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The focal points of the Department’s research are the currents, problems and controversies of the 20th and 21st century philosophy. However, since some of these are deeply embedded in the philosophical tradition, the research scope also involves the 19th century philosophy, at times reaching as far back as to antiquity. The main area of study comprises the transformations of contemporary philosophy, as it was defined by the three consecutive turns: interpretive, linguistic and discursive. The Department is also dedicated to the critical reflection on the major problems of contemporaneity, such as “the death of the West”, “the death of man”, the nature and limits of the Enlightenment, globalisation, the transformation of contemporary culture – the transition from the culture based on language to the culture based on images, the idea of contemporary culture as the conglomerate of religious, political and philosophical elements. The research also involves the following issues: the concept of culture and its foundations; the crisis of culture, counterculture; understanding, dialogue, the conditions of effective communication; interpretation as an epistemological foundation; intercultural and interreligious dialogue; the philosophical aspects of Buddhism and the differences and similarities between the philosophy of the East and the West.

Against this background, the following specific research topics are addressed: the interpretive nature of cognition, the question of understanding, the methodological foundations of the social sciences, the hermeneutical analysis of the processes of the social creation of senses, discourse as the cognitive framework for the social sciences, pre-judgmental nature of thinking, the theory of communicative actions, the problems of the contemporary philosophy of religion, controversies around deep ecology.