The experimental philosophy of law is a recent movement that aims to inform traditional debates in jurisprudence by conducting empirical research. This paper introduces and provides a systematic overview of the main lines of research in this field. It also covers the most important debates in the literature regarding the implications of these findings for the philosophy and theory of law. It argues that three challenges arise when addressing (old) legal-philosophical questions in (new) experimental ways by drawing normative implications from (...) empirical data: such implications are value-driven, depend on explanations of empirical findings and vary across legal systems. (shrink)

The emotion of disgust is suggested to be an adaptation that evolved to keep us away from sources of infection. Therefore, individuals from populations with greater pathogen stress should have a greater disgust sensitivity. However, current evidence for a positive relationship between disgust sensitivity and the intensity of infectious diseases in the environment is limited. We tested whether disgust and contamination sensitivity changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Disgust was assessed in 984 women in 2017 and 633 women in (...) 2020 by a set of photographs depicting sources of infection and Pathogen and Moral of Three-Domain Disgust Scale. Further, contamination sensitivity among participants in two waves was measured by Contamination Obsessions and Washing Compulsions Subscale of Padua Inventory. State anxiety was measured with the Polish adaptation of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory only during the second wave of data collection. Women from the COVID-19 pandemic group assessed the photographs depicting sources of infection as more disgusting, scoring higher on Padua Inventory, but lower on Moral Disgust Domain as compared to women from before the pandemic. In addition, anxiety levels during pandemic positively correlated with scores from Pathogen Disgust Domain, Padua Inventory, and the ratings of the photographs. The participants of the study scored higher in state anxiety than the norms determined for the Polish population. Summarizing, we present evidence for differences in individual levels of disgust sensitivity in relation to pathogen stress, supporting the idea that disgust evolved to serve as protection from pathogens. (shrink)

The objective of the presented research was to test whether working memory, measured using the Spin the Pots task, is an important factor in passive vocabulary development in 2- and 3-year-old children. Two longitudinal studies were conducted. In the first, 135 children participated in the first study. At 18 months their responding to joint attention was measured, and then at 24 months their working memory and passive vocabulary was tested. It was demonstrated that responding to joint attention predicts the level (...) of development of working memory, which in turn influences the extent of the passive vocabulary. In the second study, 113 children participated - at 30 months their working memory was measured, and at 24 months and then 36 months their passive vocabulary was tested. It was observed that at the age of 3 working memory is still a significant predictor of passive vocabulary. The usefulness of the Spin the Pots task for measuring the working memory of young children was shown and discussed in conclusions. (shrink)

This paper investigates the relevance of social roles and hierarchies for the attribution of blame and causation in five culturally different countries, namely China, Germany, Poland, the United Arabic Emirates, and the United States of America. We demonstrate that in all these countries, hierarchical differences between the social roles occupied by two agents and associated differences in duties to care for others affect how these two agents are morally and causally judged when they make a decision together. Agents higher in (...) a hierarchy are attributed more blame and considered more causally responsible for an action’s consequences. We also demonstrate that the degree of this effect depends on culture-specific differences in how hierarchies are conceived. (shrink)

Only recently have philosophers and psychologists begun to consider empirical research methods to inform questions and debates in legal philosophy. With the field ripe for further experimental inquiry, this collection explores the most topical empirical developments and anticipates future research directions. Bringing together legal scholars, psychologists and philosophers, chapters address questions such as: Do people share a stable set of intuitions about what the law is? What are common perceptions about causation, intentionality, culpability, and are they consistent with the corresponding (...) technical legal concepts? To what extent can experimental research methods advance theoretical debates in legal philosophy about the nature of law? With fascinating implications for legal philosophy, ethics and moral psychology, Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Law sets the agenda for the emerging field of experimental jurisprudence and will be of interest to both researchers and practitioners alike. (shrink)

