| 1. | Modal variations of philosophical and socio-political perspectives of nationalism in the context of European dynamics (starting points, forms, and mutations) * | The author of the dissertation focuses on analysing the starting points and specific forms of key concepts of nationalism in the context of the philosophical, political, literary, and theological works of European personalities across three pivotal periods: from recalling the early forms of nationalism, primarily characteristic of the 19th century, through the surge of nationalism during the interwar periods and World War II, up to the so-called post-communist era. The dissertation will focus on examining and revealing the forms and causes of social upheavals in connection with the growing onslaught of nationalist and extremist views today. Attention will also be given to the analysis of the theme of so-called fluid nationalism. |
| 2. | Ethics as Systematic Educational Method for Creation of Critical Thinking ** | The proposed PhD. research proposal sets as its theme the systematic investigation of the various ethical-philosophical methods applied in the process of education for the creation of a virtuous character of man. Our working hypothesis that will be verified during the research process says that ethical virtue is causally linked to the ability to think critically. In this context, a critical systematic and diachronic analysis of individual philosophical approaches to the subject identified in the past and formulated nowadays will be made. The main objective of the research proposal is therefore to take a critical approach to those accessible theories that have already been formulated on this topic (e.g. ethics and philosophy of education). Systematic engagement will create an ideal conceptual model for cultivating the virtuous character of a human being with critical thinking at its cognitive core. In addition, the PhD. thesis should result in practical suggestions that could be integrated into educational programs. The contribution of the research project formulated in this way is enhanced by the current socio-cultural context of the modern era when the integrity of critical thinking is more and more treated from many threats. The methodology of the proposed PhD. project will consist of conceptual analysis, critical evaluation and conceptual synthesis of the identified and proposed philosophical approaches to the philosophical problem. |
| 3. | Normativity of nature: approaches in contemporary (neo)aristotelian ethical naturalism | Modern ethical debates have to deal with the thesis that what ought to be cannot be inferred from what is. In contemporary (neo)aristotelian naturalism, the relevance of this dichotomy is questioned and rejected, and nature is accepted as the basis of normativity. The aim of the future dissertation is to map and critically evaluate not only the opinions of those moral theorists who hold the dichotomy "is – ought", but especially to map and critically evaluate the relevance of solving this dichotomy in some elected representatives of (neo)aristotelian ethical naturalism. Based on a critical analysis of these approaches, the future doctoral student will express, evaluate and compare the strengths and weaknesses of the researched authors on the problem. He then formulates and justifies his own opinion and shows what he agrees with in the solution of the given topic in the researched authors and in what he disagrees with them. |
| 4. | Love as a virtue in modern ethical theories | Love is often taken as the noblest emotion, but its understanding as virtue is beginning to prevail in some modern ethical theories. The aim of the future dissertation is to map and critically evaluate the understanding of love between two extremes: love as emotion and as virtue. The future doctoral student chooses some representatives of modern ethical theories (eg Frankfurt, Singer, Stump, Foot, Spaemann) who thematize love as virtue. It maps and critically evaluates their views on understanding love as a virtue. Based on a critical analysis of these approaches, the future doctoral student will express, evaluate and compare the strengths and weaknesses of the researched authors on the problem. He then formulates and justifies his own opinion and shows what he agrees with in the solution of the given topic in the researched authors and in what he disagrees with them |
| 5. | The place and function of emotions in moral evaluation | According to noncognitivist ethical theories, moral evaluation expresses the emotional state, beliefs and axtudes of the actor. In cognitivist theories, emotional states do not play a significant role in moral evaluation, because the actor acts on rational reasons, in which objective moral facts are to be taken into account in the first place. The aim of the future dissertation is to map and critically evaluate the place and function in the moral evaluation of elected representatives of cognitivist and noncognitivist approaches. Based on a critical analysis of these approaches, the future doctoral student will express, evaluate and compare the strengths and weaknesses of the researched authors on the problem. He then formulates and justifies his own opinion and shows what he agrees with in the solution of the given topic in the researched authors and in what he disagrees with them. |
