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Many scholars representing various fields of research are looking for an answer to what lies at the heart of civil society. One of the possible answers to that question is solidarity. The first part of this paper presents a short history of the concept of solidarity. The second part discusses two central political doctrines – liberalism and communitarianism – in the context of solidarity. The third part of this paper shows Max Scheler’s concept of a person, which unifies the dimension of solidarity and collectivity into one unity of acts. This unity can be considered a compromise between a liberal and a communitarian approach. Scheler’s concept of a person depicts it as a collective or encompassing act – a structure embedded in a communal stream of emotions, ideas, and motivations. The hallmark of a person is the co-responsibility to yourself and others. It means solidarity becomes the nature of a person.
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In the article the author presents different approaches to the issue of “How is society possible?” by referring to the theories of Karl Mannheim, Antonio Gramsci, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. By highlighting the common elements in these theories, the author demonstrates that social solidarity is both ideological and utopian. It is ideological because it produces a hegemonic system that tries to establish itself as a totality, but it can never achieve it (the place of totality is empty). Moreover, it is also utopian because it connects people by articulating this lack of totality. The author aims to show how this distinction correlates with the more general assumption that society is an endless game of differences.
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This article offers a study of “rebellion” and “resistance” – two concepts that emerge from Judith Butler’s performative theory. The text presents Butler’s understanding of power and the possibilities of political agency belonging to those who are excluded (from where?). The paper uses the example of the struggle against hate speech to explain the mechanisms of power and to analyze how performative tactics of resistance operate. The final section focuses on the role played by solidarity in acts of resistance and rebellion. The paper concludes with a discussion of Butler’s remarks concerning performativity of public gatherings, revealing the significance of solidarity in the process of transformation of the public sphere.
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The article analyzes the relation between the human subject and technology, especially robots, seen through the Hegelian lens. Dialectical cognition requires struggle and suppression of the opposition in dynamic negation. Self-consciousness relates to the Other and transcends corporeal barriers, which shows that reciprocal relation between subjectivity and the Other is necessary for this process. By emphasizing certain aspects of new technologies and the superimposition of Hegel’s frame, several common areas between the practical use of those tools and cornerstone aspects of philosophy are revealed. The significance of the machine in the work context is emphasized by the several examples of modern technology that work without human assistance and assist in a person’s work. Using Hegel's lens, the significance of social context in those scenarios is maintained. Primarily legal and social aspects of the relation with robots are worth analyzing in the Hegelian context because of the insight into the process of work and alienation that this framework offers. By showing Nolen Gertz’s scenarios, I maintained the political and ethical aspects of working with robots and emphasized how recognition emerges in a struggle for recognition. By placing this scenario next to the concept of the Lord-Bondsman dialectics, the significant practical aspect of this process revealed itself at a time when soldiers were participating with robots in prolonged missions. The change in the relation between a person and a robot maintains essential aspects of this relation and shows why it is not merely anthropomorphization of the robot by a human user. The solidarity arises in the context of a struggle between soldiers and robots because of the process of work in which different actors partake. The shared plans and partaking in them made soldiers view robots as a comrade, whereas those machines cover the function of the Other. Moreover, because of the particular form of alienation such professions bring, they exhibit solidarity that others typically lack when interacting with them. This tension reveals a dialectical character of the relation between a person and technology in the modern context. Alienating and dangerous character of work determined the relation of human robots in a way that resembles the struggle for recognition. In the article, I sketch the lack of symmetry in this relation and how alienating and emancipating it is at the same time.
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The article discusses the concept of mutual aid put forward by Peter Kropotkin as a reaction to those interpretations of the biological theory of evolution which emphasised the role of the struggle for existence (bellum omnium contra omnes) in nature and based the postulate of social Darwinism on this. Kropotkin argues that 1. mutual aid is a natural inclination of humans (like other animals), which is suppressed by the development of state institutions, and 2. the effect of the abolition of the state will be not social chaos, but the development of the altruistic instinct and the construction of non-hierarchical institutions. In closing, I discuss the criticisms levelled against the concept under discussion.
