liberalism

John Gray’s Tree-Part Philosophical Creed

Prof. dr hab. Beata Polanowska-Sygulska

Jagiellonian University in Kraków

English abstract: John Gray’s three controversial, widely discussed books, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002), The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Myths (2013) and The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom (2015), create a natural trilogy. They all have a similar structure, consisting of a kaleidoscope of ideas, digressions, associations and recurring motifs. This article provides a brief analysis and a thorough critique of this trilogy. The strong and the weak points of the most recent volume are emphasized. A number of objections, reservations and doubts concerning the ideas presented in the three books are formulated. Critical arguments relating to, among other things, Gray’s inconsistent statements on the phenomenon of tragedy, the sources of humanism and its respect for the truth, the issue of freedom and the author’s alleged rejection of traditional morality are put forward.

Keywords: humanism, liberalism, morality, freedom, progress, truth

Language: English

Published: Number 3(32)/2022, pp. 72-87

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2022.3.72

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Number of downloads: 226

This text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial – No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

The Rule of Law in Immanuel Kant’s Political Philosophy: Two Interpretations

Mgr Michał Wieczorkowski

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Abstrakt w języku polskim: The purpose of this article is to discuss Kant’s concept of juridical state as the foundation of the contemporary rule of law. Therefore, the article tries to answer two questions: (1) what character can be attributed to Kant’s concept of juridical state taking into account the obligations arising from it; (2) can the analysis of the Kantian juridical state have any impact on the contemporary understanding of the rule of law and if so, what can this impact be. In order to accomplish this task, moral presuppositions of Kant’s juridical state are discussed, according to the commonly accepted view that Kant’s political philosophy is closely linked with his moral and ethical reflection. Then, two interpretations of Kant’s juridical state – the liberal one and the authoritarian one – are analysed. The crucial difference between these interpretations lies in establishing the circumstances in which the duty of obedience to state power should be carried out. Then, Kantian juridical state is compared with two ways of understanding the rule of law – the material one and the formal one – in order to evaluate whether the rule of law should be considered as continuity of or rupture with the Kantian concept.

Keywords: Kant, juridical state, rule of law, liberalism, authoritarianism

Language: Polish

Received: 04.12.2018
Accepted: 05.03.2019

Published: Number 1(19)/2019, pp. 108-124

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2019.1.108

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Apoliticality in Jurisprudence. The Crisis of the Idea and the Phenomenon of Populism

Prof. dr hab. Adam Sulikowski

University of Wrocław

Abstract: The topic of the article is the current crisis of the idea of the apolitical nature of jurisprudence and the relationship between this crisis and the phenomenon of populism. In the first part of the study, the author puts forward a thesis on the post-theological and liberal character of the idea, reconstructing its genealogy. The next part discusses the impact of first-wave populism (1930s and 1940s) on the status of the title idea, focusing primarily on authoritarian – Nazi and Stalinist – populisms. In the next part, the author diagnoses the causes of the current crisis of the title idea after the period of its demo-liberal reappointment.

Keywords: apoliticality, jurisprudence, discourse, populism, crisis, post-theology, liberalism

Language: Polish

Received: 13.06.2018
Accepted: 17.08.2018

Published: Number 3(18)/2018, pp. 74-85.

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Number of downloads: 433

The Revolutionary Political Philosophy of Ayn Rand

Dr Sławomir Drelich

Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń

Abstract: Ayn Rand is generally considered a libertarian, although she never claimed to belong to this movement. Undoubtedly, she was best known for promoting liberal and capitalist ideas. The author of this paper argues that Rand’s philosophical and political concepts can be described as revolutionary. The purpose of this text is to prove it by pointing to the manifestations of revolutionism in Rand’s works, ideas and concepts. The author distinguishes five different aspects through which her revolutionism is expressed. These are: (1) the antimystical aspect; (2) the anthropological aspect; (3) the social aspect; (4) the political aspect, and (5) the economic aspect. Such wide-ranging revolutionism makes some researchers and commentators recognize Rand’s thought as a manifestation of utopian thinking.

Keywords: objectivism, libertarianism, philosophy of politics, liberalism, revolutionism

Language: English

Received: 31.10.2017
Accepted: 27.03.2018

Published: Number 2(17)/2018, pp. 35-46.

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Number of downloads: 279