The terms ‘functionality’ and ‘functionalism’ are used in the aesthetics of architecture as if they were synonyms but they are not. Functionality means being functional in respect of utility, symbolism, prestige, politics, religion, economics, and in last years also ecology. Functionalism is a belief that the creed ‘form follows function’ is really respected and implemented, not only declared, which results in an object being functional and beautiful. As such a belief is misleading and leads to a semantic confusion, it is better to abandon using the term ‘functionalism’ altogether.
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One of the most visible features of contemporary political science, seen also in other social sciences are theoretical problems. They are nothing in this group of scietific disciplines. But new is their form. In second half of 20th century clasical scientific orientations as functionalism, structuralism, institutionalism, behaviouralism or system theory became the subject of critique of many social scientists. But in last decade of that century appeared renewed interest in those orientations of social thought. This article contains an analysis of Talcott Parsons view on social theory. The American sociologist during almost fifty years of scientific activity tried to build that, what he called general social theory. His concept of theory is very specific. Parsons understood it as a collection of logically interdependent generalized concepts of empirical sense. That means that theory is a conceptual outline. The bases of theory are analitycally understood facts, which have sense only in the frames of reference including: goals, means, resources, conditions, social norms, time and situation. Theory is for him a hierarchical category. It includes scientific results of different levels of generality. On the most general level he situated general theory. On next we have motivation theory. On third are comparative analyses of social structure. Fourth consists of particular theories. On the last level of theoretical systematization are relations between theory an research procedures.
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In line with modernist historiography, functionalism was construed as the foundation of modern architecture. The exact meaning of the concept in the modernist theory of architecture, however, is unclear. If functionalism is to be understood, after Adler, Mies and Sullivan’s dictum that „form follows function,” as the outward expression of function in form and/or mere functionality, functionalism no longer appears to be restricted to modernism: functionalist buildings can be shown to have been erected in all ages from as far back as the Neolithic beginnings of architecture. The actual difference between modern and traditional architecture, therefore, is to be found not in the greater functionality of the former or in its clearer manifestation of function, but rather in form itself. Modern architecture is a radical move away from the formal tradition of classical architecture. (To be continued in Volume 18)
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The paper introduces an integrative functional approach to legal translation teaching at translation programmes taught as part of Philology major. The approach is based on functionalism, professional realism of training, and social constructivism. The main objective is to train translators who are aware of their mediating role in intercultural and intersystemic communication, know how to produce a translation ‘fit for the purpose’, deal with terminological incongruity and overcome problems typical of the translation process. The approach requires a student-centred approach and autonomy of learners. The paper presents practical tasks which help foster the functional approach to translation and empower students by raising their self-efficacy.
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This article presents a short portrait of Lewis A. Coser (1913–2003), the American sociologist who became renowned as one of the founders of ‘conflict sociology’. Born in Berlin, Coser had to leave his homeland for political reasons and he spent the years before Nazi Germany’s invasion of France in Paris. Coser then fled to the United States and started his academic career there at the College of the University of Chicago. An abridged version of the PhD thesis he wrote at Columbia University was published as The Functions of Social Conflict, which earned him recognition, a promotion, and made him a figure of authority for sociologists in the 1960s. In this article the author draws on archival materials to examine Coser’s life, major publications and achievements. His intellectual trajectory from Marxism to Mertonian Functionalism, his strong commitment to a Weberian view of the separation of politics from scholarship, the breadth of his erudition in literature and classical sociological theory, and his lifelong place in New York intellectual circles and intellectual magazines made him an extraordinary figure even amongst his contemporaries.
The idea of mind uploading or mind transfer is based on a mechanistic and materialistic percep-tion of the mind. One version of artificial intelligence theory and computer functionalism pro-claims that even computers can have thoughts, experiences and the ability to sense. This point of view is shared by supporters of transhumanism, who hold the opinion that in the near future technological developments will let us build a computer capable of consciousness, which will contribute towards the creation of a technological singularity.
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In the 1920s and 1930s the Czech town of Zlín was shaped by a plan of the Baťa shoe company to build a model company town exemplifying the perfect organisation of physical and social space (structuring society through the structure of space and vice versa), in which there is an order to everything and everyone has a distinct position within that order. This intention was tied to the needs of a society of mass production and was based on the standardisation and normalisation not only of production and industry facilities, but also of settlements and dwellings and even of the individual activities of people and their lives as a whole. In this society, the concentration of workers in larger factories and their subordination to precise division of labour entailed the imposition of disciplinary power over their bodies and the indoctrination of their minds with corporate ideology. All this, along with the surveillance and control of the people’s lives, not just at work in the production plant but also in their homes, their schools, during their leisure time activities, and even through the overall urban layout itself, combined to give the town’s inhabitantsa specific collective identity. This is a story as much about the transformation of a small village community into a model town of modernity as it is about farmers, herders and craftspeople becoming modern factory workers and seeing their social field, habitus and identity changed. And it is even more the story of the function of urban space and and how its transformations usher in changes in the way of life.
