Slawomir Sierakowski

“What is not a biography does not exist at all”, said Stanislaw Brzozowski, an influential Polish philosopher. Based on said words, I shall study the intellectual biography of Czeslaw Milosz, whose works may appear well-known and exploited, yet the opposite is true. Milosz is concerned with “the pressure of necessity” which can break even the strongest character. I want to elaborate on this thesis with the help of social psychology, especially studies on cognitive dissonance, social influence and obedience. Milosz’s attitude towards Poland is complicated and studies are distorted by the Polish desire to have a national hero for the hard times of communist dictatorship. “What is not a biography does not exist at all”, said Stanislaw Brzozowski, an influential Polish philosopher. Based on said words, I shall study the intellectual biography of Czeslaw Milosz, whose works may appear well-known and exploited, yet the opposite is true. Milosz is concerned with “the pressure of necessity” which can break even the strongest character. I want to elaborate on this thesis with the help of social psychology, especially studies on cognitive dissonance, social influence and obedience. Milosz’s attitude towards Poland is complicated and studies are distorted by the Polish desire to have a national hero for the hard times of communist dictatorship.

My project aims at analyzing the transformation of the political culture in so-called “New Europe” from the perspective of the critics of the consensual model of democracy, which was implemented with the support of the former “antipolitical” dissidents during the transition and the EU-enlargement processes. In terms of theory, the project contrasts the consensual and the antagonistic approach in democratic theory. The working hypothesis of my investigation is that the first one allows to describe the main assumptions of the idea of a public sphere in liberal democracies like Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The second one helps to better explain the “postpolitical” crises the public sphere currently faces.