Jak pogłębić swoją relację z przyrodą podczas następnego spaceru do lasu, a także o tym, czym jest ekohipokryzja, opowiada prof. Dariusz J. Gwiazdowicz.

This article focuses on the original writing strategy of Elfriede Jelinek in the period of her political commitment (around the year 2000) as a form of artistic protest and positioning in the literary field. Particularly important in this context seems to be the question of the aesthetic criteria of committed literature, that is, the way writers use their linguistic capital to create valuable and important literary texts or essayistic discourses.

The purpose of the article is to ask the question of the meaning of art in Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy, taking into account not only the well-known text Reality and Its Shadow, but also texts from the later period of his work. The first part of the article is an interpretation of Reality and Its Shadow in the context of contemporary phenomenological concepts. The second, on the other hand, will be an attempt to show the change in Levinas’ approach to the visual arts based on his statements about Jean-Michel Atlan’s paintings and Sascha Sosno’s sculptures. The third, concluding section, will in turn attempt to describe works of contemporary art that would perhaps elude Levinas’ strict evaluation of art, highlighting the tension between the dimension of ontology and ethics, without falling into banal moralizing and allowing harm to be revealed without, however, leading the viewer to ethical paralysis.

Aesthetic functions of greenery in urban public space are examined using examples of cities in Slovakia, focusing on periods of changes of aesthetic principles. Greenery, tree alleys and public parks notably enter urban public space in the 19th century, with application of contemporary aesthetic principles. During the 20th century, bio-ecological values of vegetation rather than aesthetic functions move to the centre of interest. Today, lack of maintenance and conceptual planning are often reflected in poor aesthetic appeal of greenery.

The concept of civil society does not cease to attract the attention of the media and that of politicians. It is being discussed over and over and viewed from every angle: political, national, social. We can ask ourselves the important question the, what is its influence on architecture and the aesthetics of our immediate surroundings? How can converting the homo sapiens into a citizens change our landscape? If it can, what is so special about architectural and urban design in a civil society which makes it different from those that we have now? Can we describe the aesthetics of a civil society? And finally, what are the relations between being a citizen and architecture, aesthetics and the landscape?

The state of the built environment makes one inclined to ponder how ethics affects the space that is designed and its aesthetic quality. As a consequence, there arise questions concerning the provisions of ethical codes of professional conduct that architects must adhere to on the one hand, while on the other, the practical guidelines for architectural design and planning. In a period when matters of durability (firmitas) and utility (utilitas) have been largely dominated by other branches of design, including the matters of ecology, beauty (venustas) has come to be considered as the most essential constituent attribute of architecture. Selected interpretations of Beauty and its relationship with Good (Vitruvius, 1954; Tatarkiewicz, 1962, 1982) have been presented, including in light of the latest findings of neurobiology and neuroaesthetics (Zeki, 2011, 2019; Qiuling et al., 2018; Ishizu, Tsukiura, Cabeza, 2011). The term appropriateness (Krakowski, 1989) is herein accepted, understood as a notion of intentional, socially conditioned beauty and considered proper to describe the aesthetic standard of the built environment under design. This paper is an attempt at finding practical methods of ensuring aesthetic quality (beauty) in newly designed and redesigned spatial situations. It identifies the field of professional law (the ethical code of conduct for architects), wherein aesthetic matters are largely ignored on the one hand, while on the other it points to the necessity to teach and implement a design process that is tender (Tokarczuk, 2019) and mindful (Dominiczak, 2016) dialogue in a specific understanding of encounters with the Other (the Second), whether it’s an architect, a user or a structure. It notes the proposal of creative aesthetics (Sławińska, 1973) as a potentially possible integral branch of design. Contrary to the professional ethics of architects, which pertains to individuals who practice design and are ethically responsible for their professional conduct (design), the ethic of architecture refers to aesthetic relationships that emerge in architectural situations (Dominiczak, 2016). In this understanding, built structures are personified and seen as entities with their own identities (if the designer wills it) that engage in dialogue with Other entities (Levinas, 1998), which both create and define a given space.

