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MIKLÓS HELTAI — PÁL HELTAI SCHOLARLY CAREER While engaged in pedagogical work, youth movements and church activities, Karácsony also continued his studies in psychology, pedagogy, philosophy and linguistics, and in 1929 he obtained a doctors degree in philosophy, pedagogy and Hungarian linguistics. From 1934 he was professor of pedagogy at the University of Debrecen, and from 1942 full professor. Within his department he set up the Institute for Interpersonal Psychology. His scholarly work, his widely read pedagogical books and lectures and his activities in the youth movements made him one of the best-known pedagogical authorities in the country.” He was especially popular among secondary school and university students. In the pre-war period he made a significant impact on educational and intellectual life in Hungary. After the Second World War, as president of an organisation for adult education, he took part in the short-lived democratic transformation of the country, but when Communists seized control of the country’s political and social life, he was ousted from public life, deprived of his university department, forced into early retirement, and finally even his pension was withdrawn. He died in 1952 in Budapest. A UNIQUE PEDAGOGICAL THEORY Karacsony created a unique educational theory based on a unique approach to psychology, logic, linguistics and philosophy.* He was first and foremost an educationist, and he treated the problems of philosophy, psychology, logic and linguistics from the point of view of education, yet in many respects he provided new insights into these disciplines, too, and some regard him as a philosopher* and some emphasize his work in linguistics.° His work reflects his original, creative thinking, which was based on the traditions and spirit of Protestant thinking, his propensity to relate his practical experience to theory, and his problem-sensitivity. He was familiar with new trends of thinking in early 20th century science, but while he respected 2 LANYI, Gusztav, Magyarság, protestantizmus, társaslélektan. Hagyomány és megújulás konfliktusa Karácsony Sándor életművében, Budapest, 2000, Osiris, 28-31. KONTRA, Karácsony Sándor, passim. LENDVAI, L. Ferenc, Protestantizmus, forradalom, magyarság, Budapest, Akadémiai, 1986. FABRICZIUS-KovÁcs, Ferenc, Nyelvtudomány, kommunkációelmélet, szociálpszichológia, in T. Szecskö — G. Szepe (eds.), Nyelv &s kommunikäciö II., Budapest, 1969. 41-77.; SIMONCSICS, Peter, Paradigmavaltas legüres terben. Karácsony Sándor, Lotz János és Laziczius Gyula kísérletei a magyar grammatika megújítására a XX. század 30-as éveiben, Budapest, Tinta, 2005. + 238 *
