Wiechowcy, klerkowie i pytanie o prawdę
Seminarians from Wiechow and the question about the truth

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the problem of intellectual values on the example of highbrow way of understanding what the truth is. On the one hand, it analyzes the viewpoints of Russian authors of the Vekhi almanac (The Signposts,1909), on the other, the viewpoints of Julian Benda as presented in La trahison de clercs (The treason of the Clercs, 1927). The confrontation of intellectual values with the world of politics carries the defined consequences. Clercal idealism distorts itself into the temporary truth, which Benda sadly ascertains. The position of Russian intellectuals is different. Their emergence is accompanied by political pressure. The attitude towards the politics of tsarism determines their selfconsciousness. The concept of “Common Wealth” becomes their idol. In this situation the authors of the Vekhi call upon the transformation of intellectual awareness: the combining of the „truth-justice” dimension with the “theoretical truth”. Behind the “practical” side of the laid out viewpoints hide metaphysical attitudes. For Benda clercal idealism is based on the platonic type of idealism whereas the authors of the Vekhi get closer to the neoplatonic metaphysics.

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