E-LOGOS, 2014 (vol. 21), issue 1
History of Philosophy
Dopis o nekonečnu
Martin Hemelík
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-30 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.359 
This paper contains new translation (the first and till to this time sole czech translation dates back to 1932) of one of important letters, which Dutch philosopher Baruch Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677) wrote in year 1663 to his friend Lodewijk Meyer. The fundamental subject of this letter is Spinoza´s understanding of concept of the infinite, which has very important position both in the mathematics and in the philosophy.
NONEXISTENCE - A comparative-historical analysis of the problem of nonbeing
Michael D. Bakaoukas
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-25 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.361
The philosophical issue of nonbeing has stayed alive down the centuries. Ancient Greek philosophers used to treat nonbeing as chimera. The chimera is philosophers' choice of example when they need a composite nonexistent mythological animal (Iliad 6.181). As a matter of fact, Aristotle prefers the goat-stag (tragelaphos) and the centaur. In the Hellenistic period, the centaur, the scylla and the chimera are the standard examples. In medieval texts the chimera is more popular than any of the other composite animals. For centuries philosophers have used nonbeing and chimera as experimental BEINGS, keeping them on a minimum of being. In a way nonbeing...
Populační teorie Thomase Malthuse
Marek Loužek
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-19 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.363
The paper is concerned with the population theory of Thomas Robert Malthus. First part outlines the life of Thomas Malthus. Second part analyses his economic theory. Third part examines "An Essay on the Principle of Population" (1798). Forth part deals with Malthusian heritage. Fifth part examines the debate on population growth. Sixth part outlines the population hypothesis of Simon Kuznets.
Vliv filosofického myšlení na rozvoj společnosti ve starověku a středověku
Pavel Procházka
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-20 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.364
The article's goal is to compare impacts of philosophy on progress of society and economy with regard to influence of religion. Influence of philosophy is studied on historical development of society in antiquity and medieval age. It was the period of time, which was influenced by religion changes the most, which leaded to different development of society depending on free hand. This assumption is showed on development of ancient Greece, classic China, the Arab world and medieval catholic Europe. Those regions proceeded periods of economic prosperity and decline depending on ability of philosophy to resisted religion interventionism. In addition, on...
K Rousseauově "teorii společenské smlouvy" z pohledu antropologicko-nomologického (ve srovnání s antropologicko-nomologickým pohledem na "teorii společenské smlouvy" Hobbesovu a Lockovu i v jiných srovnáních).
Vladimír Kyprý
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-19 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.365
This study ("On Rousseau´s "theory of social contract" from the anthropological and nomological point of view (as compared with the antropological and nomological view of Hobbes´ and Locke´s "theory of social contract" and in other comparisons)") deals with that comparison as regards the concept of "natural law" (of human being), the concept of positive civil law (of human being in state and legal social form), some relation of positive civil law (of human being in state and legal social form) to "natural law" (of human being) as well as its validity (liability). - This study ("On Rousseau´s "theory of social contract" from the anthropological and...
Introducing Husserl's Phenomenology from an Aristotelian Point of View
Khalid Jamil Rawat
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-16 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.369
Although, phenomenological method in its spirit and assumptions is entirely different from Aristotelian method, the need to juxtapose these philosophies is justified on the ground that the two should be properly differentiated from each other, and their differences and similarities should be brought to light. For at times the homonymy of the terms used in two methods creates a conceptual error in the mind. These terms include among other knowledge. The article gives a brief overview of Husserl's phenomenology and its parallels in Aristotle's philosophy.
Systém kategorií u stoiků
Miroslav Vacura
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-28 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.372
Stoic conception of categories is in the research of Stoic philosophy relatively less explored area. Many of the texts about stoicism engage stoic categories only marginally or not at all. We have only fragments of works of the early Stoic who were deeply involved in metaphysics and even those reference problem of categories only very little. Those fragments lack a specific list of Stoic categories that we know from later authors and even places which explicitly discuss each category are relatively scarce. During the reconstruction of the Stoic theory of categories we often rely on later thinkers and secondary sources, whose authors were not often...
Heideggerův pohyb mimo doménu vůle, mimo sféru metafyziky k naladění ne-chtění
Jiří Olšovský
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-17 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.373
This study (Heidegger's movement beyond the domain of the will, beyond the sphere of metaphysics to the attunement of non-willing) shows how the problem of the will became problematical for Heidegger in his mature being-historical thinking. Heidegger slowly gave up (from the the mid-1930s) the voluntary approach to being. Through turning being-historical thinking he proceeded to the genuine non-willing. This began to open up a distance from the world of willful science-technicality toward a greater openness to being. This is needed to find genuine there-being (Da-sein) and to approach originary be-ing itself (Seyn). Only then can the non-voluntaristic...
