członkowskich Unii Europejskiej, 2) przynależności sektorowej przedsiębiorstw. Podstawą dla tej analizy są wyniki badań kwestionariuszowych przeprowadzonych w kwietniu 2009 r. przez the Gallup Organization wśród 5034 przedsiębiorstw. Respondentami byli przedstawiciele zarządów tych przedsiębiorstw. Celem publikacji jest dokonanie statystycznej analizy odpowiedzi respondentów na temat powszechności wdrażania innowacji.

The object of this paper is to suggest how the Frege–Dummettian notions of criterion of identity and criterion of application can be put to work within Putnam’s account of reference for natural kind terms in “Meaning of ‘Meaning’ ”. By doing so, some light can be shed on Putnam’s earlier views on “necessity relative to a body of knowledge” as well as his later views on sortal identity. If the Frege–Dummettian criteria are indeed at work within Putnam’s account, then we (...) must either give up rigidity or else give up the division of linguistic labor hypothesis. I will give an example from biological nomenclature that may sway us towards giving up the former. (shrink)

Autor niniejszego artykułu stawia tezę, iż w _Biblii Paulistów_, w szczególności zaś w tłumaczeniu Ewangelii i Psalmów, zastosowano tylko pozornie „język współczesny”, gdyż jej tekst w wielu wypadkach zapożycza pełne frazy z _Biblii Tysiąclecia_. Powstaje w ten sposób pewna hybryda językowa, mieszająca język potoczny i już utrwalony tradycją „polski styl biblijny”. Tezę tę ilustrują liczne przykłady oparte o analizowany tekst. Kolejną poruszaną kwestią jest teoretyczna i praktyczna zasadność samego faktu sięgania po język współczesny, a w istocie po język potoczny w (...) przekładzie Pisma Świętego. Z teoretycznego punktu widzenia jest to jednoznacznie sprzeczne z tradycją wyznaczoną przez _Wulgatę _św. Hieronima, którego przekładowy język naruszał kanony łaciny cycerońskiej (a więc języka naturalnie brzmiącego dla ówczesnego wykształconego odbiorcy) w trosce o jak największą wierność wobec oryginału. Święty Hieronim zderzał łacinę ze strukturami składniowymi języka hebrajskiego, w wyniku czego powstała pewna nowa jakość, odbierana jeszcze długi czas później jako „dobroczynny zgrzyt językowy” (sformułowanie A. Bermana), prowadzący również do poszerzenia zasobów języka docelowego. Ta zasada została przyjęta w późniejszych katolickich przekładach Biblii, w tym w przekładzie ks. Jakuba Wujka, i odrzucona dopiero przez nową tradycję protestancką zainaugurowaną przez Marcina Lutra. Z praktycznego natomiast punktu widzenia wolno zadać pytanie o duszpasterską skuteczność używania takiego języka i sięganie do tradycji protestanckiej w sytuacji, gdy kościoły protestanckie Europy pustoszeją mimo propozycji „chrześcijaństwa ułatwionego”. (shrink)

El objetivo de este trabajo es poner al descubierto los principales valores cognitivos y epistemológicos desde los que Warren Weaver puso en marcha el Programa de Biología Experimental, un programa que llevado a cabo desde la presidencia de la división de ciencias naturales de la Fundación Rockefeller, marcó y condicionó en buena medida el posterior desarrollo de la investigación biológica. Para tal fin se mostrará, en primer lugar, cómo fue la llegada de Weaver a la Fundación Rockefeller, así como las (...) razones bajo las cuáles el consejo de esa institución decidió entre 1932 y 1933 dar prioridad a las investigaciones biomédicas, y la manera por la cual lo hicieron. En un segundo momento, el más extenso e importante, veremos algunos de los elementos más significativos de la perspectiva epistemológica y cognoscitiva de de Weaver. Finalizaremos viendo cómo esa perspectiva, desarrollada en conexión con el Programa de Biología Experimental, inter-actuó con la visión reduccionista de la biología a la que el programa parecía apuntar. The aim of this article is to uncover the main cognitive and epistemological values that influenced Warren Weaver in starting the Experimental Biology Program, a program carried out from the time that he became president of the Natural Sciences Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, and which significantly marked and conditioned the subsequent development of biological research. To this end, we first describe the arrival of Warren Weaver at the Rockefeller Foundation, and the reasons for which the Board of this Foundation, between 1932 and 1933, decided to prioritize biomedical research, and the manner in which they did so. Then, secondly, in the largest and most important part of the article, we will present some of the most significant elements of Weaver's epistemological and cognitive perspective. Finally, we will show how this perspective, developed in connection with the Experimental Biology Program, interacted with the reductionist view of biology to which the program seemed to point. (shrink)

Henryk Chmielewski is the author of a historical comic book devoted to the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence. The comic book of Chmielewski is a subjective vision of Polish history, because every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction. Artist says about very difficoult moment of Polish history (the 19th century, the early 20th century). He creates original story, argues, that the idea of Poland as an independent state was never not lost. Polish people (...) were formed armyduring the Napoleonic Wars, and Polish organisations started major uprisings (the Polish–Russian War of 1830–1831 and the January Uprising of 1863-64). Chmielewski creates an interesting picture of the world with the use of many varying forms, different codes (e.g. picture, word, photography). He use various means of expression: semantic, linguistic, compositional (see values, compotents: metannaration, digression, opposition "we" - "they", stereotype, appropriate words - freedom, Poland, Poles, relationship: fiction - real world, illusion, colloquial language). (shrink)

