Jacek Urbaniec: Platonism in the philosophy of mathematics does not necessarily imply that there are links between the temporal physical world and the eternal world of mathematics..

Jacek Filek criticizes the modern “nonethical” ethics. He points out its break with philosophy, lack of self-criticism, inanity, undue and fruitless formalism, and academism. His article makes a general request for the restitution of ethics as the independent and dignified scholarly discipline closely connected with world and life.

The following is an attempt to grasp synthetically the strategy and development of Jean Baudrillard’s intellectual standpoint. My view emphasizes late ideas by French Philosopher, while the earlier ones are treated from this perspective as preliminary. After having left Marxist and post-Marxist positions, Baudrillard developed an original and idiosyncratic way of thinking about contemporary world that—inspired by Nietzschean idea that the power of interpretation prevails over representation of truth—evolves around rejection of the traditional ideas of the social, reality and revolt, (...) while employing categories of mass, simulation or catastrophe. This attitude took him not only beyond good and evil, but also to affirmation of death and terror, conducting to an extreme standpoint of “intellectual terrorism”. (shrink)

Who, whom, why and how? -- The subject between extremes -- Genesis: the Socratic-Platonic deception or the irrepressible need for immortality -- Modern man: the adventures of Robinson Crusoe -- The scientific foundations of modern man -- The evolution of modern man, Nietzsche's moustache, the fittest man and the man without qualities: the four pillars of modern man -- Evolution and zoodicy: the animality of modern man -- Modernity as false consciousness -- Technology and the mind, God-machine, the individual vs. (...) Facebook -- That which returns -- The death of death and late-modern man. (shrink)

The article attempts to address the issue of nudity and eroticism in stage and screen versions of Shakespeare’s plays. Elizabethan theatrical conventions and moral and political censorship of the English Renaissance did not allow for an explicit presentation of naked bodies and sexual interactions on stage; rather, these were relegated to the verbal plane, hence the bawdy language Shakespeare employed on many occasions. Conventions play a significant role also in the present-day, post-1960s and post-sexual revolution era, whereby human sexuality in (...) Western culture is not just alluded to, but discussed and presented in an open manner. Consequently, nudity on stage and screen in versions of Shakespeare’s plays has become more marked and outspoken. Indeed, in both filmic and TV productions as well as stage performances directors and actors more and more willingly have exposed human body and sexuality to the viewer/spectator. My aim is to look at such instances from the perspective of realism and realistic conventions that the three media deploy and the effect nudity/sex can have on the recipient. The conclusion is that theatre is most conventional and stark realism and directness of the message need to be carefully dosed. Similarly to the theatre, television, more specifically television theatre, is, too, a most direct genre, as television is inherently a live medium, the broadcasts of which occur here and now, in the present tense. Film is markedly different from the two previous forms of art: it is narrated in the past tense, thus creating a distance between what is shown and the viewer, and allowing for more literalness. Naturally, particular cases discussed in the article go beyond these rather simple divisions. (shrink)

A direct consequence of the pandemic was the widespread occur-rence, and in many OECD countries – a growing public finance imbalance. The paper presents the results of research on the dynamics and structure of public debt, its relation to GDP and to the net borrowing of the general government sector. The main purpose of the article is to show the impact of the pandemic on the size and structure of public debt in the largest EU economies, as well as in (...) other selected OECD countries. An attempt was also made to identify factors that had a significant impact on the amount of public debt during the pandemic. The new debt was used primarily to finance net borrowing and, ultimately, to support the economy and selected social groups. However, as the article points out, the new debt to a significant extent financed the increase in liquidity in the public sector, and in some cases – a larger volume of loans granted by public sector entities and their equity investments. (shrink)

The purpose of the paper is to rethink the role of actuality in the branching model of possibilities. We investigate the idea that the model should be enriched with an additional factor—the so-called Thin Red Line—which is supposed to represent the single possible course of events that gets actualized in time. We believe that this idea was often misconceived which prompted some unfortunate reactions. On the one hand, it suggested problematic semantic models of future tense and and on the other, (...) it provoked questionable lines of criticism. We reassess the debate and point to potential pitfalls, focusing on the semantic dimension of the Thin Red Line theory. Our agenda transcends the semantics, however. We conclude that semantic considerations do not threaten the Thin Red Line theory and that the proper debate should be carried in the domain of metaphysics. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Frühmittelalterliche Studien Jahrgang: 46 Heft: 1 Seiten: 99-156.

