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The theme of this thesis is History of School of Applied Arts studios in Prague between 1885 and 1910. The thesis focuses mainly on style development at the crucial point of turning of the century. This period was the turning point when advanced school's art manifested and also time of generation change that transformed overall school atmosphere. A specific contribution of this thesis lies in outlining less known specialized schools, with inclusion of female element, which are factors that were not previously described elsewhere, as well as in attempt to find methodical and development analogies between Prague and Vienna School of Applied Arts. The aim of my thesis was to assess exceptional status of the school, especially in context of Czech educational system of decorative arts, and to evaluate historical context based on detailed archive research. I included in the thesis a comprehensive list of students of general and specialized schools of decorative arts, thus creating a foundation for future researchers on individual artistic personalities. Study of development of School of Applied Arts is an analytical synthesis presenting the specific role of decorative arts and crafts in pre-WWI era.

The thesis deals with history, methods and principles of narration in fine arts since the beginning of history to present days. The problems of stories in pictures are parted to two categories; the inner and outer plane of the story. Each of these narrative planes operate with different procedures. Between these procedures belong compositions, dynamics, rhythm, the usage of symbols, indexes and icons but also the amount of stylization and naturalism. Contemporaneous progressive artistic methods such as comics are the subject of analyses right next to the historical methods of sequential image narration. The thesis observes the methods of composing, working with time and use of the so called gutter as an integral part of the juxtaposed sequences. The analysis' findings are summarised in the personal author production and the didactic evaluation of certain narrative procedures.

The topic of this diploma thesis is the position of scientific realism presented in the framework of naturalized philosophy of science. The aim is to clarify this position and to show that if one denies realism, scientific practice does not make sense. For this purpose main focus is first devoted to the key parts (metaphysical realism, semantic realism, and epistemological realism) which constitute the scientific realism. Next, a detailed analysis of the arguments against and in favor of realism is offered, and concrete examples taken from the sciences are used to illustrate key points. Space is also devoted to the analysis of a physical theory of heat of the 18th and 19th centuries in connection with an antirealist argument directed at the history of science. Also, one of the few fully elaborated antirealist positions, constructive empiricism, is presented and critically evaluated. In a similar fashion, this thesis pays attention to a specific form of realism, called entity realism. Though the resulting image is a thoroughly realist position, this position strives to accurately capture the numerous nuances of the scientific practice, offering a fresh perspective on some of the traditional views.

