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History and the Future: The Vision of August Cieszkowski
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
Extract
A Quarter of a century has passed since the western world acquired and developed some familiarity with Russian philosophy. The names of Chaadayev, Kireyevsky, Khomiakov and Solovyov are not unknown. The success of the late lamented Nicolas Berdyaev, not only in Europe but also in America and even in the far East, was in large measure due to the fact that his thought continued the tradition created by his Russian predecessors. Ontology, irrationalism, personalism, theohuman nostalgia—such are the themes and attitudes in which lies the originality of this current of ideas.
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- Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1953
References
1 See the summary of W. Lutoslawski in the Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie of Ueberweg. (Vol. V, Philosophie des Auslandes) (Berlin, 1928), pp. 299–334Google Scholar. In Polish the work of the Jesuit Gabryl, Polska filosofia religijna w XIX w., in two volumes (Warsaw, 1914), remains the best in the field, with whatever reservations one may receive his judgments.
2 Volume I appeared in 1906, transl. by W. Gasztowtt and the author's son. Volumes II, III and IV appeared in the years 1927–1929, transl. by Paul Cazin and the author's son. An English condensation was edited by W. J. Rose under the title The Desire of All Nations (London, 1919).Google Scholar
3 See Berdyaev, , The Sense of History, An Essay on Metaphysical Eschatalogy, The Russian Idea.Google Scholar
4 Ferguson, , An Essay on the History of Civil Society (London, 1767)Google Scholar, and Principles of Moral and Political Science (London, 1792)Google Scholar. Condorcet, , Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progres de l'esprit humain (Paris, an III)Google Scholar, Herder, , Ideen zur Philosophic der Geschichte der Menschheit (Riga und Leipzig, 1784–1796).Google Scholar
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6 See Warrain, Francis, L'oeuvre philosophique de Hoené-Wronski. 3 vol. (Paris, 1933–1939).Google Scholar
7 The Polish bibliography in Korbut, , Literatura Polska (Warsaw, 1930), II. pp. 259–261Google Scholar. The German dissertation of Zoltowski, Adam, Graf August Cieszkowski's Philosophie der Tat (diss. Posen, 1904)Google Scholar, gives an excellent and enthusiastic but incomplete account. Of great interest is Gabryl, , op. cit., vol. I, pp. 239–300Google Scholar, who passes severe judgment on Cieszkowski from the Catholic point of view. The recent work of Kuehne, Walter, Graf August Cieszkowski, ein Schueler He gels und des deutschen Geistes (Leipzig, 1938)Google Scholar, is especially valuable for its publication of the correspondence between C. and Michelet and of fragments previously unedited.
8 The personality of C. remains fairly obscure. Important contributions are the letters of Krasinski to C., edited by Zoltowski, A., Listy Zygmunta Krasinskiego do Augusta Cieszkowskiego, vols. I and II, Krakow, 1912Google Scholar. His personality is described by Krasinski in a letter to Delphine Potocki, quoted by Zoltowski in his preface: “He is a living piece of abstract thought (kawalek abstrakcyjnej mysli), made of white marble, a man not knowing what passion is.” He, Zygmunt, is made of fire and electricity; he would be willing to pit himself against Cieszkowski in two places: on the field of battle and at the feet of a woman.
9 Prolegomena, the first chapter, passim.
10 Letter of 18/3 1837, see Kuehne, , op. cit., p. 367.Google Scholar
11 Prolegomena, p. 19.Google Scholar
12 Id., p. 137.
13 Id., pp. 115, 118, 124, 127, 130.
14 Id., pp. 149, 150, 153.
15 Id., p. 120.
16 See my book Bakounine et le panslavisme revolutionnaire. Cinq essais sur l'histoire des idées en Russie et en Europe (Paris, 1950).Google Scholar
17 Prolegomena, p. 146.Google Scholar
18 Id., pp. 127, 153.
19 “In all the essential points,” wrote Herzen in 1839 to a friend of Wladimir where he was being forcibly detained,—I am in agreement with the author to an astonishing degree.” See Complete Works (in Russian), ed. Lemke, , vol. III, p. 274.Google Scholar
20 In his course given at the College de France in 1842–1844, Mickiewicz would often speak of C. See Mickiewicz, , Les Slaves. Le messianisme et l'Eglise officielle (Paris, Musee Adam Mickiewicz, 1914), pp. 154, 191 ff., 203 ff.Google Scholar Mickiewicz drew the attention of Edgar Quinet to the Prolegomena. For Quinet's notes on his reading of C. see the article of Zaleski, Z. in Melanges offerts a Fernand Baldensperger (Paris, 1930), vol. II, pp. 361–371.Google Scholar
21 See in particular Before the Dawn (Przeswit) and Psalm of Faith (Psalm wiary). On Krasinski's thought, see Kleiner, Juliusz, Dzieje mysli.Google Scholar
22 See his review Athenaeum which appeared in Berlin in 1839. About Cornu, Hess A., Moses Hess et la gauche hegelienne (Paris, 1934).Google Scholar
23 “Dieser Graf besuchte mich in der Tat einmal in Paris (zur Zeit der “Deutsch-Franzoesischer Jahrbuecher”) und hatte mir's so angetan, dass ich absolut nichts lesen wollte und konnte, was er gesuendigt …” Letter of January 12, 1882, Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe, III, 3, p. 521.Google Scholar
24 Ojcze Nasz, vol. I, chapter 1.
25 Id., 1, 2.
26 Id., I, 1.
27 Id., I, 1.
28 Id., I, 2.
29 Id., III, 2 and passim.
30 Id., IV, 2.
31 Id., II, 4.
32 Michelet takes in the dialogue the name of Teleophanes and calls his interlocutor the “friend from the East” (der oestliche Freund). The correspondence published by Kuehne, , op. cit., pp. 404–406Google Scholar, proves that his account of Cieszkowski's ideas is exact.
33 Ojcze Nasz, IV, 7.
34 Toynbee, Arnold, Civilisation on trial (London, 1948).Google Scholar