The study is devoted to the philosophical bequest of the Czech philo¬sopher Robert Kalivoda (1923–1089). Author fist evaluates his contribu¬tion to understanding a key period of Czech history, the Hussite move¬ment. By analysing economic and ideological conditions in the 14th and 15th centuries Kalivoda shows, that the Hussite movement was the first European early bourgeois revolution, bringing about fundamental changes in the structure of feudal society by paralysing the economic and philosophic potential of the Church as a fundamental component of the social order. Philosophically the movement created, out of elements of mediaeval philosophic realism and of the views of various heretical groups, an ideology of emancipation, anticipating ideas of later revolu¬tionary movements.
The second part of the study develops Kalivoda’s conception of the aesthetic function, starting from the conceptions of Jan Mukařovský, and thinks through its consequences for the humanisation of humans and society. Subsequently, the study analyses Kalivoda’s view of the so-called anthropological constant as the deepest layer of human existence and of its makeup. Kalivoda starts from Marx’s conception of a dialectical relation between hunger and sex and from their influence on the functioning of society. The author takes issue with Sigmund Freud’s conception according to which the sublimation of sexual instinct into the sphere of the “Higher I” (“Über-ich”) has solely an aggressive and repressive character and shows, that it involves non-aggressive sublimation as well, which – especially in the form of revolutionary activities – has a positive influence on social development.
Present study is conceived as a contribution to the development of Czech humanistic Marxism and is devoted to the philosophers Karel Kosík, Robert Kalivoda and Ivan Sviták during the Czechoslovak spring of 1968. The author considers their philosophical positions, their social critique and their vision of a future democratic socialism as well as their distinctive political commitment inseparable from their philosophical development. For all three, those were long term concerns culminating in the political thaw of 1968. The study deals with their successive texts, written intentionally as contributions to a society-wide discussion or even as programmatic proclamations, showing the moments with which they contended at the time and what goals they followed. At the same time it points to quite evident difference between the thought of I. Sviták on the one hand and K. Kosík and R. Kalivoda on the other, while also attempting a more detailed sketch of differences in their views as well as of the agreements not evident at first glance.