Analysis of Chinese landscape design offered a challenge to test the concepts of environmental aesthetics developed in the West. With comparative approach we improved our understanding of art and environment, and of different strategies in designing forms of Chinese gardens. In order to describe the "hidden" symbohsm of Chinese landscape design we applied various concepts and metaphors: completeness, large and small, mirror and mirroring, garden as entrance and separate reality, disclosure and concealment, and returning to the source.

Razlicite ideje o tome kako se vasiona pojavila i kako se razvija, bile su u indijskoj tradiciji povezane sa mitskim, religijskim i filozofskim idejama i kontekstima, a razvijale su se u rasponu od oko 2.500 g. - od 15. v. st. e., do 16. v. - tj. od vremena veda, do purana. Kad je rec o nastanku vasione, dve glavne ideje su prisutne. Po jednoj koncepciji vasiona se samopostala, a bogovi su eventualno bili prva bica u sledu daljeg razvoja. Po (...) drugom shvatanju, vasiona je bozanska tvorevina, koje je nekad nastalo u mukotrpnom procesu, ili kao emanacija u bozanskoj igri. Indijska tradicija je poznavala i razlicite kritike mitskih i religijskih shvatanja, koji su davali prednost naturalistickim i materijalistickim objasnjenjima nastanka i razvoja univerzuma. Jedna od specificnosti indijskih kosmogonija i kosmologija je bilo i operisanje sa velikim vremenskim rasponima, sto su im omogucili indijski brojevi koje je u 13. v. u Evropu uveo Fibonaci. (shrink)

This article looks at the mutual relations and links between globalisation and the integration of countries within the European Union. As the economic sphere is undergoing unrestrained globalisation, the position and sovereignty of nation-states is being weakened and politics is becoming harnessed to the economy. The relationship between the economy and politics is thus changing and there is a need to regulate the economy at a supranational level. The European Union has the potential to make positive use of the trend (...) towards globalisation and limit its negative impacts on the economic, social, ecological and cultural levels. This requires, however, deeper integration and further harmonisation of the countries of the European Union in the economic and political spheres. In order for the countries to come closer together, as the current situation requires, a European people (or demos) and a European public space must be created. (shrink)

This article is devoted to the interplay between forcing with fusion and combinatorial covering properties. We illustrate this interplay by proving that in the Laver model for the consistency of the Borel’s conjecture, the product of any two metrizable spaces with the Hurewicz property has the Menger property.

Toward a definition of mental disorder -- From normality to mental health -- Physical diseases and mental disorders : should they be differentiated? -- Conceptual cacophony in psychiatry.

We give topological characterizations of filters${\cal F}$onωsuch that the Mathias forcing${M_{\cal F}}$adds no dominating reals or preserves ground model unbounded families. This allows us to answer some questions of Brendle, Guzmán, Hrušák, Martínez, Minami, and Tsaban.

The economic and debt crisis threaten many eurozone countries and the very existence of the common currency, the euro. The crisis has meant that some special mechanisms have had to be created (EFSF, ESM) and the introduction of special procedures in heavily indebted countries. The deepening of the crisis and the economic recession in the euro area have resulted in the growth of nationalism and anti-European sentiments in EU member states. Resolving the crisis, however, requires further convergence of the eurozone (...) countries, the formation of a fiscal union and a banking union. At the same time, the crisis has shown that the grand theories of European integration, neo-functionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism, have failed to provide answers to the questions raised by the crisis, and this has led to the growing importance of social constructivism. (shrink)

This article attempts to summarize some of the experiences and methodological insights gained from research on non-traditional religious groups that the author has conducted over the last twenty years, primarily in Czech society. The starting point for these studies is respect for the principle that it is not possible to approach the study of religious pluralism and diversity from a single predetermined conceptual framework-religious diversity requires diverse approaches. However, within the diversity approach there exist some common principles such as respect (...) for the religious beliefs of respondents and the elimination of personal stereotypes and ethnocentrism. (shrink)

In this paper, I examine the extent to which the theoretical procedures for interpreting works of visual art, which Gotthold Ephraim Lessing describes in his famous book Laocoon: An Essay Upon the Limits of Painting and Poetry, are comparable to various methods of interpretation from the tradition of hermeneutics. To achieve this, I analyse how Robert S. Leventhal and Frederick Burwick approached Lessing’s interpretation techniques and try to expand their views and apply them to Lessing’s thoughts in Laocoon. I will (...) focus on the idea that Lessing’s procedures for interpreting works of visual art depend, to a certain extend, on his methods for analysing literature. Even though these authors did not link Lessing’s thoughts to the hermeneutical theory of Friedrich Schleiermacher, I will also explore whether there are certain similarities in their views on the main constituents of the process of interpretation. (shrink)

