Filozofia jako fundament badań naukowych nad ubóstwem i strategii jego zwalczania

Agnieszka LEKKA-KOWALIK

Chair of the Methodology of Sciences, Institute of Theoretical Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racła− wickie 14, 20−950 Lublin, Poland , Polska

Abstrakt

The paper first analyzes various methodological aspects of the concept of poverty. It shows that this concept is multi−dimensional, syndromic, value−laden and theory−laden. In consequence, any attempt to measure poverty empirically or to construct any strategy to overcome it requires accepting a definition and some indices of poverty (concerning cither an individual, a group or a country). Such a choice should be justified if the empirical results and their follow−up social programs are not to be settled by political agreement of groups in power. It is then argued that a justification of the choice of this definition must be provided by a philosophy and only by such a philosophy which allows us to show why poverty should be seen as evil, why poverty should be fought and why the «should» has a moral character. Classical philosophy of the Aristotelian−Tho− mistic tradition is indicated as the one which fulfills the specified conditions.

Słowa kluczowe:

definitions of poverty, indices of poverty, theory−ladenness of empirical concepts, value−ladenness of descriptive concepts, nature of human being, poverty as evil, classical philosophy