Dicer is a key player in microRNA (miRNA) and RNA interference (RNAi) pathways, processing miRNA precursors and doublestranded RNA into ~21-nt-long products ultimately triggering sequence-dependent gene silencing. Although processing of substrates in vertebrate cells occurs in the cytoplasm, there is growing evidence suggesting Dicer is also present and functional in the nucleus. To address this possibility, we searched for a nuclear localization signal (NLS) in human Dicer and identified its C-terminal double-stranded RNA binding domain (dsRBD) as harboring NLS activity. We (...) show that the dsRBD-NLS can mediate nuclear import of a reporter protein via interaction with importins β, 7, and 8. In the context of full-length Dicer, the dsRBD-NLS is masked. However, duplication of the dsRBD localizes the full-length protein to the nucleus. Furthermore, deletion of the N-terminal helicase domain results in partial accumulation of Dicer in the nucleus upon leptomycin B treatment, indicating that CRM1 contributes to nuclear export of Dicer. Finally, we demonstrate that human Dicer has the ability to shuttle between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. We conclude that Dicer is a shuttling protein whose steady-state localization is cytoplasmic. (shrink)

What is the meaning of the “Europe” and the idea of unity? For when did a “united” Europe exist? Back when German emperors ineffectively tried to enforce their rule on a territory which was none too large anyway? Or when they were entangled in a dispute with the papacy? Or during the crusades against the Catharists? Or maybe during the Reformation or during the French Revolution when new coalitions of opponents arose? During the Napoleonic Wars which in themselves pay testimony (...) to ruptures and conflicts? The 20th century alone brought two wars. The first already signified, as Jan Patocka once declared, the suicide of Europe. Perhaps, then, Europe does not exist at all anymore? Maybe the politicians’ visions are less than credible? There is no doubt that the idea of a united Europe is a project which affirms the great, creative power of the imagination. Modernity has given birth to very strong temptations which glorify the imagination. (shrink)

Demokracja i erozja tradycji Oświecenia -- Mit, polityka, popkultura -- Przyjaźń i mizantropia : czego uczy nas liberalizm?

Most discussions of the reproducibility crisis focus on its epistemic aspect: the fact that the scientific community fails to follow some norms of scientific investigation, which leads to high rates of irreproducibility via a high rate of false positive findings. The purpose of this paper is to argue that there is a heretofore underappreciated and understudied dimension to the reproducibility crisis in experimental psychology and neuroscience that may prove to be at least as important as the epistemic dimension. This is (...) the communication dimension. The link between communication and reproducibility is immediate: independent investigators would not be able to recreate an experiment whose design or implementation were inadequately described. I exploit evidence of a replicability and reproducibility crisis in computational science, as well as research into quality of reporting to support the claim that a widespread failure to adhere to reporting standards, especially the norm of descriptive completeness, is an important contributing factor in the current reproducibility crisis in experimental psychology and neuroscience. (shrink)

1. Phenomenology is first and foremost about intentionality. As Husserl puts it, “Intentionality is the name of the problem encompassed by the whole of phenomenology”.1 Broadly understood, the phen...

We argue that Yarkoni's proposed solutions to the generalizability crisis are half-measures because he does not recognize that the crisis arises from investigators' underappreciation of the roles of theory in experimental research. Rather than embracing qualitative analysis, the research community should make an effort to develop better theories and work toward consistently incorporating theoretical results into experimental practice.

The article is an attempt at establishing a theoretical basis for a dialogue between phenomenology and contemporary philosophy, with regard to the problem of internalism-externalism. It is argued, according to Roman Ingarden, that one has to first of all put forward an adequate question about the problem, to be able to understand it appropriately. Moreover, the analysis is limited to the two forms of the internalism-externalism debate, namely semantics and the philosophy of the mind. Within Husserl’s phenomenology one can easily (...) point to basic intuitions that justify thesis that this philosophy refers to the internalism-externalism problem. Ultimately, by using phenomenological terminology, the article arrives at questions about possible internalism-or-externalism within Husserl’s phenomenological project. The questions, however, suggest that phenomenology can be neither clearly nor completely classified either as internalism or as externalism. (shrink)

