Význam korespondence při výzkumu fenoménu přátelství

Abstract

Since antiquity, the phenomenon of friendship has attracted the attention of philosophers, theologians and, most recently, also of the representatives of many others scientific disciplines. At the beginning of this study, which interconnects the findings of sociology, philosophy and anthropology with the historiographical approaches, the problems going with the attempt to define the concept of “friendship” are presented in a systematic way. Afterward, the article deals with the question in which way a long-term correspondence can be used for the analysis of the relationship between two historical protagonists who have been considered as friends. The interpretation problems and the possible methodological approaches in researching the friendship of two correspondents are illustrated on the large complex of the letters between Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Josef Svatopluk Machar. These letters come from 1893 to 1932 and are widely unknown for large public.