John Amos Comenius, anthropology, philosophy of man, free will

The talk will be concerned with Comenius?s philosophical view of man. In Comenius?s late writings, man is presented as a being determined by its own unique nature, at the core of which lies an existential openness founded on a free and limitless will. Comenius defines man as a being that creates itself endlessly and in infinite ways and presents a well-thought out argument to the effect that the defining feature of man is the God-given mind, conceived of as a trinity of crucial dispositions ? will, reason and agentive faculties. The will is set to be the central part of the mind. However, this concept is not characteristic for all writings by Comenius. In his earlier treatises, we can see that Comenius preferred reason over will. This talk will try to explain this inconsistency and also give an general overview of Comenius?s anthropology. Last but not least the talk aims to put Comenius?s philosophy of man into context of Renaissance and Early modern philosophy.