Osobnost a historie

An issue that preoccupies practically everyone at one point or another is the issue of the sense of man’s e existence in this world. What issues does a man have to solve in his life: It is enough to live until the end of my days, just because I have been born? Figuratively speaking, should I let myself be carried away throughout time or should I try to put into the process of my living some of the human potential and capabilities acquired by education and personal effort? Man as a being is a part of history and, as such, has to relate constantly to new historical situations. However, it is the mission of man to invest his own power and deeds into great events of history. Is he supposed to continue doing so despite the fact that the given historical situation has become unbearable and hostile to certain individuals? The presented text is a philosophical and pedagogic contemplation over the relations between personality and history. It aims to express the notion that a genuine personage is able – with the aid of historical, philosophical, and pedagogic theory – to proclaim and form one’s place in history, from where one can reach out and intervene into history in a positive manner to the benefit of the society on its way to humanism. Examples of such an active approach to life can be found in the lives of personages who decided to avert unfavorable developments in history, e.g., social pedagogues Miroslav Dědič, Přemysl Pitter, and Sir Nicholas Winton, a well-known savior of 669 Jewish children.