BackgroundIn this study, we analyze the association of social isolation in the first phase of the pandemic with perceived stress among residents of Poland and Italy with a look at how these populations adjust to and comply with implemented regulations, guidelines, and restrictions.Materials and MethodsInternet survey with Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and questions regarding mobility patterns, attitude, and propensity to adjust toward the implemented measures and current health condition was made among Polish and Italian residents (Cronbach’s alpha 0.86 and 0.79, (...) respectively). The sample size was 7,108 (6,169 completed questionnaires in Poland and 939 in Italy).ResultsThe Polish group had a higher stress level than the Italian group (mean PSS-10 total score 22,14 vs 17,01, respectively;p< 0.01). There was a greater prevalence of chronic diseases among Polish respondents. Italian subjects expressed more concern about their health, as well as about their future employment. Italian subjects did not comply with suggested restrictions as much as Polish subjects and were less eager to restrain from their usual activities (social, physical, and religious), which were more often perceived as “most needed matters” in Italian than in Polish residents.ConclusionHigher activity level was found to be correlated with lower perceived stress, but the causality is unclear. Difference in adherence to restrictions between Polish and Italian residents suggests that introducing similar lockdown policies worldwide may not be as beneficial as expected. However, due to the applied method of convenience sampling and uneven study groups, one should be careful with generalizing these results. (shrink)

In this interview, Tomasz Zarębski speaks with Allan Janik, co-author of _Wittgenstein’s Vienna_ (1973, with Stephen Toulmin), on the occasion of the 50 th anniversary of the publication of this pathbreaking book. The conversation concerns the circumstances, motivations and reasons for his undertaking the work on the book, as well as its reception and place in Wittgenstein scholarship. A large part of the discussion refers to his perspective of Wittgenstein, Toulmin’s philosophical writings, and Janik’s own vision of philosophy. The (...) interview took place in Innsbruck on 23 rd and 25 th August 2023. (shrink)

Here, we discuss historical, philosophical and technical problems associated with relating logic and relating semantics. To do so, we proceed in three steps. First, Section 1 is devoted to providing an introduction to both relating logic and relating semantics. Second, we address the history of relating semantics and some of the main research directions and their philosophical applications. Third, we discuss some technical problems related to relating semantics, particularly whether the direct incorporation of the relation into the language of relating (...) logic is needed. The starting point for our considerations presented here is the 1st Workshop On Relating Logic and the selected papers for this issue. (shrink)

Artykuł prezentuje wyniki analizy ilościowej i jakościowej zawiadomień o retrakcji w publikacjach z zakresu filozofii (o zasięgu globalnym) zawartych w Retraction Watch Database, z punktu widzenia zaleceń Komisji Etyki Publikacji. Pod względem ilościowym próba wynosi jedynie 0,48% rekordów w całej bazie, przez co trudno uznać ją za reprezentatywną dla dyscypliny, a tym bardziej niemożliwe jest uogólnienia wniosków na całą aktywność naukową. Statystyka wycofań publikacji może być jednak podstawą do studium przypadków. Treść zawiadomień jest często niekompletna lub niejednoznaczna. Normatywne uregulowania retrakcji (...) publikacji w odniesieniu do przedmiotu badań należy uznać za nie w pełni adekwatne do specyfiki praktyki wydawniczej w filozofii. (shrink)

Artykuł dotyczy ukształtowanej przez anglosaski romantyzm przemiany kulturowego obrazu doświadczenia religijnego — przemiany dostrzeżonej w literaturze przez amerykańskiego krytyka literackiego Geoffreya Hartmana. Najważniejsze aspekty tej przemiany to: zwycięstwo modelu poezji kreatywnej nad jej modelem mimetycznym, epitafijność oznaczająca uwrażliwienie na przemijalność świata, naturalizacja nadprzyrodzoności, a także rezygnacja z odpowiedzi na pytania ostateczne. Horyzont poszukiwań sensu tych przemian wyznaczany jest u Hartmana przez quasi-mesjanizm w ujęciu Adorna — przeświadczenie, że wyżej należy cenić różnorodność niepełnych i ułomnych odpowiedzi niż integralność prawd ostatecznych.

