Apart from the Treaty of human nature, political philosophy of David Hume's not systematic. This fact is probably associated with Hume's skepticism, disbelief in the philosophical, abstract synthesis, which necessarily reduces the complexity of the world to just one aspect. Most distinct evidence of this belief are philosophical essays, often recognized for popularizing some of the ideas contained in the Treaty. Popularization of the former no doubt, but there were also more than that. Hume They analyzed human reason and morality (...) in a very broad historical context. Essays are full of details taken from the history of culture, politics and the economy in both England and the ancient peoples. Greeks and Romans had for special esteem for Hume, and ancient historians considered it his pattern, moreover, does not mean that he was against them uncritically. (shrink)

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie politycznej, gospodarczej i kulturowej roli chińskiego Wielkiego Kanału w świetle rękopisu _Historiae Sinarum Imperii _polskiego jezuity Tomasza Szpota Dunina (1644–1713), który przez ponad dwadzieścia lat badał archiwa rzymskie, poszukując informacji na temat działalności jezuitów w Chinach. Pośród licznych informacji o charakterze kulturowym, gospodarczym i etnograficznym rękopis Tomasza Szpota Dunina zawiera również wiadomości o obecnie najdłuższym na świecie sztucznym kanale transportowym, czyli chińskim Wielkim Kanale, który przez wielu badaczy jest uznawany za większy cud techniki niż Mur (...) Chiński. Do odtworzenia tytułowego zagadnienia wykorzystano głównie rękopis _Historiae Sinarum Imperii _oraz inne źródła drukowane i literaturę przedmiotu. Rękopis Tomasza Szpota Dunina zawiera rozproszone informacje dotyczące Wielkiego Kanału, miast położonych nad jego brzegami i samych okoliczności podróży po tej rozbudowanej sieci rzek i kanałów. Informacje obecne u Szpota możemy podzielić na dwie kategorie: wtórne, czyli zapożyczone ze źródeł wcześniejszych – jak np. z tekstu Mattea Ricciego – oraz pierwotne, czyli opisy, które Szpot pozyskał jako pierwszy w trakcie swojej długoletniej pracy w Rzymie. (shrink)

POLITICAL FRIENDSHIP AND THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE POLITICAL The article is devoted to the problem of definition of the concept of the political on the basis of relations between friend and enemy. Such definition of the political we can find in C. Schmitt’s political philosophy and H. Plessner’s philosophical anthropology. Although this definition mostly pays attention to the antagonistic dimension of the political world, we need to understand an essence of the political friendship. Thus author analyzes different conceptions of the (...) political friendship that have been presented in the works of Aristotle, J. Derrida, H. Arendt. Political friendship is recognized as basis for the creation a political community and for the existence of the political world. (shrink)

This article assesses cultural studies and the concept of organizational culture. Cultural studies, created at the University of Birmingham, focused mostly on the analysis of culture and its connections to authority. The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies created its own approach to hegemony, describing it as an interaction between elites and the power-deprived rest of the society. However, this situation is widely accepted and based on common agreement. CCCS used the theory of structuralism in order to obtain further insights to (...) the origins of culture. The author also describes the theory of organizational culture in order to present the culture of an enterprise as a way for national culture to manifest itself. In addition to this, an attempt is made to look at the organizational culture from the point of view of hegemony. (shrink)

In this paper, the concept of political culture is considered in reference to the notions of G.A. Almond, S. Verba and J. Rawls. It is defined as a specific educational project, which is linked to the idea of a fair, democratic and constitutional system. The author also points to potential contemporary obstacles to implementation of this project. Deepening inequalities arising from personal culture are the first threat to liberal civic education. The second threat is associated with the development of new (...) media and the related changes in the public sphere, including various forms of political and civic activity. (shrink)

Two fundamental features of a liberal political community are usually identified in contemporary deliberations: there is an inevitable pluralism of visions of good and worthy life, blended into a wide range of religious, philosophical and ethical positions; those who are in power are under an obligation to set public matters in such a way as to avoid discrimination of any class of the ruled. In respect of and, it is presumed that the process of enacting, implementing and executing public law (...) shall be separated from any perfectionist moral position, because being impartial when making political decisions is a prerequisite for non-discriminatory politics. This kind of politics looks for proper, convincing and comprehensible reasons to establish a new legal standard of behaviour in the ‘public reason’ – a set of moral statements and political values commonly shared in an open, pluralistic and tolerant society, which does not provide decisive answers to any questions about the meaning of life and does not bring us closer to discover its ideal. This article tries to reproduce the main notions and ideas of leading, contemporary liberal philosophers – John Rawls and Charles Larmore – that deal with the very nature of impartiality of a liberal state and the ability of policymakers to be impartial. It also presents the critical views of Stephen Macedo and Nicholas Wolterstorff, who question the possibility of building a neutral state. (shrink)

The aim of the article is the media and political analysis of the political discourse of German Chancellor Angela Merkel regarding refugees, launched by the famous slogan Wir schaffen das! The time study covers the period from 31.08.2015 to 28.02.2017. The author uses the system analysis method and the content analysis method. The research material is the texts published on the “Wirtualna Polska” portal.

