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.

A la recherche du paysage silencieux ou du silence du paysage, cette thèse explore un large corpus ouvert de romans réalistes publiés en France, en Angleterre et dans les pays germanophones durant les années 1850-1900. Le parcours de lecture comparatiste représente un voyage littéraire en quête d'un type de paysage particulier, non pas paysage à connotation géographique, mais paysage perçu comme un espace imaginaire et sensible. Face au topos romantique que constitue le paysage silencieux, le silence «réaliste» apparait souvent comme une tentative de musellement des voix romantiques tout en démontrant que le réalisme réinvente les rapports entre l'être humain et le monde naturel, entre le sujet et l'objet de la perception. Contrecarrant l'hégémonie du visuel et du verbal, unissant des données objectives et humanistes, instaurant une relation entre le paysage et le lecteur, le silence dans le roman permet de découvrir des espaces inexplorés et garantit l'expérience d'une lecture nouvelle, à l'écoute des mondes naturel et textuel. / In search of silent landscapes or of the silence of the landscape, this thesis explores a wide open corpus of realistic novels published in France, in England and in the German-speaking countries between 1850-1900. This comparative reading represents a literary journey looking for a particular type of landscape, not with geographical connotation, but perceived as an imaginary and sensitive space. Against the romantic commonplace of silent landscape, "realistic" silence often appears as an attempt Io muzzle the romantic voices, while demonstrating that realism reinvents the relationship between the human being and the natural world, between the subject and the object of perception. Abrogating the hegemony of the visual and the verbal, uniting objective and humanist observation, establishing a relation between the landscape and the reader, silence allows Io discover unexplored spaces and guarantees the experience of a new reading, as the attempt to listen to the natural and textual worlds.

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,...