SummaryThe aim of the study was to assess the relationship between adverse life events, a tendency to respond with a high level of anxiety, and height and adiposity of adolescents. The sample included 575 persons aged 10–15 from the Wielkopolska region of Poland. The influence of adverse events during the 6 months before the examination and anxiety trait, as assessed with a STAIC questionnaire, on body height and BMI was analysed. Also sex, age, chronic diseases and socioeconomic status indicators were (...) assessed. One-way and two-way ANOVA was used for assessment of relationships. Adverse events had no influence on body height and BMI. Subjects with a high level of anxiety trait were shorter than subjects with a normal level of anxiety trait. The association of anxiety trait and body height was significant after adjustment for sex, age, chronic diseases and history of adverse life events. The analysis showed no statistically significant influence of adverse life events on height and BMI and a significant relationship between the general tendency to respond with anxiety and body height of adolescents. This suggests that psychological characteristics associated with the cognitive tendency to interpret events as threatening, and consequently, to respond with stress, may be involved in the variability of biological traits regardless of the objective harmfulness of the situation. (shrink)

We argue that there are neither scientific nor social reasons to require gathering ethno-racial data, as defined in the US legal regulations if researchers have no prior hypotheses as to how to connect this type of categorisation of human participants of clinical trials with any mechanisms that could explain alleged interracial health differences and guide treatment choice. Although we agree with the normative perspective embedded in the calls for the fair selection of participants for biomedical research, we demonstrate that current (...) attempts to provide and elucidate the criteria for the fair selection of participants, in particular, taking into account ethno-racial categories, overlook important epistemic and normative challenges to implement the results of such race-sorting requirements. We discuss existing arguments for and against gathering ethno-racial statistics for biomedical research and present a new one that refers to the assumption that prediction is epistemically superior to accommodation. We also underline the importance of closer interaction between research ethics and the methodology of biomedicine in the case of population stratifications for medical research, which requires weighing non-epistemic values with methodological constraints. (shrink)

We show that Pitts' modeling of propositional quantification in intuitionistic logic (as the appropriate interpolants) does not coincide with the topological interpretation. This contrasts with the case of the monadic language and the interpretation over sufficiently regular topological spaces. We also point to the difference between the topological interpretation over sufficiently regular spaces and the interpretation of propositional quantifiers in Kripke models.

Three basic positions regarding the nature of fundamental properties are: dispositional monism, categorical monism and the mixed view. Dispositional monism apparently involves a regress or circularity, while an unpalatable consequence of categorical monism and the mixed view is that they are committed to quidditism. I discuss Alexander Bird's defence of dispositional monism based on the structuralist approach to identity. I argue that his solution does not help standard dispositional essentialism, as it admits the possibility that two distinct dispositional properties can (...) possess the same stimuli and manifestations. Moreover, Bird's argument can be used to support the mixed view by relieving it of its commitment to quidditism. I briefly analyse an alternative defence of dispositional essentialism based on Leon Horsten's approach to the problem of circularity and impredicativity. I conclude that the best option is to choose Bird's solution but amend the dispositional perspective on properties. According to my proposal, the essences of dispositions are determined not directly by their stimuli and manifestations but by the role each property plays in the structure formed by the stimulus/manifestation relations. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that enactivism and computationalism—two seemingly incompatible research traditions in modern cognitive science—can be fruitfully reconciled under the framework of the free energy principle. FEP holds that cognitive systems encode generative models of their niches and cognition can be understood in terms of minimizing the free energy of these models. There are two philosophical interpretations of this picture. A computationalist will argue that as FEP claims that Bayesian inference underpins both perception and action, it entails a (...) concept of cognition as a computational process. An enactivist, on the other hand, will point out that FEP explains cognitive systems as constantly self-organizing to non-equilibrium steady-state. My claim is that these two interpretations are both true at the same time and that they enlighten each other. (shrink)

