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Critique of the United States in the Work of West German Intellectuals in the Post-War Period
Kropáčková, Kristina ; Hornát, Jan (advisor) ; Szobi, Pavel (referee)
This thesis examines postwar criticism of the United States in the writings of four West German intellectuals: Hans Werner Richter, Karl Barth, Ernst von Salomon, and Leo L. Matthias. It views their reflection in the context of the concept of the "third way," the search for an alternative solution to Germany's political and economic heading after World War II, which included a reflection on the United States. The thesis highlights the fact that despite the positive attitude of the political leadership towards the United States, especially in the Westbindung policy of German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, a critical attitude towards the United States can be observed in intellectual circles, both among left and right-wing individuals. The aim of this paper is to identify the extent of this critical debate. Thus, using the methods of intellectual history, the central themes that selected intellectuals have addressed in their critique are successively identified. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first four discuss the relationship of each intellectual to the United States in the period 1945-1955. The fifth chapter summarizes the main findings and compares the differences and similarities in the approaches of the intellectuals examined.
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From Summer Homes to the Labourer's Canteen. The Pragmatization of the „Mental Worker's” Leisure Time from Jaroslav Goll to Aleš Hrdlička
Ducháček, Milan
The work focuses on teh transformation of Leisure activities fot he Czech academic intellectuals at the end of the 19th century. It does not stake a claim on authoritative theses. It only attempts to use a sample of a few Czech researchers from the field of culture studies to capture the signs of the transformation of the way leisure was percieved. Here, we turn from the traditional overlap fo work with dolce far niente (Jaroslav Goll, Josef Pekař) to signs signalling the arrival of technology (Lubor Niederle) and systematic rationalisation of leisure activities according to the Anglo-Saxon, mainly American way (Aleš Hrdlička). The idea of how academics and intellectuals spent their free time at the end of the 19th century was based on standard contours of work and idleness of an educated and better-situated Cisleithenian member of the bourgeoisie as part of the „idle class“. Mental work and leisure often overlapped here and were indistinguishible. The end of the century however, was already announcing the arrival of Americanisation and pragmatisation of the daily schedule. Based on the memoirs of ethnographed Karel Chotek, who visited Czech-American antrhopologist Aleš Hrdlička at the Smithsonian institution in Wahington DC in 1919 and spent a brief study internship there, on gets an idea of the daily schedule of the Humpolec-born Hrdlička who worked his way up as a wage laborer in the United States to having an influential research position at the prestigiois scientific institution. Hrdlička´s working rhytm, which differed when working in the field and in the office, and included moderate eating habits and standard level of activity within the working schedule, can serve as an example of a surprisingly systematic separation of working hours from time spent on mental relaxation. In the inter-war period, the question of purposeful leisure and the rationalisation of working hours in Hrdlička´s tradition became not only an inspiration for his pupils but also the subjekt of deliberations of sociologists such as Innocence Arnošt Bláha on the effective model of the „intellectual“ life style.
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The Left-Wing Reception of Carl Schmitt's Work
Géryk, Jan ; Kysela, Jan (advisor) ; Agha, Petr (referee)
This thesis has dealt with the thought of the German legal and political theorist Carl Schmitt and with the reception of his work by the intellectual Left. The main goals of the thesis were to find out which aspects of Schmitt's work are the most popular among left-wing authors and to search for the causes of this inspiration. Thus, it was necessary to reconstruct the historical context in which such a conservative thinker becomes a frequently quoted author within various branches of leftist thought. In Carl Schmitt's case, because of his shift towards Nazism in the 1930s, there is also a methodological problem of the possible separation of his work from his career and personality, the separation of a particular theoretical approach from the motives which led to this approach. Therefore, the attempt to use Schmitt's thought for progressive left-wing goals is not easily compatible with strictly contextual reading of his work. Schmitt's work itself is described and analyzed especially in the first half of this thesis. The first chapter describes, in the historical context, some basic concepts which Schmitt deals with. The chapter is structured according to main targets of his critique: legal positivism; liberal democracy; quantitative total state, which is able to intervene in every part of society,...
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Bernard Bolzano and Czech Intellectual Culture, 1945-1989
Konůpka, Petr ; Putna, Martin (advisor) ; Havelka, Miloš (referee)
The thesis focuses on the reception history of Bernard Bolzano (1781- 1848) in the Czech intellectual culture of the 1945-1989 period. The aim of the thesis is not only to summarize existing studies of Bolzano's life and work or to study some of the partial themes related to Bolzano - but to discover basic features of Bolzano reception that can be found accross the different fields of Bolzano research and that are also connected to intellectual and political history background. The expected merit of the thesis can be considered from two different perspectives: In the context of intellectual history the reception of Bolzano is just a very partial theme, however it can expose some of more general features concerning Czech intellectual history of investigated period. From this point of view Bolzano is just a criterion of historical sources selection that enables to study very complex issue of the Czech intellectual history. In the context of Bolzano research this thesis is also a contribution to the better understanding of Bolzano's life and work. The thesis is pointing out themes which should be researched more thoroughly and, it is more important, it discovers the basic contexts of the potential further studies. Keywords: Bernard Bolzano (1781-1848), Czech history 1945-1989, Czech culture 1945-1989,...
