This article discusses the Enlightenment concept of theatre as formulated in the work of the Viennese playwright Paul Weidmann, who was active in the reign of Joseph II (1765-90). In Weidmann’s conception, theatre has two main functions: one is to provide a theoretical basis (the idea of a national theatre; theatre as a school of moral educational); the second is to delineate a socio-historical context. The themes explored by Weidmann are civil war and wars of religion, and the question of how to level social differences - problems that still very much beset the modern world. In the face of current religious, political and economic conflicts, Weidmann’s stage plays still carry a powerful message., Joanna Giel., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
As an example of the activities of the Austrian secret police under Emperor Francis II (I), we consider the surveillance of Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846), king of Holland, when he was in exile in Teplice. The Austrian secret police used several "tools" in the surveillance of persons who were or had aroused suspicion of being criminals or enemies of the state. The ministry of foreign affairs (Hof- und Staatskanzlei), the ministry of the interior (Oberste Polizeihofstelle) and the government of the states (Länder) worked together. The police paid "confidential people" (Vertraute) to observe the habits, activities and friends of the above categories of person. This work was done at the best-known spas by inspection commissioners who tended the patients and collected information. At the mail service letters from suspicious persons were secretly opened and copies were made. It is shown that these methods provided a fairly good picture of the person under surveillance, in our case the king of Holland., Friedrich Wilhelm Schembor., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The aim of the present paper is to examine certain philosophical issues which have set the tone of the philosophical reflection in eighteenth century France in relation to a specific case study: that of the "wild child" known as Victor of Aveyron. Found in 1800 in central France, Victor was later transferred to the Parisian Institute of the DeafMutes, where he became the object of educational activities of JeanMarc Itard, a medical expert known for his works on the problem of hearing loss. Through a brief critical examination of the most notorious philosophical texts dealing both with the question of wild children and deafness (namely by Rousseau, Diderot and Condillac), we attempt to show that the specificity of Itard’s educational method consists in an application of the sensualist approach towards the human individual (as it is exemplified especially in the work of Condillac) on a concrete human subject, considered as a tangible proof of the inexistence of innate ideas. On this basis, we sketch several broader questions concerning the status of anomaly in the eighteenth century philosophical thought (namely, wild children and deafness), as well as some hypotheses on education and its fantasmatic aspects in general., Josef Fulka., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The article tries to characterise the spiritual life of a group of members of the Czech Reformed exile community in Husinec near Strzelin in Silesia at the turn of the 18th and 19th century. It starts with a detailed analysis of a unique manuscript miscellany written there by certain senior Bureš in 1833 and containing Czech translations of various German texts, mostly sermons (especially of the famous Pietistic preacher Ludwig Hofacker), but also travel diaries of Herrnhut missionaries in North America and Greenland from the 1770s, translated by a certain J. S., probably the former local teacher Jan Sovák. It identifies both the scribe and the translator as diaspora sympathizers of the Herrnhut Unitas, striving to supply for themselves and other members of their community spiritual texts suitable for reading aloud during their worship. As a possible model for the miscellany, the article identifies Gemeinnachrichten, the German manuscript periodical of the Unitas, which also combined sermons with missionary reports and diaries and was accessible to a limited extent to diaspora sympathizers. Finally, the article characterizes the spiritual life of the Husinec diaspora as rather eclectic, but capable of active reception of various Pietistic spiritual impulses, partly, but not exclusively emanating from the Unitas. This seems to support the thesis that Early Modern Czech non-Catholic exile played an important role in the Czech-German literary, cultural and religious relations., Alena A. Fidlerová., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy