Scanlon grounds all moral principles in claims about "what individuals have reasons to agree to." Analyzing Scanlon's groundwork, I discuss his central reason for being concerned with morality and why personal and impersonal reasons for moral conduct cannot co-exist in his contractualism. I demonstrate that personal values and reasons are incommensurable with impersonal values and reasons. Thus, Scanlon needs to exclude impersonal reasons from the moral theory he advocates. But I argue that there may be a means of inclusion of (...) both the personal and impersonal values and reasons. I propose Aristotelian virtue ethics as a plausible foundation for subordinating the impersonal values and reasons to the value of human rationality in its full capacity. This subordination may provide the defensible condition that Scanlon's contractualism requires to justify moral principles to each person on the grounds of respect for human rationality. (shrink)

This paper challenges Daniel Dennett’s attempt to reconcile the performance of mind and brain within a physicalist framework with Jaegwon Kim’s argument that a coherent physicalist framework entails the epiphenomenalism of mental events. Dennett offers a materialist explanation of consciousness and argues that his model of mind does not imply reductive physicalism. I argue that Dennett’s explanation of mind clashes with Jaegwon Kim’s mind-body supervenience argument. Kim contends that non-reductive physicalism either voids the causal powers of mental properties, or it (...) violates physicalist framework. I conclude that Dennett’s account of mind does not escape or overcome Kim’s mind/body supervenience problem. If Kim’s argument does not prove Dennett’s explanation of mind to be either a form of reductive materialism, or a logically inconsistent view, it is due to the ambiguity of concepts involved in Dennett’s theory. (shrink)

Jest to tłumaczenie Zarysów Pyrrońskich Sekstusa Empiryka. W pliku znajduje się początek wstępu oraz I sposób powściągnięcia sądu. This is a complete Polish translation of Sextus Empiricus' Outlines of Pyrrhonism. In the file you may find the beginning of the Preface and the translation of the I mode of suspension of judgment.

Jest to początek Zarysów Pyrrońskich Sekstusa Empiryka, ks. I (1-30) w nowym przekładzie. Całość tekstu ukaże się w Wydawnictwie UMK w połowie roku 2019. -/- This is the opening part of Sextus' Outlines of Pyrrhonism (I 1-30). The translation of the treatise will be published by Wydawnictwo UMK in the 2019.

Rozważania o moralności i etyczności uczonych oraz wiedzy będącej efektem ich prac, sugerują, że twórcy i ich dzieła powinni być obdarzeni jakimiś wyjątkowymi predyspozycjami moralnymi, poznawczymi oraz intelektualnymi, a zatem muszą funkcjonować jakieś pożądane i akceptowane wzorce „cnót”, którymi powinien szczycić się uczony, a także sama nauka. Pojawia się pytanie, jakie miałyby one być? Powyższa kwestia jest interesująca w kontekście dyskursu kształtującego oblicze nauki nowożytnej, dyskursu, w którym formułowano oczekiwania, co do etyczności, moralności nauki i uczonych. Można byłoby powiedzieć, że (...) te oczekiwania mają znaczenie także i dzisiaj, mimo że zmieniła się nauka, społeczeństwa i ustroje oraz wymagania ludzi wobec nauki. Uprawianie nauki wymagało (i nadal wymaga) swobody twórczej. Jednakże instytucjonalizacja środowiska akademickiego zakładała podległość wobec władz, podległość, która generowała (i generuje) napięcie między potrzebą niezależności naukowej, a wymaganiami „sponsorów”. Także relacje między nauką, a polityką były przedmiotem rozważań wielu uczonych i filozofów, szczególnie gdy uwzględnimy aspekt moralności nauki i moralnej odpowiedzialności uczonych. Rozważania na ten temat są efektem lektury książki Richarda Holmesa Wiek cudów. Jak odkrywano piękno i grozę nauki, w której autor – opisując życiorysy uczonych, ale przede wszystkim ich dokonania oraz przeciwności, na jakie natrafiali – nieustannie podkreśla moralne i etyczne aspekty związane z osobowością uczonych i ich działalnością. (shrink)

Ukraine has always had a special place in Canadian foreign policy. Currently, Canada is deeply engaged in supporting Ukraine to restore political and economic stability and to implement democratic reforms. The Government in Ottawa has condemned Russian aggressive policy and the illegal military occupation of Crimea and has taken a variety of steps and initiatives since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine in 2014 including imposing sanctions, economic and military assistance, and supporting of NATO measures.