In this article we consider linear isomorphisms over the field of rational numbers between the linear spaces ℝ2 and ℝ. We prove that if f is such an isomorphism, then the image by f of the unit disk is a strictly nonmeasurable subset of the real line, which has different properties than classical non-measurable subsets of reals. We shall also consider the question whether all images of bounded measurable subsets of the plane via a such mapping are non-measurable.

Neuropeptides vasopressin and oxytocin regulate a variety of behaviors ranging from maternal and pair bonding to aggression and fear. Their role in modulating fear responses has been widely recognized, but not yet well understood. Animal and human studies indicate the major role of the amygdala in controlling fear and anxiety. The amygdala is involved in detecting threat stimuli and linking them to defensive behaviors. This is accomplished by projections connecting the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) to the brain stem (...) and to hypothalamic structures, which organize fear responses. A recent study by Huber et al1 demonstrates that vasopressin and oxytocin modulate the excitatory inputs into the CeA in opposite manners. Therefore this finding elucidates the mechanisms through which these neuropeptides may control the expression of fear. BioEssays 27:869–873, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

In this paper being a sequel to our [1] the logic with semi-negation is chosen as an example to elucidate some basic notions of the semantics for sentential calculi. E.g., there are shown some links between the Post number and the degree of complexity of a sentential logic, and it is proved that the degree of complexity of the sentential logic with semi-negation is 20. This is the first known example of a logic with such a degree of complexity. The (...) results of the final part of the paper cast a new light on the scope of the Kripke-style semantics in comparison to the matrix semantics. (shrink)

This abstract is a contribution to the paper by R. Wojcicki [2]. We use the terminology introduced there, . In this note we show that 1 0 For each n 2 there exists a logic whose degree of uniformity and degree of complexity are both equal to n. 2 0 There is a logic with the degree of uniformity equal to 2 @0 but with the degree of complexity equal to @0.

The text contains information on the history of pedagogical thought. The author’s intention was to show universal goals and educational values and ideals throughout history.

The article emphasises that the importance of Herzen’s philosophical input is related to his human-centered approach. There are three areas of investigation that are of particular importance in this context: responsibility, freedom and chance. I argue that according to Herzen, chance, by tearing apart the net of supposedly necessary causes and effects in the physico-social world, proves that the existence of man is best understood as a manifestation of man's free agency. Whereas the lack of freedom would mean that an (...) individual is as determined as the objects that surround him, and consequently, that he cannot be held accountable for his deeds. (shrink)

W artykule poddaję analizie słynne twierdzenie Saula Kripkego, że niektóre prawdy a priori są przygodne. Pokazuję, że wbrew tezie Kripkego, przy historycznym rozumieniu przygodności, pojęcia przygodności i aprioryczności stoją ze sobą w głębokim konflikcie. Przy tym rozumieniu przygodności przeszłość, którą można poznać a priori, nie jest przygodna, a o przyszłości, która jest przygodna, trudno zdobyć wiedzę a priori. Doprecyzowawszy tezę Kripkego, proponuję trzy sposoby jej obrony w kontekście historycznego rozumienia możliwości: przez wprowadzenie pojęcia “faktycznej” przyszłości, przez zastąpienie pojęcia aprioryczności pojęciem (...) aprioryczności-wprzyszłości; przez zastąpienie pojęcia aprioryczności pojęciem historycznej aprioryczności, a pojęcia przygodności pojęciem niegdyś-przygodności. W aneksie do artykułu przedstawiam formalną analizę postawionego przeze mnie problemu oraz trzech zaproponowanych przeze mnie rozwiązań w języku temporalno-modalnej logiki predykatów dla modeli indeterministycznego czasu. (shrink)

Let J be any proper ideal of subsets of the real line R which contains all finite subsets of R. We define an ideal J * ∣B as follows: X ∈ J * ∣B if there exists a Borel set $B \subset R \times R$ such that $X \subset B$ and for any x ∈ R we have $\{y \in R: \langle x,y\rangle \in B\} \in \mathscr{J}$ . We show that there exists a family $\mathscr{A} \subset \mathscr{J}^\ast\mid\mathscr{B}$ of power ω (...) 1 such that $\bigcup\mathscr{A} \not\in \mathscr{J}^\ast\mid\mathscr{B}$ . In the last section we investigate properties of ideals of Lebesgue measure zero sets and meager sets in Cohen extensions of models of set theory. (shrink)

