CHARLES UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF ARTS, DEPARTMENT OF SINOLOGY HISTORY AND CULTURE OF ASIAN AND AFRICAN COUNTRIES DOCTORAL DISSERTATION BETWEEN DAO 道 AND FA 法: INTERTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE WARRING STATES PERIOD COSMOLOGICAL TEXTS MEZI DAO 道 A FA 法: INTERTEXTUÁLNÍ ANALÝZA KOSMOLOGICKÝCH TEXTŮ Z OBDOBÍ VÁLČÍCÍCH STÁTŮ MGR. BC. KATEŘINA GAJDOŠOVÁ DISSERTATION SUPERVISOR: DOC. LUKÁŠ ZÁDRAPA PHD. YEAR OF SUBMISSION: 2023 ABSTRACT: The cosmologies contained in excavated texts from the Warring States period, such as Taiyi Sheng Shui 太 一生水, Heng (...) Xian 恆先, or Fan Wu Liu Xing 凡物流形, shed new light on the landscape of early Chinese thought. The work seeks to build a coherent argument through which the previously disconnected elements of the texts in question would come together in a logical way. It starts from the reconstruction of the main features of the cosmologies contained in these texts and, on their basis, proposes the reformulation of the basic concepts used in early Chinese texts. Using process philosophy as a conceptual arsenal, the work traces new connections between fundamental ontological concepts in Chinese texts. Building of this newly proposed interpretive framework starts from the exposition of the specific features of early Chinese cosmology, as captured in the texts of the corpus and supported by the... (shrink)

Linka, V. Dissertation: Approaches to Pain in Classical Greek Philosophy and Medicine In this dissertation, I undertake an exploration of the approaches to the problem of pain within classical Greek philosophy and medicine. The aim of my research is to investigate the role of pain by analysing the most prevalent Greek words denoting pain in three ancient text collections: the Corpus Hippocraticum, Corpus Platonicum, and Corpus Aristotelicum. As an omnipresent phenomenon inherent to both human and animal life, pain held significant (...) importance as a theme for medical and philosophical contemplation during antiquity. In the introductory section, I not only outline the theme, methodologies, and contemporary discussions on pain in antiquity but also provide an overview of the origins of classical Greek approaches to pain. This involves summarizing the conceptualization of pain in various genres and works from Homer to the authors who lived contemporaneously with Aristotle. Throughout the three central chapters of this dissertation, I concentrate on addressing the following research questions: What is pain? Are there distinct kinds of pain? What role does pain play? During the course of this dissertation, I elucidate and critically evaluate how these questions were addressed by the physicians and... (shrink)

Impartiality is an important theoretical concept that determines the ability of judges to provide both parties of litigation with a fair trial. Despite this, judicial impartiality is relatively unexplored in academic writings. This thesis aims to correct this discrepancy by delving into varying interpretations of impartiality and the occurrence of impartiality debates in the context of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings. The thesis seeks to answer the question of whether impartiality plays an important role in the appointment of new justices (...) and whether impartiality concerns are overshadowed by political concerns. Furthermore, the thesis explores possible avenues for changes that would ameliorate impartiality discussions, both with respect to theoretical interpretations of impartiality and practical reforms of the confirmation process. Through an analysis of recent confirmation hearings, the thesis concludes that while impartiality is important in considerations of judicial candidates, the problem lies in its competing interpretations, which are mostly divided along the lines of partisan affiliation. Moreover, impartiality is at the core of all kinds of judicial philosophy, which complicates its theoretical separation from various schools of legal thought. This interpretational ambiguity,... (shrink)

Levinas orients his philosophy around a subject that is in constant struggle with its existence. Human existence, understood as a modality of Being, is belied by life's insecurities and sufferings. Being as such is not understood as perfect but as inherently flawed, and that is why a self-sufficient subject is not conceivable. On its own, it cannot ever transcend this condition. As a bearer of radical alterity, the Other offers the only possible way of transcending being. In this work, I (...) explain the reasons behind this as well as the identity of the Other. Thus, ethics will be established as the most important basis of philosophy. Key words: Emmaunel Levinas, existence, Being, alterity, The Other, transcendence, ethics, intersubjectivity, metaphysics, ontology. (shrink)

