Author looks into the problem of Marian Zdziechowski’s cooperation with the journal „Nový život”, the newsletter for Czech Catholic modernists. The background for author’s considerations is a historical outline of The Modernist Crisis, its intellectual origins and historic consequences. From 1902 to 1905 five Zdziechowski’s essays were translated and published in „Nový život”. The ideas of the Polish philosopher significantly influenced the development of the Catholic modernism in Bohemia. Zdziechowski discussed such issues as: the crisis and the revival of (...) religion at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the significance of the Catholic Modernism for the renewal of Roman Catholic Church and the relation between religion and modern art. (shrink)

Marian Smoluchowski solved the greatest scientific problem of his time. It was the explanation of the phenomenon of the Brownian motion. In the article, I show that Smoluchowski in fact in this explanation used an ontological interpretation of the causality principle, although in his writings he applied it also in the epistemological interpretation. This is understandable because in the scientific practice some kinds of ontological commitment are required.

In this article I wish to show how care ethics puts forward a fundamental critique on the ideal of independency in human life without thereby discounting autonomy as a moral value altogether. In care ethics, a relational account of autonomy is developed instead. Because care ethics is sometimes criticized in the literature as hopelessly vague and ambiguous, I shall begin by elaborating on how care ethics and its place in ethical theory can be understood. I shall stipulate a definition of (...) care ethics as a moral perspective or orientation from which ethical theorizing can take place. This will mean that care ethics is more a stance from which we can theorize ethically, than ready-made theory in itself. In conceiving care ethics in this way, it becomes possible to make clear that, for instance, a moral concept of autonomy is not abandoned, but instead is given a particular place and interpretation. In the final part of this article I will show how ‘relational autonomy’ can be applied fruitfully in the practice of psychiatric care. (shrink)

The paper deals with the ethical-moral dimension of Popper’s critical rationalism, which is the less analyzed aspect of his philosophy. Critical rationalism is not without assumptions. As a life attitude, it is actualized on the basis of one’s moral preferences based rather on assumptions than on critical reasonableness. Critical rationalism does not exclude logical argumentation and reasoning, but the adoption of them is predominantly the result of an individual moral decision and choice, based, paradoxically enough, on an irrational belief in (...) reason. The author considers this attitude to be productive, as it emphasizes individual moral responsibility. Nobody is able to persuade us about the relevance of what we don’t want to adopt and apply. Thus we find ourselves in the sphere of personal morality. (shrink)

Narrowly speaking, the correspondence theory of truth is the view that truth is correspondence to a fact -- a view that was advocated by Russell and Moore early in the 20 th century. But the label is usually applied much more broadly to any view explicitly embracing the idea that truth consists in a relation to reality, i.e., that truth is a relational property involving a characteristic relation (to be specified) to some portion of reality (to be specified). During the (...) last 2300 years this basic idea has been expressed in many ways, resulting in a rather extended family of views, theories, and theory sketches. The members of the family employ various concepts for the relevant relation (correspondence, conformity, congruence, agreement, accordance, copying, picturing, signification, representation, reference, satisfaction) and/or various concepts for the relevant portion of reality (facts, states of affairs, situations, events, objects, sequences of objects, sets, properties, tropes). The resulting multiplicity of versions and reformulations of the theory is due to a blend of substantive and terminological differences. (shrink)

Ob Juristen, Mediziner oder ökonomen Expertenfiguren prägen bereits seit Jahrhunderten die okzidentalen Gesellschaften. Als Träger und Verwalter exklusiver Wissensbestände haben sie eine soziale Sonderstellung inne. Denn sie bestimmen maßgeblich die Zugänglichkeit, Organisation und Ausformung des verfügbaren Wissens und behaupten auf diese Weise eine weitreichende Machtposition, die häufig Kritik provoziert. Gleichwohl sind sie ihrerseits ebenso von den Nicht-Experten abhängig, ist die Expertenrolle doch wesentlich ein Produkt sozialer Aushandlungsprozesse: Experte ist man nicht, man wird es durch die eigene wie auch die fremde (...) Zuschreibung spezifischen Wissens. Der Expertenstatus beruht so zu weiten Teilen auf Momenten der Selbstdarstellung und Inszenierung, auf Symboliken und Habitus. Die Beiträge des vorliegenden Bandes nehmen aus der Perspektive unterschiedlicher Disziplinen europäische und außereuropäische Kulturen diese Mechanismen in Expertenkulturen vom 12. bis zum 21. Jahrhundert in den Blick. Anhand etwa von Wirtschaftsexperten der Gegenwart und von mittelalterlichen Astrologen, niederländischen Nautik-Expertisen der frühen Neuzeit und japanischen Rechtsexperten werden Legitimations- und Kommunikationsstrategien sowie Wissens- und Handlungsformen von Experten sichtbar gemacht. (shrink)

