University of Hradec Králové Journals
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Role of History in the Era of Post-truth
No full textJaká je role historie v době post-faktické? Může nám filosofie historie pomoci bránit se proti cílenému zneužívání historických narativů na ideologickém základě? Tento článek zkoumá filosofické reflexe historie a jejich vztah k ideologiím. Je ukázáno, že na počátku této filosofické disciplíny filosofové jako Karl Popper nebo C. G. Hempel usilovali o eliminaci politického a ideologického zabarvení historie. Avšak narativistické bádání Haydena Whita naznačuje, že takový cíl je nedosažitelný. Antirealistická filosofie historie, zastoupena L. J. Goldsteinem, dokonce odmítá reálnou minulost jako cíl historického bádání a zdůrazňuje situovanost historiků ve vztahu k důkazům. Představená verze historického antirealismu chápe historii jako současné zkoumání, které sdílí řadu rysů s kritickým myšlením a zaměřuje se především na zkoumání empirických dat, jež vyžadují postulaci nepřístupné minulosti. Tato podobnost by měla být zdůrazněna skrze výuku historie jako zkoumání, nikoliv jako pouhého příběhu.What is the role of history in the age of post-truth? Can philosophy of history help us to hedge against deliberate misuse of historical narratives on ideological grounds? This paper aims to inquire into the philosophical reflections of history and their relation to ideologies. It is shown that during the inception of this field of philosophy, philosophers like Karl Popper or C. G. Hempel aimed to eliminate political and ideological colouring from history. However, the narrativist insight of Hayden White implies that such task is unattainable and historical writing is necessarily ideological. Antirealist philosophy of history, embodied by L. J. Goldstein, even discarded the real past as a goal of historical research and accented the situatedness of historians in relation to their evidence. It is argued that the outlined version of historical antirealism approaches history as a present kind of inquiry that shares many features with critical thinking and focuses mainly on the examination of empirical data that require the postulation of an inaccessible past. This resemblance should be highlighted by teaching history as an inquiry, not a mere story
The Rise of New Forms of Power in Africa: The Emergence of Big Men in the Afar Region of Ethiopia
Get PDFThis article chronicles the emergence of a new form of power in the Afar Region of Ethiopia. The Afar people are predominantly Muslim pastoralists who live in a territory referred to as the Afar-Triangle (located in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea). Fieldwork for this study was conducted on Dobi in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, the second largest salt mining site in Ethiopia. In 2004, Dobi fell under the control of an individual by the name of As Mohammed Humed Yayyo. This article focuses on this specific Big Man. Since his emergence, this Big Man became the sole power figure who grants access to mine salt on Dobi and who collects taxes. The nature of the relation between the Big Man and the Ethiopian State has been fluid and is characterised by collaboration and conflict
Convince Your Grandma, Amuse Yourself: Postmodern Aesthetics in Civic Political Discourse
No full textV tomto článku analyzuji virální video Přemluv bábu, které mělo ambice zasáhnout do voleb do Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu České republiky v roce 2010. Ke klipu přistupuji z pozice kritické diskurzivní analýzy (CDA), pracuji především s předpoklady, koncepty a analytickými nástroji Normana Fairclougha, který pomáhal CDA rozvíjet a v akademickém poli prosadit. Tvrdím, že klip Přemluv bábu těží z pružnosti, respektive uhýbavosti postmoderního diskurzu, což mohlo smysl jeho výpovědi i její naléhavost spíše oslabit a znečitelnit než podepřít. Demonstruji na příkladech a snažím se identifikovaným ambivalencím porozumět s ohledem na kontext intertextový, interdiskurzivní, situační a socio-politický.In this paper, I analyze the viral video Přemluv bábu (Convince your grandma, 2010), which had the ambition to intervene in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic in 2010. I view the clip from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) position and work primarily with Norman Fairclough’s concepts and analytical tools. I argue that the clip benefits from both the flexibility and evasiveness of postmodern discourse, which may have weakened and confused its message rather than making it more engaging. I demonstrate this insight on many examples from various levels of text analysis and try to understand the identified ambivalence with respect to the intertextual, interdiscursive, situational and socio-political context
