The author of this essay deals with the specificity of sociology in Poland, reaching for the book of Antoni Sułek A Mirror on the High Road. Chapters from the History of Social Research in Poland (2019). Chapters of this book taken as a set constitute a review of the key issues that Polish sociologists strived to tackle in the 20th century. For approximately half of the book (6 chapters) Sułek focuses on issues of Polish sociology from the mid-1950s to the turn of the 1990s: the first is the change of theoretical and methodological paradigms in Polish sociology in the second half of the 20th century; the second is the successes of Polish sociology, but also its weaknesses—the author devoted much space to the theoretical limitations that prevented sociologists from predicting the formation of Solidarity in 1980. The third topic is the historical analysis of surveys conducted in the last decade of communism—their reliability as well as social and political functions. Finally, Sułek’s vision of socially-involved sociology appears. The strength of such sociology lies in its methodology, with which specific phenomena can be correctly defined, impartially analysed, and systematically investigated. And this in turn enables evidence-based debate and policy.
Recent years have witnessed the publication of a number of research papers and books seeking to assess threats of electoral victories of anti-establishment politicians and political parties, described as authoritarian populists. This essay focuses on three books directly addressing the origins and threats of authoritarian populism to democracy. It consists of six sections and the conclusion. The first section presents findings (Norris and Inglehart) based on surveys of values of voters of various age cohorts concluding that authoritarian populism is a temporary backlash provoked by the post-materialist perspective. The second section examines the contention, spelled out in Levitsky and Ziblatt, that increase in openness of American political system produced, unintentionally, a degradation of the American political system. The third section continues brief presentations focusing on to the causes and implications of “illiberal democracy,” and “undemocratic liberalism” (Mounk). The fourth section examines developments in the quality of democracy in the world showing that despite the decline in Democracy Indices, overall there was no slide towards non-democratic forms of government in 2006–2019. The next two sections deal with dimensions missing in reviewed books; the notion of nation-state, international environment, civic culture and, in particular, dangers of radical egalitarianism to democracy. The last section concludes with regrets that the authors ignored rich literature on fragility of democracy and failed to incorporate in their analyses deeper structural factors eroding democracy: by the same token, return to the pre-populist shock trajectory is unlikely to assure survival of liberal democracy.
The article presents Charles Taylor’s critical philosophy of language and it reviews his recent book on the human linguistic capacity. Critical philosophy of language is understood here as a broad (philosophical, social and political) perspective on language characterized by multifaceted concern with the linguistic and cognitive mechanisms involved in language use. The paper discusses Taylor’s interest in language and philosophy of language, and focuses on his seminal distinction between the ‘designative-instrumental’ and ‘constitutive-expressive’ theories of language. In the former theory language is understood within the confi nes of Cartesian representational epistemology, whereas in the latter language constitutes meaning and shapes human experience (one of the features important for defi ning the critical approach to philosophy of language).
Graphene applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices have been thoroughly and intensively studied since graphene discovery. Thanks to the exceptional electronic and optical properties of graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) materials, they can become promising candidates for infrared and terahertz photodetectors.
Quantity of the published papers devoted to 2D materials as sensors is huge. However, authors of these papers address them mainly to researches involved in investigations of 2D materials. In the present paper this topic is treated comprehensively with including both theoretical estimations and many experimental data.
At the beginning fundamental properties and performance of graphene-based, as well as alternative 2D materials have been shortly described. Next, the position of 2D material detectors is considered in confrontation with the present stage of infrared and terahertz detectors offered on global market. A new benchmark, so-called “Law 19”, used for prediction of background limited HgCdTe photodiodes operated at near room temperature, is introduced. This law is next treated as the reference for alternative 2D material technologies. The performance comparison concerns the detector responsivity, detectivity and response time. Place of 2D material-based detectors in the near future in a wide infrared detector family is predicted in the final conclusions.
The solar photovoltaic technology is one of the renewable technologies with the potential to shape a future-proof, reliable, scalable and affordable electricity system. It is important to provide better resources for any upcoming technology. CdS/CdTe thin films have long been considered as one enticing option for reliable and cost-effective solar cells to be developed. N-type CdS as a transparent window layer in heterojunction structures is one of the best choices for CdTe cells. In a solar cell structure, window layer material plays a very crucial role to improve its performance. For this reason, this review focuses on the basic and significant aspects such as importance of the window layer thickness, degradation effect, use of nano-wire arrays, and an ammonia-free process to deposit the window layer. Also, an attempt has been made to analyze various processes improving window layer properties. Necessary discussions have been included to review the impact of solar cell parameters on the above aspects. It is anticipated that this review article will fulfill the requirement of knowledge to be used in the fabrication of CdS/CdTe solar cells.