simone-weil-basic-writings

Simone Weil. Basic Writings

David K. Levy – Marina Barabas (translation)

Table of Contents

The book brings together the major writings of one of the most thought-provoking and original thinkers of the 20th Century. Her works were chosen to show her exploration of the many facets of human destiny and cover politics, society, human obligations and rights, culture and morality, as well as science, school-studies and labour, all of which are a meditation on human condition, as well as mediation to the spiritual. The spiritual as our destiny is explored explicitly in essays on suffering and joy, on the various forms of love, on God and the Good as they are in and out of the world.

London: Routledge, 2024. 370 pp. ISBN 978-1-032-07213-5
kant-and-the-phenomenological-tradition-kant-und-die-ph-nomenologische-tradition

Kant and the Phenomenological Tradition. Kant und die phänomenologische Tradition

Ondřej Sikora – Jakub Sirovátka (eds.)

Table of Contents

The common topic of the nine essays in this book is the phenomenological dialogue involving Kant and his ›invention of autonomy‹. Is there any relevance left to the Kantian notion of autonomy after the intensive development of ethical and phenomenological thought, stressing the importance of otherness, which, by definition, is beyond the control of any autonomy? What are the fruitful aspects of the Kantian idea that still deserve preservation and development? While the first three contributions are immanently Kantian, the majority focus on the relationship between Kant and selected authors of the phenomenological tradition: E. Husserl, M. Heidegger, E. Levinas, J. Patočka and B. Waldenfels.

Baden-Baden: Karl Alber, 2023. 185 pp. Alber Philosophie. ISBN 978-3-495-99461-0.
schillerova-estetika-humanity-schiller-s-aesthetics-of-humanity

Schillerova estetika humanity [Schiller’s Aesthetics of Humanity]

Martin Bojda

Table of Contents

Friedrich Schiller was the youngest of the so-called Weimar classics and one of the last great representatives of the German Enlightenment. His work, interrupted by an early death and endured under difficult living conditions, ranges from medicine to historiography or aesthetics to poetry, but its anchor and foundation is philosophical thinking. Not only as an author of theoretical writings, but especially as a dramatic poet, Schiller preached Enlightenment ideals and developed their systematic anchoring in dialogue with older rationalism as well as nascent idealism and romanticism. The presented book, following on from the author’s works on Herder and Goethe, tries to synthesize Schiller’s thinking across all areas of his work and to fill a noticeable gap in Czech knowledge of modern German culture, in which he tries to show precisely the link between philosophy, literature and social development.

Prague: Academia, 2023. 1084 pp. ISBN 978-80-200-3402-1
dejiny-politickeho-mysleni-iii-2-politicke-smery-a-myslitele-19-stoleti

Dějiny politického myšlení. III/2, Politické směry a myslitelé 19. století

Rudolf Kučera – Jiří Chotaš (eds.)

[History of Political Thought. III/2, Political Directions and Thinkers of the Nineteenth Century.]

Table of Contents

In this second volume of the history of Modern political thought readers will find a philosophical and historical exposition of political thought from the American Revolution until the First World War. Special attention is paid to the emergence of the modern republic with democratic representation but also ideologies and thinkers (Tocqueville, Nietzsche, Weber) whose work was fully appreciated only in the twentieth century. Separate chapters then focus on the development of political thought in the nineteenth century in Russia and in the Czech Lands.

Prague: OIKOYMENH, 2022. 711 pp. ISBN 978-80-7298-548-7
politicke-mysleni-raneho-novoveku-2

Politické myšlení raného novověku

Rudolf Kučera – Jiří Chotaš (eds.)

(Early Modern Political Thought)

Table of contents

In this volume of the history of modern political thought, readers will find a philosophical and historical account of political thought from humanism and Renaissance until various movements in the French Enlightenment. Special attention is paid to the origins of theory of national states, Czech reformation, right to resistance, religious tolerance, natural and international law, and the theory of division of political power.

