Two different kinds of multiple-conclusion consequence relations taken from Shoesmith and Smiley and Galatos and Tsinakis or Nowak, called here disjunctive and conjunctive, respectively, defined on a formal language, are considered. They are transferred into a bounded lattice and a complete lattice, respectively. The properties of such abstract consequence relations are presented.

Fischer’s approach for structure elucidation of linear aldohexoses is still the most widespread alternative in textbooks for carbohydrates. However, in post-Fischer era, a series of remarkable discoveries and inventions were made in different laboratories, and by their use a more comprehensive and coherent strategy for structure elucidation of linear isomeric aldohexoses can be elaborated. Fischer used the exceptional properties of d-mannose for the knowledge of configuration of C-2 and called it the key of the gate to stereochemistry. We bring the (...) evidence that Fischer had an alternative to this monosaccharide, d-idose. Fischer discovered the correct structure of the enantiomers of tartaric acid by pure intuition but Bijvoet proved it experimentally by means of X-rays. Hybridization, a concept taken by L. Pauling from biology, reconciled physics and chemistry concerning the valence of carbon atom and explained the stereochemical picture that had been empirically elaborated by Van’t Hoff and Le Bel. Other chemical transformations of monosaccharides, useful in the elucidation of their structure, have been also discovered or invented in post-Fischer era. (shrink)

Singer claims that there are two ways of challenging the fact that brain-dead patients, from whom organs are usually retrieved, are in fact biologically alive. By means of the first, the so called dead donor rule may be abandoned, opening the way to lethal organ donation. In the second, it might be posited that terms such as “life” and “death” do not have any primary biological meaning and are applicable to persons instead of organisms. This second possibility permits one to (...) acknowledge that brain-dead patients are deceased because they are irreversibly unconscious. In the commentary which follows, I will argue that Singer’s second option is preferable since it provides a higher amount of organs available for transplant, and is better suited to the meaning of “death” which occurs in ordinary language. I will also defend such a concept of death against the objections raised by Michael Nair-Collins in the article Can the brain-dead be harmed or wronged? On the moral status of brain death and its implications for organ transplantation. (shrink)

According to the mainstream position in the bioethical definition of death debate, death is to be equated with the cessation of an organism. Given such a perspective, some bioethicists uphold the position that brain-dead patients are dead, while others claim that they are alive. Regardless of the specific opinion on the status of brain-dead patients, the mere bioethical concept of death, according to many bioethicists, has the merit of being unanimous and univocal, as well as grounded in biology. In the (...) present article, we challenge such a thesis. We provide evidence that theoretical biology operates with a plurality of equally valid organismic concepts, which imply different conclusions regarding the organismal status of a brain-dead patient. Moreover, the theoretical biology concepts of an organism are very distant from the view on an organism that appears by way of bioethicists theorizing on death. We conclude that if death is to be understood as the cessation of an organism, there is no single correct answer to the question of whether a brain-dead patient is alive or dead. (shrink)

The paper deals with a generalization of the notion of partition for wider classes of binary relations than equivalences: for quasiorders and tolerance relations. The counterpart of partition for the quasiorders is based on a generalization of the notion of equivalence class while it is shown that such a generalization does not work in case of tolerances. Some results from [5] are proved in a much more simple way. The third kind of “partition” corresponding to tolerances, not occurring in [5], (...) is introduced. (shrink)

Recent literature has suggested that generics can harbor and propagate worrying ideologies in a manner which is often not appreciated by speakers. In this article, I argue that the use of generics to convey information about mental illness is unhelpful, whether the knowledge structure conveyed by the generic is 'accurate' or not. Inaccurate generics contribute to insidious forms of social stereotyping and stigma by encouraging us to simplistically generalize characteristics found in very few category members to other members of that (...) kind.Yet, even where the knowledge structure underlying the generic is accurate, generics remain an unhelpful way of talking about mental illness. This is because... (shrink)

Most philosophers recognize that applying the standard semantics for complex demonstratives to non-deictic instances results in truth conditions that are anomalous, at best. This fact has generated little concern, however, since most philosophers treat non-deictic demonstratives as marginal cases, and believe that they should be analyzed using a distinct semantic mechanism. In this paper, I argue that non-deictic demonstratives cannot be written off; they are widespread in English and foreign languages, and must be treated using the same semantic machinery that (...) is applied to deictic instances. (shrink)

The article provides a critical overview of the Polish bioethics literature concerning the shortage of organs for transplantation. Problems related to this issue bear, to a considerable degree, on the attempt to answer the question how to increase the number of organs available in ethically acceptable ways. Polish authors have focused, in this respect, on the analysis and assessment of two solutions: an opt out system of acquiring organs and a system that allows the aquisition of organs on a “free (...) market”. Both solutions have been almost unanimously negatively assessed. Apart from the presentation and critique of the positions of Polish bioethicists on this matter, an important part of the text is constituted by a report from a debate, held at the national level, on the criteria and definition of death: for it is only from the deceased donors that unpaired bodily organs, such as heart, can be taken. (shrink)

Somatic mutation plays a key role in transforming normal cells into cancerous cells. The analysis of cancer progression therefore requires the study of how point mutations and chromosomal mutations accumulate in cellular lineages. The spread of somatic mutations depends on the mutation rate, the number of cell divisions in the history of a cellular lineage, and the nature of competition between different cellular lineages. We consider how various aspects of tissue architecture and cellular competition affect the pace of mutation accumulation. (...) We also discuss the rise and fall of somatic mutation rates during cancer progression. BioEssays 26:291–299, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Artykuł przedstawia etyczny problem dehumanizacji w perspektywie prac i doświadczeń Mieczysława Wallisa, polskiego uczonego, przedstawiciela filozoficznej szkoły lwowsko-warszawskiej. W czasie II wojny światowej myśliciel ten spędził około 5 lat w niemieckich obozach jenieckich. Nie poddał się jednak wówczas atmosferze niepokoju i rezygnacji, nie pogrążył w strachu przed długotrwałą niewolą, lecz nieprzerwanie kontynuował swoją pracę naukową i dydaktyczną. W rezultacie, nie tylko zilustrował mechanizmy dehumanizacji zachodzące w rzeczywistości obozowej, ale także sformułował autorski intelektualny „program profilaktyczny”, który pozwalał obronić ludzką psychikę, osobowość, (...) doznania i emocje przed ich szkodliwym, destrukcyjnym wpływem. Jego fundamentem był świat ludzkiego wnętrza, postawa skupienia się na sferze wartości i przeżyć estetycznych oraz implikowanych przez nie specyficznie ludzkich działaniach. (shrink)

The present paper is intended to take up the basic issue in Marxist epistemology: does the development of human cognition include mechanisms that ensure the attainment of, or approximation to, the absolute truth?But to take up this issue we have to define the concept of absolute truth. This is why the paper begins with comment on the assumptions we adopt. This is followed by explanations of the concept of the absolute truth and that of relative truth and some of derivative (...) concepts, too. Section 3 is concerned with the problem of whether the absolute truth is attainable, and with the role played in the process by the correspondence principle, which is reconstructed in a specified way. (shrink)

In the Jewish tradition dybbuk is the soul of deceased, which takes control on the body of a living person. Its presence revals everlastingly interweaving of life and death. This article shows the connection between phenomenon of dybbuk and Sartre’s love conception; its focusing mainly on issues of the gaze and its relation with imagination. This text also register, that drama The Dybbuk continues romantic tradition, based on category of distance and status of the relation between love and death. Moreover, (...) article takes the problem of Jewish mysticism, in the context of Anski’s drama. What you are, dybbuk? Perhaps you live in each of us. (shrink)

Archive Materials of Mieczysław Wallis are in the collection of Combined Libraries of Philosophy and Sociology Faculties of the University of Warsaw, the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Science and the Polish Philosophical Society. There are two files devoted to Henryk Elzenberg. They contain a rich historical material, not published before and not known to many people. It is a valuable source of knowledge in the field of the history of Polish philosophy. Wallis’s notes provide (...) a lot of unique informations both on Elzenberg’s private life and also his activity in the scientific community. Furthermore, they present his philosophical concepts, as well as his motions of life and adversities he had to cope with. M. Wallis’s memoirs are an unusual record of the friendship and scientific co-operation of the two scholars that lasted for a few decades. Wallis’s work creates also an intellectual testimony of the epoch, in which they both lived and worked. (shrink)

The main aim of the article is a justification and attempt to prove the rightness of the thesis that personal features and teaching, educational and pedagogical activity of Kazimierz Twardowski constitute the example of teaching attitude which may be set as a personal model for modern team of academic teachers. The attitude of Kazimierz Twardowski proves that the work of a teacher treated as a life mission is a kind of social service contributing to development of culture and science. For (...) the work of an academic teacher should be based on realizing of the values, ideals and attitudes socially desired, otherwise the society is threatened with not only stagnation or degradation of science but also arising and developing of attitudes which are socially harmful. (shrink)

The main purpose of this article is a presentation of the H. Elzenberg's philosophical theory of the ethical ideal. I pay special attention to the most interesting, from the ethical point of view, parts of his concept. Elzen-berg proposed the ethical ideal, the so called ‘homo ethicus’. I present two ways of its realisation: melioristic and soteristic. My aim is also to prove that Elzenberg’s theory demonstrates that some features of ethical activity distinguish a human being from the background of (...) the natural world and make them exceptional. These attributes include: the realisation of the perfect values such as the good and the beauty, having an ethical will, self-sacrifice, aspiring to perfection and moral salvation. (shrink)

The background of the brief analysis is the political turn taken place in the GDR in autumn 1989. The active role of the »basic-groups« and of the protestant churches in it is well-known. Nevertheless, there are many reasons to consider in a critical way the inner connection between protestantism and democracy in Eastern Germany. Not without any reserve the GDR-Protestantism can be looked at a forerunner and representative of democracy. The GDR-Protestantism seems tobe obliged to develop a better understanding of (...) all the elements constituting democracy. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that the ‘social meanings’ associated with sociolinguistic variation put pressure on the standard philosophical conception of language, according to which the foremost thing we do with words is exchange information. Drawing on parallels with the explanatory challenge posed by slurs and pejoratives, I argue that the best way to understand social meanings is to think of them in speech act theoretic terms. I develop a distinctive form of pluralism about the performances realized by means of (...) sociolinguistic variants, and I claim that engagement with such performances is an utterly pervasive feature of our linguistic activity. (shrink)