Vop\v{e}nka's Alternative Set Theory in the Mathematical Canon of the 20th Century: Author's Translation from Czech

Vop\v{e}nka's Alternative Set Theory can be viewed both as an evolution and as a revolution: it is based on his previous experience with nonstandard universes, inspired by Skolem's construction of a nonstandard model of arithmetic, and its inception has been explicitly mentioned as an attempt to axiomatize Robinson's Nonstandard Analysis. Vop\v{e}nka preferred working in an axiomatic theory to investigating its individual models; he also viewed other areas of nonclassical mathematics through this prism. This article is a contribution to the mapping of the mathematical neighbourhood of the Alternative Set Theory, and at the same time, it submits a challenge to analyze in more detail the genesis and structure of the philosophical links that eventually influenced the Alternative Set Theory.Comment: This is the author's translation into English of her paper published originally in Czech. 14 page

Re-Negotiating Czechoslovakia. The State and the Jews in Communist Central Europe: The Czech Lands, 1945-1989

Roughly 50,000 Jewish citizens called Czechoslovakia home in 1945, out of a prewar population of 315,000. More than half chose to emigrate. Others attempted to conceal their roots. Still others hoped to rebuild the Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust. Before they could establish a new modus vivendi, before the wounds of the war could begin to heal, the Communist Party came to power with dreams of transforming society. It brought the state under the Soviet Union\u27s sphere of influence and ruled until 1989. For those who did not emigrate by 1950, the communist years were marked by renegotiations of ethnicity, nationality, religion, and citizenship, periods of persecution and others of relative freedom and renaissance. Re-Negotiating Czechoslovakia uses the Czech case to think broadly about how the terms of ethno-national and civic integration changed for the Jewish citizens of Central Europe\u27s nation-states after the Holocaust and through four decades of communist rule. The years 1945-1989 represent the final chapter of a two-century-long experiment in which government officials sought bureaucratic solutions to the so-called Jewish Question. The leaders and administrators of the Czechoslovak party-state faltered in their attempts due to the paradigmatically modern difficulty of trying to force Jews to conform to categories developed for thinking about Christian and formerly Christian Europeans of supposedly exclusive ethno-linguistic communities. Czechoslovak officials struggled mightily and in vain to separate Jewish identity and practice into distinct ethnic and religious components, virtually criminalizing the former under the guise of anti-Zionism and officially supporting the latter in the name of freedom of conscience. Managing these divergent, often-competing, yet inextricably linked priorities engendered inter-ministerial conflicts, which opened avenues of influence for Jewish leaders. Indeed, the Jewish leadership and the state administrators in charge of religious affairs entered into a relationship characterized by a mutuality of interests for decades. This was reflected, in particular, in how they both used the restitution and sale of Jewish properties to their joint benefit. Thus, where some now see collaboration, this dissertation argues that a willingness to work with the state actually maintained the Jewish communities through 1989. It also inspired a counter-culture that came to define post-communist Czech Judaism. By thus identifying intra-state friction as a major determining factor of Jewish-state relations, within the contexts of domestic and international politics and Soviet dominance, this dissertation offers an alternative to studies that treat the Central European states as satellite monoliths, driven, where Jews were concerned, by antisemitism alone. It additionally provides a window into how these states operated in general, as Jewish affairs brought so many of their component parts together. An exploration of a wide range of sources demonstrates further that Jewish-state relations also depended significantly upon local popular culture. Despite the pretensions of Czechoslovakia\u27s first communist leaders to revolution, their policies and rhetoric facilitated, by 1952, the transmission of native, pre-communist, anti-Jewish tropes into the party-state system, where they persisted for decades. The association of those early Stalinist years with antisemitism then set the groundwork for communist reformers and, later, even the liberalizing state of the 1960s to deploy the Holocaust as a symbol with which to call for and mark political progress. Holocaust memory (like property restitution) thus emerged as a site of contestation wherein Jewish-state relations intersected with broader political and cultural currents. This dissertation thus also complicates the claim that the Communist Party attempted to hide the truth about the Holocaust, and, instead, attributes much of that perception in the West to changes in the politics of memory on both sides of the Iron Curtain after 1967. Finally, Re-Negotiating Czechoslovakia concludes with two arguments. First, through the twentieth century a plurality of Czech Jews living around the world and also in the Czech lands came to see themselves as members of a transnational, sub-ethnic Czech-Jewish community: the Czechs of the Jewish people and the Jews of the Czech people. Second, most scholarly and popular accounts of Czech-Jewish history have reflected broader trends in narrating the Cold War, centered upon the revelation of communist crimes and a national othering of communism, which have prevented the emergence of more nuanced and sympathetic accounts of the history of Jewish-state relations during the period of communist rule. This dissertation participates in the very revisionist movement whose emergence it seeks to identify in the conclusion