In this work I attempt a reconstruction of what I take to be the very foundations of Nietzsche's philosophical project - his account of what it means to be an agent (i.e. his "psychology"). Yet, my main purpose is far from mere exegesis. On the contrary, by actively thinking through what Nietzsche gives us, I aim to develop a coherent account of the fundamental "logic" of agency as such. That is, of what it could mean to be an agent, understood (...) as a functionally distinct kind of being. In doing so, I proceed in a number of steps. First, I situate Nietzsche's project in the historical context and say a few words about what he has to offer us. Next, I consider Nietzsche's approach to how we should think about the soul (and psychology itself) and attempt to clarify some other key psychological concepts. With these in hand, I develop a formal concept of an organism and connect it to Nietzsche's notorious notion of the "will to power" - which concludes the first part of the work. In Part Two, the "psychological" account worked out in Part One meets ethics. Here I begin by examining Nietzsche's (internalist) theory of motivation, itself derived from the concept of life, and scrutinize his attempted deconstruction of the "selfish/selfless" dichotomy - the foundation of Nietzsche's "moral psychology" and... (shrink)

Despite the ever-growing presence of social media platforms, few have studied their impact on security as a whole. While discussions on security issues that stem from social media often hold users responsible, this thesis argues that the platforms themselves and the way they are constructed create insecurity. This project aims, first and foremost, to establish the role of social media platforms in eroding ontological security and spreading agnotology. These two concepts play a central part in this project's explanation of the (...) security threats emanating from social media platforms. To examine these threats, the thesis will make use of a dual methodology. Firstly, its research method involves a scale by scale analysis, referring to scales of security. The individual and international scales offer complimentary outlooks on social media's spreading of insecurity. The individual scale will lead us to discuss the links between social media, ontological security and how addiction creates a vicious circle for individual users, through the instrumentalization of secondary literature analysis. Through its study of the international scale, this thesis will highlight social media's role in creating and fostering alternative perspectives on truth and reality and how this, in turn, leads to real-world security... (shrink)

This thesis aims to outline the most influential ideas of existentialism and relate them to our everyday life. The first part focuses on five existential writers and their most profound contributions. It addresses the works of Dostoyevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus. The second part consists of twelve subchapters, tackling the questions of freedom, determinism, anxiety, suffering, authenticity, responsibility, and the search for meaning in life. This part seeks to put issues of existential philosophy into practical use and highlight its (...) everlasting influence and relevance in today's world. It is constructed in the form of twelve lessons, offering various examples and views on the thought-provoking concepts presented in the first part. (shrink)

Applying Occam's razor in order to minimize ontological commitments is among the central methods of Bertrand Russell's philosophy after 1905 and onwards. The year 1905 was specially significant for Russell in that respect, as he published in this year the groundbreaking paper titled 'On Denoting'. In this paper, he introduced, for the first time, the today widely acknowledged semantical theory, Theory of Descriptions. According to the canonical interpretation of Russell, which is represented, for the most part, by W. V. O. (...) Quine's paper 'Russell's Ontological Development' (1966), Russell tended to embrace 'Meinongian' ontological commitments: these were ontological commitments to coherent and non-actual entities such as the present king of France (possibilia) and ontological commitments to incoherent entities such as the round square. In Quine's view, Russell could not dodge such commitments until he discovered Theory of Descriptions. This interpretation has been challenged recently and it is the main objective of this essay to defend Quine against his opponents. I provide a detailed account of those parts of Russell's philosophy before 'On Denoting' which precluded him from refuting conclusively the problematic ontological commitments. In order to provide such an account, we dive deep into the... (shrink)

