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The concept of leadership in Aristotle's Politics and Plato's Republic
Adamcová, Barbora ; Jirsa, Jakub (advisor) ; Thein, Karel (referee)
In this bachelor thesis titled "The Meaning of Leadership in Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics ", I offer a comparison of the respective passages in the Republic and the Politics that are central to understand the role of a leader. I have focused not only on understanding a leader's personality, motivations, and their role in the polis, but I have also considered the polis and its citizens. Despite the relative complexity and breath of both works, the question of leadership is not explicitly addressed in either. Therefore, I have systematically analysed related terms and topics that touch upon the subject of leadership in order to distil the insights relevant for the subject of my inquiry. Correspondingly, the structure of the thesis logically proceeds from the general and rather uncontested, to the particular and complex. I have relied on a wide range of acclaimed interpreters of both Plato and Aristotle to shed further light on the challenging passages. The result of this effort is a structured comparison of Plato's and Aristotle's respective views on leadership as recorded in two of their key texts.
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The unity of Plato's Phaedrus
Stránecký, Michal ; Špinka, Štěpán (advisor) ; Jirsa, Jakub (referee)
Plato's Phaedrus consists of three speeches about love (230e-257b) and the discussion about rhetoric (257b-279c). These two halves seem not to go together, although Socrates in the same dialogue claims, that each speech should be unified like a living creature. This work tries to solve this problem by searching for the linkage among these themes of dialogue Phaedrus: soul and its leading, cosmos, rhetoric, beauty, love and philosophy. This exploration is followed by a speculation, that Plato defends in this dialogue his own writing. The results of this speculation support this work's author's opinion, that Plato inserts the mentioned rupture into this dialogue deliberately to motivate the reader to the philosophical interpretation.
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Principle of fairness as the foundation of political obligation
Cíbik, Matěj ; Jirsa, Jakub (advisor) ; Chotaš, Jiří (referee)
This paper is (as its title may indicate) trying to cope with a problem of political obligation, which we deem to be at the very centre of political thought. The history of philosophy has proven that coming up with an indepedent reasoning for the acceptance of a state, its institutions and its legal system is no easy task. We think that "traditional approaches," as we may call them, to the problem of political obligation inevitably fail for various reasons. With this background, we examine the principle of fairness, as an alternative and relatively new approach, and try to establish whether it can withstand a fire of critical scrutiny that has been brought upon it. First, we introduce and reconstruct it from works of John Rawls and George Klosko, and then we scrutinize the critical arguments brought by R. P. Wolff, Robert Nozick and M.B. A. Smith. The ultimate result of our investigation is that we really can hold the principle of fairness as the general foundation of political obligation, at least when we accept some presuppositions about moral theory, because arguments for it are, in the final analysis, sound.
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Cleanthes' hymn to Zeus in its archaic Greek context
Svoboda, Vojtěch ; Kratochvíl, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Jirsa, Jakub (referee)
In its general part, this study tracks archaic motives in the Stoic (and at the first place Kleanthes') cosmology, in particular in respect of his conception of tonos. It concerns the relationship between the Stoics and the pre-Socratic philosophers as such, namely their attitude to Heraclitus. The study examines the transition of the text of Heraclitus' book to the Stoa and the role of different interpretations of Heraclitus as to the Stoic reception. In its special part, I concentrate on the place of the Hymn to Zeus in the hymnal tradition, especially on the influence of Aeschylus who carries many archaic elements. The final passage contains, hopefully, a complete list of parallels between the extant fragments of Heraclitus and the Hymn of Cleanthes.
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Loss and renewal of good will in Augustine
Valečková, Jitka ; Karfíková, Lenka (advisor) ; Jirsa, Jakub (referee)
ln the preface we asked the question whether human beings are able to reach atonement on their own. We decided to explore the doctrine of Saint Augustine who had been dealing with this theme intensively. Firstly we aimed to find Augustine' s definition of sin. Then we searched for the origin of bad deeds and attempted to define Augustine's will (voluntas) brietly. We looked for the reason of the facuIty of free choice in man and compared this freedom of choice with freedom itself. We searched for the cause and the form of the present human lack of freedom and tried to find out whether and how the liberation of man possible is. Lastly we have found a satisfactory answer to our question. Acts so far intluence man' s future behaviour. Frequent bad actions cause the ignorance of and the difficuIty in carrying out the good. In spíte of this I am convínced that man is able to achieve the genuine virtue because I believe he can comprehend the nature of single acts and strengthen his will to the good by practice.
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Charles Taylor's anthropological critique of liberalism
Boudal, Jiří ; Čapek, Jakub (advisor) ; Jirsa, Jakub (referee)
The thesis presents Charles Taylor's conception of liberalism where the negative concept of liberty is rooted in a positive moral ideal of authenticity. First of all, both the main motivations which led liberals to defend the pure negative concept of liberty and Taylor's claim that these motivations all depend on the atomistic ontology is examined. Later, this atomistic basis is refuted and Taylor's holistic approach is offered which relies mainly on concepts of the personal identity and of the so called strong evaluation. Following this, concept of authenticity is presented as the implicit ideal of modern identity. Authenticity is interpreted as a pluralistic moral ideal appreciating uniqueness although containing some general moral demands. The thesis also shows that such a concept of authenticity presupposes negative liberty. Finally, some political consequences of such a liberal theory are provided.
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Interpersonal relationship and spiritual growth
Kučerová, Barbora ; Jirsa, Jakub (advisor) ; Jinek, Jakub (referee)
The aim of this bachelor's thesis is to investigate the connection between de- veloping relationships with other people and individual effort on the highest knowledge. Its intention is to examine the form of this connection between social and epistemological (or theological) sphere. Through the analysis of M. Buber's work I and Thou and I. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, the thesis attempts to present and clarify what kind of relationships can we adopt towards the world, other people, and spiritual sphere. Within the scope of these relatioships, the thesis wish to emphasise the specificity of interpersonal relationship. Afterwards, on the grounds of this specifity, it should be shown whether there is any spe- cial mutual dependance between interpersonal relationship and the higher knowledge. However, it might be also shown that there is not such depen- dance or even that in striving for higher knowledge and spiritual growth, it is necessary to surrender all finite things including interpersonal relation- ships. Whatever the outcome of this reflection might be, we are still human beings dealing with everyday circumstances of ordinary life. Consequently, we cannot break loose of involvement in interpersonal relationships as we are repeatably forced to return...
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The Relationship of Hedonism and Humanism
Jerman, Ondřej ; Jirsa, Jakub (advisor) ; Švec, Ondřej (referee)
The diploma thesis discusses the relationship between humanism and hedonism. However, its main objective is not to explain the terms in their summarized historical relatedness but to point out their internal coherence. The fundamental issue the thesis deals with is the fact that sentient beings suffer from sorrow. Enumerating the reasons why it is important to search for a solution would be a waste of our reader's time. It is necessary to understand that we don't expect empirical science to solve the problem since - despite the enthusiasm significant for this modern period - has not introduced any relief from sorrow. Here comes the opportunity for philosophy and, eventually, ethics. In its first part the thesis maps out the context of humanism and hedonism, studies their apparent as well as hidden nature, and lays the conceivable foundations of humanistic hedonism. The following section suggests a set of particular steps. Adhering to these instructions makes it possible to experience delight and to eliminate sorrow.
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