The aim of this article is a critical analysis of Peter F. Strawson’s theory of primitiveness of the concept of person contained in the third chapter of the Individuals. The problems associated with the distinction between M-predicates and P-predicates are pointed out. The article shows different ways of understanding primitiveness of the concept of person, and points to gaps in Strawson’s argumentation and to the dubious potential of the theory if it is used to solve some basic problems in philosophy of mind. It also deals with some of the difficulties outlined, but does not propose to solve them all.

The subject of the research of this article is the vision of the identity of the person in the light of postmodernism in confrontation with the Christian personalist vision of the person. The person in the perspective of postmodernism is deprived of nature and transcendent sense of existence. The identity of the person is understood as relative, fluid. It is not conceived as something permanent, stable, immanent and universal. The identity of a person in the personalist perspective is the resultant of unquestionable certainty regarding his subjectivity. It is an objective, permanent, universal characteristic, constitutive of the person, existing regardless of circumstances. The personalistic, Christian perspective allows one to see the fullness of a person’s existence, the richness of his spiritual dimensions, which is not guaranteed by identity understood postmodernistically. Only in the ontological perspective can the foundation of the uniqueness, distinctiveness and ultimate constitution of the person be found.

The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

Psychodrama is a method of therapy and personal development which strongly engages – apart from the intellect – the body and emotions. It frequently makes use of symbols and metaphors based on a natural inclination to play, at the same time triggering spontaneity and creativity. Psychodrama was invented by Jacob Moreno in the early 20th century. For a long time, it has been subjected to various changes. Its development has brought about the adjustment of its tools to different needs and group situations. Today, psychodrama is widely applied in psychotherapy, personal development, business, as well as education. The presented study is aimed at showing the usefulness of psychodrama as a tool which enhances the understanding of disability by both people without disability (as it is understood by the non-disabled) and the disabled (as regards the understanding of their own limitations). An additional goal is presenting the general assumptions of psychodrama the benefits from using its techniques for the development of e.g. teachers, therapists, tutors and other people working with the intellectually disabled, post-graduate students of special pedagogy in the field of oligophrenopedagogy.

The article discusses two questions of Peter F. Strawson’s understanding of the human being as person. The first question scrutinizes Strawson’s philosophical choice between the tradition of Aristotle’s metaphysics and Kant’s ontology. The second question is the Cartesian challenge as presented in Strawson’s postulate of the primacy of the concept of human person. My understanding of the metaphysics proposed in the Individuals and Strawson’s other works underscores a particular affinity between his anthropological postulate and philosophia perennis. However, the Oxford philosopher is related not only to Aristotelian logic and hermeneutic but also to Kant’s conceptual scheme. In the case of the definition that identifies human being as a person we see the unambiguous reliance by Strawson on the thought of Aristotle. The explicit evidence of this reliance is his reference to the corporeality and space-time character of the human beings, manifested by the recognition of ontological priority of particulars before the reality of mental states of affairs. The effect of this analysis is my observation that Strawson has undertaken to close the gap between mental and material reality that was established in Descartes’ ontological difference between res cogitans and res extensa. The aporia of the lack of communication between human consciousness and human corporeality finds its solution in Strawson’s Individuals in concept of relationship between mind and body intended as a transgression over the Cartesian concept. Strawson proposes a recognition of their simultaneous validity, but he does not propose a new ontological position comparable to H.E. Hengstenberg’s, founded on the idea of the constitution of the human person not in two preclusive elements, as the Cartesian mind and body, but in three elements, namely spirit (Geist), corporeality (Leib) and existential principle (Existenzprinzip).

The content of the study focuses on the issue of the right to work of persons with disabilities from the point of view of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities adopted by the General Assembly of United Nations in 2006. The article discusses the formal elements of the national system supporting the professional activity of this group of people. The author also presents opinions of various entities, independent of state authorities, on the compatibility of solutions adopted in our country with the philosophy of the Convention.

The aim of this paper is defined in the two title questions related to Roman Ingarden’s research: (1) What constitutes the specificity and uniqueness of human cognitive system? (2) Is Roman Ingarden’s answer defensible in the light of today’s naturalistic tendencies? In response to the first question, the multidimensional structure of human being is indicated, thanks to which man has access to the sphere of values. In the axiological and ontological aspect the power of man to create new realities is emphasized. In the epistemological and ontological aspect three dimensions of this structure are shown, which are correlated, complex and relatively isolated systems of body, soul and consciousness. Next, in response to the second question, Ingarden’s nonreductive approach is discussed against the background of information processes and the issue of self-knowledge. However, his strong ontological assumptions are shown as well. In conclusion, the author emphasizes that Ingarden’s main research strategy remains consistently grounded in ontology (and in this sense it is anti‑naturalistic), but in some aspects it is compatible with today’s naturalist approaches favored in neurocognitive studies.

This paper brings up the issue of population aging and its influence on designing and construction of buildings in Poland. It also touches the problem of adaptation of existing facilities to the needs of the elderly and the disabled. Moreover, current trends in Polish demographics and possible outlook for the next 45 years has been presented. The author presents the current legal state concerning rules and regulations on the aspects of adjusting the buildings and their parts to the needs of the disabled. Additionally, the dimensions and the areas of movement for the disabled as well as the primary functional and requirements for bathrooms have been described. In the next paragraph, a concept of Ambient Assisted Living with examples of sanitary equipment for use in residential buildings has been propose.

Artykuł przedstawia założenia programowe przedmiotu Projektowanie urbanistyczne związane z przystosowaniem rozwiązań projektowych dla osób niepełnosprawnych oraz seniorów. Omówiono w nim kolejno: cele przedmiotu, oczekiwane efekty kształcenia, a następnie treści merytoryczne zagadnienia przystosowania przestrzeni otwartych do potrzeb grup o różnych rodzajach niepełnosprawności: osób na wózkach inwalidzkich, głuchych i niedosłyszących, niewidomych, niedowidzących oraz starszych. Dla realizacji tych potrzeb duże znaczenie ma szata informacyjna zespołów urbanistycznych oraz układ socjometryczny jednostki mieszkaniowej, zaprojektowane w sposób wyzwalający w użytkownikach przestrzeni wzajemne uczucia empatii i aprobaty. W dalszej części przedstawiono wymagania formalne, które powinien zawierać każdy projekt wykonywany na przedmiocie z zakresu tej tematyki – tj. rodzaje obowiązkowych przedstawień graficznych wraz z przykładami z semestralnych projektów studenckich.

The aim of this article is to draw attention to the growing phenomenon of working in retirement in the light of active and successful aging concepts. The change in attitudes towards aging, work and retirement among Poles can be seen as a kind of social process that has been ongoing since the early 1990s. Nowadays, more and more people of retirement age, anxious to remain active and independent for as long as possible, are delaying the moment of professional deactivation. The article presents the partial findings of research conducted by the author. The purpose of the qualitative study ”Attitudes towards retirement and type of reflexivity as determinants of positive aging” was to characterize the motivations for career continuation and the benefits of prolonged professional activity among people over 60. The findings—concerning participants considered professionals (n = 20) according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations ISCO-08—suggest that continuing one’s career after reaching retirement age can be considered one of the strategies for achieving successful aging.

In the beginnings of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak public opinion has been con-centrated on the tragic events taking place at the cruise ships, where the new virus has spread substantially. It is not the first outbreak of the infectious disease at a cruise ship. The following article aims at presenting the relevant case law of the British courts that have considered carrier’s liability for passengers’ claims in relation to personal injury caused by the outbreak of gastrointestinal illnesses caused by the norovirus. Fur-thermore, the readers will be familiarized with the legal situation of injured passengers under the American law.

Considering responsibility as a key anthropological category, Roman Ingarden stresses that it could only be inquired through the lens of a subject that is perceived personally, and not as a ‘pure I’. On the one hand, responsibility determines the nature of personal existence, and on the other hand, personal existence constitutes a space for interrogating about any meanings of the concept of responsibility. What remains problematic, however, is an alternative outlined by Ingarden, which implies that perception of a personal subject must be conducted within either of two perspectives – one that refers to a substantial model of personal subject, or the other that relates to acts of actualising the subject, which unfold in the stream of consciousness. It seems possible to go beyond this contradiction and reconcile the two perspectives – which the modern philosophy of dialogue proposes to do. Ingarden emphasises that the analysis of the concept of responsibility should not be limited to the realm of morality. However, all four scenarios that the philosopher uses as research fields to scrutinise the concept point, or at least imply the necessity of including aesthetic issues. Furthermore, the four fields of analysis – when somebody 1) bears responsibility, 2) takes responsibility, 3) is held responsible, and 4) acts responsibly – should not be perceived as isolated from one another. The link between them is man, who appears as a person in certain situations, while in others, his personal status is unrevealed, although it still remains within a firm horizon of situations and meanings examined herein. Moreover, regardless of the polarisation of the research fields highlighted by Ingarden, moral context constitutes a permanent space of reference for a human person, who not only asks for the sense (meanings) of responsibility, but also determines his/her personal existence through meanings and with their help.

