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From Descates' Mind to Kant's Reason
Dekastello, Petr ; Hill, James (advisor) ; Palkoska, Jan (referee)
The basic subject-matter of my research is R. Descartes' Meditations On First Philosophy and I examine the term intellect and its position within the mind and its relation to thought. My work includes a study of sensation and imagination which provide the intellect with "material" to judge. The objective of my thesis is to demonstrate the role the intellect plays in terms of reason and to present an interpretation of the way in which the mind is designated in relation to reason according to Rene Descartes in his writing and in his responses to objections. The position and functions of the intellect are understood as a logical structure of mutual dependence and as the elements essential for the understanding of the human soul substance. At the end of my thesis I demonstrate that the system of reason of R. Descartes might be considered as the basis for the transcendental conception of reason in Kant's philosophy, which leads to an idealistic world conception and is founded on thinking a priori. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Conception of an Object as a Complex of Perceptions in David Hume's Philosophy
Fršlínek, Jan ; Hill, James (advisor) ; Palkoska, Jan (referee)
Práce pojednává o objektu (jakožto komplexu percepcí) a s daným tématem souvisejícími otázkami v kontextu filosofie Davida Huma, jak je obsažena především v první knize jeho díla Treatise of Human Nature a rovněž s přihlédnutím k dílům Enquiry Concerning Human Undestanding a An Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature a dalším titulům primární a sekundární literatury. Tematizováno je v tomto kontextu tedy nejprve Humovo pojetí percepcí jako takové (a to na základě první kapitoly Treatisu, Of ideas, their origin, composition, connexion, abstraction etc.). Poté je v souvislosti s předchozím pojednáno i o Humově pojetí identity (především objektu-tělesa) a jeho koncepce individuace, resp. i stálosti a koherence. (a to na základě čtvrté kapitoly Of scepticism with regard to senses). Na konci práce jsou kontrastovány různé možné typy objektů, jež lze (dle autora této práce) chápat jako komplexy percepcí a poté je nabídnuto schéma hypotézy o individuaci tzv. materiálních těles (bodies) v prostoru.
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The Theory of Descriptions: Bertrand Bertrand Russell's Road Towards Ontological Austerity
Soutor, Milan ; Palkoska, Jan (advisor) ; Zouhar, Marián (referee) ; Landini, Gregory (referee)
Applying Occam's razor in order to minimize ontological commitments is among the central methods of Bertrand Russell's philosophy after 1905 and onwards. The year 1905 was specially significant for Russell in that respect, as he published in this year the groundbreaking paper titled 'On Denoting'. In this paper, he introduced, for the first time, the today widely acknowledged semantical theory, Theory of Descriptions. According to the canonical interpretation of Russell, which is represented, for the most part, by W. V. O. Quine's paper 'Russell's Ontological Development' (1966), Russell tended to embrace 'Meinongian' ontological commitments: these were ontological commitments to coherent and non-actual entities such as the present king of France (possibilia) and ontological commitments to incoherent entities such as the round square. In Quine's view, Russell could not dodge such commitments until he discovered Theory of Descriptions. This interpretation has been challenged recently and it is the main objective of this essay to defend Quine against his opponents. I provide a detailed account of those parts of Russell's philosophy before 'On Denoting' which precluded him from refuting conclusively the problematic ontological commitments. In order to provide such an account, we dive deep into the...
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Idealism between Leibniz and Berkeley
Raboch, Filip ; Palkoska, Jan (advisor) ; Hill, James (referee)
While Berkeley's position on the materialism of the world is undoubtedly idealistic, Leibniz's position is somewhat problematic: in metaphysical texts, he seems to be an idealist, while in texts concerned with natural philosophy and physics, he seems more like a dualist similar to Aristotle. We will even see that Leibniz wants to be both an idealist/phenomenalist and a realist. Moreover, in his remarks to Berkeley, he criticizes Berkeley's idealism and his rejection of matter. The aim of this paper is to map Leibniz's idealistic position, compare it with Berkeley's, and decide whether Leibniz's objections to Berkeley are justified and whether their positions are any similar
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Late Wittgensteinian Ethics as Clarification, Cultivation and Enrichment of Ethical Ways of Seeing
Rozen, David ; Kolman, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Palkoska, Jan (referee)
The aim of the work is to present the possibilities of ethics in late Wittgensteinian framework. In course of the investigation will be presented: (1) early Wittgensteinian ethics, (2) late Wittgensteinian anti-foundationalism and (3) its consequences for analytical meta-ethics - it will be argued (a) against epistemologization of ethics and (b) for need of more complex understanding of ethics, by which traditional meta-ethical disputes of realism with anti-realism and of cognitivism with non-cognitivism will be overcame -, which will result in (4) development of late Wittgensteinian ethics. Ethics will be presented as consisting in ethical ways of seeing of the world, through which various phenomena arise as ethically relevant and late Wittgensteinian ethical investigation will be developed as clarification, cultivation and enrichment of our ethical ways of seeing in overall - partially subjective and partially intersubjective - context of language, life forms and life stories from which they arise. Keywords Ethics, meta-ethics, Wittgenstein, anti-foundationalism, truth in ethics, aspect seeing, perspicuous representation, ethics as clarification, life forms
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Descartes' Mechanistic Physiology and Harvey's Discovery of the Circulation of Blood
Čejka, Vojtěch ; Hill, James (advisor) ; Palkoska, Jan (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to show in what way the mechanistic philosophy of René Descartes allowed him to accept William Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood, while at the same time prevented him from accepting his explanation of the movement of the heart. In the introductory section we mention some of the basic notions concerning the state of natural philosophy in the second half of the 16th century which are closely related to the themes of the thesis. Both authors we are concerned with are also presented. The second, historicaly oriented section focuses on Aristotle's, Galen's and Harvey's opinions on the role and motion of the heart and blood in the human body. The aim is to describe how Harvey's 1628 treatise De motu cordis allowed to resolve the proliferating problems faced by the Galenist tradition in the 16th and the early 17th century. The third section presents the exposition of the introductory chapters of Descartes' 1633 treatise Le Monde in which he introduces the basic notions of his new mechanistic philosophy. Among these are the three types of particles, the plenist conception of the world, the omnipresence of circular motions and the relationship between God, natural laws and motion in the world. The fourth section is dedicated to Descartes' a Harvey's point of...
