Andrzej Łukasik
Institute of Philosophy, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland.
Email: andrzej.m.lukasik@gmail.com
STANISŁAW LEM’S PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS, CONCEPTIONS, AND INSPIRATIONS.
INTRODUCTION
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.2
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Sébastien Doubinsky
Aarhus University, School of Communication and Culture, 8000 Aarhus C.
E-mail: sebastiendoubinsky@yahoo.fr
UNSPEAKABLE OTHERNESS—AN ESSAY ON THE FAILURE OF COGNITIVE AND EPISTEMIC COMMUNICATION TOOLS IN STANISLAW LEM’S SOLARIS
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.3
ABSTRACT
Stanislaw Lem is one of the most famous figures of the Polish science fiction in post-world war two Europe. Solaris. His most famous novel, was published in 1961, and was adapted twice for the big screen, first in 1971 by Andrej Tarkovski, and in 2002 by Steven Soderbergh. The plot revolves around the psychologist Kris Kelvin, who is sent on the planet Solaris to try to find out if it is possible to communicate with the alien ocean that covers almost all of its surface. Confronted with a strange phenomenon and colleagues turned paranoid, Kelvin tries at first to understand what is going on at the space station. The unexplained arrival of the döppleganger of his ex-partner, Harey, will little by little make him accept the absurdity of his task and possibly of life itself. As Lem himself refused any final interpretation of his novel, there has of course been a flourish of them. One can however choose this exegetic impossibility as a major theme in the novel, and reflect on the implications of the situation Kelvin faces, caught between a desire to understand the nature of Solaris’s ocean and the sheer failure of doing so. In this essay, we will try to suggest that, by showing the limits of language as the means to express a satisfying epistemic frame, Lem’s parabol could be seen as an attempt to show the reader the existential limits of our anthropocentrism and scientific hubris.
Keywords: Lem; Solaris; Language; Communication; Existentialism.
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Bernd Graefrath
University of Duisburg-Essen, Department of Philosophy, Universitaetsstr. 12, D-45117 Essen, Germany.
Email: bernd.graefrath@uni-due.de
LEM’S PHILOSOPHY OF CHANCE IN HIS FICTION AND NON-FICTION
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.4
ABSTRACT
Stanislaw Lem recognizes the far-reaching role of chance both in gaining knowledge and in explaining the development of cultural norms. The consequences are explored by him in fiction and non-fiction.
Keywords: Stanislaw Lem, chance, science fiction, philosophy of technology, philosophy of biology, philosophy of culture.
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Peter Swirski
Email: peter.swirski@ualberta.ca
THE CASSANDRA SYNDROME, OR HOW NOT TO BE A PROPHET
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.5
ABSTRACT
The central question of the article is should Stanisław Lem be read as a futurologist? The main thesis is that more than in predicting the future Lem always has been more interested in exploration the conceptual limits of science and its technological offshoots.
Keywords: Stanisław Lem, Hugo Gernsbacher, Herbert George Wells, futurology, conceptual limits of science.
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Paweł Polak, Roman Krzanowski
Paweł Polak – The Pontifical University of John Paul II, Cracow.
Email: pawel.polak@upjp2.edu.pl
Roman Krzanowski – The Pontifical University of John Paul II, Cracow.
Email: roman.krzanowski@upj2.edu.pl
STANISŁAW LEM’S VISIONS OF A TECHNOLOGICAL FUTURE: TOWARD PHILOSOPHY IN TECHNOLOGY
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.6
ABSTRACT
Stanisław Lem is mostly known as a sci-fi writer and not widely perceived as a visionary of the cyber age, despite the fact that he foresaw the future of information technology better than most scientific experts. Indeed, his visions of future information-based societies have proved to be remarkably accurate. Lem’s stories fuse together elements of fantasy, philosophy, and science, but what we can really learn from them is the nature of humanity, technology, and philosophy, as well as the values of technological prophecies. Moreover, Lem gave birth to, without naming it as such, the concept of philosophy in technology, which is a perspective on technology and philosophy that explores the deep implicit philosophical foundations of technology and humanity.
Keywords: Stanisław Lem, visions of technology, technological future, philosophy of technology, philosophy in technology.
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Jan Pleszczyński
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland.
Email: jan.pleszczynski@umcs.pl
NATURAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL RATIOMORPHISM IN COMMUNICATION (IN THE CONTEXT OF SOME IDEAS OF LORENZ AND LEM)
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.7
ABSTRACT
The main idea of this article claims that the dominance of modern media technologies over the contemporary sphere of intersubjectivity reveals certain phenomena in the human world that did not exist in the pre-Internet epochs. One of them is technoratiomorphism. I use this term to define a hybrid operating in accordance with biological ratiomorphic mechanisms and overlapping with technological rationality. I also indicate some effects which are brought into social and individual existence by the presence of technoratiomorphism in communication. In my consideration I refer to Konrad Lorenz’s position and evolutionary epistemology, in general. I also interweave them with certain themes found in Stanisław Lem’s works.