Martin Haloun Normality and Normativity Annotation: The thesis Normality and Normativity is concerned with the problems of the relation of normal and abnormal. The analysis of the expression 'normal' is the introduction of the topic followed by the demonstration that there are multiple meanings of the normal that do not always coincide. During the description of the aspects of norm and normal the fundamental relations between facts and prescriptions will have to be taken into account. The full meaning of the (...) notion normal will be demonstrated on the basis of its relation to the pathological and healthy. A definition of health presented in this thesis, which takes into consideration the specifics of the normal, is based on the works of George Canguilhem and Kurt Goldstein. The crucial moment is the understanding of disease as a reaction of an organism to the limitation of the milieu. An important factor is the introduction of vital normativity that is intrinsic to the living being. This conception opposes the influential conception which identifies the state of health with certain physiological criteria - standards of health - advocated among others by Claude Bernard. At the end of the thesis we will shortly overview the norms as formative aspect in a society. The sociological view of norms that is... (shrink)

1 Abstract This doctoral thesis focuses on the analogies between Virginia Woolf's "personal philosophy" and Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy, or in his own words "philosophy of organism." The thesis does not claim that Whitehead's thought directly influenced Woolf's fiction, rather, it makes use of a zeitgeist model. The two contemporaries shared the rejection of long-established dualisms, particularly the Cartesian mind-body dualism, the binaries of subject and object, animate and inanimate matter, the human and the nonhuman, and last but not (...) least the individual and the community. Interested in the philosophical enquiry into the problem of reality and the visible world, Woolf redefines the notion of "things" in her fiction and adopts the processist view that objects may be defined as clusters of events, which are not separate from the perceiving subject but interrelated with it. Moreover, Woolf illustrates her interest in the natural world in most of her works and often suggests that what we normally think to be inert and lifeless matter, may, in fact, also have some proto-conscious, or proto- experiential, qualities like Whitehead's "actual occasions." The second part of the thesis focuses on Woolf's attempt to overcome one's individual identity in favour of adopting a more inclusive and... (shrink)

Many scientific disciplines rely on the construction and use of models: biomedical sciences are no exception. This PhD thesis addresses several aspects of the practice of scientific modeling. First, I discuss the nature of modeling as such, proposing a novel, complementary account of scientific modeling which I term the experimentation-driven modeling account and which drives the construction of mechanistic models in many fields of biological and biomedical research, such as cancer immunology. Second, I scrutinize an objection to the mechanistic account (...) of explanation according to which the account fails to accommodate the common practice of idealizing difference-making factors. I argue that this objection ultimately fails because it is riddled with a number of conceptual inconsistencies. Third, I analyze the roles of similarity judgments in some fields of cancer research which employ a variety of mouse models to learn about the disease mechanisms, arguing that by appreciating the epistemic complexities it is possible to shed new light on more general philosophical debates regarding scientific representation. Fourth, mechanisms can also be studied using more theoretical apparatus in the form of simulations. I investigate an example of an agent-based model used to model the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2... (shrink)

The thesis focuses on the irreducibility of the concept of a person to scientific view of the world. The main inspiration for thematising this specific aspect of folk dualism comes from Donald Davidson (two realms) and Wilfrid Sellars (two images). The theoretical sections are complemented by reflexion on results of empirical studies provided mostly by experimental philosophy in order to demonstrate how this approach benefits attempts to reach complex view of philosophical questions that have close connection to moral dimension of (...) human life. The first chapter addresses a wider concept of self and introduces the idea of the necessity to bring the two conceptual realms on the scene: there is a specific conceptual realm (irreducible to physical realm or scientific image) enabling proper grasp of the concept of a person. The subsequent chapters address particular sub-concepts of the concept of self. The second chapter focuses on the concept of free will, and by referring to different views it points to the necessity to bring folk concepts into consideration. It concludes that the folk concept of free agent is transcendent with regard to scientific accounts and bears certain "supernatural" characteristics connected to the concept of conscious will. The third (and central) chapter brings focus on the... (shrink)

