The article attempts to show the activity of Stanisław Fogelweder in the service of Queen Anne of Austria, the first wife of Sigismund III Vasa. The aim was to reconstruct the scope of his courtly duties and to present an assessments of his activities, which appear in the letters by the monarch herself, her mother Archduchess Maria Anna of Bavaria, and the courtiers of the queen, as well as in the accounts of foreign diplomats. The period of Fogelweder’s life in (...) which he fulfilled his duties as chancellor and secretary to the Habsburgs is among the least discussed phases of his court and diplomatic career in the literature. The scant interest in this period of Fogelweder’s life may be surprising given the surviving source material. His position at the courts of Sigismund III and Anne of Austria can be reconstructed on the basis of his correspondence – especially his letters to Maria Anna of Bavaria and Jan Zamoyski. In the light of these sources, Fogelweder’s duties, apart from typical chancellery work, included attending audiences and delivering speeches on behalf of the queen, accompanying the monarch on her travels, obtaining and transmitting information, on top of acting as an intermediary in establishing the young monarch’s relations with members of the ruling elite, especially Jan Zamoyski. The commencement of his service at the court of Anne of Austria did not end his activities as a royal secretary or interrupt his relationship with Anne Jagiellon and the court of the queen dowager. This is evidenced by entries in the Crown Metric and information contained in royal accounts. Lasting uninterruptedly for four decades, Fogelweder’s court service was based on loyalty and total devotion to the ruling dynasty. He was usually assessed positively. The queen’s confessor Sigismund Ernhofer characterized him as a good man and an extremely hardworking courtier. Archduchess Maria called him a faithful old servant. Georg Schiechel, the queen’s valet, jealous of Fogelweder’s influence, emphasized the importance of his friendship with Zamoyski. Sometimes, however, his close relationship with the monarchical couple had to be the subject of criticism, painful and incomprehensible to Fogelweder. (shrink)

The crux of the dispute on the mutual relations between attention and consciousness, and to which I have referred in this paper, lies in the question of what can be attended in spatial attention that obviously resonates with the phenomenological issue of intentionality. The discussion has been initiated by Christopher Mole. He began by calling for a commonsense psychology, according to which one is conscious of everything that one pays attention to, but one does not pay attention to all the (...) things that one is conscious of. In other words, attention is supposed to be a condition which is sufficient but not necessary for consciousness, i.e., consciousness is a necessary concomitant of attention, but attention is not a necessary concomitant of consciousness. Mole seeks to validate his stance with data from psychology labs. His view is, however, partly confronted, for instance, by Robert Kentridge, Lee de-Wit and Charles Heywood, who used their experimental research on a neurological condition called blindsight as evidence of a dissociation between attention and consciousness, i.e., that visual attention is not a sufficient precondition for visual awareness. In this meta-theoretical state of affairs, I would like to focus on the cognitive phenomenon most often referred to as Inhibition of Return and suggest that, following its micro dynamics from the perspective of micro-phenomenology, it can be used to actually showcase all of the options on both sides of the argument. One of my leading goals would be also to follow Mole’s attempt to link attention with agency but where we differ is that I wish to heuristically articulate the matter in terms of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological notion of embodied pre-reflective intentionality. (shrink)

The article presents the painter Stanisław Daczyński, a student of Jan Matejko, who having completed his art studies and leaving Krakow worked at a pottery school in Kolomyia in Pokuttia. There has been scarcely any research conducted about the life of Stanisław Daczyński. The present article is a continuation of the studies on this painter, previously published by the author, and aims to bring him back to the space of the history of Polish culture and bring closer the space in (...) which he functioned. The paper presents the outcome of the research conducted in the Jagiellonian Library and in several Polish archives, as well as information obtained from the author’s own collection. The study method used a historical and anthropological analysis of the source materials. The article reconstructs the social and cultural background of the Pokuttia, where the painter lived and worked. It also outlines his personal and professional life in Kolomyia, Vienna, Bochnia, Zakopane and Krakow. Moreover, it solves the dates of birth and death of the artist and his wife, Stefania Zajączkowska, and identifies the place of their burial. To illustrate the painter’s activity, the article is supplemented with iconography: his drawings and the photographs of him and the places he was associated with. They are meant to complement the presented profile of Stanisław Daczyński and the cultural context of the environment in which he lived and which he influenced. (shrink)

This article aims to present Queen Jadwiga’ actual influence on nominations for episcopal sees during her reign and joint rule with Władysław Jagiełło. Until now, except for Krzysztof Ożóg, researchers expressed only a marginal interest in the subject. The author cites relevant views contained in all major studies on Jadwiga’s reign as well as analyses all available sources, mainly printed ones, both papal documents and chronicles, with special regard to the works of Jan Długosz. Using the induction method, the author (...) analyses 22 nominations for episcopal sees. Contrary to the views expressed in the literature of the subject, Jadwiga did not influence all episcopal nominations she has been attributed with. Nonetheless, in some cases we may argue that she exerted noticeable pressure; in other instances it was probably only more or less subtle. In all analysed nominations, whenever her role was clearly proved in sources, we may notice that Jadwiga was invariably cooperative in the common ecclesiastical policy which she pursued together with her husband. For example, both took advantage of the Holy Sees’ vulnerability in the era of the Occidental Schism, which allowed them to push their own candidates for episcopal seats. The present analysis revealed that with regard to the majority of most prestigious bishoprics in the Kingdom of Poland it was Jagiełło who had key influence on candidates for episcopal nominations, building his own political power base. At the same time, certain episcopal promotions, especially those in Ruthenia, Moldova and Mazovia, were reported inadequately and in few sources, hence Jadwiga’s and Władysław’s influence on the nominations of bishops can only be hypothetically determined. (shrink)

The Parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Oświęcim can boast a long and rich history. Although the exact date of its establishment is unknown, it can be assumed that its beginnings and the first parish church date back to the turn of the 12th century. The first written mention of the church dates back to 1304. The next source to mention the Oświęcim church was a papal tithe register from 1326. The town had already played an (...) important role as an administrative center: the capital of the Duchy of Oświęcim and the deanery of the Krakow Diocese. The parish included almost thirty villages, apart from the town and the castle. Among the many important events in the history of one of the oldest pastoral centers in the area, a dispute over the right of patronage and gifts to the provost office in Oświęcim occupies an important place. The conflict flared up in 1533 after the death of the provost Jan Rajski. In the literature to date, this problem has not received a separate study. It is worth looking into, especially since there are unique sources containing data on its genesis, course and further consequences. The purpose of this paper is to present this dispute, as well as to signal the legal repercussions of the law of patronage until the first half of the 20th century. Source materials provide the basis for the analyses contained. The resources used were mainly the archives of the Metropolitan Curia in Krakow, including the records of the administrators of the diocese of Krakow, the consistory in Krakow, the court chancery, the visitation protocols from 1598, and the parish records of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Oświęcim. Manuscript No. 5935, held at the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow, also provided first-rate information. Manuscript documents were supplemented with data from printed sources and the literature. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to present the circumstances of Noël Coypel’s appointment as rector of the French Academy in Rome and to trace the route of his didactic journey from Paris to Rome with the Prix de Rome scholars entrusted to him. The paper is an attempt to answer the following questions: why a more difficult route through the Alps was chosen, in what way was the journey educational, and what role did the documents given to Coypel play (...) in securing the expedition. The article is based on an analysis of administrative records during the reign of Louis XIV, lists of superintendents and directors of the French Academy in Rome, accounts of royal buildings, and minutes of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. The paper uses the analytical method, the comparative method, the synthetic method, source criticism, argumentum ex silentio inference, and the geographical method when discussing the itinerary. Although the trip was purposeful and related to Coypel’s new position, he designed it in such a way as to not so much get to the destination quickly, but to show his students as much as possible. Coypel introduced the royal scholars to masterpieces of painting and sculpture at centers along a route through Dijon, Lyon, Chambéry, the Mont Cenis Pass, Turin, Milan, Bologna and Florence. The crossing of the Alps, though dangerous, was most often chosen because of the artistic reputation of the cities there. The trip was educational at the expense of comfort or safety. Coypel, as a guide and teacher led his charges by overseeing their learning during and through the journey. Wandering to the Eternal City was part of a painter’s education in the seventeenth century and was part of Coypel’s didactic work allowing young people to be inspired by direct exposure to masterpieces. The journey had an eminently didactic and artistic character, but also an initiatory one, as it gradually initiated and prepared the students for the experience of Rome, the center of artistic life at that time. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to present the subject matter of secretariats and secretaries at the courts of Polish queens during nearly two hundred years of the Jagiellonian dynasty. The chancellery of queens, where the secretaries worked, has not been the subject of a separate study to date. Information about the secretaries’ activities is scattered in numerous and highly diverse sources and, usually marginally, in the vast literature. Because of the secretaries’ personal ties to the queens and their special (...) access to monarchs’ wives and their affairs, looking at this group is valuable research-wise, not only from the point of view of the chancellery, or even diplomacy. This group can be especially important for knowing and understanding the queens themselves, their relationships with immediate circles along with the people who had constant and close contacts with the queens. Such contacts were often difficult, complicated, and marked by a whole range of relationships and emotions. The queen’s secretaries assisted her in contacts with state institutions, dignitaries and other persons performing public functions. However, due to the queen’s place in the structure of power, or rather the lack of it, she was accompanied, above all, in contacts with her spouse during periods of separation and with her family, or both families, the one she left behind in her homeland and scattered around Europe, as well as her new one, which she entered with her marriage. With the right personality, talents and skills, the secretary, who after all had access to numerous secrets, thoughts and plans of the queen, could become a close and influential associate, advisor or confidant of hers. The key, however, was loyalty to his lady. (shrink)

Podobnie jak wcześniejszy numer „Rocznika”, również ten składa się z dwóch zasadniczych części. Pierwsza z nich poświęcona została kulturalnemu i intelektualnemu klimatowi dworów królowych w średniowiecznej i nowożytnej Europie. Jeszcze na początku lat dwutysięcznych uprawniona była opinia, że w polskiej historiografii niewiele wiemy zarówno o samych królowych i ich roli w państwie, jak o ich otoczeniu, a poza głównym nurtem badawczym pozostają struktury dworów polskich księżnych i królowych, były ze wszech miar słuszne. Przez ostatnich dwadzieścia lat tematyka związana z dworem (...) polskich królowych w średniowieczu i w epoce nowożytnej doczekała się grona badaczy, którzy coraz śmielej wychodzą poza dociekania o charakterze strukturalno-personalnym, a w polskich badaniach widoczny jest coraz wyraźniej nurt _queenship, _wpisujący się w tę problematykę i cieszący się zauważalną popularnością w historiografiach zachodnich. (shrink)

