PhDr. Tomáš Kunca The Humanist Virtuoso: Beginnings, Idea and Illustration of Hume's experimental philosophical anthropology in Treatise of Human Nature UK FHS, Praha 2013 Thesis introduces a concept of "The Humanist Virtuoso" as distinctive feature reflecting Hume's effort to introduce an idea of experimental philosophical anthropology based on study of human nature and manifested in his A Treatise of Human Nature. Concept is justified by three steps, through analysis of the beginnings of Hume's philosophy, explication of his "science of man" idea in Treatise and illustration of this idea in action, as appears in analysis of passions (Book 2). The beginnings of Hume's way to experimental philosophical anthropology are explained thorough interpretation of historical facts connected with his early study at College of Edinburgh. First meetings with culture of science ( both British Christian tradition of experimental philosophy and Newtonian mathematical philosophy) are considered as particularly important. Detailed analysis of pre-Treatise letters (the Letter to Physician and to Michael Ramsey) is provided to make explicit the beginnings of his "science of man" idea, turn to study of human nature. Castration of Treatise is observed and discussed via analysis of his letter to Home (1737). The second...

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This dissertation explores the role and significance of the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus in Western philosophy from Antiquity to today. Paying particular attention to its moral and existential meanings, an analysis of this in-depth investigation produces an overview of the exceptional array of the myth’s functions and themes. It demonstrates that the most significant functions of the Prometheus myth are its social, epistemic, ontological and moral functions and that the myth’s most significant themes are fire, rebellion, creation, human nature and ambiguity. The dissertation argues that this analysis brings to light meaningful information on two sides of a reference to the Prometheus myth: it reveals the nature, functions, themes and connotations of the myth, while information about these functions and themes provides access to fundamental meanings, moral statements and ontological concepts of the studied author. Based on its findings this work claims that, as in history, first, the Prometheus myth will still be meaningful in philosophy today; and second, that the analysis of the myth’s functions and themes will provide access to essential ideas underlying contemporary references to the myth. To prove the validity of these claims this thesis examines the contemporary debate on ‘human enhancement’. Advocates as well as opponents of enhancement make use of the Prometheus myth in order to support their arguments. Employing the acquired knowledge about the myth’s functions and themes, the dissertation analyses the references encountered. The results of this analysis confirm that the Prometheus myth still has a significant role in a contemporary philosophical context. They improve our understanding of the philosophical argument, ontological framework and ethics of the debate’s participants; and thus demonstrate that the information about the Prometheus myth acquired in this thesis is a useful means to reveal fundamental ideas and conceptualisations underlying contemporary (and possibly future) references to the myth.

A presente dissertação propõe uma nova perspectiva de construção do conhecimento musical a partir de um olhar mais amplo para a própria música, com o intuito de buscar soluções para os desafios da prática pedagógica contemporânea. A dificuldade de sustentação da música nas escolas como conhecimento e a distância entre a música ensinada na escola e a consumida fora dela nos levaram a discutir as metodologias e tendências presentes na escola atual, percorrendo a evolução do conceito de música e seu papel na educação desde a Grécia Antiga, quando era considerada matéria especulativa e relacionada à metafísica. As relações entre música e aluno mediadas pelo professor e centradas na experiência criativa e pessoal passam pela concepção de inteligência, de conhecimento e novamente pela concepção de música. Quando esta deixa de ser um mero produto ou objeto e torna-se um âmbito, possibilita a interação e o encontro, conforme o pensamento do filósofo Alfonso López Quintás. Assim, este trabalho apresenta concepções e conceitos que, esperamos, possam enriquecer a prática pedagógica, considerando as demandas contemporâneas e o papel formativo da educação musical. / The present essay proposes a new perspective in developing musical knowledge from a wider view to music itself, aiming to search solutions to the challenge of a contemporary pedagogical practice. The difficulty of maintaining music as a source of knowledge and the gap between the music taught at school and the one available out of its premises led us to discuss methodologies and trends in present school system, ranging over the evolution of the concept of music and its role in education since ancient Greece., when it was considered a theoretical subject related to metaphysics. The connections between music and the student mediated by the teacher and centered in creative and personal experience go through the conception of intelligence, knowledge and, once more, the conception of music. When it stops being a mere product or object and becomes an ambit, a field of action, it enables the interaction and the meeting, according to the thought of the philosopher Alfonso López Quintás. Therefore, this essay introduces conceptions and concepts which we hope may enrich pedagogical practice, considering the contemporary demands and formative role of musical education.

