Dorota Pietrzyk-Reeves | Jagiellonian University (original) (raw)
Books by Dorota Pietrzyk-Reeves
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2020
The aim of this book is to present a comprehensive analysis of the political discourse that invol... more The aim of this book is to present a comprehensive analysis of the
political discourse that involved a number of authors whose political
treatises and political writings contributed to the body of works with
a strong republican character. In order to achieve this goal, I engage in
both the conceptual analysis and contextualisation of the republican
discourse, and examine its affinity with other similar discourses at the
time, including its Venetian, Florentine and English counterparts. The
purpose of such an examination and comparison is to present the republican character of the sixteenth-century political discourse in Poland–Lithuania and its original contribution, largely overlooked by scholars, to the early modern republican tradition. The sixteenth century can be seen as the most distinctive age in the history of Polish political thought.
During that period, the main political ideas built into the republican
language of politics and its rhetorical structures reflected a growing
awareness that a unique political development was taking place in
Poland, which could only be compared by its contemporaries with the
experience of the republics of Rome and Venice. Republican political
theory developed several major concepts, such as the res publica, liberty,
the supremacy of the law, civic virtue, the mixed constitution, citizenship
and self-government, which in the early modern period were translated or
adjusted to specific empirical contexts and focused thought on the
required political order.
The book contributes to the ongoing discussion and research on civil society in the context of de... more The book contributes to the ongoing discussion and research on civil society in the context of democracy and democratization. It provides a theoretical analysis of civil society, participation, the public sphere and democratic consolidation in light of normative democratic theory and the
challenges of democratic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. It also offers a novel approach to some of the key issues in that debate including corruption and democratic consolidation, active citizenship, civic unity and the rule of law as well as theories of democratization.
Finally, it asks the question as to whether a properly functioning democracy must be complemented with civil society and the numerous roles it plays in a political community of free citizens.
Neither naturalism nor culturalism gives a coherent account of human life and helps us theorise m... more Neither naturalism nor culturalism gives a coherent account of human life and helps us theorise multicultural societies. One stresses the undeniable fact of shared humanity, but ignores the equally obvious fact that human nature is culturally mediated and reconstituted and cannot by itself provide a transcendental basis for a cross-culturally valid vision of the good life; the other makes the opposite mistake. Neither grasps the two in their relationship and appreciates that human beings are at once both natural and cultural, both like and unlike, and like in unlike ways. If we are to develop a coherent conception of human beings, we need to subject each to a rigorous critique and break through their frozen polarity.
ABSTRACT "One of the main goals of this book is to demonstrate that the Polish republican discour... more ABSTRACT "One of the main goals of this book is to demonstrate that the Polish republican discourse of the sixteenth century was not only influenced by the ancient republican tradition, but can in itself be seen as a contribution to the classical republican tradition. The most important aspect of the approach presented in this book is its focus on the normative foundations of the political order of respublica, as well as presenting a well-thought delineation of the classical republican tradition, which was deeply influenced by Aristotle in contrast to modern versions of republicanism.
This is the first monograph that attempts to analyze the republican heritage of sixteenth-century Polish political thought as belonging to the classical republican tradition, while also discussing the meaning, concepts and the time-span of that tradition.
