The book discusses the life, work, scientific contributions, intellectual disputes, and, last but not least, the influence of the significant physiologist and philosopher František Mareš on Czech intellectual life at the end of the nineteenth and the first third of the twentieth century. František Mareš was a prominent representative of the critique of Czech positivism, a supporter and critic of Immanuel Kant, an advocate of vitalistic concepts of life, and as a physiologist with a strong inclination towards philosophy, he actively and unmistakably engaged in a wide range of debates – from the dispute over the interpretation of Kant's philosophy or the defense of the work of the Prague Physiological Institute to the dispute over the Manuscripts. The book also highlights František Mareš as a significant Czech academic official – a two-time rector of Charles University and a three-time dean of the medical faculty. The appendices of the book include Mareš's lesser-known newspaper and magazine contributions that illustrate the views of this significant Czech philosophizing physiologist. The book is published in the 160th anniversary of Mareš's birth (October 20, 1857) and the 75th anniversary of his death (February 6, 1942).
