Although experiential prescribing maxims are quoted in some optometric textbooks their content varies significantly and no direct research evidence was available to support their use. Accordingly in chapters 2 and 3, the uses of several potential prescribing rules were investigated in the UK optometric profession. Our results indicated that the subjective refraction result exerted a strong hold on the prescribing outcome with 40-85% of optometrists prescribing the subjective result in a variety of scenarios. The finding that after 40 years qualified, experienced optometrists were three times more likely to suggest a partial prescription was an important discovery that provides significant support for the prescribing rules suggested by various authors. It would also appear from the results of the retrospective evaluation of the ¿if it ain¿t broke, don¿t fix it¿ clinical maxim in Chapter 4 that spectacle dissatisfaction rates could be reduced by between 22 to 42% depending on how strictly the maxim is interpreted by the practitioner. Certainly an ¿if it ain¿t broke, don¿t fix it much¿ maxim was suggested as being particularly appropriate. Chapter 5 included a reanalysis of previously published data that found no change in falls rate after cataract surgery to investigate any influence of refractive correction change and /or visual acuity change on falls rate. Unfortunately these data were not sufficiently powered to provide significant results. In chapter 6, a spectacle adaptation questionnaire (SAQ) was developed and validated using Rasch analysis. Initial studies found no differences in SAQ with gender or age. / College of Optometrists

The diploma thesis presents own research method for examination of speech formations. It focuses on examination of televised political debates. The method applied here may be characterized as an organized hermeneutic analysis of political discourse. Through the application of an analytical - philosophical approach (e.g. application of the theory of maxima, illocutionary acts evaluation, and analysis of arguments and verification of their truthfulness), the method allows us to establish objective facts of the debate as well as some personal features of debate participants. To examine texts, the theoretical knowledge of distinguished authors (J. J. Austin, K. Bayer, T. A. van Dijk, N. Fairclough, H. P. Grice, J. Habermas, J. Kraus, G. N. Leeche, J. R. Searl, and others) have been made use of. In addition to the literary survey, the thesis also includes the argumentation in respect of selection of the method, selection of talk shows, transcript of debates from TV records, transformation of the text into an analysable form, and research methodology. Accordingly, a specific communication model of programme is drawn up, the talk show discourse is analysed as a whole, and the styles and argumentation of selected participants are examined and analysed, which is followed by a comprehensive assessment of the...

Diploma thesis "From construction of media reality towards a social stereotype in the printed advertising" deals with stereotypical portrayals of people emerging in Czech magazine production in the first decade of 21st century. The first part of the thesis describes the theoretical fundamentals of the field, including the theory of the social construction of reality by Berger and Luckmann. In its second part, using the sample of magazines Týden, Reflex, Maxim (formerly Quo), Cosmopolitan and Žena a život, the thesis surveys the occurrence of stereotypical depictions in the period from 2000 to 2008, materialized using semiotic codes. These depictions are named, described and it is shown how are they used in the process of constructing a complex communicate. This thesis is trying to point out the disproportion in the depictions of males and females in advertising and (based on previous classifications available) comes up with an original classification of the stereotypical depictions. The thesis also describes the results of a quantitative content analysis in order to find out about the occurrence frequency of the stereotypes in pictorial texts used in advertising production and it segments the occuring stereotypes in three categories according to the frequency of their occurrence. The categories are...

Religious motifs in the works of the Art Group "Die Pilger" Abstract: The topic of this Thesis is the German-Czech art group called Die Pilger which was active mainly in Prague between 1920-1923. Its main specific feature was a strong focus on religious motifs among which Bible themes prevailed. However, religious motifs were not portrayed in a historical manner but the group often used unusual modern means of expression. However, the religious focus of the group was not proclaimed anywhere, nor did it correspond to all the work produced by the members of the group. The thesis focuses on the religiously motivated creation of the group and analyses what specific themes the artists have chosen. The aim, however, is not to list the depictions and their frequency, but to interpret individual ways of processing the given motif and through it to define the relationship of the group to these motifs and the reasons for their use. Semiotics seems to be the most appropriate examination method to apply in this case which allows you to move away from the historical burden of works and focus only on their content. The second part of the thesis analyses the narrative that is associated with the group and which significantly influences the way we perceive the work of the group. In addition to the interpretation of...

