Abstrakt
The essay examines Masaryk¨s notion of Enlightened humanism and freedom in his Czech Question and Humanistic Ideals, major contribution to Czech philosophical discourse of the nineteenth century. The work shows that the aim of Masaryk´s concept was to complete the 'unfinished programmˇ of cultural and political revival of the Czech nation and to to resolve the political crisis of that time using the ´idea of humanism´, which Masaryk viewed as the highest metaphysical and teleological principle legitimising the meaning of Czech and world history, which Masaryk, like Kant, placed above politics, culture, science, and law. Another part of the study empasises that Masaryk hightlighted the timeless importance of humanistic ideas, pointed to their ethical foundations, and described them as ahistorical quantities with universal validity.
In conclution, the author emphasises that Masaryk¨s notion of the "idea of humanism" as the philosophical foundation of Czech national revival and modern Czech and world history remaines valuable and inspiring to this day.Czech society in both the conditional spheres of the secular and historical, as well as the unconditional realms of the ideal and metaphysical.