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Soul and Cosmos in Plato's Timaeus
Stránský, Jiří ; Hladký, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Špinka, Štěpán (referee) ; Krása, Ondřej (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to examine the problem of soul in Plato's Timaeus while paying due respect to its close connection with the topics of cosmology and cosmogony. The inquiry proceeds from the highest level of the cosmos itself to the lowest level of the souls of mortal beings. In the first chapter, an important question, whether the cosmos singularly came into being or not is being examined. In this context, two traditional approaches are distinguished and it is argued that a proper answer to this question has to contain some elements of them both. The second chapter examines the nature of Plato's maker of this world, the demiurge. It is argued that he is a primordial deity who should not be identified with any aspect of the created cosmos or the intelligible being and who not only creates the bodily world and its soul but serves as a sort of paradigm for the soul in respect to its capacities as well. The topics of soul and cosmos blend equally in the third chapter which is devoted to the world-soul. It concentrates on three main topics which are relevant also for the souls occupying a lower position in the hierarchy. These are the blending of the soul that explains its basic properties, the structuring of the soul and attributing it a particular motion and finally the problem of cognition...
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Causes of the Creation of the World in Plato's Timaeus
Krása, Ondřej ; Špinka, Štěpán (advisor) ; Karfík, Filip (referee) ; Havrda, Matyáš (referee)
Ondřej Krása, Causes of the Creation of the World in Plato's Timaeus Abstract of the Thesis The aim of the thesis is to explain the causes of the creation of the world in Plato's Timaeus. The causes of the creation of the world are manifold. The Demiurge created the world according to an eternal paradigm. The paradigm of the world is an intelligible animal that encompasses everything that is eternal. The Demiurge is the best of eternal beings and created the world as an image of the entirety of eternal beings. What is then the relationship between the Demiurge, who is reason, and the entirety of eternal beings, that reason can comprehend? Timaeus characterizes the eternal being as having no other relationships than those towards itself. On the contrary, the Demiurge is a being that has constitutive relationships towards the world. The entirety of being that consists of both the Demiurge and that, which is in itself, is therefore a being in which reason relates self-contained relationships of that, which reason can comprehend, towards something else, namely becoming. The world was created in a receptacle as an embodied soul. Each body is a regular geometrical figure with no "matter" inside. Bodies are both in space and they are modifications of space. Souls are in space as well, but their being in space is...
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Sweet innocence - Sextus Empiricus on human happiness
Krása, Ondřej ; Thein, Karel (referee) ; Karfík, Filip (advisor)
In the present thesis I tried to approach the philosophy of Sextus Empiricus from the ethical perspective. I introduced the most prevalent current of interpretation of Sextus Empiricus' work first and later, on the basis of identification of several shortcomings in this "epistemological" interpretation, I developed such a view on scepticism that pivots on the conviction that all reasoning is the very source of unhappiness. For those who hold any opinion whatsoever pursue some things and avoid others and are therefore perpetually troubled and unhappy. Suspension of judgement, epoch, brings about tranquillity, and sceptical arguments are so designed as to lead to the suspension of judgement. According to this "ethical" interpretation, scepticism questions central position of reasoning in accomplishing human end and challenges two basic maxims of ancient ethics: "Know thyself!" and "Cognize the world!" In the critical part of this study I tried to call in question the sceptical ideal of life without reason with regard to its priority in happiness and with regard to its sufficiency in defining goal of human life.
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