Phenomenology of Spirit, Heidegger says, is the first part of the system of science that was planned by Hegel. Another of its titles is called: Science of the Experience of Consciousness. By the science (Wissenschaft) is meant philosophy, understood as a science of the experience of consciousness, which means an experience that the consciousness makes with itself. According to Hegel, philosophy is attempting to get an absolute knowledge, the most general knowledge that is possible to achieve. And meanwhile for Hegel, in his Phenomenology of Spirit, the relationship to the human being, as a subject that is able to get an absolute knowledge and to achieve the self-consciousness, is the most important, Heidegger prefers in Hegel´s Phenomenology of Spirit Being itself with its relationship to beings as he understood it. For Heidegger all of the problems from the Phenomenology of Spirit represent nothing less than an articulation of the endless Being compared to the variety of temporal beings.

The aim of this paper is to describe Whitehead’s specific interpretation of the originally Plato’s concept of the “receptacle” (hypodoché). Whitehead, in line with his own process philosophy, understands Plato’s concept of the “receptacle” as a personal unity that, in its structural character, expresses the general principle that determines the constitution of the whole of our reality. The author of this paper begins by briefly describing Plato’s concept of hypodoché. The author goes on to present Whitehead’s specific interpretation of this concept, which allows the author to elaborate the potential parallels between Whitehead’s interpretation of hypodoché and his concept of “eternal objects”. Finally, the author attempts to find the answer to a fundamental philosophical question: what in reality corresponds to Whitehead’s concept of “eternal objects”. The author suggests that a possible answer may be found in the General Systems Theory of Ludwig von Bertalanffy.

This article is dealing with the meaning of the eternal recurrence and the reason of time in philosophical work of Ladislav Klíma. Klíma’s understanding of eternal recurrence contains logical inconsistencies which are being analysed. The conditions established by Klíma do not agree with results which are concluded. Nevertheless, the point of Klíma’s relation to time is more existential and the logic analysis is not proportional to the sense of so called „egosolism“. Klíma’s literary image of time which is shown as a legless beggar is established to the previous ideas of eternal recurrence analyses, too. Its role in the specific confession of Klíma’s philosophy is explained as well.

Czech philosopher Albína Dratvová (1892–1969) is especially remembered for her work in philosophy of natural science and as an author of a number of secondary school textbooks in philosophy and logic. An important part of her intellectual legacy consists of her anthropological-ethical works, most importantly the work Duše dnešní ženy (On the Soul of the Contemporary Woman). The author proceeds from her personal experience and focuses on the role and function of the mental activities of women in new conditions and forms of women’s activity. The subtle analysis of the mental situation of women also brings a challenge and directions for finding the meaning of life.

In this paper, I present and analyze the key part of the discussion that arose between the authors inspired by psychological situationism and the advocates of the concept of moral character that appears in the Aristotelian thought tradition. At the heart of this discussion is the question of whether this concept remains adequate despite recent findings of social and cognitive psychology. Whether it represents a significant determinant of behavior, withstanding various factors such as social pressure, momentary mental settings or even just something quite simple like bad weather. Its significance then must be high enough for it to be meaningful to devote valuable resources to its cultivation in practice.

Great divergence (i.e. why Europe progressed faster than anyone else) has an important place in civilization studies as well as political and ethical ramifications. Ferguson’s Civilization: The West and the Rest solves this problem by positing six key advantages of the West. This article aims to show that this approach is not only openly political and problematic in terms of internal consistency, but also unsupported by contemporary historical science.

Ve svém příspěvku stručně shrnu obsah knihy Stevena Pinkera The better angels of our nature: Why violence has declined a podrobím Pinkerovu analýzu vývoje násilí v lidských dějinách kritice. Dosavadní kritika tohoto díla ukazuje nejen na to, že Pinkerův popis jednotlivých historických období se zdá být na některých místech tendenční, ale že jeho obecná teze o zvyšující se mírumilovnosti společnosti není ze statistického hlediska prokázána. Připojím také vlastní kritiku Pinkerem identifikovaných psychologických změn, které podle jeho názoru vedly k bezprecedentní mírumilovnosti současného člověka. Představím argumenty, které zpochybňují buď to, že tyto psychologické změny skutečně probíhají (proměna směrem k femininním hodnotám péče a k větším empatickým schopnostem), nebo že tyto proměny souvisejí s úbytkem násilí (přechod k utilitaristické morálce a k abstraktnímu myšlení).