Influence of T. G. Masaryk on the formation of Slovak sociology

The article deals with the influence of the important Czech sociologist T. G. Masaryk on the origins of sociology in Slovakia. This influence relates mainly to the generation of young Slovak intellectuals, grouped around the journal Hlas, published between 1898 and 1904. The article is focused on the historical genesis of Masaryk's relationship to Slovakia and Hlasisti and on the influence, which Masaryk's sociology ha d on them. Hlasisti alike Masaryk, never worked out a complex sociological system. Their sociological thought was developed in the series of pragmatic texts, which commented the problems of contemporary society. It was mainly the national question, which became a key intellectual issue in Slovakia a t the break of the 19(th) and the 20(th) century. Hlasist's discussion of t he national question laid the first foundations of Slovak sociology as the modern empirical science.