Questioning the meaning of history in Masaryk's hermeneutic thought

Masaryk's thoughts on the meaning of history are imbued with markedly hermeneutic traits: the resumption of the discussion on methodology in the humanities, the criticism of positivism, the emphasis on participation in philosophical, societal and historical events. the conception of the mutual relationship between the historical interpreter and the interpreted historical events, the hermeneutic understanding and the active search for meaning. Masaryk links the question of the meaning of history with the question of the meaning of the individual life and the meaning of the society in which the individual lives as an historical and social being. History should be a history for life. History should not be a science devoted to the past, but rather to the present and future. Masaryk subjects relativism and relativising historicism to criticism. The question of the meaning of history is present in the actual situation of the historical and social individual and the democratic society in which he to a decisive degree had a share in founding. Masaryk's critical social and historical thoughts are closer to the critical hermeneutics of the ethic, social and political presence of Habermas and Apel, than to Heidegger's and Gadamer's thoughts on hermeneutic ontologism. With Masaryk we are able to continue in the discussion on the philosophy and sociology of history as free and responsible individuals, without having to sort through the terms and concepts stemming from positivism, historicism and romanticism.