Bartosz Żukowski

"Berkeley’s Doctrine of Existence. A Linguistic Approach" The paper focuses on a linguistic analysis of Berkeley’s doctrine of existence. It has been shown that the traditional, relational-operational interpretation of Berkeley's existential claims must be expanded by adding a predicative element, which requires that they also be interpret as definitional copulas. The standard interpretation of Berkeley’s claims has been indicated as one of the main causes of misinterpretations of his metaphysics. The new, philosophically intriguing use of the verb ‘to be’, combining features of the definitional copula and the auxiliary verb for the passive voice, is also described in this paper.

"Realitas formalis/realitas obiectiva. The Paradox of Descartes’ Representationism" The paper discusses some aspects of the highly original theory of representation, developed by Descartes in his ‘Meditations’, and based on the ontological isomorphism of ideas and their material correlates. In the course of the analysis it is shown that the Cartesian theory involves unavoidable problems with discrimination or correlation of the objects in question, which is connected with the problem of constitutiveness of their modes of existence. Consequently, the conclusion of the paper is that representationism based on the isomorphistic theory of representation turns out to be self-contradictory.

The book is addressed to all readers interested in cognitive science, and especially in research combining a logical analysis with psychological, linguistic and neurobiological approaches. The publication is the result of a collaboration between the Department of Cognitive Science at University of Lodz and the Department of Cognitive Science at Lund University. It is intended to provide a comprehensive presentation of the key research issues undertaken in both Departments, including considerations on meaning, natural language and reasoning, linguistic as well as numerical competence, the theory of decision making, modelling of conceptual representations, cognitive and game theoretic approach to social interactions.