František Mareš – from physiology to philosophy

This book discusses the life, work, scientific research, intellectual disputes, and, last but not least, the influence of the significant physiologist and philosopher František Mareš on Czech intellectual life at the end of the nineteenth and the first third of the twentieth century. František Mareš was a prominent critic of Czech positivism, both a follower and critic of Immanuel Kant, and a defender of the vitalist conception of life. As a physiologist with a strong inclination towards philosophy, he actively and noticeably engaged in a wide range of controversies with broad thematic focuses – from the dispute over the interpretation of Kant's philosophy and the defence of the Prague Institute of Physiology's work to the dispute over the Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora manuscripts.

The book also commemorates František Mareš as an important Czech academic official – a two-time rector of Charles University and a three-time dean of the Faculty of Medicine. The appendices of the book primarily include Mareš's hitherto little-known newspaper and magazine articles, which further illustrate the views of this important Czech philosophising physiologist.