Since its foundation in 1982, the IWM has promoted the work of Czech philosopher and human rights activist Jan Patočka (1907–1977). Since 1987, the Institute regularly organizes lectures in his memory, a selection of which has been published in German by Passagen Verlag, Vienna.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Previous Speakers:

2018: Lord Robert Skidelsky
Will the Human Race Become Redundant?
What History and Economics can Tell us About the Impact of Automation on Work

2017: Chantal Mouffe
The Affects of Democracy

2016: Peter L. Berger
Toward a New Paradigm for Modernity and Religion

2015: Zygmunt Bauman
Diasporic Terrorism

2014: Jürgen Osterhammel, Konstanz
Schutz, Macht und Verantwortung
Protektion im Zeitalter der Imperien und danach

2013: Nancy Fraser, New York
Crisis, Critique, Capitalism
A Framework for the 21st Century

2012: Martin Walser
Auf der Suche nach Rechtfertigung

2011: Pierre Rosanvallon, Paris
Rethinking Equality in an Age of Inequalities

2010: Claus Offe, Berlin
On Sharing Responsibility

2009: Ian Buruma, New York
The Virtues and Limits of Cosmopolitanism

2006: Joschka Fischer, Berlin
Europa und der Nahe Osten

2005: George Soros, New York
America’s Role in the World. An Alternative Vision

2004: Lord Dahrendorf, London
Engagierte Beobachter
Die Intellektuellen und die Versuchungen der Zeit

2003: George Steiner, Cambridge
Das Cordelia-Paradox

2002: Giuliano Amato, Brussels
United Europe: What Should It Be?

2001: Edward W. Said, New York
The Public Role of Writers and Intellectuals

2000: Czeslaw Milosz, Berkeley/Cracow
Lesung aus seinen Gedichten

1999: William Julius Wilson, Harvard
Rising Inequality in the United States and the Case for Multiracial Political Coalitions

1998: Elie Wiesel, Boston
Hasidic Modes

1997: Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Warsaw
Politik und Moral im neuen Europa

1996: Albert O. Hirschman, Princeton
Between Private and Public Spheres

1995: George Soros, New York
A Failed Philosopher Tries Again

1994: François Furet, Paris
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the French Revolution

1193: Mario Vargas Llosa, Lima/London
Democracy Today

1992: Jacques Derrida, Paris
Le secret – de la réponse et de la responsabilité

1991: Charles Taylor, Montreal
Two Theories of Language

1990: Paul Ricoeur, Paris
The Person: Its Ethical and Moral Structure

1989: Zbigniew Brzezinski, New York
The General Crisis of Communism

1988: Leszek Kolakowski, Oxford/Chicago
Die Illusionen der Entmythologisierung

1987: Hans-Georg Gadamer, Heidelberg
Phänomenologie und das Problem der Zeit