I defend an alternative to the two traditional accounts of the relationship between metacognition and social cognition: metacognition as primary versus social cognition as primary. These accounts have complementary explanatory vices and virtues. They also share a natural assumption: that interpretation in terms of mental states is “spectatorial”, aiming exclusively for an objective description of the mental facts about self and others. I argue that if one rejects this assumption in favor of the view that interpretation in terms of mental (...) states also plays important regulative roles with respect to minds and behavior, a new and superior conception of the relationship between metacognition and social cognition comes into view. On this conception, person-level metacognitive concepts are socio-cognitive tools that shape us into better cognitive agents and more predictable cognitive objects, thereby enhancing our abilities at social coordination. Mastery of these metacognitive concepts relies on subpersonal, non-conceptual, procedural metacognition. This reconceptualization of the relationship between metacognition and social cognition combines the complementary explanatory virtues of the two traditional conceptions, while avoiding their complementary explanatory vices. (shrink)

I argue for two claims. First I argue against the consensus view that accurate behavioral prediction based on accurate representation of cognitive states, i.e. mind reading , is the sustaining function of propositional attitude ascription. This practice cannot have been selected in evolution and cannot persist, in virtue of its predictive utility, because there are principled reasons why it is inadequate as a tool for behavioral prediction. Second I give reasons that favor an alternative account of the sustaining function of (...) propositional attitude ascription. I argue that it serves a mind-shaping function. Roughly, propositional attitude ascription enables human beings to set up regulative ideals that function to mold behavior so as to make it easier to coordinate with. (shrink)

I pose the following dilemma for Millikan's teleological theory of mental content. There is only one way that her theory can avoid Gauker's [(1995) Review of Millikan's White queen psychology and other essays for Alice, Philosophical Psychology, 8, 305-309] charge that it relies on an unexplained notion of mapping or isomorphism between mental state and world. Mental content must be explained in terms of the mapping relation that is required for mental state producing and consuming mechanisms to perform their biologically (...) proper functions, i.e. producing mental states that are consumed in systematically adaptive practical inferences. However, this proposal leads to unacceptably counterintuitive ascriptions of content to mythological beliefs and related desires: such beliefs and desires must "map onto" environmental states that make them adaptive, not onto the mythological states of affairs that (would) make them true or fulfilled. I conclude by discussing the merits and drawbacks of a potential solution to this problem: the view that the contents of mythological beliefs and desires are determined by the non-mythological concepts out of which they are constructed, rather than by the environmental states that make them adaptive. The affinities of this proposal with Pascal Boyer's recent theory of mythological concepts [(2001) Religion explained, New York: Basic Books] are also discussed. (shrink)

I argue that adaptive, self-directed misbeliefs are likely more prevalent and important than McKay & Dennett (M&D) claim. Humans often falsely interpret their own behavior in terms of culturally afforded categories. Despite their falsity, such self-interpretations are often adaptive because of our disposition to behave consistently with them. This makes us easier to interpret by similarly enculturated interactants.

