Zbigniew Herbert studied philosophy at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in the years 1949–1951 and attended seminars conducted by prof. Henryk Elzenberg, whose philosophical stance had a relevant impact on the poet’s oeuvre. This work analyses Stoic heritage present in the works of both the Philosopher and the Poet, as well as presents the axiological system of Elzenberg and its meaning for the attitude of “Mr. Cogito”. Elzenberg, following Seneca, divided values into the utilitarian and perfect ones, where the (...) latter possessed the quality of dignitas (“nobleness”). The perfect values referred to the Greek notion of kalokagathia and they were of primary importance in the creation of high culture that constituted the sphere of human dignity and freedom as opposed to the existential dread, indifference of nature or historical necessity. Herbert shared his Master’s stand on the meaning of culture and the table of values in human life, which is depicted, inter alia, in the poem dedicated to the Professor To Henryk Elzenberg on the Centenary of His Birth. Elzenberg claimed that axiologization the the world equals its substantialization. Finally, the acme of his axiology became natural mysticism and the source of perfect value the “transempirical” reality which Elzenberg used to call “the Undefined”. The Professor was distanced and sceptical towards the world and society. Herbert, on the other hand, remained faithful to the Christian heritage with its confirmation of the world as it is, as well as the everyday human reality, which he treated with sympathy and uderstanding, according to the idea of Christian agape. (shrink)

This article constitutes the first part of a larger paper concerning the philosophical provenance of Mr. Cogito, the title character of poems by Zbigniew Herbert, which were published under the same title by “Czytelnik” in 1974. The poet used to study philosophy and corresponded for many years with his Master, Professor Henryk Elzenberg. The first part of the paper presents Mr. Cogito’s polemics with Cartesian apriorism, according to which only rational thinking leads to the knowledge of the truth. Herbert’s lyrical (...) character draws attention to the fallacy of Cartesian methodological reductionism; Mr. Cogito’s knowledge is individual, connected with both his mind and his sense and empirical experience. In the terminology of J.H. Newman, whose philosophy was known to Herbert, there is not merely notional knowledge, based on ratio, but the equally important real knowledge, which stems from the experience of an individual human being. (shrink)

The article constitutes the second part of a larger paper concerning the philosophical heritage of Mr. Cogito, the lyrical subject of Zbigniew Herbert’s poems. The self-consciousness of the title character is formed, quite like in P. Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of existence, in relation to the sphere of history and culture, as well as to the other. Mr. Cogito, when confronted with the war and annihilation, cannot simply use the Cartesian deductive method of reasoning in order to intelligibly prove the existence of (...) God and an immortal soul. Therefore, he refers in his philosophical thinking not merely to rationalism, but also to symbol, which more profoundly than ratio describes the nature of his existence. When challenged by boundary situations, he unsuccessfully attempts to find consolation in the Upanishads, Stoicism, or the wisdom of Chasidism. His attitude towards the modern philosophy of nature as well as to the relative motion theory is that of a sceptic; he juxtaposes them with Aristotle’s Logic. The propensity of contemporary Western civilization to follow magic or gnosis is perceived by him as a sign of self-delusion, or even self-destruction. (shrink)

The third part of the article is focused on the interpretation of a well-known poem by Zbigniew Herbert, “The Message of Mr. Cogito”. The rhetorical figure, the golden fleece of nothingness, has been interpreted in the context of Meister Eckhart’s apophatic theology, as well as the phenomenology of Bertrand Welte. Since nothingness has been described by the predicate of the golden fleece, it paradoxically comes across as something that is. The golden fleece, in turn, alludes to the ancient Greek poem (...) by Apollonius of Rhodes, in which it became a reward for the Argonauts’ virtue of courage in their fight against evil. In the ancient myths of Hellas, the golden fleece is also a symbol of divine providence and protection. Therefore nothingness, described in the poem by the predicate of the golden fleece, does not have to mean non-existence, or mere nothing, but it can point to reality which transcends the limits of human language and as such, it can be described merely in the terms of apophatic theology. For B. Welte, on the other hand, nothingness exists in the consciousness of Dasein as the inevitability of death and its ontological status is ambiguous. This is because nothingness exists as something that is. Since Dasein intends to endow his/her being-here with meaning by following the rules of ethics, the only guarantee of their rightfulness is nothingness understood as the mystery of transcendence. (shrink)