Dvě ontologie české demokracie: T. G. Masaryk a J. L. Fischer

• Authors: Miroslav Pauza

Title variants

EN

Two ontologies of Czech democracy: T. G. Masaryk and J. L. Fischer

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

The article treats of the discussion of democracy in the Czech intellectual context of the first half of the 20th century. Its starting point is the thesis that the nature of this discussion is determined by two clearly defined types of approach. One of them understood democracy as the concerning the general level which alone enabled free discussion and the dignified life of citizens (E. Beneš, E. Rádl, F. X. Šalda, F. Peroutka, K. Čapek and others). The second approach is an attempt to found democratic social-political practice on reflected philosophical theory. This conception is represented by T.G. Masaryk and J.L. Fischer. Masaryk is the “ontotheologian” of democracy which is, for him, an expression of the active presence of Providence in history. J. L. Fischer is the “onto-epistemologist” of democracy. He understands democracy as the realisation of the hierarchical Order of Reality, interpreted along the lines of structural functionalism. For Masaryk a crisis of democracy is ex definitione impossible, for Fischer it is a real threat because “pathological structures”. In both cases, however, there is an attempt to legitimise everyday reality by Transcendence.

Keywords

EN

J. L. Fischer; democracy; T. G. Masaryk; order; structure; function; individuality; sociality; crisis

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Filosofický časopis (Philosophical Journal)
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 63
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 233-245
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Miroslav  Pauza

• Filosofický časopis, redakce, Filosofický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic