The article reviews the book Elementy etyki lekarskiej [Issues in Physician Ethics], by Tadeusz Biesaga.

According to the normative approach, speech acts are governed by certain norms. Interestingly, the same is true for classes of speech acts. This paper considers the normative treatment of constatives, consisting of such classes as assertives, predictives, suggestives, and more. The classical approach is to treat these classes of illocutions as species of constatives. Recently, however, Simion (Shifty Speech and Independent Thought: Epistemic Normativity in Context, Oxford University Press, 2021) has proposed that all constatives (i) are species of assertion, and (...) (ii) are governed by the knowledge norm. I defend the classical treatment of constatives and show that Simion’s conclusion is untenable. No taxonomy of speech acts can accommodate such a view. More importantly, we can test whether a particular speech act is an assertion or not. I propose five tests of assertion, the passing of which is a necessary condition for being an assertion. Some constative speech acts fail these tests. Thus, contrary to Simion, not all constatives can be regarded as species of assertion. (shrink)

Grzegorz W. Kolodko, one of the world's leading authorities on economics and development policy and a key architect of Poland's successful economic reforms, applies his far-reaching knowledge to the past and future of the world economy, introducing a framework for understanding our global situation that transcends any single discipline or paradigm. Deploying a novel mix of scientific evaluation and personal observation, Kolodko begins with a brief discussion of misinformation and its perpetuation in economics and politics. He criticizes the simplification (...) of complex economic and social issues and investigates the link between developments in the global economy and cultural change, scientific discoveries, and political fluctuations. Underscoring the necessity of conceptual and theoretical innovation in understanding our global economic situation, Kolodko offers a provocative study of globalization and the possibility of coming out ahead in an era of worldwide interdependence. Deeply critical of neoliberalism, which sought to transfer economic control exclusively to the private sector, Kolodko explores the virtues of social-economic development and the new rules of the economic game. He concludes with a look at our near and distant future, questioning whether we have a say in its making. (shrink)

This article attempts to investigate the potential resonances between Paul Ricoeur’s and Julia Kristeva’s theories of otherness as applied to the study of poetry by the Northern-Irish poet Sinéad Morrissey. In all of her five poetry books she explores various forms of otherness and attempts to sketch them in verse. She confronts alterity in many ways, approaching such subjects as the relationship with the body and children, encounters with foreigners, and coming to terms with what is foreign within us. This (...) article engages primarily with her experiences of China, which she recorded in the long poem “China” from her third collection, The State of Prisons. Firstly, this article tackles the question of the body, which is interpreted on the basis of Morrissey’s “post-mortem” poems. Their reading prepares the ground for further explorations of otherness, which Morrissey locates at the very heart of human subjectivity. In this way, she also manages to establish a poetic framework for an ethical consideration of otherness. By investigating the working of the human psyche, Morrissey seems to go along the lines of Kristeva and Ricoeur, who claim that otherness is inextricably linked with the formation of human subjectivity. Taking a cue from their philosophical enquiries, the article also attempts to establish where Kristeva’s and Ricoeur’s philosophies overlap. (shrink)

This book provides an incisive, basic introduction to many-valued logics and to the constructions that are "many-valued" at their origin. Using the matrix method, the author sheds light on the profound problems of many-valuedness criteria and its classical characterizations. The book also includes information concerning the main systems of many-valued logic, related axiomatic constructions, and conceptions inspired by many-valuedness. With its selective bibliography and many useful historical references, this book provides logicians, computer scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians with a valuable survey (...) of the subject. (shrink)

The speech act of inquiry is generally treated as a default kind of asking questions. The widespread norm states that one inquires whether p only if one does not know that p. However, the fact that inquiring is just one kind of asking questions has received little to no attention. Just as in the declarative mood we can perform not only assertions, but various other speech acts, like guesses or predictions, so in the interrogative mood we can also make various (...) speech act types. I propose a speech-act-theoretic account of a distinct kind of question that I label exam questions. According to the proposed account, one performs an exam question p only if (i) one has access to the answer to p, and (ii) one does not officially know whether the hearer knows the answer to p. Exam questions satisfy all the necessary requirements of being a distinct kind of speech act. Additionally, my proposal contributes to the recent expansion of the normative approach to a variety of speech acts. (shrink)

