The philosophical roots of Malinowski's functionalism are in the academic circles of Krakow, where three figures seem to have exerted a particularly strong influence: Pawlicki, Straszewski, and Heinrich. The predominant trend in philosophy at that time was empiriocriticism, as developed by Mach and Avenarius. Also important were F. A. Lange's interpretation of Marburg neo-Kantianism. It should be noted that the historical philosophy field was extremely broad and diverse. Functionalism, a philosophically open concept, cannot be subordinated to any one philosophical system, (...) although the "openness" of functionalism is not absolute but complemented by its "closedness" to certain other philosophies. Praxism pervades functionalist theory and even creates its foundation. Malinowski approach is entirely scientific, but functionalism is never just empirical. Malinowski realized that pure experience is as impossible as pure reasoning. (shrink)

The aim of the paper is to identify and categorize frequent patterns describing interactions between users in social networks. We analyze a social network with relationships between users that evolve in time already identified. In our research, we discover patterns based on frequent interactions between groups of users. The patterns are described by the characteristics of these interactions, such as their reciprocity, or the relative difference between estimations of global influences of the users participating in the discussions. The modification of (...) the apriori algorithms is applied as one of the methods for pattern identification. The analyzed social network is built using the data set containing data from the Polish blog website salon24, which concerns mostly socio-political issues. (shrink)

Building on our diverse research traditions in the study of reasoning, language and communication, the Polish School of Argumentation integrates various disciplines and institutions across Poland in which scholars are dedicated to understanding the phenomenon of the force of argument. Our primary goal is to craft a methodological programme and establish organisational infrastructure: this is the first key step in facilitating and fostering our research movement, which joins people with a common research focus, complementary skills and an enthusiasm to work (...) together. This statement—the Manifesto—lays the foundations for the research programme of the Polish School of Argumentation. (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.

I begin this article by arguing that it is justified to believe in the real presence of a civilizational crisis in the contemporary world; and that this crisis is a real, emergent phenomenon. In so...

Celem niniejszego artykuły jest przedstawienie roli związków kojarzeniowych wyobraźni w Hume`owskiej nauce o naturze ludzkiej. Zagadnienie to analizuję na gruncie jego rozważań teoriopoznawczych, etycznych i estetycznych. Hume był pierwszym myślicielem, który tak szeroko próbował wykorzystać asocjacjonizm do opisu najważniejszych sfer aktywności ludzkiej, a przy tym był przekonany, że jest to jego największe naukowe osiągnięcie. Wskazanie na sposoby, w jakie wyobraźnia łączy ze sobą poszczególne idee, pozwoliło mu wyjaśnić mechanizmy nią rządzące jako część jego modelu ludzkiej natury.

In the article I focus on a few philosophical issues which are characteristic for Fukuyama’s theory, such as: historicalness, idea of common history, freedom, human nature and thymos, being the component of human mentality propelling the course of history, according to Fukuyama’s reading of Plato. We are also able to take a look at the role of natural science in the development of history process and specific mechanism propelling human actions. The mechanism is Hegelian attitude of the struggle for recognition (...) in which an individual goes beyond its biological needs and base motives of actions, at the same time heading for the accomplishment of higher objectives. Reporting Fukuyama’s ideas I also try to verify his hypothesis concerning the end of history which has been approaching since the establishment of liberal democracy; in the further part of the article I try to verify how different his views on human nature are from those of such philosophers as Hobbes, Rousseau, finally Kant and Hegel. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to verify a thesis Fukuyama once advanced: the forthcoming end of history is related to the replacing of human need for appreciation by equality and mutual appreciation last men achieve in liberal democracies. I also analyze the conception of human nature which Fukuyama takes for granted and treats as the base for defining the essence of the last man. Another question I consider concerns the role of Platon’s thymos and can be stated as follows: (...) is it justified to draw such far reaching conclusions from the notion as Fukuyama does in The Las Man? To answer the question I confront Fukuyama’s reflections concerning thymos with Hobbes’ and Rousseau’s understanding of the notion, and the idea of the end of history with the idea of generation proposed by Jose Ortega y Gasset. (shrink)

The article explains the nature of the power of imagination conceived from the perspective of the evolution of the notion in the 17th and 18th century British empiricism. Taking as a starting point Hobbes’ materialistic and mechanistic philosophical system we reconstruct the change of thought in Locke’s, Berkley’s and finally in Hume’s analyses. At the same time we observe the increase of those philosophers’ interest in associational relations and change in perceiving the role these relations played in the process of (...) cognition as well as in the acts of imagination, anticipation or reasoning. (shrink)

The article presents an overview of Hume’s conception of the interdependencies between politeness and aesthetic taste. The reconstruction of his conception is limited to his essays. They contain a coherent image of the then world and the multitude of accurate observations and analyses which; in conjunction with the light style of these writings; allow a better understanding of the issue than the Treatise on Human Nature. In the article I focus on the process of the refinement of taste and acquisition (...) of good manners and politeness, their mutual support, and their economic and subjective determinants. (shrink)