The article is about the problem of evil in the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky on the basis of an analysis of the behavior of Pyotr Verkhovensky, the hero of the Demons. The aim of the analysis will be to show that Pyotr Verkhovensky, as a human, broke and trampled all the ideals and laws that people should follow. He turned the concept of good and bad around to use them for his own evil purposes. The author will show that the (...) hero of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel consciously turned away from the Christian values of goodness, love and truth in order to devote himself to evil and introduce a new moral order in Russia in the name of socialism. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel, Demons, was used as the source material. The analysis used the statements of researchers dealing with the work of Dostoyevsky, both Russian and Polish. The collected research material allowed for an in-depth analysis that confirmed the thesis that Pyotr Verkhovensky is not to be forgiven because he is unrepentant about the wrongs he has committed, and he does not want to correct himself. Using the hermeneutic method, the author showed that Pyotr Verkhovensky does not deserve forgiveness, because he does not feel responsible for the crimes committed and does not show any remorse. He does not realize his guilt and the necessity of punishment. It is this state of consciousness, and not only his criminal deeds, that distinguishes him from other heroes. The conducted analysis and the collected material proves that all his ideas and actions are illusions, as they are not rooted in ontological or axiological truth. His mind and soul are plunged into a falsehood that creates chaos, and all his actions resulted from the evil within him of a demonic nature. However, there is hope for salvation for Pyotr Verkhovensky, but first he must confess his guilt and accept the punishment. (shrink)

The article attempts to analyze Feliks Koneczny’s beliefs about paedocracy in the context of presently observed forms of youth political activity. For this purpose, the paper offers a discussion of selected texts on paedocracy published by Koneczny in the Słowo daily between September 16 and October 22, 1912. At that time, Koneczny wrote: “O pajdokracji” [On Paedocracy], “Partenogeneza pajdokracji” [Partenogenesis of Paedocracy], “Pajdokracja z prowokacji” [Provoked Paedocracy], “Młodzież jako środek reklamy” [Youth as a Means of Advertising], “Młodzież jako rzekoma rękojmia (...) przyszłości” [Youth as the Supposed Guarantor of the Future], “Pajdokracja i apatia” [Paedocracy and Apathy], “Stronnictwa a pajdokracja” [Parties and Paedocracy], “Brak pajdokracji w Wielkopolsce” [No Paedocracy in Greater Poland], “Patryjotyzm bez zajęcia” [Jobless Patriotism] and “Szacunku dla młodzieży” [Respect Youth]. Based on the analysis of source texts, the definition of paedocracy is presented on to of its causes and effects. This information is juxtaposed with other takes on paedocracy and its contemporary faces. Koneczny’s assessment of paedocracy was unequivocally negative. He believed it was socially harmful and resulted from a number of misconceptions. “Youth rule”, in the scholar’s view, is inspired solely by mature politicians who manipulate the young to achieve their own agendas. Such behavior stems from the lack of respect for youth that Koneczny clearly sought. The researcher saw many advantages of young Poles, but at the same time he was aware that some features of youth are not desirable in politics. He concluded that the only way to combat paedocracy might be to remove the young from politics altogether. At the same time, he realized that such a radical solution was not possible. In his argument, Koneczny not only described the flaws of paedocracy, but also showed how it can be combatted. (shrink)

Pierre des Noyers, secretary of Queen of Poland Louise-Marie Gonzaga, is known for his role as a messenger, envoy, court journalist and sometimes propagandist. His work as an unofficial diplomat for the Queen and ambassador for France is less famous though no less interesting. Even though he was already quite involved in these time-consuming tasks, Pierre des Noyers also acted as a scientific intermediary for the quite curious Queen Louise-Marie of Poland. He maintained contacts with many scholars from France and (...) Italy. He could nurture this network thanks to his position as an informal diplomat at the court of the Queen and his dedication to science in general. Even by discarding his most official and political letters, his known correspondence amounts to several hundred letters written in a period of around 50 years to various friends and scholars. Roberval, Gassendi, Boulliau, Hevelius or Pascal are among these contacts and he plays for most of them the role of a scientific intermediary sharing with them observations, books and anecdotes. His letters are filled with astronomical observations, prodigies and prophecies. Des Noyers was also a practitioner of science. Having possessed a rather large collection of scientific instruments he always sought the improved ones and his daily life was marked by scientific studies. He wrote meteorological bulletins for Academia del Cimento in Florence, studied the measurement of time, observed the sun and showed interest in the inner workings of the human body. This article will delve further into more scientific aspects of Pierre des Noyers’s life, both at the court of Louise-Marie and outside. The first part presents a rough overview of the secretary’s contacts in the scientific environment of 17th Century France and how they were used to connect scholars from Poland with this environment. The second part of this work presents Pierre des Noyers’s practice of science as a tool to understand the world and for which utmost diligence in measurement and practice is required. The last part focuses on des Noyers’s application of this scientific method in two, now pseudo-scientific fields: astrology and divination. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to present the voyages made in the second half of the 14th century by Queen Jadwiga of Poland, the wife of the first Jagiellonian ruler on the Polish throne. Ladislaus Jagiełło ruled over a vast area of the Polish and Lithuanian states, like other European monarchs, through an itinerary system around his realm. Jadwiga accompanied her husband in the performance of his monarchical duties, and sometimes replaced him, but her trips were not only political (...) or representative. The queen also traveled, perhaps even primarily, for family and private functions. During her travels, she most often visited the royal lands of Lesser Poland, and less often went to other regions of the country or beyond its borders. The sources used in this research are narrative and, it should be noted, do not come directly from the period of Jadwiga’s life. These are the Annals of Jan Długosz, written several decades later, which provide information about the time and place of the journeys made by the queen. However, they make it possible to learn – to a far greater extent than other sources – about the circumstances which induced the Queen consort Jagiełło to leave the walls of the Wawel Castle. The study of the subject is also possible thanks to the itinerary of Queen Jadwiga, compiled by Grażyna Rutkowska, which enables analysis beyond the findings concerning the timetable of these trips and corrects the coverage by the Polish chronicler. The literary division of royal travels into “small” and “great” allows us to see the difference not only in territorial range, but above all in the nature and purpose of travels made by the Queen. Jadwiga liked staying in the royal estates of Małopolska using the time for recreation, but when necessary, she also made the effort to travel to more distant towns to join in the implementation of state policy. (shrink)

Ongoing long-time research into the courts of rulers, their spouses, and their children clearly demonstrates the enduring presence of clergy in their midst. Priests performed various functions in religious practices or worked in the court chancellery. The aim of this article is to show the presence of clergy at the court of Elizabeth of Austria, wife of King Casimir IV, and their youngest daughter Elizabeth Jagiellon. The reconstruction of this environment was possible on the basis of an analysis of a (...) very broad source base, due to its fragmentary nature and incidental occurrence of references to clergy, often in anonymized form. In the case of both Elizabeths, the clergy functioning at their courts were associated with the capella and the chancellery, but they also performed duties as medics or stewards. There are still issues without satisfactory answers, which require further studies and analyses of scattered source material, for instance the question of the queen and her daughter’s relations with the Krakow cathedral and city clergy, both lay and monastic, or the question of the influence of the two Elizabeths’ knights on the assumption of benefices connected with their courts by the clergy). (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to show the Roman home theater of Queen Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d’Arquien as a topic she addressed in her letters. The sources are based on her correspondence with her eldest son; these sources are one-sided, as only the queen’s letters are known, while the letters of Prince James have not survived or have not been found. In 1698, the widowed Marie Casimire left Poland and moved to Rome to spend the Jubilee (...) year there. Eventually, she remained on the Tiber for almost fifteen years. Following in the footsteps of Queen Christina, she wished to be a patron of artists, and since she had already organized theatrical performances at her court in Poland, she decided to patronize musical, theatrical and operatic performances in Rome as well. She was assisted in this endeavor by Prince Alexander, who also resided in Rome. It soon became apparent that her son was not only an active patron, but also had artistic talents and an aptitude to take on the role of director, writer, and even a dancer in ballet scenes. The queen’s granddaughter and namesake, Marie Casimire, was also involved in preparing the performances. At her uncle’s side, she learned the art of preparing performances, but she also took part in ballet scenes. In her letters to her eldest son, James, the queen marveled at the versatile talents of both and assured him that she would spare no expense or effort to provide them with opportunities to entertain, and to bring splendor and widespread acceptance to herself and her theater. In her correspondence, the Queen never touched on the topic of the plays themselves, gave their titles, or wrote anything about the subjects they addressed. From the Queen’s correspondence, one cannot learn much about her home theater, but much about the pride that filled her at the thought of her son’s and granddaughter’s artistic achievements. The letters are a testimony to the queen’s feelings, not a report of the life of her Roman court. (shrink)

The subject of the article is the contacts of Polish queens with the sanctuary of Our Lady of Częstochowa at Jasna Góra Monastery. The considerations are based on the archival materials stored in the Archives at Jasna Góra and the literature on the subject. In the Jasna Góra archives, books were used, in which votive gifts donated by the faithful to the Jasna Góra sanctuary were entered. The analytical method was used in the work. Most of the Polish queens had (...) contacts with the Jasna Góra sanctuary. Some of the queens made pilgrimages to the sanctuary in person, others offered devotional gifts and votes. The most frequent contacts with Jasna Góra were: Ludwika Maria, spouse of Władysław IV and Jan Kazimierz, Maria Kazimiera, spouse of Jan III Sobieski, Maria Eleonora, spouse of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, and Maria Józefa, spouse of August III Wettin. The other queens had more modest contacts with Jasna Góra. All the rulers offered liturgical vestments, jewelery and financial donations. Ludwika Maria and Maria Józefa showed the greatest attention to the Jasna Góra sanctuary. However, the piety of the rulers resulted not only from their personal faith, but also from the norms and principles adopted in a given era in expressing religiosity. (shrink)

