Leszek Kołakowski

Leszek Kołakowski (/ˌkɒləˈkɒfski/; Polish:  [ˈlɛʂɛk kɔwa

ˈkɔfskʲi]; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish
Leszek Kołakowski
philosopher and historian of ideas.

He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist

thought, especially his three-volume history, Main
Currents of Marxism (1976). In his later work,
Kolakowski increasingly focused on religious
questions. In his 1986 Jefferson Lecture, he asserted
that "[w]e learn history not in order to know how to
behave or how to succeed, but to know who we
are".[2]

Due to his criticism of Marxism and Communism,

Kołakowski was effectively exiled from Poland in
1968. He spent most of the remainder of his career at
All Souls College, Oxford. Despite being in exile,
Kołakowski was a major inspiration for the Solidarity Kołakowski in 1971
movement that flourished in Poland in the 1980s and
Born 23 October 1927
helped bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union,
Radom, Poland
leading to his being described by Bronislaw Geremek
as the "awakener of human hopes".[3][4] Died 17 July 2009
(aged 81)
Oxford, England

Contents Education Łódź University

University of
Biography Warsaw (PhD,
Awards 1953)

Bibliography Awards Peace Prize of the

German Book
See also
Trade (1977)
References Erasmus Prize
Further reading (1983)

External links Kluge Prize (2003)

Jerusalem Prize
(2007)
Biography Era 20th-/21st-
century
Kołakowski was born in Radom, Poland. He did not
enjoy formal schooling during the German occupation philosophy
of Poland (1939–1945) in World War II, but he read Region Western
books and took occasional private lessons, passing his philosophy
school-leaving examinations as an external student in
School Continental
the underground school system. After the war, he
studied philosophy at Łódź University. By the late philosophy
1940s, it was obvious that he was one of the most Marxist
brilliant Polish minds of his generation,[5] and in humanism
1953, he earned a doctorate from Warsaw University
Institutions University of
with a thesis on Baruch Spinoza in which he viewed
Warsaw
Spinoza from a Marxist point of view.[6] He served as
a professor and chairman of Warsaw University's Notable Humanist
department of the history of philosophy from 1959 to ideas interpretation of
1968. Marx

In his youth, Kołakowski became a communist. He Influences

signed a denunciation against Władysław Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel,
Tatarkiewicz. [7] From 1947 to 1966, he was a Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels,
member of the Polish United Workers' Party. His György Lukács, Baruch Spinoza
intellectual promise earned him a trip to Moscow in
1950,[8] where he saw communism in practice and Influenced
found it repulsive. He broke with Stalinism, becoming José Guilherme Merquior,
a "revisionist Marxist" advocating a humanist Christopher Hitchens, Solidarity,
interpretation of Karl Marx. One year after the 1956 Noam Chomsky[1]
Polish October, Kołakowski published a four-part
critique of Soviet-Marxist dogmas, including historical determinism, in the Polish
periodical Nowa Kultura.[9] His public lecture at Warsaw University on the tenth
anniversary of Polish October led to his expulsion from the Polish United Workers'
Party. In the course of the 1968 Polish political crisis, he lost his job at Warsaw
University and was prevented from obtaining any other academic post.[10]

He came to the conclusion that the totalitarian cruelty of Stalinism was not an
aberration, but a logical end-product of Marxism, whose genealogy he examined in
his monumental Main Currents of Marxism, his major work, published in 1976 to
1978.[11]

Kolakowski became increasingly fascinated by the

contribution that theological assumptions make to
Western and, in particular, modern thought. For
example, he began his Main Currents of Marxism
with an analysis of the contribution that various forms
of mediaeval Platonism made, centuries later, to the
Hegelian view of history. In the work, he criticized the
laws of dialectical materialism for being
fundamentally flawed and found some of them being
"truisms with no specific Marxist content", others
"philosophical dogmas that cannot be proved by
scientific means" but others being just "nonsense".[12]

Kołakowski defended the role which freedom plays in

the human quest for the transcendent.

His Law of the Infinite Cornucopia asserted a doctrine Leszek Kołakowski

of status quaestionis: for any given doctrine that one
wants to believe, there is never a shortage of
arguments by which one can support it.[13] Nevertheless, although human fallibility
implies that we ought to treat claims to infallibility with scepticism, our pursuit of
the higher (such as truth and goodness) is ennobling.
In 1968, Kołakowski became a visiting professor in the department of philosophy at
McGill University in Montreal and in 1969 he moved to the University of California,
Berkeley. In 1970, he became a senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.
He remained mostly at Oxford, but he spent part of 1974 at Yale University, and from
1981 to 1994, he was a part-time professor at the Committee on Social Thought and
in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago.

