The study addresses a traditional problem of Anglo-American aesthetics and philosophy, namely the paradox of fiction, and more closely examines its cognitivist solution. On closer examination of this solution, it shows that Colin Radford’s original reflection on the question of whether fiction is something specific, in contrast to othersituations that involve non-existent persons and events, is gradually reduced in the course of the debate to the problem of the relationship between emotions and fiction or, if you like, representation. This tendency (...) is fully manifested precisely in some cognitively oriented theories. In the study, the author shows that together with howpartial emotions as reactions to representation come to the center of attention, the very core of the original debate – the problem of fiction – is lost sight of. On the basis of her conclusions, the question then arises as to whether the core of Radford’s original observation can continue to be an important part of the deliberation about the nature of fiction. (shrink)

The topic of this study is Althusser’s texts from the late 1940s, when he was trying to create an alliance between Christianity and Marxism. In these texts, Althusser analyzes the relationship of the progressive theology of that time to the persisting feudal and capitalist power structures of the Catholic Church. Using the example of the new theology of marriage and the role of women in the family, he shows, for instance, that behind this ostensibly progressive theology a complex pattern of (...) oppression develops that only seems to be its opposite. Despite his criticism of Catholicism, Althusser still believed at this time that religion is not, a priori, a form of alienation. He was convinced that Christian men and women could participate in social emancipation and that they could also, from below, redevelop an authentic religious life themselves.In the conclusion of the study, the author attempts to show that certain motifs from Althusser’s Catholic-Marxist writings are additionally projected into his mature work, and that, despite his rejection of the church, one can therefore speak of a certain continuity in his philosophical pathway. (shrink)

The study focuses on the concept of dual cynicism in the thinking of the Czech surrealist and aesthetician Vratislav Effenberger. Based on its analysis of this dichotomy, the second part of the study sets forth his views on humor. Cynicism is understood here as a concept that is key to understanding Effenberger’s thought. It represents one’s own initiatory impulse, thanks to which a person distances from reality. It can either degenerate into an insidious utilitarianism or, conversely, open the way to (...) freedom, imagination, and knowledge. One of the forms in which a playfully cynical approach opens itself up is, for Effenberger, humor. And it is such humor that disrupts socially recognized conventions and uncovers their imaginative potential. This leads a person to creativity, freedom, and critical engagement towards the spiritual-social setting of modern society. The study shows that Effenberger’s insights into cynicism, humour, and society can make an inspiring contribution to the understanding of the relevant topics, especially in the context of the tradition of philosophical pessimism and modern aesthetic theories. (shrink)

The goal that the author of this study focuses on is to provide a brief introduction to the issue of language in the work of Theodor W. Adorno and, in this context, to interpret his approach to philosophy through a presentation of his essayistic form. She first presents Adorno’s philosophical views about the nonidentity of reality, thought and concepts, out of which grows his approach to language, and then briefly introduces his concept of constellations, which follows up on the thinking (...) of Walter Benjamin. She then presents individual features of Adorno’s textual method of composing constellations, or essays, that primarily consist in the negation of the traditional philosophical method. The concluding part of the study contains a brief discussion about what Adorno’s essays are trying to represent and how to discern a text that meets Adorno’s requirements for good essays. With this, the author wants to provide an insight into Adorno’s philosophical efforts from the perspective of his textual method and at the same time she would like to help Adorno’s readers better orient themselves as they make their way through his demanding texts. (shrink)

This study dating from the early 1970s is an attempt by the author, Vratislav Effenberger, to summarize the fundamental principles and categories of the theoretical system he had been developing since approximately the mid-1960s, and which he himself referred to as the “phenomenology of imagination”. The aim of this philosophical project was to enable the conceptualization and examination of the surrealistically conceived imagination as a means for the ideological understanding of reality and of exerting influence on it. In the study, (...) Effenberger gives a brief sketch of his original conceptual apparatus (mental morphology, psychoideology, idea models, ideological dominants, regulating lines, etc.), points to some of the inspirational sources of his thinking (Max Dvořák, F. X. Šalda, Karel Teige, Roman Jakobson) and presents the outlines of his critique of contemporary culture and society. (shrink)

The article responds to Marián Zouhar’s review of the author’s book What Is the Story About (O čem se vypráví. Praha, Filosofia 2023). The author focuses on two of the reviewer’s objections: the first concerns the analysis of parafictional statements and the second the author’s specification of the reader’s basic moves required by literary functions of the texts of narrative fiction. The reviewer argues that this specification, due to the role played in it by the as if mode, does not (...) reflect autobiographical and documentary prose. The author discusses the role of the moves within and outside this mode in the “clear-cut cases” (autobiography versus narrative fiction) and “a case on the borderline” (autofiction). (shrink)

The study examines the problematics of the form and content of literature and art in the theories of György Lukács and Theodor W. Adorno, whose conflicting views are often seen as emblematic of the debate between realist and modernist Marxist aesthetics. In Lukács, we trace the evolution of this conceptual opposition from the early Theory of the Novel to The Meaning of Contemporary Realism; in Adorno, we focus on the essay “Reconciliation under Duress,” Adorno’s critique of the latter of the (...) above texts by Lukács, and Aesthetic Theory. In our analysis, we highlight the points of divergence between the two authors as well as the common features of their theoretical outlook, which are often obscured by the rhetorical stylization of Adorno’s critique. We argue that both thinkers emphasize the essential interdependence of form and content as the foundation for art’s relationship to reality. Positioned within their historical context, Lukács’ focus on totality and Adorno’s attention to the singularity of detail provide complementary and equally valuable perspectives for contemporary interpretations of literature and art. (shrink)

By means of an exposition of the basic characteristics of his theory of idea models, this study outlines the principal features of Vratislav Effenberger’s philosophical thinking. Attention is first given to the emergence of the term “idea model,” which is interpreted as an effort to resolve the issue of the post-World War II crisis of the notion of ​​a unified historical meaning, and which Effenberger treats with the help of his original conceptual opposition of “integration – disintegration.” The idea model (...) is understood here as a hypothetical teleological intermediary for the articulation of human knowledge that replaces earlier ideas about the overall objective direction of human history. The next part of the study then clarifies the role of the surrealistically conceived imagination in idea models and briefly presents Effenberger’s philosophical project, “the phenomenology of imagination.” In this context, idea models are understood as objects of desire and, within Effenberger’s conception of the “dialectic of intellect and imagination,” provide a framework for examining the role of imagination and irrationality in rational cognition. (shrink)