Magister Artium - MA / Despite the loss of speakers of |xam, one of the 28 Khoisan languages once spoken across Southern Africa, a part of the heritage of these speakers can be found in predominantly two archives: that of Wilhelm H. I. Bleek and Lucy Lloyd (1911) and Gideon R. von Wielligh (1919-1921). The archives form the heart of Bushman* Studies, and has long since received attention in, amongst others, anthropology, literature, and linguistics. This study presents an investigation into the ethical views of the |xam, an investigation which, with the single exception of the studies of Antjie Krog (2004-), has not been undertaken in a philosophical tradition. Through a comparative study of texts across archival boundaries, I engage critically with the ethical views of the |xam, specifically the phenomenological nature of these views. To this end, I use the hermeneutical approach in African philosophy, an approach which focuses on identifying and analysing concepts in texts. The approach to ‘reading’ |xam texts remains, however, a burning issue, and the limit to which disciplinary boundaries are appropriate, is debatable (Wessels 2010). Consequently, and as a result of the relative density of the available texts, insights from anthropology, literature, linguistics and rock art are incorporated within the comparative study. I secondly bring the ethical views which are identified through the comparative analysis into conversation with the dominant ethical framework in African philosophy, namely Ubuntu. Where Ubuntu as been ‘read’ through various lenses (Van Niekerk 2013), a phenomenological approach is absent. Further, where Ubuntu, African ethics broadly, is generally regarded as humanist, a salient ecological consciousness is present in the |xam views. A comparison between Ubuntu and the |xam views therefore deepens the discourse around African ethics in general, and further provides insights into the unique nature of the ethical views of the |xam in particular. Through this I attempt to add value both to Bushman Studies and African philosophy, whilst highlighting an important voice unique to Africa which could be added to the burning discussion around ecological decay in the time of the Anthropocene.

The work brings critical and philosophical perspective on the issue of art and mass culture in contemporary society. Relying on H.-G. Gadamer's, T. W. Adorno's and Walter Benjamin's ideas. The work performs a summary of their thoughts, focusing on art as an example of humanities- scientific investigation in the case of H.-G. Gadamer, the criticism of the cultural industry and its vital role in the thinking of T. W Adorno and the issue of technical reproducibility of works of art in a Walter Benjamin's essay. The work focuses on the present social functions of mass culture, its internal structure, on the issue of its quality, taking into account the extent to which this appears to be useful. The main topic was ultimately shown to be a phenomenon of education. Keywords. Philosophical Anthropology, Philosophy of Art, Culture and Society, Mass Culture.

The work is focused on the evolution of Patočka's conception of movements of the human existence throughout his thoughts. My aim is to show sources of this conception, its explicite expressions and their structure and finally the meaning of this conception for the human life and its status in Patočka's whole-life philosophical project, all this by the analysis of three metodologically defined periods of Patočka's work. The inevitable past of this kind of rethinking of Patočka's conception is dealing with the question of succesion of his two great teachers, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger,and showing, that his conception of movements of the human existence can't be explained simply from the polarity of uncritical bulilding on them, neither the complete refusing them. Also I would like to show the conceptional kinship with other thinkers of western philosophical tradition, whose selection is selective, but in my opinion meaningful. I also hope, that this rethinking of the conception of movements of the human existance will show the place, which belongs to Patočka's thougt in the western philosophical tradition and, first of all, it's meaning for human life. Key words Phenomenology, movement, existence, philosophy of history, authenticity

The presented philosophical-anthropological interpretation seeks to examine the phenomenon of "the image of humanity" (the becoming of Self) and consequently to study the human condition defined as "man longing for knowledge", all from a Christian perspective. After a thorough overview of the development of the Skeptical tradition in the history of philosophy, the two subjects of study will be interpreted, phenomenologically and exegetically, based on various texts from the Danish existencialist Søren Kierkegaard and the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes. The following comparison will enable us to see the parallel between knowledge and doubt in both of the authors' works. We shall come to a conclusion that there is an exponential relationship between knowledge and doubt: the more knowledge there is, the more doubt arises. During this interpretation, the aim will also be to trace the origin of doubt, while using the story of creation from the book of Genesis as the foundation for our study. Doubt, as we shall notice, entered the world accompanied by sin (in the form of consciousness) after Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This moment was crucial, for man committed a qualitative leap from innocence to the state of sin. Therefore, man is situated in between two extremes...

