Papers by Stefan Konstańczak
Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae, 2006
Environmental problems do have a universal dimension: they concern entire humanity as well as eac... more Environmental problems do have a universal dimension: they concern entire humanity as well as each human being individually, therefore, a new ecology needs to be developed in which man will play a principal role being a focal point of the study, its creator and executor of its assumptions, the discipline thus understood is one of the aspects of general ecology for it studies relationships between man as a species and its environment, the author believes that, regardless of the standpoint that representatives of various sciences may take, the future of our species depends on the interdisciplinary approach toward the questions that are subject to human ecology studies.
Galicja. Studia i materiały
Ethics & Bioethics
In the article, the author analyses the impact of the tragic experiences during the Holocaust on ... more In the article, the author analyses the impact of the tragic experiences during the Holocaust on contemporary ethics and literature. Such considerations coincide with yet another anniversary – the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, celebrated globally as Holocaust Memorial Day. The article also considers the reasons why testimonies from Holocaust survivors have not had an adequate impact on society. The author argues that trivialisation of the Holocaust tragedy occurred in modern science and it is related to the fact that traditional ethics has not been able to convincingly explain why the Holocaust occurred in the most civilised nations. Thus, Holocaust testimonies should be constantly popularised in society for the good of all mankind. Literature seems to be the best form of mass media for this task and it is also a recorder of human emotions. According to the author, it is essential that humanity is protected this way against the possibility of a similar tragedy occu...
Σοφια
Ореста Лосик, „Феномен свободи у французькому дискурсі постмодернізм”, Львівський національний ун... more Ореста Лосик, „Феномен свободи у французькому дискурсі постмодернізм”, Львівський національний університет ім. Івана Франка, Наукове товариство ім. Шевченка, Українознавча наукова бібліотека НТШ, Львів 2016, cc. 302.
Przeglad Filozoficzny Nowa Seria, Sep 1, 2012
Health as a social value The starting point of the article is the thesis that Hipocrates’ rule: “... more Health as a social value The starting point of the article is the thesis that Hipocrates’ rule: “the health of an ill person is the highest right” is not only the main rule of the conduct of medical staff but also includes a defined method of evaluation. According to the author, the consequence of such evaluation is a detailed rule “firstly, not to harm”. This rule has got a universal character and cannot only be restricted to medical staff. Healthcare is not the domain of doctors alone. It is everybody’s obligation, as it is to ensure that people don’t risk their own health or others’. In support of this approach, Władysław Tatarkiewicz’s considerations have been mentioned in the article, especially those that combine an individual sense of happiness with a state of health. In the end, the author refers to empirical research, which shows dependence on the state of health on and acquired lifestyle and points to the greater rationale of health prevention rather than institutional med...
Homo patiens is a man who suffers continuously even because of the fact of his/her existence. Han... more Homo patiens is a man who suffers continuously even because of the fact of his/her existence. Hans Jonas in his work The Concept of God after Auschwitz posed a difficult question which he directed to everybody – politicians, philosophers, priests, theologians and ordinary people: Here we have gone through the most traumatic experience in the history of man – the Holocaust. It has got a collective character because it was experienced by all mankind but also separately every person of Jewish nationality – what kind of knowledge about evil and human suffering was delivered by this experience? This question was really justified because soon after the end of war there appeared ideas considering that :”the problem of Auschwitz has been solved once and for all”. For Jonas, however the matter was not so obvious. Auschwitz was for him personal experience because he lost his mother there. According to biographers and analysts of his writings he never rallied from trauma related to it. Therefo...
The paper shows, that the hopes associated with globalisation, which were also supposed to overco... more The paper shows, that the hopes associated with globalisation, which were also supposed to overcome the effects of the ecological crisis, have not been fulfilled. This situation is associated with the fact that nowadays the biggest influence on the functioning of the global ecosystem is by man himself, who exists simultaneously in two envi-ronments: social and cultural. According to the author, all crises are global and furthermore embrace both envi-ronments in which man functions. Therefore, people are most at risk to pay for every crisis, including the ecolog-ical one. Human communities would be able to function in any environment, if they accept and implement sus-tainable development, which includes the functioning of the anthroposphere and the biosphere at the same time. Communities which were unable to do so, collapsed and even disappeared. In conclusion, the author claims that even today there is such a requirement. Today’s advocated sustainable development ensues from our spe...
