Ustawy o planowaniu przestrzennym z lat 1994 i 2003 zniosły obowiązek sporządzania planów miejscowych, więc 3/4 terytorium Polski zabudowywane jest bez planu. Zastępują go ułomne i korupcjogenne „Decyzje o warunkach zabudowy”. W roku 2014 zlikwidowane zostały uprawnienia urbanistyczne i samorząd zawodowy Izba Urbanistów. Środowiska profesjonalistów pozbawione zostały podstawowych narzędzi. Od roku 2015 indywidualne budownictwo mieszkaniowe i rekreacyjne może powstawać bez pozwolenia na budowę. Ta liberalizacja objawia się intensyfikacją zabudowy wokół „magnesów” krajobrazowych. Jakość krajobrazu stała się ofiarą politycznego populizmu. Co takiego wydarzyło się w transformacji rozpoczętej w roku 1989, że społeczeństwo nie podąża za głosem profesjonalistów i elit intelektualnych, a władza bezkrytycznie schlebia upodobaniom wyborców? Czy ceną demokracji i gospodarki wolnorynkowej musi być psucie jakości estetycznej wspólnego dobra? Bez odpowiedzi na to nie potrafimy podjąć skutecznej ochrony i poprawy krajobrazu, jako narodowego dziedzictwa.

The essay is meant to be a reflection, a conclusion of sorts regarding the topic proposed by the organizers of the "Towards beauty." It is meant to be about the problems of introducing aesthetics to public spaces. From the point of view of many disciplines. This academic event took place in the April of 2014 at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdańsk. The Author assumed the perspective of an architect when contemplating the problems being discussed. This approach emphasizes the role that is played by the concept of the urban landscape. The work is composed of an introduction, which illustrates the reasons for adopting this perspective. This part is followed by a classification of the stances and academic research that has been presented in the delivered lectures and essays. This generalization has the form of a typology composed of five points, which describe the general issues that were discussed. The overarching thesis of this is essay is the statement that the choice of problems that have been discussed at the conference are the result of a contemporary model of thinking about the management of space, which results from a much too liberal approach that has been adopted after the socioeconomic changes that occurred in 1989. This begs the question whether the issues that are important in the context of the aesthetics of cities are effects the causes of which could lie in society's approach to its reality. Due to the aim of this essay being a commentary on the academic event that was the Gdańsk conference and a sort of reflection on the issues that were being discussed there, the Author decided not to provide it with a conclusion at the end. The Author's comments contained in this work are only a voice in the discussion and a complementation of the opinions that have been presented during the conference. The article is supposed to elicit a familiarity with the presented issues so that the reader can form their opinions, and, what is perhaps even more important, provide the foundation for future academic discussion on the topic of the beauty of the cityscape.

The article analyses physicists’ attitudes towards philosophy on the examples of the positions of eminent theorists. There are two physicists’ philosophical attitudes towards philosophy: pro-philosophical (Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, von Weizsäcker, Penrose, Rovelli) and anti-philosophical (Weinberg, Hawking, Feynman). I analyse some physicists' arguments for or against philosophy. It is demonstrated that physicists are most critical of all philosophical conceptions that accept a priori factors in cognition, while those who recognize the significance of philosophy for science most often refer to the Pythagorean-Platonic tradition as the proper basis for understanding modern physics.

The article presents the main functions of aesthetic values (beauty, simplicity, symmetry) in the process of formulating, evaluating and accepting scientific theories in the work of physicist: 1) they motivate to undertake scientific research; (2) have a heuristic role which enables the direction of the search for a new theory to be selected; (3) are a criterion for choosing between empirically equivalent theories in the absence of empirical evidences and (4) sometimes constitute an epistemological obstacle. The basic thesis of the work is that aesthetic values, in addition to positive functions, also play a negative role in science, hindering the acceptance of new theories or leading to inefficient research. Too much weight on the aesthetic side of theory can pose a threat to the objectivity of scientific cognition.

This article is an introduction to the subject matter discussed in the forty-seventh issue of “Teka…”, the Journal of the Urban Design and Architecture Commission of the Krakow Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It focuses on the aesthetic matters associated with the shaping and protection of urban spaces. It is also a homage to the academic achievements of Professor Wojciech Kosiński, as a scholar and an architect.

Most of the medieval Italian cities are civitas born of the ruins of the ancient Roman civilization. Their beauty ist the origin for deep esthetical experiences, to which Sławomir Gzell gave the name bellezza. There are a few characteristic features composing the "picturesqueness", painterliness and harmony of those cities, which lead the observer to strong emotions and constant, sensual exploration. The author contemplates the aspects creating the phenomrnon of beauty of Italian cities and towns - which are the metapfor of human desires and deepest cravings.

Rzeczy Piękne [Beautiful Things] (1918–1932) was a monthly publication of the Adrian Baraniecki Municipal Industrial Museum in Cracow. Among its distinctive features were a sophisticated graphic layout and eye-catching initials. The latter are remarkable for one more reason. While decorative initials are usually associated with of book design, it is rare to find a set of artistic ornaments commissioned specially for a periodical. This study has shown that the initials owe their distinct character not only to the ideas of the arts and crafts association Warsztaty Krakowskie [Cracow Workshops] but also to an original and attractive technique of composition.