| 6. | Naturalistic Explanations of Religion | A characteristic feature of religions is the cognitive plus which, according to them, comes from revelation, which goes beyond a full rational explanation, thus requiring an axtude of faith. Naturalistic explanations of religion are an amempt to explain and reduce the phenomenon of religion to a purely natural phenomenon with the help of the apparatus of natural and social sciences. The process of naturalization of religion can therefore also be understood as a process of its rationalization. The aim of the future dissertation is to map and critically evaluate the tendencies in the naturalization of religion among some selected authors. Based on a critical analysis of these approaches, the future doctoral student will express, evaluate and compare the strengths and weaknesses of the researched authors on the problem. He then formulates and justifies his own opinion and shows what he agrees with in the solution of the given topic in the researched authors and in what he disagrees with them. |
| 7. | The Idea of University as a Philosophical Problem | The idea of university and of „academic being” in a broader sense is a cultural historical phenomenon whose creators have been philosophers from the times of Plato. Its basic characteristics were established by medieval culture, but in the modern era its formation and defense has been influenced by philosophers such as I. Kant, W. von Humboldt, J. H. Newman, J. Dewey, Ortega y Gasset, K. Jaspers, J. Habermas, A. MacIntyre, among many others. Even though the idea of university within the history has been developed and transformed, it has survived to our days as one of the key ideas of human civilization, in the background of which lurk ideas such as education, scholarship, science and humanism in general. Nowadays, these ideas are under societal pressure if not in crisis. From the philosophical point of view, what is needed is a complex and conceptual critical self-reflection of the phenomenon of university (academy). It is necessary to investigate anthropological, social, political and ethical aspects of the whole issue of higher (university) education and science, the place and relations of academic institutions with the state, economics, culture, etc. |
| 8. | Logico-semantic theory of conditionals | Conditionals (conditionals) are compound sentences formed with conditional operators (of the type if-then etc.). Classical logic explains the role of if-then operators in terms of so-called material implication, but there are various paradoxes associated with it. A special kind of conditionals are those in which the verbal subjunctive is used. These are the so-called hypothetical conditionals and counterfactual conditionals (if it were..., so it would be). Their consistent logical-semantic explanation encounters problems with the validity of several types of logical rules. Various attempts at their consistent explanation are known, but there is as yet no agreement on which is adequate. |
| 9. | Abduction and Bayesian Confirmation Theory | Abduction (or Inference to the best explanation) as a non-deductive inference represents arguments that appeal to explanatory connection between hypothesis and evidence in order to boost the plausibility of given hypothesis. If different hypotheses explain the evidence with non-identical degree of explanatory power, then abduction selects as the conclusion that hypothesis which provides the best (available) explanation. Thus abduction serves as a confirmatory model for hypotheses. On the other hand, Bayesian confirmation theory which is nowadays the most widely used and the mostly elaborated confirmation theory pay attention only to the relation between prior hypotheses, likelihoods and posterior hypotheses – all expressed in Bayes’ theorem. There’s no explicit room for explanatory considerations within bayesianism. Some authors (e.g. B van Fraassen) point to the incompatibility of bayesianism and abductivism; others (E. Sober) defend a relative independence of both conceptions; still others provide arguments for their compatibility (I. Niiniluoto). The aim of the dissertation thesis is to examine the prospects of their reconcilability. In particular, it poses the question, how appropriately to incorporate formal measures of explanatory power of abductive hypotheses into the Bayesian confirmation theory. |
| 10. | Abduction and induction: parallels and differences in the problem of justification | Inductive reasoning has faced skeptical objections since antiquity. This criticism is most evident in Hume's problem of induction, Goodman's new riddle of induction, and the problem of the underdetermination of theory by evidence. Abductive inference, on the other hand, is regarded by a part of the theoretical community as a separate kind of non-ductive inference. The question is to what extent the problems relating to the rationality of induction also have implications for the justification of abduction as rational inference. The aim of this dissertation is to explore the possibilities of justifying abduction as rational inference and to compare its epistemic status with inductive inference. |
| 11. | Inaccurate representations, misinformation and disinformation: methodological and social aspects | The use of inaccurate representations and literally false information can serve both positive and negative functions. In science, the use of idealised models that contain deliberately distorted representations of a target system is common. On the other hand, the dissemination of false information (whether intentionally or not) in social communication - especially in social media - carries with it epistemic, ethical and social harms. This dissertation seeks to explore the distinct nature and function brought about by the use of false information and inaccurate representations in both science and online communication on social media |
