Most Popular Books by Leszek

The basic questions of this book concern the contemporary role and importance of the presidency in the European Union. How has the presidency - initially quite a modest function - been able to gain such a significant role for the EU proceedings? It managed to initiate far-reaching projects, solve basic negotiating problems, or - until the Lisbon treaty - to represent the Union externally. What are the main challenges related to its preparations and how it is run? Answers to these questions seem to be necessary to capture the elements of the contemporary dispute over the political leadership in the European Union, narrowed down to the issue of the presidency and its institutional role in the EU decision-making system. Hence, another question arises: What is the significance of the presidency for the general models of European integration? Understanding that would help us not only to explain the long-term integration trends, but would also provide a reference framework for practical projects that might be undertaken by future presidencies. The basic theory of European integration tested here is institutionalism in its various formulations.

The post-communist transition in Europe and the former Soviet Union is one of the most important transformations in modern history. Changes were exceptionally large and it was not only political and economic systems which were affected: there were changes in social structures, new territorial boundaries in some cases had to be established and new institutions had to be constructed. Moreover, market-oriented reforms were introduced under democratic regimes. Leszek Balcerowicz, President of the National Bank of Poland and former Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, one of the leading reformers in eastern Europe, discusses the varying outcomes of transitions in different countries, showing that it was policies, more than initial conditions, which produced the differences. He argues that the larger the scope of market-oriented reforms the better the performance in terms of growth, low inflation and environmental improvement. The presence of competent and determined reformers has also been a crucial factor in successful transformations.

The seeds of this volume were contained in a series of lectures delivered by Leszak Nowak to his co-interned activists of Solidarity in a Polish prison in 1982. From the stance of a political philosopher, Nowak suggests statements about power; as a social theorist, he proposes a systematization of hypotheses into idealized models of increasing realism. Most books on socialism are based on either radical or conservative ideologies; Power and Civil Society, however begins with radical assumptions but reaches rather conservative conclusions. Nowak''s discussion of the three independent main social divisions--owners/producers, rulers/ruled, and priests or mass-culture-media/believers--reveals the separation of these divisions in class societies and their integration into a triple class of rulers-owners-priests in real-socialism societies. Nowak contends that triple-class rulers wrest control of political power from both owner and priest classes and undergo regularities of political power in its pure form. The thrust of the book is an elaboration of a proposal of the general theory of political power that confronts it with its classic area of application--the history of the Soviet Union--by offering a series of models beginning with the most abstract. Each subsequent model presents a more complicated network of interconnections that characterize the phenomenon of political power. The sixteen-chapter volume is structured into five major divisions that begin with a discussion of some basic assumptions on the nature of power and the non-Christian model of man. Part Two considers some elementary models of power by focusing on idealizing conditions, revolution, the organization of civil society, and citizens'' utopia. Global Models of Power, Part Three, treats the mechanism of aggression, the structure and development of an empire, and a block of countries. Special models of power are surveyed in Part Four. The book concludes with an attempt to confront the modeling construction with the history of the socialist world both at the level of the relations between rulers and ruled, political institutions, political doctrines, and international relations within the Soviet empire. Here Nowak seeks to locate both those trends which can be approximately explained by a certain model of the presented hierarchy and those which can not. Six appendixes deal with such phenomena as The Conception of Class Loop and the Rotating Elites Theory, Social Consciousness as a Hypostasis, and more. This book will be excellent reading for Sovietologists, Political Theorists, Social Philosophers, and Philosophers of History.

This pioneering work offers a meticulous exploration of Scandinavian presence in Viking Age Poland. Unveiling the complexities and controversies of past research and delving into the nuances of reciprocal interactions between Western Slavic and Scandinavian populations as revealed through archaeology and medieval texts, the book casts genuinely new light on a previously overlooked part of the Viking world. In setting the stage for these investigations, the monograph traces the evolution of Viking and Old Norse studies in Poland. It covers the romanticisation of Norse culture and literature, the dark days of the Second World War when archaeology was strongly driven by violent ideologies, and the profound changes that occurred in academia after the fall of communism and Poland’s accession to the European Union. At the core of this book are thorough investigations into cross-cultural interactions along the shores of the southern Baltic as well as in the interior of Poland. Using first-hand analyses of archaeological evidence from bustling ports of trade, settlement sites, silver hoards, and burial grounds, it is argued that the relationship between the local Western Slavic population and the Scandinavian migrants was highly complex but overall very symmetrical. Crucial notions such as the construction of identity in diasporic communities, ritual behaviour, and the symbolic content of Viking Age material culture are also discussed at length, offering new insights into Scandinavian and Slavic minds. Enriched with high-quality illustrations, photographs, as well as artistic reconstructions, this book fills many blank spaces in the field of Viking studies and is intended both for professional audiences and general readers interested in the intricacies of our shared past.

