<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

While the emancipatory efforts of the Czech national revival culminated at the end of the 18th and in the 19th century, manifestations of national feeling in the 17th century Czech Lands were rather rare. The article focuses on the concept of nationality as it was treated by scholars from the monastic orders such as the German provincial of the Czech Franciscan province, Bernhard Sannig (1637–1704), or the Czech Jesuit Bohuslav Balbín (1621–1688), whose views are briefly compared with those of the most significant representative of the Czech Protestant emigration – Johann Amos Comenius (1592–1670). By the means of analysis and comparison of several texts, the article investigates how the concept of nationality was gradually rationalized and moralized through the ethical categories of vice and virtue. These reflections on nation, nationality, and patriotism and their moral assessment demonstrate that their authors anticipated some elements of the later formulated doctrine of the natural law of nations, which theoretically justified the demands of the Czech national revival and formed the basis for the concept of Czech history.
</abstract>

While the emancipatory efforts of the Czech national revival culminated at the end of the 18th and in the 19th century, manifestations of national feeling in the 17th century Czech Lands were rather rare. The article focuses on the concept of nationality as it was treated by scholars from the monastic orders such as the German provincial of the Czech Franciscan province, Bernhard Sannig (1637–1704), or the Czech Jesuit Bohuslav Balbín (1621–1688), whose views are briefly compared with those of the most significant representative of the Czech Protestant emigration – Johann Amos Comenius (1592–1670). By the means of analysis and comparison of several texts, the article investigates how the concept of nationality was gradually rationalized and moralized through the ethical categories of vice and virtue. These reflections on nation, nationality, and patriotism and their moral assessment demonstrate that their authors anticipated some elements of the later formulated doctrine of the natural law of nations, which theoretically justified the demands of the Czech national revival and formed the basis for the concept of Czech history.

The vice of nationality and virtue of patriotism in 17th century Czech Lands

Ethics & Bioethics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The vice of nationality and virtue of patriotism in 17 century Czech Lands

While the emancipatory efforts of the Czech national revival culminated at the end of the 18th and in the 19th century, manifestations of national feeling in...

The vice of nationality and virtue of patriotism in 17^th century Czech Lands

Published Online: Dec 03, 2022

Page range: 183 - 189

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ebce-2022-0020

Keywords
vice of nationality, virtue of patriotism, B. Balbín, J. A. Comenius, B. Sannig

© 2022 Kateřina Šolcová, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The vice of nationality and virtue of patriotism in 17th century Czech Lands

Published Online: Dec 03, 2022

Page range: 183 - 189

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ebce-2022-0020

Keywordsvice of nationality, virtue of patriotism, B. Balbín, J. A. Comenius, B. Sannig

© 2022 Kateřina Šolcová, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The vice of nationality and virtue of patriotism in 17^th century Czech Lands

Keywords
vice of nationality, virtue of patriotism, B. Balbín, J. A. Comenius, B. Sannig