Suicide in the Habsburg monarchy in the Early Modern Age has hitherto received almost no attention. This text considers attitudes to suicide in the context of questions of sin, conscience and individualization. It traces the changing perceptions of the meaning of these phenomena through theological and moral-philosophical texts, and does so on four levels: (1) suicide as a theme (or non- theme) in 17th and 18th century theology and homiletics; (2) suicide in the reformist theology of the late 18th century; (3) the question of penance; (4) the "good death" and individual responsibility for the salvation of the soul. The author shows that in the last three decades of the 18th century, when more notice began to be paid to the phenomenon of suicide, discourse on the subject assumed a more psychological tone, with theologians and philosophers increasingly drawing attention to the harm done by certain religious and meditative techniques which in their view overexcited the imagination and could result in melancholy and despair. This shift might well be called the secularization of the discourse on suicide., Tomáš Malý., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The paper deals with the stories representing the suicide of Prague (German writing) authors, Christian Heinrich Spieß, Johann Friedrich Ernst Albrecht and Reactions to the Wertheriads, which document the divergent development of cutures of subjectivity (Reckwitz) in Central Europe in the age of Enlightenment. The first part of the paper reconstructs the influence of the radical preromantism and Sturm und Drang, namely The Sorrows of Young Werther in the Bohemian Lands. Next, It compares the Stories written by Spieß and Albrecht with Werther as a paradigmatic text and its model of Subjectivity. It focuses to the Story Die neue Sapfo written by Spieß in 1779, which documents the genesis of his later stories and the development of the conception of the role of the subject., Václav Smyčka., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
During the medieval and early modern eras, most of the European urban authorities intended to rule their cities for the «common good», together with respecting the social hierarchy and privileged status. In the 18th century, however, many voices raised for improving the urban policing and reforming old regulations. Most of police officers claimed for equality of every inhabitant with regards to local police ordinances and petty police courts. But even if the urban rules agreed with their arguments for a more efficient policing, they could not prescribe an equality that would overthrow the Ancien Régime’s social order. Brussels in the 18th century is a good example of this contradiction. It was there impossible to reform the policing for the foreigners nor to create a professional night-watch, because of the strong reluctance of the city aldermen to abandon social privileges which were seen as fundamental freedoms of the country., Catherine Denys ; translated by Laura Bennett., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy