This paper presents the results of magnetic mapping carried out in the area of the metamorphic series of Ariekammen and Skoddefjellet. On the basis of qualitative interpretation of measurements a number of anomalous zones were distinguished, whose position can be correlated with local changes in mineralitation and polymetallic ore content in the Fuglebergsletta area. The SE-NW orientation, skew to the almost meridional run of the layers of slates and marbles making up the metamorphic complex, dominates in the course of the anomalous zones.

The aim of the article is to compare the thought collective and the interpretive community, two surprisingly similar notions formulated independently by Ludwik Fleck and Stanley Fish. In contemporary discourse, both concepts are used as synonims, while an accurate analysis of the contexts of the use of interesting terms proves that the equivalent of the interpretive community is rather thought collective, as well as the thought style, both of these concepts in the deliberations of Fish are subject to contamination. The exact repartition of the notion of interpretive community seems to be important due to the frequency of its use in works in the field of literary interpretation and cognition. The article also presents more general remarks on the functioning and possible origin of twin terms and their role in scientific cognition.

The article confronts key notions framing our understanding of modernity, such as rationality, knowledge, freedom and democracy, opening the space of a critical interpretation undermining the superficial take on modernity as an embodiment of integrity, putting together the noble principles of knowledge and liberty. Drawing on the thought of Max Weber, exploring the symbolism of his metaphor of “iron cage of rationality”, the article emphasizes a paradoxical sense of the experience of modernity. In concluding statements it defies and calls into question a standard reading of democracy, viewed as an embodiment of freedom and rational self-definition.

This paper analyzes the concept of context with a special focus on the context of communication. We suggest two ways of classifying approaches to the context of communication: (i) classifying approaches based on a number of relevant dimensions for analyzing context in social activities, (ii) classifying approaches, based on the dimensions of Peirce’s semiotics. We also discuss the use of collected corpora of language, especially multimodal corpora of spoken interaction, as an aid in studying context. Finally, building on the two ways of classifying approaches to the context of communication, we present our own proposal for how to analyze the main relevant contextual dimensions influencing human interaction and communication.

For Plato, language was the way to cognize the universe. The philosophy of language, which was primarily initiated by Plato in the Cratylus, still has not received answers to the questions settled by this great Greek thinker. In fact, it just offered various solutions formed in different conceptions and approaches in the ancient, scholastic, modern and postmodern periods. The questions raised by Plato in his dialogue have been continued in various nativistic theories of language, especially in works of Noam Chomsky. Language—as it is seen by Plato, i.e., as uniting our inner world with the outer world, is a significant feature of humankind, is still underinvestigated.

The article is a contribution to the methodology of reading and interpreting Dostoevsky’s famous novels. It owes its genesis to the refl ection upon the evolution of literary theory discourse in XX century and upon transformations in global (mainly Russian and Western) reception and modes of interpreting the oeuvre of the great Russian artist. The aim of the text is to prepare ground for reorienting Polish “dostoevskology” from the dominant reconstructive course onto the more creative, interpretative one. The order of my inquiries presents itself as follows. In the fi rst part of the article I focus on the questions of ideas, the protagonist and narrative techniques in Dostoevsky so that to highlight the specifi city of the writer’s approach to these issues. It will allow me to speak up for the minimum of methodological awareness which implies acknowledgment of the paradigm of polyphony, polysemy and complexity of Dostoevsky’s text. Perhaps it will also become possible to reveal some gaps in the hitherto existing state of research, debunk several stereotypes still functioning in Polish “dostoevskology”, and draw attention to still unrecognized interpretative clues in context of those crucial aspects of Dostoevsky’s work. In the second part I will reconstruct several most popular approaches to Dostoevsky’s text which differ in terms of understanding of what the relation between the reader and the text should comprise of. I will try to determine the benefi ts they can bring but also to sensitize to pitfalls they may entail. In the fi nal, third part of the study I will propose a project of a new interpretative approach which would rise to the challenge of Dostoevsky’s “spirit” as well as the spirit of his text the way it is construed by the most advanced contemporary critical studies and as I have learnt to perceive it.

