Kateřina Sváčková

The project consists of the translation into Czech of an anthology of the main writings of the authors of Enlightenment moral philosophy. The first volume of the selection contains texts by the fundamental British moral philosophers of the eighteenth century, such as Earl of Shaftesbury (1671–1713), Joseph Butler (1692–1752), Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746) and Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). Their cultural significance shaped the philosophical and theological debates of their time and still form the basis of moral philosophy as we know it today. This translation aims to be the first step in introducing this part of British moral philosophy to the Czech reading public, as well as to encourage a wider spectrum of reflection on deeper and everyday moral questions.

My research focuses on the phenomenon of compassion, namely on its secularized form, which has developed in philosophy since the French and British Enlightenment. At the heart of my project is Rousseau’s concept of compassion (pitié) which I would like to understand in the context of this secularised philosophical tradition, in order to discern the possible meaning and the role of compassion in individual behavior.