Jan Sokol (philosopher)
| Jan Sokol | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Minister of Education, Youth and Sports | |
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In office 2 January 1998 – 22 July 1998 |
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| Prime Minister | Josef Tošovský |
| Preceded by | Jiří Gruša |
| Succeeded by | Eduard Zeman |
| Member of Parliament for Prague | |
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In office 7 June 1990 – 4 June 1992 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 18, 1936 Praha, Czechoslovakia |
| Alma mater | Charles University |
Jan Sokol (born April 18, 1936) is a Czech philosopher, former dissident, politician and translator. He briefly served as Minister of Education, Youth and Sports in 1998 under Prime Minister Josef Tošovský. From 1990 to 1992 he was Member of Parliament for Prague.From 2000 to 2007 he served as the first dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University in Prague. Sokol ran for President of the Czech Republic in the 2003 election but lost to Václav Klaus.
Born in Prague in a catholic family, he was not allowed to study and worked as a goldsmith, precision mechanic and software developer. Sokol studied mathematics in evening courses, translated numerous books on philosophy and religion to Czech (Lévinas, de Chardin, Gadamer, Eckhart, Foucault, Heidegger, Casper, Landsberg etc.), participated on the Czech Ecumenical Bible translation (1963–1979) and was one of the first signataries of the Charta 77 manifesto for Human rights.
In 1990 he was elected as a Member of the Czechoslovak Parliament, becoming vice-chairman of the Chamber of Nations and spokesman of the strongest faction Civic Forum (OF). In 1993 he obtained an MA in Anthropology, 1996 Ph.D. in Philosophy and since 2000 has been a full professor of philosophy. Sokol became vice-dean of Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague in 2007 and in the same year was appointed as an Officer of the Légion d´honneur. In the Fall Semester 2008 he was a Senior Fellow at CSWR, Harvard University, lecturing on Religion, Ethics and Human rights.
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