Keywords: communication, ratiomorphism, technoratiomorphism, Internet, modern technologies, evolution, epistemology, Stanisław Lem, Konrad Lorenz.
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Filip Kobiela
University of Physical Education in Krakow, Al. Jana Pawła II 78, 31–571 Kraków.
Email: filip.kobiela@awf.krakow.pl
BETRIZATION AND ETHICSPHERE – TWO LITERARY CONCRETIZATIONS OF LEM’S IDEA OF TECHNOLOGY OF ETHICS
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.8
ABSTRACT
The aim of the article is to reconstruct, analyze and compare two of Lem’s visions which concern the application of the future development of science and technology in order to construct an enhanced society. In other words, two literary concretizations of his idea concerning the technology of ethics. These are betrization — presented in the novel Return from the Stars and the ethicsphere — presented in the novel Observation on the Spot. In the “Introduction,” I discuss the specifics of Lem’s philosophizing, both in terms of its form and content, and I identify its main subject as concerning the problem of the influence of technological development on man, society and sphere of values. Then in the section “Life in an unfriendly world” I discuss the context which provides the background for the presentation of two Lem’s visions of technology of ethics, namely, the Doctrine of the Three Worlds, an integral part of the novel Observation on the Spot, but its meaning also explains Lem’s motivation to take up the idea of betrization. In the section “Life in a society devoid of aggression and risk,” I discuss a hypothetical society subjected to betrization — a procedure that eliminates aggressive tendencies. In the section “Living in a completely safe environment,” I discuss a hypothetical society living in an ethicsphere, that is, an “intelligent” environment programmed to care for the safety of its members; I also present a brief comparison of betrization and the ethicsphere. I conclude the paper by indicating where Lem’s considerations figure within the typology of utopia proposed by Bernard Suits.
Keywords: Stanisław Lem, technology, ethics, evil, betrization, ethicsphere, The Doctrine of Three Worlds.
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Łukasz Kucharczyk
Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński’s University, Warsaw, Poland.
Email: l.kucharczyk@uksw.edu.pl
THE BODY AND THE UNIVERSE: ON CORPOREALITY IN STANISŁAW LEM’S RETURN FROM THE STARS
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.9
ABSTRACT
The paper develops the implicit as well as explicit meaning which evokes Stanisław Lem’s concept of the Body and the Corporality portrayed in the novel Return from the Stars. Moreover, Lem’s novel about an astronaut Hal Bregg and his return on Earth is analysed. In this novel author uses the idea of Einstein’s twin paradox. Hal Bergg—the stereotype of masculinity—is confronted with decadent and egalitarian society, which may be refers to the reunion masculinity with femininity. Such storyline shows the multidimensionality of the issue of Corporality, and presents the Body as a epistemological metaphor of modernism and postmodernism. In addition, the Body is depicted in the Return of the Stars as a figure of a mask and a costume. Furthermore, the Body in Lem’s novel is also interpreted as part of the Universe—as the boundary between what is temporary and what is infinite and transcendent.
Keywords: body, corporeality, universe, utopia, dystopia, Stanisław Lem.
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Barbara Dzida, Tomir Jędrejek, Andrzej Łukasik
Andrzej Łukasik — Institute of Philosophy, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland.
Email: andrzej.m.lukasik@gmail.com
Barbara Dzida — Email: dzida.barbara@tlen.pl
Tomir Jędrejek — Email: jedrejektomir@gmail.com
WHAT DID LEM THINK OVER?
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.10
ABSTRACT
Stanisław Lem is considered the most outstanding representative of Polish and one of the most eminent representatives of world science-fiction literature, as well as a futurologist and—at least by some—a philosopher who, in the form of novels and short stories written in the convention of science fiction and the so-called discursive prose, touched upon important philosophical problems concerning the place of man in the Universe, the effects of technological and civilisational progress and the issue of the limits of cognition. The article reconstructs and analyses the main philosophical problems presented in the work Filozoficzny Lem. Wybór tekstów Stanisława Lema i opracowania [The Philosophical Lem. A Selection of Texts by Stanisław Lem and Studies] edited by Filip Kobiela and Jakub Gomułka.
Keywords: Stanisław Lem, fantasy, futurology, consciousness, virtual reality, transhuanism, anthropic principle, evolution.
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Andrew Targowski
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA.
