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V nové knize Jiřího Přibáně nalezneme tematicky uspořádané eseje, které autor publikoval v průběhu posledního desetiletí. Jeden z esejů dal název celému výboru. Sázku na svobodu můžeme vnímat podobně, jako dáváme v sázku vše to, na čem nám nejvíce záleží, včetně našich životů. V sázce nelze nikdy předem se vším kalkulovat a navzdory všem plánům a strategiím jí vládne nahodilost. Kniha se zabývá i touto nahodilostí a její funkcí v moderní společnosti. Čím víc si tuto základní sociální zkušenost dnešní člověk uvědomuje, tím víc se paradoxně snaží vytvořit ve společnosti pevné body, které si označuje za stálé a neměnné hodnoty. Přibáň kritizuje morální fundamentalismus, který zapaluje vášně vedoucí k politickému násilí a společenské destrukci. Současně však odmítá morální relativismus nebo cynismus a do protikladu k absolutismu morálky klade možnost etického života jako toho, co naši existenci sice uvádí v sázku, ale současně jí dává smysl. Etiku vnímá jako obranu proti každému absolutismu a totalitarismu, ke kterému svádějí moralisté. V knize se autor vrací k českým autorům, kteří hluboce poznamenali jeho myšlení i psaní, tedy Kunderovi, Bělohradskému, Havlovi, Pithartovi a Grušovi, v dalších esejích se věnuje evropskému vývoji v posledních deseti letech, až po ruskou invazi na Ukrajinu, i obecnějším tématům a tomu, jak si současná společnost představuje politiku a jednotlivé ústavní a politické instituce. V závěrečných částech se věnuje vztahu etiky a morálky i práva a politiky. Přibáň kriticky analyzuje vzestup morálního fundamentalismu v nejrůznějších politických a ideologických hnutích současnosti a zdůrazňuje důležitost svobod i v našem pluralitním světě, ve kterém hodnoty jsou zároveň nesmiřitelné i neustále přehodnocované. Nepřímo navazuje na Čapkův pragmatismus, když chce ony pomyslné továrny na absolutno nahradit ekologickými a obnovitelnými zdroji humanity. Jak píše v závěrečném eseji, na tento etický úkol rád vsadí nejen svobodu, ale i vlastní život. Taková sázka je podle něho ostatně naše jediná pozemská jistota.

On the centennial of the Czechs gaining their independence, award-winning Czech journalist Karel Hvížďala and Cardiff-based philosopher of law Jiří Přibán used the occasion to examine key moments in Czech history from the ninth century to the twenty-first. Covering such a broad scope allows the authors to look into the past and question how Czechs have viewed their history at different points – and what that means for the present and future. Employing the form of a dialogue, Hvížďala and Přibán raise and explore issues for the broader public that are normally reserved for university seminars, or avoided completely. “It’s an interesting book because simply by considering the ideas the authors of In Quest of History put forth, the reader loses his certainty of what is true and what is the common consensus – he becomes an individual.” – Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Testaments Betrayed, and The Festival of Insignificance “This contemplation by two Czech intellectuals of Czech history, ‘the national narrative,’ collective memory, and contemporary politics should be mandatory reading for understanding the deeper context of our current crisis.” – Jacques Rupnik, professor of political science at Sciences Po “Two men who are as European as they are Czech raise a question – Where are we headed? In answering, they deliver a solid classic. What an inspiring dialogue!” – Petr Pithart, Czech politician and signatory of Charter 77