καλὸν δ᾽ ἐπὶ σήματι σῆμασκέπτεσθαι, μᾶλλον δὲ δυοῖν εἰς ταὐτὸν ἰόντωνἐλπωρὴ τελέθοι, τριτάτῳ δέ κε θαρσήσειας. It is a good idea to observe one sign after another, and if two agree, it is more hopeful, while with a third you can be confident. Appropriately for a poet who is ‘subtly speaking’, the epithet applied to him by Ptolemy III Euergetes, Aratus does not cease offering unexpected material to explore. This statement holds true also for the famous passage containing the acrostic (...) ΛΕΠΤΗ. (shrink)

The term “transcendental” means something which is a necessary and a priori condition of knowledge. In other words, “the transcendental” refers to all presuppositions of a knower who is ready for knowing. These presuppositions are sometimes called “epistemic assumptions”. The paper presents author’s interpretation of the knowledge necessary conditions. The theoretical background for this interpretation is Kazimierz Twardowski’s theory of actions and products, and John Searle’s theory of human action.

Cognitive activity, which essentially consistsof the use of signs, does not only depend onthe internal (mental, or brain) processes. Thefirst part of the paper presents severalversions of the idea of the external andcultural organization of individual''s mentalprocesses. The second part of the paperconsiders a future development of cognitivescience as a science of the extended andsocially constructed mind. KazimierzTwardowski''s theory of intentionality and histheory of actions and products provide theconceptual framework of the undertaken analysis.

A theoretical analysis of the concept of lifetime and mean life of unstable elementary particles is presented. New analytic formulas for lifetime and mean life as a function of decay width Γ and the mass of unstable particle are derived for Breit-Wigner and Matthews-Salam energy distributions. It is demonstrated that, for unstable particles with a larger width or decay energy threshold, the deviation from the generally accepted mean life τ m =Γ −1 is significant. The behavior of the decay law (...) P(t) for small times is analyzed, and it is shown that the Breit-Wigner distribution violates the condition P(t = 0) = 0, whereas the Matthews-Salam distribution satisfies it. (shrink)

Book review: Frans de Waal, _Wiek empatii. Jak natura uczy nas życzliwości_, tłum. Ł. Lamża, Copernicus Center Press, Kraków 2019, ss. 380.

This article is a review of Frans de Waal's book Mama's Lust Hugs. Animal Emotions and what They Tell Us about Ourselves, which was released in Polnad in 2019. The book deals with the problem of animal emotionality. One of the conclusions reached by the author and which was emphasized in the review is the thesis that there is no such thing as unique human emotions that animals would not have. Emotions are universal; they are shared both by humans and (...) animals. The review noted that although the book is interesting, it is not new in terms of content, because it deals with issues that de Waal wrote about many times in his earlier publications. On the other hand, thanks to the collection and inclusion in one book of the issues related to emotionality in animals, the publication can be a good starting point for reflection not only on animals, but also on humans and their place in the world. It puts the reader in facing the question of human nature. For this reason, what has been tried to show in the review, Frans de Waal's book is a good example of how scientific issues lead to philosophical reflections. (shrink)

he article is a review of Kamil Trombik’s book, in which he presents particular concepts of the philosophy of nature at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Kraków in the years 1978 to 1993. It was the first and decisive period in the formation of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Academy. The goal of the monograph was to demonstrate the factors that contributed to philosophy of nature becoming one of the most prominent and representative trends in this academic center, (...) as well as to attempt to answer the question of why “philosophy in science,” developed initially by Michał Heller and Józef Życiski, became the main style of doing philosophy of nature there. In the reporting part of the review main problems that the author raises are presented. They are collected in three chapters of his work, which corresponds to three initial phases of the formation of the philosophical department at the Pontifical Academy of Theology. Then, in the critical part, some aspects of Trombik’s work are assessed. First of all, the attention is paid to the part concerning the determination of the sources of “philosophy in science” which—although it seems to be the most interesting—is also the least original part of the work. Next, the contribution of Karol Wojtyła and many other lesser-known scientists and philosophers to the formation of an interdisciplinary atmosphere and the promotion of “philosophy in science” in the structures of The Pontifical Academy of Theology and the Krakow intellectual milieu is also appreciated. Many hypotheses and research perspectives in Trombik’s book are highlighted in the review, demonstrating the importance of this Krakow research center for the history of Polish science and philosophy. (shrink)

W studium dokonano rekonstrukcji i analizy procesu pisania dwóch opowiadań Włodzimierza Odojewskiego (1930–2016) powstałych w latach 1976–1993. Autor bada bruliony (rękopisy i maszynopisy) przechowywane w archiwum pisarza na Wydziale Filologii Polskiej i Klasycznej UAM w Poznaniu. Praca nad dokumentacją genezy opowiadań odbywa się przy pomocy narzędzi zaproponowanych przez francuskich genetyków tekstu (P-M. de Biasi, J. Bellemin Noël) i amerykańskiego badacza J. Bryanta (pojęcie płynnego tekstu /fluid text/). Analiza dotyczy wybranych skupisk zmian w brulionach utworów Odojewskiego – redakcje tytułu, początkowych akapitów, (...) a także skreślenia, poprawki, uzupełnienia. Punktem dojścia studium jest stwierdzenie, że toku długotrwałego aktu twórczego pisarz dąży do konstrukcji, które w sposób maksymalnie precyzyjny oddają niuanse stanów psychicznych bohaterów oraz scenerii akcji opowiadań. Akt twórczy w wykonaniu Odojewskiego jest przykładem niestabilności pisania, którego efektem są kreacje płynnych postaci. (shrink)