In this paper, I examine the views of contemporary aesthetician of music Stephen Davies about musical transcriptions as special forms of classical music and try to apply his theoretical views to remixing as a musical practice that is primarily related to contemporary electronic music. Using the theoretical approaches of Davies’ aesthetics of music, I point out the similarities between the creative attitudes of a musician in transcribing and remixing, similarities that can be found in the way these musical forms relate (...) to the original composition on which transcriptions or remixes are based. Comparisons between transcription and remix are further investigated by considering the various roles that these musical practices fulfil in various cultural contexts. (shrink)

On-Line Discussion and Public Deliberation This paper surveys how the principles of the development of collective intelligence in on-line discussion and the consequences of the open source movement can influence the shape and recommended format of public deliberation processes. It raises the question of the conditions and factors which explain the difference in the quality of discussion results when technological issues are discussed and when values are discussed. It also raises the question of the importance of formats and types of (...) facilitation which allow for deliberation to be structured towards achieving better productivity and the more effective participation of discussion participants. (shrink)

We report a study examining the role of linguistic context in modulating the influences of individual differences in fluid and crystalized intelligence on comprehension of literary metaphors. Three...

Tento článok si kladie za cieľ preskúmať možnú nadväznosť medzi Aristotelovými úvahami o polis a Marxovou filozofiou v prípade pojmu zóon politikon. Na to, aby sme tento problém mohli objasniť, tak bude nutné si položiť dve otázky: 1) Je skutočne možné doložiť, že Marx tento termín reflektoval či sa ním inšpiroval? 2) Sú v tomto prípade tvrdenia moderných bádateľov opodstatnené, pokiaľ ide o vplyv Aristotela na Marxa? Na prvú otázku odpoviem kladne, avšak v odpovedi na tú druhú vyjadrím značné pochybnosti, (...) ktoré budú založené na analýze primárnych textov. Dospejem tak k zisteniu, že niektorí bádatelia sa snažia za každú cenu nájsť aristotelské motívy u Marxa aj tam, kde to nie je jednoznačne preukázateľné. (shrink)

The view of American industrial research from the perspective of the general public, the practicing scientist as professor or teacher or university researcher is very fuzzy. But in general it may be perceived as quite successful. Quite the contrary, as the recent wholesale cuts in industrial research have shown, the track record of communicating discoveries into technologies, the cost efficiency is dismal. The problem is that the cost efficiency of research based on the average cost per project tells nothing about (...) the enormous differences in the success rate that exist among various laboratories. Based on the experiences of one laboratory, some general observations are made about the multiplicity of factors that can cause a development effort to fail and suggestions are made how the research efficiency could be improved. (shrink)

The aim of the paper is to give a description of the development of understanding scientific method in the history of science and philosophy of science. The thesis is defended that crucial changes in understanding scientific method had fundamental consequences for the development in scientific knowledge, for the position of science in the system of knowledge and for its role in human culture. Basic attitudes to scientific method in contemporary philosophy and philosophy of science are shortly outlined and the rationality (...) of scientific method is defended. (shrink)

This paper compares Harold Garfinkel’s phenomenologically informed “radical” ethnomethodology and Emanuel Schegloff’s “classical” Conversation Analysis, by focusing on their treatments of a ringing telephone as a summons. In their diverging accounts, Garfinkel and Schegloff use similar yet different terminologies in relation to the action of hearing. Garfinkel speaks of the “hearability” of the ringing phone, while Schegloff speaks of a recipient’s “hearership”. This lexical distinction is not irrelevant. “Hearership” stresses the obligations of parties to a phone call to speak and (...) listen to each other while co-producing conversation. In contrast, for Garfinkel an analysis limited only to the parties’ work of speaking and listening to each other from within the hearable world glosses over the pervasive presence of the “hearability-structures” of the ordinary world. His “radical” version is predicated on the claim that the ordinary world is a hearable world. Accordingly, a phone summons is a familiar sound in which “hearability” is inseparable from the “hearability-structures” endogenous to the Lebenswelt. (shrink)

