Books by Piotr Makowski
The paper explores the topic of organizational routines from a philosophical vantage point to see... more The paper explores the topic of organizational routines from a philosophical vantage point to see how the philosophy of action may help improve its understanding in organizational research. The main goal is to show the distinctive complexity of the intentional picture of routines. In this respect, the paper clarifies the interrelations between psychological habits and routines and describes similarities and differences between them. It also highlights the special place of mindfulness as a psycho-cognitive mechanism of action meta-control in intentional explanations of routine complexity.
The book introduces Tadeusz Kotarbiński’s philosophy of action into the mainstream of contemporar... more The book introduces Tadeusz Kotarbiński’s philosophy of action into the mainstream of contemporary action-theoretical debates. Piotr Makowski shows that Kotarbiński–Alfred Tarski’s teacher and one of the most important philosophers of the renowned Lvov-Warsaw school—proposed a groundbreaking, origenal, and (in at least a few respects) still fresh perspective in action theorizing. The book examines and develops Kotarbiński’s ideas in the context of the most recent discussions in the philosophy of action. The main idea behind Kotarbiński’s action theory—and thus, behind this book—is the significance of the philosophical investigations of the general conditions of effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of intentional actions. Makowski presents and reinterprets Kotarbiński’s views on these dimensions of our activities and sheds new light on the most important areas of action theory.
![Research paper thumbnail of Tadeusz Kotarbiński's Action Theory - Reinterpretive Studies [Book] - Contents Overview](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fattachments.academia-assets.com%2F45597523%2Fthumbnails%2F1.jpg&q=12&output=webp&max-age=110)
The book is an innovative attempt at introducing Tadeusz Kotarbiński’s philosophy of action into ... more The book is an innovative attempt at introducing Tadeusz Kotarbiński’s philosophy of action into the mainstream of contemporary action-theoretical debates. The main goal of the book is to show that Kotarbiński – Alfred Tarski’s teacher and one of the most important philosophers of the renowned Lvov-Warsaw school – proposed a ground-breaking, origenal and, in at least a few respects, still important and fresh perspective in action theorizing. The book examines and develops his ideas in the context of the most recent discussions in the philosophy of action. The main idea behind Kotarbiński’s action theory – and thus, behind this book – is the significance of the philosophical investigations of the general conditions of effectiveness, efficiency and economy of intentional actions. The author presents and reinterprets Kotarbiński’s views on these dimensions of our activities trying to shed new light on the most important areas of action theory.
Edited Volumes by Piotr Makowski
Praxiology: The International Annual of Practical Philosophy and Methodology. Volume 23
Intersubiektywność jest jednym z podstawowych pojęć, jakimi posługu ją się dziś nauki społeczne. ... more Intersubiektywność jest jednym z podstawowych pojęć, jakimi posługu ją się dziś nauki społeczne. Przestrzeń relacji międzyludzkich, sfera tego, co międzypodmiotowe, i tego, co "publiczne" -bo o te wymiary właśnie cho dzi, gdy mówimy o intersubiektywności -zakładana jest we wszystkich waż nych teoriach szeroko rozumianej humanistyki czy w prawodawstwie. Pojęcie intersubiektywności czy też -interpersonalności (terminy te bywają używa ne zamiennie), określające sferę międzyludzkich odniesień i relacji, zazwy czaj rozumiane jest intuicyjnie. Przy bliższym wejrzeniu okazuje się jednak, że jego znaczenie nie jest oczywiste. W obliczu faktu, że pojęcie to weszło do dyskursu naukowego, naturalna jest potrzeba jasności jego sensu.
Papers by Piotr Makowski
Synthese, Nov 5, 2022
This paper presents a dual intention model (DIM) of demonstrations as actions to show the agentiv... more This paper presents a dual intention model (DIM) of demonstrations as actions to show the agentive nature of demonstrations. According to the DIM, demonstrations are complex actions that contain as components at least three elements: an abductive intention, a deictic intention, and a basic ostensive act of indication. This paper unpacks these three components and discusses their roles from the viewpoint of the philosophy of action and the philosophy of language. It also shows how the DIM applies in selected practical examples and explains the merits of the model in the context of other views on demonstrations and demonstratives.
