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Beauty as a path towards God and world in the work of Simone Weil
Staňková, Klára ; Roreitner, Robert (advisor) ; Jirsa, Jakub (referee)
This thesis deals with the concept of beauty in the philosophy of the French author Simone Weil. Beauty is described in the context of other concepts of Weil's philosophy, namely imagination and void, decreation and attention. These concepts are confronted with Immanuel Kant's aesthetics, which Weil both draws on and, in many ways, transcends. The thesis seeks to show beauty in Weil's philosophy as a mediator between God and the world and as one form of implicit love for God. Necessity is an important concept for describing beauty, through which Weil also points to the painful aspect of beauty. Weil's understanding of beauty is illustrated in the work by her metaphor of the labyrinth, in which beauty acts both as a trap and as a result of passing through the labyrinth. The work also explores the concrete manifestations of beauty in the world through which beauty can be loved. These, according to Weil, are primarily art, science, and nature.
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Unintended consequences of human domination over nature: Adorno and Bookchin
Lindaurová, Anežka ; Švec, Ondřej (advisor) ; Jirsa, Jakub (referee)
In his texts, Theodor W. Adorno subjects the organization of Western societies to harsh criticism in the second half of the 20th century. Especially in the Dialectic of Enlightenment, of which he is a co-author, he criticizes the current form of rationality, which he puts in context with the oppression, domination and commodification of the surrounding world and others. In this bachelor's thesis, I deal with the interpretation of Adorno's concept of dominion as a concept whose critique can potentially help us to better articulate the problematic aspects of our current relationship to non-human nature and to others. For a better understanding of this issue and its connection with environmental philosophy, I chose the theory of social ecology by Murray Bookchin. In his book Ecology of freedom, he talks about the creation of hierarchical relationships in human communities as the main cause of man's domination over non-human nature. Both authors contextualize the dominion we exercise over nature with the dominion we exercise over others. Bookchin then draws on Adorno in his critique of rationality, and both criticize the instrumentalization of reason, which instead of cognition serves as an instrument of control. At the same time, both present possible solutions to the current situation, which consist...
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Minding the Gap: Moral Disagreement and the Limits of Moral Reasoning
Weinhold, Dominik ; Jirsa, Jakub (advisor) ; Hill, James (referee)
Tato práce se zabývá tématem přetrvávajícího morálního nesouhlasu a jeho významu pro morální filosofii, zejména v souvislosti s problémy, které představuje pro morální realismus a koncept objektivních morálních pravd. Hlavním cílem je prozkoumat standardní vysvětlení příčin přetrvávajícího nesouhlasu v morálních otázkách a zvážit epistemologické potíže, jež tento jev znamená pro zastánce objektivního pojetí morální pravdy a možnosti obecně rozšířené shody v morálních názorech. Obhájci těchto pozic typicky spoléhají na logické usuzování a zdůvodňování jako prostředky k vyřešení neshod a opodstatnění morálních názorů. Nedávné empirické výzkumy v oblasti morální psychologie nicméně rozporující tradiční pojetí morálního usuzování. Ve světle těchto empirických poznatků se zaměřím na možnosti racionálního řešení morálního nesouhlasu. Na základě tohoto zkoumání budu tvrdit, že empirické omezení lidského uvažování a zdůvodňování utvářejí meze možnosti objasnění a opodstatnění morálních soudů, kteréžto maří naděje na dosažení racionálně odůvodněného poznání objektivní morální pravdy, jakož i šance na racionální vyřešení přetrvávajících morálních neshod. Abstract This thesis is concerned with persistent moral disagreement and its relevance for contemporary debates in moral philosophy, particularly with...
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The value of human existence
Kousalová, Kateřina ; Jirsa, Jakub (advisor) ; Thein, Karel (referee)
Many authors of ethical texts take human existence automatically as a "benefit" (e.g. Aristotle in the history of philosophy). They see its value as positive, regardless of the quality of the person's life. In the vast majority of cases, they do not support this assumption in any way. It is a question whether this is a trivial claim that does not need to be supported by argumentation. Some contemporary authors show that this claim is not trivial, or even claim that there is no positive value of human existence as such (Benatar). In my work, I want to explore this issue more deeply and deal with what consequences it can have for ethical theories if we accept that human existence does not automatically have to be a positive value. In particular, I want to focus on David Benatar and Derek Parfit. Derek Parfit does not mention Benatar by name anywhere in his texts, however there are passages that could be considered criticism of Benatar. In the first phase of the work, I will explain David Benatar's argumentation and his concept of antinatalism. In the second part, I will present Parfit's defense of the inherent goods of human existence itself. At the end of the work, I will present a possible dialogue between Parfit and Benatar. Key words Existence, antinatalism, Benatar, Parfit, value, benefit, harm,...
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John Locke and Two Legacies for Contemporary Liberalism
Jennings, Eliška ; Jirsa, Jakub (advisor) ; Hill, James (referee)
This thesis examines the political philosophy of John Locke, with his Two Treatises of Government at its forefront. It focuses primarily on the question of the law of nature, its status in Locke's political theory and in the context of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, and explores the political content of the law of nature: the fundamental values of liberty and equality, and their implications for human societies and political governments. The final part then traces these two core liberal elements within two modern conceptions of American-type liberalism: the libertarianism of Robert Nozick, with its emphasis on liberty, and the egalitarian liberalism of John Rawls, with its emphasis on equality. The aim of this paper, then, is to present an interpretation of John Locke's political philosophy and then trace its legacies in two modern conceptions of liberalism, located on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
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Is populism a threat to democracy?