Prague: OIKOYMENH, 2022, 451 pp. ISBN 978–80–7298–547–0
immanuel-kant-critique-of-practical-reason

Immanuel Kant. Critique of Practical Reason

Translated by Jaromír Loužil. Edited by Jan Kuneš and Milan Sobotka

Table of contents

While Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787) deals with theoretical philosophy, the Critique of Practical Reason (1788) discusses his practical philosophy and presents, in its entirety, the theory of moral law outlined already in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785). It also offers Kant’s definitive answer to the question of metaphysics, presenting the nucleus of his reformed concept of metaphysics. The second, amended, edition of Jaromír Loužil’s translation of Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason (first published in Prague in 1996 by Svoboda Publishers), prepared by Jan Kuneš and Milan Sobotka, contains corrections of various oversights and inaccuracies and seeks to render some formulations more precise. This edition also includes an extensive subject index.

Prague: OIKOYMENH, 2022, 181 pp. ISBN 978-80-7298-549-4
elected-extremists-political-communication-and-the-limits-of-containment

Elected Extremists, Political Communication and the Limits of Containment

Matej Cíbik

The paper examines the complex relation between anti-democratic forces ("the extremists") and the broader liberal-democratic institutional environment. The task of containing extremists is analysed both from a theoretical standpoint and in terms of its practical feasibility. I argue that the realities of political communication and the character of political argumentation make containing extremism in practice a much more daunting proposition than is usually understood in the literature. Insights from political philosophy, political science and communication theory are brought together to press these points.

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In: Topoi, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-022-09877-z
tacit-consent-and-political-legitimacy
Matej Cíbik

Though historically important, the notion of tacit consent plays little role in contemporary discussions of political legitimacy. The idea, in fact, is often dismissed as obviously implausible. The ambition of this paper is to challenge this assumption and show that tacit consent can become a key ingredient in a theory of legitimacy. Instead of defining tacit consent through residence (where, according to John Locke or Plato's Socrates, staying in the country amounts to tacitly consenting to its system of rule), the paper explores a different strategy, delimiting tacit consent as an absence of active dissent.

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In: European Journal of Political Theory, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851221143612
johann-gottfried-herder-metakritik-zur-kritik-der-reinen-vernunft-johann-gottfried-herder-metacritique-of-the-critique-of-pure-reason

Johann Gottfried Herder. Metakritik zur Kritik der reinen Vernunft. [Johann Gottfried Herder. Metacritique of the Critique of Pure Reason.]

Martin Bojda and Holger Gutschmidt (eds.)

Table of contents

Eighteen years after Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason had appeared, Johann Gottfried Herder published an extensive and rigorous critique of Kant’s opus magnum. Far from being a purely critical study, Herder’s Metacritique is also a presentation of his own thought in metaphysics and epistemology.
Herder rejected Kant’s so-called “Copernican revolution” with its preference of the subject and considered Kant’s precritical thinking the better theory. In his Metacritique, Herder connects epistemology with philosophy of language, history and cultural theory with metaphysics and universalistic values. He criticizes the subject-centred and mechanist theory of his days and presents a keen and detailed analysis of Kant’s transcendental theory.

Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 2022. 338 pp. ISBN 978-3-7873-4235-8.
jean-jacques-rousseau-rozprava-o-nerovnosti-o-spolecenske-smlouve-discourse-on-inequality-of-the-social-contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rozprava o nerovnosti. O společenské smlouvě (Discourse on Inequality. Of the Social Contract)

Hana Fořtová (translation)

Table of contents

The book contains the new Czech translation of the Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men (1755) and The Social Contract, these texts being the core of Rousseau’s political theory. The New Czech translations brings to the reader the first complete translations of the Discourse on Inequality and after more than seventy years a new translation of The Social Contract. The Discourse on Inequality is published for the first time with the Dedication to the Genevan republic as well as the reactions of Rousseau’s opponents and Rousseau’s answers. Both texts are accompanied by a rich commentary that shows the context of author’s life and work, as well as the historical and political context of Europe of the Enlightenment and thus helps to better understand Rousseau’s political theory and his importance for our present time.

Prague: Karolinum, 2022, 317 pp., ISBN 978-80-246-3415-9.