Książka ta jest poświęcona analizie filozofii politycznej Johna Deweya osadzonej w kontekście kryzysu liberalizmu po pierwszej wojnie światowej. Jedną z dróg wyjścia z impasu, w jakim znalazła się myśl liberalna, był radykalny liberalizm reprezentowany przez takich intelektualistów, jak John Dewey, Bertrand Russell, Karl Polanyi i Karl Mannheim. Wymienieni myśliciele upatrywali szans na odrodzenie liberalizmu w odrzuceniu koncepcji wolnorynkowych i dialogu z myślą socjalistyczną. W pracy przedstawiono zręby ideologii radykalnego liberalizmu oraz stosunek lewicowych liberałów do innych ideologii, w szczególności zaś do (...) liberalizmu ekonomicznego i rewolucyjnego marksizmu. Osobny rozdział pracy poświęcony jest refleksji Johna Deweya na temat demokracji, która należy do najoryginalniejszych osiągnięć amerykańskiego filozofa. Przedstawiona interpretacja uwypukla związki myśli Johna Deweya z radykalizmem Nowej Lewicy oraz twórczością takich teoretyków, jak C. W. Mills Axell Honneth czy James Bohman. Drugim ważnym obszarem podejmowanych w pracy rozważań jest rekonstrukcja Deweyowskiej koncepcji myślenia jako rozwiązywania problemów. Pragmatyzm utrzymuje, że możliwe jest znalezienie mniej lub bardziej obiektywnych odpowiedzi na pytanie, co należy robić w danej problematycznej sytuacji. „Pragmatyczne oświecenie”, by posłużyć się terminem Hilarego Putnama, wyrzeka się oświeceniowego uniwersalizmu, ale nie rezygnuje całkowicie z roszczeń do obiektywności w dziedzinie rozstrzygnięć moralnych i politycznych. (shrink)

Global justice is, at its core, about moral obligations to distant others. But which obligations ought to be included is a matter of considerable debate. In the discussion that follows I will explicate and challenge two objections to the inclusion of foundationally positive obligations in our account of global justice. The first objection is based on the proposition that negative obligations possess and positive obligations lack a property necessary for a moral demand to be a matter justice. The second objection (...) is that even the most trivial positive obligation becomes overly burdensome when applied to the global arena. And, though I do not offer any particular substantive account of positive obligations to distant others; I assess some of the implications that would arise were positive obligations to distant others to be included in our account of global justice. (shrink)

Einleitende worte (im hinblick auf die atombombe)-Transfiguration.-Michelangelos sibyllen und propheten.-Betrachtungen über den ruhm, die nachahmung und das glück.-Plotin; oder, Das ende des griechischen geistes.-Thomas de Quincey.-Thomas Hardy.

Kassner contends that the violation of the basic human rights of the Rwandan Tutsis morally obliged the international community to intervene militarily to stop the genocide. This compelling argument, grounded in basic rights, runs counter to the accepted view on the moral nature of humanitarian intervention. It has profound implications for our understanding of the moral nature of humanitarian military intervention, global justice and the role moral principles should play in the practical deliberations of states. A new approach to (...) the intersection of human and sovereign rights that is of tremendous moral, political and legal importance to theorists working in international relations today Challenges the immutability of the right of non-intervention held by sovereign states, assessing when it becomes right for the international community to intervene militarily in order to avoid another Rwanda. (shrink)

The stigma of reporting wrongdoing at work: When doing right is perceived as wrong The act of reporting unethical, illegal and illegitimate practices at work, whistleblowing, can be associated with a stigma for the individual in question. This article presents the stigmatizing position of reporting wrongdoing at work, types of wrongdoing and individual antecedents. Since empirical studies have shown very few systematic results regarding individual differences, one way to decrease societal stigma can be to relate the act of reporting to (...) other known acts that are perceived upon as more positive within society. We therefore also discuss similarities and differences between the idea of whistleblowing and other concepts such as Organizational Citizenship Behaviour, in-role, and extra-role behaviour before we make some concluding remarks. (shrink)

Many irreconcilable accounts of ratio legis in legal science, often concerned with legal interpretation, suffer from being disconnected from practical reasoning. Different theories of legal interpretation which result in one-sided views of ratio legis are by-products of one-sided semantics. The first part of the chapter diagnoses this problem by providing a model of three types of one-sided semantics—upstream, midstream and downstream—and explaining how they translate into respective accounts of legal interpretation and ratio legis. The second part of the chapter presents (...) an alternative to one-sided semantics in legal theory. The alternative account which combines semantics and practical reasoning in legal theory is based on Brandom’s inferential pragmatism. The usefulness of inferential pragmatism in legal theory with regard to the problem of ratio legis is tested and followed by extending an inferentialist account of ratio legis provided by Canale and Tuzet. A model of agent’s actions and reasons, and their impact on the reasoning of interpreters and decision-makers is the essential part of this extension. (shrink)

