The Centre for the History of Sciences and Humanities specializes in historical investigation of scientific development understood in terms of intellectual and social history as an entirety of empirical, theoretical and practical knowledge leading to new findings produced by specific communities of researchers.

The time and thematic span in which research is pursued in the Centre is quite wide: from the cosmology of the Middle Ages, through analysis of the intellectual potential of the Early Modern ‘res publica litteraria’, to the 20th century communication in science and relation of science and politics. A long-term priority represents tracking the scientific development and transformation of the Czech scientific community in the multicultural and multinational interwar Czechoslovakia and during the totalitarian regimes, both the Nazi (1939–1945) and the communist (1948–1989) ones.

In the next five years (2015-2020), the team’s activities will basically follow on from the work performed so far, but they will concentrate much more on some key topics and themes, namely:

1) Development of the scientific community in the Czech Lands during totalitarian regimes and after their removal

a. The Disappeared Elites project continues to be one of the most important projects of the team. It focuses on victims of Nazi persecution from among the academic/scientific community in the Czech Lands. An encyclopedic book will be prepared and published as a sequel to the first volume, which will contain biograms of all approximately 200 individuals who were direct victims of the terror. Additional publications will deal with the topography of the terror, evaluate the topic using prosopographical methods, and touch upon post-war commemoration the events.
b. Another important item which will remain on the research agenda in the next period will be that of scholars and scientists in exile. The key topic in this respect is the research of personal lives and professional careers of scholars and scientists who fled to English-speaking countries (United Kingdom, USA) during WWII, with a particular accent on their post-war fates in the divided world.
c. Another research theme will comprise issues related to the application of technocratic tendencies in the Czechoslovak history of the 20^th century (formulation of the scientific policy as a tool of technocratic management, implementation of expert opinions in the process of formulation of strategic policies at the governmental and municipal levels etc.). The research will also focus on selected issues of mutual relations between scientific research and production (on an example of water management planning). d.    All the work in this field are aimed at the concept of a monograph bringing a comprehensive analysis of the development of the Czech scientific community between 1900 and 2014, with an emphasis on deformations and differences caused by the influence of totalitarian regimes.

The theme of science as a form of communication will be yet another important research item, the main reason being that the team’s members can join forces with researchers from other institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences or from universities in this field; this is actually why the topic has been included in the “Society and Communication” research circuit of the AV21 Strategy (A. Kostlán has been appointed the coordinator of the “Science as a tool of communication” topic). The research will focus on an analysis of forms and tools of communication employed in interdisciplinary communication, institutional support and management of scientific research, and in science-society interactions. Special attention will be paid to the involvement and position of Czech research in the European and global context and the use of scientific research results in everyday life. The project team will cooperate mainly with the Masaryk Institute & Archive of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Institutes of Sociology and Philosophy, CAS. Some natural science institutions will also participate in the project.


3) Research of historical development of scientific disciplines

The team will continue to devote their attention to the historical development of selected scientific disciplines. The primary task in this field is to complete and publish a synthesis of the historical development of natural sciences in the Czech Lands, a two-tome book constituting a part of the Great History of the Czech Lands (it is expected the book will be published in 2015). The team’s members will write chapters summarizing the overall development of these disciplines, as well as chapters on the history of astronomy, chemistry and biology. Another ongoing task is the preparation of the English version of “Bohemia docta”, presently being completed by the Masaryk Institute & Archive of the Czech Academy of Sciences (the team’s members have participated in it as editors, authors of summarizing chapters, and authors of the chapter on the development of the Masaryk Labour Academy). Furthermore, the team will focus on the following scientific disciplines:

a. Astronomy: The research will focus on traditions and reception of ancient sciences and learning during the Middle Ages and early Modern Era. Editions and translations of and comments on hitherto unpublished Medieval Latin manuscripts on astronomy and selected incunabula and old prints will be prepared. The work will be approached in an interdisciplinary manner, in cooperation with other institutions, particularly with the Institute of Astronomy of the Czech Academy of Sciences and researchers from abroad.
b. Medical science and genetics (including biological radiology): The work in this field will consist in building up the source base by collecting documents and also using methods of oral history (interviews with leading representatives of the disciplines). The work will be coordinated mainly with the 1^st Faculty of Medicine – Institute for History of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, and structured so that it can provide a foundation for a future synthesis of the topic.
c. Other biological and chemical disciplines: The research will focus on transformations of relations between natural sciences and philosophy; one of its preferred topics will be the reception of the so-called Michurinist biology in Czechoslovakia. It is expected that some biographies which have been worked on for some time (Marjory Stephenson and the Czech environment, Bohuslav Raýman etc.) will be completed.
d. Social sciences and humanities: The subject of the research will comprise, in particular, transformations of forms and functions of models of so-called Western or bourgeois scientific and philosophical schools throughout the 1948–1989 period, including the period institutionalization of their products and applications (especially the Czechoslovak-Soviet Institute, Institute for Philosophy and Sociology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences etc.). As to Czechoslovakia´s dissident movement, the research will examine issues related to independent Czech philosophy.