Self-esteem and social support in the occupational stress-subjective health relationship among medical professionals The starting point for the presented study was the concept by House who construed social support as buffering the impact of work-related stress on health. Self-esteem was taken under consideration as the other potential stress buffer. It was hypothesized that both social support and self-esteem would have a salutogenic effect, since they attenuate the experience of occupational stress and reduce health problems associated with the experienced job stress. (...) Participants in the study were 361 medical professionals representing various specialties. They were examined using the Subjective Job Evaluation Questionnaire by Dudek et al., the Mood and Health State Questionnaire by Rząsa, the Self-Esteem Scale by M. Rosenberg and Significant Other Scale by Power et al. The higher was the respondents' occupational stress, the poorer was their subjective physical health. Such components of occupational stress as responsibility, psychological strain due to job complexity, lack of rewards at work, and a sense of threat were found to be most important in this respect. These four components of occupational stress were interrelated and constituted a feedback loop. The study confirmed a salutogenic role of self-esteem, contributing to subjective health improvement. Satisfaction with social support had also a positive role, since it reduced the amount of experienced job stress, thus exerting a health-promoting effect. There was a direct negative feedback loop between self-esteem and somatic health problems. Irrespective of that, satisfaction with social support was found to interact with perceived occupational stress in a negative feedback loop. However, neither of these two factors, i.e. self-esteem and social support, had an effect of buffering the impact of occupational stress on health. This suggests that the initial model proposed by House as well as the present author's earlier research findings obtained from a smaller sample should be revised. (shrink)

This is a new edition of the manual published in 1974 and 1984. Compared with those earlier editions it is revised, enlarged and more precise in its argumentation. In its beginnings the manual aimed at meeting the didactic needs to present students of the Faculty of Christian Philosophy at the ATK a complete handling of Christian ethics. The author, who wrote his manual in difficult times of communist ideology, decided to include in one work, besides a positive exposition of Christian (...) ethics, a critical discussion with other ethical systems as well as his own explicit theory on Augustinian and Thomistic ethics, which he endeavoured to develop. Thus the work interlocked the didactic objectives and the process of growth and justification of the Author's views, Krakow 2001, p. 308). (shrink)

A gap exists between the philosophers of history and the practitioners. Both groups proudly encourage their splendid isolation from the other. The philosophers tend to consider the practitioners incompetent to philosophize about historical study; the practitioners tend to think that the philosophers engage only in “flimflam.” Insofar as one can judge from the practitioners’ attempts to formulate theories of historical study and the philosophers’ attempts to explain historical practice, each group is right about the other. As a result, the practitioners (...) of history rarely ponder theoretical issues because they tend to feel that there are more worthwhile pursuits, such as studying the past. The philosophers rarely examine how historical study is actually done because they tend to feel that the practice is not important for their exquisitely designed theoretical models. (shrink)

The historical literature of the past two centuries testifies to disputes about what historical knowledge is and the relationship of the historian to it. The disputes have been fierce enough for each side to declare that any position other than its own is untenable. It would be futile to try to convince those who so staunchly defend their own ground that the other side might have a legitimate contribution to make. Yet, it might be worthwhile to classify the positions so (...) as to focus the arguments on legitimate issues, and, in some measure, to begin to resolve them. (shrink)

Argues that the key distinction between human and nonhuman social cognition consists in our complex, diverse and flexible capacities to shape each other's minds in ways that make them easier to interpret.

Argues that the key distinction between human and nonhuman social cognition consists in our complex, diverse and flexible capacities to shape each other's minds in ways that make them easier to interpret.

The article presents two concepts of indexicality. The first, more standard and narrow, identifies indexicality with systematic (meaning controlled) context-sensitivity. The second, broader (derived from the work of Jerzy Pelc), conceives indexicality in terms of the potential variability of the general semiotic characteristics expressions (with respect to the context of use). The text introduces the concept of a pragmatic matrix that serves for a schematic representation of contextual variation. I also recapitulate briefly the views of Jerzy Pelc on the meaning (...) (manner of use) and use of expressions, and briefly indicate its relationship approaches with contemporary debates around contextualism and status of non-sentential speech acts. Finally, the relationship between the broader notion of indexicality and the directival theory of meaning is analyzed. (shrink)

