Sic et non... czyli problem "bałwochwalstwa polityki" w myśli Leszka Kołakowskiego

Abstract

The term “idolatry of politics” occurs in Leszek Kołakowski’s deliberations when individuals turn their political engagement into moral rules, that is, they create their gods ad hoc for their individual aims in politics. The thinker sees the reasons for the crisis of European culture and civilization in the intellectual legacy of the Enlightenment, and with it, the need for the beginning of the “idolatry of politics”. The first reason is the abandonment of the “absolute values” in the post-modern times, which has led to relativism in culture. The second issue is the distinction between the collective and personal problems of human nature and, consequently, the problem of responsibility for one’s actions. The third area which exerts destructive influence on civilization is the erosion of historical consciousness. In Kołakowski’s works, a cure for the “idolatry of politics” may be found in his conception of “philosophy of a jester” and “inconsistent inconsistency”.