The emergence of new technologies has had a significant impact on the development of modern psychiatry. Brain scanning, biochemical analysis, the search for genetic markers, and the development of psychopharmacology have had a great influence on the way we understand the nature of mental disorders and the role and place of mental health specialists. The article aims at presenting the consequences of a technical approach in psychiatry, giving examples of such an approach and proposing a critical attitude to this approach (...) and the role of technical expertise in psychiatry. (shrink)

In this paper I make a distinction between some characteristic features of human activity which not only challenge the possibility of being explained (reduced) in terms of cause and effect relationship, or by universal regularities, but which assign an element of interpretation and understanding to every human activity. My aim is to demonstrate that it is not the understanding that is submitted to scientific explanation but that every scientific explanation contains the component of interpretation and is evaluated from the viewpoint (...) of our everyday, pre-reflexive being in the world and commonly (often implicite) accepted contexts and assumptions. In other words, we have to constantly refer to the existing background—a network of unspecifiable beliefs and practices. I would like to point out, after Charles Taylor and Hubert Dreyfus, that the responsible epistemology of the humanities must overcome a series of assumptions of modern and contemporarycognitive theory which appeared to be surprisingly congruent with the classic thinking paradigm concerning natural sciences. Last but not least, I would like to prove, relying upon involved epistemology or hermeneutic proto-epistemology, the possibility of mutual symbiotic relationship between the perspective of natural sciences and the humanities. (shrink)

In the article the author tries to find some similarities and differences between phenomenological tradition and Srzednicki’s project of the new epistemology. He mostly refers to the thought of a French philosopher, Merleau-Ponty. Especially representative to the arguments is his late turn to metaphysical perspective presented in the work, Visible and Invisible, where he made an attempt to express a kind of logic which may reveal the world and ourselves in its mutual interconnections.

The article deals with relational aspects of mental disorders. The author takes into account the influence of mental illness on intersubjectivity and interpersonal relations in three aspects: “attitude to the illness,” that is, changes in the functioning of the subject and difficulties in dealing with the experience of mental illness; “dialogical relationship” in the form of difficulties in maintaining social cognition and entering into relationships with others; “social consensus,” that is, difficulties in adapting to the social world and a common (...) sense deficit. The analysis is made with reference to phenomenological research in contemporary philosophy of psychiatry. The result of this study is a reconstruction of a “different existence,” in other words, presentation of the transformation of the life-world and the specific way of inhabiting the world of a person in a mental crisis. Symptoms and experience of the illness are presented in the light of human possibilities of transformation. The analysis emphasizes the role of patients’ subjectivity and their efforts to find the meaning of a painful situation. The study of subjective aspects of disorders aims to reveal their consequences for understanding how to deal with mental crisis and to understand the positive aspects of the recovery process. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest omówienie koncepcji praktyki i psychiatrii opartej na wartościach Billa Fulforda. Autor przedstawia założenia VBP w świetle koncepcji bioetycznych, kodeksów medycznych oraz medycyny opartej na dowodach. Koncepcja VBP ukazana jest jako rodzaj praktyki mającej przyczynić się do poprawy decyzji terapeutycznych skoncentrowanych na osobie pacjenta. W tekście pojawiają się pytania o teoretyczne założenia VBP oraz jej rzeczywistą efektywność w podejmowaniu decyzji klinicznych. Autor wyjaśnia również dlaczego Fulford nie widzi w swojej koncepcji potrzeby budowania własnej teorii metafizycznej czy antropologicznej, lecz (...) dostrzega konieczność wsłuchiwania się w złożoność i konfliktowość decyzji klinicznych oraz wartość namysłu nad doskonaleniem codziennej praktyki. (shrink)

Artykuł porusza problem rozumienia w filozofii psychiatrii. Autor koncentruje się na klasycznym już podziale w naukach humanistycznych – na rozumienie/wyjaśnianie oraz nomotetyczne/idiograficzne - i próbuje nakreślić jego konsekwencje dla psychiatrii i problematyki zaburzeń psychicznych. Przegląd wybranych zagadnie metodologicznych filozofii psychiatrii ujawnia antropologiczne aspekty nowożytnej psychiatrii oraz ograniczenia modelu biomedycznego. Ostatnia część artykułu omawia wybrany przypadek kliniczny, aby wskazać na praktyczne konsekwencje indywidualnego i idiograficznego podejścia do psychiatrii.

