In early March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the situation of thousands of higher education institutions around the world. The spreading virus not only imposed remote education, but it also brought tremendous changes in university management. The introduction of new educational and administrative solutions was a huge logistical and financial challenge for public and private universities. It was not easy for students either. It also posed a problem for the faculty. Remote learning generated many problems even in highly developed countries. (...) Therefore, the number of students was expected to slowly decline. It was a surprise that private universities saw an increase in interest in their offer right after the outbreak of the pandemic. The article presents the situation of private universities in Poland, the complex problems related to the management of the academic environment in the absence of proper preparation for on-line education as well as for remote management of higher education organizations. (shrink)

Assent is an important ethical and legal requirement of paediatric research. Unfortunately, there are significant differences between the guidelines on the details of assent.

We compared the processing of natural language quantifiers in a group of patients with schizophrenia and a healthy control group. In both groups, the difficulty of the quantifiers was consistent with computational predictions, and patients with schizophrenia took more time to solve the problems. However, they were significantly less accurate only with proportional quantifiers, like more than half. This can be explained by noting that, according to the complexity perspective, only proportional quantifiers require working memory engagement.

The novel "Mephisto" is one of the most well-known texts by Klaus Mann. Its fame results not only from its literary virtuosity, but also and primarily from the enormous media attention which was caused by the novel’s publication. The decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, in which it dealt with the relationship between freedom of art and other constitutionally guaranteed rights of individuals, launched the unprecedented career of this novel. This article describes Klaus Mann’s political views and their development in (...) the 1920s during the time when the National Socialist movement was strengthening and the writer made the decision to emigrate. The essay deals with the circumstances of creating the novel considering both biographical and political issues. The novelist is described from the perspective of the reality of the 1930s during the National Socialist regime and the time after his emigration. The concern of the article is not a literary analysis of the novel, but to take a look at the novelist’s development up until the moment of finishing his work as a protest against National Socialism. Another goal of the essay is to analyze the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, which regards the balance between freedom of art and other basic rights. Considering the synergy of both methodological approaches and the interdisciplinary view on the problem, the article represents a novel attempt to give a complex view on the relationship between art and the reality of a totalitarian state and between the relationship art–state in the conditions of a democratic state. (shrink)

Autorský kolektiv z Katedry politologie brněnské Fakulty sociálních studií přichází s publikací, která má za cíl představit soudobé politicko-teoretické diskuze nad základními aspekty liberální demokracie, jako jsou například většinové rozhodování, idea lidské důstojnosti nebo vztah demokracie a lidských práv. Nepodává však pouze učebnicový přehled, ale jednotlivé představené koncepce též kriticky hodnotí. Jako problematické pak v obecnějším pohledu vnímá přílišné množství dílčích teoretických inovací spěchajících zachránit liberální demokracii. To totiž v konečném důsledku vede k nesrozumitelné kakofonii, která zevnitř disciplíny politické teorie/politické (...) filosofie vychází. Kniha se tak snaží o systematizaci současných diskuzí a o pojmová vyjasnění. Jako zásadní věc pak vnímá též napětí mezi nutností přijímat legitimní a závazná kolektivní rozhodnutí a skutečností hluboké diverzity v současných společnostech. V poslední kapitole tak Pavel Dufek představuje jako vhodnou inspiraci teorie veřejného ospravedlnění. Tato recenze má za cíl seznámit čtenáře se základní strukturou a argumenty publikace a vnést do debaty s knihou některé další aspekty charakterizující naši postmoderní situaci. (shrink)

Użytkownicy języka potrafią często zupełnie nieświadomie przywołać elementy struktury rodzaju tekstu potrzebnego do realizacji celów pozajęzykowych. Niniejszy artykuł stawia sobie za zadanie przybliżenie struktury i zadań komentarza prasowego jako funkcjonalnej części kompleksu informująco-opinotwórczego. Zamiarem było jednocześnie pokazanie, że wynikające z potrzeb komunikacyjnych tendencje w formułowaniu tekstów przenikają do świadomości użytkowników języka i mogą być przywoływane, jeżeli zachodzi taka potrzeba. Opierając się na opracowaniach lingwistycznych i podręcznikach dla przyszłych dziennikarzy przedłożony artykuł prezentuje wybrane definicje, a także schematy strukturalne i opisy funkcjonalne (...) dla rodzaju tekstu komentarz prasowy, usiłując jednocześnie udowodnić na wybranym przykładzie tekstu z prasy niemieckojęzycznej, że nie tylko dziennikarzom dane jest odtworzenie tego wzoru tekstowego. (shrink)

Explanations in cognitive science and computational neuroscience rely predominantly on computational modeling. Although the scientific practice is systematic, and there is little doubt about the empirical value of numerous models, the methodological account of computational explanation is not up-to-date. The current chapter offers a systematic account of computational explanation in cognitive science and computational neuroscience within a mechanistic framework. The account is illustrated with a short case study of modeling of the mirror neuron system in terms of predictive coding.