This thesis aims to understand Percy Bysshe Shelley's attitude towards the role of the poet in society as an usher of progressive change. To do this, it examines his metaphysics, chiefly his contact with the doctrines of idealism, which crystallised at the dawn of his life through his intimate relationship with the works of Plato, the early engagement with French materialists, English philosophers like Priestley and Hume & a later one with Lucretian materialism, and his deep entanglement with the first (...) modern proponent of anarchism, William Godwin - who could be described as a perfectionist by some or as utilitarianist by others. By doing that the thesis seeks to shed light on how these doctrines influenced Shelley and how he conversed with and critiqued them, revealing the intricacies of his work because, in Shelley's philosophy, the nature of differentiation between the two, that is between materialism and idealism, is notoriously problematic. The beginning of the thesis serves to engage with Shelley's early contact with materialist doctrines, their fast repudiation in their pure form and his later critique in "Cloud" and response to them. The materialist influences of Shelley are pondered, as well as some of the possibilities of interpreting Shelley in a materialist way. Next, Shelley's... (shrink)

Liberal democracies sit on a foundation of popular sovereignty and the values of equality, liberty, and fairness. While some coercion by the state is necessary in order to maintain state sovereignty and provide a stable government, and excessive use of state coercion violates the liberty of its citizens. The harm and offense principles provide the boundaries of acceptable state coercion, but if these laws are unfairly enforced by police as the domestic arm of state authority, then the equality of liberty (...) has been violated. United States' law enforcement has unfairly enforced just laws against black Americans, resulting in black Americans' overrepresentation in police brutality and killings. The implicit threat of police brutality against black Americans limits their liberty below that defined by the harm and offense principles. The unequal liberty between black and white Americans causes a potential lack of equal participation in political life, furthering an imbalance between races. Therefore American law enforcement should be considered a threatening obstacle to maintaining a healthy liberal democracy in the United States. Keywords​: liberal democracy, liberty, state coercion, police, United States Range of thesis​: 90,458 characters. (shrink)

The thesis investigates Plotinus' concept of beauty. Chapter 1 focuses on two methodological issues: development in Plotinus' thought and topics of the concerned Enneads. Since Plotinus wrote two Enneads directly devoted to this topic which were numbered and named by Porphyry I.6 On beauty and V.8 On intellectual beauty, these two treatises are addressed first in the context of other relevant Enneads. The outcome of these chapters is that beauty is primarily to be found in Intellect and that it is (...) closely linked with unity in multiplicity, so this topic is further investigated in more detail. Five mutually interconnected perspectives Plotinus assumes to describe the unity in multiplicity specific to the Intellect, are outlined. Two of them that are related to the nature of intellection and intelligible objects are discussed in chapters 2 and 3. The one related to Intellect's genesis is analysed throughout the thesis. Therefore, most of chapter 4 focuses on the remaining two perspectives which are connected with Intellect's hierarchical and structural unity in multiplicity. In chapter 5, Ennead VI.7 is analysed in order to deepen the concept of beauty and refine its relation to the Good, life and other predicates. The last chapter presents a systematic... (shrink)

Liberal democracies sit on a foundation of popular sovereignty and the values of equality, liberty, and fairness. While some coercion by the state is necessary in order to maintain state sovereignty and provide a stable government, and excessive use of state coercion violates the liberty of its citizens. The harm and offense principles provide the boundaries of acceptable state coercion, but if these laws are unfairly enforced by police as the domestic arm of state authority, then the equality of liberty (...) has been violated. United States' law enforcement has unfairly enforced just laws against black Americans, resulting in black Americans' overrepresentation in police brutality and killings. The implicit threat of police brutality against black Americans limits their liberty below that defined by the harm and offense principles. The unequal liberty between black and white Americans causes a potential lack of equal participation in political life, furthering an imbalance between races. Therefore American law enforcement should be considered a threatening obstacle to maintaining a healthy liberal democracy in the United States. Keywords​: liberal democracy, liberty, state coercion, police, United States Range of thesis​: 90,458 characters. (shrink)

