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German researcher Lukas Kob has been a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences since last year, supported by a prestigious fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In a commentary for the VědaVýzkum.cz portal, he explains why leading experts in the field from New York and Germany recommended the Czech capital to him for his postdoctoral research, and why he himself sees Prague as an important center for the philosophy of consciousness and artificial intelligence.
The extensive written estate of the prominent Czech philosopher and mathematician Bernard Bolzano, much of which has yet to be thoroughly explored, followed a remarkably complex path after his death in 1848. While one part eventually found its way into the collections of the National Museum and the Literary Archive of the Museum of Czech Literature in Prague, a collection consisting mainly of mathematical manuscripts was donated to the Imperial Court Library in Vienna, now the Austrian National Library. The two collections will now gradually be brought together and made accessible through the Bolzano Digital Archive. A breakthrough in the more than century-long history of unsuccessful attempts to bring the Vienna manuscripts back to the Czech lands was achieved by Bolzano scholar Elías Fuentes Guillén and his research team at the Czech Academy of Sciences.
The Wrocław copy of the important medieval encyclopaedia of natural history and medicine Hortus sanitatis (The Garden of Health) offers, among other things, valuable evidence for the richness of Czech intellectual life in the Renaissance. This copy and its significance will soon be presented by classical philologist Dr Antoine Haaker during his research stay at the Centre for Classical Studies of the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Dr Haaker is a classical philologist from France, working at the Wrocław University Library, where he is known for his crucial role in identifying and recovering several stolen medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and valuable early printed books of major importance.
Social media and generative AI are transforming the online information environment, making it harder to distinguish credible sources, trustworthy claims and human-generated content from synthetic material. This weakens citizens’ ability to form and revise their views independently—an essential condition for democratic deliberation and self-determination. As current EU regulation does not sufficiently address these changes, a group of experts affiliated with the Centre for Environmental and Technology Ethics – Prague (CETE-P) at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences presents three key recommendations in a new Policy Paper.
The latest Annual Report of the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences goes beyond the legally required information, offering a vivid overview of the Institute’s research activities and its role in public debate. Browse online...
The Scottish philosopher David Hume has fascinated scholars and the wider public for three centuries. He continues to attract attention not only because of his views, some of which are controversial today, but also because, in the 18th century, he introduced a new and more radical conception of philosophy that profoundly shaped the development of European thought. An international conference subtitled The New Life of David Hume, dedicated to David Hume, whose death will be commemorated this year on its 250th anniversary, begins today in Prague. It will run until 3 July and will feature topics from history, the history of ideas, and the reconstruction of philosophers’ biographies.
The Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, together with other academic institutions in the Czech Republic, has issued a statement in support of the Russian scholar of ancient philosophy Svetlana Mesyats, who works at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Her case raises serious concerns about academic freedom and the personal safety of scholars in Russia.
Although novelty is implicitly ubiquitous in science, it has recently itself become a new object of research within the science of science. What lies behind the current emphasis on novelty in science? What counts as new, and who gets to decide? The Centre for Science, Technology, and Society Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences invites prospective participants to submit abstracts for the international research symposium Novelty and Inequalities in Science, which will take place in Prague on 8–9 October 2026. Contributions may be submitted until 30 June 2026.
How is the climate crisis linked to gender and politics? What does “more-than-human world” mean? Why isn’t technology alone enough to solve the problem? Why are care, responsibility, and solidarity important? These are the key questions of episode Nr. 10 of our video-podcast Zelený drát with CETE-P's Iwona Janicka on ecofeminism and new narratives that might change our society. You can find your listening for the weekend on YouTube or Spotify.
The third edition of the international interdisciplinary conference Climate Crisis and the Question of Justice will welcome experts whose work focuses on the issues of climate crisis and just transition, adaptation measures and policies, the status and conditions of climate activists, the impacts of climate change on society, and theoretical reflections on these topics in the social sciences and humanities. Deadline for applications is 31 July 2026.
