Leszek Kołakowski (; ; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish philosopher and

historian of ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualization, conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of ...

. He is best known for his critical analysis of

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

thought, as in his three-volume history of Marxist philosophy ''

Main Currents of Marxism ''Main Currents of Marxism: Its Origins, Growth and Dissolution'' () is a work about Marxism by the political philosopher Leszek Kołakowski. Its three volumes in English are ''The Founders'', ''The Golden Age'', and ''The Breakdown''. It was firs ...

'' (1976). In his later work, Kołakowski increasingly focused on religious questions. In his 1986

Jefferson Lecture The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities is an honorary lecture series established in 1972 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). According to the NEH, the Lecture is "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished ...

, he asserted that "we learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are".Leszek Kołakowski, "The Idolatry of Politics," reprinted in ''Modernity on Endless Trial'' (University of Chicago Press, 1990, paperback edition 1997), , , , p. 158. Owing to his

criticism of Marxism Criticism of Marxism has come from various political ideologies, campaigns and academic disciplines. This includes general intellectual criticism about dogmatism, a lack of internal consistency, criticism related to materialism (both philosoph ...

and of the

Communist state A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

system, Kołakowski was effectively exiled from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 1968. He spent most of the remainder of his career at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, as a Fellow of

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

. Despite being in exile, Kołakowski was a major inspiration to the Solidarity movement which flourished in Poland in the 1980s and is credited by some as having helped bring about the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Bronisław Geremek Bronisław Geremek (; born Benjamin Lewertow;

dubbed him as the "awakener of human hopes".Jason Steinhauer (2015). "'The Awakener of Human Hopes': Leszek Kolakowski", John W. Kluge Center at Library of Congress, September 18, 2015; accessed 01 December 2017 Among many awards, he was a laureate of the

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

and

Erasmus Prize The Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation to individuals or institutions that have made exceptional contributions to culture, society, or social science in Europe and the rest of the world. I ...

in 1983, the 2003 Kluge Prize, and in 2007, the

Jerusalem Prize The Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society is a biennial literary award given to writers whose works have dealt with themes of human freedom in society. It is awarded at the Jerusalem International Book Forum (previously kn ...

Life and career

Early life and education

Kołakowski was born in

Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...

. His secondary schooling during the

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

(1939–1945) in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, would have been truncated and supplied by alternative means, known as "komplety" in Polish, in the form of occasional private lessons, and supplemented by personal reading. He passed his school-leaving examinations as an external student in the underground school system. After the war, he studied philosophy at the

University of Łódź The University of Łódź (, ) is a public research university founded in 1945 in Łódź, Poland, as a continuation of three higher education institutions functioning in Łódź in the interwar period — the Teacher Training Institute (192 ...

followed by the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

, where he completed a doctorate in 1953, with a treatise on

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

from a Marxist viewpoint. He served as a professor and chair of Warsaw University's department of History of Philosophy from 1959 to 1968. In his youth, Kołakowski became a

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

. He signed a denunciation of

Władysław Tatarkiewicz Władysław Tatarkiewicz (; 3 April 1886 – 4 April 1980) was a Polish philosopher, historian of philosophy, historian of art, esthetician, and ethicist. Early life and education Tatarkiewicz began his higher education at Warsaw University ...

. In 1945, he joined the Association of Fighting Youth. From 1947 to 1966, he was a member of the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...

. His intellectual promise earned him a trip to Moscow in 1950. He broke with

Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...

, becoming a revisionist Marxist advocating a

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...

interpretation of

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

. One year after the 1956

Polish October The Polish October ( ), also known as the Polish thaw or Gomułka's thaw, also "small stabilization" () was a change in the politics of the Polish People's Republic that occurred in October 1956. Władysław Gomułka was appointed First Secretar ...

, Kołakowski published a four-part critique of Soviet Marxist dogmas, including

historical determinism History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

, in the Polish periodical ' His public lecture at Warsaw University on the tenth anniversary of Polish October led to his expulsion from the

. In the course of the

1968 Polish political crisis A series of major student, intellectual and other protests against the ruling Polish United Workers' Party of the Polish People's Republic took place in Poland in March 1968. The crisis led to the suppression of student strikes by security forces ...

