Wzory intelektualne Aleksandra Świętochowskiego

Abstract

The paper presents the major European and Polish intellectual patterns that formed Świętochowski^ philosophy (he was the ideological leade r of the so called „Warsaw positivists"). The paper also constitutes part of the research on Świętochowski^ activities in the years 1867—1880. Being a publicist he played a prominent role in the leading organs of the young progressive journalists and writers, namely „Przegląd Tygodniowy" (The Weekly Review) and „Nowiny" (The News); he also collaborated with several other programme* magazines. As the author of a number of plays and short stories Świętochowski achieved an important position in the fiction of his epoch. In 1875 he was conferred the doctor's degree at the University of Leipzig, for a dissertation in philosophy. Swiętochowski's system of patterns and preferences, in many respects typical of the wide circles of the positivists, was characterized by interesting suggestions and contained certain utopian elements; utopism appeared in his works not only as expression of perplexity or intellectual anxiety (pessimistic visions, counterutopia) or dreamy detachment from overwhelming distress (optimistic, soothing visions) but also as an aspect of the model characters of the positivist programme. The purpose of the research begun with this article is to identity certain thematic wholes in the utopia-oriented fragments of Świętochowsk i^ works, and to show how they correspond to the pragmatic elements in his works.