(Correspondence between Leo Thun and Alexis de Tocqueville (1835-1856)).

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Fořtová and Olšáková co-edited the volume, translated the texts and wrote the introductory study.

The notable Bohemian aristocrat Leo Thun (1811-1888) corresponded with Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), the greatest French political thinker of the 19th century, over the course of twenty years. The topics varied from general issues such as the birth of democracy in the modern world and the necessity of introducing the penitentiary system to Europe, to personal concerns of Leo Thun related to his political career. The text brings together the complete collection of the correspondence in both Czech and French with editorial notes.

It is traditionally assumed that there is only one theory of causality in Hume's writings. The article argues that we can distinguish between an early and a mature theory. It is further argued that the mature theory, strongly influenced by Newton's physics, accords with the New Hume sceptical realist) interpretation by asserting that real causal relations are not accessible to the human mind.

("Hegel's concept of system in the manuscripts of Bern and Frankfurt")

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The article is an analysis of Hegel's early thinking about the system of spirit, which he develops already during his time in Bern and Frankfurt in the theological context, and uses later, albeit it in other terms, in the Phenomenology of Spirit.

(Kant, The First Introduction to the Critique of Judgment)

(Kant, I.: Erste Fassung der Einleitung in die Kritik der Urteilskraft)

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The so-called First Introduction to the Critique of Judgement was not published during Kant's lifetime, for Kant wrote a replacement for the publication of the work when it appeared. It includes a large overview of the entirety of the Critical system, arranged in its final form.

The paper addresses the recurrent charge that Richard Rorty is a "linguistic idealist". I show what the charge consists of and try to explain that there is a charitable reading of Rorty's works, according to which he is not guilty of linguistic idealism. This reading draws on Putnam's well-known conception of "internal realism" and accounts for the causal independence of the world on our linguistic practices. I also show how we can reconcile this causal independence of things and the sense of our discourse being guided by them with our autonomy with regard to the construction of various "vocabularies" with which we describe, or cope with, reality. In the final part, I address in some detail Rorty's animadversions concerning the idea of the intrinsic nature of reality. I show them to be only partly successful.

(Charles Louis de Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws, I)

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Translation of the post-mortem edition of the The Spirit of the Laws ( L'esprit des lois), from 1757, Montesquieu's influential work in political theory. The translated text is accompanied by commentary.

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Glombíček and Hill co-edited the volume and prepared it for the publication. Other members of the Department contributed to it.

An important task for every major philosopher is to offer us an understanding of the nature of mind. The essays in this volume discuss different aspects of the philosophical theories of mind put forward in the century and a half that followed Descartes' Meditations of 1641. These years, often referred to as the 'early-modern period', are probably unparalleled for originality and diversity in conceiving the mind. The volume includes two essays on Descartes' own thinking, as well as examinations of what Spinoza, Malebranche, Locke, Berkeley, Reid, the Cambridge Platonists, and others, have to say about the nature of mind.

(Metaphysics and Critique)

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Chotaš and Karásek co-edited the volume and prepared it for publication. Other members of the department contributed to it.

Kant developed his critique of the rationalistic metaphysics in the Transcendental Dialectics of the Critique of Pure Reason. His conception of Ideas and his theory of the Unconditioned founded a new understanding of metaphysics. Kant scholarship has not paid sufficient attention to this important issue. The volume seeks to remedy this.

(On Certainty)

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The first Czech translation of Wittgenstein's last philosophical work which appeared in 1969.

(Leviathan, Or The Matter, Form, and Power of A Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil)

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The translation is a new translation [after 70 years] of this foundational text of modern political theory, more generally of modern English philosophy. The translation includes for the first time the complete English text of 1651 as well as a comprehensive index. In view of the scope and importance of the work, which covers philosophy of mind, language, epistemology and theory of motivation and value, the nature of the individual and society, sovereignty, stability of political order and peace, as well as the relation between secular and religious power, the translators sought to render not only a faithful and philosophically informed translation but one which they hoped would lay foundations for future translations of British philosophical texts.