One of the main goals of contemporary media, along with the experts and professionals, who speak in them, has been to explain complex issues and provide the audience with clear descriptions of social reality. This is mostly achieved by the production of ideologically useful interpretative schemes that facilitate understanding of the issues present on the media agenda. An important strategy of shaping the public opinion in the way in which public affairs and the activity of social life participants is framed. (...) Analyses of such practices have been conducted for over thirty years within various research approaches collectively referred to as framing analysis. This research provides several arguments helping one to develop a more critical perspective on the representations of social phenomena dominant in the media and discourses of symbolic elites (e.g. opinion writers, academics, experts, journalists, politicians), along with the analyses of the origin of such phenomena, moral judgements and preferred "corrective policies". One of the phenomena defined by the media in Europe as the most important one for the past several years, is the so-called "New Right". The aim of the paper is to analyse the interpretative schemes used by the journalists of four Polish opinion-forming weeklies and to describe the activity of its German manifestation – the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (Pegida) social movement and the Alternative for Germany party (AfD). (shrink)

_Beyond Reason_ relates Wagner’s works to the philosophical and cultural ideas of his time, centering on the four music dramas he created in the second half of his career:_ Der Ring des Nibelungen_, _Tristan und Isolde_, _Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg_, and _Parsifal_. Karol Berger seeks to penetrate the “secret” of large-scale form in Wagner’s music dramas and to answer those critics, most prominently Nietzsche, who condemned Wagner for his putative inability to weld small expressive gestures into larger wholes. Organized (...) by individual opera, this is essential reading for both musicologists and Wagner experts. (shrink)

The article analyzes the process of modification of Japan’s foreign policy after Donald Trump’s election as US president. As short- and middle-range aims of Japan’s diplomatic strategy were outlined with expectation of victory of Hillary Clinton, Tokyo was forced to abruptly change its policy. Relying on the neoclassical realist theory, the article examines the complex interaction between the external factors, such as security threats from North Korea or China, and domestic factors both in Japan and the US, that is personal, (...) institutional, societal and economic determinants. It is argued that while it was strategic convergence between Tokyo and Washington that enabled relatively smooth cooperation between Prime Minister Abe and President Trump, internal factors, such as right-wing credentials of both decision makers, distorted and to some extent facilitated this process. (shrink)

Financial misconduct has come into the spotlight in recent years, causing market regulators to increase the reach and severity of interventions. We show that at times the economic benefits of illicit financial activity outweigh the costs of litigation. We illustrate our argument with data from the US Securities and Exchanges Commission and a case of investment misconduct. From the neoclassical economic paradigm, which follows utilitarian thinking, it is rational to engage in misconduct. Still, the majority of professionals refrain from misconduct, (...) foregoing economic rewards. We suggest financial activity could be reimagined taking into account intrinsic and prosocial motivations. A virtue ethics framework could also be applied, linking financial behavior to the quest for moral excellence and shared flourishing. By going beyond utilitarian thinking and considering alternative models, we offer a fuller account of financial behavior and a better perspective from which to design deterrence methods. (shrink)

What, if anything, has art to do with the rest of our lives, and in particular with those ethical and political issues that matter to us most? Will art created today be likely to play a role in our lives as profound as that of the best art of the past? A Theory of Art shifts the focus of aesthetics from the traditional debate of "what is art?" to the engaging question of "what is art for?" Skillfully describing the social (...) and historical situation of art today, author Karol Berger argues that music exemplifies the current condition of art in a radical, acute, and revealing fashion. He also uniquely combines aesthetics with poetics and hermeneutics. Offering a careful synthesis of a wide breadth of scholarship from art history, musicology, literary studies, political philosophy, ethics, and metaphysics, and written in a clear, accessible style, this book will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in the arts. (shrink)

THIS ESSAY will examine the connection between the subjectivity of man as a person and the structure of the human community. That relationship was tentatively explored in The Acting Person, especially in the chapter entitled "Participation." The present study is an attempt to develop insights initially introduced there.

