The present paper deals with the notion of essence in Thomas Aquinas. Part 1 focuses on the main points of Aquinas’s doctrine of essence set out in his De ente et essentia, and especially on the concept of essence as the “form of the whole” and the concept of the “nature considered absolutely”. The comparison with the teaching of Aristotle and Aquinas’s Arabic predecessors in Part 2 shows that Thomas’s notion of essence is an innovative re-interpretation, which he largely owes (...) to Avicenna, of the original Peripatetic doctrine. Nevertheless, it is shown that this re-interpretation is to be understood as a result of Avicenna’s and Aquinas’s effort to provide a consistent explanation of various statements in Aristotle’s writings, not always compatible with each other. (shrink)

Review on Vaclav Nemec, Marius Victorinus: The Consubstantiality of The Trinity OIKOYMENH, Prague, 2006.

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)

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)

Program comprehension is an essential part of software engineering. The paper describes the constructivist theory of comprehension, a process based on assimilation and accommodation of knowledge. Assimilation means that the new facts are either added to the existing knowledge or rejected. Accommodation means that the existing knowledge is reorganized in order to absorb new facts. These processes are illustrated by case studies of knowledge-level reengineering of a legacy program and of incremental change. In both cases, we constructed preliminary knowledge from (...) the program documentation, and then adjusted it by comprehending the actual code. The case studies supported constructivism as a suitable theory of program comprehension. (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)

ZusammenfassungDie Geschichte der genetischen Pränataldiagnostik ist bislang als Teil der Geschichte der Humangenetik und deren Neuorientierung als klinisch-laborwissenschaftliche Disziplin in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts betrachtet worden. Anhand neuen Quellenmaterials soll in diesem Beitrag gezeigt werden, dass das Interesse an der Pränataldiagnostik in Westdeutschland auch im Kontext von Forschungen entstand, die sich mit Gefahren für den Menschen in der Umwelt befassten. Anhand der Debatten um die Einrichtung des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms „Pränatale Diagnostik genetischer Defekte“ 1970 untersuchen wir, wie die Technik der (...) Amniozentese in Westdeutschland von einer interdisziplinären Forschungsgruppe eingeführt wurde, die sich mit Schädigungen des Organismus durch Strahlen, Arzneimittel und andere Gebrauchsstoffe und Konsumgüter befasste. In einer als ökologische Wende bezeichneten Zeit wachsenden Umweltbewusstseins, so unsere These, sollte durch die Förderung der Pränataldiagnostik eine wahrgenommene Lücke in der Prävention umweltbedingt auftretender genetischer Anomalien geschlossen werden. Für die Pränataldiagnostik als „Schutzmaßnahme“ sprach unter anderem ihre erwartete Finanzierung als Krankenkassenleistung im Zuge der Reform des Abtreibungsrechts. Erst in einem zweiten Schritt führten Veränderungen von Strukturen der Forschung, vor allem aber Erfahrungen in der gynäkologischen Praxis zu einer Neuausrichtung auf die Diagnostik und Prävention mehrheitlich erblicher oder spontan auftretender Anomalien. Die Pränataldiagnostik, so wie sie schließlich in Westdeutschland ab den frühen 1980er Jahren routinemäßig Einsatz fand, hatte mit Fragen der „Umwelt“ kaum noch zu tun. Diese Fallstudie zur Frühgeschichte der genetischen Pränataldiagnostik handelt von dem noch wenig untersuchten Verhältnis von humangenetischer Forschung, klinischer Praxis und Umweltforschung und hat zum weiteren Ziel, den bisher in anderen Kontexten beschriebenen Wandel von Perspektiven in der Vorsorge um 1970 zu beleuchten. (shrink)

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)

Tento dokument vznikl po nkolikaletm studiu dla vznamnho spoleenskovdnho myslitele dvactho stolet Friedricha Augusta von Hayeka (vychz t z etby jeho interpret a nkterch "inspirtor") a byl sepsn pro ely zvren prce ve vedlej specializaci Filosofie na Vysok kole ekonomick v Praze. Autor se rozebranm tmatm ji v nkolika svch dvjch statch vnoval. Tentokrt vak presentuje ucelenj pohled, jeho clem je vyloit problematiku s akcentem na vzjemn souvislosti jev a mylenek. Pro pehlednost je text strukturovn do kapitol. Po krtkm vodu (...) se vnuje vymezen fundamentlnch (Hayekem resolutn od sebe odliovanch) pojm, ktermi jsou spontnn d a organizace. Navazuje kapitola upozorujc na potky konstruktivistickho racionalismu, resp. na mylen Ren Descarta, Hayekem oznaovanho za filosofa stojcho u zrodu neomezen vry v rozum. Dal kapitola je vnovna Davidu Humovi, jeho teze Hayek astokrt "naden cituje" a kter poskytuje "oporu" jeho anti-racionalistickmu pstupu. Pot se text sousted na spontnn d trhu (zejmna pak na otzku spravedlnosti a svobody) a presentuje Hayekv vznamn koncept ve spolenosti rozptlench znalost. Nakonec autor krtce diskutuje dnen uplatnn Hayekova rozshlho odkazu. Pedkldan prce se primrn zamuje na ideu, kter jednoznan prostupuje celm Hayekovm dlem a poskytuje mu zcela zsadn argument pro vysvtlovn jev ve spolenosti, toti na ideu omezenosti naeho poznn. Clem pspvku je upozornit na Hayekovo mylen prostednictvm vybranch tmat, piem se v ppad tchto soustedit na kritickou reflexi hranic rozumu s poukazem na jej vznam a dsledky. (shrink)

A review of Owen Hulatt´s Aesthetic and Artistic Autonomy.

