Art in the Postmodern Era examines how artists and intellectuals from Central and Eastern Europe got involved in debating postmodernism and how this postmodern in turn impacted the way of thinking about art in Central Europe. The book starts with a brief survey of 20th-century art and then focuses on the neo-avant-garde and the birth of postmodern art, with its democratization and subsequent shift towards a post-artistic epoch when anything can become art. The book also raises an important issue concerning art in the time of globalization. (Series: Development in Humanities - Vol. 3)

The book puts forward an original proposal of a tri-dimensional structure for gerontology programs embedded in the aims and challenges of public policy towards old age and the elderly. The new architecture of those programs fills in the space between the political promises of the power elites and the social expectations and actual capacities of the state managing the needs of a society characterized by an aging demographic structure.

This book examines the dynamics of artistic creativity that transgresses the boundaries of public art, and it looks into the inventions expressed by the practical activities and academic research focused on contemporary urban spaces. The Contradictions of Urban Art demonstrates how the multilingualism of art and science raises the temperature of discussions concerning the city. It advises that what we call 'city art' should include outdoor events, prose, and poetry. (Series: Development in Humanities - Vol. 5)

Facing otherness in everyday interpersonal relations, making decisions within demanding contexts, living with the plenitude of values - all of these experiences permanently challenge one's moral cognition. Neither a single moral agent nor ethics itself can pretend omniscience when dealing with complex, real world situations. In this book, author Ewa Nowak presents her own research findings to account for the experimental nature of ethics. Nowak questions a popular conviction that declaring values and following norms is a sufficient condition to be moral. She applies Georg Lind's dual-aspect...

The standards of rationality are treated in this book as certain regulators of social life. They are compared to the rudders of the great vessels constituted by social communities. The diversity exhibited by those standards do not only result from the differences of time and space of their implementation, but also from the differences in the sets of ideas put forward by the leading social thinkers accompanied by the different characteristics of their designated audiences. (Series: Development in Humanities - Vol. 7)

This book examines the artistic profession, which can be a challenge to characterize. Various fields of artistic work are coupled with a range of different artistic attitudes, and these, in turn, with a variety of social positions assumed by artists, various historical conditions in which the profession functions, as well as the diverse courses of artistic careers. There are those who say that this profession is not an occupation, but a vocation of an almost mystical nature. Yet, it is still tempting to examine the phenomenon of the artist, at least to the extent that it is possible in light...

Sense, Meaning, and Understanding takes seriously the claim of Herbert Schnadelbach (originally expressed by d'Alembert) that even if we condemn the philosophizing in systems, we are still obliged to philosophize systematically. Thus, the book develops a systematic hermeneutical theory, based on Gadamer, Heidegger, Dithey, and Ricoeur. It analyzes different issues connected with this project which constitutes a new prima philsophia, such as: understanding as the main categories of modern anthropology, the notion and the limits of hermeneutical reason, and the hermeneutical view on ethics and...

The analysis of actual practice of scientific research within contemporary methodology and philosophy of science demonstrates the central role played by models and metaphors. This book puts forward an analysis of the basic reasons for this breakthrough and points to the major consequences that resulted from it, both for scientific practice and for the methodological and philosophical reflection on these practices. (Series: Development in Humanities - Vol. 10)

The Image of the Priest in the Awareness of Polish Youth: A Sociological Study presents the results of empirical research conducted over the last 25 years. The book discusses the following issues: the theology of priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church * the role of the priest as a mediator with God and a counselor for men * the importance of role models * priestly authority * priestly celibacy * young people's religious practices, faith convictions, and their general attitude towards Polish parish priests in religious orders. (Series: Development in Humanities - Vol. 11)

This collection of papers is written in the spirit of what is nowadays called Logical Philosophy. The topics addressed include: scepticism and the criterion of truth, situational semantics, computational aspects of possible worlds semantics and question-answer systems, occurrent beliefs, the logical omniscience paradox, paraconsistency, and models of explanatory procedures.