The aim of the paper is to discuss the idea of dialogue with nature. Even though the idea of dialogue with animals, plants – even objects of inanimate nature – is well known, it has usually been treated as an expression of a naive or folk view. Yet, it has recently gained in importance as an idea that is used to describe an ecological approach to natural environment and tends to be treated as a foundation for an ecological culture. A (...) noteworthy contribution to the reconsideration of the concept of human-nature dialogue has also been given by a number of contemporary philosophers who have offered an environmental reinterpretation of phenomenology and hermeneutics based on, among other things, Martin Buber’s concept of the I-You relationship. The paper will focus on two aspects of the concept of dialogue, namely on its epistemological and ethical implications. Following Erazim Kohák’s theory, which will be presented as a key figure of a particular manner of speaking about nature, one that leads to ecological personalism. (shrink)

Estetyka przyrody jest współcześnie ważnym działem estetyki filozoficznej. Jej przedstawiciele zgodnie twierdzą, że doświadczenie estetyczne jest istotne z punktu widzenia ekologii i w tym sensie, estetyka przyrody ma konsekwencje dla etyki środowiskowej. Celem artykułu jest analiza koncepcji doświadczenia estetycznego przyrody, która wyłania się z environmental aesthetics, oraz pokazanie, że tak rozumiane doświadczenie estetyczne, tzn. jako zmysłowe doświadczenie przyrody qua przyrody oraz jako doświadczenie przyrody on its own terms, jest tożsame z postawą etyczną, pojętą jako postawa, pozwalająca dostrzec w przyrodzie sferę (...) inną-niż-ludzką, której wartości nie sposób sprowadzić bez reszty do wartości instrumentalnej. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to suggest that one should think of gardens in terms of performances and not necessarily in terms of architecture, painting, or poetry, for it is possible to show that, strangely enough, gardens seem to share certain features with performance arts. Such an approach seems fruitful since it allows one both to grasp the fact that gardens combine culture and nature and to underline the role of the latter, which cannot be reduced to a sheer (...) medium as is traditionally done. The contention is that gardens should be treated more like a continuous, dynamic, partly planned process in which people can participate in different ways on a par with other non-human ‘actors’. Moreover, the category of performance seems to offer a useful framework helping to solve certain problems inherent in traditional ways of thinking about gardens. (shrink)

Preview: It is not a gross exaggeration to state that philosophy is an inherently urban phenomenon. Born and largely practiced in the Greek polis, it was developed throughout the ages in various places that more often than not were situated within city walls. Even if, udoubtedly, philosophy has never been limited solely to urban spaces, it has become more and more embedded in cities over the centuries. Consequently, from the 19th century on it has been part and parcel of the (...) intellectual life whose main centers have been towns since it has been almost exclusively researched on and taught within academic institutions. (shrink)

The paper aims at an analysis of the concept of landscape, offering an ontological approach. Our claim is that such a perspective is hardly ever assumed in philosophical aesthetics, even if theories of landscape appreciation are in fact based on tacit ontological assumptions. We argue that having an explicit ontology of landscapes is important, for aesthetic theories of their appreciation are often attacked in terms of the problems caused by their tacit ontologies. Therefore, we sketch an “Experience Ontology” that serves (...) as an alternative to the ontologies implied in the two best known aesthetic approaches to landscapes. We contend that a landscape should not be conceived of as an object or view but as a way of experiencing one’s surroundings, and we argue that our theory is not only free from the shortcomings of the two dominant theories but that it also corresponds better to everyday intuitions. (shrink)

Poster ma na celu zaprezentowanie na konkretnym przykładzie wizualizacji w nauce jako dzieła sztuki. Składa się z dwóch części. Pierwsza to skrócona wersja artykułu oraz graficzna prezentacji owego skrótu, wygenerowana za pomocą algorytmu uwzględniającego rozkład liter w tekście (kod został dołączony). Druga część to hasła zapisane krojem pisma tak dobranym, aby wywoływał napięcie między wizualną stroną hasła (emocjami, myślami, skojarzeniami związanymi z formą) a jego znaczeniem (treścią). Poster zasadza się na założeniach przedstawionych w artykule. Proponujemy mianowicie, aby spojrzeć na wizualizacje (...) danych jako na obiekty, których twórcy stają przed podobnymi wyzwaniami, z jakimi muszą się zmierzyć autorzy dzieł sztuk wizualnych, oraz jako obiekty, których odbiorcy muszą wykonać pracę interpretacyjną podobną do tej, której wymagają od nich dzieła sztuki. (shrink)

This book aims to present trompe-l'oeil painting as an ambigous aesthetic ideal offered by early modern theory of art. It embodies the idea of an image identical to what it represents. It is interpreted in terms of perceptual and aesthetic illusion, mimesis, diegesis, play, irony and scientific illustration.

This paper discusses gardening as a practice that may be useful in reconsidering how landscape boundaries can be experienced. The assumption is that one should think of landscapes as “entities” which are material, but at the same time may be said to exist only insofar as they are experienced by humans. As such, they are always bounded. In order to show how gardening may be helpful in shaping the boundaries of landscapes two approaches to gardening are discussed: one treats gardening (...) as a model of creating order and eliminating all that which is seen as alien to it (Zygmunt Bauman), the other – claims that gardening requires respecting nature (Gilles Clément). (shrink)