Ján Kollár’s Thoughts on Capital Punishment

Abstract

This article analyses and assesses the arguments opposing capital punishment put forward by Ján Kollár (1793–1852), a representative of Central European Evangelical/Lutheran Enlightenment rationalism, using the definition of criminal practice in Europe at the turn of the nineteenth century as the basis. Consequently, the author pays attention to the movement for reform in criminal law and practices, initiated in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century by Cesare Beccaria, including his argumentation against capital punishment. In this context, the author presents and investigates 13 arguments against capital punishment defined by Kollár in his 1815 diary. The author came to the conclusion that Kollár, in his arguments against capital punishment, followed, to a certain extent, the views of Beccaria and eighteenth -century adherents of the French Enlightenment; however, Kollár’s actual argumentation is rationalistically based on ethical values of humanity and justice with significant space also dedicated to utilitarian aspects of rejecting capital punishment adopted from reformists of criminal law.

The Roots of Slovak Utopianism and Utopian Concepts of 1848

“…While Kollár considered the preference for Slovak interests to be a manifestation of the fragmentation of the Slavs, Štúr considered Slovak national interests to be a priority. Ján Kollár, together with P. J. Šafárik and other representatives of the generation of Všeslávie (representing the idea of Slavonic mutuality), 14 based their conception mainly on Herder, but were also influenced by the authors as Schelling, Fichte, Kant and others (Dupkala 2006: 76). In Kollár's conception, Herder's philosophy of history was transformed into the philosophy of history of humanism (anthropo-naturalistic conception of history developed with emphasis on Slavs).…”

“…Štúr's ideas about society can generally be divided into three periods: 11 Herder's inspiration (Herder 1941 13 Kollár recognized only the Czechoslovak identity and Slovakized Czech language; finally, T. G. Masaryk, President, and founder of Czechoslovakia (the first state of Czech and Slovaks after the World War I in 1919), followed Kollár and Czechoslovakism. 14 Všeslávie's generation include personalities: P. J. Šafárik, J. Kollár, F. Palacký and K. Kuzmány (Timura 2018). 15 Ján Kollár as a humanist, actively opposing capital punishment (Gluchman 2020).…”