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"Plant hunting" in the Context of Science, Culture and Mentality in the 19th and Early 20th Century
Kocurek, Jakub ; Hermann, Tomáš (advisor) ; Neustupa, Jiří (referee) ; Stibral, Karel (referee)
This dissertation examines the phenomenon of 'plant-hunting' and 'plant-hunters' characteristic of Victorian and interwar Britain in particular. It defines and situates this phenomenon in time and space, and attempts to explain it. It primarily focuses on the questions of why the phenomenon arose in the given time and place, why and whether it disappeared at all, and whether it was eventually replaced by something and by what. It also examines what the existence of this phenomenon says about people's relationship to plants and the living world as such. The phenomenon is thus viewed through the plants sought by the plant-hunters themselves, and the plants are taken as the key to understanding the phenomenon. The work shows what distinguishes these particular plants from other plants. They are juxtaposed with the results of recent research on phytophilia, as well as with patterns in the more general human perception of the natural world. Furthermore, the work attempts to find appropriate functional-typological comprehensions, and places them within a theoretical explanatory framework. The whole phenomenon of plant-hunting is approached in the context of its era and contemporary science, technology, politics, and society.
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Botany in Czech lands at the turn of the 20th century: theoretical aspects of the work of Josef Velenovský
Kaiprová, Sofie ; Čermáková, Lucie (advisor) ; Janko, Jan (referee)
The work is a literary research on the theoretical and evolutionary concepts in botany in the Czech environment at the turn of the 19th and 20th century with a focus on the work of Josef Velenovský (1858-1949). The work maps the historical context of Velenovský's work, deals with the transformations of Velenovský's vision of evolution and the most interesting aspects of his theoretical thinking about biology. At the beginning he fully acknowledges Darwin's theory, in the late age he holds a completely contradictory theory. Key words: history of botany, Josef Velenovský, evolutionary theory, natural selection, altruism
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