Justifying the existence of professional ethics in medicine is usually connected with the traditi... more Justifying the existence of professional ethics in medicine is usually connected with the traditions of a profession and with a humanistic dimension of these ethics, pointing at the same time to their culture-forming character. With such an attitude, professional ethics is treated as a part of all mankind’s output, and its teaching turns out to be an important element of preparation for taking part in culture. Taking into account the cultural meaning of professional ethics, one should notice that all discussions about the character of relations of medicine and ethics exceed the very health care system. The dilemma outlined in the article deals with the problem whether the existence of medical ethics requires external regulations or is this also a creation of the very representatives of medicine and only they can formulate it. If the latter is to be assumed, ethics in medicine would have to be independent of other detailed ethics and it would not need to be included in any other more...
Key words: etyka medycyny, bioetyka, wartości moralne, kodeksy etyczne, edukacja, odpowiedzialnoś... more Key words: etyka medycyny, bioetyka, wartości moralne, kodeksy etyczne, edukacja, odpowiedzialność zawodowa Uzasadnianie potrzeby istnienia etyk zawodowych w medycynie wiąże się zazwyczaj z tradycjami zawodu, oraz z humanistycznym wymiarem tych etyk, wskazując zarazem na ich kulturotwórczy charakter. Przy takim ujęciu etyka zawodowa traktowana jest jako część ogólnoludzkiego dorobku, a jej nauczanie okazuje się ważnym elementem przygotowania do uczestnictwa w kulturze. Uwzględniając kulturowe znaczenie etyk zawodowych należy zauważyć, że wszelkie dyskusje na temat charakteru związków medycyny z etyką wykraczają poza ramy samego systemu opieki zdrowotnej. Zarysowany a artykule dylemat dotyczy zatem tego, czy istnienie etyki medycznej wymaga zewnętrznych regulacji, czy też jest ona tworem samych reprezentantów medycyny i tylko oni ją mogą formułować. Gdyby przyjąć rozwiązanie drugie, to etyka w medycynie musiałaby być niezależna od innych etyk szczegółowych i jako taka nie musiałaby w...
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 2014
This book, through its essays, captures this interdisciplinary nature of research into morality, ... more This book, through its essays, captures this interdisciplinary nature of research into morality, treated both as a social fact, as well as man's individual disposition. The Slovak philosopher and ethicist Vasil Gluchman, as the book's scientific editor, divided the book into two parts, the first, entitled Different Concepts of Morality presents, in accordance with its title, various and sometimes even controversial stances related to the understanding of key issues of morality. The second part of the book titled New Trends in Understanding Morality consists primarily of the author's attempts to explain the sources of morality formulated not only by ethics, but also by the biological sciences. In this short presentation it is clear that both the scientific editor as well as the individual authors, did not set themselves the objective of writing another book on moral philosophy, but instead focused themselves on the key issues which determine the status and direction of contemporary research into morality. In the introduction, Vasil Gluchman stressed, that no ethical theories can be formulated which can be applied eternally. Each age is characterized by its particular morality, and hence ethics must constantly adapt to existing realities. The first chapter of the book is Jeremy Bendik-Keymer's essay titled The Moral and the Ethical: What Conscience Teaches us about Morality. The problem of conscience, by reference to individually molded sensitivity, is placed within the psychology of morality. The author tries to prove that only molded conscience allows us to establish and maintain social relationships. The author carries out his reasoning using human rights as an example. History has shaped human conscience and thus, after the Holocaust, following the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, human