Ratajová, Alexandra ; Jirsa, Jakub (advisor) ; Němec, Václav (referee)
Táto práca sa zaoberá vzťahom medzi demokraciou a populizmom, a jej cieľom je ukázať, či je populizmus pre demokraciu hrozbou. Práca pozostáva zo štyroch častí a má teoretický charakter. Prvá časť je zameraná na objasnenie pojmu demokracie, aké sú jej charakteristické rysy, aké znaky by mala mať demokratická spoločnosť, a s akými problémami sa musí vyrovnať. V tejto časti práce sú načrtnuté tri kľúčové problémy demokracie, ktoré sú spojené s populizmom. Druhá časť práce pojednáva o populizme a cieľom tejto časti je tento fenomén presnejšie definovať na základe sumarizácie spoločných čŕt rôznych definícií populizmu. Táto časť práce sa taktiež sústredí na to, ako populizmus reaguje na nedostatky demokracie, a aké riešenia prináša na tri kľúčové problémy, ktoré v demokracii prirodzene nastávajú, predstavené v prvej časti práce, a či sú tieto populistické riešenia skutočne efektívne. Cieľom tretej časti je bližšie ukázať, ako je populizmus s demokraciou prepletený, ako vplýva na demokraciu, a či je vôbec populizmus demokratický. Napokon, záver práce obsahuje môj názor na túto problematiku, ku ktorému som dospela počas písania tejto práce, ako aj odpoveď na otázku, či je populizmus hrozbou demokracie. Kľúčové slová: demokracia, populizmus, ľud, spoločnosť, hrozba demokracie
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Sentience as criterion of moral status
Milko, Michal ; Černý, David (advisor) ; Jirsa, Jakub (referee) ; Gluchman, Vasil (referee)
Abstract. This dissertation suggests that sentience represents a plausible criterion of moral status. Sentient beings capable of having pleasant or unpleasant experiences have an inherent interest in not suffering by virtue of this capacity, and humans as moral actors commonly assume that it is wrong to inflict pain without a good reason. The first part of the dissertation aims to uphold the following three theses: 1) Biological life represents a too broad criterion of moral status; 2) Rationality (reason, language, moral autonomy, ability to reciprocate) represents a too narrow criterion of moral status; 3) Sentience constitutes a plausible criterion of moral status. The text presents the ethical theories of Albert Schweitzer, René Descartes, Immanuel Kant and Peter Carruthers. It unfolds the argument from marginal cases and the critique of speciesism. It focuses on basic concepts of consciousness, the issue of subjective character of consciousness, and the problem of other minds. It also reviews the existing scientific evidence of sentience in mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, cephalopods, and arthropods. The second part of the dissertation aims to present and evaluate normative theories that address the criterion of sentience. At the same time, it aims to defend the thesis that contractualism,...
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Climate change and the Non-Identity Problem in Derek Parfit's work
Svěrák, Vojtěch ; Jirsa, Jakub (advisor) ; Hříbek, Tomáš (referee)
The aim of my project is to reconstruct Derek Parfit's examination of the Non-Identity Problem (NIP) with special emphasis on the example of climate change understood as a version of NIP. In the first part, I establish the connection between climate change and NIP. Then, I show how and why Parfit fails to find a solution to NIP in his book Reasons and Persons (RP). Furthermore, I describe the rejected suggestion from RP that is developed in Parfit's unfinished article Future People, the Non- Identity Problem, and Person-Affecting Principles (FP). In the third section, I argue that Parfit's indicated answer to NIP from FP, so-called Wide Dual Person-Affecting Principle (WDP), can avoid paradoxes and implausible conclusions that the impersonal approach and other versions of the person- affecting view could not if explicated and supported by other related concepts, such as the Imprecise Lexical View (ILW) or existential non-comparative benefits. Moreover, specified WDP provides innovative tools to justify moral intuition, threatened by NIP, that structural decisions that significantly contribute to climate change are wrong because they lower the collective and individual benefits of future people. In addition, they create a lexically worse world.
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Love is not a cold buffet
Martinovská, Tereza ; Švec, Ondřej (advisor) ; Jirsa, Jakub (referee)
One of the speakers of Plato's dialogue Symposium is a comic playwright Aristophanes, who joins the other speakers in praising Eros and tells a myth about the origin of love. He says that originally four-legged and four-armed humans were cut into two parts by infuriated Zeus, and since then they roam the world, until they find their lost half and unite with her in sexual act. Aristophanes formulates his account of love as a desire to merge with one's other half. This bachelor thesis deals with two modern philosophical interpretations of Aristophanes' myth, written by Emmanuel Lévinas and Robert Solomon. Whereas Lévinas criticises Aristophanes' myth as an egoistic and incestuous form of love, in which a person looks only for herself and forgets the infinite otherness of the Other, Solomon interprets the myth about love as merging of two halves positively, as a form of love that is conditioned by equality of its partners and that does not omit the importance of corporeality. The account of both authors opens many interesting questions. Lévinas' critique and his subsequent positive formulation of an asymmetrical erotic relationship allows him to maintain the alterity of the Other, however this alterity is based on sexual difference and formulated in a language that consists of extensively...
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Problems with Critique: The Philosophy of Rahel Jaeggi
Hrouda, Vít ; Matějčková, Tereza (advisor) ; Jirsa, Jakub (referee)
The main focus of this thesis is Rahel Jaeggi's project of the critique of forms of life. Jaeggi develops a new theory of social critique that concentrates on forms of life. Forms of life are grasped as ensembles of practices, within which we always already live our lives and which solve certain problems. Jaeggi argues that the best critical procedure is immanent. That means the critique should concentrate on contradictions that characterize forms of life themselves and not bring in external standards. This method presupposes a conception of social changes, which happen in a rational way and admit of a progressive development. The thesis explains the basic argumentative steps, compares them with other philosophical theories and thematizes the way Jaeggi's philosophy develops the tradition of Frankfurt school critical theory.
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