Prof. PhDr. František Novosád, CSc., is a prominent figure in Slovak philosophy, and his work has shaped the philosophical discourse in Slovakia for several decades. Prof. Novosád has made his most significant contributions in the fields of social and political philosophy, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of culture, philosophy of history, and the history of philosophy. Novosád has been a member of the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences since 1987, and from 1990 to 2020 he served as the head of the Department of Social Philosophy and Philosophical Anthropology. He also worked as editor-in-chief of the journal Filozofia (1990–2006). In his work, Novosád engages in dialogue with the philosophical traditions of 19th and 20th century—especially with German Idealism, positivism, neo-Kantianism, the philosophy of life, phenomenology, and Marxism. Among the key thinkers he dealt with in his writings are M. Weber, E. Cassirer, M. Heidegger, G.W.F. Hegel, K. Marx, L. Wittgenstein, and C. Schmitt. He also reflected on the philosophical legacy of Slovak thinkers such as I. Hrušovský and M. Hamada. Novosád has been continuously active as a translator of philosophical literature—he translated into Slovak the works of M. Bakhtin, N. Hartmann, M. Heidegger, I. Kant, T. Nagel, C. Schmitt, E. Voegelin, and L. Wittgenstein. Although Novosád has long been recognized as a specialist in the history of philosophy—bringing many new insights and perspectives into the Slovak intellectual environment—he has also had a profound impact on systematic philosophical thought. His numerous monographs and articles systematically address the problems and structures of philosophical anthropology, social philosophy, philosophy of culture, and the study of ideologies. Novosád presents his own proposals for shaping these philosophical disciplines, identifying concepts useful for addressing the challenges of our time. It is precisely his conceptual analysis and its connection to the reflection of concrete intellectual and historical developments that can be regarded as Novosád’s central contribution—one that has influenced an entire generation of philosophers and other scholars and continues to resonate within the intellectual community today.