This article focuses on the trajectory of life of the three generations of the Jankowski family in Siberia, Primorski Krai and Korea in the years 1863– 1945 in terms of their economic, cultural and scientific achievements. The founder of the Far Eastern branch of the family was Michał Jankowski. Exiled to Siberia for participation in the January Uprising of 1863, as a man of indefatigable energy and collaborator of Benedykt Dybowski, he undertook many initiatives, including hunting, wild ginseng collecting and (...) a gold mining administration. In 1880 he settled on the Sidiemi Peninsula near Vladivostok, where he established a farm specializing in horse breeding and ginseng gardening. In addition to farming, he conducted natural history and archaeological research and sent the acquired specimens and artifacts to Russian and European museums. The tradition of his father was continued in the second generation by Jerzy Mikhailovich Jankowski. Endowed with similar character and talent, he studied agriculture and husbandry in Texas and at the agricultural faculty of St. Louis University in Missouri. He expanded the farm to include commercial fishing and rice cultivation. The occupation of the Far East by the Red Army in 1922 forced the family to emigrate to Korea and Manchuria. The new family seat called Novina was built on the Ompo River near the town of Ch’ŏngjin, about 200 kilometers south along the Korean coastline from the mouth of the Tuman River. It was not only a modern farm with specialized animal husbandry and fruit farming, but was also a recreational, cultural, and spiritual enclave, with a school for children, a summer theater, an Orthodox church, and a resort for holidaymakers. The third and the most famous representative of the family was Walery Jurewicz Jankowski. In 1945, he joined the Soviet Army, where, due to his knowledge of Korean and Japanese, he served as an interpreter for the military intelligence at the headquarters of the 25th Army in P’yŏngyang. At the beginning of 1946, both Walery and his fathers were arrested and sent to the labor camps. The family was scattered around the world, from Australia to the North and Latin Americas and the farm was nationalized. The Jankowsky family achieved spectacular success in the Russian Far East and in Korea because they were able to apply the traditional Polish gentry ethos based on the extended structure of family and servants, which they were able to combine with a chivalrous fortitude and openness to hard life in the frontiers populated by various ethnic groups. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to reflect on selected works of Aleksander Watt placed in the context of De imitatione Christi by Thomas à Kempis and to verify the view that suffering functions in the consciousness and poetic imagination of the writer as a value conducive to the spiritual development of the individual. The author analyzes the poet’s memoirs in order to show how reading the book he discovered during WWII, while exiled in Kazakhstan, influenced Wat’s choices and attitudes, (...) or his perception of the decisions he made. Then the article interprets the poetic texts that emphasize the theme of suffering and following Jesus Christ. The Wiersze somatyczne [Somatic Poems] cycle is discussed, on top of Wat’s works based on the symbolism of the crown of thorns and the death on the cross, the excerpts from his drama Kobiety z Monte Olivetto [The Women of Monte Olivetto], and the poem with the incipit “U szczytu antynomij….” [At the top of antinomies...], which is formed into the shape of the cross. The researcher reads them in a hermeneutical way in the course of which she analyzes the symbols and biblical allusions, associates literary metaphors with autobiographical traces of the poet’s experiences, and uncovers the connection between the texts of the two authors. The main thesis of the article is that in the discussed works, there is a dolorous theme – that is, one in which suffering is exposed and presented as an ethically valuable experience. A reading of a number of works in which pain, depicted in various ways, is at the same time a reminiscence of the poet’s own physical and mental anguish and a reference to the Passion of Christ, allows one to conclude that for the author of Wiersze śródziemnomorskie [The Mediterranean Poems], suffering is a state of spiritual transformation that brings man closer to the sphere of the sacred. The author ultimately concludes that, in light of the work of Thomas à Kempis, Wat’s dolorism appears as a modern interpretation of the idea of following Christ, marked by the necessity of being different from Him. (shrink)

This paper refers to the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri in commemoration of which Pope Francis released a special apostolic letter highlighting the genius and significance of the Italian poet. We should praise his genius, the Pope writes, because it is he who was able to express, much better than most of the others, the depth of the mystery of God and His love. The Commedia is the fruit of deep religious inspiration. This is why Francis repeats (...) after Benedict XV – „Dante is our own!” Why is it so? Because there breathes in Alighieri the devotion that we too feel and his faith resonates with ours. Dante’s work continues to be a meaningful and valid exemplar for Christ’s followers. However, in today’s pop culture Dante is mainly seen through his depiction of hell – the artistically described eternal punishment. The truth about hell which Dante made the subject of his narrative does not find acceptance even between Christians. Many people are really outraged and scandalized because hell is for them the symbol of sadism and distorted image of God – a vengeful tyrant who condemns human souls to eternal perdition. But hell is present in the biblical message. The early Church Fathers spoke of hell in their sermons, wrote about it in treatises, disputed the dwelling place of the condemned souls, the position of Satan and other demons, and the imminence of God’s judgement. In this way in the Catholic dogmatic theology consolidated the truth of the reality of hell and eternal punishment. This was also in accord with the views of the prominent medieval theologians. Therefore, why the ancient and well-known truth about hell is rejected today as outrageous and Dante’s vision does not gain recognition? The heart of the matter is the understanding of the idea of justice and atonement. In their denial expressed through the notion of the empty hell and rejection of eternal punishment for angels’ and people’s sins, we have to do with misunderstanding of the significance of human intellect and will. The refusal to accept responsibility for our free choices entails the uninhibited rejection of seriousness of our earthly life. If we believe that our fate, and what is more, out eternal fate – the salvation or damnation – depends on what we were able to do in our lifetime, Dante’s poetic vision strongly illustrates this standpoint. The power of free will is deeply and inalienably present in The Comedy’s stanzas. In the Dante’s poem the essence of hell lies in the ultimate rejection of the goal that man longs to achieve from his very nature – the happiness which is the union with the infinite Good – God, the Creator and the Redeemer of the world. How is it possible? It happens due to the existence of free will which is innate to all people and no one can deprive them of it or minimise it. This rejection of the sublime happiness is the result of human free decision – the condemned did not say to God: “Thy will be done!” but “my will be done!”. The existence of hell becomes the guarantee of human dignity, the evidence that a perfectly Good and Omnipotent God treats the man whom He had created seriously and preserves him for the eternity in the same state in which he wanted to remain in his earthly life. (shrink)

This paper is an attempt to discuss the connections between Dante’s Divine Comedy and the poetic representations of the extermination of Jews during World War II. The work of the Italian master proves to be a point of reference for many Polish and Polish-Jewish poets in their search for the right language to describe the brutal reality of the Holocaust, to render the cruelty of this crime and the immense suffering of its victims, to testify about their own experience, and (...) to pay a tribute to the murdered. The poetry discussed in this text was written, among others, by Michał Maksymilian Borwicz, Izabela Gelbard, Janina Podlodowska, Krystyna Żywulska, and Andrzej Bursa. The references to the Divine Comedy are made in two ways and serve two basic purposes. Firstly, their aim is to portray the Holocaust as a reality confusingly similar to Dante’s inferno, secondly, they are to present the Holocaust as a reality far worse, more brutal and more gruesome than Dante’s hell. The second of the abovementioned ways of poetic presentation of the experience of the Shoah is very often connected with bitter irony, characteristic especially for Jewish art and sometimes directed against the sender of the message itself. In the course of analysis and interpretation, the phenomenon of universalization and partial decontextualization of originally religious motifs comes to the fore. The author argues that the reality of the Shoah can be compared to the devil’s abyss only if this abyss is no longer perceived as the place of eternal and just condemnation for sinners. The twentieth-century “hell” of concentration camps and ghettoes, though associated with Dante’s inferno, is not the place of deserved punishment, but of cruel crime and of immense, blameless and unjustifiable suffering. (shrink)

The article presents hypotheses about the origins of the tradition of Konik Zwierzyniecki’s march, also known as the Lajkonik, formulated over the course of about 200 years, as well as possible cultural connections of the Krakow custom with traditions and rituals developed by other communities. Due to the so far unexplained origin of the Lajkonik character and numerous scientifically acceptable historical and cultural interpretations of the horse costume used in the procession, the article also attempts to perform a comparative analysis (...) of similar folklore phenomena on the basis of examining symbolic connotations. The introduction presents the multifaceted symbolism of the horse in European culture and the use of its character in various folk rituals, mostly of a religious or apotropaic character. The main part of the text presents the history of the evolution of scientific views on Lajkonik and distinguishes the most important, possible interpretations of the Konik Zwierzyniecki puzzle. The aim of the article is to systematize and collect the hypotheses outlined so far, but dispersed in numerous publications, regarding the origin, cultural and historical significance of the Lajkonik march. The direct subject of the analysis are the monographic studies, diaries, memoirs, protocols and scientific articles presented in the footnotes and bibliography, analyzed by using the comparative and analytical-synthetic method. Although the article does not provide an explanation of the Lajkonik phenomenon, it is a scientifically significant collection of historical, cultural, linguistic and ethnological information on the Krakow custom and similar European traditions. Due to the multifaceted approach to the subject and the presentation of seemingly unrelated scientific findings from separate fields, this text may also be used for further research aimed at unraveling and determining the genesis of the Krakow tradition of Konik Zwierzyniecki. (shrink)

This paper discusses the relationship between philosophy and literature, their mutual entanglements, differences and similarities. The aim of the article is to reflect on the different concepts presenting the relationship between these two discourses. The first position claims that philosophy and literature are separate, while the second one blurs the boundaries between them. The latter view has two versions: one that claims to diminish the separateness of the discourses in the name of meaning or indication, and another that accentuates their (...) internal entanglement, which could be described in terms of two phenomena – the literary nature of philosophy and the philosophical nature of literature. Further issues discussed are existential philosophy as a special example of the coincidence of literature and philosophy, and the philosophy of literature as a discipline exposing, among other things, the philosophical nature of literature on top of the philosophical and methodological foundations of its studies. Classical works by Plato and other ancient Greek philosophers, the works of Roman Ingarden, John Austin, Tadeusz Komendant, Albert Camus, and Martin Heidegger are interpreted. The analysis of these works is confronted with the reading of such writers as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, Herman Hesse, Witold Gombrowicz and Tadeusz Różewicz. The article is a theoretical inquiry and fits into the discipline which is called the philosophy of literature. The author adopts a hermeneutical perspective, noting, however, that hermeneutics is not a method in the strict sense. The text posits that philosophical and literary discourse are mutually entangled, despite the fact that historically the separateness of the two orders has often been emphasized. (shrink)

This paper interprets the philosophical and poetic legacy of Dante Alighieri in the context of the crises he experienced in his life. Dante went through the number of experiences during his lifetime which were significant to his understanding of himself and the world. Such a very personal trial he had to deal with was his unrequited love for Beatrice Portinari, and, especially, her death at a young age. In addition, a very difficult period in his life was his political activity (...) and public service in his native Florence, which led to his entanglement in the conflict between the factions of Guelphs and Ghibellines, and to his exile from Florence which lasted until the end of his life. These events can be described as “the crises” of the Florentine poet, because they were the turning points in his life, which required him to make some important decisions. The word “crisis”, according to its Greek etymology, signifies the decision making process which changes the way of thinking and the style of living. In this article, a thesis is proposed that Alighieri’s work can be interpreted and understood as an expression of the crises he was going through, but above all, as the way of coming out of crisis, which is expressed by taking thoughtful existential decisions. The Italian poet was also an excellent philosopher, as evidenced by his philosophical treatises and poetic works, for he was able to combine the principles of medieval scholastic philosophy with his poetry. Philosophy also played a significantly positive role in his life and contributed to his hopeful and optimistic worldview and perception of man, what constitutes the fundamental and timeless message of his work. (shrink)