“The Turk” in the Czech Imagination (1870s-1923)

In “The Turk” in the Czech Imagination (1870s-1923), Jitka Malecˇková describes Czechs’ views of the Turks in the last half century of the existence of the Ottoman Empire and how they were influenced by ideas and trends in other countries, including the European fascination with the Orient, images of “the Turk,” contemporary scholarship, and racial theories. The Czechs were not free from colonial ambitions either, as their attitude to Bosnia-Herzegovina demonstrates, but their viewpoint was different from that found in imperial states and among the peoples who had experienced Ottoman rule. The book convincingly shows that the Czechs mainly viewed the Turks through the lenses of nationalism and Pan-Slavism – in solidarity with the Slavs fighting against Ottoman rule

Silicon's Second World: Scarcity, Political Indifference and Innovation in Czechoslovak Computing, 1964-1994

How societies invent, adopt, adapt, distribute and innovate with computers is an important puzzle for historians of technology, economists, educators and government planners alike. This dissertation examines the developmental path of Czechoslovakia from when its premier computer scientist, Antonín Svoboda, emigrated in 1964 to slightly beyond state dissolution in 1993. An industrialized consumer society with little to consume, as Jaroslav Švelch noted, Czechoslovakia illustrates both the still-understudied history of computing in state socialist societies and the global story of innovation and adaptation in liminal spaces that provide human capital and emerging markets for the West. An alternate modernity emerged in what Martin Müller calls the 'Global East,' constituted by users living in scarcity, skeptical of state and capital power and maintaining the countercultural community values articulated by exponents like Stewart Brand, Ted Nelson and Buckminster Fuller. This work contributes to the ongoing turn in the history of technology away from Silicon Valley-centered narratives of invention toward the maintenance, adaptation and second-order innovation better representative of technological encounters globally. Czech and Slovak computer users are the focus: Their social origins, personal politics, creativity and negotiated autonomy framed the shape of computing in their country. Their stories are told often by themselves-in extensive oral interviews with key scientists, prominent dissidents and black marketeers-and in the pages of their community's magazines, journals and newsletters, in television interviews, in their jokes and ribald songs. Their voices are part of a global chorus of hobbyism, tinkering, maintenance and technological communities informed by scholars like Jaroslav Švelch, Melanie Swalwell, Honghong Tinn, Helena Durnová, Patryk Wasiak, Ksenia Tatarchenko and Nathan Ensmenger

The construction of national identity in the historiography of Czech art

National identity can be expressed in many ways by individuals, groups and states. Since the nineteenth century, Central Europe has been undergoing rapid changes in the political, social and cultural spheres, which was reflected in the self-definition of the nations living in this region, and in their definition by others. The Czech people, who until 1918 were a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, gave birth to a national revival movement in the nineteenth century and eventually emancipated themselves to create an independent Czechoslovakia. The idea of „national identity“ was, therefore, crucial and this was enhanced in many areas of human activity, including the construction of a historical legitimacy for the nation. The struggle for recognition of the historical existence of the Czech nation was also projected into the discourse adopted for historical and contemporary art writing and exhibition practice. In this thesis, I focus on the ways in which Czech national identity was constructed in the historiography of art. I shall argue that the various ideologies which influenced the writers led to an understanding of Czech art as epitomising certain qualities of the Czech nation. At the same time, the Czech nation was presented as highly advanced because of its artistic achievements. I shall explore how art historians, historians, artists, archaeologists and philosophers created their notion of a Czech national art on the basis of either negotiating a compromise with the various ethnic groups, methodologies and political affiliations, or by emphasising their opposition to the same. Another contested area was the concept and political uses of artistic quality. It will be my aim to examine broader circumstances of these contestations in the Introduction and more specific ideological motivations behind Czech art history in the subsequent chapters. In Chapter One, I shall outline the main places where art history was practiced in Bohemia and Moravia which were crucial for constructing the discourse on national art. Chapter Two examines the texts of the first Czech art historians in the second half of the nineteenth century who became interested in the national aspects of Czech art because of the political and cultural climate. In Chapter Three, I shall examine the nineteenth century debates between Czech and German authors on the origins of mediaeval art, confirming Czech or German national identity 3 respectively. Chapter Four studies the rise of Czech art history as a “scientific” discipline in Prague and the attempts of Czech art historians at its professionalisation, which – nevertheless – did not abandon a nationalistic discourse. The main focus of Chapter Five is the co-existence of nationalistic views of Czech art with the attempts of artists and art critics to bring Czech art into a dialogue with Western art. In the following chapter, Chapter Six, this practice is explored in the context of the Viennese university and the so-called Vienna School of art history, particularly the work and legacy of Max Dvořák. The influence of the School on Czech art history is the topic of Chapter Seven, which again brings up the question of the divide between international and national perspectives of Czech art. Criticism of the Czech Vienna School followers from various groups of art historians is examined in Chapter Eight. Finally, in Chapter Nine, I conclude with the exploration of the rise of a new concept of art historical identity, the concept of Czechoslovak identity

BOHEMIAN VOICE: CONTENTION, BROTHERHOOD AND JOURNALISM AMONG CZECH PEOPLE IN AMERICA, 1860-1910

This dissertation examines elite and popular consciousness among Czech speakers in America during their mass migration from Bohemia and Moravia, the two Habsburg crownlands that became the largest part of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. Between 1860 and 1910, their numbers increased tenfold to almost a quarter-million, as recorded in the United States census, and to over a half-million with their children. That was almost one-twelfth of their population in Bohemia and Moravia. In the same half-century, a stable group of men made Czech-language journalism and publishing in America. They included Karel Jon�? in Wisconsin, V�clav ?najdr in Cleveland, Franti?ek Boleslav Zdr?bek and August Geringer in Chicago, and Jan Rosick� in Omaha. Students of the first Czech-language secondary schools in Bohemia, they came to the 1860s American Midwest in their twenties and modernized a print culture launched by bricklayers and tailors. They also became leading voices in what the subtitle calls contention and brotherhood among their countrymen. Contention formed the three large camps, subcultures and allegiances?liberal/Freethinker, Catholic and Socialist. Brotherhood denotes the forms of association and security that made the fraternal benefit societies the largest and most durable platforms for Bohemian identity and advocacy in America. The dissertation uses Czech-American newspapers from the period, historiography and new archival sources from both sides of the Atlantic to more closely examine definitive episodes, personalities and institutions among Bohemians while they formed important urban and rural communities in American society from New York to the Great Plains

Searching for Styles of National Architecture in Habsburg Central Europe1890-1920. Art Nouveau and Turn-of-the-Century Architecture as Nation-Building

1 English Abstract Searching for Styles of National Architecture in Habsburg Central Europe 1890-1920 Art Nouveau and Turn-of-the-Century Architecture as Nation-Building This thesis examines aspirations of Central European nations to create architectural style, which would be particular to the given nation and would convey national spirit and character through architectural form. Inspired by social and cultural history, historians of architecture have recently begun to study conscious efforts of national elites to use architecture for nationalistic ends. Considerable attention has been paid to the interplay between national movements emerging in Europe before the World War I, and the concurrent developments in the field of architecture as signified by introduction of the Art Nouveau. However, most of these works focus on individual national building movement. Building on the existing set of studies developed in different national contexts, this thesis takes a step further and approaches the issue from the transnational perspective Applying the comparative history methodology to the three cases studies - Hungarian, Czech and Polish, all non-German ethnic groups in the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy - enables close examination of the intertwined development of modern nations and architecture. By the turn of the...Český abstract Hledání národního architektonického stylu v habsburské Střední Evropě 1890-1920 Národní hnutí a architektura na přelomu století Středoevropská národní hnutí na počátku 20. století významně zasáhla také do architektury. Ve jménu národních idejí docházelo ke snahám o vytvoření specificky národního architektonického slohu, který by reflektoval unikátní národní charakter. Historikové architektury, inspirováni vývojem na poli sociálních a kulturních dějin, se výzkumu vlivu nacionalismu na architekturu věnují od 90. let minulého století. Politický a mocenský vzestup evropských národních hnutí před První světovou válkou a souběžný posun od historismu k secesi v architektuře se stal v tomto smyslu jedním z nosných témat. Zpracování však v drtivé většině zůstávalo limitováno na konkrétní národní hnutí. Tato práce se pokouší překonat dominanci národní perspektivy. S využitím metodologie komparativních dějin souhrnně zpracovává tři případové studie. Na přelomu století maďarská, polská i česká inteligence usilovala o vytvoření národně specifické architektury. V Maďarsku příhodné politické uspořádání umožnilo rychlé a široké přijetí národního stylu, vycházejícího ze secesní estetiky a spojovaného zejména s architekty Ödönem Lechnerem či Bélou Lajtou. V polském a českém případě k rozvinutí národního stylu...Institute of General HistoryÚstav světových dějinFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art

Tacitus and nationalism in nineteenth-century art

In the nineteenth century artists patronised by national, imperial and aristocratic elites in Europe turned to Tacitus and other classical sources for inspiration in defining the national and ethnic ideal of these patrons. This is a phenomenon that was particularly evident in the German-speaking countries of central Europe, where the figure of Arminius from Tacitus' Annals was represented in many different artistic media, from painting to monumental sculpture. In the German states themselves depictions often followed a similar prescription, which took their inspiration from the plays of Freidrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Heinrich von Kleist, which dramatised the victory of Arminius (or 'Hermann') over Quinctilius Varus and his Roman army. The national context of the time was complicated by the process of unification and the reach of German language and culture beyond the borders of what was in the later century united in the new German Reich. Use was also made of figures drawn from Tacitus in nineteenth-century Britain. In this thesis I also examine how Boadicea and Calgacus were employed in national and local contexts during a period when Britain's imperial power was at its height. It is shown that here too the approach taken by artists to their subject matter in a nationalist context was not always predictable. Examining both central Europe and Britain it compares different case studies, to demonstrate something of the flexibility possible in the treatment of an – at first sight – straightforward theme from classical literature. It will also be explored how the political and artistic contexts of the respective periods in which artists lived variously affected – or did not affect - their treatment of the themes. The extent to which one can analyse their individual portrayals as 'nationalist', or under the influence of 'nationalist' themes, is explored

Destined or Doomed? Hungarian Dissidents and Their Western Friends, 1973-1998

Through the lens of Hungarian dissidents and their supporters in the West, the following study analyzes the motivations of intellectuals from East and West to engage in an open East-West dialogue, their efforts to change the social and political structure of the Cold War, and their contributions to the peaceful revolutions of 1989. It investigates the alliance of intellectuals from either side of the Iron Curtain, their formative experiences and mutual influences. To understand the origins, functions, and legacy of this network, the study investigates the period from the 1960s to the late 1990s, focusing on the years 1973 to 1998. Findings suggest that the motivations that would bring intellectuals from either side of the Iron Curtain together in the 1980s originated in similarly formative experiences in the 1960s, which shattered their youthful convictions and initiated a search for a new intellectual identity that would bring Easterners and Westerners together by the late 1970s. In response to the encounter, the participants developed a distinct set of political and historical convictions that rooted in cultural liberalism, their commitment to free, open and democratic societies, and the acceptance of universal human rights. This case study touches upon developments throughout Eastern Europe and evaluates the history of the Cold War as interplay between East and West. It indicates a retreat from authoritarian rule in the East as early as 1987, and highlights the problematic, one-sided perception of the Hungarian Democratic Opposition in the West. It discusses the achievements of the former dissidents, and their struggle to adjust to the situation in post-1989 Europe. The project is based on archival research in six different countries; findings are based on documents found in private collections, national libraries, institutional, national and state security archives. Additionally, over forty eyewitnesses and experts shared their experiences and views in interviews conducted between 2009 and 2012

Sobre la compatibilidad entre realismo y relativismo conceptual: un examen de la tesis de Putnam, desde un punto de vista lógico

Las indagaciones en la pregunta por lo que hay permiten distinguir a grandes rasgos entre dos enfoques: uno, el de los pensadores que entendieron que el tema a investigar era la naturaleza y estructura del mundo, y otro, el de aquellos quienes, al sostener que describir el mundo no es simplemente copiarlo, atendieron a lo que se llamó esquema conceptual: esto es, al marco conceptual cuya forma toman las descripciones del mundo. Desde el segundo enfoque cabe suponer, o bien (a) que una única estructura que no cambia subyace al conocimiento humano, o (b) que, dado el carácter dinámico e histórico del pensamiento humano, se desarrollan marcos conceptuales alternativos. El segundo enfoque, en cualquiera de sus dos formas, suele estar ligado a la convicción de que el mundo, tal como es, nos es inaccesible. La situación se puede plantear como un dilema, ninguno de cuyos cuernos permite alentar esperanzas de avances bien fundados. O bien se pretende describir el mundo, tal como es, sin contemplar el hecho de que esa descripción incluye elecciones conceptuales propias de un sujeto, o bien se centra la investigación en los rasgos de el/los esquema/s conceptual/es imprescindibles para construir una descripción del mundo, imposibilitando, con ello, el acceso a la realidad tal como ésta es.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació