Clinical Ethics Consultations are an important tool for physicians in solving difficult cases. They are extremely common in North America and to a lesser extent also present in Europe. However, there is little data on this practice in Poland. We present results of a survey of 521 physicians practising in Poland concerning their opinion on CECs and related practices. We analysed the data looking at such issues as CECs’ perceived availability, use of CECs, and perceived usefulness of such support. Physicians (...) in our study generally encounter hard ethics cases, even—surprisingly—those who do not work in hospitals. Most physicians have no CEC access, and those that do still do not employ CECs. However, physicians perceive this form of support as useful—even more so among actual users of CECs. We compared these findings with similar studies from other European countries and the North America. We point out peculiarities of our results as compared to those in other countries, with some possible explanations. We hope the results may encourage regulatory debate on the need to formally introduce CECs into the Polish healthcare system. (shrink)

The paper introduces a concept of logic applied to a formalization of the so-called inferences preserving degrees of truth. Semantical and syntactical characterizations of three kinds of logics preserving degrees of truth are provided. The other approach than in [3] and [9] to the problem of expressing that a sentence is less true than a sentence is presented.

Marx extrapolated the relations of production of the factories of his time into his predictions about the development of the working class. These predictions are among the most important theses of Marxism-Leninism relative to the socialist world-revolution which the working class was to carry out.The physics of Marx'' era was not very developed. Marx could have no inkling of the future development of physics and of its application to technology. This is why his predictions had to be in simple and (...) direct proportion to the development of the relations of production of the time. (shrink)

Die logische Analyse psychologischer Begriffe wird gedeutet als die Untersuchung logisch-kategorialer wie auch inhaltlicher Merkmale des Psychischen im Allgemeinen (Kennzeichen des Erlebnismäßigen, Unterscheidungen zum Nicht-Psychischen) und im Speziellen (Kennzeichen der einzelnen psychischen Phänomene, Unterscheidungen innerhalb des Psychischen). Brentanos deskriptive Psychologie wird als eine derartige analytische Philosophie der Psychologie aufgefaßt, und Chisholms These, daß Wittgensteins Philosophie der Psychologie als deskriptive Psychologie angesehen werden kann, wird mit einigen Einschränkungen und Ergänzungen übernommen. Bei der Darstellung der deskriptiven Psychologie als Begriffsanalyse, als einer Wissenschaft (...) a priori, wird vor allem eine Rekonstruktion des Terminus "aus den Begriffen einleuchten" versucht. (shrink)

This paper commemorates thepresentation of the honorary doctorate, in May2001 by the University of ód, toProfessor Andrzej Walicki. On this occasion,the Honorary Graduate delivered a lecturedevoted to his first philosophy teacher –Sergej Iosifovich Hessen, a prominent RussianNeo-Kantian philosopher and a liberal inmatters social and political. I try to analyzethe main features of Hessen''s philosophicalneo-Kantianism, in particular the inevitabilityof a choice between the absolute and therelative both in epistemology and in ethics inthe context of contemporary philosophy.

The topos theory gives tools for unified proofs of theorems for model theory for various semantics and logics. We introduce the notion of power and the notion of generalized quantifier in topos and we formulate sufficient condition for such quantifiers in order that they fulfil downward Skolem-Löwenheim theorem when added to the language. In the next paper, in print, we will show that this sufficient condition is fulfilled in a vast class of Grothendieck toposes for the general and the existential (...) quantifiers. (shrink)

Jeden z kontrargumentów do argumentu z ukrycia Boga, który zyskuje popularność w ostatnich latach, odnosi się do niepojętości Boga. Jeśli Bóg jest transcendentny, twierdzą zwolennicy tego argumentu (tj. Michael Rea i Roger Pouivet), to nie wiemy, czy Boska miłość wyraża się w otwarciu na osobiste relacje ze skończonymi istotami, jak twierdzi pierwsza przesłanka argumentu o ukrytości. Oskarżają J. L. Schellenberga o kształtowanie koncepcji Boga na wzór współczesnych koncepcji człowieka. W odpowiedzi wskazuję na fakt, że chociaż w pismach Schellenberga istnieje niebezpieczeństwo (...) antropomorfizmu, personalistyczny teizm musi zaakceptować pierwszą przesłankę argumentu z ukrycia. Uzasadniam swoją tezę, odwołując się do zasady scholastycznej, która pozwala przypisać Bogu wszystkie doskonałości, i argumentując na rzecz tezy, że osobowość (rozumiana w kategoriach racjonalności i wolności) jest jedną z doskonałości. (shrink)

The paper refers to the argument from hiddenness as presented in John Schellenberg’s book The Hiddenness Argument and the philosophical views expressed there, making this argument understandable. It is argued that conditionals (1) and (2) are not adequately grounded. Schellenberg has not shown that we have the knowledge necessary to accept the premises as true. His justifications referring to relations between people raise doubts. The paper includes an argument that Schellenberg should substantiate its key claim that God has the resources (...) to accommodate the possible consequences of openness to a relationship with finite persons, making them compatible with the flourishing of all concerned and of any relationship that may come to exist between them. At the end of the text, I propose to treat the argument as a rejection of an anthropomorphic God. (shrink)

