Many contemporary writers misunderstand early Christian views on philosophy because they identify the critical stances of the ante-Nicene fathers toward specific pagan philosophical schools with a general negative stance toward reason itself. Dariusz Karlowicz's Socrates and Other Saints demonstrates why this identification is false. The question of the extent of humanity's natural knowledge cannot be reduced to the question of faith's relationship to the historical manifestations of philosophy among the Ancients. Karlowicz closely reads the writings of Justin (...) Martyr, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and others to demonstrate this point. He also builds upon Pierre Hadot's thesis that ancient philosophy is not primarily theory but a "way of life" taught by sages, which aimed at happiness through participation in the divine. The fact that pagan philosophers falsely described humanity's telos did not mean that the spiritual practices they developed could not be helpful in the Christian pilgrimage. As it turns out, the ancient Christian writers traditionally considered to be enemies of philosophy actually borrowed from her much more than we think-and perhaps more than they admitted. -- back cover. (shrink)

The book deals with martyrdom understood as a philosophical category. The main question pertains to the evidential value of the Christian witness through death. The author approaches an answer through a philosophical interpretation of the belief in the evidential role of martyrdom. Numerous historical documents confirm that ancient martyrdom might have been considered as a kind of proof also by people unaffiliated with the Church. The author observes the theology and the reality of martyrdom through the perspective of the ancient (...) philosophy of death and radical personal transformation. He believes that the Christian stance in the face of persecutions could have been understood as the realization of the unrealized ambitions of philosophy, thereby proving indirectly the veracity of the teaching revealed by Jesus Christ. (shrink)

This volume provides the reader with the substantial evidence, presented here for the first time in a chronological manner, of the essential place that Dionysus occupied in Greek and Roman political thought. The eleven chapters that make up the volume are authored by an interdisciplinary team of scholars (including four top specialists in the field, Cornelia Isler-Kerényi, Richard Seaford, Richard Stoneman and Jean-Marie Pailler) and cover the period from archaic Greece to the late Roman empire. The reader can therefore observe (...) how the political ideas and motifs rooted in Greek classical thought were continued, adapted, and developed in successive periods of history. The contributors reconstruct the political significance of Dionysus by examining different kinds of evidence: historiography, poetry, coins, epigraphy, art, and philosophy. They discuss the place of the god in the politics of Greek city-states, explore the long tradition of imitating Dionysus that ancient leaders, from Alexander the Great to the Roman emperors, manifested in various ways, as well as demonstrate how the political role of Dionysus was reflected in Orphism and Neoplatonist philosophy. Dionysus and Politics provides an excellent introduction to a fundamental feature of ancient political thought which until now has been largely neglected by mainstream academia. The book will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars interested in ancient politics and religion. (shrink)

Le présent volume sur Dionysos est issu d’un colloque qui a eu lieu à l’université de Varsovie en janvier 2019, dans le cadre du National Programme for the Development of Humanities financé par le ministère polonais de la Science et de l’Éducation supérieure. Il se concentre sur un aspect spécifique du dieu grec, celui de son rapport avec la politique et l’autorité. Dans une brève introduction (p. 1–5), Filip Doroszewski et Dariusz Karlowicz rappellent que, par-delà l’imaginaire nietzschéen d...

This article investigates the meaning of the ‘social’ based on Durkheim’s philosophy of society as a ‘collective representation’. I argue that the social, the way Durkheim formulates it, is an abstract sign for reality, a metaphor, which operates on the level of language. Because of this fact, the ‘social’ is from the start limited in its functionality as a descriptor, but it also contains within its own linguistic form, in its word, the possibility of renewal and renaming that is the (...) unique force inherent in language. I propose that this origin of the social operates according to the ‘spirit of postmodernism’, which constitutes a common response to modernity, by what later differentiates itself into the currents of sociology and postmodernism. (shrink)

The article is an attempt to treat Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain as a novel about Germany. According to its author the spiritual condition of Germany personified by Hans Castorp was established during the history through the collision of the elements of Western and Eastern cultures. The first protest against the West was raised by Martin Luter in his critique that led to the internalization of German life. As a consequence, the culture of the nation was dominated by music. This (...) domination mirrored the process in which both elements characteristic for both antagonistic spheres, namely arbitrariness and order, were united as in music counterpoint. Thomas Mann’s idea of humanism, being the continuation of Goethe’s and Nietzsche’s postulates, is a project of their synthesis. (shrink)

