During the last half of the twentieth century, legal philosophy (or legal theory or jurisprudence) has grown significantly. It is no longer the domain of a few isolated scholars in law and philosophy. Hundreds of scholars from diverse fields attend international meetings on the subject. In some universities, large lecture courses of five hundred students or more study it. The primary aim of the Law and Philosophy Library is to present some of the best original work on legal philosophy from (...) both the Anglo-American and European traditions. Not only does it help make some of the best work avail able to an international audience, but it also encourages increased awareness of, and interaction between, the two major traditions. The primary focus is on full-length scholarly monographs, although some edited volumes of original papers are also included. The Library editors are assisted by an Editorial Advisory Board of internationally renowed scholars. Legal philosophy should not be considered a narrowly circumscribed field. (shrink)

Książek poświęconych refleksji nad pojęciem racjonalności ukazuje się obecnie wiele, zaś większość z nich przyjmuje bardziej lub mniej jasno wyrażony przesłankę, iż pojęcie to przeżywa obecnie głęboki kryzys. Samo pojęcie kryzysu jest przy tym na ogol stosowane w sposób, który należałoby nazwać intelektualną nonszalancją, gdyby tylko ów niefrasobliwy, niekiedy wręcz metaforyczny użytek, jaki się z niego czyni, był wynikiem świadomego zamiaru. Tak jednak zwykle się nie dzieje, a prace poświęcone trudnościom z prawidłowym zdefiniowaniem pojecia racjonalności i określeniem jego funkcji w (...) obrębie rozważań filozoficznych mówią o kryzysie tak, iż odbiorca ulega niekiedy nieodpartemu wrażeniu, iż chodzi o kryzys porównywalny do kryzysu ekonomicznego, przez który należy możliwie szybko i przy minimalnych stratach własnych przejść i jak najszybciej otrząsnąć się z minionych trudności. Nie miałoby sensu bliższe wnikanie w przyczyny owego stanu rzeczy, bowiem wiąże się one nierozerwalnie z pojmowaniem najważniejszych problemów filozoficznych, przez co niemożliwe jest choćby skrótowe ich omówienie. Przede wszystkim jednak - z punktu widzenia zarówno refleksji nad pojęciem racjonalności, jak i rozważań, które zmierzają do określenia, czy rzeczywiście mamy współcześnie do czynienia z tak poważnym kryzysem racjonalności, jak zdają się sugerować niektórzy autorzy prac poświęconych temu zagadnieniu - poszukiwanie owych przyczyn nie wydaje się czynnością potrzebny. (shrink)

Nowadays the issues of space and place pertain more than ever to the ongoing discussion about personal/regional/national identities. The worlds of private archives of memory often exist independently of political and administrative divisions, while dominant ideologies are often capable of re-defining national archives of memory through selective representation of the past. The way we remember our past and our heritage inscribes the space we live in: the places we remember and the places we wish to forget, the monuments we pull (...) down and erect and the museums we build are only some of the signposts on the landscape of our cultural memory. The essays collected in this volume examine the role of places and spaces in the formation of both cultural practices and the existential experience of modern individual. (shrink)

Artykuł dotyczy doświadczenia moralnego podmiotu pozostającego poza siecią bliskich relacji. Analizuję dwie reguły niezależności moralnej, które mogłyby świadczyć o uprzywilejowaniu podmiotu w tego rodzaju sytuacjach. Zgodnie z pierwszą podmiot pozostający poza siecią relacji unika zagrożeń związanych z utożsamieniem z rolą społeczną. Zgodnie z drugą działania podejmowane przez podmiot charakteryzują się wyższym stopniem bezinteresowności, a co za tym idzie – większą wartością moralną. Argumentuję, że reguły te mogą mieć jedynie charakter prima facie i są ograniczone wieloma czynnikami. Wskazuję również, że uprzywilejowanie (...) podmiotu moralnego w sytuacji cudzoziemca jest równoważone przez trudności w działaniu moralnym w obszarze obietnic, praktyki obwiniania oraz współodpowiedzialności i troski. (shrink)

Władysław Witwicki’s suppositional conception of religious faith was presented extensively in his book La foi des éclairés [Faith of the Enlightened] (1939). The aim of this work was to investigate how so‑called enlightened people (i.e. those with at least a secondary education) reconcile secular knowledge with religious faith. The empirical research presented by Witwicki was based on a number of concepts, such as judgment, supposition, psychological principle of contradiction, sincere belief and insincere belief. Witwicki concluded that the faith of enlightened (...) people consists of suppositions which are held against secular beliefs. However, this conclusion was not sufficiently justified and can only be applied to a certain group of believers. (shrink)

Self-esteem and emotional reactivity may be important personality determinants of human functioning in situations of social exposure. In this study, we compared the levels of these personality variables in a group of professional theater actors and a group of professional illusionists with a control group of participants who were neither actors nor illusionists and had no artistic education. We also examined the correlations between emotional reactivity and self-esteem in the three groups. For emotional reactivity, we found (1) very strong evidence (...) that the level is less for magicians than for controls, (2) substantial evidence that the level is less for magicians than for actors, (3) anecdotal evidence that the level is less for actors than for controls, and (4) decisive evidence that the average score is less for males than for females. For self-esteem, we found (1) anecdotal evidence that the level is higher for magicians than for controls, (2) substantial evidence that there is no difference between actors and magicians, (3) anecdotal evidence against a difference between actors and controls, and (4) anecdotal evidence against a difference between males and females. Based on the entire sample we found a moderate correlation between self-esteem and emotional reactivity (r = -.30, p < 0.001). Our results are compatible with the notion that emotional reactivity – as part of the temperament concept – is a factor influencing the choice of an artistic profession. (shrink)

Traditional martial arts continue to be interesting and inspiring to many people around the globe. Some of their contemporary adaptations attract enthusiasts for whom they are especially important. In this article, the author bases his observations on his own long-term participation. The analysis takes into account the influence of the perspectives of Jigoro Kano and several other creators of modern varieties of Japanese budo. It can be concluded that regular, even daily, practice—cultivating martial arts and internalizing its values—co-creates the lifestyle (...) of instructors and advanced students. (shrink)

This paper explores the program of theology of science proposed by renowned Polish physicist and philosopher, Michael Heller, with a particular focus on its ontological dimensions through the lens of Trinitarian theology. Firstly, an overview of the status and current discussions of theology of science is presented. Next, drawing on Heller's key texts the Trinitarian doctrine is used to enhance the intelligibility of the Universe, wherein the dynamic interplay of unity, diversity, and relationality is mirrored in the structure of physical (...) reality itself. Most importantly, however, we examine how Heller's theological perspective thus equipped provides justification for the specificity of the method of science itself, thereby revealing new dimensions of relations between science and theology. Through critical engagement with Heller's thought, this paper seeks ultimately to illuminate the profound implications of a Trinitarian perspective in his theology of science, shedding light on the interconnectedness of Christian doctrine and ontology in shaping our understanding of the universe and its underlying structure. (shrink)

The Limits of Cognition and the Shape of Being Based on the Thought of Karl Jaspers The article points out the elements of Karl Jaspers’ epistemological conception that cross out the possibility of a comprehensive account of being. The key issue here is the limits of cognition, which take the form of object cognition. The theme of limits points to the inadequacies of human thinking in the context of quantifiable and absolutist representations of reality. The impossibility of adequately grasping the (...) totality of reality will be illustrated here by means of the criticism Jaspers levelled at absolutising metaphysics. In connection with the description of the structure of cognition proposed by Jaspers, the article points out the conceptual proximity of the issue of worldview and metaphysics in the light of the thought of the cited author. (shrink)

Dla zrozumienia Poppera teorii języka sprawy najważniejsze wydaje się być nie tyle jej właściwa rekonstrukcja, gdyż zrekonstruowanie ogólnych poglądów Poppera na język nie jest trudne, ile uchwycenie specyficznego dla Poppera stosunku do języka, który nadał szczególne piętno zarówno jego wczesnej filozofii nauki, wyłożonej w latach trzydziestych, jak i późniejszym koncepcjom metafizycznym i epistemologicznymi. W przeciwieństwie do poglądów na ewolucję i funkcję języka ów ogólny sposób traktowania języka pozostaje w filozofii Poppera w sferze założeń, w dodatku nie zawsze wyłożonych expressis verbis, (...) a mieć można obawy, czy do końca uświadamianych. Wiele do życzenia pozostawia również precyzja znaczeń niektórych używanych przez Poppera terminów co dodatkowo komplikuje sprawy. (shrink)

