Latin is one of the best documented and most extensively studied of any language: nearly every area has been subject to continued and intense scrutiny, with ideas from recent subfields of linguistics providing a fresh look at some old topics. The Latin future imperative, the form that conveys commands for non-immediate execution, constitutes precisely such a topic in Latin linguistics: from the Roman Imperial period on, students have demarcated the usages, syntax and context-specific features associated with this form; more recently, (...) scholars have applied ideas from various linguistic subfields to achieve new insights. Given that the –toimperative is so well understood, it might come as a surprise to find that some matters pertaining to it are still debated. This paper will address four such contested areas: first, its register ; second, the form's politeness ; third, the temporal scope of the –toimperative ; and fourth, the sensitivity of the form to social factors, that is, to the identity of the speaker and the addressee. (shrink)

The article is dedicated to the attitude of the great world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism) to the world of finance, including banking. The issue of usury plays a key role together with the evolution of ethical aspects related to obtaining compensation for money lending. The analysis is focused on the other aspects of banking activities, such as saving, investing, and institutional development of the banking sector as well. The author underlines the far-reaching convergence between religions in (...) this area, in spite of the considerable variation in historical and geographical conditions of their formation. The importance of cultural (religious) differences, including the nuances or more fundamental aspects, has a significant impact on bank management in different regions. For successful development, large multinational corporations have to take into consideration the abovementioned circumstances, regardless of globalization processes. (shrink)

The dominant approach in genocide studies focuses on the intentions and motives of mass murderers. However, in many cases, natural phenomena, pathogens and machines determine the nature and course of genocidal mobilization. The aim of this article is to present the advantages of the actor-network theory in explaining genocidal mobilization, taking into account environmental factors. “Natural objects” have been selected from a rich catalogue of non-human actors. The author divides these objects into three classes, showing that pathogens and deserts are (...) of key importance in the history of collective violence. Referring to specific cases, the author identifies that adopting the assumptions and methods of ANT reveals new aspects of the genocidal process. This indicates the need for considering the politics of non-human actors, delegating morality and law, tracking consecutive translations, rejecting the division into qualitatively different micro- and macro-actors, and tracking the emergence of new actants and forms of knowledge during genocide. (shrink)

SSH should response to challenges of the integrating European societies. The EU Lisbon Strategy envisions their future as knowledge-based. Knowledge-based economies ought to be accompanied by knowledge-based societies. Timely task of SSH is to make it possible to achieve society of knowledge and wisdom together. This may save diversity and multicultural values, enabling synergy and universalism.

Quid ais has as its two main functions in Latin to express surprise (“what are you saying?”), and to get the addressee’s attention (“tell me something…”); the latter type has a commanding tone. It is proven that quid ais in Plautus has a decidedly male character; that is, he avoided giving the phrase to women. To explain this finding, it is noted that 91% of instances of quid ais in Plautus are of the second “attention-getting” type. With its imperatival force, (...) this quid ais was probably not felt to be appropriate for Plautus’ female characters whose speech is generally more polite and deferential than male speech. Indeed, in the three cases when a woman does utter the phrase, she either assumes a male role, or belongs to a type which in recent scholarship has been shown to have a “commanding” style of speech: the meretrix or the uxor dotata. (shrink)

Pascal’s Wager is one of the most interesting and original arguments for the existence of God. It does not invoke advanced metaphysical concepts; instead, it employs the methods and concepts of probability calculus. Its argumentative power mainly rests on the appropriate interpretation of the determinants of human existence, which are taken to include our cognitive, moral and physical limitations. The article discusses different aspects of Pascal’s reasoning. In particular, it examines the wager in the context of Grace as something that (...) Pascal himself believed in. (shrink)

Vincent proposes that the extracellular cGMP found in cerebellum after glutamate receptor activation is released mainly from Purkinje cells because in these neurons the presence of guanylate cyclase has been shown using monoclonal antibodies. It is uncertain, however, whether Purkinje cells are the only source of extracellular cGMP in the cerebellum. This commentary examines the possibility that glial and cerebellar granule cells may also participate in cGMP synthesis and release, Moreover, the hypothesis of transcellular metabolism of citrulline and arginine is (...) discussed. [VINCENT]. (shrink)

Mereology as an art of composing complex concepts out of simpler parts is suited well to the task of reasoning under uncertainty: whereas it is most often difficult to ascertain whether a given thing is an element of a concept, it is possible to decide with belief degree close to certainty that the class of things is an ingredient of an other class, which is sufficient for carrying out the reasoning whose conclusions are taken as true under given conditions. We (...) present in this work a scheme for reasoning based on mereology in which mereology in the classical sense is fuzzified in analogy to the concept fuzzification in the sense of L. A. Zadeh. In this process, mereology becomes rough mereology. (shrink)

This article aims to present polemical exchanges over capital punishment that were conducted in interwar Poland. By using the analytical method and the source texts found in the press and the minutes of the Codification Committee, the author wants to trace the evolution of views on the death penalty and its usefulness in the state policy. The opinions on the subject differed considerably which was common not only for the interwar period. Back in the 19th century, when the first statements (...) on capital punishment had been published in newspapers, they had ended with completely different conclusions. Advocates for the abolition of the death penalty had emphasized first of all its ineffectiveness as well as the doubts of a religious and moral nature, which had led to a conclusion that the state could not take away a person’s life. Whereas supporters of the death penalty had believed that, in view of the low level of civilisation development of individual communities, giving up the possibility to impose the death sentence could have contributed to an uncontrolled rise in crime rates. They had also emphasized that public opinion demanded the retaining of capital punishment and acting against it would have resulted in various manifestations of public unrest. The death penalty had not been abolished in Poland during the interwar period but the exchange of arguments during those years had laid the foundations for the future changes in that area. They occurred at the end of the 20th century. (shrink)

