This article portrays the most important elements of the Salesian formation and education in the context of social life. It also points out the specifics of the community and its charism which set the foundations for this congregation. The conclusion is a reflection on the key elements of the Salesian mission in the present world.

Filozofia - zgodnie z etymologicznym, greckim pochodzeniem wyrazu - jest miłością mądrości, umiłowaniem mądrości: φιλοσοφία - philosophia, od: φιλεῖν - philein - kochać, miłować; σοφία - sophia - wiedza, mądrość. Filozofia jest zatem syntezą „gorących" uczuć i „zimnej'' kalkulacji. Tym samym filozofia jest dziełem całego i samego człowieka. Co mam na myśli mówiąc, że filozofia jest dziełem „całego i samego człowieka”? Filozofia pojawia się tam i wtedy, gdzie i kiedy człowiek zaczyna myśleć. Myślenie jest dla filozofii istotne, ono stanowi o (...) niej. Nie każde jednak myślenie jest od razu myśleniem filozoficznym. Są myśli „płynące z serca” i myśli zrodzone z chęci opanowania przyrody. Jedne i drugie maja usprawiedliwione miejsce w życiu i świecie człowieka. Tylko te akty ludzkiego ducha, które kieruje się ku samemu myśleniu i pragną^ posiąść wiedzę dla samej wiedzy można nazwać działalnością filozoficzną. (shrink)

Filozofia - zgodnie z etymologicznym, greckim pochodzeniem wyrazu - jest miłością mądrości, umiłowaniem mądrości: φιλοσοφία - philosophia, od: φιλεῖν - philein - kochać, miłować; σοφία - sophia - wiedza, mądrość. Filozofia jest zatem syntezą „gorących" uczuć i „zimnej'' kalkulacji. Tym samym filozofia jest dziełem całego i samego człowieka. Co mam na myśli mówiąc, że filozofia jest dziełem „całego i samego człowieka”? Filozofia pojawia się tam i wtedy, gdzie i kiedy człowiek zaczyna myśleć. Myślenie jest dla filozofii istotne, ono stanowi o (...) niej. Nie każde jednak myślenie jest od razu myśleniem filozoficznym. Są myśli „płynące z serca” i myśli zrodzone z chęci opanowania przyrody. Jedne i drugie maja usprawiedliwione miejsce w życiu i świecie człowieka. Tylko te akty ludzkiego ducha, które kieruje się ku samemu myśleniu i pragną^ posiąść wiedzę dla samej wiedzy można nazwać działalnością filozoficzną. (shrink)

Chciałem Go pożegnać. Kilkakrotnie próbowałem napisać choć parę słów. O Nim samym. Okazało się, że nie potrafię. Udało mi się tylko przedstawić Jego poglądy na reizm Tadeusza Kotarbińskiego, ale uczyniłem to gdzie indziej. Muszę tu poprzestać na ofiarowaniu Mu tego, co napisałem na Jego dziewięćdziesiąte urodziny, w osiemdziesięciolecie naszej przyjaźni.

This collection of papers consists of mostly previously published articles which develop a scientific research program designed to defend a dynamic view of reality, which is founded on the assumption of the existence of the flow of time. The 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. In this book, the author analyzes different aspects of the problem of the flow of time and (...) attempts to show that the reasons for the difficulty with acceptance of its reality may lie in inadequate metaphysics and a wrong approach to relations between metaphysics and physics. The papers are intended to answer such fundamental questions as: What is the origin of dynamics of the world?; What is the origin and nature of time?; What is the origin of the asymmetry (arrow) of time?; Does the flow of time really exist and what it consists in?; Is physics consistent with the existence of the flow of time?; Why don’t we have a physical theory of the flow of time?; What is the relationship between metaphysics and modern physics? The defended position is presented in many aspects—ontological, methodological, and scientific (physical). (shrink)

