Honor in the land of inconsistency : on ethical reflections of Józef Tischner, Adam Michnik, and Leszek Kołakowski

Abstract

Honor is one of the values permanently inscribed in the traditional ethos of the Polish culture. In the past centuries, it was a feature distinguishing only one social class – the nobility. However, as a result of cultural changes, the concept of honor was democratized, thus entering the universal system of values, shaping the entire social structure. The above notwithstanding, the understanding of this concept had not become homogenized in the process. Even today, one can still observe the concurrence of different styles of thinking about honor, manifest in a variety of coexisting patterns of honorable behavior and particular attitudes to honor, whose respective uniqueness depends on socio-cultural contexts. It is, therefore, possible to speak of the honor of peasants or Highlanders, or of the honor of an oppositionist or an intellectual, and it stands to reason that in each case the sense of the concept will prove to be slightly different. In this text, the author presents the results of an analysis of the ways in which honor is understood by Józef Tischner and Leszek Kołakowski – two Polish thinkers who played important roles in the intellectual life of Poland in the second half of the twentieth century. These considerations are further complemented by a reflection on one of the leading activists of the democratic opposition in the final years of the Polish People’s Republic, an influential writer, journalist, editor, author of Z dziejów honoru w Polsce. Wypisy więzienne [From the History of Honor in Poland. Prison Notes] and numerous other books – Adam Michnik. An insight into his views on honor, and the reflection on the stance he adopted, combined with the analysis of Tischner’s position, allows the author to reconstruct Leszek Kołakowski’s ideal of honor, whose currency transgresses time.