--
Przedstawiona w tej książce analiza polskich idei politycznych XVI wieku, kształtowanych w ramach dyskursu republikańskiego, jako przynależących do klasycznej tradycji republikańskiej, ukazuje zarazem istotę właściwego dla tej tradycji namysłu politycznego i znaczenie jej najważniejszych kategorii, jak i niezwykle bogaty koncepcyjnie dorobek polskich autorów późnego renesansu. Nie jest to krytyczne studium polskiej szesnastowiecznej myśli politycznej jako takiej, lecz jej głównych pojęć i koncepcji, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem ich źródeł ideowych oraz kontekstu politycznego i historycznego, w jakim były rozwijane. Najważniejsze wśród nich są pojęcia rzeczypospolitej, wspólnoty, sprawiedliwości i prawa oraz wolności (normatywne podstawy ładu politycznego), cnót obywatelskich, obyczaju, dobra publicznego i obywatelskości (moralne podstawy ładu politycznego) oraz ustroju mieszanego, władzy i zwierzchności (instytucjonalne podstawy ładu rzeczypospolitej). Tłem i punktem odniesienia dla tych dociekań jest przedstawiona w pierwszej części książki analiza klasycznej tradycji republikańskiej: antycznej, wywodzonej od Arystotelesa oraz wczesnonowożytnej, rozwijanej najszerzej w Wenecji, Florencji i w Anglii w XV i XVI wieku. Analiza ta pozwoliła ustalić i ukazać republikański wzorzec myślenia o polityce jako pewną spójną teorię ładu politycznego wykorzystywaną i rozwijaną przez polskich autorów okresu odrodzenia."
Papers by Dorota Pietrzyk-Reeves
Roczniki Filozoficzne
Celem tego artykułu jest krótka analiza republikańskiej koncepcji wolności przedstawianej w polsk... more Celem tego artykułu jest krótka analiza republikańskiej koncepcji wolności przedstawianej w polskiej i pozapolskiej teorii republikańskiej XVI wieku. Punktem wyjścia rozważań jest teza głosząca, że kategoria wolności w teorii republikańskiej jest ściśle związana z namysłem i ustaleniami dotyczącymi istoty i celu wspólnoty politycznej, określanej w tradycji rzymskiej mianem civitas libera. Wolność jest pochodną dobrze urządzonego, wolnego ładu politycznego, w którym kluczową rolę odgrywa prawo i cnota. Analizując ideę wolności republikańskiej przez pryzmat dwóch kontekstów: klasycznej tradycji republikańskiej i jej ustaleń oraz ładu społeczno-ustrojowego Rzeczypospolitej, wskazuję, że łączy się ona ściśle z innymi kluczowymi dla teorii republikańskiej kategoriami, takimi jak res publica, sprawiedliwość i prawo, cnota, ustrój mieszany oraz obywatelskość, wyrażana w ideale vita activa, i dopiero w połączeniu z nimi możliwe jest ukazanie pełnego rozumienia wolności i jej uwarunkowań.
The term we are using in this publication, ‘the Jagiellonian ideas’, is a very rich and broad cat... more The term we are using in this publication, ‘the Jagiellonian ideas’, is a very rich and broad category that includes intellectual and cultural developments of two centuries. I am going to focus on certain aspects of the political discourse and political culture that matured in the late fifteenth and at the beginning of the sixteenth century along with the mixed form of government of Rzeczpospolita. What were the key concepts that shaped public philosophy of the Jagiellonian Commonwealth whose heritage would last so long and would animate political discourse of the next two centuries? It can be argued that the project of the Jagiellonian epoch resembles the Greek paideia which meant an overall process of education that aimed at perfection of human character, at the attainment of areté. The period of the Renaissance in Poland can be seen as the most vital and the most significant for the development of Polish-Lithuanian culture including political and legal culture as well as educatio...