Über sein Verhältnis zu Friedrich Nietzsche sagte Leszek Kolakowski: „ ich habe ihn nie studiert, im wahren Sinne des Wortes, habe auch niemals über ihn geschrieben, außer daß ich ihn hier und da kurz erwähnte." Diese Erklärung könnte im allgemeinen stimmen, obwohl Leszek Kołakowski eine Abhandlung, die den Ansichten Nietzsches gewidmet ist, geschrieben hat. Es handelt sich um den Kommentar zum Heideggers Kommentar des vermutlichen Kommentars Nietzsches zum Hegels Kommentar über das Erfordernis der Negativität. Das Ziel meiner Ausführungen besteht darin, (...) nachzuweisen, daß Kołakowski unter beachtlichem Einfluß der Nietzscheanischen Philosophie steht. Den Beweis dafür liefern nicht nur die gelegentlichen Berufungen auf Schriften des deutschen Philosophen, sondern auch die Art und Weise, wie er theoretische Probleme stellt und wie er sie löst, in weiterer Folge sein Stil des Schreibens und schließlich sein entschieden kritischer, oft spottender Abstand von der heutigen Kultur. Diese Abhängigkeit darzustellen - bei bescheidener Berufung Kolakowskis auf Nietzsches Werke - ist weder eine leichte, noch eine dankbare Aufgabe, da man ihr immer eine willkürliche Manipulation der Interpretation vorwerfen kann. Die Errungenschaften des großen Philosophen der Vergangenheit bilden das allgemeine Gut, und jeder hat das Recht, sich auf sie zu berufen, ohne seine Gedanken unbedingt zu beschreiben, die auf diese oder andere Weise in der Kultur verwurzelt sind. (shrink)

Artykuł jest dyskusją z wybranymi elementami interpretacji pracy Witolda Płotki pt. Studia z fenomenologii poznania. Transcendentalna filozofia Edmunda Husserla a problem wiedzy, którą sformułował Michał Piekarski. W artykule pyta się o relację metody fenomenologicznej do szeroko pojętego postępowania analitycznego, wskazując na podobieństwa i różnice pomiędzy oboma podejściami. Ponadto autor przybliża rozumienie języka przez Husserla, zwłaszcza w kontekście analizy noematu.

The paper critically examines the thesis, popular in the literature, that Leopold Blaustein’s aesthetics is first and foremost a phenomenological discipline. I argue that the “phenomenological” nature of Blaustein’s philosophy follows from Brentano and Twardowski, rather than from Husserl. I therefore claim that Blaustein’s aesthetics is determined by two equally important themes: (1) a descriptive-psychological and (2) a “phenomenological” one. The article is structured as follows. The introduction situates Blaustein’s aesthetics within classical aesthetics. Section 1 reconstructs the Brentanian background of (...) Blaustein’s aesthetics. Section 2 contains a discussion of Blaustein’s assessment of Twardowski’s theory of presentations, which is followed, in Section 3, by an analysis of Blaustein’s example descriptions of aesthetic experiences. These descriptions are discussed in Section 4, which also reconstructs the main elements of Blaustein’s phenomenology of aesthetic experiences. Against this background, the question of the alleged psychologism of Blaustein’s aesthetics is addressed in Conclusions. (shrink)

The basic part of the article is devoted to the nature and the modalities of use of eponyms, whereby terminological problems are also touched upon – preferably against the background of a contrastive analysis, which is also only implicit. In this context, a consistent differentiation is made between eponyms and deonyms in order to accommodate the disambiguation needs of the former in German. The use of deonyms will be exemplified primarily on the basis of scientific and culinary terminology, where deonyms (...) (in part) perform different functions in each case. (shrink)