Boris Kment formulates two challenges to anti-haecceitism: one based on the concept of chance, and the other involving counterfactuals. In this paper I refute the chance-based argument by appropriately reformulating its premises in a non-individualistic language. Regarding the argument from counterfactuals I consider three strategies of defense. The strategy that is ultimately accepted as most promising is a revamped approach based on the distinction between possible worlds and possibilities. I counter Kment’s claim that the introduction of fine-grained possibilities within possible (...) worlds is haecceitism in disguise. My conclusion is that anti-haecceitism survives the criticism, and is an overall more attractive position than its competitor. (shrink)

In this paper we show that a variety of modal algebras of finite type is semisimple iff it is discriminator iff it is both weakly transitive and cyclic. This fact has been claimed already in [4] (based on joint work by the two authors) but the proof was fatally flawed.

Timeless Radcliffe: A Review of Ann Radcliffe, Romanticism and the Gothic - Tomasz Fisiak Yeats’s Genres and Tensions: A Review of Charles I. Armstrong’s Reframing Yeats: Genre, Allusion and History - Wit Pietrzak Review of Anna Pochmara’s The Making of the New Negro: Black Authorship, Masculinity, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance - Antoni Górny “Artful Exaggeration” - Krzysztof Majer Interviews Bill Gaston Transcultural Theatre in the UK - Uilleam Blacker Talks to Joanna Kosmalska.

The paper extends the framework of outcomes in branching space-time (Kowalski and Placek [1999]) by assigning probabilities to outcomes of events, where these probabilities are interpreted either epistemically or as weighted possibilities. In resulting models I define the notion of common cause of correlated outcomes of a single event, and investigate which setups allow for the introduction of common causes. It turns out that a deterministic common cause can always be introduced, but (surprisingly) only special setups permit the introduction of (...) truly stochastic common causes. I analyse next the Bell-Aspect experiment and derive the Bell-CH inequalities. I observe that we postulate there not a common cause for outcomes of a single event but rather a common common cause that accounts for outcomes of many events, where 'events' mean 'measurements with (different) directions of polarization'. Since the inequalities are violated, I claim that no causal story can be told about the Bell correlations, where causality is subliminal and restricted by screening-off condition. Similarly, given certain intuitive principles, no deterministic story can be told about these correlations. (shrink)

In this article I briefly discuss two problems of ontology of states of affairs: the issue of negative states of affairs and the so-called slingshot argument. In particular, I consider several objections against negative states of affairs, including this one: if one accepts the existence of negative states of affairs, why not accept the existence of conjunctive states of affairs (or, alternatively, Shefferian ones, or even binegative ones), which results, it seems, in the acceptance of the existence of states of (...) affairs of any logical form. I argue that regardless of this doubt, at least some negative sentences have (non-trivial) ontological correlates. As for the slingshot argument, I argue that it is not the implicated Principle of Extensionality that is at fault, but the principle of the identity of the correlates of logically equivalent sentences (often called ‘Wittgenstein’s Principle’), which is simply false since ‘2+2=4’ and ‘8-5=3’ are just logically equivalent. (shrink)

Ongoing long-time research into the courts of rulers, their spouses, and their children clearly demonstrates the enduring presence of clergy in their midst. Priests performed various functions in religious practices or worked in the court chancellery. The aim of this article is to show the presence of clergy at the court of Elizabeth of Austria, wife of King Casimir IV, and their youngest daughter Elizabeth Jagiellon. The reconstruction of this environment was possible on the basis of an analysis of a (...) very broad source base, due to its fragmentary nature and incidental occurrence of references to clergy, often in anonymized form. In the case of both Elizabeths, the clergy functioning at their courts were associated with the capella and the chancellery, but they also performed duties as medics or stewards. There are still issues without satisfactory answers, which require further studies and analyses of scattered source material, for instance the question of the queen and her daughter’s relations with the Krakow cathedral and city clergy, both lay and monastic, or the question of the influence of the two Elizabeths’ knights on the assumption of benefices connected with their courts by the clergy). (shrink)

Deutsch 2010 (The Review of Philosophy and Psychology 1: 447–460) claims that hypothetical scenarios are evaluated using arguments, not intuitions, and therefore experiments on intuitions are philosophically inconsequential. Using the Gettier case as an example, he identifies three arguments that are supposed to point to the right response to the case. In the paper, I present the results of studies ran on Polish, Indian, Spanish, and American participants that suggest that there’s no deep difference between evaluating the Gettier case with (...) intuitions and evaluating it with Deutsch’s arguments. Specifically, I argue that one would find these arguments persuasive if and only if one is already disposed to exhibit the relevant intuition. (shrink)

The paper puts forward a theory of historical modalities that is framed in terms of possible continuations rather than possible worlds or histories. The proposal is tested as a semantic theory for a language with historical modalities, tenses, and indexicals.

The aim of this paper is to reconstruct and correct one argument in support of the symmetrization postulate in quantum mechanics. I identify the central premise of the argument as a thesis specifying a particular ontic property of quantum superpositions. The precise form of this thesis depends on some underlying assumptions of a metaphysical character. I compare the exchange degeneracy argument with alternative formal arguments for the symmetrization postulate, and I discuss the role and meaning of labels in the symmetric/antisymmetric (...) representations of the states of many particles. (shrink)

We introduce the notion of bisimulation for first-order Kripke models. It is defined as a relation that satisfies certain zig-zag conditions involving back-and-forth moves between nodes of Kripke models and, simultaneously, between the domains of their underlying structures. As one of our main results, we prove that if two Kripke models bisimulate to a certain degree, then they are logically equivalent with respect to the class of formulae of the appropriate complexity. Two applications of the notion introduced in the paper (...) are given. First, we consider bisimulations in the context of Kripke models of Heyting Arithmetic. Next, we discuss the notion of elementary submodel of a Kripke model and provide a suitable example. (shrink)

The article discusses the issue of the departure from examining real behaviours in a real environment, a trend in social psychology which has been observed going back several years, and the impact of this phenomenon for social psychology as a scientific discipline. The article presents two studies on the well-known and explored “bystander effect”. This phenomenon is examined in two ways – once by way of a “traditional” field experiment conducted in natural conditions, and once through a survey. As it (...) turned out, the results generated by the two studies were diametrically opposite, and only in the field experiment were we able to achieve a pattern of results consistent with those in the original studies. (shrink)

The paper develops a theory of branching spatiotemporal histories that accommodates indeterminism and the insights of general relativity. A model of this theory can be viewed as a collection of overlapping histories, where histories are defined as maximal consistent subsets of the model's base set. Subsequently, generalized manifolds are constructed on the theory's models, and the manifold topology is introduced. The set of histories in a model turns out to be identical with the set of maximal subsets of the model's (...) base set with respect to being Hausdorff and downward closed. Further postulates ensure that the topology is connected, locally Euclidean, and satisfies the countable sub-cover condition. (shrink)

Keith DeRose zauważył, że niezmienności kontekstowej atrybucji wiedzy można bronić za pomocą tzw. manewru z zasadnej stwierdzalności. Stosujący ten manewr inwariantyści (jak np. Tim Black) utrzymują, że wartość logiczna określonej atrybucji wiedzy nie zmienia się wraz ze zmianą kontekstu jej asercji; może się jednak zmieniać to, co takie asercje konwersacyjnie implikują, skutkując poczuciem, że zmienia się wartość logiczna samej atrybucji. Z podobnym manewrem mamy do czynienia w innych sporach filozoficznych. Niektórzy autorzy (m.in. Fred Adams) utrzymują, że zdania fikcjonalne pozbawione są (...) wartości logicznej; jeżeli zdania takie wydają się ją mieć, to tylko za sprawą tego, że wypowiadając takie zdania, implikuje się konwersacyjnie sądy logiczne. Inni badacze (Emery i Hill) argumentują, że za poczucie fałszywości nierzeczywistych okresów warunkowych z niemożliwym poprzednikiem odpowiedzialne są fałszywe implikatury konwersacyjne generowane przez asercje trywialnie prawdziwych zdań tego typu. Z kolei niektórzy, jak Alan Hazlett, twierdzą, że z éA wie, że pù nie wynika to, że p; ale to, że p jest jedynie implikaturą konwersacyjną takiej atrybucji wiedzy. Merytoryczna wartość tego rodzaju argumentacji zależy więc od tego, czy asercje rozważanych zdań rzeczywiście generują określone implikatury konwersacyjne. W pracy wykazałem, że można mieć co do tego wątpliwości. W tym celu identyfikuję i opisuję własność implikatur konwersacyjnych, której – jak pokazuję – nie mają jednak sądy mające być w opinii wspomnianych badaczy implikaturami konwersacyjnymi asercji rozważanych zdań. Własność ta polega na tym, że implikatura konwersacyjna jest wrażliwa na tzw. dociekliwe pytania rozstrzygnięcia – odpowiedź twierdząca na takie pytanie nie generuje implikatury konwersacyjnej, którą asercja takiego zdania mogłaby mieć w innym kontekście. (shrink)

Advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) offer hope for health benefits in all situations where traditional methods of therapy fail or cannot be used for various reasons. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the concept of innovation as applied to the biotechnologies employed in ATMP. In the analysis of the concept, five main contexts of meaning that contribute to its understanding will be distinguished: a change in the way of thinking about the available spectrum of medical procedures, the (...) short time of recognition of technologies in the experimental and theoretical models, lack of clinical data in advance of used technologies, increase of technologies’ complexity and diversity of substrates used in them. The conducted analysis indicates the need to adopt an attitude of far-reaching caution in the evaluation of the safety of ATMP therapies in which innovative biotechnologies are used. (shrink)

This is an extended critique of comments made by Abner Shimony and Howard Stein on Henry Stapp’s proof of the non-locality of quantum mechanics. Although I claim that ultimately Stapp’s proof does not establish its purported conclusion, yet Shimony and Stein’s criticism contains a number of weak points, which need to be clarified.

Bell’s theorem in its standard version demonstrates that the joint assumptions of the hidden-variable hypothesis and the principle of local causation lead to a conflict with quantum-mechanical predictions. In his latest counterfactual strengthening of Bell’s theorem, Stapp attempts to prove that the locality assumption itself contradicts the quantum-mechanical predictions in the Hardy case. His method relies on constructing a complex, non-truth functional formula which consists of statements about measurements and outcomes in some region R, and whose truth value depends on (...) the selection of a measurement setting in a space-like separated location L. Stapp argues that this fact shows that the information about the measurement selection made in L has to be present in R. I give detailed reasons why this conclusion can and should be resisted. Next I correct and formalize an informal argument by Shimony and Stein showing that the locality condition coupled with Einstein’s criterion of reality is inconsistent with quantum-mechanical predictions. I discuss the possibility of avoiding the inconsistency by rejecting Einstein’s criterion rather than the locality assumption. (shrink)

W artykule omówione zostały sprawy organizacyjne, przebieg i znaczenie polityczne pobytu elektora saskiego Fryderyka Augusta w Opolu w dniach 15 grudnia 1733 r. – 3 stycznia 1734 r. Jest to ważny epizod tak w dziejach miasta, jak i Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów, pomijany jednak do tej pory w historiografii. Tymczasem na przełomie 1733 i 1734 r. o wizycie przyszłego króla polskiego w Opolu było stosunkowo głośno w Europie, a notatki informujące o tym publikowane były w prasie wydawanej w Austrii, Rzeszy Niemieckiej, (...) Rosji czy Wielkiej Brytanii. W artykule wykorzystano doniesienia gazetowe, a przede wszystkim relacje z podróży elektora, jego żony Marii Józefy i dworu saskiego, dokumenty logistyczne oraz korespondencję i rachunki przechowywane w archiwach saskich, austriackich oraz w Archiwum Państwowym w Opolu. (shrink)

Autor wylicza problemy, którymi zajmuje się terapia filozoficzna i podejmuje próbę podania jej definicji. W tekście znajdziemy odwołania do psychologii homeryckiej, współczesnych nurtów terapeutycznych oraz przykładów zastosowania terapii filozoficznej. W artykule ukazany został związek terapii filozoficznej ze starożytnym pojmowaniem filozofii. Główną osią, wokół której prowadzone są rozważania jest zastosowanie terapii filozoficznej w procesie stawania się osobą.