The purpose of this article is to present the essence and the role of so-called anthropic explanation in modern cosmology. The explanatory value of this explanation depends on the character of relations between the cosmic coincidences and the fact of the existence of life. The strong anthropic principle determines conditions of a philosophical explanation, whose cognitive value depends on both the correctness of this principle and their logical coherence with the cosmic coincidences.
The purpose of this paper is to present the Fitch's paradox. The reasoning similar to the Fitch's argument is applied to a concept of belief and thus some observations on the knowledge, beliefs and their boundaries are drawn. Interactions among completeness of knowledge, and of beliefs, omniscience and Fitch's theorem are examined. A few erroneous application of Fitch's argumentation or unsupported conclusion drawn from it are shown.
In the text the author asks a question: Is life the supreme value? That claim is discussed and found wanting. As the main principle of utilitarianism it admits of two incompatible interpretations called here the 'biotic' and the 'hedonic' one, respectively - the former base and common, the latter noble and rare.
The author argues that significant changes are taking place in social and individual morality in the context of various changes in the sphere of individual and collective life of people. These changes often have crisis traits. However, they do not entail a fundamental crisis of morality as such but sre solely manifestations of an incomplete crisis and a crisis that is probably temporary in historical dimension; this is a 'crisis-in-morality' and 'crisis-in-ethics'
The basic goal of this article is to present the basis and origin of the dispute between psychologism and anti-psychologism, as well as examine the symptom of the psychologism ideas renaissance of the 20th century. The article is composed of five parts. The first and second parts introduce the most important foundations of psychologism, as well as its origins, the views of its most important figures and stages in the shaping of the analysed school. Part three analyses the relationship between psychologism and anti-psychologism, constituting in this way a prelude to part four which presents the main foundations and views of anti-psychologism's figures. The article finishes with an analysis of the contemporary reception and revival of psychologism ideas in the 20th century. As a supplement to the problem presented in the article, provided are a separate bibliographic list concerning the literary sources and a list of the most important positions (studies) presenting various points of views and perspectives on the topics of psychologism, anti-psychologism and antagonisms existing between both schools.
The author presents in this paper (and in few others) the philosophy of Stanislaw Lem as Neo-Lucretianism and calls Lem as a Lucretius of the 20th century. The article demonstrates pararell strains in their views on death. Lem - the atheist in common parlance - on Christian point of view is the man of 'strange faith'. There is an eschatology in his outlook, though warldly (finitistic?) one, which has clearly Lucretian nature. In opinion of both there are two attributes of the Cosmos: extermination (Lucretius says 'mors inmortalis', Lem - holocaust) and creation. Mortal human finds comfort in an idea that 'other worlds' come into being in dead Cosmos eternally and 'different minds' are born in them. Eschatological hope lies in thought that antonymous values will be always realized because each kind of mind realizes some part of the class of them. Lem's naturalism breaks in this point.
The paper presents connections between the philosophy of culture of Stanislaw Witkiewicz (Witkacy) and the thinking of Artur Schopenhauer. They show that the interests of young Witkacy in the philosophy of Schopenhauer left clear footprints in his literary output. They can be witnessed by similar views on being, the origins of culture (philosophy, religion, arts), conceptions and anthropology.
This article is an attempt to examine the connection between contemplation and 'the speech of the heart' (sermo cordis) in the thomistic existential philosophy. Starting from saint Thomas Aquinas, after performing the analysis of human cognition, the term of contemplation has been redefined. The act of contemplation defines Thomas Aquinas as 'simplex intuitus veritatis', simple vision of reality like truth. Truth is a transcendental property of being a property - ordered to the cognition of a man. This first act of contemplation - a simple intellectual vision - means the apprehension of principles (first structural elements) of being and causes the generation of 'the word of the heart' (verbum cordis). This process has been called indistinct cognition, or preconscious cognition, or cognition on the level of 'the speech of the heart'. 'The word of the heart' is born in the possible intellect of man. It is a manifestation of the first structural elements of being. It flows into the will and causes the return to the affecting being by relation based on transcendental properties. Then, the next act of contemplation, is the way to confirm the truth and the reality of the cognition. The intellect testifies and the will rejoices because of the bonds with the existing being.
The text is a presentation of main issues which were taken into consideration during the First Conference of John Dewey Center at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. The assembly took place in November 2007 and gathered the most important Polish academics specialized in American pragmatism. Larry Hickman, the President of John Dewey Center in Carbondale, USA, and an ambassador of pragmatism in the world, was the guest of honour and greatly contributed to the conference. The discussed issues covered four topics: Dewey's social philosophy, naturalism, aesthetics and the concept of experience, and the ancient roots of pragmatism.