Author: Łukasiewicz Dariusz Title: THE THEORY OF EXISTENCE ACCORDING TO FRANZ BRENTANO (Franciszka Brentana koncepcja istnienia) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2011, vol:.15, number: 2011/4, pages: 899-909 Keywords: FRANZ BRENTANO, EXISTENCE, JUDGMENT, PRESENTATION Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:The paper presents Franz Brentano’s theory of existence. In particular, we discuss Brentano’s arguments for the thesis that existence is not a predicate. The most important role in the defense of such a concept (...) of existence is played by the theory of judgment, according to which, judging consists in the acceptance or rejection of the object of presentation. However, the analysis of Brentano’s arguments for the existential theory of judgment demonstrates that there are no sufficient reasons to accept Brentano’s thesis concerning the nature of existence. (shrink)

Vom Blickpunkt der Wissenschaftslehre des Kritischen Rationalismus aus erscheint der Gedanke, es solle über die Grenzen der Disziplinen hinweg theoretisiert und geforscht werden, als keine atemberaubende Erfindung. Das Wort Interdisziplinarität ist nicht eindeutig, was man aber sinnvollerweise darunter verstehen kann, betrachtet der kritische Rationalismus als eine Konsequenz des (metaphysischen) Realismus. Deswegen weist das Thema Realismus auf den Kontext hin, in dem das Problem der Interdisziplinarität gestellt werden kann. Das kommt in den Beiträgen des ersten Teils des Sammelbandes zum Ausdruck. Die (...) im zweiten Teil versammelten Abhandlungen betreffen Fragen, die sich aus der "disziplinenübergreifenden" Anwendung der kritisch-rationalen Ansätze auf spezielle Probleme ergeben. (shrink)

Vom Blickpunkt der Wissenschaftslehre des Kritischen Rationalismus aus erscheint der Gedanke, es solle über die Grenzen der Disziplinen hinweg theoretisiert und geforscht werden, als keine atemberaubende Erfindung. Das Wort Interdisziplinarität ist nicht eindeutig, was man aber sinnvollerweise darunter verstehen kann, betrachtet der kritische Rationalismus als eine Konsequenz des Realismus. Deswegen weist das Thema Realismus auf den Kontext hin, in dem das Problem der Interdisziplinarität gestellt werden kann. Das kommt in den Beiträgen des ersten Teils des Sammelbandes zum Ausdruck. Die im (...) zweiten Teil versammelten Abhandlungen betreffen Fragen, die sich aus der “disziplinenübergreifenden” Anwendung der kritisch-rationalen Ansätze auf spezielle Probleme ergeben. (shrink)

Współczesna kosmologia wskazuje na pewne przejawy jedności Wszechświata, np. uniwersalność praw przyrody, globalną czasoprzestrzeń, możliwość wyróżnienia uniwersalnego czasu i jednej, wspólnej historii, czy też ścisłe zależności między parametrami kosmologicznymi i stałymi fizycznymi a faktem istnienia życia. Wykorzystanie metody abstrakcji i wnioskowania analogicznego w analizie własności Wszechświata pozwalają, bez naruszania zasady autonomiczności nauki i filozofii, zasadnie argumentować za tezą o jego nomologicznej jedności. Z drugiej strony w kosmologii przyjmuje się założenia związane z określeniem przedmiotu jej badań oraz warunkujące jej uprawianie. Ich (...) podstawą jest przekonanie o stałym, niezależnym od czasu i miejsca, sposobie funkcjonowania przyrody. Pozwala to na formułowanie opisujących ją niezmiennych czasoprzestrzennie praw i ekstrapolowanie ich na cały Wszechświat. Uzasadnieniem takiej praktyki badawczej jest zgodność konstruowanych modeli kosmologicznych z obserwacją, efektywność wyjaśniania problemów badawczych, spójność z innymi działami wiedzy przyrodniczej oraz sukcesy programów unifikacyjnych i badań interdyscyplinarnych. (shrink)

Two for the seesaw: requester and requested Research on emotion conducted so far has usually ignored situations where the person experiences a certain emotion, but where the external stimulus that evoked and upholds this emotion suddenly disappears. This kind of situation, however, is relatively common in everyday life. This article attempts to recognize certain consequences of those conditions under which the stimuli justifying our experience of such emotional states as fear or anxiety suddenly disappear. Research done to data by the (...) author and his colleagues indicates increased compliance of the subject when addressed with various requests, commands or suggestion in the situation termed here "emotional see-saw" or "fear-then-relief". (shrink)

