Self-esteem and social support in the occupational stress-subjective health relationship among medical professionals The starting point for the presented study was the concept by House who construed social support as buffering the impact of work-related stress on health. Self-esteem was taken under consideration as the other potential stress buffer. It was hypothesized that both social support and self-esteem would have a salutogenic effect, since they attenuate the experience of occupational stress and reduce health problems associated with the experienced job stress. (...) Participants in the study were 361 medical professionals representing various specialties. They were examined using the Subjective Job Evaluation Questionnaire by Dudek et al., the Mood and Health State Questionnaire by Rząsa, the Self-Esteem Scale by M. Rosenberg and Significant Other Scale by Power et al. The higher was the respondents' occupational stress, the poorer was their subjective physical health. Such components of occupational stress as responsibility, psychological strain due to job complexity, lack of rewards at work, and a sense of threat were found to be most important in this respect. These four components of occupational stress were interrelated and constituted a feedback loop. The study confirmed a salutogenic role of self-esteem, contributing to subjective health improvement. Satisfaction with social support had also a positive role, since it reduced the amount of experienced job stress, thus exerting a health-promoting effect. There was a direct negative feedback loop between self-esteem and somatic health problems. Irrespective of that, satisfaction with social support was found to interact with perceived occupational stress in a negative feedback loop. However, neither of these two factors, i.e. self-esteem and social support, had an effect of buffering the impact of occupational stress on health. This suggests that the initial model proposed by House as well as the present author's earlier research findings obtained from a smaller sample should be revised. (shrink)

A gap exists between the philosophers of history and the practitioners. Both groups proudly encourage their splendid isolation from the other. The philosophers tend to consider the practitioners incompetent to philosophize about historical study; the practitioners tend to think that the philosophers engage only in “flimflam.” Insofar as one can judge from the practitioners’ attempts to formulate theories of historical study and the philosophers’ attempts to explain historical practice, each group is right about the other. As a result, the practitioners (...) of history rarely ponder theoretical issues because they tend to feel that there are more worthwhile pursuits, such as studying the past. The philosophers rarely examine how historical study is actually done because they tend to feel that the practice is not important for their exquisitely designed theoretical models. (shrink)

The historical literature of the past two centuries testifies to disputes about what historical knowledge is and the relationship of the historian to it. The disputes have been fierce enough for each side to declare that any position other than its own is untenable. It would be futile to try to convince those who so staunchly defend their own ground that the other side might have a legitimate contribution to make. Yet, it might be worthwhile to classify the positions so (...) as to focus the arguments on legitimate issues, and, in some measure, to begin to resolve them. (shrink)

As with any historical study, including that of knowledge and ideas, the progress of the semiology of the theater is subject to periodicity. The aim of any division into periods is to obtain a global view, even at the price of simplifications, but it can also bring out the hidden aspects of the phenomena under study.The semiology or semiotics of the theater, that is, the application of the idea of sign to the art of the spectacle, has a long past, (...) in which several stages may be distinguished, and first of all those that I would call the presemiology and the protosemiology of the theater. (shrink)

Argues that the key distinction between human and nonhuman social cognition consists in our complex, diverse and flexible capacities to shape each other's minds in ways that make them easier to interpret.

Argues that the key distinction between human and nonhuman social cognition consists in our complex, diverse and flexible capacities to shape each other's minds in ways that make them easier to interpret.

Hilary Putnam (1926–2016) was prone to change his mind on variety of philosophical issues and almost constantly to modify his views. The last period of the development of his philosophy is known as the phase of commonsense or natural realism, eloquently presented in his 1994 Dewey Lectures. This paper is focused on three facets of his position and tries to identify three difficulties it encounters. Firstly, Putnam claims that in the contemporary realism debate we have, on the one hand, proponents (...) of extravagant metaphysical realism, and, on the other hand, advocates of various versions of irresponsible antirealism. Unfortunately, the delineation of the debate is too coarse-grained, since there are many forms of metaphysical realism, and lumping together various antirealisms is confusing and unhelpful. Secondly, Putnam’s naïve direct realism in the philosophy of perception seems incompatible with his transactional account of perception. Thirdly, for some time Putnam was under a spell of Wittgensteinian quietism that distorted the true character of his philosophical ideas. (shrink)

The article presents two concepts of indexicality. The first, more standard and narrow, identifies indexicality with systematic (meaning controlled) context-sensitivity. The second, broader (derived from the work of Jerzy Pelc), conceives indexicality in terms of the potential variability of the general semiotic characteristics expressions (with respect to the context of use). The text introduces the concept of a pragmatic matrix that serves for a schematic representation of contextual variation. I also recapitulate briefly the views of Jerzy Pelc on the meaning (...) (manner of use) and use of expressions, and briefly indicate its relationship approaches with contemporary debates around contextualism and status of non-sentential speech acts. Finally, the relationship between the broader notion of indexicality and the directival theory of meaning is analyzed. (shrink)

The author presents the problem of humanizing the demon and giving to the human being the demonic features. The analysis focuses on modern Polish prose, especially on such works: Cz. Miłosz, A. Szczypiorski, J. Broszkiewicz, A. Gołubiew, T. Konwicki, G. Herling- Grudziński. He is mostly interested in the devil figure as an evil spirit.

Cet article aborde le rôle du personnage du diable dans le roman de Jerzy Krzysztoń Obłęd. Jusqu'à présent ce rôle n'est pas suffisamment apprécié, malgré qu’il soit de très grande importance. La raison d’être du diable dans ce roman e’est la personnification des états psychiques du heros et du narrateur en commun. Dans Obłęd le diable a été présenté, avant tout, du point de vue médical et il a enrichi la description de la maladie du héros principal. Comme la figure (...) du mal, le personnage du diable facilite à contempler la réalité du mal et de la souffrance. (shrink)

Le roman épistolaire de Kazimierz Brandys, intitulé Les Variations postales (1972), est une sorte d’imitation du recueil des lettres de la familie Zabierski de 1770 à 1970. En décrivant les faits auquels les membres de cette famille ont participé, soit dont ils ont entendu parler, les narrateurs des lettres successives exercent la «microhistoire» - c’est-à-dire ils construisent «la vérité individuelle» comme une opposition par rapport aux généralisations historiques. Donc le point de vue individuel est opposé au processus historique. Cet article (...) analyse le roman de Brandys en tenant compte de la technique du fragment. Il s’agit du caractère fragmentaire, nommé naturel, qui résulte de la situation existentielle des narrateurs particuliers et qui sert à mettre en lumière «la vérité individuelle». (shrink)