The role of titles in perception of visual art is a topic of interesting discussions that brings together artists, curators, and researchers. Titles provide contextual cues and guide perception. They can be particularly useful when paintings include semantic violations that make them challenging for viewers, especially viewers lacking expert knowledge. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of titles and semantic violations on eye movements. A total of 127 participants without expertise in visual art viewed 40 paintings (...) with and without semantic violations in one of three conditions: untitled, consistent titles and inconsistent titles. After each painting was viewed participants also rated liking and understanding. Our results suggest that titles affect the way paintings are viewed: both titled conditions were associated with shorter first fixation duration, longer saccade durations, and amplitudes and higher dynamic entropy than the untitled conditions. Titles were fixated on more frequently when presented alongside paintings with semantic violations than paintings without violations, and the percentage of fixations to titles was particularly high in the case of paintings with double inconsistencies. Also, we found that semantic violations attracted attention early on, whereas titles received attention later and inconsistencies in titles were processed even later. Finally, semantic violations were associated with higher dynamic entropy than paintings without violations. Our results demonstrate the importance of titles for processing of artworks, especially artworks that present a challenge for the viewers. (shrink)

What should judges do when faced with immoral laws? Should they apply them without exception, since “the law is the law?” Or can exceptions be made for grossly immoral laws, such as historically, Nazi law? Surveying laypeople (N = 167) and people with some legal training (N = 141) on these matters, we find a surprisingly strong, monotonic relationship between people's subjective moral evaluation of laws and their judgments that these laws should be applied in concrete cases. This tendency is (...) most pronounced among individuals who endorse natural law (i.e., the legal-philosophical view that immoral laws are not valid laws at all), and is attenuated when disagreement about the moral status of a law is considered reasonable. The relationship is equally strong for laypeople and for those with legal training. We situate our findings within the broader context of morality's influence on legal reasoning that experimental jurisprudence has uncovered in recent years, and consider normative implications. (shrink)

The development of self-regulation in early childhood is related to development of emotional regulation and attention, in particular executive attention. As the ability to self-regulate is crucial in life, it is important to reveal early predictors of self-regulation. The aim of the paper is to present the results of longitudinal studies on the relationships between the functioning of attention, regulation of emotion and later self-regulatory abilities. 310 children were assessed at three time points. At 12 months of age emotional regulation (...) in situation of frustration and attention regulation were assessed. At 18 and 24 months behavioral-emotional regulation in the Snack Delay Task was measured. Additionally parents assessed executive attention using The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire when children were 26 months old. Structural equation modelling revealed two different paths to development of self-regulatory abilities at 18 months: emotional and emotionalattentional and only one emotional-attentional path at 24 months. The early ability to focus attention and later executive attention functioning revealed to be important predictors of self-regulatory abilities both at 18 and 24 months of age. (shrink)

Most studies on bilingual language development focus on children’s second language (L2). Here, we investigated first language (L1) development of Polish-English early migrant bilinguals in four domains: vocabulary, grammar, phonological processing and discourse. We first compared Polish language skills between bilinguals and their Polish non-migrant monolingual peers, and then investigated the influence of the cumulative exposure to L1 and L2 on bilinguals’ performance. We then examined whether high exposure to L1 could possibly minimize the gap between monolinguals and bilinguals. We (...) analyzed data from 233 typically developing children (88 bilingual, 145 monolingual) aged 4;0 to 7;5 (years; months) on six language measures in Polish: receptive vocabulary, productive vocabulary, receptive grammar, productive grammar (sentence repetition), phonological processing (non-word repetition) and discourse abilities (narration). Information about language exposure was obtained via parental questionnaires. For each language task, we analyzed the data from the subsample of bilinguals who had completed all the tasks in question and from monolinguals matched one-on-one to the bilingual group on age, SES (measured by years of mother’s education), gender, non-verbal IQ and short term memory. The bilingual children scored lower than monolinguals in all language domains, except discourse. The group differences were more pronounced on the productive tasks (vocabulary, grammar, phonological processing) and moderate on the receptive tasks (vocabulary and grammar). L1 exposure correlated positively with the vocabulary size and phonological processing. Grammar scores were not related to the levels of L1 exposure, but were predicted by general cognitive abilities. L2 exposure negatively influenced productive grammar in L1, suggesting possible L2 transfer effects on L1 grammatical performance. Children’s narrative skills benefitted from exposure to two languages: both L1 and L2 exposure influenced story structure scores in L1. Importantly, we did not find any evidence (in any of the tasks in which the gap was present) that the performance gap between monolinguals and bilinguals could be fully closed with high amounts of L1 input. (shrink)

