(CZ) Pojetí lidské přirozenosti u J. A. Komenského
(EN) Comenius’ Conception of Human Nature

The author considers the conception of human nature as one of the main points linking Comenius’ pedagogy with his philosophy and his reformative efforts in general. This concept forms a link between various spheres of his interests, joins his life-long work “General Consultation on the Reform of Human Affairs” to his previous works, and at the same time links individual parts of the Consultation (Consultatio) as well as individual grades of pansophia. The author deals first of all with the individual characteristic features of the concept of human nature, how they developed before reaching their final shape in the Consultation, then she clarifies the function of this concept in Comenius when solving the basic questions, and finally she mentions some sources from which Comenius shaped his conception. Comenius was every inch an educationist. His philosophy and pedagogy influence each other and the share of pedagogy is by no means loss. While other thinkers of those times studied the mechanics of the motion of terrestrial and celestial bodies and the physical movements of man, Comenius studied the nature of children and their development. This experience resulted in his knowledge of the human nature, his optimistic confidence in the developmental possibilities of man, in the naturalness of his activity and his insatiable desire for movement, knowledge, self-realization through creative work. The conviction that people shape themselves as well as new human worlds, and that they perfect themselves in this creation, occurred already in antiquity and was strongly developed in Italian Platonism. But in Comenius this conviction is coupled with his pedagogical profession and mission to form a single unit and it culminates in a pansophical, all-educational and all-reformative conception. By producing we produce ourselves (fabrioando fabricamur). This is understood by Comenius to be a process taking place not only in the course of an individual human life, but also in the course of the age-long development of mankind’s history.