Chapter One: Constructions. Entities, constructions, and functions When one travels from Los Angeles to New York, going, say, by way of St. Louis, Chicago, ...

2 Popper's Logical Definition of Verisimilitude. 3 Popper's Probabilistic Definition of Verisimilitude. 4 Conclusion.

In this paper we argue that Aristotle operates with a particular theoretical model in his explanation of animal locomotion, what we call the ‘centralized incoming and outgoing motions’ model. We show how the model accommodates more complex cases of animal motion and how it allows Aristotle to preserve the intuition that animals are self-movers, without jeopardizing his arguments for the eternity of motion and the necessary existence of one eternal unmoved mover in Physics VIII. The CIOM model helps to elucidate (...) Aristotle’s two central yet problematic claims, namely that the soul is the efficient cause of animal motion and that it is the internal supporting-point necessary for animal motion. Moreover, the CIOM model helps us to explain the difference between voluntary, involuntary and non-voluntary motions, and to square Aristotle’s cardiocentrism with his hylomorphism, but also, more generally, it provides an interesting way of thinking about the place of intentionality in the causal structure of the world. (shrink)

The article introduces a thematic issue of the journal Theory of Science that attempts to revive the category of "philosophi- cal toys" - objects and instruments designed for experimental scientific research that simultaneously played crucial role in the creation of the modern visual culture. It claims that to fully understand their nature and the kind of experience philosophical toys induce, it is necessary to situate their origins in eighteenth-century experimental science and aesthetics and proposes to approach them as perceptual and (...) cognitive extensions. (shrink)

The paper addresses recent developments in historical epistemology, traces the main inspirational sources that feed this approach, and suggests a possible agenda for closer approximation between historical epistemology and the human sciences in studying thought styles and thought collectives, conceptual and theoretical levels of knowledge and the material culture of science.

The success of the atheistic hiddenness argument depends on the “consciousness constraint” it imposes on the divine-human loving relationship: namely, that this relationship requires human conscious awareness of being in the relationship with God. I challenge the truth of this proposition by introducing the concept of a physical relationship with God that is not subject to this constraint. I argue, first, that a physical relationship with God is metaphysically possible; second, that its plausibility is supported by natural theology; and third, (...) that a perfectly loving God would prefer physical relationships with human beings over consciousness-constrained relationships, because a perfectly loving God would prefer to preserve the integrity of human freedom of participation and allow inclusion of all people regardless of their natural cognitive capabilities. I also offer an interpretation of apparent divine hiddenness in the light of the idea of God’s openness for physical relationships. (shrink)

Jan Patočka’s philosophical development was varied. Over the course of fifty years of philosophizing, he gradually, and to varying degrees, developed close to a dozen systematic projects, whose ambition was, at least initially, to present what he called a “unified philosophy.” However, the dynamism with which he changed his philosophical plans and incessantly embarked on new projects invites the question of how to approach the various and often mutually “contradictory” transformations of his philosophical thinking, if neither the continuity and integrity (...) of Patočka’s thought nor the essential specificity of any of these positions is to be lost. Through the notion of the “personal a priori” found in one of Jan Patočka’s early texts, and in a critical, “overcoming-preserving” reference to two antagonistic conceptions of Patočka’s philosophical development, the article attempts to sketch a solution to this general interpretative problem. In the context of the search for Patočka’s “basic position of seeing” as the integrating framework of his diverse philosophical attempts, it simultaneously reconstructs the early question about the meaning of philosophy in general, which Patočka developed in a series of texts from the 1930s, some of which are still available only in the Czech language. (shrink)

This article provides an ethical analysis of the moral conflict over access to premium audio-visual online content, which is currently regulated by geo-blocking in the domain of digital film distri...

Of two false theories, One can be, Intuitively, Closer to the truth than the other. The purpose of the article is to propose a rigorous explication of this intuitive notion.

The paper deals with the etymology of the personal names Qunï Säŋün and Toŋra Simä appearing in the ninth line of the Old Turkic Tonyukuk inscription. These names are borne by the envoys sent by the kagan of the Tokuz Oghuz to the Chinese and Khitan, respectively, to conclude a military alliance against the Turks. Both names have the same structure, a combination of an ethnonym vs. toŋra), referring to a tribal unit within the Tiele 鐵勒 confederation, and a title (...) of Chinese origin. Based on a thorough analysis of historical and philological data, the authors try to establish possible ethnolinguistic grounds for the Tokuz Oghuz mission, which have so far eluded researchers of the inscription and can be fully restored only in the light of the latest discoveries in the history and philology of Inner Asia of the Old Turkic period, e.g., the decipherment of the famous Khüis Tolgoi inscription from Mongolia. (shrink)

