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Evolutionary and theoretical aspects of the biological work of Bohumil Němec
Loginov, Ivan ; Hermann, Tomáš (advisor) ; Žárský, Viktor (referee)
Plant physiologist Bohumil Němec is one of the most important people in the history of Czech science. In this thesis, crucial concepts and theories that B. Němec developed in his scientific and popularizing publications are described and put in context. In addition, materials from the personal fond of B. Němec located in the Archive of the CAS were used. Particular questions tackled in this thesis are those of stimuli transmission in plants, the starch-statolith theory of gravitropism, morphaesthesia, organogenes, Němec's approach to evolutionary theory, and genetics, and the division of organisms in two groups. Moreover, Němec's role in the contemporary debates about vitalism, mechanism, and the effect of these two philosophies on the approach towards scientific research is indicated. By that, Němec's transition from the mechanism to the so-called physiology of stimuli (Rheizphysiologie) is illustrated. The outcome of the thesis is broadening the knowledge in the history of plant physiology, especially the history of the natural sciences in the Czech context.
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Measuring Czechoslovaks. Czech Society of Biotypology and Constitutional Medicine in Czechoslovakia 1937-1959
Musil, Jan ; Hermann, Tomáš (advisor) ; Šimůnek, Michal (referee) ; Svobodný, Petr (referee)
This doctoral thesis describes the formation, activities and dissolution of the Czech Society of Biotypology (1937-1959), herein used as an example of impact of the constitutional typology (human typology science) on the Czechoslovak medicine. Human constitution science (in French and Romance languages called biotypology) classifies individual human beings on the base of morphological and physiological characteristics, with particular emphasis on forecast of future trends. The core of the science focuses on correlation between the physical appearance of a person and his/her mental characteristics. The Czech Society of Biotypology (Česká společnost biotypologická - ČSB) was founded with ambitions not only to study human beings, but also to increase their potential. The whole movement was therefore conceived as an example of a sanitation scientific program in accordance with the governmental interest in rationalization of population care. The methodology of the thesis is based on Foucault's concept of biopower - change of power strategies and their constitutive influence on the development and change of social relations, values and individual strategies of persons. The story of formation and dissolution of ČSB is interpreted as a consequence of these changes. The core of the thesis consists of a...
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Scientific and Institutional Activities of Bohumil Němec at Charles University
Loginov, Ivan ; Hermann, Tomáš (advisor) ; Žárský, Viktor (referee)
Bohumil Němec ranks among the most remarkable figures of Czech science. At the beginning of the 20th century he made a significant contribution to the explanation of plant gravitropism and to the establishment of the Institute for plant physiology at the Faculty of Science at Charles University. Besides that he also studied plant regeneration, fertilization and nuclear division. In my thesis I processed scientific and popular scientific articles by Němec and used secondary sources to analyze his overall activity at the university in historical context. Thesis output is structured overview of Bohumil Němec's activities which can be used for the follow-up research.
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A study of Emanuel Rádl's works in biology and his Consolation from Philosophy
Hermann, Tomáš ; Michálek, Jiří (advisor) ; Janko, Jan (referee) ; Sokol, Jan (referee)
Faculý ď Sclence oÍthe Charles Universitylin Prague Mgr.TomášHermann Consolation from Life A studyofEmanuelRádl'sworksinbiology and his Consolation from Philosophy Summary of PhD thesis 2008 The subject of this thesis is the scientific and philosophicď work of Emanuel Ráll (1873- t942), Cze,h biologist, philosopher,and publicly active intellectual, with focus on the first period of his work, datedbeforethe WWI, andthe last phaseof his work, culminating in his last boolg Consolationfrom Philosophy. The main aim ofthe thesis is a historical analysis and account;it is a contributionboth to the history ofbiology andbiological though! andto the history of philosophy in the Czech lands in the fint half of the 20úcennrry. Emanuel Rrídl'sintellectualbiographycan ďso be seenas an introspectivestudyofthe intellectuallife of the Czech society during some of its inportant and as yet insufficiently sfudiedpďods. The presentthesiswas written as a partof a broadly conceived researchproject,otherresults of which include: 1. The orderingandinventoryof recentlyďscovered partsof Rríď's worlg which have been made available to researchen as an archive unit under the name of Collection and DocumentationFund of EmanuelRódl. 2. A publication of an unabridgedCzech translďon of Rírll's TheHistory of Modern Biological Theodes,Volume...
