Since the Supreme Court of New Jersey decided the Quinlan case a quarter of a century ago, three American Supreme Court decisions and a host of state appellate decisions have addressed end-of-life issues. These decisions, as well as legislation addressing the same issues, have prompted a torrent of law journal articles analyzing every aspect of end-of-life law. In recent years, moreover, a number of law review articles, many published in this journal, have also specifically addressed legal issues raised by palliative (...) care. Much less is known in the United States, however, as to how other countries address these issues. Reflection on the experience and analysis of other nations may give Americans a better understanding of their own experience, as well as suggest improvements to their present way of dealing with the difficult problems in this area.This article offers a conceptual and comparative analysis of major legal issues relating to end-of-life treatment and to the treatment of pain in a number of countries. In particular, it focuses on the law of Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Poland, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan. (shrink)

The author of the article begins with a discussion of how specialists in the field understand the term “autobiography” and what its role is. Then, she presents the results of an analysis of autobiographical elements present in texts by 136 students starting Polish studies. In analysing the collected works, she diagnoses the places and attitudes of students who referred to stories from their own school lives, their considerations about their teachers’ ways of perceiving pupils, and the purpose of such texts. (...) She also indicates the roles of emotions and the recollections of the personal past in creating school memories, and developing various ways of thinking about pupils, teachers, and literature. In treating those texts as diagnoses of the problems of school and school Polish education, she discusses the importance of such observations for their authors, readers and for school and university education. (shrink)

The Polish society has perceived privatization as an issue of special importance which enables a free market economy in a short time. Privatization has always raised hopes and expectations. It is the lack of experience in the field of ownership transformations, the level of their complexity and the economic, legal, psychological and other conditionings that have confronted those transformations with many hindrances. They have also raised numerous moral and ethical dilemmas among the staff of privatized companies and founding organs including (...) the staff of the Voivodship Council of Łódź. The decisions of the Working Board of one company about the future path of privatization have raised concerns among the staff uncertain of the fate of their place of work. In such cases the voice of the staff, which previously contributed to the company’s financial status, has always been decisive when choosing the path of privatization; this concerns mostly workers’ partnerships. It was John Paul II’s words about people of conscience who are needed in Poland, which were said in Skoczów, that were crucial for privatization decisions by the Voivodship Council of Łódź. (shrink)

Holy Wednesday, 1953, was a great day for Santiago, a village of the Highland Maya Indians in the Central American Republic of Guatemala. On the church porch, strung up on a post decorated with lush tropical leaves, hung a four-foot puppet clothed in Indian costume with a large sombrero and a wooden mask, into whose mouth a long cigar had been planted by his worshipers. This, I had learned, was Judas Iscariot—but a strange Judas it was, for, instead of being (...) burned, stoned, or otherwise reviled and derided as is usually the case with village Judas figures, it was cared for by Indian priests constantly on guard, presented with gifts of fruit, candles, and incense, and altogether made far more fuss of than the saint whose fiesta this bright Eastern week should have been: Jesucristo, the Mayanized Christ. The thousand bananas and hundreds of cocoa beans and other tropical fruit, for instance, which the young Indian municipal officials had gathered in a three-day trek toward the Pacific coast, had been presented to the puppet before being hung up among the gilded wooden columns of the main altar inside the church. (shrink)

The Fourth Edition of this long-established text retains all the key features of the previous editions, covering the basic topics of a solid first course in ...

Recent years in Poland have been characterized by the dynamic development of scientific activity among nurses. It might have been caused by several factors, namely: the rising needs and expectations of representatives of this professional group, the necessity of adjusting to EU standards, changes in the system of education, as well as the individual “research needs” of those representatives. However, is there a correlation between the increase in the quantity of scientific research and its quality? An attempt to answer that (...) question led the author to formulate this paper’s goal, which had been formulated as follows: to analyse different sources of information concerning the reality of scientific research in nursing in Poland. (shrink)

