This study focuses on explaining the problem of cognition of the world soul through a detailed analysis of passage 37a2–c5 from Plato’s Timaeus. It is divided into three sections, each dedicated to interpreting a different part of the passage. First, the necessary conditions for the soul to be able to cognize correctly are discussed. Second, it is demonstrated that the world soul’s cognition is essentially discursive. It is further argued that the soul makes two different types of declarations that form (...) a single complex inner speech, allowing the soul to cognize both the corporeal and the intelligible. Finally, it is explained how specific cognitive acts arise from the soul’s inner speech. (shrink)

Cílem této studie je představení základních tezí sociálně-politické filosofie Karla Raimunda Poppera (jak je zachycena zejména v dílech Bída historicismu a Otevřená společnost a její nepřátelé) a dále kritické zhodnocení aplikace těchto tezí při výkladu Platónovy filosofie. Je probíráno zejména Popperovo obvinění Platóna z tzv. „biologického historicismu“, dále jeho označení platónské teorie spravedlnosti jako „totalitní“ a v neposlední řadě jeho interpretace dialogu Ústava jakožto Platónova „politického programu“ určeného k přímé implementaci v praxi vyvoleným filosofem-králem. V druhé polovině této studie je (...) pak nabídnuto alternativní čtení, v němž se Platónova Ústava vyjeví ve zcela odlišném světle, než v jakém ji vidí Popper. (shrink)

The main aim of this study is to explain passage 35b4-37a2 of Plato’s Timaeus which deals with three main topics: the mathematization of the world’s soul, its movement, and its binding to the world’s body. First, it is argued that the mathematical structure of the world-soul allows it to participate in and be sensitive to harmony, which is essential for the correct workings of its cognitive capacities. Second, the division of the world-soul to the circle of the same and the (...) circles of the different and its self-motion comes in. This allows it to ‘touch’ and cognize the forms and the material things, as well as rule the movement of the corporeal world and care for it. In this aspect, the world-soul continues the process that started with the original creative act of the demiurge. Third, it is argued that the description of the world-soul’s binding to the world-body entails its conception as a spatially extended entity, which, in turn, explains of the possibility of an interaction between the corporeal world and its soul. (shrink)

V tomto textu se pokouším předložit definici termínu „lež“. Pro ten účel využívám čtyři definiční podmínky, formulované J. E. Mahonem, které považuji za nutné a dostatečné. S ohledem na Mahonem předložené námitky a protipříklady navrhuji definiční úpravy a dospívám k výsledné definici 7).

Book review on Jakub Jinek, Platón a problém filosofické vlády. Politické myšlení v dialogu Zákony. Praha (Oikúmené) 2021, 302 str.

V roce 2007 byla siru Terrymu Pratchettovi, proslulému autorovi fantastických románů, diagnostikovaná vzácná forma Alzheimerovy choroby. Terry Pratchett se rozhodl nečekat, až jej nemoc umoří se všemi neblahými průvodními jevy, a stal se jedním z nejvlivnějších proponentů eutanázie. V článku nabízím rekonstrukci Pratchettovy argumentace, kterou předložil roku 2010 v rámci přednáškového cyklu The Richard Dimbleby Lecture. Terry Pratchett se explicitně vyrovnává se třemi známými argumenty vůči asistované smrti – Care or Killing argumentem, argumentem z vynucené eutanázie a Božím argumentem. Po (...) odmítnutí každého z nich dospívá k závěru, že neexistuje rozumný důvod, proč by nemohl zemřít za okolností, které si zvolí, a přisvojuje si na asistovanou smrt právo. Toto chápání smrti jako něčeho, na co má člověk právo, mě inspiruje ke dvěma úvahám: Za prvé, pokud uznáme právo na asistovanou smrt, proč neexistuje stejně rozsáhlá diskuze hájit práva sebevrahů? Terry Pratchett důsledně odmítá mluvit o sebevraždě, ovšem jeho východiska pro přijetí asistované smrti jsou aplikovatelná i na případ vlastní terminace bez lékařské pomoci z jiných než zdravotních důvodů. Za druhé, jak by měla vypadat právní úprava praxe asistované smrti a z jakých odborníků by měl být složený orgán, posuzující jednotlivé případy? Závěry Terryho Pratchetta implikují, že v takovém orgánu by bylo místo pro uplatnění morálních filosofů. (shrink)

