Ewa Nowak

The volume brings together contributions in the spirit embodied by Marek J. Siemek and Jakub Kloc-Konkołowicz, two Warsaw philosophers truly devoted to Classical German Philosophy. They were simultaneously in a relationship between thinker and adept, and thinker and thinker. They both taught philosophy, with a strong emphasis on classic German philosophy, at Warsaw University. Under the theme “Ethical Theory in Classic German Philosophy Then and Now,” students and companions continue their discussions with both of them.

This short review paper focuses on Georg Lind's approach to the moral competence as described in his recent book How To Teach Morality? Promoting Deliberation and Discussion, Reducing Violence and Deceit. Berlin: Logos Verlag. Lind's dual-aspect approach is discussed as one of the leading conceptions of personal moral competence and moral cognition today. Intuitionist approach and "embodied cognition" are not enough, the author claims. As participants of social contexts and institutions, we need manifest, discoursively articulated reflection, self-reflection, and conversation. However, Lind's hypothesis of two leyers of morality, i.e., a conscious and unconscious finds evidence in cognitive sciences too. Lind's approach is not as reductionist as that of radical cognitivists. On the contrary, it combines all relevant aspects of moral cognition discussed right now, worldwide – when cognitive sciences flourish and the challenges for moral mind grow up dramatically.

In his philosophical opus, Marek J. Siemek not only revisited Hegelian two-stage developmental model of the law. He also created his own legal philosophy which is rooted in the tragic conflict of Greek Sittlichkeit. Siemek, however, clearly demonstrates how can an abstract legal system achieve its ethical (sittliche) qualities at modern times, as being mediated by the structures of reciprocal recognition. Siemek’s unique proposal belongs to the neo-positivist and, at the same time, to the post-positivist approaches of the law. The author focuses on the intellectual potential of Siemek’s legal and social thinking as well as on his concept of philosophizing in the era of permanent crisis we experience again today.

The reprinted paper refers to Georg Lind and his colleagues’ MCT-based FORM study conducted at several European universities in 1977-1983, including Polish ones. After a short phase of democratization, in 1981 Polish society suddenly faced martial law. That experience had an impact on Polish students moral-, discursiveand democratic competences, as measured by MCT. When Ewa Nowak started her Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supported research stay under the supervision of Professor Georg Lind, they were inspired to revisit and discuss the puzzling Polish research findings of 1981/3. According to their main hypothesis, martial law restricted free speech at universities, and free speech is a key facilitator of the development of moral and democratic competence. In 2018, after a decade of collaborative research on moral and democratic competence, Lind, Nowak and colleagues started a new international MCT study in several Central- and East European countries to examine the impact of the contemporary constitutional crisis in Poland on students’ moral and democratic competencies. In 2018/9 the 40th anniversary of the Moral Competence Test and Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion will be celebrated. We would like to provide you with the most recent research findings soon.

Nowadays, healthcare and medical education is qualified by test scores and competitiveness. This article considers its quality in terms of improving the moral competence of future healthcare providers. Objectives. Examining the relevance of moral competence in medico-clinical decision-making despite the paradigm shift and discussing the up-to-date findings on healthcare students. Design and method. N=115 participants were surveyed with a standard Moral Competence Test to examine how their moral competence development was affected by the learning environment and further important factors. Results. The sample allowed the identification of a regress in moral competence during students’ pre-clinical curriculum, and progress during their clinical curriculum. A gender-related bias, a segmentation effect, and a pronunciation effect were noticed. Explanations. Scholarly literature usually reports a linear decrease of medical students’ C-scores resulting from, e.g., competitive trends in education. We identified such trends in terms of gender-specific competitive tactics. Religious and ethical affiliations were discussed to explain the unexpected gender bias and the related segmentation and pronunciation effects. The findings can be regarded as predictive for similar developments in educational institutions regardless of cultural contexts as the sample examined in this article represents medical education in a country facing a transition from a non-competitive to competitive tertiary education model, and between presecular and monocultural to secular and pluralist social ethics.