This book is about time and its powerful influence on our personal and collective daily life. It presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date overview of contemporary knowledge on temporal psychology inspired by Zimbardo's work on Time Perspective (TP). With contributions from renowned and promising researchers from all over the globe, and at the interface of social, personality, cognitive and clinical psychology, the handbook captures the breadth and depth of the field of psychological time. Time perspective, as the way people construe (...) the past, the present and the future, is conceived and presented not only as one of the most influential dimensions in our psychological life leading to self-impairing behaviors, but also as a facet of our person that can be de-biased and supportive for well-being and happiness. Written in honor of Philip G. Zimbardo on his 80th birthday and in acknowledgement of his leading role in the field, the book contains illustrations of the countless studies and applications that his theory has stimulated, and captures the theoretical, methodological and practical pathways he opened by his prolific research. (shrink)

In this study, the well-known CES-D depression scale was considered as a prototypical tool for assessing an individual’s inclination to respond at random. It was postulated that the set of the responses obtained from the participants of a questionnaire survey could be divided into three classes: the honest responses class; the pure random class, characterized by the same prob- ability of each admissible score; the smart random class, characterized by the same distribution of the probability of scores as in the (...) honest responses class. A two-step classifying procedure was recommended. According to this procedure, the first step should be to separate the pure random responses from the others. As needed, at the second step the smart random responses should be separated from the honest responses. The CES-D scale consists of sixteen direct questions and four reverse questions, each question with four admissible score values, 0, 1, 2, or 3. The material for the analyses includes all of the 4 294 967 296 possible arrangements of the four scores for the sixteen direct questions, and all of the 256 arrangements of the four scores for the four reverse questions, and all of the possible 49 · 13 = 637 pairs of the possible values of the mean scores from the sixteen direct questions and from the four reverse questions, respectively. It was assumed, without loss of generality, that the honest responses to the sixteen direct questions lead to the resulting distribution: P = (8/16; 5/16; 2/16; 1/16), for a score equal to 0, 1, 2, or 3, respectively. The original iterative procedure was used to compute the exact distributions of the mean scores in the pure random class, and in the smart random class. The discriminant ability to dis- tinguish between the two classes was characterized with the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. In result, the excellent discriminant properties of the CES-D were confirmed. The area under the ROC curve was estimated equal to AUC = 0.98 with standard error SE = 0.004 for the screening of the pure random responses from all of the others, and equal to AUC = 0.87 with standard error SE = 0.006 for the purpose of distinguishing the smart random responses from the honest ones. (shrink)

Staram się podjąć z Witkiewiczem „dialog” niepozbawiony elementów krytycznych i odniesień do współczesnego stanu badań. Traktuję więc jego propozycję filozoficzną nie jako obiekt jedynie muzealny, ale żywą myśl, z którą można i należy dziś podjąć dyskusję. Wynika to z przeświadczenia, że myślenie filozoficzne stanowi kontinuum i „rozmowa” z filozofami przeszłości może wnieść sporo do badań prowadzonych obecnie. System stworzony przez Witkiewicza nie był nigdy projektem jednorodnym, jego badania stanowiły raczej splot wątków, trudno jest wskazać jedno, dominujące zagadnienie. Jeśli jednak miałbym (...) wymienić taki leitmotiv jego filozofii, to byłby to problem istnienia ożywionego, upsychicznionego i cielesnego bytu, jakim jesteśmy my sami, a w przekonaniu Witkiewicza również wszystkie inne byty, z których składa się materia (stąd tylko pozornie) nieożywiona. Zawężając zakres tego zagadnienia, dochodzimy do klasycznego problemu psychofizycznego w wersji jednak dość oryginalnej z racji wspominanego odrzucenia materii martwej. O ciągłym zainteresowaniu problemem stosunku ciała do umysłu świadczy tytuł ostatniej większej rozprawy filozoficznej Witkiewicza: Zagadnienie psychofizyczne. Prezentowana praca jest próbą pokazania drogi, którą przebył polski filozof, poszukując odpowiedzi na pytanie o problem psychofizyczny, aż do swoistej wersji cielesno-biologicznego panpsychizmu. (shrink)

