Doktorské semináře

Abstract: In order to understand how and why critical rationalism works within the instuitutional environment of modern science, it is necessary to understand the incentive problems in science. Much of scientific research, and most of basic science, is organized in the form of open (or academic) science. Open science exists because commercial (or proprietary) science cannot deal efficiently with the incentive problems in basic science. In other words, basic science is subject to market failure. Open science is competitive and decentralized but otherwise institutionally very different from markets. Specifically, it is characterized by “producer sovereignty”: quality standards cannot be enforced from the outside but emerge within scientific competition. This, of course, may also lead to problems. Quality standards in science are a matter of the methodology of science. Methodological proposals – rules and criteria for doing and evaluating research – are irrelevant if they cannot establish themselves in scientific competition. Whether this is possible depends on the incentive structure in open science but also on features of the methodology in question. In my talk, I explain the rationale of, and the incentives within, scientific competition in open science and the basic requirement for a methodology that can establish itself in scientific competition. I argue that the methodological proposals of critical rationalism satisfy this requirement. High-quality basic science is possible; however, there may (and do) exist academic areas where low-quality research prevails. Lastly, I criticize Michael Strevens’ recent book (“The Knowledge Machine”) for its failure to deal adequately with the problem of quality standards in scientific competition.

Besides the neo-Hegelian authors like Karl Marx or Ernst Kapp, whose works are considered the important precursors to philosophy of technology proper, technology as a primary subject of philosophy has emerged from the thought and historical events of the 20th century. Therefore, the philosophical reflection on technology mirrors the role that technology played at particular period of the last century: from pessimistic and negative view influenced by the post-WW2 period in which technology was seen as the destructive and totalizing force, to a more neutral outlook of the post-1980s where the analysis of technology following the changes in philosophy of science takes up a socially-constructive outlook. Although some authors have been reluctant to admit the existence of a field of philosophy of technology, the two major shifts of the 20th century have generated multiple approaches of how to philosophise about technology. Broadly speaking, these approaches have been variously called: “classical” and “contemporary”, “old wave” and “new wave”, and more recently “classical” and “empirical”. What are their sources, influences, and differences? What conceptual tools do the approaches use to do empirically-oriented philosophy of technology? And is there really philosophy of technology, or “merely” philosophy with technology?

Výlet do světa kvantové fyziky bez potřeby předběžných fyzikálních znalostí či matematiky. Přednáška nejen odhalí hlubokou souvislost kvantové fyziky s ne zcela snadno uchopitelným pojmem “informace”, ale především demonstruje, jak zásadní je určité filosofické předporozumění světu, když musíme opustit navyklá schémata myšlení.

Semmelweis’ discovery of the etiology of childbed fever has long attracted the attention of historians of science. In recent years it has also become of increasing interest to philosophers of science, who analyse Semmelweis’ methodology from various angles. These perspectives include, for instance, hypothetico-deductivism, inference to the best (or the only) explanation and the Kuhnian concept of paradigms. I discuss certain aspects of these debates and argue that Popperian methodology is superior at capturing the dynamics of the growth of knowledge. It cherishes a free critical spirit that drives knowledge forward.

Výlet do světa kvantové fyziky bez potřeby předběžných fyzikálních znalostí či matematiky. Přednáška nejen odhalí hlubokou souvislost kvantové fyziky s ne zcela snadno uchopitelným pojmem “informace”, ale především demonstruje, jak zásadní je určité filosofické předporozumění světu, když musíme opustit navyklá schémata myšlení.

Imaginativní participativní workshop zkoumá možnosti kolektivního vyjednávání ve spolupráci s algoritmy umělé inteligence (Human-AI Co-creation). Tříhodinový workshop je pořádán v rámci rozvoje navazujícího studijního programu Filozofie pro umělou inteligenci, který je na ZČU realizován ve spolupráci katedry filozofie, katedry kybernetiky a katedry informatiky a výpočetní techniky od roku 2021.