Email: andrew.targowski@wmich.edu
DIGITAL EDUCATION STRATEGIES
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.11
ABSTRACT
This study analyzes and discusses key strategies for digital education. It begins by examining and defining several key concepts, including global citizenship, digital citizenship, computational thinking, informational thinking, and systemic thinking. Moreover it analyzes the role of leadership in the age of digitalization and advocates for panoramic leadership. Then it compares STEM-based education with STEAMbased education extended by panoramic leadership – STEAMPL.
Keywords: computational thinking, digital citizenship, digital humanities, global citizenship, informational thinking, Internetization, STEAM, STEAMPL, systemic thinking, panoramic leadership.
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Emanuele Lacca
University of South Bohemia, Kněžská 8, 37001, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
Email: lacca@jcu.cz
SUNT INTELLIGIBILIA ENTIA QUAE SUNT VERA. A LATE MEDIEVAL INTERPRETATIONOF INTENTIONALITY
doi:10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.12
ABSTRACT
The aim of this contribution is to present the theory of intentionality proposed by the Spanish Dominican Lope de Barrientos (1382–1469), as it is offered by his Clavis Sapentiae: in this erudite work, written at the turn of the 15th century in the context of the new-born School of Salamanca, the terms proper to the gnoseological lexicon of the Thomist scholasticism are taken into consideration, analysed and renewed in a new original way. This makes possible to demonstrate from one hand how the tradition opened by Thomas Aquinas is inherited in the upcoming Renaissance and from another hand to look how a typical Renaissance scholar as Barrientos builds a theory of knowledge that is original, although faithful to the Thomist tradition to which it has been continuously and cogently referred and consulted.
Keywords: Lope de Barrientos, School of Salamanca, intentionality, first intentions, second intentions.
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Anna Gańko
University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, 00–927 Warsaw, Poland.
Email: anna.ganko@uw.edu.pl
EMBODIED MIND. THE PROBLEM OF EXISTENCE OF SPACE IN GEORGE BERKELEY’S NEW THEORY OF VISION
doi: 10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.13
ABSTRACT
Berkeley is a philosopher commonly associated with his thesis about the non-existence of the material world. However, he would disagree with the statement that the entire world that, according to him, consists of ideas, is only in the cognizing mind. He would also disagree with the fact that perceived objects are in absolute space. The article aims to present Berkeley’s solution to the alternative mentioned above. The solution is based on the category of space presented in Berkeley’s Essasy Towards New Theory of Vision. In New Theory of Vision, Berkeley explains his position on problem of visual perception. He begins his argument by resolving the issue of the visual perception of distance, and this subjects leads him to much further matters — including the concept of relative space, grounded in the bodily experience of the cognizing subject.
Keywords: George Berkeley, New Theory of Vision, space, immaterialism, Molyneux Problem.
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Giulia Cirillo
Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland.
Email: giulia.cirillo1@gmail.com
A CIRCLE OR A SPIRAL? THE PRIMEVAL, TROPOLOGICAL SCHEME IDENTIFIED IN THE STRUCTURE OF TRUTH THEORIES
doi: 10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.14
ABSTRACT
Applying linguistic tropes to the deep structure which underlay the 19th century historical imagination Hayden White derived from the vault of philosophical richness contained in Giambattista Vico’s La Scienza Nuova. Now the treasure trove becomes a source of one more illuminating analogy. The following study demonstrates how metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony can be identified with five major theories of truth: the correspondence, pragmatic, coherence, deflationary and the semantic one. Theories are evoked on the basis of texts by philosophers themselves (Bertrand Russell, Charles Sanders Peirce, Brand Blanshard et al.). Moreover, a numerical mismatch between them and the four tropes should be seen as everything but unwanted. The concept of irony has multiple interpretations, and so mapping it onto the semantic theory will expose the relation between truth accounts and the principle of their development. In the end, there emerges a pattern in the shape of a circle or a spiral—two models of infinity along which runs the human quest for meaning of truth.
Keywords: Truth, tropes, Hayden White, Giambattista Vico, figuration.
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Zuzanna Sima
Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Grodzka 52, 31-044 Kraków, Poland.
Email: zuzanna.wilczynska@student.uj.edu.pl
RESEARCH ON THE LINGUISTIC WORLDVIEW AND HANS GEORG GADAMER’S HERMENEUTICS
doi: 10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.15
ABSTRACT
Hans Georg Gadamer in his studies on the essence of hermeneutics emphasizes in a special way the role of language in cognition and the understanding of the world. The paper intends to find an application of Gadamer’s hermeneutics in the linguists’ research of the linguistic worldview. Section 1 of the paper considers the worldview in linguistics, section 2 analyzes some aspects of Gadamer’s hermeneutics, while section 3 connects the problems considered in sections 1 and 2 and determines the aim of the paper. The presented considerations are situated in the reflection on the philosophical foundations of linguistic research.
