In this paper, I would like to present the methodological views of two representatives of the early modern Cartesian school: Jacques Rohault and Pierre-Sylvain Régis. Firstly, I want to present the methodological objections of Cartesians to Aristotelian and Scholastic natural philosophy. Then, I want to show how Cartesians strived for a combination of empirical and speculative procedures in their explanations of natural processes. Lastly, I would like to explain the reasons and forms of the hypothetical methodology which was significant for Cartesian natural philosophy. My aim is to refute the idea of the methodological naivety of Cartesians and point out the importance of hypothetical reasoning in the genesis of modern science. and V tomto článku chci představit metodologické názory dvou představitelů novověké karteziánské školy: Jacquese Rohaulta a Pierre-Sylvaina Régise. Předně chci představit metodologické námitky karteziánů proti aristotelské a scholastické filosofii. Dále chci ukázat, jak karteziáni usilovali o kombinaci empirických a spekulativních postupů v jejich vysvětleních přírodních procesů. A nakonec chci vysvětlit důvody a formy hypotetické metodologie, která byla příznačná pro karteziánskou přírodní filosofii. Mým cílem je vyvrátit myšlenku metodologické naivity karteziánů a zdůraznit úlohu hypotetického uvažování při utváření moderní vědy.
The article focuses on early theatre criticism in Prague and Vienna at the end of the 18th century. It analyzes the argumentational forms and critical strategies. The 1790s are represented by three periodicals: Der Wahrheitsspiegel (Prague 1796-1798), Österreichische Monatsschrift (Prague - Vienna 1793-1794) and Der Theatralische Eulenspiegel (Prague 1797). The study is based on a close reading of six specific theatre critiques. It deals with epoch-typical critical postulates, with taste (Geschmack), impartiality (Unparteilichkeit) and the aesthetic concept of theatre as a real illusion (wahre Täuschung). This analysis of individual attitudes is also a contribution to the description and interpretation of theatre history and repertoire reforms., Alena Jakubcová jun., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Rakouský architekt českého původu František Schmoranz mladší (1845–1892) byl zakládajícím ředitelem Uměleckoprůmyslové školy v Praze a v 19. století patřil k průkopníkům vědecky fundovaného orientalismu. Strávil v Egyptě několik let studiem islámské architektury a po návratu do Evropy se stal uznávaným specialistou na orientální stavby i umělecké řemeslo. V roce 1873 byl podle jeho projektu zbudován egyptský pavilon na světové výstavě ve Vídni. Edice představuje fragmenty jeho odeslané osobní i pracovní korespondence, které jsou rozptýleny v různých českých i rakouských archivech. Obsáhlý konvolut chová Wienbibliothek im Rathaus. Dopisy historiku umění Rudolfovi Eitelbergerovi a malíři Bernhardu Fiedlerovi se týkají přípravy historické výstavy islámské architektury, kterou Schmoranz organizoval v roce 1876. Velmi pozoruhodný je dopis architektu Andreasi Streitovi, který informuje o zákulisním dění při volbě výboru pro přípravu slavnostního průvodu k stříbrné svatbě rakouského panovnického páru v roce 1879 a o tenzích mezi vídeňskými umělci, které tuto volbu provázely. Z korespondence uložené v českých archivech jsou do edice zařazeny dopisy z fondu Národního muzea adresované architektu Josefu Schulzovi a Vojtěchu Náprstkovi, v nichž Schmoranz píše o svém pobytu v Káhiře. Schulzova pozůstalost obsahuje ještě další Schmoranzovy listy, z nichž se dozvídáme podrobnosti o přípravě expozice islámské architektury a o Schulzově snaze výstavu reprízovat v Praze. V dalších dopisech Schmoranz referuje o svých aktivitách při pořádání rakouské expozice na světové výstavě v Paříži nebo pražskému kolegovi doporučuje vídeňské řemeslníky. V Památníku národního písemnictví se mj. zachoval Schmoranzův dopis K. B. Mádlovi vztahující se k jeho roli ředitele Uměleckoprůmyslové školy v Praze. and František Schmoranz Jr. (1845–1892), an Austrian architect of Czech origin, was the founding director of the School of Applied Arts in Prague and one of the pioneers of scientifically based Orientalism in the 19th century. He spent several years studying Islamic architecture in Egypt, and upon his return to Europe became a recognised specialist in Oriental buildings and arts and crafts. In 1873, he designed the Egyptian pavilion for the Vienna World’s Fair. This issue presents fragments of both work-related and personal letters that he wrote, which are scattered around various Czech and Austrian archives. A large collection of papers is held by the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus. The letters addressed to the art historian Rudolf Eitelberger and the painter Bernhard Fiedler relate to the preparation of a historical exhibition of Islamic architecture that Schmoranz organised in 1876. A particularly fascinating letter is that sent to the architect Andreas Streit, informing him of goings-on behind the scenes during the election of a committee overseeing the ceremonial parade for the silver wedding of the Austrian royal couple in 1879, and of the tensions between Viennese artists that accompanied the election. From the correspondence stored in Czech archives, the issue includes letters from the National Museum’s collection addressed to the architect Josef Schulz and Vojtěch Náprstek, in which Schmoranz writes about his stay in Cairo. Schulz’s estate contains other of Schmoranz’s papers, from which we learn details of the preparation of an exhibition of Islamic architecture and Schulz’s efforts to reprise the exhibition in Prague. In other letters Schmoranz reports on his activities during the organisation of the Austrian exhibition at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, and recommends Viennese craftsmen to a colleague in Prague. Along with other material, Schmoranz’s letter to Karel Boromejský Mádl regarding the latter’s role as director of the School of Applied Arts in Prague has been preserved at the Museum of Czech Literature.