rodem, państwem, wolnym lynkiem, religiami, w tym z islamem, itd. Poddawana jest procesom postępu... more rodem, państwem, wolnym lynkiem, religiami, w tym z islamem, itd. Poddawana jest procesom postępującej medializacji i globalizacji. Celem niniejszej pracy jest próba przedstawienia kształtu obecnych relacji i sto sunków między społeczeństwem obywatelskim a wspomnianymi ideami czy procesa mi społecznymi, oraz pokazanie współzależności zachodzących między niektórymi istotnymi elementami życia społecznego a społeczeństwem. W niektórych przypad kach podjęto próbę określenia pól współpracy, wzajemnego przenikania się (miejsc spotkania), ale także opisania potencjalnych obszarów konfliktu, rzeczywistego czy możliwego, oraz ewentualnych konsekwencji z niego wynikających. W innych przy padkach za podstawę analizy uznano określenie stopnia przydatności współwystępujących idei czy procesów do rozwoju, przekształcania się i trwania idei społeczeństwa obywatelskiego. Określenie tych potencjalnych pól współpracy i wyznaczenie miejsc rzeczywistych czy potencjalnych konfliktów, z praktycznego punktu widzenia zwięk szy szansę empirycznej realizacji wspomnianej idei. Osiemnastoletni okres transformacji ustrojowej w Polsce i pozostałych krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, w tym także kształtowania w praktyce idei społeczeń stwa obywatelskiego, zmusza do stawiania pytań o kształt i poziom rozwoju edukacji obywatelskiej i społeczeństwa obywatelskiego. Wydaje się, że jest konieczna nawet częściowa analiza wymienionych wyżej zjawisk i procesów. Niniejsza książka jest próbą włączenia się w łączący się dyskurs naukowy. Idea społeczeństwa obywatelskiego w literaturze przedmiotu jest przedstawiona i analizowana obszernie. Niektóre z pozycji literackich zalicza się już do "klasyki" nauk społecznych. Zostały więc one wykorzystane również w niniejszej pracy, stając się w pewnej części elementem spajającym wszystkie rozważania prezentowane w pu blikacji. Do najczęściej cytowanych pozycji należy zaliczyć:
The model of deliberative democracy poses a number of difficult questions about individual ration... more The model of deliberative democracy poses a number of difficult questions about individual rationality, public reason and justification, public spiritedness, and an active and supportive public sphere. It also raises the question about what kind of civic involvement is required for the practices of democratic deliberation to be effective. The aim of this article is to examine the last question by looking at the role and value of citizenship understood in terms of participation. It argues that deliberative democracy implies a category of democratic citizens; its institutional framework calls for the activity and competence of citizenry, and consequently, the participatory forms of deliberative democracy come closest to the democratic ideal as such. Also, the model of participatory-deliberative democracy is more attractive as a truly democratic ideal than the model of formal deliberative democracy, but it certainly faces more difficulties when it comes to the practicalities, and espec...
The theoretical analysis presented in this article links the social and institutional conditions ... more The theoretical analysis presented in this article links the social and institutional conditions of democratization by looking at two rarely associated concepts, civic unity and the rule of law. It attempts to bring a novel approach to the study of democratization in a divided society such as Ukraine, building on a selection of the existing literature on the subject and focusing on the civic dimension of the process. It follows the approach of those political scientists who have challenged the “no precondition’ line in democratization research by looking precisely at context specific conditions that may sustain democracy. It is argued that the common sense of citizenship and belonging to a political community, supported by legal and institutional mechanisms and conscious effort of political elites, would contribute to the development of civil society and perhaps even democratic consolidation in the long run. Thus the civic and institutional dimensions of democratization should not b...
The Concept of Constitution in the History of Political Thought
The Tocqueville Review
This article will address the following question. Are there any cultural preconditions for capita... more This article will address the following question. Are there any cultural preconditions for capitalism and, more specifically, is there a type of ethics in which the capitalist free market system must be rooted? In order to address this question the concept of economic culture as a potentially missing prerequisite of capitalism in the postcommunist context will be used. I will first look at different narratives that portrayed capitalism in post-communist countries, specifically in Poland and Hungary. I will then focus on certain characteristics of post-communism and the social reactions to economic transition in Poland and Hungary, and hence at attitudes to capitalism and the lessons we can draw from them. The theoretical background for my analysis is the so-called cultural turn paradigm and the concept of economic culture as applied by Mariano Grondona. This article will elaborate on how post-communism affected the second birth of capitalism in Poland and Hungary and how the awareness of the inevitability of change reshaped the mindsets of people who had to face them.
