This text explores Search and Rescue (SAR) dog work, examining the interplay of Umwelt, semiosis, and behavior in both dogs and humans. Drawing on Uexk & uuml;ll's notion of Umwelt, the discussion unfolds across two semiotic levels: endosemiosis, involving the constitution of species-specific Umwelten through non-mimetic processes, and exosemiosis, reflecting semiotic interactions within the established Umwelt. Emphasizing the Kantian influence on Uexk & uuml;ll, the text parallels the concept of transcendental schematism with monogram drafting, illustrating how organisms constitute their Umwelten. The exploration extends to Merleau-Ponty's interpretation of the monogram in Kant and the Umwelt in Uexk & uuml;ll, framing behavior as melodic and underscoring the reciprocal influence between an organism and its Umwelt. Shifting focus to SAR dog teams, the essay elucidates the melodic teamwork between human handlers and dogs. It discerns the convergence of distinct search tones-human-driven rescue tones and dog-driven reward tones-harmonizing in a dynamic inter-species melody. The melodic metaphor, inspired by Merleau-Ponty, illuminates the shared behavioral space where humans and dogs contribute tonalities to the melody of SAR searches. The exploration underscores the handler's role in facilitating this melodic collaboration, requiring interpretation deeply immersed in the movements of the dog, and a balance between guidance and trust in the dog's autonomy during the search.

In this article I aim to bring to the fore a problematic trait of Polish philosopher Stanisław Brzozowski’s (1878–1911) thinking, which is his insistence on the metaphysical importance of human domination of nature through work, technology, and maximization of production. The focal point of the article is Brzozowski’s interpretation of Georg Sorel, with an emphasis on Reflections on Violence and the concept of the social myth. I argue that Brzozowski considers the primary strength of the social myth to lie in its contribution to such domination, because its principal trait is to provide man with a sublime feeling of elevation above nature. Furthermore, this feeling becomes a motive force for struggle against nature. In conclusion, I suggest that the perspective of the sublime is a fruitful path for future critical encounters with Brzozowski’s work. The first part of the article stresses the importance of the sublime in Reflections on Violence. Sorel uses this concept throughout his main work to describe the affective nature of the violence of the social myth, which coordinates the inclinations of the masses towards emancipation. The second part discusses how Brzozowski understands the social myth, law, and nationhood from the perspective of human domination of elemental nature.

This article explores the concept of labour through a diremptive reading of Polish philosopher Stanisław Brzozowski’s essay “Prolegomena filozofii ‘pracy’” (“Prolegomena to a Philosophy of ‘Labour’”) written in 1909. This essay appears as a chapter in his main work Idee: wstęp do filozofii dojrzałości dziejowej (Ideas. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Historical Maturity), first published in 1910. In “Prolegomena,” Brzozowski defines labour as an inner gesture that delineates the duration of life. In the interpretation of this definition the influence of Henri Bergson on Brzozowski’s thought is stressed. Inspired by Bergson, Brzozowski understands labour as the only ground-creating—and therefore metaphysical—activity of humanity, when faced with the absence of transcendent grounds for existence in modernity. Emphasis is placed on Brzozowski’s insistence in “Prolegomena” that labour is irrational in its delineation of the absolutely new. He describes it as the α of the inner gesture of labour that cannot be known until it is performed. This unknown α is interpreted as his way of describing the groundlessness of the ground-creating activity of labour, and that this groundlessness means that labour eludes the control of the subject.

The present investigation discusses the phenomenological concept of the phenomenon through an interpretation of the meaning of the negativity of the phenomenon in the philosophical works of Martin Heidegger, Jan Patočka and Eugen Fink. This negativity is thematised in terms of a loss and a privation that leads to a description of the appearing of the phenomenon as a sublime event, which exposes existence to an absence of meaning. A formulation of the absence in question as a dynamic movement of existence opens a new perspective on what it means to do phenomenology: phenomenological thinking does not begin with the immediate givenness of appearance, but through the trembling of meaning in the experience of a loss of the phenomenon.

Denna avhandling belyser fenomenologins fenomenbegrepp genom en tolkning av dess i förhållande till framträdelsen negativa innebörd i Martin Heideggers, Jan Patočkas och Eugen Finks filosofiska författarskap. Fenomenets negativitet tematiseras i termer av ett berövande och en förlust av fenomenet. Förståelsen av detta fördjupas stegvis, och leder fram till en beskrivning av fenomenets framträdande som en sublim tilldragelse. Denna tilldragelse exponerar existensen inför en frånvaro av mening. En formulering av frånvaron ifråga som en dynamisk rörelse av existensen öppnar för ett nytt perspektiv på vad det innebär att bedriva fenomenologi: fenomenologiskt tänkande börjar inte med framträdelsens omedelbara givenhet, utan genom erfarenheten av en förlust av fenomenet som skakar om den givna meningen.