Al centrar su atención en Dios y en el hombre, con frecuencia Agustín nos ofrece su relación recíproca al nivel axiológico. La teoría agustiniana de los valores comporta un razonamiento filosófico y teológico a la vez. En la intersección de estos dos elementos se encuentra el problema de la jerarquía de los bienes y en el fondo podemos descubrir el teocentrismo agustiniano. En el pensamiento del obispo de Hipona, podemos distinguir un triple teocentrismo teleológico, que se completan y explican recíprocamente.

Sport plays today an eminent role in man's life and in societies. Various sciences have made it the subject-matter of their reflection, i.e. psychology, sociology, the natural and humanistic sciences, art, philosophy, and theology. The present work seeks to answer some fundamental questions connected with the phenomenon of sport: what is it for man? whether and when does it serve the social integration of a community? what are the premises and principles of the ethics of sportive activity? what is the (...) aesthetic dimension of sport? what are the relations between sport and religious faith? The philosophical profile is dominant in the book, taking into consideration various aspects of sport: anthropological, social, axiological, and theological. (shrink)

Ex-ante deontology is an attempt to combine deontological constraints on doing or intending harm with the idea that one should act in everyone’s interest if possible. I argue that ex-ante deontology has serious problems in cases where multiple decisions are to be made over time. I then argue that these problems force us to choose between commonsense deontological morality and a more consequentialist morality. I suggest that we should choose the latter.

Personites are like continuant people but shorter-lived. Johnston argues that personites do not exist since otherwise personites would have the same moral status as persons, which is untenable. I argue that Johnston’s arguments fail. To do that I propose an alternative way to understand intrinsicness and I clarify the meaning of reductionism about persons. I also argue that a plausible ethical theory is possible even if personites have the same moral status as persons. My arguments draw on Johnston’s earlier debate (...) with Parfit about personal identity and the place of ordinary concerns in a naturalistic world. I also describe an important but metaphysics-free problem that arises from Johnston’s discussion. (shrink)

This paper examines a recent argument in favour of strong precautionary action—possibly including working to hasten human extinction—on the basis of a decision-theoretic view that accommodates the risk-attitudes of all affected while giving more weight to the more risk-averse attitudes. First, we dispute the need to take into account other people’s attitudes towards risk at all. Second we argue that a version of the non-identity problem undermines the case for doing so in the context of future people. Lastly, we suggest (...) that we should not work to hasten human extinction, even if significant risk aversion is warranted. (shrink)

This article addresses the issue of linguistic phenomena which, as a legacy of the centuries-old tradition of the Roman Empire, are rooted in Polish jurisdictional texts. The study focused on foreign-language expressions and short texts in Latin, used in judicial decisions. The aim of the study was to determine the function of Latinisms as foreign-language expressions in judicial decisions and how their use influences the communicativeness and persuasiveness of argumentation. During the analysis, it was noticed that Latinisms in jurisdictional texts (...) are used on four levels, including: legal maxims, terminology equivalence, linguistic ornaments and the description of taboo phenomena. On the basis of the identified categories, efforts were made to determine the extent to which Latin strengthens or weakens the power of persuasion of judicial decisions. (shrink)

Malgorzata Fidelis in her bookWomen, Communism, and Industrialization in Postwar Polandsets out to examine gender policies during Stalinism and their transformation under the subsequent ‘Polish road to socialism’. She shows that the relative political liberalisation in the late 1950s was also accompanied by the abandonment of policies favouring women and the return to conservative prewar gender hierarchies. The essay finds that the book is a valuable contribution to the understanding of the vicissitudes of gender struggle during Communism in Poland. It (...) also makes a contribution to the understanding of how the principles declared by the Communist Party were modified in response not only to economic necessities but also to local cultures and popular struggles. In this way it sheds light on the process of the legitimation of the Communist regime in Poland and beyond by accommodating demands from below. (shrink)

Fanaticism is the view that, for every finite good x and every positive probability p, there is a finite good y such that getting y with probability p is better than getting x for sure. I develop a neglected argument for a form of fanaticism limited to life saving scenarios. I explain how my argument is compatible with some forms of small-probability discounting, imprecise probabilism, risk-aversion and aggregation scepticism. I also try to respond to theoretical problems that fanatical arguments encounter (...) in cases that involve infinitely many possible people. I also suggest why, even if fanaticism is true, we might often be warranted in our intuitive reluctance to accept fanatical conclusions. (shrink)

Memetics is a research approach which applies evolutionary ideas and terminology to cultural phenomena. The core idea of memetics is the existence of the units of cultural evolution which are attributed autonomous replicating goals. Of course, such a controversial concept has gained many devoted adherents as well as its determined opponents. The paper discusses the theoretical difficulties of memetics. The first part discusses the analogy of genes and memes. The theme of the second part is the ontology of a cultural (...) replicator. Finally, the third part presents the main issues related to manners of transmission and the adaptation of memes. In short, the aim of the paper is an evaluation of the explanatory potential of memetics. The explanatory potential of memetics will be evaluated in terms of its intrinsic consistency, the degree of its confirmation, the falsifiability of the theses which were elaborated on its basis and the heuristic value of this approach. (shrink)

Moral options are permissions to do less than best, impartially speaking. In this paper, we investigate the challenge of reconciling moral options with the ideal of justifiability to each individual. We examine ex-post and ex-ante views of moral options and show how they might conflict with this ideal in single-choice and sequential-choice cases, respectively. We consider some ways of avoiding this conflict in sequential-choice cases, showing that they face significant problems.