Les écrits aphoristiques de Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) posent une évidente difficulté. Cette difficulté n’a pas échappé à l’auteur qui a recommandé à ses lecteurs, en 1887 dans sa préface à Zur Genealogie der Moral, qu’ils pratiquent en lisant ses aphorismes un « art de l’interprétation [Kunst der Auslegung] » [KSA, V, p. 255, § 8.]. Malheureusement, Nietzsche ne dit pas précisément en quoi consiste une telle lecture. Comment le lecteur doit-il alors interpréter les écrits aphoristiques de Friedrich Nietzsche? Pour répondre à cette question herméneutique nous nous servirons de la « métaphore du théâtre », présente en filigrane dans l’œuvre du philosophe. Notre mémoire se propose d’abord d’examiner ce que Nietzsche a lui-même dit au sujet des « formes brèves » (la maxime, la sentence, mais surtout l’aphorisme), et en même temps ce qu’il attend plus particulièrement d’un lecteur de ces formes d’expression. Cette analyse philologique du corpus nietzschéen se fera aussi à la lumière des commentaires que Peter Sloterdijk (1947-) et Sarah Kofman (1934-1994) ont proposés de la philosophie nietzschéenne. Après avoir nous-mêmes analysé les propos de Nietzsche portant sur ce qu’il estime être un lecteur à la hauteur de ses écrits, il sera dès lors possible de porter un jugement critique sur la pertinence et la portée des études de Sloterdijk et Kofman qui abordent eux-mêmes la mise en scène de la pensée nietzschéenne au moyen de la métaphore du théâtre. Une part importante de notre critique portera notamment sur la nature synthétique de leurs interprétations philosophiques, menées dans une perspective thématico-synthétique et trans-aphoristique, qui marginalisent à bien des égards la particularité et l’autonomie des formes d’expression au moyen desquelles Friedrich Nietzsche s’exprime. / Reading Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844-1900) aphoristic works poses an evident difficulty for any reader. This difficulty was not lost on the author of Menschliches, Allzumenschliches (1878), Morgenröthe (1881), Die Fröhliche Wissenschaft (1882) and explains why he recommended to his readers, subsequently in 1887 in his preface to Zur Genealogie der Moral, that they read him by means of a “art of exegesis [Kunst der Auslegung]” [KSA, V, p. 255, § 8.]. Unfortunately, Nietzsche remains ambiguous with regards to what such an art of reading involves. The present dissertation will nevertheless employ the ‘theatre metaphor’ recurrent throughout Nietzsche’s works in the aim of shedding light on this fundamental (hermeneutical) question: How can we, as readers of Friedrich Nietzsche’s aphoristic writings, correctly interpret our role? The first part of the present dissertation examines what Nietzsche has himself said on the subject of “short expressions” in his work (the maxim, the adage, and especially the aphorism), along with the expectations he has of a reader of such forms of expression. This philological analysis of Nietzsche’s writings will also be followed by the commentaries of his philosophy offered by Peter Sloterdijk (1947-) and Sarah Kofman (1934-1994). I will then conduct my own analysis of Nietzsche’s expectations regarding his readership, on the basis of which I will mount a critique of Sloterdijk and Kofman’s readings, both of whom also employ the ‘theatre metaphor’ in order to show how Nietzsche stages his thought. The brunt of this critique will be directed towards the synthetic nature of their philosophical interpretations. Sloterdijk and Kofman construct their readings thematically and trans-aphoristically and in so doing neglect the distinctiveness and autonomy of the individual aphorisms through which Friedrich Nietzsche expresses himself.