The purpose of this paper is to present a general mechanistic framework for analyzing causal representational claims, and offer a way to distinguish genuinely representational explanations from those that invoke representations for honorific purposes. It is usually agreed that rats are capable of navigation because they maintain a cognitive map of their environment. Exactly how and why their neural states give rise to mental representations is a matter of an ongoing debate. I will show that anticipatory mechanisms involved in rats’ (...) evaluation of possible routes give rise to satisfaction conditions of contents, and this is why they are representationally relevant for explaining and predicting rats’ behavior. I argue that a naturalistic account of satisfaction conditions of contents answers the most important objections of antirepresentationalists. (shrink)

The predictive processing account of action, cognition, and perception is one of the most influential approaches to unifying research in cognitive science. However, its promises of grand unification will remain unfulfilled unless the account becomes theoretically robust. In this paper, we focus on empirical commitments of PP, since they are necessary both for its theoretical status to be established and for explanations of individual phenomena to be falsifiable. First, we argue that PP is a varied research tradition, which may employ (...) various kinds of scientific representations, differing in the scope of empirical commitments they entail. Two major perspectives on PP qua cognitive theory may then be distinguished: generalized vs. hierarchical. The first one fails to provide empirical detail, and the latter constrains possible physical implementations. However, we show that even hierarchical PP is insufficiently restrictive to disallow incorrect models and may be adjusted to explain any neurocognitive phenomenon–including non-existent or impossible ones–through flexible adjustments. This renders PP a universal modeling tool with an unrestricted number of degrees of freedom. Therefore, in contrast with declarations of its proponents, it should not be understood as a unifying theoretical perspective, but as a computational framework, possibly informing further theory development in cognitive science. (shrink)

In this article, after presenting the basic idea of causal accounts of implementation and the problems they are supposed to solve, I sketch the model of computation preferred by Chalmers and argue that it is too limited to do full justice to computational theories in cognitive science. I also argue that it does not suffice to replace Chalmers’ favorite model with a better abstract model of computation; it is necessary to acknowledge the causal structure of physical computers that is not (...) accommodated by the models used in computability theory. Additionally, an alternative mechanistic proposal is outlined. (shrink)

Autor artykułu broni tezy, że niektóre systemy obliczeniowe mogą mieć własności semantyczne. Wskazana została klasa systemów obliczeniowych, w których reprezentacje mogą mieć przynajmniej dwie własności: własność odnoszenia się do obiektów (desygnowanie) i własność wspomagania rozpoznawania obiektów oznaczanych przez daną reprezentację (konotowanie). Autor argumentuje także, że własności semantyczne reprezentacji nie zależą wyłącznie od architektury systemów obliczeniowych, w których te reprezentacje występują. Konkretna architektura obliczeniowa nie jest czynnikiem kluczowym, a bodaj najmniej istotne są same rodzaje struktur danych, które mają mieć własności desygnowania (...) czy konotowania. Własność desygnowania czy konotowania nie musi być zlokalizowana w samych reprezentacjach, może być własnością wyższego rzędu, powstającą w mechanizmie wyższego poziomu. Własności semantyczne reprezentacji mogą być wielorako realizowane. Systemy klasyczne, koneksjonistyczne czy też hybrydowe mogą równie dobrze mieć własności semantyczne, jak ich nie mieć. (shrink)

Author: Moskalewicz Marcin Title: AESTHETIZATION OF POLITICS ACCORDING TO HANNAH ARENDT (Estetyzacja polityki w ujęciu Hannah Arendt) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2005, vol:.5, number: 2005/1, pages: 203-220 Keywords: ARENDT, AESTHETIZATION OF POLITICS, CRITIQUE OF JUDGMENT Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:The article reflects on the problem of aesthetization of politics in Hannah Arendt’s work. It starts with the reconstruction of Arendt’s concept of the human condition, with the intention of placing (...) the political within it. Then, by exploring the theatrical metaphor of political life the author attempts to show in what sense can we say that the political and the aesthetical intertwine in Arendt’s thought. The author also discusses the reproach of the aesthetization of politics and its link to fascism, arguing that paying a closer attention to the distinction between creative and performative arts may help to avoid it. In conclusion, Arendt’s reading of Kant’s Critique of Judgment serves as a basis for a more sympathetic interpretation of her aesthetization of politics, in which the gap between the moral and the aesthetical is reduced. (shrink)

