Descartes' Conception of the First Principles RNDr. Bc. Pavel KŘÍŽEK Master's degree thesis, Prague, June 2017 Summary In this Master's thesis, seven interpretations of Descartes' Cogito are reviewed. The introductory chapter presents a brief explanation of the origin and development of Descartes' views on the role of the first philosophical principles, in fact, the principles of certain knowledge, that is, principles understood by him as the necessary and indispensable starting point for laying the foundations of all science. First - naturally - Descartes' own diverse formulations of Cogito are reproduced. Then, based on relevant text and (their) broader context, all Descartes' necessary concepts and terms concerning Cogito are systematically explained. The second chapter, which is the core of the entire study, contains short reviews of seven interpretations of Descartes' Cogito as presented in a number of established academic publications as well as in more recent papers. Every review is then briefly commented on. The authors of the seven interpretations were chosen to show the differences in understanding and explaining Descartes' first principle, as established on the European continent by the philosophical traditions of German-speaking countries, beginning with Hegel's attitude towards Descartes, on...

Situé à l’intersection de grands mouvements en philosophie morale, comme la renaissance du réalisme non naturaliste et l’affirmation d’un scepticisme épistémologique moral, ce mémoire se propose d’interroger la fiabilité des intuitions morales à la lumière des récentes découvertes effectuées en neuroscience, psychologie morale et théorie de l’évolution. Ne pouvant recouvrir l’intégralité des conceptions de l’intuition et de la justification morales, ce mémoire se penchera prioritairement sur l’intuitionnisme éthique prôné par Michael Huemer. Solution alléguée au scepticisme épistémologique moral, l’intuitionnisme de Huemer garantit une justification prima facie aux énoncés moraux, une propriété conférée par le principe du conservatisme phénoménal. Profitant aux intuitions morales de tous niveaux de généralité, cette justification prima facie peut toutefois être défaite, comme le supposent les arguments étiologiques proximaux et distaux. Au cours de ce mémoire, je défendrai l’idée qu’une majorité d’intuitions morales, telles que conçues par Huemer, sont effectivement défaites par la voie étiologique. D’une part, je tenterai de montrer que l’hypothèse du double système, bénéficiant désormais d’un vaste soutien empirique, n’est pas compatible avec la conception huemérienne des intuitions morales. En l’occurrence, la « trolleyologie » de Joshua Greene, le « Modèle intuitionniste social » de Jonathan Haidt ainsi que les procédés heuristiques seront mobilisés à des fins argumentaires. D’autre part, je tenterai de montrer que la critique généalogique évolutionnaire de Street jette le doute sur une grande partie des intuitions morales, principalement les intuitions morales substantives (non formelles). Comme le soutient Street, l’incapacité du réaliste à rendre compte de la relation entre les vérités évaluatives postulées et les pressions évolutives constitue une raison convaincante d’abandonner le réalisme moral. Ayant présenté deux types d’arguments étiologiques, l’un psychologique et l’autre évolutionnaire, je conclus que seules les intuitions morales formelles et métadiscursives sont réellement susceptibles d’éviter la charge du sceptique épistémologique. / Located at the intersection of a great many philosophical movements, such as the rebirth of non-naturalist realism and the affirmation of moral epistemological skepticism, this master’s thesis interrogates the reliability of moral intuitions in light of recent advancements in neuroscience, moral psychology and evolutionary theory. While there are various ways to conceive of moral intuition and justification, this thesis will prioritize a version of ethical intuitionism defended by Michael Huemer. Put forward as a solution to moral epistemological skepticism, Huemer’s intuitionism guarantees prima facie justification to moral propositions, a property conferred by the principle of phenomenal conservatism. While intuitions of every level of generality can benefit from such prima facie justification, this very type of justification is susceptible to defeat, as suggested by proximal and distal debunking arguments. Throughout this master’s thesis, I will defend the claim that a majority of moral intuitions, as conceived by Huemer, are effectively defeated by means of debunking arguments. On the one hand, I will try to demonstrate that the dual-process hypothesis, which is widely supported, is not compatible with Huemer’s conception of moral intuitions. In order to substantiate this view, I will draw from Joshua Greene’s “trolleyology”, Jonathan Haidt’s “Social Intuitionist Model” and recent work on moral heuristics. On the other hand, I will attempt to show that Street’s evolutionary debunking argument throws significant doubt on a large portion of moral intuitions, mostly the ones which are substantial (non-formal). As Street purports, the realist’s incapacity to explain the relation between posited evaluative truths and evolutionary pressures constitutes a strong reason to reject moral realism. Having presented two types of debunking arguments, one psychological and the other evolutionary, I conclude that only formal and metadiscursive moral intuitions are really susceptible to avoid the charge of the epistemological sceptic.