Zveme vás na třetí ročník akce Univerzita jako příležitost, který připravujeme na 15. listopad 2023, kdy v rámci Týdne humanitních věd uspořádáme panelovou diskuzi s názvem – Ženy, věda a jiné nebezpečné věci, název je aluzí na slavnou knihu kognitivního lingvisty Georga Lakoffa: Ženy, oheň a nebezpečné věci: Co kategorie prozrazují o mysli, jež ukazuje jak kategorie, které používáme k organizaci našeho světa, odrážejí naše mentální struktury a jakým způsobem se liší v různých jazycích a kulturách. Více informací na: https://hsvv.zcu.cz.

Katedra filozofie FF ZČU, Společnost pro estetiku AV ČR a Slovenská asociácia pre estetiku zvou na mezinárodní konferenci Performativita, narativita, deskriptivita, která se uskuteční ve dnech od 25. do 26. října 2023. Konference se bude věnovat zkoumání charakteru a vztahu tří významných dimenzí zkušenosti s uměleckými díly, případně i jejich významu v mimoumělecké estetické zkušenosti: narativity jakožto artikulace příběhu, performativity jakožto tvorby situace či realizace postupu a myšlenky a deskriptivity jakožto zachycení vlastností předmětu či prostředí. Více informací na https://pernadeska.zcu.cz.

Katedra filozofie FF ZČU v Plzni srdečně zve na studentskou vědeckou konferenci s názvem „Metodologie doktorského výzkumu v humanitních a společenských vědách“, konanou 12. října 2023 v Plzni. Více informací a formulář pro podání abstraktu naleznete na webu konference https://svk.kfi.zcu.cz.

Program semináře bude upřesněn.

Wittgenstein famously said, « ethics and aesthetics are one » (Tractatus 6.421). Kant’s two Critiques, the one on practical reason concerned with ethics and the one on the power of judgement focused on aesthetics, would indicate they are two separate domains requiring different applications of reason and judgement. Yet the Critique of the Faculty of Judgment has exercised a strong appeal to political theorists who value plurality and lucid discourse as integral elements of free political life.

This lecture will examine the incarnation of Kant’s Critique of the Faculty of Judgment as a model for political judgment, notably in Hannah Arendt’s interpretation. It will highlight the elements in Kant’s analysis of the judgment of the beautiful that have served to nourish some contemporary notions of political deliberation. The pitfalls and potential promise of transposing an aesthetic appreciation to the political realm will also be considered.

In Kant’s view, aesthetic judgment is profoundly subjective, grounded in the feeling of pleasure or displeasure. Taste is a personal matter. It has, the particularity, however, of being communicable since it arises from reflective judgment. In judgments of taste, pleasure and displeasure are not pure sensation, but reflected feelings. To judge an object as beautiful, according to Kant, is to believe at the same time that others would find it so. This underlying and implicit dimension is what renders the experience of beauty communicable, absent any absolute definition of beauty. One might say the private experience of pleasure through the faculty of judgment is immediately also potentially inter-subjective as well as communicable. Inter-subjective experience and communicability are features that have inspired contemporary political thought in thinkers such as Arendt, Habermas and Rawls, but whether their genesis and ultimate goal resides in the judgment of taste or in cognition remains contested and open for discussion.

Introduction of the project proposal and the pilot experiments

The lecture will present the submitted project and the experiments that we and our colleagues conducted in preparation for the project and its approval. With the current rapid development of language models and their implementation in practice, their use by students and academics is practically inevitable. It is therefore necessary to prepare for such use and to recognize the limitations of language models and the limits of their potential impact. The aim of this project is to research the possible impact of using large language models in the context of the academic sphere and therefore, their implications for academic freedom. In April of this year we conducted a pilot version of the experiment and six months later we conducted a new and improved version of the experiment. The aim was to see whether using the ChatGPT language model has an impact on students’ productivity and creativity in completing academic tasks. This presentation will be about the methodology of the experiments, the problems we encountered, and the interim evaluation.

Program bude upřesněn.