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Thirty years of independence for the Slovak and Czech Republics (1993–2023)

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic, the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the French Embassy and French Institute in Slovakia, the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, the French Centre for Research in Social Sciences and the Czech Centre in Bratislava invite you to round table discussions on the theme: Thirty years of independence for the Czech and Slovak Republics (1993-2023)

Location: Hall of Mirrors of the Primatial Palace, Primaciálne námestie 2, Bratislava
Date: 23 and 24 October 2023
Language: Slovak / French (Simultaneous translation Slovak ↔ French)

The registration for the event is opened until October 12th. Room capacity is limited. Free admission.
Also available online.

Program

23. 10. 2023

17:30 – 18:00: Opening

18:00 – 20:00: Actors – witness of the historical key events
Moderator: Jaro Valent
Discussants: Xavier Galmiche (Sorbonne Université), Michaela
Jurovská (diplomate), Dušan Kováč (SAV), Václav
Bělohradský (philosophe)

20:00 – 22:00: Reception

24. 10. 2023

10:00 – 12:00: Political development of the two independent Republics
Moderator : Agáta Šustová Drelová
Discussants: Étienne Boisserie (Inalco), Michal Kopeček (ÚSD AV ČR), Juraj Marušiak (ÚPV SAV), Jana Vargovčíkova (Inalco)

12:00 – 13:30: Lunch break

13:30 – 15:30: Literature as a mirror of society
Moderator: Agáta Šustová Drelová
Discussants: Xavier Galmiche (Sorbonne Université), Michal Jareš (ÚČL AV ČR), Jana Kantoříková (Humboldtova Universita), Peter Zajac (ÚSlL SAV)

15:30 – 16:00: Coffee break

16:00 – 18:00: Transformation in Czech and Slovak society
Moderator: Jaro Valent
Discussants: Miloslav Bahna (SÚ SAV), František Novosád (FÚ SAV), Viliam Páleník (EÚ SAV), Paulína Tabery (SÚ AV ČR)

Theologies of Revolution: Medieval to Modern Europe

Workshop

Date: 20 and 21 May 2019
Place: Academic Conference Center (AKC, Husova 4a,
Prague 1) et Faculté des Lettres de l’Université Charles, salle 104 (FF UK, náměstí Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1)
Organized by: Martin Pjecha (CEU / CEFRES)
Organized in partnership with: CEFRES, Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS), Central European University (CEU)
Language: English

Keynote speakers

  • Phillip Haberkern (Boston University) : When did Christians Become Revolutionary? A Reflection on Hannah Arendt
  • Matthias Riedl (Central European University, Budapest) Apocalyptic Platonism: The Thought of Thomas Müntzer

Report to the call for contributions.

20th May 2019

 

10:00 – Introductory comments

10:30-12:00 – Panel 1: Urban and noble rebellion in the 17th century

  • Rik Sowden (University of Birmingham): Religion and rebellion in Nottingham during the British Civil wars – (discussant: Vladimír Urbánek)
  • Márton Zászkaliczky (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Literary Studies, Budapest): Calvinist Political Theology in the Bocskai Rebellion (1604-1606) – (discussant: Vladimír Urbánek)

12:00-13:00 – Lunch

13:00-14:20 – Panel 2: 20th century interpretations

  • Behrang Pourhosseini (University Paris 8): From Christian Victimary Politics to Shi’ite Messianism : A Debate around the Iranian Revolution – (discussant: Thomas C. Mercier)
  • Giacomo Maria Arrigo (KU Leuwen/University of Calabria): Gnosticism and Revolution: Towards an Explanatory Pattern – (discussant: Matthias Riedl)

14:20-14:40 – Coffee break

14:40-16:00 – Panel 3: Imperial and Soviet Russia

  • Anastasia Papushina (CEU, Budapest): Martyrs and heroes: revisiting religious patterns in revolutionary times – (discussant: Hanuš Nykl)
  • Daniel García Augusto Porras (Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona)/Universidad Pontificia Comillas ):  Revolution as political religion in Russia: Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor and its interpreters in Russian religious thought – (discussant: Hanuš Nykl)

16:00-16:20 – Coffee break

16:30-18:00 – Keynote 1

  • Matthias Riedl (CEU, Budapest): Apocalyptic Platonism: The Thought of Thomas Müntzer

21st May 2019 

 

10:00-11:20 – Panel 4: The French Revolution

  • Mathias Sonnleithner (MLU, Halle-Wittenberg) : Robespierre’s Belief to Be God’s Chosen – A Key Element of the Political Theology of the Terror – (discussant: Jakub Štofaník)
  • Amirpash Tavakkoli (EHESS, Paris) : French revolution, a Christian reading – (discussant: Jakub Štofaník)

11:20-11:50 – coffee break

11:50-13:10 – Panel 5: Violence and bliss in medieval Bohemia

  • Pavlína Cermanová (CMS, Prague): The Theology of Hussite Innocence – (discussant: Phillip Haberkern)
  • Martin Pjecha (CEU, Budapest/CEFRES, Prague): “Cosmic” revolution in radical Hussitism – (discussant: Phillip Haberkern)