The article analyses Dante’s explanatory paraphrase and exegesis of the Lord’s Prayer, which opens the eleventh canto of Purgatory. The author reminds us that the prayer is the only one fully recited in the entire Comedy and this devotional practice is in line with the Franciscan prescription to recite it in the sixth hour of the Divine Office when Christ died on the cross. The prayer is reported by the poet on the first terrace of Purgatory, where the proud and (...) vainglorious must learn the virtue of humility, and therefore it symbolizes the perfect reciprocity between man and Godhead. Dante collates and amplifies the two complementary Latin versions of the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6: 9–13 and Luke 11: 2–4. The two synoptic texts are supplemented by the Gospel of John, from which Dante takes the concept of celestial bread – the flesh and the blood of Christ – which nourishes, liberates and sanctifies Christians. Apart from the Bible, Dante also draws upon the Augustinian and Tomistic traditions. However, the main hypotext behind the prayer, which is neither cited nor acknowledged in any explicit form in the Comedy, is the Franciscan Laudes creaturarum, also known as the Canticle of the Brother Sun. Written in vernacular by St. Francis himself, who is also the author of the Expositio in Pater noster, the Canticle was still recited and sung together with the Lord’s Prayer in the Franciscan communities in Dante’s time. Moreover, following the parallel readings popular nowadays in Dante studies, the author argues that Purgatorio 11 may be elucidated in the context of Paradiso 11, which is the Franciscan canto par excellence, and taken together they both offset cantos 10, 11, 12 of Inferno, which are based on the sin of pride. The denunciation of pride in and around canto 11 of Inferno alludes to humility – the remedy of such pride in Purgatory 11, which in turn prepares the reader for the encounter with St. Francis – the paragon of humility – in Paradiso 11. The author concludes that the Dantean paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer is no less than an elaborate exegesis and homage to Christ and His teachings, something which is encompassed in a nutshell in the Sermon on the Mount. (shrink)

This paper discusses three different contemporary uses of philosophy and literature in non-philosophical and non-literary texts. Most often, both discourses are used as tools, and they are invoked instrumentally in popularizing literature or in teaching. Philosophy and literature can also be treated as a source or starting point for reflection outside its mother field, or even as a cause of various social and political processes. The most interesting usage of both discourses is to refer to them as the symptoms or (...) signs of the times allowing us to make diagnoses about the present. These uses of the two discourses show the similarities between literature and philosophy on a purely pragmatic level that is relevant to their contemporary functioning in a non-specialist sphere. The convergence in this regard is a testimony to the transformation of the position of both discourses in the contemporary humanities involving the loss of their privileged position. At the same time, literature and philosophy in this crisis situation are gaining new areas of influence in public discourse, realizing their cognitive and reflexive potential through their utilitarian use. (shrink)

The primary goal of this article is to get to the specifics of Zbigniew Herbert’s work. The poet had formal philosophical education and cannot be treated merely as a writer raising existential issues. The consequence of his studies in philosophy with the most eminent Polish philosophers of the time was that he took up important philosophical questions rather than used the answers that philosophers of the past had given. This is an important feature of his poetry and distinguishes Herbert from (...) those writers who subscribed to the worldview of their era. Failure to distinguish between these two stances has led to one-sided readings of his poem To Marcus Aurelius. The interpretations of the last sixty years quoted in the article lead to the conclusion that we are dealing with a kind of “contemporary”, or modified, “stoicism”. Later scholars interpreted the work as existential. A comparison of the poem with the work of Marcus Aurelius, and above all, an analysis of the differences between the ancient and modern understanding of such concepts as “nature”, “fate”, “self”, or “suffering”, allowed us to show the internal intellectualemotional tension in Herbert’s poem, and above all, the general idea of philosophizing poetry. The poet himself believed that it resembles primary reflection, such as that of the early Ionian thinkers. This is not about philosophizing on the basis of an elaborate conceptual apparatus, but about philosophical intuition and “philosophical experience”, an intellectual and emotional tension, in which – thanks to poetic talent – beauty is born. The dialog in To Marcus Aurelius is precisely a record of such poetic agitation. (shrink)

W 2021 roku przypada 700. rocznica śmierci Dantego, jednego z największych twórców literatury światowej. Polska tradycja klasyczna, romantyczna i katolicka przez wieki czerpała pełnymi garściami z jego dzieł, a szczególnie z _Boskiej Komedii. _Dante był bliski wielu pokoleniom naszych przodków, towarzysząc im na kolejnych szczeblach edukacji: gimnazjalnej, licealnej i uniwersyteckiej. Dla uczącej się młodzieży był mentorem i nauczycielem ukazującym naturę ludzką w pełnym jej wymiarze – od bestialstwa po heroizm i świętość. W czasach zamętu, którego obecnie doświadczamy, kiedy nie tylko (...) jednostki i wspólnoty, ale wręcz cała zachodnia cywilizacja znalazły się w „ciemnym lesie” i zostały wydane na łup trzech bestii : pychy, chciwości i pożądliwości, Dante Alighieri pozostaje drogowskazem i natchnieniem dla ludzi podzielających przekonanie, że istnieje prawda obiektywna oraz wartości uniwersalne, które wiążą wszystkich ludzi bez względu na rasę, narodowość i status społeczny. (shrink)

Research environment, also when pertaining to cultural studies, does not have a common and widely accepted definition of technology nor, at the same time, of graphic techne ; thus, there is no such definition of digital graphic technology either. That is why it has been decided to create the definition of the issue in this title. It was considered that the logic of digital graphic – just like any other cultural phenomena – can be understood better through referring to etymological (...) determination. The ancient definition of techne referred, first of all, to the way humans acted and to their skills. It did not mention any tools, materials or processes that would make those acts of creation possible. At the same time, the etymological meaning of the term “graphic” highlights the presence of a technical element, as well as actions performed with a use of this element. As such, tools, materials and technical actions were, in some measure, a part of the definition of graphics. This is most likely the reason why graphics was so strongly integrated with technology and technical discoveries; it stimulated them and was stimulated by them. Today, graphics are integrated with computer sciences and electronics. Identifying these relations is crucial from the perspective of theoretical and applied research. The designed definition of digital graphics technology and, analogically, the phenomenon it describes will be tested iteratively in the next stages of the research. This procedure will allow for further, more detailed, elaboration and research correction. (shrink)

Interactive media create a space conducive to development of participatory culture, in which media content recipients become its active creators. Participant activities are not limited to commenting on online articles or being active on social media. They want to influence reality through their actions and to participate in creating and spreading information. The willingness and readiness of Internet users to co-create content is becoming increasingly important also in scientific projects, where success depends on the involvement of many volunteers who undertake (...) specific tasks. Although such projects are often time-consuming, they usually do not require advanced skills from the people involved. The only payoff for their efforts is the satisfaction that comes from participating, as well as the recognition in their community. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to evaluate the phenomenon of crowdsourcing in humanities, especially in the context of the new reality created by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is based on the literature which addresses the importance of crowdsourcing in projects in a variety of areas, on top of an analysis of examples in which this method is used. The selection of presented examples is strongly intended to demonstrate the enormous possibilities and resulting benefits of involving willing volunteers in humanities projects. Their role is not diminished by the fact that they do not have competencies related to project topics. It can be assumed that crowsrourcing will be more and more widely used by researchers, especially in times when increasing numbers of people undertake online activities. (shrink)

The idea of state education developed by activists associated with the governments that ruled in Poland after the May Coup which they put into practice was to educate citizens to be strongly attached to the Polish state, regardless of nationality and religion. All educational factors, including religious education, were to serve this purpose. Based on this assumption, the educational authorities aspired to have a decisive influence on the appointment of religious teachers, determining their qualifications, establishing the curricula and the choice (...) of textbooks. This led to conflicts with Catholic bishops, generally concerned with autonomy and exclusivity in setting rules on these issues. Ecclesiastical autonomy in matters of communicating the faith, formally accepted by law and church authorities, presupposed that the Church determines the content of religious instruction, the scope and shape of religious education, and selects teachers to communicate the principles of the faith to Catholics on its behalf. The bishops could not give the state a casting vote, for to do so would be to misappropriate their own duties, which stem from the nature of the episcopal mission. This was not understood by the state authorities who were unwilling to compromise in any way between the May Coup and the beginning of 1937 and wanted to have a decisive voice in the appointment and qualifications of religious teachers, in the scope and shape of religious curricula and textbooks, as well as complete control over church organizations allowed to function in schools. While church authorities, Catholic columnists and educators, as well as the activists of church organizations spoke out and discussed and even protested publicly about coeducation, the presence of non-Catholic teachers in mainstream schools, and the anti-religious attitude of teachers affiliated with left-wing trade unions, the issues of the appointment and qualifications of religious teachers, curricula and textbooks, on top of the control of church organizations in schools were raised only during discussions and correspondence between the church and school authorities. Except for one statement by the School Committee published in the diocesan journals intended for the clergy, these disputes were not publicized on a national scale by either the Church or the state side. (shrink)

The article analyzes the Swedish writer Pär Lagerkvist’s last volume of poems, Aftonland, and the metaphor of the “book of nature”, which the poet uses extensively and which forms the volume’s compositional axis. The starting point is to present the theological concepts of liber naturae and to indicate the functions of this metaphor in old literature. Lagerkvist’s take on this metaphor points to the fundamental change that occurred in the religious situation of man between the time of the metaphor’s peak (...) popularity and the middle of the twentieth century in a completely altered historical context. Lagerkvist’s return to this metaphor involves its radical transformation in the spirit of a modern transformation of spirituality. Rather than revealing theological truths, the “book of nature” in Lagerkvist’s poetry is akin to the “codes of transcendence” by Jaspers, which bring man, living in a disenchanted modern world, closer to a transcendental dimension of existence. The transformations of the “book of nature” theme in Lagerkvist’s poetic volume are also analyzed against the background of the transformations of modern and contemporary astronomy, as well as in the perspective of the theory of the “logic of writing’ and, also, the relationship between writing and religion. The use of the old metaphor allows Lagerkvist to express the affirmation of spiritual longings and the search for meaning in the world as unfulfilled but inalienable human qualities. The conclusion also points to the presence of the “book of nature” motif in other works of the Swedish writer, which is a manifestation of his metaphysical interests. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to show the influence of Jacques Maritain’s philosophical work Art et scolastique on the young Czesław Miłosz and his work, and how it shaped the poet’s views on art in subsequent years. The author analyzes Maritain’s work on art in the context of theology and Miłosz’s articles published between the two world wars. In terms of methodology, the article draws on the concept of intertextuality, pointing to the dependence of the poet’s thinking during this (...) period on that of the French philosopher. Maritain’s aesthetic creationism was seen by some inter-war literary critics, including Miłosz himself, as a third way between the mimetic aesthetics or art in the service of ideas and the “angelism” of symbolic art and art for art’s sake. In Maritain’s aesthetics, the writer found a system of concepts through which he opened himself up to issues related to human spirituality, ontology and religion. Maritain’s distinction between the purpose of the work and the purpose of the maker directed Miłosz’s attention to the author, as one that has been singled out as bound to strive for self-improvement and self-development. To a much lesser extent, this concept influenced his poetics. His works written in the twenty-year interwar period are saturated with dark symbolism and modernistic mannerisms. (shrink)

The article attempts to consider the philosophical foundations of the literary works of two authors: Zbigniew Herbert and Francis Ponge. In the literature devoted to the author of the String of Light, the theme of similarity of his work to the works of the French poet has been present for a long time. Critics listed a number of Herbert’s works that could be compared with the works from Ponge’s The Nature of Things, published in 1942. It has been already shown (...) what they have in common in terms of the literary descriptions of things and phenomena. The main subject of this study are non-literary texts regarding Herbert’s and Ponge’s views on poetry. The article is the result of an interdisciplinary comparative study, using knowledge in the field of literary studies, philosophy and philology. The author examines the hypothesis that the poets’ proposition to describe the objects is based on the attitude toward the world and the type of sensitivity that are common to both Herbert and Ponge. They both wrote against the rationalist tradition in philosophy. They opposed the abandonment of the concrete and the emotional layer of experience in favor of concepts and systems. Their concepts of reality and cognition were influenced by Epicure and Lucretius. It was probably through them that the poets could have assimilated certain ideas that Maurice MerleauPonty developed into the framework of a comprehensive project in his phenomenological reflection. Their approach to description reveals the conviction of the French philosopher that “all knowledge substantiates in horizons that are opened through perception”. Their sensitivity to the objects of the outside world reflects the living body’s perception of the world. Herbert and Ponge go beyond the perspective of an objective order of thought, prior to expression. Thus, they do not reduce reality to thinking about the world. (shrink)

In 2017, Pope Francis appointed a commission to investigate the continued suitability of the Liturgiam Authenticam Instruction, approved by John Paul II, on the rules of translating liturgical texts. This article shows the genesis of this event, not necessarily the one which is marking the next stage of a “dewojtylization” of the Church, as conservative Vatican commentators would have it. The main reason for the establishment of this commission is the controversy over the two translations into English: the official one, (...) approved in 2010, which is maintained in the spirit of Liturgiam Authenticam, and the earlier one, from 1998, done in accordance with the principles of the Instruction of Paul VI of 1969, which, in fact, recommended the use of the so-called dynamic equivalence, which in practice implied the usage of contemporary colloquial language. In order to understand the essence of the dispute, the author of this article presents the concept of dynamic equivalence developed by Pastor Eugene Nida, pointing to its strengths and weaknesses. The former mainly lies in the fact that in the years around the Council it was the first serious scientific theory of translation. That concept is also full of weaknesses, which are reflected in the significant development of translation theory over the past 60 years. The most serious of these is the fact that it reduces the act to the already existing resources of the target language thus inhibiting its development. Therefore, it is essentially the opposite of the method of St. Jerome, adopted in the Catholic tradition. According to the author the Liturgiam Authenticam Instruction takes into account several decades of biblical translation practice in the post-Conciliar spirit, with its successes and failures. The conclusions of this analysis are as follows: The absolutization of dynamic equivalence as “the only scientific theory of translation” proves that there is no cooperation between the biblical studies communities and those developing contemporary theories of The Liturgiam Authenticam Instruction focuses on what is preventing the process of desacralization of liturgy, as occurring in many Protestant Churches, but also in many post-conciliar Catholic. (shrink)

The subject of this study considers the role played by the two models in transformation of Polish society: the knightly ethos and the bourgeois ethos. The main research question is whether these patterns are competitive with each other or complementary? Must the chivalric ethos disappear from social consciousness so that a bourgeois ethos can appear in its place, or are these value systems complementary? In the literature on the subject, as well as in common knowledge, one often encounters claims that (...) one can be either a romantic or a pragmatist, and that it is impossible to combine these two attitudes neither in the sphere of ideas nor in action. It is for this reason that the romantic approach derived from the chivalric ethos is now often analyzed within the framework of the so-called critical theory. In other words, it is deconstructed in order to make room for a paradigm that appeals to utilitarianism and constructivism. The thesis of this article is as follows: the romantic chivalric paradigm, despite many differences, is not opposed to the bourgeois paradigm. These approaches serve to realize the same values and virtues, but under different historical conditions and in dissimilar social and civilizational contexts. The text is based on the analysis of the two ethical models presented in sociological literature, in selected literary texts, and in biographies of selected historical figures. The conclusion presents findings of the undertaken analysis. In the author’s opinion, the two ethoses can play positive roles in Poland’s modernization and they are not completely mutually exclusive, as it is the case in some approaches analyzing social transformations that took place in Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries. This conclusion is also valid in the times of change that Poland is facing today. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the confrontation of two ways of human fulfillment in man’s temporal existence. For half a millennium, the two main trends have been present in the European culture: the Protestant one and the Catholic one. One of their determinants are two different principles, the observance of which is to bring about the fulfillment of man in his earthly life. These respectively are: the principle of utility and the personalistic norm. The principle of utility, although it has (...) undoubtedly practical significance, cannot be the basis for the moral qualification of a human act. On the other hand, the personalistic norm, even thought it was explicitly formulated by Karol Wojtyla, it has always been present in Christian tradition and is the foundation of Catholic ethics. Nowadays it is related to the personalistic anthropology of the human person. Although twentiethcentury personalism is a philosophy of man, it has theological justification, like the anthropology of St. Thomas Aquinas. The two principles we refer to serve as the starting point for the actual task, i.e. comparing the characteristic of the human person with the postulate of securitological sciences to protect a man against threats. The article uses the following resources: 1) the works of philosophical classics of British utilitarianism and more contemporary ones concerning its criticism, 2) the works developing personalistic thought, 3) the securitological texts ; 4) the documents of the Catholic Church. The work is analytical and comparative in nature. The two analyzed and juxtaposed solutions concern two problems, i.e. the goal and method of improving the human person and the condition of the three layers of human safety. The main research hypothesis is that there is a compliance between a high level of personal safety and personalistic anthropology, the most general interpretation of which is the personalistic norm. On the ontical level, the personalistic norm defines the concept of humanity, which immediately affects interpersonal relationships marked by love. Due to its theological justification, a high level of personal safety has its own pattern of holiness which exceeds utilitarian human calculations. (shrink)

W graficznym projekcie okładki najnowszego numeru _Rocznika Filozoficznego Ignatianum _przedstawiono bramę wjazdową na zamek królewski na Wawelu, czyniąc z niej łuk triumfalny otwierający się ku drodze, rozpoznawalnej dla każdego człowieka czującego więź z dziedzictwem kulturowym świata Zachodu. Ta zdefiniowana droga to via Appia, zbudowana niegdyś z woli Appiusza Klaudiusza Ślepego, uchodząca za jeden z najstarszych traktów rzymskich. Nazywana przez samych Rzymian „królową dróg”, u człowieka wychowanego na wartościach, jakie niesie ze sobą cywilizacja Zachodu, jest nierozłącznie związana z Wiecznym Miastem. To (...) o nim pisał w sławnym epitafium Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński: „dziś w Rzymie zwyciężonym Rzym niezwyciężony”, dając wyraz narzucającej się świadomości łączenia tego, co przeszłe, z tym, czego doświadczamy jako obecne. To na tej drodze rozegrała się legendarna scena przywołana przez Henryka Sienkiewicza, w której pytanie: _Quo vadis, Domine? _[dokąd zmierzasz, Panie?] zadaje uciekający z Wiecznego Miasta apostoł Piotr spotkanemu na trakcie apijskim Chrystusowi. Siłę tego pytania rozumie każdy, kto w korzeniach klasycznych i chrześcijańskich potrafi dostrzec to wszystko, co dla kultury zachodniej jest najważniejsze nie tylko w przeszłości, ale również w przyszłości. (shrink)

The graphic design of this issue of The Ignatianum Philosophical Year- book front cover includes the entrance gate to the Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow. The gate itself is transformed into a triumphal arch opening towards the road recognizable to every person who feels a bond with the cultural heritage of the Western world. This road is the via Appia, once built by the will of Appius Claudius Caecus, and considered one of the oldest Roman tracts. Called “the queen of (...) all roads” by the Romans them- selves, it is inseparable from the Eternal City for everyone raised on the values of Western civilization. Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński wrote about it in his famous epitaph: “today in Rome defeated, Rome invincible,” express- ing this way the overwhelming awareness of connecting the past with what we experience as the present. It was on this road that the legendary scene recalled by Henryk Sienkiewicz took place, in which the question: quo vadis, Domine? is asked by the apostle Peter, fleeing from the Eternal City, to Christ he meets on the Appian Way. The power of this question is understood by anyone who is able to see in the roots of Classical and Christian culture all that is the most important for the Western culture not only in terms of its past, but also in terms of its future. (shrink)

