Recenze: Jean-Henri FABRE, Život pavouka. Praha: Volvox Globator 2011, 196 s..

Jaký obraz člověka nabízejí současné společenské a humanitní vědy? Tato otázka je středobodem zájmu autorského kolektivu, v němž má své zastoupení sociologie, antropologie, filosofie, historiografie, andragogika, psychologie i evoluční biologie. Ač je publikace jako celek svým zaměřením především teoretická, v jednotlivých kapitolách nalezneme množství konkrétních příkladů z reálného světa: od umění a vážení přes čtverylku a hokej až po panenku Barbie či vztah lidí k horám. Kniha ukazuje, že obrazy člověka v různých oborech nejsou zcela nesourodé, ale že naopak umožňují (...) vzájemné obohacení. Nejde o soupeřící „pohledy“ na tentýž předmět zájmu, ale spíše o možnost mezi jednotlivými společenskovědními „hrami“ svobodně volit – s vědomím toho, že každá z nich má nejen své meze a pravidla, ale i svůj vlastní půvab. (shrink)

The subject of the present article is the analysis of fundamental logical-semantical terminology of late-medieval nominalistic logician Jean Buridan (c. 1295–1360). The analysis focuses on the concepts of truth conditions and logical consequence, whose clarification presupposes explication of modal terminology as well as a solution of semantical antinomies such as “Liar” (or an attempt to solve them). The analysis of Buridan’s argumentation suggests that Buridan’s project of logic actually fails due to several failures of conceptual analysis of semantical and modal (...) terminology. An alternative solution of the question concerning logical consequence is thus proposed in terms of Buridan’s implicit (and unused) semantical conception of modalities that makes it possible to establish conceptually and therefore explicatively closed logical framework. (shrink)

The so-called “Trinitarian paralogisms” are apparently legitimate instances of syllogistic inference-schemes with premises and conclusions containing expressions of the language of the Trinity doctrine, which fail to be truth- or acceptability-preserving. The logical problem of the Trinity splits into two levels of analysis. First, the technical aspects of Trinitarian paralogisms are analysed in terms of logical innovations in theories of “suppositio” and “distributio”. Second, the philosophical aspect of Trinitarian paralogisms translates into the question of formality as general applicability of logic. (...) The sixteenth century tradition can be reconstructed as a reaction to the fourteenth century nominalist logical analysis. As opposed to post-medieval scholasticism developing the medieval approach, humanism and reformation criticise scholastic logic in terms of diff erent specifi c anthropological theories. (shrink)

The aim of this study is to explain the intellectual formation, cultural and political implementation of the Azerbaijan National Movement in Azerbaijan under the rule of Tsarist Russia from the mid-19th century to 1918 and resulted in the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan in the context of Miroslav Hroch's approach to the three-phase development of national movements. It is very important to understand Miroslav Hroch's approach in order to understand the originality, fundamental dynamics and the way (...) of development of the Azerbaijani National Movement, which was revealed by the Turkish nationalists in Azerbaijan with many discourses and practices. In this study, the history of Azerbaijan National Movement is divided into three phases through Hroch's approach. Phase A, which began in the mid-19th century, had a purely cultural, literary and folkloric content, while a modern nation from the ethnic group was formed by the nationalist agitation through the transition to Phase B in the early 20th century. After the Russian Revolution of 1905, the Azerbaijani National Movement gained mass support and moved on to Phase C. -/- . (shrink)

The paper deals with cognitive interview, a method for pre-testing survey questions that is used in pilot testing to develop new measures and/or adapt ones in foreign languages. The aim is to explore the usefulness of the method by looking at two questionnaires measuring anti-Roma prejudice. The first, the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), contains questions that are dominantly used to test two dimensions of social perceptions of various groups: warmth and competence. The second, Interventions for Reducing Prejudice against Stigmatized Minorities (...) (INTERMIN) consists of the items most frequently used in contact research to measure attitudes, social distance, anxiety, trust and behavioural intentions towards outgroups. Two rounds of cognitive interviews were held on both questionnaires to verbally evaluate participants’ understanding and/or interpretation of the draft questions. The first round was attended by university students, while the second round (with improved versions of the questionnaires) was done with high school students, as they are the target group for planned interventions based on the contact paradigm. The paper explains the problems/difficulties the participants had answering some of the questions and our attempts at improving the questionnaires. The problems can be grouped around six issues: The first two deal with the strategies participants used to answer our questions – whom exactly did they have in mind when answering the questionnaires and whose viewpoint did they represent in their answers. The next four problems are around nuances in the formulations of our questions and generally have to do with how the participants interpreted our questions – they concern assumptions that distinct items were logically interconnected, the period of time and locality referred to in our questions, translation and transferability of meanings from one language to another and double negation. (shrink)

There are two conceptions of ‘inclusion’ in play in this debate. 1. The traditional conception in sport: How does sport provide inclusion/exclusion? Through eligibility criteria. 2. The social justice conception: trans people must be included in all social endeavours/institutions, one of these being sport. In the latter ‘inclusion’ facilitates affirmation and validation of their gender identity. The question is: should sport take on this ‘social justice’ task?

