Modernisation of Czech Philosophy Based on Emphasising the Concept of Person : Is Ferdinand Pelikán's and Karel Vorovka's Personalism a Form of Individualism?
Abstract
This study deals with the concept of person in the works of Ferdinand Pelikán and Karel Vorovka, two major theorists of Czech philosophy in the Interwar Era. It shows that their frequent use of the term 'person' and their focus on in-dividuality were directly linked to the then ongoing process of modernisation of philosophy throughout Europe.
The aim of this study is to check whether Vorovka's and Pelikán's effort to base modern philosophy on the concept of person was due to a growing influence of individualism, that is, whether it is a form of this direction of thought. Verification of this initial hypothesis is based on analysing the reception and interpretation of the importance of the concept of person in the two authors' texts published in the Ruch filoso-fický journal.
The study reconstructs the concept with respect to inquiry into the sense in which a person is crucial in its singularity as an individual. The individualism that is to be evaluated is initially specified according to the T.
G. Masaryk's definition and subsequently verified using a reconstruction of the concept of person.