engleski

The Science of Man in the Enlightenment Bohemia

Although the “science of man” is more than any other topic associated with the Scottish Enlightenment, the anthropologisation of the world view based on the investigation of human nature occurred throughout Central Europe as well. Such interests may be detected even in unexpected spaces such as the Bohemian Kingdoms – lands that contemporaries did not perceive as embodying any sort of Enlightenment due to the existence of serfdom and the Catholic culture. Yet local figures like the Austrian General and the Bohemian Count Franz Joseph Kinsky (1739-1805) used their privately acquired scientific knowledge of man (Germ. Menschenkenntnis) for prompting noble compatriots to improve their manners and to change their educational habits. Such endeavours resulted in Kinsky’s educational treatises Erinnerung über einem wichtigen Gegenstand von einem Böhmen (1773) and Über die Hofmeister (1776) intended for the local audience of noble origin, where Kinsky presented the educational plans for raising a young nobleman, as well as the advice to parents of what characteristics a good tutor should possess. Later on, Kinsky implemented his knowledge in the education of the cadets at the Wiener Neustadt Military Academy. The focus of my paper will be to detect the sources and the manifestation of the “human language” in Kinsky’s texts. Besides, Kinsky left a description of the Croatian lands during the war campaign in 1788, which is also filled with the anthropological observations about the indigenous people. This will be presented for the first time.

Bohemian Enlightenment, Franz Joseph Kinsky, science of man

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