Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought

Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought consists of four sub-teams with more or less independent research programs: Research Team for Ancient Philosophy, TRANSED (Translations and editions) team, Research Team for the Study of Late Scholasticism (in cooperation with the Faculty of Theology, University of South Bohemia), and, finally, a joint research group Collegium Europaeum (with the Faculty of Arts, Charles University).

Research Team for Ancient Philosophy covers the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Galen and the late Platonists. (Besides their particular research projects, the members focus on several collective activities which serve as valued places of encounter for the larger community of ancient philosophy specialists in the Czech Republic). Research results are published as monographs and scholarly papers, e.g. V. Mikeš, Le paradoxe stoïcien: liberté de l'action déterminée, Paris: Vrin 2016; H. Kurzová, Interpretationen zu Heraklit, Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck, 2014. Among the projects of the team the most important are the Fellowship of J. E. Purkyně (M. Havrda) and a two-year research project (EU Structural and Investment Funds) with the University of Leeds (IDEA Centre) – “Stoic rhetoric in the context of ancient philosophical rhetoric”, 05/2018-04/2020 (V. Mikeš). Until 2010 the team was led by an important Czech scholar, doc. Milan Mraz, CSc, whose main focus was on Aristotle. 2014 was the retirement year of Prof. Helena Kurzová who continues to support the team as a professor emeritus.

TRANSED focuses on editions, translations and studies of primary sources related to medieval Aristotelianism, philosophy in medieval Bohemia, and scholastic theology. Recent publications include editions of Paolo Soncino, Štěpán of Páleč, and Berthold of Regensburg. Current research projects include a study and edition of Prague quodlibeta and of the Clipeus thomistarum by Petrus Nigri. Having previously existed informally, TRANSED was formally established in 2015.

Research Team for the Study of Late Scholasticism focuses on the research into early modern scholasticism, roughly from 1500 AD to 1700 AD. The work is partly historical in nature, partly systematic and comparative: bridges are made from scholasticism to issues in current analytic philosophy (logic, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, ethics, etc.) in the spirit of the Anglo-American analytic approach to scholasticism. The work is mainly undertaken under the auspices of the Joint Research Group for the Study of Post-Medieval Scholasticism through which the department cooperates with the Faculty of Theology, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice on a formal basis (since 2008). Besides carrying out individual research grants awarded by the Czech Science Foundation, members of the team took part in the larger Czech Science Foundation project CSF 14-37038G “Between Renaissance and Baroque: Philosophy and Knowledge in the Czech Lands within the Wider European Context” (2014–2018) along with researchers from three different institutions (Czech Academy of Sciences, University of South Bohemia and Palacky University).

Collegium Europaeum, a joint research group with the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, concentrates on interdisciplinary investigation and critical reflection of Europe’s cultural, intellectual and political identities. Among the outputs are monographs such as these: J. P. Arnason – P. Hlaváček et al., Mitteleuropa? Zwischen Realität, Chimäre und Konzept (2015); P. Hlaváček (ed.), Západ, nebo Východ? České reflexe Evropy (2016); P. Hlaváček – V. Bělohradský et al., Proč jsme Západ? Češi, Evropa a Západ mezi minulostí a budoucností (2016). The team publishes The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice and Europaeana Pragensia book series. The most important research projects in which the team has taken part include Marginalité, économie et christianisme (2012–2016, with University of Rennes); The Contexts of the Czech and Polish messianism / exceptionalism (2019, with The Centre for the Thought of John Paul II, Warsaw). The group started its activities in 2008 on the basis of an agreement between the Faculty of Arts, Charles University and the Institute of Philosophy, CAS.

Selected publications from 2015–2019

2019

Anselm z Canterbury: De grammatico. Úvod do dialektiky. Přel. M. Otisk a R. Psík. Úvod a komentáře M. Otisk. 1. vyd. Praha – Ostrava: Scriptorium - OU, 2019. Interpretiones A/5. 272 s. ISBN 978-80-88013-90-7.