This Research Topic explores the ninth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which aims to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation, particularly in the context of post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery. The pandemic significantly impacted the manufacturing sector, leading to a global production drop, job losses, and disrupted supply chains, with less technology-intensive industries taking longer to regain ground. Despite these challenges, the United Nations highlights opportunities to enhance industrialization and technology distribution, emphasizing, among other things, the need to (...) expand mobile broadband networks, increase research and development investment, and improve rural road connectivity. (shrink)

This Research Topic explores Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) eight, which is to “promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.” It highlights the COVID-19 pandemic’s severe impact and triggered global economic recession, worsened gender pay gaps, increased undeclared employment, and significantly raised unemployment (United Nations, 2024). From a sociology-specific perspective, this Research Topic examines the global and local implementation of SDG8, its adaptation to different geographical contexts, stakeholder involvement, and issues related to (...) decent work conditions worldwide. (shrink)

Background In the context of discussions between supporters and opponents of euthanasia, and legal regulations regarding this type of practices, the attitude of young people with respect to this phenomenon is a very interesting issue. According to Polish law, euthanasia is prohibited. The aim of this study was to determine the degree of acceptance of euthanasia among students from Polish universities across three different fields of study: psychology, medicine, and economic-technical disciplines, and to identify the factors associated with the acceptance (...) of this phenomenon. Methods The study included 627 persons studying in Lublin, Poland: medicine (280), psychology (170), and economic-technical studies (177). The study was conducted as a survey using questionnaire containing items concerning students’ attitudes towards euthanasia. The analysis of the collected data was conducted using the SPSS software (version 29) with the following methods: Chi2, Student’s t-test, Phi test, Cramer’s V test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, one-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s post hoc test, linear regression analysis, and categorical regression analysis using optimal scaling (CATREG). Results Nearly half of the students participating in the study (45.9%) rated the practice of euthanasia as decidedly negative. The highest number of strongly negative evaluations was found among psychology students, and the least among students of economic-technical disciplines. The level of acceptance of euthanasia is significantly associated with religious involvement and studying psychology. Being religious and being a psychology student both contribute to lower acceptance of euthanasia and a lower willingness to consent to euthanasia. Consent to euthanasia is more commonly declared by individuals with experience of living with elderly people. Conclusions Although nearly half of the respondents expressed a negative attitude towards euthanasia, considering the secularization process among Polish youth, it can be assumed that the level of acceptance of euthanasia in this social group will increase. The lower level of acceptance of euthanasia among psychology and medical students compared to students of economic-technical disciplines suggests that the curricula of these studies present alternative solutions to the problems of terminally ill patients other than euthanasia. (shrink)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Learning Compass 2030 for teachers emphasizes that cognitive, metacognitive skills, and emotional intelligence skills such as compassion, attentiveness, critical thinking, creativity, and communication are indirectly important to developing reading comprehension. Reading is a challenge for EFL students who have difficulties understanding written texts because of the lack of concentration, stress, and anxiety. Mindfulness appears as a practice that may offer some benefits. Recent studies show that mindfulness training can alleviate anxiety and stress, (...) improve confidence, improve cognitive and social abilities, and elevate academic goals. In this regard, this review synthesizes existing literature to evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness in enhancing concentration in EFL reading comprehension classrooms and provide insights for educators, practitioners, and researchers. Criteria for selected articles were kept as recent as possible. All peer-reviewed papers were cited or published in scientific journals. This review suggests that mindfulness training has the potential to make learners more aware of their learning system. In addition, students learn to regulate their emotions to be more flexible and creative. Mindfulness training changes their point of view of their thinking in a way that encourages conscious control of their feeling, actions, and thoughts, improving cognitive abilities. (shrink)

