Is there a need for an archaeology
of critical thinking?

The aim of every issue of Kritika & Kontext is to introduce the context of four or five books from the social sciences and humanities which were published in the West during the past fifty years, but were translated into Slovak or Czech only after 1989. Since 1989 the release of numerous scholarly books in Slovakia and the Czech Republic has made available a number of well-known names and titles that were restricted during Communism. How much can we assess the importance of a work when we do not know the context in which it originated, when we often do not know what it was reacting to or how it was assessed by the reviewers? Finally, how is a work that we only now have the opportunity to read currently viewed in the West? 

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Also, one has to distinguish between those parts of a book that remain relevant or controversial and those that are already outdated. Usually, only parts of even great books withstand the test of time. 

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The motto of Kritika & Kontext, and the topic of the introductory discussion, is Joseph Schumpeter’s famous dictum "to realize the relative validity of one’s convictions and yet stand for them unflinchingly, is what distinguishes a civilized man from a barbarian"