The purpose of this volume is to help develop, through a variety of exploratory essays, the art and science of institutional design. The authors look at a variety of good societies as artifacts, as products—at least partly—of design, and consider how such societies can be crafted. They identify themselves with the New Constitutionalism movement, which aims to develop and promote the knowledge necessary for institutional reform and institutional creation through understanding the designer's, creator's, founder's, or reformer's perspective. The first part (...) of the volume considers some of the boundaries of what is humanly possible in politico-economic designs and the role in them of deliberation and the processes of adapting to limits. The second part considers different ways of exercising constitutionalist judgment analyzing a variety of cases, including general visions of the good society. Looking at whole societies, and at complexes of institutions, complements and informs the picture of the institutional microscale. Understanding the microscale, on the other hand, often makes the difference between empty slogans and realistic political proposals. Contributors are Karol Edward Soltan, Elinor Ostrorn, Viktor J. Vanberg, James lvi. Buchanan, John S. Dryzek, Charles 'X". Anderson, Stephen U. Elkin, Car Alperovirz, and Philip Green. (shrink)

In _The New Constitutionalism_, seven distinguished scholars develop an innovative perspective on the power of institutions to shape politics and political life. Believing that constitutionalism needs to go beyond the classical goal of limiting the arbitrary exercise of political power, the contributors argue that it should—and can—be designed to achieve economic efficiency, informed democratic control, and other valued political ends. More broadly, they believe that political and social theory needs to turn away from the negativism of critical theory to consider (...) how a good society should be "constituted" and to direct the work of designing institutions that can constitute a "good polity," in both the economic and civic senses. Stephen L. Elkin and Karol Edward Soltan begin with an overview of constitutionalist theory and a discussion of the new constitutionalism within the broader intellectual and historical context of political and social thought. Charles Anderson, James Ceaser, and the editors then offer different interpretations of the central issues regarding institutional design in a constitutionalist social science, consider various ways of performing the task, and discuss the inadequacy of recent political science to the job it ought to be doing. The book concludes with essays by Ted Lowi, Cass Sunstein and Edwin Haefele which apply these themes to the American regime. (shrink)

Cet article est un exposé des aspects ontologiques de la philosophie de Descartes à la lumière de l’ontologie existentielle et formelle de Roman Ingarden. Descartes pose le problème philosophique de ce qui est réel et tente de le résoudre conformément à la tradition en introduisant la problématique de la substance. La substance est une clé de voûte de la philosophie de Descartes qui fonctionne à différents niveaux de sa pensée comme une tentative de connexion de l’existence du réel et de (...) l’idéel. La problématique de la substance comprend des questions existentielles, où la substance est traitée comme catégorie, puis relève de l’ontologie formelle, où la substance fonctionne comme une quasi-nature catégoriale, qui permet de distinguer les différents domaines de la réalité. La substance comme catégorie se caractérise par (a) l’autosuffisance ontique ; (b) l’indépendance, qui s’associe à l’exclusion ontique, (c) la durabilité ontique, pour enfin être traitée comme (d) chose existante ( res existens ). Deuxièmement, la notion de substance comme étant sujet des propriétés ( hypokeimenon ) conduit à la reconnaître comme une quasi-nature constitutive, qui ensuite est prise en compte dans chacun des trois types de substances : Dieu, res cogitans et res extensa. (shrink)

Une réjouissante leçon inaugurale prononcée au Collège de France le jeudi 25 octobre 2012. On y appréciera tout particulièrement la chasse aux poncifs, qu'ils soient ceux de l'indicible ou du nombre, du mouvement ou de la structure, ainsi que le projet d'écarter les commentaires pour en revenir aux œuvres. Cette leçon est accessible en ligne également ici. J'ai souhaité que cette leçon se présente comme une question : « Comment parler de musique ? » Une question. Car il est clair, (...) concernant la nature de (...) - Musique et Musicologie – GALERIE – Nouvel article. (shrink)

Dans ce monde ou les conflits armes eclatent sans cesse et les potentiels nucleaires sont capables de detruire le monde d'une fagon quasi hasardeuse, peu de themes semblent plus urgents que celui de la paix. En meme temps nous vivons une epoque apres le totalitarisme ou - comme dans le bloc sovietique - le mot « la paix » a adopte un sens funeste et non pas pacifique du tout. Pour les habitants de l'Europe de l'Est la notion du «congres (...) de la paix» faisait appel aux pires connotations. Elle recouvrait le plus souvent les machinations de la propagande dont le but etait de convaincre le reste du monde que l'etat sovietique aimait la paix et de par son essence ne menagait pas l'univers, ceux qui le menagaient par contre c'etaient les etats capitalistes qu'il fallait combattre jusqu'au bout. D'ou cette formule remarquable, caracteristique des pays communistes : la « lutte pour la paix ». (shrink)

