Is Gilles Deleuze’s concept of virtuality sufficiently close to the concept of virtuality used in informatics and the philosophy of information for computer-created objects and virtual reality to justify the latter’s explanation by means of the former? This question is the main objective of the present paper. We aim to show that, contrary to its most widespread interpretations, the Deleuzian conception of virtuality is epistemological and not ontological, and that this invalidates the belief that Deleuze’s virtuality and that of computer (...) science are sufficiently close to justify the transposition of one to the other. (shrink)

Our culture is engaged in a process of dismantling the traditional processes of producing individuations and meaning. The borders between the engineered and organic, human and technological are dissolving as the individual reaches for the integrated experience. Liminality is the present state of dissolution of the self as a subject and a stage leading towards a new kind of individuation. There is a potential in developing a new language centred in the experience of the sensing body in order to move (...) beyond the dialectical world-view initiated in an era marking the beginning of scientific progress. In this article, I will provide an overview of the processes that shaped the idea of a subject as an ontological entity. These processes will be viewed through the lens of scientific and aesthetic pursuits. I will follow with a short introduction of object-oriented ontology, which arose with the development and popularization of computers. I will then explore the border between the two ontologies and a possibility for crossing over through the use of the sensing body or bare life. In effect, I am arguing for aesthetics as a new form of language capable of bridging the different manifestations of being in the technological and biological life. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to present cross-cultural research on secondary school students in Poland and Norway concerning their opinions about the ethical norms that every employee should follow, and the declared attitudes of young people towards these norms. The interaction between the awareness of general ethical norms that every employee should follow and the declared attitudes toward this role are discussed. Additionally, the influence of nationality and gender on opinions and attitudes toward ethical norms is analyzed.Random-quota sampling was (...) chosen to collect data from 844 Norwegian and 1337 Polish students aged 16–18. The analyzed variables concerning attitudes and opinions towards ethics included: giving and taking bribes, confidentiality, consideration for the employer’s property, consideration for the company’s hardware and software, positive attitudes to clients and co-workers, working in competing organizations, and using psychoactive substances.Analyses of variance showed that variables such as gender and nationality significantly influenced the opinions and attitudes of young people towards work; however, the effect of nationality in this interaction appears to be stronger. We concluded that youth need to be educated in the area of work ethics before they enter the job market. (shrink)

The presented study explores the possibility of creating and implementing educational program which would reduce intergroup bias in realistic high school setting. The project was based on the assumption that there is the need of easily applicable, anti-prejudice intervention, which would be appropriate to introduce into foreign language course books, would be universal in terms of changing negative attitudes and would meet all methodological requirements of language lessons. Crossed categorization and the common ingroup identity model were used as theoretical basis (...) for 30 English lesson scenarios on B2 level. It was shown that after the intervention there was a significant change in the students’ attitude toward the outgroup and the outgroup members. The implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

Drawing from an ethics of care, relational approaches to autonomy have recently emerged in bioethics. Unlike individual autonomy with its emphasis on patients’ rights, choice, and self-determination which has been the hallmark of bioethics consistent with the ideology of individualism in neoliberal democracies in Western countries, relational autonomy highlights the relatedness, interdependency, and social embeddedness of patients. By examining the mediating role that male Hospital Liaison Committee members in Germany play in facilitating care that supports Jehovah's Witnesses’ refusal of blood (...) transfusions, this article moves beyond ‘dyadic relations’ and contexts of caregiving. It also contributes to a deeper understanding of care and relational conceptualizations of Witness patients’ autonomy globally. (shrink)

This paper looks at cognition from the perspective of Yaśovijaya-sūri’s Jaina-tarka-bhāṣā. Considering the nature of sensory cognition (mati-jñāna), represented by the four stages (sensation, speculation, perceptual judgement, retention) and of verbal cognition (śruta-jñāna), it reflects on the form and rendering of the word as a raw, physical sound or the meaningful particle of language linked to an infinite number of other such particles, deeply rooted in reliance on linguistic convention. The author considers here what properties such cognition recognises and relates (...) to them especially in light of the theory of viewpoints, providing a contribution to reflections on its meaning. The other questions posed in the article are: which prerequisites are met by people between whom this kind of communication takes place and what role do the scriptures play? Yaśovijaya-sūri’s thought is set in the broader context (Siddhasena Divākara, Jinabhadra Gaṇi, Vādideva-sūri, Dharmabhūṣana, Vinayavijaya Gaṇi), with emphasis of his sources of inspiration. (shrink)