Logical pluralism from historical perspective -The plurality of logics is understood as a challenge to seek a deeper understanding of the na- ture and import of logic. Two basic approaches to demarcation of logic are considered, the model-theoretic and the proof-theoretic one. Investigation of the history which led to these two appraoches identifies the postion of logic in Kant's epistemology as crucial for the devel- opment. An analogical development from Kant's conception of geometry to the plurality of geometric theories leads (...) to a holistic view both of geometry and of logic. It furthermore proves essential to understand the pragmatic import of logic. Given the problems tied to the attempts to demarcate logic, inferentialism and logical expressivism are arrived at as jointly provid- ing the most appropriate account. These approaches are developed into a conception which stresses, in line with the historical perspective of the work, the ability of logic to develop. (shrink)

Naturalizing the Unity of Consciousness: can neuroscience explain a fundamental feature of subjectivity? Martin VranýThe aim of the dissertation is to analyze the concept of the unity of conscious- ness as an explanandum for natural sciences and assess how good an explanation do leading neuroscientific theories of consciousness provide. The motivation be- hind this project is the idea that it is the unity which poses the greatest challenge for the scientific quest for consciousness. I argue in the Introduction that the (...) reason why some theories of consciousness lead to what Dennett calls Cartesian materialism is precisely because they fail to address the problem of the unity of consciousness. If we had a good understanding of the unity of consciousness and its place in nature, we could more easily avoid the tendency to devise accounts of consciousness that are homuncular in disguise. In chapter 2 I analyze various aspects in which consciousness is thought be unified and conclude that two such aspects are particularly challenging for natu- ralizing the unity and that they cannot be treated separately. They are the unity of conscious contents at a time and the unity in the sense of a single subject having conscious contents and being able to reflect on them. Chapter 3 describes main conceptual and... (shrink)

This paper is based on field-work performed in a Thai Buddhist Temple in Prague in the year 2016. The aim is to describe and in describing analyze rituals organized in and through the temple from a materialist phenomenological point of view, as well as based on an ideal-type Theravāda cosmology. In drawing on post-colonial philosophy, part of the focus lies also on the process of becoming other. This is achieved in situating practice and mimesis at the center of methodological inquiry. (...) Each chapter is based on different expected and unexpected encounters at the Wat, and offers a possible solution to the issues that these encounters raised. (shrink)

ThesisThe present thesis sets out to follow three different problems in the metaphysics of Virginia Woolf's late novel The Waves and contrast them with the theories of three thinkers - Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Jacques Derrida. First chapter discusses Woolf's approach to subjectivity. It is shown that Deleuze's and Guattari's method establishing subjectivity as a by- product of a machinic assemblage is particularly fruitful in reading the characters in the first four chapters where their bodies and their "subjectivities" form (...) in diverse ways. D&G comment on the waves of the lyrical passages as an abstract machine of which the character-assemblages are actualizations. They do not, however, comment on the territorialising function of sunlight which seems to be equally important and therefore needs to be analysed. This function corresponds with the ever growing oedipalisation of the characters, which finds its summit in the fifth chapter of the novel and transforms a deterritorialised rhizome into a reterritorialized signifying system. The second chapter discusses how the functioning of the territorial machine of the sun reduces the rhizome into a centralised system whose centre can be understood through the prism of Derrida's theory of structure as a play of... (shrink)

1The subject of this thesis is Wes Anderson's cinematic world. The analysis draws an auteur study of this contemporary director in order to discover what sensibility his cinema demonstrates. Anderson's sentiment causes a reinterpretation of lost values and generates specific thinking, which allow it to be considered as a mediation of his own filmic "philosophy." The backbone theory consists of philosophy, in general, and of postmodernism and metamodernism, specifically. The three postmodern elements to be discussed are the meta-cinematic techniques, pastiche (...) and nostalgia prevalent in Anderson's oeuvre. However, his unique employment of these features transgresses the anticipated postmodern tone and creates a new structure of feeling characterized by metamodern hopefulness. Therefore, Anderson uses postmodern means to create a metamodern sensibility that signalizes sincerity. Focusing on the three above-mentioned attributes of Anderson's filmography in both a postmodern and metamodern context helps to deconstruct his highly visual and thematically patterned cinema in order to reveal where the particular sensibility of the director stems from. The analysis of Anderson's eight features-Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited,... (shrink)