In this volume, G. Marian Kinget's classic work, On Being Human, can be read for the first time in light of a second, previously unpublished work, Pleasure And Pain. Taken together, these two works offer a new generation of readers a comprehensive picture of the insights, principles, and goals of humanistic psychology. On Being Human, Kinget's pioneering work, which arose from the original humanistic revolution in psychology, systematically describes the characteristics that make human beings different from all other forms (...) of life. In this work, Kinget explores man in his full nature not solely as a biological organism modified by experience and culture. She presents a person as a symbolic entity capable of pondering his existence, and lending it meaning and direction. Man is the only animal who knowingly exists in space and time, manifesting transcendental and metaphysical concern throughout history and culture. On Being Human presents the fundamentals of any valid approach to psychology as well as to other fields concerned with the individuality of the human being. It describes the specific human capacities for reflective thought and declarative language, and it discusses the unique ability of humans to devise culture and question origins. Pleasure and Pain considers the interdependence of human pleasure and pain. This idea, which leads to unnecessary fears and unwarranted expectations, goes unrecognized in a contemporary western society focused on the accumulation of pleasure without any awareness of the duality of the pleasure-pain experience. Kinget refutes the widespread fallacy that fun lies in the means, when it actually lies in the subject, and she discusses the human potential for autonomous "management" of the pleasure-pain dimension of human existence. (shrink)

In a world increasingly concerned with the human species and its future, Marian Stamp Dawkins argues that we need to rethink some of the fundamental questions regarding animal welfare. How are we justified in projecting human emotions on to animals? What kind of mental lives do they have? What can science tell us about their quality of life?

Strategic games require reasoning about other people’s and one’s own beliefs or intentions. Although they have clear commonalities with psychological tests of theory of mind, they are not clearly related to theory of mind tests for children between 9 and 10 years of age “Flobbe et al. J Logic Language Inform 17(4):417–442 (2008)”. We studied children’s (5–12 years of age) individual differences in how they played a strategic game by analyzing the strategies that they applied in a zero, first, and (...) second-order reasoning task. For the zero-order task, we found two subgroups with different accuracy levels. For the first-order task, subgroups of children applied different suboptimal strategies or an optimal strategy. For the second-order task only suboptimal strategies were present. Strategy use for all tasks was related to age. The 5- and 6-year old children were additionally tested on theory of mind understanding and executive functioning. Strategy-use in these children was related to working memory, but not to theory of mind after correction for age, verbal ability and general IQ. (shrink)

Presents a collection of Christian teachings for young children based on stories from the Bible, and includes illustrations and Bible verse references.

Truthmakers have come to play a central role in David Armstrong's metaphysics. They are the things that stand in the relation of truthmaking to truthbearers. This chapter focuses on the relation. More specifically, it discusses a thesis Armstrong holds about truthmaking that is of special importance to him; namely, the thesis that truthmaking is an internal relation. It explores what work this thesis is supposed to do for Armstrong, especially for this doctrine of the ontological free lunch, raising questions and (...) pointing out difficulties along the way. At the end of the chapter, it is shown that Armstrong's preferred truthbearers generate a serious difficulty for his thesis that the truthmaking relation is internal. (shrink)

Through Our Eyes Only? is an immensely engaging exploration of one of the greatest remaining biological mysteries: the possibility of conscious experiences in non-human animals. Dawkins argues that the idea of consciousness in other species has now progressed from a vague possibility to a plausible, scientifically respectable view. Written in an accessible and entertaining style, this book aims to show how near -- and how far -- we are to understanding what goes on in the minds of other animals. 'Her (...) approach ... is impeccable ... Her writing is highly accessible, lively and illustrative.' - Booklist on the hardback edition. (shrink)