The epidemiological situation resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic caused the Polish universities to fully switch to distance education in March 2020. Medical e-learning has not yet been broadly implemented into the education process. Therefore, examples of successful e-learning implementations or the organization of the process of medical e-learning offer a valuable source of knowledge today, which is needed immediately. The article presents e-learning practices at the Polish medical universities during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic during the period from March to September 2020, (...) covering seven universities in Poland that offer medical and health studies. The organization and implementation of e-learning classes is presented, including knowledge evaluation practices, providing example decisions issued by university rectors, on which the teaching process was based. A detailed presentation of the schools’ organizational units or workgroups that played an important role in the process of coordination of measures supporting e-education is also included. The article also presents a description of the software applications, utilities, and services used at the schools in the course of the process of online education. Below are some examples of specific such implementations in selected university courses. (shrink)

The paper aims to analyze the scope of female leadership (deanship) at public and non-public law faculties in selected countries from the region of Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Montenegro. The paper will explore the engagement of women in the administration of law schools operating within public (and non-public) schools (universities) across the region in the latest years. The paper aims to show the number of (...) female deanships at law faculties in the analyzed states. This analysis will be based on statistical data obtained from the available public sources (including national databases as well as the European Union resources) providing the number of female deans and vice-deans appointed or elected by the academia at all higher education institutions within the country. The initial hypothesis states that gender inequality has been present in the deanship of analyzed law schools and reflects general trends in gender equality in Europe. Comprehensive analysis of the central and eastern European states will allow formulating the key conclusions and answering the following research questions concerning the differences in the numbers of women on the key positions within the law faculties in terms of public versus non-public institutions and in the light of the general gender equality trends in the continent. The research methods used for the analysis include a dogmatic method, statistical method as well as comparative method. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie Jahrgang: 97 Heft: 2 Seiten: 196-233.

The article proposes a new solution to the long-standing problem of the universality of essences in Spinoza's ontology. It argues that, according to Spinoza, particular things in nature possess unique essences, but that these essences coexist with more general, mind-dependent species-essences, constructed by finite minds on the basis of similarities that obtain among the properties of formally-real particulars. This account provides the best fit both with the textual evidence and with Spinoza's other metaphysical and epistemological commitments. The article offers new (...) readings of how Spinoza understands not just the nature of essence, but also the nature of being, reason, striving, definitions, and different kinds of knowledge. (shrink)

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the global economy, including the provision of health services, with medical facilities and patients cancelling or postponing medical appointments. An alternative to in-person appointments was through the available forms of telemedicine. Scientific reports around the world have suggested that the accessibility and quality of health services declined. The aim of this study was to investigate the accessibility and quality of health services in Poland and to verify whether there were differences (...) between men and women in this respect. The study was based on the authors’ own survey questionnaire filled in by 265 respondents, including 181 women, 82 men, and 2 persons without a defined gender. The study revealed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the accessibility and quality of health services declined. Additionally, women were more likely to use general and specialist health services than men, but a comparison of changes in the assessment of accessibility and quality of services by gender revealed no differences in the assessment of accessibility and quality. (shrink)

BackgroundRemotely provided psychotherapy due to the COVID-19 pandemic became common. One of the most significant changes related to providing online psychotherapy services is that clients no longer travel to their sessions.AimsIn the article we are interested in the narrated experience of the absence of journey to psychotherapy sessions. We study clients' stories of past journeys and how their absence, resulting from the change of the mode of therapy provision, is coped with and replaced by other activities in their narratives.MethodsThe study (...) takes a constructionist approach to discourse and focuses on the lexico-grammatical form of the notes. The data come from 12 semi-structured interviews with people who declared attending remote psychotherapy sessions after the national lockdown had been introduced.ResultsIn the collected data, the physical journey is constructed not only as travel time, solitude which can be used for reflection, but, importantly, as an active process which ends with a resolution. In contrast, in narratives of the time before an online session, constructions of unfettered agents are replaced with those of people whose actions are hedged and qualified.ConclusionWe argue that in the informants' narratives the journey to psychotherapy is meaningful and is part of the therapeutic process. We propose that it is a time of passing between two states—one before therapy and one in session. The journey therefore is experienced as a process of change, and not only a process of traveling. (shrink)