| 12. | Reconstruction of Hellenistic Conditionals | Hellenistic conditionals (conditional sentences) – in respect to the ancient sources on which we are establishing our actual knowledge of the topic – are not quite expressive to enable us to form their full and comprehensive picture. In addition, this age includes an extensive period of activity of Hellenist schools as well as often inconsistent interpretations, mainly available from commentators and indirect sources. The reconstruction of these opinions would therefore require from the candidate to compare and critically evaluate existing resources and an attempt to find wider theoretical reasons for attributing some proprieties to these kinds of conditionals and seeing them as representative of schools operating during the period of Hellenism. As a tool for identifying and distinguishing the types of Hellenistic conditionals (whose nature formally is not always comparable to usual modern forms), the candidate should be enough competent in modern logical knowledge and means that would enable him to make a representative and more apt overview and finer classification of these types of propositions, as well as a better insight in the theoretical prerequisites of these ancient schools. The topic is partially methodological in character and would assume from the candidate both to be able to give an overview of existing historical sources, as well as its competence to reconstruct and interpret ancient conditionals by modern logical means. |
| 13. | Modern arguments on freedom of will | The free will problem is one of the basic philosophical themes that over the time, by growth of scientific knowledge, transforms and receives different forms. This topic requires from candidate to manage semantic definitions of the basic elements of the conceptual apparatus, an overview of current approaches and theories defending or denying the existence of free will. The central point of work on this topic would be the reconstruction of the argumentation strategies, logical characteristics of these arguments and comparison and evaluation of advantages or deficiencies in respect to the proposed rival solutions. One kind of these arguments is based on an empirical basis and relying on knowledge from natural sciences or even on common and widely recognized experiences. Another kind presupposes and priori approach in argumentation strategies and is more oriented to the consequences resulting from the so-called “laws of thought”, respectively, from certain logical or philosophical principles themselves. The student should be able to elaborate a sufficiently processed criteria for distinguishing modern rival standpoints on free will as well as for improved classification of this kind of arguments itself. In this sense, the topic would include philosophical, methodological, and logical prerequisites – enabling a better understanding of these arguments and a critical valuation of their formal either advantages or shortcomings. |
| 14. | Structure and formal presentation of ways of solving the problem | The current concept of problem solving are trying to find those key and universal elements on which it could be possible to build a pattern of routine solutions. The universal idea of problem solving is prevented by specific properties of different types of problems – a problem can be complex, can require sequential approach, or be time-consuming but urgent, a cooperative and dependent on either multiple individuals or formal institutions and thereby requiring some additional steps for agreement obtaining, etc. The problem solution has basic procedural properties starting with its description and analysis, up to creating a solution plan and its final application. The elements of analysis dependences and the representation of its solution can be formally covered and presented by structural frames while procedural relations can be expressed, partly or as a whole, by logical means. |
| 15. | Democracy adjourned: uncertainty as a characteristic of society in an environmental crisis ** | The student will elaborate a problem analysis of the concept of political democracy in the epoch of the Anthropocene with reference to the tradition of critical theory of society and the theory of post-democracy, aversive democracy, simulation democracy and other ways of addressing the problem of democracy |
| 16. | The absurd in contemporary philosophy: neutrality, absence of meaning, hopelessness, tragedy ** | In the French philosophical tradition, the theme of the absurd is still present today and has been introduced by phenomenological thinkers such as E. Levinas (the notion of il y a) and M. Blachot (the notion of neutrality). More recently, this style of thought has been revived by thinkers such as A. Comte-Sponville (the notion of hopelessness), Clément Rosset (idiocy) and Marcel Conche (the tragic), among others. However, similar elements can also be traced in thinkers who do not make them the centre of their thought (despair in C. Romano). The dissertation will be an examination of conceptions of this tendency, with the intention of presenting an interpretation of the primarily negatively connoted terms that will serve as a starting point for a “positive” understanding of them (the idea of tragic wisdom in Conche is an example). |
| 17. | Moral responsibility – logical analysis of application | Debates around moral responsibility belong among the most widespread and relevant in philosophy. The aim is to present novel arguments within the dichotomies in existing debates about moral responsibility and/or to present arguments for new ways of focusing on relevant problems. The use of analytic methods should lead to a model of arguments within a formal system |
| 18. | Transparent logics | In the field of hyperintensional context analysis, several transparent logics have emerged. The goal is a constructive comparison of existing solutions and a systematically grounded selection of one of these systems to address the relevant issues in the analysis of hyperintensional contexts. |