Im Folgenden soll der Entwicklung des Begriffs der Anerkennung in der klassischen deutschen Philosophie nachgegangen werden. Dabei sind zwei Thesen zu formulieren: Erstens, fand der Gedanke der Anerkennung nicht erst bei Fichte und Hegel seinen Ausdruck, sondern wurde schon früher im Rahmen der Spätphilosophie Immanuel Kants entwickelt. Zweitens, zeigt sich zwischen diesen drei Auslegungen eine erstaunliche Kontinuität. Der Frage, worin diese näher besteht, möchte ich mich im Besonderen zuwenden.

Artykuł rewiduje stworzoną przez Roberta L. Selmana teorię przyjmowania perspektyw przez umysł w kontekście koresponujących z nią tradycji, takich, jak fenomenologia i filozofia umysłu. Uwzględnia implikacje owej teorii w etyce. Przyjmowanie perspektyw to jedna ze zdolności poznawczych, rozwijających się w toku ontogenezy. Autorka broni koncepcji “autonomicznej współzależności”, która pozwala Selmanowi odróżnić interaktywność ludzkiego od zdolności formułowania niezależnych sądów przez podmiot moralny. Elastyczny, interaktywny umysł nie oznacza otwarcia na ekspansję innych; z kolei jego izolacja w formacie „egoligicznym” nie chroniłaby przed taką ekspansją. Przeciwnie: jakość relacji międzyludzkich zależy od tego, jak postrzegamy i rozumiemy innych, uwzględniając owo intersubiektywne poznanie we własnym zachowaniu.

The review addresses the recent monograph Social and Institutional Dimensions of Axel Honneth’s Theory of Recognition by Marcin J. Byczyński. Jakub Kloc-Konkołowicz was the external reviewer of the doctoral dissertation which gave rise to the book. The essential contributions of this book are discussed against the background of former and pioneering recognition research from the Polish context, including this by Jakub Kloc-Konkołowicz and Marek Siemek. In addition, they are supplemented by Hegel’s three rights of freedom and further vital themes. This provides the following review with a contextual ‘surplus.’ Byczyński’s monograph considerably advances an important Warsaw-Poznań research strand and is notable for its originality among the books devoted to Honneth’s Theory of Recognition.

In this chapter I focus on the relevance of moral emotions in our „perception of something as moral issue” as well as „in the application of moral norms, but also in their grounding…”1. Referring to the statements of philosophy (from Aristotle to Habermas) and developmental psychology (from Piaget to Ekman) I highlight that affectivity needs to be already promoted in the early education. There is a lack of the professional emotional education in the Polish schooling system. Finally I propose a simple training for both teachers and students, in order to strength their skills of understanding facial emotional expressions of others. Mutual respect, trust, and better communicational relationships in the classroom will follow, and, last but not least, the learning processes in pupils will be facilitated too.

Aggression in juveniles may increase even in modern societies and manifest itself in countless forms of violence, including harming, persecution, abuse, pressure, hostility, etc. A large number of studies on the evolutionary, psychological and sociological origins of aggression are available. However, we lack cognitive remedies to counter developing tendencies towards aggressive behavior. Georg Lind's book How to teach morality. Promoting deliberation and discussion, reducing violence and deceit offers such a remedy based on his long–term experiences with dilemma discussion training. This paper draws on Lind's conception of strengthening socio-moral competence as the most efficient remedy against aggression. It also revisits the ongoing theories of empathy. Finally, it revises the pilot research study that we conducted 2010 among Polish and Swiss juveniles7. That study focused on the following hypotheses: Lind's method of dilemma discussion can train and retrain moral competence in uveniles that show a slight inclination towards aggressive behavior. Strong moral competence may prevent further maldevelopment, in particular interpersonal and collective violence.

Hospitality is „not a concept which lends itself to objective knowledge,” Jacques Derrida assumes. His assumption „provokes” and challenges European hospitability, not only in the Mediterranean area in which „welcoming” and „ingratiating” (in Derrida’s terms) forms of human conduct met together thousands years ago, and an asylum seeker found hospitia. What is hospitality and why philosophize about it today? The paper examines hospitality’s pragmatic, customary, legal and moral aspects in, both, historical and contemporary contexts.