Typology of perpetrators of domestic violence The objective of the research conducted by the author was to obtain an answer to the question: could we distinguish different types of intrafamily violence perpetrators considering a specified profile of personality factors and temperament traits and how domestic violence perpetrators cope with stressful situations? The research was conducted on a group of 325 men who were convicted pursuant to article 207§1 & 2 of harassment over family members. In terms of a gender the (...) group was homogenous. On the basis of the literature on the subject, the following personality traits of violence perpetrators were categorised: locus of control, self-acceptance, aggressiveness, hostility, intelligent quotient and temperament traits. The following research techniques were employed in the study: the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, Berger's Self-Acceptance Scale, the Delta Questionnaire by R. Drwal, the SABD Questionnaire - Buss-Durkee, Formal Characteristics of Behaviour - Temperament Inventory by J. Strelau, the WCQ questionnaire by R.S. Lazarus and S. Folkman, a categorised interview and an analysis of court records. As a result of the analysis conducted on a group of the studied sample of violence perpetrators, four subgroups, differing in terms of selected personality traits, were specified. They are reactively aggressive perpetrators, perpetrators of low preventive competences, psychopathic and retaliatory perpetrators and perpetrators with a big adaptive potential. Further on, four distinguished groups have been characterised in terms of stress-coping strategies, and psychological processes of coping with stress proceeded differently in the research group. (shrink)

This paper explores the relationship between philology and literary criticism and history via two -marital problems drawn from Augustine’s life. The first is historiographical and concerns Augustine’s relations with Anonyma I, his African concubine, who was featured so famously in the Confessiones. My argument, first published in 2002, that Augustine painted his separation from her in the language of Genesis and saw her as a virtual wife, has not found favor with historians. The episode is used as a test case (...) for comparing the historiographical technique of three Augustine biographers. I revisit my reasoning, showing how, sadly, philology and history have grown apart, a phenomenon which, in turn, highlights the need for an increased awareness of and engagement with philology by historians. Philological arguments must be faced and not simply ignored or cherry-picked ad lib. The second problem is historical and prosopographical. Who was the fornicating widower of Epistula 259? In part, I use philological and literary techniques to argue that this widower was indeed Romanianus, and that this letter needs to be dated much earlier than previously thought—even to as early as 396 and the period of Augustine’s co-episcopacy. The tone of the letter is key to understanding it properly. In it, we see an affectionate, urbane, and witty Augustine. (shrink)

Internet jest przestrzenią, która otworzyła nowe możliwości prezentowania dziedzictwa kulturowego. Wraz z rozwojem sieci użytkownicy zyskali dostęp do cyfrowych kopii książek, dzieł sztuki oraz wizualizacji 3D zabytkowych budowli i całych miast. Kontakt z kulturą za pośrednictwem mediów nigdy wcześniej nie był tak łatwy. Trudno nie docenić tych możliwości, szczególnie mając w pamięci niedawne czasy pandemii, kiedy to kontakt z kulturowym dorobkiem człowieka ograniczał się głównie do form online. Zasoby online to ogromny rezerwuar materiałów wszelkiego typu, z którego użytkownicy wybierają zazwyczaj (...) te odpowiadające ich zainteresowaniom i preferencjom. Na stronach i platformach internetowych można znaleźć bogaty wachlarz multimediów, tekstów, zdjęć, filmów, symulacji i rekonstrukcji, materiałów związanych z każdym okresem kulturowej i artystycznej działalności człowieka. Różne są też źródła, z których zostały one zaczerpnięte. Duża część materiałów to cyfrowe kopie dzieł sztuki, skany manuskryptów, starodruków, starych fotografii i filmów, udostępnione na oficjalnych stronach instytucji kultury: muzeów, bibliotek czy archiwów. Jeszcze liczniejszą grupę stanowią zasoby, które zostały udostępnione w Internecie w efekcie spontanicznych, oddolnych praktyk jego użytkowników, udostępniających materiały pochodzące z ich prywatnych zbiorów. Są to m.in. zdjęcia wykonane eksponatom muzealnym, pomnikom i zabytkom, a także filmy kręcone w historycznych miejscach. Celem artykułu jest zwrócenie uwagi na problem prezentacji w cyberprzestrzeni treści związanych z dziedzictwem kulturowym oraz korzyści, jakie płyną z digitalizacji zasobów dziedzictwa kulturowego1. Rzadko zwraca się przy tym jednak uwagę na zagrożenia związane z rozpowszechnianiem tych materiałów online. Te same technologie, które pozwalają na prezentowanie obiektów kulturowych w cyfrowych mediach, prowadzą często do przedstawień daleko odbiegających od ich oryginalnego wyglądu, a czasem – do dekontekstualizacji. Zbyt duże zaufanie do możliwości współczesnej technologii może w efekcie prowadzić do degradacji kultury. W tekście przedstawiono przykłady podstawowych problemów związanych z tym zagadnieniem. (shrink)

