Tato interdisciplinární studie analyzuje osobnost a profesní dráhu německého teoretického fyzika Wernera Heisenberga v kontextu Německé říše, Výmarské republiky, nacistického Německa a poválečné éry. Zaměřuje se především na jeho kontroverzní roli během druhé světové války jakožto vůdčího člena tzv. Uranového spolku – militaristického projektu usilujícího o sestrojení jaderných reaktorů a zbraní. Článek shrnuje a kriticky přehodnocuje po desetiletí tradovanou legendu o údajně mírové práci německých jaderných vědců. Dále na základě rozboru Heisenbergovy intelektuální, politické a vědecké socializace ukazuje, že on i další němečtí vědci nebyli pasivními obětmi okolností, nýbrž aktivními účastníky vědeckých a politických procesů, které vedly k vědomé a faktické kolaboraci se zločinným režimem. Studie tak přispívá k širší debatě o etice vědy a zodpovědnosti vědců v totalitních či autoritativních režimech a zároveň otevírá prostor pro budoucí výzkum kolaborace československých vědců.

Tento článek popisuje teoretická východiska pro výzkum herního prostoru a analytické metody zaměřené na hráčskou recepci level designu. Zaměřuje se především na hry s otevřenými světy a nahlíží na environmentální vyprávění v nich. Rozebírané metody zahrnují herní telemetrii, zakreslování mentálních map a eye-tracking. Herní světy je možné vnímat jako komplexní celky, které jsou důležité nejenom jako dějiště herních interakcí, ale také jako znakové struktury nesoucí sémantický význam. Tyto struktury se skládají z prostorových prvků, které tvoří narativní potenciál herního prostoru. Tento potenciál je aktualizován a interpretován hráči během hraní.

This paper delves into AI development’s historical and philosophical dimensions while highlighting the symbiotic relationship between philosophy and AI from a technological perspective: philosophy furnishes foundational concepts, and AI supplies practical tools. The paper posits neurosymbolic AI as a solution to present challenges, sparking discussions encompassing both technical and philosophical considerations. Advocating a multidisciplinary approach calls for merging empirical AI insights with philosophy and cognition science to enrich our comprehension of intelligence and propel AI forward.

The essay deals with Nazi uranium research in the context of Jungkʼs bestseller Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (1956). The first part of the article introduces the reader to Jungk himself, as well as to the historical-political context that crucially influenced his moralising positions in favour of the German uranium scientists (they did not build nuclear weapons for Hitler) and at the same time against the Allied scientists (they built nuclear weapons and used them). Based on historical sources (gradually made available since the 1970s), the second part of the study discusses the Nazi Uranium Clubʼs efforts to produce a uranium reactor and nuclear weapons. German scientists worked for the Nazi regime voluntarily and intensively and were fascinated by the research. The third part reveals the origins of the post-war legend of the supposedly innocent German scientists, their decades-long alibism, and the criticism of Jungkʼs bestseller by the Allied command, the scientists, and eventually Jungk himself, who put faith in the interviews in which German scientsts proclaimed their activities had been nothing but peaceful.

This paper examines the methodological propositions of Quentin Skinner, whose influence on intellectual history, including the history and philosophy of science (HPS), cannot be disregarded. It is well known that Skinner’s method is based on John L. Austin’s theory of speech acts. Nonetheless, the very idea of applying ordinary language philosophy to the subject matter of history rests on other assumptions that form Skinner’s philosophy of historiography. The paper focuses on reconstructing this philosophy of historiography and especially on R. G. Collingwood as a primary source of inspiration. This famous British philosopher, historian, and archaeologist authored many inspirational texts concerning the historical craft. The complex and sometimes contradictory structure of his posthumously published texts requires careful interpretation, and many philosophers see Collingwood as an obscure thinker. The paper argues that even though Skinner openly denounces Collingwood’s central concept of re-enactment, his philosophy of historiography is deeply influenced by a specific understanding of Collingwood’s legacy.