The article deals with the perception of the Pope John Paul II and Poland in the two speeches of the Presidents of the United States of America. The George W. Bush’s speech given on the occasion of the dedication of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington DC on March 22, 2001 and the Donald Trump’s speech delivered in front of the Warsaw Uprising Monument on the Krasinski Square in Warsaw on July 8, 2017 were used as the (...) sources for the study. The former speech is a laudation in honor of the Pope from Poland, whose biography was considered by the 43rd President of the United States as one of the most interesting in human history. Among the most notable episodes of the pontificate, George W. Bush listed the 1979 pilgrimage to his homeland, the 1995 visit to Manila in Philippines, the unprecedented visits to a synagogue and a Muslim country, the forgiveness shown to Ali Ağca – the would-be assassin, and the visits to the United States during which the Pope from Poland reminded the people of human dignity and the virtues of a just society. The latter speech is a laudation on the spirit of the Polish nation. Donald Trump emphasized the steadfastness of the Poles in the struggle to preserve their cultural identity despite the loss of their homeland. He recalled the period of partition and extermination of the Polish nation by the German Nazis and the Soviet Communists during World War II. The 45th President of the United States reminded the world about famous Poles: Nicolaus Copernicus, Frederic Chopin, Casimir Pulaski, Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Saint John Paul II. He also spoke about the lasting ties between the Americans and the Poles and about the common values cherished on both sides of the Atlantic. On the example of social transformations in Poland and Europe initiated by John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Poland in 1979, Donald Trump emphasized the influence of faith in God on political and social transformations in the world. He also expressed hope for the survival of Western civilization based on faith in God and the preservation of family and freedom. (shrink)

This article is devoted to the work of Józef Czapski, a Polish painter, writer, epistolographer and diarist who died in Maisons-Laffitte in 1993. The artist was also engaged in the matters of human life and politics. The article deals solely with his paintings. After a short presentation of Czapski’s artistic biography, a more in depth analysis of his works is provided. The article uses the artist’s letters and memoirs on top of the basic literature. The analysis shows that the Czapski’s (...) artistic work constitutes a closed whole; no new work, neither drawing nor painting will be added to his legacy, but, at the same time it is open because the threads of Czapski’s art remain unclosed. Czapski’s works constitute a logical whole in the sense that one can draw a circle around which they are arranged, except that the beginning of the journey does not coincide with the end. Czapski abandoned his first, rather inept expressionist works to take up in the broad sense a challenge of Post-Impressionism. However, not satisfied with the vision of Post-Impressionism and the painting focused on pure color delectations, he returned to his initial interest in de l’horreur de la vie, absorbing the lessons and experiences that his life gave him, digesting and consequently abandoning Post-Impressionism. To him, color is understood not as Impressionism understood it, but rather, as it was treated by Expressionism, howewer, he tempered it according to the school of Post-Impressionism and the French art. Czapski’s painting completes the full circle: his journey begins with “the scary head”, experiences post-impressionism, and blossoms with paintings depicting l’horreur de la vie and anxiety hidden in the stark colors of his late landscapes. The author describes Józef Czapski’s art as the great one, what is ultimately determined by the whole output, which, like a keystone brings together all the themes: of the painter, of the writer and of the man devoted to public affairs. (shrink)

The main aim of this political philosophy study is to analyze the two fundamental ideas developed by Jean Monnet, namely, the idea of a federally united Europe and its sovereignty. This analysis is combined with an attempt to capture at least some of the essential assumptions of his philosophical ideas and their evolution. The source materials on which the article is based are primarily Monnet’s Memories, his notes and official memoranda, the correspondence from the war and postwar period and the (...) speeches he gave as the President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952-1955. They were supplemented with Memorandum of Aristide Briand, the speech of Winston Churchill in Zurich, Convention for European Economic Cooperation and Erinnerungen 1945-1953 by Konrad Adenauer. When it comes to literature, the author referred to the extensive bibliography on the subject contained in Suwerenność by Jacek Czaputowicz. The study uses the method of multidisciplinary analysis of sources and their historical, political and philosophical interpretation. The research conducted allows us to speak of certain philosophical assumptions in Monnet’s thinking about a united Europe and its future. Among the main components of his understanding we can enumerate: necessity, change, specific strength, development in stages and incompleteness which is essentially characteristic to nature. The carried out analysis also allows us to formulate the hypothesis about Monnet’s philosophy of life and action, which can be understood as a certain phenomenology of the community in its becoming, and to situate it, at least partially, within the framework of the phenomenology of Europe as formulated by Erich Przywara in this treatise Idee Europe. (shrink)

Esprit de corps is an extremely interesting research topic, as it is related to the group self-awareness of the soldiers in a given unit or sometimes even in the entire formation. A sense of uniqueness, elitism and pride in the past have been of great importance both in the training process and in maintaining high combat value in the face of battle. However, it should be noted that the “spirit of the corps” most often develops in difficult situations – it (...) is “forged in the heat of battle”. Of course, in the long run, it is also possible to educate such a community in the conditions of peace service, especially by charismatic commanders. The article describes the esprit de corps of the Polish cavalry from the times of the constitutional Kingdom of Poland and the November Uprising. As a result of the source material analysis, which was mainly based on memoirs and the previous archival research, the conclusion was drawn that in the years 1815-1831 an emotional community was formed within the cavalry corps, in both cavalry formations as well as in the individual regiments. It should be noted that until the outbreak of the November Uprising, the spirit-building process was hampered by the prior disbandment of the army of the Duchy of Warsaw and the Polish army units of the French Empire, and, in addition, due to the strict adherence to regulations. Consequently, the general cavalry esprit de corps at that time manifested itself primarily through cultivating and disseminating the memories of the events of the Napoleonic era. A strong impulse to build a “spirit of the corps” emerged after the November Night and during the combat with the Russian army, in the course of which the cavalry often distinguished itself. And even though the defeat of the November Uprising disrupted this process, it still became one of the constituent parts of the esprit de corps in the cavalry of the Second Polish Republic. (shrink)

The Tarnowski family was one of the most distinguished families in the history of the Polish Commonwealth. The times of their glory date back to the reign of Ladislaus the Short, when their progenitor, Spycimir, became one of the most important figures in the country. At the beginning of the 16th century, after losing their native Tarnów, they established a new family estate in Dzików, where they resided continuously until 1944. The story of the Tarnowski Family from Dzików is also (...) the account of their service to the motherland. The aim of this article is to present this service over the centuries, with a particular emphasis laid on their contribution to the defence of freedom of the Republic of Poland. This service resulted from the knightly ethos which was being kept alive in the family, the model for which was the figure of Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski. The attitude of the Tarnowski family, both during the 19th century national uprisings, as well as during the wars of 1920 and 1939–45 are the examples of faithfulness to this ethos and to their own past. The article was based on the published literature about the Tarnowski family and the concept of ethos. The latter was only used as a basis for defining the phenomenon. The archives were also consulted, with a particular stress on the family resources, as they show the most fully and precisely the attitude of the subsequent generations of Tarnowski towards their great ancestor. By means of critical analysis of these sources and the available literature, the author put forward the thesis that the peculiar “cult” of Hetman Jan Tarnowski, cultivated by successive family representatives, was an imperative for subsequent generations of the Tarnowski family to maintain their patriotic attitudes. An important conclusion that emerges from this article is that it shows once again how important the knightly ethos, the faith and other imponderables are in the lives of individuals and communities. (shrink)

This paper examines the type of devotion of the early modern soldiers which was referred to as “the fearing of God”. The phenomenon started in the 1560s and continued for two centuries in the Polish and Lithuanian Duchy armies. It was based on the belief in the direct intervention of God during military action, which depended on the conduct of the soldiers. The commanders-in-chief promoted the vision of reality in which crimes were equated with sins and affected the outcome of (...) wars and battles, and even determined the safety of the soldiers themselves. The acts that were displeasing to God were to result in severe punishment during battles, while piety and good behavior guaranteed success. The analysis of this issue was conducted on the basis of normative acts issued by the commanders-in-chief, called military articles, which were supplemented by the analysis of military treaties. The paper emphasizes that this concept was promoted by all commanders regardless of denomination, including Polish Brethren, Lutherans, Reformed Evangelicals and Catholics. It was placed, as a rule, at the beginning of the military articles as an arenga, providing the basis for the validity of the criminal laws. The combination of the “fear of God” and the military law was shown to have rational justification: it guaranteed a higher discipline and morale, which could be reflected in the effectiveness of the warfare conducted. The application of this idea led to the breakdown of soldier solidarity and to the belief that the misconduct of individuals affected the fate of troops and entire armies. The most important creators of this concept include Florian Zebrzydowski, Jan Chodkiewicz and Stanisław Cikowski, and at the turn of the centuries it was developed by Jan Zamoyski and Krzysztof Radziwiłł, nicknamed Piorun. The most elaborate formula in the military articles was presented in the 17th century by Krzysztof Radziwiłł II, and a century later by Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł. A hypothesis was also formulated that an old concept, which survived as one of the elements of Old Polish culture, was adopted to evaluate the Battle of Warsaw of 1920, which has been referred to as the Miracle on the Vistula, what was supposed to symbolize the causal role of God during the war. (shrink)

In the article “Settlement on Lusignan Cyprus after the Latin Conquest: The Accounts of Cypriot and other Chronicles and the Wider Context” the narratives of various chronicles of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries on settlement in Cyprus in the years following the Latin conquest, from the end of the twelfth to the early thirteenth century, will be examined and compared. The details provided by the chronicles, where the information given derived from, the biases present in the various accounts, the (...) extent to which they are accurate, especially in cases where they are corroborated or refuted by documentary evidence, will all be discussed. The chronicles that will be referred to are the thirteenth century continuation of William of Tyre, that provides the fullest account of the settlement of Latin Christians and others on Cyprus after the Latin conquest, the fifteenth century chronicle of Leontios Makhairas, the anonymous chronicle of ‘Amadi’ that is probably dateable to the early sixteenth century although for the section on thirteenth century Cypriot history it draws on earlier sources and the later sixteenth century chronicle of Florio Bustron. Furthermore, the Chorogra a and the Description of Stephen de Lusignan, two chronicles postdating the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottoman Turks in 1570, will also be referred to on the subject of settlement in thirteenth century Cyprus. By way of comparison, the final part of the paper examined the extent to which the evidence of settlement in other Mediterranean lands derives chiefly from chronicles or from documentary sources. In conclusion, it can be stated that the various accounts of settlement on Cyprus following its cession to King Guy of Jerusalem in 1192 show differences in terms of the value of the fiefs, the geographical regions from which the settlers came and the types of properties which were granted to them. The Latin kingdom of Jerusalem resembles Cyprus in that the source material for early Latin settlement is narrative, not documentary. But this is not the case for the Venetian Crete and the Hospitaller Rhodes, where the source materials recording the arrival of the first Latin settlers are wholly documentary. (shrink)

