Hybris

Crime without reason. Foucault and the problem of criminal responsibility in nineteenth century psychiatry and judiciary

Mateusz Ozimek — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The article refers to the problem of crime without reason described by Michel Foucault. The author presents two cases from the first half of the 19th century – Pierre Rivière and Henriette Cornier. These cases are analyzed in terms of strategies of power adopted by psychiatry and the legal system towards the Other who had committed an inexplicable crime and who could not be described by any of the recognized forms of madness. The impasse between medical and legal discourses is presented as an example of problematization — a method used by Foucault in the last years of his work. One of the consequences of psychiatry’s efforts to solve the problem of crime without motive was the creation of instincts and drives as scientific objects, which shows that such objects can arise at the junction of various power relations and can even be created merely as instruments to exercise power.

God as truth-maker – about Peter Thomas Geach’s conception

Mateusz Dzięcioł — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

This text examines the topic of truthmakers in the philosophy of Peter Thomas Geach, presenting a reconstruction of Geach’s concept and critically analyzing it. The focus is on the connection between mental representations of perceived objects, their linguistic reflection and reality. Additionally, the text explores the concept of God’s causality in St. Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy and compares it with Geach’s approach, highlighting their distinctive features. A formal representation of this relationship is then provided.

The central thesis of this theory posits the identification of God with Truth, which allows for the understanding of the verification relationship through the term “voluntaristic causation”. Consequently, following Thomas Aquinas’ proposed terminology, God is categorized as one of the entia actu intelligibilia. However, Geach’s concept lacks in-depth analysis of the matter of person.

Another problematic aspect of this concept pertains to the clarification of the ontological category serving as the foundation for verification relations. Difficulties arise when attempting to adapt Geach’s theory to contemporary perspectives that consider states of affairs as the ontological basis for the semantics under consideration. The epistemology employed by the British philosopher relies on the subject-object relationship, akin to God’s causal connection to reality, rather than states of affairs.

Postmodernism and Postmodernity (In the Light of the Development of Digital Technologies and the Processes of Individualization)

Paweł Pieniążek — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The aim of the article is to confront postmodernism understood as a philosophical doctrine, or, more broadly, a certain type of cultural awareness with postmodernity as an epoch expressing the changes of late capitalism. The relationships between postmodernism and postmodernity are analysed from a philosophical and sociological perspective by comparing the diagnoses of postmodern changes presented by sociologists and the diagnoses presented by representatives of postmodernism. In the first part, I discuss the importance of digital technologies, in which postmodernists hoped to unleash the potential of human creativity, and in the second, the postmodern processes of individualization related to the idea of self-realisation. Finally, I reach the conclusion that postmodernity has betrayed the ideas of freedom, creativity, self-realisation and solidarity proclaimed by postmodernists which, according to their hopes, postmodernity was supposed to realise.

The Return to Rousseau: the “Failure” of Emancipation and “Breakdown of the Work”? Some Critical Remarks on Paweł Pieniążek’s “The Individual, Evil and History in Rousseau’s Thought”

Michał Kruszelnicki — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The paper presents polemical remarks on Paweł Pieniążek’s study entitled Jednostka, zło, historia w myśli Rousseau (The Individual, Evil, History in Rousseau’s Thought, Łódź 2022). An attempt is made to discuss with the Author the interpretation of Rousseau’s main works, his most important concepts and theoretical problems. In particular, Social Contract, Emile, Reveries of the Solitary Walker, Julie, or The New Heloise are analyzed, but there also appear key references to the so-called first and second Discourses, Dialogues and Letters to Malesherbes. Where Pieniążek sees only evidence of the “failure” of Rousseau’s emancipatory ideals and signs of the “breakdown” of his work, the author of the polemic tries to defend the “citizen of Geneva”, showing that there are alternative ways of reading Rousseau’s texts, which allow him to be protected from the traditional allegations that he failed completely to reconcile the communal and individualist plan of his thought and remained dramatically torn between the two contradictory and self-excluding ideals: the citizen and the solitary.

Can You Become a Perfect Human Being?

Miriam Kobierski — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

A hermetic tale?

Iwona Grodź — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Metaphysical issues in contemporary biological sciences

Jakub Nowicki — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0100