Ruby and Perl are programming languages used in many fields. In this paper we would like to present their usefulness with regard to basic bioinformatic problems. We concentrate on a comparison of widely used Perl and relatively rarely used Ruby to show that Ruby can be a very efficient tool in bioinformatics. Both Perl and Ruby have a built-in regular expressions engine, which is essential in solving many problems in bioinformatics. We present some selected examples: printing the file content, removing (...) comments from a FASTA file, using hashes, printing nucleotides included in a sequence, searching for a specific nucleotide in sequence and translating nucleotide sequences into protein sequences obtained in GenBank format. It is our belief that Ruby’s popularity will rise because of its simple syntax and the richness of its methods. Programs in Ruby are very easy to read and therefore easier to maintain and debug, which are the most important characteristics for a programming language. (shrink)

The philosophy of human rights has stalled over a debate between orthodox theorists committed to a moral understanding of human rights and political theorists who adopt a positivist approach. A New Philosophy of Human Rights challenges both, offering a novel deliberative account that bridges this divide.

In the presented essay, I would like to focus on the relationship between force and power. The idea that power, without resorting to forceful, even violent solutions, is less problematic, is both deceitful and dangerous. Once accepted, it can cause an oversight of violence‐free but possibly harmful forms of power. My focus in the article will be on the two reinterpretations of Master‐Slave dialectics, as presented by Alexandre Kojève and Albert Camus. This will be presented with reference to the position (...) of Hannah Arendt and her remarks on power and force. In conclusion, I will be abstemious: my goal is rather to diagnose and bind the existentialist judgement with the contemporary situation and suggest that thinking outside the force‐power relationship may be continuously fruitful and an important part of reflection on the nature of political power. (shrink)

CONTEMPORARY TRANSFORMATIONS OF INTIMACY IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF MICHEL FOUCAULT’S HISTORY OF SEXUALITY This article discusses relations between Foucault’s history of sexuality and the contemporary transformations of eroticism diagnosed by Wojciech Klimczyk. The Klimczyk’s studies are interpreted in the perspective of theoretical tools provided by Foucault and seem to lead to an interesting conclusions. Peculiarity of those conclusions is especially connected with the fact that they are opposite to the diagnosis provided by Brian McNair and Anthony Giddens. Simply speaking, Giddens (...) and McNair claim that contemporary intimacy is emancipated from most of regulations and contains a high amount of freedom, while Klimczyk (with theoretical support of Foucault) argues that nowadays sexuality is strongly regulated by the outside conditions, especially by the market. (shrink)

The article outlines the main motivations for the Guise Theory and its intriguing theses concerning identity, predication, existence, and fiction. The second part of the article is devoted to assessment of Castañeda’s theory. It discusses the most influential critiques of the Guise Theory, as well as (important from a historical point of view) Russell’s objection to theories of nonexistent objects. The last section of the article contains a comparison of the Guise Theory with the Meinong’s Theory of Objects, and points (...) out that despite various similarities, we should draw a distinction between original and moderate versions of Meinong’s theory. The main motivation for this distinction are differences between accounts of predications, which allow us to call the Guise Theory “quasi-Meinongian” rather than just “Meinongian”. This is because one of its main claims comes rather form the work of Meinong’s pupil Ernst Mally, and not from Meinong himself. (shrink)

The subject of this study are the argumentation strategies applied by the Polish and German apex courts competent in criminal matters, namely the Supreme Court and the Federal Court of Justice, respectively. The investigation encompasses a total of 200 rulings issued by the criminal panels of these bodies. Particular focus was put on examining which arguments both courts apply to solve interpretation problems, and secondly, how these courts systematize the interpretation process. Methodologically, the examination utilizes, inter alia, the principles of (...) qualitative research, without neglecting the legal dogmatic perspective. A crucial theoretical foundation underlying this study is the distinction between formalistic and substantive legal cultures. The examination reveals that neither the Polish nor the German legal culture is purely formalistic or value-oriented. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court of Poland shows greater affinity for formalistic arguments, whereas the substantive interpretation methods are more widespread in the judicature of the German Federal Court of Justice. In particular, the Polish Court prefers the linguistic interpretation, whereas the German Court favours the purposive approach. (shrink)