The thesis deals with the Czechoslovakian philosophy in the nineteen-sixties. It focuses not only to its historical description but intends to enter its philosophical thinking from inside and analyse its principal categories. Especially it focuses on the category of work and examines its various formulations, developed in different theoretical perspectives of Czechoslovakian philosophers. This allows distinguish these perspectives in their similarities on one hand and differences on the other. The thesis notably focuses on so called "Hegelian movement" and its evaluation of category of work. This movement, which is in fact the Czechoslovakian variation to the philosophy of praxis, formulates the category of work in its philosophical meaning, i. e. as an ontological category decisive for an origin of the reality and human being. It was originally Hegel, who developed this meaning of category, and Czechoslovakian Hegelian movement continued in developing his ontology adopted through Marx. The Czech philosophers enriched it with aspects of socialistic humanism. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part explains historical conditions of philosophical scientific performance in Czechoslovakia. The second interprets the texts of Czechoslovakian Hegelian philosophers and their expositions of category...

My thesis is concerned with the analysis of philosopher Marie Štechová. Based to the previous thesis (defended in 2015 at the University of Ostrava, lead by Prof. Zdeňka Kalnická), which summarizes the published works and manuscripts by Štechová, I can spread the previous research and so in this I can concentrate on the inclusion of the thinker into the context and especially the exploration of the specific gender aspects of her philosophy. These will then be compared with the views of other thinkers and thinkers of the period. The main aim of this diploma thesis is to extend not only the philosophical but also the literary canon about female thinkers, and also to bring closer the idea of the femininity of thinkers and thinkers at the end of the 19th century on the Czech territory.

In my diploma thesis I deal with the topic of experience of another person from the phenomenological philosophical point of view. The two major motives of my diploma thesis are: the revelation of the shift in thinking of Edmund Husserl in the phenomenology of intersubjectivity and showing that Merleau-Ponty went way beyond Husserls thinking. In the first chapter I clarify what Husserls term 'empathy' meant in his Cartesian Meditations and how this conception follows the theory of Theodor Lipps. Then I explaine Husserls thinking of intersubjectivity from the book Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy - Second Book. In the third chapter I describe the phenomenology of intersubjectivity in the work of Merleau-Ponty. The fourth chapter is an interpretation and subsequent comparison of both authors. My main aim is to show that Merleau-Pontys comprehension of 'intercorporeity' surpasses Husserls conception of intersubjectivity. The final chapter displays the critical thinking of my opinion according to Zahavis interpretation of Merleau-Pontys philosophy, from Husserl and Transcendental Intersubjectivity. In this diploma thesis I bring the analysis of one source of thinking about the experience of another person to an end. I have accomplished the imaginary circle...

The thesis Merleau-Ponty's Use of Painting Experience for Critique of Perception discusses the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and his contribution to perception of corporeality and the body, and especially to use of perception in the area of arts, based on the idea that the truthfulness of the object of our perception is not identical with its real image. The aim of the thesis is to outline the issue of living encounter of subject and object of perception. Besides that, it describes the philosophies of Merleau-Ponty's precursors, namely of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, whose work served to him as a source of inspiration. The second objective of the thesis is to describe life and work of the French painter Paul Cézanne, whose art and specific world view inspired Merleau-Ponty's essay named Eye and Mind. The crucial influences on Paul Cézanne's life and artistic evolution were his unbalanced nature, reactions of the society to his work, and the scenery of Provence, the region where he spent major part of his life. The thesis also compares Cézanne's work with some artistic movements, among them impressionism, which he first followed and later abandoned to be able to create purely on the basis of a careful study of nature and his environment, which he attempted to imitate accurately in his...

This work deals with the introduction of the constructivist school of thought and its comparison with the theory of scientific revolutions and the concept of the paradigm of Thomas Kuhn. In this work, constructivism is represented by radical interpretations of Foerster, Maturana and Varela. These are then confronted with Kuhn's interpretation of scientific revolutions. At the end of the thesis I argue that Kuhn's concept of the paradigm can be interpreted as typically constructivist. In the context of the main line of interpretation of this work, I also critically evaluate motives such as reality, the possibility of true knowledge and related ethical consequences. Key words: constructivism, knowledge, truth, philosophy of science, paradigm

The aim of this thesis is to examine the problem of soul in Plato's Timaeus while paying due respect to its close connection with the topics of cosmology and cosmogony. The inquiry proceeds from the highest level of the cosmos itself to the lowest level of the souls of mortal beings. In the first chapter, an important question, whether the cosmos singularly came into being or not is being examined. In this context, two traditional approaches are distinguished and it is argued that a proper answer to this question has to contain some elements of them both. The second chapter examines the nature of Plato's maker of this world, the demiurge. It is argued that he is a primordial deity who should not be identified with any aspect of the created cosmos or the intelligible being and who not only creates the bodily world and its soul but serves as a sort of paradigm for the soul in respect to its capacities as well. The topics of soul and cosmos blend equally in the third chapter which is devoted to the world-soul. It concentrates on three main topics which are relevant also for the souls occupying a lower position in the hierarchy. These are the blending of the soul that explains its basic properties, the structuring of the soul and attributing it a particular motion and finally the problem of cognition...