Marina Barabas, PhD.

Present position

Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

Member of the Research group for the study of modern rationality

Research interests

• Moral philosophy, moral psychology, theory of action
• Political philosophy, philosophy of religion
• Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Hume, Kierkegaard, Kant, S. Weil, Wittgenstein

My work is largely concerned with the impact of value on action and agency and its relation to thought and perception. Its critical part focuses at the conative construal of value, and is thus directed as much against the agent in search of virtue as it is against the will in search of perfection: that is, as much against Aristotle as against Kant. Among other things I try to bring out the importance of thought not as rationality but as understanding—the function of finding and making sense—and of the central role of concern (read both ‘epistemically’ and ‘emotively’). Consideration of these issues seems to me to call into question the clarity of line between the ‘active’ and the ‘passive’ as well as between the ‘theoretical’ and the ‘practical’. Connected with this is my interest in moral psychology, influenced by Plato and by thinkers in the so-called ‘Platonic’ tradition: S. Kierkegaard, S. Weil, R. F. Holland, I. Murdoch, R. Gaita. At present I’m working on the question of goodness which seems to me to raise many of these issues. Also under preparation is an article on Kant’s moral protagonist, work on the impact of the concentration on agency on our understanding of value and a commentary on Plato’s dialogue The Lysis.

Education

·         1980-1987 King's College, University of London, PhD. Dissertation title: Morality and Praxis (adviser Prof. Peter Winch).

·         1977-1978 London School of Economics, M.Sc. Econ: The course History of Political Thought led by Prof. Michael Oakeshott.

·         1974-1977 University of Hull, B.A. (Hons.) Joint degree in Philosophy and Politics.

Teaching

·         1994-2007 Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, Charles University in Prague. Courses in Ancient and Modern Ethics, Modern Political Philosophy, British Empiricism, Plato on Friendship.

·         2001 Visiting Lecturer at Abo Academy, Finland. Course: Freedom and Attachment: Friendship in Plato´s Lysis.

·         1999-2000 Research Fellow at King's College London. Teaching in Ethics and Political Philosophy.

·         1990-1991 Lecturer at University of Massachusetts. Course: Social and Moral Problems.

·         1987 Visiting Lecturer at King's College, London. Course: Ethics of Hume and Kant.

·         1984, 1987 Visiting Lecturer at City University, London. Course: Modern Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion.

·         1981-1984 Tutorial Assistant at King's College, London. Teaching in Ethics, Political philosophy, Greek philosophy.

Publications

·         ‘The Problem with the Moral Problem: An Example of Lying’, in: Organon F 8 (2001), 4, s. 353-387.

·         ‘The Agent's Erosion of Value’, in: Havlík, V. (ed.), Mezi jazykem a vědomím (Praha: Filosofia, 1999), s. 157-181.

·         ‘Wittgensteinovy Zápisníky 1914-1916’ [Wittgenstein’s Notebooks 1914-1916], in: Filosofický časopis 47 (1999), 5, s. 787-791.

·         ‘Transcending the Human’ in: Phillips, D. Z, Tessin, T. (eds.), Religion Without Transcendence? (New York; London: St. Martin Press; Macmillan, 1997), p. 177-232.

·         ‘Critical Notice: Martha Nussbaum, The Fragility of Goodness’, in: Philosophical Investigations 12 (1989), 1, p. 63-69.

·         ‘The Strangeness of Socrates’, in: Philosophical Investigations 9 (1986), 2, p. 89-110.

Translations

·         With J. Chotaš, Z. Masopust (eds.): T. Hobbes, Leviathan (forthcoming).

·         With P. Glombíček: L. Wittgenstein, ‘Philosophy’ (from German ‘Philosophie’), in: Organon F 8 (2001), 2, s. 174-189. 

·         S. Weil, ‘Are We Struggling for Justice?’ (from French ‘Luttons-nous pour la justice?’), in: Philosophical Investigations 10 (1987), 1, p. 1 – 10.