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how religious ethics, while retaining its identity, can contribute to political debate and to the understanding of justice. The inquiry addresses these issues by focusing on theological perspectives which challenge the solutions offered to these questions by the liberal paradigm. Three kinds of challenges are studied, each of which is represented by one thinker from the Islamic tradition and one from the Christian tradition, in order to enable a comparative perspective on the contributions of religious traditions. The thinkers studied are: 1) modified liberalism, represented by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im and Duncan B. Forrester; 2) liberationism, represented by Ali Shariati and Gustavo Gutierrez; and 3) radical traditionalism, as developed by Tariq Ramadan and John Milbank. The study is organized around three main questions. First, how can innovative interpretations of religious tradition be plausibly justified? Second, what role should religious arguments and reasons play in the political sphere? Third, what can religious ethics and theological thought contribute to the understanding of social justice? The questions are engaged by means of a critical and reconstructive engagement with the six thinkers. The suggested solutions are assessed in terms of the criteria of authenticity, communicability, and potential for transformation. It is argued that a religious ethic can rely on a tradition without accepting conservative understandings of that tradition. Furthermore, it is argued that the coherence of religious ethics can be made available for public discourse but that the hospitability of the public forum to such contributions needs to be realized through a deepened democratic culture and a critique of power structures which condition perceptions of rationality. While religious ethics do not articulate complete alternative understandings of justice, they articulate contributions by relating justice to human sociality and to transcendence.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l’analyse mathématique de trois problèmes d’écoulements de fluides viscoélastiques de type Oldroyd. Tout d’abord, nous étudions des écoulements stationnaires faiblement compressibles dans un domaine borné avec des conditions au bord de type "rentrante-sortante". Nous étudions aussi le problème d’écoulements stationnaires faiblement compressibles dans un coin convexe. En utilisant une méthode de point fixe (premier et deuxième problèmes) et une décomposition de Helmoltz (deuxième problème), nous montrons des résultats d’existence et d’unicité des solutions. Nous étudions également le cas d’un écoulement non stationnaire. Nous montrons un résultat d’existence locale et un résultat d’existence globale, avec des conditions initiales suffisamment petites, pour des fluides compressibles. Nous démontrons aussi la convergence du modèle d’écoulement viscoélastique compressible à faible nombre de Mach vers le modèle incompressible lorsque les données initiales sont "bien préparées" / In this PHD thesis, we study three problems for viscoelastic flows of Oldroyd type. First, we study steady flows of slightly compressible in a bounded domain with non-zero velocities on the boundary ; the pressure and the extra-stress tensor are prescribed on the part of the boundary corresponding to entering velocity. This causes a weak singularity in the solution at the junction of incoming and outgoing flows. We also study the problem of steady flows of slightly compressible fluids with zero boundary conditions in a domain with an isolated corner point. Using a method of fixed point (first and second problems) and a Helmoltz decomposition (second problem), we show some results of existence and uniqueness of solutions. In the last part, we study the case of a non-steady flow : we show some results of local and of global existence, with sufficiently small initial data, for compressible flows. The zero-Mach number limit is also established

La terminologie des sciences et techniques spatiales (STS) relevée sur corpus est étudiée dans le cadre et avec la structuration ontologique du domaine. La formation morphosyntaxique, le caractère de l’unité terminologique ainsi que le schéma d’arguments (expressions prédicatives et arguments) sont analysés tant en contexte qu’indépendamment du contexte. L’unité terminologique se caractérise par un degré de figement relatif : une des propriétés de l’unité terminologique « longue » est que celle-ci peut souvent être décomposée, elle peut avoir un comportement discursif, notamment la reprise anaphorique et la réduction par suppression de l’un de ses composants. Dans ce dernier cas, il s’agit de certains aspects de la terminologisation tels que la chute d’une information non différentielle et le maintien d’un élément nominal ou caractérisant. Ainsi, plusieurs aspects sont des facteurs constants qui peuvent permettre de mettre en évidence l’évolution diachronique de l’unité terminologique. L’apport de la structuration ontologique est analysé dans le but de décrire non seulement les concepts des STS mais aussi l’emploi du schéma d’arguments (verbal et nominal) dans le corpus en se fondant sur des étiquettes sémantico-syntaxiques. Une analyse du verbe spécialisé a été développée pour fournir des informations utiles à la constitution des bases de données terminologiques multilingues ou encore la