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Continuous online reading from the works of John Amos Comenius called “Reading Comenius Universally”, which starts on Saturday night, is an original way of commemorating 350 years since this thinker’s death. Academics and enthusiasts promised to support this 24-hour initiative by their reading. Passages from Comenius’s philosophical and educational treatises but also personal correspondence will be read in 17 languages, thus accentuating this thinker’s world-wide renown.

A full-day marathon will launch on 14 November at midnight CET in Prague. Each fifteen minutes, the relay will be taken over by the next reader. Participating readers come from the Czech Republic, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, United States, Japan, Colombia, Russia, Israel, and a number of other countries. Most are representatives of universities, academic institutions, museums, but the group also includes for instance students and teachers from five continents. Just in the Czech Republic, there are readers from Brno, Olomouc, Ostrava, Pardubice, Uherský Brod, and Přerov.

Seventeen languages, included Kashubian
‘For the introduction, we selected a fragment from the Panegersia, or Universal Awakening, in which Comenius turns to citizens of the whole world,’ explains Comenius scholar Vladimír Urbánek of the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, who organises this marathon together with his colleagues from the Department for Comenius Studies and Intellectual History of Early Modern Era. Alongside Czech and Latin, two languages which Comenius spoke and wrote in, his texts will also be read in German, English, Russian, Japanese, but even Esperanto, Kashubian, and other languages. Texts were selected from well-known philosophical and educational treatises such as Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart, Didactica Magna, The School of Infancy, from his textbook Orbis Sensualium Pictus or his pansophic works related to the idea of universal reform, such as Via Lucis and the General Consultation on the Improvement of Human Affairs.

This virtual journey of Comenius’s thoughts through the world will end at midnight CET of 15 November again in Prague. The event will be streamed throughout. Listeners can enjoy it live at Comenius online Youtube channel youtube kanálu Comenius.

John Amos Comenius (1592–1670) won world-wide renown with his pioneering works on didactic methods and education, which won him the epithet ‘Teacher of nations’. Still valued are also his writings on philosophy and theology.

Annual Report on Activities and Financial Management of the IP CAS for 2019 is now available in a searchable version here and in a pdf version here.

The digitalisation and visualisation of Comenius’s correspondence was carried out by the Department for Comenius Studies and Early Modern Intellectual History of the Institute of Philosophy, CAS, as part of a larger project of Oxford University called Cultures of Knowledge. What is the aim of the database and what light does it shed on the famous 17th century scholar and pioneering educator? Radio Prague International discussed these questions with Vladimír Urbánek, one of the researchers behind the project. For more see HERE.

In Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, on February 19, 2020, Marek Hrubec, Director of the Centre of Global Studies at the Institute of Philosophy CAS in Prague, delivered a public lecture titled: Development Resolution: Overcoming Global Conflicts and their Local Interactions. The lecture was chaired by a former Minister of External Affairs, Ambassador Ibrahim Gambari, the Special Adviser on the International compact with Iraq and other issues for the Secretary-General of the United Nations. On that occasion, the Ambassador proposed to re-structure policing by supporting federal police by specific activities of local and state police in order to face growing insecurity across the country, including transnational terrorist activities made by Boko Haram. See more.

The Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Academy of Sciences together with the Institute of Botany, CAS would like to invite all friends of music and nature to the Průhonice Park and Castle to the second Academic multi-genre music festival on September, 3rd, 2016. You will have a chance to listen to 29 music bands and orchestras on three stages, every band includes at least one person from the Academy of Sciences. For the festival programme click HERE, for the festival web page click HERE.