Resumen El objetivo del presente artículo es analizar en la historia del español dos tipos de fórmulas de saludo, entendidas como unidades discursivas propias del acto de habla expresivo que sirven para abrir el canal comunicativo de las relaciones sociales. A través de la búsqueda sistemática en textos del CORDE de hasta finales del siglo XIX, intentaremos hallar (i) los factores sociopragmáticos que desempeñan el papel más importante en cada tipo de saludo, (ii) el origen paradigmático de cada fórmula, (iii) (...) su distribución sociocultural y las preferencias discursivas e informativas, y (iv) su nivel de predominio en determinadas épocas. (shrink)

The changes brought about in Poland and elsewhere in Europe by the fall of Communism have given rise to hopes for the establishment of a political system differing from the one which had been the fate of these countries. In place of totalitarianism, a new political system is to be created based on the democratic principles of a state under the rule of law. The transformation from totalitarianism to democracy is a process which has not yet been completed in Poland (...) and still requires many efforts to be made before this goal may be achieved. One may also enumerate various pitfalls jeopardising this process even now. The dangers cannot be avoided if their sources and nature are not identified. Attempts to pervert the law and the political system may only be counteracted by legal means if the system based on the abuse of the law has not yet succeeded in establishing itself. Resistance by means of the law only has any real chance of success provided it is directed against attempts to set up a totalitarian system. Once the powers which are hostile to the state bound by the rule of law take over the institutions of the state, such resistance is doomed to failure. (shrink)

The changes brought about in Poland and elsewhere in Europe by the fall of Communism have given rise to hopes for the establishment of a political system differing from the one which had been the fate of these countries. In place of totalitarianism, a new political system is to be created based on the democratic principles of a state under the rule of law. The transformation from totalitarianism to democracy is a process which has not yet been completed in Poland (...) and still requires many efforts to be made before this goal may be achieved. One may also enumerate various pitfalls jeopardising this process even now. The dangers cannot be avoided if their sources and nature are not identified. Attempts to pervert the law and the political system may only be counteracted by legal means if the system based on the abuse of the law has not yet succeeded in establishing itself. Resistance by means of the law only has any real chance of success provided it is directed against attempts to set up a totalitarian system. Once the powers which are hostile to the state bound by the rule of law take over the institutions of the state, such resistance is doomed to failure. (shrink)

First-order logic is formalized by means of tools taken from the logic of questions. A calculus of questions which is a counterpart of the Pure Calculus of Quantifiers is presented. A direct proof of completeness of the calculus is given.

The aim of this essay is to create a coherent theistic model of a solution to the problem of evil. To this end, it is shown that the differences in Kierkegaard’s and Plantinga’s accounts of the problem of evil can be reconciled if looked at from a broader theistic perspective. This requires, on the one hand, that Plantinga’s immanent and logical vision be extended to include Kierkegaard’s spiritual and existential view of evil, and, on the other hand, that a correction (...) be made to Kierkegaard’s view thereof, as a result of the way in which Plantinga presents the relationship between good and moral evil in the world. Consequently, in Plantinga’s Free Will Defense the existence of God is consistent with the existence of evil, not because God has a reason to permit evil in the world, but because evil as a real element of the temporal world does not come from God. In Kierkegaard’s Free Spirit Offense, in turn, the interpretative model applied demonstrates that the existence of moral good must be independent of the existence of spiritual evil, for otherwise the moral evil of immanence would not be able to be forgiven by the spiritual good of transcendence. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to present a new Polish translation of Aristotle’s Poetics, namely, those of its central chapters (6–19) that deal with the Stagirite’s explication of the mimesis of tragedy. When interpreting the first five chapters of the treatise, it is important to recognize the mimetic distinctions and forms according to means and objects as well as the question of how poetic creativity takes shape (generally from improvisation through epic to comedy and tragedy). On the basis of (...) these preliminary assumptions, Aristotle proceeds to define tragedy and analyze its components, forms and functions in more detail. Unlike the previous Polish translations of the Poetics, we have attempted here to render Aristotle’s essential technical expressions as faithfully as possible, without distorting them in accord with various concepts of modern aesthetics or literary criticism. We have also sought to preserve the Stagirite’s typical composition and his complex argument. Only in this way can the sense of Aristotle’s leading assumptions and distinctions be properly discerned. For the ease of reading, we also introduce more paragraphs and relevant subject headings into the text. (shrink)