, he lost his job at Warsaw University and was prevented from obtaining any other academic post. He came to the conclusion that the totalitarian cruelty of

was not an aberration but a logical outcome of

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

, whose genealogy he examined in his monumental ''

'', his major work, published in 1976 to 1978.

Thought

Kołakowski became increasingly concerned with the role which

theological Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of an ...

assumptions play in

Western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...

and, in particular, in modern thought. For example, he began his ''

'' with an analysis of the contribution that various forms of ancient and medieval

Platonism Platonism is the philosophy of Plato and philosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary Platonists do not necessarily accept all doctrines of Plato. Platonism has had a profound effect on Western thought. At the most fundam ...

made, centuries later, to a

Hegelian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and the ...

view of history. He goes on to criticize the laws of

dialectical materialism Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of scien ...

for being fundamentally flawed and likened some of them to "truisms with no specific Marxist content", while describing others as "philosophical dogmas that cannot be proved by scientific means" or dismissed them as mere "nonsense". Kołakowski defended the role which freedom of will plays in the human quest for the transcendent. His ''Law of the Infinite Cornucopia'' asserted a doctrine of '' status quaestionis'': such that any given doctrine can be relied on to attract supportive arguments. Moreover although human frailty implies that claims of infallibility need to be treated with scepticism, he regarded people's pursuit of higher ideals, such as truth and goodness as ennobling.

Activism and exile

In 1965, Kołakowski, together with

Maria Ossowska Maria Ossowska (''née'' Maria Niedźwiecka, 16 January 1896, Warsaw – 13 August 1974, Warsaw) was a Polish sociologist and social philosopher. Life A student of the philosopher Tadeusz Kotarbiński, she originally in 1925 received a doctora ...

and Tadeusz Kotarbiński drew up a report on the meaning of the concept of ''the message'', which was used by the defence in the trial of Jacek Kuroń and Karol Modzelewski who were charged by the communist authorities with "propagating false information", in their ''Open Letter to the Party''. In 1968, Kołakowski was forced into exile. He became a visiting professor in the Department of Philosophy at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in Montreal and in 1969 he moved to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. In 1970, he became a senior research fellow at

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

. Thereafter he remained mostly in Oxford, but spent part of 1974 at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, and from 1981 to 1994, was a part-time professor at the Committee on Social Thought and in the Department of Philosophy at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. Although the Polish Communist authorities had officially banned his works in Poland, they became part of the Polish

Samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...

and influenced the Polish intellectual opposition. His 1971 essay, ''Theses on Hope and Hopelessness'' (full title: ''In Stalin's Countries: Theses on Hope and Despair''), which suggested that self-organized social groups could gradually extend civil society in a totalitarian state, helped to inspire the dissident movements of the 1970s. These in turn led to the formation of ''

Solidarity Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...

'' and eventually to the collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe in 1989. In 1975, he was one of the signatories of the '' Letter of 59'', an open letter signed by Polish intellectuals to protest against the changes to the Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland which were imposed by the

Communist Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland (, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) and the ...

in 1975. In the 1980s, Kołakowski supported ''Solidarity'' by giving interviews, writing and fundraising. Kołakowski maintained throughout his life a view of Marxism that was distinct from that operating in the then existing political regimes. He relentlessly disputed these differences and defended his own interpretation of Marxism. In a famous article entitled, "What is Left of Socialism", he wrote:

The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia had nothing to do with Marxian prophesies. Its driving force was not a conflict between the industrial working class and capital, but rather was carried out under slogans that had no socialist, let alone Marxist, content: Peace and land for peasants. There is no need to mention that these slogans were to be subsequently turned into their opposite. What in the twentieth century perhaps comes closest to the working class revolution were the events in Poland of 1980-81: the revolutionary movement of industrial workers (very strongly supported by the intelligentsia) against the exploiters, that is to say, the state. And this solitary example of a working class revolution (if even this may be counted) was directed against a socialist state, and carried out under the sign of the cross, with the blessing of the Pope.

Reception in Poland

In Poland, Kołakowski is regarded as a philosopher and

but also as an icon for

anti-communism Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...

and opponent of communism.

