We are facing a crisis of trust in expertise today. Fewer and fewer people trust experts, and more and more politicians openly ignore expert consensus. 'Democracy in the Post-Truth Era' asks what might happen to democracy if we reject the fundamental liberal assumption that people are capable of making informed choices. The book explores the potential impact on society if people, including politicians, never appreciate the relevance of expert opinions. What if people cannot choose between supporters and opponents of key (...) issues such as the causes of climate change, effectiveness of vaccines and ways of combating economic and social crises? Applying social epistemology to these questions, the book considers whether democracy can be defended in the post-truth era. (shrink)

Paul Edwards' October 1989 essay, ‘Heidegger's Quest for Being’ illustrates the wisdom of the dictum that the only legitimate criticism of a philosopher's position is a constructive criticism. His negative critique amounts to no more than expressions of distaste, dislike, and displeasure, and nothing of philosophical interest follows from his assertions, as the discourse is primarily an argument ad hominem . He grossly misinterprets Heidegger on some elemental and fundamental matters as well. In particular, he sorely misinterprets what he refers (...) to as the ‘Quest for Being’, which only further contributes to the objectionable character of the essay. (shrink)

This book is both suitable for logically and algebraically minded graduate and advanced graduate students of mathematics, computer science and philosophy, and ...

We prove that if the Mathias forcing is followed by a forcing with the Laver Property, then any V\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\mathsf {V}$$\end{document}-q\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\mathsf {q}$$\end{document}-point is isomorphic via a ground model bijection to the canonical V\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\mathsf {V}$$\end{document}-Ramsey ultrafilter added by the Mathias real. This improves a result of Shelah and Spinas.

Any finite support iteration of posets with precalibre ℵ 1 which has the length of cofinality greater than ω 1 yields a model for the dual Borel conjecture in which the real line is covered by ℵ 1 strong measure zero sets.

By a sentential logic we understand a pair, where S is a sentential language, i.e. an absolutely free algebra freely generated by an infinite set p, q, r,... of sentential variables and endowed with countably many finitary connectives §1, §2,... and C is a consequence operation on S, the underlying set of S, satisfying the condition of structurality: eC ⊆ C, for every endomorphism e of S and for every X ⊆ S. If no confusion is likely we shall identify (...) a logic with its consequence operation C. A logic C is standard if C = [ {C : Y ⊆ X & Y is finite}, for all X ⊆ S. (shrink)

One can speak about mathematics too simplistically. On the one hand, school programs are such examples. On the other hand, the function of mathematics in elementary physics very much indicates the profound philosophical significance of mathematics: the author claims that mathematical language is a kind of command language, i.e. it is not just a description, but a control which has a specific power to manage the reality. This language has its proper hierarchy and structures which humans only are just starting (...) to understand and to use in basic ways, not without errors. Therefore some ethics regarding human mathematical thinking are needed: the affirmation of life. (shrink)

To create an astronomical software, one should use the most effective method to produce the quickest hardware calculation. However, the not so effective object oriented paradigm seems to have bigger influence on the astronomical domain. We discuss the status quo of its methodology. The traditional, Turing computation model does not have so distinct influence on knowledge creation because it is hardware-oriented. An object oriented programming language is more influential on discovery, because it works directly in the scientific domain.

Książka ta jest obszerną pracą o ścisłe historyczno-naukowym charakterze, przedstawiającą życie Stanisława Wydry, jezuity, profesora matematyki na Uniwersytecie w Pradze. Składa się ona z Wprowadzenia i rozdziałów poświęconych: oświeceniu i odrodzeniu narodowemu w Czechach; sytuacji uniwersytetu w Pradze, a w szczególności - Wydziału Filozoficznego; następnie – podręcznikom do matematyki na osiemnastowiecznym uniwersytecie w Pradze; życiu Stanisława Wydry oraz jego pracom naukowym - w tym kilku w szczególności, i wreszcie - jego oddziaływaniu na matematykę i kulturę Czech. Po Dodatku umieszczono wykaz (...) literatury oraz szereg skorowidzów. (shrink)