In the article two key chapters of Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain”, namely “Walpurgis Night” and “Snow” are interpreted in the categories of aesthetic experience. In both of them Hans Castorp is lead into a dream, which could be treated as a hermeneutical symbol. Castorp experiences the feeling of the sublime which is a source of the spiritual metamorphosis. Seen from this angle Castorp turns out to be a literary expression of a new anthropological conception of man, and “The Magic (...) Mountain” – a critique of the attempts to realize such a conception by the help of a solely intellectual argumentation. (shrink)

Referat stanowi próbę rekonstrukcji poglądów moralnych i etycznych Krzysztofa Celestyna Mrongowiusza, skrystalizowanych w okresie pobytu w Królewcu, gdzie był studentem tamtejszej Albertyny i uczniem Kanta. Ważnym składnikiem duchowej formacji młodego Mrongowiusza stał się religijny nurt pietyzmu, wywierający w ówczesnych czasach jeszcze znaczny wpływ na atmosferę życia umysłowego zarówno Królewca jak i Albertyny. Wpływ ten widoczny jest także w późniejszych głoszonych przez pastora Mrongowiusza kazaniach. Natomiast fakt dokonanego u schyłku życia przekładu na język polski i publikacji w Gdańsku notatek z królewieckich (...) wykładów wydanych jako „Rozprawa filozoficzna o religii i moralności” Kanta świadczy o wierności gdańskiego kaznodziei wobec nauki moralnej swego najsłynniejszego nauczyciela i zamiarze przekazania jej rodakom jako rodzaj duchowego testamentu. (shrink)

Researchers’ attention has been drawn to parallels between Homer’s Odyssey and the Epic of Gilgamesh. However, hitherto, no connections have been observed between Kazantzakis’s Sequel and the Mesopotamian work. Convergent are the primary motivations and actions undertaken by the protagonists of both poems, particularly their “peregrinations” to the boundaries of the world, dictated by eschatological anxieties. Moreover, the hero of Kazantzakis’s Sequel undergoes a transformation analogous to the legendary ruler of Uruk: under the influence of concerns, the proud kings opt (...) for solitary wanderings, which results in better self-understanding and higher axiological awareness. The comparison of symbols, such as the sun, fire, lightning, the Water of Life and Death, and theriomorphic allegories, indicates Kazantzakis’s utilization of numerous intermediary sources stemming from the ancient Near Eastern tradition. An additional aim of the article is to indicate interpretative possibilities of books describing the wanderings of the Odyssean spirit after abandoning the project of building the “ideal city,” as versions of ars moriendi: the art of overcoming the fear of death. (shrink)

Intelligent design theory claims that certain biological and cosmic phenomena point to the activity of some unspecified intelligent being behind them and that it is a fully scientific conclusion. Critics often respond that, in fact, intelligent design is a religious idea because the real agenda of proponents of the theory is to reintroduce supernatural, Christian beliefs into science, public education, and other domains of western culture. In other words, it is said that the source of inspiration for the theory reveals (...) its religious, and therefore unscientific, nature. The purpose of this article is to evaluate validity of this objection, both with regard to the actual views of intelligent design proponents, as well as from the perspective of philosophy and history of science. It is argued that to express this objection is to commit the so-called genetic fallacy — evaluating the merits of an idea solely on the basis of its origin — and it can be easily applied to the proponents of naturalistic theories as well. Moreover, it is clear that intelligent design can be and is formulated without reference to any kind of religious doctrine. Hence, it is concluded that from methodological point of view the objection concerning the putative religious motivations of design theorists is an illegitimate rhetorical strategy in order to exclude intelligent design from serious scientific consideration and that the proper critical reaction to the theory requires a different basis for counter-argumentation. Key words RELIGION, INTELLIGENT DESIGN THEORY. (shrink)