Les écrits aphoristiques de Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) posent une évidente difficulté. Cette difficulté n’a pas échappé à l’auteur qui a recommandé à ses lecteurs, en 1887 dans sa préface à Zur Genealogie der Moral, qu’ils pratiquent en lisant ses aphorismes un « art de l’interprétation [Kunst der Auslegung] » [KSA, V, p. 255, § 8.]. Malheureusement, Nietzsche ne dit pas précisément en quoi consiste une telle lecture. Comment le lecteur doit-il alors interpréter les écrits aphoristiques de Friedrich Nietzsche? Pour répondre à cette question herméneutique nous nous servirons de la « métaphore du théâtre », présente en filigrane dans l’œuvre du philosophe. Notre mémoire se propose d’abord d’examiner ce que Nietzsche a lui-même dit au sujet des « formes brèves » (la maxime, la sentence, mais surtout l’aphorisme), et en même temps ce qu’il attend plus particulièrement d’un lecteur de ces formes d’expression. Cette analyse philologique du corpus nietzschéen se fera aussi à la lumière des commentaires que Peter Sloterdijk (1947-) et Sarah Kofman (1934-1994) ont proposés de la philosophie nietzschéenne. Après avoir nous-mêmes analysé les propos de Nietzsche portant sur ce qu’il estime être un lecteur à la hauteur de ses écrits, il sera dès lors possible de porter un jugement critique sur la pertinence et la portée des études de Sloterdijk et Kofman qui abordent eux-mêmes la mise en scène de la pensée nietzschéenne au moyen de la métaphore du théâtre. Une part importante de notre critique portera notamment sur la nature synthétique de leurs interprétations philosophiques, menées dans une perspective thématico-synthétique et trans-aphoristique, qui marginalisent à bien des égards la particularité et l’autonomie des formes d’expression au moyen desquelles Friedrich Nietzsche s’exprime. / Reading Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844-1900) aphoristic works poses an evident difficulty for any reader. This difficulty was not lost on the author of Menschliches, Allzumenschliches (1878), Morgenröthe (1881), Die Fröhliche Wissenschaft (1882) and explains why he recommended to his readers, subsequently in 1887 in his preface to Zur Genealogie der Moral, that they read him by means of a “art of exegesis [Kunst der Auslegung]” [KSA, V, p. 255, § 8.]. Unfortunately, Nietzsche remains ambiguous with regards to what such an art of reading involves. The present dissertation will nevertheless employ the ‘theatre metaphor’ recurrent throughout Nietzsche’s works in the aim of shedding light on this fundamental (hermeneutical) question: How can we, as readers of Friedrich Nietzsche’s aphoristic writings, correctly interpret our role? The first part of the present dissertation examines what Nietzsche has himself said on the subject of “short expressions” in his work (the maxim, the adage, and especially the aphorism), along with the expectations he has of a reader of such forms of expression. This philological analysis of Nietzsche’s writings will also be followed by the commentaries of his philosophy offered by Peter Sloterdijk (1947-) and Sarah Kofman (1934-1994). I will then conduct my own analysis of Nietzsche’s expectations regarding his readership, on the basis of which I will mount a critique of Sloterdijk and Kofman’s readings, both of whom also employ the ‘theatre metaphor’ in order to show how Nietzsche stages his thought. The brunt of this critique will be directed towards the synthetic nature of their philosophical interpretations. Sloterdijk and Kofman construct their readings thematically and trans-aphoristically and in so doing neglect the distinctiveness and autonomy of the individual aphorisms through which Friedrich Nietzsche expresses himself.

