Pavel Materna proposed valuable explications of concept and conceptual system. After their introduction, we contrast conceptual systems with (a novel notion of) derivation systems. Derivation systems differ from conceptual systems especially in including derivation rules. This enables us to show close connections among the realms of objects, their concepts, and reasoning with concepts.

Metaphysical theories are beautiful. I mean it literally. At the end of this book, I defend the view that metaphysical theories possess aesthetic properties and that these play a crucial role when it comes to theory evaluation and theory choice. But this is the end of a long journey – a journey that is perhaps more important than the destination. Before we get there, the philosophical path I propose to follow starts with three discussions of metaphysical equivalence. I argue that (...) there are cases of metaphysical equivalence, cases of partial metaphysical equivalence, as well as interesting cases of theories that are not equivalent. Thus, claims of metaphysical equivalence can only be raised locally. My slogan is : the best way to do meta -metaphysics is to do first-level metaphysics. To do this work, I focus on the nature of primitives and on the role they play in each of the theories involved. I emphasize the utmost importance of primitives in the construction of metaphysical theories and in the subsequent evaluation of them. I then raise the simple but complicated question: how to make a choice between competing metaphysical theories? If two theories are equivalent, then perhaps we do not need to make a choice. But what about all the other cases of non-equivalent "equally good" theories? I use some of the theories discussed in the first part of the book as examples and I examine some traditional meta -theoretical criteria for theory choice only to show that they do not allow us to make a choice. But if the standard meta -theoretical criteria cannot help us in deciding between competing non-equivalent metaphysical theories, how then shall we make that choice? This is where I argue that metaphysical theories possess aesthetic properties – grounded in non-aesthetic properties – and that these play a crucial role in theory choice and evaluation. This view, as well as all the meta -metaphysical considerations discussed throughout the book, then naturally lead me to a form of anti-realism, and at the end of the journey I offer reasons to think better of the kind of anti-realist view I propose to embrace. (shrink)

In Fechner's psychophysics, the 'mental' and the 'physical' were conceived as two phenomenal domains, connected by functional relations, not as two ontologically different realms. We follow the path from Fechner's foundational ideas and Mach's radical programme of a unitary science to later approaches to primary, psychophysically neutral experience (phenomenology, protophysics). We propose an 'integral psychophysics' as a mathematical study of law-like, invariant structures of primary experience. This approach is illustrated by a reinterpretation of psychophysical experiments in terms of perceptual situations (...) involving a constructed apparatus and an instructed subject. The problematic notion of 'measurement of sensation' is thus eliminated: 'sensations' are merely indices for classes of perceptually equivalent configurations (states of the apparatus) specified by the instruction. The locus of the measured is in the inter-subjectively shared, communicable world—not inside the subject's mind. Finally we discuss the role of integral psychophysics as a scientia prima , logically and methodically preceding physics and psychology. (shrink)

Model-theoretic concepts of saturation and categoricity are studied in the context of accessible categories. Accessible categories which are categorical in a strong sense are related to categories of $M$-sets ($M$ is a monoid). Typical examples of such categories are categories of $\lambda$-saturated objects.

Inferencialismus idealizuje proces získání významu v komunikaci. K tomu snadno najdeme protipříklady. Zcela zde chybí nějaká, zejména pojmová analýza a také nějaké rozhodovací (meta)pravidlo pro získání významu.

