Abstract:
In the modern political dictionary the word “value” is one of the most
spread term and it covers the principles of a family, society and state, which
are shared by the majority of citizens, while the system of values in this case
is a system of coordinates without which the identity is lost (Lat. identitas,
„sameness”, conformity to something). Values are „rooted” in habits and
tradtions of nations, religion conceptions, rituals, legislative norms.
Tremendous contribution to the formation of European values belongs
to the Enlightement, the splended team of philosophers of the 18th century –
Voltaire, Ruso and d'Alembert declaring critical mind. In European intellectual
elites science gradually started to subdue religion as one of leading forms of
public cognition and the encyclopedists established the notion of „human
natural rights and a citizen”, which found its expression in immortal motto of
the French revolution (1789)” „Liberté, égalité, fraternité“ („Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity”) while the revolution of 1789 turned out the powerful impulse of
national feelings in European nations. The revolution of 1848 left to Europeans
and inherited to them the right of self-identification as the principle of
international law and as the moral value.
Democracy and national idea appeared to be a driving force for the 19th
century European modernization, which enriched its system of spiritual
values. In the middle years of the 19th century the first industrial revolution
intensified the movement of workers, which turned out very productive soil
for socialism. In all socialistic directions at the level of values – Utopian,
Social-Christian, Marxist, Anarchy–Syndicalism and finally in the Communistic
– the strife to social justice was a driving principal force.
In the 20ies of the 20th century the sufferings caused by the first world
war gradually faded and optimistic tone, the exaltation incited by the fight
for justice and for more human world was heard more frequently, loudly and
distinctly. At this time, in the poetry of some European countries the new
directions, e.g. the Proletarian poetry were formed, which brought nearer the
poets to the working class and the hatred to war and the fight against social
oppression connected them.