Community ecology from the perspective of classic and Bayesian statistics Ekologie společenstev z hlediska klasické a Bayesovské statistiky Řešitel: Adam Klimeš Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Petr Keil, Ph.D.Quantitative evaluation of evidence through statistics is a central part of present-day science. Bayesian approach represents an emerging but rapidly developing enrichment of statistical analysis. The approach differs in its foundations from the classic methods. These differences, such as the different interpretation of probability, are often seen as obstacles for acceptance of Bayesian approach. In (...) this thesis I outline ways to deal with the assumptions of Bayesian approach, and I address the main objections against it. I present Bayesian approach as a new way to handle data to answer scientific questions. I do this from a standpoint of community ecology: I illustrate the novelty that Bayesian approach brings to data analysis of typical community ecology data, specifically, the analysis of multivariate datasets. I focus on principal component analysis, one of the typical and frequently used analytical techniques. I execute Bayesian analyses that are analogical to the classic principal components analysis, I report the advantages of the Bayesian version, such as the possibility of working with... (shrink)

The present bachelor thesis deals with the book The Collector written by John Fowles. The thesis considers the novel from the philosophical perspective, especially from the Existentialist point of view. The theoretical part provides an overview of the philosophical themes which are subsequently applied in the practical part. The practical part focuses on the two main characters, Miranda Grey and Ferdinand Clegg, and their opposite life attitudes. Miranda is perceived as an Existential-heroine ready for an authentic life whereas Ferdinand represents (...) Nihilism. Powered by TCPDF. (shrink)

The thesis discusses affinities between physical and psychical spaces in selected works of D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and Wyndham Lewis in connection with the main philosophical and aesthetic problems posed by the changes in modernist representation of character with respect to space and place. In doing so, the argument assesses the "in-human humanism" of D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf which manifests itself in the interrelation between states of mind and material universe, the way in which the consciousness accommodates (...) various material "admixtures" and how subjectivity "escapes" from subject to its own outside. Using the conservative thought of Wyndham Lewis as a vital source of comparison, the thesis examines how the interaction of these newly constructed modernist subjectivities with space changes and challenges traditional ideas of unity of self, personal identity and autonomous agency. Drawing on a number of themes from visual arts, the discussion connects these psychical factors with the notions of solidity and fluidity/stability and instability of material reality and individual objects, moving bodies or things in space. As a part of this, the thesis incorporates a detailed discussion of Italian Futurism, especially F. T. Marinetti's and Umberto Boccioni's theories of physical... (shrink)

My dissertation project investigates Paul Feyerabend's later work, focusing on his epistemological and ontological positions. This thesis analyzes Feyerabend's later pluralistic philosophy and his view of historicity of knowledge from examples of the interpretation of the transition from archaic pre-rational epistemological framework to Greek and Western rationalism. The first part outlines Feyerabend's philosophical development along with his continuously changing philosophical views and offers an account of Feyerabend's critical reception among the philosophical community. The second part focuses on Feyerabend's interpretation of (...) archaic Greek thought. Feyerabend presents a pre-rational epistemological framework in his concept of "paratactic aggregate." Feyerabend's idea is based on an analysis of late geometric figurative art and on development of Snell's linguistic research in the scope of Homeric psychology. Feyerabend highlights this original archaic worldview and explains the rise of rationality in classical Greek philosophy and culture primarily as the result of a complex idiosyncratic socio-historical process and not as progress in the development of man's reasoning. The purpose of this part of my thesis is to demonstrate how Snell's and Feyerabend's interpretation of this archaic... (shrink)