The discussion around dignity in nursing philosophy has been underway for many years. The literature still lacks philosophical arguments that would justify the thesis that all people have dignity. Scholars who defend dignity as an intrinsic value most often refer to Kant. However, Kant does not seem to be the most suitable candidate to defend the thesis that all human beings possess dignity. In this paper, I attempt to show that Aristotle's and Aquinas's views can help justify this thesis. To (...) this end, I distinguish between actual dignity, potential dignity, and existential dignity. I state that all human beings have existential dignity or potential dignity. (shrink)

EDUARD VON HARTMANN ON IMMANUEL KANT’S CONCEPT OF THE THING IN ITSELF. Immanuel Kant argues that recognition of the object of knowledge must be limited to the cognitive capacities of the subject. Hartmann takes the view that such an approach to the object of knowledge cannot lead to objectivity. He stated the necessity of the cognition referring to the thing in itself. The thing in itself, despite its fundamental unknowability, must be the basis of all cognition. Thus, our cognition can (...) be achieved only secondarily on the basis of the thing in itself. (shrink)

National Socialism did not only constitute a political doctrine; it was also a kind of worldview that left its mark on German and pan­-European culture of the 20th century. The drastic changes that were linked to Hitler’s takeover of power confronted writers and poets with a completely new reality and wholly new conditions of the creative process. Those who could not or would not emigrate had to submit themselves to the policies and norms decreed by the National Socialists. National Socialism (...) – a conglomerate of different ideologies and ideologemes – perverted certain middle­-class values and ultimately aimed towards the total subjugation of all areas of life, culture being among them. The fact that the German middle­-class partly shared the values propagated by the Nazis led to an overhasty and unjust assessment of the attitude of writers belonging to the so­-called ‘Inner Emigration’. The article at hand outlines the principles of National Socialist cultural politics as well as its relationship to artists. The complicated creative situation of writers and poets in the Third Reich will be shown by representative examples. (shrink)

Book review: Łukasz Hardt, Economics Without Laws. Towards a New Philosophy of Economics, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2017, pp. 220.

Dialectical fallacies are typically defined as breaches of the rules of a regulated discussion between two participants. What if discussions become more complex and involve multiple parties with distinct positions to argue for? Are there distinct argumentation norms of polylogues? If so, can their violations be conceptualized as polylogical fallacies? I will argue for such an approach and analyze two candidates for argumentative breaches of multi-party rationality: false dilemma and collateral straw man.

The aim of this paper is to propose foundations for a formal model of representation and numerical evaluation of a possibly broad class of arguments, including those that occur in natural discourse. Since one of the most characteristic features of everyday argumentation is the occurrence of convergent reasoning, special attention should be paid to the operation ⊕, which allows us to calculate the logical force of convergent arguments with an accuracy not offered by other approaches.

Dialectical approaches traditionally conceptualize argumentation as a discussion in which two parties debate on “two sides of an issue”. However, many political issues engender multiple positions. This is clear in multi-party online deliberations in which often an array of competing positions is debated in one and the same discussion. A proponent of a given position thus addresses a number of possible opponents, who in turn may hold incompatible opinions. The goal of this paper is to shed extra light on such (...) “polylogical” clash of opinions in online deliberation, by examining the multi-layered participation in actual online debates. The examples are drawn from the readers’ discussions on Osama bin Laden’s killing in online versions of two British newspapers: The Guardian and The Telegraph. As a result of the analysis, a distinction between sides, positions, and cases in argumentative deliberation is proposed. (shrink)

In this paper, we argue that several recent ‘wide’ perspectives on cognition (embodied, embedded, extended, enactive, and distributed) are only partially relevant to the study of cognition. While these wide accounts override traditional methodological individualism, the study of cognition has already progressed beyond these proposed perspectives towards building integrated explanations of the mechanisms involved, including not only internal submechanisms but also interactions with others, groups, cognitive artifacts, and their environment. The claim is substantiated with reference to recent developments in the (...) study of “mindreading” and debates on emotions. We claim that the current practice in cognitive (neuro)science has undergone, in effect, a silent mechanistic revolution, and has turned from initial binary oppositions and abstract proposals towards the integration of wide perspectives with the rest of the cognitive (neuro)sciences. (shrink)

