Abstract
In his texts, Józef Tischner (1930–2000) referred to significant problems characteristic of the end of the communist regime and the first years of the liberal-democratic system in Poland. He tried to understand, among other things, the sources of Polish society’s disappointment with their regained political and economic freedom. This article discusses the late period of Tischner’s life and work, when his philosophy was heavily influenced by the ideas of Charles Taylor. On the one hand, the author analyzes Tischner’s attitude toward the concept of ordinary life, while on the other, Tischner’s understanding of solidarity combined with the concept of the spirit of capitalism. The article shows numerous similarities and significant differences between the way of thinking of both philosophers. The former concern above all the consentaneous assessment of the disappearance of heroism in liberal-democratic societies, while the latter concern the discrepancies in the assessment of the possibility of fully implementing the idea of solidarity in these societies.
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Notes
Kwieciński: “There are several conceptions and programs of the state's ‘renewal’ with socialization as a goal; the ‘renewal’ is generally seen as transforming the State so that it will effectively serve the society and endow it with more autonomy in constructing and controlling the state” (p. 46). Ackerman: “From Warsaw to Moscow, Havana to Beijing, a specter haunts the world as if risen from the grave: the return of revolutionary democratic liberalism. This reappearance on the world stage has surprised liberals. Modern liberal thought has taken an antirevolutionary turn. Its proponents are unprepared to assimilate the meaning of the present historical moment” (p. 5).
Tischner reflects on texts published in 1997 by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Theological Outlines. Divine Names. Mystical Theology. Letters, trans. M. Dzielska, Kraków: Publishing House “Znak.”
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This study was funded by a Kazimierz Wielki University internal grant.
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Kostyło, P. Ordinary life and the tragedy of solidarity. Stud East Eur Thought 71, 331–343 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-019-09351-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-019-09351-4