13:10-14:30 – Lunch

14:30-16:30 – Panel 6: Intellectual transfers and comparisons in early modernity

  • Sam Gilchrist Hall (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Budapest): “But I do not doubt the people”: Thomas Müntzer and King Lear – (discussant: Matthias Riedl)
  • Luke Collison (Kingston University London): Hobbes and ‘Religion’ on the Threshold of Modernity – (discussant: Matthias Riedl)
  • Benjamin Heidenreich (University of Würzburg): Huldrich Zwingli´s influence on the “Peasants´ War” of 1525 – (discussant: Phillip Haberkern)

16:30-16:50 – Coffee break

17:30-19:00 – Keynote 2

  • Phillip Haberkern (Boston University): When did Christians Become Revolutionary? A Reflection on Hannah Arendt
    FF UK, salle 104 (náměstí Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1)

19:00 – Closing remarks

Theologies of Revolution: Medieval to Modern Europe

Workshop

Date: 20 and 21 May 2019
Place: Academic Conference Center (AKC, Husova 4a,
Prague 1) et Faculté des Lettres de l’Université Charles, salle 104 (FF UK, náměstí Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1)
Organized by: Martin Pjecha (CEU / CEFRES)
Organized in partnership with: CEFRES, Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS), Central European University (CEU)
Language: English

Keynote speakers

  • Phillip Haberkern (Boston University) : When did Christians Become Revolutionary? A Reflection on Hannah Arendt
  • Matthias Riedl (Central European University, Budapest) Apocalyptic Platonism: The Thought of Thomas Müntzer

Report to the call for contributions.

20th May 2019

 

10:00 – Introductory comments

10:30-12:00 – Panel 1: Urban and noble rebellion in the 17th century

  • Rik Sowden (University of Birmingham): Religion and rebellion in Nottingham during the British Civil wars – (discussant: Vladimír Urbánek)
  • Márton Zászkaliczky (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Literary Studies, Budapest): Calvinist Political Theology in the Bocskai Rebellion (1604-1606) – (discussant: Vladimír Urbánek)

12:00-13:00 – Lunch

13:00-14:20 – Panel 2: 20th century interpretations

  • Behrang Pourhosseini (University Paris 8): From Christian Victimary Politics to Shi’ite Messianism : A Debate around the Iranian Revolution – (discussant: Thomas C. Mercier)
  • Giacomo Maria Arrigo (KU Leuwen/University of Calabria): Gnosticism and Revolution: Towards an Explanatory Pattern – (discussant: Matthias Riedl)

14:20-14:40 – Coffee break

14:40-16:00 – Panel 3: Imperial and Soviet Russia

  • Anastasia Papushina (CEU, Budapest): Martyrs and heroes: revisiting religious patterns in revolutionary times – (discussant: Hanuš Nykl)
  • Daniel García Augusto Porras (Universitat Ramon Llull (Barcelona)/Universidad Pontificia Comillas ):  Revolution as political religion in Russia: Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor and its interpreters in Russian religious thought – (discussant: Hanuš Nykl)

16:00-16:20 – Coffee break

16:30-18:00 – Keynote 1

  • Matthias Riedl (CEU, Budapest): Apocalyptic Platonism: The Thought of Thomas Müntzer

21st May 2019 

 

10:00-11:20 – Panel 4: The French Revolution

  • Mathias Sonnleithner (MLU, Halle-Wittenberg) : Robespierre’s Belief to Be God’s Chosen – A Key Element of the Political Theology of the Terror – (discussant: Jakub Štofaník)
  • Amirpash Tavakkoli (EHESS, Paris) : French revolution, a Christian reading – (discussant: Jakub Štofaník)

11:20-11:50 – coffee break

11:50-13:10 – Panel 5: Violence and bliss in medieval Bohemia

  • Pavlína Cermanová (CMS, Prague): The Theology of Hussite Innocence – (discussant: Phillip Haberkern)
  • Martin Pjecha (CEU, Budapest/CEFRES, Prague): “Cosmic” revolution in radical Hussitism – (discussant: Phillip Haberkern)

13:10-14:30 – Lunch

14:30-16:30 – Panel 6: Intellectual transfers and comparisons in early modernity

  • Sam Gilchrist Hall (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Budapest): “But I do not doubt the people”: Thomas Müntzer and King Lear – (discussant: Matthias Riedl)
  • Luke Collison (Kingston University London): Hobbes and ‘Religion’ on the Threshold of Modernity – (discussant: Matthias Riedl)
  • Benjamin Heidenreich (University of Würzburg): Huldrich Zwingli´s influence on the “Peasants´ War” of 1525 – (discussant: Phillip Haberkern)