rédaction des définitions technoscientifiques. L’étude a permis également de décrire des verbes absents dans les dictionnaires de spécialité, de montrer comment un verbe peut acquérir un nouveau sens spécialisé et d’identifier l’agent typique de ces verbes. Deux classifications du verbe spécialisé selon ses emplois et sa structure morphosyntaxique ont été proposées : unité verbale simple (UVS) et unité verbale complexe (UVC). Un syntagme implique l’une des deux analyses : unité compositionnelle ou unité non-compositionnelle. Selon la situation contextuelle, la définition du verbe en langue de spécialité a permis enfin de distinguer les trois acceptions du verbe : verbe très spécialisé, verbe polysémique et verbe support. / The terminology related to the space science and technology (SST), corpus-based approach, is studied within the framework of the ontological structure pattern. The morpho-syntactical formation of the terminological unit, its characteristics as well as the schemata of arguments (predicative expressions and arguments) are both analyzed within the context and beyond the context. It’s characterized by a level of relative fixed structure: one of the properties of the “long” terminological unit that can often be decomposed. It can have a discursive behavior in particular, discourse anaphora, and the reduction by deletion of one of its components. In the latter case, this refers to certain aspects of the terminologization such as non-differential element falling and a characteristic or nominal element maintaining. Therefore, some aspects are constant factors which allow to highlight the diachronic evolution of the terminological unit. The outcome of the ontological structure is analyzed with the aim of describing not only the concepts of the SST, but also the use of the schemata of arguments i.e. verbal and nominal in the corpus by establishing itself on the semantic-syntactical labels. An analysis of the specialized verb was developed to supply useful information for the constitution of the multilingual terminological database or to give techno-scientific definitions. The study also allowed to describe absent verbs in the specialized dictionaries, to show how a verb can acquire a new specialized meaning, to identify the typical agent of the specialized verbs. There are two classifications of the specialized verb according to their uses and their morpho-syntactical structure were proposed as; simple verbal unit (SVU) and complex verbal unit (CVU). A syntagm involves one of the two analyzes: compositional unit or non-compositional unit. According to the situational context, the definition of the verb in LSP allowed finally to identify three meanings of the verb: very specialized verb, polysemous verb, and support verb.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:33:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Leite da Silva.pdf: 5873206 bytes, checksum: 41b5b0b338aa31938fedaed40f1af226 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-25 / Aim: This study, situated in the studies of the Portuguese language, aims to contribute to studies dealing with the textual construction of belief in (1) essay in academic and scientific texts and popular science, (2) text news journalistic and (3) chronicles of everyday life. Methodology: The research follows a theoretical-analytical, in which we adopted the theoretical postulations of Text Linguistics, complemented by Critical Discourse Analysis, with socio-cognitive aspects. Justification/ Hypothesis: Although the essay is the focus of constant interest to scholars of the text, treat it as a class opinionated, grouping types of texts opinionated modified by genres, though, is a spongy ground. There is, by definition that the textual construction of belief, it changes depending on the gender discourse in the category of explanation, the schema of textual argument. Results: The analysis indicates that the essay is a text in class opinionated, which changes depending on the conditions of discursive production, in a textual outline of a thesis and two theses. In both modifications, the legitimacy of the arguments is attributed to Marco of Social Cognitions and it is from, which are built to strengthen the arguments. The arguments used travel necessity, possibility and probability. The text presents a journalistic news organization opinionated, based on the interests of the newspaper company, from small text (headline, hairline, eye and lead). And the chronicles of everyday life, are guided by the focusing of the chronicler, in assessing the Mark of the Social Cognitions / Objetivo: Este trabalho, situado no âmbito dos estudos da Língua Portuguesa, tem por objetivo contribuir com os estudos que tratam da construção textual da opinião, em (1) em textos dissertativos acadêmico-científicos e de divulgação científica; (2) textos de notícia jornalística e (3) crônicas do cotidiano. Metodologia: A investigação realizada segue um procedimento teóricoanalítico, em que adotamos as postulações teóricas da Linguística de Texto, sendo complementada pela Análise Crítica do Discurso, com vertente sóciocognitiva. Justificativa / Hipótese: Embora, o dissertativo seja foco de interesse constante para os estudiosos do texto, tratá-lo como uma classe opinativa, que agrupa tipos de textos opinativos modificados por gêneros discursivos, ainda, é um terreno lacunoso. Tem-se, por hipótese que a construção textual da opinião, modifica-se dependendo do gênero discursivo, na categoria justificativa, do esquema textual da argumentação. Resultados Obtidos: As análises indicam que o dissertativo é um texto da classe opinativa, que se modifica dependendo das condições de produção discursiva, em um esquema textual de uma tese e de duas teses. Em ambas as modificações, a legitimidade dos argumentos é atribuída ao Marco das Cognições Sociais e é a partir dele, que são construídos os argumentos de reforço. Os argumentos utilizados percorrem a necessidade, a possibilidade e a probabilidade. O texto de jornalístico de notícia apresenta a organização opinativa, baseados em interesses da empresa-jornal, desde o texto reduzido (manchete, linha fina, olho e lead). E as crônicas do cotidiano, são guiadas pela focalização do cronista, em que avalia o Marco das Cognições Sociais

