"Wtedy zaczął się mój upadek...". Egzystencjalne dylematy bohaterów Józefa Conrada i Alberta Camusa

Author(s): Irena Jokiel / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2014

The article uses the notion of 'border' in the interpretation of psychological and ethical themes in "Lord Jim" by J. Conrad and "The Fall" by A. Camus. The heroes of these novels realise that they had made bad use of their freedom , and the moment in which this happened had marked their lives irrevocably, and divided it into zones of rise and fall. After this moment nothing would be as it used to. Throughout the centuries literature has developed language to express the fundamental experience of this kind; it tells the stories of people experiencing the traumatic force of a demarcation moment, which after passing, leaves no posibility of returning to the life before; it creates alternative worlds inhabited by people who seek the truth about their "I", it constructs situations that embodies our anxiety resulting from the fact that man is not "redy and finished", and in the flowing "here and now" he does deeds which shape his destiny. "The Fall" indirectly includes the question of attitude of modern world towards Condrad's ethos.

(Nie)obiektywna podmiotowość

Author(s): Piotr Piotrowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 36/2016

In this article, I analyze the issue of subjectivity in the form in which it appears in Charles Taylor’s and Richard Rorty’s writings. Positions of these philosophers are generally regarded as contradictory. I will, however, argued that the position on subjectivity represented by Rorty finds its complementation in Taylor’s concept. To do this, I will show firstly that both Rorty and Taylor use the category of contingency, presenting some common thesis about subjectivity. This way I will show that the location of the category of subjectivity and the scope of its use in each of them concept is closely related to the understanding of objectivity accepted by each of them. This will allow then to reconstruct the concept of subjectivity presented by Taylor and Rorty. Next, in the conclusion, I will present such a summary of those two standpoints, which will include justification of the thesis of their complementarity.

(Post)sekularna filozofia negatywna, media wizualne i ekstasis (dekonstrukcja jako wariant neofenomenologii)

Author(s): Joanna Sarbiewska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2016

The author proposes a neophenomenological interpretation of the late Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction, by bringing it into the light of (post)secular negative philosophy and indicating the application of its mystic/ecstatic implications on a media techno-vision basis. In this conceptualization, deconstruction/negation, as an ,epoche strategy, not only denudes (kenosis) cognition of the idolatry, characteristic of the traditional methaphysics of presence and the dogmatic religion, but also suspends “the source” itself (the Offenberkeit register), and thus, causes the experience of radical emptiness (chora) as a condition of an opening to the Impossible. The author, by presenting the concept of negative image, demonstrates that technology visual media provide a suitable space (groundlessness) for Impossible to manifest itself in post-industrial culture.

A Critical Thinking Approach to Globalisation and Culture

Author(s): Stelu?a Stan / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

The diverse and complex cultural consequences of the present time have been subject to various studies. The new non-material digital forms of communication make the global cultural flows to move easier and more freely around the globe, a phenomenon that has been associated with many cultural consequences. Major theses, such as homogenization (standardization around a Western or American pattern), polarization (resistance to cultural conformity or standardization and emergence of cultural alternatives), and hybridization have been used as relevant analysis criteria. Having in mind the final objective (respectful contact with other cultures and successful intercultural communication), the present study, as part of a larger enterprise, is an introduction to a critical thinking approach to cultural awareness and the need for a cultural paradigm shift.

A fenomenológiával való megismerkedésem

Author(s): László Tengelyi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2015

In this interview, László Tengelyi answers the question of the Hungarian Phenomenological Society: “how did you arrive to the phenomenological tradition and to phenomenological thinking?” The form of the answer is an essay which was written in 2006. Tengelyi describes his first encounter with Husserl and Heidegger through Nicolai Hartmann’s aesthetics and ontology. This attraction was deepened during his 1988-89 stay in Leuven with the support of the Soros Foundation. Rudolf Bernet and other prominent phenomenologists (Klaus Held, Bernhard Waldenfels, Marc Richir) convinced him that phenomenology is one of the possible ways of original thinking. What distinguishes phenomenology from other contemporary schools of thought (structuralism, analytical philosophy, critical social philosophy) is its inner relation to the whole tradition of Western philosophy. That is why phenomenology, “with its historical saturation”, is able to maintain a kind of spiritual vigilance in the philosophical practice.

