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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Author(s)
Jan Květina
Full-Text PDF XML 414 Views
DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2018.09.003
Affiliation(s)
University of Hradec Králové
ABSTRACT
This
study aims to question the traditional interpretation of the Enlightenment
discourse, which rests upon the assumption that Eastern Europeans were
considered as uneducated savages (an image created by Western European elites)
that need to be developed according to the principles of Western civilization.
Such a view might be deemed incomplete and thus misleading. Of course, there
have always been many “Western progressive thinkers” who promoted the idea of
westernization of the East, as well as there have been plenty of Eastern
Enlightenment intellectuals holding onto Western ideals as a means of salvation
from backwardness. However, one should admit that the original Eastern
structures of state and society represented an inspiring alternative that
enabled some theoreticians to get a different viewpoint; as obvious in the
Polish case. Taking the uniqueness of their 18th century political system into
account, one is able to acknowledge the importance of the Polish internal
debate that tried to answer whether a republican spirit of the state was
something that should have been preserved or completely rejected. In terms of
the East-Western dichotomical point of view however, it is essential that this
contradiction between republic as “bulwark of freedom” and “backward barbarism”
did not only represent a local issue, but also piqued Western curiosity,
especially Rousseau’s one. Hence, it is fully legitimate to analyse his
approach towards this Eastern European country and his conclusions that contradicted
both the Western as well as the Polish common convictions that the region was
something undesirable. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to analyse and
explain the tensions between Rousseau and Polish Enlightenment thinkers such as
M. Wielhorski or S. Leszczyński and, by clarifying them, to reveal a deeper
ambiguity of the Enlightenment discourse concerning the interpretation of
Eastern Europe as well as human nature.
KEYWORDS
Enlightenment, Poland, J. J. Rousseau, S. Leszczyński, M. Wielhorski
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