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:58:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Antonio Luis Mometti.pdf: 1625451 bytes, checksum: 913bedaafe24d4e94d8aa408c036921a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-04-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The purpose of this work is to investigate how the discussion and the reflection on the proper professional practice, in the scope of a group of Calculus professors, can contribute for the professional development of the participants of this group, from what the professors effectively speak on its practice, in particular, on its lectures of Riemann Integrate for functions of a real variable. The Model of the Argumentative Strategy (FRANT & I CASTRO, 2002) and the Theory of the Embodied Cognition (LAKOFF & JOHNSON, 1980; LAKOFF & NÚÑEZ, 2000) compose the support theoretical-methodologycal. It is about a qualitative research, whose sort adopted is the inquiry of the proper practice (PONTE, 2004). It was verified from the arguments and the metaphors used by the professors when arguing about the practice, a strong tension between intuition and rigor on Calculus teaching and it has presented an analysis from the theoretical background. It was observed that the group of discussion was consolidated in an environment where the participants had felt free to expose their ideas, to change experiences and it helped the professors to rethink their pedagogical practice. The theoretical-methodological background adopted revealed to be appropriate to explore the ideologies of the professors from the arguments, allowing to explore the implicit in the speeches and to go deep, thus, the process of reflection in the group / Este trabalho tem por objetivo investigar como a discussão e a reflexão sobre a própria prática profissional, no âmbito de um grupo de professores de Cálculo, podem contribuir para o desenvolvimento profissional dos participantes desse grupo, partindo do que os professores efetivamente falam sobre a sua prática, em particular, sobre suas aulas de Integral de Riemann para funções de uma variável real. O Modelo da Estratégia Argumentativa (FRANT & CASTRO, 2002) e a Teoria da Cognição Corporificada (LAKOFF & JOHNSON, 1980; LAKOFF & NÚÑEZ, 2000) compõem o aporte teórico-metodológico. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, cujo gênero adotado é o da investigação sobre a própria prática (PONTE, 2004). Verificou-se a partir dos argumentos e das metáforas utilizadas pelos professores, ao discutir a prática, uma forte tensão entre intuição e rigor no Ensino de Cálculo e apresentou-se uma análise a partir do referencial teórico. Observou-se que o grupo de discussão consolidou-se num ambiente em que os participantes se sentiram à vontade para expor idéias, para trocar experiências e ajudou os professores a repensar sua prática pedagógica. O referencial teórico-metodológico adotado mostrou-se apropriado para explorar as ideologias dos professores a partir dos argumentos, permitindo explorar os implícitos nas falas e aprofundar, assim, o processo de reflexão no grupo

Hybrid systems with or without stochastic noise and with or without time delay are addressed and the qualitative properties of these systems are investigated. The main contribution of this thesis is distributed in three parts. In Part I, nonlinear stochastic impulsive systems with time delay (SISD) with variable impulses are formulated and some of the fundamental properties of the systems, such as existence of local and global solution, uniqueness, and forward continuation of the solution are established. After that, stability and input-to-state stability (ISS) properties of SISD with fixed impulses are developed, where Razumikhin methodology is used. These results are then carried over to discussed the same qualitative properties of large scale SISD. Applications to automated control systems and control systems with faulty actuators are used to justify the proposed approaches. Part II is devoted to address ISS of stochastic ordinary and delay switched systems. To achieve a variety stability-like results, multiple Lyapunov technique as a tool is applied. Moreover, to organize the switching among the system modes, a newly developed initial-state-dependent dwell-time switching law and Markovian switching are separately employed. Part III deals with systems of differential equations with piecewise constant arguments with and without random noise. These systems are viewed as a special type of hybrid systems. Existence and uniqueness results are first obtained. Then, comparison principles are established which are later applied to develop some stability results of the systems.

