Determinism fails easily if spacetimes with points removed from the spacetime manifold are taken to be physically reasonable representations of a way the world could be according to classical general relativity. I discuss a recently proposed condition for determining which spacetimes have holes—epistemic hole freeness—and show that epistemic hole freeness gives the correct verdict in some non-globally hyperbolic spacetimes with a closed subset removed, certain spacetimes with genuinely indeterministic features count as having an epistemic hole, which implies that the requirement (...) of epistemic hole freeness enforces a form of determinism, and there is a large class of spacetimes that intuitively are radically indeterministic and unphysical due to containing a hole, but are free from epistemic holes. I show that a few natural ways of remedying are not satisfactory. (shrink)

I discuss candidates for definitions of determinism in the context of general relativistic spacetimes, and argue that a definition which does not make recourse to any particular region of spacetime should be preferred over alternatives; one such notion is discussed in detail in the light of various physical examples. The emerging picture of determinism is a pluralist one: sometimes there is no unique way of making our intuitive concept of determinism precise. Instead, what is crucial for assessment of determinism of (...) the theory are auxiliary conditions under which it counts as deterministic or indeterministic, and justification for using them in a given situation. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Capital regulations stemming from the Basel accords created incentives for banks to securitize mortgages, even risky ones; hold them at a correspondingly low Basel risk weight; or shift them off of banks' balance sheets to obtain even greater leverage. Securitization was praised by economists and regulators for dispersing risks to investors across the world, providing greater resilience to the financial system. However, since in reality banks tended to hold onto securitized assets—either on their balance sheets or off of them, (...) in off‐balance‐sheet entities—the accumulated credit risk remained with the banks, especially in the “shadow banking sector.” This explains the heightened vulnerability of the financial system to a sudden collapse. (shrink)

Problem republikanizmu należy do zespołu problemów polityki, którymi Kant zajął się już pod koniec życia. Rozwój i doskonalenie się człowieka nie mieści się w działaniu ludzkiej natury, która jest niezmienna, ale w osobowym działaniu wolności. Ostatecznym tego celem jest wieczny pokój. Warunkiem zaś rozwoju i osiągnięcia celu najwyższego jest zbudowanie ustroju republikańskiego. Kant pokazuje to m.in. na przykładzie rewolucji francuskiej. Choć jest zdecydowanym przeciwnikiem każdej rewolucji, ze względu na sposoby jej realizacji, to w tym przypadku jej skutki ocenia pozytywnie, gdyż (...) wyraziło się w niej prawo narodu do swobodnego nadania sobie ustroju obywatelskiego prawego i uznanego za dobry, jakim jest ustrój republikański. Ustrój republikański jest najlepszy ze wszystkich i określa formę państwa oraz ważniejszą od niej formę rządu, charakteryzującą się rozdzieleniem władz ustawodawczych i wykonawczych oraz trzema istotnymi zasadami: 1) zasadą wolności wszystkich obywateli; 2) zasadą zależności wszystkich od wspólnego prawa; 3) zasadą równości obywateli. (shrink)

This is an English translation of Juliusz Domański’s “Fausta Socyna Explicatio primae partis primi capitis Euangelii Ioannis i egzegeza erazmiańska,” in his "Erasmiana minora. Studia i szkice o pisarstwie filozoficznym i religijnym Erazma z Rotterdamu" (Warsaw: Instytut Tomistyczny, Instytut Filologii Klasycznej UW, 2017), 337–63. Translated with the Author’s permission. The paper compares the method of Biblical interpretation used by Erasmus of Rotterdam with the method of Socinus, raising the question of the extent to which the method outlined by Socinus (...) in his Explicatio primae partis primi capitis Euangelii Joannis can be seen as continuous and and consonant with the method of Erasmus, and to what extent it should be seen as its rejection or modification. In addition, the essay outlines similarities and differences, with respect to both method and content, between Erasmus' Adnotationes and Socinus’ Explicatio. (shrink)

The rapid development of the internet and the growth of the cyberspace is the most significant phenomenon of our times. The cyberspace puts pressure on all of us to adapt to its constraints. Its influence is also palpable in philosophy, and on the teaching of philosophy in particular, and there is increasing pressure to adapt philosophical education to the internet format. This paper argues that such pressure is not necessarily conducive to better education in philosophy, which requires more discursive and (...) abstract reasoning. (shrink)

Two interesting “no hole” spacetime properties, not being future nakedly singular) are unstable in the fine topology.

This volume presents the _Enchiridion_ and the _Exomologesis_, two core texts of Erasmian theology. Ce volume présente l’Enchiridion et l’Exomologesis, deux textes fondementaux de la théologie érasmienne.

Civil society was defined in various ways. Among others, J. Locke, G.W.F. Hegel and A. de Tockeville presented the most relevant characteristic of what civil society is or could be. For the purpose of the paper we distinct civil society and the state. To the first one we assign spontaneity and diversity, the second we treat as procedural and homogeneous. In the paper we will stand for the thesis: civil society is the nest of virtues and as such characterized plays (...) one of the most prominent parts in contemporary social and political reality. The problem is not that presently civil society does not exist. The problem is that once it was established within the state, it has been developed in such a way that it became a hybrid combined from the state and what could be called apolitical human activity. The core of the problem is that the hybrid is more political than apolitical. To the essence of civil society belong: existence of free associations of any kind, economy free from political coerce as much as it could be and public sphere of opinion, all organized in such a political way that the political power is limited by division of it to three independent institutions: a legislature, an executive and a judiciary and also by the law. A ground for apolitical human social activities was prepared by J. Locke in his political theory. The state is one of possible emanations of apolitical society in the state of nature. Montesquieu expanded such a vision of society that it exists within the state but the state itself is limited by division of political power and civil rights which allow the members of the society to protect their freedom and dignity. Moral civil society we are developing protect the citizens from overwhelming influence of the state and particular egoisms of individuals. As such it promotes moral activity, it brings trust to the public sphere and it protects human dignity. (shrink)

The inherent complexity of modern financial systems, and their basis in human behavior, make it hard to establish unequivocally the “who, what, where, when, and why” of the global financial crisis. However, after almost a decade, we know enough to discard much of what has, in the meantime, become folk wisdom about the causes of the debacle, including Wall Street bonus culture, bankers’ greed, the moral hazard of “too big to fail,” government intervention (“too much government”) and deregulation (“not enough (...) government”). While each of these factors may have played some role, the crisis can be much more accurately described as one of ignorance than malevolence. The common thread tying the emergence of the bubble to the disastrous consequences of its bursting is the misunderstanding of correlation and causation links in three key domains: economic policy, financial modeling, and the regulatory framework. These misunderstandings helped fuel the housing bubble and introduced fragility into the system, making it vulnerable to the bubble’s subsequent, unavoidable burst. (shrink)