The Karel Engliš Medal
For Merit in the Social and Economic Sciences

awarded by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

The honor was established by the Academic Council of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic of February 14th, 1995 for outstanding contributions in the social and economic sciences.

Karel Engliš (1880-1961), JUDr. and Dr.h.c., was Professor at Masaryk University in Brno and Charles University in Prague, and a member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts in the field of Economics.

After completing his studies he practiced law briefly, and from 1910 served as a university lecturer. In 1919 he became the first Rector of the newly established Masaryk University in Brno, and n 1947-1948 he was the last freely elected Rector of Charles University. After February 1948 he was forced to leave the University, suffered persecution, and was expelled from Prague in 1952. He spent the last year of his life in his native Hrabyne near Opava.

Between the two World Wars, along with his academic duties, Karel Engliš participated in practical politics, serving as a Parliamentary Deputy and for a number of years as Minister of Finance. He was also Governor of the National Bank.

As a scholar Karel Engliš strove for a theoretical mastery of the entire field of Economics in its broadest context. Against the causal explanation of economic relations taught by the Viennese School of Economics, which until that time was the dominant influence in Czechoslovakia, he proposed his teleological theory. He viewed economics as a science "about order, in which individuals and nations work for the maintenance and improvement of life. He conceived of this order as purposeful, originating in a purposeful idea. From this standpoint he defined the basic economic categories as value, capital, prices and money. His life's work also made its contributions in the fields of sociology, philosophy and logic.

The scholarly contributions of Karel Engliš are gathered in his books: "Foundations of Economic Thought" (1922), "National Economy" (1924), "The Theory of the State Economy" (1932) "Teleology as a Form of Scientific Understanding" (1930), "The Science of Finance" (1929), and "The System of National Economy" (1938), "Logic" (2 volumes). Most of his writings appeared in translation abroad, and they had great international impact (von Mises, Böhm-Bawerk, Schumpeter, von Hayek, Amonn). The Order of T.G. Masaryk "For Outstanding Service to Democracy and Human Rights" was awarded posthumously to Karel Engliš in 1991.

The Karel Engliš medal was designed by academy sculptor and medallist Jaroslav Veselák (b. 1940), a student of Professors J. Kavan and J. Malejovský at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague. The award is engraved with the name of each recipient, thus becoming a unique artistic artifact itself.