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The founding motto of philosophy in science is “tracking down big philosophical problems in contemporary science.” Knowing the basic history of philosophy and the history of science, we more or less know what “big philosophical topics” mean. The most representative topics of this kind include: time, space, causality, matter, life, consciousness, thinking... The tables of contents of philosophy textbooks could be copied to continue this list. These topics are big not only when they remain at a high level of generality, but also when they get down to special cases and particular sub-problems. Sometimes it is only then that they fully reveal their big format.

In the two-volume work Theism and the Analytical Philosophy (1985; 1988a) Joseph Życiński took up the challenge of renewing Christian metaphysics so that it could appear as a full-fledged partner in the dialogue with other streams of contemporary philosophy. This renewal should use two sources: the methodological principles of analytic philosophy, especially its philosophy of language, and certain elements of Whitehead’s process philosophy. This study presents a critical reconstruction of Życiński’s arguments contained in the first two chapters of (1985), which are devoted to the problem of language. Main results of this part of Życiński’s work are negative, that is, they refute the arguments and interpretations of those analytical philosophers who show the meaninglessness of the theistic language or try to assimilate it to other standard languages, depriving it of a reference to the transcendent reality. How can a positive part of the Życiński program be developed? It seems that only by formulating specific problems in the field of philosophy of God, or even theology, and choosing the right linguistic tools to drill down on a given problem and seek its solution. This is in line with Wittgenstein’s concept of language games. Życiński tries to do this in (1988a). Życiński turned out to be a precursor of nowadays increasingly developing analytical theology.

The original view of Joseph Życiński, presented in his book The Structure of the Metascientific Revolution (1988), boils down to the observation that almost before our eyes a great revolution took place, not in science, but in the philosophy of science, that is the meta-scientific revolution. His concept of the meta-scientific revolution grew out of his fascination with the revolution that took place in the foundations of mathematics in the first decades of the twentieth century. Whether a change in science deserves to be called a revolution is determined by whether the transformations it underwent also reached the meta-level. The set of presuppositions underlying transformations on the meta-level Życiński calls ideata. One of the aims of this article is to critically reconstruct the meaning of this term. The action of Życiński’s book takes place mainly on meta-level, but the meta-level constantly interacts with what is happening in science itself. The book sometimes makes an impression as if it were a study of the history of science, but history of science in a specific sense – something like a “sampling” of history with numerous examples. Among the creations of human thought, it is difficult to point to an area that changes more dynamically than science itself, but looking at it from a meta-perspective allows us to grasp those of its features that operate on a much broader scale.

Metodologia/podejście: Badanie to wykorzystuje jakościowe metody badawcze, takie jak analiza orzecznictwa oraz badania porównawcze standardów i podejść księgowych. Wyniki: Dowody z niniejszego badania wskazują, że sprawozdania finansowe odzwierciedlają obecnie jedynie historyczny rejestr zdarzeń ekonomicznych danego przedsiębiorstwa, głęboko zniekształcony przez konserwatywną perspektywę aktywów materialnych. Główną tezą tego badania jest to, że racjonalne jest przyjęcie kompleksowej strategii wyceny własności intelektualnej w celu ustalenia konkretnej wartości aktywów niematerialnych, ponieważ kompleksowe zastosowanie modeli wyceny prawdopodobnie przyniesie lepsze wyniki niż stosowanie ich oddzielnie. Ograniczenia badawcze/implikacje: Chociaż proponowane podejście ma na celu zapewnienie większej zrozumiałości procesu wyceny przy jednoczesnym uproszczeniu wyceny aktywów własności intelektualnej, jego skuteczność jest uzależniona od zwiększonej przejrzystości, dojrzewającego rynku własności intelektualnej oraz wiarygodnej dostępności danych. Oryginalność/wartość: Niniejsze opracowanie wnosi cenny wkład do badań nad metodami ułatwiającymi trafną wycenę własności intelektualnej, oferując jednocześnie alternatywny model wyceny, który łączy w sobie mocne strony poszczególnych modeli wyceny.

