The philosopher Václav Bělohradský was born on 17. 1. 1944 in Prague, and if it hadn’t been for the Soviet occupation of 1968 he would probably have remained there. However, in 1970 he chose exile in Italy and since 1989 he has divided his life between Italy and the Czech Republic, living in the Italian town of Gorizia as well as in Prague.
He represents what is known as biocentric philosophy, which he developed into a rejection of the anthropomorphic overestimation of the power of symbols and culture and into a need for distance from “us” as the basis for a new, freer community. In keeping with his earlier activities in Italy and in the emigre press, in the early nineties he acted as a fierce defender of progressive, ecologically oriented liberalism. In later years, however, he revised this interpretation from a left-wing position.
From 1962–1967 he studied at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, first Czech language and history, later philosophy and Czech language; from 1968 he was a scientific research assistant in the department of philosophy. In 1970 he left for Italy. First he was awarded a research fellowship from the National Research Council (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche) in Genoa, in 1973 he became professor of sociology at the University of Genoa, and since 1991 he has lectured in political sociology at the University of Trieste. Between 1991 and 1997 he was a visiting professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague. He returned to the Czech scene after November 1989 primarily through a series of articles in MF Dnes (from October 1990 to summer 1991; later they were collected in the volume Kapitalismus a občanské ctnosti). From 1993 he spent three years as chairman of the editorial board of Lidové noviny. From 1997 he began to write analyses and essays regularly for Právo’s Salon. He has also published work in Přítomnost, Literární noviny, Proglas and Host.
From his better-known studies and books published abroad.
More
(Adapted from the Literary Encyclopedia of Salon Práva LES and Wikipedie.cz)
This author profile was last updated in 2009.