The article addresses the problem, which has not yet been analyzed in the Polish philosophical and anthropological literature, and which deals with the subject of unknowability or invisibility of God in the contemporary French phenomenology of religion. The text focuses on the ideas of transcendence, immanence and mystery as developed and further elucidated by Emmanuel Lévinas, Michel Henry and Gabriel Marcel. The author deduces from the philosophical discourse on the three concepts that the transcendence and immanence are the ideas which (...) unilaterally carry out the tasks set for them by their authors, which is “to protect” God from objectification to which the phenomenological method leads when applied to the problem at stake, in particular, as it was presented by Edmund Husserl. Not only Lévinas and Henry were in opposition to this method but so was Marcel. who had used the concept of mystery for the same reason. According to the author of the article, neither the transcendence nor the immanence but the concept of mystery is the one which «protects» God the most efficiently against objectification. From the phenomenology of religion point of view the most important thing is that in Marcel’s thought God does not appear as a phenomenon, and yet that does not exclude the religious relationship between Man and God. According to Lévinas and Henry this biblically understood relation cannot exist even though their concepts also have relatively strong foundations in the Bible. Therefore, the author of the text believes that the Marcelian concept of mystery meets the expectations of a believer better than the Lévinasian concept of transcendence and the Henrian idea of immanence. The concept of God as the Mystery as developed by Gabriel Marcel allows man to enter into a religious relationship with God by the means of prayer. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to elucidate on the role of Georg Kopp, the Bishop of Fulda and later the Bishop of Wrocław, in ending the Kulturkampf, which was the conflict between the German government and the Holy See. The source material is drawn from the German Bishops’ Conferences files, the transcripts of the Sessions of the House of Lords of Prussia and the evaluation materials of Bishop Kopp by his contemporaries. The West German historians dealt with the subject (...) of Kulturkampf after 1945. Also, Polish historians, including Jerzy Krasuski, discussed the issue in the light of its influence on the Polish territories. Despite Hans-Georg Aschoff’ biography, Bishop Kopp’s role in the Kulturkampf has not been sufficiently present, especially in Polish historiography. This article aims to fill that gap. General conclusions were formulated based on the source analysis and the literature on the subject. At the end of the 1870s, Otto von Bismarck, the German Chancellor, decided to put an end to the conflict with the Church. The negotiations on lifting the anti-Church Kulturkampf legislation occurred through the diplomatic channels between the government in Berlin and the Roman Curia. In 1882, there was a conflict in the Prussian bishopric because Georg Kopp turned out to be a supporter of concessions to the government. After this experience, he became involved in the negotiations in Rome. In 1880, 1882 and 1883, the so-called “mitigating laws” were passed to end the Kulturkampf policy. After the third law had been passed, there was an impasse in the relations between Berlin and the Holy See, as a result of which both sides had to make concessions. Kopp continued his diplomatic mission without the knowledge of other bishops and politicians from the Centre Party. However, his attempt to negotiate in the House of Lords was unsuccessful. The initiative was then taken over by Otto von Bismarck and due to his efforts the so-called First Peace Act was passed in May 1886. Some bishops criticized Bishop Kopp for his involvement. Yet, under the pressure from the Pope, the Center Party supported the Bismarck project. Thanks to Kopp’s efforts, who took responsibility for the decisions unpopular in the Church circles, Bismarck managed to end up the Kulturkampf policy. (shrink)

The main purpose of this article is to provide some new texts for studying the history of Catholic Church in XIX century. It is a small contribution to the history of Jesuits, but also the history of Poland, Greece and Turkey. The study concerns a very turbulent period in the history of the Society of Jesus, namely the rebirth of the Society in Europe and in the World. It was a very challenging time in the European history as Greece was (...) slowly regaining its independence, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was under the oppression of its occupying powers and was suffering the aftermath of its unsuccessful insurrections, and Turkey was trying to suppress the independence movements. Expelled from Russia and Prussia, the Jesuits arrived to the islands of the Aegean Sea, where they undertook the pastoral work of their fellow brethren from the times before the suppression of the Society in 1773. The research presented in this article was carried out in the Jesuit’s archive in Athens and deals primarily with “Polonica”. It is the first attempt to overview the archive under such aspect. During my research trip to Athens in 2018, Father Gabryel Marangos, the Director of Jesuit Archive in Athens, granted me the access to the collection of letters of the Polish Jesuits, which are preserved in the Athenian Archive of SJ. The method of this research was to check the files which directly regard the letters of Father Tadeusz Kuczyński. According to the Director of Athenian Archive there are more documents related to the subject, but they are dispersed among other files. The first part of the article is a brief overview of the history of Jesuits in Greece, whereas the second one is a presentation of some new sources, such as the letters of Father Tadeusz Kuczyński SJ. It is not the whole Polonica from the Athenian Archive and the remaining letters, the fragments of personal diaries, the Community Diary, Books of Charity, the Books of Bell Ringing will be presented in a coming book. The research has a pioneering character and has to be followed by further studies. In this place I would like to express my gratitude to the Greek and French Jesuits for gathering and preserving these documents. I also extend my gratitude to the governing body of the Ignatianum University for covering the costs of the research. (shrink)

This article aims to present polemical exchanges over capital punishment that were conducted in interwar Poland. By using the analytical method and the source texts found in the press and the minutes of the Codification Committee, the author wants to trace the evolution of views on the death penalty and its usefulness in the state policy. The opinions on the subject differed considerably which was common not only for the interwar period. Back in the 19th century, when the first statements (...) on capital punishment had been published in newspapers, they had ended with completely different conclusions. Advocates for the abolition of the death penalty had emphasized first of all its ineffectiveness as well as the doubts of a religious and moral nature, which had led to a conclusion that the state could not take away a person’s life. Whereas supporters of the death penalty had believed that, in view of the low level of civilisation development of individual communities, giving up the possibility to impose the death sentence could have contributed to an uncontrolled rise in crime rates. They had also emphasized that public opinion demanded the retaining of capital punishment and acting against it would have resulted in various manifestations of public unrest. The death penalty had not been abolished in Poland during the interwar period but the exchange of arguments during those years had laid the foundations for the future changes in that area. They occurred at the end of the 20th century. (shrink)

Głównym celem niniejszego tekstu jest przedstawienie bibliografii włoskiego fenomenologa Paola Valoriego. Postać ta jest prawie nieznana w Polsce, dotychczas ukazały się tylko cztery opracowania dotyczące jego twórczości1, zaś jego bibliografia nie została wcześniej opracowana ani w Polsce, ani w jego ojczyźnie.

The aim of this article is to familiarize the Polish reader with Poets and the Poetry of Poland, the first extensive anthology of the Polish literature published in English in the United States by Paweł Sobolewski. Particular emphasis was placed on the characteristics of this work, recreating the traces of reception of this work and showing the most important sources on which the author relied. The presented article also points out the importance of Sobolewski’s literary and cultural activity, as he (...) initiated multifaceted, often pioneering projects, becoming one of the leading Polish diaspora activists in the 19th century’s United States, also active in the American community. This paper was partially based on the source materials collected by Mieczysław Haiman at the Polish Museum in America, to which the access was possible thanks to a Kościuszko Foundation scholarship. The historical analysis of the sources based on the descriptive-historical paradigm was adopted as the basic tool. Noteworthy, the Poets and Poetry of Poland was the crown work of Sobolewski’s many-year mission, related to the desire to make Americans familiar with the Polish culture and to present it in representative forms. The anthology, including the translations of the works of 60 authors from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, gave an insight into the multi- faceted recognition of the biographies and literary works of eminent Polish poets, mostly belonging to the times of Romanticism and the Enlightenment. Despite the strong inspiration from Rycharski’s textbook and other sources, the final shape of the volume was influenced by the editor’s personal experiences, his reading preferences and contact with the authors. The selection of works and the structure of the conducted argument reflect the spirit of affirmation for the great tradition created by the first generation of romantics and the significance of the November Uprising, in which Sobolewski took part. (shrink)

Dear Readers, We are presenting you with another issue of The Ignatianum Philo­sophical Yearbook, which, in accordance with the current profile of the journal, contains articles on broadly understood history, philosophy, culture and literature.

Drodzy Czytelnicy, przekazujemy Wam kolejny tom „Rocznika Filozoficznego Ignatianum”, zawierający – zgodnie z aktualnym profilem pisma – artykuły o tematyce historycznej, filozoficznej oraz historyczno-literackiej.

The aim of this article is to present the person and achievements of Miralay Bonkowski Pasha, an Istanbul-born scientist and lecturer of Polish descent, about whose life little is known. Bonkowski’s articles and reports in nineteenth-century periodicals such as: Gazette Mediale d’Orient ; Journal de la Société de Pharmacie de Constantinople : L’Osmanlı and Revue Medico-Pharmaceutique 10/3 constitute the source basis of this article. The literature used in the paper thereof consists of historical studies and takes into account the latest (...) state of scientific research, published mainly in Turkish, but also in Polish. This paper uses the method of historical analysis of sources, mainly journal articles and reports, in the context of properly selected historical literature. In the light of the sources and studies, Bonkowski appears to be a socially committed scientist, taking into account a modern perspective in his research, perfectly combining scientific theory with practice. Bonkowski sought to combine science and practice with the common good in mind, bringing chemistry issues into everyday practice and offering innovative and practical solutions in this regard. Thanks to his knowledge and skills, he was appointed by the state authorities to many commissions aimed at solving key current problems, such as: raising the level of public health, fighting infectious diseases, protecting vineyards from destruction due to disease, initiating the production of rose essence. Bonkowski, the first chemist-in-chief of the Ottoman palace, worked for many years in various institutions and organizations of the Ottoman state, played a key role in the establishment and development of public health, chemistry, and pharmaceutical professions in the Ottoman state. He made a breakthrough in the field of health. At the same time, with his chemical research and his studies of infectious diseases, especially cholera, he made significant contributions to Turkish science. (shrink)

Przełomowym okresem rozwoju filozofii europejskiej jest epoka nowożytna, zaowocowała ona bowiem wieloma przełomowymi wydarzenia w historii filozofii i cywilizacji Starego Kontynentu, kształtujących także naszą współczesność. Jednym z nich jest zagadnienie ewolucji metafizyki w kierunku nowożytnej ontologii, które jest omawiane w pracy Bogusława Pazia. Recenzowana monografia została napisana przez znanego badacza historii filozofii nowożytnej, który swoją kompetencję i rzetelność w eksploracji zagadnień związanych z tym okresem rozwoju myśli filozoficznej potwierdził wieloma publikacjami.. Autor określa zasadniczy przedmiot swojej pracy jako „właśnie ów proces, (...) a celem – poddanie tematyzacji jego zasadniczych faz, w szczególności ich głównych przesłanek i czynników dynamizujących przemiany rozumienia przedmiotu metafizyki”. Proces wyłaniania się ontologii z metafizyki został przez niego podzielony na cztery etapy, co przekłada się na cztery części rozprawy. (shrink)

