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 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...
Aither 30/2023 (International issue no. 11):82-86 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.005
Aither 30/2023 (International issue no. 11):26-61 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2023.007
During the late 1610s, the Iberian philosopher and theologian Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza (1578–1641) authored Disputations on Faith, now preserved as a manuscript in Dublin, The Library of Trinity College Dublin, ms. 298. The text, apparently originating as part of Hurtado’s teaching in Salamanca, included a comprehensive account of theological virtues and is currently the earliest known witness to Hurtado’s theological career. As part of his discussion of theological issues relating to faith, Hurtado addresses a wide range of epistemological issues, including the general accounts of certainty and evidence and issues specific...
Aither 30/2023 (International issue no. 11):4-25 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2023.006
This paper contributes to the discourse about how to characterize one of the most misunderstood and diversely interpreted religious philosophers, Baruch Spinoza. I begin by focusing on the widely different ways that Spinoza’s teaching about God has been characterized, finding the root in these divergencies in the unique way that he defined words. The paper then examines the arguments for treating Spinoza first as an atheist, then as a pantheist, and lastly as a panentheist, arguing that the third of these terms is clearly the most faithful if his texts are to be taken at face value. Finally, the paper presents Spinoza as a bridge builder between...
Aither 30/2023 (International issue no. 11):62-81 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2023.005
This paper endeavours to examine the function of pain in Aristotle’s ethical philosophy. First, it delves into the relationship between pleasure and activity before directing its attention towards the relationship between pain and activity. While certain pains can be interpreted as kineseis that drive an animal out of its natural state, in the ethical domain, that pain which is understood as hindering the energeia assumes greater significance. This paper expounds on the implications of this idea of pain as an impediment to the activities of human and animal life and its connection to other vital areas of Aristotle’s philosophical...
Aither 29/2023:80-101 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.002
The study presents the motif of shame as an interesting and hitherto neglected intersection in the Nietzsche-Plato relationship. The first part of the essay recapitulates the function of this motif in Nietzsche’s culminating texts (mainly Zarathustra and Gay Science), while in the second part I turn my attention to the motif of shame in Plato’s work, more precisely, to the two “extreme” contexts of death (Apology, Crito) and love (Symposium). It turns out that for both authors, shame is a constitutive phenomenon that is thematized in relation to logos. Shame and logos thus stand in close and contrasting...
Aither 29/2023:120-134 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2023.011
Following study analyses general features of ancient economic thought and economics. The main aim of the study is to point out that ancient economical lore has intrinsic ethical and normative dimensions inherited from moral philosophy, functioning as determinants of its main ideas and categories (performance, growth, institutions, etc.). Study is divided into three parts. The first part briefly focuses the history of ancient economic thought with its most influential authors and works. The second part analyses main ancient economic themes, concepts and theories in the works of Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle. The third part of the study summarizes the...
Aither 29/2023:62-79 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.004
In this study, I argue that two motifs of shame are present in Plato's dialogue Phaedrus - shame (aischyné) and "reverent shame" (aidós). Yet only the latter, according to Socrates, can solidly ground life or instead ground a more serious-minded attitude to life. The ambivalent form of shame in Plato's dialogue is supported by the generally recognised difference in meanings associated with aidós and aischyné. I trace both motifs on the dramatic level of the dialogue and in Socrates' teaching in his second speech (palinode). The different expressions of shame in Socrates's and Phaedrus's characters correspond to the...
Aither 29/2023:6-27 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.003
In this article, I examine how Aeschylus works with the discourse of honour and shame. In most of the cases mentioned, this discourse is problematised (Sept., Ag., Suppl., Pers.) or its ambivalence can also be implied (Pers.). Aeschylus’ revision of the Homeric concept of immortal glory (κλέος ἄφθιτον) is quite clear. Both war in general and the heroes of Aeschylus’ tragedies are problematic, and the emphasis is clearly on the suffering and crushing consequences that war brings, whether for members of the ruling families or for the polis. This is probably...
Aither 29/2023:28-43 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2023.009
The paper explores the ancient concept of shame (aidôs) as a social emotion responsible for the coherence of the human community. It examines this issue in a narrower context, using the specific example of Plato’s text. The core of the analysis is the myth of the origin of culture in Plato’s Protagoras (Prot. 320d–322d), which presents God as the giver of the basic principles of the community functioning, i.e. shame and justice (aidôs kai dikê). The broader context of the interpretation is contemporary theories of the human culture emergence, in particular a comparison with the Sisyphus, fragment...
Aither 29/2023:102-119 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2024.001
The article focuses on problematic aspects of Aristotle’s view on shame (aidós) and its relation to virtue. On one hand, Aristotle counts shame among emotions (pathé), and on the other he discusses it as a mean (mesotés) or state (hexis) that is not a virtue, yet still praiseworthy in certain conditions. After an analysis of relation between shame and choice (prohairesis), the article distinguishes between a positive desire of honor (timé), whose best expressions are to be found in magnanimity (megalopsychia) and love of honour (filotimia), and a negative fear of dishonour (adoxia),...
Aither 29/2023:44-61 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2023.010
This article explores the significance of shame in Plato’s moral psychology, specifically focusing on its position within the tripartite theory of the soul. Drawing primarily from Plato’s Republic and Gorgias, this analysis aims to shed light on the role of shame in human life. According to the tripartite theory, the soul comprises reason, spiritedness, and desire, and understanding shame’s placement within this framework offers insights into its impact on moral behaviour. As shame resides within the spirited soul, the article further explores the dynamic interaction between spirit, reason, and desire. It is shown that...
