Znanost, scijentizam i ideologija

Author(s): Stipe Kutleša / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2016

Science should be distinguished from scientism, which emphasizes science as the only way to grasp the truth. This claim is based on a metaphysical belief. This article describes the main characteristics and shortcomings of science and interprets the meaning of science within the framework of scientism. According to scientism, rationality inherent to science should extend to all areas of human rationality. Scientism considers beliefs and religion irrational and harmful, while metaphysics is seen as pointless. Scientism gets caught up in logical contradictions, but does not relinquish its claims. Since scientism cannot be scientifically justified and is logically inconsistent, it can be considered a type of ideology.

Gilson on Dogmatism

Author(s): Michael Nnamdi Konye / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The article aims at uncovering reasons why philosophy may become conducive to dogmatism which inevitably leads to the failure of philosophy. In the light of Gilson’s considerations contained in his The Unity of Philosophical Experience, the author concludes that philosophy is always exposed to the influence of dogmatism when it is done from a non-philosophical standpoint. For each time when the engagement in the philosophical enterprise is driven by non-philosophical needs, it is usually the case that the goal of philosophy is misconstrued as merely that of providing an instrumental ontology to non-philosophical areas of knowledge. To avoid such mistakes as logicism, theologism or psychologism, philosophy must recover its proper object that is the real world of persons and things, and its proper method that is metaphysics.

Capital Grace of the Word Incarnate According to Saint Thomas Aquinas

Author(s): Lucia Marie Siemering / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The doctrine of capital grace was developed during the Scholastic period and bears on many areas of theology including ecclesiology, Christology, sacraments, and Trinitarian theology with regard to the missions of the Word and the Holy Spirit. Viewed from a Christological standpoint, capital grace sheds light on how Christ in his human nature can be said to be a source of grace to the members of the Church. Following his contemporaries, the young Thomas Aquinas espoused a view in which Christ is a meritorious, ministerial, and dispositive cause of grace according to his human nature, and an efficient cause according to his divinity. After a deeper reading of John Damascene’s treatment of Christ’s humanity being an instrument of his divinity, Thomas was able to articulate a view in which Christ’s human nature is an instrumental efficient cause of grace. This view undergirds Aquinas’s strong conception of Christ as one acting person in two natures.

„Czysta praktyczna wiara rozumowa” w polskich przekładach ‘Krytyki praktycznego rozumu’ Immanuela Kanta

Author(s): Marcin Sieńkowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 24/2014

This paper considers the understanding of faith of pure practical reason in Polish translations of The Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant. Reading, however, the translations where they deal with practical faith is somewhat difficult. A reader has to cope with the language of the translations, especially with excessively long sentences, incorrect word order, numerous pronouns, and the lacking description of some words. Although the criteria of a good translation have already been formulated by theoreticians of translation, mainly by St. Jerome, they are not consistently applied in the Polish translations of The Critique. The authors of the Polish translations often translate verbally instead of expressing the sense of the content. They take care of faithfulness to the original more than of the beauty of Polish language. All that results in that the author of this paper suggests his own translation of the fragment of The Critique which is free of the defects.

Immanuela Kanta koncepcja osoby jako nomen dignitatis

Author(s): Alina Kruszewicz-Kowalewska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 25/2015

The text reconstructs the concept of a human being presented in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant in two stages: firstly in the Critique of Pure Reason in the excerpts devoted to paralogisms of Pure Reason, secondly in the first part of Metaphysics of Morals or in The Metaphysical Elements of Law. The author points out that it is right to recognise a person in practical philosophy of Immanuel Kant as a nomen dignitatis, however there are significant limitations connected to this concept. The personality of a human being is perceived through the prism of the universality of the moral law. Speaking about the dignity of a human being, we refer only to a certain aspect of her/his humanity and therefore a person is not the whole human being, nor is it a particular person. Consequently, it is difficult for the dignity of the human being to correspond to the obligation to the respect towards an individual because of her/his individuality, which is based on contemporary human rights.

