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DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY


DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
Masaryk University
Faculty of Arts
Arne Nováka 1, 660 88 Bmo, Czech Republic

KATEDRA FILOSOFIE
Masarykova univerzita
Filosofická fakulta
Arne Nováka 1, 660 88 Brno
Česká republika
Phone (420-5) 41321258 Fax (42-5) 41 12 14 06

The Programme of Study

Student's papers

STAFF
Head of the Department

Doc. PhDr. Jan Zouhar, CSc.

Teaching Faculty
Professors
Prof. PhDr. Petr Horák, CSc.
Prof. PhDr. Ing. Josef Šmajs, CSc (Text of book Culture against Nature.)
Prof  PhDr. Jaroslav Hroch, CSc.
em. Prof. PhDr. Pavel Materna, CSc.

Associate Professors
Doc. PhDr. Ivana Holzbachová, CSc.
Doc. Dr. Břetislav Horyna
Doc. PhDr. Josef Krob, CSc.

Assistant Professors
dr. et PhDr. Radim Brázda.
Mgr. Josef Petrželka, Dr.

Scientist
PhDr. Helena Pavlincová

External Teachers
Doc. PhDr. Jiří Gabriel, CSc.
Doc. PhDr. Karel Hlavoň, CSc.

TEACHING
Head: Prof. Jan Zouhar

Department of Philosophy concentrates to the complex programme of Philosophy studies which leads in undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate programmes to the Bachelor´s, Master´s and Ph.D. degree in Philosophy with the special regard to History of Philosophy, Contemporary Philosophy, Ontology, Ethics, Logic and to Philosophy of History and Social Philosophy.

In research activity the Department is oriented to Evolutionary Ontology and Ecophilosophy (Prof. J. Šmajs), Social Philosophy and Philosophy of History (Prof. P. Horák, Assoc. Prof. I. Holzbachová), Philosophy of Science (Assoc. Prof. I. Holzbachová), Czech Philosophy in 19th and 20th Century and Philosophical Personality of T. G. Masaryk  (Prof. J. Zouhar, Dr. H. Pavlincová), Philosophy of Language, Post-Analytical Philosophy and Philosophical Hermeneutics (Prof. J. Hroch), Contemporary British, American and Canadian Philosophy (Prof. J. Hroch), Modern and Contemporary German Philosophy (Prof. B. Horyna), Ontology, Epistemology and Philosophical Aspects of Cosmology (Assoc. Prof. J. Krob), Contemporary French Philosophy (Prof. P. Horák, Assoc. Prof. J. Krob), Logic, Logical Semantics of Ordinary Language and Theory of Concepts (Prof. P. Materna), Contemporary and Comparative Ethics (Assist. Prof. R. Brázda) and History of Classical Philosophy (Assist. Prof. J. Petrželka).

 

STAFF INTERESTS

dr. et PhDr. Radim Brázda.

Doc. PhDr. Ivana Holzbachová, CSc. (1946)
Graduated from Masaryk University in philosophy and history. She has focused on the philosophy of history and on the philosophical problems of science, above all in the connections with the relation between natural sciences and humanities, especially historiography. She reads lectures also in the History of Philosophy and the History of Social Theories. Monographs: "Člověk a dějiny" [Man and History], Brno, UJEP 1981, 104 pp., "Společnost-dějiny-struktura. Historický materialismus a škola Annales" [Society-History-Structure. Historical Materialism and the French School of Annales], Prague, Academia 1988, 147 pp. Further 41 studies in journals and memorial volumes, especially in Filosofický časopis [Philosophical Journal], Československý časopis historický [Czechoslovak Historical Journal], Filozofia /Slovakia/, Universitas, Sborník prací filosofické fakulty brněnské univerzity [The Memorial VoIume of the Works of the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University] (further SPFFMU).