The successful early acquisition of reading literacy represents a crucial learning process determining the further course of academic development (Stanovich, 2009). During this process, interactions between children and their proximal social environment are of utmost importance. Therefore, we introduce a systemic framework for the development of learning potential (e.g., Mudrak et al., 2015, 2019, 2019b; Ziegler & Stoeger, 2017) and explore the interactions between the social and motivational processes associated with reading literacy development in school-age children. We base our analysis (...) on a representative Czech sample of fourth-grade pupils involved in the Progress in International Reading Literacy study (PIRLS, Martin et al., 2016). On the basis of the systemic framework, we hypothesized hierarchical relationships among family socioeconomic status, related developmental resources (including parental support, expectations, and reading resources), children’s reading motivation (including reading engagement and reading confidence), and manifested learning outcomes (including school grades and reading competence). We implemented three structural equation models to test the hypothesized relationships. The first model tested the direct effect of developmental resources on reading competence. The second model included the motivational variables as mediators between resources and competence. The third model included school grades as mediators between resources and motivational variables. Our analyses indicated the good fit of the proposed models. The final model explained 37.8 % of the variance in children’s school grades and 46.5 % of the variance in reading literacy test scores (compared to 34.8 % in the first model). Moreover, parental socioeconomic status was strongly associated with parental expectations, which were associated with reading confidence, partially through the effect of parental expectations on children’s school grades. Reading confidence was the main predictor of reading literacy within the model, followed by the direct effects of parental resources. The results illustrate complex processes through which the family environment affects the development of learning competencies such as reading literacy by providing children with the relevant social and material resources associated with their motivation and school outcomes. We discuss some of the reasons that these relationships may take place and consider their implications for educational practice. (shrink)

Two kinds of individuals are distinguished: abstract and concrete. Whereas abstract individuals belong to our conceptual sphere, concrete individuals (i.e. particulars) individuate the world of matter. A subject inquiring the external world projects abstract individuals onto the concrete ones (i.e. pieces of matter). Our theory offers a solution to various ontological and epistemological puzzles concerned with individuals, e.g., the Ship of Theseus, Polish Logician, problems with reidentification, or proper names.

We study search problems and reducibilities between them with known or potential relevance to bounded arithmetic theories. Our primary objective is to understand the sets of low complexity consequences of theories Si2 and Ti2 for a small i, ideally in a rather strong sense of characterization; or, at least, in the standard sense of axiomatization. We also strive for maximum combinatorial simplicity of the characterizations and axiomatizations, eventually sufficient to prove conjectured separation results. To this end two techniques based on (...) the Herbrand's theorem are developed. They characterize/axiomatize Σb1-consequences of Σb2-definable search problems, while the method based on the more involved concept of characterization is easier and gives more transparent results. This method yields new proofs of Buss' witnessing theorem and of the relation between PLS and Σb1, and also an axiomatization of Σb1. (shrink)

Finitary quasivarieties are characterized categorically by the existence of colimits and of an abstractly finite, regularly projective regular generator G. Analogously, infinitary quasivarieties are characterized: one drops the assumption that G be abstractly finite. For (finitary) varieties the characterization is similar: the regular generator is assumed to be exactly projective, i.e., hom(G, –) is an exact functor. These results sharpen the classical characterization theorems of Lawvere, Isbell and other authors.

Many experimental found footage films base their meanings and effects on an interaction between the figurative content of the image and its material-technological underpinnings. Can this interaction arise accidentally without artistic appropriation? A recently digitised film by the Czech cinema pioneer Jan Kříženecký, Opening Ceremony of the Čech Bridge (1908), presents such an exercise in accidental aesthetics. At one point, the horizontal and vertical trembling of the cinematograph – obtained from the Lumière brothers – translates into a trembling of the (...) figures on the bridge so precisely that the figurative and material spheres appear to cooperate towards a common aesthetic goal. To account for such phenomena, film theory, found footage filmmaking, and archival practice need to join forces with philosophy. More specifically, Gilbert Simondon's notion of transduction, a process based on the intersection of diverse realities within a domain, allows us to conceptualise the paradoxical interaction between the figurative and material dimensions and the unintentional meanings that arise out of it. Transduction enables the distribution of elements between these heterogeneous spheres while maintaining a certain stability within a system. In the case of archival films in which transduction occurs without prior intention or expectation, transduction can be foregrounded and prolonged. The connection between transduction and the “trembling meaning” of Opening Ceremony, understood within the wider context of camera instability in experimental found footage, will uncover the aesthetic potentialities held by the autonomous creativity of film matter and its interferences with the figurative content. (shrink)

_An Ethical Modernity?_ offers a new view of Hegel’s doctrine of ethical life (_Sittlichkeit_) in relation to modernity. In this collection of essays, the authors investigate various aspects of this relation and its importance for today’s world.

