Philosophy at the Evangelical College in Prešov in the Contexts of European Intellectual Development

Abstract

The leitmotif of the paper is an analysis and interpretation of philosophy at the Evangelical College in Prešov, Slovakia, in the contexts of European intellectual development from the 17th to the 20th century. The research focuses on the response to and reception of Francis Bacon’s philosophy in the work of his Prešov follower – Ján Bayer, reflections on Kant’s aesthetics in the work of the Prešov professor Michal Greguš and the explanation of Nietzsche’s immoralism in the work of Jaromír Červenka. The paper emphasises that philosophy at the Evangelical College contributed to the development of spiritual culture in Slovakia and became part of its cultural heritage. According to the author of the paper, the value of philosophy at the Evangelical College in Prešov lies precisely (and above all) in its ability to creatively reinterpret and apply the key concepts of European philosophy into the philosophical systems of Bayer, Greguš and Červenka.