The Tarnowski family was one of the most distinguished families in the history of the Polish Commonwealth. The times of their glory date back to the reign of Ladislaus the Short, when their progenitor, Spycimir, became one of the most important figures in the country. At the beginning of the 16th century, after losing their native Tarnów, they established a new family estate in Dzików, where they resided continuously until 1944. The story of the Tarnowski Family from Dzików is also (...) the account of their service to the motherland. The aim of this article is to present this service over the centuries, with a particular emphasis laid on their contribution to the defence of freedom of the Republic of Poland. This service resulted from the knightly ethos which was being kept alive in the family, the model for which was the figure of Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski. The attitude of the Tarnowski family, both during the 19th century national uprisings, as well as during the wars of 1920 and 1939–45 are the examples of faithfulness to this ethos and to their own past. The article was based on the published literature about the Tarnowski family and the concept of ethos. The latter was only used as a basis for defining the phenomenon. The archives were also consulted, with a particular stress on the family resources, as they show the most fully and precisely the attitude of the subsequent generations of Tarnowski towards their great ancestor. By means of critical analysis of these sources and the available literature, the author put forward the thesis that the peculiar “cult” of Hetman Jan Tarnowski, cultivated by successive family representatives, was an imperative for subsequent generations of the Tarnowski family to maintain their patriotic attitudes. An important conclusion that emerges from this article is that it shows once again how important the knightly ethos, the faith and other imponderables are in the lives of individuals and communities. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest próba uchwycenia różnic oraz podobieństw odnoszących się do cywilizacji zachodniej, które zawarte są w myśli francuskiej filozof politycznej Chantal Delsol oraz w eko-filozofii Henryka Skolimowskiego. Polski filozof na bazie radykalnej krytyki cywilizacji Zachodu zbudował własną koncepcję filozoficzną będącą swoistym remedium na współczesny kryzys. Chantal Delsol natomiast bardzo wnikliwie wypunktowała słabości i niedomagania cywilizacji Zachodu. W pierwszej części tekstu zaprezentowano koncepcje obojga badaczy. W drugiej i trzeciej części autor omawia podobieństwa i różnice pomiędzy sposobem postrzegania cywilizacji Zachodu przez (...) analizowanych myślicieli, a także postulaty ewentualnych rozwiązań aktualnego kryzysu, który – w świetle tekstów obojga uczonych – ma przede wszystkim charakter duchowy i wywodzi się z braku ujęć o charakterze integralnym i empatycznym. W artykule podjęta została próba scharakteryzowania niektórych diagnoz i prognoz obojga wymienionych autorów, które dotyczą zarówno aktualnej sytuacji cywilizacji Zachodu, jak i jej przyszłości. W artykule zastosowano metodę porównawczą oraz metodę analizy krytycznej. (shrink)

The paper presents the stand of Henry Mehlberg on the nature of physical time. This is both an antirelational and relativistic outlook. It deals with the problem of ontological independence and physical reality of time, particularly in the context of discussion between relational and substantival theory of time, and criticism of the positivistic interpretation of relational theory. It outlines some arguments for reality of time, derived from the quantum physics. This conception is a philosophical basis of the causal theory of (...) time, created by Henry Mehlberg. (shrink)

Dnia 2 czerwca zmarł w Warszawie Jerzy Pelc, założyciel oraz wieloletni redaktor „Studiów Semiotycznych”. Przez prawie pół wieku troszczył się On o to, aby na ich łamach ukazywały się wspomnienia pozgonne upamiętniające polskich i zagranicznych uczonych semiotyków. Wspomnienia te albo pisał sam, albo prosił o ich napisanie osoby najlepiej znające dorobek i działalność naukową zmarłego. Jego odejście postawiło nas wszystkich w sytuacji niemożliwej: sam nie może być autorem wspomnienia, a tylko On mógłby kompetentnie napisać kilka słów o swoim ogromnym dorobku (...) naukowym [...]. (shrink)

Izydora Dąmbska presented her views on the semiotics of proper names in her two studies: O bezimienności [On Namelessness] and Filozofia imion własnych [Philosophy of Proper Na­mes]. The author refers mainly to the second work. I. Dąmbska begins with a syntactic definition of proper name, then she attempts to define the basic semantic function of proper name, that is, the function of naming. She emphasises the essential difference between this function of proper names and the function of denotation played by (...) descriptive names. The difference consists in the fact that a descriptive name denotes an individual object as a representative of a respective class, whereas a proper name names an individual person without any class references. A name represents an individual by way of universaliter, i.e. in its many aspects and as one despite differences in the course of his whole life. As such, the proper name represents a conscious object of knowledge and agency. It mediates in personal relations between people and is the material of legends and history, affirms the unity of its bearer, and ensures his duration beyond death and grave. Its secondary meaning is that it plays the function of naming and representing also fictionary literary figures. (shrink)

