38 research outputs found
The American Dilemma 70 years later
Autor ponawia pytania, jakie przed czytelnikami siedemdziesiąt lat temu postawił Gunnar
Myrdal, oddając do ich rąk książkę An American Dilemma. The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy
(New York and Evanston 1944). Książka ta osiągnęła w dziejach współczesnych nauk społecznych
status niezwykły. Myrdal szuka bowiem odpowiedzi na pytanie, dlaczego społeczeństwo
i państwo tworzone od początku na oświeceniowych tradycjach i demokratycznych zasadach odmawia,
wbrew konstytucji, istotnej części swych mieszkańców podstawowych praw i wolności. Kolejne
istotne pytania brzmią: dlaczego tak wielu tak łatwo jest mówić o fundamentalnych wartościach,
nazywanych nie bez racji the American Creed i jednocześnie znaczącą część mieszkańców tej samej
ziemi uważać za z natury gorszą od siebie, a więc niezasługującą na obywatelstwo i prawa z nim
związane. Jak ludzie łączą te przeciwstawne punkty widzenia w pozornie spójną całość? Jak doszło
do takiego stanu rzeczy i czy można – a jeśli tak, to poprzez jakie działania – doprowadzić do trwałego
unicestwienia tego the vicious circle, zmuszającego do wyboru pomiędzy dwoma wzajemnie wykluczającymi
się możliwościami
Religious motivations for work ethics. The american case
From Initial Remarks: "At first glance, everything is obvious. Work after all belongs to the specific forms
of human activity towards which no contemporary religion remains indifferent. Yet
the question begins to become complicated once the questions being asked are finetuned:
for example, 1) whether all religions have the same attitude to work, and,
if not, 2) whether their different understanding of work implies onto the mundane
plane an uneven development of a human civilisation, both in its material sense
and that of the realm of symbolic culture, and also 3) remains in direct connection
with the eschatological visions proper for the given religion (concerning e.g. the
dependence of the posthumous fate of the human on his or her behaviour in the
earthly life). Providing convincing answers to these seemingly simple questions
is not easy, especially in societies that in the successive phases of their historical
development have changed not only their ethnic and racial but also their denominational
mix, moving from stable, homogenous states to dynamic heterogeneous
structures. Undoubtedly, one such society is the totality of citizens of the United
States of America. Here is the simplest of all possible proofs."(...
The making of national consciousness
"The ąuestion contained in the title of this paper, a question essentially referring to
the scope of a person’s freedom within his own group relationships and his authentic
opportunity to choose his own identity, is at least as old as the concept of national
awareness itself. Both these matters - at least in Europę - date back to the first
half of the 19lh century and are closely linked to one another. This is because national
awareness - “selected history and the group of symbols connected with it”
(Deutch 1953: 389) - is not borne of simple primary extrapolation of ethnic awareness,
arising spontaneously, but - on the contrary - it is a thing which must be created
by intellectuals and institutions. It is not enough, for this purpose - to bring
about the emergence of a separate nation. The very naturę of this process was finely
expressed by Massimo d ’Azeglio in his famous declaration in the mid-19th
century: “Abbiamo fatto 1’Italia, adesso dobbiamo fare Italiani” (Latham 1970).
Similar thoughts are expressed by phrases such as “transformation of the peasants
into the French” or, in Polish, “nationalising the peasant”."(...
Demokracja i indywidualna wola
Considerations presented in this essay take for granted that:
a) Human nature and democracy are an accumulated effect of human action, although these actions
are never free from some structural conditions inherited from the past. But it is the people
who modify or reinforce these condition. Hence, homo creator and homo sociologicus make their
societies: civil, political, stats and the public.
b) The growing sovereignty of individuals is one of the most important advancement of humankind.
Sovereignty enables people to make choice, according to their own ambitions, possibilities
and sensitivities, and enables them - as Vargas Mario Llosa asserts - run away from the gulag of
religion, race, region and nation.
c) Human nature and democracy are congruent. If human nature is free, and-oriented and calculating
/rational/, therefore - as Jean Baechler rightly stresses - only democratic order is able,
by its rules, devices and procedures to overcame consequence of human freedom, sociability and
conflictuality.
d) Participation, direct or through freely chosen representatives, of free and equal citizens in the
polity, acceptance of the rules of the game and trust in the social contracts are the crucial factors
for democracy.
Therefore, according to the author point of view, it has to be remember that democracy is neither
black, nor white nor red. As a matter of fact, it is the only political order which has, by the very
nature of free and fair election, a built-in mechanism of self-correction, and, under the pressure
of persistent or mounting cleavages (ethnic, religious and socio-economic especially), if majority
of voters wishes so, even self-destruction. But, at the same time, only democracy posses the
ability to question itself and correct its own mistakes without resort to naked force
Europejskie transformacje i ich wpływ na zmiany cywilizacyjne współczesnego Świata
Looking for the answer to the problem named in the title of his article, the author concentrates
mostly on the questions raised among social and political scientists by The Arab Spring.
He asserts that even if among the causes of changes lies analogical set of dreams and visions of
human happiness, there is no one universal pattern of achieving it. Therefore, in order to fmd the
rational answer to problems caused by resent changes in the Arab countries we must first of all get
free of Europe-centrism
Janusowe oblicza populizmu
Z wprowadzenia: "Populizm, podobnie jak większość ważnych terminów używanych w językach
nauk społecznych, zarówno w celach idiograficznych (w rozumieniu Wilhelma
Windelbanda, gdy poznanie ogranicza się wyłącznie do opisu faktów jednostkowych),
jak i eksplanacyjnych (np. wyjaśniających, dlaczego w określonych warunkach,
zbiorowości – wspólnoty i stowarzyszenia – zachowują się w określony
sposób, a także z jakich powodów w pewnych fazach życia publicznego retoryka
skażona korupcją dyskursu politycznego znajduje swych zwolenników, a w innych
nie), należy do zbioru nazw polisemantycznych. Czasami, w określonych stanach
życia społeczno-politycznego, towarzyszy jej konotacja neutralna, podczas gdy
w innych – emocje pozytywne lub negatywne. Co więcej, wbrew pozorom, nie
jest to nowa kategoria pojęciowa, lecz ma długie dzieje, sięgającą przełomu IV/
III w. p.n.e. W metaforycznym sensie jest więc z populizmem co najmniej tak, jak
z dwiema twarzami staroitalskiego Janusa, bóstwa biegu Słońca: jedna zwrócona
jest w tył, a druga w przód, obie jednocześnie oznaczają przeszłość i przyszłość,
początek i koniec, wejście i wyjście. Janusowe oblicze jest, zatem „zagadkowe,
zmienne, dwuznaczne, dwustronne”."(...
Funkcje i dysfunkcje parametryzacji, modułów kształcenia i punktów za publikacje
As a result of the transformations of the higher education system, there began a search for
objective measures, making it possible to compare different higher education institutions
(in terms of their academic staff, research outcomes documented in publications, professional
careers of university graduates and the like). It prompted the academic circles to
refl ect on the actions undertaken by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, in particular
those pertaining to the National Qualifi cation Framework. Academic disciplines
differ from one another in terms of their research methods, which is why all attempts at
a parametrization, implementation of quantitative indices to evaluate representatives of
the humanities, mathematical algorithms or taxonomy as means enabling a “fair” assessment
of all academic teachers regardless of the discipline they represent, appear to be
worthless