The Origins and Vicissitudes of Philosophy of Science in Slovakia

Juraj Halas

Call for Participation
AP in V4 Lecture Series — Analytic Philosophy in Visegrad Countries

Title: The Origins and Vicissitudes of Philosophy of Science in Slovakia
Speaker: Juraj Halas (Comenius University in Bratislava)
Date and time: 25 May 2026, 15:00–16:30 CET (3:00–4:30 p.m. CET)
Format: Online lecture 

Organised by: Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica (Slovakia), University of Ostrava (Czech Republic), and University of Warsaw (Poland), with the support of the Visegrad Fund.
Project website: https://ff.osu.eu/ap-in-v4/
Lecture series page: https://ff.osu.eu/ap-in-v4/lectures/

If you are interested in joining, please contact: [email protected]


Abstract:

Igor Hrušovský's Theory of Science (1941) was the first book-length treatment of
philosophy of science in Slovak. In this and other works from the same period, Hrušovský
engaged with the Vienna Circle, Popper, and early analytic philosophy, attempting to close
the gap with international developments. After 1948, this promising trajectory was disrupted
by the imposition of Marxism-Leninism as the mandatory philosophical framework,
paradoxically with Hrušovský himself briefly appearing as one of its main proponents. This
lecture traces the fate of philosophy of science in Slovakia from its origins in the 1940s
through its submersion under Stalinist dogma, a cautious recovery after 1956, a short-lived
flourishing around 1968, and another curtailment in the post-1968 era of “normalization”.
Despite these setbacks, some lines of continuity can be identified, spanning logical empiricist
themes through post-positivist concerns such as idealization, scientific realism, and the
methodology of the social sciences. This shows that throughout the period, Slovak
philosophers maintained a persistent, if not always public and sometimes belated,
engagement with the same problems that occupied philosophy of science in the West.


About the speaker

Juraj Halas is a professor at Comenius University in Bratislava, where he works on the philosophy of science, the methodology of the social sciences, the philosophy of economics. He is the author of two monographs and has published widely on abstraction, idealization, and social philosophy, including recent work in Science & Society and earlier papers in Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, Filozofia nauki, and Organon F.

https://ff.osu.eu/ap-in-v4/