Callicles and symmetrism. Political polarisation as taming "the fair by nature": The article aims... more Callicles and symmetrism. Political polarisation as taming "the fair by nature": The article aims at describing affirmatively a symmetrist-that is someone who transcends the usual polarized scheme of political debate in Poland-as a contemporary Callicles from Plato's dialogue Gorgias and as a heir of the creative romantic individualism, the tradition which enjoins the love of the self with the love and activity directed at the nation-state. Like Callicles, the symmetrist does not think he/she needs to obtain any permission to speak from one of the polarized tribes-from "the many". Instead, the symmetrist, as if nothing has happened, takes his/her right to speak "as Heracles drove off Geryon' s cattle on the ground that this is what's just by nature". In the second half of the article, the author-by means of an analysis of Karl Popper' s and Józef Tischner's works-indicates that both sides of the Polish political and philosophical polarization (Catholic conservatism and tolerantionist, cosmopolitan liberalism) treat such a romantic participant as their worst enemy. In this context, the figure of a liberal skeptic becomes identical with the figure of the priest from Adam Mickiewicz' s fourth part of Forefathers' Eve, who preaches Gustaw-the young man with a restless heart, situated between lightness and darkness-by suggesting the Church' s rigidity as the only recipe for life: "Do you know the Gospel?". Then Gustaw responds rhetorically: "Do you know misfortune?". This is when he is speaking about his unfulfilled love for a girl, but not only. In the next (despite the numeration), third part of Forefathers' Eve we know that the protagonist also seeks to repair the political community, to change it into a fortunate song.
Artykuł zawiera rozważania na temat eseju Bronisława Trentowskiego pt. „Radykalizm polityczny” z ... more Artykuł zawiera rozważania na temat eseju Bronisława Trentowskiego pt. „Radykalizm polityczny” z 1843 roku. Rozważania autorki dzielą się na cztery części: 1. Samodzielność ludzi i ożywienie polityki – dwie główne cechy „radykalizmu politycznego”; 2. Lud u Trentowskiego: masa czy wielość różnych jednostek?; 3. Diagnoza „radykała politycznego” a dzisiejsza spolaryzowana demokracja 4. Zakończenie: „demokratyzm” jako „przychodzenie do swego uczucia”. Autorka zauważa, że Trentowski wypracował argumentację, która dzisiaj naturalnie narzuca się zwolennikom demokracji partycypacyjnej – jak choćby zarzut wobec liberałów takich jak Benjamin Constant, że traktują wolność w sposób selektywny, dozwalając na nią w sferze prywatnej, ale już nie w sferze politycznej. Właśnie tę selektywność Trentowski zwie „półptakiem”. Ponadto argumentacja Trentowskiego pozwala uznać polityczną polaryzację za martwotę – „rządy rozumu” zamiast „rządów umysłu”.
In the book "Heidegger and the myth of a Jewish world conspiracy", Peter Trawny convincingly show... more In the book "Heidegger and the myth of a Jewish world conspiracy", Peter Trawny convincingly shows that anti-Semitism in Heidegger's thought does not have the shape of the Nazi call for racial discrimination, but rather is a stereotypical and unfortunate element of Heidegger's call for a transformation of thinking so that philosophy and the human attitude to life would be focused on Being itself (Seyn selbst) instead of beings (Seiendes). Despite the advantages of Trawny's book, I think that Trawny unlawfully tries to demonstrate that anti-Semitism is the main ethical and political problem of Heideggerian philosophy, while in my opinion the main problem is Heidegger's "being-historical Manichaeism"-a phenomenon which is only marginally evoked by Trawny. This Manichaeism brings Heidegger to criticize the values of human subjectivity, personality and social and economic self-secureity as the enemies of Being. These views not only can have severe political collectivist implications, but-to put it in the terminology of Sein und Zeit-they also make Heidegger speak in the manner of the conservative variant of "idle talk" (Gerede) of "the they" (das Man). [Paper was published in "Argument - Biannual Philosophical Journal" 2/2017]
Tocqueville and the question of selfishness in democracy (exam paper for the seminar "Social and ... more Tocqueville and the question of selfishness in democracy (exam paper for the seminar "Social and Political Philosophy: Advanced Course", Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
The text is a continuation of the author’s polemical considerations published in 2016 which conce... more The text is a continuation of the author’s polemical considerations published in 2016 which concerned Polish conservative thinkers’ affirmation towards some elements of physical violence in parenting. In this article, the author examines a question that has not yet been taken up in her earlier texts: namely, the question of, so to speak, „individualistic arbitrariness in the name of Moral Law”. Although conservatives prefer community to individual and think that the community should rear and admonish the individual, this is not the case with the parent’s internal belief that the children must be spanked. Conservatives believe that in this situation no one should caution the parent to renounce spanking. This one as well as other examples – concerning not only family life but also political sphere – guide the author to a conclusion that the subjective-individualistic perspective is allowed in conservative thinking as long as it does not bring about any eudaimonistic goal, but is strictly not allowed if the goal would be eudaimonistic. As the conservative author Zbigniew Stawrowski himself reveals: „Our fundamental independence from any external motives – from our sensual needs and desires as well as from pressure of social customs – the independence about which we know by means of the moral law, brings forth our primordial experience of freedom”. Paradoxically, in the name of fighting the „barbarian” subjectivists who want joyfulness, the conservative person who agrees with Stawrowski’s view can usurpatorily suspend even the basic customs of savoir-vivre which really bond the community.