Dans cette thèse, nous étudions l'existence, non existence et multiplicité des ondes stationnairesavec les normes prescrites pour deux types d'équations aux dérivées partiellesnon linéaires elliptiques découlant de différents modèles physiques. La stabilité orbitale desondes stationnaires est également étudiée dans certains cas. Les principales méthodes denos preuves sont des arguments variationnels. Les solutions sont obtenues comme pointscritiques de fonctionnelle associée sur une contrainte.La thèse se compose de sept chapitres. Le Chapitre 1 est l'introduction de la thèse. Dansles Chapitres 2 à 4, nous étudions une classe d'équations de Schrödinger-Poisson-Slaternon linéaires. Nous établissons dans le Chapitre 2 des résultats optimaux non existencede solutions d'énergie minimale ayant une norme L2 prescrite. Dans le Chapitre 3, nousmontrons un résultat d'existence de solutions L2 normalisées, dans une cas où la fonctionnelleassociée n'est pas bornée inférieurement sur la contrainte. Nos solutions sonttrouvées comme des points de selle de la fonctionnelle, mais ils correspondent à des solutionsd'énergée minimale. Nous montrons également que les ondes stationnaires associéessont orbitalement instables. Ici, puisque nos points critiques présumés ne sont pas desminimiseurs globaux, il n'est pas possible d'utiliser de façon systématique les méthodesde compacité par concentration développées par P. L. Lions. Ensuite, dans le Chapitre4, nous montrons que sous les hypothèses du Chapitre 3, il existe une infinité de solutionsayant une norme L2 prescrite. Dans les deux chapitres suivants, nous étudions uneclasse d'équations de Schrödinger quasi-linéaires. Des résultats optimaux non existence desolutions d'énergie minimale sont donnés dans le Chapitre 5. Dans le Chapitre 6, nousprouvons l'existence de deux solutions positives ayant une norme donnée. L'une d'elles,relativement à la contrainte L2, est de type point selle. L'autre est un minimum, soit localou global. Le fait que la fonctionnelle naturelle associée à cette équation n'est pas biendéfinie nécessite l'utilisation d'une méthode de perturbation pour obtenir ces deux pointscritiques. Enfin, au Chapitre 7, nous mentionnons quelques questions que cette thèse asoulevées.

Hybrid systems with or without stochastic noise and with or without time delay are addressed and the qualitative properties of these systems are investigated. The main contribution of this thesis is distributed in three parts. In Part I, nonlinear stochastic impulsive systems with time delay (SISD) with variable impulses are formulated and some of the fundamental properties of the systems, such as existence of local and global solution, uniqueness, and forward continuation of the solution are established. After that, stability and input-to-state stability (ISS) properties of SISD with fixed impulses are developed, where Razumikhin methodology is used. These results are then carried over to discussed the same qualitative properties of large scale SISD. Applications to automated control systems and control systems with faulty actuators are used to justify the proposed approaches. Part II is devoted to address ISS of stochastic ordinary and delay switched systems. To achieve a variety stability-like results, multiple Lyapunov technique as a tool is applied. Moreover, to organize the switching among the system modes, a newly developed initial-state-dependent dwell-time switching law and Markovian switching are separately employed. Part III deals with systems of differential equations with piecewise constant arguments with and without random noise. These systems are viewed as a special type of hybrid systems. Existence and uniqueness results are first obtained. Then, comparison principles are established which are later applied to develop some stability results of the systems.