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Leszek Kołakowski
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'''Leszek Kołakowski''' (born
23 October,
1927 in
Radom,
Poland) is the most notable living
Poland Polish philosopher.
Image:Kolakowski.jpg thumb|right|220px|Photograph of Leszek Kolakowski.
Life
Due to the
Germany German occupation of Poland during
World War II Kolakowski did not attend school, but read books with occasional private lessons, and took his final exams as an external student in the underground school system. He eventually studied philosophy in
Å?ódź and earned his doctorate from
Warsaw University in
1953, later becoming a professor and chairman of its section on the history of philosophy (
1959-
1968).
On the grounds that he was an orthodox
Marxist he was sent by the party in
1950 to
Moscow on a course for promising
communist intellectuals. It was there that he became aware of, as he put it himself, "the enormity of material and spiritual desolation caused by the
Stalinist system."
Stalin's death in
1953 had the effect of splitting the
Polish United Workers' Party Polish Communist Party ranks, with some calling for democratization. Many deaths resulted from the June
1956 riots in
Poznań. In October of that year, the Communist Party chose
Wladyslaw Gomulka Władysław Gomułka as its leader, despite objections from Moscow. By then, Kołakowski had become Poland's leading revisionist Marxist. His publication of ''What Is Socialism?'' - a short, concisive critique of Stalinism - was banned in Poland, but circulated privately and was translated into English the next year.
Disillusioned with Communism, he became increasingly outspoken. He was expelled from the Communist party in
1966, dismissed from his professorship two years later, and went into exile. But his works, appearing in underground editions, continued to shape the opinions of the Polish intellectuals. His essay ''Theses on Hope and Hopelessness'', which appeared in 1971 in ''
Kultura'', a Polish-language journal published in Paris, proposed an evolutionary strategy to undermine the system. The concept of this work inspired the activities of the
Committee for the Defense of Workers and the
Flying University, of which Kołakowski was a foreign member.
Kołakowski became a visiting professor at the department of philosophy at
McGill University in
1968. In 1969 he moved to the
University of California at Berkeley. Disgusted with the stupidity of
student radicals in the USA in 1970, he became a senior research fellow at
All Souls College, Oxford. He has remained at Oxford ever since, but spent part of 1974 at
Yale University, and from 1981 to 1994 was a part-time professor on the
Committee on Social Thought and the department of philosophy at the
University of Chicago.
Quote
* "The self-deification of mankind, to which Marxism gave philosophical expression, has ended in the same way as all such attempts, whether individual or collective: it has revealed itself as the farcical aspect of human bondage." from ''Main Currents of Marxism''
Views
Kolakowski supplies a devastating critique of Marxism, and warns liberal democracies of the danger of relativism - "We should say no to those movements that would exploit freedom, only to abolish it".
His experience of Nazi and Communist rule in
Poland supplied him with a good grounding in the reality of totalitarianism.
A succinct description of his personal political views can be found in his essay [http://www.mrbauld.com/conlibsoc.html How to be a Conservate-Liberal-Socialist] which well expresses his humanity, skepticism, and sense of humour.
In his work in the history of ideas - spread over many books and articles - Kolakowski seeks to draw our attention to some of the philosophical and theological assumptions that underlie Western civilization.
His three volume history of Marxism is a classic.
Work
Kołakowski's books appeared in Poland for a long time in underground editions, playing a prominent role in shaping the Polish intellectual opposition. He continues to write both in Polish and English.
Most important works
* ''Klucz niebieski, albo opowieści budujące z historii świętej zebrane ku pouczeniu i przestrodze'' (''The Key to Heaven''), 1957
* ''13 bajek z królestwa Lailonii dla dużych i małych'' (''Tales from the Kingdom of Lailonia and the Key to Heaven''), 1963
* ''Rozmowy z diablem'' (US title: ''Conversations with the Devil'' / UK title: ''Talk of the Devil''), 1965
* ''Od Hume'a do Koła Wiedeńskiego'' (the 1 st edition:''The Alienation of Reason'', translated by Norbert Guterman, 1966/ later as ''Positivist Philosophy from Hume to the Vienna Circle''),
* ''Kultura i fetysze'' (''Toward a Marxist Humanism'', translated by Jane Zielonko Peel, and ''Marxism and Beyond''), 1967
* ''A Leszek Kołakowski Reader'', 1971
* ''Positivist Philosophy'', 1971
* ''TriQuartely 22'', 1971
* ''Obecność mitu'' (''The Presence of Myth''), 1972
* ed. ''The Socialist Idea'', 1974 (with Stuart Hampshire)
* ''Husserl and the Search for Certitude'', 1975
* ''Główne nurty marksizmu'' (''Main Currents of Marxism''), 1976 (3 vols.)
* ''Czy diabeł może być zbawiony i 27 innych kazań'', 1982
* ''Religion: If There Is No God'', 1982
* ''Bergson'', 1985
* ''Le Village introuvable'', 1986
* ''Metaphysical Horror'', 1988
* ''Pochwała niekonsekwencji'', 1989 (ed. by Zbigniew Menzel)
* ''Cywilizacja na ławie oskarżonych'', 1990 (ed. by Paweł Kłoczowski)
* ''Modernity on Endless Trial'', 1990
* ''God Owes Us Nothing: A Brief Remark on Pascal's Religion and on the Spirit of Jansenism'', 1995
* ''Freedom, Fame, Lying, and Betrayal: Essays on Everyday Life'', 1999
* ''Two Eyes of Spinoza and Other Essays on Philosophers'', 2002
* ''My Correct Views on Everything'', 2005
Awards
Kołakowski has been a fellow of scholarly societies in many countries and has received numerous academic honors and awards. Lately, in 2003, the Library of Congress awarded him the first one million dollar Kluge Prize.
*
Jurzykowski Prize (1969)
*
Erasmus Prize (1983)
*
MacArthur Fellowship (1983)
* Jefferson Award (1986)
* Award of the Polish Pen Club (1988)
*
Kluge Prize of the
Library of Congress (2004)
See also
*
Law of the Infinite Cornucopia
External links
-
Bibliography
-
Currents of Marxism''
Category:1927 births Kolakowski, Leszek
Category:Living people Kolakowski, Leszek
Category:MacArthur Fellows Kolakowski, Leszek
Category:Polish philosophers Kolakowski, Leszek
Category:Erasmus Prize winners Kolakowski, Leszek
Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Kołakowski, Leszek
de:Leszek Kołakowski
fr:Leszek Kołakowski
pl:Leszek Kołakowski
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