Beata Polanowska-Sygulska, Harmonia i dysonans. Wokół rozmów z filozofami oksfordzkimi. Remarks about the Book

Keywords: Oxford philosophers, harmony and dissonance, value pluralism, agonism, legal holism

English abstract: The study is an essay on Beata Polanowska-Sygulska’s book Harmonia i dysonans. Wokół rozmów z filozofami oksfordzkimi [Harmony and Dissonance. Around Conversations with Oxford Philosophers]. The essay contains comments on the social and political context in which the various sections of the book were written, on Polanowska-Sygulska’s distinctive writing style, and on the unique nature of sources from which she drew her knowledge about the Oxford philosophers. Of the philosophers presented in the book, here I choose to focus my attention only on selected figures: I. Berlin, L. Kołakowski, and J. Gray. The choice of the first two was determined by the phenomenon of convergence of the two philosophers’ topics of interest. It is the ethical dilemmas taken up by Berlin and Kołakowski that became the guiding idea of the entire book, and, moreover, a challenge whose topicality is felt in a unique way today (e.g., the context of the war in Ukraine). In the essay, I also formulate some critical remarks about the author’s assessment of the theoretical grounding of L. Kołakowski’s philosophy. In the passages devoted to J. Gray and his Feline Philosophy – while agreeing with the author’s critical assessment of the philosophical and social stance outlined there – I additionally attempt to point out its destructive influence on the philosophy of law. A reasonable alternative to Gray’s ethical and legal nihilism may be precisely the BerlinKołakowski movement of value pluralism and the possibility of a ‘pragmatic balance’ perceived by both philosophers, which can be exemplified by the Comprehensive Law Movement. 

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