The article rejects various attempts to negate the subjectivity of human embryo, formulated among others in the Polish debate entitled 'Stem cells - life for life?' and organised by the Ministry of Scientific Research and Information Technology in 2003 and 2004. The Author thinks that the proposal to treat a human embryo as a deceased donor of organs, is wrong both in the field of embryology and philosophical anthropology. It is also wrong to question the subjectivity of human embryo using (...) various criteria of growth (developed nervous system, brain, consciousness, participation in the life of society and looking after one's own interests). For these criteria do not define humanity but describe human being in various phases of expressions of his/her human nature. That is why it is not acceptable to make the right to life conditional on the stage and degree of the actualization of humanity. Furthermore, one cannot justify the deprivation of the subjectivity of human embryo because of medical progress and the so-called good of humankind. The acceleration of progress cannot be done at the cost of life of some group of human beings. (shrink)

This is a new edition of the manual published in 1974 and 1984. Compared with those earlier editions it is revised, enlarged and more precise in its argumentation. In its beginnings the manual aimed at meeting the didactic needs to present students of the Faculty of Christian Philosophy at the ATK a complete handling of Christian ethics. The author, who wrote his manual in difficult times of communist ideology, decided to include in one work, besides a positive exposition of Christian (...) ethics, a critical discussion with other ethical systems as well as his own explicit theory on Augustinian and Thomistic ethics, which he endeavoured to develop. Thus the work interlocked the didactic objectives and the process of growth and justification of the Author's views, Krakow 2001, p. 308). (shrink)

Maximilian de Gaynesford has argued against the standard view that the reference of the first-person pronoun ‘I’ is determined by a rule linking the referent to some feature of the context of use. In this paper, we argue that de Gaynesford's arguments are inconclusive. Our main aim, however, is to formulate a novel version of the reference rule for ‘I’. We argue that this version can deal with several problematic cases. Our strategy involves analysing the so-called agent of the context (...) as the person responsible for a particular speech act. From this analysis, we exclude a particular class of uses of ‘I’, uses that we believe are best understood as demonstrative. (shrink)

This is a new edition of the manual published in 1974 and 1984. Compared with those earlier editions it is revised, enlarged and more precise in its argumentation. In its beginnings the manual aimed at meeting the didactic needs to present students of the Faculty of Christian Philosophy at the ATK a complete handling of Christian ethics. The author, who wrote his manual in difficult times of communist ideology, decided to include in one work, besides a positive exposition of Christian (...) ethics, a critical discussion with other ethical systems as well as his own explicit theory on Augustinian and Thomistic ethics, which he endeavoured to develop. Thus the work interlocked the didactic objectives and the process of growth and justification of the Author's views, Krakow 2001, p. 308). (shrink)

The bioethics of four principles, named as principlism, began in 1979 with the work of Principles of Biomedical Ethics by Tom Beauchamp and James F. Childress and has been widely criticized since the 80s. In recent years four rival approaches towards principlism have been specified in this critique. These include: a) impartial rule theory, developed by K. Danner Clouser; b) casuistry, represented by Albert Jensen, and c) virtue ethics, developed by Edmund D. Pellegrino. The critique of principlism presented by K. (...) Danner Clouser, Bernard Gert was not only defended by T. Beauchamp and J.F. Childress themselves, but also by others, including B. Andrew Lustig, David DeGrazia, and Henry Richardson. The discussion has not weakened but continued till the present time. It was presented extensively in the June issue of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. We want to join the discussion from the position of personalistic bioethics. (shrink)

This is a new edition of the manual published in 1974 and 1984. Compared with those earlier editions it is revised, enlarged and more precise in its argumentation. In its beginnings the manual aimed at meeting the didactic needs to present students of the Faculty of Christian Philosophy at the ATK a complete handling of Christian ethics. The author, who wrote his manual in difficult times of communist ideology, decided to include in one work, besides a positive exposition of Christian (...) ethics, a critical discussion with other ethical systems as well as his own explicit theory on Augustinian and Thomistic ethics, which he endeavoured to develop. Thus the work interlocked the didactic objectives and the process of growth and justification of the Author's views, Krakow 2001, p. 308). (shrink)

There are three working theses formulated and proved in the paper. First, business ethics as a science not wishful thinking, encounters the following, impossible to overcome, difficulties: Lack of a precise definition of business ethics, Ethical relativism, Strong competition on national, international, and global market, Shareholders’ interests vs. social responsibility of a company, Objective (based on scientific laws) limitations of business ethics, Ethical codes vs. the rules of a company, labour and employment legislation. Second, the author claims that a company (...) cannot be treated as an ethical education institution. This kind of education should begin in a family, kindergartens, and schools. The issues of business ethics should be included into ethical education in above mentioned places. (e.g. negotiation, to keep one’s promise, to keep on schedule etc.) Third, the issue of business ethics (ethical codes) should not be restricted to a company only. It should be put into the context of sector, national, multinational, and global market. (shrink)

Lesio to piąta powieść kryminalna Joanny Chmielewskiej, która stanowi w jej pisarstwie pozycję wyjątkową. Podjęta w artykule interpretacja ma ukazać zarówno sposoby przekształcenia modelu powieści kryminalnej, jak i wydobyć jej humorystyczna dominantę. W analizie tekstu stosowano metody badań strukturalnych połączone z elementami socjologii literatury. Powieść odbiega od ukształtowanego wcześniej wzorca zmianą struktury narracyjnej z pierwszoosobowej na trzecio-osobową oraz mocniejszym wyeksponowaniem ludycznego obrazu świata. Autorka akcentowała aspekt humorystyczny, wysuwając go przed kryminalną intrygę i skupiając się na kreacji bohatera oraz na wywołanych (...) jego działaniami komicznych zdarzeniach. Twórczość Chmielewskiej wyodrębniał stosowany przez nią typ komizmu, który odróżniał jej utwory od „klasycznego” kryminału. W Lesiu nastąpiła zmiana konwencji – kryminał „serio” zastąpiła zabawa w kryminał. Autorka konwencjom powieści kryminalnej, nadawała nowe znaczenia i odwołując się do obiegowych motywów gatunku (zbrodnia (nie)doskonała, napad na pociąg), banalizuje je i ośmiesza. Kolejne części artykułu skupiają się na: charakterystyce bohatera; aspektach komediowych; parodii i stylizacjach językowych, których tłem są stosunki społeczno-kulturowe w PRL w latach siedemdziesiątych XX wieku. Istotną przyczyną zwrotu pisarzy i czytelników w stronę „zabawnej sensacji” zdaje się rodzaj oswajania negatywnie kojarzonej przez wielu Polaków niezbyt odległej przeszłości. Kpina z aparatu sprawiedliwości, pokazywanie nieudolnych policjantów, opieszałość organów ścigania łączą się z apologią zwykłego obywatela, który „domowymi sposobami” radzi sobie w tej rzeczywistości. Powieść Chmielewskiej znalazła licznych naśladowców i kontynuatorów po roku 1989 w nurcie groteskowym powieści kryminalnej. Lesio stanowi ważny przykład rozmaitości gatunkowej powieści kryminalnej, zmienności form i funkcji aspektu ludycznego w jej strukturze. (shrink)

The subject of this paper is modern representative democracy. Instead of discussing the many theories which strive to define and describe the essence of democracy, such as the classic, the competitive, the structural, the participatory, the concessionary, etc., it is our aim to present the various practical approaches to "democracy in action" in the post-Communist period, i.e., to characterize the various notions of the axiological and philosophical assumptions that provide the cornerstone of democracy.

Summary The logical structure of the complete process of argumentation in the historical science is deductive. It implies confirmation and disconfirmation of hypotheses with the help of the concept of the indicator, which is more objective and more universal than the one of the source; the problem of the objectivity of criteria of the reasoning of hypotheses is being discussed.

The paper tries to show that the theory of Srzednicki and Żurkowska can be viewed as an new and interesting solution of the classical problem: Can we cognize the objective reality? The theory discussed here conquer the cognitive skepticism on the condition, that there is not a impassable gap between the pre-ego experiencing without the notions and the subject cognizing by using the notions.

The paper proposes a metaaxiological political framework, which is the ground for the thesis that the central idea that underlies politics is well-being and its improvement. Every political activity relies on certain goods, values and standards forming its operational framework. The aim and essence of politics is to ensure the realization of constitutive values. These values include the normative concept of the human being and constitutive values underpinning the functioning of the state and political community (i.e. good life, justice, freedom, (...) security, peace, identity, unity, rule of law, representation, sovereignty, legitimacy). On the one hand, the normative values represent preconditions that have to be present in every political sphere. On the other, they serve as ideals pursued by states and political systems. They are investigated by means of normative typological categories. (shrink)