W dotychczasowej popularyzacji w\iedzy oraz w badaniach naukowych nad dziejami kościoła oo. Bernardynów we Lwowie dużo miejsca poświęca się ogólnej historii i walorom artystycznym zabytku. W przypadku epitafiów i tablic pamiątkowych zwraca się przede wszystkim uwagę na ich stan zachowania i wygląd, z pominięciem informacji o okolicznościach powstania i fundacji. Niniejszy artykuł uzupełnia tę lukę i przybliża na podstawie zachowanej dokumentacji archiwalnej okoliczności ich wmurowania, nazwiska fundatorów i charakterystykę dokumentacji w odniesieniu do epitafiów i tablic wykonanych w XIX i XX (...) wieku. Jak dotąd aspekt ten oraz dokumenty nie były przedmiotem analiz i publikacji. (shrink)

Artykuł jest celnym przeglądem metod dowodzenia twierdzeń o stopniach maksymalności i rezultatów uzyskanych w tej dziedzinie do 1979 r.

In this paper, I discuss some philosophical problems connected with the notion of regarding the aggregates (_khandha_) as self in the Nikāyas. In particular, I focus on the attitude represented by the formula “I am this” (_esohamasmi_) which may be labeled as that of identifying with the aggregates. In the first part of the paper, I point out and analyze certain similes contained in the Nikāyas which may be read as implying the existence of a distinction between the aggregates and (...) the individual who regards them as self. Then, I consider a hypothesis that the aggregates are not objective constituents of a human being but subjectively experienced representational phenomena. I argue that several Nikāya texts imply the existence of important aspects of a human being, in particular cognitive ones, which are not conceptualized in the terms of the five aggregates. I also discuss the possibility of interpreting _khandha_s as not active in character but as resultant of other cognitive processes. In the last part of the paper I offer a hypothesis that one of the key aspects of regarding the aggregates as self lies in the identification of a human individual with one’s own phenomenal self-representation which results in a mistaken projection of the notions of agency, identity and subjectivity onto something that is inherently devoid of it. I also consider certain parallels between the ideas present in the Nikāyas and the concepts of the modern philosophy of mind. (shrink)

Poprzednie Antologie dotyczyły I Rzeczypospolitej, okresu zaborów oraz myśli politycznej po 1989 r., obecna obejmuje okres dwudziestolecia międzywojennego. Naszą – redaktorów – intencją było zapewnienie czytelnikowi możliwości bezpośredniego obcowania ze źródłem. Każde omówienie zawiera bowiem – nawet niezamierzoną – interpretację. Niezależnie od tego współcześnie możemy dostrzec powrót do części idei powstałych w okresie międzywojennym. Dajemy więc odbiorcy możliwość odpowiedzi na pytanie, czy mamy do czynienia z epigonami, czy z twórczymi kontynuatorami dawnych koncepcji. Wśród tekstów reprezentatywnych znalazły się zatem także te (...) nieznane, a wartościowe, sięgnęliśmy do publicystyki mniej znanych reprezentantów oraz grup marginalnych jak anarchiści czy synarchiści. Zdecydowaliśmy się na przyjęcie układu według nurtów politycznych. Z kolei w obrębie każdego z nurtów zastosowano kryterium chronologiczne. Dzięki temu możliwe było zasygnalizowanie kierunków ewolucji opinii i trendów np. w odniesieniu do instytucji państwa. Zbiór nasz adresujemy do szerokiego grona odbiorców: studentów, pracowników nauki, a także wszystkich osób zainteresowanych ideami politycznymi. (shrink)

The essay presents an outline of the arguments for relativistic theses. Theses: about the theoretical incommensurability and undetermined translation interpreted in ethnic languages (Polish and Swahili). I justify the statement that the conceptual framework of individual languages – by analogy – to the analysed examples are mutually and fundamentally untranslatable. Untranslatable, at least concerning the fundamentally different cultural traditions characterizing the civilization of writing versus oral culture. I also indirectly justify the legitimacy of questioning the linear concept of development based (...) on the involuntary acceptance in the humanities and social sciences of Euclidean geometry. Consequently, the article is part of a series of publications in which I argue for the need to reconstruct fundamental epistemological categories. (shrink)

