Department for the study of modern rationality
- General objectives
- Long term projects
- Cooperation with foreign partners and guests from abroad
- Contact
The Department was founded by the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences in response to an urgent need within the Czech philosophical community. For 40 years Communism imposed restrictions and ideological distortion not only on philosophical research and debate, but also on translation and scholarly examination of philosophical texts. This not only created a serious vacuum and affected philosophical discussion, but at times eliminated the very possibility of conducting such discussion in an informed manner. The Department seeks to redress some of these deficiencies in the sphere of modern and contemporary philosophy. A guiding principle underlying its foundation and work is the assumption that basic traditions and areas in contemporary philosophy, be it Rationalism, Empiricism, Idealism, Positivism or Phenomenology, or theories of knowledge, mind, language, value, etc., have their roots in philosophy as it emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries, and that an understanding of their genesis is essential for any fruitful philosophical work. And since one of the consequences of the Communist era was the absence of adequate, at times of any, translations of 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, as well as the general public. The preparation of adequate translations cannot be left to the commercial sphere, nor, given its demands on time, energy and the need for collaboration between people from various areas, to philosophers engaged in full-time teaching. It is here that the Academy, as a research institution for the whole Czech Republic, plays an irreplaceable role. Closely connected with this activity is another crucial service provided by the members of the Department to the general philosophical community: preparation of secondary texts and 'companions' to important works, authors and issues in modern and contemporary philosophy, and organisation of conferences devoted to them.
The work done by the members on translation often issues from and in turn nourishes their own work and publications, both philosophical and scholarly. 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, Montesquieu, Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, etc.); its philosophical work lies in both the Phenomenological and the 'Analytic' tradition. Among the issues of interest to the members of the group is the nature of subjectivity and of the Self, philosophy of common sense and language, ethics, and political philosophy. Since we 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 a group, to open up new discussions and to contribute to the ongoing ones. Central to this is establishing contacts with philosophers from abroad and bringing them to the Czech Republic. While most of them come for lectures, conferences, workshops, etc., we have also in the past been able to host scholars from abroad for longer periods, with the consequent deepening of interaction and formation of new projects and friendships.
German Idealism
Holger Gutschmidt, Jiří Chotaš, Jindřich Karásek, Jan Kuneš
The work of these members focuses on Immanuel Kant and German Idealism both in their own right and with the view to their impact on and contribution to contemporary philosophy. H. Gutschmidt is trying to establish a new approach to the interpretation of Hegelian ‘dialectics’ (see below). J. Chotaš is at present working on a series of papers on Hegel's political philosophy. J. Karásek is writing a book on Kant’s analogies of experience. J. Kuneš is focussing on the philosophy of Kant, on the philosophy of German Idealism and the reception of Kant and of German Idealism in the work of Martin Heidegger.
Grant:
- Gutschmidt, H. 2017-2022 Jan Evangelista Purkynĕ Fellowship from the Czech Academy of Sciences (Project: From ‘Life’ to ‘The Life of the Spirit’. The Roots of Hegel’s Theoretical Philosophy in his Jena Period).
This project is trying to establish a new approach to the interpretation of Hegelian “dialectics”. It therefore mostly analyses the texts of Hegel’s Jena period when he developed his idea of a philosophical system. These writings reveal important elements of an early philosophical method by means of which Hegel’s later reasoning can be more successfully reconstructed than before. On the other side, they also show the leading ideas and intentions of his philosophical system. The analysis of the texts of this period, including the Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), will not only shed new light on the development of Hegel’s philosophy, it also makes a contribution to a new systematic approach to Hegel’s thinking.
Central Problems in Modern Epistemology
Petr Glombíček, Tomáš Kunca, Jakub Mihálik, Jan Palkoska
The members of the group build on previous research in the fields of epistemology, history of modern philosophy, philosophy of science and of mind. Petr Glombíček is currently tracking down the evolution of the modern concept of common sense from the early conceptions in the seventeenth century, and their ancient roots, to its full bloom a century later which requires a certain recontextualisation of perspectives with regard to later consequences (see below). Tomáš Kunca is writing a paper on Hume´s ´Letter to a Physician´ and is organizing (together with P. Glombíček and H. Janoušek) the international conference on ´Limits of Reason in the Age of Reason´ (August 28-31, 2019, Prague), Jakub Mihálik is preparing a book on the Russellian monist approach to consciousness which will focus on the relation of this view to the issue of phenomenology of awareness. J. Palkoska is working on the epistemological and metaphysical foundations of forming the modern sciences in 17th and 18th centuries. Currently he has prepared a commented complete translation of the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence and is working on papers concerned with related topics in metaphysics of the will and in the logic of scientific investigation.