Psychological research is based on philosophical assumptions which are not always explicitly formulated. On the other hand, the results of these investigations affect philosophical thinking and the conception of human nature. For a long time it was a ruling conception in psychology that the essence of human nature consists in the existence of driving mechanisms with homeostatic properties drives or needs – which, principally, are inborn mechanisms modified by learning. The analysis of driving mechanisms founded on psychological and neuro-physiological data, (...) brought about a modification of this traditional view. Starting from the concept of need as an objective phenomenon it can be stated that the higher organisms have a special mechanisms securing the satisfaction of needs. They are drives. These mechanisms do not exist in a ready form in man but only potentially, as an ability to organize a functional unit in result of certain experience. The formation of drives includes: making connections between certain internal stimuli and some forms of activity reducing these stimuli; learning how to find things which are necessary to reduce them; and, finally, the acquisition of the ability to give verbal labels to the occurring processes. In consequence, the final form of a drive is determined by biological and social factors as well as by individual experiences. (shrink)

Dear Readers,After a long break caused, on the one hand, by staff changes in the Editorial Board and, on the other, by the lingering coronavirus pandemic, another issue of the Ignatianum Philosophical Yearbook is coming out. The new editorial team has decided to expand the journal’s formula to include texts from the general humanities; thus, there will be articles not only on philosophy, but also on history, cultural and religious studies, and theology, on top of Polish and foreign literature. The (...) journal is also open to a wide range of issues that take into account the mission of the Jesuit University Ignatianum as a Catholic research center. An important element of this approach is the issue of the Mediterranean civilizational tradition and cultural heritage, which in our understanding are the most important sources of knowledge and inspiration for the study of contemporary problems of individual people, societies and states as well. (shrink)

Matematyczność fizyki jest zjawiskiem, którego obecność jest dla nas zaskakująca, ale które pozwala nam na poznanie przyrody poprzez analizę matematycznych struktur ją opisujących. Dotyczy to jednak wyłącznie fizyki. Stopień matematyzacji biologii jest niewielki, a próby użycia języka matematyki sprowadzają się w istocie do stosowania w biologii metod matematycznych, których używa się do opisu układów fizycznych. Jest prawdopodobne, że popełniamy w ten sposób błąd przypisując układom biologicznym cechy, których nie posiadają. Pojawiają się głosy, że biologia wymaga nowych metod matematycznych dostosowanych do (...) jej potrzeb, nie znanych z fizyki. Sądzę jednak, że z uwagi na specyfikę złożoności, którą reprezentują układy biologiczne, zamiast o matematyczności biologii należy mówić o jej algorytmiczności. Jako przykłady algorytmicznego podejścia można przywołać tak zwane modele osobnicze używane między innymi do opisu dynamik populacji lub metody modelowania fraktalnego stosowane do opisu złożoności geometrii i jej dynamiki skomplikowanych struktur biologicznych, takich jak na przykład drzewa. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to present the attempts of establishing institutions of a system of worker’s self-management in the selected countries of the so-called real socialism system in Eastern Europe. The analysis considers three of those countries, namely Yugoslavia, Poland and Hungary, whose experiences in participation of the employees’ implementation were the most significant. Particular attention was paid to the evolution of socialist regimes approach to workers’ self-management. The paper tries to answer the question whether workers’ self-management posed (...) a threat to the socialist regimes persistence. The research method used in the study is an indepth survey and analysis of literature and legal acts. (shrink)

An explanation is given of why, after adding to a model M of ZFC first a Solovay real r and next a Cohen real c, in M[ r][ c] a Cohen real over M[ c] is produced. It is also shown that a Solovay algebra iterated with a Cohen algebra can be embedded into a Cohen algebra iterated with a Solovay algebra.