W artykule rozważam sformułowaną przez Jacka Wojtysiaka krytykę probabilistycznego argumentu z istnienia wielkiego faktu zła za nieistnieniem Boga. Sugeruję, że proponowana przez J. Wojtysiaka krytyka tego argumentu powinna zostać zmodyfikowana w taki sposób, aby nie prowadziła ona do wniosku, że Bóg jest przyczyną zła. Proponuję korektę dotycząca koncepcji Bożej przyczynowości. Wskazuję również na inny sposób osłabienia argumentu probabilistycznego ze zła niż ten wybrany przez J. Wojtysiaka. Proponuję podważyć przesłankę głoszącą, że zło istnieje, przy założeniu naturalizmu. Sygnalizuję krótko trudności naturalistycznego realizmu (...) moralnego i wskazuję na ewolucyjne argumenty podważające moralny realizm. W kontekście tych trudności rozważam stanowisko Paula Drapera, pioniera probabilistycznego (Baysowskiego) argumentu ze zła za ateizmem, i staram się pokazać niektóre słabości jego poglądów. Następnie formułuję teistyczny argument dedukcyjny z istnienia zła i sugeruję, że ze względu na prostotę należy preferować argumentację dedukcyjną, a nie probabilistyczną na rzecz teizmu. (shrink)

Divine Omniscience and the Problem of Evil from the Perspective of Open Theism In the first part of the article, I present the argument for theological fatalism consisting in the thesis that if God has an infallible knowledge of future contingents, then whatever happens in the world happens necessarily. Next, I discuss the open theism view, whose rejection of theological fatalism rests on the claim that God does not know future contingents in advance. In the second part of the paper, (...) I analyze the open theism view in the context of the evidential argument from evil. The evidential argument from evil says that the occurrence of great and pointless suffering in the world makes the existence of God very improbable. The open theism view implies that since God does not know the future contingents (great and pointless evils included), the occurrence of such evils does not compromise his omnipotence or his benevolence, and, hence, it does not make his existence improbable. In the last part of the article, I make some critical remarks on the theodicy of open theism recently put forth by William Hasker and I emphasize that this theodicy is based on axiological assumptions which are not evident enough in themselves. Keywords: problem of evil, open theism, evidential argument, divine omniscience. (shrink)

Bolzano's theodicy is a very good example of Platonism in the philosophy of religion. Above all, Bolzano believes that there obtains an ideal realm of truths in themselves and mathematical objects, which are independent of God. Therefore, we are allowed to conclude that God is only a contractor; true, more powerful than Plato's demiurge because He created substances and sustains them in existence, but God must follow a project which is independent of Him. Since the world is determined, by the (...) program and God follows the program, then in fact the program is a god, or better, there is no God. Bolzano's project is not related to God's essence, since it is external to God, and is not made by God. Thus, Bolzano's theodicy is also the absolute opposite of the Cartesian theodicy. God in the Cartesian theodicy can change all rules, all scientific laws and, in consequence, He can create any world He wants. Bolzano's God cannot change anything and cannot create a different world than the world determined by the project, a world different than the one He has created. The responsibility of Bolzano's God for the evil in the world is limited by the project of the world. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie sporu dotyczącego relacji filozofii i teologii w czeskiej myśli międzywojennej (Kozák, Souček, Rádl, Patočka). Omawiam różne sposoby uzasadniania teologii i Objawienia oraz ich związki z filozofią. W tym sporze z jednej strony teolodzy starają się uzasadnić wyjątkowość teologii, a także wykazać jej naukowy charakter. Z drugiej strony, filozofowie pokazują, że teologia oparta na Objawieniu nie może być częścią wiedzy. Historia sporu pokazała, że teologia musi zachować dystans do filozofii, jeśli nie chce wyrzec się swojej istoty, swojej (...) securitatis, która nadeje sens jej istnieniu, co nie znaczy, że jest niewrażliwa na codzienne problemy człowieka. (shrink)

Genocide as a part of nation or ethnic group extermination process is not a well-defined concept. Its meaning is understood intuitively. When law intervenes, the issue of defining the term comes back. Nevertheless, the Polish nation has been recognized as subjected to genocide activities during the Second World War by the Nazi Germany and Soviet Union. The paper focuses on the genocide against mainly one group of Poles that is to say foresters. The martyrologic evidence proves that foresters were an (...) occupation group which for a variety of reasons suffered most. The research carried out in this respect by the National Forests in Poland has revealed that over 20% of pre-war staff of the institution actually lost their lives. They were killed by the German and Soviet occupiers, as well as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In the eastern parts of Poland foresters and their families were deported and sent to various labour and extermination camps e.g. in Siberia. The aim of the paper is to present the scale of genocide with the main emphasis on genocide against foresters. The definition of genocide provided by Lemkin, who coined the term, is a starting point for the analysis. The main research methods included the analysis of pertinent literature and source materials as well as the semiotic analysis of genocide circumstances. The thesis put forward by the authors is that foresters due to their education, practical skills, professional experience and insight knowledge turned out to be the group especially vulnerable and subjected to extermination on purpose. (shrink)