Adam Michnik Adam Michnik (; born 17 October 1946) is a Polish historian, essayist, former Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1989), dissident, Intellectual#Public intellectual, public intellectual, as well as co-founder and editor-in-chief of the P ...

has called Kołakowski "one of the most prominent creators of contemporary Polish culture". He authored more than 30 books in a career spanning more than five decades. He is also regarded as a great populariser of philosophy. His writings, lectures and TV appearances encouraged people to ask questions, even the most banal ones, and he highlighted the archetypal role of the

jester A jester, also known as joker, court jester, or fool, was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch kept to entertain guests at the royal court. Jesters were also travelling performers who entertained common folk at fairs and town ma ...

in philosophy – someone who is unafraid "to challenge even our strongest assumptions and maintains a healthy distance from everything." Leszek Kolakowski grave 2

Death

Kołakowski died from multiple organ failure on 17 July 2009, aged 81, at the

John Radcliffe Hospital John Radcliffe Hospital (informally known as the JR or the John Radcliffe) is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England. It forms part of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is named after John Radcliffe (physician) ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, England. In an obituary, philosopher

Roger Scruton Sir Roger Vernon Scruton, (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher, writer, and social critic who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of Conservatism in the United Kingdom, c ...

wrote that Kołakowski was a "thinker for our time" and that, regarding Kołakowski's debates with intellectual opponents, "even if ... nothing remained of the subversive orthodoxies, nobody felt damaged in their ego or defeated in their life's project, by arguments which from any other source would have inspired the greatest indignation". Kołakowski's remains were buried in the Powązki Military Cemetery in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Awards

In 1986, the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

selected Kołakowski for the

. Kołakowski's lecture "The Idolatry of Politics",Jefferson Lecturers
neh.gov was reprinted in his collection of essays ''Modernity on Endless Trial''.Leszek Kołakowski (1990) "The Idolatry of Politics," p. 158 in ''Modernity on Endless Trial''. University of Chicago Press, . In 2003, the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

named Kołakowski the first winner of the $1 million John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities. When announcing the inaugural laureate of the prize, James H. Billington, the

Librarian of Congress The librarian of Congress is the head of the Library of Congress, appointed by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, for a term of ten years. The librarian of Congress also appoints and overs ...

, emphasized not only Kolakowski’s scholarship but also his "demonstrable importance to major political events in his own time," adding that “his voice was fundamental for the fate of Poland, and influential in Europe as a whole." His other awards include the following: * Jurzykowski Prize (1969) *

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is an international list of peace prizes, peace prize awarded annually by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (), which runs the Frankfurt Book Fair. The award ceremony is held in the Frankfurter Paulskirche, Paulskirche in Frankfurt. T ...

(1977) * Veillon Foundation European Prize for the Essay (1980) *

(1983) *

for the

(1986) * Award of the Polish

Pen Club PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...

(1988) *

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

, Gordon J. Laing Award (1991) * Prix Alexis de Tocqueville (1994) * Honorary degree of the University of Gdańsk (1997) * Order of the White Eagle (1997) * Honorary degree of the

University of Wrocław The University of Wrocław (, UWr; ) is a public research university in Wrocław, Poland. It is the largest institution of higher learning in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, with over 100,000 graduates since 1945, including some 1,900 researcher ...

(2002) * Kluge Prize of the

(2003) * St George Medal (2006) * Honorary degree of the

Central European University Central European University (CEU; , ) is a private research university in Vienna. The university offers graduate and undergraduate programs in the social sciences and humanities, which are accredited in Austria and the United States. The univ ...

(2006) *

(2007) * Democracy Service Medal (2009)

