Books in the Modernity in Question series

The aim of this book is the analysis of Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz's meta-epistemological project of the semantic theory of knowledge and its implementations to solve certain traditional epistemological problems and their metaphysical consequences.

"Insane run" focuses on European culture of the late nineteenth century and the Polish contribution to it. The word "dark" is understood as a metaphor of gradual devaluation of the idea of progress. It also receives a literal sense: the book focuses on darkness that found its way back to the European public space.

Strangers by Choice explores voluntary otherness as a philosophy of life. This philosophy is asocial in the sense that its followers tend to privilege separateness over belonging, and yet it does not lead to alienation or isolation from society. Andrzej Waskiewicz sheds light on the experience of spiritual idealists.

The grand narrative of capitalism continues at the beginning of the 21st century, though in a different (postmodern) key from its previous forms. In such circumstances, the New Leftist predilection for colourful peripheries - something it has unwittingly shared with postmodernism - must give way to a tendency for ethically responsible reflection.

The book presents new metaphysical tendencies in 20th century French philosophy (1930s-1960s). Particular attention is given to the writings of Louis Lavelle, Ferdinand Alquie, Jean Wahl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Emmanuel Levinas. The book provides clues as to how these thinkers have influenced more recent tendencies in French thought.

The book deals with contemporary French philosophy from Bataille to Derrida (Sartre, Aron, Levinas, Foucault, Deleuze, Lyotard etc.).

Post-communist Polish culture faced a problem: how to reconcile a growing demand for individual autonomy with a growing need for interpersonal and interspecies solidarity. The author argues that writers sought a solution in the processing of remnants - in the productive destruction of two leftovers of modernity: Sarmatian and utopia.

This book is an analysis of contemporary life, seen under the perspective of immutable, ancient myths. It researches into the field of philosophical anthropology, where different moods of today's life are analyzed. Then, different aspects of the culture of the late modernity, seen as a society of spectacle, are discussed.

This book aims to present trompe-l'oeil painting as an ambigous aesthetic ideal offered by early modern theory of art. It embodies the idea of an image identical to what it represents. It is interpreted in terms of perceptual and aesthetic illusion, mimesis, diegesis, play, irony and scientific illustration.

Award winning essay in philosophical anthropology reflecting on who, in terms of history of ideas, modern western man was, is, and will perhaps become. It examines how Selfhood and individuality connect to science and technology, and offers an imaginative exploration of various modern narratives of human singularity.

The book examines the philosophy of Jacques Derrida not only as the creator of a specific mode of interpretation called "deconstruction" but also as an initiator of recent ethical and political reflection, a pioneer of performatics, and a precursor of current research on experience.

The subject of this book is the philosophy of Stanislaw Lem. It contains an analysis of one of his early works, The Dialogues, as well as of his essay, Summa technologiae, which is considered as the project of human autoevolution. Moreover, various social theories, which can be linked with the project of autoevolution, are presented.

The book deals with manifestations and relics of magical thinking in narrative folklore of Cieszyn Silesia (Teschen Silesia, Tisinske Slezsko). The author focuses on the cognitive dimension of socially shared narratives and demonstrates how they re-produce the magical picture of the world. He redefines the cognitivist concept of categorization.