I propose an analysis of lying with uninformative speech acts. The orthodox view states that lying is restricted to assertions. However, the growing case for non-assertoric lies made by presuppositions or conventional implicatures challenges this orthodoxy. So far, the only presuppositions to have been considered as lies were informative presuppositions. In fact, uninformative lies were not discussed in the philosophical literature. However, limiting the possibility of lying to informative speech acts is too restrictive. Firstly, I show that standard, uninformative presuppositions (...) can also be lies. Secondly, I extend this picture into uninformative lies made by declarative statements. To implement my proposal, I do not need a new definition of lying. Recently popular commitment-based definitions of lying are able to properly handle uninformative lies. (shrink)

We consider definable topological dynamics forNIPgroups admitting certain decompositions in terms of specific classes of definably amenable groups. For such a group, we find a description of the Ellis group of its universal definable flow. This description shows that the Ellis group is of bounded size. Under additional assumptions, it is shown to be independent of the model, proving a conjecture proposed by Newelski. Finally we apply the results to new classes of groups definable in o-minimal structures, generalizing all of (...) the previous results for this setting. (shrink)

The problems of transhumanism cannot be considered in isolation from the very rapidly changing advancements of modern technology which has become an immanent part of the modern scientific paradigm and is beginning to affect all people more and more. Focusing the discussion on epistemological and ethical issues alone, while identifying the utopian assumptions of the transhumanism ideology, does not allow to create any useful tools that could restrain the negative phenomena in the world of technoscience. Understanding certain technological concepts developed (...) in environments sensitive to the transhumanist ideas requires appropriate expertise. Many of them touch on the most important aspects of Christian anthropology. In order to understand them properly, it is necessary to investigate the most important results of scientific research carried out in the last few years in the largest scientific laboratories. (shrink)

Genetic engineering promises to change the human condition by changing certain human characteristics. Why not take control of such changes and secure positive outcomes, making use of our progressing knowledge about human genetic make-up and our increasingly sophisticated skills? This paper elaborates the meanings of the word “change,” a cornerstone of the enhancement debate, focusing not on technicalities of genetic engineering but on philosophical implications of its implementation. The paper then turns to some of the complexities and difficulties of the (...) debate. Finally, it takes up a strictly philosophical investigation of what we mean by “change” as far as a basic structure of the human being (the human person) is concerned, and examines what conclusions can be drawn for genetic enhancement. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 10.4 (Winter 2010): 723–740. (shrink)

The concept of personhood has been recently strongly criticized by some bioethicists. The present article aims at refuting these criticisms. In order to show how the notion of personhood operates in bioethics, two understandings of it proposed by an Italian bioethicist Maurizio Mori are sketched: a person as a part of the cosmological order and a person as an autonomous-like entity. It is argued that none of the proposed understandings is adequate. The cosmological concept perceives the person as a derivative (...) of the empirical processes. The autonomous-like, in turn, conceives the person as a freely acting subject. This paper endeavours to prove that both conceptions are one-sided. In order to do that, the thought of German philosopher Robert Spaemann is deployed. He convincingly points out that the person must be considered from a so-called “modus existendi” stance. It means that to be a person is to possess a unique way of being. That being encompasses the material content not as a casual factor but as an indispensable mean of expressing itself. The final thesis is that the person's being is man's life. Drawing upon such a conclusion, it is taken up a critical discussion with the views rejecting the usefulness of the concept. (shrink)