I challenge two key assumptions of speech act theory, as applied to argumentation: illocutionary monism, grounded in the idea each utterance has only one (primary) illocutionary force, and the dyadic reduction, which models interaction as a dyadic affair between only two agents (speaker-hearer, proponentopponent). I show how major contributions to speech act inspired study of argumentation adhere to these assumptions even as illocutionary pluralism in argumentative polylogues is a significant empirical fact in need of theoretical attention. I demonstrate this with (...) two examples where arguers interacting with multiple persons convey plural, argumentatively relevant illocutionary forces. Understanding illocutionary pluralism in argumentative polylogues also affords a better account of fallacious and manipulative discourse. (shrink)

One of the critical issues in the philosophy of science is to understand scientific knowledge. This paper proposes a novel approach to the study of reflection on science, called “cognitive metascience”. In particular, it offers a new understanding of scientific knowledge as constituted by various kinds of scientific representations, framed as cognitive artifacts. It introduces a novel functional taxonomy of cognitive artifacts prevalent in scientific practice, covering a huge diversity of their formats, vehicles, and functions. As a consequence, toolboxes, conceptual (...) frameworks, theories, models, and individual hypotheses can be understood as artifacts supporting our cognitive performance. It is also shown that by empirically studying how artifacts function, we may discover hitherto undiscussed virtues and vices of these scientific representations. This paper relies on the use of language technology to analyze scientific discourse empirically, which allows us to uncover the metascientific views of researchers. This, in turn, can become part of normative considerations concerning virtues and vices of cognitive artifacts. (shrink)

The problem of computational complexity of semantics for some natural language constructions – considered in [M. Mostowski, D. Wojtyniak 2004] – motivates an interest in complexity of Ramsey quantifiers in finite models. In general a sentence with a Ramsey quantifier R of the following form Rx, yH(x, y) is interpreted as ∃A(A is big relatively to the universe ∧A2 ⊆ H). In the paper cited the problem of the complexity of the Hintikka sentence is reduced to the problem of computational (...) complexity of the Ramsey quantifier for which the phrase “A is big relatively to the universe” is interpreted as containing at least one representative of each equivalence class, for some given equvalence relation. In this work we consider quantifiers Rf, for which “A is big relatively to the universe” means “card(A) > f (n), where n is the size of the universe”. Following [Blass, Gurevich 1986] we call R mighty if Rx, yH(x, y) defines N P – complete class of finite models. Similarly we say that Rf is N P –hard if the corresponding class is N P –hard. We prove the following theorems. (shrink)

The focus of this special issue of Theory & Psychology is on explanatory mechanisms in psychology, especially on problems of particular prominence for psychological science such as theoretical integration and unification. Proponents of the framework of mechanistic explanation claim, in short, that satisfactory explanations in psychology and related fields are causal. They stress the importance of explaining phenomena by describing mechanisms that are responsible for them, in particular by elucidating how the organization of component parts and operations in mechanisms gives (...) rise to phenomena in certain conditions. We hope for cross-pollination between philosophical approaches to explanation and experimental psychology, which could offer methodological guidance, in particular where mechanism discovery and theoretical integration are at issue. Contributions in this issue pertain to theoretical integration and unification of psychology as well as the growing importance of causal mechanistic explanations in psychological science. (shrink)

Despite the continuous emphasis on globalization, we witness increasing divisions and divisiveness in all domains of human activities. One of the reasons, if not the main one, is the intellectual fragmentation of humanity, compared in the title to the failed attempt at building the Biblical Tower of Babel. The attempts to reintegrate worldview, fragmented by the specialization of education (C.P. Snow’s The Two Cultures) and expected to be achieved through reforms in curricula at all levels of education, were based on (...) the assumption that the design of a curriculum should focus on the wide distribution of subjects of study, as if the distribution was the goal. The key point is not the distribution of themes, but the development of skills in the integration of knowledge. The quantitative assessment of the width of knowledge by the number of disciplines is of secondary importance. We cannot expect the miracle that students without any intellectual tools developed for this purpose would perform the job of integration, which their teachers do not promote or demonstrate, and which they cannot achieve for themselves. There are many other reasons for the increasing interest in making inquiries interdisciplinary, but there is little progress in the methodology of the integration of knowledge. This paper is a study of the transition from multidisciplinarity to interdisciplinarity, and further, to transdisciplinarity, with some suggestions regarding the use of methodological tools of structuralism and the choice of a conceptual framework. (shrink)

The author presents a model of moral responsibility based on the actual sequence and the notion of reason-responsiveness, and draws an analogy between this model and Robert Nozick’s model of knowledge based on the actual sequence. In addition, the concept of semicompatibilism is introduced and explained.

