Hegel in Poland

Abstract

Hegel's thought reached Poland at the end of the 1830s and by the first half of the 1840s became the chief subject of discussion and controversy in Polish philosophy. It was a sign of an intellectual revival and proof of the importance of philosophical problems in the intellectual culture of the time. The reception of Hegelianism contributed a new element to the Romantic thought which had developed after the defeat of the November 1830 Uprising. Polish writers – and there was almost no philosopher who did not make a reference to Hegel – sought support in his theoretical schemas to resolve the important problems of the epoch. These were, first, the search for the cause of the fall of the nobles' republic in the 18th century and the failure of the 1830 revolutionary upsurge and, secondly, attempts to show ways of liberating the nation from alien rule and to determine its historical place among the nations of Europe. The predominant interest was in the philosophy of history since, with the help of the constructions of the historical process inspired by Hegel, one could justify the claim of the Poles to a place among the nations of Europe. Hence the Polish followers of Hegel, having different aims from the Master, necessarily modified his historlco-philosophical (or ‘historiosophic”) schemes in an essential way: while Hegel had seen the realization of the ideal in the present, his Polish followers emphasized the importance of the future for the fulfilment of mankind's mission.