Life story methods in Europe commonly belong to the field of biographical sociology. This paper points out that biographical sociology is missing from American sociology and describes in-depth two well-known methods in this field in Europe, the narrative interview and objective hermeneutics. The absence of biographical sociology from U.S. sociology should be remedied, it is argued, for the following reasons: First, an analysis of biographical patterns could counteract the heavy emphasis on social structure in American sociology and enrich certain subfields (...) within it. For example, some of the concepts used in European biographical sociology, such as the concept of the “trajectory” can be related to conceptions of agency set forth by American and British sociologists and thus enrich sociology overall. Second, biographical sociology can help counteract the heavy orientation towards quantitative research in American sociology without falling into the pitfalls of purely interpretive methodologies. And third, biographical sociology can significantly enrich the still missing link between culture and cognition. (shrink)

This text, titled The Responsibility of Educators, is the editorial of the second issue of the second volume of the journal Theology and Philosophy of Education.

It is the editorial for the first issue of the second volume of the journal Theology and Philosophy of Education. The journal’s logo is described and interpreted here in the context of the journal’s aim. All the texts of the offered issue are briefly introduced here.

The paper compares Comenius’ usage of the terms unum, verum and bonum in his metaphysical writings both with the expression of the image of the Trinity in De civitate dei by Aurelius Augustinus and with the concept of existence as three basic movements in the philosophical work of Jan Patočka. The purpose of the text is to show, despite the differences in historical periods, language and life experience, the possible similarity or connection of the vision that Augustine, Comenius and Patočka (...) mediate in their works. (shrink)

Editorial of the second issue of the journal Theology and Philosophy of Education.

According to Gabriel Marcel, no task is more important and more complex than looking for ways of confronting and overcoming despair. Therefore, the search for the essence of hope is the objective of this paper. Reference is made to the theme of the open soul in Henri Bergson’s, Gabriel Marcel’s, and Jan Patočka’s works. Such a soul is not centred in itself; moreover, according to Marcel, hope and soul are intrinsically linked together. Hope opens people towards the future. The concept (...) of hope in the biblical context is shown briefly, according to which hope is in God (Ps 62:5), while God is coming to man. At the same time, biblical texts sketch a pathway to hope, setting out from suffering through endurance and character (Rom 5:3–4). The paper stresses that hope takes root in dialogue and that a person is empowered to adopt hope as a gift. (shrink)

The first editorial of the journal Theology and Philosophy of Education.

Based on an analysis of the theory of the movement of existence, this paper answers the following question: Where can one see the most important connections of philosophical and religious language in the most re-thought part of Jan Patočkaʼs thinking? The third movement of life is seen as a form of the true philosophical life, but also as a form with metaphysical responsibility. The movement of breakthrough, or actual self-comprehension, is the most important, because it leads to care for the (...) soul—and, according to Patočkaʼs analyses of inter­pretations of the Faust legend, it leads to care for the true immortality of soul. In the third movement of life, one lives an unsheltered life in openness to all which is not given and cannot be given, which is beyond all objective identification, and yet determines this world. In response to the mission in time (kairos), on the way to “asubjective” openness of the soul, in a dialogue which searches for truth and resists temptation, one can still find metaphysical responsibility and freedom. (shrink)

What is education? What options does the educator have and what is expected from those who are being educated? What do education in the sense of paideia and the Christian educatio have in common? And what is the difference between those two notions? What does it mean to succeed in the drama of life and the world? Can the insightful (theoria) seeking of wisdom (sofia, sapientia) be separated from the effective (praxis) seeking of reason (fronésis, prudentia)? What is the purpose (...) of scholé and can it be experienced in schools today? How do today's schools prepare the youngest generation for the task of enhancing civil society? Is everyone able to relate to good? What does it mean to testify to the idea of good? These and other questions are asked in a dialogue of two teachers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, respectively, who are concerned with philosophy, theology and pedagogy. The aim of the dialogue is to enter the Living school of thought, as founded by the Czech philosopher Radim Palouš (1924–2015), and to consider anew the topics he opened in his works. The dialogue embarks on a journey of searching for wisdom, by listening to words and the Word, by perceiving and contemplating experience, through reason and intuition, dialogue and acceptance in silence. It involves taking a closer look into the world that concerns everyone who are pupils, students, educators, teachers, educators – those who seek and who are sent, those longing and facing misunderstanding. It is an invitation to reflect on human life with humility and the awareness of human responsibility, in the hope that the pursuit of good, truth and beauty is intertwined with the task of succeeding as humans. (shrink)