This paper presents a new puzzle for limited aggregation. Unlike other recent puzzles, this one arises independently of the issue of rational aversion to risk. Some possible responses are laid out and explored.

St. Augustine’s idea of wisdom partly studied by H. I. Marrou, F. Cayré, J. Maritain and E. Gilson, is more universal than Aristotle’s or Thomas Aquinas’. For the Bishop of Hippo the term sapientia can designate, on the supernatural plane, God’s nature, the life of grace, contemplation of God, and, on the natural plane, contemplation of truth or even man’s ethical life.The purpose of this paper is to examine in what relationship theoretical wisdom, which Augustine identifies with philosophy, and learning (...) stand to each other. Wisdom is a universal and genetic knowledge of the world, while learning is the knowledge of the particular and phenomenon. The object of wisdom is the world of the spirit that of learning is the material world. Wisdom and learning, even though they may be opposed, do not exclude one another. Their development precisely depends on their mutual harmonious cooperation, but sapiential knowledge keeping the guiding role. (shrink)

Badania dotyczące pojawiania się myśli oderwanych od zadania wykonywanego przez podmiot pokazują, że takich myśli jest tym mniej, im większe wymagania stawia ono systemowi poznawczemu, jeśli chodzi o zaangażowanie procesów zarządczych, złożoność, trudność bądź częstość wykonywanych operacji. Jednym z możliwych wyjaśnień tych zależności jest hipoteza biernej regulacji zasobowej: aktywność umysłowa oderwana od zadania rozwija się w takim zakresie, w jakim procesy realizujące zadanie pozostawiają wolne zasoby niezbędne do jej rozwoju. Analizy przedstawione w artykule motywowane są pytaniem o teoretyczną konkretyzację tej (...) idei. Jaka jest natura zasobowych ograniczeń, które mają uniemożliwiać równoczesne rozwijanie się aktywności umysłowej dotyczącej zadania i oderwanej od niego? Na jakim etapie rozwoju aktywności umysłowej prowadzącej do pojawienia się myśli oderwanej od zadania występuje w związku z tymi ograniczeniami zasobowa blokada? Pod tym kątem rozważane są cztery współczesne znaczące ujęcia „roboczej” części umysłu: modele pamięci roboczej Baddeleya i Cowana oraz architektury kognitywne ACT-R i CAPS. Chociaż w tych teoriach są uwzględnione ograniczenia dotyczące przetwarzania lub aktywnego przechowywania, z którymi może wiązać się bierna regulacja zasobowa, to ważne pytania dotyczące mechanizmów takiej regulacji pozostają bez odpowiedzi. Wyjaśnienie odwołujące się do idei biernej regulacji zasobowej stawia przed modelami funkcjonowania umysłu nowe wyzwania. (shrink)

This article addresses the issue of linguistic phenomena which, as a legacy of the centuries-old tradition of the Roman Empire, are rooted in Polish jurisdictional texts. The study focused on foreign-language expressions and short texts in Latin, used in judicial decisions. The aim of the study was to determine the function of Latinisms as foreign-language expressions in judicial decisions and how their use influences the communicativeness and persuasiveness of argumentation. During the analysis, it was noticed that Latinisms in jurisdictional texts (...) are used on four levels, including: legal maxims, terminology equivalence, linguistic ornaments and the description of taboo phenomena. On the basis of the identified categories, efforts were made to determine the extent to which Latin strengthens or weakens the power of persuasion of judicial decisions. (shrink)

This paper develops transfinite extensions of transitivity and acyclicity in the context of population ethics. They are used to argue that it is better to add good lives, worse to add bad lives, and equally good to add neutral lives, where a life's value is understood as personal value. These conclusions rule out a number of theories of population ethics, feed into an argument for the repugnant conclusion, and allow us to reduce different-number comparisons to same-number ones. Challenges to these (...) arguments are addressed, including the issue of comparing existence and non-existence in terms of personal value, the possibility of minimal quanta of time and life, and the meaningfulness of measuring closeness between outcomes with different population sizes. An asymmetry is uncovered between transfinite cycles of worseness and betterness, supporting a version of the weak procreative asymmetry. Transfinite transitivity principles are also favourably compared to the better-known principles of continuity. (shrink)

Liberalism and marxism are two forms of economism, which separate economic activity from ethics. The social teaching of the Church accepted continued by pope Benedict XVI recognizes the necessity of free market and limited intervention of the state in economy, but first of all postulates creativity of civil society in the field of economic life. The main arguments for observance of moral rules in the economic activity are following: 1. Every conscious and free men’s action is responsible for the effects (...) – economic activity cannot be any exception; 2. The same ethics ought to be applied in the individual-private life and in the public domain – also economy; 3. Ethos of economic activity is connected with three virtues – truth, love and justice (also social justice); 4. Christian-personalistic ethics is based on the principles auxialiarity (personalism) and common good (solidarity). Economic activity completely separated from ethics is inhuman. (shrink)