Krytyka nowoczesnych stosunków społecznych jako podstawa ponowoczesnej sztuki życia. Egzystencjalny wymiar dzieła Miechela Foucaulta

Author(s): Markus Lipowicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 21/2013

The aim of the present article is to reveal the essential connection of MichelFoucault’s critical attitude regarding social relationships with the formation of thepostmodern ethos of making out of the human life an artwork. It will be shown thatthe main object of Foucault’s critique are the relations of power and knowledge inthe Christian priesthood and their modern transformation in nonreligious institutions.From this point of view, mainly based on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche,the Christian ethics occur to be an accumulation of techniques of disciplinizationand normalization. This attitude towards Christianity and modernity leads to thepostmodern ethos of making out of life an artwork. This notion is mainly based onthe antique Greek and Roman philosophy, where instead of obeying to universalethical principles the human being struggled to be his own master. Therefore thepostmodern existence tries to be beyond all traditional boundaries, which resultsin the danger of neglecting the historical fact, that Christianity was and still is animportant institution of the Western Civilization

Filozofia a dramat, na przykładzie twórczości Jean Paul Sartre’a

Author(s): Joanna Roś / Language(s): Polish Issue: 21/2013

As a literary work, Jean Paul Sartre’s theatrical arts gathered together in a Polishpublication named Dramas propagates and illustrates in detail the real philosophicalmasterpiece which is Being and Nothingness. Inspired by the author’s philosophicaldoctrine, dramas were made to show the existential thought. In that way Sartre-philosopher in Being and Nothingness reveals his thought in a explicative way. On theother hand, Sartre-playwright by writing dramas creates unrestricted realities whichcan be in various ways projected into the readers’ imagination, and there his generaltheses find detailed application. Philosopher wanted to show the philosophical truththrough literature, and he was very consistent about it. Being and Nothingness andDramas could be treated as sources of knowledge about his philosophy, just like hisnovels or works about his literature. Sartre uses his philosophical program to realizehis ideas for prose. It appears that philosopher did not divide the notion between“philosophical literature” and “literary philosophy”.Sartre is the creator of the theater of situations because characters from hisdramas find themselves in concrete situations and they have to make specific decisions.The dramas of the philosopher have a moralistic tone because we see inthem Sartre’s concept which says that humans may reject the role which societygave him. Man can choose the authentic existence. Philosopher’s mission was toinfluence the readers of his works. He desired to convey to people the truth abouthuman freedom. In conclusion, Sartre’s dramas are a kind of theatrical phenomenon,because as a philosopher he interested the spectator as much as an playwright.

Sztuka i mistyka.

Author(s): Waldemar Prusik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 21/2013

Theory of art as so called the theory of intuition-expression extremely and clearlydemonstrates the way of a mystic experience as a experience of the Absolute. Croce’sconcept of the Absolute is a sign of being spiritual, no diverse in itself, what is morefully given in an emotional (feeling) artistic expression (artwork). Imagination asan appropriate representational power expressively became, in this context, the sphere of the Absolute (indifferent intuition, totality of Being) in which the Absolute realizes – through creation of art – the material world. An artist, because of his creative imagination, appears for Croce as a complete, perfect man and fulfills a creative and demiurge function for the world. According to Kandinsky, inspired by Steiner’s antroposophy, art doesn’t present concrete things but using a maximum simplistic concrete form, expresses and shows things in itself, as an ideal, spiritual, absolute but compared to the world of concretes, the mentioned things are internal, substantial, essential and “abstractive”. Abstraction as a “true reality” demands of giving up the empirical world and looking continuously at the sphere of absolute “necessity”. Art is a specific, inspired knowledge of the Absolute and an abstractartist inspired by this knowledge and expressing it in his artworks must be understoodin a way characteristic of mysticism (an inspired visionary-prophet, perfect man).In Adorno’s aesthetic theory art actualizes the nature in aspect of beauty and thisactualization consists in changing towards the lack of identity. An individual (eachone ) artwork is the “epiphany” of “spirit” of art, that is an aesthetically Absolute.As a result an artwork presents itself as a kind of “mystic event”, but an artist expressingthe sphere of the Absolute still be an inspired visionary going beyond the natural (empirical) order.All of these theories of art are based on the old neoplato-arabian theory of “creativeimagination” which determinates their quasi- or pseudo-mystic aspiration. They are not go beyond tradition, that is “natural mysticism” (characteristic of pantheism).This kind of mysticism differs from revelation mysticism on the grounds of Transcendence (aspect of a object) and classical moment of contemplatio (aspectof a subject).

Widmo kontroli od Kartezjusza do Marksa

Author(s): Bartosz Kuźniarz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 59-60/2014

Kryterium genetyczne w sporze o aborcję

Author(s): Mirosław Rutkowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2013

In the article I claim that the problem of abortion cannot be solved by referring tosuch biological fact, as having human genetic code by any prenatal being.