BackgroundObtaining informed consent for participation in genomic research in low-income settings presents specific ethical issues requiring attention. These include the challenges that arise when providing information about unfamiliar and technical research methods, the implications of complicated infrastructure and data sharing requirements, and the potential consequences of future research with samples and data. This study investigated researchers’ and participants’ parents’ experiences of a consent process and understandings of a genome-wide association study of malaria involving children aged five and under in Mali. (...) It aimed to inform best practices in recruiting participants into genomic research.MethodsA qualitative rapid ethical assessment was undertaken. Fifty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with the parents of research participants. An additional nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior research scientists, research assistants and with a member of an ethics committee. A focus group with five parents of research participants and direct observations of four consent processes were also conducted. French and translated English transcripts were descriptively and thematically coded using OpenCode software.ResultsParticipants’ parents in the MalariaGEN study had differing understandings of the causes of malaria, the rationale for collecting blood samples, the purposes of the study and the kinds of information the study would generate. Genomic aspects of the research, including the gene/environment interaction underlying susceptibility or resistance to severe malaria, proved particularly challenging to explain and understand.ConclusionsThis study identifies a number of areas to be addressed in the design of consent processes for genomic research, some of which require careful ethical analysis. These include determining how much information should be provided about differing aspects of the research and how best to promote understandings of genomic research. We conclude that it is important to build capacity in the design and conduct of effective and appropriate consent processes for genomic research in low and middle-income settings. Additionally, consideration should be given to the role of review committees and community consultation activities in protecting the interests of participants in genomic research. (shrink)

Author: Sawicki Jerzy Title: THELEOGICAL PRINCIPLE IN KANT’S METHODOLOGY (Zasada teleologiczna w metodologii Kanta) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2005, vol:.5, number: 2005/1, pages: 281-292 Keywords: KANT, THELEOGICAL PRINCIPLE, FINALISM, MECHANICISM Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:The work contains a concise of I. Kant’s views on the problem of the laws of nature and the theleological principle presented in this context, which Kant proposes in the character of a regulative methodological postulate. (...) The analysis of fundamental philosophical notions (the law of nature, necessity, causality, purpose) carried out from the position of an extreme aprioristic rationalism leads Kant to the conclusion about the basic impossibility of educing the conception of purpose (in relation to nature) from aprioristic transcendental laws, ie. such laws which the theoretical reason imposes to the nature by necessity. However, the fact of a total functioning of an organism does not fit, according to Kant, into the frames of a mechanically understood causality. Kant tries to solve this problem choosing the way of conclusion by analogy and finally he suggests to introduce into the living nature a specific causal relation in which the purposes constitute a particular kind of causes and results at the same time. That conception oscillates between mechanicism and theological finalism, and the fitting of a science system into the frames of aprioristic categories does not permit a finally decide about the supremacy of one or the other way of seeing the world. However, nevertheless, the perceiving and stressing of the peculiarity of organic symptoms, the formulation of the postulate about their unreductability to the law of a mechanical type constitute unquestionable and great merit of the author of the Criticism of the Judgment Authority. The idea of the totality of organism, though involved in subjective idealistic non consequences of Kant’s conceptions has in the given historical period all features of a deep and progressive thought, outpacing and inspiring several later research ideas, both in philosophy and in natural science. (shrink)

This book examines the fundamental issues in neuroscience from methodological and philosophical perspectives. The reader will learn about the methodological difficulties connected with the use of neuroscientific experiments in philosophical argumentation and about the nature of scientific explanation in neuroscience. In addition, the book includes case studies of several issues lying at the intersection of neuroscience and philosophy, such as theory of mind, self-consciousness, self-deception, depression, and morality.

Dnia 2 czerwca zmarł w Warszawie Jerzy Pelc, założyciel oraz wieloletni redaktor „Studiów Semiotycznych”. Przez prawie pół wieku troszczył się On o to, aby na ich łamach ukazywały się wspomnienia pozgonne upamiętniające polskich i zagranicznych uczonych semiotyków. Wspomnienia te albo pisał sam, albo prosił o ich napisanie osoby najlepiej znające dorobek i działalność naukową zmarłego. Jego odejście postawiło nas wszystkich w sytuacji niemożliwej: sam nie może być autorem wspomnienia, a tylko On mógłby kompetentnie napisać kilka słów o swoim ogromnym (...) dorobku naukowym [...]. (shrink)

Jerzy Stempowski and Lev Shestov — existentialism imbued with eastern melancholy. A short history of a friendship: The main objective of this article is to present the friendship between Jerzy Stempowski — Polish writer, essayist and Lev Shestov — Russian writer and philosopher. The article consist of three parts an and short conclusion. In the first part I focus on Stempowski’s predilections for Eastern Europe, and I also explore Stempowski’s complicated, though clearly evident, relation with existentialism. It is (...) in this context that I show both Stempowski’s close affinity with Shestov philosophy, and his evident antipathy to French existentialism. In the second part I attempt to answer the following question: why did Stempowski have such a strong aversion to Albert Camus’ work. In this part of my essay I briefly refer to a Serbian writer and dissident — Mihajlo Mihajlov. In the third part I explore Stempowski’s friendship with Shestov and I also sketch the ideological horizon they both shared. Moreover, I mention Shestov’s presentations at the philosophical conferences in Kraków and Berlin as well as his meeting with Edmund Husserl in Amsterdam. In the short conclusion to my article I suggest that Stempowski’s existentialism is an individual, original project even if his existentialism draws upon most of the major themes in philosophical treatises and literature of existentialism. His “existential project” is based on: 1. reason which rationally orders reality, 2. sympathy towards antirational and prophetic philosophy of Russian thinkers which he analyses from the positions of a professed atheist and 3. deeply-rooted humanistic values. (shrink)