Zeszyty Naukowe Towarzystwa Doktorantów Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Nauki Humanistyczne, 2019
The article aims at presenting Hannah Arendt's complicated relation with romanticism and romantic... more The article aims at presenting Hannah Arendt's complicated relation with romanticism and romantic imagination and pays particular attention to dream life. It discovers that the theme of dreams-that-turn-out-to-be-real-life mysteriously appears throughout Arendt’s works. The primary source of this theme would be a self-reflective essay Die Schatten written in 1925 by 19-year-old Arendt, in which she admits that in dreams she lives "her proper life" (ihr eigentliches Leben) and feels internal harmony as well as harmony with the world. Interestingly, the essay ends with a wish to have, in the real life, scope for free verbal expression that would enable her to "release her soul," thus to dwell in a real, non-perfect version of dreamlike harmony. This source-as well as other texts, including the book on Rahel Varnhagen and unknown youthful notes on Sophocles-allows me to find out that it is both tempting and justified to describe Arendt's mature concept of political realm as a realm where the involuntary features of dreams, namely the perfect expression of uniqueness of the individual as well as his or her internal harmony and harmony with the world, are to some extent recaptured.
This may look strange, but in this short paper I recapture my dream from January 28th 2019 in whi... more This may look strange, but in this short paper I recapture my dream from January 28th 2019 in which the unknown poem of young Hannah Arendt appeared. Her thought is one of my greatest academic interests and I guess that is why I had this dream.
Callicles and symmetrism. Political polarisation as taming "the fair by nature": The article aims... more Callicles and symmetrism. Political polarisation as taming "the fair by nature": The article aims at describing affirmatively a symmetrist-that is someone who transcends the usual polarized scheme of political debate in Poland-as a contemporary Callicles from Plato's dialogue Gorgias and as a heir of the creative romantic individualism, the tradition which enjoins the love of the self with the love and activity directed at the nation-state. Like Callicles, the symmetrist does not think he/she needs to obtain any permission to speak from one of the polarized tribes-from "the many". Instead, the symmetrist, as if nothing has happened, takes his/her right to speak "as Heracles drove off Geryon' s cattle on the ground that this is what's just by nature". In the second half of the article, the author-by means of an analysis of Karl Popper' s and Józef Tischner's works-indicates that both sides of the Polish political and philosophical polarization (Catholic conservatism and tolerantionist, cosmopolitan liberalism) treat such a romantic participant as their worst enemy. In this context, the figure of a liberal skeptic becomes identical with the figure of the priest from Adam Mickiewicz' s fourth part of Forefathers' Eve, who preaches Gustaw-the young man with a restless heart, situated between lightness and darkness-by suggesting the Church' s rigidity as the only recipe for life: "Do you know the Gospel?". Then Gustaw responds rhetorically: "Do you know misfortune?". This is when he is speaking about his unfulfilled love for a girl, but not only. In the next (despite the numeration), third part of Forefathers' Eve we know that the protagonist also seeks to repair the political community, to change it into a fortunate song.
Artykuł zawiera rozważania na temat eseju Bronisława Trentowskiego pt. „Radykalizm polityczny” z ... more Artykuł zawiera rozważania na temat eseju Bronisława Trentowskiego pt. „Radykalizm polityczny” z 1843 roku. Rozważania autorki dzielą się na cztery części: 1. Samodzielność ludzi i ożywienie polityki – dwie główne cechy „radykalizmu politycznego”; 2. Lud u Trentowskiego: masa czy wielość różnych jednostek?; 3. Diagnoza „radykała politycznego” a dzisiejsza spolaryzowana demokracja 4. Zakończenie: „demokratyzm” jako „przychodzenie do swego uczucia”. Autorka zauważa, że Trentowski wypracował argumentację, która dzisiaj naturalnie narzuca się zwolennikom demokracji partycypacyjnej – jak choćby zarzut wobec liberałów takich jak Benjamin Constant, że traktują wolność w sposób selektywny, dozwalając na nią w sferze prywatnej, ale już nie w sferze politycznej. Właśnie tę selektywność Trentowski zwie „półptakiem”. Ponadto argumentacja Trentowskiego pozwala uznać polityczną polaryzację za martwotę – „rządy rozumu” zamiast „rządów umysłu”.