ThesisOne of the basic principles of modernism was to evaluate existing traditions and cultural norms, to innovate them, and to get rid of them if necessary. The need and urge to innovate proved to be immensely productive in the short story genre. The short story is now perceived as independent of other prose forms precisely thanks to the modernists. Virginia Woolf was one of the most enthusiastic innovators of the form, her work in the genre is nevertheless often overlooked in (...) comparison to her novels, or even in comparison to other short story writers, such as Katherine Mansfield or James Joyce. This thesis deals with selected narrative structures in Virginia Woolf's shorter fiction. It works with the basic assumption that when Woolf's short stories are read, her novels have to be taken into account as well due to numerous thematic and other affinities. However, it is also of importance to evaluate Woolf's short fiction without measuring them against her novels as these are two distinct genres. The thesis introduction presents an overview of the literary and cultural context of the times in which Woolf lived and wrote, with emphasis on her familiarity with the Russian writers, primarily Chekhov, and the first Post-Impressionist painters. The thesis then carries out four separate analyses of four... (shrink)

Due to its emphasis on the concepts of self-reliance, inner guidance and the aboriginal Self, Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy elaborates theses that favor the individual over community, such as the superiority and sanctity of self-definition, as opposed to definitions constructed by society and imposed on the individual. It is possible, then, to perceive his philosophy as important for the formation of the Women's Rights Movement and for the emerging feminism. In his four romances, Nathaniel Hawthorne creates female protagonists who advocate (...) for women's right to self-reliance as Emerson describes it. Hawthorne's heroines can be understood and interpreted as contemplating the Emersonian principles, thus illustrating the connection between Emerson's philosophy, and themes and motifs present in Hawthorne's romances. Related to Hawthorne's portrayal of the heroines' reflections on the concepts of inner guidance, the aboriginal Self, moral dereliction and self-reliance is Hawthorne's attitude toward the relationship between "womanhood" and "femininity" on one side, and "manhood" and "masculinity" on the other side. The ambivalence of woman, as depicted by Hawthorne, consists in the discrepancy between attributes traditionally associated with "femininity", such as devotion, affection and humility, and the will... (shrink)

The thesis presents an analysis of the selected themes of D. H. Lawrence's aesthetics and philosophy in relation to his short stories. The main focus of the presented argument is the notion of language, knowledge and the Self. These chapters form and constitute a coherent thematic unity of the Lawrentian "triptych". The above mentioned phenomena are demonstrated to form the foundation of Lawrence's aesthetical and philosophical thought as it is put into practice in his short fiction. The argument aims to (...) introduce these as applied and integrated in the substance of Lawrence's shortest prose. The structure of the thesis is based on a concept in which the next chapter develops and relies on the previous one chapter, while extending and augmenting the original argument. In addition to this, all of the three notions are unified under the key concept of Lawrence's philosophy, i.e. the notion or the theory of the "idea" and "idealism". The discussion of these three phenomena is followed by a brief appendix chapter. This chapter does not add any new topic, however, supplies the text and deepens the existing argument with what might be understood as a diachronic supplement and summary of an otherwise prevailingly synchronic study. Key Words: D. H. Lawrence,... (shrink)

Kalmykia is a unique region in the Russian Federation as its identity dramatically different from other regions of the European part of Russia. It is an intercultural westernmost part of Russia, which professes Buddhism; its traditions are tightly connected with its religion creating a nonrecurring environment. "Navigation system of Kalmykia, Russia", tries to solve an existing problem of promoting the cultural heritage of the Republic both within Russia and abroad. One of the goals of this project is to attract people (...) to Kalmykia, introduce them to the Buddhist culture and boost the development of the whole region, as Kalmykia is not yet a very well known place, despite its outstanding beauty. Based on a thorough research of Buddhist philosophy, traditions and culture the concept of a special navigation system was developed. This system crosslinks traditions, legends and beliefs with modern technologies. The concept of a tourist navigation system in the form of a network of laser beams with the possible application of special textiles and reflective elements was proposed. This connects the design with modern technologies and improves communication between cultural researchers and technical developers. Tourists will find a special light net with beacons near every place of importance. Furthermore, this solution resulted in the creation of a website. (shrink)