Although the Polish communist authorities officially banned his works in Poland,
underground copies of them influenced the opinions of the Polish intellectual
opposition. His 1971 essay Theses on Hope and Hopelessness (full title: In Stalin's
Countries: Theses on Hope and Despair),[14][15] which suggested that self-organized
social groups could gradually expand the spheres of civil society in a totalitarian
state, helped to inspire the dissident movements of the 1970s that led to Solidarity
and eventually to the collapse of communist rule in Eastern Europe in 1989. In the
1980s, Kołakowski supported Solidarity by giving interviews, writing and
fundraising.[3]

In Poland, Kołakowski is revered as a philosopher and historian of ideas but also as

an icon for opponents of communism. Adam Michnik has called Kołakowski "one of
the most prominent creators of contemporary Polish culture".[16][17]

Kołakowski died on 17 July 2009, aged 81, in Oxford, England.[18] In his obituary,
philosopher Roger Scruton wrote Kolakowski was a "thinker for our time" and that
regarding Kolakowski'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".[19]

Awards
In 1986, the National Endowment for the Humanities
selected Kołakowski for the Jefferson Lecture.
Kołakowski's lecture "The Idolatry of Politics",[20] was
reprinted in his collection of essays Modernity on
Endless Trial.[21]

In 2003, the Library of Congress named Kołakowski

the first winner of the John W. Kluge Prize for
Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities.[22][23]

His other awards include the following:

Jurzykowski Prize (1969)

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (1977)
Veillon Foundation European Prize for the Essay
(1980)
MacArthur Award (1982) Kołakowski in 2007
Erasmus Prize (1983)
MacArthur Fellowship (1983)
Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities (1986)
Award of the Polish Pen Club (1988)
 University of Chicago Press, Gordon J. Laing Award (1991)
Tocqueville Prize (1994)
Honorary degree of the University of Gdańsk (1997)[24]
Order of the White Eagle (1997)
Honorary degree of the University of Wrocław (2002)
Kluge Prize of the Library of Congress (2003)[25]
St George Medal (2006)
Honorary degree of the Central European University (2006)
Jerusalem Prize (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). ISBN 978-0-226-45039-1.
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). ISBN 978-0-226-45041-4.
ed. The Socialist Idea, 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 "Main
Currents of Marxism" (London: Oxford University Press, 1978). Current editions:
Paperback (1 volume): W. W. Norton & Company (17 January 2008). ISBN 978-
0393329438. Hardcover (1 volume): W. W. Norton & Company; First edition (7
November 2005). ISBN 978-0393060546.
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). ISBN 978-0-226-45055-1.
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). ISBN 978-0-226-45046-9. Hardcover: University of Chicago Press (March
1991). ISBN 978-0-226-45045-2.
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). ISBN 978-0-
226-45053-7. Hardcover: University of Chicago Press (November 1995). ISBN 978-
0-226-45051-3.
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

See also
Adam Schaff
History of philosophy in Poland
List of Polish people – philosophy
Poles in the United Kingdom
Zygmunt Bauman