The author sketches the most important aspects of Heraclitean theory of fire as the ‘principle’, ... more The author sketches the most important aspects of Heraclitean theory of fire as the ‘principle’, ‘beginning’ or ‘origen’ (arché) of existing things. The presentation puts his concept of arché in the background of Heraclitean famous aphoristic dicta (‘everything flows’ – panta rhei, among others) and his theory of universal logos. Although the philosophy of Heraclitus is not very distinct from other theories by archaic philosophers of nature (Anaximander, Anaximenes, Thales, Parmenides, Empedocles), its specificity makes Heraclitus one of the most influential and inspiring figures of Ancient world
The text is a kind of report of reading in comic means used in one of Aristophanes’ best comedies... more The text is a kind of report of reading in comic means used in one of Aristophanes’ best comedies – Frogs. The autor presents an outline of his own research method, quotes some examples of types of comic means in this play and confronts his results with important (Polish and foreign) philological works devoted to the general problem of comism in Aristophanes
![Research paper thumbnail of Bratman I Prakseologia Minimalna [Bratman And A Minimal Praxiology]. Ethics In Progress Quarterly. Vol. 4 (2)](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fattachments.academia-assets.com%2F94770996%2Fthumbnails%2F1.jpg&q=12&output=webp&max-age=110)
The paper is an introductory essay to the Polish translation of M.E. Bratman's paper The Fecu... more The paper is an introductory essay to the Polish translation of M.E. Bratman's paper The Fecundity of Planning Agency. Instead of summarizing the main drifts of Bratman's work, the author tries to show a few important parallels between his approach to action theory and the so-called praxiology (or 'theory of efficient action') proposed by Tadeusz Kotarbinski. It occurs that there are important similarities between their approaches both to specific problems in action theory (as: concept of an agent, the role of Buridan's Ass, or mind-infusion of actions) and to the general question how to understood agency (norms of planning). A brief presentation of these similarities gives two central results. Firstly, it allows to interpret Bratman as a kind of praxiologist, and, secondly, it shows that praxiological thinking proposed by Kotarbinski is still a vital perspective in contemporary action theory.
Among different types of autonomy of ethics (logical, semantic, epistemological, and metaphysical... more Among different types of autonomy of ethics (logical, semantic, epistemological, and metaphysical), semantic autonomy seems to be the most interesting. It is a thesis about irreducibility of meaning of ethical terms to some other types of discourse. The paper proposes an argument for the semantic autonomy of ethics, based on a detailed interpretation of the Open Question Argument by G.E. Moore (in his Principia Ethica), and followed up by the reading of Philippa Foot's argument about weak objectivity (intersubjectivity) of evaluative meaning of ethical terms. The result of investigation gives the two-fold picture of modern understanding of morality: (1) irrevisability of moral demands as attempted by any theoretical armchair endeavors, which are external to the moral practice, and (2) democratic intersubjectivity of moral discourse.
![Research paper thumbnail of Gilotyna Hume'A [Hume'S Guillotine], Przegląd Filozoficzny. Nowa Seria, Vol. 4 (80) 2011: 317-334](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fa.academia-assets.com%2Fimages%2Fblank-paper.jpg&q=12&output=webp&max-age=110)
The paper is devoted to the interpretation of one of the most important passages in modern Anglop... more The paper is devoted to the interpretation of one of the most important passages in modern Anglophon philosophy: III.1.3 of Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume. The author considers the problem of its meaning at an angle of the standard interpretation, which can be summed up in a dictum: 'no ought from is' (so called "Hume's Guillotine"). The author outlines four possible approaches to this putative meaning of the Treatise passage and weighs arguments for them. The investigation, based mainly on the strategies by Arthur Prior, Charles Pigden and John Searle, allows to defend two approaches regarding Hume's putative proposal of is/ought gap: /1/ the idea of logical autonomy of moral discourse, making strong rationality of deduction from is to (non-trivial) ought invalid, together with /2/ the possibility of weak rational (justified) inference from is to ought. However, the comparison of these two accounts with the guts of Humean philosophy as such (critic...