Dans ce monde ou les conflits armes eclatent sans cesse et les potentiels nucleaires sont capables de detruire le monde d'une fagon quasi hasardeuse, peu de themes semblent plus urgents que celui de la paix. En meme temps nous vivons une epoque apres le totalitarisme ou - comme dans le bloc sovietique - le mot « la paix » a adopte un sens funeste et non pas pacifique du tout. Pour les habitants de l'Europe de l'Est la notion du «congres (...) de la paix» faisait appel aux pires connotations. Elle recouvrait le plus souvent les machinations de la propagande dont le but etait de convaincre le reste du monde que l'etat sovietique aimait la paix et de par son essence ne menagait pas l'univers, ceux qui le menagaient par contre c'etaient les etats capitalistes qu'il fallait combattre jusqu'au bout. D'ou cette formule remarquable, caracteristique des pays communistes : la « lutte pour la paix ». (shrink)

The author presents Leszek Kołakowski from the perspective of his private acquaintanceship, lasting for about 47 years, as a witty man and a workaholic. L. Kołakowski never formed a classic “school”, but there is something all his disciples share: a thesis, key to understanding his ideas, which holds that “THERE IS MORE THAN ONE CORRECT OPINION IN THE HUMANITIES”, i.e. we will ALWAYS have opinions for and against, which goes against any dogmatism, wherever it may appear; this also bears consequences (...) in diagnosing the socio-political reality past and present. (shrink)

Doubtless that which strongly links Karol Wojtyła’s Laborem exercens encyclical with Karl Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 is not so much philosophy of work as the personalistic anti-feudalism that is equally alive in both works. The personalistic trait, in Marxism merely an (unpursued) option mentioned in the Manuscripts, was taken further—philosophically, and not just ethically—in Laborem exercens, where the person becomes an ontological category (in light both of the transcendent existence of a tri-personal God and the transcendence (...) of the communities created by human beings, who are only able to live in communities). Also, the person acquired an ontological-social dimension by determining the boundaries of humanity’s co-creative (also in the world-creating sense) communion with God as the ideal of community-based material and social existence. And this is also the guiding perspective of my initial analysis of the personalization process underway in Polish society and the post-Vatican-II Church. Both are gradually—if not without some difficulty—learning to part with the non-personalistic models characteristic for the previous, still considerably feudalism-influenced era, which manifested themselves as much in the institutionalismof official Marxism as the socially (not religiously!) motivated doctrines of the Church. (shrink)

John Paul II's encyclical Fides et Ratio reiterates in a new and fresh way the harmony of faith and reason. The dominant tradition of Catholic thought isone that sees this harmony, but the tradition is not uncritical. Throughout the history of the Church, there have been thinkers wary of reason. The thoughtof Karol Wojtyla, both before and during his papacy, has looked to a focus on the human person as a way to reconcile faith and reason.

II concetto della persona umana secondo Karol Wojtyła si deve vedere sullo sfondo della moderna antropologia filosofica, la cui nota caratteristica e di considerare l'uomo come unita corporale-spirituale, contrariamente alla concezione tradizionale - come essere composto di anima e di corpo. Da questo risulta che l'accento si sposta dalle concezioni dualistiche dell'uomo alle concezioni unitarie. In questa concezione non si livella la differenza tra l'anima e il corpo, ma solo si presenta in altro modo il rapporto tra loro.

II concetto della persona umana secondo Karol Wojtyła si deve vedere sullo sfondo della moderna antropologia filosofica, la cui nota caratteristica e di considerare l'uomo come unita corporale-spirituale, contrariamente alla concezione tradizionale - come essere composto di anima e di corpo. Da questo risulta che l'accento si sposta dalle concezioni dualistiche dell'uomo alle concezioni unitarie. In questa concezione non si livella la differenza tra l'anima e il corpo, ma solo si presenta in altro modo il rapporto tra loro.

L’autodeterminazione è una categoria fondamentale nella visione personalistica di K. Wojtyła. Essa è una relazione entro la volontà. Una relazione di cui si potrebbe dire: la volontà si rivela come proprietà della persona e la persona come realtà che, riguardo al suo dinamismo, è constituita propriamente dalla volontà. L’autodeterminazione non è un atto chiuso entro se stesso, preché essenziale è il momento della verità e nella verità.

This book encourages a debate over musical modernity; a debate considering the question whether an examination of the history of European art music may enrich our picture of modernity and whether our understanding of music's development may be transformed by insights into the nature of modernity provided by other historical disciplines.

