218 РОССИЙСКО-ЧЕШСКИЙ ДИАЛОГ Josef Moural CZECH PHILOSOPHY OF THE PAST 25 YEARS The development of the Czechoslovak philosophy after 1945 was marked by three discontinuities: first, after the Communists took power in 1948, the standard restrictions on what kind of philosophy can be published and taught were applied. These restrictions, initially quite severe, were subsequently relaxed, and in the second half of the 1960’s the conditions in Czechoslovakia were among the most free in the entire history of the communist rule. Second, the purges of 1969- 71 that followed the Warsaw Pact armies invasion of August 1968 were rather severe again: in the Prague department of philosophy, over 70% of teachers were forced to leave (and the entire Institute of Philosophy of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences was dis- solved), and the restrictions on what can be published and taught were strictly enforced again. Third, after November 1989 the com- munist rule was quickly dismantled, the restrictions disappeared and the scene was suddenly open for all kinds of philosophy. In my brief survey, I shall deal with Czech philosophy of the post-1989 era (Czechoslovakia was divided in 1992 into Czech and Slovak sovereign states, and while the development in Slovakia per- haps resembles the one in the Czech state in many respects, the links between the two cultures were largely disconnected and it is method- ologically preferable to treat them separately). I shall first say a little (1) about institutions and existing literature and (2) about the main groups and main topics of discourse. Then, I shall look in some more detail at the significant figures and groups, dividing them into (3) the people of continuity, i.e. those who remained in the profession during the 1970’s and 1980’s, (4) the people of discontinuity, i.e. those who were professionals before the purges of 1970 and who returned to the