Radim Palouš

Life

Palouš was born into a family of journalists and active athletes. After graduating in Prague, he was placed in forced labor during World War II. From 1945 onwards, he studied philosophy at Charles University (taught by Jan Patočka), and in 1948 he defended his doctoral thesis on Masaryks philosophy of youth. He worked as a teacher and studied chemistry at the pedagogical branch in Charles University, where, since 1957, he worked as an assistant. He was qualified in the field of education (Labour School of the modern age), and dealt with the work of Comenius and on modern teaching techniques. His contributions enriched the philosophy of education in Czechoslovakia.

In 1976, he signed Charter 77, and from 1982 to 1983 he was its spokesman. Since 1989 to his death, he was a member of the Masaryk Democratic Movement. In November 1989, as one of the representatives of the Civic Forum, he participated in meetings and negotiations during the Velvet Revolution to release Czechoslovakia from its Communist rule. In January 1990, he became the rector of Charles University. He participated in the restoration of the reform of higher education and to restore international relations with the United Kingdom. Throughout his times, he traveled and lectured in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia and received nine honorary doctorates (eight at foreign universities and one in the Czech Republic). For his work in publishing writings on Patočka, he was awarded the Prize of Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, and most notably, for his lifelong work, the third class of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in 1997.

On 10 September 2015, Radim Palouš died.

Works