The well-known book by Peter Singer The Liberation of Animals has not only inspired a series of texts defending the rights and interests of animals, but has also provoked a discussion about what humanity is, what meaning can our belonging to the human kind have for us, and whether Singer’ critique of the “human prejudice” is justified. The paper considers two important defenders of “human prejudice”, B. A. O. Williams and C. Diamond, who both claim the concept of human being to be a basic ethical concept. In the first part, we will present Williams’s argument that solidarity and identity with one’s species doesn’t have the structure of a blameworthy privilege similar to sexism and racism. In the second part, we will proceed to Diamond’s conception of human being that is founded in relations and responses towards the other. Just as our treatment of a human being depends on whether we see this person as our fellow, so our treatment of an animal depends on how we see it. In the last part, we will consider Diamond’s illustration of how it is possible to change our perception of an animal and thus to change our treatment of it., Kamila Pacovská., and Obsahuje poznámky a bibliografii
The paper deals with the ethics of biotechnological enhancement of human qualities such as intelligence, health and lifespan. In contemporary bioethics three views have emerged concerning the moral permissibility of such a biotechnological enhancement of humans. While bioconservatives reject it as morally impermissible and dangerous, bioradicals welcome it as permissible and desirable. Between these two extremes we find bioliberals who admit some types of enhancement, under certain conditions. These debates are still overshadowed by fear of bioethics, but this discredited term needs to be rehabilitated because it turns out that there are both desirable and undesirable forms of eugenics., Tomáš Hříbek., and Obsahuje poznámky a bibliografii
Czech White-Nose Syndrome Team together with international collaborators discovered mechanisms of tolerance that protect Palearctic bats from white-nose syndrome (WNS), the disease that caused mass die-off in North America. The discovery raises hope for a better future of bats in North American ecosystems. White-nose syndrome (WNS) is caused by a generalist pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans with the worst possible characteristics of an infectious fungal agent. The generalist nature of the WNS fungus means that it can infect any bat hibernating in a contaminated cave or mine and, moreover, it may remain viable and virulent, waiting for its hosts until the next hibernation period. Harmless to humans, the WNS fungus kills hibernating North American bats in winter. However, loss of voracious insectivorous bats from agricultural ecosystems may result in economic costs required for increased pest control. Without mass die-offs of bats harbouring the WNS agent in Europe, the response to disease is an enigma. To study the survival crossroads, the Czech WNS Team focused on the relationship between pathogen quantity and disease under natural conditions. High disease prevalence together with high fungal loads in absence of bat population declines in Eurasia indicates disease tolerance mechanisms, where hosts limit harm inflicted by the pathogen but do not hinder its growth. The tolerance mechanisms revealed by the Czech WNS Team is a function of bat adaptation to the presence of the pathogen. and Natália Martínková.
Acute lung injury in the preterm newborns can originate from prematurity of the lung and insufficient synthesis of pulmonary surfactant. This situation is known as respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). In the term neonates, the respiratory insufficiency is related to a secondary inactivation of the pulmonary surfactant, for instance, by action of endotoxins in bacterial pneumonia or by effects of aspirated meconium. The use of experimental models of the mentioned situations provides new information on the pathophy siology of these disorders and offers unique possibility to test novel therapeutic approaches in the conditions which are very similar to the clinical syndromes. Herewith we review the advantages and limitations of the use of experimental models of RDS and meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS) and their value for clinics., D. Mokra, A. Calkovska., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Poté co se logika ve dvacátém století podstatným způsobem opřela o matematiku (podobě jako některé další vědy), začala se objevovat i celá řada prací, které pod hlavičkou logika obsahují v podstatě matematiku. Začalo se hovořit o matematické logice (což bylo ovšem interpretováno různým způsobem, někdy právě jako označení jisté čistě matematické disciplíny vzešlé z logiky, jindy jako aplikace na základy matematiky a opět jindy jako logika provozovaná matematickými prostředky). Někteří filosofové, které zajímala logika, ale nijak specificky matematika, proto začalil razit termín