Grants:
- Glombíček, P. (with O. Beran) 2011-2015 Research Grant from the Czech Science Foundation (Project: Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophy: A Systematic Companion)
The project focused on philosophy of the early and middle Wittgenstein with an ambition to present the whole essential exegetical context in its full scope and complexity for both periods of Wittgenstein’s development. In the case of the early Wittgenstein the stress was on relatively marginalized context. In the case of the middle Wittgenstein the particular concepts closer to phenomenology (e.g. the concept of time) were at the center of attention. The project aimed mostly to fill certain gaps in Czech Wittgensteinian scholarship.
- Glombíček, P. (with H. Janoušek and T. Kunca) 2017-2019 Research Grant from the Czech Science Foundation (Project: On the Limits of Reason in the Age of Reason: Disputes in the 18th Century Philosophy)
The concept of reason belongs among the key concepts of the 18th Century philosophy. However, the conceptions of nature and limits of reason widely differed and were topics of heated debates and discussions. The project follows these discussions by describing the development of the concept of common sense in the 18th century (especially in the works of Berkeley, Shaftesbury, Reid and Vico in relation to their 17th Century predecessors and their reception of ancient sources) and by describing two selected applications of the new view of the nature, function and limits of reason in the Christian apologetics of late George Berkeley and in the theory of relation of passions to imagination in the early work of David Hume.
Modern Normativity
Marina Barabas, Hana Fořtová, Jakub Sirovátka, Jiří Chotaš, Jakub Trnka
Research is also directed at ‘practical’ philosophy, both in its ethical and political form with special interest to the nature of normativity. This, the question of ‘practical Reason’ is inseparable from the question of human identity, be it 'inner', i.e. in relation psychology and subjecthood , or 'outer', i.e. as they concern agency and intersubjectivity. Consideration of these issues opens up questions such as those of political and legal legitimacy, the relation between violence and power, between history and convention, between the individual and society and state, etc.
M. Barabas is interested in the various ways that value is present in perception, thinking and the will. At present she is working on the emergence of the concept of the ethical in Greek philosophy and the consequent re-structuring of the moral protagonist and of the concept of action in terms of the will; lately she has also been working on the role of Reason and justification in the Liberal and Conservative construals of political authority. H. Fořtová has finished the translation of the Principles of Politics by B. Constant in the version of 1806 (published in 2018 by publishing house OIKOYMENH) and she is now working on the political thought of J.-J. Rousseau. Her translation of the Considerations on the Government of Poland will be published in autumn 2019 (This treaty has never been translated into Czech language) at the same times she is preparing the new translation of the most important political works by J.-J Rousseau: The Social Contract, the Discourse on the Origin and the Basis of Inequality among Men and the Constitutional Project for Corsica. The book comprising these three works will be published in 2020. J. Sirovátka is working on the problem of moral feeling in Kant’s moral philosophy. He is also interested in the thinking of Hans Joas, especially in his theory of the genealogy of human rights that centres on the idea of the sacredness of the person.
Grant:
Jakub Trnka 2016-2020 Research Grant from the Czech Science Foundation (Project: The Philosophy of Erazim Kohák).
The aim of the project is to create a detailed and comprehensive monograph on the philosophy of Erazim Kohák. The subject should be investigated both from a historical perspective, that is, within the context of various sources of inspiration within both the Western and Czech philosophical tradition, and a systematic perspective, that is, with emphasis on an original and distinctive synthesis of these motifs in Kohák’s own philosophy. The project would be based not only on Kohák’s texts published in Czech and in English but also on previously unpublished texts from the philosopher’s personal archive.
Cooperation with foreign partners and guests from abroad
- International Network Hegel’s Relevance, Research Institute for Culture, Cognition, History and Heritage of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, area of cooperation: Hegel
- Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Institut für Philosophie, Germany; area of cooperation: Hegel and German Idealismus
- Univerzity of Pavel Josef Šafárik, Košice – Department of philosophy and History of philosophy, Slovakia; area of cooperation: Classical German philosophy
- 2011 Holger Gutschmidt (Universität Göttingen)
- 2007 Christian Iber (Freie Universität Berlin)
Correspondence address:
Department for the Study of Modern Rationality
Institute of Philosophy
The Czech Academy of Sciences
Jilská 361/1
110 00, Prague 1
Czech Republic
Phones:
+420 221 183 334 (Fořtová, Gutschmidt, Chotaš, Karásek, Kuneš, Palkoska, Sirovátka - room Nr. 318a)
+420 221 183 580 (Barabas, Glombíček, Kunca, Mihálik - room Nr. 204a)
+420 221 183 331 (Trnka - room Nr. 209a)
+420 221 183 313 (Zátka - room Nr. 103a)
Fax:
+420 221 183 362 (Chotaš, Kuneš)
E-mail Addresses:
Marina Barabas This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Hana Fořtová This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Petr Glombíček This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Holger Gutschmidt This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jiří Chotaš This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jindřich Karásek This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tomáš Kunca This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jan Kuneš This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jakub Mihálik This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jan Palkoska This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jakub Sirovátka This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jakub Trnka This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Vlastimil Zátka This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (emeritus)
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