Department for the Study of Modern Rationality

The Department was founded by the Institute of Philosophy of The Czech Academy of Sciences partly in response to a recognised urgent need of the philosophical community of the country. The 40 years of Communism imposed severe restrictions and ideological distortion on philosophical research and scholarship: it affected not only the discussion of philosophical issues, but crippled the very ability to conduct such discussion. The Department seeks to address some of these deficiencies in the sphere of Modern and contemporary philosophy. One of its underlying assumptions was that particular directions in contemporary philosophy, be they Rationalism, Empiricism, Idealism, etc., or theory of knowledge, mind, language, value, etc., have their roots in philosophy as it emerged in the 17th century, and that understanding of their genesis is essential for any fruitful development. And since one of the consequences of the Communist era was the absence of adequate, if any, translations of the major modern philosophical texts, the Department considers translation an important part of its task. Here it sees itself as serving the entire philosophical community, crucially so the universities, since the teaching of philosophy suffers in the absence of texts in the students' own language. The preparation of translations which fulfil not only linguistic but also scholarly requirements cannot be left to the commercial sphere, nor, given its demands on time, energy and collaboration of people from various areas, to philosophers engaged in full-time teaching. It is here that the Academy, as an all-national research institution plays an irreplaceable role. Closely connected with this activity is another crucial service provided by members of the Department, both individually and collectively to the general philosophical community: preparation of secondary texts and 'companions' to important works, authors and issues in modern and contemporary philosophy, and organising conferences devoted to them.
The activity of translation of the members of the Department issues from and in turn nourishes their own philosophical and scholarly research and publications. Part of the strength of the Department is the large span of research interests of its members: in its historical and scholarly work it covers both British and Continental thinkers since the 17th century (Descartes, British Empiricists, Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Heidegger, etc.), and its philosophical work is both in the 'phenomenological' and 'analytic' tradition (The nature of subjectivity, the Self, philosophy of mind, language, ethics, political philosophy, etc.). Since they are not just 'members' of the same Department, but also friends and colleagues, there is mutual enrichment and broadening of perspective. Members of the Department thus seek, both individually and as group to open up new discussions and to contribute to the ongoing ones. Central to this is establishing contacts with philosophers from other countries and bringing them to the Czech Republic for lectures, conferences, colloquia, etc.
Thus, besides the standard philosophical and scholarly work conducted by its members, the Department sees its specific contribution tied to that of the Academy itself. Two points should be mentioned in this connection: the fact that the Academy is a national institution and that it is devoted to research. As such it offers an ideal, at times the only, platform for projects which are time- and energy-consuming and which require team work. Amongst such projects are the above mentioned translations, publications involving authors from various institutions, preparation of secondary texts and 'companions', as well as of conferences, and other activities which bring together not only philosophers from various Czech universities but also university students, and which facilitate contact at both levels with philosophers from other countries.