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Secret nature of reality - Humean approach
Fršlínek, Jan ; Palkoska, Jan (advisor) ; Hill, James (referee)
This thesis enquires into the question of the hidden nature of things and reality in the context of David Hume's philosophy. In the context of a Humean approach to reality, it discusses whether the things which we perceive and which are considered to be perceptions can have some sort of non-empirical correlation that lies beneath them and whether it can be called the hidden nature of these things. The first half of the thesis is focused on the philosophy of David Hume. In the second half of the thesis two original considerations about the hidden nature and its characteristics are presented. The thesis starts with three selected theories of substance as presented in A Treatise of Human Nature. The theory of John Locke and the theory of the peripatetics are presented from Hume's critical perspective. Consequently is presented an interpretation called the New Hume. In the context of this interpretation, Hume presumes that there are hidden entities lying beneath empirical reality. Then, there are two considerations focused on the hidden nature of things and its characteristics which are presented. These characteristics are consequently being described in an indirect manner. And finally an original suggestion of how to understand the hidden nature is presented. It has the character of mere...
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Subjective character of experience: What is it like to be a conscious agent?
Kožíšek, Jakub ; Hill, James (advisor) ; Palkoska, Jan (referee)
In his article What is it like to be a bat? Thomas Nagel defines consciousness by subjective character of experience. An organism is conscious if there is something that it is like to be that organism. Science describes the world objectively, from the third person perspective. That is the reason why it fails to cope with consciousness - it misses the subjective character of experience. In spite of that, Nagel proposes a new method for studying subjectivity of consciousness, which he calls "objective phenomenology". In my thesis, I want to find out if Daniel Dennett's heterophenomenology is or could be that method. Key words: Nagel, Dennett, consciousness, subjective character of experience, heterophenomenology.
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Structure and Simplicity in Leibniz
Veselský, Matěj ; Palkoska, Jan (advisor) ; Hill, James (referee)
The thesis aims to present Leibniz's monadic system as the simplest conceivable structure. To this end, the thesis employs both contemporary literature concerned with formal ontology and its logic, semantics and the nature of reference; and Leibniz's own writings coupled with correspondent commentaries, including articles transcending selected interpretive issues into present-day discussions on actualised versions of one of the essential Leibnizian principles: the identity of indiscernibles. The exposition proceeds in three steps: (i) developing concepts of structure, determination and reference in critical confrontation with contemporary approaches, then (ii) applying those concepts to the interpretation of Leibniz's principle of identity of indiscenibles and illuminating therewith links between ontology and semantics, and eventually (iii) utilizing those findings in clarifying the mirroring relation constitutive of the monadic structure as represented a) in Leibniz's own spatiotemporal illustrations and b) in formal models in secondary literature. Acknowledging that the simplest conceivable structure, which is the monadic structure, can neither be satisfactorily expressed by spatiotemporal illustrations, nor can it be represented in formal system, itself forming the limit of extrinsic...
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Deism in England: Matthew Tindal's Christianity As Old As the Creation
Šolcová, Ludmila ; Hill, James (advisor) ; Palkoska, Jan (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with the phenomenon of English deism at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries from the perspective of its rejection of the authority of external revelation. Deism can be briefly defined as an attempt to base religion only on the internal revelation, i.e. the rational knowledge. This thesis firstly presents the historical circumstances of this movement; further it gives an analysis of the relation between internal and external revelation as offered in Matthew Tindal's Christianity as old as the creation (1730) External revelation, according to Tindal, should be subjected to the internal revelation, i. e. the rational knowledge. Tindal derives this view from the perfection of his Religion of Nature, to which nothing needs to be added. Finally, Tindal's argumentation is questioned, and it is shown that it requires an essential revision.
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