University study can be a life period of heightened psychological distress for many students. The development of new preventive and intervention programs to support well-being in university students is a fundamental challenge for mental health professionals. We designed an 8-week online mindfulness-based program combining a face-to-face approach, text, audio, video components, and support psychotherapy principles with a unique intensive reminder system using the Facebook Messenger and Slack applications in two separate runs. We assessed the program’s effect on mindful experiencing, perceived (...) stress, emotion regulation strategies, self-compassion, negative affect, and quality of life. The results of the presented pilot study confirmed that eMBP is a feasible and effective tool in university students’ mental health support. The students who completed the eMBP reported a reduction of perceived stress with a large effect size as well as a decrease of negative affect experience frequency and intensity, an increase of being mindful in their life, and a higher rate of self-compassion with a medium effect size. A small effect size was found in the frequency of using a cognitive reappraisal strategy. One new result is the observation of an eMBP effect on the decrease in attributed importance to the quality-of-life components replicated in two consecutive runs of the program. The study affirms that mindfulness-based interventions can be effectively delivered in an eHealth form to university students. (shrink)

This paper begins by considering the specific position of philosophy on culture: philosophy is part of culture as well as being a reflection of the whole complex. Thus, culture finds in philosophy its own meta-cultural account. One of the results achieved by this philosophical approach might be the diagnosis of the cultural split and the symptoms of anthropological regress. On the other hand, the example of Michel de Certeau’s work shows us that from this point of view it is possible (...) to develop philosophical anthropology as a performative discipline, studying the activities of transformation, and appropriation at the level of everyday life. This anthropological approach leads us to an awareness of the principal openness of the cultural field and even to a new understanding of balkanization. (shrink)

This paper begins by considering the specific position of philosophy on culture: philosophy is part of culture as well as being a reflection of the whole complex. Thus, culture finds in philosophy its own meta-cultural account. One of the results achieved by this philosophical approach might be the diagnosis of the cultural split and the symptoms of anthropological regress. On the other hand, the example of Michel de Certeau’s work shows us that from this point of view it is possible (...) to develop philosophical anthropology as a performative discipline, studying the activities of transformation, and appropriation at the level of everyday life. This anthropological approach leads us to an awareness of the principal openness of the cultural field and even to a new understanding of balkanization. (shrink)

Anthropology of Consciousness, Volume 32, Issue 1, Page 33-54, Spring 2021.

The research presented in this article is motivated by the increasing importance of complex human relations in linked data, either extracted from social networks, or found in existing databases. The FOAF vocabulary, targeted in our research, plays a central role in those data, and is a model for lightweight ontologies largely used in linked data, such as the DBpedia ontology and schema-org. We provide an overview of FOAF and other approaches for describing human relations, followed by a detailed analysis and (...) critique of the FOAF Relationship Vocabulary, the most important FOAF extension. We propose an explicit formal axiomatization of this vocabulary, and an ontological analysis concerning the properties used to describe human relationships. We analyze the distribution of human relations based on their epistemological status, and define an ontoepistemic meta-property as characteristic of some of these predicates. Our analysis is generalizable to semantic modeling of social networks. Additionally, the modeling patterns used in other relevant linked data vocabularies are analyzed for comparison. (shrink)

Prior research has suggested that perceptual disfluency activates analytical processing and increases the solution rate of mathematical problems with appealing but incorrect answers (i.e., the Cogn...

Most people will not be familiar with the term ‘jurisprudence of sport’ (JOS). The idea is that looking at sport through the eyes of a legal scholar might illuminate our understanding of certain problems in sport (and vice versa). The term was first introduced in 2011, in the title of a paper by Mitchell N. Berman, who is also a contributor to this book. In the present volume we have contributions from around the world: Italy, Spain, Germany, Australia, Great Britain, (...) the US and the Netherlands, by authors of various nationalities. (shrink)

