Pavel Zahrádka’s anthology offers a choice of translated studies in aesthetics and provides (and to a certain extent also, naturally, creates) a picture of the contemporary state of such studies based on the character of interdisciplinary work. The collection, which is gathered into nine thematic sections, covers such key themes as philosophical aesthetics and questions of the recently instituted (copyright as a philosophical-aesthetic problem) or the resurrected (the aesthetics of nature). It presents a rich palette of approaches, methods and themes which makes up the field of contemporary aesthetic research. This review study offers a commentary on the overall concept of the collection in the context of analogous foreign publications and gives a résumé of individual thematic sections, while it focuses in detail on select parts of the anthology, which represent a relatively contemporary understanding of the traditional key problems of general aesthetics (ontology, definition and the value of art)., [autor recenze] Denis Ciporanov., and Obsahuje poznámky a bibliografii
Peter Singer sa na základe preferenčného utilitarizmu a jeho metafyzických predpokladov, vychádzajúcich z Lockovho empirizmu a odlišovania človeka a osoby, vyslovuje za potraty, infanticídu, pokusy s embryami a eutanáziu. V tejto stati som poukázal na nedostatočnú argumentáciu Singera a neodôvodnenosť jeho predpokladov vychádzajúcich z empirizmu. Jej hlavným nedostatkom je empirické chápanie pojmu osoby podľa Locka a jej odlíšenie od pojmu človek. Táto definícia osoby ukazuje svoje nedostatky a zakladá sa na quinovskej nesubstančnej ontológii, ktorá však nevie vysvetliť identitu osoby v čase. Preto ju treba nahradiť adekvátnejšou definíciou, ktorá vychádza z potreby substanciálnej ontológie, ktorá zdôvodňuje identitu osoby v spojení konkrétnej duše s konkrétnym telom. Princíp indetnity ľudskej osoby tvorí konkrétna individuálna ľudská duša. Tým som preukázal, že aj bioetické dôsledky Singerovej teórie sú neudržateľné., Based on his preference utilitarianism and its metaphysical assumptions originating from Locke’s empiricism, and based on distinguishing between the human being and the person, Peter Singer argues in favor of abortion, infanticide, experiments on embryos, and euthanasia. This article points to Singer’s insufficient argumentation and states that his assumptions stemming from empiricism are not justified. The main flaw in Singer’s argumentation consists in his psychological understanding of the concept of the person and its separation from the concept of the human being. His definition of the person has manifests weaknesses and is based on Quine’s non-substantial ontology which is unable to explain personal identity through time. For this reason, it needs to be supplemented by a more adequate definition addressing the need for a substantial explanation of personal identity. Personal identity is established by the connection between a particular soul with a particular body. The human person’s principle of identity is thus guaranteed by a particular human soul. Singer’s bioethical conclusions are thus shown to be indefensible., and Peter Volek.
The concept of personal identity has recently come to play an increasingly important role in bioethical discussion concerning the beginning and end of human life. This study does not aim to represent the whole range of applications of theories of personal identity to bioethics. It focuses only on the beginning of human life, namely on the question of the moral acceptability of abortion. The author begins by describing an argument rejecting the acceptability of abortions which has been advanced by P. Lee, and it is shown that the validity of this argument depends on a certain conception of personal identity. Then the author briefly defines the psychological approach to personal identity, and he points to its weaknesses. There follows a discussion of the theory of animalism which claims that our persistence in time does not comprise any psychological factors. The conclusion of the article deals with various theories of moral status and indicates the inadequacy of functional criteria in accounting for the moral point of view. The article finishes by stating that the moral status of human beings should be founded on the concept of human dignity. If the considerations in the study have been set out correctly then they justify the following conclusion: abortions are morally unacceptable., David Černý., and Obsahuje poznámky a bibliografii