The author argues that Hegel in his early manuscript The German Constitution and in the later Elements of the Philosophy of Right develops the theory of the ethical (sittlicher) state. This reading of Hegel's theory of the state challenges wide-spread criticism of Hegel's political theory as, e.g., put forward by Karl Popper in his book The Open Society and its Enemies. (edited).

The article presents an overview concerning Heidegger's work and life, especially with respect to the contemporary state of publishing of his texts. The article aims at showing a continuity in Heidegger's Thinking of Being on one hand, but, on the other hand, stresses also necessity of a new assessment of his thought, if we take into consideration some recently published manuscripts (especially vol. 65 and 66). The necessity of a new assessment concerns also his personal standpoints during the time of (...) his rectorate in 1933-34. The new documents are presented in volume 16 (published in 2000). The author is convinced that Heidegger is a philosopher of our future. We are still waiting for a truly philosophical assessment and exploiting of his work. (shrink)

Esej pojednává o koncepci poznání, již zformuloval významný český filosof a ekonom Karel Engliš (1880-1961) a nejuceleněji uložil do monumentálního spisu Velká logika. Toto teprve nyní publikované dílo obsahuje enormně bohatý materiál, a proto se přítomná studie soustředila na několik myšlenkových motivů, jejichž prostřednictvím lze konkrétně posoudit přínos i možnosti Englišova konceptu tří myšlenkových řádů (ontologicko-kauzálního, teleologického a normologického). Jsou to témata lidské vůle a možné svobody, rozlišení logických a empirických poznávacích prostředků a problém účelnosti a užitečností poznání. Tyto tematické (...) okruhy bylo možno zvažovat u Englišovy kritiky představitelů různých filosofických směrů – osvícence Voltaira, voluntaristy Schopenhauera a pragmatisty W. Jamese. Konfrontace jejich názorů s koncepcí myšlenkových řádů dokládá možné kritické použití Englišovy optiky. (shrink)

1. Směry, osobnosti, problémy -- 2. Biograficko-bibliografický slovník.

This article focuses on theoretical reflections on sovereignty and constitutionalism in the context of the globalization and Europeanisation of the nation states, their politics, and legal systems. Starting from a critical assessment of the Kelsen-Schmitt polemic, the author claims that sovereignty needs to be analysed by the sociological method in order to disclose its current structural differentiation. The constitution of society may be imagined as the multitude of self-constituted and functionally differentiated social subsystems. The constitutional pluralism argument subsequently reconceptualizes sovereignty (...) as socially differentiated and divided between specific subsystems. The EU's differentiated constitutional domain and the paradox of divided sovereignty are used as examples of profound structural and semantic changes in contemporary national and transnational societies. While the sovereign nation-state institutions have become marginalized in political structures of European societies, the self-constitutionalization of the functionally differentiated EU legal system proceeds by internalizing the concept of divided sovereignty and using it semantically as its mode of self-reference. (shrink)

The article focuses on the problem of constitutional symbolism in functionally differentiated societies and its relevance to legal, political, and moral systems. The first part analyses differences between the three systems and their constitutional context. The second part concentrates on the moral symbolic function of modern constitutions and its temporal dimension. It shows that the “good/bad” moral code of constitutions draws on expressive symbolism and transforms it into evaluative symbolism and dogma of morality. The final part analyses the prospective character (...) of modern constitution‐making and its symbolic selectivity regarding the past. The paper concludes by emphasising the systemic pluralisation effect of constitution‐making and the impossibility of constituting systems of “pure” law, morality, and politics. (shrink)