| 19. | The Kantian egalitarian meaning of „dignity | Kant’s concept of “dignity” as a normative starting point in thematizing the indivisibility of human rights is a key but still under-analyzed issue. The reflection on this relationship will be in two perspectives raised by E. Tugendhat: firstly, its anchoring in the principle of the relations of individual and collective autonomy, secondly, the elaboration of this normative starting point against the background of the ambivalent relationship of the right to property with the right to life. |
| 20. | Modal logics and contextual reasoning | In the thesis the student will focus on the philosophical and mathematical investigations into non-classical logics that can be used to analyze the syntactic and semantic behavior of modal notions in specific contexts, such as deontic reasoning, temporal reasoning, epistemic reasoning and doxastic reasoning |
| 21. | Normative reasoning and applications | This research topic concerns the analysis of fundamental notions involved in everyday problems of normative reasoning, including ethical rules, moral values, deterministic vs. non-deterministic systems and theories of action. Moreover, it concerns the development of logical and computational tools for assisted reasoning in the normative domain, based on a formal representation of those notions. |
| 22. | The concept of environmental democracy: possibilities and limits ** | The concept of environmental democracy, as a theoretical framework of a possible political system of an environmentally and socially sustainable society in the expected climatic and demographic conditions of the Anthropocene, arises within the framework of environmental political philosophy. The doctoral thesis will be focused on the possibilities of formulating the concept of democracy respecting not only environmental security (Planetary boundaries) but also environmental and social justice. |
| 23. | Philosophy in the Post-Truth Age ** | It is often claimed that we live in a post-truth age where people have become suspicious of all truth claims, while conspiracy theories and misinformation thrive. These claims are often followed by laments about levelling, relativism, and nihilism. According to its etymology, philosophy means the love of wisdom or we might say the love of truth. If we live in a post-truth age, is there any room left for philosophy? What is the meaning of philosophy in such an age? Does philosophy face a crisis with the lapse of belief in the truth? |
| 24. | The dynamics of negation in social conflict ** | The phenomena of conflict and enmity are traditionally conceived of as undesirable, temporary and derived. The aim of the research is to continue aminority stream of thinking and explore these phenomena as constitutive parts of the composition of social relations. Fundamental oppositions of enmity and friendship, of that which is alien and that which is our own, can be understood as hierarchical and power-based structures. Simultaneously, they are, however, a necessary precondition for our orientation in the social world. By means of the movement of dialectical negation they represent the basis for creation and development of social identity. |
| 25. | The problem(s) of control in the context of intelligent technologies | The control over intelligent technologies is a complex phenomenon that leads to several difficult questions, challenges, and problems: are we destined to lose the control over intelligent technologies? Who should have control, and which form of control they should have? Which form of control is morally acceptable? The thesis will provide answers to these questions. |
| 26. | Intelligent technologies and responsibility gaps; | According to some researchers, intelligent technologies lead to gaps in responsibility that cannot be bridged;according to others, they lead to gaps in responsibility, but these gaps can be bridged; according to others still, they do not lead to gaps in responsibility at all. This thesis will analyze the problem of responsibility gaps and argue for one of these views. |
| 27. | Impossible worlds | This PhD project investigates impossibility, specifically the relationship between the nature question — what impossibility is? — and the extent question — what impossibility there is? Impossible worlds have proven to be a useful apparatus in this regard. Following in the footsteps of their possible ancestors, impossible worlds provide a scope of applications that address the aforementioned questions. The project delves into these applications |
| 28. | Worldly and Non-Worldly Hyperintensionality | Many philosophical problems are framed in terms of hyperintensional distinctions. Although these distinctions were initially introduced in a representational manner, various accounts treating hyperintensionality as a non-representational phenomenon have been developed. This PhD project builds on these accounts and will propose a novel worldly account of hyperintensionality. |
| 29. | Research of subjectivity in feminist phenomenology** | The possibilities of research of subjectivity, corporeality, and intersubjectivity are widened by taking into account feminist optics to include significant phenomena and experiences that both enrich and deepen the framework of phenomenological inquiry of the self, agency, and being in the world. We can find the starting points of feminist phenomenology in the works of E. Stein, M. Merleau-Ponty, S. de Beauvoir, E. Levinas, and others, as well as in contemporary interpretations and new treatments such as those of S. Heinämaa, L. Fisher, and A. Al-Saji. The thesis therefore presupposes knowledge of phenomenological philosophy and phenomenological method, as well as familiarity with contemporary debates within critical and feminist phenomenology. |
