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The relation between the individual and the society in Rawls' work
Vlčanová, Kateřina ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Novák, Miroslav (referee)
The aim of the present thesis is to answer the following question: How does the relationship between the individual and society change in Rawls' work? Does the link between the individual and society strengthen, weaken or change in another way? The author discusses other questions, too, namely the specifics of Rawls' theory and his liberalism as well as the criticism of Rawls. The author focuses on two crucial texts - The Theory of Justice, Rawls' debut book, and Political Liberalism. In order to answer these questions, the author first analyses The Theory of Justice and the relationship between the invidual and society in this work, and then places this relationship within the context of a philosophical debate, which stems from the criticism of the work. It is liberals and communitarians who engage in this debate. The author also mentions Robert Nozick, a representative of libertarians, and his critique. Liberals (Rawls) hold the view that one's identity is more significant than society, and thus advocate the individualistic image of the universal man who has appropriate rigths. Communitarians, on the other hand (MacIntyre, Sandel, Taylor, Walzer), advocate the image of a person whose identity is apriori derived from the society that the person belongs to. Hence, communitarians strive for the good...
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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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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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Popper's Critique of Plato's Political Philosphy
Loban, Petr ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Novák, Miroslav (referee)
Reading and research of main Popper's arguments against Plato's political philosophy, especially against Plato's critipue of democracy. Reading and research of relevant Plato's books. Reading and research of books of main interpretations and critiques of Plato. Comparation and critical evaluation of arguments of Popper, Plato and key readers. The final answer to questiona, whether Popper's critique is well grounded and justified.
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The Reflexion of the Roman Republic in the Roman and in modern political thought
Halamka, Tomáš ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Franěk, Jakub (referee)
The main objective of the thesis is to map how Roman and modern political thought reflected the era of Roman Republic. Particular authors, who devoted certain part of their work to Roman Republic, are chosen as representatives of the various historical eras. This thesis does the research into their work to find how specifically they mentioned, comment on or were inspired by Roman Republic. All these findings are presented in the context of particular thinker's complete work. Research begins with two authors living in republican times, namely Polybius and Cicero, and continues to the times of imperial Rome examining the 4th Century Eutropius. The part describing modern political philosophy chronologically lists Florentine Machiavelli, baron de Montesquieu, American Federalists and socialist thinkers Marx and Engels. The thesis then moves to comparison of all stated authors. Ten different topics are chosen to illustrate the common ground and differences of reflections among the examined authors. Such comparison provides required data for the secondary objective of the thesis - to explain which aspects of Roman Republic were the most significant for political philosophy.
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The Comparison of Concept of Democracy in the Work of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Hans Kelsen
Habrová, Klára ; Šimsa, Martin (advisor) ; Franěk, Jakub (referee)
The main goal of this paper is to compare Hanse Kelsen and Jean-Jacques Rousseau's concepts of democracy and to establish common features in their works. Attention is also drawn to the connection between Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Kelsen's writings. In order to determine this connection, the author of this paper examined fthe ollowing works of the above mentioned Of The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right and Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and O podstatě a hodnotě demokracie by Hanse Kelsen. Afterwards, the author's aim was to take a critical look at the two writer's works. She based her critical examination of Jean-Jacque Russeau on the writings of Božena Komárková, Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor and drew from Carl Schmitt's work to analyse Hanse Kelsen. To be able to critically appraise these authors as well, it was necessary to study other areas than democracy. For example, the author studied the topic of human rights as seen by Božena Komárková. The main part of this paper primarily deals with different concepts of democracy as the above mentioned authors have described. Individual works are examined in detail and the author tries to find common features in the concept of democracy as seen by Kelsen and Rousseau. Finally, the...
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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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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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Influence of Protestantism on democracy in the USA
Legát, Filip ; Kučera, Rudolf (advisor) ; Šimsa, Martin (referee)
The Bachelor thesis "The influence of Protestantism on democracy in the USA" focuses on forms and development of the relationship between politics and Protestantism in the American territory. This thesis identifies the investigated confession with emphasis on North American forms. In preceding Republican era the Puritan faith is presented not only as the determinant of politics, but also as the source of its legitimacy. In the chapter dedicated to the establishment of the United States the measure of the protestantism influence on foundations and building is researched. From this point of view the key Documents of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, also the comments of their creators are analysed. Significant space is provided to American understanding of natural rights and its religious dimension. In conclusion, the thesis aims at particular themes of contradictory Bible interpretations and their political consequences. Implication of these different approaches are presented on the conflict between abolitionists and the slavery's defenders and also on the conflict about educating evolution on schools leaded by the fundamentalists and liberals. The thesis in its progress focuses on the impact of Protestantism in many crucial moments of American democracy.
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