Originating in the Sophistic pedagogy of Protagoras and reflecting the sceptical practice of the New Academy, Quintilian's rhetorical pedagogy places a special emphasis on the juxtaposition of multiple, competing claims. This inherently dialogical approach to argumentation is referred to here as controversia and is on full display in Quintilian's own argumentative practice. More important to this paper, however, is the role of controversia as an organizing principle for Quintilian's rhetorical curriculum. In particular, Quintilian introduces the protocols of controversia through a (...) series of progressively more complex exercises in imitation, role-playing, and declamation (now referred to as situational games). All of these exercises are open for adaptation by contemporary teachers who would promote a dialogical approach to argument, i.e. argument with its methods of inquiry, invention, and judgment based on direct interaction with opposing parties. (shrink)

Interactive media create a space conducive to development of participatory culture, in which media content recipients become its active creators. Participant activities are not limited to commenting on online articles or being active on social media. They want to influence reality through their actions and to participate in creating and spreading information. The willingness and readiness of Internet users to co-create content is becoming increasingly important also in scientific projects, where success depends on the involvement of many volunteers who undertake (...) specific tasks. Although such projects are often time-consuming, they usually do not require advanced skills from the people involved. The only payoff for their efforts is the satisfaction that comes from participating, as well as the recognition in their community. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to evaluate the phenomenon of crowdsourcing in humanities, especially in the context of the new reality created by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is based on the literature which addresses the importance of crowdsourcing in projects in a variety of areas, on top of an analysis of examples in which this method is used. The selection of presented examples is strongly intended to demonstrate the enormous possibilities and resulting benefits of involving willing volunteers in humanities projects. Their role is not diminished by the fact that they do not have competencies related to project topics. It can be assumed that crowsrourcing will be more and more widely used by researchers, especially in times when increasing numbers of people undertake online activities. (shrink)

The paper concerns the science of colors (die Farbenlehre) on which among others J.W. Goethe and W. Ostwald were focused. The first part of this essay describes the science of colors in the period from antiquity to late Renaissance. In the pre-scientific phase it was intervened with philosophical speculations as well with symbolism of magic, religions and customs. Since Newton’s time there are distinguished the colors of light and the colors of objects. J.W. Goethe’s Farbenlehre, discussed in the second part, (...) connects empirical studies and metaphysical vision of the light and colors. W. Ostwald, a distinguished chemist and philosopher-energetist, attempted to construct measurable Farbenlehre. He is a creator of a strict colors’ taxonomy, but his soul of artist (he was also a painter) “crept into” his study of colors. The discussion of Ostwald’s deliberations is contained in the third part of the paper. (shrink)

J. Such first introduced the notion of „complementary experiments”, referring to the decisive situations in science. The similar notions appears in the discussions of new experimentalists. For example, I. Hacking writes about complementarity of different types of microscopy, A. Franklin distinguishes technically good and conceptually important experiments, and P. Galison analyses examples of complementarity of two different approaches to the problem of cosmic radiation. In the article the notion of „complementarity” is extended as to cover the cases of complementarity of (...) method, complementarity of scientific teams etc. As an illustration it is used the case of discovering new type of carbon - called „fulleren”. (shrink)