The present study addresses language ostracism in intercultural communication, a phenomenon when someone speaks a language but some members of this language community don’t speak to him in this language. This phenomenon is illustrated by language behaviour towards visually distinct bilingual minorities in Taiwan. Visually distinct minorities in Taiwan reported that they had been spoken to in English by small children or people who did not believe and accept that they really understood Mandarin when they spoke it. They might be (...) spoken to in English despite actually speaking good Mandarin. Taiwanese people behave this way because of two conditions existing in Taiwan: an English-speaking foreigner stereotype where people assume that every foreign-looking person speaks English, and English privilege in Taiwanese society which leads to people being treated better if they can speak English. (shrink)

This study reviews the current information concerning the measurement of the situation awareness (SA) of the teleoperated drivers of remotely controlled cars. The teleoperated drivers who drive these cars are in a remote location, and they control the cars through a communication interface. The objective methods with probes are beneficial in measuring SA on a closed circuit without real traffic. Questions specifically should address the information provided on the road by haptic sensations, such as the slope of the road and (...) the vehicle's speed. Methods for measuring SA that involve probes and interruptions obviously are not suitable for use on public roads. A stable environment for the display and control of the communication interface is suitable for an eye tracker in measuring SA. These features also facilitate the use of subjective observer-rating methods. Both of these methods are suitable for driving on real roads because they are not intrusive. SA research in a real-road environment also should demonstrate how the SA of other drivers is affected by seeing a car without a driver. Given the remote character of driving, cultural differences in cognition may have a significant influence on the SA of the teleoperated driver. (shrink)

Cílem tohoto příspěvku je interpretovat kolaboraci za druhé světové války jako fenomén. První část textu se zaměřuje především na její filozofické aspekty (pojmy mez, interakce a vina), a to hlavně na bázi Jasperse, ve druhé jsou aplikovány na český kontext druhé světové války a tranziční spravedlnosti. Vytvoří se tak schéma kolaborace, resp. kolaborace bude zasazena mezi další životní strategie. Díky tomuto propojení může příspěvek poskytnout interdisciplinární pohled na problematiku, která rozhodně vzhledem k současnému vývoji ve světě i v Evropě není (...) neaktuální. (shrink)

Od pojednání o referenčních soustavách, o souřadnicových soustavách a o jejich transformacích přechází autor k mechanice Newtonově a k Maxwell-Lorentzovým rovnicím, jejichž řešením se zabývá. Ukazuje, jak bezvýsledné pokusy ourčení pohybu Země vůči éteru vedly k principu relativity v Einsteinově formulaci a objasňuje jeho geometrické zobrazení Minkowského čtyřrozměrným prostoročasem. Ukazuje dále, jaké změny způsobila Einsteinova teorie ve fyzice, aprobírá relativistickou elektrodynamiku a relativistickou mechaniku hmotných částic. Pozornost věnuje variačním principům relativistické fyziky a úloze principu relativity ve fyzice fenomenologické. Závěrem uvádí (...) základní idejeEinsteinovy obecné teorie relativity a význam prostoročasového kontinua v dnešní fyzice. (shrink)

This book examines the beginnings of the non-dual tantric philosophy of the famed Pratyabhija or ''Recognition'' School of tenth-century Kashmir. It includes a critical edition and annotated translation of chapters 1-3 of Somananda's Sivadrsti, the first Pratyabhija text ever composed, along with the corresponding passages of Utpaladeva's commentary, the Sivadrstivatti.

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.

Die Geschichte der genetischen Pränataldiagnostik ist bislang als Teil der Geschichte der Humangenetik und deren Neuorientierung als klinisch-laborwissenschaftliche Disziplin in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts betrachtet worden. Anhand neuen Quellenmaterials soll in diesem Beitrag gezeigt werden, dass das Interesse an der Pränataldiagnostik in Westdeutschland auch im Kontext von Forschungen entstand, die sich mit Gefahren für den Menschen in der Umwelt befassten. Anhand der Debatten um die Einrichtung des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms „Pränatale Diagnostik genetischer Defekte“ 1970 untersuchen wir, wie die Technik der (...) Amniozentese in Westdeutschland von einer interdisziplinären Forschungsgruppe eingeführt wurde, die sich mit Schädigungen des Organismus durch Strahlen, Arzneimittel und andere Gebrauchsstoffe und Konsumgüter befasste. In einer als ökologische Wende bezeichneten Zeit wachsenden Umweltbewusstseins, so unsere These, sollte durch die Förderung der Pränataldiagnostik eine wahrgenommene Lücke in der Prävention umweltbedingt auftretender genetischer Anomalien geschlossen werden. Für die Pränataldiagnostik als „Schutzmaßnahme“ sprach unter anderem ihre erwartete Finanzierung als Krankenkassenleistung im Zuge der Reform des Abtreibungsrechts. Erst in einem zweiten Schritt führten Veränderungen von Strukturen der Forschung, vor allem aber Erfahrungen in der gynäkologischen Praxis zu einer Neuausrichtung auf die Diagnostik und Prävention mehrheitlich erblicher oder spontan auftretender Anomalien. Die Pränataldiagnostik, so wie sie schließlich in Westdeutschland ab den frühen 1980er Jahren routinemäßig Einsatz fand, hatte mit Fragen der „Umwelt“ kaum noch zu tun. Diese Fallstudie zur Frühgeschichte der genetischen Pränataldiagnostik handelt von dem noch wenig untersuchten Verhältnis von humangenetischer Forschung, klinischer Praxis und Umweltforschung und hat zum weiteren Ziel, den bisher in anderen Kontexten beschriebenen Wandel von Perspektiven in der Vorsorge um 1970 zu beleuchten. (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)