Aither je odborný elektronický časopis zařazený do databází ERIH+ a Scopus. Je vydáván Filozofickou fakultou Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci ve spolupráci s Filosofickým ústavem Akademie věd ČR. Vychází dvakrát ročně. Každé druhé číslo je mezinárodní (International Issue) a jsou v něm publikovány cizojazyčné články (především v angličtině, ale i v němčině a francouzštině). Časopis je registrován pod číslem ISSN 1803-7860.
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Aither 34/2025 (International issue no. 13):36-61 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2025.006 
Karl Popper has hitherto been understood as either a liberal or, at best, as a sui generis specimen of socialism. I argue that his political thought bears a remarkable resemblance to what Philip Pettit and Quentin Skinner have dubbed the Italo-Atlantic branch of republicanism. Viewing Popper through a republican lens would reveal that there is a robust and coherent theory behind his attack on the “enemies of the open society”. The paper focuses successively on the concept of freedom understood as nondomination, on the role of the state and the rule of law, and on democracy. That Popper might be classified “as a republican,...
Aither 34/2025 (International issue no. 13):24-35 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2025.005
This paper analyses the role of happiness in moral motivation within the eudaimonistic tradition. It addresses the Aristotelian-Thomistic tension between choosing virtuous action for its own sake and for the sake of eudaimonia. Through a critical examination of Josef Seifert’s two-motive theory, Jeff D’Souza’s altruistic eudaimonism, and Chris Toner’s excellence-prior eudaimonism, I argue that Seifert’s phenomenological framework provides the most coherent account. It distinguishes between a primary, value-responsive motive directed toward morally relevant goods and a secondary, subordinate desire for true happiness....
Aither 34/2025 (International issue no. 13):4-23 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2026.002
This paper offers a new interpretation of the unity of the human soul’s parts in De Anima II.3, drawing on the mathematical notion of dimension. Dimensionality, understood as an intrinsic property that parameterises a system’s complexity by the number of its independent yet ordered parameters, provides a suitable framework for explaining the unity of the tripartite human soul. The nutritive, the perceptual, and the intellectual parts emerge as three definitionally distinct yet operationally ordered dimensions of a human being. Though anachronistic, this dimensional account is philosophically fruitful: it effectively unifies three...
Aither 33/2025:106-111 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2025.008
Aither 33/2025:72-105 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2025.007
The article summarises the current state of knowledge concerning the reception of the neo-Stoic philosophy of the Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius in the Czech lands during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It identifies previously unused sources and outlines guidelines for future in-depth research into this phenomenon. The study offers a theoretical reflection on different modes of reception and evaluates the potential of various types of evidence, including correspondence, annotated copies of Lipsius’s seminal dialogue De constantia (1584) found in bourgeois, ecclesiastical, and aristocratic libraries, the Czech translation...
Aither 33/2025:24-71 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2026.001
This article deals with the analysis of selected parts of Thomas Aquinas’s Summa theologiae that contain certain parts of his economic thinking and with the subsequent comparison of his economic thought with related fields of contemporary economic theory and economic life that is determined by inland legislation. The overlaps of Aquinas’s economic thinking into the present times were found by the research process, among others in the area of price, consumer protection, restitution and profit. The absence of ethics in contemporary (positive) economics then contrasts sharply with the economic thinking of Thomas Aquinas.
Aither 33/2025:4-23 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2025.004
In On the Heavens, Aristotle argues for the notion of a spherical Earth. Crucially, he uses the theory of natural places, in particular the explanation of why heavy bodies fall. This, however, rests on the assumption of a sphere of fixed stars: all parts of the earthy element move towards its centre, gradually forming a spherical Earth. Empirical arguments play merely a supporting role. The goal of this article is to show that Aristotle develops an earlier spherical conception of the universe, which he supplements with the principles of his physics. The spherical concept of the universe is found already in Plato, who uses an argument about...