The Approaches to the Analysis of Argumentative Text. Editorial
No full textEditorial stručně shrnuje obsah monotematického čísla, v němž jde o teoretické představení pěti přístupů k analýze argumentačního textu (neoaristotelský přístup, Toulminův model, přístup neformální logiky, pragma-dialektiky a kritické diskurzivní analýzy) a o ilustraci prostřednictvím aplikací těchto přístupů na konkrétní materiál. Ve všech textech čísla je jako společný materiál pro analýzu zvolen videoklip Přemluv bábu (2010). Editorial nabízí představení videa: jeho přepis, historický kontext a zhodnocení dosavadních pohledů na jeho přesvědčivost.The editorial briefly summarizes the content of a special issue, which deals with the theoretical introduction of five approaches to argumentative text analysis (neo-aristotelian approach, Toulmin’s model, informal logic, pragma-dialectics, and critical discoursive analysis), and their illustration by applying these approaches to specific material. A video, Přemluv bábu (Convince your grandma, 2010), is chosen as the material to analyze in all texts. The editorial offers an introduction to the video: its transcription, historical context, and an evaluationof previous perspectives on its persuasiveness
How Rescher Failed to Fill the Fact/Value Gap
Get PDFIn his (several times reprinted) article How Wide Is the Gap Between Facts and Values? N. Rescher aspires to clarify the long-lasting discussion on the ‘is-ought’ (‘fact-value’) gap by providing a framework in which the related arguments can be perspicuously articulated. He then argues that even if the logical gap may bereal, the transition from factual premises to value conclusions is smoothly mediated by trivially true value statements. We scrutinize Rescher’s argumentation and show defects in the presented lines of reasoning. In particular, we argue that his tripartite division of statements (factual, evaluative, hybrid), as well as his emphasis on the role of evaluative truisms, introduce serious problems that escape Rescher’s attention. We thus conclude that he failed to achieve his goals.In his (several times reprinted) article How Wide Is the Gap Between Facts and Values? N. Rescher aspires to clarify the long-lasting discussion on the ‘is-ought’ (‘fact-value’) gap by providing a framework in which the related arguments can be perspicuously articulated. He then argues that even if the logical gap may bereal, the transition from factual premises to value conclusions is smoothly mediated by trivially true value statements. We scrutinize Rescher’s argumentation and show defects in the presented lines of reasoning. In particular, we argue that his tripartite division of statements (factual, evaluative, hybrid), as well as his emphasis on the role of evaluative truisms, introduce serious problems that escape Rescher’s attention. We thus conclude that he failed to achieve his goals
In Pursuit of Financial Justice: Local African Communities’ Quest for Legal Redress Against Business-Related Human Rights Abuses
Get PDFMining corporations in Africa stand accused of violating human rights. This article gives a voice to the plight suffered by local African communities in accessing justice to remedy the violation of their human rights as a result of the business activities of mining corporations. It focuses specifically on the right to access justice in order to ask whether the affected communities get a fair and effective share of financial remedies to mitigate against the violation of their rights to health, clean environment and property. It examines two separate and independent avenues through which local communities access justice and asks which of the two, judicial or non-judicial approaches, guarantee these local communities a right to be heard and a recourse to financial remedies
Kinyarwanda and Kirundi: On Colonial Divisions, Discourses of National Belonging, and Language Boundaries
Get PDFThe development of the Bantu languages Kinyarwanda and Kirundi is entangled within the colonial histories of Rwanda and Burundi, first under German and then Belgian rule. From the turn of the twentieth century on, missionaries compiled grammars and dictionaries of the two mutually intelligible languages, contributing to the development and instrumentalisation of two prestigious varieties out of a larger dialect continuum. In this contribution, I trace the missionary and colonial activities of corpus planning and textualisation and summarise how Kinyarwanda and Kirundi turned into official languages with distinct linguistic boundaries. The central research question is how speakers of Kinyarwanda and Kirundi thereafter came to be identified as “Rwandans” or as “Burundians,” with each language indexing a specific national categorisation. Tentatively, I contrast these developments with contemporary fluid practices in multilingual neighbourhoods