Imre Kertész ist 1929 in Budapest geboren und dort aufgewachsen. 1944 wurde er im Rahmen einer Judendeportation verhaftet und über Auschwitz in das KZ Buchenwald verbracht. Nach der Befreiung des Lagers 1945 kehrte er in seine Heimatstadt zurück, wo er seit 1953 als Schriftsteller und Übersetzer tätig war. 2001 verlegte er seinen Lebensmittelpunkt nach Berlin. 2002 erhielt er den Nobelpreis für Literatur. Ziel der Untersuchung ist die Rekonstruktion einer in Kertész’ Werk allegorisch codierten Anthropologie und einer damit implizierten Ästhetik. Die Basis der fraglichen Anthropologie ist der Begriff des Lebens. Das spezifisch menschliche Leben zeichnet sich durch den Prozess der kulturellen Evolution aus, welcher durch verständigungsorientierte Mittel rational zu steuern ist. Die hieraus resultierende Dialektik wird von autonomen Personen konstituiert. Dabei erscheint die generationenübergreifende Reproduktion der Personenrolle und des damit einhergehenden menschlichen Bewusstseins als unbedingte Pflicht im Sinne Kants. Letzterer Vorgang kann als ästhetische Erfahrung beschrieben werden, bei der die menschliche Ontogenese jeweils in Orientierung an paradigmatischen Darstellungen der Personalität respektive der Personalisierung erfolgt. / Imre Kertész was born in Budapest in 1929. He lived there until 1944, when, in the course of a deportation of Jews, he was arrested and taken to the KZ Buchenwald via Auschwitz. After the liberation of the camp in 1945 he returned to his home town, where he began to work as a writer and translator in 1953. In the year 2001 he moved to Berlin. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 2002. The objective of the study is to reconstruct an anthropology allegorically encoded in the oeuvre of Kertész and a theory of aesthetics intrinsic to it. Fundamental to the anthropology in question is the concept of life. Human life in particular is characterized by the process of cultural evolution, which has to be controlled rationally by means of communication. The resulting dialectic is supported by autonomous persons. Thereby the transgenerational reproduction of personality and the corresponding human consciousness appears as a categorical duty in the sense of Kant. The latter proceeding can be described as an aesthetic experience in which the individual human ontogenesis is oriented to paradigmatic representations of personality respectively of personalization.

Imre Kertész ist 1929 in Budapest geboren und dort aufgewachsen. 1944 wurde er im Rahmen einer Judendeportation verhaftet und über Auschwitz in das KZ Buchenwald verbracht. Nach der Befreiung des Lagers 1945 kehrte er in seine Heimatstadt zurück, wo er seit 1953 als Schriftsteller und Übersetzer tätig war. 2001 verlegte er seinen Lebensmittelpunkt nach Berlin. 2002 erhielt er den Nobelpreis für Literatur. Ziel der Untersuchung ist die Rekonstruktion einer in Kertész’ Werk allegorisch codierten Anthropologie und einer damit implizierten Ästhetik. Die Basis der fraglichen Anthropologie ist der Begriff des Lebens. Das spezifisch menschliche Leben zeichnet sich durch den Prozess der kulturellen Evolution aus, welcher durch verständigungsorientierte Mittel rational zu steuern ist. Die hieraus resultierende Dialektik wird von autonomen Personen konstituiert. Dabei erscheint die generationenübergreifende Reproduktion der Personenrolle und des damit einhergehenden menschlichen Bewusstseins als unbedingte Pflicht im Sinne Kants. Letzterer Vorgang kann als ästhetische Erfahrung beschrieben werden, bei der die menschliche Ontogenese jeweils in Orientierung an paradigmatischen Darstellungen der Personalität respektive der Personalisierung erfolgt. / Imre Kertész was born in Budapest in 1929. He lived there until 1944, when, in the course of a deportation of Jews, he was arrested and taken to the KZ Buchenwald via Auschwitz. After the liberation of the camp in 1945 he returned to his home town, where he began to work as a writer and translator in 1953. In the year 2001 he moved to Berlin. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 2002. The objective of the study is to reconstruct an anthropology allegorically encoded in the oeuvre of Kertész and a theory of aesthetics intrinsic to it. Fundamental to the anthropology in question is the concept of life. Human life in particular is characterized by the process of cultural evolution, which has to be controlled rationally by means of communication. The resulting dialectic is supported by autonomous persons. Thereby the transgenerational reproduction of personality and the corresponding human consciousness appears as a categorical duty in the sense of Kant. The latter proceeding can be described as an aesthetic experience in which the individual human ontogenesis is oriented to paradigmatic representations of personality respectively of personalization.

