In her fifth dystopian novel, The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood portrays North America in the not so far future, in the wake of a global economic crisis. Parts of the country are in the state of complete chaos, subjected to a ruthless gang rule. The solution to the system's breakdown comes in the form of the socio-economic experiment that requires from its participants relinquishing their freedom as every other month they will spend in prison. The seemingly preposterous experimental project (...) enables Atwood to explore principal questions about the limits of our freedom in the times of an economic crisis or a neoliberal model of economy. The satirical form the novel takes, especially towards its end, helps the writer to decry people's over-willingness to give away their freedom and civil liberties in exchange for happy, uninterrupted consumption. The following article aims to demonstrate that the notion of freedom and free will permeate The Heart Goes Last, which is, in that respect, a politically and socially engaged satire. (shrink)

Problem with understanding the system is subject to analysis, with particular emphasis on position presented by Franz Kröner. The article is an attempt to show that Kröner's work is in line with started in the beggining of 20th century tradition of critical thinking towards philosophical system.

A man tirelessly looks for answers to numerous questions about deep ontological problems concerning the meaning of life, fundamental reasons or the last things. The aim of the article is to build a theoretical base, on the basis of which one will have opportunity to ask yet further questions, which are relevant in relation to human existence especially for philosophers. The genius requires a huge commitment to get to it. It also involves an internal declaration of continuous self-improvement. Contrary to (...) the philosophers of the era of modernism, I believe that to a greater or lesser extent, every person can potentially be genuine and great. After all in the mechanism and in the specific rhythm of tape improvement of the product as well as in the fiery ideas contemplated by the people of philosophy and art we can find passion for life and creativity People as such do not live in strictly defined internal boundaries and therefore they can constantly develop. If a wider group of philosophers can be interested in the concept of philosophy which is open to current human problems, interested primarily in other people (also in the sense of their huge diversity), then the goal of this essay will eventually be achieved. From the perspective of the possibility of a sense of job satisfaction it does not matter whether someone cooks well or paints beautifully. Everybody can equally develop in the essential sense of self-improvement. The scientific aspirations of the approach to this philosophical problem are fortunately unable to hide the values of human work in general, and especially the work done on oneself, overcoming one's own prejudices and going beyond the previously established conventions. It is only the acquisition of the ability to play freely with what is given to an existence that gives a man the chance to free himself from the shackles of restrictions existing on many levels of culture, religion or art. (shrink)

Nikolai Bugaev was a mathematician keenly interested in philosophy. He stressed the role of discontinuity in his mathematical research that he called arithmology. He also emphasized the importance of discontinuity in nature which he embodied in his version of monadology. The article discusses the viability of his philosophical investigations.

The article addresses the problem of the culture-creating role of museums designed by Mieczysław Treter in the first years of the Second Polish Republic – an art historian from Lviv, the curator of the Museum of the Lubomirski family name in Lviv and the director of the State Art Collection in Warsaw. The publicist of this author is a testimony of how in the first years after Poland regained independence, attempts were made to develop a new way of thinking about (...) the culture-forming function, status and formula of Polish museums, adequate to the changed realities of life in a free state. It formulated the postulate of treating museums as an institution of Polish cultural policy, an institution supporting the rebuilding of an independent state and its status on the international arena. In the perspective of the perceived role of museum outlets, the way of thinking about culture understood as a constant update of historical values was revealed at the same time. The museum discourse of Treter also revealed the shortcomings of extra-banking thinking about culture, which on the threshold of independence – on the one hand – was to be harnessed in state-building processes, and on the other – to realize values developed in the years of national captivity. (shrink)

The main idea of the article is that in our „postmodern” world ideologies are not at all dead but adopt new forms which I call both cynical (in Slotedijk’s sense of the term) and naïve. I start with reflecting on the very meaning of the term “ideology” and propose to adopt its broad and “dialectical” sense, embracing ideology as false knowledge and as false consciousness, but emphasizing its connection with power. After recalling some theories of the “end of ideology”, from (...) Aron to Lyotard, through Polish thinkers such as Leszek Kołakowski, all based on a rather narrow sense of ideology. I argue that ideologies understood as a complex interconnection of desire and power have regained a crucial role, after the fall of the communist utopia, in the context of consumerist and technological capitalism and its conservative opponents. (shrink)