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice
In recent years, political theory has benefited from a neo-republican perspective that brought to... more In recent years, political theory has benefited from a neo-republican perspective that brought to the fore the conception of a ‘republican democracy’ which assumes a robust public sphere, civic involvement, and vigilance, as well as a neo-Roman conception of liberty understood as the absence of arbitrary power. Neo-republicanism, however, has not engaged much in a wider consideration of the importance of political education in democratic societies. This article presents an approach to political education that can be inspiring for both substantive and instrumental neo-republican political theories as well as democratic theory and practice. It considers political education as primarily self-education, a process of learning that aims at greater political awareness, empowerment, and better judgment on political issues. As such, political (self-)education can be seen as liberating and as a necessary condition of active political involvement, community service, citizenship, civic intellig...
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa
Rousseau’s philosophy can be situated as a continuum between the ancient and the modern tradition... more Rousseau’s philosophy can be situated as a continuum between the ancient and the modern traditions; we argue that it does not fully belong to either and this is particularly evident in his discussion of liberty. Our point of departure is a view that in order to grasp peculiarity of Rousseaus’ understanding of liberty we need to go beyond the liberal tradition and its scheme of thinking about freedom as well as beyond the intuitive understanding of liberty. The second part of the article presents an analysis of the four different meanings of liberty that we find in Rousseau’s theory: natural, social, moral and civil. The most important for political philosophy is his discussion of the shift from the natural to social and civil liberty and the insistence that true freedom cannot be totally separated from morality. Finally, we discuss some of the contemporary interpretations of Rousseau’s political thought which often emphasize one of the different meanings of liberty that we find in h...
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2020
The aim of this book is to present a comprehensive analysis of the political discourse that invol... more The aim of this book is to present a comprehensive analysis of the
political discourse that involved a number of authors whose political
treatises and political writings contributed to the body of works with
a strong republican character. In order to achieve this goal, I engage in
both the conceptual analysis and contextualisation of the republican
discourse, and examine its affinity with other similar discourses at the
time, including its Venetian, Florentine and English counterparts. The
purpose of such an examination and comparison is to present the republican character of the sixteenth-century political discourse in Poland–Lithuania and its original contribution, largely overlooked by scholars, to the early modern republican tradition. The sixteenth century can be seen as the most distinctive age in the history of Polish political thought.
During that period, the main political ideas built into the republican
language of politics and its rhetorical structures reflected a growing
awareness that a unique political development was taking place in
Poland, which could only be compared by its contemporaries with the
experience of the republics of Rome and Venice. Republican political
theory developed several major concepts, such as the res publica, liberty,
the supremacy of the law, civic virtue, the mixed constitution, citizenship
and self-government, which in the early modern period were translated or
adjusted to specific empirical contexts and focused thought on the
required political order.
The book contributes to the ongoing discussion and research on civil society in the context of de... more The book contributes to the ongoing discussion and research on civil society in the context of democracy and democratization. It provides a theoretical analysis of civil society, participation, the public sphere and democratic consolidation in light of normative democratic theory and the
challenges of democratic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. It also offers a novel approach to some of the key issues in that debate including corruption and democratic consolidation, active citizenship, civic unity and the rule of law as well as theories of democratization.
Finally, it asks the question as to whether a properly functioning democracy must be complemented with civil society and the numerous roles it plays in a political community of free citizens.
Neither naturalism nor culturalism gives a coherent account of human life and helps us theorise m... more Neither naturalism nor culturalism gives a coherent account of human life and helps us theorise multicultural societies. One stresses the undeniable fact of shared humanity, but ignores the equally obvious fact that human nature is culturally mediated and reconstituted and cannot by itself provide a transcendental basis for a cross-culturally valid vision of the good life; the other makes the opposite mistake. Neither grasps the two in their relationship and appreciates that human beings are at once both natural and cultural, both like and unlike, and like in unlike ways. If we are to develop a coherent conception of human beings, we need to subject each to a rigorous critique and break through their frozen polarity.
ABSTRACT "One of the main goals of this book is to demonstrate that the Polish republican discour... more ABSTRACT "One of the main goals of this book is to demonstrate that the Polish republican discourse of the sixteenth century was not only influenced by the ancient republican tradition, but can in itself be seen as a contribution to the classical republican tradition. The most important aspect of the approach presented in this book is its focus on the normative foundations of the political order of respublica, as well as presenting a well-thought delineation of the classical republican tradition, which was deeply influenced by Aristotle in contrast to modern versions of republicanism.
This is the first monograph that attempts to analyze the republican heritage of sixteenth-century Polish political thought as belonging to the classical republican tradition, while also discussing the meaning, concepts and the time-span of that tradition.
--
Przedstawiona w tej książce analiza polskich idei politycznych XVI wieku, kształtowanych w ramach dyskursu republikańskiego, jako przynależących do klasycznej tradycji republikańskiej, ukazuje zarazem istotę właściwego dla tej tradycji namysłu politycznego i znaczenie jej najważniejszych kategorii, jak i niezwykle bogaty koncepcyjnie dorobek polskich autorów późnego renesansu. Nie jest to krytyczne studium polskiej szesnastowiecznej myśli politycznej jako takiej, lecz jej głównych pojęć i koncepcji, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem ich źródeł ideowych oraz kontekstu politycznego i historycznego, w jakim były rozwijane. Najważniejsze wśród nich są pojęcia rzeczypospolitej, wspólnoty, sprawiedliwości i prawa oraz wolności (normatywne podstawy ładu politycznego), cnót obywatelskich, obyczaju, dobra publicznego i obywatelskości (moralne podstawy ładu politycznego) oraz ustroju mieszanego, władzy i zwierzchności (instytucjonalne podstawy ładu rzeczypospolitej). Tłem i punktem odniesienia dla tych dociekań jest przedstawiona w pierwszej części książki analiza klasycznej tradycji republikańskiej: antycznej, wywodzonej od Arystotelesa oraz wczesnonowożytnej, rozwijanej najszerzej w Wenecji, Florencji i w Anglii w XV i XVI wieku. Analiza ta pozwoliła ustalić i ukazać republikański wzorzec myślenia o polityce jako pewną spójną teorię ładu politycznego wykorzystywaną i rozwijaną przez polskich autorów okresu odrodzenia."
Roczniki Filozoficzne
Celem tego artykułu jest krótka analiza republikańskiej koncepcji wolności przedstawianej w polsk... more Celem tego artykułu jest krótka analiza republikańskiej koncepcji wolności przedstawianej w polskiej i pozapolskiej teorii republikańskiej XVI wieku. Punktem wyjścia rozważań jest teza głosząca, że kategoria wolności w teorii republikańskiej jest ściśle związana z namysłem i ustaleniami dotyczącymi istoty i celu wspólnoty politycznej, określanej w tradycji rzymskiej mianem civitas libera. Wolność jest pochodną dobrze urządzonego, wolnego ładu politycznego, w którym kluczową rolę odgrywa prawo i cnota. Analizując ideę wolności republikańskiej przez pryzmat dwóch kontekstów: klasycznej tradycji republikańskiej i jej ustaleń oraz ładu społeczno-ustrojowego Rzeczypospolitej, wskazuję, że łączy się ona ściśle z innymi kluczowymi dla teorii republikańskiej kategoriami, takimi jak res publica, sprawiedliwość i prawo, cnota, ustrój mieszany oraz obywatelskość, wyrażana w ideale vita activa, i dopiero w połączeniu z nimi możliwe jest ukazanie pełnego rozumienia wolności i jej uwarunkowań.
