Floriana Znanieckiego rozumienie nauk społecznych możemy wpisać w szerszy projekt filozoficzny, który nazywam onto-epistemologią społeczną. Główny cel artykułu to rekonstrukcja filozofii Znanieckiego jako wysiłku badawczego nakierowanego na zbudowanie podstawy nauk społecznych w sensie zakładanym przez XIX-wieczny fundamentalizm, to jest jako poszukiwane podstaw uprawomocnienia nauk. Choć cel ten nie był oryginalny to oryginalne i owocne były środki i sposoby ich stosowania w podejściu Znanieckiego. Onto-epistemologiczne podejście Znanieckiego unika Kartezjańskich i Kantowskich dualizmów, a przede wszystkim unika mono-subiektywnego rozumienia podmiotu. Stopniowanie realności w odniesieniu do przedmiotu nauk społecznych, obiektywność jako przynależność do wielu systemów przedmiotowych to podstawowe wynalazki Znanieckiego dokonane na tej drodze. Główna przesłanka onto-epistemologii może być wyrażona następująco: Ludzkie „poznaję” czy „wiem” jest ufundowane w ludzkim (społecznym) „jestem”, a to z kolei istnienie zawiera niezbywalny moment epistemiczny.

The main task of the paper is to analyse pope Benedict XVI’s social teaching on poverty as introduced in the encyclical letter ‘Caritas in veritate’. While the methodo-logical language of the papal teaching is anthropological and theological in character, the document uses its own interdisciplinary approach that is characteristic of Catholic Social Teaching. Consequently such a Christian reflection on social issues like pover-ty, inequality, marginalisation and globalisation can be compared with other social fin-dings. In the global context the pope identifies growing economic inequalities but also the advantages of cooperation within the global economy. The analysis also discerns the theories of social development that are convergent with the papal social diagnosis. Finally, comparing the pope’s social teaching with some studies in economy, sociolo-gy and political sciences, the author of the paper examines the possibility to construct an interdisciplinary link between Catholic Social Teaching and other social sciences.

The subject matter dealt with in this article fits into a broader discussion on sovereignty and patriotism, which has intensified since Poland’s accession to the European Union. It is also associated with the topical issue of patriotic education of children and adolescents, in which the Church engages along with the family and the school (e.g. as part of religion lessons, parochial catechesis, specialist pastoral work). When taking up the subject matter described in the title, the author first focused on whether now, in a changed historical context, speaking about patriotism and patriotic attitudes is still sensible and whether a Christian can (should) be a patriot. When seeking an answer to this question, a reference was made mainly to the Letter of the Polish Episcopate On Christian Patriotism, issued on the 200th anniversary of the first partition of Poland, and to the document of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate prepared by the Council for Social Matters, entitled The Christian Shape of Patriotism. It was against this background that an answer was sought to the question about patriotic content in homilies and catechesis. Homilies delivered by St. John Paul II during his pilgrimages to his homeland were used as a model in this regard. The basic assumptions of the religion teaching syllabus for schools and parochial catechesis, which refer at multiple points to patriotism as a value, emphasising the importance of developing an attitude of respect and love for one’s homeland and its cultural heritage, as well as a motivation to actively participate in social life, were also discussed.

Culture, Literature, Society. Interdisciplinary Character versus Methodology of the Contemporary Theological Research

Summary

Culture, literature and social life are the "living space" of the contemporary man. They can also be "theological loci" (loci theologici), i.e. loci, in which faith can be born, is, or/and disappears. Both Theology and Catholic Social Science, using different methods and in different aspects, investigate these processes and attempt that, through faith, everything which composes everyday life, becomes more understandable for contemporary man.

This paper is a reflection on the contemporary methodology of theological and social research in the context of the interdisciplinary nature of science. Thus, it attempts to answer the question how starting from different premises, Theology, through research of culture, specifically of contemporary art and literature, and Catholic Social Science, through research of the moral condition of social life and drawing inspiration from each other, can and should serve the faith of man in particular conditions and challenges of a fast-changing reality.

The first step of both sciences is an attempt of comprehension: who it is, to whom the Word is directed. These are a specific seismograph registering of all types of "rockbursts" of times and places. The second step is seeing culture, literature and social life in their prophetic function, which consist in "meeting out justice" to time and place, to consciences and people. The third one is searching for the meeting and merging places of the human word and the Word of God. In every step mentioned above there is a creative interaction between Theology and Catholic Social Science.

Postulated in this article the complementarity of Theology and Catholic Social Science gives hope, that contemporary man is able to elaborate uniform and organic conception of knowledge in order to reach inner unity (cf. Fides et ratio, 85).

Multiple historians as well as sociologists gradually recognize the multiple parallels joining their disciplines. This is a reason for the Authors of the paper to launch a concept of the "History-Sociology" as a new, matrix discipline in humanities.

The article presents conclusions from research on changes in the practice of creating knowledge in the social sciences and humanities, resulting from research cooperation with the socio-economic environment. The research focused primarily on the impact of such collaboration on the advancement of scientific knowledge in these fields. The theoretical framework adopted in the analysis is the concept of science as an autopoietic, social system, derived from the sociological theory of Niklas Luhmann (presented in his Die Wissenschaft der Gesellschaft, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 1990).
According to the results of the study, the cooperation of the science system with other social subsystems in its environment significantly affects both the practices of creating knowledge and its ultimate character. Such knowledge, under certain conditions, can become an element of scientific communication, but there are some limitations that are associated with differentthat rationalities of cooperating subsystems. An important barrier is the subordination of the research process to the needs of external systems, which, combined with the high selectivity of the science system, means that knowledge generated in cooperation, mainly of an operational nature, is not accepted by the science system. However, there is a great potential for this type of practice because the knowledge thus generated, after an appropriate translation into the system code of science and embedding it in its wider context, can significantly enrich it, among others, with otherwise inaccessible empirical data and different points of view that may become a basis for further scientific research. Research shows that for many representatives of the social sciences and humanities this potential is effectively used.

This Paper takes in consideration the Social teaching of the Church, particularly expressed in the Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis Laudato si’ and in other documents of the Magisterium. The article presents the basic characteristics of „Culture of Care” and „Culture of Waste”, of biopower, of positive biopolitics and of negative biopolitics (thanatobiopolitics) with some alarming examples (legalization of abortion, selective abortions of females, destruction of supernumerary frozen embryos, lobbying for the legalization of euthanasia). Subsequently, it introduces the contribution of the Christian faith to these debates, from the biblical, theological and moral point of view, and invites the reader to respond to the urgent challenges in biopolitics by the responsible creativity in the social, moral and political fields. The „Culture of Care” is a culture of acceptance of the other, shaped by Christian hope and love, a culture of presence and of interest in the other, following the example of Jesus Christ.