The subject of my article is the principle of characterization – the most controversial principle of Meinong’s Theory of Objects. The aim of this text is twofold. First of all, I would like to show that Russell’s well-known objection to Meinong’s Theory of Objects can be reformulated against a new modal interpretation of Meinongianism that is presented mostly by Graham Priest. Secondly, I would like to propose a strategy which gives uncontroversial restriction to the principle of characterization and which allows (...) to avoid Russell’s argument. The strategy is based on the distinction between object- and metalanguage, and it applies to modal Meinongianism as well as to other so-called Meinongian theories. (shrink)

The aim of this paper was to analyze the relationship between attitudes toward physical activity and participation in water sports events and to recognize the main motives for involvement in these kinds of events. A written paper–pencil diagnostic survey was conducted among 394 participants in two traditional and two modern sports events on water held in Poland to ascertain whether innovative events are needed in society, and whether they cause an increase in interest in physical activity. The research results showed (...) that modern sports events on water did not have any more power to attract physically inactive people than traditional water events, did not produce a greater desire to lead an active lifestyle, and did not encourage people to more regularly practice water sports. Moreover, modern events, compared to traditional events, were only a one-time experience and the people who completed survey often wanted to return to traditional sports events which provided participants with greater positive emotions than a modern event. In the case of socio-demographical variables, there was no statistically significant relationship between gender and choice of modern or traditional event, but older people were more likely to choose a traditional event than younger people; modern water events were an attractive option primarily for young people under 30 years of age, furthermore, modern events more often attracted people who had completed higher education. However, it turned out that a modern event on water often attracted more people who had had no experience in this sport discipline rather than people who chose traditional water events. In a sense, modern events are therefore effective in promoting water sports in Polish society. We also distinguished five main groups of participants: healthy lifestyle managers, lovers of sports emotions, water sports malcontents, water sports enthusiasts, and neutrals to water sports. Additionally, we looked into gender-related motives for participation in modern and traditional water events: social and health-related motives proved to be more important for women and men who participated in modern water events. The research results presented in the article expand on the current state of knowledge about mass participation in sport, the impact of sporting events on the promotion of physical activity, and show the motivation behind participation in modern and traditional water sporting events. (shrink)

In this paper, I develop a speech-act based account of presumptions. Using a score-keeping model of illocutionary games, I argue that presumptions construed as speech acts can be grouped into three illocutionary act types defined by reference to how they affect the state of a conversation. The paper is organized into two parts. In the first one, I present the score-keeping model of speech act dynamics; in particular, I distinguish between two types of mechanisms—the direct mechanism of illocution and the (...) indirect one of accommodation—that underlie the functioning of illocutionary acts. In the second part, I use the presented model to distinguish between the unilateral act of individual presumption, the point of which is to shift the burden of proof by making the hearer committed to justifying his refusal to endorse the proposition communicated by the speaker, whenever he refuses to endorse it, the bilateral act of joint presumption—‘bilateral’ in that it is performed jointly by at least two conversing agents—the function of which is to confer on the proposition endorsed by the speaker the normative status of jointly recognized though tentative acceptability, and the indirect or back-door act of collective presumption, the purpose of which is to sustain rules and practices to which the conversing agents defer the felicity of their conversational moves. (shrink)

In this article, I consider the cases of religious Moorean propositions of the form ‘d, but I don't believe that d’ and ‘d, but I believe that ~d’, where d is a religious dogma, proposition, or part of a creed. I argue that such propositions can be genuinely and rationally asserted and that this fact poses a problem for traditional analysis of religious assertion as an expression of faith and of religious faith as entailing belief. In the article, I explore (...) the possibility of undermining these commonly held assumptions and argue that the assertability of religious Moorean propositions can be justified by an account of faith as an intention to form religious beliefs. In the end, I also consider the consequences of such a stance, especially concerning the debate on the ethics of religious belief and doxastic voluntarism. (shrink)

The obligation of the legalization of entrepreneurial activity from Article 14 of The Act of July 2, 2004 on the freedom of entrepreneurial activity caused deliberations regarding constitutive or declarative character of the legalization entry and as a result, created a problem with indication of the moment when the public law status of an entrepreneur is acquired. The answer to the question whether Central Register and Information of Entrepreneurial Activity or the register of entrepreneurs of the National Court Register have (...) also the creation function incites many controversies and is subject to discussions, in the process of which two main standpoints were formed. It is also important to note that the resolution of the discussed issue not only holds scientific value, but above all, it has significant importance in practice. Therefore, it is necessary and even essential. Furthermore, it is typical for this issue that concerns related thereto and arguments raised during the discussion have their basis in the legislation in force and in fact, encapsulate the favoured path of its interpretation. (shrink)