Positivism in Poland

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Positivism in Poland was a socio-cultural movement that defined progressive thought in literature and social sciences of partitioned Poland following the suppression of the 1863 January Uprising against the occupying army of Imperial Russia. The Positivist period lasted until the turn of the 20th century, and the advent of the Young Poland movement.^[1]

Overview

In the aftermath of the 1863 Uprising, many Poles began to voice an opinion that further attempts at regaining independence from Russia, Prussia and Austro-Hungary, by force of arms, should be abandoned. Along with polemics which questioned the wisdom of resistance published between 1868–1873 in the Weekly Review (Przegląd tygodniowy) and Truth (Prawda) they – often reluctantly and only partially – set aside the style of the Romantic period.^[1]

Polish "Positivism" drew its name from the Frenchman Auguste Comte's philosophy but much of its ideology also from the works of British scholars and scientists, including Herbert Spencer and John Stuart Mill. The Polish Positivists advocated the exercise of reason before emotion. They argued that independence, if it is to be regained, must be won gradually, by "building from the foundations" (creating a material infrastructure and educating the public) and through "organic work" that would enable Polish society to function as a fully integrated social organism (a concept borrowed from Herbert Spencer).^[2]

One of the leading Polish philosophers of Positivism; novelist and short-story writer, Bolesław Prus (The Outpost, The Doll, The New Woman), advised his compatriots that Poland's place in the world would be determined by the contributions that it made to the world's scientific, technological, economic and cultural progress.^[3]

Specific societal questions addressed by the Polish Positivists included the establishment of equal rights for all members of society, including peasants and women; the assimilation of Poland's Jewish minority; the illiteracy rates among ordinary citizens resulting from the closure of Polish schools, and the defense of Polish population in the German-ruled part of Poland against Kulturkampf and their violent displacement by German government.^[1][4]

The Positivists viewed work, not the popular uprisings, as the true way to maintain a Polish national identity and demonstrate a constructive patriotism. Writer Aleksander Świętochowski (the editor of Prawda), maintained that virtually all "great problems hidden in the womb of mankind can be solved by education alone, and this education must be compulsory."^[5]

Leading authors

See also

• History of Poland
• Polish literature
• History of philosophy in Poland
• List of Poles (literature)

Notes

References

• Czesław Miłosz, The History of Polish Literature, 2nd edition, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1983, ISBN 0-520-04477-0, pp. 281–321.
• Edward Pieścikowski, Bolesław Prus, 2nd edition, Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1985, ISBN 83-01-05593-6.
• Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski, ed., Literatura polska od średniowiecza do pozytywizmu (Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to Positivism), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979, ISBN 83-01-00201-8, pp. 543–692.