[4] He was born in Prague in a Catholic family, his father Jan was an architect, his grandfather František Nušl was an astronomer and mathematician.

[6][7] Sokol studied mathematics in evening courses (received BA in 1967),[6] translated numerous books on philosophy and religion to Czech (Lévinas, de Chardin, Gadamer, Foucault, Heidegger, Landsberg etc.

[6] In 1990, he was elected as a Member of the Czechoslovak Parliament, becoming vice-chairman of the Chamber of Nations and spokesman of the strongest faction Civic Forum (OF).

[3] In the Fall Semester 2008, he was a Senior Fellow at CSWR, Harvard University, lecturing on Religion, Ethics and Human rights.

[3] He has been influenced mostly by Bible, Christian tradition, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Raymond Ruyer, his father-in-law Jan Patočka[6] and Emmanuel Lévinas.