The Double Ergon Scheme in Aristotle’s Protrepticus

The article presents the first comprehensive interpretation of the ergon argument in Aristotle’s Protrepticus. It further argues that Aristotle in this argument distinguishes the ergon of an entity from the ergon of its virtue thus presenting a complicated argumentative structure which is explicitly simplified in the Eudemian Ethics. Based on the latest attempts to reconstruct the Protrepticus, the article shows the relation of the ergon argument to its other versions in both Ethics. This account not only clarifies the relation of the Protrepticus to Aristotle’s other ethical writings, it shows that Aristotle intends the argument as a transition between describing what human being does and what a good human being does well, namely a natural transition from the descriptive to the normative

Devouring One´s Own Tail

Like the ancient ouroboros devouring its own tail, we are products of our own education, our own rules and methods of cognizing and shaping the world. As such, we are also their victims, living mostly by habit and inherited rules of conduct questioning them only in the moments of crises and sometimes even not then. The purpose of this book is to explore the nature of autopoiesis or the ability of society and its various forms to create, re-create and maintain itself, by putting it in the broader interdisciplinary perspective as having been established within the project itself. The mark of the book is its broad interdisciplinary quality, stretching from philosophy, religious studies and literary theory to new media, linguistics, and political theory.Publishe

Fast spectrometer near the Heisenberg limit with direct measurement of time and frequency for multiple single photons

We present a single-photon-sensitive spectrometer, based on a linear array of 512 single-photon avalanche diodes, with 0.04 nm spectral and 40 ps temporal resolutions. We employ a fast data-driven operation that allows direct measurement of time and frequency for simultaneous single photons. Combining excellent temporal and spectral resolution, our result is only a factor of ten above the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle limit of hbar/2 for energy and time, despite the simplicity of our experimental setup. This work opens numerous applications in quantum photonics, especially when both spectral and temporal properties of single photons are exploited

Idea univerzity z české perspektivy

Title in English: The idea of a university from a Czech perspective: Conversations with Jiří Hanuš The aim of this book is to explore the ‘idea of a university’ and specific modern developments both abroad and in the Czech Republic through dialogues with prominent Czech academics: Stanislav Balík, Petr Dvořák, Petr Fiala, Pavel Floss, Jiří Hanuš, Petr Horák, Jakub Jirsa, Jiří Lach, Jiří Macháček, Tomáš Machula, Dominik Munzar, Ivana Noble, Jan Sokol, Daniel Soukup and Kateřina Šimáčková

On Liberal Education and the Autopoiesis of Universities

Univerzity po celém světě se v současnosti potýkají s četnými problémy. Přestože počet univerzit, studentů a učitelů za posledních třicet let obrovsky vzrostl, panuje zde strach a nejistota a je na tyto instituce vyvíjen tlak. Univerzity jsou odděleny od svého společenského a politického okolí, což vytváří atmosféru vzájemné nedůvěry. Zároveň to vede k zavádění nevhodných kontrolních opatření, jako je metrické hodnocení. Publikace se zabývá otázkami týkajícími se těchto problémů, tematizuje sebeutvářející se charakter univerzity (tzv. autopoiesis) a zahrnuje několik podrobných případových studií.The last thirty years have seen a significant increase in the number of universities, instructors, and students alike, yet institutions of higher education currently face a number of problems and are plagued with uncertainty, pressure, and fear. Their status as ivory towers detached from the social and political environments of contemporary democracies creates an atmosphere of mutual distrust. This then leads to the imposition of regulatory measures incongruent with the workings of universities, which only deepens the prevailing issues. The essays in this publication explore these issues, focus on the self-constituting character of the university (the so-called autopoiesis) and present several detailed case studies

Loss of neuronal network resilience precedes seizures and determines the ictogenic nature of interictal synaptic perturbations

The mechanisms of seizure emergence, and the role of brief interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) in seizure generation are two of the most important unresolved issues in modern epilepsy research. Our study shows that the transition to seizure is not a sudden phenomenon,but a slow process characterized by the progressive loss of neuronal network resilience. From a dynamical perspective, the slow transition is governed by the principles of critical slowing, a robust natural phenomenon observable in systems characterized by transitions between dynamical regimes. In epilepsy, this process is modulated by the synchronous synaptic input from IEDs. IEDs are external perturbations that produce phasic changes in the slow transition process and exert opposing effects on the dynamics of a seizure-generating network, causing either anti-seizure or pro-seizure effects. We show that the multifaceted nature of IEDs is defined by the dynamical state of the network at the moment of the discharge occurrence

The concept of ὅρος between Aristotle's two Ethics

The article shows a difference in Aristotle’s ethical theory between the Protrepticus and Eudemian Ethics on the one hand and the Nicomachean Ethics on the other. The difference is explicated by means of the interpretation of the concept of ὅρος (standard) in these writings. The Protrepticus and Eudemian Ethics present ethical theory as an expertise which – together with other sciences – has a standard for decisions and actions taken from nature and the divine. The ethical theory presented in the Nicomachean Ethics does not entail such a strong concept of ὅρος and it treats ethics in contrast to other, more exact, sciences. Finally, the article presents a tentative suggestion as to why it seems that the Nicomachean Ethics VI,1 raises hopes that it will provide a detailed account of ὅρος when in fact there is no discussion of it