The term we are using in this publication, ‘the Jagiellonian ideas’, is a very rich and broad cat... more The term we are using in this publication, ‘the Jagiellonian ideas’, is a very rich and broad category that includes intellectual and cultural developments of two centuries. I am going to focus on certain aspects of the political discourse and political culture that matured in the late fifteenth and at the beginning of the sixteenth century along with the mixed form of government of Rzeczpospolita. What were the key concepts that shaped public philosophy of the Jagiellonian Commonwealth whose heritage would last so long and would animate political discourse of the next two centuries? It can be argued that the project of the Jagiellonian epoch resembles the Greek paideia which meant an overall process of education that aimed at perfection of human character, at the attainment of areté. The period of the Renaissance in Poland can be seen as the most vital and the most significant for the development of Polish-Lithuanian culture including political and legal culture as well as educatio...
rodem, państwem, wolnym lynkiem, religiami, w tym z islamem, itd. Poddawana jest procesom postępu... more rodem, państwem, wolnym lynkiem, religiami, w tym z islamem, itd. Poddawana jest procesom postępującej medializacji i globalizacji. Celem niniejszej pracy jest próba przedstawienia kształtu obecnych relacji i sto sunków między społeczeństwem obywatelskim a wspomnianymi ideami czy procesa mi społecznymi, oraz pokazanie współzależności zachodzących między niektórymi istotnymi elementami życia społecznego a społeczeństwem. W niektórych przypad kach podjęto próbę określenia pól współpracy, wzajemnego przenikania się (miejsc spotkania), ale także opisania potencjalnych obszarów konfliktu, rzeczywistego czy możliwego, oraz ewentualnych konsekwencji z niego wynikających. W innych przy padkach za podstawę analizy uznano określenie stopnia przydatności współwystępujących idei czy procesów do rozwoju, przekształcania się i trwania idei społeczeństwa obywatelskiego. Określenie tych potencjalnych pól współpracy i wyznaczenie miejsc rzeczywistych czy potencjalnych konfliktów, z praktycznego punktu widzenia zwięk szy szansę empirycznej realizacji wspomnianej idei. Osiemnastoletni okres transformacji ustrojowej w Polsce i pozostałych krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, w tym także kształtowania w praktyce idei społeczeń stwa obywatelskiego, zmusza do stawiania pytań o kształt i poziom rozwoju edukacji obywatelskiej i społeczeństwa obywatelskiego. Wydaje się, że jest konieczna nawet częściowa analiza wymienionych wyżej zjawisk i procesów. Niniejsza książka jest próbą włączenia się w łączący się dyskurs naukowy. Idea społeczeństwa obywatelskiego w literaturze przedmiotu jest przedstawiona i analizowana obszernie. Niektóre z pozycji literackich zalicza się już do "klasyki" nauk społecznych. Zostały więc one wykorzystane również w niniejszej pracy, stając się w pewnej części elementem spajającym wszystkie rozważania prezentowane w pu blikacji. Do najczęściej cytowanych pozycji należy zaliczyć:
The model of deliberative democracy poses a number of difficult questions about individual ration... more The model of deliberative democracy poses a number of difficult questions about individual rationality, public reason and justification, public spiritedness, and an active and supportive public sphere. It also raises the question about what kind of civic involvement is required for the practices of democratic deliberation to be effective. The aim of this article is to examine the last question by looking at the role and value of citizenship understood in terms of participation. It argues that deliberative democracy implies a category of democratic citizens; its institutional framework calls for the activity and competence of citizenry, and consequently, the participatory forms of deliberative democracy come closest to the democratic ideal as such. Also, the model of participatory-deliberative democracy is more attractive as a truly democratic ideal than the model of formal deliberative democracy, but it certainly faces more difficulties when it comes to the practicalities, and espec...
The theoretical analysis presented in this article links the social and institutional conditions ... more The theoretical analysis presented in this article links the social and institutional conditions of democratization by looking at two rarely associated concepts, civic unity and the rule of law. It attempts to bring a novel approach to the study of democratization in a divided society such as Ukraine, building on a selection of the existing literature on the subject and focusing on the civic dimension of the process. It follows the approach of those political scientists who have challenged the “no precondition’ line in democratization research by looking precisely at context specific conditions that may sustain democracy. It is argued that the common sense of citizenship and belonging to a political community, supported by legal and institutional mechanisms and conscious effort of political elites, would contribute to the development of civil society and perhaps even democratic consolidation in the long run. Thus the civic and institutional dimensions of democratization should not b...
The Concept of Constitution in the History of Political Thought
The Tocqueville Review
This article will address the following question. Are there any cultural preconditions for capita... more This article will address the following question. Are there any cultural preconditions for capitalism and, more specifically, is there a type of ethics in which the capitalist free market system must be rooted? In order to address this question the concept of economic culture as a potentially missing prerequisite of capitalism in the postcommunist context will be used. I will first look at different narratives that portrayed capitalism in post-communist countries, specifically in Poland and Hungary. I will then focus on certain characteristics of post-communism and the social reactions to economic transition in Poland and Hungary, and hence at attitudes to capitalism and the lessons we can draw from them. The theoretical background for my analysis is the so-called cultural turn paradigm and the concept of economic culture as applied by Mariano Grondona. This article will elaborate on how post-communism affected the second birth of capitalism in Poland and Hungary and how the awareness of the inevitability of change reshaped the mindsets of people who had to face them.
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice
In recent years, political theory has benefited from a neo-republican perspective that brought to... more In recent years, political theory has benefited from a neo-republican perspective that brought to the fore the conception of a ‘republican democracy’ which assumes a robust public sphere, civic involvement, and vigilance, as well as a neo-Roman conception of liberty understood as the absence of arbitrary power. Neo-republicanism, however, has not engaged much in a wider consideration of the importance of political education in democratic societies. This article presents an approach to political education that can be inspiring for both substantive and instrumental neo-republican political theories as well as democratic theory and practice. It considers political education as primarily self-education, a process of learning that aims at greater political awareness, empowerment, and better judgment on political issues. As such, political (self-)education can be seen as liberating and as a necessary condition of active political involvement, community service, citizenship, civic intellig...
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa
Rousseau’s philosophy can be situated as a continuum between the ancient and the modern tradition... more Rousseau’s philosophy can be situated as a continuum between the ancient and the modern traditions; we argue that it does not fully belong to either and this is particularly evident in his discussion of liberty. Our point of departure is a view that in order to grasp peculiarity of Rousseaus’ understanding of liberty we need to go beyond the liberal tradition and its scheme of thinking about freedom as well as beyond the intuitive understanding of liberty. The second part of the article presents an analysis of the four different meanings of liberty that we find in Rousseau’s theory: natural, social, moral and civil. The most important for political philosophy is his discussion of the shift from the natural to social and civil liberty and the insistence that true freedom cannot be totally separated from morality. Finally, we discuss some of the contemporary interpretations of Rousseau’s political thought which often emphasize one of the different meanings of liberty that we find in h...
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 2020
In recent years, political theory has benefited from a neo-republican perspective that brought to... more In recent years, political theory has benefited from a neo-republican perspective that brought to the fore the conception of a ‘republican democracy’ which assumes a robust public sphere, civic involvement, and vigilance, as well as a neo-Roman conception of liberty understood as the absence of arbitrary power. Neo-republicanism, however, has not engaged much in a wider consideration of the importance of political education in democratic societies. This article presents an approach to political education that can be inspiring for both substantive and instrumental neo-republican political theories as well as democratic theory and practice. It considers political education as primarily self-education, a process of learning that aims at greater political awareness, empowerment, and better judgment on political issues. As such, political (self-)education can be seen as liberating and as a necessary condition of active political involvement, community service, citizenship, civic intelligence and political liberty.