In Zielonka (1981a, 1989), I found an axiomatics for the product-free calculus L of Lambek whose only rule is the cut rule. Following Buszkowski (1987), we shall call such an axiomatics linear. It was proved that there is no finite axiomatics of that kind. In Lambek's original version of the calculus (cf. Lambek, 1958), sequent antecedents are non empty. By dropping this restriction, we obtain the variant L0 of L. This modification, introduced in the early 1980s (see, e.g., Buszkowski, 1985; (...) Zielonka, 1981b), did not gain much popularity initially; a more common use of L0 has only occurred within the last few years (cf. Roorda, 1991: 29). In Zielonka (1988), I established analogous results for the restriction of L0 to sequents without left (or, equivalently, right) division. Here, I present a similar (cut-rule) axiomatics for the whole of L0.This paper is an extended, corrected, and completed version of Zielonka (1997). Unlike in Zielonka (1997), the notion of rank of an axiom is introduced which, although inessential for the results given below, may be useful for the expected non-finite-axiomatizability proof.The paper follows the same way of subject exposition as Zielonka (2000) but it is technically much less complicated. I restrict myself to giving bare results; all the ideological background is exactly the same as in case of the non-associative calculusNL0 and those who are interested in it are requested to consult the introductory section of Zielonka (2000). (shrink)

In [2], Bar-Hillel, Gaifman, and Shamir prove that the simple phrase structure grammars (SPGs) defined by Chomsky are equivalent in a certain sense to Bar-Hillel's bidirectional categorial grammars (BCGs). On the other hand, Cohen [3] proves the equivalence of the latter ones to what the calls free categorial grammars (FCGs). They are closely related to Lambek's syntactic calculus which, in turn, is based on the idea due to Ajdukiewicz [1]. For the reasons which will be discussed in the last section, (...) Cohen's proof seems to be at least incomplete. This paper yields a direct proof of the equivalence ofFCGs andSPGs. (shrink)

This paper presents an experimental study on definite descriptions. According to the classical views, a definite description, i.e., a phrase of the form “the F”, has – roughly speaking - purely descriptive semantics, that is, it designates the object which uniquely (opt. uniquely in a context) satisfies the description. However, as several philosophers including Keith Donnellan have argued, there are uses of definite descriptions on which these expressions do not seem to designate objects which satisfy the descriptions. Namely, a description (...) may refer in some circumstances to an object which does not have the property from the description. This argument is called “the Argument from misdescription” and it is raised against the classical views on the semantics of definite descriptions. In our paper, we present an experimental study on misdescription and explored reactions of ordinary users of language to various statements involving misdescriptions. The results of our research indicate that the intuition of ordinary speakers is consistent with the prediction expressed in the Argument from misdescription. We argue that the most common pragmatic explanation of misdescription, appealing to Gricean distinction between saying and meaning, is unconvincing. We vote for an alternative semantic account of definite descriptions, on which a description “the F” designates an object being F, which is at the same time the most salient individual according to a contextually established ranking of salience. (shrink)

Pentus (1992) proves the equivalence of LCG's and CFG's, and CFG's are equivalent to BCG's by the Gaifman theorem (Bar-Hillel et al., 1960). This paper provides a procedure to extend any LCG to an equivalent BCG by affixing new types to the lexicon; a procedure of that kind was proposed as early, as Cohen (1967), but it was deficient (Buszkowski, 1985). We use a modification of Pentus' proof and a new proof of the Gaifman theorem on the basis of the (...) Lambek calculus. (shrink)

The aim of the study was to verify the hypothesis that positive affective tone of narratives is connected to the experience of posttraumatic growth among transplant patients. Kidney transplant patients and liver transplant patients participated in the study. In the first stage, about 10 weeks after transplant, the participants told two stories about important, freely chosen events from their lives. During the second meeting 10-12 months later we measured posttraumatic growth. Results indicated that the affective tone of narratives about past (...) events was associated with the level of post-traumatic growth measured 10-12 months later. This proves that the affective tone of narratives about life, understood as a relatively constant individual characteristic, promote posttraumatic growth. (shrink)

An axiomatics of the product-free syntactic calculus L ofLambek has been presented whose only rule is the cut rule. It was alsoproved that there is no finite axiomatics of that kind. The proofs weresubsequently simplified. Analogous results for the nonassociativevariant NL of L were obtained by Kandulski. InLambek's original version of the calculus, sequent antecedents arerequired to be nonempty. By removing this restriction, we obtain theextensions L 0 and NL 0 ofL and NL, respectively. Later, the finiteaxiomatization problem for L (...) 0 andNL 0 was partially solved, viz., for formulas withoutleft (or, equivalently, right) division and an (infinite) cut-ruleaxiomatics for the whole of L 0 has been given. Thepresent paper yields an analogous axiomatics forNL 0. Like in the author's previous work, the notionof rank of an axiom is introduced which, although inessentialfor the results given below, may be useful for the expectednonfinite-axiomatizability proof. (shrink)