Aristotle's Theory of 'Sleep and Dreams' in the light of Modern and Contemporary Experimental Research
Christina S. Papachristou
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-46 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.374
Aristotle's naturalistic and rationalistic interpretation of the nature and function of 'sleep' (hypnos) and 'dreams' (enypnia) is developed out of his concepts of the various parts (moria) or faculties/powers (dynameis) of the soul, and especially the functions of cognitive process: (a) sense/sensation (aisthésis), (b) imagination (fantasia), (c) memory (mnémé), and (d) mind/intellect (nous). Sleep "is a sort of privation (sterésis) of waking (egrégorsis)", and dreams are not metaphysical phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to provide a new reading of Aristotle's 'theory of sleep and dreams' through its connection to modern and contemporary research....
Political Reluctance: On the Noble Lie in Plato's Republic
Olof Pettersson
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-31 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.375
As is well known, the rule of the philosophers is what ultimately completes the political project in Plato's Republic. Only if the philosophers accept to rule, may the city see the light of day. Yet, as is equally well known, the philosophers are reluctant to rule. But ruling is what they are designed to do. Their entire education was constructed to prepare them for this task. And therefore, as Plato's repeatedly puts it, they will need to be compelled. How? As this paper sets out to argue, it is what Plato calls the noble lie that does the job. Established in the philosophers' souls during their childhood, and tested like "gold in the fire", it is...
Philosophy of Science
Inkorporace metodologického singularismu do metodologie ekonomie
Dominik Stroukal
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-15 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.360
Methodological singularism is one of the four fundamental pillars of Austrian methodology. This work opens up the issue of methodological singularism and argues that it is equally important for economics as are concepts of deduction, methodological individualism and methodological subjectivism. Compliance with methodological singularism is vital because its without it any economic analysis leads to simplification, based on which its conclusions necessarily also become simplified. It is shown that this concept can reject some controversial concepts, i.e. scales of preference, demonstrated preference or indifference curves. Methodological singularismus...
Věda v 21. století: dynamický kognitivní systém
Martina Chalupská
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-16 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.367
The article deals with the transformation of approaches to the formation of scientific knowledge. The traditional epistemology of science based on the method of induction or deduction represents an abstract formally-logical structured and atemporal construct. In the light of the comprehensively-systemic approach this construct is opposed to the attempt to envisage science as a dynamic cognitive system. The comprehensively-systemic approach is defended in the article because it is able to embrace the indisputable social and historical dimension of science while recognizing the psychological abilities of individuals or more precisely groups. Scholarly...
O společenských vědách bez identity
Kamil Fleissner
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-16 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.370
This essay aims to discuss the concept of identity in critical perspective and in a wider context of the demarcation problem in social science. Following the famous paper Beyond "Identity" (Brubaker, Cooper: 2000) I submit the question whether the "identity" is still usefull and suited as an analytical tool in social science. I pay attention to the origin of the concept of identity and I compare its essentialist, constructivist and deconstructivist approaches that represent various attitudes to social reality, to knowledge (episteme/doxa) and to relation between science and nonscience. I reflect critically all these three approaches and I argue for...
Používání experimentu jako vědecké metody ve vědě ekonomické
Pavla Chmelová
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-13 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.371
The paper discusses the experiments and their explicit and covert use in economics. Due to the nature of the scientific method is its suitability for inclusion in the methodological apparatus of science often questionable, in the case of the economy even more because it is a very complex science having as object of research the individuals and the economic system as a whole. After a confrontation of selected economic schools in terms of their attitudes toward testing hypotheses (the emphasis is placed on the comparison of praxeology and methodological positivism) is critically assessed the actual level of economic experimentation. On the grounds of...
Godel on the mathematician's mind and Turing Machine
Inês Hipólito
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-11 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.408
Godel's incompleteness theorems are categorically among the most philosophically important logico-mathematical discoveries ever made not only to Mathematics an logics, but also to Philosophy. Godel's incompleteness theorems can be applied to demonstrate that the human mind overtakes any mechanism or formal system. Anti-mechanism theses from the incompleteness theorems were presented in Godel's Proof by Nagel and Newman (1958). Subsequently, J. R. Lucas (1961) claimed that Godel's incompleteness theorem "proves that mechanism is false, that is, that minds cannot be explained as machines". Furthermore, given any machine which is consistent and capable...