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Intellectual Interests of George, Count of Buquoy
MORAWETZ, Michal
This dissertation discusses the intellectual interests of George, Count of Buquoy (1781-1851), who gained fame in the first half of the nineteenth century through his inventions of new technical devices, his efforts to improve manufacturing technologies used on his estates, his contacts with leading scientists and philosophers of the time, and his original scientific and philosophical treatises. This dissertation scrutinises the writings kept in Buquoy's archival estate, as well as his published works, and discusses the reactions his thoughts elicited among contemporary scientists and various other people within Buquoy's intellectual milieu. Methodologically, I draw on contemporary approaches to studies of intellectual history, which aim to interpret and contextualise particular ideas with regard to the author's immediate background and the broader intellectual climate of the time. Aiming to avoid biographical fallacy, I focus on pivotal moments of Buquoy's scientific career without attempting to integrate them into a biographical narrative by means of supposed causality. The thesis is structured as a chronologically ordered discussion of key themes and defining moments in the development of Buquoy's thought. Particular attention is paid to the influences which formed Buquoy's intellectual outlook, including his upbringing, education, the experiences he gained during travels, the knowledge he absorbed from scholarly treatises, and the views he exchanged with contemporary scientists. I show how these factors influenced the themes Buquoy chose to discuss in his treatises and the ways in which he presented his arguments. An important part of the thesis is a deconstructive analysis of Buquoy's self-presentation strategy, through which he sought to align himself with the scientific community. Finally, the thesis discusses the fundamental philosophical views underpinning Buquoy's intellectual endeavours in the field of science.
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The Left-Wing Reception of Carl Schmitt's Work
Géryk, Jan ; Kysela, Jan (advisor) ; Agha, Petr (referee)
This thesis has dealt with the thought of the German legal and political theorist Carl Schmitt and with the reception of his work by the intellectual Left. The main goals of the thesis were to find out which aspects of Schmitt's work are the most popular among left-wing authors and to search for the causes of this inspiration. Thus, it was necessary to reconstruct the historical context in which such a conservative thinker becomes a frequently quoted author within various branches of leftist thought. In Carl Schmitt's case, because of his shift towards Nazism in the 1930s, there is also a methodological problem of the possible separation of his work from his career and personality, the separation of a particular theoretical approach from the motives which led to this approach. Therefore, the attempt to use Schmitt's thought for progressive left-wing goals is not easily compatible with strictly contextual reading of his work. Schmitt's work itself is described and analyzed especially in the first half of this thesis. The first chapter describes, in the historical context, some basic concepts which Schmitt deals with. The chapter is structured according to main targets of his critique: legal positivism; liberal democracy; quantitative total state, which is able to intervene in every part of society,...
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Bernard Bolzano and Czech Intellectual Culture, 1945-1989
Konůpka, Petr ; Putna, Martin (advisor) ; Havelka, Miloš (referee)
The thesis focuses on the reception history of Bernard Bolzano (1781- 1848) in the Czech intellectual culture of the 1945-1989 period. The aim of the thesis is not only to summarize existing studies of Bolzano's life and work or to study some of the partial themes related to Bolzano - but to discover basic features of Bolzano reception that can be found accross the different fields of Bolzano research and that are also connected to intellectual and political history background. The expected merit of the thesis can be considered from two different perspectives: In the context of intellectual history the reception of Bolzano is just a very partial theme, however it can expose some of more general features concerning Czech intellectual history of investigated period. From this point of view Bolzano is just a criterion of historical sources selection that enables to study very complex issue of the Czech intellectual history. In the context of Bolzano research this thesis is also a contribution to the better understanding of Bolzano's life and work. The thesis is pointing out themes which should be researched more thoroughly and, it is more important, it discovers the basic contexts of the potential further studies. Keywords: Bernard Bolzano (1781-1848), Czech history 1945-1989, Czech culture 1945-1989,...
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The American Left and Communist Czechoslovakia, 1956-1968
Géryk, Jan ; Raška, Francis (advisor) ; Fojtek, Vít (referee)
The main aim of this work is to compare the discourses and analyze the relations of the American and Czechoslovak intellectual Left between 1956 and 1968. It begins by Khrushchev's revelation of Stalinist crimes and by the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 which created an atmosphere of disillusionment on the Left. The global Left of this period to a substantial extent ceased to be ideologically inspired by the Soviet Union and began to rethink the foundations of its thought. So, the 1960s are the period of the flourishing leftist thought. Authors are inspired by Marxist humanism and the New Left emerges, especially in the West. There were issues which existed beyond the ideological struggle of two Cold War blocs, but the different character of the regimes in the East and the West resulted in different approaches to these issues. At the same time, the mobility of ideas and their authors or supporters increased even across the Iron Curtain. Therefore, we could see some interesting encounters and clashes of different, even though still leftist, discourses. This work tries to depict the intellectual environment of the period by dealing with issues like philosophy of Man in the context of technological changes, the tactics of the struggle against the system or bureaucracy, the relation of...
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Intellectual History in the Context of Czech and European Historiography in 19th and 20the Century
Čtvrtník, Mikuláš ; Beneš, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Středová, Veronika (referee) ; Horský, Jan (referee)
The main thematic scope and basis of the PhD thesis is the specific movement in the historiography called duchové dějiny (in English partly misleading translation intellectual history) in the form, in which it was developed in German speaking lands as Geistesgeschichte, and in the Czech historiography as duchové dějiny outlined by Zdeněk Kalista. In the PhD thesis duchové dějiny is put into the wide context of the development of historical thinking and methodology in the 19th and 20th century. The PhD thesis treats the subdiscipline of duchové dějiny in many perspectives and at different levels and thematically is not enclosed by the boundaries of the duchové dějiny itself. The duchové dějiny is here in a way an optics through which one line of historiography and historical thinking in the 19th and 20th century is observed, treated and interpreted. The PhD thesis also aims to connect the history and its methodology with the archivistics and archival theory. In this way proposes the thesis certain solutions. Nowadays, duchové dějiny belongs rather to the marginal movements or subdisciplines in the historiography in the Czech and German speaking lands, contrary to intellectual history in Anglophone areas. In spite of this the PhD thesis tried to show, that the duchové dějiny is still alive,...
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