Aither 32/2024 (International issue no. 12):90-94 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2025.003
Aither 32/2024 (International issue no. 12):72-89 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2025.001
This paper examines Leone Ebreo’s Dialoghi d’Amore (1535), a celebrated Renaissance work of Jewish thought renowned for its syncretic, enigmatic, and encyclopaedic character. The main objective of this paper is to explore love as an ontological principle, a cosmic and universal force that binds together all beings, both animate and inanimate. The analysis begins with Leone’s conceptualisation of love within animals and humans, including his classification of the various causes of love. The paper then considers his arguments for the existence of ‘love in inanimate entities’, examining the similarities and differences between...
Aither 32/2024 (International issue no. 12):42-71 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.009
Aristotle’s conception of the natural slave remains a contentious issue. I challenge two common interpretations that misrepresent his account. The first holds that natural slaves share the same human nature as free men, with their deficiency arising from their actions and habituation. The second sees the natural slave as a subhuman, closer to animals, with an innate and ineliminable rational defect. I reject both views and argue that Aristotle sees the natural slave as a legitimate human being but with a rational deficiency. Furthermore, I contend that this deficiency is more severe than some scholars acknowledge, particularly those who take...
Aither 32/2024 (International issue no. 12):4-41 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2025.002
The article explores the beginnings of the integration of the term psyche into Presocratic philosophy. The author’s main aim was to examine whether the traditional authorities with which the new use of psyche is usually associated would actually hold up in this role if the doxographic tradition is left aside. The Orphics and Pythagoreans, who are often regarded as the founders of the doctrine of immortal psyche in the 6th century BCE, could not have played this role because, on the one hand, it is not attested by authentic texts and, on the other hand, the historical development of the meanings of psyche contradicts it. This is also the case...
Aither 31/2024:112-117 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.010
Aither 31/2024:26-61 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.011
This article explores the medieval origins and antecedents of contemporary marriage rights as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The foundational document of modern human rights asserts 1) that all human beings have the right to marry; 2) that marriages are to be entered into through free and uncoerced consent of the spouses; and 3) that both marriage partners are to enjoy equal rights. The argument is made that these principles are not strictly speaking modern innovations, but rather the resultof the long legal and doctrinal evolution of marriage, reaching back to the Middle Ages, and in part to Antiquity. The influence...
Aither 31/2024:90-103 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.008
The term immanence in philosophy is associated with the modern era, but according to some advocates of the so-called philosophy of immanence, which begins with Descartes and culminates with Hegel (G. Gentile), its foundations were laid already in the Renaissance, especially Giordano Bruno is mentioned in this context. Following this statement, the article focuses on the Renaissance notion of immanence. The concept was understood primarily as an epistemological category, based on the reading of Aristotle and hismedieval commentators, and relates to the problem of the activities of the human soul. In contrast, immanence as a metaphysical category...
Aither 31/2024:104-111 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.006
Aither 31/2024:4-25 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.007
The so-called Five Modes of Agrippa – the first of discrepancy, the second of regress ad infinitum, the third of relativity, the fourth of hypothesis, and the fifth of reciprocity – are reported by only two surviving ancient sources; Diogenes Laertius attributes them to the otherwise unknown Agrippa. We can only assume that Agrippa was an important systematic philosopher of the later Pyrrhonian scepticism and that he (together with his followers or disciples) wrote a set of the Five Modes. Sextus Empiricus makes no mention of Agrippa in his writings; and he attributes the Five Modes only to the later Sceptics, as opposed to the older Sceptics...
Aither 31/2024:62-89 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2023.008
The early modern mechanics, as developed in the works of Descartes, Newton, and Wolff, introduced as its principle (in some cases, as axiom) the law of inertia, stating that “every body perseveres in its state of being at rest or of moving uniformly straight forward, except insofar as it is compelled to change itsstate by forces impressed.” The present paper presents the eighteenth-century debates on the law by the Augustinian Eusebius Amort (1692–1775) in his Philosophia Pollingana (first edition published 1730) and by the Jesuit Berthold Hauser (1713–1762) in his Elementa philosophiae (8 volumes published between 1755...