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Creatures of Science, Living Models and the Construction of Scientific Communities
Stella, Marco ; Hermann, Tomáš (advisor) ; Tinková, Daniela (referee) ; Janko, Jan (referee)
Creatures of Science. Living Models and the Construction of Scientific Communities. Marco Stella The present thesis, which is to be understood as a contribution both to history and anthropology of science, deals with the relationship of the construction and emergence of scientific communities and the use of models in science, or construction of new forms of knowledge. We deal primary with the history of life sciences, especially behavioral sciences, which formed in the beginning of the 20th century as a relatively independent a scientific field and a rather heterogeneous platform for a common research of life utterances and cognition of man and other animals. The thesis focuses mainly on living models, often used biological and psychological research. Using Latour's concepts of modernity and hybridity, the thesis points at the hybridizing effect of behavioral sciences (the model always shapes and creates the modelled) and also at their ways of human and animal images. The second often serve as a basis for constructing the second. I also discuss some the ways how implicit model properties, which influence the (seemingly) isolated sphere of science, affect the chances of a community for becoming a discipline. On three examples from the history of life sciences, i.e. the unsuccessful institutionalization of...
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Servitudes in the Roman Law and in the new Civil Code
Heide-Hermann, Tomáš ; Bělovský, Petr (advisor) ; Falada, David (referee)
The subject of this thesis is a comparison of the provisions of the new Czech Civil Code (Law No. 89/2012 Coll.) concernig servitudes with the selected sources of th Roman law, esp. with the Digest or Pandects of Justinian, with Institutes of Justinian and Institutes of Gaius. If it seems suitable, other national civil codifications, which were influenced by the Roman law, were taken into account. The relevant rules of Roman law are selected, quoted and translated in Czech language (using not only Latin original, but also English and French translations) and set against contemporary law. In each case shall be found out what differences exist between contemporary and Roman law and what can be considered as consistent with Roman law, what can be seen as partly agreeing and what is laid down in a different manner. By means of this approach, the most important questions related to the servitudes and property rights are covered and to the provisions of new Civil Code are assesed as a whole.
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Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) and his Influence on the Natural Philosophy in the Czech Lands
Lelková, Iva ; Horský, Jan (advisor) ; Hermann, Tomáš (referee) ; Janko, Jan (referee)
Resumé: The dissertation deals with various layers of influence that Athanasius Kircher and his work had on the development of natural philosophy in the Czech lands around the half of the seventeenth century. It is possible to observe one such layer of this influence in his correspondence with the Czech lands, which often had patronage seeking character but was also a source of natural philosophic knowledge, observations and interests. Besides the correspondence influence, a diachronic influence and changing evaluation of Athnasius Kircher's work in the course of time is explored in one chapter. Another chapter introduces his own autobiography, which provides evidence of Kircher's conscious effort to shape the opinion of his person and his work to be made by his contemporaries and next generation of scholars. The last layer of influence being in focus of this work regards the influence of ideas based on an analogy between the movement of sea waters and movement of fluids in human body. Kircher's ideas on geocosmos expressed in his Mundus subterraneus (1664-1665) and Iter extaticum II (1657) are compared with the work of his correspondent, physician from Wroclaw and editor of the first medicine journal, Philipp Jacob Sachs von Löwenheim's Oceanus macro-microcosmicus (1664). Sachs reflects William Harvey's...
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