Tekst stawia pytania, czy i jak możliwe jest porozumienie między ludźmi wyznającymi odmienne wartości, oraz jaka powinna być etyka otwarta na takie porozumienie, a zarazem umożliwiająca walkę z dyskryminacją. Wychodząc od dyskusji R. Rorty’ego i C. Geertza, wykazuję, że powinniśmy odrzucić używane tam pojęcia etnocentryzmu i relatywizmu, gdyż są wieloznaczne, a istotny podział biegnie pomiędzy ich różnymi znaczeniami. Oparta na empatii i uznaniu etyka D. T. Meyers pozwala rozwiązać problemy wynikające z różnorodności, zarówno wewnątrz–, jak i zewnątrzkulturowej. Jej konsekwencją jest (...) radykalna zmiana etycznego paradygmatu: zamiast ogólnych reguł, indywidualne podejście do konkretnej sytuacji. Aby jednak możliwe było jej zastosowanie, kultura Zachodu musi zrezygnować z roszczeń do uniwersalności. (shrink)

The paper examines changing media representations of Jacinda Ardern, former Aotearoa New Zealand Prime Minister, from the global broadcaster, BBC News Online, across three key milestones in the politician’s career: her appointment, re-election and resignation. Our socio-semantic analysis of this representation demonstrates how the media intersect her professional identity with age, gender, social class, and later, her identity as a mother. Whilst earlier coverage of Ardern’s career praises her successfully reconciling these aspects of her personal, social and professional identities, later (...) coverage implies that ‘having it all’ was never really possible longer term. We argue that the visibility of this discourse, and the focus on intersectional aspects of Ardern’s personal and social identities, leads to her resignation being positively evaluated as her ‘finally’ succumbing and committing to the ‘natural’ inevitabilities of heterosexual family life. The article considers what such representation means for Ardern and women politicians and leaders more broadly, and contextualises these findings in relation to existing research on media representations of women in politics and leadership. Finally, we also consider the value of a more longitudinal approach to tracking the cumulative effects of the representation of social actors and groups. (shrink)

The study examines the question of how personal self-esteem, collective self-esteem and readiness for self-improvement are linked to satisfaction with life in women from countries differing with regard to level of collectivism. Our study participants were Polish and Indian female students. The obtained results indicate that personal self-esteem plays a very important role in satisfaction with life of women from the two countries. However, collective self-esteem is not directly related to satisfaction with life among women from the two cultures analyzed. (...) Structural Equation Modeling showed that: a) in the Indian group readiness for self-improvement is more important for satisfaction with life than in the Polish group and it is significantly related to satisfaction with life through collectivistic self-esteem, b) the direct influence of both personal and collective self-esteem on satisfaction with life is more significant in the Polish group than in the Indian group. (shrink)

a translation of A. Schoot "Kivy and Langer on Expressivity in Music".

This article investigates the rise of the feminine creative voice in the age of modernism through the lens of Virginia Woolf’s fictional and nonfictional writings. Her invaluable insights into the long history of women’s subjugation, as well as the fortunes of her contemporaries, provide a framework for an examination of how women established their position as capable members of society in the changing modern milieu. This essay examines Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse, and her polemical essay A Room of One’s (...) Own, with a view to demonstrating modern women’s path to creating their artistic identity. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s notion of narrative identity, I investigate women’s unique way of (re)gaining their confidence and articulating their own voice during the process of self-formation. Following Woolf’s lead, I consider their double status: as both an object of fascination in works of literature and a source of oppression in real life. I also use Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophy of historically effected consciousness (Wirkungsgeschichtes Bewusstsein) to reveal the productive interpretative distance that can help us unravel the complexities of the historical and contingent nature of the development of the female artistic genius. An interrogation of women’s imaginative self-manifestations opens the way to the discovery of crucial truths that pertain to the hermeneutics of female creativity. (shrink)

The article discusses research conducted in a valuable biocoenosis in the Gnieźnieńskie Lakeland in central Poland. Protected within the Natura 2000 network, the area is simultaneously affected by climate change and anthropogenic pressures. The article suggests reconsidering the conservation site as engineered by the underwater stonewort meadows, rather than understanding it as an object managed by external experts. It is argued that a broader recognition of how the site is co-created and sustained through ecological processes, rather than solely through human (...) investments, fosters a sense of belonging and responsibility towards the environments that people share with others. (shrink)

The natural-law doctrine drawing its roots from the political philosophy of modern authors such as Locke and Hobbes, undeniably affected the two great revolutions of the Eighteenth century, and also created the foundation for modern democratic systems. Notwithstanding these frequently emphasized dependencies, the above article focuses on something else, namely transformations inside the very doctrine and modifications of its elementary concepts (esp. natural law) catalyzed by the revolutions. Originally unalterable natural law of superior divine provenance, has proved to be insufficient (...) in the face of the progress of human socio-political consciousness and required modernizations, among which Paine's project is significant and noteworthy example. (shrink)