The paper tackles two problems. The first one is to grasp the real meaning of Jerzy Kalinowski’s theory of normative sentences. His formal system K 1 is a simple logic formulated in a very limited language . While presenting it Kalinowski formulated a few interesting philosophical remarks on norms and actions. He did not, however, possess the tools to formalise them fully. We propose a formulation of Kalinowski’s ideas with the use of a set-theoretical frame similar to the one (...) presented by Krister Segerberg in his A Deontic Logic of Action. At the same time we enrich the language used by Kalinowski with more operators on actions and present an adequate axiomatisation of the resulting system. That allows us to disclose some unrevealed aspects of Kalinowski’s theory. The most important one is a relation between acts which we call moral indiscernibility. Our second problem is a proper understanding of moral indiscernibility. We show how a repertoire of agent’s actions, defined with the use of simple observable elements of actions, can be filtrated by the relation of moral indiscernibility. That allows us to understand the consequences of Kalinowski’s claim that not doing something good is always bad. (shrink)

Wittgenstein´s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus can be regarded as the first attempt to use the concept of possible world in the analysis of language. Since Wittgenstein does not use the expression possible world, the author of this paper draws attention to those parts of Tractatus that presuppose such concept. Then the author concentrates on the relation of Wittgenstein´s conception of possible world to the metaphysics of Tractatus. For Wittgenstein, the possible world is any combination of state of affairs. On the other hand, (...) some combinations of states of affairs are by the metaphysics of Tractatus excluded as illogical. The same is true of all possible distributions of attributes to ordered sets of objects that constitute states of affairs. It seems that Wittgenstein did not recognize these difficulties. (shrink)

W latach 1931-1934 Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz sformułował dwie wersje teorii znaczenia. Tarski wykazał, że druga wersja teorii dopuszcza moż- liwość istnienia równoznacznych nazw o różnej denotacji. Cecha ta zo- stała uznana przez Tarskiego i Ajdukiewicza za dyskwalifikującą teorię. W artykule dokonuję porównania obu wersji teorii, przede wszystkim ze względu na podstawową definicję wzajemnej wymienialności wyrażeń. Pokazuję, że wbrew rozpowszechnionej opinii zarzut Tarskiego dotyczy także pierwszej wersji teorii. Siła argumentu Tarskiego opiera się na założeniu, że żadna adekwatna teoria znaczenia nie może dopuszczać (...) istnienia równoznacznych nazw o różnej denotacji. Podejmuję dyskusję z tym stanowiskiem. (shrink)

It follows from the proved theorems that ifM π=〈Q, ϕ〉 (whereQ={0,q 1,q 2,...,q α}) is a machine of the classM F then there exist α machinesM πi such thatM πi(〈1,c〉)=M π(〈q i,c〉) andQ i={0, 1, 2, ..., α+1} (i=1, 2, ..., α).And thus, if the way in which to an initial function of content of memoryc∈C a machine assigns a final onec′∈C is regarded as the only essential property of the machine then we can deal with the machines of the (...) formM π=〈{0, 1, 2, ..., α}, ϕ〉 and processes π(t) (wheret=〈1,c〉,c∈C) only.Such approach can simplify the problem of defining particular machines of the classM F , composing and simplifying them. (shrink)

This paper presents life and work in logic of Jerzy Słupecki, a distinguished Polish logician.

The paper tries to demonstrate that the process of the increase of entropy does not explain the asymmetry of time itself because it is unable to account for its fundamental asymmetries, that is, the asymmetry of traces (we have traces of the past and no traces of the future), the asymmetry of causation (we have an impact on future events with no possibility of having an impact on the past), and the asymmetry between the fixed past and the open future, (...) To this end, the approaches of Boltzmann, Reichenbach (and his followers), and Albert are analysed. It is argued that we should look for alternative approaches instead of this, namely we should consider a temporally asymmetrical physical theory or seek a source of the asymmetry of time in metaphysics. This second approach may even turn out to be complementary if only we accept that metaphysics can complement scientific research programmes. (shrink)