O „konieczności historycznej” pisania nowych podręczników z doktryn politycznych. Rozważania wokół książki Andrzeja Bednarza O ideach politycznych – ich historii i aktualności. Podręcznik akademicki, Kielce 2015, ss. 303

Pretekstem do rozważenia kwestii rudymentarnej, czy warto pisać nowe podręczniki z historii idei, stała się publikacja Andrzeja Bednarza O ideach politycznych – ich historii i aktualności, wydana w Kielcach w 2015 roku. Zacznijmy od rzeczy fundamentalnej, dlaczego stawiam w tytule tezę (jedynie językowo, nie merytorycznie nawiązującą do słynnych słów Karola Marksa) o „konieczności historycznej” pisania nowych podręczników z historii idei? Odpowiedź jest następująca i stanowi jednocześnie tezę rozważań

Liberalism and the chance for global peace. Reflections of Karl Jaspers

The paper touches on the topic of optimism, allowing for a thesis of the peaceful coexistence of states to be proposed. This type of thinking was represented by the German philosopher and psychiatrist Karl Jaspers. Jaspers took the view that philosophy brings about political consequences that need to be observed and examined. He was influenced by Max Weber, from whom he adopted the idea of the salvation of Western heritage, embodied in the spirit of liberalism, freedom and diversity of private life. According to Jaspers, Germans should abandon their desire for military supremacy in favor of the dissemination of such universal ideas as freedom. In the interwar period Jaspers wrote a book about the spiritual situation of his times where he touched on the issue of the outcomes of technological progress for the existential dimension of man, who enjoys freedom on the one hand, and is responsible for himself on the other. He concluded by saying that in the face of such technical developments warfare poses a threat to biological survival and to freedom, since it destroys human self-responsibility. Jaspers noticed the problem of an individual being threatened by alienated social institutions, and as a consequence he proposed the thesis of the depersonalization of individual existence. The totalitarian system Jaspers had experienced encouraged him to revise the theoretical aspects and to develop a competitive, libertarian solution. Jaspers strongly emphasized individualism and the responsibility of individuals whose present influences the future. Jaspers’ ideas may be deemed to be remote from realism, since liberalism is a golden mean, neither preventing international wars nor appeasing political national arenas.The paper touches on the topic of optimism, allowing for a thesis of the peaceful coexistence of states to be proposed. This type of thinking was represented by the German philosopher and psychiatrist Karl Jaspers. Jaspers took the view that philosophy brings about political consequences that need to be observed and examined. He was influenced by Max Weber, from whom he adopted the idea of the salvation of Western heritage, embodied in the spirit of liberalism, freedom and diversity of private life. According to Jaspers, Germans should abandon their desire for military supremacy in favor of the dissemination of such universal ideas as freedom. In the interwar period Jaspers wrote a book about the spiritual situation of his times where he touched on the issue of the outcomes of technological progress for the existential dimension of man, who enjoys freedom on the one hand, and is responsible for himself on the other. He concluded by saying that in the face of such technical developments warfare poses a threat to biological survival and to freedom, since it destroys human self-responsibility. Jaspers noticed the problem of an individual being threatened by alienated social institutions, and as a consequence he proposed the thesis of the depersonalization of individual existence. The totalitarian system Jaspers had experienced encouraged him to revise the theoretical aspects and to develop a competitive, libertarian solution. Jaspers strongly emphasized individualism and the responsibility of individuals whose present influences the future. Jaspers’ ideas may be deemed to be remote from realism, since liberalism is a golden mean, neither preventing international wars nor appeasing political national arenas

Realism : the politics of austerity

The article aims to show political realism not in the deformed framework in which his opponents - political romantics - present it, but as a universal typological category. Pietism in relation to reality forces the realists to postulate a sparse, non-military policy focused on cooperation. At the same time, it demands from its representatives that they avoid involvement beyond their own strengths and seek peaceful coexistence with their opponents in political struggles. The considerations also show the reasons why it is unlawful to bind the imperialism of Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin with political realism

JC Polyomavirus Pooled Seropositivity Prevalence in Healthy Subjects

JC polyomavirus (JCV) causes progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in immunocompromised individuals and has been linked to cancer development. To-date, no information is available about the JCV seroprevalence in the healthy (nondiseased) population or whether this virus is ecologically connected to humans. The aim of this systematic literature review and meta-analysis was to the estimate the overall seroprevalence of JCV in the healthy human population by age, region, and testing method. A meta-analysis conducted on 24 studies revealed a pooled JCV seroprevalence of 60% (95% CI, 55% - 65%) with statistically significant effect size (z = 32.93, p \u3c 0.001). Meta-regression and subgroup analyses with STATA18 showed that age and region had a strong positive predictive value on prevalence (R = .578, R2 = 0.334, F(2,52) = 12.543, p \u3c 0.001) whereas the testing method had no significant effect on prevalence. The theories that grounded this study were the ecological model and the systems theory, which support the study result that JCV appears to be ubiquitous in the human population with JCV being acquired very early in life. The results of the systematic literature review indicated that JCV is transmitted via fecal-oral and respiratory routes within and outside of families. Most infants are infected with JCV by the age of 6 months and JCV seronegativity may not be indicative of a lack of an underlying JCV infection. JCV seropositivity increases with age, which is most probably by viral reactivation due to immune senescence. These findings have positive social change implications with JCV treatment, screening, and vaccine development