This paper seeks to determine the intuitive meaning of the concept of information by indicating its essential (definitional) features and relations with other concepts, such as that of knowledge. The term “information” – as with many other concepts, such as “process”, “force”, “energy” and “matter” – has a certain established meaning in natural languages, which allows it to be used, in science as well as in everyday life, without our possessing any somewhat stricter definition of it. The basic aim here (...) is thus to explicate what it amounts to in the context of its intuitive meaning as encountered in natural languages, what the subject of cognition implicitly presumes when using the term, and to which ontological situations it can be applied. I demonstrate that the essential features of the notion of information include the presence of a material medium, its transformation, the recording and reading of information encoded in the medium, and the grasp of what is recorded, coded and transmitted as an intentional object, where the latter is construed in terms broadly in line with the ontologies of Husserl and Ingarden. Along the way, a number of issues relating to the notion of information are also pointed out: the problem of informational identity, of the existence of virtual objects, and of the choice of an adequate information carrier, as well as formal-ontological problems, including those which concern relations between information carriers and intentional objects. (shrink)

Philosophical interests of Joseph Życiński in the domain of the philosophy of science were focused on the debate concerning the nature of science and philosophy of science that followed the Einstein-Planck revolution in science. The unexpected discovery of the philosophical, extra-scientific presuppositions in science, as well as of the extra-rational factors determining the way these presuppositions are accepted in science were to be explained within the meta-scientific framework. It is the aim of this paper to present ˙ Życiński’s diagnosis of (...) this post-revolutionary situation in the philosophy of science as well as his critique of the metascientific answers to this challenge. The reasons will be given why all those answers are put under two dichotomous rubrics of _internalism_ and _externalism_. It will be also explained how Życiński intends to supersede this false in his opinion opposition with a new concept of the doxatic rationality. However, the details of the metascientific proposal of Życiński will be given only in the subsequent paper. In order to perform the aim of the paper the metatheoretic tools set out by Popper will be used. (shrink)

W tych rozważaniach poddam pod dyskusję zarówno miejsce eklektyzmu w tradycji filozoficznej, jak i taki jego szczególny przypadek, jakim jest oświecony eklektyzm Denisa Diderota. Znawcy tradycji filozoficznych wskazują, że eklektyzm pojawił się już w początkach filozofii starożytnej, a później łączył się z odchodzeniem od dogmatyzmu starej Akademii Platońskiej i przechodzeniem do sceptycyzmu nowych Akademii. W czasach nowożytnych te tradycje były kontynuowane m.in. przez Erazma z Rotterdamu i Michela de Montaigne’a, a w epoce Oświecenia m.in. przez Diderota. Jego deklarowany i stosowany (...) w praktyce eklektyzm łączył się jednak nie tylko ze sceptycyzmem, ale także ze specyficznymracjonalizmem oraz naturalizmem. Skłonny jestem polemizować zarówno ze stanowiskiem, że stanowił on część składową ówczesnego sceptycyzmu (moim zdaniem to sceptycyzm był częścią składową tego eklektyzmu), jak i z poglądem, że jego miejsce można określić poprzez opozycję z jednej strony wobec kartezjańskiego dualizmu, natomiast z drugiej naturalistycznego monizmu. (shrink)

Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenological philosophy, developed the concept of the so-called pure transcendental consciousness. The author of the article asks whether the concept of consciousness understood this way can constitute a model for AI consciousness. It should be remembered that transcendental consciousness is the result of the use of the phenomenological method, the essence of which is referring to experience (“back to things themselves”). Therefore, one can legitimately ask whether the consciousness that AI can achieve can possess the (...) characteristics attributed by Husserl to pure transcendental consciousness. The answer to such questions seems to be negative because AI, as created by humans, can only operate in the field of phenomena. Human intelligence, however, is capable of operating at the ontological level. In the face of difficulties in understanding the phenomenon of consciousness on a scientific basis, the question arises about the possibility of using the phenomenological concept of consciousness developed by Husserl as a starting point in analyzes aimed at answering the question about AI consciousness (The aim of the article is not to discuss in detail the contemporary state of research on consciousness. Therefore, many results currently achieved mainly in the field of neuroscience are omitted. It is just about indicating the possible application of Husserl’s transcendental concept of consciousness in research on AI consciousness). (shrink)

The article deals with Witold Gombrowicz’s autocreational efforts to bring the readers and critics to believe in his own uniqueness, greatness and genius. In Gombrowicz’s opinion literature, having its roots in pure artistic contemplation, is also a fight of writer to establish his position among others. Author of Diary takes it as a rule to “ self-mitologize” in his receivers minds and according to this rule he ostentatiously makes a great writer of himself. When his writing at last achievers true (...) recognition and acclaim, he tries in turn to depreciate his strategy. (shrink)

It is worth underlining that the poem by Koblański discussed in here expressed the reaction to the first partitions of the country and it was received as a voice which rendered accurately feelings, misgivings and hopes the inhabitants of cordoned-off areas. It is proved in the commentary to the text in the mentioned edition, Political poetry of the first partitions and the delegation seym 1772-1777, in which we read, “About 1795 Karpiński refered to Koblański s poem in his work “To (...) A(ntoni) D(zieduszycki) on the occasion of his arrival from Warsaw in Rus, Galicia” and Naruszewicz did it in a poem, “Replay from Dzieduszycki to Karpiński”, Strong connections of the text with Autumn 1773 are not accidental. Thus, the patriotic elegy by Koblański, beside Sokalski beggar's song in emperor's cordon by Karpiński, occured the second significant though less known nowadays reaction to the news about ratification of the partitions treaty by the Seym; the news coming from the areas whose centre was Lwów. (shrink)

This is the introduction and the translation into Polish of the fragment from Sextus Empiricus' Against the Ethicists (AM XI, 42-167).

This is the interview with Prof. Stefan Swieżawski, an eminent medievist and enthusiast of Thomas Aquinas' philosophy.

The article discusses the sophistic method of “antilogic” (“double arguments”, “contrasting arguments”, “opposed speeches”, “two-fold arguments”). The main goal is to show that it is a method that, in the light of the doctrine presented in Plato’s Theaetetus, is based on philosophical foundations. The work of G.B. Kerferd was crucial for the research on the art of antilogic, as it broke with the unequivocally negative understanding of this method adopted by the earlier research tradition. Late testimonies of Diogenes Laertius, Clement (...) of Alexandria, Seneca and Eudoxus point to Protagoras of Abdera as the creator and promoter of the antilogic. These testimonies are confirmed by references to the method of “opposed speeches” contained in the comedies of Aristophanes, in the tragedies of Euripides and in the anonymous treatise Dialexeis. Plato’s report on the doctrine attributed to Protagoras in the Theaetetus reveals the philosophical context of the antilogic. The so- -called “secret doctrine”, based on the acceptance of appearances and of the privacy of perceptions (man-measure doctrine), the rejection of truth and falsehood, and acceptance of the contradictory judgments results from the new vision of reality in flux. Therefore, the “secret doctrine” presents a consistent and coherent project leading to a new concept of logic and language and lays the foundations for the method of “double arguments”. (shrink)

Brzezinski predicts that the interface between ethics and science will be the new frontier of politics, and it will place on the shoulders of democratic leaders and those concerned with human rights, the obligation to be at least part-time scientists and philosophers.

The author aims at evaluating the activities on the Facebook profiles of three regional media editorials – namely the ‘TVP 3 Łódź’ TV channel, the ‘Radio Łódź’ radio channel, and the Express Ilustrowany daily – particularly in terms of including local and regional information in their posts. Another objective was to attempt to quantify and compare these activities. The used research method is the analysis of profile content on Facebook, and the study was conducted within the period of one month.

Description of painful experience in the Warsaw Uprising of an 18-year-old corporal of the 1st Polish Army which participated, together with the Soviet armies, in seizing the right-bank part of Warsaw. Together with a part of his regiment he supported the dying out Uprising in the district adjacent to the Vistula. The author cast in his lot with the most dramatic history of the Uprising.

There is not much disagreement that the recent spectacular establishment of parliamentary democracies and market economies in Eastern Europe and the even more breathtaking events in most Soviet republics – which should culminate in the reemergence of the Baltic nations as independent states – may be convincingly conceived of as the triumph of civil society over the Marxist-Leninist system. Both the collapse of the Marxist-Leninist system and the reemergence of civil society may be discussed in terms of theories which deal (...) with the relationship between human nature and sociopolitical systems. (shrink)