The expression of physical motion (the spider crawls across the net) and metaphorical motion (the fear crawls across her heart) shows strong inter-typological differences between language types (German, an S-language vs. Spanish, a V-language) and more subtle intra-typological differences within a language type (German vs. Polish, both S-languages). However, we know relatively less about the extension of these patterns to translated texts. In this study, we focused on physical and metaphorical motion descriptions in written texts in original language and their (...) translations to a language that belongs to the same or a different typological group, to determine whether motion expression in translated texts shows the same patterns of inter-typological and intra-typological variability as it does in original texts. We investigated this question by extracting 450 physical motion (150/language) and 450 metaphorical motion (150/language) descriptions from novels originally written in German, Polish, or Spanish and their translations to typologically different (i.e. inter-typological; German to Spanish, Spanish to German) or typologically similar (i.e. intra-typological; German to Polish, Polish to German) languages. Our results provided evidence for similar patterns of strong inter-typological and more subtle intra-typological variability in translations akin to those observed in original texts – with translated texts largely following the patterns of the target language in their expression of physical and metaphorical motion. Our results also highlighted specificity of event expression in a language as an important factor in the attainment of target language patterns in translated texts. (shrink)

In this paper, I present a new account of Richard Rorty’s interpretation of Michel Foucault, which demonstrates that in the course of his career, Rorty presented several diverse (often mutually exclusive) criticisms of Foucault’s political thought. These give different interpretations of what he took to be the flaws of that thought, but also provide different explanations as to the sources of these flaws. I argue that Rorty’s specific criticisms can be divided into two overall groups. Sometimes he saw Foucault’s rejection (...) of bourgeois democracies and bourgeois utopias as a specific case of his general critique regarding the structures of social life as inherently oppressive. At other times he seemed to attribute to Foucault a view that—while not all forms of social life are inherently oppressive—bourgeois democracies certainly are, in a very specific and radical way. In conclusion I show that Rorty’s interpretation of Foucault should be understood in the context of his approach toward the ‘American Cultural Left.’. (shrink)

Early twelfth-century logicians invoked past-tensed statements with future-oriented contents to undermine the assumption that every proposition ‘about the past’ is determinate. In the second half of the century, the notion of future-dependence was used to restrict the scope of necessity per accidens. At some point, this idea began to be applied in theology to solve puzzles surrounding predestination, prescience, prophecy, and faith. In the mid-1160s, Magister Udo quotes some thinkers who insisted that the principle of the necessity of the past (...) should exclude dicta that ‘relate to the future’, such as that he has been predestined. Peter of Poitiers adopted this ‘Ockhamist’ strategy around 1170. We find similar accounts in Simon of Tournai and Alan of Lille, who invoked it in other contexts as well. By the time of Praepositinus of Cremona, Hubert of Pirovano, and Stephen Langton, the restricted principle became something of a common view at Paris. (shrink)

The following text is a voice in the discussion around normative problems of innovative therapies. It particularly refers to the amendment to the Polish Act on the Professions of Physician and Dentist, also discussed in this issue in the article by Rafał Kubiak "Criminal liability for crimes related to the illegal conduct of a medical experiment.".

Wojciech Torzewski What Kind of ‘History’ are We? – the Historicity of Human from Ethical PerspectiveThis article presents the ethical aspect of the concept of narrative identity, especially in relation to the concept of Charles Taylor. The author makes also attemption to reconstruct the two main objections that can be drawn at this concept. Namely, firstly, the complaint relativization of the ethical and, secondly, the complaint absolutizing ethical perspective. Both objections to the concept of narrative identity shall be regarded (...) as irrelevant. Keywords: ethics, narrative identity, historicity, history. (shrink)

The main aim of this paper is to challenge the validity of the distinction between legal justice and social justice. It is argued that what we usually call legal justice is either an application of the more fundamental notion of social justice to legal rules and decisions or is not a matter of justice at all. In other words, the only correct uses of the notion of legal justice are derivative from the notion of social justice and, hence, the alleged (...) conflicts between criteria of social and legal justice result from the confusion about the proper relationship between these two concepts. Two views about the social justice/legal justice dichotomy are of particular importance and will provide the focus for the argument: this dichotomy is sometimes identified with a classical distinction between distributive and commutative justice and sometimes with the distinction between substantive and procedural justice. (shrink)