Cieľom, ktorý premýšľa táto štúdia, je zápas o zmysel (deštrukcie) dejín metafyziky odohrávajúci sa na pozadí reflexie filozofického odkazu Parmenida. Leitmotív problému sa spája so zmyslom (deštrukcie) dejín metafyziky ako západnej ontológie (Heideggerova pozícia); identifikáciou platonskej (metafyzickej) tradície ako falošného vedenia nazerajúceho v pravde existujúce jestvujúcno, ktoré sa vo svetle tézy o neexistencii absolútnej pravdy a jej explikáciou stáva konkrétnym výkonom časového a konečného ľudského bytia (pozícia Nietzscheho). Nietzsche a Heidegger poukazujú na to, že prvým momentom, ktorý si musíme uvedomiť (...) je, naša (metafyzická) schopnosť teoreticky fundovať zmysel sveta. Na tejto ambícii je následne vybudovaná celá naša duchovná tradícia. Nietzscheho kritika Parmenidovho spôsobu myslenia znamená skôr kritiku domyslenia jeho základných predpokladov v platonskom variante metafyziky. Takto koncipovaná kritika je prijateľná rovnako pre Heideggera. Spor nastane až vo finálnom zmysle dejín metafyziky – zatiaľ čo Nietzsche ich vidí ako zavŕšenie morálneho videnia sveta a teda ako problém kritiky metafyzikou maskovaného nihilistického rozmeru morálky, Heidegger vidí zavŕšenie dejín metafyziky ako bytostné zabudnutie (doslova zakrývanie) otázky bytia, teda ako problém ontologický. Čo ale Heidegger odmieta doviesť do dôsledkov, sú nihilistické konzekvencie svojej ontológie, odhalené a tematizované práve prostredníctvom Nietzscheho kritiky morálky, v ktorej je práve zabudnutosť bytia demaskovaná vo svojom (konečnom) nihilistickom rozmere. (shrink)

The theory of beauty plays an important role in Plotinus’s philosophy. It has metaphysical, psychological, ethical, as well as aesthetical dimension. It is also inseparable from the spiritual ascent and mysticism. For Plotinus, the role of beauty is to recall to us a knowledge of forms. Thus, soul ascends to the true beauty through the practice of virtues and its purification. His aesthetic theory searches for a way to the ultimate principle in terms of beauty, and by doing that it (...) seeks to identify a soul with it. This is why Plotinus’ theory of beauty is as important as his ontology, and why he significantly extends the meaning of the beautiful and refers to it in several books of his Enneads. (shrink)

This paper deals with an aspect of John Philoponus’ psychology, a 6th century Byzantine writer, which marks the early phase of his philosophical career. It is the ochēma/pneûma theory, which in Philoponus’ case represents an unusual fusion of Aristotelian, Platonic, and Stoic philosophy with Galenic physiology and anatomy. In this paper, we examine how this Christian Neoplatonist attempts to assimilate elements of two ancient traditions – philosophical and medical – into a peculiar psychological concept.

Studie pojednv o vznamu a smyslu idovskho abatu pro hospodskou spolenost, kter ztrc vdom sounleitosti lovka se svtem a prodou. Mylenkov potencil abatu nabz jedno z podstatnch ozdravnch vchodisek pro odcizen lovka a jeho prce. Filozofick hledn smyslu prce a volnho asu nachz odpov v rmcovm pojet smyslu lidsk innosti, pravidelnho odpoinku a hodnoty asu. abat obsahuje poselstv pro vnmn svta jako hodnotnho prostoru pro ivot a odpovdnou prci s perspektivou minulosti, ptomnosti a budoucnosti.

Following the recent wave of globalization, the possession of different types of knowledge became even more important for economic development than the possession of physical resources. The ability of a society to adopt existing and create new knowledge thus gained fundamental importance for its wellbeing. In this paper, we identify important aspects of the relationship between education, creation of knowledge, economic growth, as well as both material and immate?rial wellbeing of a society. We describe potential problems that prevent societies from (...) maximizing the benefit from the effort its members invest in acquiring knowledge. The problems of failure of the national markets for education as well as the global migrations which lead to drain of knowledge towards economically highly developed countries are especially analyzed. In the long run, they lead to a decline in both national competitiveness and different aspects of the immate?rial wellbeing. As the basis for solving these problems we propose a combination of economic theory and the concept of solidarity between more and less devel?oped countries, individuals and societies of their origin, respecting the free will of individuals. nema. (shrink)

We introduce a class of proper posets which is preserved under countable support iterations, includes \(\omega ^\omega \) -bounding, Cohen, Miller, and Mathias posets associated to filters with the Hurewicz covering properties, and has the property that the ground model reals remain splitting and unbounded in corresponding extensions. Our results may be considered as a possible path towards solving variations of the famous Roitman problem.