The present study aims at sketching some aspects of the last phase of existence of one mixed Czech-German community (Karlov-Libinsdorf), on the basis of ethnographic and historical sources. It offers a reflection of a more general process from the point of view of a local microlevel, a process that finally resulted in the ethnic homogneization of the Czech lands. The analysis of the controversy fo r national character of the community is being realized, on the one hand, through the study of the competition for the character of national schools in the locality, and, on the other hand, through the symbolical importance that the contesting parties ascribed to the existence of this mixed enclave. As a result of the general ethnic homogneization, the inhabitants of the naturally double-language community were confronted with the necessity of the unequivical declaration of their ethnicity. The nacionalization of the collective identity of the local inhabitants and the necessity of the „actualization“ of this identity according to the political situation of the moment was being imposed through the general social context and through the movement of „ethnic defense“ that was being incited from the outside, by the representants of the „defense associations“ The possible alternatives, however, were in competition one to another and, at the same time, they were inconsistent with the „traditional“ local (i.e. non-ethnic) identity. This dilemma hadbeen „imported“ from the outside, from the makrosocial level, but had to be solved on the level of local everyday life. In the situation of real existence of two different (ethnic) linguistic groups in the community under study, however, didn't exist the need to express the social reality through explicitly ethnical cathegories. If this expression was realized, it was in the direction to the outside, especially as a reaction to the demands from part of the State administration to define unequivocally the ethnic denomination - for example, for the use of the population censuses at the times of the Austria-Hungary and the Czechoslovak Republic or during the Protectorate when asking for the citizenship of the Protectorate or of the Reich - or in connexion with the regular interventions of the nationally outspoken activists. Similarly, also the institutionalized form of the „national struggle“ that seemingly found its possibility for expression in creating theparallel social structures in the community acquired such imposed character. There are many arguments for the assumption that the rivalry of the nationalist associations didn’t stem from the authentic local conditions. The local inhabitants could not be labeled as the ori and ginators of the conflicts with nationalist bacground, even though they have been sometimes perceived as the actors of such conflicts. We can sum up that the nationalization of the social ties didn’t occur spontaneously and represents rather a product of the interventions to the life of the community and a response to the ethnic enunciation imposed from the outside
Biologie dekompozitorů byla vždy tak trochu na druhé koleji širšího vědeckého i veřejného zájmu. Není se trochu čemu divit – než se přehrabovat v něčem nevábném, je pohodlnější pozorovat zvířata na rostlinách či jejich predátory. Nicméně dekompozitoři si naši pozornost zaslouží už jen tím, že po nás uklízejí, ať jde o kontinuální úklid koprofágů, tak o jednorázový úklid, který po nás provedou nekrofágové, a tím pomáhají udržovat to krásné a přitažlivé v chodu a stabilitě. Z koprofágů se již od věků pyramid těší jisté pozornosti koprofágní brouci, nicméně za poslední léta o nich v naší literatuře mnoho slyšet nebylo. Cílem tohoto článku je tedy představit širší veřejnosti tyto koprofágní brouky s jejich osobitou a zajímavou ekologií, která zajímavě ovlivnila jednu lidskou kulturou., Dung beetles are introduced as an important and interesting ecological group. Their ecology, what they eat and their impact on human culture and society are reviewed. Although they are no longer considered to be a deity, dung beetles still prove to be highly beneficial for both nature and human society, thanks to their degradation of dung., and František Xaver Jiří Sládeček.
The issue of migration among the rural population living on the lands of the Czech Crown in the early modern age continues to attract only marginal attention in Czech historiography. Therefore, those people who lived on the very edge of that society remain outside the scope of research interest. The Romany Gypsies who were bom without homes, lie also outside the traditional focus of attention. In the early modern age, anyone could kill a Romany Gypsy without punishment; people were meant to despise them and were even supposed to persecute them. The Romany Gypsies were therefore forced to develop a specific strategy of action, which was intended to help them survive, and a significant role in this strategy was played by migration. A condition for survival was not only the need to maintain a strong internal structure within the Romany Gypsy group, but also the need to create ties with a settled society. These ties ensured, in the case of a threat, at least some form of a rudimentary protective social network. Such ties were probably passed down from generation to generation and the Romany Gypsies therefore, as much as was possible, restricted their movements to only well-known areas. On their travels through the landscape they tried to obtain food not only through begging and theft, but also by telling fortunes and reading palms, skilfully taking advantage of the fact that in the eyes of the settled population their lives were cloaked in mystery. However, they never forgot to emphasise their ties to the land in which they were bom and the impossibility of leaving it for another land. A question remains for further research as to whether they were persecuted for their ethnic origin or whether it was because of their nomadic lifestyle, which enabled them to evade the mechanisms of social control.
The Grounds of Concrete Logic (Základové konkretné logiky) is often taken to be a work in which Masaryk attempts to outline, in a methodical way, his conception of philosophy as “a real scientific metaphysics”. Nevertheless, we often hear from the Masaryk’s critics, and even from his followers, that the book appears to be no more than a transcription of Comte’s Cours de philosophie positive. Even if the classification of the
sciences was one of the main philosophical and scientific problems with which Masaryk was engaged throughout his life, in the emphasis on concrete sciences, and in the working out of the relations between particular sciences and categories, Masaryk goes beyond Comte. This point is supported, at the same time, by the many critical notes concerning the inadequacy of Comte’s epistemological grounding, which Masaryk links, above all, to a critique of Comte’s phenomenalism. The specific quality and the critical reference of the book for future generations of Czech philosophers consists in its principled status and realist aim. Concrete logic should bring us to the ultimate ontological points of departure – to things themselves. In his prioritising of the need to seek the sense of things, Masaryk belongs to the modern thinkers who showed to Czech philosophy new possibilities and ways of approach to reality in a strictly scientific spirit.