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The Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought promotes research into philosophy, logic and theology from the pre-Socratics to the early modern scholasticism from a variety of methodological standpoints ranging from the study of the history of ideas to systematic comparative studies in the analytic tradition. On one hand, it is committed to excellence and internationally acknowledged research, on the other it serves national culture in carrying out translation projects and public lectures. The department consists of several research teams:
Research Team for Ancient Philosophy
The members of the research team for ancient philosophy on the one hand pursue their (1) particular research activities (cf. their individual research profiles), on the other engage in a number of (2) collective activities with the aim of (a) creating a strong platform for exchange of ideas with specialists in ancient philosophy nationwide, and (b) working together on subjects to be found on the intersections of the individual research projects and developing them in the framework of international scholarship.
TRANSED provides critical editions and Czech translations of hitherto unedited and untranslated medieval philosophical and theological texts belonging to three closely interconnected fields of medieval thought:
1) Medieval Aristotelianism
2) The philosophical and theological tradition of medieval Bohemia, in particular that of the university of Prague
3) Scholastic theology
In preparation.
Research Team for the Study of Late Scholasticism
The team focuses on the research into early modern scholasticism, roughly 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 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 (and the latter sub-team) cooperates with the Faculty of Theology, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice on a formal basis (since 2008).
Collegium Europaeum, a joint research group of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University and the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, was founded in 2008 to accumulate scientific potential for advanced research in the area of European studies. The group focuses on interdisciplinary research and critical reflexion of European cultural and political identity. By means of historical, philosophical, and social scholarly research, the group deals with the phenomenon of Europe and its specific cultural-historical, religious and political traditions in the Czech and Central-European context.
