The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

The article deals with the issue of illness and suffering in Carmelite sermons of the 17th–18th centuries. The question of the origin of suffering is considered along with the role of God’s mercy and justice in the preaching discourse about the rightness and purposefulness of suffering of the human being. In addition, an analysis of the views of preachers about topics related to passing away and the attitude they advocate in the face of death is included.

The death of a person, particularly my own death, is the most momentous occasion that happens in a lifetime. It seems to be an inevitable end of any possible experience, ceasing any relationship, the end of memories and hopes. It evokes various reactions in the living, just to mention some as: fascination, fear, stress, consent, willingness to familiarization. Each of them may be analysed, while each one shows also the death in a different aspect. In the proposed article, the author indicates another reaction - that is experiencing anxiety. It appears that this is the key experience, both when I am thinking about it as something that may afflict me at any moment, as well as when I become aware that there is a possibility of exit of the loved ones or just a popular person. Some texts by Joseph Ratzinger have inspired me to carry out such analyses.

In the present article, the author attempts to solve the paradox hidden in the declaration pronounced by Bogusław Wolniewicz who referred to himself as a ‘Non-Confessional Roman Catholic.’ First, the author analyses (1) the way Wolniewicz understood the sources of religion, and then, (2) how he defined the minimum of Christianity. (3) The author investigates whether it is possible to reconcile his acceptance of euthanasia with the teaching of the Church, and finally, (4) the author focuses on his evangelical aesthetics. By way of conclusion the study traces on similarities between the tychistic rationalism and Christianity.

The author analyses problems of disease, dying, and death addressed in a play by Margaret Edson entitled Wit. Special attention is paid to the structure of meta-theatre and the function of wit in the play. The author investigates limitations of reason in the approach adopted by the doctors who take care of Vivian Bearing, and who subject her to an excruciating experiment in order to achieve a potential research success. She also discusses the protagonist’s attitude to literary works, dealing with her own disease, to other people and to God. This offers an opportunity to ruminate on the exact meaning of irretrievable loss involved in suffering. She also concentrates on the attitude of the nurse who – thanks to her emotional intelligence and empathy – accompanies Vivian on her way to death.

ABSTRACT:

The aim of the work is to determine the exact place and date of Kazimierz Stronczyński’s birth and death. An analysis of documents reveals that he was born on 24th July 1809 in Piotrków Trybunalski and died on 10th November 1896 in the same town.

SUMMARY:

Kazimierz Stronczyński was one of the greatest 19th century Polish numismatist, who is sometimes called the father of Polish medieval numismatics. Even though his life, career and works are very well known, in works devoted to Kazimierz Stronczyński’s life we can find several different dates and places of his birth and several different dates of his death. The following text, based on original documents, explains exactly when and where Kazimierz Stronczyński was born and died.

Moje rozważania dotyczą jednego z podstawowych tematów egzystencjalnych. Śmierć jest przynależna ludzkiej kondycji, ale w kulturze Zachodu pozostawia się na nią coraz mniej miejsca. Można to interpretować jako rezultat tego, co Paul Tillich nazywał utratą „egzystencjalistycznego punktu widzenia”, rezultat wzmocniony przez rozwój kapitalizmu i zwycięstwo mieszczaństwa. Kiedyś o śmierci mówiło się otwarcie, istniały rytuały jej uszanowania, przejścia, kontaktowania się z nią i zachowania się po niej. Dziś śmierć stała się tematem nieprzyzwoitym, niewymawialnym. Efektem tego jest, że tak umierający człowiek, jak i osoba w żałobie nie mają o tym z kim porozmawiać. Ten proces wypierania śmierci jest długotrwały. Jego wczesne przejawy odnotowywał m.in. Walter Benjamin (w świecie jego bogatych krewnych nikt nie umierał, wszyscy byli nieśmiertelni, umierało się daleko, w sanatoriach). Dziś ludzie pytają psychologów, czy to normalne, że czują smutek po śmierci bliskich. Jednym ze sposobów przywrócenia śmierci miejsca w naszym doświadczeniu jest snucie o niej opowieści.

