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Rousseau and his Influence on the French Revolution
Pravda, Petr ; Znoj, Milan (advisor) ; Šimsa, Martin (referee)
The "rigorózní" thesis focuses on the evaluation of Rousseau's legacy. It is based on the confrontation of two adverse pictures of his ideas. The first image sees Rousseau as a thinker who prepared with his original concepts fertile ground for diverse undemocratic regimes and ideologies. These always declare their allegiance to the loftiest ideals but only to perpetrate the biggest crimes and to deprive people of their liberty. The second image sees in Rousseau an uncompromising critic of social injustice who saw the only possibility for redemption in liberty and equality. In this case he was one of the most important thinkers who inspired people on the road to the victory of democracy and an author whose original ideas still keep to inspire and to fascinate. I argue in favor of the second picture. Rousseau's critique of the moral crisis is based on the disunity of modern social man. This disunity stems from the incessant conflict between our natural nature and the social state. Rousseau saw the only solution in the adaptation of the original nature to the new social state. This can be achieved only through an affective bond to a political whole. Just so can man keep his liberty which represents the basic value of his existence. In society it is no more a case of absolute freedom but of conscious obedience...
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The Globalization and the Cosmopolitan Theory of Democracy
Vařeková, Petra ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Franěk, Jakub (referee)
This thesis is concerned with possibility of a cosmopolitan approach to democracy in the world changed by processes of globalization. The issue of globalization is analyzed from the perspective of three contemporary sociologists - Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Jan Keller. It will be shown in which way economic, cultural and political globalization changes rules of world politics. A modern concept of democracy traditionally assumed the nation-state framework, however nation-states are no longer able to react adequately to the global dimension of contemporary world issues. This fact allows thesis to open up a concept of cosmopolitanism that has ambitions to expand democratic governance at the global level. First this thesis will introduce Kant's cosmopolitan proposition of international legal order - a voluntary league of states. According to Kant, a perpetual peace can be achieved through realization of three spheres of public law: constitutional law, international law and cosmopolitan law. Many authors responded to Kant's position, each of them in a quite different way. In The Law of Peoples John Rawls proposes a political conception of right and justice that applies strictly to the principles and norms of international law. On the other hand, cosmopolitan authors like David Held and Daniele Archibugi...
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Does Popper's critique of Plato stand up against other interpretations?
Pokorný, Pavel ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Franěk, Jakub (referee)
The main goal of this thesis is to answer following question: Does Popper's critique of Plato stand up against other interpretations? This question is answered by author that he clarifies Popper's assumptions, and then he compares it with Plato's primary texts as well as with secondary sources of other interpreters (Gadamer, Reale, Graeser, Patočka, and Strauss). To answer the main question the author proceeds with this method: In the first chapter he focuses on the context of Popper's evaluation of Plato and clarifies the difference between terms of the open and closed society. He uses moments of Popper's life too. In the second chapter author clarifies Plato's political philosophy on the basis of analysis Leges a Respublica, which are texts that formulates the main ideas of Plato's philosophy and are the main source of Popper's criticism. In the third chapter author presents an explanation of Popper's criticism from the first volume of Open society and its enemies, while he mostly focuses on Popper's formulation of "law of revolution", which is based on assumption of validity of historicism in Plato's explanation of society development and an accusation of Plato's racism. In the last chapter author analyzes Popper's critical statements formulated against Plato and confronts it with other...
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Global Dimension of Rawls' Theory of Justice
Ottingerová, Lucie ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Kučera, Jan (referee)
This thesis is concerned with mapping one of the most topical discussions in the field of modern political philosophy, namely the contention about the existence, nature and extent of justice in the era of a highly globalised world. However, the clash about the existence of global justice, hitherto referred to as the clash between cosmopolitans and internationalists, is not viewed in its entirety. More specifically, this thesis aspires to make an introduction into the debate against the background of one of the most influential philosophical works of the 20th century which has significantly contributed to the delimitation of the term "justice"- Theory of Justice by John Rawls. This book incited joyful reaction from a number of cosmopolitan theorists, including most notably Charles Beitz and Thomas Pogge, who perceived it as a clear attempt at extending traditionally liberal ideals and precepts beyond the scope of nation states. The difference principle in particular caught their attention as it represented a suitable way of facilitating the ideal of social justice at global level. Nonetheless, Rawls himself rejected cosmopolitan claims. As this thesis aspires to fully comprehend the reasons that led him to such a step, it will be necessary to introduce Rawls' political philosophy in its entirety,...