The paper is devoted to the question of the principle of individuation in Bl. John Duns Scotus. This question is found in his commentary to Aristotle’s Metaphysics, namely the Quaestiones super libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis VII, qu. 13. The first part of the paper discusses problems connected with the chronology and structure of the text, whereas the second one is presented as Scotus’s teaching on individuation. S. Dumont and T. Noone argue today on the traditional thesis about the origin of this (...) question and the remaining philosophical writings from the juvenile stage of Scotus’s philosophical work. They claim that some questions from the In Metaph., including also qu. 13 from the book, were written later or in the same time as the commentaries to Peter Lombard’s Sentences. The authors support their views by indicating the following: 1) the text the In Metaph. is better organised, 2) the vocabulary used with reference to the principle of individuation, especially the term haecceitas, is employed twice in the text In Metaph., 3) the quotations from the later works of Scotus and the works of authors who wrote somewhat later than that date of the In Metaph. hitherto presumed, 4) some stylistic terms indicate that the author of the text was a mature person. The traditional thesis is defended by I. Modrić on behalf of the Scotistic Commission. Having made a detailed analysis, Modrić rejected all the arguments from the introduction to the critical edition of the In Metaph. The author of this paper agrees with Modrić’s view. Therefore as long as we do not have a thesis to the contrary we shall hold the traditional opinion about the earlier origin of the In Metaph. in comparison to Peter Lombard’s commentaries on the Sentences. Scotus opens his lecture on individuation with a discussion of various standpoints on this issue. He divides them into positive and negative theories of individuation. This ordering ensures a clear exposition of various views without unnecessary repetitions and vagueness. Eventually, Doctor Subtilis rejects all hitherto views and provides his own solution. The principle of individuation is for him an individuating entity, the ultimate reality of the individual being. In combination with common nature it determines the most individual of possible characterisation of the individuum. This positive individuating entity is called an individual form (forma individualis) in the In Metaph., a degree of entity (gradus entis) and haecceitas. The latter became a technical term to define the Scotist principle of individuation. (shrink)

This volume is written jointly by Witold Marciszewski, who contributed the introductory and the three subsequent chapters, and Roman Murawski who is the author of the next ones - those concerned with the 19th century and the modern inquiries into formalization, algebraization and mechanization of reasonings. Besides the authors there are other persons, as well as institutions, to whom the book owes its coming into being. The study which resulted in this volume was carried out in the Historical Section (...) of the research project _Logical Systems and Algorithms for Automatic Testing of Reasoning,_ 1986-1990, in which participated nine Polish universities; the project was coordinated by the Department of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science of the Bia??l??ystok Branch of the University of Warsaw, and supported by the Ministry of Education 1987). The major part of the project was focussed on the software for computer-aided theorem proving called Mizar MSE ) due to Dr. Andrzej Trybulec. He and other colleagues deserve a grateful mention for a hands-on experience and theoretical stimulants owed to their collaboration. (shrink)

Democracy - hope or illusion? Blooming, failing or declining? Our doubts and hesitation make part of unbending efforts to endorse and explain democracy. Who is right - the custodians of promise or the prophets of decline? The book concentrates on doubts. The author tries to explore «the other side of the moon», emphasizing the role of critical thinking, opposing a main-current optimism. Defending democracy we want to generate hope, but hoping may be a dangerous craft. Protecting our hope we are (...) prone to believe that democracy - even if it is not a full success story - is justified in its nature and out of question. How much do we have to forget to sanction this view? This is, in fact, the main question the book raises. It gives voice to those who never, in their writing on democracy, used a flattering tone. Starting with Greek giants - Plato and Aristotle - up to modern and most recent times, going through a broad field of revealing criticism, leaving us with an unsettling feeling that democracy is rather something to be explained than something to be celebrated. Living in democracy, lamenting its underperformances, we must not overlook a fundamental question - in what part do our disappointments reflect the «art of forgetting», allowing us to cast into oblivion all serious doubts originating in a critical discourse on modernity and democracy? (shrink)

