The concept of Eastern Europe as part of the Western
civilization has been pursued by the nations of that region with
increasing insistence after the liberation from communism after
1989. To a large extent this notion is justified,
but the uniqueness of the East's contribution to Western civilization is
often completely lost in the rhetoric of the European unification
movement and patently misunderstood in the United States.
Moreover, it is not only what has been created and contributed by the East,
but also what is presently being created and may make a strong contribution
to the world, that motivates this publication.
At the least my hope is that the writings and materials collected here will help
some readers clarify the unique East European view of the world.
An interesting geographical observation is that Stockholm and
Sarajevo lie exactly on the same meridian - exactly 18 degrees east
from the boundary of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Somewhere
between those two cities lies my hometown of Bydgoszcz in Poland on
the lower Vistula river some 160 km south of the Baltic shoreline.
This materially insignificant fact is for me the source of the idea
that the region of my origin is some type of boundary or bridge
area rather than a frontline. The geographical-historical story of the
18-th Eastern meridian deserves more, but right now it receives this
brief glance.
It may be useful to list here a number of great East Europeans - people whose work and ideas have
influenced the course of Western civilization.
People and Ideas
Ancient Greats
-
Faustus Sozzini (Socinus, Socyn) (1539-1604), Italian theologian, promoted antitrinitarian ideas
and the necessity to apply reason to interpret the Scripture.
In 1579 he settled in Poland, because of persecution in Italy and elsewhere in Protestant Europe,
became one of the leading Polish Brethren (Bracia Polscy). The teachings of the Polish Brethren,
much of which is contained in the Racovian Catechism, stress the autonomy of the human conscience,
and the individual capacity of reaching the truth by means of reason, thus being precursors
of Enlightenment. The Polish Brethren, and other dissidents, where expelled from Poland in the middle
of XVII century, and their writings had significant impact on Western European thought becoming the basis
of unitarianism.
-
Mikolaj Kopernik (1473-1543) (Copernicus) was born in Torun (Thorn) in Poland.
After studies abroad he spent his life in various positions in the church
in Poland where he pursued a variety of interests including economics.
He was the author of the new astronomical theory, which proposed the heliocentric system with the Earth
being one of the planets orbiting the sun. His theory made its way through the minds of European
intellectuals together with new ideas about science and religion and lay at the foundation
of the Enlightenment.
-
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) born and active almost entire life in Koenigsberg, East Prussia.
Whereas Copernicus
wrote the preface to the age of Enlightenment, so Kant wrote its closing and definitive chapters.
He firmly established the authority and limitations of reason giving a sound foundation for the development
of science in the 1900s and on. His thought has put the end to metaphysics, although this was not noticed
by the Romantics overjoyed with Kant's gift - the autonomy of reason.
Copernicus and Kant lived and worked in practically the same geographical area.
-
Feodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) Russian 19-th century writer who brought the
existentialist ethics acutely into the view of Western European litterati.
-
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher, born in Gdansk (Danzig),
credited with re-emphasizing such human faculties as the Will
and importing Indian intellectual and theological tradition into European
thought. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) came from a family
with roots in Gdansk too.
-
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet in whose work and
attitude the Romantic grows out of the Classical.
-
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) - Polish-born British writer who spoke with heavy
accent but greatly influenced English prose
-
Kurt Goedel (1906-1978) - born in Brno, mathematical logician, worked and taught in Vienna and later in Princeton,
proved the famous undecidability theorem - another "Copernican" result whose impact is yet to be fully received
-
David Hilbert (1862-1943) - born in Koenigsberg, perhaps most influential mathematician of the last 100 years
-
Arnold Sommerfeld (1868-1951) - also born in Koenigsberg, mentor for physicists who formulated quantum mechanics
-
Recurring Vienna movements - for example: the classics of
German/Austrian music of the turn of year 1800 -
Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and also Schubert. Then at the
cusp of the year 1900 - intellectuals such as
Husserl, Freud and Wittgenstein.
Recent and Fascinating
- Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969) - a Polish writer, who lived since 1939 outside of Poland.
His pre-1939 novel "Ferdydurke" focuses on communication forms imposing themselves on
actual forms of life.
- Essay dada on Gombrowicz
- Witkacy or Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939) - Polish writer and painter.
Admired for texts tackling deep metaphysical questions, like the ones raised by Husserl,
in an entertaining way.
- Lech Majewski (...) - Polish filmmaker, writer, poet, painter, modern artist.
Born in Katowice, Silesia, living in Venice, producing art globally.
One of the authors of the American film "Basquiat",
which matured into a film about a Polish poet
- Rafal Wojaczek. His works reflect very keenly
the spiritual crisis of modern man. I had the privilege of talking to him in Seattle.
- interview with Lech Majewski [in Polish]
- my reflections on his most recent novel "Metafizyka".
- Rafal Wojaczek (1945-1971) - Polish poet. His life reflected the hopeless situation of the postwar
generation under communist regime whereas his work became an emblem for the universal existential aspirations
of man. [Sample of his poetry with translations]
-
Vienna free-enterprise economists
Friedrich von Hayek (1899-1992) and Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973),
born in Vienna and Lemberg, respectively. Theorists of free-market economies.
- Roman Polanski(...) - Polish-born filmmaker and actor
- Milan Kundera(...) - Czech novelist
- Mikhail Bulkhakov(...) - Russian novelist
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