Money has always represented power. For Aristotle, this power was inseparable from the exercise of justice within a community. This is why issuance of money was the prerogative of the lawful authority (government). Such a view of monetary power was widespread, and includes societies as distant as China. Over the past several centuries, however, private interests increasingly tapped into the exercise of the money power. Through gradual shifts, commercial banks have gained a legally protected right to create money through issuance of debts. The aim of this book is to unravel various layers hiding the real workings of modern money and banking systems and injustices ingrained in them. By asking what money really is, who controls it and for what purpose (why), the book provides insight into understanding of modern money and banking systems, as well as the causes of growing financialization of economies throughout the world, money manias and economic instability. The book also increases the awareness of injustices hidden in the workings of modern money and banking systems and the need for moral underpinnings of such systems. Finally, it suggests a money system which could immensely improve human, economic, and ecological conditions.

A pioneering and lavishly illustrated monograph which provides an in-depth exploration of women''s associations with the martial sphere of life in the Viking Age.

Applied Functional Analysis, Third Edition provides a solid mathematical foundation for the subject. It motivates students to study functional analysis by providing many contemporary applications and examples drawn from mechanics and science. This well-received textbook starts with a thorough introduction to modern mathematics before continuing with detailed coverage of linear algebra, Lebesque measure and integration theory, plus topology with metric spaces. The final two chapters provides readers with an in-depth look at the theory of Banach and Hilbert spaces before concluding with a brief introduction to Spectral Theory. The Third Edition is more accessible and promotes interest and motivation among students to prepare them for studying the mathematical aspects of numerical analysis and the mathematical theory of finite elements.

This book explores the nature of modern culture as a culture of anxiety, analyzing the modes in which such anxiety presents itself. Drawing on sociological and philosophical concepts of modernity, the author builds on the work of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud to offer an understanding of modern anxiety culture as the reverse side of risk culture, which stabilizes itself by concealing or making familiar the social phenomena of risk society. Through explorations of memory, politics, art, clairvoyance, notions of national community, and identity, this volume sheds light on the fissures in our culture where anxiety appears, thus revealing its underlying volatility. A study of the ruptures in our modern culture, Anxiety and Lucidity will appeal to scholars of sociology, social theory, anthropology, and philosophy with interests in late modern culture.

This textbook addresses graduate students starting to specialize in theoretical physics. It provides didactic introductions to the main topics in the theory of fields, while taking into account the contemporary view of the subject. The student will find concise explanations of basic notions essential for applications of the theory of fields as well as for frontier research in theoretical physics. One third of the book is devoted to classical fields. Each chapter contains exercises of varying degree of difficulty with hints or solutions, plus summaries and worked examples as useful. It aims to deliver a unique combination of classical and quantum field theory in one compact course.

Contents: Preface. - Introduction. - Science as a caricature of reality. - Three methodological revolutions. - The method of idealization. - Explanations and applications. - Truth and idealization. - A generalization of idealization. - References.

"Kołakowski discusses the origins, philosophical roots, golden age and breakdown of Marxism, and the various schools of Marxist philosophy. He describes Marxism as "the greatest fantasy of the twentieth century", a dream of a perfect society which became a foundation for "a monstrous edifice of lies, exploitation and oppression." He argues that the Leninist and Stalinist versions of communist ideology are not a distortion or degenerate form of Marxism, but one of its possible interpretations. Despite his rejection of Marxism, his interpretation of Marx is influenced by Lukács."

Henri Bergson was born the year that Darwin publishedOn the Origin of Species. The significance of this and other works on the theory of evolution in the development of Bergson''s philosophy became clear when he publishedCreative Evolutionand established himself as one of Europe''s most influential thinkers. Kolakowski shows how Bergson sought to reconcile Darwinian theory with the view that all matter is propelled by an internal life-drive.

Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1992. In this landmark study, two eminent geographers present the first comparative, cross-national analysis of emergency evacuations engendered by every sort of disaster: military, natural, and industrial. Zelinsky and Kosinski have selected 27 evacuations of cities due to actual or anticipated emergencies during the past fifty years, from the Ohio River Flood of 1937 to the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.

The zero article is a staple element of any description of English article usage from advanced research publications down to student grammars, but there has been very little inquiry into its meaning and its other properties. There are copious amounts of publications dealing with the definite and indefinite articles but none about the zero article. Berezowski investigates the origin of the concept of the zero article and shows that it has roots both in structural linguistics of the 1940s and earlier historical linguistics. Structural linguists went on to claim that, since the use of articles in English is deemed ''obligatory'', the zero article exists but it has no overt form. Looking through earlier attempts at analyzing the meaning of the zero article, from Jespersen to Chesterman, Berezowksi shows how they all fail. An answer to theoretical problems of grammaticalization are developed; it is shown that English articles have not yet reached a stage in their development where their use has spread to all grammatical environments. Thus, a model is developed for determining when there is no article in English. The new model is tested against a commonly occurring case of zero article, using a corpus-based approach. The Myth of the Zero Article will appeal to academics and students interested in grammar and syntax. It covers an issue recurrent in the teaching and learning of English as Second/Foreign language, and will also appeal to teacher trainers and trainee teachers.

The main theme of this book is that security is not just about defence from external attack, but embraces the protection of identity and values which cultures regard as important, and which they may regard as worth fighting for. It examines Asia Pacific security from the perspective of the values and identities of the major actors in the region - C

This book presents the geological evolution of the Baltic Sea area since its inception, i.e., from the Late Glacial to the present day. The geological history of all evolutionary stages of the Baltic Sea is discussed in detail, from the Baltic Ice Lake, through the Yoldia Sea, Ancylus Lake, Littorina Sea and Lymnaea Sea, to the Mya Sea as the modern stage of the Baltic Sea development. The author presents palaeoecological and palaeosedimentological analyses of various evolutionary stages of the Baltic Sea. Detailed paleogeographic maps of the development of the Littorina Sea, Lymnaea Sea and Mya Sea are displayed, with particular focus on the Polish Baltic Sea area. Moreover, characteristic geological cross-sections and synthetic stratigraphic profiles representing individual areas of the Polish Baltic Sea coast are also shown. Each transgressive cycle of the various developmental stages of the Baltic Sea is characterized in terms of the average rate of marine transgression, the fluctuation of Baltic levels and the average rate of marine abrasion of the then cliff and spit shores, as well as the evolutionary changes of the area. In addition, the lithostratigraphic characteristics of the various marine sediment complexes and dune sediments (brown dune spits, yellow dune spits, light yellow-grey dune spits and grey dune spits) are also presented. Individual chapters address key aspects of: • Litho-stratigraphical analysis of the Baltic Ice Lake deposits. • Litho-stratigraphical analysis of the Yoldia Sea deposits. • Litho-stratigraphical analysis of the Ancylus Lake deposits. • Paleogeography, litho-stratigraphy and transgressive cycles of the Littorina Sea. • Paleogeography, litho-stratigraphy and transgressive cycles of the Lymnaea Sea. • Paleogeography, litho-stratigraphy and transgressive cycles of the Mya Sea. • New stratigraphic division of the southern Baltic deposits along the Polish coast. The book will be useful for students and scientists of marine geology, oceanography, geography and environmental engineering. It will also be of practical use for all specialists dealing with marine basins and coastal zones, including marine geologists, coastal geologists and geomorphologists, geographers, as well as engineering geologists, geotechnicians and civil engineers. The book is generally related to the discipline of marine geology, and deals directly with the Baltic Sea basin.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the three workshops that were organized in conjunction with the International Conference on Business Information Systems, BIS 2011, which took place in Poznań, Poland, June 15-17, 2011. The 18 workshop papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 38 submissions. The topics covered are applications and economics of knowledge-based technologies (AKTB), business and IT alignment (BITA), and legal information systems (LIT). In addition, eight papers from the co-located Business Process and Services Computing Conference (BPSC) are also included in this volume.

In this volume, which was originally published in 1996, noisy information is studied in the context of computational complexity; in other words the text deals with the computational complexity of mathematical problems for which information is partial, noisy and priced.

Argues that philosophical inquiries are valuable even though they may produce no absolute values and discusses knowledge, religion, and philosophers of the past