Through a focus on four rubrics: emancipatory rationality, anthropology, metaphysics and religion, the dissertation demonstrates clearly that with similar resources yet different emphases, Paul Tillich, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno uniquely structure what are largely complementary critical interpretations of a modernity which they see to be diseased, and whose subjects are unable to realize the promises of enlightenment. They shine similar lights on the 'steel-hard cage' of a modernity which they hope to overcome, and possibly to redeem, in largely compatible ways. In demonstrating this, the dissertation unearths some striking similarities shared by the three thinkers, and simultaneously reveals clear lines of dissimilarity between them in other key areas. This includes important distinctions between Adorno and Horkheimer, not only in the 1930s, but also in the 1940s, by which time they claimed to be writing with a single mind and purpose. Key similarities which will be disclosed include an initial reliance upon Hegel’s dialectical structure and Marx’s emancipatory social vision and a trenchant critique of the reifying and dehumanizing forces of capitalism. The modern subject thinks itself free but cannot achieve the liberation promised by enlightenment; instead, the subject experiences alienation and estrangement. Central shared goals include an increase in justice and the hope for not only ending barbarism and the suffering it causes, but also holding the memories of those who have died without justice alive. In a similar manner, major differences arise from common sources and hopes. The drive for transcendence takes a very different form in Tillich’s theological system than it does in the secular-Jewish longing for a hypothetical messianic moment found in the work of Adorno and Horkheimer during the period 1929-50, on which this study focuses. When the writings of Adorno, Horkheimer and Tillich are placed along side of one another, and in conversation with one another, something greater than demonstrable intellectual influence is revealed. Despite some substantial differences in methodology and assumptions, there are remarkable consonances between the types of critical social theory developed, and when read in concert, new insights into each thinker’s oeuvre become clearer and increasingly reveal a kaleidoscopic consonance.

Amb aquesta investigació, que s'emmarca dins l'àmbit de l'Antropologia Filosòfica, el que ens proposem és escriure un capítol per a una genealogia de l'home contemporani, intentant respondre a la pregunta: com hem arribat a ser el que som? No pretenem descriure els principals factors que han influït en la manera de ser de l'home contemporani, sinó que l'objectiu d'aquest treball és molt més limitat: dibuixar algunes de les principals relacions entre el saber i el poder que s'han donat en el si de la medicina contemporània, i més concretament en l'àmbit de la Salut Pública, i que han contribuït a subjectar els individus d'una determinada manera, creant un model: l'home saludable.Volem mostrar com el discurs i la pràctica mèdica que es van començar a perfilar entre el segle XVIII i el segle XIX moment en què es solidificaren els fonaments de l'art de guarir tal com ara l'entenem , a part d'aportar un conjunt de tècniques de curació, també van oferir una determinada visió de l'home, la qual va tenir importants repercussions en la manera de ser de l'individu contemporani.Ens interessa mostrar de quina manera la medicina, a partir de la Salut Pública, ha intervingut en la gestió de l'existència humana, prenent una postura normativa que l'ha autoritzat a governar la vida de les persones.L'objectiu de la nostra investigació és respondre les qüestions: quin tipus de subjectivació implica la medicina contemporània? Quin tipus de subjecte ha ajudat a crear, incitant l'home a establir unes determinades maneres de relacionar-se amb si mateix i amb els altres? En definitiva, desciure algunes de les principals estratègies dibuixades des de la Salut Pública que han actuat com a poders de normalització, en tant que han fomentat un determinat tipus d'home.Tal com veurem, la nostra medicina, almenys des del moment en què es va poder parlar d'una salut pública, ha anat lligada al projecte d'una determinada tecnologia de la població. Entre els segles XVIII i XIX, la medicina va anar desenvolupant una nova política de la salut en la qual les malalties van passar a ser considerades com un problema polític i econòmic que afectava les col.lectivitats i que demanava solucions globals. El que va aparèixer en el segle XVIII no es pot resumir només en el fet que l'estat va començar a intervenir d'una forma constant en la pràctica mèdica, sinó que el que va passar va ser que la salut i la malaltia, vistes com a problemes que exigien algun tipus de gestió col.lectiva, van ser considerades des de múltiples llocs del cos social. És a dir, la política de la salut que s'inaugura en el llindar de l'època contemporània, més que una iniciativa vertical, va prendre la forma d'un problema amb orígens i direccions múltiples.Pretenem mostrar aquesta política mèdica que es va posar en joc al voltant de l'origen de la nostra Salut Pública, fent sortir a la llum el que podríem anomenar l'«ètica de la bona salut» que es va potenciar i que va servir no solament per elaborar algunes indicacions per prevenir o curar les malalties, sinó que també fabricà prescripcions que feien referència a la forma de vida en general (des de l'alimentació i la vestimenta fins a la procreació, la sexualitat, el comportament, les relacions familiars, etc.). És a dir, es tractaria de veure com a l'interior del discurs i de les pràctiques de la nostra Salut Pública, s'ha anat contruint un cert espai de la normalitat, en el qual ha estat possible associar Salut i Raó, Malaltia i Desraó. / This thesison Anthropological Philosophy studies the relationships holding between Knowledge and Power tha were originated in the domain of Public Health so as to prove the great influence of these relationships in the building-up of the contemporary man's identity.Besides furnishing a set of healing technics, contemporary Medicine has also promoted a certain view of Man (the Healthy Man) which has worked as a normalizing power of populations, clearfing the way for the associations Heakth and Reason, Illness and Unreason to be made.