The present thesis in the subject field of Philosophy of Education with the title “Non-Indifference: Outlines of (Non)Religious Education” represents an effort to point at issues that arise upon a philosophical reflection of ‘religious education’. Such a reflection does not merely concentrate on what is ‘necessary to know’, but rather ‘how to conjecture’. The principal concern is a caring and addressing custody of (or search for) the ARCHAI in an attempt to participate in the caring for the life of an (...) education field that is one of the ‘caring professions’ (a profession, which every education should be). Not only education topics are presented; the reflection is also aimed at terms such as philosophy, theology, religion and faith, eventually at other related concepts. Every of these terms are inquired in its immediacy to philosophy, i.e. their ‘relation’ to philosophy is conceptualized. Religious education is addressed in a three-fold transcendence of men (towards themselves, to other people and to the world, i.e. to the environment in which they live), since if education (in the sense of the Czech word výchova) is concerned, it has to be a non-indifferent (E. Lévinas: la nonindifférence) care, cultivation, growth – life. However, the concern of this thesis is not to look after life in the sense of the provision of nutrition so that life can be consumed. Rather, a question is posed, if life – regarded as FYSIS – is not about more than conatus essendi. This is why education is discussed as a ‘religious’ one. (shrink)

The study Freedom from Dialogue: The Work of Radim Palouš in Conversation with Selected Philosophers and Theologians of Education presents the main themes of the life work of Radim Palouš, a prominent Czech philosopher of education working in the tradition of Comenius and Patočka. From those key themes, the author selects the concept of education and the concept of freedom and examines these in selected philosophers of education and theologians of education from around the world who also produced their works (...) in the twentieth or even twenty-first century, as Radim Palouš did. The purpose of the study is to provide contemporary educators and teachers with inspiration to deepen and develop the meaning of their activity, which consists in education and training, in cultivating man, or in bringing man to a free and responsible life, as this study particularly wants to emphasize. Jacques Maritain, Joseph Pieper, James Vincent Schall and Stratford Caldecott have been chosen as philosophers of education and theologians of education. All of them have dealt with the theme of freedom and the liberal arts and have attempted to suggest in their writings how man today might also be brought to the goal of educational endeavour, to the free assumption of his own responsibility for education. At specific points in the writings of selected philosophers and theologians of education, it is shown that true freedom is not created by human construction but is born in dialogue. Therefore, through a kind of dialogue between the Czech thinker and selected foreign thinkers, inspiration for today is sought. This is the first book publication in Czech that deals explicitly with theology of education and philosophy of education, their interrelationship, correspondences and differences. (shrink)

La imagen del gitano en la lexicografía española Ivo Buzek, hoy día Doctor en lenguas románicas y Profesor ayudante de lingüística española en la Universidad Masaryk de Brno, especializado sobre todo en el área de la lexicología y lexicografía española, publicó entre muchos, un extenso estudio monográfico al que le dio el título de LA IMAGEN DEL GITANO EN LA LEXICOGRAFÍA ESPAÑOLA, y que salió a la luz en 2010. A primera vista parece que se trata de un diccionario de (...) dos centenares de voces g... (shrink)

The prevalence of dementia is increasing with the ever-growing population of older adults. Non-pharmacological, music-based interventions, including sensory stimulation, were reported by the Lancet Commission in 2020 to be the first-choice approach for managing the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. Low frequency sinusoidal vibration interventions, related to music interventions through their core characteristics, may offer relief for these symptoms. Despite increasing attention on the effectiveness of auditory music interventions and music therapy for managing dementia, this has not included low (...) frequency vibration. This scoping review, following the JBI methodology guidelines, was conducted to investigate participants’ responses to both sound and mechanical vibration, the characteristics of the delivered interventions, methodological challenges, and the specifics of the research experiments reported. An extensive search was conducted in BMC, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, ERIC, MEDLINE, Pedro, ProQuest Central, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science. Current Controlled Trials, Clinical Trials, and Google Scholar were also searched as well as a hand search in relevant journals. Studies on adults with all types of dementia, investigating tactile low frequency sound or mechanical vibration in any context were considered. Data from eight full-length studies were extracted using the data extraction table developed by the authors and were included in the analysis and critical appraisal. Issues in quality related to, for example, control groups and blinding. Few studies addressed participants’ subjective responses to the interventions. Reporting on the intervention characteristics was unclear. It appeared more frequent sessions led to better outcomes and home-based interventions potentially addressing the issue of access and feasibility. Future research should include neuroimaging to measure and confirm the hypothesised mechanism of cerebral coherence. Standardised reporting of intervention characteristics is also needed to ensure replicability of the experiments. Higher quality research is needed to investigate the impact and effect of low frequency vibration for the symptoms of dementia and compare outcomes in meta-syntheses. (shrink)

In this paper we revisit Pavel Tichý’s novel distinction between one-dimensional and two-dimensional conception of inference, which he presented in his book Foundations of Frege’s Logic (1988), and later in On Inference (1999), which was prepared from his manuscript by his co-author Jindra Tichý. We shall focus our inquiry not only on the motivation behind the introduction of this non-classical concept of inference, but also on further inspection of selected Tichý’s arguments, which we see as the most compelling or (...) simply most effective in providing support for his two-dimensional account of inference. Main attention will be given to exposing the failure of one-dimensional theory of inference in its explanation of indirect (reductio ad absurdum) proofs. Lastly, we discuss shortly the link between two-dimensional inference and deduction apparatus of Tichý’s Transparent Intensional Logic. (shrink)