W kontekście wielości pojęć osoby i ich znaczenia dla sposobu organizowania przez człowieka życia jednostkowego i społecznego, sprawą kluczową jest zwrot w kierunku realistycznego pojęcia osoby. W niniejszym studium przeprowadzono krytyczną analizę kilku wybranych relacjonalnych koncepcji osoby z pozycji tomizmu egzystencjalnego. W efekcie przeprowadzonej analizy potwierdzono założoną hipotezę, iż wybrane relacjonalne koncepcje osoby mają charakter aprioryczny, jednakże tylko w odniesieniu do istoty osoby. Studium odpowiada na pytanie, dlaczego analizowane koncepcje nie wyjaśniają samej istoty realnej osoby ludzkiej, a tylko wskazują na (...) jej cechy rozpoznawcze, opisując egzystencję i drogi spełniania się osoby. In search of a realistic concept of person In the context of the multiplicity of concepts of the person and their importance for the way in which man organizes his individual and social life, a turn toward a realistic concept of the person is crucial. In this study, a critical analysis of several selected relational concepts of the person from the position of existential Thomism is carried out. As a result of the analysis, the assumed hypothesis was confirmed that the selected relational conceptions of the person are a priori, however, only with regard to the essence of the person. The study answers the question of why the analysed concepts do not explain the very essence of the real human person, but only point to its identifying features, describing the existence and ways of fulfilment of person. (shrink)

M. E. Rudin proved, under CH, that for each P-point p there exists a P-point q strictly RK-greater than p. This result was proved under ${\mathfrak {p}= \mathfrak {c}}$ by A. Blass, who also showed that each RK-increasing $ \omega $ -sequence of P-points is upper bounded by a P-point, and that there is an order embedding of the real line into the class of P-points with respect to the RK-ordering. In this paper, the results cited above are proved under (...) the assumption that $\mathfrak { b}=\mathfrak {c}$. A. Blass asked in 1973 which ordinals can be embedded in the set of P-points, and pointed out that such an ordinal cannot be greater than $ \mathfrak {c}^{+}$. In this paper it is proved, under $\mathfrak {b}=\mathfrak {c}$, that for each ordinal $\alpha < \mathfrak {c}^{+}$, there is an order embedding of $ \alpha $ into P-points. It is also proved, under $\mathfrak {b}=\mathfrak {c}$, that there is an embedding of the long line into P-points. (shrink)

Artykuł dotyczy zagadnienia wolności indywidualnej i problemu zagrożeń, jakie może pociągać za sobą hołdowanie niektórym jej odmianom. Klasycznie pojmowana wolność, zwana negatywną, utożsamiana z brakiem zewnętrznego przymusu, może stać w opozycji do tak zwanej wolności pozytywnej. To ostatnie pojęcie definiowane jest na ogół poprzez możność, co przywodzi na myśl jego związek z pojęciem władzy. Punktem wyjścia rozważań stała się analiza wybranych aspektów obu wolności. Rozróżnienie tych dwóch fenomenów jest istotne dla zrozumienia niektórych procesów zachodzących we współczesnej wspólnocie politycznej. Konsekwentne odwoływanie (...) się do paradygmatu tzw. wolności pozytywnej może bowiem przynosić trudne do przewidzenia konsekwencje w postaci uzasadnianej ideologicznie ingerencji w wiele sfer ludzkiego działania. Za szczególnie brzemienne w skutki należy uważać konotacje tzw. wolności pozytywnej i równości. W istocie bowiem wolność pozytywna, a szczególnie jej postulat szerzenia równości, staje się pretekstem dla zwiększania zakresu politycznego panowania. Może to wyrażać się w dążności do urzeczywistniania aspiracji jednych grup społecznych kosztem innych. Takie podejście siłą rzeczy stoi w opozycji do poglądów upatrujących fundamentów społecznego porządku w prymacie wolności negatywnej i obowiązywaniu zasad sprawiedliwości. Wspomniana ingerencja instytucji państwa w ludzkie działanie, będąca skutkiem propagowania niektórych aspektów koncepcji „wolności do” może grozić redukcją podmiotowości moralnej osób. (shrink)

The paper refers to selected problems of exploitation in the face of justice. The analysis is based on the definitions of exploitation contained in the Polish Penal and Civil Codes. The main subject of our interest is the identification of the necessary and sufficient conditions for the recognition of exploitation as being unjust. Supplementary question will refer to a specific type of justice which should be considered in this case. In respect to this we should consider retributive, distributive and social (...) justice. Another important factor in this regard is the accepted theory of value. In the considered subject we will focus on the labour theory of value. The principal problem could be reduced to questions whether the exploitation is ipso facto unjust and how these two phenomena are related to each other. (shrink)