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest nie tylko przybliżenie określonych obrazów raju i utopii, które ukazują się w różnych odsłonach w domenach imaginariów europejskich na przestrzeni dziejów, lecz także ukazanie powiązań owych obrazów z domeną dyskursów politycznych dążących do zmiany status quo oraz ukonstytuowania doskonałej, harmonijnej i nieantagonistycznej wspólnoty. Stworzenie takiej wspólnoty – pomimo uniwersalistycznych wizji, które imaginaria raju i utopii implikują – niejednokrotnie opiera się na mechanizmach inkluzji i ekskluzji. Mechanizmy tego typu są charakterystyczne przede wszystkim dla maksymalistycznych wizji i idei (...) politycznych, które dążą do rozwiązania wszelkich ludzkich problemów w sposób ostateczny i całkowity. Z takimi dążeniami należy wiązać nade wszystko rewolucyjne próby realizacji utopii, czy też budowy królestwa Bożego na ziemi. (shrink)

Este ensayo analiza el principio de celeridad constitucional y su incumplimiento en la administración de justicia en la provincia del Cañar en 2022. Se analizan los tiempos de tramitación de las acciones de protección de manera exhaustiva para evaluar cómo la variabilidad y las demoras afectan la eficacia del sistema judicial. Los datos muestran que, aunque la mayoría de los casos terminan en un rango aceptable, existen significativas demoras que afectan la efectividad de la justicia. La información proporcionada por la (...) Dirección Provincial de la Judicatura del Cañar es la base de la investigación., que se analiza utilizando estadísticas como la moda, la media y la mediana de los tiempos de resolución en diferentes etapas del proceso. Finalmente, se proponen medidas para mejorar la celeridad de la administración de justicia, como establecer plazos legales máximos, optimizar los procedimientos y mejorar la capacitación y los recursos del personal judicial. (shrink)

This paper examines the type of devotion of the early modern soldiers which was referred to as “the fearing of God”. The phenomenon started in the 1560s and continued for two centuries in the Polish and Lithuanian Duchy armies. It was based on the belief in the direct intervention of God during military action, which depended on the conduct of the soldiers. The commanders-in-chief promoted the vision of reality in which crimes were equated with sins and affected the outcome of (...) wars and battles, and even determined the safety of the soldiers themselves. The acts that were displeasing to God were to result in severe punishment during battles, while piety and good behavior guaranteed success. The analysis of this issue was conducted on the basis of normative acts issued by the commanders-in-chief, called military articles, which were supplemented by the analysis of military treaties. The paper emphasizes that this concept was promoted by all commanders regardless of denomination, including Polish Brethren, Lutherans, Reformed Evangelicals and Catholics. It was placed, as a rule, at the beginning of the military articles as an arenga, providing the basis for the validity of the criminal laws. The combination of the “fear of God” and the military law was shown to have rational justification: it guaranteed a higher discipline and morale, which could be reflected in the effectiveness of the warfare conducted. The application of this idea led to the breakdown of soldier solidarity and to the belief that the misconduct of individuals affected the fate of troops and entire armies. The most important creators of this concept include Florian Zebrzydowski, Jan Chodkiewicz and Stanisław Cikowski, and at the turn of the centuries it was developed by Jan Zamoyski and Krzysztof Radziwiłł, nicknamed Piorun. The most elaborate formula in the military articles was presented in the 17th century by Krzysztof Radziwiłł II, and a century later by Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł. A hypothesis was also formulated that an old concept, which survived as one of the elements of Old Polish culture, was adopted to evaluate the Battle of Warsaw of 1920, which has been referred to as the Miracle on the Vistula, what was supposed to symbolize the causal role of God during the war. (shrink)

This book encourages a debate over musical modernity; a debate considering the question whether an examination of the history of European art music may enrich our picture of modernity and whether our understanding of music's development may be transformed by insights into the nature of modernity provided by other historical disciplines.