In this paper, we study natural language constructions which were first examined by Barwise: The richer the country, the more powerful some of its officials. Guided by Barwise’s observations, we suggest that conceivable interpretations of such constructions express the existence of various similarities between partial orders such as homomorphism or embedding. Semantically, we interpret the constructions as polyadic generalized quantifiers restricted to finite models. We extend the results obtained by Barwise by showing that similarity quantifiers are not expressible in elementary (...) logic over finite models. We also investigate whether the proposed readings are sound from the cognitive perspective. We prove that almost all similarity quantifiers are intractable. This leads us to first-order variants, which only approximate the strong readings, but are cognitively more plausible. Driven by the question of ambiguity, we recall Barwise’s argumentation in favour of strong readings, enriching it with some arguments of our own. Given that Barwise-like sentences are indeed ambiguous, we use a generalized Strong Meaning Hypothesis to derive predictions for their verification. Finally, we propose a hypothesis according to which conflicting pressures of communication and cognition might give rise to an ambiguous construction, provided that different semantic variants of the construction withstand different pressures involved in its usage. (shrink)

L’article présente un texte inconnu de J. I. N. Baudouin de Courtenay, publié en 1872 à Poznañ, sous les initiales: „Dr. J. B.”, et intitulé: Du langage et des langues. Baudouin y introduit la distinction fondamentale du structuralisme: langue – langage – parole. Dans l’esprit de vulgarisation, après la lecture des Cours d’Oxford de Müller, il retrace l’histoire de la linguistique avec le comparatisme comme son achèvement et la figure majestueuse de Leibniz. Rejetant la recherche de la langue adamique, il (...) propose une classification des langues non selon leurs racines, mais d’après leurs structures: la structure d’une langue constitue sa „marque caractéristique”. Baudouin discute également le phénomène d’aphasie et se prononce contre la théorie des localisations cérébrales, tout comme Freud dans Zur Auffassung der Aphasien. Le rôle du „pont” entre leurs théories revient à Ernst von Brücke, maître de Freud, auteur des ouvrages traitant de la physiologie de la parole, très appréciés du linguiste. Dès ses premiers travaux de 1865, consacrés au physiologiste tchèque Purkyne, Baudouin se veut continuateur du programme linguistique de l’idéologue Volney, qui est tout simplement l’inverse du projet leibnizien. (shrink)

The article employs music to describe the dynamics of Central European identity at the turn of the 20th century. Conceptually, the analysis is based on the notion of cultural resonance and the distinction between political territories, which isolate identity, and cultural landscapes which let it escape. This theoretical understanding is derived from the acoustic philosophy and musical practice of two Central European composers, Leoš Janáček and Béla Bartók. Exemplified here is artistic ‘extra-territorial’ identity, which is indeed how Theodor Adorno at (...) one point referred to the ‘peripheral’ sound coming from the region. This process of identity construction amplifies paradoxical middle spaces, which Jean Luc Nancy describes evocatively as a cultural mêlée. The vitality of cultural resonance is fuelled by this primary contact with mundane reality and the ‘navigational hesitation’ underpinning identity and its many trajectories. (shrink)

This article discusses pilot data for a major research project into the discursive construction of identity in three-generation families living in border communities where each generation has experienced fundamental changes in their socio-political environment. The oral data on which the analysis is based were triggered by photographs from the communities in question, and are being analysed with discourse-analytical procedures. The article demonstrates how an innovative method of using symbolically-charged photography as triggers for oral narratives can solve a major dilemma for (...) discourse analysts interested in oral data. It also demonstrates the processes of identity construction under highly conflictual circumstances. Using examples mainly taken from the narratives of three individuals from three different generations, living in a town on the border between the former GDR and West Germany, the article discusses the discursive means of coming to terms with different kinds of difficulties encountered by each generation in constructing for themselves an identity in the new Germany. (shrink)

The fixed order quantity model of inventory management system is used in the deterministic part. Several elements of inventory cost, such as ordering cost, transportation and storing costs, frozen capital cost, as well as extra rebates, are taken into account in the model. Then the fuzzy optimization problem for the total cost function is formulated within the space of Ordered Fuzzy Numbers when all variables of the model are fuzzy. After the choice of a particular defuzzification functional an appropriate theorem (...) is formulated which gives the solution of the problem. (shrink)