The empirical slippery slope arguments are arguments of the following form: if we take a first step A, as a result of a sequence of events, step N will necessarily or very likely follow; N is clearly not acceptable; therefore we must not take step A. Such arguments are often used in the discussions concerning abortion, assisted suicide, human gene therapy, free speech, decriminalizing marijuana, gun control and other ethical or social issues. In this article, I am trying to argue (...) that although slippery slope arguments are not deductive, they need not to be considered as fallacies. There are some mechanisms that make the realization of the scenarios sketched in the slippery slope arguments much more probable than one could think. I analyze three different examples of such mechanisms. The first one originates in the psychological phenomenon of cognitive dissonance. The second is connected with the use of precedents. The third mechanism depends on so-called multi-peaked preferences which some people might have when they make their decisions. (shrink)

The perspective of critical realism in the reflection on a ‘human being' excludes any constructivist or subjectivist concepts of the ‘black hole' of language. This seems essential, in philosophy an...

W artykule przedstawiono relacje między prawdą i paradygmatem w odniesieniu do socjologii na tle nowego kryzysu cywilizacyjnego. Na tym tle proponuje się typologię stanowisk paradygmantycznych w naukach społecznych w perspektywie ontologicznej, epistemologicznej oraz etycznej.

ABSTRACTThis article is dedicated to reflecting on violence from the perspective of the paradigm of critical realism. These considerations lead in an unavoidable way to reflections on the nature of the human person in general. The analysis of various concepts on this subject is an important part of this text. Archer’s theory is of particular importance here. The subject of consideration is especially her concept of concerns, and above all ultimate concerns. On this basis, I develop my own concept of (...) horizons of reference, which brings me to yet other types of concerns. Following in the footsteps of Martin Heidegger and Paul Tillich, I examine the issue of particular concerns: ontological, eschatological and transcendental. The problem of violence here is narrowed to the phenomenon of aggression, its types and causes. I am writing here about the consequences of deprivation of the above-mentioned concerns. (shrink)

Józef Tischner, a Polish philosopher and a seasoned commentator on the political transformations associated with the decline of communism and the building of a new democratic order in the final decades of the twentieth century, was, and still is, a controversial figure. Some see him as a profound philosopher, others as a moral authority, while others see him as a political opponent. I discuss the question concerning where Józef Tischner drew the line between political engagement sensu stricto and metapolitics, which (...) is philosophically and programmatically grounded and neutral to the differences in world views. I inquire whether it is legitimate to attribute to Tischner political views and sympathies sometimes referred to as left-wing Christian liberalism and whether these views influenced the structure and the main theses of Tischner’s metapolitical thought. I attempt a reconstruction of Tischner’s position and indicate its basis in the assumptions of Christian personalism, the philosophy of dialogue, and the ethics of solidarity. (shrink)

Using known facts we give a simple characterization of the distributivity of lattices of finite length.

The paper discusses the origin of two Germanic terms for ‘Atlantic herring, _Clupea harengus _L.’. The Proto-Germanic noun _*siled- _m. ‘herring’, attested in most North Germanic languages (e.g. ON. _sild_, Far. _síld_, OSv. _sild_, Sv. _sill_, Norw. _sil_), cannot be treated as inherited. It seems to represent a Saami (or Laponian) borrowing, cf. Saa. (Northern) _sâlled_, (Lule) _sallēt _‘herring’.

Artykuł niniejszy stawia sobie za cel prezentację myśli Henryka Kamieńskiego, autora książki Rosja i Europa. Polska. Wstęp do badań nad Rosją i Moskalami. Polski filozof, socjolog i ekonomista starał się w latach 50-tych i 60-tych XIX wieku uświadomić swym współczesnym złożoność polsko-rosyjskich relacji, opisanych na szerokim, historycznym i geopolitycznym tle. Sprawy Rosji, którą określał mianem „barbarii”, uznawał za istotne nie tylko z polskiej perspektywy, ale wskazywał na cywilizacyjne zagrożenia, jakie mogą wyniknąć dla Europy z lekceważenia imperium carów. Równocześnie, na co (...) wskazuje Wojciech Karpiński, znawca dorobku Kamieńskiego, „nakreślone przez niego socjologiczne i politologiczne interpretacje fenomenu totalitarnego, nie mają sobie równych w europejskiej myśli XIX stulecia i zachowują swoje znaczenie w końcu XX wieku”. (shrink)

Nick Zangwill (2004, 2007) appears to be acquiring the status of repudiator-in-chief of emotion in music. He is invoked in this role by such authors as Kraut (2007, p. 67), Bonds (2014, p. 5), Robinson (2014), Young (2014, pp. vii, 1, 3–4, 151), Davies (2017) and Kania (2017). His ‘manifesto’ paper (2004) was recently reprinted in Lamarque and Olsen (2018, pp. 574–582). This development is unfortunate, because Zangwill, for all his radical-sounding theses, actually argues against views that hardly anyone holds. (...) What is more, some of his arguments in favour of the obvious seem confused and defective. But as for his really radical thesis that ‘Music, in itself, has nothing to do with emotion’, he provides hardly any justification. What is more, contrary to what Zangwill believes, such justification is not to be found in Hanslick, who in fact sees emotional content as a relatively important element of music. (shrink)