conscience has been completely reshaped. Thus conscience becomes a fundamental category of humanism, because it was shaped in interpersonal relations, and therefore morality must also be relational (p. 17). Therefore, a person functioning in society becomes a moral being, and consequently the author answers the question of whether morality is innate, or is the result of the influence of society. Such a solution adopted by the author is heralded by the motto "Even though you are far from my eyes, you are in my heart" which constitutes an introduction to his article. Howard M. Ducharme from the University of Akron in his article A Critical Evaluation of a Classic Moral Scientist: Are there any Moral Facts to Discover? compares ethical tradition
Ethics & Bioethics
In this article, the author attempts to identify the sources of good and evil as undertaken by th... more In this article, the author attempts to identify the sources of good and evil as undertaken by the Lvov-Warsaw School of Philosophy (LWSP) founded by Kazimierz Twardowski. Such attempts were undertaken by both Twardowski himself and his closest students and associates; Władysław Witwicki, Tadeusz Kotarbiński. Tadeusz Czeżowski, and Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz. The best-known approach is Kotarbiński’s independent ethics in which the author refers to Aristotle perceiving such potential in the characteristics of each individual as to distinguish elementary qualities in the form of opposites including opposition to good and evil. According to this approach, man acts in an evil manner because he stops following the natural voice of his own heart and instead implements set proposals provided by external factors. In the opinion of the author, the proposals formulated within the LWSP can form the basis for a rational explanation of the atrocities committed during World War II which modern ethics,...
Polish Journal of Philosophy, 2009
Idea. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych, 2015
Idea. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych, 2015
Polska filozofia przez pewien czas jakby zignorowała pierwsze prace Darwina po-święcone teorii ew... more Polska filozofia przez pewien czas jakby zignorowała pierwsze prace Darwina po-święcone teorii ewolucji. Wydaje się, że było to głównie spowodowane tym, że już w epo-ce Oświecenia popularne były w Polsce tezy ewolucjonizmu, gdyż upatrywano tego typu prawidłowości choćby w biegu historii. Sam bowiem termin " ewolucja " pochodzi od ła-cińskiego evolutio i dosłownie oznacza rozwinięcie, rozwój. Jak wskazuje Kazimierz Jod-kowski, w obiegu naukowym termin ten najprawdopodobniej funkcjonuje już od czasów starożytnych i był używany zarówno przez antycznych filozofów, jak też sama idea znaj-dowała się w przekazach mitycznych. 1 Od samego początku sporów odnośnie do teorii ewolucji także wskazywano na potrzebę precyzyjnego określenia przedmiotu, którego te dyskusje dotyczyły. Nie jest więc tym samym dyskusja nad ewolucjonizmem, co dyskusja nad teorią ewolucji. Podkreślali to już od samego początku uczestnicy tych dyskusji, któ-rzy, jak Eugeniusz Chlebowski, stawali zazwyczaj na stanowisku: Nie można utożsamiać teoryi ewolucyi z ewolucyonizmem; ewolucyonizm bowiem uważa świat za objekt i rezultat stałej ewolucyi, nie wykluczającej ani jednego rodzaju zjawisk. Ewo-lucyonizm więc jest pryncypem, zasadą światopoglądu t. zw. ewolucyonistycznego, ktorego podstawą służy kopernikowski dymanizm, oraz dymanizm wspołczesnej fizyki i przyrodo-znawstwa wogole. Teorya ewolucyi zaś jest tylko zastosowaniem filozoficznej zasady ewolu-cyonizmu do rozwoju organicznego świata. 2
Autor w swoim artykule przedstawił własne stanowisko wobec procesów degradacji humanistyki we wsp... more Autor w swoim artykule przedstawił własne stanowisko wobec procesów degradacji humanistyki we współczesnej kulturze. Odwołując się do poglądów polskich filozofów stara się uzasadniż pogląd, że nauka jest fundamentem kultury a bez zapewnienia nieskrępowanego rozwoju środowisk akademickich jej rozwój jest niemozliwy.
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Papers by Stefan Konstańczak