The socio-pedagogical thinking of J.A. Comenius

John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) belongs to the most important persons in the European culture, philosophy, theology and in particular pedagogy. Comenius was the founder of the educational system, it is to his credit that pedagogy became independent and singled out from the framework of philosophy. With his works, he laid foundations of several pedagogical sciences, in particular the didactics, theory of education, pre-school education, education organisation and management and other. However, his work has also a strong socio-pedagogical aspect, so far insufficiently studied from the point of view of social pedagogy and in particular pedagogy of social care as its part. The paper describes a fruitful contribution of J.A. Comenius in the development of social and educational conceptions of reality. It presents several periods of socio-pedagogical ideas developed by J.A. Comenius. The first period (until 1620) is characterized by the criticism of social inequalities. In the second period (1620-1627) J.A. Comenius developed social pedagogy for orphans. The third period (1627-1641) is characterized by the development of the theory of universal knowledge. During this period, Y.A. Comenius developed the idea that education is a means of development and social improvement of both man and the world. It took place in England (1641-1642). Next, the fifth period (till 1656) is the reformist one when J.A. Comenius expressed the idea of education as a basis for transformation of the inner world of man, society and the entire social world. The sixth period (1671-1879) is characterized by the idea of the feasibility of the general education and the search for the young social forces that are able to change the social world. The socio-pedagogical ideas of J.A. Comenius were not further developed and they can be considered as a factor in the development of modern social pedagogy.