Bibliography

* ''Klucz niebieski, albo opowieści budujące z historii świętej zebrane ku pouczeniu i przestrodze'' (''The Key to Heaven''), 1957 * ''Jednostka i nieskończoność. Wolność i antynomie wolności w filozofii Spinozy'' (''The Individual and the Infinite: Freedom and Antinomies of Freedom in Spinoza's Philosophy''), 1958 * ''13 bajek z królestwa Lailonii dla dużych i małych'' (''Tales from the Kingdom of Lailonia and the Key to Heaven''), 1963. English edition: Hardcover: University of Chicago Press (October 1989). . * ''Rozmowy z diabłem'' (US title: ''Conversations with the Devil'' / UK title: ''Talk of the Devil''; reissued with ''The Key to Heaven'' under the title ''The Devil and Scripture'', 1973), 1965 * ''Świadomość religijna i więź kościelna'', 1965 * ''Od Hume'a do Koła Wiedeńskiego'' (the 1st edition:''The Alienation of Reason'', translated by Norbert Guterman, 1966/ later as ''Positivist Philosophy from Hume to the Vienna Circle''), * ''Kultura i fetysze'' (''Toward a Marxist Humanism'', translated by Jane Zielonko Peel, and ''Marxism and Beyond''), 1967 * ''A Leszek Kołakowski Reader'', 1971 * ''Positivist Philosophy'', 1971 * ''TriQuartely 22'', 1971 * '' Obecność mitu'' ('' The Presence of Myth''), 1972. English edition: Paperback: University of Chicago Press (January 1989). . * ed.
The Socialist Idea: A Reappraisal
', 1974 (with Stuart Hampshire) * ''Husserl and the Search for Certitude'', 1975 * ''Główne nurty marksizmu''. First published in Polish (3 volumes) as "Główne nurty marksizmu" (Paris: Instytut Literacki, 1976) and in English (3 volumes) as "

" (London: Oxford University Press, 1978). Current editions: Paperback (1 volume): W. W. Norton & Company (17 January 2008). . Hardcover (1 volume): W. W. Norton & Company; First edition (7 November 2005). . * ''Czy diabeł może być zbawiony i 27 innych kazań'', 1982 * ''Religion: If There Is No God'', 1982 * ''Bergson'', 1985 * ''Le Village introuvable'', 1986 * ''Metaphysical Horror'', 1988. Revised edition: Paperback: University of Chicago Press (July 2001). . * ''Pochwała niekonsekwencji'', 1989 (ed. by Zbigniew Menzel) * ''Cywilizacja na ławie oskarżonych'', 1990 (ed. by Paweł Kłoczowski) * ''Modernity on Endless Trial'', 1990. Paperback: University of Chicago Press (June 1997). . Hardcover: University of Chicago Press (March 1991). . * ''God Owes Us Nothing: A Brief Remark on Pascal's Religion and on the Spirit of Jansenism'', 1995. Paperback: University of Chicago Press (May 1998). . Hardcover: University of Chicago Press (November 1995). . * ''Freedom, Fame, Lying, and Betrayal: Essays on Everyday Life'', 1999 * ''The Two Eyes of Spinoza and Other Essays on Philosophers'', 2004 * ''My Correct Views on Everything'', 2005 * ''Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?'', 2007 * ''Is God Happy?: Selected Essays'', 2012 * ''Jezus ośmieszony. Esej apologetyczny i sceptyczny'', 2014

References

External links

*
Leszek Kołakowski
– Daily Telegraph obituary * *

The Death of Utopia Reconsidered

The Complete and Brief Metaphysics
* Judt, Tony
"Goodbye to All That?"
i
The New York Review of Books
Vol. 53, No. 14, 21 September 2006 (review-essay on ''Main Currents of Marxism: The Founders, the Golden Age, the Breakdown'' by Leszek Kołakowski, translated from the Polish by P.S. Falla. Norton, 2005, ; ''My Correct Views on Everything'' by Leszek Kołakowski, edited by Zbigniew Janowski. St. Augustine's, 2004, ; ''Karl Marx ou l'esprit du monde'' by Jacques Attali. Paris: Fayard, 2005, )
Kołakowski : In Stalin's Countries: Theses on Hope and Despair (1971)

1 April 1999, BBC Radio program In Our Time
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kolakowski, Leszek 1927 births 2009 deaths 20th-century Polish philosophers 21st-century Polish philosophers Academic staff of McGill University Academic staff of the University of Warsaw Critics of Marxism Deaths from multiple organ failure European democratic socialists Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Former Marxists Historians of communism Jerusalem Prize recipients MacArthur Fellows Marxist humanists Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts People associated with Kultura (magazine) People from Radom Polish United Workers' Party members Polish anti-communists Polish dissidents Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Scholars of Marxism Spinoza scholars University of Warsaw alumni