The Tocqueville Review/La Revue Tocqueville,, 2019
This article will address the following question. Are there any cultural preconditions for capita... more This article will address the following question. Are there any
cultural preconditions for capitalism and, more specifically, is there a
type of ethics in which the capitalist free market system must be
rooted? In order to address this question the concept of economic
culture as a potentially missing prerequisite of capitalism in the postcommunist context will be used. I will first look at different narratives that portrayed capitalism in post-communist countries, specifically in Poland and Hungary. I will then focus on certain characteristics of post-communism and the social reactions to economic transition in Poland and Hungary, and hence at attitudes to capitalism and the lessons we can draw from them. The theoretical background for my analysis is the so-called cultural turn paradigm and the concept of economic culture as applied by Mariano Grondona. This article will elaborate on how post-communism affected the second birth of capitalism in Poland and Hungary and how the awareness of the
inevitability of change reshaped the mindsets of people who had to
face them.
Rousseau’s philosophy can be situated as a continuum between the ancient and the modern tradition... more Rousseau’s philosophy can be situated as a continuum between the ancient and the modern traditions; we argue that it does not fully belong to either and this is particularly evident in his discussion of liberty. Our point of departure is a view that in order to grasp peculiarity of Rousseaus’ understanding of liberty we need to go beyond the liberal tradition and its scheme of thinking about freedom as well as beyond the intuitive understanding of liberty. The second part of the article presents an analysis of the four different meanings of liberty that we find in Rousseau’s theory: natural, social, moral and civil. The most important for political philosophy is his discussion of the shift from the natural to social and civil liberty and the insistence that true freedom cannot be totally separated from morality. Finally, we discuss some of the contemporary interpretations of Rousseau’s political thought which often emphasize one of the different meanings of liberty that we find in his writings.
The aim of this paper is to re-examine the well-known distinction between civic and ethnic nation... more The aim of this paper is to re-examine the well-known distinction between
civic and ethnic nationalisms and its application to the Central European context after the First World War. Although scholars associate ethnic nationalism primarily with this part of Europe, the establishment of multiethnic states such as the Polish Republic, Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia after 1918 suggests that what was at stake was civic nationalism: a nationhood that reflects common citizenship of political community rather than common culture and ethnicity. However, the question is why there was so much tension on ethnic grounds between different national groups and why in some cases ethnic nationalism prevailed. This is too complex an issue to be explained in one paper, my
aim is more modest and concerns the validity of the distinction between civic and ethnic nationalism in Eastern and Central Europe in the interwar period.
Normative political theory was developed in ancient Greece and provided the foundations for polit... more Normative political theory was developed in ancient Greece and provided the foundations for political research. Its role was never questioned until the rise of logical positivism and empirical social science with its claims to be truly scientifi c' that is, value neutral. Th e article starts with a short overview of this controversy and provides an analysis of the nature of normative theorizing, the structure of a normative argument and the role of normative political theory. Th e last section focuses on the problematic relationship between empirical and normative research. It is argued that political philosophy can be practical, but before it becomes oriented towards practical goals, it should deal with purely deductive fact-insensitive principles.
In this paper I would like to address one of the main features of communist ideology which is its... more In this paper I would like to address one of the main features of communist ideology which is its one-dimensional conception of the person that totally undermined the spiritual dimension of human beings and that resulted in a rationally constructed political and social order. Such an approach can be called an anthropological error. It accorded with instrumental Cartesian rationality that gave primacy to a self-liberating intellect – the constructor of both the person and the world outside. I look at some philosophical and political consequences of this type of reasoning about humans and their goals in Soviet-type systems that produced what Milosz aptly called the captive mind. This conception proved to be destructive and self-refuting, both politically and morally. The intellectual foundations of communism can be found in modernity, in mass consciousness, and in philosophical and political rationalism. The rise of science and rationalism provided the scientific foundation for the social and political order and, consequently, led to a perspective that combined Enlightenment rationalism with Hegelian historical determinism. Totalitarianism represents the culmination of a modern historical trend towards the elimination of the political; it treats the commonwealth as a product of human construction.