The thesis "Role of the Men's Lifestyle Magazines in the Czech Media Market with Focus on the Maxim Magazine" deals with the analysis of five lifestyle magazines for men situated in the Czech Republic in 2011 - Playboy, Esquire, FHM, ForMen, and Maxim. The thesis begins with a brief introduction into the history of the studied magazines in the Czech Republic and further examines them from the content, language, and graphics perspective. Special attention is dedicated to Maxim as it is the most successful magazine in the segment. With the help of the discourse analysis in the interpretation of Teun A. van Dijk the work focuses on five categories that characterize the magazine discourse: the ambivalent approach to the traditional "heroic" masculinity, the way Maxim communicates with its readers, the role of humour (especially irony) and the magazine's view on homosexuals and women. The thesis demonstrates the ideological - sexist - base of the Maxim discourse with the support of demonstrative examples.

The notion of the organism has a somewhat ambiguous status in Kant’s philosophy. On the one hand it belongs to natural science, on the other hand it is based on an analogy with the structure of reason. Biology therefore has a peculiar place among the sciences according to Kant: it is a natural science constituted by the use of a regulative maxim. The present study places Kant’s views on biological teleology in the larger context of transcendental idealism. It consists of five essays. The first one treats the notions of things in themselves and appearances, arguing for an interpretation in terms of two aspects or perspectives rather than two worlds. The importance of the discursivity of our cognitive capacity is stressed, as well as the need to separate Kant’s various reflective perspectives. In the second essay this interpretation is applied to the third section of the Groundwork, arguing that this text does not belong to theoretical metaphysics, but rather to the articulation of a specifically practical perspective. The third essay discusses similarities and differences between Kant’s a priori conditions for cognition and conceptions of innate ideas in the rationalist tradition. Kant’s comparison of the system of categories with the biological theory of epigenesis is considered in connection to eighteenth century theories of generation. The comparison is viewed as an analogy rather than as a naturalistic theory of the a priori. In the fourth essay Kant’s account of functional attribution in biology is explicated in the context of the present day debate of the issue. It is claimed that Kant’s neo-Aristotelian approach avoids some of the difficulties in the dominant naturalistic accounts of today. Kant’s view differs from the Aristotelian in that it involves a distinction of levels, making it possible to take functional attributions on the one hand as objective from the standpoint of biology but on the other hand as having a merely regulative status from a philosophical point of view. In the fifth essay an interpretation of the antinomy of teleological judgment in the Critique of Judgment is offered. The antinomy is taken to consist in the dialectical tendency to treat the regulative maxims of teleology and mechanism as constitutive principles. The difference between the discursivity of the human understanding and the idea of a non-discursive understanding, an important theme in Kant’s solution of the antinomy, puts the question of biological teleology in relation to central tenets of transcendental idealism.

Syftet med den här studien är att undersöka hur metaforer och liknelser inverkar på ömsesidig förståelse i samtal. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt har jag använt Grices (1989) teori om konversationella implikaturer samt Lakoff & Johnsons (1980) teori om konceptuella metaforer, Stålhammars (1997) teori om förståelse av metaforer och Levinsons (1983) kritik av Grice för dennes påstående om metaforer som brott mot samarbetsprincipen vid konversation. Min analysmetod är samtalsanalys, Conversation Analysis. Materialet för uppsatsen består av transkriberade utdrag ur ett radioprogram som bjuder in lyssnare att ringa in och tala om ett förutbestämt ämne med programledaren och i det här fallet även en bisittare. Resultatet visar att det finns fall där metaforer går obemärkt förbi och inte skapar problem för den ömsesidiga förståelsen i samtalet, men det finns även exempel på att bruk av metaforer och liknelser försvårar förståelsen.