A fiatal Pauler Ákos és az olasz filozófusok

Author(s): Róbert Somos / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2015

Although his main favourites were German, French and English thinkers, Ákos Pauler, the most respected Hungarian philosopher of the first decades of the 20th century, had also substantial connection with Italian philosophers and works. Treating the topic of the Italian line, according to the chronological order, the following items should be analysed: 1. Pauler’s longer sojourns in Italy before the First World War, when he attended different conferences and made personal relationships with different philosophers, especially with Mario Calderoni. 2. Benedetto Croce’s influence on Pauler and the Hungarian philosopher’s criticism on Croce’s position relating to the problems of pure logic and aesthetics. 3. Pauler’s view on Mussolini and its import for the political ideas of the Hungarian thinker. 4. The reception of Pauler’s Grundlegung der Philosophie in the philosophical school of Naples (Cleto Carbonara, Nicola Abbagnano) and Pauler’s answers to their criticisms. 5. Antonio Rosmini-Serbati’s and Giovanni Peano’s influence on Pauler in his later years in the fields of theistic metaphysics and symbolic logic. The paper focuses on the influences of the early phase of Ákos Pauler’s activity and it deals with the first two points.

A magyar filozófia, amint saját történetét írja

Author(s): Béla Mester / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 06/2015

János Erdélyi, a 19th century Hegelian classic of the historiography of Hungarian philosophy has summarised his narrative in the following scheme. The first epoch was the prehistory of Hungarian thought, formulated in a foreign language, Latin; the second one was the long period of the turn from Latin to Hungarian; and the third and last one is when Hungarian philosophy writes its own history, beginning with the foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. After Erdélyi’s masterpiece on Hungarian philosophy, there have been no serious candidates for a new synthesis until the second half of the 20th century. This paper offers an overview of the last two centuries of the history of Hungarian philosophy in the mirror of its paradigmatic errors. First, it discusses the case of Boëthius de Dacia as a Hungarian mediaeval philosopher, and then the misinterpretation of the early modern works of János Pósaházi and József Rozgonyi, following the pattern of the history of reception. According to the hypothesis of this paper, all these paradigmatic errors have been caused by a wrong formulation of the connection between the universal and the national narratives of the history of philosophy. After an overview of the usual solutions to this problem in the Hungarian historiography of philosophy, the author outlines a new method for establishing the paradigm of an East-Central-European history of philosophy, above, but not instead of the national narratives, which can also modify the universal narrative in several details.

A Note on a Remark of Evans

Author(s): Wolfgang Barz / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

In his seminal paper, ‘Can There Be Vague Objects?’ (1978), Gareth Evans advanced an argument purporting to prove that the idea of indeterminate identity is incoherent. Aware that his argument was incomplete as it stands, Evans added a remark at the end of his paper, in which he explained how the original argument needed to be modified to arrive at an explicit contradiction. This paper aims to develop a modified version of Evans’ original argument, which I argue is more promising than the modification that Evans proposed in his remark. Last, a structurally similar argument against the idea of indeterminate existence is presented.

A szabadság eszménye a republikánus gondolati tradícióban

Author(s): Attila Demeter M. / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 02/2015