The notion of the social system in the field of sociology has been meeting the changing level of interest. One may follow the dynamics of the interest while studying the development of the social theory, especially in its functional and neofunctional version. This interest however is not determined only by the intrinsic dynamics of the social thought. It was also directly associated with nonscientific expectations, with the existing social situation. One may thus talk on the social climate of the system or anti-system way of thinking. The climate is to a large extent dependent on the social reaction to a crisis and the answer to the question: whether the solution to the crisis is sought within the frames of the system. In this context the notions of a crisis and a system seem to be clearly associated. The article refers to the social systems theory. The overriding aim of the article is to come up with the answer for the question on the current condition of the social system. Today when the issue of the crisis is so popular may one also talk about the crisis of the social system? The answer may not be unequivocal as the understanding of the crisis and the system in the sociological theory is ambiguous. The viewpoint presented in the article complying with this ambiguity includes also reference to the issue of the situation of the individual in the social system.
This paper describes many connections between the wisdom literature of the An-cient Greeks and the work of contemporary scholars, intellectuals and professionals in many fields. Whether or not they use the word nous to refer to the highest power of the human soul, I show that their views converge on the existence of such a power. The paper begins with a brief summary of Greek educational texts, including Greek mythol-ogy, Homer, tragedy, and Plato’s dialogues, showing that they are designed to educate the power of mind (nous). Usually without realizing it, many later schools of thought can be shown to come to conclusions that are consistent with the insights of one school of thought or cultural practice among the Ancient Greeks. Many other ancient cultures also had a holistic view of the cosmos, the human soul, and the best human life.
Reflection on the history of a modernist villa-hotel, built in late 1930s by general Tadeusz Kasprzycki on Butorowy Wierch in Kościelisko, a place that offers one of the most beautiful panoramas of the Tatra Mountains. The article shows not only architectural and construction history of the building, but also circumstances behind the construction. The Minister of Military Affairs erected the house under a cloud of scandal: a broadly-discussed romantic affair, financial abuses, use of military funds for his private purposes. Following the World War II, the building was taken over by the army, which reconstructed the villa without any respect to stylistic values. Fortunately, the name “Salamandra” was left intact. The original architecture of the villa-hotel of general Kasprzycki, a building erected in the years 1937-1939 on a T-plan, resembled other modernist objects of that time, referring to the organic architecture (Kasprowy Wierch cable railway stations, especially the upper one). A three-story western part and a perpendicular four-story eastern part were built, with floors withdrawing in terraces; walls were made of stone and with granite masonry. A flat roof, typical for spa functionalism, was used. Years of neglect and architectural lawlessness have changed a modernist villa into a gloomy mausoleum covered with a socialist-modernist caricature of a mountain-style roof. Today, Salamandra does not match with an idyllic landscape. We can only hope that under the new management it will become a gem of the Zakopane architecture again. One should take care not only of the building, but also of revalorisation of the surroundings, recover park alleys and landscape architecture. The article uses numerous archive materials, coming from, among others, military archives.
Janusz Krupiński Autotelization of design – the autonomy of form. Criticism of the myth of destiny The significance of the spectacularness in design is connected with a dispute over the relation of form and function of objects. Functionalist postulate requires criticism of objectivity and the derivative of form with respect to function-destination (purpose, needs, etc.). As a category of design, form is subjective a category. In artistic process, not only the function is born with the form, and its weave does not have a dichotomous character, but the form itself becomes a value. Design, in essence, is not so much a means to the attainment of the objectives, but, by its form (in its form), it carries the irreducible, supra-rational quality of objects – including those ‘spectacular’ qualities. This all allows us to claim that the design emerges as a specific field, in relation to which not only ideas of decorative arts, applied arts, utility or design but also industrial design are inadequate ideas. The concepts of autotelization and the myth of destiny introduced here allow to define design – the idea which defines it and the meaning of its existence.
Autor Funkcji i interpretacji podjął się analizy porównawczej teoretycznych założeń Bronisława Malinowskiego i Clifforda Geertza. Punktem wyjścia do tych rozważań była recepcja dorobku polskiego antropologa matrycowana przez „etnograficzną autokreację” Jamesa Clifforda oraz odczytywanie dzieł naukowych badacza kultury trobriandzkiej przez pryzmat opublikowanego pośmiertnie Dziennika w ścisłym znaczeniu tego wyrazu. Propozycje Geertza natomiast często były przedstawiane jako nowatorskie i przełamujące „pozytywistyczne” podejście w antropologii kulturowej. Autor artykułu zwrócił uwagę na to, co inwariantne w dorobku Malinowskiego i Geertza, gdyż warianty teorii antropologicznej w postaci funkcjonalizmu oraz interpretatywizmu zostały uwypuklone w analizach innych naukowców. Dogłębne wczytanie się we Wprowadzenie do Argonautów Zachodniego Pacyfiku oraz wybrane pisma amerykańskiego uczonego pozwoliły na wskazanie licznych podobieństw w ich tekstach naukowych. Buchta zastanawia się: czy w takim razie różnice są tylko powierzchowne i analogie stanowią pokłady głębokiej struktury, natomiast wspólny rdzeń w dorobku obydwu badaczy to paradygmat antropologii kulturowej? Autor Funkcji i interpretacji zgadza się z Ewą Nowicką, która stwierdziła, iż antropologia interpretatywna nie może być traktowana jako osobny, przełomowy nurt, szkoła czy orientacja w naukach o kulturze, co potwierdza zresztą analiza porównawcza metody Malinowskiego i Geertza. Na końcu Buchta zwraca uwagę, iż niniejsze propozycje teoretyczne należy traktować jako idee regulatywne, które z racji rozmachu przekraczają możliwości poznawcze jednostki. Jednak nie oznacza to, że są z tego powodu bezwartościowe. Można czytać je jako świadectwa określonych postaw badawczych i podejścia do przedmiotu badań, bez względu na stopień ich wypełnienia.