The classical liberal approach to deregulation is based on the consecutive elimination of state regulatory activities and their substitution by competitive market structure. Increasing competition accompanied with decreasing arbitrary state agencies’ interventions will undoubtedly cultivate the behaviour of market agents and bring benefits to consumers.The classical liberal approach to deregulation is incompatible with the EU deregulation model, which in case of network industries is still based on the permanent existence of regulatory agencies, Third-Party-Access, public service liability, centralized control of investments (...) and the negative reciprocity. The adoption of these principals will at least delay deregulation process in transition economies but will likely preserve the cartel structure on the utility markets.Economics of regulation and implicitly economics of deregulation is a product of the Chicago School of Economics. Since current “deregulation process” leads to tighter regulation, the adequate term for it should be the reregulation.L’approche libérale classique de la réglementation repose sur l’élimination de la réglementation étatique et leur substitution par des structures marchandes concurrentielles. Une concurrence accrue et une diminution des interventions arbitraires de l’état ne pourront que modifier le comportement des agents sur le marché et engendrer des bénéfices pour les consommateurs.L’approche de la déréglementation du libéralisme classique est incompatible avec le modèle de déréglementation de l’Union Européenne : dans le cas des industries en réseau, ce dernier demeure fondé sur l’existence continue d’agences de réglementation, la responsabilité du service public, le contrôle centralisé des investissements et la réciprocité négative. L’adoption de ces principes aura pour effet au moins de retarder le processus de déréglementation dans les économies en transition et probablement aussi de préserver la structure cartellisée des marchés de services publics.L’économie de la réglementation, et par implication, l’économie de la déréglementation est une contribution émanant de l’Ecole d’Economie de Chicago. Parce que les “processus de déréglemen- tation” en vigueur induisent des réglementations plus drastiques, l’expression appropriée devrait plutôt être la re-réglementation. (shrink)

This article discusses a familiar version of trope theory as opposed to a familiar version of the theory of universals, examining how these two rivals address the problem of “attribute agreement”—a problem that has been at the root of the very reason for developing these theories in the first place. The article shows that there is not much of a difference between the ways these two theories handle the problem, and in a more general way it argues that there is (...) little reason for preferring one theory over the other. It is not interested in this claim only for the sake of the debate between trope theory and the theory of universals. Indeed, the reasons why it claims that it is so difficult to choose one theory over the other can be applied to other cases as well (where they might lead to claims of metaphysical equivalence). (shrink)

This article reinterprets the Kelsen-Schmitt debate in the context of social systems theory and rethinks its major concepts as part of legal and political self-reference and systemic differentiation. In Kelsen?s case, it is the exclusion of sovereignty from juridical logic that opens a way to the self-reference of positive law. Similarly, Schmitt constructed his concept of the political as a self-referential system of political operations protected from the social environment by the medium of power. The author argues that the process (...) of legal and political globalisation rules out the possibility of formulating substantive theories of the state associating this particular social organisation with metaphysical values and a self-validating collective identity. Kelsen and Schmitt continue to inspire current theories of non-metaphysical globalised law and politics. However, the constitutional state and sovereignty need to be reformulated as a meeting point of functionally differentiated and globalised legal and political communications and not as their ultimate end. (shrink)

Cílem této studie je představení základních tezí sociálně-politické filosofie Karla Raimunda Poppera (jak je zachycena zejména v dílech Bída historicismu a Otevřená společnost a její nepřátelé) a dále kritické zhodnocení aplikace těchto tezí při výkladu Platónovy filosofie. Je probíráno zejména Popperovo obvinění Platóna z tzv. „biologického historicismu“, dále jeho označení platónské teorie spravedlnosti jako „totalitní“ a v neposlední řadě jeho interpretace dialogu Ústava jakožto Platónova „politického programu“ určeného k přímé implementaci v praxi vyvoleným filosofem-králem. V druhé polovině této studie je (...) pak nabídnuto alternativní čtení, v němž se Platónova Ústava vyjeví ve zcela odlišném světle, než v jakém ji vidí Popper. (shrink)