filosofická logika, který měl znovu nastolit rovnováhu mezi filosofickým a matrmatickým aspektem logiky. Problém je ovšem v tom, že tento termín velice rychle získal celou plejádu různých významů, které zcela zatemňují to, co by se mělo pod jeho hlavičkou dělat; a v této situaci se navíc zcela na okraj logiky dostává to, co dává logice její raison d´etre a co ji stále ukotvuje v realitě - totiž zkoumání a kritické hodnocení pravidel, kterými se řídí naše argumentace a v jistém smyslu i naše usuzování. Domnívám se, že tuto situaci je třeba řešit tak, že si zopakujeme, co má být cílem logiky a uděláme si pořádek v tom, co z toho, co se dnes pod hlavičkou logika provozuje, je k tomuto cíli schopno nějak skutečně přispět., Since, in the twentieth century, logic has come to essentially rest upon mathematics (just like a lot of other sciences) there began to appear many works which, under the title ´logic´, contained what is basically mathematics. There emerged them term mathematical logic (which was however interpreted in various ways, sometimes precisely to indicate a certain purely mathematical discipline resulting from logic, sometimes as the application of logic to the foundations of mathematics and sometimes also as logic undertaken by mathematical means). Some philosophers interesed in logic, but not specifically in mathematics, therefore began to use the term philosophical logic as a way of reinstating a balance between the philosophical and mathematical aspects of logic. There is a problem however in that this term very quickly acquired a whole range of different meanings which have essentially blurred what should be done under this heading; and, moreover, this situation made the very raison d´etre of logic, which grounds it in reality - viz. examination and critical evaluation of the rules which govern our argumentation nad, in a certain sense, our reasoning -, move to a periphery of logic. This situation should be resolved, I belive, by our revisiting the question of what should be the aim of logic, and by clarifying to what extent that which goes under the title logic can really contribute to this aim., and Jaroslav Peregrin.
Richard Rorty, americký filosof (1931-2007), bývá považován za jednoho z nejvlivnějších myslitelů poslední doby. Jeho hlavní teze se soustředí na kritiku reprezentacionalismu, tedy ambici klasické moderní filosofie poznávat přírodu v zrcadle lidské mysli. Odtud Rorty přechází v oblasti poznání, ale i společenské kritiky bigotnosti, k dílu Johna Deweye a chápe ho v zásadě relativisticky. Cílem tohoto článku je ukázat, kde jsou limity tohoto Rortyho relativismu a jak před ním zachránit Rortyho původní kritiku reprezentacionalismu. Navazuje se v něm na intenzivní debaty mezi pozdním Rortym a jeho kritiky a zejména na filosofii přírodních věd, která je v Rortyho díle výmluvně postavena stranou. Článek jako východisko z rortyánského relativismu nabízí pojem „otevřené autority“ a nový filosofický pohled, stále však ukotvený v tradici amerického pragmatismu, na lidskou racionalitu., Richard Rorty, American philosopher (1931-2007) is considered to be one of the most influential thinkers of recent times. His main thesis centres on a critique of representationalism – of the ambition of classical modern philosophy to comprehend nature in the mirror of the human mind. From here Rorty then moves through the area of knowing, and also of a social critique of bigotry, to the work of John Dewey, whom he understands in a fundamentally relativistic way. The aim of this article is to determine the limits of Rorty’s relativism, and to show how we might preserve Rorty’s original critique of representationalism despite these limits. Mention is made of the intensive debates between the late-Rorty and his critics, especially in the area of the philosophy of natural science which, in Rorty’s work, is tellingly left to one side. The article offers, as a way out of Rortian relativism, the concept of “open authority” and a new philosophical view, still in the tradition of American pragmatism, of human rationality., and Boris Cvek.
This article focuses on military handbooks from the first half of the 17th century placed in the collections of the Military History Institute Prague. In the introduction, it summarises the history and structure of the collection of early printed books in the library under study. After that, it characterises the set of the handbooks i.a. in terms of their topic, the language and the publisher’s provenance, as well as format. Its main aim is to analyse the frontispieces and engraved title pages of these publications with regard to the iconographic motifs that are usually depicted on them. The final part of the work outlines the possibilities of using the frontispieces and engraved title pages of the studied publications as iconographic sources in historiography and it places the title illustrations of the military handbooks in a wider context., Klára Andresová., Obsahuje anglický abstrakt a shrnutí., and Obsahuje bibliografii