The article presents an analysis of the concept of the art instinct. This is a notion introduced by Denis Dutton in his concept of the evolution of art. The autor analyses the internal coherency of Dutton’s concept and its implications, with investigations in the context of evolutionary biology and biological anthropogenesis. The article’s conclusions are that: (1) the idea of art instinct is incoherent and difficult to uphold in the light of contemporary knowledge of the mechanisms of evolution and the course of anthropogenesis; (2) it is, however, a notion that is convenient and explanatorily efficient, as long as one accepts—among other things—the reservation about the non-teleological course of evolution; (3) the art instinct and the phenomenon of art cannot be explained without referring to social processes.

In The Work of Music and the Problem of Its Identity by Roman Ingarden we are presented with a philosophical theory of the structure of the musical work. The author includes melody, rhythm and harmony among the primary elements of the musical work while dynamics, tempo and colouration (sonoristics) are classified as its secondary elements. The elements designated by the score constitute a schematic prescription for creating a particular work. Still, the scheme also includes numerous gaps and indeterminacies which can be filled in only through performance which makes the work an individualized concretum. However, it is puzzling why the list of the elements of the musical work does not include articulation. In this article I claim that the absence of articulation in the theory of the structure of the musical work indicates its omnipresence, thus the broader we understand the term articulation, the better it penetrates into the remaining elements of the musical work, preserving its distinctiveness at the same time.

W tekście wskazuję na etyczny kontekst twórczości Ryszarda Wagnera. W skrócie sygnalizuję kwestię relacji wartości estetycznych i etycznych. Zaznaczam społeczne zaangażowanie pism teoretycznych Wagnera, skupiając się na emancypacyjnym charakterze egalitarnych i rewolucyjnych tez. W kolejnym wątku opisuję wpływ myśli Schopenhauera na autora Sztuki i rewolucji. Szczególnie skupiam się na wątku miłości, wyrzeczenia, poświęcenia i zanegowania woli. W ostatniej części odnoszę się do wagnerowskiego antysemityzmu i tzw. pism regeneracyjnych.

The article is a review of te book by Urszula Topolska. The disseration’s methodological approach comprises an examination of response, based on the aesthetics of response and utilising institutional analysis.

The author paints a personal and often critical image of three cities — those, which he is the most familiar with and which are particularly dear and close to him. Despite being familiar with tens of the most renowned cities in the world, the author has selected fully familial examples, which he has had and continues to have personal ties. Throughout their histories, they have been subjected to dramatic events. In terms of spatial creation, they underwent — and continue to undergo-fluid, hybrid, ambivalent and often controversial transformation. They have also been treated implicitly, as subjectively-presented models of cities in general — as well as of their fate and evolution. The author considers the city to be — perhaps — the greatest expression of human culture and civilisation.

This article is to attempt to explain the concept of subtlety, recommended by Karol Irzykowski, one of Poland’s great minds of the early 20th century, to his fellow literary critics as a supreme guide in their work, including the sorting out of a work's historical and cultural contexts. Irzykowskis ‘subtlety’ is a highly complex concept as it reaches out to the cognitive mechanisms of the brain to throw light on and account for the dynamic relationship of consciousness and unconsciousness in the creative process. Conse-quently, subtlety in that sense is not just another analytical tool of literary criticism. It is more like a sophisticated sensor tracing the interfaces of psychology and aesthetics (the ‘chiaroscuro of criticism’). In criticism, when used to its fullest capacity, subtlety would not only take into account the recipient but also the impact (creative impulse) of the critical text.

Many contemporary technical elements (such as railings, light switches, power sockets, security cameras, etc.) have a very different aesthetic from the historical interiors to which they are added. Their placement in historical architectural interiors raises the question of their visibility and their power to disrupt the visual unity of an indoor space. Using logical argumentation and knowledge from the psychology of perception, a phenomenon from the discipline of architecture — the phenomenon of the perception of these elements — was analysed. Logical analysis showed that these additions do not disturb the harmony of the interior and that it does not lose its historical character. The conclusion is that their presence in the field of vision is not a radical interference with the monument.

Artykuł dotyczy kategorii jakości postaciowej (Gestalt) w estetyce Romana Ingardena. W części pierwszej zostały przywołane stanowiska filozofów i estetyków wysuwających własne, na ogół fragmentaryczne, interpretacje tego pojęcia. W części drugiej rozpatrzono określony wariant rozumienia jakości postaciowej – literacką jakość postaciową, realizującą nadto podtyp brzmieniowy. Rozważany literacki wariant jakości postaciowej można do pewnego stopnia utożsamić – w wypadku dzieł sztuki najwyższej rangi – z jakością metafizyczną.