Na úvod připomínám medailon Josefa Zumra k Lubošovým šedesátinám ve Filosofickém časopisu 1995, jako doklad, že našeho tehdejšího vedoucího katedry si vážili nejen filosofové z Brna. Luboš se narodil ve stejném roce jako já, ale středoškolská studia stihl dokončit o rok dříve. Tak se stalo, že jsem se s ním v roce 1950 na Filosofické fakultě setkal jako s učitelem- -asistentem (na jeho přednášce z etiky) a on se mnou jako s jedním ze svých prvních univerzitních posluchačů filosofie. Když jsem (...) s ním od roku 1954 působil na jedné katedře, setkávali jsme se nejen „služebně”, ale i jako kamarádi mimo školu; nezapomenutelné mi zůstávají např. naše zájezdy na slovenskou chalupu k Pavlu Páclovi, kde jsem se utvrzoval v poznání, jak přirozeně Luboš umí být výborným společníkem i v takovém prostředí (nejen při karetních hrách, ale i když jsme se snažili přispět k údržbě Pavlovy chalupy a k její přípravě na zimní období). Pokusil jsem se povědět pár slov o Lubošově vztahu k rodině, v níž se narodil, k jeho vlastní rodině, k rodnému kraji, a ovšem i Lubošovi učiteli, všemi studenty oblíbeném a váženém. Muselo - bohužel - nakonec dojít i na slova obdivu k jeho statečnému zápasu s nemocí, které posléze podlehl. (shrink)

Během nedávno započaté hospodářské krize se paralelně s aplikací netradičních hospodářských politik zvýšil tlak na potlačení ortodoxních ekonomických teorií hlavního proudu a po několika desetiletích se v ekonomii znovu otevírá prostor pro nové teorie, metodologie, paradigmata. Cíle této práce jsou tři. Cílem prvním je obecná sumarizace základních východisek post keynesiánské ekonomické metodologie. Cílem druhým je pak jasné vymezení této heterogenní teorie vůči neoklasické metodologii s ambicí zcela od základů alternovat tuto starou metodologii. A konečně cílem třetím je analýza architektury post (...) keynesiánské makroekonomické metodologie včetně její primární metody zkoumání. Ta je spojena zejména s kritikou absence realismu v neoklasické ekonomii. (shrink)

Studie se zabývá možnými vztahy mezi slovem a obrazem z hlediska myšlenkového obsahu. Tématem jsou odlišné možnosti vyjádření myšleného obsahu slovem, interpretace slova prostřednictvím obrazů a interpretace obrazů slovy. Odlišné významy se objevují, přečteme-li obraz jako typ, metaforu, symbol nebo mýtus. Zvláštní funkci má slovo v obraze. Ukazují se cesty vymezování významových horizontů lidského světa.

Studie se zabv tmatem oklivosti, je je jednou ze zkladnch estetickch kategori. Pojm ji jako poruen "sprvn podoby" druhov formy objekt, piem pojem sprvn podoby neve k jedinmu etalonu. S vyuitm pklad z djin filosofie a vtvarn kultury (neoplatonismu, Michelangelovy tvorby, modernho spiritulnho umn) pokazuje k tomu, jak je hodnocen vzno k irm referennm rmcm, v nich se promt souvislost estetick a etick dimenze fenomnu oklivosti. Dokld tak, jak se na vslednm hodnocen podl srovnvn.

A bare individual was conceived by Tichý as an individual such as if the property the individual instantiates is non-trivial , it is possible for the individual to lack it ; and for any trivial property that it cannot lack this kind of property. The exact readings of Tichý’s original formulations of are subjected to a detailed analysis to reveal that any of them is refutable by means of Cmorejian objection that there exist contingent properties which are partly essential . (...) To avoid such objection, the present paper attempts to rebuild Tichý’s definitions into viable ones. (shrink)

David Lewis’ modal counterpart theory falls prey to the famous Saul Kripke’s objection, and this is mostly due to his ‘static’ ontology of possible worlds. This paper examines a genuinely realist but different, branching ontology of possible worlds and a new definition of the counterpart relation, which attempts to provide us with a better account of de remodality, and to meet satisfactorily Kripke’s claim, while being also ontologically more ‘parsimonious’.

David Lewis’ modal counterpart theory falls prey to the famous Saul Kripke’s objection, and this is mostly due to his ‘static’ ontology of possible worlds. This paper examines a genuinely realist but different, branching ontology of possible worlds and a new definition of the counterpart relation, which attempts to provide us with a better account of de remodality, and to meet satisfactorily Kripke’s claim, while being also ontologically more ‘parsimonious’.