This book offers a social theoretical analysis of imaginaries as constituent social forces of positive law and politics. Constitutional imaginaries invite constitutional and political theorists, philosophers and sociologists to rethink the concept of constitution as the normative legal limitation and control of political power. They show that political constitutions include societal forces impossible to contain by legal norms and political institutions. The constitution of society as one polity defined by the unity of topos-ethnos-nomos, that is the unity of territory, people and their laws, informed the rise of modern nations and nationalisms as much as constitutional democratic statehood and its liberal and republican regimes. However, the imaginary of polity as one nation living on a given territory under the constitutional rule of law is challenged by the process of European integration and its imaginaries informed by transnational legal and societal pluralism, administrative governance, economic performativity and democratically mobilised polity. This book discusses the sociology of imagined communities and the philosophy of modern social imaginaries in the context of transnational European constitutionalism and its recent theories, most notably the theory of societal constitutions. It offers a new approach to the legal constitutions as societal power formations evolving at national, European and global levels. The book will be of interest to scholars and students interested in constitutional and European law theory and philosophy as much as interdisciplinary and socio-legal studies of transnational law and society.

Sovereignty marks the boundary between politics and law. Highlighting the legal context of politics and the political context of law, it thus contributes to the internal dynamics of both political and legal systems. This book comprehends the persistence of sovereignty as a political and juridical concept in the post-sovereign social condition. The tension and paradoxical relationship between the semantics and structures of sovereignty and post-sovereignty are addressed by using the conceptual framework of the autopoietic social systems theory. Using a number of contemporary European examples, developments and paradoxes, the author examines topics of immense interest and importance relating to the concept of sovereignty in a globalising world. The study argues that the modern question of sovereignty permanently oscillating between de iúre authority and de facto power cannot be discarded by theories of supranational and transnational globalized law and politics. Criticising quasi-theological conceptualizations of political sovereignty and its juridical form, the study reformulates the concept of sovereignty and its persistence as part of the self-referential communication of the systems of positive law and politics. The book will be of considerable interest to academics and researchers in political, legal and social theory and philosophy.

More than a century after the publication of Czech politician Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s study The Czech Question, Czech politics has become a pragmatic question of democratic constitutionalism and civility. Originally published in major Czech newspapers, these essays on contemporary European politics demonstrate that this new understanding involves both technical questions of power-making and critical questions of its meaning. Democracy, Jirí Pribán shows, is the proces of permanent self-correction. It possesses both the capacity to respond to unexpected problems and crises and intrinsic tensions between principled arguments and everyday administrative processes. Defending constitutionalism, therefore, draws on principles of civil rights and freedoms, limited government, and representative democracy, the validity and persuasive force of which are at stake not only in the Czech Republic, but also in the European Union and our global society at large.

Jirí Pribán's book contributes to the field of systems theory of law in the context of European legal and political integration and constitution-making. It puts recent European legislative efforts and policies, especially the EU enlargement process, in the context of legal theory and philosophy. Furthermore, the author shows that the system of positive law has a symbolic meaning, reflecting how it also contributes to the semantics of political identity, democratic power and moral values, as well as the complex relations between law, politics and morality.

This collection of essays brings together Zygmunt Bauman and a number of internationally distinguished legal scholars who examine the influence of Bauman's recent works on social theory of law and socio-legal studies. Contributors focus on the concept of 'liquid society' and its adoption by legal scholars. The volume opens with Bauman's analysis of fears and policing in 'liquid society' and continues by examining the social and legal theoretical context and implications of Bauman's theory.

This representative monograph offers an exciting look at thirty years of works by a central figure of Czech postmodern art, Tomás Císarovský. Since the beginning of his artistic career, Císarovský has been fascinated by the medium of painting and has systematically worked to reintroduce traditional painting genres onto the Czech art scene. He is especially known for his unusually outstanding use of color and his ability to incorporate experiences from contemporary art into the long tradition of Western painting. Císarovský is also one of painting's greatest storytellers, as evidenced by his cycles in which he turns to recent history and explores the relationship between the past and the present. In one recent series, for instance, he takes an original approach to capturing various moments from the life of playwright and president Václav Havel. Císarovský uses the force of the imagination to confront collective memory with iconic images, inserting a sense of uncertainty into solidly fixed and historically codified images. His work is democratically open, intellectually contemplative, and morally provocative.