In the paper John Rawls’s account of desert that serves as a premise of the difference principle is questioned. According to Rawls no merits can be located in the self because they arise from random genetic and social factors. Consequently, an individual does not deserve any appreciation for the virtues that can be attributed to them. Against this view I argue, in the first place, that the asymmetry between distributive and retributive justice, as it is professed by Rawls, is not tenable. Next, I question Rawls’s radical separation of the self from its attributes. I argue that random factors are not the only source of the attributes of the self. A person, regardless of her endowment, is able intentionally to develop new meritorious qualities and even transform her character and thereby earn personal deserts. The latter, however, cannot be credited to the individual alone, for they arise from shared aspirations and communal social transactions. In conclusion a reconciliation between the difference principle and a version of desertism is proffered.

From a historical point of view, Peter F. Strawson’s philosophical studies are an important element within contemporary interdisciplinary investigations of the mind-body problem. The aim of this article is to present and analyze Strawson’s program of descriptive metaphysics, along with the associated conception of persons, that he has proposed. In the second part, I also present his non-reductive naturalism, focusing on two of his analyses that belong to the field of mind-body relations: these concern the problem of other minds, and the question of the nomological reduction of mental states of persons to physical ones (i.e. mind-body identity theory). I then point to several possibilities of using Strawson’s conception of persons in the context of issues raised by other questions linked to the mind-body problem (namely, personal identity as it relates to split-brain persons, and the different phases of a person’s development).

W artykule konfrontuję koncepcję osoby Petera Strawsona z koncepcją osoby Paula Ricoeura, traktując je jako reprezentatywne ilustracje podejścia semantyczno-ontologicznego i pragmatyczno-egzystencjalnego (lub hermeneutycznego) zarazem do problemu języka i do problemu bytu zwanego osobą. Zaznaczam różnice między tymi podejściami, ale wskazuję także na ich punkty wspólne. Zgodnie z przedstawioną interpretacją, Ricoeur w swojej próbie przezwyciężenia ograniczeń semantycznej teorii osoby rozwija i uwypukla wątki, które w sposób marginalny były obecne już w teorii Strawsona, a skądinąd docenia znaczenie tych, które w tej teorii były pierwszoplanowe, chociaż je relatywizuje. Stosunek Ricoeura do Strawsona pokazuje złożoną relację między tzw. filozofią kontynentalną i tzw. filozofią analityczną.

The question of the human person is very important for moral theology because of the possibility of responsible human action. Nevertheless, the old utilitarianism that already comes from the empiricist position of Hume reduces the calculation of costs and benefits to an evaluation of the pleasant/unpleasant of the individual subject. The new utilitarianism takes its inspiration from Bentham and Mill and can be summarized in a threefold injunction: maximizing pleasure, minimizing pain, and expanding the sphere of personal freedom for the greatest number of persons. One of the popular promoters of preference utilitarianism in modern times is the Australian ethicist Peter Singer, whose controversial views attracted much attention not only from the scientific community in the late 1970s. In this paper we will try to show a critique of this position in several figures of philosophical and theological ethics as well as a defence of the importance of the notion of the human person and human dignity for the integral protection of human life from conception to natural death and of anthropocentrism as such in respect for all creation and all of nature.

Socjologiczne badania par intymnych wiążą się z szeregiem dylematów etycznych. Niektóre z nich łączą się z kwestiami badania życia prywatnego, a zatem pytaniami o to, czemu, jak i w jakich warunkach osoby badane dzielą się z badaczami lub badaczkami swoimi doświadczeniami, a także, jaka relacja badawcza przy tej okazji kształtuje się między tymi dwiema stronami. Rozpatrujemy problem symetryczności relacji badacza/ badaczki z parą, problem wykorzystywania wiedzy pozyskanej jedynie od jednej osoby tak, by nie zaszkodzić parze, a także specyficzne dylematy związane z relacjami władzy pomiędzy badaczami a badanymi oraz rolami, w jakich badacze/badaczki są obsadzani przez parę. Dylematy te dyskutujemy w odniesieniu do przykładów z własnych badań terenowych pochodzących z trzech projektów badawczych.