The article analyzes the process of modification of Japan’s foreign policy after Donald Trump’s election as US president. As short- and middle-range aims of Japan’s diplomatic strategy were outlined with expectation of victory of Hillary Clinton, Tokyo was forced to abruptly change its policy. Relying on the neoclassical realist theory, the article examines the complex interaction between the external factors, such as security threats from North Korea or China, and domestic factors both in Japan and the US, that is personal, (...) institutional, societal and economic determinants. It is argued that while it was strategic convergence between Tokyo and Washington that enabled relatively smooth cooperation between Prime Minister Abe and President Trump, internal factors, such as right-wing credentials of both decision makers, distorted and to some extent facilitated this process. (shrink)

According to grounding necessitarianism if some facts ground another fact, then the obtaining of the former necessitates the latter. Proponents of grounding contingentism argue against this claim, stating that it is possible for the former facts to obtain without necessitating the latter. In this article I discuss a recent argument from restricted accidental generalisations provided by contingentists that advances such possibility. I argue that grounding necessitarianism can be defended against it. To achieve this aim, I postulate a relationship between grounding (...) and essence by introducing a notion of individual essences understood as a set of essential properties that individuate its bearer. According to a proposed view grounding holds in virtue of identities of its relata, which are in turn determined by their respective individual essences. From there I claim that if grounding holds in virtue of the individual essences of its relata, then it is possible to resist the objection from restricted accidental generalisations and maintain a view that grounds necessitates what is grounded. (shrink)

Since its original identification as a component of the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) complex, K protein has been found not only in the nucleus but also in the cytoplasm and mitochondria and is implicated in chromatin remodeling, transcription, splicing and translation processes. K protein contains multiple modules that, on one hand, bind kinases while, on the other hand, recruit chromatin, transcription, splicing and translation factors. Moreover, the K‐ protein‐mediated interactions are regulated by signaling cascades. These observations are consistent with K (...) protein acting as a docking platform to integrate signaling cascades by facilitating cross‐talk between kinases and factors that mediate nucleic‐acid‐directed processes. Comparison of K across species reveals that it is an essential factor in metazoans, but not in yeast. Although some of the K protein interactions and functions are conserved in eukaryotes from yeast to man, the mammalian protein seems to play a wider role. The greater diversity of mammalian K protein interactions and function may reflect gain of novel docking sites and expansion evolutionary of gene expression networks. BioEssays 26:629–638, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This essay diagnoses the condition of contemporary liberal democracies. It assumes that the current crisis of democracy is not the result of an external ideological threat, but it is the result of the lack of a coherent vision of democracy itself. The author recognises that the key symptom of the contemporary crisis is the decreasing involvement of citizens in public life and their growing reluctance to participate in public debate. He claims that the reason for this is the increasing social (...) polarisation. The article considers two forms of polarisation: vertical and horizontal. The first form is illustrated by Colin Crouch’s considerations, while the second one by Fareed Zakaria’s thoughts. What finds its manifestation in both cases is the phenomenon of citizens’ resignation from participation in the public debate; in the first case it is because of the lack of faith in the effectiveness of this type of opiniongiving mechanism, while in the second case it is because of the lack of recognition of other political and ideological options in society. These reflections are concluded in the postulate that the basic task facing democracy today is to maintain the public sphere as open as possible, i.e. not excluding any ideological position in advance. This kind of conclusion is illustrated with the concepts of Chantal Mouffe and Helmuth Plessner. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the theory of plurality of realities introduced by Leon Chwistek. A critical analysis of this theory and an extensional interpretation of Chwistek’s axiomatic descriptions of four realities lead to an epistemological interpretation of this theory. The word “plurality” in the title is a result of different waysof understanding the same original set of sense-data. This interpretation is contrasted with Kazimierz Pasenkiewicz’s ontological version of this theory. In the final parts of the paper the most important consequences (...) of this theory are discussed. First, the ethical relativism postulated by Chwistek is criticized. Second, an attempt to illustrate the plurality of realities with an example of different styles of painting is discussed. Third, a critical rationalism in the form of a kind of practical attitude toward social reality, which results from the theory of plurality of realities, is outlined. (shrink)

This article identifies the contemporary criteria of imperiality and then considers the normative aspects of the existence of certain great powers (empires) in international relations. It is argued that there is a body of norms valid among empires that may be referred to as interimperial law, in the sense of a normative order that is intended to lower the costs and dangers of competition between empires. The article outlines a basic theory of coexistence between the emerging interimperial law and the (...) existing international law, derived from theoretical and historical models of the coexistence of various legal orders within one territory. (shrink)