Philosophy of Language
Infinitism and Dispositional Beliefs
Husein Inusah
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-11 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.366
In articulating his theory of epistemic infinitism, Klein argues that a belief is justified only if it is supported by an infinite and non-repeating series of reasons subjectively available to the subject in a form of dispositional beliefs. Klein offers about three standard conditions of subjective availability of dispositional beliefs. I submit that the first condition confuses the disposition to believe with dispositional beliefs and the other two yield unpalatable consequences for Klein's theory of epistemic infinitism. Although this problem is not insurmountable, I argue that it poses a serious challenge to Klein's theory of infinitism and the...
Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy
Combating Rationalism and 'Blackism' in the Thought of Black Conservative George S. Schuyler
Jack Kerwick
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-21 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.358
I argue that Schuyler-one of the most prolific American cultural commentators, white, black, or other, of the middle of the 20th century-is grossly misunderstood by his contemporary critics. Far from being the opportunistic political polemicist who was insensitive to the precarious situation of race relations in America that his detractors make him out to be, Schuyler was a sophisticated thinker well educated in the philosophical tradition known as conservatism. Though not a philosopher by trade, he articulated and defended epistemological, ethical, and political-philosophical suppositions long endorsed by such notable conservative theorists as Edmund...
Prečo nie je možné vylepšiť, ale len definitívne nahradiť a prekonať človeka
Robert Burgan
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-15 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.362
In the first part of this paper I discuss the most important ideas of Coenen et al. study about human enhacement (2009), which was very recently elaborated for European Parliament. In the second part I define human essence and human nature as such, emphasizing that human essence is not biological but psycho-socio-cultural and human nature not only bio-psycho-socio-cultural but at the same time physical, chemical and geological. Finally, in the third part I very briefly describe the conditions, under which our human or social form of motion of matter will be definitely substituted by more perfect and "moral" supersocial form of motion.
Definování areté v Platónově dialogu Menón
František Weis
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-15 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.368
The presented article is concerned with an analysis of the first part of Plato's dialogue Meno. It shows what lies behind the scenes of the literally work in terms of the clash between external greatness of dying Greek tradition and internal greatness of the person acquainted with living experience of (his own) sense of human life. All three attempts of define what arete is, unmask with the thoroughgoing research mere rhetorical duel between Meno and Socrates as the struggle mentioned above.
Oscillations Between Barbarism and Civilization
Anna Makolkin
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-18 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.376
Human advancement has never been a steady progression from barbarism to civilization, there usually were ups and downs of advancement of Being, values, skills and customs invented and re-invented, abandoned, forgotten and re-invented again and again throughout millennia. Having stepped into the 21st century, when Reason has basically abandoned many of us and encountering barbarism again, it may be useful to re-examine the overall human passage from the stage of savagery to the more advanced stages of existence, trying to obtain the approximate pattern of changes and re-define the meaning of civilization and barbarism. This re-examination involves a...
Against 'Racisms': An Invidious Concept Under Fire
Jack Kerwick
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-17 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.377
In the contemporary Western world, it is impossible to go a single day without hearing about "racism." Yet beyond thinking of it as something at once ubiquitous and especially, maybe even uniquely, awful, no one seems to know what "racism" is. In this paper, I subject the concept of "racism" to interrogation. I show, first, that in spite of what the singularity of the term may lead us to believe, there is no unitary phenomenon to which "racism" refers. In fact, there are at least four logically distinct and, in some respects, inconsistent conceptions of "racism." The latter has been defined in terms of: (1) Racial Hatred (RH); (2) Racial Discrimination...
The Thorny Path to Eternal Peace
Marc Herbermann
E-LOGOS 2014, 21(1):1-37 | DOI: 10.18267/j.e-logos.378
The following essay introduces the idea of eternal peace as Immanuel Kant conceptualised it and how it relates to the contemporary global society. Kant´s political philosophy still covers a wide range of current issues. He envisioned, for example, "a center of federative union for other States to attach themselves to" (Kant 1891a, 98) as a precondition for perpetual Peace. We can ask in how far the EU can serve as such a role model. Kant firmly believes that a peace guaranteeing federation should consist of republics. Looking at the present global system, can we identify these republics? Do states have the right to establish a democracy through military...