The relationship between metaphysics and psychology has different dimensions. An emblematic example of this relationship is the literary polemics between Martin Buber and Carl Jung about boundaries between the two areas of scientific knowledge. According to Buber, Jung allows himself to cross the border of psychology and psychiatry through metaphysical assertions, while Yung claims he doesn’t go beyond that, and all his speeches, even about transcendent objects, don’t leave the sphere of empiricism. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct (...) this dialogue and critically analyze it in view of the possibilities of thinking of the transcendence. (shrink)

In 2004 in Prague, I met Slovak philosopher Miroslav Marcelli, who had attended Foucault's lectures in Paris in 80s. We talked about the legacy of Foucault and contemporary philosophy. Mr. Marcelli taught me philosophy at Comenius University in 1995.. I never visited his lectures, I only passed the exam.. The most interesting point was his answer to my 'provocations' replicating the common prejudice about impracticability of the philosophy. He answered "Do you think that e.g. Descartes didn't know about it?" (...) In fact, people tend to think that philosophers or mathematicians, are "asocial" without "social" intelligence, while their occasional isolation (e.g. Nietzsche) is a product of social exclusion, rather than their choice. In 2013 I applied Foucault's concept of Discontinuity to short 10 minutes movie: Discontinuity, projected in my exhibition "From Animation" in Holland Park, London. The film has 3 parts, ends as it starts to show the significant historical events in 4 windows, when the same idea appears to disappear to re-appear.. Foucault's philosophy doesn't seem to me so unique now, e.g. the idea that many historical changes or progress itself is often illusionary - masking the power structure, had already been explored 515 BC, in depth by Parmenides who concluded: the change is impossible. (shrink)

I confront arbitrariness of the sign to a criterion assessing the quality of language, logical system, psychometrics and art.

One of the important topics in the field of philosophy of religion is the relationship between the various forms of the Divine, in particular the wellknown distinction between "philosophical God" and personalist understandings of God (Blaise Pascal). Spinoza's ethics is oriented mainly to the argumentation of the first understanding and is its consistent implementation. Hegel's interpretation of Spinoza is reconstructed here in view of the question of pantheism and atheism in Spinoza's system and whether and to what extent Hegel rehabilitated (...) and "justified" Spinoza. Our thesis is that Hegel's position on too many God in Spinoza is incomplete and imprecise. (shrink)

Moral Judgments, Moral Virtues, and Moral Norms The paper consists of two basic parts. In the first, contemporary approaches to moral judgments and their relations with moral virtues and moral norms are analyzed. The focus is on comparing the role of the emotions and reason, and conscious and unconscious processes in forming and/or justifying moral judgments. The second part examines views on the current broader socio-political situation in Western countries and points to the growing feelings of insecurity among people mainly (...) due to the fact that traditional ways of life have been losing solid ground, settled norms and ethical systems are weakening and at the same time the social trust in various state institutions and bureaucratic structures involved in power is decreasing. In conclusion the author argues for the potential of the ethic of autonomy that would lead to still greater cooperation in globalized ethic, primarily thanks to our moral emotions and moral judgments. (shrink)

Normativity: Approaches, Polemics, Problems.

The article approaches the topic of social trust from an evolutionary perspective. It begins by summarising the most influential approaches that have defined specific and social trust and ascertains what causes differences in degrees of trust and how the potential risk of deception might be lowered. It then notes that the basis of morality had already been formed during the era of prehistoric man, who was able to create coalitions against aggressors and to socially control the behaviour of deviants. It (...) points out, however, that having a certain predisposition to behaving cooperatively or an increased sensitivity to recognising and not tolerating behaviour aimed at abusing cooperation is not a sufficient guarantee of the fact that people will always (or at least in the majority of situations) favour cooperation over deception. One of the reasons for this is a tendency to favour short-term gains over long-term ones. The article argues that establishing norms (moral, social and legal) produces a higher level of social trust because it not only “encourages” individuals to behave in certain ways in particular situations but also works as a sanction which “discourages” the individual from socially deviant behaviour. The article then focuses on a debate about the causal relationship between social trust and social capital. It discusses the suggestion that political institutions, government and the judiciary may reduce rather than raise levels of social capital and consequently also the level of social trust. This is partly because of their powerful position and the consequent scope for corruption and partly because of the fact that even when attempting to act honestly, representatives of these institutions cannot sufficiently reflect upon dynamic change at the local level. Finally, the article ends by adopting the position that social trust is built primarily from bottom up and so it is risky to continually doubt the very existence and usefulness of social norms and morality and to be governed simply by legal norms. (shrink)