The aim of the work is to present the conservative views of the journalist and historian Henryk Lisicki and the role he played in the community with which he collaborated, i.e. the Krakow conservatives called the Stańczyk Circle. The source of the article are monographs, brochures, dissertations, essays and articles published in „Przegląd Polski“ by Lisicki. In order to evaluate to what extent Lisicki’s political thought was original, and to what extent it was in conformity with the Stańczyk Circle, the (...) publications of Walerian Kalinka, Stanisław Tarnowski, Michał Bobczyński, Józef Szujski and Stanisław Koźmian were also used. While working on the topic, the author made use of the works specializing in the history of Polish and Western conservative thought published by Ryszard Ludwikowski, Bogdan Szlachta, Jacek Bartyzel, Józef Szacki and the views expressed by the members of the Stańczyk Circle such as Michał Jaskólski, Wojciech Dutka, Stanisław Filipowicz, Henryk Michalak. When examining the above issues, a comparative method was used, tracing both the similarities and differences in the ideas of Lisicki and his colleagues from the Stańczyk Circle. The main thesis formulated in the work is that although Lisicki did not belong to the group of leaders, his close intellectual ties with Stanisław Koźmian gave him a respected position among Krakow conservatives. The analysis of his works confirmed that he was also capable of original reflections which focused on the attitude of the conservatives to the nineteenth-century democratization processes, the evolution of Western absolute monarchies towards the constitution democracies and the expansion of electoral rights. Hence, it was symptomatic for Lisicki and his community to argue, inter alia, for the necessity of rapprochement with moderate liberals, the aim of which was to weaken the danger coming from the revolted masses which were being under the influence of radicals. (shrink)

Drodzy Czytelnicy, po długiej przerwie spowodowanej, z jednej strony, zmianami w Redakcji, z drugiej – trwającą wiele miesięcy pandemią koronawirusa, ukazuje się kolejny numer „Rocznika Filozoficznego Ignatianum”. Nowy zespół redakcyjny postanowił rozszerzyć formułę wydawniczą o teksty z szeroko rozumianej humanistyki; zatem będą to artykuły nie tylko z dziedziny filozofii, ale również historii, nauk o kulturze i religii, teologii oraz literatury polskiej i obcej. Czasopismo zostało też otwarte na szerokie spektrum zagadnień uwzględniających misję Akademii Ignatianum jako ośrodka naukowego o charakterze katolickim. (...) Ważnym elementem tego podejścia jest kwestia śródziemnomorskiej tradycji cywilizacyjnej i dziedzictwa kulturowego, które w naszym rozumieniu są najważniejszymi źródłami wiedzy i inspiracją do badania także współczesnych problemów pojedynczych ludzi, społeczeństw i państw. (shrink)

Dear Readers,After a long break caused, on the one hand, by staff changes in the Editorial Board and, on the other, by the lingering coronavirus pandemic, another issue of the Ignatianum Philosophical Yearbook is coming out. The new editorial team has decided to expand the journal’s formula to include texts from the general humanities; thus, there will be articles not only on philosophy, but also on history, cultural and religious studies, and theology, on top of Polish and foreign literature. The (...) journal is also open to a wide range of issues that take into account the mission of the Jesuit University Ignatianum as a Catholic research center. An important element of this approach is the issue of the Mediterranean civilizational tradition and cultural heritage, which in our understanding are the most important sources of knowledge and inspiration for the study of contemporary problems of individual people, societies and states as well. (shrink)

The aim of the paper is to present how the late medieval plague pandemic affected the societies of Western and Eastern Europe. The author used chronicles and works of literature of that time, on top of the abundant literature on the subject. Based on this bibliography, he carried out a critical analysis of the content, revealing the similarities and differences in the course of the Black Death epidemic across parts of Europe. The plague was taking its toll on all age (...) groups and at all levels of society. The main reason for this was that physicians, not knowing what was causing the disease, could not help the infected for a long time. The epidemic exposed the poor level of the contemporary medics’ knowledge and their unpreparedness for saving human lives. It also showed that university studies neither equipped them with sufficient knowledge nor gave them the practical skills needed to fight the dangerous disease. The Black Death particularly disorganized the economic and social life of Western and Southern European countries. Although the plague first struck Central Europe with less intensity than it did the West, it did take its toll on it. Its subsequent waves had an especially dramatic impact on the large trading towns such as Wroclaw and Krakow. A pervasive fear of the plague also contributed to the resentment towards those seen as aliens, especially Jews. They were the ones accused of poisoning wells and supplies, and spreading the disease. In Wroclaw, the capital city of Silesia, which was then part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, the attack on Jews was initiated by John of Capistrano – the papal inquisitor. It led to a much publicized trial that resulted in the death sentences death sentences given to several dozen people. Seeking to understand the reason behind Capistrano’s actions, the author analyzed his treatise on the duties of physicians and clergy toward plague patients. It results from that work that the course of the epidemic in Central Europe, despite its local variations, was not significantly different from that observed in Western countries. (shrink)

The paper describes the state and local parliamentary activity of Marcjan Ścibor Chełmski, one of the most interesting parliamentarians in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 17th century. The text is based on archival research including the Parliament manuscript diaries, private correspondence describing the debates; published sources: instructions, parliamentary resolutions, memoirs; and studies of the history of parliamentarism, on top of the functioning of the political elite and the circulation of information. M.S. Chełmski came from a family with a strong tradition (...) of public service settled in the Krakow province. He began his career as a parliamentarian by being elected to the Sejm in 1613, and later sat in the Parliaments of: 1616, 1618, 1619, 1620, 1621, 1625, 1626/I, 1626/II, 1629/I, 1629/II, 1631, 1632, 1633, 1634, 1635, 1637/I, 1637/II and 1638. He was one of the MPs who usually had a strong presence in the Chamber of Deputies. During the debates he addressed the issues of noble freedom in the spirit hostile to absolutum dominium, economic issues, procedural issues, and religious freedom. The collected source material confirms Chełmski’s great public activity in Lesser Poland and the evolution of his political stance at the Sejm from an oppositionist during the reign of Sigismund III Vasa to a moderate supporter of the royal court. Sources indicate that Chełmski had a reputation as an esteemed legal expert. He held the dignity of Marshal of the Crown Tribunal. For over 30 years he was one of the most active participants of the local parliament life in the Krakow province. The evolution of Chełmski’s political stance during the reign of Władysław IV Vasa resulted in his nomination for a prestigious office of the Chamberlain of Krakow. (shrink)

The article presents the problem of dealing with the pestilence on the territory of the old Republic of Poland, with particular focus on the Żywiec County in the 16th to 8th century. The paper attempts to answer the questions of how the medics of that time dealt with epidemics, what actions were taken by ordinary people for whom the raging plague was often the result of the interference of demonic forces, and finally, what preventive measures against the plague were proposed (...) to the faithful by the Church. The source for the considerations is the Chronografia albo Dziejopis żywiecki [Chronography or the Żywiec Chronicle], the account of history of the town of Żywiec and the surrounding area covering the years 1400–1728, written by the mayor, Andrzej Komoniecki. The Chronicle brings back an extraordinarily colorful picture of old customs, beliefs and superstitions, as well as paramedical practices, which to our contemporary cultural sensitivity may appear bizarre, gruesome and terrifying. In preparing the article, the author also used extensive literature, primarily in the history of medicine.Among the research methods used in the study, it is worth mentioning, first of all: the explicative method, the method of document research, the method of analysis and criticism of sources, the method of cultural analysis and the method of stylistic-rhetorical analysis. In contemporary socio-cultural reality, the reading of the Chronografia takes on new meanings. In the context of the pandemic that struck the world in the 21st century, the extremely accurate accounts of the Żywiec chronicler seem particularly interesting, as they allow us to compare the attitude of our old Polish ancestors and ourselves in the face of a similar threat. This comparative leads us to believe that some of the measures taken to prevent the spread of infections, such as keeping a distance, limiting the number of participants at funerals, or not letting strangers into towns, are still taken today, while others, such as locking the sick up in huts, setting fire to infected houses, burying plague victims under fences, drowning them in rivers, or desecrating the bodies of the dead suspected of having caused the plague, are now happily forgotten. (shrink)

The vision of cooperation between the Catholic Church and the state authorities was firmly established in the consciousness of the Polish society in the interwar period. In the collective memory there is no recollection of sharp disputes between the Church and the political and social activists about the scope of recognition of Catholic principles as the basis for lawmaking. Before 1926, the government officials were not directly involved in the disputes. This changed after the May Coup, which is discussed in (...) the text. The source basis is constituted exclusively by documents produced by the state and Church offices and institutions regarding the presence of religious education and teaching in schools. Of particular cognitive value are the state documents and drafts of legal documents, memoranda of the Polish Episcopate and correspondence between state authorities and the School Committee of the Polish Episcopate and the ordinary bishops of individual dioceses. Programs published by educators and education officials associated with the ruling politicians are also an important element for learning about the views of state officials on the place of religion in the Polish school system. Apart from propaganda works written by communist educators, there is virtually no literature on these issues. Consequently, this text is a source dissertation. Thus, according to a principle accepted in the humanities, it uses the methods of analysis and synthesis. Even a cursory review of the documentation on state-church relations in matters of education and upbringing reveals the change in their character after the May Coup. Without destroying the legal order adopted in Poland, those in power and the officials subordinate to them, through a series of minor changes, tried to subordinate the Church to the state, hoping that it would become a tool for building a new citizen — the subject of the state. The sharpness of the sharpness of disputes was particularly evident in the matters of teaching and education during the 1932 school reform and the enactment of the new constitution in 1935. (shrink)

The paper presents Alfred Tarski’s debate with the semantic antinomies: the basic Liar Paradox, and its more sophisticated versions, which are currently discussed in philosophy: Strengthen Liar Paradox, Cyclical Liar Paradox, Contingent Liar Paradox, Correct Liar Paradox, Card Paradox, Yablo’s Paradox and a few others. Since Tarski, himself did not addressed these paradoxes—neither in his famous work published in 1933, nor in later papers in which he developed the Semantic Theory of Truth—therefore, We try to defend his concept of truth (...) against these antinomies. It is demonstrated that Tarskian theory of truth is resistant to the paradoxes and it is still the best solution to avoid the antinomies and remain within a classical logic, that is, accepting the laws of noncontradiction, excluded middle, and the principle of bivalence. Thus, the goal of the paper is double—firstly, to show that none of the versions of the Liar Paradox’s is a serious threat to Tarski’s concept of truth, and secondly, that Semantic Theory of Truth allows to remain within classical logic, and at the same time, avoid antinomies—which makes it the most attractive among classical theories of truth. (shrink)