The text presents the results of a qualitative study focused on the issue of using nanomaterials in the extraordinary circumstances linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly referring to the “Roušky s TULkou” initiative. Within several weeks, this initiative managed to launch the production of highly efficient nanofiber filters using the original AC Electrospinning technology on an industrial scale. The goal of the research was to analyse both the regional experience and the value-based challenges, conflicts and ethical dilemmas posed by an emergency situation. The theoretical starting points of the research were the Turnerian understanding of liminality, communitas and antistructure and Stenner’s concept of liminal spaces. The results of the research show that the pandemic situation contributed to the emergence of an unexpected potential of the new technology and that the realisation of the activity was influenced not only by know-how and the university’s technical facilities, but particularly by social capital, thus uncovering the potential of the anti-structural character of the initiative and the temporary suspension of hierarchically established university structures.

The Internet has become a natural communication platform for modern society. Web archives, which began in the 1990s to capture and preserve changing web content, have thus become key sources for research in the recent past. The analysis of their data is complicated by, for example, insufficient competencies of researchers, the need for computing resources or legislation. One way to meet the needs of users is to develop tools and research interfaces that allow to work with data without the need for technological knowledge of advanced extraction and thus open it to researchers. The study addresses the issue of access to archival web data, approaches efforts to formulate a theoretical and methodological framework and proposes a design for access and further data processing, which is applied in a unique research interface for extracting large data from web archives using advanced machine learning to generate and categorization of text outputs.

Jonathan H. Turner is the Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Riverside and, for many decades, the world’s leading authority on sociological theory, with research interests in many other areas such as human and societal evolution, social stratification and inequality, philosophy of science, and historical sociology. Professor Turner has authored, co-authored, edited, or co-edited a number of works, including more than 43 influential books, which have been published in twelve different languages, including The Structure of Sociological Theory, The Emergence of Sociological Theory, and many others. He is a member of the American Sociological Association and a former president of the Pacific Sociological Society and the journal editor for Sociological Theory. Professor Turner received a B.A. with honors from University of California at Santa Barbara, a M.A. and a doctorate in sociology from Cornell University. The interview is Professor Turner’s critical reply to the arguments raised in the article “Against Grand Theories: A (Cautionary) Tale of Two Disciplines,” which presents the view that universally accepted grand theories in social sciences are not achievable because of the lack of a common methodology or a theoretical core which results in their multiparadigmatic nature, value-leadenness and insufficient objectivity. The interview took place on March 23, 2021 online.

This study deals with a controversy between Leibniz and Clarke concerning the relativity of space. Although substantivalism, i.e. an approach treating space as a substance, is to be indicated as the main target of Leibniz’s attack, it has usually been replaced by Newtonian absolutism instead, as a proper opposition to Leibniz’s relationalism. However, such absolutism has not been defined ontologically, but dynamically, as if the difference between their conceptions consisted of a different approach to the inertiallity of motion. However, this would mean that while Leibniz intended to reduce all motion to an inertial one, Newton reduced it to a noninertial one instead, or that only one of them acknowledged the existence of noninertial motion at all. Nevertheless, none of them actually denied the existence of noninertial motion, and although all motion indeed seemed noninertial to Newton, Leibniz never responded to such a challenge in the course of their correspondence.

The paper aims at identifying, explaining and illustrating the affordances of “creative nonfiction” as a style of writing social science. The first part introduces creative nonfiction as a method of writing which brings together empirical material and fiction. In the second part, based on illustrations from my ethnographic research of European “crisis reporters,” written in the form of a novel about a fictional journalist, but also based on a review of existing social science research that employs a creative method of writing, I identify several main affordances of creative nonfiction in social-scientific research. In particular, I argue that creative nonfiction allows scientists to illustrate their findings, to express them in an allegorical way, to organize data into a narrative, to let their pieces of research act in the social world, and to permeate research accounts with self-reflexive moments. I also discuss some apparent negative affordances: challenges that creative nonfiction poses to readers and to the institutionalized academic discourse. Finally, I suggest that writing about sociological problems in the style of creative nonfiction can help to produce more engaging and engaged texts, and I discuss the ethical implications of the approach.