U większości ludzi lewa półkula odgrywa decydującą rolę zarówno w kontroli zdolności językowych jak i wyuczonych gestów manualnych. U osób praworęcznych, lewostronne obszary kory mózgowej kontrolują ponadto działania dłoni i palców ręki dominującej, włączając w to ruchy sięgania w kierunku celu, chwytania przedmiotów i manipulowania nimi. Dlatego do niedawana nie było oczywiste, czy lateralizacja funkcji językowych jest ściślej związana z kontrolą preferowanej ręki, czy też z przetwarzaniem informacji wyższego rzędu niezbędnych w sprawnej komunikacji przy pomocy gestów, niezależnie od wykorzystywanego ramienia (...) i dłoni. Za drugą z tych opcji przemawia to, że u większości osób leworęcznych lewa półkula także dominuje w kontroli języka i~gestów. Przeciw zdają się świadczyć przykłady nietypowej lateralizacji zdolności językowych do prawej półkuli, przy lewopółkulowej reprezentacji gestów manualnych. Choć dotąd względnie dobrze poznano jak często dochodzi do nietypowej lateralizacji niektórych funkcji w mózgu, ciągle nie jest jasne, jakie są tego przyczyny. Co ważniejsze, dopiero niedawno naukowcy zaczęli z sukcesem badać wzajemne relacje pomiędzy różnymi zdolnościami poznawczymi u ludzi zdrowych. Badania te sugerują istnienie bliskich zależności pomiędzy lateralizacją na pozór odmiennych funkcji, takich jak język i gesty, w przypadkach dotąd uznawanych za raczej wyjątkowe. Te ostatnie, z kolei, często łączono z reorganizacją mózgu w następstwie choroby lub innych zakłóceń jego działania. Tymczasem, istnienie ścisłych relacji pomiędzy reprezentacjami na pozór odmiennych dyspozycji poznawczych w przypadkach nietypowych, a nie mających źródła w chorobie i urazach, sugeruje nieco inny model lateralizacji funkcji w mózgu. (shrink)

Interpretations of the tax law, issued by tax authorities, are a fairly new institution in Poland. They were introduced into the legal system by the Tax Ordinance Act of 29 October 1997. From that time these regulations were deeply changed three times. Now it seems that Polish legislator has finally succeeded in elaborating an appropriate model for binding interpretation of tax law that protects the interests of taxpayers. However, discussed regulations seem to need some other amendments. The objective of this (...) article is to present the evolution of the provisions pertaining to the issuing of the so-called official interpretations of tax law and to point at certain shortcomings of the present regulations. (shrink)

The purpose of the article is to draw comparisons between the major normative rules of distributive justice. This comparison is based on a kind of distribution of goods which is sometimes called the problem of pure distribution, i.e. the distribution of a homogeneous, infinitely distributable good in a situation when claims of different persons on the distributed good were in no way differentiated. This problem is defined against the background of typology of problems of goods distribution. Normative rules of distributive (...) Justice are defined formally as social welfare functionals. Eight rules of justice are distinguished: the rule of the utilitarian, Rawls’s maximin rule, Rawls’s lexicographical maximin rule, the maximax rule of the conservatives, the rule of lexicographical maximax of the conservatives, Nash’s rule, and two rules advanced by egalitarianists which differ by the meaning attributed to equality of distribution. Premises underlying the construction of these rules of justice and which indicate the measurement of preferences and possibilities of interpersonal comparisons are discussed. The same justice rules are also presented graphically. The method of the comparison amounts to examining if a certain set of ethical postulates is fulfilled by the rules under consideration. Several ethical postulates concerning the distribution of goods are formulated. Some of them define conditions any method of evaluating inequality of distribution of goods should fulfil. The remaining postulates involve more general requirements put to methods of making social decisions. Theorems about the fulfilment or nonfulfilment by individual rules of distributive justice of the considered ethical postulates are presented in a recapitulating table. The author demonstrates that almost a1l justice rules fulfil general postulates put to methods of social decision making. Nash’s rule and the two rules of the egalitarians are the exceptions, as they do not fulfil the postulate of separability with respect to unconcerned individuals. Besides, the two rules of the egalitarians do not fulfil the Pareto optimality principle. Significant differences between rules of distributive justice become manifest only when you compare way they fulfil ethical postulates concerning the manner of evaluating the inequality of the distribution. With regard to this set of postulates, they can be arranged along a definite continuum, with Rawls’s lexicographical maximin — the radical egalitarian rule, and the lexicographical maximax of the conservatives – the radical conservative rule as the extreme points of this continuum. (shrink)

Obalenie aksjomatu Fregego przez R. Suszko otwiera możliwość odróżnienia wartościowań logicznych od odwzorowań referencyjnych. Podążając tą drogą można wywnioskować, że każda logika, tzn. relacja inferencji spełniająca warunki Tarskiego, jest logicznie dwuwartościowa. Konstruując trójwartościową relację inferencji pokazujemy, że wprowadzenie pojęcia wielowartościowości logicznej jest nierozerwalnie związane z rewizją podstaw teorii konsekwencji logicznej.