Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and His Philosophical Genesis of Economic Thinking

The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was a period of numerous changes in Europe. The end of the First World War created an opportunity for the countries of Eastern and Central Europe to gain the desired independence. One of the countries which was created after the end of the Great War was Czechoslovakia. The aim of the article is to present the profile of the Czech politician, sociologist and philosopher, the first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (7 March 1850 – 14 September 1937), who was elected three times to this office. His observations in the area of economics were formed under the influence of many philosophers, including Auguste Comte, Johann Gottfried Herder, Immanuel Kant, František Palacký, Ján Kollár. The article includes the review of the main opinions and thoughts of Masaryk concerning such topics as: poverty, getting rich, having money, entrepreneurship of individual nations, collectivisation of certain areas of the economy. His attitude to Karl Marx’s socio-economic views was also subject to discussion. The work was written on the basis of an on-line archive query, which contains studies related to Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and his works.