Guilty – innocent? Candidating in local government elections and prosecutor’s charges and court verdict. Case study by Hanna Zdanowska

The article analyses the possibility of standing as a candidate and performing public functions by persons sentenced to a fine by a final court judgment. The second part of the paper concerns issues related to ethical aspects of candidacy and exercising power by convicted persons.

The purpose of the article was the analysis of two topics: the freedom and new society in Steiner’s philosophy. Steiner in The Philosophy of Freedom postulates that the world is essentially an indivisible unity. He suggests, that freedom can only be approached gradually with the aid of the creative activity of thinking. The ability to think and act independently is a possibility for modern consciousness. The process of free action also includes the liberation from given (unreflected) natural driver, instincts and the commands of reason or authorities. The free action, are those for which we are fully conscious of the motive. He concludes, that freedom is the spiritual activity of penetrating with consciousness our own nature. The most striking feature of Anthroposophy will be deemed, at first sight, to be the cultivation of the soul’s inward life and the opening of the eyes to a spiritual world. But these doctrines are the foes of real life. The best situation would result if one would give people free way. He has the trust that they would find their direction themselves.

Artykuł jest poświęcony zagadnieniu zniewolenia za długi, występującemu w epoce starożytnej i współcześnie. Przyjęte zostało w nim szerokie ujęcie długu, jako instytucji społecznej o wymiarze przede wszystkim moralnym. Dług, poprzez uwikłanie w konstelację moralności objawia się na kilku poziomach rzeczywistości społecznej, dotycząc aspektów finansowych (materialnych), jak i pojęć honoru oraz patriarchatu. Zagadnienie zostało przedstawione głównie na przykładach pochodzących ze starożytnych – Mezopotamii oraz Grecji, a także współczesnych – Tajlandii i Brazylii.

This article provides an analysis of the category of spirituality found in the texts of classical pedagogues such as: J.J. Rousseau, J.H. Pestalozzi and J.F. Herbart. Spirituality appears in these texts in the sense of morality and its varieties such as the heart, the inner life, but also the mental horizon. This way of understanding spirituality traditionally has belonged to religious context and is particularly visible in herbartian pedagogy. In the texts of Rousseau and Pestalozzi there is a belief that institutionalized religion called to be representative of morality is not fulfilling its role properly. Therefore, they establish the higher instance of religion - noninstitutional, personal, internal, involving an independent search for meaning in life. What attracts particular attention is the fact that despite the high rank given to the thread of morality/spirituality by presented here authors, this issue remains the “fuzzy” concept and lacks of detailed indications as to the ways of its implementation. This ambiguity, which operates poetic language and the lack of specific references of a practical nature, seems to be one of the causes acting on behalf of the exclusion of spirituality from the educational impact. This analysis is the first stage of the theoretical description of spirituality, which in the field of pedagogy is very fragmented, ambiguous, and thus difficult to undergo pedagogical reflection. It is also a step towards “disenchantment” of the analyzed category, by which I mean the process of rational and critical overview of spirituality; this in turn paves the way for realizing the sense that I find in making the category of spirituality useful for pedagogy: undergoing reflection and being translated into educational practice.

The moral teachings of Jan Amos Komenský for the inhabitants of Leszno in the work Zprávakratičká o mornímnakažení (1632)

The article presents the recommendations of Jan Amos Komenský, with special emphasis placed on moral teachings for the residents of Leszno during an epidemic in 1631, included in his work Zprávakratičká o mornímnakažení, published in 1632.

Morality as crucial systemic operation in the theory of Niklas Luhmann

Morality in the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann has a special place as a formula that enables communication, in other words functioning of the mechanism of the self-processing. Over the centuries this role in the system has evolved and today morality faces utterly new challenges. Will she still fulfill her commitments in the face of crisis of current values? Do we need new standards of behaviour in an era of progressive complexity?

The incrising demand for regulating social relations which are becoming more complicated is an efect of developing civilization, including in it the level of protection of human rights in XXI century. Standarization is a synonym of the nowadys developing world economy. Apart of the legal rules there are other regulation systems like moral standards, ethical standards, deontological norms or customs. These regulation systems are the complementary systems to the law regulations. Their origin is the natural law. Deontological principles mostly are legally binding like planty of ethical standards in medicine. The reason of the legal power of ethics in medicine is libility for human life. Code of Medical Ethics is also the source of legal norms in medical law. The most important legal norm for medical practice is the doctor’s obligation to treat patients acording to the current medical knowledge. Besides doctors should conduct their practice in a socially acceptable way as working in a profession of public trust.

Processes of adiaphorization in contemporary Polish politics in the light of Zygmunt Bauman’s theory

The aim of this article is to outline the processes of adiaphorization (the term which was coined by the Polish-English sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, who was a subtle analyst of the issue of power) in contemporary capitalist Poland after the collapse of the real socialism system. This text consists of three chapters. The author begins by outlining the similarities and differences between adiaphorisation in the two phases of modernity: ‘heavy’ (‘solid’) and ‘liquid’ (‘flexible’); the former was characteristic of the society of producers (workers and soldiers), while the latter was characteristic of the society of consumers. It then moves on to nationalism as a source of adiaphorization, which Bauman himself experienced personally as a leftwinger of Jewish origin. The final section focuses on the establishment of order and its collateral victims, including ‘flawed consumers’.

The study works out two basie level of the axiological ethic and morał education. Every society is based on a kind of value model. In order to understand it one should understand its basie value, it is value paradigm. This is the platform for the development of the individual's moral-identity-formation process. I have concentrated on those parts of this process which are significant and relevant in the context of European culture.

Hercules is Disobedient! The Essence of Judicial Resistance through the Eyes of Ronald Dworkin

In global jurisprudence and legal theory, we are currently observing a renaissance of interest in the thought of Ronald Dworkin, an outstanding legal philosopher, lawyer and humanist with an incredible sense of justice. There is still debate over the practical application of integral legal philosophy. Dworkin’s philosophy marks the “third way” in the dispute between legal positivism and the natural law approach. Using Dworkin’s concept of law, an attempt can be made to answer the question to what extent can the conscience of a person holding the office of a judge influence the process of making/applying law? The desire to look for positive patterns of creating and reforming law pushes us to analyze recent changes through the prism of Dworkin’s philosophy. The previous years have revealed to us a universal value and feature of our legal system a judge who interprets the law becomes the central figure of legal culture.