Problem uzasadnienia demokracji jest jedną z centralnych kwestii, którymi zajmują się specjaliści z zakresu teorii społecznej. Po straszliwych doświadczeniach XX wieku nie jest sprawą łatwą ani jednoznaczną wskazać, dlaczego powinniśmy bronić systemu demokratycznego. Oczywiste jest, że liberalna demokracja minimalizuje zagrożenia jednostki, ale powstaje wtedy kwestia, czy wolność jednostki powinna być centralną wartością, do której wszelkie inne wartości społeczne powinny zostać odniesione. Niniejsza książka dotyka właśnie tego węzłowego dla nowoczesności tematu. […] Autor włożył wiele wysiłku w analizę i interpretację koncepcji Deweya, (...) Habermasa i Rorty’ego. Każdy z tych myślicieli jest autorem skomplikowanych i niejednoznacznych koncepcji. Nie jest więc łatwo w jasny sposób przedstawić ich czasem niezwykle zawiły tok rozumowania. Jedną z wielkich zalet omawianej monografii jest właśnie jasna prezentacja omawianych w niej poglądów”. Prof. dr hab. Leszek Koczanowicz (Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej) „to doskonała książka […]. Świetnie napisana, oryginalna, nowatorska, a jednocześnie przybliżająca polskiemu czytelnikowi istotne aspekty twórczości dwóch spośród najwybitniejszych i najbardziej wpływowych filozofów współczesności”. Prof. Wojciech Sadurski (Sydney University). (shrink)

Syndrom uprzedmiotowienia narodowego Polaków jest systemem hamowania aktywności zbiorowej i jednostkowej. Wytwarzany jest poprzez redukcje instytucjonalnych podstaw samostanowienia obywateli, a pogłębiany z powodu niemożności akumulacji osobistej własności i gospodarowania dobrem wspólnym przez pojedyncze podmioty. Polega tez na blokowaniu personalnej dyspozycji do rozpoznania narzucanych zależności. W okresie transformacji politycznej w Polsce po 1989 roku takie strategie zostały skutecznie zastosowane.

Problem relacji między religią i nauką, rozumiany jako relacja między doktryną chrześcijańską i naukami przyrodniczymi, jest dzisiaj powszechnie znany i dyskutowany. Artykuł podejmuje bardzo praktyczne zagadnienie, jakim jest formowanie oraz rewidowanie światopoglądu chrześcijańskiego w kontekście spotkania się w człowieku religijnym dwóch wielkich idei: stworzenia i ewolucji. Wychodząc od zaproponowanej definicji światopoglądu, w artykule zostanie ukazany fundamentalny rys światopoglądu chrześcijańskiego oraz jego istotne cechy. Dopiero w takim świetle próbuje się przedstawić propozycję interpretacji spotkania i wzajemnego oddziaływania idei stworzenia i ewolucji. Zaproponowana (...) relacja dialogu jest drogą do zdobywania dojrzałej postawy względem rzeczywistości zarówno dla człowieka religijnego, jak i dla ludzi uprawiających nauki przyrodnicze. Jednocześnie jest to propozycja, która, prowadząc do wewnętrznej integracji człowieka, może stać się odpowiedzią na niektóre współczesne kryzysy kultury. (shrink)

Temporal interpretation of modal logic consists in replacing possible worlds with temporal states of the world or any time determinates and the accessibility relation with a relation of passage of time. That issue has been raised by A. N. Prior, who was thinking of propositions as things which could change their truth-values (could become true or become false) with the passage of time. Under such interpretation Prior was reading a formula as: it (is and) will always be the case that (...) or: it (is and) has always been the case that . The formula should be read respectively. In the present paper the interpretation in question is examined. Its sources are presented and its consequences are analysed. It is claimed, the interpretation to be highly disputable because of its disagreement with physical meaning of temporal statements, established in the special relativity theory. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to present a critical overview of Jacques Derrida’s objections to the theories of phenomenological experience. I present and analyze Derrida’s principal arguments which show that the primordial character of such experiences is only apparent. I also try to sketch a possible line of defense and to undermine some of the interpretational presuppositions introduced by the author of La voix et le phénomène.