Príspevok pozostáva z troch častí. Prvá časť sa zaoberá taxonómiou a kritériami klasifikácie rôznych druhov noriem. Poukazuje na to, že rozdiel medzi dvoma najdôležitejšími druhmi kooperačných noriem – sociálnymi a morálnymi – je skôr kvantitatívneho než kvalitatívneho charakteru a navrhuje trojdimenzionálny model ich diferenciácie. Druhá časť je venovaná morálnym normám a zdôvodňuje dominantnú rolu emócií pre vznik a fungovanie morálky, ktorá zohráva kľúčovú rolu pri ochrane spoločnosti pred najnebezpečnejšími sociálnymi konfliktami. V tretej časti sa argumentuje, že vzájomná sociálna dôvera, nevyhnutná (...) pre medziľudskú kooperáciu, sa postupne vytvára zdola nahor, najskôr na úrovni najbližšej rodiny a postupne sa rozširuje na ďalšie okolie. Pre jej zvýšenie a udržanie sú nevyhnutné sociálne a morálne normy, ktoré tiež historicky vznikali najskôr v lokálnych spoločenstvách a až postupne sa šírili do širších sociálnych celkov. Príspevok upozorňuje na možné negatívne konzekvencie plynúce z podceňovania roly sociálnych a morálnych noriem a snahy riadiť sa namiesto nich len legislatívnymi normami, spočívajúce v oslabení sociálnych väzieb. (shrink)

Objektivistická filosofie Ayn Randové je i v současnosti myšlenkový směr, k němuž se někteří lidé aktivně hlásí a který zároveň představuje ideovou inspiraci některých směrů politických. Předkládaný text se zabývá kritickým zhodnocením konceptu ctnosti v kontextu objektivistické etiky, tzv. etiky egoismu. Nejprve se věnujeme tomu, jak sama Randová tyto předchozí etické koncepce hodnotí, a jejím vlastním základním východiskům – především principu sebezáchovy a racionálního lidského života. Další část textu se zabývá otázkou mezilidské interakce, ve které Randová odmítá jakékoli obětování a (...) altruismus. Centrální roli hraje v autorčině koncepci produktivní práce, k tvůrčí práci jako ke svému základnímu těžišti se vztahuje také její nauka o ctnostech. Specifický problém pak představuje koncepce žádosti a racionálního zájmu, která, jak se domníváme, vede k určitým kontraintuitivním důsledkům. Text je uzavřen srovnáním s koncepcí R. Nozicka a stručným závěrem. (shrink)

Lidská práva jsou v současné době předmětem řady komplexních otázek, které jsou politické, sociální či právní povahy. Abychom na otázky mohli smysluplně odpovídat, musíme brát ohled i na obecnější filosofické souvislosti a mít jasnější představu o tom, co lidská práva jsou a na jakých základech stojí. V předkládaném textu si klademe otázku, zdali máme v současné době k dispozici plně filosoficky fundovanou koncepci založení a legitimizace lidských práv. Předkládáme postupně různé současné přístupy, které jsou kandidáty na řešení tohoto problému a (...) přinášíme jejich kritické zhodnocení. Východiskem je pro nás představa lidských práv jako evidentních pravd a od ní odvozené přístupy zakládající je na racionální či emocionální evidenci. Dále se věnujeme možnosti náboženského založení lidských práv, přístupům přirozenoprávním, utilitaristickým a koncepcím vycházejícím z pojmu důstojnosti. Stručně jsou zmíněny i některé další související teorie a historický kontext analyzovaných pojetí. V závěru na položenou otázku odpovídáme, že zcela uspokojivá filosofická teorie lidských práv stále není k dispozici, a přinášíme také vlastní doporučení pro řešení předložených problémů zkoumaných teorií. (shrink)

Grammatische Ausdrucksmittel der Hierarchisierung der semantischen Struktur des Satzes.

Although there have been efforts to integrate Semantic Web technologies and artificial agents related AI research approaches, they remain relatively isolated from each other. Herein, we introduce a new ontology framework designed to support the knowledge representation of artificial agents’ actions within the context of the actions of other autonomous agents and inspired by standard cognitive architectures. The framework consists of four parts: 1) an event ontology for information pertaining to actions and events; 2) an epistemic ontology containing facts about (...) knowledge, beliefs, perceptions and communication; 3) an ontology concerning future intentions, desires, and aversions; and, finally, 4) a deontic ontology for modeling obligations and prohibitions which limit agents’ actions. The architecture of the ontology framework is inspired by deontic cognitive event calculus as well as epistemic and deontic logic. We also describe a case study in which the proposed DCEO ontology supports autonomous vehicle navigation. (shrink)

World Rugby (WR) announced in 2020 that transwomen should not be competing at the elite level because of safety and fairness concerns. WR and Jon Pike, a philosopher of sport advising them, adopted a lexical approach to get a grip on the three values in play: safety, fairness, and inclusion. Previously, governing bodies tried to balance these competing values. Michael Burke recently published a paper taking aim at Pike’s lexical approach. This is a reply to Burke.