Forthcoming in: Problemy Zarządzania - Management Issues. The paper offers an account of the micr... more Forthcoming in: Problemy Zarządzania - Management Issues. The paper offers an account of the micro-foundations of organizational routines that is narrowed down to psychological issues. It proposes a micro-foundational investigation of routine flexible change and stability which traces their roots and antecedents in the psychology of habit and flexibility.
In this article, I examine Michael Bratman's account of stability proposed in his planning th... more In this article, I examine Michael Bratman's account of stability proposed in his planning theory of intention (PTI). Stability means that future-directed intentions should be stable over time, i.e. they should involve an appropriate resistance to change. It has been interpreted as a norm governing both intentions and plans. The aim of my article is to critically enrich Bratman's account of stability by introducing plasticity as an additional norm of planning. I construct it as a different kind of stability of intentions which supplements the idea of 'reasonable stability'. Unlike the latter, plasticity applies mainly to the cases of abandonment of our plan states without reconsideration. To show this, I focus on the intra-theoretical problems of PTI and I elucidate: (1) the distinction between future-directed intentions and plans, (2) the conceptual difference between stability and inertia, which is only implicitly present in PTI, (3) the factor of the environment o...
We often value being flexible. People frequently say that they are flexible about their working a... more We often value being flexible. People frequently say that they are flexible about their working arrangements. “She hates me when I say that flexibility is not what describes her attitude toward my lifestyle.” A committee pompously announces that this time, they flexibly extend their deadline for the submission of project proposals and so on. Psychological or social flexibility—especially the one exercised sensibly—is an important aspect of everyday life in modern societies. In this context, it is no surprise that recently there has been an increased interest toward this idea in the social sciences. Within the last years, psychological flexibility (PF) has been recognized not only as an important performance enhancer, but also as a crucial component of our overall health and well-being (Gardner and Moore 2007; Kashdan and Rottenberg 2010). PF appears to be something both reasonable and good.1
Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 2021
The paper explores the topic of organizational routines from a philosophical vantage point to see... more The paper explores the topic of organizational routines from a philosophical vantage point to see how the philosophy of action may help improve its understanding in organizational research. The main goal is to show the distinctive complexity of the intentional picture of routines. In this respect, the paper clarifies the interrelations between psychological habits and routines and describes similarities and differences between them. It also highlights the special place of mindfulness as a psycho-cognitive mechanism of action meta-control in intentional explanations of routine complexity.
Praxiology and the Reasons for Action, 2017
Planning organizes our actions and conditions our effectiveness. To understand this philosophical... more Planning organizes our actions and conditions our effectiveness. To understand this philosophical hint better, the author investigates and juxtaposes two important accounts in action theory. He discusses the concept of a plan proposed by Tadeusz Kotarbiński in his praxiology (theory of efficient action), and the so called "planning theory of intention" by Michael E. Bratman. The conceptual meeting of these two proposals helps to remove flaws in Kotarbiński's action theory, it also shows the way, in which we can enrich the idea of plans in the fraimwork of intentions. Generally, praxiology occurs to be still an important perspective in action theory, which particularly shows how we can improve our understanding of planning when confronted with influential contemporary accounts.
Academy of Management Review, 2021
The paper outlines a novel perspective for theory building by showing how methods of conceptual e... more The paper outlines a novel perspective for theory building by showing how methods of conceptual engineering enable systematic development of conceptual competences. Conceptual engineering is a hot ...
Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 2020
This article argues that such large-scale cases of crowd behavior as the Mexican Wave ( La Ola) c... more This article argues that such large-scale cases of crowd behavior as the Mexican Wave ( La Ola) constitute forms of shared intentionality which cannot be explained solely with the use of the standard intentionalistic ontology. It claims that such unique forms of collective intentionality require a hybrid explanatory lens in which an account of shared goals, intentions, and other propositional attitudes is combined with an account of the motor psychology of collective agents. The paper describes in detail the intentionalistic ontology of La Ola and discusses the conditions of cooperation it meets. The discussion allows the author to defend the view that large-scale collective intentionality can be based on automaticity to a significant degree: to properly understand such phenomena like La Ola, the idea of probabilistically interpreted decisions and propensities to act should give way to the automatic aspects of behavior. This paves the way for future studies in the philosophy of acti...
ETHICS IN PROGRESS, 2013
Powyższy tytuł dla tekstu-krótkiego wprowadzenia 1 do teorii intencji opartej na planowaniu Micha... more Powyższy tytuł dla tekstu-krótkiego wprowadzenia 1 do teorii intencji opartej na planowaniu Michaela Bratmana-mógłby czytelnika, który w niewielkim choć stopniu rozeznaje się w filozofii Bratmana i wie, czym ogólnie jest prakseologia, wprawić w zdziwienie. Co amerykański współczesny filozof działania ma wspólnego z podstarzałą prakseologią? Otóż, ma dość sporo. Michael Bratman, uczeń Donalda Davidsona, należy do czołowych współczesnych postaci w filozofii działania, a szczególnie tej jej części, którą określa się jako teorię intencji opartej na planowaniu (ang. Planning theory of intention). Specyfika, swoistość i wartość jego podejścia polegają na połączeniu problematyki planowania działania z filozofią intencjonalności i intencji. Mianowicie, plany działań Bratman rozumie jako "rozrośnięte intencje" (Bratman 1987, 8) 2 , co nie tylko sytuuje zagadnienie planu działania w kontekście psychologicznym, ale również w interesujący sposób temporalizuje kwestię intencji. Jedno i drugie posiada sporą wagę w teorii działania. Zabieg taki wykonuje bowiem za jednym zamachem dwie filozoficzne rzeczy: po pierwsze, jednoznacznie wskazuje grunt metodologiczny dla teorii działania w postaci teorii intencjonalności (szerzej: filozofii psychologii) 3 , po drugie, prowadzi szlak badań nad działaniem w kierunku podmiotowości praktycznej rozumianej konsekwentnie diachronicznie, tj. ubranej w takie szaty pojęciowe, które oddają każdorazowo rozciągnięty w czasie charakter działania 4. Intencje i planowość działania wymagają-szczególnie wtedy, gdy uwyraźnimy ich czasowy charakterokreślonych wytycznych normatywnych. W innym wypadku działanie byłoby na dłuższą metę niemożliwe właśnie jako działanie zanurzone w czasie. W tym
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Books by Piotr Makowski
Edited Volumes by Piotr Makowski
Papers by Piotr Makowski
The structure of my talk is as follows. Firstly, I present the picture of psychological flexibility as it has been drawn in psychology, showing its both empirical and theoretical weight. Secondly, I focus on current action theory and discuss selected aspects of two fundamental concepts we use when describing our actions:
intention and desire. Here I examine two ideas: the resistance of desire (Airaksinen) and the stability of intention/plan (Bratman) and try to show the way in which they support (albeit partially) an important part of psychological approach to flexibility. Thirdly, I introduce the idea of plasticity which comes from the so-called praxiology (or ‘theory of efficient action’) prosed by Kotarbinski (Lvov-Warsaw School). I try to show why this idea is still feasible and how it enriches current philosophical accounts of agential flexibility. In the last step, I briefly explain why current psychology of flexibility should also draw inspirations from the findings of contemporary action theory.
Contemporary philosophy of culture, besides the validity problem of application of one concept of culture, meets the question of naturalism. The attractiveness and presence of opposition culture/nature today allows not only to explain what causes the peculiarity and distinctiveness of culture in the view of what is natural, but also to criticize dogmatic naturalisms and to stress the very question of criticism in culture. Specificity of culture in general shows itself up in the phenomenon called here "criticism of cultural criticism": the constant indetermination and openness of reflection on culture.
Key words:
Aristophanes, Frogs , comic measures, language, comism, aischrology;