A Hundred Years of the 'Czech Question' and The Czech Question a Hundred Years On

Abstract

Presents the debate between Tomas G. Masaryk & Czech politician Josef Kaizl about the problematic relationship between pragmatics & principles in politics. Masaryk's Ceska otazka(The Czech Question [1895]), which seeks reason & a particular sense of Czech national essence, represents one of the first & most influential attempts to structure the various semantic centers around which Czech political culture revolves. Subjecting Masaryk's religious-humanistic analysis of Czech history to a liberal-economic critique, Kaizl rejected Masaryk's reduced, theistic, & anti-Enlightenment interpretation of the national revival, as well as his explicitly antiliberalist grasp of Czech history. Kaizl also denied Masaryk's claim that spiritual life & spiritual independence are more pressing concerns than political life & state independence.