In her books Szymborska touches many diverte subjects but it is easy to notice her predilection for some topics with which she deals in her successive books of poems. Unplanned haphazard happenings, their category and their role in the life of the man, in reality and in the world, are her main preocupations. As our century has witnessed a breakthrough in indeterminacy due to surprising discoveries in natural sciences the question of haphazard happenings has become more important and intriguing. It (...) has a great fascination for artistics. W. Szymborska giving so much attention to the category of haphazards familiorizes the man with the reality in dissaway that can result in a chaos. In her poems influenced by natural sciences the category of haphazards is not only a leitmotif but also a fascinating enigma. For her casualness and situations resulting from chance are the main mechanism that controls the course of events. In her many poems she focuses on the mystery of haphazards and their inevitability. Her poem Wszelki wypadek (It Might Have Happened) is, perhaps, her first work where she doesn’t deal but with the role of haphazards played in the life of the man. She directs her attention to situations happening in unplanned or disorderly manner thus making possible to save one’s life. Haphazards not only can save the man’s life but they also determine the angle from which he sees the world where the haphazard is ruling. Haphazards can influence all the spheres that are important for the man. The world full of haphazards pictured in the poem is mosaic-like – a number of happenings, various possibilities for the course of particular events. The language describing those events matches the structure of composition. What is happening in the sphere of the language it is precisely reflected in the meaning. Her symmetric and precise structure of the poem results in a scheme called “the tree of decision” transformed by Szymborska in a “tree of possibilities”. In the poem Terrorysta, on patrzy (He is Watching, the Terrorist) the poetess tries to paint the ruthless mechanism of a haphazard meaning the life of people. A terrorist, after having planted a bomb in a bar, is watching people coming in and out of the bar. The whole poem is a silent question about the aim and the sense of the events impossible to understand for people who are involved in them. Szymborska’s latest book of poems (Koniec i początek, The End And The Beginning) confirms her strong interest in haphazards (especially in the poem Seans). The title of the poem is a metaphor between the casualness and the man. Again one focuses on the surprised man who cannot understand the sense of the events happening with his participation. The spectators are surprised because they don’t know the way the illusionist plays his tricks. Szymborska’s man is dependent on something over which he has no influence. He is the passive protagonist of events he takes part in. At the same time the category of haphazard stresses the joyful aspect of human existence. For Szymborska both haphazards are important: the one that threatens the man’s life and the other that makes possible to save his life. So the pessimism in the poem It Might Have Happened is balanced by optimism. The poetess, inspired by everyday world and new achievements in sciences, pictures a world where the haphazard and invitability coexist and integrate and interrelate. Szymborska, in her poetry, surmounts the contradiction between those categories. (shrink)

Francis Bacon’s program for modern medicine and its ethics, developed in De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum, includes the requirement that doctors alleviate the pain and suffering of terminally ill patients. Invoking the ancient idea of an “easy death”, Bacon calls this course of action “outward euthanasia”.This article demonstrates that, contrary to widespread opinion, Bacon does not anticipate “Dutch-style” euthanasia or “mercy-killing”, but rather palliative care without the intentional termination of a patient’s life.

Contemporary formalisations of Meinong's theory of objects prove that Russell's accusation of inconsistency of the theory is not valid. However, in the same formalisations there has appeared a new source of potential inconsistency. Theories of objects inspired by Meinong's ontology usually include, in addition to basic principles of the ontology, abstraction-axioms for defining objects and properties . Although these axioms seem to be perfectly acceptable, they lead to paradoxes when adopted without any restrictions. These paradoxes may be understood as paradoxes (...) of size : too many objects or too many properfies are defined by the axioms. We can avoid them at the cost of counterintuifive stipulations, some of them similar to those applied in set theory or in higher-order logics . We need however to look for phenomenologically well grounded protecfions against paradoxes. This search can deepen our understanding of the nature of Meinongian objects. (shrink)

The paper attempts to consider the problem of W. H. Auden’s political engagement in the 1930s in the context of his famous decision to leave England and settle down in the USA. The transatlantic journey of the eponymous member of so-called “Auden generation” prompted certain critics to set up a distinct caesura between the “English” and the “American” Auden, giving primacy to the accomplishments of the former and downplaying the works of the latter. As it is argued, America was not (...) the place of the poet’s radical volte-face, but only a certain important, logical stage in his personal and poetic evolution. His entanglements with politics were often mythologized, and occasional public and semi-political verse he “committed” often tended to subvert any attempts to pigeonhole the author in terms of his ideological stance. (shrink)

Book review: Niccolò Guicciardini, Isaac Newton and Natural Philosophy, Reaktion Books, London 2018, ss. 268.