W pierwszej części artykułu dokonano analizy pojęcia „panteizm”. Ze względu na stosunek pojęć „bóstwo” i „byt/świat” wyróżnione zostały następujące stanowiska: 1) bóstwo jest częściowo w sobie i jest częściowo we wszystkim; 2) bóstwo jest w całości we wszystkim; 3) wszystko jest w bóstwie, bez wyczerpywania jego zakresu i treści; 4) wszystko jest w bóstwie, wyczerpując jego zakres i treść. W drugiej części artykułu przytoczono poglądy ilustrujące i pogłębiające analizy wyjściowe. Poglądy te zaczerpnięto z literatury filozoficznej, teologicznej i pięknej: z tradycji (...) pozaeuropejskich teksty Lao-tsego, Zhuangzi, Bhagawadgita, z tradycji europejskiej – klasyczne dla panteizmu fragmenty: Plotyna, Spinozy, Heraklita, Hölderlina, Novalisa, Feuerbacha i innych, w tym poetów. W końcowej części artykułu sformułowano dwie tezy zarówno podsumowujące rozważania, jak i mające inspirować dalszą dyskusję. Pierwsza teza: jeśli przyjmuje się stanowiska i, to zatraca się specyficzność panteizmu. Teza druga: należy odróżnić panteizm właściwy, wyrazisty, dojrzały myślowo, tj. stanowiska i, natomiast stanowisk i nie uznawać za panteizm. (shrink)

SummaryReferring to my previous publications on the European philosophy of science , this paper presents my views, as a historian of epistemology, concerning the scope of a certain programme of research into the development of the philosophy of science and reception of some of its conceptions, against limitations of Anglo‐Saxon historiographic perception. Calling for a revaluation of various marginalized conceptions I oppose the hitherto dominating interpretations of epistemological novelty of Popper's conception and present my own approaches to Gonseth, Bachelard, Enriques, (...) Brunschvicg and Piaget. I oppose also the predominant and false picture of the 1920s and 1930s in the European philosophy of science based on the exceptional authority and validity of the Vienna Circle climate. 1 apply the views of M. Foucault and J. Der‐rida to demonstrate the significance of studies on the cases from the margin of the history of epistemological evolution. The basic point is that some post‐neopositivistic achievements in epistemology were chronologically prior to the internal evolution of neopositivism under Popperian influence. (shrink)

Panajotis Kondylis' Zur geistigen Struktur der utopischen Konstruktionen des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts focuses on the intellectual and historical foundation of utopian thought in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the introduction, the author emphasizes that the development of the critique of utopia was delayed in comparison to the critique of ideology, particularly within the Marxist discourse. Kondylis discusses how Marxism rejected earlier utopian visions as unrealistic and idealistic, accusing them of failing to consider the historical social realities. The aim (...) of his paper is a thorough analysis of the logical form and historical function of utopian constructions. The author compares the views of prominent utopian thinkers with those of their adversaries, referring to the former as “optimists” and to the latter as “pessimists.” Both the similarities and differences between these opposing positions are identified, particularly in relation to anthropology, the state of nature, visions of the past and future, as well as educational concepts. Kondylis also critiques theories of the state and society that ignore anthropological aspects, arguing that these elements are crucial for a deeper understanding of these theories. In subsequent sections, the author examines the factors disrupting the harmony of utopia and analyses the proposed solutions put forward by utopists to overcome them. Particular attention is given to the relationship between the individual and the society in utopian thought. Further Kondylis presents two main approaches to utopia: one rooted in religious tradition and the other secular, relying on science for legitimation. These two positions, although antagonistic, are argued by the author to complement each other. In the final section, Kondylis critically analyses the early modern utopists, focusing on the subordination of their visions to reason and rationalism. He draws attention to the attempts by philosophers to integrate utopia with reality, which, in his view, lead to the impoverishment of the original ideological and conceptual depth of the utopian project. To sum up, Kondylis' text provides a comprehensive analysis of the philosophical foundations of utopian thought, highlighting the complexity and internal contradictions accompanyhuman efforts to create ideal societies. (shrink)

The subject of this article is the role of inductive reasoning (in the meaning of induction by incomplete enumeration) in the methodology of mathematics. The following types of induction have been distinguished: I 1) induction which causes formulation of axioms of different mathematical theories; I 2) enumerative induction which causes formulation of theorems on the basis of a finite number of cases; I 3) induction concerning the range of application of mathematical symbols; I 4) induction generalising the properties of finite (...) sets to the infinite case; I 5) induction pointing to analogies between problems belonging to different domains of mathematics. Inductive reasoning should not be put against the creativity of scientists, as induction is often an important, though not always conscious part of our cognition. The concept of notional metaphor can be useful for explaining the nature of inductive reasoning. With this concept, a general scheme of inductive reasoning has been proposed, which, in the opinion of the authors, is more adequate for presenting the nature of induction than traditional approaches. (shrink)