Bernard Bolzano Gesamtausgabe / Reihe II: Nachlaß. A. Nachgelassene Schriften. Band 22,1. Erbauungsreden der Studienjahre 1816/1817. Erster Teil

Edgar Morscher (Herausgeber), Kurt F. Strasser (Herausgeber)

In this academic year, Bolzano persevered with his series of fundamental reforms. He began by explaining why these were necessary: It was time to replace superstition and error with a sensible faith in God and a religious enlightenment. The aim of this was to create better conditions for human beings in his native country Bohemia and ultimately everywhere on earth. He saw this as a task which could be accomplished with the combined efforts of all those who together were willing to stand up for the “good cause of mankind.” Alliances of this nature were however observed with increasing distrust by the Austrian state. This was understandable, since in his work for a better society Bolzano was pressing for social justice in all forms, was calling for a “more reasonable“ constitution, wanted to replace hereditary nobility with nobility of mind etc. His statements indicating that anyone who did not make every effort to support the common good did not deserve to live as far as he was concerned show how radical his thinking was in these issues. He condemned the misuse of intelligence such as ”deceiving the world because it wanted to be deceived,“ as well as the abuse of religion. He recognized the excessive enthusiasm with which mainly those who were wise in the ways of the world or the romantics in Germany were afflicted in his time as a dangerous kind of rampant scientific uncertainty. He was not grimly determined in his way of doing things, but rather of a “cheerful disposition.”