16:30-16:50 – Coffee break

17:30-19:00 – Keynote 2

  • Phillip Haberkern (Boston University): When did Christians Become Revolutionary? A Reflection on Hannah Arendt
    FF UK, salle 104 (náměstí Jana Palacha 2, Prague 1)

19:00 – Closing remarks

 

The Wording of Thoughts. Philosophy from the Standpoint of its Manuscripts and Archives

International Conference

Organizers: Benedetta Zaccarello (CNRS-CEFRES) and Thomas C. Mercier (CEFRES / FHS UK)
When & Where: 7-9 June 2018 at the French Institute of Prague, 5th Floor, Štěpánská 35, 110 00 Prague 1
Partners: FHS UK, The Jan Patočka Archive, FLÚ AV ČR, ITEM (CNRS-ENS), Bibliothèque Nationale de France, The Wittgenstein Archives at Bergen University, with the support of the French Institute in Prague and the program PARCECO of the MENESR

The conference will comprise four sections:

  1. Archive (Hi)stories: Thinking Theory through Authors’ Manuscripts.
  2. Archives in the digital age.
  3. What archives do to philosophy: methodologies in editing and interpreting.
  4. The Political Implications of Archives and their Conservation.

The afternoon session of the first day (7th June) will be dedicated to Jan Patočka and his archives.

See the program below
Abstract

The international conference “The Wording of Thoughts: Philosophy from the Standpoint of its Manuscripts and Archives” aims to establish a dialogue between experts of different archival corpuses coming from various countries and continents, so as to sketch methodological lines and to build a pioneer network focused on philosophical archives. Philosophy is written, practiced, lived through: it is the translation of the experience of a thinking subjectivity in a conceptual alphabet and a verbal fabric. The “making of a philosophical text”, including its cultural features and societal contingencies, challenges the representation of the discipline’s history as a series of abstract findings and innovative intuitions that constitute the landmarks of our paradigms. The philosopher who writes is the first inclined to erase the complex intricacies of the negotiations between existence and theory, between conceptual inventiveness and shared vocabulary inherited from a centuries-old tradition. Yet it is obvious that the dynamics of philosophy production and reception are a complex phenomenon whose writing nature is a crucial stake.

For all these reasons, the philosophical manuscript is an odd object that has only recently started to receive proper appraisal. In Europe, nevertheless, the creation of archive centres gathering major philosophical data has sustained the memory of philosophical writing and enabled such “arches” to cross time. It is beyond doubt that accessing these archives often enables to better understand the appearance, the method, the approach and even the sources, along with the polemical targets and the hints that published books tend to excise or dim. Moreover, in exploring the history of several philosophical archives and their rooting in specific social and cultural contexts, we aim to appreciate the role of such archival materials and their importance so as to develop new approaches to philosophical studies, including the history of philosophy and the exegesis of theoretical thought.

 

Continue reading The Wording of Thoughts. Philosophy from the Standpoint of its Manuscripts and Archives →

The Voice from Below | PhD Workshop CEFRES-EHESS

The “Voice from Below” – In the Face of Repression and Arbitrary State Violence

Third Doctoral Workshop organized within a cooperation Agreement between the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences sociales (EHESS), CEFRES, Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences

Date: 22 November 2024
Location: CEFRES, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1 (and online, to connect, please write to cefres@cefres.cz)
Language: English

Read the thesis of the Workshop here.

Program

Continue reading The Voice from Below | PhD Workshop CEFRES-EHESS →

The Uses of Analogy in Human and Social Sciences

A session led by Lara Bonneau

It is possible to conceive transdisciplinarity as sharing of objects or methods by several disciplines. Besides objects and methods, it can also be – and this might be its first form – the sharing of a common lexicon. The tendency of certain human sciences – philosophy in particular – to use concepts elaborated by other disciplines in other contexts was sharply criticized by Alan Sokal in 1994, in what remains known as the Sokal Affair. The physicist tried to discredit the way certain philosophers were using concepts that belonged to the natural sciences, showing their ignorance about the real meaning of these concepts in their original field and thereby reducing their work to vain language games. Indeed, the use of analogy and metaphor in the human sciences can be put into question. During this session, I will try to show that, if it is not without danger, the use of analogy and metaphor is inherent to the scientific activity, which can moreover be both legitimate and fruitful. I will start with a concrete example: the way the art historian Aby Warburg uses analogy and metaphors from the natural sciences. I will then rely on a more reflexive text about the legitimacy of this method entitled Théorie de l’acte analogique in Simondon’s L’individuation à la lumière des notions de forme et d’information.

Readings:

  • Gilbert Simondon. L’individu et sa genèse physico-biologique. Paris: PUF, 1964, pp. 264-268.
  • Alan Sokal. ‘A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies.’ Lingua Franca May/June 1996, available at: http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9605/sokal.html
  • Aby Warburg. Miroirs de faille, A Rome avec Giordano Bruno et Edouard Manet. Paris: Presses du réel/L’écarquillé, 2011, pp. 62, 64.