The window is a recurring image in the imaginarium and the art of Tadeusz Kantor. Fixed in his memory at an early age, it resurfaced in the spectacle Wielopole, Wielopole (1980) as a plain object "of the reality of the lowest kind", and in the 'cricotage' A Very Short Lesson (1988) as a quasi stage prop charged with metaphysical meaning. The window motif is also a persistent feature of his graphic art. Most notably, it appears in the drawing Man and window (1971), a picture for the Dead Class (Window) from 1983, an autothematic cycle of paintings You cannot look inside through the window with impunity (1988-1990), and Kantor's last dated drawing of pigeons being watched through a window. Kantor's fascination with the window as an objet d'art can be explained by his philosophical aesthetics (especially the use of objects as markers of the 'spaces' of the stage action). This article analyzes the image of the window as a 'site' of special significance in Kantor's art (an object that encapsulates the antynomy of inside/outside, or a claustrophobic incarceration/a barrier to entry) in the context of Hans-Ulrich Gumbrecht's theory of latency (i.e. the inability of throwing off the past, the suspension of time symbolized by artistic constructs of imprisonment).

Artykuł składa się z części krytycznej oraz pozytywnej. Część krytyczna stanowi polemikę z dwoma najbardziej rozpowszechnionymi uzasadnieniami na rzecz utożsamienia całkowitej niewydolności mózgu (tzw. śmierci mózgowej) ze śmiercią człowieka. Zgodnie z jednym z nich, śmierć ma miejsce wtedy, gdy dochodzi do somatycznej dezintegracji organizmu. Natomiast drugie uzasadnienie, zaproponowane w 2008 r. przez President’s Council on Bioethics, utożsamia śmierć z utratą zdolności do samozachowania. W części zawierającej pozytywną argumentację autor przedstawia alternatywną koncepcję, według której śmierć, w znaczeniu, jakie jest istotne z perspektywy praktyki medycznej, jest tożsama z nieodwracalną utratą cech stanowiących o tym, że dana istota posiada status moralny. Nowa koncepcja pozwala utożsamić stan całkowitej niewydolności mózgu ze śmiercią człowieka oraz daje podstawę do opracowania bardziej precyzyjnych medycznych kryteriów śmierci.

In France, as well as in other countries of the French language, the relationship between the Bible and literature mirrors the dilemma facing the European culture, a culture founded on the Greek and Roman civilization, when it was becoming Christianized. The Christians in the French speaking Europe confront the problem of 'double-fidelity': either to the Bible as the Truth, or to the Greek and Roman culture representing Art. Two trends can be observed. Some would try to prove the artistic superiority of the Bible over pagan literature. Others would attempt to show that even in that kind of non-Christian literature it is possible to observe the presence of supernatural truth. The dilemma abates and loses its importance starting with the XVIII century when literature as such emancipates and becomes an autonomous reality of esthetic character.

Unsurprisingly, in the Middle Ages, the Bible constitutes the crucial source of inspiration for French literature. Authors compose paraphrases and long poems based on Biblical motifs. There appear mystery plays, with their performance often spread over a number of days. In the XVI century, both Catholics and Protestants produce a number of translations of the Holy Scriptures. There appear poetic pa- raphrases of psalms, and also extensive epic poems adopting various Biblical threads. In the XVII century, the genre of poetic meditation appears in addition to the genres already mentioned. On the other hand, the kind of drama based on Biblical themes is in retreat; it finds refuge in the academic theater, when it becomes superseded by works of the classicist character. In the beginning of the XVIII cen- tury, some scholars try to demonstrate the religious character of the works of Antiquity.

Together with the rationalism of Enlightenment, there appears a new attitude towards the Bible. In Voltaire, the Bible is an object of attacks and of ridicule. In Rousseau, it is a paradigm for the kind of discourse that is supposed to take its place. In Romanticism, we can observe the influence of the Bible over both Christian and non-Christian writers. In the works of the latter, the poet becomes a mystagogue interpreting the old myths. The Bible influences poetry; it serves as a stylistic and esthetic model, as a source of themes and motifs, and also as a point of reference for poems in the philosophy of history with the pantheistic or else progressist and utopic message, and for non-Christian apocrypha. In Symbolism, the Bible becomes completely despoiled of its religious value. It is being used in entirely atheistic and subjectivist ways. By the end of the XIX century, and in the first half of the XX century, we observe in France some kind of Catholic renaissance. The Bible is present in the prophetic works of Le'on Bloy. It becomes the object of the exegetical work of Claudel, of the poetry of Jouve and P. Emmanuel. In non-Christian writers in loses its function of the book of faith and becomes a book of myths.