This article examines the historical background, proliferation, and later internationalization of public declarations of forgiveness and remorse, first made in Europe a few decades after the end World War II. The author suggests that these declarations should be understood as a political practice, and bases her claim on three premises: after 1945, politicians began apologizing not only for their own crimes but mainly for those perpetrated by the communities they represented; these declarations implied a tacit acceptance of responsibility of both (...) the group that declares its remorse and of the group that accepts and possibly forgives the former for its past crimes; apart from representing a shared collective moral responsibility, declarations of forgiveness and remorse imply the continuity of a nation. These three premises apply if declarations of forgiveness and remorse are not banal and conventional, but function as a political ritual. The au... (shrink)

Článek se zabývá třemi fyzikálními teoriemi, jež popírají realitu času, konkrétně koncepcí Kurta Gödela, Juliana Barboura a Carla Rovelliho. Tvrzení, že čas neexistuje, totiž přesahuje rámec fyziky a nemalou měrou spadá také do oblasti filozofie, čímž zde otevírá prostor pro jeho filozofickou reflexi. Co tedy z hlediska filozofie znamená, že čas neexistuje? Je například možné, aby změna existovala bez času? Abych mohla odpovědět na zmíněné otázky, nejprve se zaměřím na samotný pojem existence. Dále představím jednotlivé autory a jejich koncepce, které (...) se pokusím kriticky zhodnotit, a na závěr upozorním na související epistemologické a ontologické problémy. (shrink)

At least many conditionals seem to convey the existence of a link between their antecedent and consequent. We draw on a recently proposed typology of conditionals to revive an old philosophical idea according to which the link is inferential in nature. We show that the proposal has explanatory force by presenting empirical results on two Dutch linguistic markers.

Zrozumienie i zastosowanie zasad projektowania graficznego w plakacie naukowym może dostarczyć korzyści praktycznych, takich jak przyciągnięcie i utrzymanie uwagi odbiorców, a także korzyści merytorycznych, czyli pomocy w komunikowaniu treści. Te drugie opierają się między innymi na koncepcji wizualnej gramatyki (opisanej przez Kress i Van Leeuwen [2006] i zastosowanej do analizy plakatu naukowego przez D’Angelo [2010]), wedle której elementy wizualne przekazują znaczenie w sposób podobny do języka, i tak jak język posiadają swoją gramatykę: zasady ich zastosowania i prezentacji, które mają wpływ (...) na wyrażany przez nie sens. Poster pokazuje zastosowanie wizualnej gramatyki w plakacie naukowym na przykładzie jednego z elementów wizualnych plakatu, który często jest niedoceniany: pustej przestrzeni. (shrink)

The paper presents the question of relations between Galileo Galilei and the polish establishment and cultural world. Taking the departure from the classical essay by Biliński, and preserving its structure, the present paper describes these relations in the larger perspective of recent polish publications dedicated to this question.

This article analyses how normative decision theory is understood by economists. The paradigmatic example of normative decision theory, discussed in the article, is the expected utility theory. It...

This paper aims to analyze technical and internal aspects of one particular type of human moral enhancement, i.e. enhancement of moral motivation via direct emotion modulation. More precisely, it challenges the assumption that modifying certain emotions will have the results desired by the advocates of this theory. It is argued that neuropsychological understanding of the role and function of emotions, as well as of underlying cognitive mechanisms, might be relevant for the discussion about biomedical enhancement of moral capacities. Moreover, typical (...) claims about direct emotion modulation seem to be contradicted, or at least seriously challenged, by available neuroscientific data. Particular attention is paid to the theory that emotions are evolved and functionally specialized programs whose task is to coordinate other adaptive mechanisms of human psychology in order to promote one’s fitness. If this view of emotions is plausible, it can be argued that several difficulties for moral bioenhancement theory ensue. Neuroscientific and evolutionary-psychological perspective seem to indicate that emotions don’t fulfill necessary requirements to serve as the vehicles of moral enhancement and it should, therefore, take into account role and function of entire cognitive modules associated with moral decision-making. (shrink)

According to the Principle of Conditional Non-Contradiction (CNC), conditionals of the form “If p, q” and “If p, not q” cannot both be true, unless p is inconsistent. This principle is widely regarded as an adequacy constraint on any semantics that attributes truth conditions to conditionals. Gibbard has presented an example of a pair of conditionals that, in the context he describes, appear to violate CNC. He concluded from this that conditionals lack truth conditions. We argue that this conclusion is (...) rash by proposing a new diagnosis of what is going on in Gibbard’s argument. We also provide empirical evidence in support of our proposal. (shrink)