Thema der Arbeit sind die Konzepte von 'phänomenaler Erfahrung' und 'Bewußtsein' in verschiedenen empirischen und philosophischen Theorien über das Verhältnis von physiologischen und mentalen Prozessen. Der 1. Teil klärt das Umfeld des Problems: Kapitel 1 und 2 erläutern, warum die Diskussion phänomenaler Qualitäten oder Qualia zum Lackmustest der neuen Theorien des Bewußtseins geworden ist. Kapitel 3 und 4 zeigen, inwiefern ein Großteil der Verwirrung bezüglich von Qualia auf den impliziten Annahmen bestimmter Wahrnehmungstheorien beruhen. Sinnesepisoden (und damit zumindest eine wichtige Klasse phänomenaler Episoden) können nur auf der Ebene von Systemen erklärt werden, die in angemessener Weise auf Eigenschaften ihrer Umgebung reagieren können. Von dieser Einsicht ausgehend, verhandelt der 2. Teil mit verschiedenen konkreten Versuchen, Qualia innerhalb empirischer Kontexte zu erklären. Kapitel 5 untersucht konnektionistische Modelle, die sich einer Vektorkodierungsstrategie bedienen (Churchland, Clark, Flanagan) und sich an die Theorie der Selektion neuronaler Gruppen (Edelman) anzubinden. Wenn aber das Qualia-Problem nicht so einfach neurophilosophisch gelöst werden kann, so fährt Kapitel 6 fort, ist es verlockend, mentale Zustände als informationstragende neurophysiologische Zustände zu betrachten. Das ist der sogenannte Repräsentationalismus oder Intentionalismus (Dretske, Beckermann, Tye). Kapitel 7 behauptet, daß diese Versuche, Bewußtsein im direkten Verweis auf die empirische Forschung zu erklären, philosophisch nicht befriedigend sind, weil Bewußtsein keine 'natürliche Art' ist, d.h. kein einheitliches Phänomen, das isoliert durch eine Einzeldisziplin (einschließlich des Funktionalismus) untersucht werden könnte. In Kapitel 8 analysiere ich Damasios Theorie somatischer Marker als Versuch, Searles Intuition bezüglich der phänomenalen Grundierung aller bewußter Prozesse empirisch zu plausibilisieren. Nicht Gehirne (also sub-personale Systeme) sind Träger bewußter Zustände, sondern potentielle Handlungssubjekte. Alle empirischen Theorien etablieren höchstens eine gutbestätigte Kovarianz zwischen Gehirnzuständen und mentalen Zuständen. Im abschließenden Kapitel 9 verteitige ich demgemäß einen nicht-puritanischen, eklektischen Naturalismus, der sich dem Bewußtseinsproblem unter Aufbietung aller theoretischen Paradigmata nähert, die sich als heuristisch produktiv erwiesen haben. Fragen des Bewußtseins involvieren immer auch eine Selbstinterpretation des Fragenden. Das allein ist schon Grund genug zu der Vermutung, keine naturwissenschaftliche Einzeldisziplin werde je für sich allein alle dieser Fragen klären können. / "Qualia - Phenomenal states as a problem for philosophical and empirical theories of consciousness" In this essay, I examine the concepts of 'phenomenal experience' and 'consciousness' in several empirical and philosophical theories about the relation between physiological and mental processes. Part I sets the stage for the problem: Chapters 1 and 2 establish why the discussion of phenomenal qualities or qualia has become a litmus test for current theories of consciousness. Chapters 3 and 4 show how large parts of the confusion about qualia rest on implicit assumptions that characterize certain theories of perception. Against mainstream inferentialist theories, I defend a vaguly Gibsonian direct theory. Sensory episodes (and thus at least one important class of phenomenal episodes) can be explained only on the level of systems that have the ability to usefully react to features of their environment. Using this insight as its point of departure, Part II deals with several concrete attempts to explain qualia in an empirical context. Chapter 5 examines connectionist models using vector coding strategies (Churchland, Clark, Flanagan) and tries to connect them to the Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (Edelman). If the qualia-problem cannot be simply solved by means of neurophilosophy, I go on to argue in Chapter 6, it is tempting to regard mental states as information-bearing neurophysiological states. This is the position taken by Representationalism or Intentionalism (Dretske, Beckermann, Tye). Chapter 7 claims that these attempts to explain consciousness with direct reference to empirical research are not philosophically satisfactory because consciousness is no 'natural kind', no unified phenomenon that lends itself to examination in any single scientific discipline (including all kinds of functionalims). In Chapter 8, I analyze Damasio's Theory of Somatic Markers as an attempt to empirically support Searle's intuition concerning the necessary phenomenal grounding of all conscious processes. Bearers of conscious states are not brains (sub-personal systems), but subjects with the potential to act; consciousness is embodied consciousness. All of these theories establish at most a good covariance between brain states and mental states. In the concluding Chapter 9, I defend a non-puritan, eclectic naturalism which approaches consciousness using all theoretical paradigms that have proved themselves to be heuristically productive. Questions about consciousness always involve questions of self-interpretation. This alone is reason enough to suspect that no single scientific discipline will be in a position to solve them all.

Freie Universität Berlin, Diss., 2007.

Die Arbeit liefert eine Gesamtinterpretation des geschichtsphilosophischen Klassikers von Giovanni Battista Vico "Prinzipien einer neuen Wissenschaft über die gemeinsame Natur der Völker" (1744). Neben einer Interpretation des verum-factum-Prinzips als erkenntnistheoretische Grundlage des Werks und einer Rekonstruktion seines Geschichtsbildes schließt die Dissertation einen Vorschlag zur ideengeschichtlichen Einordnung Vicos sowie eine Diskussion der Aktualität seiner Geschichtsphilosophie ein. Es wird gezeigt, dass die rezeptionsgeschichtlich tonangebenden idealistischen und theologischen Interpretationsansätze dem Werk unangemessen sind. Als Alternative wird eine naturalistische Lesart entwickelt. Diese lebensrealistische Lesart zielt auf den Nachweis ab, dass Vico den menschlichen Geschichtsprozess als evolutionären und zugleich sinnvollen Vorgang begreift, dessen Ziel im Überleben der menschlichen Gattung besteht. Vicos Theorie der geschichtlichen Selbstregulierung stellt hierbei die symbolische und soziale Produktivität des Menschen als körperliches Naturwesen ins Zentrum, wobei die Entstehung von sozialen Institutionen und symbolischen Weltbildern als nicht-intendiertes Resultat subjektiv-sinnlicher Handlungsmotive begriffen wird. Detailliert herausgearbeitet wird die Leitidee Vicos, dass soziale Institutionen durch vorrationale Fiktionen stabilisiert werden, die der menschlichen Einbildungskraft entspringen. Insofern sind es soziale Mythen, die die Gesellschaft zusammenhalten. Mit der Orientierung seines systemtheoretisch angelegten Geschichtsdenkens an menschlichen Überlebensfragen vertritt Vico einen Standpunkt, der bis heute nichts Aktualität verloren hat.

The subject of this thesis consists in following the development of the novelistic chronicle genre, which emerges on the common point of a chronicle and a novel at the end of the 19th century. The ground on which the genre is characterised and the survey of its development conducted is the "new chronicle" U nás by Alois Jirásek, "the chronicle of a Moravian village" Rok na vsi by Mrštík brothers and generation chronicle Rozkvět by František Xaver Svoboda. These three novelistic chronicles are connected by the time of their genesis and have several common features, which are associated mainly with their genre determination (the domination of time and place over the characters and the story, the retardation of the time dynamics, being linked to a place and the accent on the poetic of the concrete). However, their authors drew inspiration from different regions (the northeast of Bohemia, the central Bohemia, the borderland of Moravian Slovakia and Haná) and they depicted distinct social backgrounds. The chronicles differ in the time when their story is played out as well as in the way the sources are adapted. Each of them is a realistic work; however, from the thematic point of view and from the point of view of the taken place, each one represents a different type of realism (the historical realism,...

Title of the thesis: The novel Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola and its literary inspirations Keywords: naturalism, realism, love triangle, a female heroine, jealousy, murder, femme destructrice, Thérèse Raquin, Madeleine Férat, LʼAmoureuse comédie, Germinie Lacerteux, La Vénus de Gordes, Lʼassassinat du Pont-Rouge, Un mariage dʼamour, La Bête humaine, Émile Zola, frères de Goncourt, Charles Barbara, Adolphe Belot, Ernest Daudet Abstract: This thesis is mainly a literarily comparative study, analysing several literary works preceding and influencing Zola's novel Thérèse Raquin; namely in these works Zola had found the basic story for his next novel. The analysis of the following impact of the novel Thérèse Raquin on further Zola's work is also emphasised. The comparison of novels follows after the overall inclusion of Zola's works into the literary-historical context of his time. The aim of the work is first of all to reveal and make more familiar the Zola's fascination by the central theme and the main heroine of the novel Thérèse Raquin

In its first part, the thesis deals with Guy de Maupassant's life, the importance of short stories in his work, their reception in the French and Czech literary milieu as well as their uniqueness in the context of the literary movements of the 19th century. As a part of the thesis, an overview of the Czech translations of Guy de Maupassant's short stories is included. A separate chapter is devoted to their reception in the Czech literary context. The second empirical part focuses on the comparative critical analysis of the inital texts and their translations. The translations were chosen so that they could represent different generations of Czech translators (1902 - Pavel Projsa, 1960's - Luděk Kárl and Břetislav Štorm, 1990's - Dana Melanová). Here, the thesis deals with the skills of the translators to express the stylistic concisseness of Maupassant as well as the different stylistic levels of the original text (pathos and poetic language on one hand and informality on the other). In the conclusion, a final critical evaluation of the translations is given.