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Author of Functions and interpretations carried out a comparative analysis of Malinowski’s and Geertz’s theoretical thesis. As a starting point to this reflection were chosen receptions of Polish anthropologist’s works determined by James Clifford’s “ethnographic autocreation”; as well as viewing Malinowski’s scientific works through the posthumously published Diary in the strict sense of the term. Geertz’s ideas were, whereas, often shown as innovative and different than positivistic approach present in cultural anthropology. Author of the article noticed invariant components in both Malinowski’s and Geertz’s works, since various options of the anthropological theory in terms of functionalism and interpretative method have already been emphasized in analysis of other researchers. A profound insight into the Introduction to Argonauts of the Western Pacific and on a few selected articles of the American anthropologist allowed to reveal many similarities between their studies. Buchta debates if the differences are only superficial and the analogies are set in deep structure, whereas the common core in work of both of the researchers is the cultural anthropology paradigm? Author of Functions and interpretations agrees with Ewa Nowicka, who stated, that interpretative anthropology cannot be treated as separate, breaking through manner, school or orientation in cultural sciences, which is, in fact, confirmed by the comparative analysis of Malinowski’s and Geertz’s methods. Buchta concludes, that those two theoretical statements should be regarded as regulative ideas, which, concerning, their width, exceed cognitive possibilities of an individual. This, however does not make those theories valueless. They can be read as the evidence of a specific research attitudes and approaches to studied subjects, irrespective of the stage of their fulfillment.
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Four major periods may be distinguished in modernist architecture of Upper Silesia. 1. early stage (Jugendstil, expressionism) 2. mature phase (functionalism. Neues Bauen) 3. late stage (organic or angular trend within the sculpture style, brutalism and prefabricated standardisation) 4. return to the aesthetic patterns of radical modernism (neomodernism) Among many other outstanding examples of interwar functionalism, the second period showed also the so-called luxurious trend, denying the principles of radical modernism. It may be distinctively recognised in the architecture of public buildings, throughout both, Polish and German sides of Upper Silesia, separated then by the state border. The luxurious trend in residential estates was present only in Polish part of the region, mainly in Katowice - the capital of the autonomous Silesian district. The Germans focused mainly on social housing financed from the state funds, thus the luxurious features would appear absolutely irrelevant.
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Modernizm w architekturze Górnego Śląska można podzielić na 4 podstawowe etapy: 1. wczesny (Jugendstil, ekspresjonizm) 2. dojrzały (funkcjonalizm, "Neues Bauen") 3. późny (nurt organiczny lub kanciasty w ramach stylu rzeźbiarskiego , brutalizm, standaryzacja wielkopłytowa) 4. powrotu ku estetyce radykalnego modernizmu (neomodernizm) W 2 etapie rozwoju tego stylu, wśród wielu wybitnych przykładów międzywojennego funkcjonalizmu zaznaczył się również tzw. nurt luksusowy, który przeczył zasadom radykalnego modernizmu. Szczególnie widoczny jest on w budowlach publicznych zarówno po polskiej jak i niemieckiej stronie Górnego Śląska, podzielonego wówczas granicą państwową. Nurt luksusowy w budownictwie mieszkaniowym występował wyłącznie w polskiej części regionu, głównie w Katowicach - stolicy autonomicznego województwa śląskiego. Niemiecka część rozwijała przede wszystkim socjalną zabudowę mieszkaniową, finansowaną ze środków państwowych, stąd nurt luksusowy w takim przypadku stał się całkowicie nieodpowiedni.
The main aim of the text is to discuss a conception of conspiracy theory as narration which draw a parallel with gossip and urban legend as far as its features and functions are concerned. The author chooses the example of the false flag operation which concerns September 11 attacks and describes it as a unique category of myth which legitimizes actions taken by – for instance – the ruling class. The author builds her conceptual frame on the Malinowski’s theory of myth and its function – she tries to prove that it can be still valid in contemporary anthropology.
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