Novel precision oncology trial designs, such as basket and umbrella trials, are designed to test new anticancer agents in more effective and affordable ways. However, they present some ethical concerns referred to scientific validity, risk-benefit balance and informed consent. Our aim is to discuss these issues in basket and umbrella trials, giving examples of two ongoing cancer trials: NCI-MATCH (National Cancer Institute – Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice) and Lung-MAP (Lung Cancer Master Protocol) study. We discuss three ethical requirements for (...) clinical trials which may be challenged in basket and umbrella trial designs. Firstly, we consider scientific validity. Thanks to the new trial designs, patients with rare malignancies have the opportunity to be enrolled and benefit from the trial, but due to insufficient accrual, the trial may generate clinically insignificant findings. Inadequate sample size in study arms and the use of surrogate endpoints may result in a drug approval without confirmed efficacy. Moreover, complexity, limited quality and availability of tumor samples may not only introduce bias and result in unreliable and unrepresentative findings, but also can potentially harm patients and assign them to an inappropriate therapy arm. Secondly, we refer to benefits and risks. Novel clinical trials can gain important knowledge on the variety of tumors, which can be used in future trials to develop effective therapies. However, they offer limited direct benefits to patients. All potential participants must wait about 2 weeks for the results of the genetic screening, which may be stressful and produce anxiety. The enrollment of patients whose tumors harbor multiple mutations in treatments matching a single mutation may be controversial. As to informed consent – the third requirement we discuss, the excessive use of phrases like “personalized medicine”, “tailored therapy” or “precision oncology” might be misleading and cause personal convictions that the study protocol is designed to fulfill the individual health-related needs of participants. We suggest that further approaches should be implemented to enhance scientific validity, reduce misunderstandings and risks, thus maximizing the benefits to society and to trial participants. (shrink)

This article describes experiences of long-term ethnographic fieldwork on disobedience, disloyalty and dissensus among women in public space in selected (post-)Yugoslav cities. I focus on the opportunities and pitfalls of feminist ethnography and methodology in the context of positionality, engagement and solidarity as essential elements of research into activist networks. In order to problematize the emerging field positionalities and solidarities, I examine the “militant ethnography” methodological approach (Jeffrey Juris), which seeks to move beyond the divide between research practice and politically (...) engaged participation. It is about being among and within the activist network and adopting many identities and roles by constantly shifting between reflective solidarity and analysis. In trying to shed light on the critical self-reflective research process of embodied understandings and experiences, I focus on ethnographic practices embedded in transnational “crowded fields” that encompass the dynamics of relationships and dependencies between knowledge producers. (shrink)

The paper examines a relatively neglected element of Spinoza's theory of mind-body relations: the intentional relation between human minds and bodies, which for Spinoza constitutes their “union”. Prima facie textual evidence suggests, and many readers agree, that because for Spinoza human minds are essentially ideas of bodies, Spinoza is also committed to an ontological and explanatory dependence of certain properties of human minds on properties of bodies, and thus to a version of materialism. The paper argues that such dependence would (...) contradict Spinoza's key epistemological commitments, including the explanatory closure of mental and physical realms, and Spinoza’s claim that all knowledge is knowledge of a thing's causes. The paper argues that Spinoza's dual-reality theory of representation allows us to interpret the intentional relation between human minds and bodies in a way that does not commit Spinoza to a problematic dependence of minds on bodies. This is possible if we take Spinoza's references to properties of bodies in his account of the human mind as references to objectively real bodies, that is as references to the immanent representational content of human minds. (shrink)

Due to the growing importance of local pro-development attitudes and non-governmental organizations for development, it is important to look at their activities in different subregions. In this work the author presents the results of research carried out in the Leszno subregion on the presence of elements of social capital, the organizational and financial sustainability of NGOs, and their cooperation with public administration in the context of their impact on local development. In addition, through a comparative analysis of selected issues, it (...) recalls the good practices of NGOs in Switzerland which, because of the long tradition of their operation and the experience gained, can also be used in Polish settings. (shrink)