The Modes of the Existence of History in the Philosophical and Literary Writings of Stanisław Brzozowski Cover Image

Sposoby istnienia historii w twórczości filozoficznej i literackiej Stanisława Brzozowskiego
The Modes of the Existence of History in the Philosophical and Literary Writings of Stanisław Brzozowski

Author(s): Krzysztof Fiołek
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: S.Brzozowski; “Ideas"; G.Vico; historism

Summary/Abstract: From the present-day perspective, Stanisław Brzozowski’s historism seems to be one of those characteristics of his writings which combines the literary writings with the philosophical ones and point at an important clue to understand a complicated set of beliefs of the author of “Ideas”. Man, literature, and culture are regarded as historical beings, thus temporarily relative and existentially unrestrained, “unready” – as Brzozowski pointed out. The historism of Brzozowski is held under the patronage of Giambattista Vico. Brzozowski reproached the historians for disregarding in their methodologies the obvious cognitive barriers and the nature of the historical “matter”. Such issues still coincide with the reflections on the theory of history and they can be found in the books by e.g. Leszek Kołakowski and Hayden White. Brzozowski conceived of history as of culture – as a mode of existence of the people’s world beyond which one finds the nature – unfriendly and inaccessible to immediate comprehension. Literary and philosophical judgments on the essence of history are interestingly juxtaposed.

  • Issue Year: 2005
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 89-106
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish
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