Josef Zumr: filosof netušených souvislostí českého myšlení

Abstract

Josef Zumr was one of the leading representatives of modern Czech philosophical thought. His lifelong disposition was to be a realist of the Masaryk variety. He believed that a formative idea of humanity was the determinate element in the Czech tradition of thought. He found his unceasing conviction in the meaning and value of actuality in a conscious search for a supporting ideological cohesion in modern Czech thinking – in the urgent and convincing revelation of its original, rational sources and emancipatory heights. He himself critically thought through this quintessential line of expression in Czech thought, doing so creatively and with the full responsibility of an engaged intellectual, and developing it conceptually and thematically. With his critical intellectual stance, the paramount goal of which Zumr considered to be the positive reshaping of existing social reality, he opened up possibilities of effectively strengthening democratic principles. One of these complementary democratic principles weighed most heavily on Josef Zumr in the final phase of his life: freedom of speech. He left us on July 2, 2024 at the age of 96.

Keywords

• josef zumr
• connections in czech philosophical thinking
• realism
• humanity
• intellectual engagement
• emancipation
• democratic principles