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Jiří Přibáň: Socialist Legality and the Politics of "Dissent" (Solidarity of the Shaken, Day 1)

Solidarity of the Shaken Seminar organized by Václav Havel Library, 15.-16. May, Prague

The basic aim of this seminar is to discuss the philosophical issues connected with the concept of human rights in today's "post-European" world. The elementary point of departure should be the experiences and philosophical underpinnings of Central European dissent and specifically the spiritual legacies of Václav Havel and Jan Patočka.
The invited participants and follow-up discussions will focus on the following themes:
1. the relationship between "law-based" and "philosophical" approaches to the questions of international human rights as it appeared in the discourse of Central European dissidents' during the 1970s and 1980s;
2. the search for spiritual authority in our current post-modern/post-European world, which is particularly noticeable in the arguments of human rights defenders confronted with the oppressive state apparatuses of today's totalitarian/authoritarian/ semi-authoritarian regimes;
​3. the current quest for the source of moral obligation to respect human dignity and human rights in the "post-European" world "anchored in the general human experience of the absolute" (Havel), as a fundamental value common to all world cultures, religions and civilizations.