Prof. PhDr. Petr Horák, CSc. (1935)
Graduated from Faculty of Arts MU, post-graduate studies of philosophy at the Institute of the Philosophy of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (FÚ ČSAV) and in Strasbourg. He was the member of FÚ ČSAV in Prague, since 1990 he is editor-in-chief of Filosofický časopis (Philosophical Journal). Since 1990 Associate Professor of the Faculty of Arts MU, full Professor at the same place since 1993. He is the author of several book monographs, many journal studies and translations of philosophical texts. He contributes to the revue Bibliographie de la Philosophie (Paris) and collaborates with Institute International de Philosophie (Paris), Maison de Sciences de l' Homme and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
Selected Bibliography: "Studie z dějin historického pozitivismu" [Studies from the History of Historical Positivism], Prague, ČSAV 1971, "Struktura a dějiny. Ke kritice strukturalismu ve Francii" [Structure and History. To the Critique of Structuralism in France], Prague, Academia 1982, "Svět Blaise Pascala" [The World of Blaise Pascal], Prague, Vyšehrad 1985. Translations of philosophical works (B. Pascal, M. Foucault, E. Cassirer, F. Furet).

Doc. PhDr. Jaroslav Hroch, CSc. (1947)
Graduated from MU in Czech and English studies and from Charles University (Prague) in philosophy. Awarded IREX grant for U.S. National Bank Chair of Excellence in Humanities (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga), academic visit in Cambridge. He is interested mainly in philosophical hermeneutics, post-analytical philosophy, ethics and reads also lectures in the history of modern philosophy and the Philosophy of Language. Author of the monograph "Praxe a tradice. Kritika filosofické hermeneutiky H.-G. Gadamera" [Practice and Tradition. The Critique of Philosophical Hermeneutics of H .-G. Gadamer], Prague, Academia 1989. Articles and studies in book publications, journals and memorial volumes (Filosofický časopis, Kriterion [Austria] etc.).

Courses offered:

Hermeneutics and Methodology of Humanities, 1 semester, colloquium Content: The beginnings of hermeneutical thought: Ancient Philosophy. Heraclitus and the Deep Hermeneutics. 

Hermeneutics and the tradition of common sense: A.A.C.Shaftesbury. Hermeneutics and methodology of humanities in 19 th century: F.D.E. Schleiermacher, J.G. Droysen, W. Dilthey. 

Hermeneutics and methodology of humanities in 20th century: Phenomenology and philosophical hermeneutics (E.Husserl), M. Heidegger, H.-G. Gadamer, J. Habermas, P. Ricoeur. 

New Perspectives of Hermeneutics: theory of archetypes and symbols, analytical psychology and philosophical hermeneutics.

 

Doc. PhDr. Josef Krob, CSc. (1956)
Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy. Graduated from Faculty of Arts (MU) in philosophy and history. He is interested in ontology, epistemology and the philosophy of natural sciences (physics, cosmology). In this discipline especially concentrated on the problems of anthropocentrism - subject and object in knowledge and modern physics, the anthropic principle in cosmology. Except other studies he is the author of "Úvod do ontologie" [Introduction to Ontology], Šmajs, Krob, 1994, "Antropocentrismus v dějinách a současnosti kosmologie" [Anthropocentrism in History and Presence of Cosmology], Filosofický časopis č. 5, 1993.

Prof. PhDr. Pavel Materna, CSc. (1930)
Specialization: Logic, especially intensional Iogic, semantics, logical analysis of natural language. Main theme of the present work: new logical theory of concepts. Orientation: transparent intensional logic (P. Tichý). At present time the monograph (along with K. Pala a J. Zlatuška) "Logická analýza přirozeného jazyka" [Logical Analysis of Natural Language], Prague, Academia 1989 and in publication "The World of Concepts and Logic", Prague, Filosofia 1995. Many articles in international journals (The Journal of Symbolic Logic, Linguistics and Philosophy, Theory and Decision, Synthese, Studia Logica). The works in book publications: "Kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der Fregeschen Kategorie des Sinnes": II. Frege Konferenz, Schwerin 1984; "Linguistic Constructions" in the Transparent Intensional Logic; Buszkowski, Marciszewski, J. van Bentham /eds./ "Categorial Grammar", J. Benjamins P.C. 1988; (along with P. Kolář) "On the Nature of Facts": W. Stelzner, Hsg.: Philosophie und Logik, Frege - Kolloquien, Jena 1989/1991 (de Gruyter 1993).

