Publication Details

Abstract

Ján Kollár [1793—1852J, a poet and cultural promotor was also an important theoretician of Slovak national revival. His work belongs to the final phase of the Enlightenment rationalism but it forms a transition to the period of German classical idealism in Slovakia. It is apparent especially in his philosophy of history in which he exploited his knowledge and achievements of the most important founders of this new philosophic discipline — Rousseau, Herder, Kant. The paper consists of two parts. In the first part the author analyzes basic problems and stages of development of philosophy of history from Rousseau to Kant. She appreciates the progressive character of historical conceptions of this line of philosophic thought, when compared with the older generation of thinkers of the Enlightenment. In the second part of the contributions Kollár’s original and creative application of these general conceptions of the philosophy of history to problems of the reviving Slovak nation and society are analyzed. In particular, the problem is studied how these theoretical principles influenced the formation of the central principle of Kollár’s philosophy of history, i.e. the concept of the so called Slavic mutuality.