The Meaning of "The Czech Question" Today

Abstract

The following study concentrates on two issues: first, on Masaryk's own reflections on and interpretation of the political and cultural crisis of the Czechs at the end of the 19th century and, secondly, on the question as to what extent The Czech Question still says something to generations nearing the end of the 20th century. Masaryk's reflections on the Czech crisis are closely linked to his essays on Modern Man and Religion. In his interpretations of the modernity crisis and the Czech question, one discovers a social dualism which, at first sight, may seem contradictory. In Masaryk's view, however, this dualism of rationality and religiously anchored humanism forms the very core of the modern European spirit. The author of the article explores Masaryk's ideas as an effort to combine moral rationality in Durkheimian terms with Weberian rationality, i.e., with Zweckrationalitat. The most compelling moment in Masaryk's thought is his insistence upon the inseparability and complementarity of both types of rationality. Czech Sociological Review, 1995, Vol. 3 (No. 1: 33-44) Ceska otazka (The Czech Question) is the result of two processes: firstly, of the deepening political crisis in the Czech lands in the 1880s and 1890s and secondly, of Masaryk's growing awareness of the precarious Czech situation in this period. The crisis was of an intellectual and political nature. Old political programmes, as formulated mainly by Palacký, had lost their attractiveness. The new political force, i.e. the Young Czechs' Party, was, however, neither able nor willing to formulate a clear strategy for the land, while other newlyformed parties were concerned mainly with their particularistic goals. The situation can be described as an ideological vacuum which was accompanied by a lack of reputable leaders. The fact that Thomas Garrigue Masaryk saw the crisis from two angles is also relevant both in the light of his interpretation of the intellectual history of modern Europe, and in the spirit of his basic philosophical ideas. These ideas had already been formulated in his study on suicide, in his essays on Plato, Hume and Buckle, as well as in his lectures on Comte and John Stuart Mill at the Viennese university.1 Already, in that early period which includes twelve years of his life in Vienna and the first years in Prague his sociological approaches to the history of modern Europe were being shaped, as was his fundamental thesis concerning the necessity of religion in human life, and his conviction that the crisis of modern humanity is a religious one. Even by that time, he had constructed an unusual link between Comtean positivism and a deep, personally experienced and felt religion. Without understanding this polarity in Masaryk's thought, an authentic and correct interpretation of The Czech Question is not possible. The following study is not aimed at analysing the political crisis in the Czech lands during the first years of Masaryk's stay in Prague, this crisis having already been *) Direct all correspondence to Prof. Jiři Musil, CSc, Central European University College in Prague, Taboritska 23, 130 87 Praha 3. 1) On Masaryk's activities in Vienna see [Kral 1947].