The essay highlights conclusions related to the nature and reason of freedom, which can be drawn from the tradition of republican thinking. Putting the question this way implies the presupposition that conclusions can be drawn from a tradition dating back to two thousand years ago. For this reason, the paper starts (and concludes) with some considerations related to the nature of political thinking. Unlike philosophical thinking in general, our political thinking is not a historical one by its nature. However, it is not purely unhistorical either, like mathematical thinking, for example. The political experiences accumulated in the course of time have been, of course, able to change the way we think about political matters, but our vision about the essence of politics has remained unchanged since the time of Ancient Greece. Turning now to the question of freedom: in this essay, I try to demonstrate that republicanism presents an ideal of freedom which radically differs from our perception of liberty and which, in consequence, can serve as a background for a “new utopia of liberty”. In our time, the dominant concept of freedom is based on the freedom of will. Freedom is usually regarded as a set of rights which aim to ensure citizens the almost unlimited possibility to choose their identity, their habits and ways of life. At the same time, citizens’ growing defencelessness against the state, as well as their increasing dependence on arbitrary social or political powers can also be observed. By contrast, for republican thinking, freedom has always meant – first and foremost – the lack of arbitrary power and, as a result, the capability and the possibility of self-government. The aim of republican thinking has always been to form citizens who are not subjected to anyone else’s will (and, of course, who do not want to dominate anyone else), instead of citizens who are helpless and defenceless – mostly in front of the state. It is an ideal which, I think, can be exemplary for all times – 0including ours.

Abgeschiedenheit Mistrza Eckharta w fenomenologicznej wykładni Bernharda Weltego

Author(s): Joachim Piecuch / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2016

The basis of analyzes carried out in the article is the work of Bernhard Welte: Meister Eckhart. Gedanken zu seinen Gedanken. The central subject of research is the idea Abgeschiedenheit (“isolation”). Following the interpretation of Welte it has been considerated a phenomeno‐ logical description on two ways. From the practical experience, as a modus vivendi a religious man, and from the theoretical, as speculative thought. Theoretical considerations consist of analysis of the concept of truth and goodness, which Eckhart identifies with the idea of God. Welte shows that these concepts of medieval thinker at the starting point considerations are still sink in the schemes of metaphysical thinking, but in the next stages of its argumentation he overcome metaphysical discourse. The purpose of the article, guided by the suggestion Weltes interpretation, is to show ways of reaching the source forms of religious experience. At the same time the text raised the issue of problematic use formulas of mystical union and noticed parallels have been taking place between the method of phenomenological reduction and the idea of Abgeschiedenheit.

Accommodation and Convention

Author(s): Maciej Witek / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

The paper develops a non-Gricean account of accommodation: a contextadjusting process guided by the assumption that the speaker’s utterance constitutes an appropriate conversational move. The paper is organized into three parts. The first one reconstructs the basic tenets of Lepore and Stone's non-Gricean model of meaningmaking, which results from integrating direct intentionalism and extended semantics. The second part discusses the phenomenon of accommodation as it occurs in conversational practice. The third part uses the tenets of the non-Gricean model of meaning-making to account for the discursive mechanisms underlying accommodation; the proposed account relies on a distinction between the rules of appropriateness, which form part of extended grammar, and the Maxim of Appropriateness, which functions as a discursive norm guiding our conversational practice.

Acculturation Process and Ethnic Identity of Immigrants in Germany

Author(s): Liudmyla Smokova / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

In the present study, we discuss psychological acculturation, by which we mean the internal processes of change that immigrants experience when they come into direct contact with members of the host culture. The model we present builds on research in the areas of social and ethnic identity. Each of these perspectives is discussed in accordance with its relevance to the acculturative processes operating in immigrants. We understand ethnic identity as a dynamic state, that is determined by three components: (1) by the degree of inclusion in the group of one’s cultural origin; (2) the tendency to assimilate to the ethnic group of origin; and (3) the complementary tendency to differentiate from one’s own ethnic group. Social identity conveys belonging of the individual to different social categories and the value as well as emotional significance of this membership. We have sought to explain how the processes of social categorization, inand out-group identification and social comparison predetermine the direction of the acculturation process and hence the intercultural interaction and wellbeing of the youth from immigrant backgrounds in Germany. Results indicated that immigrants who have more identified themselves with dominant society have expressed the strong preference to integration strategies. The immigrants that had a high degree of ethnic identification have expressed the low preference to the integration as well to marginalization and assimilation. In its turn, the powerful feeling of belonging to an ethnic group and attitude towards the group promotes immigrants segregation choice.

Adam Schaff wobec ewolucji poglądów filozoficznych Leszka Kołakowskiego. O sporach programowych w polskim marksizmie

Author(s): Renata Merda / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 38/2017

In my article I intend to analyze L. Kołakowski’s departure from Marxism. I will conduct my reflections in the context of his relationship with Adam Schaff. It is precisely this that A. Schaff was the promoter of the dissertation of Master and Candidate (PhD) Leszek Kołakowski.Both these philosophers in the sixties of the twentieth century revisited their views on Marxism by entering into a current called revisionism. Leszek Kołakowski, however, criticized Marxism and became his leading critic, while Adam Schaff attempted to reform it by enriching the existing ideology of man’s philosophy. The views of both philosophers differed from the official version of Marxism. While Kolakowski had completely escaped from Marxism, Schaff tried to defend him. Schaff did not particularly approve the assessment of Marxism embodied in Mainstream Marxism of Kołakowski. It is not by chance, therefore, that both philosophers can be regarded as the most outstanding representatives of Marxism before 1968 in Poland.Their views were not always contradictory, but they were often similar because Schaff approached Kolakowski talking about ecumenical Marxism — and therefore their antagonism was primarily personal and less philosophical.

Adam Wiegner wobec zagadnienia poznawczego w oświetleniu Leonarda Nelsona

Author(s): Tomasz Kubalica / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 38/2017

The subject of the article is the influence of the broadly understood Neo-Kantianism on the assimilating of Kantians ideas of critical philosophy (critical method) in Poland. I would like to present a philosophical and historical reflection on the dissertation of professor of University of Poznan Adam Wiegner (1889—1967), entitled Zagadnienie poznawcze w oświetleniu L. Nelsona (Problem of Knowledge in the Light of L. Nelson, 1925), in which he undertook a critical analysis of Nelson’s problem of impossibility of the theory of knowledge and possibilities of the metaphysics. The main aim of the article is to present the Neo-Kantians (as well as the Neo-Friesians) context of the above-mentioned Wiegners dissertation and to reflect on the reception of Nelson’s thoughts in Poznań. I would like to show that, contrary to the schematic simplification, Neo-Kantian thought had a significant influence on the shape of philosophy in Poland.

Against Lewis on ‘Desire as Belief’

Author(s): Douglas Ian Campbell / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

David Lewis describes, then attempts to refute, a simple anti-Humean theory of desire he calls ‘Desire as Belief’. Lewis’ critics generally accept that his argument is sound and focus instead on trying to show that its implications are less severe than appearances suggest. In this paper I argue that Lewis’ argument is unsound. I show that it rests on an essential assumption that can be straightforwardly proven false using ideas and principles to which Lewis is himself committed.

Aksjologia stosowana Bohdana Dziemidoka

Author(s): Paulina Tendera / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2013

Aksjomatyczne ujęcia genidentyczności według Zdzisława Augustynka. Część I. Porównanie systemów

Author(s): Marek Porwolik / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3 (99)/2017

