Contemporary Theoretical Philosophy A - AFS200008

• Title: Současná teoretická filosofie A
• Guaranteed by: Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies (21-UFAR)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2025 to 2026
• Semester: summer
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 3
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:2/2, C [HT]
• Capacity: unlimited / unlimited (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Additional information: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=18799
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: doc. Daniele De Santis, Dott. Ric.; Sybren Heyndels, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): doc. Daniele De Santis, Dott. Ric.; Sybren Heyndels, Ph.D.

Annotation

English

.

Last update: Mokrejšová Eva, Mgr. (10.09.2024)

Czech

General Description and Aims of the Module

This is NOT a class for EXCHANGE students.

The present module offers an introduction to contemporary philosophy, with special focus on the problems of the
language-thought relation. To this end, different philosophical traditions and major representatives of these
traditions will be presented in the morning lectures and more closely read and discussed in the afternoon reading
seminar. Among the questions which will lead our discussions are: What is the relation/difference between
thought and language? Which one should be granted priority over the other? Is language meant to just express
our thoughts? Or should we accept the claim to the effect that there cannot be any thought without language? To
what extent does language, its intrinsic normativity and structure, shape and form our experience? Is it possible to
speak of pre-linguistic and pre-predicative experience? Or is this notion a contradiction in terms?

Last update: Mokrejšová Eva, Mgr. (04.02.2026)

Course completion requirements

Requirements for completing the course:

 

(a) Regular attendance of both lectures and seminars (students should read in advance the material for each class). 2 absences maximum are allowed.

 

(b) Active participation in class (which implies that students read the material beforehand).

 

(c) The third requirement is a final written exam (dates and room to be specified by the teachers in due course).

Last update: De Santis Daniele, doc., Dott. Ric. (28.01.2026)

Literature

3. Essential Bibliography

(all the texts will be available on Moodle)

 

 

H. Arendt, The Human Condition (selection). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

R. Brandom, 1983. Asserting. Noûs, 17(4), pp. 637–650.

J. Derrida, Signature Event Context. In Margins of Philosophy. London: Routledge, pp. 307–330.

G. Frege, 1956 (1918). The thought: A logical inquiry. Mind, 65(259), pp. 289–311.

M. Heidegger, Being and Time (selection). New York: SUNY.

E. Husserl, Logical Investigations (selection). London: Routledge.

M. Midgley, 1992. Philosophical Plumbing. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 33, pp. 139–151.

I. Murdoch, 1961. Against Dryness – A Polemical Sketch. Encounter, January issue, pp. 16–20.

F. Nietzsche, On the prejudices of philosophers.

P. F. Strawson, 1949. Truth. Analysis, 9(6), pp. 83–97.

L. Wittgenstein, 1969. On Certainty (selection). Oxford: Blackwell. 

 

Last update: Heyndels Sybren, Ph.D. (15.02.2026)