The paper aims to present Spinoza’s understanding of the ontological status of finite beings, which was heavily influenced by mathematics, i.e. geometry. Spinoza stratified finite beings into two fairly incompatible layers: the one subjectively conceived, while the other is the objective level. The first level is related to the essence of being that is caused by God through immanent causality: here, we speak of entailment on the logical and epistemological level, and not the level of reality. Unlike essence, existence represents (...) the second level of being: existence is caused by the real finite being through transeunt cause. The first level, by its ontological status, is very close to mathematical entities, therefore the qualification that Spinoza ‘geometrized reality under a species of the essences’. Namely, he geometrized the segment under the scope of ontology, i.e. the essences of finite modes. The final part of the paper is dedicated to one of the main reasons why Spinoza failed to provide a satisfactory solution to this ontological problem, which is not the only such problem of his system. This would be that Spinoza paid too muchattention on ethics, to the detriment of metaphysics, i.e. ontology as general metaphysics. For Spinoza, ontology is subjected to epistemology and ethics, therefore the name ‘functional metaphysics’. U članku se tematizira Spinozino shvaćanje ontologijskog statusa konačnih bića koje je bilo pod znatnim utjecajem matematike odnosno geometrije. Spinoza je konačna bića stratificirao na dvije teško pomirljive razine: jedna je ona subjektivno zamišljena, a druga bi trebala biti zbiljska razina. Prva se razina odnosi na bit bića koju uzrokuje Bog na način imanentne uzročnosti: radi se o slijeđenju na logičkoj i spoznajnoj razini, a ne o zbiljskoj razini. Za razliku od bîti, egzistencija predstavlja drugu razinu bića: egzistenciju uzrokuje zbiljsko konačno biće na način tranzeuntnog uzroka. Prva je razina po svome ontologijskom statusu vrlo bliska matematičkim entitetima, zbog čega se rabi kvalifikacija da je Spinoza ‘geometrizirao stvarnost pod vidikom bîti’. Geometrizirao je, naime, segment kojim se bavi ontologija, a to su bîti konačnih modusa. U završnom dijelu članka navodi se jedan od glavnih razloga Spinozina nezadovoljavajućeg rješenja ovog ontologijskog problema, iako to nije i jedini ontologijski problem njegova sustava. Taj bi razlog bila Spinozina velika usredotočenost na etiku, a na štetu metafizike, odnosno ontologije kao opće metafizike. Spinoza je ontologiju promatrao u funkciji epistemologije i etike, pa se govori o ‘funkcionalnoj metafizici’. (shrink)

The paper aims to present Spinoza’s understanding of the ontological status of finite beings, which was heavily influenced by mathematics, i.e. geometry. Spinoza stratified finite beings into two fairly incompatible layers: the one subjectively conceived, while the other is the objective level. The first level is related to the essence of being that is caused by God through immanent causality: here, we speak of entailment on the logical and epistemological level, and not the level of reality. Unlike essence, existence represents (...) the second level of being: existence is caused by the real finite being through transeunt cause. The first level, by its ontological status, is very close to mathematical entities, therefore the qualification that Spinoza ‘geometrized reality under a species of the essences’. Namely, he geometrized the segment under the scope of ontology, i.e. the essences of finite modes. The final part of the paper is dedicated to one of the main reasons why Spinoza failed to provide a satisfactory solution to this ontological problem, which is not the only such problem of his system. This would be that Spinoza paid too much attention on ethics, to the detriment of metaphysics, i.e. ontology as general metaphysics. For Spinoza, ontology is subjected to epistemology and ethics, therefore the name ‘functional metaphysics’. (shrink)

A guide to defining and then creating a flourishing life, based on the popular class at Yale What makes a good life? The question is inherent to the human condition, asked by people across generations, professions, and social classes, and addressed by all schools of philosophy and religions. This search for meaning, as Yale professors Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz argue, is at the crux of a crisis that is facing Western culture, a crisis that, they propose, (...) can be ameliorated by searching, in one's own life, for the underlying truth. In A Life Worth Living, named after its authors' highly sought-after undergraduate course, Volf, Croasmun, and McAnnally-Linz chart out this question, providing readers with jumping-off points, road maps, and habits of reflection for figuring out where their lives hold meaning and where things need to change. Drawing from the major world religions and from impressively truthful and courageous secular figures, A Life Worth Living is a guide to life's most pressing question, the one asked of all of us: How are we to live? (shrink)