Contrary to what is often thought, the structuralist approach has never been adopted in French sociology very extensively. When speaking about structuralism in this discipline, the work of Pierre Bourdieu is generally referred to. The present paper is intentionally heading in another direction and is questioning Lévi-Straussian traces in Baudrillard’s theory of the consumer society. First, Baudrillard acknowledges being in debt to Lévi-Strauss for his conception of consumption as a language. In this perspective exchanged goods are understood as object-signs. We believe nevertheless that Baudrillard goes even further when he analyzes the phenomenon of absurd violence, bearing in mind - even he does not directly disclose it - Lévi-Strauss’ concept of “free signifier”. All the same we finally conclude that Baudrillard’s use of Lévi-Strauss is rather cursory. Despite this fact it is of interest: Thus we follow Baudrillard’s analysis and consider the problem of social criticism, which is one of the main topics of his writings here discussed. and Jan Maršálek.
The Schism from 1378 evoked an essential need for a redefinition of doctrinal authority within the church. One of the aims of this study is to show that the Council of Constance did not condemn Hus’ theses only from the doctrinal perspective but also endeavoured to consolidate a certain modus procedendi in relation to the scholar’s heresy. In the context of Hus’ cause, it is evident that the doctrinal questions had great gravity in the eyes of the council fathers. Most likely for the reason of this great attention being paid to the theological aspects, attention was not paid to the fact that in parallel with the condemnation of Hus’ theses some of the main representatives of the council endeavoured for the consolidation of a certain modus procedendi in the cases of the processes whose beginning can be found within the universities. Both in the case of Wycliffe and in the case of Hus, the council confirmed the previous condemnation of university instances in accord with ecclesiastical power. The promise of a public hearing of Hus aroused great disorder, because in that two entirely opposing evidential principles clashed, the theological and legal. The basic problem was in the question of how to define the relation between the two authorities: the Holy Scripture and the Church. The schism from 1378 and general inquiry about the principles in the instances of ecclesiastical power aroused a renewed interest in this problem. Nevertheless, in the thought of some significant council fathers, the principle appeared that auctoritas ecclesiae should serve as a guarantee of the proper interpretation of the Bible. Besides the ambiguity between the two evidential principles (legal and theological), the core of the dispute between Hus and the council fathers lay precisely in this ecclesiological problem. A significant role in the legal course of Hus’ process was analogically played also by the question of the infallibility of the council. and Sebastián Provvidente.
Recently there seems to be a growing interest in Aristotelianism among analytic metaphysicians. In this review article I discuss Tuomas Tahko’s collection Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics (Oxford, 2012) that promises to be the first systematic exploration of this interest. I argue that, in spite of the excellent quality of the individual contributions, the book as such does not answer fundamental questions of what Aristotelian or neo-Aristotelian metaphysics is and what it should be., Daniel D. Novotný., and Obsahuje poznámky a bibliografii
Kniha Etienna Bimbeneta „L‘animal que je ne suis plus“ je ambiciózním pokusem o vymezení lidství ve vztahu k animalitě, přičemž tento projekt se vepisuje do tradice tzv. fenomenologie života. Autor v mnohém navazuje na filosofii Maurice Merleau-Pontyho, ale zároveň jeho myšlení doplňuje zejména tím, že se konfrontuje s novými poznatky v oblasti psychologie a lingvistiky. Základem jeho výkladu vztahu člověka a zvířete je filosofická interpretace fenoménu tzv. sdílené pozornosti, tj. schopnosti lidského jedince vnímat jinou lidskou bytost jako bytost intencionální, schopnosti, která je podle některých lingvistů nepostradatelnou podmínkou osvojení si řeči. Z tohoto východiska potom Bimbenet interpretuje vztah člověka ke světu, který se podle něho výrazně liší od vztahu, který se světem udržuje zvíře. Předkládaná recenzní studie jednak shrnuje závěry, k nimž Bimbenetova kniha dospívá, a jednak jeho dílo zařazuje do širšího kontextu fenomenologie života a některých lingvistických teorií., The book by Étienne Bimbenet L’animal que je ne suis plus is an ambitious attempt to define humanity in relation to animality, a project that considers itself a part of the tradition of the “phenomenology of life”. The author displays a manifold debt to the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, but at the same time he adds to Merleau-Ponty’s thought, especially by tackling new findings in the area of psychology and linguistics. The basis of this account of the relation between man and animal is a philosophical interpretation of the phenomenon of “shared space”, i.e. the ability of the human individual to perceive another human being as an intentional being—an ability that is, according some linguists, an indispensable condition for the acquisition of language. From this viewpoint Bimbenet then inprets the relation of man to the world which, he argues, is in sharp contrast to the relation which an animal maintains with the world. This review not only summarises the conclusions that Bimbenet’s book comes to, but also puts the work into the broader context of the phenomenology of life, and of certain linguistic theories., and Josef Fulka.
The article presents an overview of the research problems that frame the conceptual context of the project “Transition form imitations to innovations as social and cultural process”. The title of the project indicates a main perspective of the analysis. The current rise of knowledge society is a complex process in which so far unconnected elements are being connected. Culture, innovation, and knowledge and their interactions are identified as the key agents of the followed process. The role of culture in knowledge and innovation has been so far underestimated, although intuitively it has always been perceived as crucial. In this respect, the issue of transfer - let it be technological, institutional, or cultural transfer - deserves a foremost research attention. The same applies to the spatial dimension of culture - innovation - knowledge interactions, as these gain a new relevance and meaning in the context of globalization and regionalization. and Jiří Loudín.