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The article’s aim is to explain Ayn Rand’s ethics of rational self-interest and show that egoism endorsed by Rand is an alternative to other ethical systems. The first part focuses on a general description and definition of ethical egoism. The other parts contain: presentation of the objectivist meta-ethics (part 2), remarks on the objectivist normative ethics (part 3), Rand’s rejection of the “predatory” egoism (part 4), and the issue of helping others within the objectivist framework (part 5).
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Liberal democracy is recognized today as a legitimate political system almost across the entire world. However, it is not an ideal model, but a political process taking place before our eyes. The author argues that the concept of illiberal democracy, which appeared recently in political discussions, seems to consolidate and petrify a certain moment within the democratic process, whereas the latest research on collective emotions as a factor for political change, has turned out to be more helpful in understanding the nature of it. An analysis of the formation of negative emotions in the works of Martha Nussbaum has allowed for the development of methods which will transform them in such a way that they do not lead to the destruction of the democratic state. Thus, although contemporary political philosophy does not provide recommendations for particular governments, the analysis of emotions affects collective political thinking, and contributes to the peaceful course of political changes in democratic societies.
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Modern Cosmopolitism is good to build questions concerning the institutionalization of the new kind of citizens’ identity around it. This is the identity which goes far beyond citizens’ sense of belonging to a national, racial or ethnic group, which transcends the bonds of blood and land, the identity determined by choice not by birth. In the article I explore different approaches to the idea and conception of Cosmopolitanism. I try to establish whether and how a project of new social essence emerges from a globalizing economy and lax communities built around the sense of unity of lifestyle, local and above-local relationships that transcend the frames of politics.
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According to one of the most influential privacy theories , privacy protects individual autonomy: the exercise of autonomy requires detachment from social and political life and privacy facilitates it. This view of privacy presupposes a tension between privacy and society and is responsible for underrating privacy in legal and political practice. I argue that we should understand autonomy as politically embedded. On the contrary, privacy has a political value: when we claim privacy, we do not make a claim to withdraw from political life, but rather to protect certain forms of political engagement. Such view of privacy provides a solid basis for its protection than the traditional view prevailing in current legal practice and political discourse.
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Civility is treated as the main liberal virtue by one of the most important political philosophers of the 20th century, John Rawls. In this interpretation, liberalism requires not only institutions, but also a specific attitude of citizens and the political culture that shapes such attitudes. Political coexistence with citizens who did not share beliefs about a good life became an imperative. Rawls pointed out that the solution is civility, which requires participants in the public sphere to conduct the discussion in such a way as to obtain consent. Civility characterizes citizens who are ready to seek what they have in common with people who hold different views. Politics, however, can be dominated by corporations and capital, which distort public deliberations and discussions, and has an element of contradiction of interests and the pursuit of economic domination, and is also threatened by emotions resulting from attachment to certain religious and philosophical doctrines. It is difficult to say if the duty of civility is a sufficient safeguard.
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The article is an analysis of the virtue of justice as perceived by Sebastian Petrycy from Pilzno. Petrycy demanded social justice in the relation of the nobility to the plebeians. He did not agree to the treatment of peasants as slaves. He demanded judicial justice - desiring to repair the state. He warned the nobility against the consequences of the injustice they had committed.
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The idea of civic education, being distinctly exposed in the Enlightenment period, has its origin in the 16th and 17th centuries, in the so called Old Polish times. It was in writings from these centuries that the social-political thought took the prominent place. It was in these times when the ideas defined as civic philosophy which undertook and developed the issue of civic education, the need for pro-social and pro-state attitude formation appeared for the first time in the philosophical and social thought. At the time, the issue of the Republic’s salvation, its institutions, public welfare and its dangers, the principle of justice and many relevant issues were the predominant matter of discussions. We recall the animators and protagonists of discussions in which the civic education was addressed. This issue was undertaken by outstanding representatives of Polish philosophical and socio-political thought, including Andrzej Frycz-Modrzewski, Stanisław Orzechowski, Marycjusz Szymon from Pilzno, Łukasz Górnicki, Piotr Skarga, Sebastian Petrycy from Pilzno, Szymon Starowolski, Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro. Their thinking, as well as the opinions of some less celebrated but numerous participants of the discussion are recalled here with a belief, that at least some of the propositions, recommendations and demands raised at that time go beyond merely historical perspective.