Let Rhoda Speak Again: Identity, Uncertainty, and Authority in Virginia Woolf's The Waves Performing a rereading of Virginia Woolf's 1931 experimental modernist masterpiece of The Waves, in this article I focus on the elusive and conflicted character of Rhoda, whose significance has been either overlooked or marginalized in the available criticism of the narrative. By pointing out a number of problems in the existing scholarship devoted to Rhoda, I propose to define her as a transgressive figure of uncertainty through which (...) Woolf develops a critique of the unitary self. My point of departure for the following essay is Toril Moi's perspective on Woolf's oeuvre as openly feminist and deconstructive. Consequently, I begin with Moi's emphasis on Woolf's commitment to the problematization of the Western male humanism's underlying concept of the unitary self. Drawing from a number of critical and philosophical perspectives, I turn to Kim L. Worthington's idea of subjectivity as a sustained process of interpersonal narrativization in order to offer a more nuanced account of Rhoda's identity as compound and implicated in the dynamics of inter-subjective processes. I also consider Rhoda's much criticized rejection of identity vis-à-vis Woolf's strategy of impersonality, and, contrasting it with Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological concepts of the flesh and anonymous existence, I contend that Rhoda renounces the unitary selfhood, which corroborates Moi's critique of Woolf. Through a close analysis of Rhoda's position versus the other characters, as well as by examining how Rhoda's ego boundaries are delineated in the narrative, I demonstrate that Woolf's conflicted heroine emerges as an astute critic of gendered reality, since she is the one who most acutely feels the dualistic nature of selfhood and it is chiefly through her that Woolf points to the need to overcome this dualism. Shannon Sullivan's feminist revision of the Merleau-Pontian perspective on the anonymity and the body as well as the Deweyan notion of transactionality further helps to elucidate the ways in which Rhoda's experimental and subversive discourse engages in a polemic with the Cartesian conceptualization of identity presupposed on the dualism of mind and body simultaneously inquiring about a possibility of a non-dualistic and non-unitary conception of subjectivity. As a consequence, Rhoda gains authority and agency through uncertainty which prompts her to adopt an uncompromisingly and insistently questioning stance. Finally, I suggest reconsidering Rhoda's suicide as a metaphorical act of ‘distancing,’ as discussed by Zygmunt Bauman, via Adorno, in his 2006 Liquid Fear, another context for approaching Rhoda's uncertainty. (shrink)

The practice of evaluating music and music works is widespread. That practice must depend on recognition of values and/or qualities in those works. However this be true it isn't always clear what these values and qualities are and how are the believes entrenched in theory and practice of evaluating musical works. In the aesthetics the most celebrated types of values are aesthetic values and qualities. Author of this paper reexamines the theory of aesthetic values as existing independently from artistic values (...) and artistic qualities. Starting from Monroe C. Beardsley, through Roman Ingarden's theory of value and coming to Nick Zangwill's understanding of evaluation of artworks, the author approaches the problem of judging musical works and the theory that is most needed to ground such practice. (shrink)

The work begins by asking the questions of how contemporary phenomenology is concerned with music, and how phenomenological descriptions of music and musical experiences are helpful in grasping the concreteness of these experiences. I then proceed with minor findings from phenomenological authorities, who seem to somehow need music to explain their phenomenology. From Maurice Merleau-Ponty to Jean-Luc Nancy and back to Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, there are musical findings to be asserted. I propose to look at phenomenological studies of (...) the musical aspects of existence as they appear in various philosophical works bringing together different accounts of music and aesthetics and pointing towards phenomenological study as a methodology for everyday aesthetics. While there are many different areas of music phenomenology such as studies of sound and listening, studies in perception of musical works, in experience of artistic creation, in singing and playing musical instruments, and phenomenology of transcendent or religious horizons of the experience of music, it is most promising—I suggest—to look at phenomenological studies of music from the perspective of everyday happenings and discoveries of musical aspects of life. Thus, I attempt to display the uses of phenomenology in finding musical aspects of everyday existence as well as in describing and illuminating the art of music. A look at Roman Ingarden’s and Mikel Dufrenne’s most intuitive and promising ideas will be broadened with a perspective from Don Ihde and Arnold Berleant. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe present study was designed to address the hypothesis that differences and similarities in patterns of attentional processing in recently proposed types of anxiety and depression are connected with the dominant function they play in stimulation processing and their structural components. Participants filled out the Anxiety and Depression Questionnaire, which assesses types of anxiety and depression, and completed the Emotional Faces Attentional Test one week later. The obtained results confirmed our prediction and suggested that the proposed typology of anxiety and (...) depression is valid in the adaptive meanings of both phenomena. (shrink)