Polish Philosophy of 19th Century. Romanticism, Its Antecedents and Descendents 3800-PPR25-M

One of the most eminent phenomenon of the history of Polish philosophy – next to the Lvov-Warsaw School in 20th century – was the thought of Romanticism, with such thinkers as August Cieszkowski (1814-1894), Karol Libelt (1807-1875), Bronisław Trentowski (1808-1869), and also Edward Dembowski (1822-1846) and Henryk Kamieński (1813-1866), not to mention the Maurycy Mochnacki (1803-1834), who could be regarded as the effective founder of the Polish philosophy of 19th century. We will mention also its early predecessor, Józef Gołuchowski (1797-1858).

It is a consensus in historiography that one of the most impactful and prevailing feature of the ideas of this time was the practical philosophy, i.e. the theory of action, history, and ethics. Hence one of its names: the philosophy of act (filozofia czynu, Philosophie der Tat). We will talk about the evolution of August Cieszkowski’s thought, beginning with his first book, Prolegomena to Historiosophy, in which he presents a tripartite division of history, claiming that the humanity stands on the verge of a new epoch, the epoch of the act. He criticized Hegel’s philosophy of history as incoherent and not sufficiently theoretically courageous. Later, Cieszkowski introduces a theory of reincarnation stemming from theoretical problems of personal identity (God and Palingenesis). Finally, he outlines an original combination of historiosophy with philosophy of religion, writing till his old age the monumental Our Father, philosophical treatise and a commentary on Lord Prayer, trying to trace down the concept of the third epoch, the epoch of the act to the Chrisitan revelation and tradition.

Not neglecting the practical philosophy, we will turn our attention also to the Polish theoretical philosophy of 19th century, especially Cieszkowski’s philosophy of religion, Libelt’s philosophy of imagination, and Trentowski’s speculative philosophy. The first one called his ontology a “spiritualism”, to differentiate both from realism (and especially materialism) and idealism. He argued that ultimately the world consist not from things or thoughts, but from living spirits, who transform creating new lives. We will compare this theory with Juliusz Słowacki’s “philosophy of genesis” (filozofia genezyjska) and its later reinterpretation by Wincenty Lutosławski. Karol Libelt argued that among the two basic topics of philosophy, the reason (rozum) and the will, the third, the imagination shall be put on an equal basis. Therefore, he proposed a philosophy of imagination, in which the representations play a rȏle analogous to the thoughts for reason. The world of representations together with the world of thoughts give the full picture of the reality. Finally, Bronisław Trentowski aimed at creation a speculative philosophy that will surpass both the empiricism represented by reason (rozum) and a purely intellectualistic, aprioristic intellect (umysł). A symbol of this surpassing would be the “mysł”, word without any established English translation. This third faculty of knowing had its correspondence in Trentowski’s structure of human being, in which he differentiated the body (ciało), the soul or spirit (dusza, duch), and the jaźń that can be roughly translated as the ‘I’ or ‘ego’. Jaźń is, once again, something surpassing both the body and the mind. All of those theories paint before our eyes a very interesting picture, still important and, after necessary interpretation, fruitful, as it deals, i.a., with problems of the sense of human existence, place of imagination in our cognition or mind-body problem.

The plan of the semester (each subject corresponds to a single class):

1. Introduction: general outline of the topic. Józef Gołuchowski’s idea of the philosophy of life; the anticipation of Polish Romanticism and the later philosophy of life (known under this name), developed in the fin de siècle (Friedrich Nietzsche, Wilhelm Dilthey et al.).

2. Jan Nepomucen Kamiński on the nature of language and the relation between the philosophical content and linguistic form; the discussion of conventionalism and naturalism in the philosophy of language.

3. Recognition and self-recognition of the individual and of the nation (society) in thought of Maurycy Mochnacki; his theory of literature and of revolution; his appeal on the need of speculative philosophy in and for Poland.

4-5. Materialist philosophy of Polish Romanticism: Edward Dembowski and Henryk Kamieński; for both the concept of material creation was the most fundamental idea of philosophy; therefore they combined the practical feature of Polish philosophy with the thesis that the matter is the only element of the reality.

6-7. August Cieszkowski: from “Prolegomena to historiosophy”, and his philosophy of history, through “The God and palingenesis”, presenting an ontological and ethical theory of the necessity of reincarnation, to “Our Father”, where he tries to combine the theology with philosophy and state the thesis on the inevitability of the third epoch, epoch of the act (either evolution or barbarity).

8-9. The function of imagination in Karol Libelt’s concepts of folk (lud) and nation (naród), Slavic philosophy, and philosophy of the act. The use of the concept of “um” (neologism for the phantasy in its pure form), derived from the discourses of Kamiński, Mochnacki, and Trentowski.

10-11. Bronisław Trentowski’s reflection on the state of Anglo-European rationality. The need for the new form of rationality, called by him “mysł” (neologism for the both pure and complete process of thinking and cognizing). A proposition of surpassing the mind-body problem by the concept of “jaźń” (neologism for the “I’ as not only an ego, but also the entirety of human condition).

12. Adam Mickiewicz as the inspirator and evaluator of the endeavours of Polish philosophers: his approval for Cieszkowski, inspiration for Libelt, and argument with Trentowski. Wincenty Lutosławski as a 20th century continuator of Polish philosophy of reincarnation. His relation to Juliusz Słowacki, and comparison with Cieszkowski’s theory.

13. Adam Żółtowski, the student of August Cieszkowski the younger, son of the prominent philosopher of the same name, as the Lutosławski active in 20th century, developed further the philosophy of the act, trying to develop on the same time also the Kantian and Hegelian studies as an answer to neopositivism and scientism.

14. Henryk Elzenberg, and one of his disciples Zbigniew Herbert, were presenting a philosophy grounded in Polish Romanticism in which the individualism and heroism played the key rȏle. For Elzenberg the heroism was the greatest ideals; but more than any military achievements he praised the doctrine of non-violence as requiring the most discipline and courage.

15. Summary, closing remarks.