Bio: (1850-1937) Czech sociologist and statesman. Tomáš Masaryk earned his doctorate at the University of Vienna, where he later taught philosophy. He then taught philosophy at the University of Prague, and in the period from 1918 to 1935 he was the first president of Czechoslovakia after that country gained independence after the First World War. Throughout his life, Masaryk was equally involved in science and politics. Masaryk created his own ideological, political, and sociological approach that is known as "Czech critical realism". He believed that sociology must also have a practical application, that is, one of the main goals of sociology is to create a scientific basis for shaping society and policy implementation.

The epistemological and theoretical positions of Masaryk's sociology are in the middle of extreme positions of both objectivism and collectivism (in which supra-individual social phenomena play a major role in sociological understandings and explanations), and, on the other hand, subjectivism and individualism (where the individual psyche plays a major role in sociological understandings and explanations). The basic assumptions of his sociology are: 1) nothing can be known in advance about the character of social reality; 2) regular observations and critical analysis are necessary for a comprehensive understanding of social reality; 3) society is equally shaped by objective factors (objective situation) and subjective factors (individual psyche).

Masaryk defined sociology as "the science of society and human history." Sociology studies issues of the organization of society, the "natural consensus" that exists in society, the conditions that need to be met for society to exist, social change, and historical development. He took from Comte the division of sociology into social statics and social dynamics. Social statics studies the factors that lead to an equilibrium in society: the influence of nature on society, as well as political, family, religious, and economic institutions. Social dynamics investigates the general development of societies, and progress, as well as the development of the most important social factors - morality, religion, science, etc. Masaryk believed that no factor (natural or social) has a decisive deterministic and causal role in society, but that natural, social, and personal factors have an equal role in determining social development, which achieves the balance of the social system. Social dynamics and social statics are abstract sciences and represent two different sides of the same cognitive process.

Masaryk also gave his own classification and hierarchy of sciences. Sciences are, first of all, divided into theoretical and practical. Theoretical sciences are divided into abstract sciences, which study the general elements of a field of study; and specific, which investigate individual phenomena within a broader field of study. The hierarchy of sciences begins with the simplest and ends with the most complex sciences. Beyond the scope of sciences is philosophy, which also contains theoretical and practical elements (ethics). In the social sphere, sociology (both dynamics and statics) is an abstract science; concrete sciences are: anthropogeography, ethnology, economics, the science of the state, the science of moral, intellectual, and artistic organization of society, history, law, and statistics; while the practical sciences are: politics, jurisprudence, practical economics, military science, etc.

Masaryk's book Suicide as a Mass Social Phenomenon of Contemporary Civilization (in Czech 1881) is the first sociological monograph devoted to the phenomenon of suicide in the whole world. In this book, he uses statistical data and theoretical analysis to unravel the causes of high suicide rates in modern society. Different factors such as natural factors, the physical condition of the individual, biosocial factors, political-economic situation, and relations in society do not have a clear influence on suicides. Masaryk, as a key and decisive factor affecting high suicide rates, singles out the relative individual feeling of lack of meaning in life and dissatisfaction in people, which is not directly related to the real and external condition in which a person lives. The main cause of the high individual dissatisfaction of people in the modern age is the destruction of the worldview promoted by Christianity. Christianity provided a transcendental explanation of morality and social behavior. Modern society and all its institutions have destroyed such a view of the world. This led to the loss of the inner integrity of the individual and the promotion of his pride, arrogance, arrogance, sense of omnipotence, and ultimately, rebellion against and rejection of God. On a broader level, there was the emergence of general spiritual and social anarchy, family problems, and conflicts between the church and science, art and the state. The disappearance of individual and social stability and harmony provided by Christianity is the real cause of the increase in suicide rates.

Masaryk devoted his entire life to improving the position of the Czech people. Apart from directly dealing with politics, he also did it through his intellectual work. In the book The Czech Question (in Czech 1895a), he studies the crisis in which Czech society and culture was then. The Czechs, as a "small nation", lost their independence, so they were unsure of themselves. That is why their culture is prone to self-deception, idealization of the past, and belief in falsifications and myths. Similarly, he observes the Russian people in the book Russia and Europe (in German 1913). In this book, he studies the religious, intellectual, and social crisis in Russia, and concludes that it is caused by contradictions and the collapse of Russia, which came about due to the pernicious influence of the Russian church and reactionary ideas.

Masaryk believed that it is necessary to achieve political and economic equality and freedom in society, and the first step on that path is to build a democratic society that would promote humanism and reject absolutism, reactionary ideas, and all forms of violence. The most important book he wrote on this subject is World Revolution (in Czech 1925). Masaryk also studied history (historical laws, the relationship between history and sociology), art, and literature, and wrote the book Philosophical Question: Philosophical and Sociological Foundations of Marxism (1898) in which he presented the history of Marxist teaching, analyzed its main themes and provided a critical review of the real possibilities for the realization of the economic, political and social order promoted by Marxism.

Main works

Der Selbstmord als soziale Massenerscheinung der Gegenwart (1881);

Základové konkretné logiky (1885);

Česká otázka (1895a);

Naše nynější krise (1895b);

Moderní člověk a náboženství (1896);

Otázka sociální: základy marxismu filosofické a sociologické (1898);

Rukověť sociologie. Podstata a methoda (1900);

Ideály humanitni (1901);

Russland und Europa (1913);

Nová Evropa (1920, prev.);

O bolševictví (1921, prev.);

Světová revoluce (1925). 

Books translated to, or written in English:

The New Europe (1918) 

The Spirit of Russia: Studies in History, Literature and Philosophy (1919) 

The Slavs After the War (1922) 

The Making of a State 1927)

 The Voice of an Oppressed People (2018).