The interaction between syntax (formal language) and its semantics (meanings of language) is one which has been well studied in categorical logic. The results of this particular study are employed to understand how the brain is able to create meanings. To emphasize the toy character of the proposed model, we prefer to speak of the homunculus brain rather than the brain per se. The homunculus brain consists of neurons, each of which is modeled by a category, and axons between neurons, which are modeled by functors between the corresponding neuron-categories. Each neuron (category) has its own program enabling its working, i.e. a theory of this neuron. In analogy to what is known from categorical logic, we postulate the existence of a pair of adjoint functors, called Lang and Syn, from a category, now called BRAIN, of categories, to a category, now called MIND, of theories. Our homunculus is a kind of “mathematical robot”, the neuronal architecture of which is not important. Its only aim is to provide us with the opportunity to study how such a simple brain-like structure could “create meanings” and perform abstraction operations out of its purely syntactic program. The pair of adjoint functors Lang and Syn model the mutual dependencies between the syntactical structure of a given theory of MIND and the internal logic of its semantics given by a category of BRAIN. In this way, a formal language (syntax) and its meanings (semantics) are interwoven with each other in a manner corresponding to the adjointness of the functors Lang and Syn. Higher cognitive functions of abstraction and realization of concepts are also modelled by a corresponding pair of adjoint functors. The categories BRAIN and MIND interact with each other with their entire structures and, at the same time, these very structures are shaped by this interaction.

The Michael Heller’s article entitled “How is philosophy in science possible?” was originally published in Polish in 1986 (see Heller, 1986) and then translated into English by Bartosz Brożek and Aeddan Shaw and published in 2011 in the collection of essays entitled Philosophy in Science. Methods and Applications (Heller, 2011). This seminal paper has founded further growth of the ‘philosophy in science’ and become the reference point in the methodological discussions, especially in Poland. On the 40th anniversary of Philosophical Problems in Science we wanted to make this paper freely available to the international public by reprinting its English version. In this issue it is followed by two additional articles-commentaries (by Paweł Polak and Kamil Trombik).

Recenzja książki: K. Chamcham, J. Silk, J.D. Barrow, S. Saunders (red.), The Philosophy of Cosmology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2017, ss. XII + 514.

Różne rocznice skłaniają do historycznych refleksji. Wprawdzie czterdzieści lat od jakiegoś wydarzenia nie zwykło się specjalnie świętować, ale w przypadku naukowego czasopisma jest to już na tyle długi okres, że warto mu poświęcić chwilę zamyślenia.

Our present knowledge in the field of dynamical systems, information theory, probability theory and other similar domains indicates that the human brain is a complex dynamical system working in a strong chaotic regime in which random processes play important roles. In this environment our mental life develops. To choose a logically ordered sequence from a random or almost random stream of thoughts is a difficult and energy consuming task. The only domain in which we are able to do this with a full success is mathematics. Leibniz’s life ambition was to extend this success, with the help of what he called characteristica universalis, to other areas of human activity. The belief that this is possible lies at the basis of Leibniz’s rationalist system. Reasoning within his system, Leibniz claimed that also fundamental laws of physics can be deduced from the “first principles”. Just as linguistic or conceptual units are at the basis of the charactersistica universalis, his monads are responsible for physical activity of material bodies. When this rationalistic strategy is applied to the philosophy of space and time, it leads to their radically relational conception. Leibniz’s rationalistic approach to philosophy and science arouses out sympathy but it was Newton’s mathematical-empirical method that turned out to be effective in human endeavour to understand the functioning of the physical world. Successes of the Newtonian method compel us to revise our concept of rationality.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.26333/sts.xxxii2.06 MICHAEL HELLER SYNTAX–SEMANTICS INTERACTION IN MATHEMATICS SU M M A R Y: Mathematical tools of category theory are employed to study the syntax-semantics problem in the philosophy of mathematics. Every category has its internal logic, and if this logic is sufficiently rich, a given category provides semantics for a certain formal theory and, vice versa, for each (suitably defined) formal theory one can construct a category, providing a semantics for it. There exists a pair of adjoint functors, Lang and Syn, between a category (belonging to a certain class of categories) and a category of theories. These functors describe, in a formal way, mutual dependencies between the syntactical structure of a formal theory and the internal logic of its semantics. Bell’s program to regard the world of topoi as the univers de discoursof mathematics and as a tool of its local interpretation, is extended to a collection of categories and all functors between them, called “categorical field”. This informal idea serves to study the interaction between syntax and semantics of mathematical theories, in an analogy to functors Lang and Syn. With the help of these concepts, the role of Gödel-like limitations in the categorical field is briefly discussed. Some suggestions are made concerning the syntax-semantics interaction as far as physical theories are concerned. Michael Heller Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies The Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow Faculty of Philosophy ORCID: 0000-0003-1462-6808