Political correctness as a norm of behaviour in liberal political culture is criticized as a sophisticated type of modern censorship, or stronger, as an ideological tool in the hands of part of Western political and cultural elites. Nonetheless, it appears to play important and necessary functions in a democratic system. Even if we agree that political correctness is cynical and hypocritical by nature, it does not lose its value. Its ambiguous potential can be creatively used, particularly in the areas of (...) public discourse, deliberation and public debate, but also in other important spheres of liberal political culture and, more broadly, the democratic political system. (shrink)

The main focus of this article is little known in Poland political tolerance. The article aims to: reconstruct of Michael Walzer concept of the political tolerance; to place it in the typology of relativism – universalism; to make a first step towards the separation of political tolerance from personal tolerance for a general discussion of tolerance; demonstrate that tolerance is not only modern, liberal concept, associated with the individual freedom; show that the dispute about tolerance not only between the enemies (...) and the allies of tolerance, but also among the allies themselves. In an innovative way it defends that thesis that Poland is a tolerant state. (shrink)

Horizontal relationships unite the society and level off the differences from other sources. A solidary political community is based not only on common property but also on private property, and at the same time levels off the economic disproportions so that economic conflicts would not become political, which could in turn cause the emergence of antagonized social groups. In this sense, solidarity can stabilize the political community. A case in point being the Western European democracies, which after the Second World (...) War became welfare states. Solidarity could play this role now, even though there are organizations such as Occupy Wall Street or Indignants Movement, which rebel against the inequalities. The current idea of solidarity may be achieved on different levels. The first is the local level, where the most is known of the citizens’ situation; the state level, where there are institutions which aim at a unified political community according to economy and culture; and finally, the supranational level, to level off the dangers which a growing economic stratification entails. (shrink)

The law of force as a political consequence of naturalism: on the example of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Jean‐Jacques Rousseau rejected the Enlightenment ideas of reason, equality and progress. He experienced the charm of physical vigour and male causative power. He preached the apotheosis of primal instincts and the cult of strength. Rousseau’s historiosophy disavowed the optimistic vision of the Enlightenment and became its main competitor. The philosopher questioned the existing civilization; on its debris he wanted to restore the natural order based (...) on biologically conditioned inequalities. (shrink)

Przemiany społeczno-ekonomiczne, kryzysy polityczne, zmiany w kulturze, nauce i technice mogą postawić prawnika oraz „zwykłego” obywatela nie tylko przed koniecznością odpowiedzi na pytanie, „co jest zgodne z konstytucją?”, ale również przed kwestią, „czym jest sama konstytucja?”.Prezentowana monografia poświęcona jest dwóm teoriom konstytucji, których analiza pozwala uwydatnić dwa aspekty jej pojęcia. Konstytucja bowiem z jednej strony stanowi tzw. prawo wyższe, a z drugiej realizuje określoną ideę polityczną. Rozważania zawarte w niniejszej książce rozpoczynają od analizy odpowiedzi Immanuela Kanta na pytanie, w jaki (...) sposób w pojęciu konstytucji łączą się kwestie jej prawnej ważności oraz normatywnej słuszności. Następnie autor przechodzi do zbadania dwóch teorii, które wyrastają z Kantowskiej filozofii: czystej teorii prawa Hansa Kelsena i liberalizmu politycznego Johna Rawlsa. Pierwsza jest nastawiona na deskrypcję norm pozytywnych. Druga formułuje idee o charakterze normatywnym. Pierwsza chce opisywać, druga wyznaczać ustrojowe maximum, do którego powinniśmy zmierzać. W obydwu teoriach konstytucja zajmuje szczególne miejsce. Zawarta w niniejszej monografii ich interpretacja podporządkowana jest zagadnieniu istoty demokratycznej konstytucji, która w formie prawa wyższego wyraża demokratyczną treść.Na ich podstawie następuje próba odpowiedzi na pytanie o naturę demokratycznej konstytucji. (shrink)