Department of Analytic Philosophy

The main task of the Department is sustained research in the core areas of analytic philosophy, subject to its characteristic demands: explicitness and precision of formulations; transparent structure of argumentation as a prerequisite of rational discussion; permanent critical reflection on the linguistic and logico-methodological aspects of the philosophical work. Respecting the values introduced by this line of philosophical thought into contemporary philosophy implies neither animosity to alternative ways of doing philosophy nor an abandonment of the principle that any serious philosophical work must be based on substantive historico-philosophical reflection.

The basic line of the research seeks to cover the central areas of analytic philosophy: philosophy of language (with a focus on the theory of meaning, reference, speech acts, functions of language in fictional discourse), philosophy of mind (with a focus on naturalism in the theory of intentionality and theory of consciousness, the externalism-internalism dispute, the theory of emotions), metaphysics (with a focus on the theory of personal identity, theory of material constitution, universals, philosophy of space and time), philosophy of science (with a focus on the theory of explanation and confirmation, theory of probability and its applications, philosophy of mathematics, physics and biology, philosophy of the humanities), epistemology (with a focus on the theory of scientific rationality, evolutionary epistemology, formal epistemology), ethics (with a focus on evolutionary ethics, metaethics, applied ethics), and aesthetics (with a focus on the theory of fiction, philosophy of literature, philosophy of fine arts, methodology of art history).

On this basis, the Department currently implements two specific team projects, supported by grants and long-term international cooperation: (1) theory of interpretation - an interdisciplinary project focusing on the interpretation of utterances in everyday communication, of literary texts and of works of visual arts: (Vít Gvoždiak, Tomáš Hříbek, Tomáš Koblížek, Petr Koťátko); the project includes organization of regular international meetings namely Prague Interpretation Colloquia; (2) philosophy and scientific rationality - an interdisciplinary project focusing on the analysis of the logico-methodological foundations of science, the language of science and the social functions of science (Vladimír Havlík, Tomáš Hříbek, Juraj Hvorecký, Timothy Childers, Ladislav Kvasz, Zuzana Parusniková); the project includes organization of regular international meetings the Ernst Mach Workshops.

The research and organizational activities of the Department are anchored in long-term international cooperation, which has resulted in joint projects, publications and conferences. The interdisciplinary character of the research is supported by the Department's participation in the Strategy AV21 of the Czech Academy of Sciences: the Department's members coordinate 1 research programme (with 15 Academy Institutes participating; see Section Strategy AV21) and 3 research projects within the Strategy. The program of the Department's research and organisational activities envisages strengthening of their international and interdisciplinary basis. The same applies for the dialogue between analytic and continental philosophy: the structure of the Department, the orientation of its research projects and a substantial part of its output contribute towards eliminating the communicational barriers between these two lines of philosophical thought.

Selected publications from 2015–2019

2019

Hříbek, T.: Obrana asistované smrti: Filozofické argumenty ve prospěch eutanazie a sebeusmrcení pacienta za pomoci lékaře. Praha: Academia, 2019. ISBN 978-3-030-36382-6

Ladislav Kvasz: How Can Abstract Objects of Mathematics Be Known? Philosophia Mathematica 27 (2019), s. 316-334.

Parusniková Zuzana. Popper and Hume: Two Great Sceptics.The Impact of Critical Rationalism: Expanding the Popperian Legacy Through the Works of Ian C. Jarvie. Eds. Sassower, R.; Laor, N. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, s. 207-225. ISBN 978-3-319-90825-0

2018

Kvasz, Ladislav. Resnik’s structuralism in the light of history of mathematics. Journal of Applied Logics – Journal of Logics and their Application. Roč. 5, č. 6 (September 2018), s. 1307–1335.

Gvoždiak, Vít – Švantner, Martin (eds.). How to Make Our Signs Clear: C. S. Peirce and Semiotics. Leiden: Brill Rodopi, 2018. 163 s.

Childers, Timothy – Majer, Ondrej. Eliciting Uncertainties: A Two Structure Approach. Studia Logica. Roč. 106, č. 3 (2018), s. 615–636.

Polák, Michal – Marvan, Tomáš. Neural correlates of consciousness meet the theory of identity. Frontiers in Psychology. Roč. 9 (2018), č. článku 1269, s. 1–13.

2017

Hříbek, Tomáš. Jaké to je, nebo o čem to je? Místo vědomí v materiálním světě. Praha: Filosofia, 2017, 346 s.

Marvan, Tomáš – Polák, Michal. Unitary and dual models of phenomenal consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition, 2017, č. 56, s. 1–12.

Kvasz, Ladislav. Revisiting the Mathematisation Thesis: Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and the Language of Nature. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science. 2016 (vyšlo 2017), roč. 30, č. 4, s. 399–406.

Parusniková, Zuzana. Horror Dogmatis. In Encouraging Openness, ed. Nimrod Bar-Am a Stefano Gattei. Springer, 2017, s. 27–41.

Koblížek, Tomáš (ed.). The Aesthetic Illusion in Literature and the Arts. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017, 305 s. (zastoupení autoři z řad členů oddělení: T. Koblížek a P. Koťátko).

Koblížek, Tomáš – Koťátko, Petr (eds.). Chaos & Form. Echoes of Beckett in Literature & the Arts. Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze: Filozofická fakulta, Litteraria Pragensia books, 2016 (vyšlo 2017), 260 s.

Koťátko, Petr. Fictional Names, Fictional Characters and Persons Referred to in Narrative Fiction. Organon F, 2017, roč. 24, č. 3, s. 308–338.

2016

Parusniková, Zuzana. David Hume, Sceptic, Cham: Springer, 2016, 126 s.

Kvasz, Ladislav. Language and the limits of science. The Limits of Science. An Analysis from “Barriers” to “Confines”, Leiden: Brill, Rodopi, 2016 – (Gonzales, W.), s. 69–93.

2015

Koblížek, T., Interpretační sémantika. Úvod do textové teorie Françoise Rastiera. Praha: Vydavatelství Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Karlovy, 2015. 202 s. (Mnemosyne, 13). ISBN 978-80-7308-578-0.

Koťátko, P., Sense, Reference, Speech Acts, Norms and Other Issues. Organon F. 2015, roč. 22, č. 4, s. 546–576.