Meaning in the World and in History

Ladislav Hejdánek

History without meaning is as impossible as life without it. It does not mean, of course, that every historical event or even history as a „whole“, as an aggregation of various historical events, necessarily has its meaning. Various life activities or even life as a „whole“, as a complexity of such activities and processes, need not be necesarily meaningful, as well. In both cases, there are active living or historically behaving „subjects“ who are decidingly important, because any goals and meaningful events can be reached or exercised through them and their mediation in their activities or behaviour, only. Everytime, active living or active historical behaviour (as well as historical thinking) is a real presupposition of meaning in life and history. History, as well as life, are based on certain inventions and represent in their time something quite new. Nevertheless, it would be erroneous to interprete it as only introducing meaning into a meaningless world. In the paper, especially the importance of non-objective (not-given) challenges is underlined to which historically living (and thinking) men react and respond.