Author: Trzeciakowski Witold Title: TWO VISIONS OF THE HUMANITY – DAYBREAK OF ZYGMUNT KRASIŃSKI AND HYMNS TO NIGHT OF NOVALIS (Dwie wizje nowej ludzkości: Przedświt Zygmunta Krasińskiego i Hymny do Nocy Novalisa Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2006, vol:.6, number: 2006/1, pages: 71-90 KEYWORDS: KRASIŃSKI, NOVALIS, HEGEL, GESCHICHTSPHILOSOPHIE Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:In dem Aufsatz Zwei Vorstellungen zur Zukunft der Menschheit – „Przedświt” von Zygmunt Krasiński und „Hymnen an die Nacht” (...) von Novalis analysiert und vergleicht Wiesław Trzeciakowski zwei für die polnische und deutsche Romantik bedeutende visionäre Vorstellungen über die Zukunft der Menschheit. Den beiden Poeten erscheint sie als eine ganze und zugleich einheitliche Potenz ihrer gesamten geistigen Möglichkeiten zu sein. Auf der Erde lässt sich die Einheit der Menschheit durch Mitgefühl und gegenseitige Liebe ihrer Mitglieder erkennen. So versteht man die auf diese Weise begriffene Menschheit als Gott getreue Universalität, die nachseinen Geboten lebt. Diese Anschauung von Z. Krasiński erkennt man auch in Hegels Geschichtsphilosophie, besonders im Begriff des Gegensatzkampfes: die widerstrebenden Kräfte vernichten sich, um eine neue Qualität hervor zu bringen, wodurch sie dann am Ende im Einklang stehen. Novalis verwendet dagegen, um dieselbe Idee auszudrücken, Begriffe aus der Alchemie. Die miteinander kämpfenden Gegensätze sind aufgelöst in der Liebe und werden durch sie als Schlüssel für die Natur- und Menschenerkenntnis anerkannt. Geht Novalis’ all sein Sinnen und Trachten an den Mystizismus, an die endgültige Synthese der Alchemie (Hochzeit der Metalle), Glauben an die Gnosis, die Mysterien der Antike (besonders bei der Göttin Isis am Tempel zu Sais) sowie der Christenheit, so sieht die Quelle der Inspiration von Krasiński anders aus. Sie basiert auf seiner eigenen Geschichtsphilosophie der christlichen Märtyreridee, in der er die Geister der Opfer aus der antiken Nero-Zeit beschwört, deren Blut die Legitimation für die Existenz der Christenheit bildet. Ihr Tod war nicht fruchtlos, den tiefsten Sinn ihrer Qual stellt das Kreuz sowie die Auferstehung Christi dar. Graf Z. Krasiński lebte am liebsten in Rom, wo er sich als polnischer Poet und Denker politisch und geistig frei fühlte. Er stellte die Teilung Polens in den Kontext zur Kreuzigung Christi und der christlichen Geschichte, wobei die Geschichte keinen Selbstzweck darstellt. In der Zeit des irdischen Daseins von Menschen geht es doch nicht nur um die reine körperliche Existenz und die Weitergabe von Leben, was häufig von Z. Krasiński in seinem Werk betont wird. (shrink)

The paper is a commentary on McCaffrey (2015). I begin by arguing that the two views on brain pluripotency that McCaffrey intends to reconcile, namely those of Price and Friston (2005) and Klein (2012), are not really in conflict. The alleged disagreement between them stems from two interpretative failures: first on the part of Klein, who has misrepresented the views of Price and Friston, and second on the part of McCaffrey, who has misconstrued Klein’s position. I then take issue with (...) McCaffrey’s claim that each of the structurefunction mapping strategies he discusses allows researchers to discover a different kind of pluripotency: (1) where each subregion of a pluripotent brain area performs a specific function, (2) where a brain area performs a single function in multiple mechanisms (networks), and (3) where a brain area performs multiple functions in multiple mechanisms (networks). (shrink)

CHAPTER ONE On the Rhetorical Point of View. Why rhetoric declined, and what remained of it. Once upon a time rhetoric was a vast and influential branch of ...

Author: Płotka Witold Title: AT ORIGINS OF THE CRITIQUE OF THE THEORY OF COGNITION IN THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL (U źródeł krytyki teorii poznania w szkole frankfurckiej) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2011, vol:.13/14, number: 2011/2-3, pages: 769-790 Keywords: THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL, ADORNO, HUSSERL, THEORY OF COGNITION, CRITIQUE OF TECHNIQUES, CRISIS OF CULTURE Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:The author argues that the Frankfurt School’s critique of phenomenology as the theory of cognition (...) (as defined by Theodore W. Adorno) is unjustified. The article is divided into five main parts. In the first part, historical, as well as theoretical relations between the two philosophical currents are reconstructed. In the second part, Adorno’s critique of the theory of cognition is defined with regard to Husserl’s phenomenology in particular. The third part of the article analyses why Adorno’s critique seems to be unjustified. The author shows that Husserl denied the theses which Adorno criticized. In the fourth part, the author enlarges the argument by showing that Husserl’s critique of scientific rationality is similar with Adorno’s proposition. Nonetheless, in the fifth part the author stresses main differences between the two critiques of rationality. (shrink)