The Polemics between Ušeničnik and Rostohar Regarding Religion, Nationality and Ethics in 1912 and 1913

Abstract

The paper deals with the polemics on religion and nationality, and on nationality and ethics, which were exchanged in 1912 and 1913 between Dr Aleš Ušeničnik, the most important Slovene Catholic philosopher in the first half of the nineteenth century, and Dr Mihajlo Rostohar, philosopher and founder of Slovene psychology, who defended liberal world views. The two disputants considered the conflict of values between religious and national interests on the basis of their exclusivist views on nationality and religion. Ušeničnik placed religious interests before national, whilst Rostohar put the national before religious. Ušeničnik saw the ethical basis of human existence in religion, and Rostohar in nationality. Devotion to their ideologies led them to a consistent rejection of the opponent's arguments. The above polemics between the representatives of the two main ideological orientations in Slovenia from the beginning of the twentieth century, proves that, ideologically, the Slovenes entered the century as a deeply divided nation to whom the coexistence of different ideologies was an obvious mental and existential problem.