James S. Coleman proposed the power of a collectivity to act as a measure of the ease with which the individual interests of one member can be transformed into the collective action of a voting body, or into decisions being undertaken by that body which go against the interests of the voters. It was also to be applied in simple voting games, for which the vote threshold was set at a lower level than the majority of votes. Coleman based his model for determining the power of a collectivity to act on the classical definition of probability. In practice, the index is calculated as a quotient of the number of winning coalitions and of all possible coalitions which can be formed by the players – under the existing voting rule. The central hypothesis of the article has as its premise that in proper, simple nperson voting games the Coleman index does not determine passage probability, but only the probability of drawing a winning coalition from the set of all possible combinations of members of the voting body. A new index has also been proposed which should serve to determine a collectivity’s power to act.

William James’s philosophy has been treated as relativistic and sceptical, as a distortion of truth and rationality. In that way a lot of important elements crucial for understanding his philosophy have been overlooked. However, according to James, our cognition is not relativistic, because there is no room in his philosophy for a traditionally understood dichotomy between a knowing subject and a perceived object. We are all plunged into the stream of experience, and it is in it that we can find an overall picture of our world and our reality. We participate in the plurality of phenomena; we are surrounded by the plurality of things. Our world is continuous, and therefore it is continuously in the process of creation. In short, for James, the world is not a subjective construct created by human beings and his epistemology is closely related to his metaphysics to the point at which it is difficult to consider the distinction between the two. To present these crucial aspects of William James’s philosophy in the most meticulous way possible, this essay, will try to clear up doubts concerning James’s concept of Radical Empiricism, truth, and his understanding of pluralism, as well as the categories of synechism and tychism.

My paper aims to sketch the current condition as well as main challenges of the Polish feminist movement after 1989. It focuses on how gender and women’s issues are approached and conceptualised in Poland today. The paper is enriched by a short outline of history of Polish women struggle for equal rights in especially political and economic dimensions. Importance of commemoration and acknowledgment of history of Polish women struggle is seen as crucial to post-1989 Polish reality in which terms such as democracy, freedom, equality, justice had to be re-invented/re-defined.

The purpose of this article is to look closer at the educational system in Finland and to consider it in terms of its educational success. It analyses historical aspects, teaching methods, cooperation between family and school, the material status. These considerations will be enriched by the practical experience gained during a study visit to Jyväskylä College of Education, a vocational secondary school in Jyvaskyla.

Nowadays, there is a growing need for reflection on the role of drama therapy workshops because of an immense interest in art therapy in general in social or psycho-pedagogical work aimed to support the development of social abilities, in particular communications skills. Therapeutic aspects of art are connected with its impact on psyche, and thus the intensification of specific cognitive, emotional and motivational processes. This paper emphasises personal growth of the participant in relation with a group. In workshop activities, especially during improvisation, the ability to undertake and strengthen positive relations is developing. Reorganization and integration of participants’ attitudes, resulting in better interpersonal relationships, are shown to occur during drama therapy workshops. New attitudes or acquired skills may become for many of them an encouragement to further explorations, an indication of a framework for increased engagement in social interactions.

The hallmark of French thinker undoubtedly is worthy of critical attention. To make this task feasible, the paper focuses not on the secondary literature, but on Bourdieu’s work itself. Thanks to what follows, one is able to establish whether the conception of various capitals stands up to analytical scrutiny. And an outcome of this examination has even broader relevanceBourdieu is the most prolific exponent of an entire trend, much in vogue in social science recently. It would be difficult to indicate a field of inquiry in which this or that unorthodox, extra-economic concept of capital has not been deployed as a research tool. The result of this critical analysis are not encouraging; Bourdieu’s framework is plagued by economism or economic imperialism, and suffers from other limitations as well.

The ageing of European societies ensues, above all, from adverse demographic trends; it also becomes a cause of many disturbing phenomena involving marginalization, decreased social participation, professional and educational activity. There is increasing concern about the need to create a social capital for development. This paper will present data in regard to the situation of senior citizens in Poland and Europe. The material is based on the reports published by the European Committee and country strategy papers.

Information and communication technologies impact many aspects of the contemporary political life. A consequence of the use of ICT in politics is undoubtedly the evolution of democratic institutions and procedures. Modern technologies find their application as tools for exercising democratic power. This is why their importance is constantly increasing. The changes that follow application of ICT and their consequences are especially interesting subject to study and research. This article aims at answering the question how modern technologies (mainly the Internet) affect the processes of contemporary democracy and what might be the consequences of such changes. The deliberations shall concern the context of political market, where three processes between three main actors (politicians/political institutions, electorate, and the media) occur: informing, communicating, and voting. ICT influence these processes by quickening supplementing, and facilitating three various types of activities: sharing information, involvement in the political debate, and participation in the political decisionmaking processes. In the article, the author also pays attention to election silence as a phenomena functioning in the background of elections (which are a very significant element of the political market). Examples provided in the article come mainly from the practises and experiences of the Polish political life.

The article presents the sociological aspect of the empirical research carried out among students of Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra in Slovakia, the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seul in South Korea and among students of the University of Silesia in Katowice, concerning their opinion on family life in the contemporary society and their preferred life model. The research was conducted on a research sample of 1341 students. The main research tool used during the research was a questionnaire containing 43 questions. The collected data were statistically analyzed in the program SPSS. The analysis of the conducted research shows a dissonance between the preferred life model and the significance of family life. Generally, most respondents preferred marriage as a type of relationship for the future, while claiming that family life is less and less important.

Communication is a means of sending and receiving information. Communication processes are used for receiving, keeping, processing and sending information. The receiver of information can be a human, any living being or a piece of material-technical equipment, for instance a computer. There are several types of communication: a) communication in the human society; b) communication among animals (birds); c) communication between technical and mechanical equipment. Besides, we can distinguish other types of communication, including: communication between humans and animals and communication between humans and technical equipment.

Education, in particular tertiary education, as the main “tool” in forming a person intellectually, has always been among the scope of interest of the country’s politics. In the old days, universities were considered as the place where one could get accumulated knowledge and graduates were simply “carriers” of that knowledge. In the modern society, universities are seen as having power to influence the socio-political development of a country. A modern educated person is intelligent enough to have an individual outlook on things or events. It is very hard to change an intellectual’s mind about something he/she does not believe. If a person is educated, he/ she can and will be engaged in political matters, social life or contribute greatly to the development of the country’s better future. Enquiries proved that a person’s level of intelligence is directly connected with his/her political participation and voting behavior, as well as social interaction. The Bologna Process has helped the Georgian higher education system in its transitional period. Owing to this process, Georgia managed to effectively change the education system from a centralized Soviet system to a modern, democratic system. Launching mobility projects, diploma recognition, and quality enhancement projects played a great role in the development of the Georgian modern society and in forming their national as well as pro-European attitude.