L’œuvre de Hans Blumenberg, reçue d’abord pour son apport au débat sur la sécularisation et sa proposition d’une « métaphorologie », trouve son centre de gravité dans une anthropologie philosophique originale et complexe. C’est à celle-ci que notre thèse se consacre, en prenant acte du fait qu’« anthropologie » et « homme » sont les noms de deux problèmes avant d’être ceux d’un champ de savoir et de son objet. Si la pensée de Blumenberg s’élabore en premier lieu dans un dialogue critique avec la phénoménologie, ce n’est pas pour lui adjoindre le chapitre anthropologique qu’elle aurait omis, mais pour réformer de fond en comble ses thèses, sa méthode et ses principes implicites. Il ne s’agit pas non plus de retourner simplement aux questions et réponses traditionnelles que la philosophie a formulées à propos de l’homme. S’interrogeant, dans la lignée de l’anthropologie philosophique allemande, sur la possibilité de l’homme, Blumenberg oriente sa réflexion dans une voie « négative », dont notre travail s’attache à rendre raison autant qu’à interroger les limites. Avec l’image d’un homme fondamentalement « démuni », un être lacunaire, que les descriptions et narrations de l’auteur mettent en scène, ne retrouve-t-on pas une conception « prométhéenne », qui reconduit les présupposés qu’elle critiquait pourtant ? Notre interprétation vise, dans une analyse des procédures discursives que l’auteur met en œuvre et une discussion des thèses qu’il propose, à faire valoir leurs ambivalences, tout autant que leur fécondité. Ce qui est à lire, en dernière instance, dans l’œuvre de l’auteur, c’est un ensemble d’approches historiques et philosophiques de la « seconde nature » de l’homme, qui décrit les inquiétudes inhérentes à sa condition culturelle, autant que les intermittences du sujet. / First appreciated for the contribution made to the ‘Secularisation’ debate, along with its conception of ‘Metaphorology’, the work of Hans Blumenberg represents a complex and original philosophical anthropology, the core reflections of which form the central focus of this dissertation. We begin from a point of questioning whether “anthropology” and “man” are not simply terms used to describe a field of academic practice and it’s topic of study, but rather two distinct issues to be examined. The dominant motive of Blumenberg’s thought is to be found in a critical dialogue with phenomenology, but he is not interested in simply contributing an anthropological ‘chapter’ to the field, rather he works to criticise and seek a total reform of the theses, methodology and implicit principles therein. He similarly refuses to rerun the familiar philosophical debates regarding man, instead questioning the possibility of man, inspired by the German philosophical tradition. This thesis will assess and critically consider this ‘negative’ turn in Blumenberg’s thought. Do his descriptions and narrative conveying the human as a fundamentally lacking being not tend to invoke a ‘promethean’ conception of man, the very assumptions of which they seek to criticise?Through analysis of Blumenberg’s discursive procedures and consideration of his theses, our interpretation intends to demonstrate their sense of ambivalence as well as their considered abundance. Ultimately, what is to be found in the work of this author is a collection of approaches to the ‘second nature’ of man which together describe the unease inherent in the cultural condition, as well as the intermittencies of the subject.

The aim of this work is to find out the attitude of the students from the medical intermediate schools in České Budějovice and Ústí nad Labem about the dignity of man. The information is taken from the philosophical position of Dominik Pecka. Despite the rapid development of society, science and technology it is important to remember the value of man in common life. Human dignity as incommutable meaning has its impact, and maintaining that understanding is of benefit in helping professions such as social services and healthcare. The asset of this diploma work is to provide educators, primarily of the Intermediate Medical School, with a useful tool to help students understand and critic human ethics and develop an ethical empathy among student regarding man{\crq}s dignity. Using student respondents as the survey sample can help teachers understand contemporary students. The charted data can further serve for self-reflection of one's own behavior, persuasion and knowledge of matters in the ethical sphere.