Artykuł składa się z części krytycznej oraz pozytywnej. Część krytyczna stanowi polemikę z dwoma najbardziej rozpowszechnionymi uzasadnieniami na rzecz utożsamienia całkowitej niewydolności mózgu (tzw. śmierci mózgowej) ze śmiercią człowieka. Zgodnie z jednym z nich, śmierć ma miejsce wtedy, gdy dochodzi do somatycznej dezintegracji organizmu. Natomiast drugie uzasadnienie, zaproponowane w 2008 r. przez President’s Council on Bioethics, utożsamia śmierć z utratą zdolności do samozachowania. W części zawierającej pozytywną argumentację autor przedstawia alternatywną koncepcję, według której śmierć, w znaczeniu, jakie jest istotne z perspektywy praktyki medycznej, jest tożsama z nieodwracalną utratą cech stanowiących o tym, że dana istota posiada status moralny. Nowa koncepcja pozwala utożsamić stan całkowitej niewydolności mózgu ze śmiercią człowieka oraz daje podstawę do opracowania bardziej precyzyjnych medycznych kryteriów śmierci.

The following paper presents the solution to the problem of searching the best shape - structural form of the bottoms and optimal dimensions of the main cylinder of the carding machine with consideration to the criterion of minimal deflection amplitude. The ANSYS package of the Finite Element Method has been used for the analysis. Polak-Ribery conjugate gradient method has been applied for searching the optimal solution, basing on the parametric model of the cylinder written with the use of Ansys Parametric Design Language. As a result of the performed analyses, reduction of maximum deflection value at approximately 80 percent has been obtained. Optimal cylinder dimensions enable application of a new textile technology - microfibre carding and improvement in the quality of traditional carding technology of woollen and wool-like fibres.

The goal of the article is to propose a different approach to – and therefore a new concept of – the history of thinking. Reflecting on the history of philosophy, it suggests a broader understanding of the latter. Yet traditional studies in the history of philosophy are not to be rejected; they need to be reformed, and such a reform could be performed basing on the experiences of the discipline of historiography. Thus conceived, the history of thinking could open us to a different future.

The article presents another volume “Slavic Linguistic Atlas”, “Personal Characteristics”. The majority of works on this topic have often been atomic – both in the reflection of some aspects and in terms of linguistic geography. In contrast to them the Atlas materials allow to expand its research and to come into cultural dialectology which aims at the reconstruction of the Slavic “living antiquity”. The author pays attention to the fact that the Atlas maps reflect lexical synonymy in various ways: some of them show unity in comprehension of these or those nominated features whereas others demonstrate the high grade of variability. As a result the semantic density of maps is different. Using the criteria of word number per meaning item, the author reveals the areas of “high language voltage” and proves that they have come from different cultural development of the concrete meanings in different Slavic dialects. The author thinks that the difference in map lexical density proves different cultural socialization of human being in different Slavic dialects which has leaded to their differentiation. Thus the maps of “Slavic Linguistic Atlas” along with dialect differentiation illustrate cultural differentiation of the Slavic dialects.