The existence of objects in time or, generally speaking, the existence of objects that are subject to change can be described using the notion of genidentity (genetic identity). Zdzisław Augustynek devoted a number of works to this issue, and Mariusz Grygianiec offered valuable commentaries. Augustynek tried to specify this notion by means of axiomatic definitions. He presented three sets of specific axioms. They delimit sets of theses, called systems by Augustynek and marked as AS1, AS2, and AS3. Apart from the term genidentity (G), the axioms also contain the following terms: logical identity (I), quasi-simultaneity (R), quasi-collocation (L), and causality (H). They represent binary relations whose field is the set of events S. The axioms also involve symbols of the complements of these relations: genetic difference (G*), logical difference (I*), time separation (R*), space separation (L*), and the complement of H (H*). The results obtained by Augustynek and Grygianiec can be supplemented or even corrected in some places. This fact motivated me to analyze systems AS1, AS2, and AS3 once again. The results are presented in two separate articles: Part I (this paper) and Part II (to be published in Filozofia Nauki 25(4) [100]). The first aim of Part I is to present the set-theoretic approach to the analysis of Augustynek’s systems. Although the specific axioms themselves are expressed in the language of the algebra of sets, their analysis was conducted by Grygianiec in the classical predicate calculus. The set-theoretic approach facilitates the analysis of the sets of specific axioms. Accordingly, I present the specific axioms of systems AS1, AS2, and AS3 in the language of algebra of sets, illustrating them with Venn diagrams for five sets, expressing the specific axioms of the analyzed systems with the use of the theory of components, showing exemplary sets fulfilling those axioms, and formulating preliminary remarks concerning the relationships among systems AS1, AS2, and AS3. The second aim of Part I is to use the presented method to compare the three systems. The most important stages include formulating and justifying theses concerning: (i) the relationships among systems AS1, AS2, and AS3, (ii) supplementary axioms that cause a mutual equivalence of the axioms when added to systems AS1, AS2, and AS3, and (iii) selected relationships that can be identified on the basis of systems AS1, AS2, and AS3. Next, I correct certain conclusions concerning systems AS1, AS2, and AS3 from Augustynek’s and Grygianiec’s works, show a method of creating alternative axioms for systems AS1, AS2, and AS3, and suggest methods for further modifications of axioms of these systems.

Aksjomatyczne ujęcia genidentyczności według Zdzisława Augustynka. Część II. Definicje warunkowe

Author(s): Marek Porwolik / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4 (100)/2017

The results obtained by Zdzisław Augustynek and Mariusz Grygianiec can be supplemented or even corrected in some places. This fact motivated me to analyze systems AS1, AS2, and AS3 once again. The results are presented in two articles. The aim of Part I (Porwolik 2017) was to present the set-theoretic approach to the analysis of Augustynek’s systems and to use the presented method to compare the three systems. Part II (this paper) is devoted to conditional definitions describing relations present in the systems. In one of his works, Augustynek posed a number of questions regarding the possibility of formulating conditional definitions of a certain type, which might refer to the notions included in his axioms. He did not answer all of these questions, and my aim is to complete this task. Apart from that, I analyze the problem of reducing Augustynek’s systems to conditional definitions containing the necessary condition and the sufficient conditio of a selected notion from these systems. At the same time, I prove that Augustynek’s systems can be reduced to certain conditional definitions (that they are equivalent to them), including the ones containing two conditions of genidentity: the sufficient condition and the necessary condition. I also argue that in AS2 it is possible, with the use of normal (equivalence) definitions, to define two relations: logical identity (I) and logical difference (I*). For the other relations a definitione of this type does not exist in the analyzed systems.

Aktualność krytyki ekonomii politycznej. Przyczynek do praktycznofilozoficznej dialektyki u Marksa

Author(s): Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 37/2016

Karl Marx is forgotten today as a philosopher, not because he had failed, but because of his critique of political economy, which is not understood based on its practical philosophical core. Critique of political economy is negative theory, which is committed to the task of unveiling the negativity of capitalist normative theory. It is not find justification in itself, but its justification lies exclusively in the preceding her early writings of Marx. At its foundation is not the way to build a solidaristic and ecological economy; the only its importance lies in the practical and philosophical awareness that the normative logic of capital, killing man and nature, we must overcome.

Aktyviosios mokyklos idėjų atspindys J. Laužiko didaktinėse pažiūrose

Author(s): Stase Valatkiene / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 1/1991

Jonas Laužikas (1903-1980) savo darbuose daug dėmesio skyrė užsienio pedagoginei minčiai studijuoti. Jis buvo gerai susipažinęs su XIX a. pab. - XX a. pr. pedagoginėmis srovėmis (darbo, veiklos mokykla, veiksmo, eksperimentinė, asmenybės, pragmatistinė, estetinio auklėjimo, egzistencialistine ir kt. pedagogikos srovėmis), su užsienio pedagogų praktine patirtimi. Ypač daug dėmesio Laužikas skyrė Vokietijos naujosioms mokykloms, kurių ne tik teorijas, bet ir praktinę patirtį buvo itin nuodugniai išstudijavęs ir radęs vertingų dalykų.