This paper deals with the political philosophy of Václav Havel, mainly its relation to ethics and what Michel Foucault called governmentality. Besides using his analytical framework, Foucault’s politics are engaged with to highlight similar trajectories of two intellectuals dealing with related dilemmas of ethics and politics. As a dissident of communist Czechoslovakia Havel, developed a profound critique of modernity, but also discovered technologies of the self, exclusive to dissidents, which empowered them in their moral struggle against the regime. The Velvet (...) Revolution in 1989 ascended Havel to the presidency of the republic, a position from which he quickly embraced and disseminated neoliberal governmentality. The final section deals with Havel’s use of human rights in the later years of his presidency, being a justification for military interventions and comparing them to Foucault’s conceptualisation of rights. Human rights discourse is the culmination of Havel’s lifelong quest for the ethical foundation of politics and it is the source of most difficulties and potentialities associated with this project. (shrink)

The most successful games today do not use a pay-for-product model, but involve complex and aggressive modes of monetizing their content (downloadable content, skins, in game currencies and markets, seasonal passes, etc.). While this has already been scrutinized, there are further consequences for games themselves and the economization of play. In my paper, I show how this strategy creates a conceptually novel situation, where playing can be considered to constitute reproductive labor-power and behavioral capital. In other words, playing here represents (...) not only consumption but also the very production of such consumption, insofar as the main reason behind the massive success of these games is precisely their massive pool of players and data concerning their activity. Firstly, I analyse PUBG: Battlegrounds as an example of the most successful model of monetizing games and maintaining a large number of players and interaction. I focus both on the economic incentives as well as on the gameplay that is generated or tailored towards aggressive monetization. Later, I set a theoretical context for my analysis stemming from ludocapitalist discourse (itself combining Marx with poststructuralism) and the concept of surveillance capitalism. I conclude my text with a systematization and definition of my original concept of behavioral capital and an attempt to formulate art critique and usage of games as a form of cultural production exposing several examples from contemporary art. (shrink)

“It is certainly no accident that precisely here, in this region of continual threats to, and continual defence of one's own identity — whether personal, cultural or national identity — there is such a long tradition of the idea of truth, a truth for which one must pay, the truth as a moral value. One constantly runs up against this tradition, from Cyril and Methodius to Hus and Masaryk, Stefanik and Patocka”. This citation from a lecture entitled “Morality and Politics” (...) provides a brief sketch of the background to the thought of the current Czech president, Vaclav Havel.Though lacking any academic training in philosophy, Havel was strongly influenced by the ideas of the philosophy professor from Prague, and founder of Charta 77, Jan Patocka. Inspired by some of Patocka's last writings, in 1978 Havel wrote an essay on Charta 77 which was dedicated to Patocka. The title of this essay was taken from one of Patocka's central statements: Attempt to Live in the Truth. Patocka's influence is also clearly evident in `Letters to Olga', in his speeches as president and in his thinking on Europe.Havel's thought, via the thought of Patocka, must be situated within a dual tradition. On the one hand it is rooted in Czech history. Patocka had already in his early writings thematized the ideas of Thomas Masaryk. The work of Masaryk, who became the first president of the new Czech republic after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, is characterized by an awareness of the crisis of rationality, like in the later Husserl. On the other hand Havel's thought, again by way of Patocka, is rooted in a phenomenology that is primarily oriented toward Germany. Patocka is often regarded as the interpreter par excellence of the dialogue between Husserl and Heidegger.This article is based on a speech given by President Havel during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, in Geneva, March 16, 1998. (shrink)

In the classical account of knowledge, S knows that P if and only if S believes that P, S is justified in believing that P, and P is true (JTB).. In 1963, Gettier presented two problems that casted doubt on this account. Since then, numerous authors proposed modifications or clarifications of JTB, however, these efforts have not produced a satis-factory solution. In this paper, the focus is on logical properties of justification. The Get-tier problem Case II is expressed in sentential (...) logic and Gettier Minimal Assumption (GMA) is introduced. It is shown that Gettier must have used GMA or some other as-sumption that entails GMA in his construction of Case II. Rejection of GMA solves Get-tier problem Case II and it is a step towards a better understanding of the logical proper-ties of justification and knowledge. (shrink)