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Three Liberal Theories of Justice
Macháček, Jiří ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Váňa, Tomáš (referee)
The mail goal of this thesis is to introduce the modern theory of liberal justice with a focus on distributive justice. In addition, the author addresses the issue of value neutrality in the liberal state and the concept of equality in liberal theory. The author presents the concept of "justice as fairness" described by liberal political philosopher John Rawls. Afterwards his concept is subjected to criticism of other contemporary liberal philosophers Robert Nozick and Ronald Dworkin. The author briefly looks into coherence between mentioned philosophers and earlier representatives of liberal theory, as well as their non-liberal critics. The first chapter contains a list of thinkers and their contributions to the issue of justice and the social contract theory. The following three chapters concerns the interpretation of the concepts of three mentioned authors using critical analysis of their publications. In the fifth chapter are described concepts of thinkers who critically respond to Rawl's theory of justice generally reffered to as communitarians, including the conception of Jürgen Habermas. In the sixth chapter the author summarizes the main theoretical background and arguments of discussed liberal philosophers. Finally the thesis is concluded by their comparison and summary of key facts and...
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Three Liberal Theories of Justice
Macháček, Jiří ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Váňa, Tomáš (referee)
The mail goal of this thesis is to introduce the modern theory of liberal justice with a focus on distributive justice. In addition, the author addresses the issue of value neutrality in the liberal state and the concept of equality in liberal theory. The author presents the concept of "justice as fairness" described by liberal political philosopher John Rawls. Afterwards his concept is subjected to criticism of other contemporary liberal philosophers Robert Nozick and Ronald Dworkin. The author briefly looks into coherence between mentioned philosophers and earlier representatives of liberal theory, as well as their non-liberal critics. The first chapter contains a list of thinkers and their contributions to the issue of justice and the social contract theory. The following three chapters concerns the interpretation of the concepts of three mentioned authors using critical analysis of their publications. In the fifth chapter are described concepts of thinkers who critically respond to Rawl's theory of justice generally reffered to as communitarians. In the sixth chapter the author summarizes the main theoretical background and arguments of discussed liberal philosophers. Finally the thesis is concluded by their comparison and summary of key facts and features.
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The Analogy and the Difference of Rawls' and Habermas' Theory of Democracy
Novák, Marek ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Franěk, Jakub (referee)
The subject of this thesis is the description of two current normative models of democracy which were created by John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas. The aim of this thesis is to describe the most important ideas of these authors presented in their major works, compare them with each other and then highlight some similarities and differences. I will focus on their vision for western democratic societies and international dimension of their theories. I will focus on methodology as well. The question I would like to answer is: to which extend could be these theories of democracy considered as the theories of liberal democracy? First I will deal with John Rawls's approach. In A Theory of Justice he introduced interesting idea of the social contract restoration and the establishment of two principles of justice in the original position. This work can be read as defence of human rights. Next I will focus on Political Liberalism. In Political liberalism Rawls is interested in securing human and civic rights for members of modern pluralist democracies. He is introducing here the idea of an overlapping consensus. This idea should maintain the stability of a system. The Law of Peoples is the attempt to bring his theory to international level. Next I will move to Jürgen Habermas. I will mention his early works -...
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Masaryk's concept of democracy
Kuchař, Roman ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Franěk, Jakub (referee)
This bachelor's thesis is focused on normative concept of democracy which we encounter in the thoughts of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, significant figure of the Czech history in the areas of social (political) life and science. The objective of the thesis is to capture as accurately as possible Masaryk's idea of democracy as a certain synthesis of moral and political opinion (conviction) of the author. This concept is further illustrated through his critical interpretation by personalities following up the tradition of Czech philosophical humanism and by insertion in the context of chosen theories of democracy. The implementation of the said objective will lead to clarifying values, offering answer to ever existing question concerning crisis of modern people. Although Masaryk's solution is highly normative and outdated in many aspects presently, it is one of the few really elaborated proposals presented in the question concerning crisis of modern people. This thesis puts forth the opinion that Masaryk's concept of democracy is still inspirational, although it requires updating based on historical experience of the last century.
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