The conference Philosophy and Social Science is annually held in Prague at the Institute of Philosophy at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is organized in cooperation with Charles University, Prague.

The colloquium was once a prominent part of the regular activities of the Dubrovnik Inter-University Centre for Post-Graduate Studies, before the outbreak of the civil war in ex-Yugoslavia. For the past 30 years the colloquium, whose first directors were Jürgen Habermas and Gajo Petrovic, has been held under the general title "Philosophy and Social Science". In 1992, the tragic developments in former Yugoslavia forced us to relocate temporarily to the island of Ischia in Italy. Since 1993, the colloquium has generously been given a home by the Institute of Philosophy at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. It is organized in cooperation with Charles University, Prague.

Although the political and intellectual context has changed dramatically since the early seventies the tradition of critical social thinking and political theory still marks the character of the conference. We construe this tradition in the broadest possible way; those who have attended in the past will be familiar with the special spirit of international intellectual dialogue and genuine pluralism which characterizes it. New and alternative voices, ideas and perspectives are always welcome at the conference.

The directors of the colloquium are Maeve Cooke (University College Dublin), Alessandro Ferrara (University of Rome, “Tor Vergata”), Rainer Forst (University of Frankfurt), Nancy Fraser (New School), Marek Hrubec (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic), Maria Pia Lara (Universidad Autònoma Metropolitana, Mexico City), Hartmut Rosa (University of Jena), and Bill Scheuermann (Indiana University).

Jean L. Cohen (Columbia University, New York), Peter Dews (Essex University), Axel Honneth (University of Frankfurt) and Frank Michelman (Harvard University) have been appointed “honorary directors”.

Every year we announce several thematic complexes around which the conference program is organized.