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The paper aims to compare two concepts of patriotism, the first one authored by Karol Libelt (1807–1875), the second one - by Kazimierz Twardowski (1866–1938). In the first chapter the short biographies of both philosophers are presented. In the second chapter Libelt’s concept of patriotism is reconstructed. Poznań philosopher characterizes the notion of the love for country by the three triads: material, spiritual and ideological. The material dimension includes sentiment for the place of birth, and political and economic system. The spiritual dimension includes customs, language and culture, especially literature. The ideological dimension includes the institution of state, church and historical consciousness. The state in Libelt’s thought is an institution that merges material and spiritual dimension of a nation and is a basis for its political existence. In the third chapter Twardowski’s approach to patriotism is interpreted. According to him, patriotism begins with the love of one’s local neighborhood. In the next phase – owing to influence of family and school – this feeling includes wider social wholes – a country and a nation. In this process the role of language as a means of communication is very important. Finally, the abstract notion of Poland is discussed. According to Twardowski, spreading the patriotic attitudes should lead to democratization of the society, social equality and solidarity. Finally, in the fourth chapter, Libelt and Twardowski’s approaches are compared.
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The project "The Development of Philosophical Competences" was launched under the Operational Programme “Knowledge. Education. Development” (POWER), organized by the National Centre for Research and Development (POWR.03.01.00-IP.08-00-EFI/16). The project proposed resigning from teaching philosophy and changes in philosophical thought in historical perspective. It suggested omitting systematic philosophical education (e.g. Ajdukiewicz’s Problems and Trends in Philosophy). As an alternative, it offered developing selected philosophical competences, such as the so called soft skills: creativity, communication skills, flexibility, Lipman’s philosophical inquiry. The article presents the principles and solutions of the project. It shows the proposals aimed at the development of the skills required for good arguing, critical, independent thinking, logic and heuristic. It suggests the methods for acquiring better philosophical abilities, broadening horizons, understanding different perspectives on moral and ethical issues. It is vital to develop cognitive interest among secondary school students, to improve their skills in analysis, synthesis, drawing conclusions, asking and answering questions, considering different points of view. The article analyses the practical character of the project – the students are to develop their intellectual potential, which will be used in their career on the labour market. It also describes activating methods applied in the class, which allow for fulfilling the aims of philosophy, i.e. arousing interest in the problem, asking questions and finding answers to them. It was also considered important to show the advantages and weaknesses of this model of philosophical education in Polish schools.
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The principles of the post- war part of the Warsaw’s Museum of the History of Polish Jews as seen by one of its creators are as follows: Jews seen in relation to Poland; Jews in Poland, not only Polish Jews; the post-war history as a new chapter rather than a footnote; one narration emphasizing the need to choose a path; no value judgements regarding the path chosen; average Jews presented, not only the famous ones; presenting those who would like to be included in the story of Polish Jews; no stereotypes, be they negative or positive, as the point of departure; Jews among the power elite presented but no acceptance of the alleged Jewishness of the power; showing anti-Semitism, the focus on Jewish life.
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The article compares two paradigms – realistic and idealistic in the field of international theories of political economy, and their approach to poverty. I will describe what kind of strategies in alleviating poverty result from these two theoretical approaches. The analysis will be presented within the framework of the discussion on global distributive justice. Thus, I will first provide a brief description of both paradigms - focusing on the axiological and institutional aspects of them, so that the reader can later better understand the approach of these two paradigms to the ways to prevent poverty (1); afterwards, I will briefly reconstruct the history of food production and its international changes to show how the two paradigms differently interpret the processes taking place in the world (2); later, I will present how both paradigms describe and understand the causes of poverty (3) and finally, I will present the conclusions that I draw from the comparison of these two models (4).
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The text presents selected difficulties ("wciórności") encountered by philosophers who think in their native (Polish) language. To illustrate the problem, I give examples: the metaphors of the lamus/granary (a forgotten and unused resource of a vocabulary), a widnokrąg/horizon (as an example of an untranslatable term), a prowizorka/makeshift (an example of a translatable word, but with a specific native etymology and related semantic contexts) and przyjaźń/friendship (word that provides subtle meanings, unrecognized in other languages). The conclusion is the postulate to cultivate what is unique and specific in the native language without disregarding the requirements of a dialogue with a foreign-language thought.
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