PhDr. Helena Pavlincová (1948)
Graduated in philosophy and Czech studies at the Faculty of Arts MU. Since 1990 the Research assistant in the Institute of Religious Studies, where she ectures the history of Christianity and edits the journal Religio. Since 1995 the Researcher of the Section for T. G. Masaryk Studies at the Department of Philosophy, carrying out research in critical edition of Masaryk publications. Engaged in the history of Czech philosophy in 20th century (she has prepared for publication the bibliography of the Dominican journal Filosofická revue [Philosophical Revue], Prague 1994 and she has participated as author and editor in Czech Philosophy in XXth Century, Brno 1995, also publications in memorial volumes). She edited the dictionary Judaismus — křesťanství — islám [Judaism — Christianity — Islam], Mladá fronta, Prague 1994 and series of memorial volumes in religious studies.

Mgr. Josef Petrželka, Dr.

Prof. PhDr. Ing. Josef Šmajs, CSc. (1938)
Graduated from Military Academy (Brno) in mechanical engineering and from Faculty of Arts MU in philosophy. He reads lectures in ontology, epistemology and the problematics of relation between nature and culture. He concentrates on the problems of evolutionary ontology, philosophy of science and technique and on ecophilosophy. Besides others he is co-author and editor of the work "Příroda a kultura" [Science and Culture], Praha 1990 and the author of the books "Kultura proti přírodě" [Culture Against Nature], Brno 1994, "Ohrožená kultura" [Endangered Culture], Brno 1995. He worked out and prepared to print the monograph "Evoluční ontologie" [Evolutionary Ontology].

Doc. PhDr. Jan Zouhar, CSc. (1949)
Graduated from Faculty of Arts MU in philosophy and Czech studies (1973). Assistant Professor (since 1988), Associate Professor (since October 1989) at the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts MU. He was interested in the relation between culture and religion "Ideové vztahy katolicismu a soudobé kultury" [Philosophic Aspects of Relation between Contemporary Catholicism and CuIture], Prague 1988, he concentrates also to the history of Czech thought and culture co-author of "Česká filozofie ve 20. století" [Czech Philosophy in XXth Century], 1995, "The Chapters From the History of Czech Philosophy in 20th Century", 1992, Kniha o Čapkovi [Book on Čapek], 1988 etc.). He reads lectures in Social Philosophy and in the History of Czech and Russian Philosophy.

Mgr. Jiří Raclavský, Ph.D.
Graduated in philosophy and musicology at the Faculty of Arts MU (also a bachelor in musical composition gratuated at Janáček Academy of Music Arts); Ph.D. thesis on notional attitudes logic was vindicated there too. Among scientific interests are:

  • hyperintensional logic (transparent intensional logic of Pavel Tichý)
  • principles of logical analysis of natural language
  • notional attitude logic
  • basic ontological concepts of analytical philosophy (individuals, identity, existence, properties, possible worlds, facts ...)
  • basic epistemological concepts (such as paradoxes, circularity, truth, ...)
  • semantics of singular terms, esp. proper names

For his availiable omn these topics articles see this link

Department of Philosophy provides University education of Philosophy in so called "two combinations studies" which means the graduates are provided with double qualification. The branch of Philosophy can be enrolled in combination with any other discipline studied at the Faculty of Arts, if need be at the other faculties of MU. Graduation in the discipline of Philosophy entitles the graduates to the performance of special and also pedagogical profession.

Josef Krob
jokr@phil.muni.cz
Copyright © 1995, Josef Krob, Last Updated - 25. 9. 2000