References
1. "Noam Chomsky Reading List" (http://leftreferenceguide.wordpress.com/noam-cho
msky-reading-list/). Left Reference Guide. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
2. Leszek Kołakowski, "The Idolatry of Politics," reprinted in Modernity on Endless Trial
(University of Chicago Press, 1990, paperback edition 1997), ISBN 0-226-45045-7,
ISBN 0-226-45046-5, ISBN 978-0-226-45046-9, p. 158.
3. 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
4. "Philosopher Awarded Library's New Kluge Prize" (https://www.washingtonpost.co
m/archive/lifestyle/2003/11/05/philosopher-awarded-librarys-new-kluge-prize/a47fb
7fb-150d-4c1b-985e-1466e0686111/). Washington Post. 11 May 2003.
5. McGrath, Alister (2010). Mere Theology. London: SPCK. p. 144. ISBN 978-
0281062096.
6. "Leszek Kolakowski: Polish-born philosopher and writer who produced" (https://ww
w.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/leszek-kolakowski-polish-born-philosopher-an
d-writer-who-produced-seminal-critical-analyses-on-1763959.html).
Independent.co.uk. 29 July 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
7. [1] (https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/kraj/297351,1,piec-lat-temu-zmarl-les
zek-kolakowski.read)
 8. "Leszek Kolakowski" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituarie
s/books-obituaries/5873129/Leszek-Kolakowski.html). Telegraph.co.uk. 20 July
2009. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
9. Foreign News: VOICE OF DISSENT (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,91
71,862761,00.html), TIME Magazine, 14 October 1957
10. Clive James (2007) Cultural Amnesia, p. 353
11. Gareth Jones (17 July 2009) "Polish philosopher and author Kołakowski dead at 81"
(https://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE56G67Q20090717).
Reuters
12. Kołakowski, Leszek (2005). Main Currents of Marxism. New York: W. W. Norton and
Company. p. 909. ISBN 9780393329438.
13. Kołakowski, Leszek (1982). Religion. New York: Oxford University Press.
ASIN B01JXSH3HM (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JXSH3HM)., p.16
14. Leszek Kołakowski (1971): Hope and Hopelessness. In: Survey, vol. 17, no. 3 (80)
15. Kołakowski : In Stalin's Countries: Theses on Hope and Despair (1971) (http://stora
ge.osaarchivum.org/low/23/52/2352ec23-187b-40d7-972c-b2806a30a2e2_l.pdf).
osaarchivum.org
16. Adam Michnik (18 July 1985) "Letter from the Gdansk Prison," (https://www.nybook
s.com/articles/5402) New York Review of Books.
17. Norman Davies (5 October 1986) "True to Himself and His Homeland," (https://quer
y.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE5DC143DF936A35753C1A960948260)
New York Times.
18. Leszek Kolakowski (http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1010315/Leszek-K
olakowski). Encyclopædia Britannica
19. Scruton, Roger. "Leszek Kolakowski: thinker for our time" (https://www.opendemocr
acy.net/en/leszek-kolakowski-thinker-for-our-time-0/). opendemocracy.net. Open
Democracy. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
20. Jefferson Lecturers (http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/jefflect.html). neh.gov
21. Leszek Kołakowski (1990) "The Idolatry of Politics," p. 158 in Modernity on Endless
Trial. University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-45045-7.
22. "Library of Congress Announces Winner of First John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime
Achievement in the Humanities and Social Sciences" (https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/
2003/03-195.html). Loc.gov. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
23. Leszek Kołakowski, "What the Past is For" (https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0312/kluge
3.html) (speech given on 5 November 2003, on the occasion of the awarding of the
Kluge Prize to Kołakowski).
24. "Doktorzy Honorowi Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego" (https://ug.edu.pl/uniwersytet/o_na
s/doktoraty_honoris_causa?tpl=doktoraty_hc). Retrieved 7 August 2019.
25. "John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity (The John W. Kluge
Center at the Library of Congress)" (https://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/prize/). Loc.gov.
Retrieved 15 February 2017.

Further reading
Azurmendi, Joxe & Arregi, Joseba: Kołakowski, Oñati: EFA, 1972. ISBN 8472400530.

External links
"Leszek Kołakowski" (https://nauka-polska.pl/#/profile/scientist?id=11096).
Information Processing Centre database (in Polish).
 Leszek Kołakowski (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/
books-obituaries/5873129/Leszek-Kolakowski.html) – Daily Telegraph obituary
Polish Philosophy Page: Bibliography (https://web.archive.org/web/2008011013560
8/http://www.fmag.unict.it/~polphil/PolPhil/KolakBiblio.html) at the Wayback
Machine (archived 10 January 2008)
Kołakowski, Leszek (1974). "My correct views on everything: A rejoinder to Edward
Thompson's 'Open letter to Leszek Kołakowski' " (http://socialistregister.com/index.
php/srv/article/view/5323). Socialist Register.
How to Be a Conservative-Liberal-Socialist (http://www.unz.com/print/Encounter-19
78oct-00046/)
The Alienation of Reason (Extract) (http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/kolakow
1.html)
The Death of Utopia Reconsidered (http://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to
-z/k/kolakowski83.pdf)
The Complete and Brief Metaphysics (http://scholar.harvard.edu/pmalysz/content/c
omplete-and-brief-metaphysics-there-wont-be-another)
Judt, Tony. "Goodbye to All That?" (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19302) in The
New York Review of Books (http://www.nybooks.com), 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, ISBN 0-393-06054-3; My Correct Views on Everything by
Leszek Kołakowski, edited by Zbigniew Janowski. St. Augustine's, 2004, ISBN 1-
58731-525-4; Karl Marx ou l'esprit du monde by Jacques Attali. Paris: Fayard, 2005,
ISBN 2-213-62491-7)
Roger Kimball, Leszek Kołakowski and the Anatomy of Totalitarianism (https://web.a
rchive.org/web/20170204152600/http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/leszek-
1063)
Kołakowski : In Stalin's Countries: Theses on Hope and Despair (1971) (https://web.
archive.org/web/20160309225355/http://osaarchivum.org/greenfield/repository/os
a:2352ec23-187b-40d7-972c-b2806a30a2e2)
1 April 1999, BBC Radio program In Our Time (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p
00545g0)
Appearances (https://www.c-span.org/person/?leszekkolakowski) on C-SPAN

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