Keywords: linguistic worldview, hermeneutics, Hans Georg Gadamer, JOS.
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Józef Leszek Krakowiak
University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 3, 00-047 Warsaw, Poland.
Email: j.k.l@wp.pl
THE ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE IN WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA’S POETIC CREATION OF THE LIFEWORLD. PART I
doi: 10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.16
ABSTRACT
This paper is the first part of the research on Wisława Szymborska’s reflections and considerations — in poetic form — on knowledge, science, and the scientific worldview. These aspects of Szymborska’s work are presented on the wide background of the philosophical threads in her poetry.
Keywords: Wisława Szymborska, knowledge, science, scientific worldview.
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Józef Leszek Krakowiak
University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 3, 00-047 Warsaw, Poland.
Email: j.k.l@wp.pl
THE ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE IN WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA’S POETIC CREATION OF THE LIFEWORLD. PART II
doi: 10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.17
ABSTRACT
This paper is the first part of the research on Wisława Szymborska’s reflections and considerations, included in her poetry, on knowledge, science, and the scientific worldview. These aspects of Szymborska’s work are presented the wide background of the philosophical threads in her poetry.
Keywords: Wisława Szymborska, knowledge, science, scientific worldview.
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Marcin Gileta
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland.
Email: gileta@wp.pl
AESTHETIC CRITERIA IN SCIECE IN GRZEGORZ BIAŁKOWSKI’S VIEW
doi: 10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.18
ABSTRACT
The text presents the view of the Polish physicist Grzegorz Białkowski on using aesthetic criteria in the practice of science, first of all in the practice of physics. Białobrzeski claims — along with Henri Poincaré, Werner Heisenberg and Paul Dirac — that aesthetic criteria are present in the creating and assessing of scientific theories; he also searches for a justification of referring to these criteria. He also draws attention to the role of aesthetic experience in scientific activity. He justifies the presence of aesthetic criteria in physics as part of his naturalistic attitude.
Keywords: Grzegorz Białkowski, extra-substantive criteria, aesthetic criteria, philosophy of physics, philosophy of science.
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Jakub Kopyciński
Center for Theoretical Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Lotników 32/46 02-668 Warsaw, Poland.
Email: jkopycinski@cft.edu.pl
ON THE QUANTUM PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY POSTULATE
doi: 10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.19
ABSTRACT
This article analyses one of the trials aiming to bridge the incommensurability gap between special relativity and quantum mechanics in the form of postulating the quantum principle of relativity. The postulate is argued here to be rather a conventionalist stratagem than a new paradigm in theoretical physics. It is worth emphasising this claim does not assess the scientific value of the analysed work at all. Moreover, I draw attention to favouring both the mathematical instrumentalism and the ontic character of probability in the article in question.
Keywords: philosophy of physics, conventionalist stratagem, paradigm, instrumentalism, ontic randomness.
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Andrzej Gecow
independent research
Email: andrzej.gecow@gmail.com
REMARKS ON THE COLLECTED WORKS BY KRZYSZTOF CHODASEWICZ THE MYSTERY OF LIFE
doi: 10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.20
ABSTRACT
Krzysztof Chodasewicz (1982–2016) died young, but his publications strongly influenced the Polish scientific community in the field of the philosophy of life when life is understood as a biological process. This topic was an almost forgotten in Poland. It was Chodasewicz who, through the articles republished in the collection presented here, gave the Polish reader a picture of the current state of reflection on this issue. The articles are not only overviews of the contemporary positions; in each article Chodasewicz presents some of his new concepts. The main advantage of the published collection is a delicate form of making people aware of the range of possible views and problems, which in the subject of the essence and origin of life usually arouses great emotions and preliminary reservations. My paper is an overview of the topics and materials collected in the book, with my comments.
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Marek Błaszczyk
Nicholas Copernicus University, Fosa Staromiejska 1a, 87-100 Toruń, Poland.
Email: marek_blaszczyk@onet.eu
INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF KARL JASPERS
doi: 10.37240/FiN.2022.10.1.21
ABSTRACT
The article presents a critical approach to „Filozofia” Jaspersa [Jaspers’ „Philosophy”] by Mirosław Żelazny (WN UMK, Toruń 2019). It discusses the main theses presented in the dissertation and invites to reflection on the existential philosophy of Karl Jaspers. The paper exposes the most important themes of Jaspersian thinking — the dialectical method of philosophizing, understanding the worldview, the phenomenon of existential communication and the concept of borderline situations.
Keywords: Karl Jaspers, philosophy, human being, existence, existentialism.