Cílem této práce je připomenout odkaz J. B. Kozáka (1888–1974) a hodnotu jeho přednášek na Karlově univerzitě v letech 1949–1952, které měly hluboký význam v souvislosti s novou politickou situací po komunistickém puči v roce 1948. Život J. B. Kozáka byl hluboce ovlivněn jeho církevním vzděláním. Nakonec však získal post profesora filosofie na Karlově univerzitě v Praze. Jako prominentní zástupce Českého kulturního života se stal aktivním členem malého kroužku „pátečníků“ založeného spisovatelem K. Čapkem (1890–1938) a podporovaného T. G. Masarykem (1850–1937). (...) J. B. Kozák obhajoval demokratické ideje, ale jeho sympatie zároveň patřily také sociálně orientovaným levicovým osobnostem (viz například jeho přátelství s profesorem Z. Nejedlým, 1878–1962). Před válkou J. B. Kozák opustil Prahu a začal přednášet filosofii na Oberlin College v Chicagu (USA). Na konci války se však do Prahy vrátil. V létě roku 1945 získal znovu univerzitní post s možností přednášet. Ve vášnivých debatách s marxisty hájil myšlenky humanismu a svobody. Získal si sympatie svých studentů a stal se jejich morální autoritou, kterou zůstal i v těžkých časech politických čistek, kdy byli mnozí jeho kolegové propuštěni. Skutečnost, že si udržel pozici na univerzitě, nijak jeho autoritu nepoškodila. Byl chráněn kvůli svým levicovým názorům před válkou. Navzdory respektu, kterého se mu dostávalo, byla jeho možnost přednášet značně omezena. Připojeny jsou také úryvky jeho „dějin filosofie“ jako volné záznamy jeho přednášek. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 48, Issue 2, pp 265 - 285 This article examines the development of Heidegger’s thought directly following _Being and Time_, a period that is significant both in its own right and in its capacity to shed light on the problems driving Heidegger’s later works. I assess Crowell’s thesis that Heidegger’s aim was to develop a metontology along the lines of a pre-critical _metaphysica specialis_ based on a reassessment of Kant’s transcendental dialectic. I show that such a reading (...) misrepresents the nature of Heidegger’s project in this period and argue that Heidegger was instead attempting to develop a distinctively critical metaphysics in a post-Kantian vein. (shrink)

We prove an exponential lower bound on the length of cutting plane proofs. The proof uses an extension of a lower bound for monotone circuits to circuits which compute with real numbers and use nondecreasing functions as gates. The latter result is of independent interest, since, in particular, it implies an exponential lower bound for some arithmetic circuits.

In this article I explore Maimon’s role in the evolution of Kant’s understanding of the function of the history of philosophy in philosophical enquiry. Kant is often viewed as holding an ambivalent...

The article offers a rigorous explication of the intuitive notion of verisimilitude, I.E., Of the distance of a theory from the truth. The proposal is defended against charges of material inadequacy made by popper, Niniluoto, And miller.

I. The framework. 1, Aristotle's project and methods. 2, The perceptual capacity of the soul. 3, The sensory apparatus. 4, The common sense and the related capacities -- II. The terminology. 1, Overlooked occurrences of the phrase 'common sense'. 2, De anima III.1 425a27. 3, De partibus animalium IV.10 686a31. 4, De memoria et reminiscentia 1 450a10. 5, De anima III.7 431b5. 6, Conclusions on the terminology -- III. Functions of the common sense. 1, Simultaneous perception and cross-modal binding. 2, (...) Perceptual discrimination. 3, Waking, sleep, and control of the senses. 4, Perceiving that what we see and hear, and monitoring of the senses. 5, Other roles of the common sense -- Conclusion. (shrink)

We give an exponential lower bound on the number of proof-lines in intuitionistic propositional logic, IL, axiomatised in the usual Frege-style fashion; i.e., we give an example of IL-tautologies A1,A2,… s.t. every IL-proof of Ai must have a number of proof-lines exponential in terms of the size of Ai. We show that the results do not apply to the system of classical logic and we obtain an exponential speed-up between classical and intuitionistic logic.

We give proofs of the effective monotone interpolation property for the system of modal logic K, and others, and the system IL of intuitionistic propositional logic. Hence we obtain exponential lower bounds on the number of proof-lines in those systems. The main results have been given in [P. Hrubeš, Lower bounds for modal logics, Journal of Symbolic Logic 72 941–958; P. Hrubeš, A lower bound for intuitionistic logic, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 146 72–90]; here, we give considerably simplified (...) proofs, as well as some generalisations. (shrink)

“Eco-labels” are an increasingly important form of private regulation for sustainability in areas such as carbon emissions, water consumption, ethical sourcing, or organic produce. The growing interest and popularity of eco-labels has also been coupled with growing concerns about their credibility, in part because the standard-setting and conformity assessment practices that eco-labels adopt exhibit striking differences. In this paper, we assess which assurance practices contribute to eco-labels being perceived as better governed, in the eyes of experts as well as the (...) media. Unlike previous studies, which are mostly conceptual, qualitative, or focused on one or few eco-labels, we study a large set of eco-labels, combining data from three different sources. Our findings suggest that experts and media are primarily concerned about “re-assurance” practices, looking for one or preferably multiple layers of “re-assurance” that independent parties are overseeing the eco-label and the firms certified under it. (shrink)

The article offers a rigorous truth condition for subjunctively conditional statements. The theory is framed in the system of transparent intensional logic and takes connections (especially the cause-Effect relation) as basic. Counterexamples are given to rival theories based on the notion of world similarity.

In this article, I explore the role of the first principle in Fichte’s philosophy of history and assess the extent to which its introduction is able to resolve problems in the philosophies of history of his predecessors. Particularly, I focus on Fichte’s response to the question of how history can be grasped in a systematic manner for the purposes of theoretical cognition. I argue that while Fichte is able to resolve the tension between Herder’s pluralism and Kant’s chiliasm in an (...) innovative manner, the deployment of his first principle is ultimately unsuccessful in establishing historiography on a firmer scientific foundation. (shrink)

Ultimately everything returns to its own place. And our life, like a river that had overflowed its banks, is again returning to its former bed. We are now assimilating long-hidden treasures, understanding forgotten truths, and regaining our sight and seeing what we were unable to see when we were blinded.

The paper «Situation as concrete entity» dedicated to ontological opposition of abstract being and concrete being. Main idea of this paper – situation as concrete being was rejected, ignored by philosophic and religious systems for thousands of years, because situation was associated with false being, being of things (Plato), life distress, illusion (Hinduism, Buddhism). But culture of XX century includes «reanimation» of situation as concrete being by existentialphilosophy and modern art, and now we can speak about new approach to problem (...) of human being, practice and cognition – situative method. This approach has high humanitarian potential and wide perspectives of development. (shrink)