Antropocentryzm optymistyczny Aleksandra Hercena

Author(s): Jacek Uglik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 59-60/2014

Pojęcie upośledzenia

Author(s): Olga Dryla / Language(s): Polish Issue: 59-60/2014

Problem samoidentyfikacji podmiotu na przykładzie eksperymentów RHI, FBI, BSI

Author(s): Anita Pacholik-Żuromska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 59-60/2014

Ontologicznie zorientowana teoria literatury

Author(s): Katarzyna Ł. Częścik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 59-60/2014

Minimalizacja cierpienia zwierząt a wegetarianizm

Author(s): Krzysztof Saja / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2013

The article is a reductio ad absurdum of assumptions which are shared by a largenumber of followers of the animal welfare movement and utilitarianism. I arguethat even if we accept the main ethical arguments for a negative moral assessmentof eating meat we should not promote vegetarianism but rather beefism (eating onlymeat from beef cattle). I also argue that some forms of vegetarianism, i.e. ichtivegetarianism,can be much more morally worse than normal meat diet. In order to justifythese thesis I show that there are significant moral differences in the consumptionof animal products from different species.

Status moralny zwierząt a dwa rodzaje potencjalności

Author(s): Urszula Zarosa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2013

The problem of the moral status of animals holds an important place in contemporaryethical debates. Usually the intensity of ongoing discussions focuses on sentience(the ability to sense pain and/or pleasure) as criterion of moral status, which wasfirst introduced by Peter Singer. This article aims to show difficulties in his understandingof moral status like the argument of substitutability. It also supplementsutilitarian arguments on behalf of the animal’s interest with the notion of potentialityand postulate that the moral status should not only be attributed to the beingsthat are currently capable of feeling pain and/or pleasure, but also: 1) to beingswho currently do not have this capacity but are in the process of its development(eg. fetus), 2) beings that temporarily lack this characteristic they once had, but willregain at some point in the future (eg. human/animal in a coma), and 3) consciousbeings that are not capable of feeling pain (eg. patients with congenital analgesia)but that meet other morally relevant criteria (they are self-conscious, they are partof the family). This introduced viewpoint recognizes our obligation to not causeany suffering in animals (unless absolutely necessary) but also that in the majorityof the cases killing them should not take place.

Tortury i egzekucje w etyce kata

Author(s): Roman Andrzej Tokarczyk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2013

Article is devoted to executioner ethics in the sense capital punishment ethics. At first definitions and concepts are presented. Next: torture ethics, execution ethics, executioner ethics principles, evaluations of executioner and executioner place in culture. Author contemplates historical and cultural background connected with executioner profession from mainly the three points of view: torture ethics, execution ethics, executioner ethics in the light both deontological as utilitarian currents of ethics.

Zasada podwójnego skutku i zasada moralnej symetrii a kwestia legalizacji eutanazji.

Author(s): Wacław Janikowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2013

In this essay I scrutinize importance of Principles of Double Effect and MoralSymmetry in regard to the question of moral acceptance of euthanasia legalization.My conclusion is that although there is no substantially moral difference betweenpassive and active euthanasia, the problem of morally justifiable legalization ofeuthanasia is still not resolved. That is because some reasons suggest the possibilityof special discrepancy between moral acceptability of euthanasia in certain cases andmoral demand to preserve legal prohibition of euthanasia in general. In the paperI criticize the popular opinion that utilitarianism cannot account of why we giveweight to the question of moral permissibility of intentions. I claim that contraryto this false platitude utilitarianism can even accommodate practical relevance ofPrinciple of Double Effect, but not as a valid per se principle.

Próba oceny sytuacji granicznych związanych z chorobą i umieraniem

Author(s): Bogna Wach / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2013

The aim of this article is an attempt to evaluate the following issues related to the last stage of illness and death: discontinue of artificial nutrition and hydration, discontinue or refrain from life-saving therapy or palliative sedation. Mentioned cases are borderline situations. Medical consultants, taking the decisions of removing the tube feeding, discontinuing or not taking up the procedure which causes maintain the patient’s life or applying terminal sedation, are aware, that above will lead to patient’s death. This is the reason why above situations cause lots of doubts, the most important of which is a question, whether we are dealing with passive euthanasia. Is it possible to carry out the border between forbidden “kill” and permitted “let die”. Any attempt to answer this question is a kind of consensus.

Religia według Hume’a

Author(s): Milena Jakubiak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 22/2013

This article is an outline of David Hume’s philosophy of religion. His critical stanceon the rationality of the religious beliefs consists of two issues. First, a problem ofthe arguments for the existence of God (the cosmological argument and the argumentfrom the design) will be discussed e.i. can we infer a cause from an effect?Second, I will try to answer the question whether the religion is natural (universal andoriginal): there will be discussed the origins of religion and the issue of religion asan artificial morality. Last there will be presented some argument for the rationalityof religion on the basis of David Hume’s philosophy of religion.