The paper is a contribution to the object ontology. The general approach assumed in the investigation is that of Roman Ingarden's The Controversy Over the Existence of the World where an object is the subject-of-properties. The analysis of the form and the mode of existence of properties leads to the rejection of both negative and general properties. Each property is an individual qualitative moment of a particular object. Its form reveals existential heteronomy: the quality of the property is not immanent (...) but refers to the object. The subject of properties has not its own qualitative content: its form is just the internal causality establishing the unity of an object. An object is not causally isolated from other objects, but external causation differs from internal either by being ramified in case of the composition and destruction of an object or reciprocal in case of interaction between coexisting objects. (shrink)

The paper presents the latest achievements of analytic philosophers of religion in Christology. My goal is to defend the literal/metaphysical reading of the Chalcedonian dogma of the hypostatic union. Some of the contemporary Christian thinkers claim that the doctrine of Jesus Christ as both perfectly divine and perfectly human is self-contradictory (I present this point of view on the example of John Hick) and, therefore, it should be understood metaphorically. In order to defend the consistency of the conciliar theology, I (...) refer to the work of, among others, Eleonore Stump, William Hasker, Peter Geach and Kevin Sharpe. As a result, I conclude that recent findings in analytic metaphysics provide an ontological scaffolding that explains away the objection of the incompatibility of the doctrine of the hypostatic union. In order to confirm this conclusion such metaphysical topics as properties attribution (what it means for an object to have a property), relation of identity (what it means for an object x to be identical with object y), and essentialism and kind membership (what it means for an object to belong necessarily to a kind) are scrutinized in detail. (shrink)

J.M. Bocheński together with J. Salamucha, B. Sobociński, and J.F. Drewnowski formed the so-called Cracow Circle in the 30s of the previous century. Its main aim was to utilize contemporary logic in theology and philosophy of God. The first work in this area was Salamucha’s formal analysis of the prima via, published in 1934. The article was reviewed by Bocheński, who provided a number of remarks concerning Salamucha’s analysis. At that time he did not decide to conduct a holistic research (...) into the prima via. That was done by him only at the end of his life as part of the logical analysis of the quinque viae. This paper aims at presenting Bocheński’s unpublished formal analysis of the prima via from 1953 and proving that it constitutes a valuable completion of his published formal analyses, which come from the 1980s and 1990s. Above all, they provide a more insightful analysis of the notion of movement in the prima via, as well as the form of axiom expressing the lack of regress into infinity. In the formalizations of 1953 there are also interesting analyses concerning the ancestral closure of three-argument relations. (shrink)

The fundamental rules which should be followed by Notary Public are: honesty, reliability, detachment and impartiality, as well as keeping the professional secret. As a crucial participant in creating and carrying into effect legal structures of free market, Notary Public performs public functions. Therefore, he or she is authorized to give an official character to declarations of persons being their clients. In view of the foregoing, the notary should secure such documents in trading abiding by the rules and regulations of (...) the governing law and ethics. With a view to a special role of the profession in question in economic trade, The National Notary Board passed a Notary Public Code of Professional Ethics, by virtue whereof a Notary shall with their attitude and actions give a good character to their profession and mind its dignity and honor. Any breach of the above – mentioned rules results in the Notary’s liability. Notary Public, as a person whose functions play a crucial role in legal trade and who is trusted by the parties, is responsible for correctness and precision of their activities. Their liability as clients’ confidant may result in civil, legal, disciplinary and tax liability. (shrink)

Quantum contextuality and its ontological meaning are very controversial issues, and they relate to other problems concerning the foundations of quantum theory. I address this controversy and stress the fact that contextuality is a universal topological property of quantum processes, which conflicts with the basic metaphysical assumption of the definiteness of being. I discuss the consequences of this fact and argue that generic quantum potentiality as a real physical indefiniteness has nothing in common with the classical notions of possibility and (...) counterfactuality, and that also it reverses, in a way, the classical mirror-like relation between actuality and definite possibility. (shrink)

There are already numerous monographs and anthologies on Alexius Meinong’s philosophical work, but there has, until now, been no comprehensive biography. Evelyn Dolling has succeeded in filling this gap with her Skizze seines Lebens . Her attempt to delineate Meinongs’s life takes the form of a sketchbook. It consists of several sketches. Some of them are meticulously detailed, as for example the description of Meinong’s struggle to establish a psychological laboratory in Graz. Others consist of just a few strokes, and (...) do not go beyond indications and bibliographic notes, as in the case of Meinong’s relationship to his younger disciples, for instance Ernst Mally and France Veber. (shrink)