Stefan Morawski – constitution of one’s own philosophical subjectivity
Lecture by Prof. Zofia Rosińska

In 1964, Stefan Morawski wrote that a passion for polemics was a healthy thing, however incomplete knowledge combined with the passion produced bad results.

This belief determined his constantly investigational attitude and enabled him to shape his own philosophical subjectivity in the framework of Marxist aesthetics. In the Marxist ideology, aesthetics played a key role, however, it was understood in a broad sense, not only as a reflection on art, its works and reception but also as the culture of the production process and aesthetic education. It enabled the realisation of the Marxist idea of homo aestheticus.

Stefan Morawski was familiar with and presented the history of German and English aesthetics. He also presented, in a detailed manner, various Marxist approaches in Russian aesthetics. He argued with them from a Marxist point of view. He did not shut himself away in his Ivory Tower. He also argued with the ideas of Andre Malreau, and Roman Ingarden’s phenomenology. His arguments were always substantive in their nature. He preached his methodological credo in a clear and understood manner, applied precision to the philosophical categories that he referred to and used them in order to define the intuitive data obtained in the analysis of aesthetic, artistic and political processes. With his expertise and passion for polemics, he spread the idea of multifariousness of Marxist aesthetics. Until the end of his life, he solemnly believed that you could not deprive a human being of its utopian thinking.

During the meeting, we will discuss the following themes of Stefan Morawski’s works: 1. methodological
2. axiological
3. crisis of art, aesthetics and culture