The nature of concepts is a subject of study of various disciplines, from philosophy to cognitive sciences, leading to fragmented understandings and conceptual dissociations. Legal concepts have been studied in an interdisciplinary manner across all these disciplines, suffering from similar fragmentation. Recently, the interdisciplinary crossroads between law and cognitive sciences have brought forward the notion of legal concepts as mental representations. However, this approach largely overlooks the systemic, historical, and societal elements essential to comprehending legal concepts. The aim of this (...) paper is to advocate for the Social Representations Theory as a useful framework that bridges cognitive and socio-cultural dimensions of meaning and can provide a holistic approach to understanding legal concepts. This paper unfolds in three sections. The first section contextualizes the social representations approach within the law and language framework, emphasizing the societal influences on thought and meaning. The second section explains the notion of social representations, building upon Serge Moscovici’s definitions and Ivana Marková’s arguments for the necessity of this approach to accommodate the social dimension of meaning. The third and last section underscores the claim that legal concepts are, in essence, social representations, advocating for the usefulness of this approach in legal scholarship, both paradigmatically and methodologically, consequently arguing for an inclusion for a stronger focus on the social dimension of legal meaning. (shrink)

Přístupným způsobem se autorka snaží pomoci mladým lidem proniknout do složitých filozofických otázek. Pro výklad zvolila antickou řeckou filozofii, v níž se tyto otázky projevují tak, jak vznikaly na úsvitu evropskécivilizace aje tedy možno sledovat jejich vývoj v logické historické návaznosti.

Recenze: Michael WHITE, Antikrist Galileo. Praha: Academia 2011, 344 s.

It has been claimed that to fully understand the law, one must know the language of normative texts and the relevant rules governing its use. It usually means that normative texts do not seem to be comprehensible enough to persons without formal legal training. In an on-going research project, we are focusing on the process of writing texts of legal regulations, conducting semi-structured interviews with those involved in drafting normative texts. In this paper, we focus on lawyers as a speech (...) community of legal language speakers and we discuss why and to what extent this speech community may be considered an elite in a society. We show that competent usage of special – legal – language in regulating the whole society may help create a special group of persons wielding an important segment of cultural capital: the knowledge of legal language, and, in consequence, competent knowledge of law. Given the fact that this language is used to exercise (legal) power in a society, lawyers appear to be in the advantageous position of an elite. We argue that those who draft new legal texts reproduce writing rules and customs, constantly re-creating legal language as a language mostly incomprehensible to a non-competent speaker, and, in consequence, creating lawyers as an elite speech community. (shrink)

Frustrations attending East/west feminist dialogs in the early days of post-socialism were particularly visible in the Czech Republic. English-language publications explained why Czechs were not going to accept feminism easily, despite the growth of new gender studies centers. This article explores the works of three scholars who participated in these discussions: sociologist Marie Čermáková, philosopher and sociologist Hana Havelková, and sociologist Jiřina Šiklová. It argues that in the early to mid-1990s, Czech gender scholars' explanations of why feminism was inappropriate (...) in the Czech context reproduced state narratives of family and gender relations from the interwar and socialist era. Feminist writings from Western Europe and the US often make explicit the contrast between state agendas and women's lives. Czech narratives of past experiences with the state, however, served as a framework for navigating the early post-socialist era. (shrink)

Stať rekapituluje život a hlavní práce Jiřiny Popelové, významné české filozofky 20. století. Hlavní pozornost věnuje třem sborníkům, které vyšly k její poctě – Sborník k šedesátým naro­zeninám Jiřiny Popelové (1964), Jiřina Popelová, filozofka a učitelka filozofie (1984) a Filosofka Jiřina Popelová (2005). Podrobněji jsou připomenuty statě M. Sobotky, R. Kalivody, J. Peško­vé, P. Flosse a J. Gabriela. Ukazují přínos J. Popelové pro filozofii dějin, komeniologii, etiku, filozofii kultury a historiografii evropské a české filozofie.

Stať rekapituluje život a hlavní práce Jiřiny Popelové, významné české filozofky 20. století. Hlavní pozornost věnuje třem sborníkům, které vyšly k její poctě – Sborník k šedesátým naro­zeninám Jiřiny Popelové (1964), Jiřina Popelová, filozofka a učitelka filozofie (1984) a Filosofka Jiřina Popelová (2005). Podrobněji jsou připomenuty statě M. Sobotky, R. Kalivody, J. Peško­vé, P. Flosse a J. Gabriela. Ukazují přínos J. Popelové pro filozofii dějin, komeniologii, etiku, filozofii kultury a historiografii evropské a české filozofie.

Stať rekapituluje život a hlavní práce Jiřiny Popelové, významné české filozofky 20. století. Hlavní pozornost věnuje třem sborníkům, které vyšly k její poctě – Sborník k šedesátým naro­zeninám Jiřiny Popelové (1964), Jiřina Popelová, filozofka a učitelka filozofie (1984) a Filosofka Jiřina Popelová (2005). Podrobněji jsou připomenuty statě M. Sobotky, R. Kalivody, J. Peško­vé, P. Flosse a J. Gabriela. Ukazují přínos J. Popelové pro filozofii dějin, komeniologii, etiku, filozofii kultury a historiografii evropské a české filozofie.