Vojtěch Hladký works at the Department of Philosophy and History of Science, where his research focuses primarily on ancient Greek and Renaissance philosophy. He teaches several courses in philosophy and history of science for biology students, including the course Ethics and Science. In recent years, however, the preparation of this course has been significantly contributed to by Jana Švorcová and Lenka Ovčáčková, who has also recently taken over as the main teacher.
One of the courses you oversee has been awarded by the Student Velemlok in the biology category, for which I sincerely congratulate you. How do you feel about this achievement?
It is now the second year since the subject Ethics and Science became a module subject, and at the same time it has become really popular – we have 180 students enrolled this year.
I see my role as that of an editor of a collective monograph – while I am responsible for selecting and coordinating individual contributions, the final result is a collaborative creation. In the recent years, Lenka Ovčáčková and Jana Švorcová have been preparing this course together with me. Since this course is many-headed, just the organization of the program is a rather demanding task, so that’s why I'm glad I wasn’t alone on it. Moreover, I already felt that I couldn't manage everything on my own, so I have handed the course over to my colleague Lenka.
Otherwise, we are all very happy about the award of course. Velemlok *shows the statue* will be displayed as a department trophy in the place of honor at the common area, as almost half of the department is involved in teaching this course.
I noticed that this subject is designed in such a way that each lecture is led by a different lecturer.
When I was taking over this course, I remembered my sister, who had ethics as a mandatory subject at the First Faculty of Medicine. She told me that the lecture wasn’t actually very useful because it was too theoretical. However, later they had a lady who worked in s hospital and she told them how are ethical problems addressed from a practical perspective, and that was absolutely amazing.
So the basic vision was that there would be a theoretical introduction into ethics, which is lectured by me, and where we discuss some of the philosophical ethical approaches, only at the beginning of the course. We then distributed the following lectures among ourselves. Each of us focuses on one of the ethically relevant topics. As I said, most of the lecturers come from our department or faculty, but we also have some from other faculties or institutions.
How did you come up with the program for this course, and who will be lecturing on what topics?
What is amazing about our department is that there are coming together both philosophers and biologists. We had a joint project called Nature and Culture, led by professor Havlíček from the department of Zoology, and one time we organized a field meeting dedicated to ethics. From this then came the foundation of this course. After that I just added a few names and things that should be there. I'm truly grateful and I should publicly thank to the group of people who participated in the Nature and Culture project.
In addition to teaching Ethics and Science, you also teach other courses. Which one is the closest to you/is the one you enjoy teaching the most?
I really enjoy teaching Contemporary Philosophy. Since I’m primarily an expert in ancient and Renaissance philosophy, I had to study a lot of additional material, but I truly enjoyed teaching this course. Otherwise, as the classic says, all the courses I’ve taught, I’ve enjoyed teaching. Of course, sometimes it’s a bit of a challenge, as we have a specific audience here on faculty. I teach philosophy for non-major students, so it's necessary to... I don’t want to say simplify, but to present things in a way that they can be introduced in a relatively short time, while ensuring it’s not too trivial introduction. That’s rather a different approach than what I experienced during my studies at the Faculty of Arts when all the themes were studied in great depth and detail. Here we have to rather sketch large historical outlines and we are intentionally presenting the material in a rather historical manner. But that’s simply the genre of university lectures. Often, you don’t have the time to go into all the details.
What do you think is key in teaching for students to take an interest in?
My goal is to teach students how to think critically and to provide them with knowledge that they wouldn’t have the chance to learn in other biology lectures. As our name suggests we are the Department of Philosophy and History of Natural Sciences, and as such we are supposed to offer students a broader perspective and expand their horizons. Furthermore, I believe that especially in the case of philosophy and even more so in ethics, it also shows up that our students are young and ask certain questions at this age that we all ask ourselves. They, however, may approach these questions more urgently, so I think that naturally, this has an impact. If it didn’t work on its own, no matter how good the presentation or rhetoric, it wouldn’t save what we are teaching.
So as you mentioned the learning to think critically.
It is a certain ideal. Once I studied at a university in Crete, where students love to discuss and hardly let the lecturer speak. Here, it is still relatively the opposite. In my opinion, students could speak much more, and I would certainly be glad if they debated more during lectures. I believe that what truly matters is broadening horizons – I myself cannot be an expert in everything I teach, but I can point the way for those interested in a topic, show them what they can read further, and what they can continue to think about…
Besides teaching, you are also involved in many interesting research projects. Which projects are currently keeping you the busiest?
There is quite a lot. Recently, I published a book in Oxford titled On the Gods and the World: Orpheus and the Presocratics in the Derveni Papyrus. It is about a Greek papyrus from the 5th century BCE, which is so complex and has so many layers that studying it required learning many things. And week ago, I sent another book to print about the Presocratic – specifically about the philosopher Empedocles, who was one of the first thinkers of evolution. So now I feel like I have completed one research chapter of my life, and next I plan to focus more on the renaissance.
Thank you for the conversation, and I wish you many more success in your teaching and research activities.
Rychtecká Eliška
Selected student comments from years 2023/2024 and 2022/2023
A very engaging subject that addresses important topics, which not only is necessary to think about, but also solve.
I'm not a big fan of philosophy, but even someone like me found interesting parts. I like the format in which the subject is conducted – different lecturers with interesting topics.
Really interesting subject with great lecture topics and amazing lecturers.
For me, one of the most interesting subjects ever, covered topics were actual and talked about with experts on a given issue, overall really benefiting – among other things because it forces students to think more and memorize less.