Among the big corpus of the commentaries over the Qur’an, one of the special developments was a genre of gloss (hāšiya). The study addresses main Ottoman glosses written to the Qur’anic commentaries, contextualizing it within the internal dimensions of the content transformations. It is argued that since the glosses were used as the textbooks in the Ottoman medrese, they could be considered as the “mainstream” Ottoman reading of the Qur’an. This reading was not merely one of the practices for approaching the Qur’an, but the kind of tradition with the related authorities and meaningful developments. The research covers these patterns of interpretations applied to the case of Āl ‘Imrān, 3: 7, showing the way of how the philology and theology interacted in the Ottoman tafsīr glosses.

There are three Latin texts of the Bible. The ancient vetus latina version used by the Christian writers before Jerome, the Vulgate of st. Jerome and the Neo-Vulgate. Our article deals with the formation and the characteristic features of each version and a special impact the Vulgate had on the Christian literature. We focus our presentation on three periods: the golden age of the patristic literature in the IV- V centuries; the transitional period in the VI-VII centuries and the middle ages, mainly XII-XIII centuries. We present the authors of the most important commen- taries, sermons and other works connected with the Bible and approach some problems connected with the interpretation and meaning of Scripture.

This article analyses the capacity of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance to counteract the democratic governance shortfall. It argues that the tangible impact of the treaty on the states’ practice has been limited by various endogenous and exogenous factors. The former are identified as directly linked to content of the document and refer to the accuracy of the drafting. The latter are rooted outside the text and beyond the character of the Charter and include issues relating to the states’ reluctance to ratify the document, certain constitutional constraints undermining implementation on the national level, and the weak international guarantees of enforcement.

The article offers a discourse-analytic examination of original (English) and interpreted (Polish) versions of several extracts from plenary speeches by three Members of the European Parliament (Janusz Korwin-Mikke, Nigel Farage and Guy Verhofstadt). Controversial statements that have met with adverse reactions of the audience and/or the media are selected for analysis. The author endeavours to assess the degree to which pragmatic equivalence has been achieved by Polish interpreters. Another pertinent question is whether the identifi ed shifts are due to some systemic differences between the pragmatics of the source and target languages or to other factors, such as the constraints typical for simultaneous interpreting or specific, local problems.

Morphometric attributes of 705 stromatoporoid specimens from a number of exposures from the Silurian of Podolia (Ukraine) and the Devonian of the Holy Cross Mountains (Poland), representing a wide array of shallow water carbonate sedimentary environments, have been analysed. Taken into account were such parameters as: general shape of the skeleton, shape of the final growth form (living surface profile), upper surface character, latilaminae arrangement, burial ratio and type of initial surface. A number of new ratios has been introduced, designed mainly to improve the mapping of the outlines of the stromatoporoids upper surfaces. All studied specimens were treated as belonging to one group, and relations between particular attributes were tested. The results were analysed in terms of potential environmental factors influencing stromatoporoid morphometric features. Most of the distinguished attributes are common in the studied group and occur in various combinations, with an important exception of parameters designed to reflect the shape of the skeleton’s upper surface, which are distinctly predominated by convex variants. This indicates that surface concavity was a highly undesired feature among stromatoporoids. Upper surface convexity is interpreted herein as a response to the hazard of clogging of the animals pores by tiny sediment particles suspended in the bottom turbid water layer. Common low burial ratios of final living surface profiles and the occurrence of specimens with a smooth upper surface but a non-enveloping latilaminae arrangement are other reflections of this phenomenon. Burial by sediments and redeposition were also important factors governing stromatoporoid development. No direct arguments indicating photosensitivity of stromatoporoids can be deduced from the presented results. The hitherto postulated allometric tendency among stromatoporoids of starting growth as laminar forms and later adopting consecutively higher profile shapes has not been confirmed here. On the contrary, a tendency for gradual elimination of very high profile forms with increasing stromatoporoid size has been observed. The final shape of a stromatoporoid skeleton was always an effect of a combination of various agents.