There are many ontologies and datasets on the semantic web that mention events. Events are important in our perception of the world and in our descriptions of it, therefore also on the semantic web. There is however not one best way to model them. This is connected to the fact that even the question what events are can be approached in different ways. Our aim is to better understand how events are represented on the semantic web and how it could (...) be improved. To this end we first turn to the ways events are treated in philosophy and in foundational ontologies. We ask questions such as what sorts of things we call events, what ontological status we assign to events and if and how can events be distinguished from other entities such as situations. Then we move on to an empirical analysis of particular semantic web ontologies for events. In this analysis we find what kinds of things are usually called events on the semantic web. We use the findings from the philosophy of events to critically assess these ontologies, show their problems and indicate possible paths to their solution. (shrink)

The famous Spanish theologian and philosopher Rodrigo de Arriaga, who lived and worked for a long time in Prague in the 17th century, was one of the leading proponents of the conception of the possibility of topical infinity in the sphere of creation. He explained his concept of this topic or problem in some places of his work Cursus Philosophicus. His explanation underwent criticism by Arriaga's contemporary, the important Portugal theologian and philosopher Franciscus Soares, working in Coimbra and in Evora. (...) The first part of this contribution contains a short overview of the development of views about the infinity in philosophy and theology since antiquity to the beginnings of the mod ern times. In the second part there are summarized the basic thoughts about the infinity in the mentioned Arriaga's work. The third and final part of the contribution deals with Soares' conception of the infinity and the criticism of Arriaga's conception of this problem. (shrink)

The bachelor thesis is in it’s first part about sources of relation between human and nonhuman nature. Second part is seeking for roots of increasing personal consumption. The thesis is describing the problem from several different angles, most of all as alienation of the human not just from nature, but also from himself. The defined range is analyzed through the work of lead authors in the field of sustainable development. The final evaluation consists from (1) brief comparison of mentioned authors' (...) opinions about the ecological crisis and (2) possible human approaches to the nonhuman nature, appearing throughout the tesis. (shrink)

In theoretical part of this diploma thesis called „Analysis of company culture within chosen organization“ there is to be found a description of characteristics and issues of company culture with further stress on establishment of typology. Summary of these characteristics and issues is followed by introduction of chosen company Holmes Place Energy Černý Most. This company is researched in terms of company culture in following departments: membership offers, personal training and reception. Data gained through document analyses, observation and questionnaire survey (...) in all these departments are thoroughly processed and evaluated in analytic part of thesis. Survey was targeted on both employers and employees in order to evaluate differences in opinions. In cases of negative results some improvements are suggested. (shrink)

This thesis deals with the ecological crisis in a broader context. It is based on the premise that this crisis is a crisis of values and can be considered as a result of gradual alienation of humans from the nature. The current ecological crisis is the result of this process. Consequently if the existence of mankind on the planet is supposed to be sustainable, it is necessary to completely rethink the human relationship to the outside world, especially the nature. Its (...) reduction to a mere source of resources is unacceptable. Based on the change of the outlook on the nature changes in social structures can take place, especially in the economic system. In this context the idea of sustainable development, with its emphasis on intergenerational equity, the rational use of natural resources and respect for all life forms seems promising. (shrink)

The volume comprises most of the papers presented at the international symposium LOGICA 2001. Reflecting the tradition of the LOGICA symposia, the papers deal with the broad range of problems in logic relevant to philosophy. Contributors include Ladislav Kohout, Veikko Rantala and Göran Sundholm.

The influence of the University of Paris on the Predecessors of M.Jan Hus and on Bohemia.

In the majority of papers on probability in the framework of possible worlds the existence of a global probability distribution is taken for granted. The aim of the article is to discuss the epistemic aspect of this assumption in the connection to the status assigned to possible worlds. Two questions are discussed in particular: the justification of the global probability distribution and compatibility of the global probability assumption with the structure of the universe of the possible worlds.

A critical comment to Horwich's deflationary theory of meaning: the deflationary view ignores the fact that the way the subexpressions of an expression are combined is language dependent unlike meaning, which is in a sense 'international'; the link between the grammatical structure and the respective construction is not as direct and simple as it would follow from Horwich's conception.