The media form an integral part of our everyday life and have a significant impact on how we perceive, understand and construct reality, our part in it and our own identity. This diploma thesis is therefore concerned with the portrayal of the female orgasm in selected internet media that are aimed primarily at women. Through an analysis of selected internet articles, I show that an orgasm is not (just) a biological phenomenon, but it is more a discursive construct. At the same time, I introduce the ways the media help to (re)produce a common idea of what the female orgasm is, how to experience it, and what the consequences are of (not) experiencing it. On the one hand, the analysed media create an impression of a certain sexual emancipation of women; they stress a woman's right for sexual pleasure and orgasm. On the other hand, the way the topic of female orgasm is described creates a kind of universal formula for doing and experiencing sexuality. Despite declaring plurality and diversity, the media in fact create clearly defined boundaries and marginalize those who do not fit. Key words: gender, sexuality, female orgasm, body, post-structuralism, media

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 master's thesis discusses basic elements of metaphysics by René Descartes. The first part of the thesis focuses on his personal life because certain events shaped and influenced his further actions and ideas. To understand the context of time, the paper presents history knowledge that is relevant to the topic. René Descartes is still known today for his philosophical ideas which helped to develop findings in the field of metaphysics. During his lifetime, that is the first half of the 17th century, natural sciences were gaining in popularity. The thesis follows up with mathematization and geometrization of nature. Descartes' basic premise of knowledge is methodical skepticism which ultimately results in his first personal certainty of philosophy. Next part focuses on the clarification of the dualistic concept of two different substances - rez extensa and res cogitans. The largest and most important part deals with the mechanical conception of the human body. René Descartes believes that the human body is a machine operated by mechanical principles. The thesis introduces a systematic description of the body which logically justifies the primary ideas of this French philosopher. KEYWORDS René Descartes, methaphysics, dualism, mind, body, God, machine, mathematics, geometry

Passing and meeting or looking for a shared space where we could be together or where we could be alone together. Is it possible, for a short moment at least, to step into the other one's world? Finding yourself along with finding the other one. Will we be able to recognize the boundary, once we cross it? This work should focus on a) exploring the space, b) exploring the space within us, and c) on a conflict, touch, on two spaces getting closer and getting further away (both on a physical and psychological level) - private space and public space, whose boundaries are blurring nowadays. These topics are applied on art as well (particularly on the works of performance art) and accounted for the outcomes in its own creative work. KEYWORDS Subjectivity, intersubjectivity, space, body, solitude, tension

This work attempts to outline concepts associated with body in the Old Norse literature. As the word for the body (líkamr) as well as the term for an incorporeal soul (sál) do not occur in the Old Norse literature until the translated Christian works and cannot therefore be used as markers, two areas closely connected with the concept of body have been chosen for the research: shifting of shape (hamr) and somatic expressions of emotions. In the first area, i.e. phenomena associated with shape-shifting, contexts of all (113) occurrences of radix ham- in the Old Norse literature are analysed in order to describe the semantical field of this root. Within the themes that have appeared in the material (i.e. shape-shifting related to flying, battle frenzy and magic), occurrences are ordered on an axis from those where the form (hamr) is considered to be holistic to those where just the form of body or soul is described. In this context, it is important to mention the proximity of man and animal in the Germanic environment, as shape-shifting is often related to an animal and thus points to the limits of human identity. In the second area, i.e. somatic expressions of emotions, we can also find cases where the mental and the physical area intersect and the boundaries between diseases and emotions are not...

In the following essay, I focus on the representations of bodily "difference" in the Prague's freakshow culture, particulary on the displays of the so called "Lilliputians", which were popular among the public from the beginning of the 19th Century to the 40's of the 20th Century. Firstly, I introduce the Prague's curiosity exhibitions as a specific social praxis and I compare them with similar displays in Europe and the United States. In the second part of this essay, I try to analyse those exhibitions critically, using the concepts from the present disability studies discourse. I deal with the bodily "otherness" as a category of difference, which arises from the intersection of different ideologies. According to the point of view, this category shaped the individual and collective identities and fostered the social hierarchies of the time. Throughout the essay, I focus on the dis/continuities in the imagination of bodily "difference" and I try to describe the specificity of the Czech freakshow tradition. Key words: 19th Century, body, representations, bodily difference, abnormality, ideology

This study discusses ways how patterns of masculinity and femininity construct themselves in gendered practices of ice hockey, in the bodies of female ice hockey players and their gender identifications and how the players construct their gender performances. Opening section describes gender as an analytical category in the sport as a male domain where there are reproduced and emphasized elements of traditional masculinity as physical strength and dominance that are contrasted to the attributes of traditional femininity such as vulnerability and passivity. It outlines how gender is constituted in the sport in general and in ice hockey as a masculine sport, and how the norms of masculinity and femininity are reproduced through them. The dynamics of relationship between gender and ice hockey team is treated within the case study of a Czech women hockey team. The study discusses how gender positions of female hockey players of this team are constituted within the team dynamics, the effect of normative femininity to the constructions of physical performances, the concept of physical fitness for hockey and gender conformity appearance. It also outlines the gendered formal grounding of the women hockey through the rules and hierarchical structures and the influence of media coverage and the segregation...

This diploma thesis concerns the participation of women on exercise program Crossfit whereby they gain various physical skills, mainly muscles and strength, which are becoming their natural component. Such physical and social experience is embedded in one structured space -Crossfit Praha gym, as primary research field of this study. Gym is here perceived as dynamic space in which women are through their participation, physical performance and sometimes also through their appearance challenging the gender norms prevailing in society. Within the participant observation of this diploma thesis author strives to bring closer - by use of her own body as research instrument- everyday experience of these females in researched sport discipline and locality.

This thesis deals with the way in which the human body was discussed from different points of view in a particular type of medical literature (so called "Family Doctor Books) in the second half of the 19th and early 20th century. The work is based on a premise that body is not only neutral biological foundation made in nature but perception of body and physicality is influenced by society. That's why certain social changes may reflect changes in perception of human body, especially its conceptualization as a female and male body. Since just around sixties of the 19th century both emancipatory activities of Czech women, their rights extension and generally transformation of gender relations in society started to develop. This work examines whether these social changes reflected in the manner in which it was human, and thus male and female, body reported on in a particular medical literature. This work also explores what such conceptions of human body say about gender changes in society.

The design of my proposal was deeply influenced by the typical character of spa pavillions in urban recreational parks. Neveertheless i combine such a character with contemporary more conceptual way of architecture. With maybe bigger scale, but having reasons for that. Into the center of park i place a house of baths, where all the activities typical for paths take action - massages, rehabilitation, swimming and wellness. Other parts of the project such as two new proposed buildings for a hotel have the same character of a pavillion in a park. Their interdependant relationships creates new story in a city.