Cet article aborde le rôle du personnage du diable dans le roman de Jerzy Krzysztoń Obłęd. Jusqu'à présent ce rôle n'est pas suffisamment apprécié, malgré qu’il soit de très grande importance. La raison d’être du diable dans ce roman e’est la personnification des états psychiques du heros et du narrateur en commun. Dans Obłęd le diable a été présenté, avant tout, du point de vue médical et il a enrichi la description de la maladie du héros principal. Comme la figure (...) du mal, le personnage du diable facilite à contempler la réalité du mal et de la souffrance. (shrink)

This paper presents some ideas of Henry Mehlberg on the problem of temporal localizability of psychological states belonging to a human being. There are three kinds of extra-physical time, referred to in Mehlberg's philosophy as psychological, inter-psychological, and psychophysical. The first one determines temporal order of psychological states belonging to the same self; the second one concerns psychological states of different selfs; the third one describes temporal relations between physical and psychological events. Physical time and all three kinds of extra-physical (...) time together form a single universal time. This article includes short characterisation of these temporal concepts and discusses some methods of psychophysical synchronisation. (shrink)

Artykuł proponuje rozumienie filozofii jako współmyślenia, rozumianego m.in. tak, jak ujmuje to Cezary Wodziński, czyli współmyślenie z filozofem, którego dzieło ma charakter swoistego wyzwania. Jednakże wyzwaniem może być wiele innych zjawisk czy wydarzeń, jak np. zamach 9/11, pandemie, skażenie środowiska itp. Filozofia w całości jest ponadczasową praktyką współmyślenia. Współmyślenie wynika oczywiście ze „współbycia”. Według innych współmyślenie filozoficzne jest dzieleniem wspólnej miłości do tego, co istotowe. Warunki współmyślenia to m.in.: wzajemny szacunek, pokora, tolerancja, otwartość, rzetelność myślenia, polemika ad rem. Kierunkiem filozoficznym, (...) który współmyślenie stawia w centrum swojej uwagi, jest niewątpliwie filozofia dialogu. Filozofia musi być otwartością na to, co Inne. W ten sposób myślenie filozoficzne może wyrastać ze wspólnej troski myślicieli o los człowieka i cywilizacji. (shrink)

Tekst u podstaw norm chroniących naturę człowieka przywołuje najpierw normalność, która zdroworozsądkowo kształtowała i kształtuje obyczaje i kulturę chroniącą naturalne środowisko rozwoju człowieka. Normalność taką wiąże z porządkiem miłości (_ordo amoris_) opracowanym przez św. Tomasza z Akwinu, który to porządek przeciwstawia się tzw. optymalizowaniu świata propagowanemu przez myślicieli utylitarystycznych. Artykuł wzmacnia powyższe ustalenia norm chroniących naturę człowieka przez odwołanie się do substancjalnych, podstawowych potencjalności i tendencji natury ludzkiej, intepretowanych w kontekście ontycznej godności każdego człowieka. W tej perspektywie technokratyczne traktowanie ciała (...) ludzkiego przez transhumanizm okazuje się powielaniem drogi zgubnego technokratyzmu względem przyrody, z tym że zniszczenia natury ludzkiej mogą być groźniejsze, bo dotyczą destrukcji człowieka jako istoty cielesno-. (shrink)

This is a new edition of the manual published in 1974 and 1984. Compared with those earlier editions it is revised, enlarged and more precise in its argumentation. In its beginnings the manual aimed at meeting the didactic needs to present students of the Faculty of Christian Philosophy at the ATK a complete handling of Christian ethics. The author, who wrote his manual in difficult times of communist ideology, decided to include in one work, besides a positive exposition of Christian (...) ethics, a critical discussion with other ethical systems as well as his own explicit theory on Augustinian and Thomistic ethics, which he endeavoured to develop. Thus the work interlocked the didactic objectives and the process of growth and justification of the Author's views, Krakow 2001, p. 308). (shrink)