Publication Details
The Controversy over Modern Philosophy in Slovakia at the Turn of the XXth Century
Abstract
In the first decade of this century the process of differentiation of ideas in the Slovak society started which manifested itself also in the controversy over modern philosophy in Slovakia.
F. Jehlička presented his fierce criticism of the empiricist-rationalist philosophical tradition of the New Age and his apology of Thomism.
A. Štefánek, who showed the inacceptability of neo-Thomism from the scientific and philosophical point of view, defended modem philosophy in the polemic. In this controversy the confrontation of two conceptions of philosophy and their relevance for Slovak spiritual life took place. The ideologic theoretical starting points and attitudes of the conservative stream of the nationalist emancipatory movement, closely linked with speculative theological thinking and the „progressivist“ group of young intellectuals, gathered around the Revue Hlas, propagating Tolstoyism and Masaryk's realism, were confronted.