This essay attempts to define a value (not «the» value) of what, in it, comes to be called an «eccentric». In a largely standardized and stereotyped society like ours of the present times, a society where a human being can be creative but only within certain predefined limits, diverse groups exert all kinds of pressure on an individual, and with growing geographical as well as social mobility these kinds of pressure, intertwined and superimposed, give rise to overdue stress and situations (...) of psychological and maybe even metaphysical impossibility. One solution is a «no notice» attitude, in which all rules but a few selected ones are more or less dignifiedly flouted. Another solution is an attitude of an eccentric, close to, but not identical with, that of John Henry Newman’s «gentleman». I try to define this attitude and show one of its values: enabling us to evade too much social pressure without estranging us from society. (shrink)

Forecasts predicting the reunification of the Korean Peninsula were common throughout the 1990s. Since then, enthusiasm for such predictions has dampened, and though the fundamental assumption of reunification remains, predictions of when and how this will happen have been more restrained. Reunification leaves two unresolved yet interdependent issues: reunification itself, which is the urgent challenge; and the strategic issues that emerge from reunification, which have the potential to fundamentally transform strategic relations in the region of Northeast Asia. Within this context, (...) this paper examines the prospects of Korean reunification against the background of the interstate relations. Initially, it will establish the framework from which such scenarios will emerge: the historical background of the division, the extreme differences between the two states, the role played by the North Korean nuclear threats and the impact of the September 11, 2001 on the interstate relations, and finally general situation and relations in the East Asian region. Then, three possible scenarios of the unification will be developed: through peaceful integration, through the fall of North Korea or through a war. Summing up, even the death of Kim Jong Il will not bring change in the domestic and foreign policy of North Korea which is going to continue an aggressive approach toward the South. In the short-term reunification is definitely not in the interest of the current ROK administration, and the South has no intention of encouraging it. None of the considered scenarios envisions early reunification, and it seems that for the future, the status quo on the Korean Peninsula will remain. (shrink)

Well-being is becoming an increasingly popular issue in economics. The aim of the article is to present the concept of well-being and the methods of its measurement and to examine the statistical significance between the results obtained by specific indicators. The article was written based on the meta-analysis of the books and scientific papers on the subject, as well as well-being and welfare measurement reports. The study shows that there is a very wide range of theories and concepts related to (...) well-being which are sometimes exceptive. The most important conclusion from the study is that the correlation between welfare and well-being represented respectively by GDP and HDI is very strong, while the correlation between welfare and life satisfaction as well as well-being and subjective well-being are negligible. (shrink)

We characterize all finitary consequence relations over S4.3, both syntactically, by exhibiting so-called passive rules that extend the given logic, and semantically, by providing suitable strongly adequate classes of algebras. This is achieved by applying an earlier result stating that a modal logic L extending S4 has projective unification if and only if L contains S4.3. In particular, we show that these consequence relations enjoy the strong finite model property, and are finitely based. In this way, we extend the known (...) results by Bull and Fine, from logics, to consequence relations. We also show that the lattice of consequence relations over S4.3 is countable and distributive and it forms a Heyting algebra. (shrink)

Author: Torzewski Wojciech Title: HERMENEUTICS AND THE QUESTION OF REASON (Hermeneutyka a kwestia rozumu) Source: Filo-Sofija year: 2010, vol:.11, number: 2010/2, pages: 29-40 Keywords: HERMENEUTICS, RATIONALITY, INTERPRETATION Discipline: PHILOSOPHY Language: POLISH Document type: ARTICLE Publication order reference (Primary author’s office address): E-mail: www:This article is an expression and an attempt to justify the belief that hermeneutic philosophy is an interpretation of the rationality’s concept. Although hermeneutics itself is a critique of a certain form of rationalism, and therefore falls under (...) charges “irrationality”, the concept of reason is an essential component of its identity as a philosophy. (shrink)

In [5] we study Nonassociative Lambek Calculus augmented with De Morgan negation, satisfying the double negation and contraposition laws. This logic, introduced by de Grooté and Lamarche [10], is called Classical Non-Associative Lambek Calculus. Here we study a weaker logic InNL, i.e. NL with two involutive negations. We present a one-sided sequent system for InNL, admitting cut elimination. We also prove that InNL is PTIME.

Helium and neon, the two lightest noble gases, have been traditionally positioned by IUPAC in the Group 18 of the Periodic Table of Elements, together with argon, and other unreactive or moderately reactive gaseous elements (krypton, xenon, radon), and oganesson. In this account we revive the old discussion on the possible placement of helium in the Group 2, while preserving the position of neon in Group 18. We provide quantum-chemical arguments for such scenario—as well as other qualitative and quantitative arguments—and (...) we describe previous suggestions in the literature which support it or put it into question. To this author’s own taste, He should be placed in Group 2. (shrink)