Разговоры с дьяволом

by Leszek Kołakowski, Лешек Колаковский

Teraz już wiecie, moi najmilsi, że nie tylko szatańskie podstępy zwalczać możecie, ale że całkiem łatwa to sprawa, łatwa - co mówię - najłatwiejsza w świecie, błahostka, rzecz śmieszna, bez trudu najmniejszego, bez wysiłku, kochani bracia, palcem kiwnąć wystarczy, a pada w proch piekielna machina i walą się rachuby nieczystej siły, jakże to łatwe, jakże proste, dziatki moje, jakże on słaby, ów mocarz ciemny, iż dziecko ledwie urodzone pyszne jego chytrości powalić może, broń z ręki wytrącić, byle tylko wiedzieć, byle wiedzieć dobrze, gołąbeczki, jak się do sprawy zabrać.

Genres: Philosophy

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Distinguished Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analysis of Marxist thought, especially his acclaimed three-volume history, Main Currents of Marxism. In his later work, Kolakowski increasingly focused on religious questions. In his 1986 Jefferson Lecture, he asserted that "We learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are.”

In Poland, Kołakowski is not only 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".

Kołakowski died on 17 July 2009, aged 81, in Oxford, England. In his obituary, philosopher Roger Scruton said 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."

Reviews

[VBV · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting but somehow uneven collection of the essays on the nature of evil. The most remarkable one is "Press Conference Given by the Demon in Warsaw, on 20th December, 1963", where the point is made that an unncessary malice that we encounter in our lives can not be reduced to a purely economical, social or historical reasons, but emerges from a fallen condition of the world.

This passage carries the main message of the book:
"The word “evil” contains nothing pathetic, nothing horrible, nothing sublime, it is objective and dry, it precisely indicates what it is actually about, it is ordinary, it is the same as the word “stone” or the word “cloud”; it's accurate matched to the subject, unmistakably falls into its reality, [...] Evil is a thing, it is as simple as a thing.

But you don’t want to hear about it. While facing the destruction you will keep repeating with manic persistence: it is so, it became so, it just became so, but it could have been different: evil is an event that happens by chance and anywhere, but if someone can stand with resolve on its way — it can be prevented. The end of the world will find you in full confidence that the end of the world is an accident. After all, you don't believe in the devil.

Seeing unnecessary cruelty, seeing joyless and aimless destruction, you don't even think about the devil. You have so many explanations and so many names at hand to explain away every aspect of the problem. You have your Freud to talk about the aggressive drive and death instinct, you have your Jaspers who tells you about the “passion for the night,” [...] you have yours Nietzsche, you have your psychologists with their “will to power”. You know how to hide a case behind words under the pretext of revealing it."

[the_deepest_black]

Porządek utajony w amalgamacie przypadkowych wydarzeń.

Brzuch ci ducha nie posłucha, co dopiero niżej brzucha.

[Krzysiek Szpryngiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

bawi i uczy

[Nacho Charreton · Rating 5 out of 5]

No sabía ni que había diez tipos de conversaciones distintas. Aparte si no sabía si había Dios antes de leer este libro, por lo menos ahora sé que sí hay Diablo.