Since its original identification as a component of the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) complex, K protein has been found not only in the nucleus but also in the cytoplasm and mitochondria and is implicated in chromatin remodeling, transcription, splicing and translation processes. K protein contains multiple modules that, on one hand, bind kinases while, on the other hand, recruit chromatin, transcription, splicing and translation factors. Moreover, the K‐ protein‐mediated interactions are regulated by signaling cascades. These observations are consistent with K (...) protein acting as a docking platform to integrate signaling cascades by facilitating cross‐talk between kinases and factors that mediate nucleic‐acid‐directed processes. Comparison of K across species reveals that it is an essential factor in metazoans, but not in yeast. Although some of the K protein interactions and functions are conserved in eukaryotes from yeast to man, the mammalian protein seems to play a wider role. The greater diversity of mammalian K protein interactions and function may reflect gain of novel docking sites and expansion evolutionary of gene expression networks. BioEssays 26:629–638, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the theory of plurality of realities introduced by Leon Chwistek. A critical analysis of this theory and an extensional interpretation of Chwistek’s axiomatic descriptions of four realities lead to an epistemological interpretation of this theory. The word “plurality” in the title is a result of different waysof understanding the same original set of sense-data. This interpretation is contrasted with Kazimierz Pasenkiewicz’s ontological version of this theory. In the final parts of the paper the most important consequences (...) of this theory are discussed. First, the ethical relativism postulated by Chwistek is criticized. Second, an attempt to illustrate the plurality of realities with an example of different styles of painting is discussed. Third, a critical rationalism in the form of a kind of practical attitude toward social reality, which results from the theory of plurality of realities, is outlined. (shrink)

The ArgumentCassirer's analyses of twentieth-century physics from the perspective of the philosophy of science focuses on the concept of the object of scientific experience. Within his concept of functional knowledge, he takes a structural stance and claims that it is specifically this concept of the object that has paved the way for modern science. This article aims, first, to show that Cassirer's interpretation of Felix Klein's “Erlanger Programm” provided the impetus for this view. Then, it analyzes Kant's conception of objectivity (...) in order to examine whether Cassirer can rightfully claim that his view is a further development of transcendental principles. Finally, it is argued that it is Cassirer's concept of the object that enables him to integrate one decisive feature of scientific progress, namely, the increasinggeneralizationof the basic concepts of a science, into his conception of knowledge. This is illustrated in more detail through the example of the progression from Newton's mechanics to relativity theory. (shrink)

In this paper, I discuss a connection between quidditism and the Lewisian principle of recombination. I begin by reconstructing a typical characterisation of a Lewisian principle of recombination, followed by an explanation of quidditism. In the remainder, I argue that a proponent of a Lewisian principle of recombination cannot endorse quidditism without some important modifications of her view.

In the paper a thesis is stated that institutional economics presents considerable support for business ethics teaching. The assumptions of main-stream economics eliminated the problems of morality in economic life. The dominance of neo-classical economics in economic studies curricula contributes to the social opinion that business is deprived of moral dimensions. From this point of view, it is argued that business ethicists should be more interested in institutional economics. Some institutionalists see economics close to social moral philosophy and claim that (...) a normative approach in economics is natural and necessary. The questions of aims and economic morality are integral parts of many institutional research agendas. Especially the New Institutional Economics has developed tools that enable formalization and empirical verification of theories of morality in business. Institutional economics enriches the theoretical and empirical context of business ethics teaching. (shrink)

The idea of fundamentalism is repeatedly present in mass media and often occupies the center of religious and political discussions. There are some sociological conditions of fundamentalism and different applications of the term in mass media. The psychological research tries to explain the phenomenon as well. The philosophical analysis put the question of the nature of fundamentalism. The following text tries to give an answer to such a question. The fundamentalism seems to be no traditional, but inherently a modern movement (...) that it´s religious convictions puts absolutely through, mainly in politics. (shrink)

The paper offers an attempt at an introduction to the political theory of Eric Voegelin, the political scientist, philosopher and social scientist, whose thought has been increasingly recognized in both the USA and Europe ever since shortly after his death in 1985. It explores the political dimension of Voegelin’s thought from a purely secular point of view, but could also be helpful to those looking to find a religious meaning in politics.