Balibar, É., Violence and Civility. Translated by J. Fulka. Prague: Rybka Publishers. 2017.

With the book Violence and Civility, the Czech reader has the opportunity to become acquainted with the thought of Étienne Balibar, one of the most important political philosophers of the present. Balibar's texts contained in this publication can be characterized as an original treatise on the relationship between violence and politics in the philosophical tradition. Balibar returns to the roots of political philosophy in the work of Hobbes and Hegel and explores what he calls "conversion of violence," the ability to transform violence into positive and productive historical power. He uses this point to formulate his own "topic of violence". In dialogue with Deleuze, Foucault, Rancière, Lacan, and others, the author develops wider reflections on political strategies linked to the notion of civilization. Violence and civilization thus represents in a comprehensive form the development of Balibar's thinking in recent decades and is also an important contribution to post-Marxist political philosophy.

The Czech edition of the book is an important event because its author has made a significant contribution and continues to contribute to the formation of Czech intellectual life. Since the 1980s, Balibar has been involved in the work of the Parisian Jan Hus Association, and after the Jacques Derrida's death is its chairman.