Havrda, Matyáš, Two Projects of Christian Ethics: Clement, Paed. I 1 and Strom. II 2, 4-6, in: Vigiliae Christianae: a review of early Christian life and languages. Roč. 73, č. 2 (2019), s. 121-137. ISSN 0042-6032

Lička, Lukáš: What is in the Mirror? The Metaphysics of Mirror Images in Albert the Great and Peter Auriol. In The Senses and the History of Philosophy. London: Routledge, 2019 - (Glenney, B.; Silva, J.), s. 131-148. ISBN 978-1-138-73899-7

2018

Blažek, Pavel (ed.). Sacramentum Magnum. Die Ehe in der mittelalterlichen Theologie – Le mariage dans la théologie médiévale – Marriage in Medieval Theology, Münster: Aschendorff-Verlag 2018.

Dvořák, Petr. Divine Predetermination in Alvarez: Infallibility and Necessity. Modern Views of Medieval Logic (Recherches De Theologie Et Philosophie Medievales: Bibliotheca). Leuven – Paris – Bristol, CT: Peeters Publishers, 2018, s. 245–263.

Žonca, Milan. The „Imagined Communities“ of Yom Tov Lipman Mühlhausen: Heresy and Communal Boundaries in Sefer Nizzahon. The Jews of Europe Around 1400: Disruption, Crisis, and Resilience. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2018, s. 119–143.

Blažek, Pavel. Die Falsche geheiratet? Gratians Lehre vom Irrtum über den Heiratspartner und ihre Rezeption in Sentenzenkommentaren des 13. und frühen 14. Jahrhunderts. In: Speer, A. – Mauriège, M. (eds.), Irrtum – Error – Erreur. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018, s. 477 až 506.

2017

Jindráček, David Efrem. Paolo Barbò da Soncino. Questioni di Metafisica: Introduzione alla vita ed al pensiero di un tomista rinascimentale con l‘edizione critica del IV libro delle sue Acutissimae Quaestiones Metaphysicales. Roma: Angelicum University Press, 2017, 323 s

Pavlíček, Ota. Wyclif’s Early Reception in Bohemia and His Influence on the Thought of Jerome of Prague. In Europe after Wyclif. New York: Fordham University Press, 2017, s. 89–114.

Hanke, Miroslav. Paul of Venice and Realist Developments of Roger Swyneshed’s Treatment of Semantic Paradoxes. History and Philosophy of Logic, 2017, roč. 38, č. 4, s. 299–315.

Havrda, M. Body and Cosmos in Galen’s Account of the Soul. Phronesis: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy, 2017, roč. 62, č. 1, s. 69–89.

Vítek, T. Allegorical dreams in antiquity. Their character and interpretation. Wiener Studien. Zeitschrift für klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition, 2017, roč. 130, s. 127–152.

Němec, V. Zum Problem der Gattung des Seienden bei Marius Victorinus und im antiken Neuplatonismus. Rheinisches Museum, 2017, roč. 160, č. 2, s. 161–193.

2016

Mikeš, Vladimír. Le paradoxe stoïcien: liberté de l’action déterminée. Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 2016. 182 s. Histoire des doctrines de l’Antiquité classique, 47. ISBN 978–2–7116–2634–2.

Dvořák, Petr. Caramuel Lobkowitz, Juan. In Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. Sgarbi, Marco, Heidelberg 2016.

Havrda, Matyáš. Klemens von Alexandrien. In Gnadenlehre in Schrift und Patristik. Freiburg: Herder, 2016, s. 282–301. Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte. Bd. 3, Christologie, Soteriologie, Ekklesiologie, Mariologie, Gnadenlehre. Faszikel 5a 1. Teil.

Vítek, Tomáš. „Heraclitus 22 B 14 DK“. Elenchos (Rivista di studi sul pensiero antico). 2015, roč. 6, č. 2, s. 197–233.

2015

Šmahel, F. – Pavlíček, Ota (eds.), A Companion to Jan Hus. Leiden: Brill, 2015. 447 s. (Brill’s companions to the Christian tradition, 54). ISBN 978-90-04-28055-7. ISSN 1871-6377.