Tento dokument vznikl po několikaletém studiu díla významného společenskovědního myslitele dvacátého století Friedricha Augusta von Hayeka (vychází též z četby jeho interpretů a některých "inspirátorů") a byl sepsán pro účely závěrečné práce ve vedlejší specializaci Filosofie na Vysoké škole ekonomické v Praze. Autor se rozebíraným tématům již v několika svých dřívějších statích věnoval. Tentokrát však presentuje ucelenější pohled, jehož cílem je vyložit problematiku s akcentem na vzájemné souvislosti jevů a myšlenek. Pro přehlednost je text strukturován do kapitol. Po krátkém úvodu (...) se věnuje vymezení fundamentálních (Hayekem resolutně od sebe odlišovaných) pojmů, kterými jsou spontánní řád a organizace. Navazuje kapitola upozorňující na počátky konstruktivistického racionalismu, resp. na myšlení René Descarta, Hayekem označovaného za filosofa stojícího u zrodu neomezené víry v rozum. Další kapitola je věnována Davidu Humovi, jehož teze Hayek častokrát "nadšeně cituje" a který poskytuje "oporu" jeho anti-racionalistickému přístupu. Poté se text soustředí na spontánní řád trhu (zejména pak na otázku spravedlnosti a svobody) a presentuje Hayekův významný koncept ve společnosti rozptýlených znalostí. Nakonec autor krátce diskutuje dnešní uplatnění Hayekova rozsáhlého odkazu. Předkládaná práce se primárně zaměřuje na ideu, která jednoznačně prostupuje celým Hayekovým dílem a poskytuje mu zcela zásadní argument pro vysvětlování jevů ve společnosti, totiž na ideu omezenosti našeho poznání. Cílem příspěvku je upozornit na Hayekovo myšlení prostřednictvím vybraných témat, přičemž se v případě těchto soustředit na kritickou reflexi hranic rozumu s poukazem na její význam a důsledky. (shrink)

An objective, comprehensive treatment of the world's energy situation assesses the major trends in energy consumption across the globe while examining the potential of wind, solar, hydroenergy, and biomass energy.

Book review: Tereza Matějčková, Bůh je mrtev. Nic není dovoleno, Praha (Echo Media), 2023, 329 p.

The essay is the critical reflection on the current state of global politics. It points to the importance of reconnecting politics with more substantial “human affairs”. The search for new understanding and conceptual tools is necessary on both sides of the political spectrum, however, the left should press for its lost identity more urgently. But what is even more urgent is the planetary vision based on reflexive rationality and a politics of dialogue, respect for the environment and civil society, overcoming (...) obsolete and pointless political strategies and forms of life. Knowledge and nature are to be taken as public assets. (shrink)

The paper offers an analysis of ongoing disputes on freedom, democracy, justice and ecological sustainability of contemporary capitalism, which became even more topical due to the global financial and economical crisis of the latter. The author’s focus is on several methodological aspects of these disputes. He shows how freedom and democracy are reduced to mere political freedom and democracy, while the distributive justice is reduced to mere redistribution of pre-distributed revenues. If social sciences are to resolve the theoretical problems of (...) the 21st century society, these reductions have inevitably to be eliminated. (shrink)

In this article Aristotleś conception of moving principle of human action is described. The author is interested in Aristotleś way of combining cyclical moving of effective causes with entelecheia, a direction to highest good or happines, as a purposive cause of human action. This idea can be illustrated as a cycle of effective causes centralised around the purposive cause. This reconstruction of Aristotleś conception of causation of human action can be useful in process of contemporary syntetisis human action theories. Acending (...) to the author, Aristotleś idea that the essence of rationality lies in human action is a first step to solving the problem of nature of human being, and his conception of moving principles of human action is congenial anticipation of some aspects of contemporary theories of rational action and choice. (shrink)

Historical Narrative: A Dispute Between Constructionism and Scientific Realism An intense discussion about the issue of historical narrative arose during the time when the naïve realism of classical historiography was being critiqued and led to a dispute, in the last century, between constructionism and critical or scientific realism. We can distinguish between constructionism and noetic constructivism. According to ontological constructionism all facts are human constructions; according to noetic constructivism, our notions and theories are constructs with objective meaning (sense and reference); (...) they refer to objective reality. Scientific realism recognizes the existence of noetic construction but does not regard facts as our constructions, as pure fictions. The point of contention is the question over whether historical narrative is merely a discursive construction or whether it is also a scientific reconstruction of the past. Resolving the dispute over whether historical narrative can be objectively true, or whether it is subject to empirical control or not, is dependent on finding the answer to this question. (shrink)

The paper is a critical analysis of Kant´s concept of practical reasoning. It is based upon an analysis of Kant´s understanding of a man as a sensual-oversensual human being. The author focuses in an analysis of lawmaking of a practical reason. He concerns in Kant´s differentiation of cathegorical and hypothetivcal imperatives, or pure and ordinary will, respectively. Based on this analysis he consequently reconstructs Kantś understanding of a practical reasoning. He characterizes its basic types based on a technical imperative and (...) pragmatic advice, on cathegorical and hypothetical imperative. (shrink)