Le présent travail souhaite apporter un éclairage sur la manière dont la littérature politique de l'absolutisme français a envisagé la place de la contingence et du hasard dans l’expérience historique. Cette étude comprend deux versants : d’une part, l’examen des contextes d’écriture du Ministre d'Estat (1631), traité politique que Jean de Silhon consacre à la défense du ministère de Richelieu ; d’autre part, une analyse des aspects épistémologiques et anthropologiques de l’usage des maximes, des préceptes et des exemples dans les ouvrages historiques et politiques. Cette double approche se justifie par les circonstances de la réception de Silhon, que nous étudions à partir de la présence de ses ouvrages dans certains recueils de manuscrits, relatifs à la politique française du premier XVIIe siècle. Pour ce faire, nous considérons le manuscrit comme un médium, qui révèle à la fois le fonctionnement de l’espace public et celui de l’intimité des lectures personnelles. Dans ce travail, la collecte des lieux communs et des sentences est vu comme un moyen d’ordonner l’hétérogénéité des expériences historiques sous la forme d’un savoir utile. Nous commençons par analyser le concept de contingence historique, à travers le topos de fortuna, tel qu’il est décrit dans les ouvrages de Silhon et de ses contemporains. Il semble qu’une tension se dégage entre deux tendances antinomiques au sein de cette oeuvre : l’auteur défend, en matière d’État, une exigence de modernité, celle d’une émancipation de la politique de ses modèles antiques et d’une affirmation de son caractère rationnel ; pourtant, le topos archaïque de fortuna reste profondément ancré dans son oeuvre, y compris en lien avec la figure du ministre d’État au XVIIe siècle. Ce constat est renforcé par l'étude de la réception du Ministre d'Estat en Italie et dans le Saint-Empire. Nous parcourons ensuite les extraits manuscrits collectés dans le cabinet de Richelieu et dans les collections de Philippe de Béthune et d’Henri II de Mesmes, avant de présenter la collection ouvertement francophile du duc Auguste le Jeune de Wolfenbüttel. Nous examinons enfin l’œuvre de Nicolas Zrínyi, homme d’État croato-hongrois, qui intègre, dans sa théorie politique et militaire, deux influences contradictoires : la lecture tacitiste de l’histoire antique et le modernisme de Silhon. Son Capitaine vaillant (1650-53), méditation manuscrite, représente, au niveau de l'invention et de la disposition de ses matériaux, les méthodes propres à l’humanisme traditionnel, tandis que, dans l’usage de l’Histoire, il partage les doutes de l’humanisme tardif. / The purpose of this work is to present the way the political literature of French absolutism explained contingency and chance in historical experience. This study comprises two tasks: firstly, it analyses the different contexts of the Ministre d’Estat (1631), a political treatise written by Jean de Silhon to defend Richelieu’s government; secondly, it deals with the epistemological and anthropological aspects of using maxims, precepts and examples written on historical or political matters. To demonstrate the relevance of this double approach, the study aims to reconstruct the history of Silhon’s reception by discussing the presence of his works in manuscript miscellanies which contain excerpts on French politics in the first half of the 17th century. For this purpose, manuscript is interpreted as a medium which reveals both the functioning of the public space and the privacy of personal readings. Collecting common places and sentences is considered to be a method of organising divergent historical experiences into useful knowledge. In the first part, this study analyses the notion of historical contingency as described with the topos of fortuna in works by Silhon and his contemporaries. I suggest that there is a tension between two opposite tendencies in Silhon’s work: although he declares a claim for modernity in state affairs in order to liberate politics from antique models and to assure its rationality, the archaic topos of fortuna keeps resurfacing in his work and in the figure of the state minister in the 17th century. This statement can be confirmed by observing the reception of the Ministre d’Estat in Italy and in the Holy Roman Empire. The second part discusses manuscript excerpts from Richelieu’s cabinet and from the collections of Philippe de Béthune and Henri II de Mesmes, concluding with the presentation of the openly Francophile collection of August the Younger, duke of Wolfenbüttel. The third part considers the work of Nicolas Zrínyi, a Croatian-Hungarian politician, who integrated two contradictory influences in his political and military theory: the Tacitist reading of ancient history and Silhon’s modernism. His Valiant Captain (1650-53), an unpublished meditation, represents the methods of classical humanism in the inventio and dispositio of its matters while sharing late humanism’s doubts concerning the uses of history.