Recenzja książki: John D. Barrow, Książka o niczym, tł. Łukasz Lamża, Copernicus Center Press, Kraków 2015, ss. 460.

Recenzja książki: Bartosz Brożek, Mateusz Hohol, Umysł matematyczny, Copernicus Center Press, Kraków 2014, s. 280.

Recenzja książki: Bogdan Dembiński, Późny Platon i Stara Akademia, Wydawnictwo Marek Derewecki, Kęty 2010, ss. 252.

Even a preliminary review of philosophical works left by Archbishop Joseph Życiński reveals that he had a clearly outlined philosophical program. Unfortunately, his premature death has not allowed him to fully implement it. His early fascination with science resulted in his original approach to philosophy of science. Rational methods employed by science turned his attention to rationality as an ontological property of the world. This, in turn, led him to an idea of a renewal of metaphysics (although he never used this expression). New style of metaphysics should consist in maintaining traditional 'big questions of philosophy' but treating them with more extensive help of analytic method. This approach should also elaborate an analysis of mutual relations between various philosophical systems. Życiński believed that Whitehead's style of doing philosophy could provide an inspiration to this kind of renewed metaphysics. After becoming a bishop his interests turned to more practical issues related to the contemporary increase of irrationality. He extensively wrote against postmodernism and religious fundamentalism, especially as opposing biological theory of evolution.

Humean doctrine on causality is well known. Since all our knowledge comes from experience, we are able to know that “B follows A” (B propter A) but not that “B is caused by A” (B propter A). All the rest comes from our mental habits. If we limit ourselves only to sensual experience, nothing more can be claimed on causality. However, such a strategy is very far away from what is done in physics. We cannot forget about mathematical structures physics employs for modeling the world. And there are mathematical structures that model what is transparent for sensual perceptions but what is essential for causal interaction. This is also true as far as the Newtonian physics was concerned but to see this more sophisticated philosophy of physics is needed than that Hume had at his disposal. In contemporary physics, causal interactions, as modeled by mathematics, can be drastically different from our everyday imaginations. For instance, causally related events can be space-like separated.

The paper can be regarded as a short and informal introduction to noncommutative calculi of probability. The standard theory of probability is reformulated in the algebraic language. In this form it is readily generalized to that its version which is virtually present in quantum mechanics, and then generalized to the so-called free theory of probability. Noncommutative theory of probability is a pair (M, φ) where M is a von Neumann algebra, and φ a normal state on M which plays the role of a noncommutative probability measure. In the standard (commutative) theory of probability, there is, in principle, one mathematically interesting probability measure, namely the Lebesgue measure, whereas in the noncommutative theories there are many nonequivalent probability measures. Philosophical implications of this fact are briefly discussed.

We analyse a manuscript, preserved in the Archives of the Polish Academy of Science and the Polish Academy of Science and Art in Cracow, containing Joachim Metallmann’s notes aimed at composing a project of a textbook or a series of lectures concerning philosophy of nature. He understood philosophy of nature as a sort of ontology and epistemology of nature whose starting point should be provided by the natural sciences.