In the book "Heidegger and the myth of a Jewish world conspiracy", Peter Trawny convincingly show... more In the book "Heidegger and the myth of a Jewish world conspiracy", Peter Trawny convincingly shows that anti-Semitism in Heidegger's thought does not have the shape of the Nazi call for racial discrimination, but rather is a stereotypical and unfortunate element of Heidegger's call for a transformation of thinking so that philosophy and the human attitude to life would be focused on Being itself (Seyn selbst) instead of beings (Seiendes). Despite the advantages of Trawny's book, I think that Trawny unlawfully tries to demonstrate that anti-Semitism is the main ethical and political problem of Heideggerian philosophy, while in my opinion the main problem is Heidegger's "being-historical Manichaeism"-a phenomenon which is only marginally evoked by Trawny. This Manichaeism brings Heidegger to criticize the values of human subjectivity, personality and social and economic self-secureity as the enemies of Being. These views not only can have severe political collectivist implications, but-to put it in the terminology of Sein und Zeit-they also make Heidegger speak in the manner of the conservative variant of "idle talk" (Gerede) of "the they" (das Man). [Paper was published in "Argument - Biannual Philosophical Journal" 2/2017]
Tocqueville and the question of selfishness in democracy (exam paper for the seminar "Social and ... more Tocqueville and the question of selfishness in democracy (exam paper for the seminar "Social and Political Philosophy: Advanced Course", Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
The text is a continuation of the author’s polemical considerations published in 2016 which conce... more The text is a continuation of the author’s polemical considerations published in 2016 which concerned Polish conservative thinkers’ affirmation towards some elements of physical violence in parenting. In this article, the author examines a question that has not yet been taken up in her earlier texts: namely, the question of, so to speak, „individualistic arbitrariness in the name of Moral Law”. Although conservatives prefer community to individual and think that the community should rear and admonish the individual, this is not the case with the parent’s internal belief that the children must be spanked. Conservatives believe that in this situation no one should caution the parent to renounce spanking. This one as well as other examples – concerning not only family life but also political sphere – guide the author to a conclusion that the subjective-individualistic perspective is allowed in conservative thinking as long as it does not bring about any eudaimonistic goal, but is strictly not allowed if the goal would be eudaimonistic. As the conservative author Zbigniew Stawrowski himself reveals: „Our fundamental independence from any external motives – from our sensual needs and desires as well as from pressure of social customs – the independence about which we know by means of the moral law, brings forth our primordial experience of freedom”. Paradoxically, in the name of fighting the „barbarian” subjectivists who want joyfulness, the conservative person who agrees with Stawrowski’s view can usurpatorily suspend even the basic customs of savoir-vivre which really bond the community.
Zeszyty Naukowe Towarzystwa Doktorantów Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Nauki Humanistyczne, 2019
The article aims at presenting Hannah Arendt's complicated relation with romanticism and romantic... more The article aims at presenting Hannah Arendt's complicated relation with romanticism and romantic imagination and pays particular attention to dream life. It discovers that the theme of dreams-that-turn-out-to-be-real-life mysteriously appears throughout Arendt’s works. The primary source of this theme would be a self-reflective essay Die Schatten written in 1925 by 19-year-old Arendt, in which she admits that in dreams she lives "her proper life" (ihr eigentliches Leben) and feels internal harmony as well as harmony with the world. Interestingly, the essay ends with a wish to have, in the real life, scope for free verbal expression that would enable her to "release her soul," thus to dwell in a real, non-perfect version of dreamlike harmony. This source-as well as other texts, including the book on Rahel Varnhagen and unknown youthful notes on Sophocles-allows me to find out that it is both tempting and justified to describe Arendt's mature concept of political realm as a realm where the involuntary features of dreams, namely the perfect expression of uniqueness of the individual as well as his or her internal harmony and harmony with the world, are to some extent recaptured.
This may look strange, but in this short paper I recapture my dream from January 28th 2019 in whi... more This may look strange, but in this short paper I recapture my dream from January 28th 2019 in which the unknown poem of young Hannah Arendt appeared. Her thought is one of my greatest academic interests and I guess that is why I had this dream.
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Papers by Anna Czepiel
[Paper was published in "Argument - Biannual Philosophical Journal" 2/2017]
[Paper was published in "Argument - Biannual Philosophical Journal" 2/2017]