Poland and the Problem of Smog – Political Action Versus Social Expectations

The aim of the article is to draw the European readers’ attention to the problem that the citizens of Poland must face every year during the heating season – the danger of smog. The article is divided into several parts. The first one shows the scale of the problem – the enormous danger to human health posed by breathing bad quality air. The second part discusses the cause of the lack of serious action taken by the Polish government, namely the power of the mining lobby. The third part focuses on those aspects of contemporary reality that do not allow politicians to fully manipulate society (in the context of the smog problem). The fourth part contains a closer look at the grassroots social initiatives of the citizens; it describes the activities of Poles who try to counter smog. The last part includes the conclusions as well as some ideas on how to help Poles breathe better quality air

Emancipation Τhrough Εducation: The Galician Women's Rights Activist Anastazja Dzieduszycka (1842-1890)

Zeitgenössische neue Ansätze zur politischen Geschichte berücksichtigen - neben den üblichen Fragen des Staates und seiner Repräsentanten - auch die Frage der Frauengeschichte und der Geschlechtergeschichte. Heute wird Politik, wie Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger es formuliert, auch als der Handlungsraum verstanden, in dem kollektiv verbindliche Entscheidungen getroffen und umgesetzt werden. Historisch gesehen hatte das Politische bestimmte Grenzen und wurde auf unterschiedliche Weise gestaltet. Ein zeitgemäßes, breiteres Verständnis des Politischen ermöglicht die Einbeziehung gesellschaftlicher Gruppen, die in der öffentlichen Kommunikationssphäre nur begrenzte Möglichkeiten zum politischen Handeln hatten. In diesem Zusammenhang ist es notwendig, wie Ute Frevert postuliert, vergangene Aktivitäten von Frauen, die als "unpolitisch" galten, neu zu interpretieren, da die Berücksichtigung der Dynamik und der historischen Variabilität des kommunikativen politischen Raums es ermöglicht, das Engagement von Frauen in der öffentlichen Sphäre in Betracht zu ziehen. Das Hauptziel der Analyse ist die Rekonstruktion eines bisher unerkannten Frauenaktivismus (der in der historischen Forschung immer noch eine Randerscheinung ist) am Beispiel von Anastasia Dzieduszycka, einer galicischen Aktivistin für die Bildung und Emanzipation der Frauen. Dieses Hauptziel ist mit Nebenzielen verknüpft. Eines davon ist die Darstellung der Ursprünge der Emanzipationsbewegung in Galicien. Dzieduszycka ist eine der ersten emanzipierten Frauen, die viele Anstrengungen unternommen hat, um die bisherigen Muster, Stereotypen, sozialen Barrieren und die bestehende Kultur zu durchbrechen. Sie machte den ersten wichtigen Schritt zu einem modernen Frauendenken. Die Aufdeckung ihres bahnbrechenden Denkens und Handelns in dieser Hinsicht ist eines der wichtigsten Ziele der Analyse. Die Schlussfolgerungen lauten unter anderem: Dzieduszyckas Pionierarbeit geht von der Ausbildung eines Kaders von Lehrerinnen in den zu diesem Zweck neu eingerichteten Instituten ("Vorbereitungsschulen") aus. Auf diese Weise wurden die jungen Frauen zu der Unabhängigkeit erzogen, die die durch die Krise veränderte soziale und wirtschaftliche Lage, in der sie sich befanden, erforderte. Das Ziel war jedoch die Emanzipation der Frauen.Contemporary new approaches to political history take into account – in addition to typical issues related to the state and its representatives – the history of women and the history of gender. Currently, as Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger puts it, the notion of politics is also understood as the space of action within which decisions binding for the collective are made and implemented. Historically, what was political had definite boundaries and was shaped in different ways. The contemporary, broader understanding of the political makes it possible to include in the sphere of public communication also those social groups that had limited opportunities for political action. Therefore, as postulated by Ute Frevert, the previous activities of women who were considered “apolitical” should be reinterpreted, because taking into account the dynamics and historical volatility of the communication space will allow for examining women’s involvement in the public sphere. The main aim of the considerations is to reconstruct women's activity (still constituting the margin of historical research) on the example of the work of Anastazja Dzieduszycka, a Galician activist for the education and emancipation of women. This primary objective is related to secondary ones. One of them is to show the seeds of the emancipation movement in Galicia. Dzieduszycka is one of the first suffragists who made a lot of effort to break the existing schemes, stereotypes, social barriers and existing culture. She made the first important step towards modern thinking about women. Unveiling her precursory thinking and actions in this area is one of the most important goals of the analysis. My research includes the following conclusions: Dzieduszycka’s pioneering activity proceeds from the starting point, which is the education of teaching staff in new institutes established for this purpose. Thanks to this, young women were raised to independence, which was forced by the hard social and economic situation in which they found themselves. The final goal, however, was the emancipation of women