Short recollections of an author who with his own eyes witnessed the development of cosmology from purely theoretical speculations to the mature experimental science.

There are two extremities in contemporary discussions on the role of random events in the evolution of the Universe: one extremity consists in reducing the evolution to a blind game of random events, the other extremity in seeing everywhere traces of the 'intelligent design'. Both these doctrines are based on misunderstandings. It is argued that casual or random events are not a 'foreign body' in the network of physical laws, but rather its indispensable element without which the laws of physics would be ineffective.

Recenzja książki: Jerzy Dadaczyński, Bernard Bolzano i idea logicyzmu, Rozprawy OBI, OBI — Kraków, Biblos — Tarnów 2006, s. 441.

Tekst przemówienia został wydrukowany w Tygodniku Powszechnym 14 (3065), 6 kwietnia 2008.

Reprint form .

Recenzja książki: Tomasz F. Bigaj, Non-Locality and Possible Worlds. A Counterfactual Perspective on Quantum Entanglement, Ontos Verlag, Frankfurt — Paris — Ebikon — Lancaster — New Brunswick, 2006, s. 294.

Recenzja książki: Dominique Lambert, L’itinéraire spirituel de Gerges Lemaître, Lessius, Bruxelles 2007, s. 223.

Recenzja książki: Gordon McCabe, The Structure and Interpretation of the Standard Model, Elsevier, Amsterdam — Oxford, etc. 2007, ss. XI+251.

Leibniz's idea of creation is best epitomized by a note written by him on the margin of his work entitled 'Dialogus'. The note reads:'When God thinks things through and calculates, the world is made'. Simple calculations are almost mechanical. The true mathematical thinking begins when one is confronted with a problem that has to be solved, when starting from the known mathematical structure one has to construct a new structure, to comprehend its intricacies, the ways of its functioning, and its connections with other mathematical structures. And when one successfully applies the new mathematical structure to a physical theory, the new world is made. This was Leibniz's experience when he was discovering calculus and tried to apply it to mechanical problems. Leibniz's doctrine that our world is the best of all possible words is often ridiculed, but this attitude is the result of a very superficial reading of Leibniz's texts. In fact, God's calculations to choose the best possible world are similar to solving the variational problem in mathematics. Leibniz claims that in mathematical reasoning if there is neither 'maximum' nor 'minimum' nothing can happen. Similarly, if there were no world better that other possible worlds, God's wisdom would have not been able to create anything. Some consequences of this doctrine, concerning the nature of space, time and causality, are also considered.

The paper discusses the idea of quantum creation of the universe. After a few remarks concerning inflationary models and Tryon's idea of the world's origin as a fluctuation in the preexisting vacuum, the Hartle-Hawking quantum creation model is presented. Its structure and assumptions are discussed, and interpretative difficulties related to the mechanism of 'quantum creation' pointed out.The paper discusses the idea of quantum creation of the universe. After a few remarks concerning inflationary models and Tryon's idea of the world's origin as a fluctuation in the preexisting vacuum, the Hartle-Hawking quantum creation model is presented. Its structure and assumptions are discussed, and interpretative difficulties related to the mechanism of 'quantum creation' pointed out.

Recenzja książki: Hans Küng, Der Anfang aller Dinge. Naturwissenschaft und Religion, Piper, München-Zurich, 2005, ss. 247.

Recenzja książki: Hans–Dieter Mutschler, Wprowadzenie do filozofii przyrody, przekład: J. Bremer, Seria: Mysl Filozoficzna, WAM, Kraków 2005, ss. 238.

Philosophy can become a way of living. Sometimes as a purpose, sometimes as a kind of passion. Like every passion, it requires devotion. It requires time - for thinking, reading, learning, discussing... In this paper some remarks about making philosophy a way of living are sketched.

Recenzja książki: Stephen M. Barr, Fizyka współczesna a wiara w Boga, przekład: A. Molek, Techtra, Warszawa 2006, ss. 340.

Samodzielność finansowa jest rozpatrywana jako podstawowy instrument samorządności. Zagadnienie potraktowano w ujęciu dynamicznym oraz strukturalnym. Celem badań była ocena zmian stopnia samodzielności finansowej jednostek samorządu terytorialnego. Najwyższy jej poziom występuje w miastach na prawach powiatu, najniższy natomiast w województwach samorządowych oraz powiatach. W gminach jest on przeciętny, ale są one wyraźnie pod tym względem zróżnicowane. Gminy miejskie oraz te zlokalizowane wokół dużych miast charakteryzują się znacznie wyższym stopniem samodzielności finansowej od gmin wiejskich, które są oddalone od ośrodków miejskich.

Recenzja książki: T. Obolevitch, Problematyczny konkordyzm — Wiara a wiedza w myśli Włodimierza S. Sołowjowa i Siemiona L. Franka, Rozrawy OBI, OBI — Kraków, Biblos — Tarnów, 2006, ss. 360

After briefly reviewing classical and quantum aspects of probability, basic concepts of the noncommutative calculus of probability (called also free calculus of probability) and its possible application to model the fundamental level of physics are presented. It is shown that the pair (M, *), where M is a (noncommutative) von Neumann algebra, and a state on it, is both a dynamical object and a probabilistic object. In this way, dynamics and probability can be unified in noncommutative geometry. Some philosophical consequences of such an approach are indicated.

Gospodarka oparta na wiedzy, new economy to pojęcia, które w kontekście zmian zachodzących w ciągu kilkunastu ostatnich lat w światowej gospodarce nabierają wyjątkowego znaczenia. Obecnie to wiedza jako czwarty czynnik produkcji stanowi podstawowe źródło kreowania rozwoju gospodarczego w najbardziej rozwiniętych krajach świata. Badania przeprowadzone w pracy pokazały, że nakłady na badania i rozwój w Polsce w latach 1994–-2003 kształtowały się na znacznie niższym poziomie niż w wielu innych krajach europejskich. Co więcej, ich struktura także nie jest adekwatna do potrzeb nowoczesnej gospodarki opartej na wiedzy.

Einstein's first cosmological work, published in 1917, marked the beginning of relativistic cosmology, but it was well founded on earlier questions concerning the world as a whole. The paper presents three such topics: the Olbers paradox, the Seeliger paradox, and speculations concerning cosmological consequences of thermodynamics together with some of their repercussions in relativistic cosmology.

Recenzja książki: Krzysztof Wójtowicz, Spór o istnienie w matematyce, Wyd. Naukowe Semper, Warszawa 2003, ss. 506.Recenzja książki: Krzysztof Wójtowicz, Spór o istnienie w matematyce, Wyd. Naukowe Semper, Warszawa 2003, ss. 506.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th century, Wladyslaw Heinrich introduced a new style of philosophizing in the Cracow rather traditional philosophical milieu. His way of presenting philosophical ideas in a strict contact with empirical sciences arose great interest and found several talented followers. In the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow the manuscript is preserved bearing the title 'Theory of Cognition'; it was written by Heinrich in 1912. The author presents and critically assesses his 'philosophy of nature' as it can be reconstructed from the above mentioned manuscript.

Recenzja książki: William R. Shea, Designing Experiments and Games of Chance — The Unconvecional Science of Blaise Pascal, Science History Publication / USA, Watson Publishing International, Canton MA, 2003, ss. XII 4- 354.

Recenzja książki: Paweł Polak, ”Byłem Pana przeciwnikiem [profesorze Einstein]...”. Relatywistyczna rewolucja naukowa z perspektywy środowiska naukowo-filozoficznego przedwojennego Lwowa, Copernicus Center Press, Kraków 2012, ss. 463.

Recenzja książki: Roman Marcin Olejnik, Matematyczna teoria miary a metodologiczne analizy procedur pomiarowych, Rozprawy OBI, OBI – Kraków, Biblos – Tarnów, 2011, ss. 253.