Jan Sokol is a Czech

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 philosopher, former dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

, politician and translator. In 1990-1992 he was MP, 1998 Minister of Education, 2003 coalition candidate to the office of President of the Czech Republic. In 2000-2007 he served as the first dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague

Charles University in Prague

Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...

.

Life and work

Born in Prague in a catholic family, he was not allowed to study, worked as goldsmith, precision mechanic and software developer. Studied mathematics in evening courses, translated numerous books on philosophy and religion to Czech (Lévinas, de Chardin, Gadamer, Eckhart, Foucault, Heidegger, Casper, Landsberg etc.), participated on the Czech Ecumenical Bible translation (1963-1979) and was one of the first signataries of the Charta 77 manifesto for Human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

.

In 1990 he was elected Member of the Czechoslovak Parliament, vice-chairman of the Chamber of Nations and spokesman of the strongest fraction Civic Forum

Civic Forum

The Civic Forum was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989...

 (OF). In 1993 he obtained MA in Anthropology, 1996 Ph.D. in Philosophy, since 2000 full professor of philosophy. Since 2007 vice-dean of Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague. Since 2007 Officer of the Légion d´honneur. In the Fall Semester 2008 Senior Fellow at CSWR, Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, lecturing on Religion, Ethics and Human rights.

He has been influenced mostly by his father-in-law Jan Patočka

Jan Patocka

Jan Patočka is considered one of the most important contributors to Czech philosophical phenomenology, as well as one of the most influential central European philosophers of the 20th century...

, Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...

, Emmanuel Lévinas

Emmanuel Lévinas

Emmanuel Levinas was a Lithuanian-born French Jewish philosopher and Talmudic commentator.-Life:Emanuelis Levinas received a traditional Jewish education in Lithuania...

 and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...

. Works in Philosophical Anthropology, Phenomenology, Anthropology of Religion and of Law and in the theory of Human Rights. Published several books and articles in Czech and in other languages, delivered many guest lectures in various European countries and in the US, mostly on philosophy, religion, ethics and on European questions.

Books

• Moc, peníze a právo (Power, money and law). Čeněk, Pilsen 2007. ISBN 978-80-7360-066-6
• Malá filosofie člověka (A Small Philosophy of Man). Vysehrad, Prague 2007, 5th. ed. ISBN 978-80-7021-884-6
• Čas a rytmus (Time and Rhythm). Oikumene, Prague 2004, 2nd. ed. ISBN 80-7298-123-4
• Člověk a náboženství (Man and religion). Portal, Prague 2004. ISBN 80-7178-886-4
• Antropologie a etika (Anthropology and Ethics, with Z. Pinc). Triton, Prague 2003. ISBN 80-7254-372-5
• Filosofická antropologie (Philosophic Anthropology - Man as a Person). Portal, Prague 2002. ISBN 80-7178-627-6
• Mistr Eckhart a středověká mystika (Master Eckhart and the Medieval Mysticism). Vysehrad, Prague 2008, 3rd. ed. ISBN 978-80-7021-880-8.

Translations of books:

• Mensch und Religion : Ursprünge - Wege - Orientierungen. Aus dem Tschech. übers. von J. Ostmeyer. Freiburg im Breisgau: Alber Verlag, 2007. 320 S. ISBN 978-3-495-48264-3.

Others

In English:

• What does freedom look like? In: Int. J. Prenatal and perinatal psychology and medicine, Stockholm. Vol. 17, 1/2 (2005), p. 181-187. ISSN 0943-5417
• An Address from Elsewhere (The Message of Lévinas). In: Philosophy Today, Chicago, 43/2 (1999), p. 143-150, ISSN 0031-8256.
• The Two Faces of Time. In: European Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 11-18 (2001). ISSN 1062-7987.
• The market as a place of rules. In: M. T. Vogt (hsg.), Kulturen in Begegnung. Wroclaw – Görlitz 2004. ISBN 83-7432-018-4. p. 239-243.
• Language and experience. In: Dynamic structure. Language as an open system. Prague : Litteraria pragensia, 2007. p. 27-35. ISBN 80-7308-139-3.

In German:

• Nachbarschaft – Nähe und Abgrenzung aus anthropologischer Sicht. In: Theologie der Gegenwart, Erfurt, Vol. 50 (2007)/3, S. 162-171. ISSN 0342-1457
• Eine Ethik für alle Menschen? In: Schmidinger – Hoff (hsg.), Ethik im Brennpunkt. Tyrolia, Innsbruck 2005, S. 181-200. ISBN 3-7022-2710-5.
• Europa spricht. Sprachenvielfalt und Politik. In: Osteuropa 5-6/2004, Berlin, S. 276-283. ISSN 0030-6428.
• Was ist Geld? In: Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Unternehmensethik 5/2 (2004), S. 176-185. ISSN 1439-880X
• Leben als Bewegung. Jan Patočka und die Philosophie der Erziehung. In: Jahrbuch fuer Bildungs- und Erziehungsphilosophie, 3 (2000), S. 223-229. Schneider Hohengehren, ISBN 3-89676-328-8.
• Was ist Geld? In: M. T. Vogt (hsg.), Kulturen in Begegnung. Wroclaw – Görlitz 2004. ISBN 83-7432-018-4. S. 189-198.
• Der zweifache Schöpfungsbericht als hermeneutischer Schlüssel. In: Pokorný, P. (ed.): Philosophical Hermeneutics and Biblical Exegesis. Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-16-147894-0., S. 238-244.
• Die dreifache Verantwortung der Universität. In R. Gepp et al. (Hsg.), Bildung zwischen Luxus und Notwendigkeit. Wien : LIT-Verlag Wien, 2006. P. 21-27. Schriftenreihe der WA. Bd. 1. ISBN 3-8258-9360-X.

In French:

• L'obligation et la vie. In: Pouvoir et vie. Actes UEE de Nice. Cluj : Idea Design & Print, Editura, 2004. p. 117-125. ISBN 973-7913- 27-2.
• Jan Patocka et la Charte 77. La nouvelle alternative, Paris, 22, 1, p. 29-34, 5 s. ISSN 0029-4705. 2008.
• Les regles: conditions de la liberté concrete. In: Philosophie de l’action. Cluj 2005, ISBN 973-7913-43-4, p. 173-181.
• Novotný, K. – Sokol, J.: Jan Patočka, penseur d’une dissidence philosophique et politique. In: Delsol – Maslowski – Nowicki (eds.): Dissidences. PUF Paris 2005. ISBN 2-13-054334-0. p. 15-34.
• D’ou vient l’idée de l’obligation morale? In: Quelle conception de l’homme aujourd’hui? Zuerich 2003. ISBN 3-908544-50-5. p. 119-130.
• La pensée européenne de Jan Patočka. In: Delsol - Maslowski (ed.): Histoire des idées politiques de l'Europe centrale, p. 496-510. PUF Paris 1998. ISBN 2-13-049071-9

In other languages:

• Zijn mensenrechten natuurlijk? Filosofie ond Praktijk, Budel (NL) : Damon, 28/2007, 4, p. 43-53, ISSN 0167-2444. 2007.

External links

• Personal pages (cs, en, de, fr)