Stanisław Brzozowski (writer)
| Stanisław Brzozowski | |
|---|---|
Stanisław Brzozowski, 1878–1911
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| Born |
28 June 1878 Maziarnia, Congress Poland, Russian Empire |
| Died | 30 April 1911 (aged 32) Florence, Kingdom of Italy |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Occupation | Philosopher, writer, literary critic |
Stanisław Brzozowski (28 June 1878 – 30 April 1911) was a Polish philosopher, writer, publicist, literary and theatre critic. Historically considered to be one of the most important Polish philosophers, Brzozowski is known for his concept of the philosophy of labour, rooted in Marxism. Besides Karl Marx, among his major inspirations were Georges Sorel, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, Thomas Carlyle, and John Henry Newman. Brzozowski's core idea was based on the concept of a socially engaged intellectual (artist). Although he was in favour of historical materialism, he strongly argued against its deterministic interpretation. In his philosophical approaches, Brzozowski rejected all concepts that were commodifying a human being.
Polish intellectuals (Czesław Miłosz,Andrzej Walicki,Leszek Kołakowski) have stressed that Brzozowski's interpretations of Marx's early writings, not widely known at the time of their formulation, largely anticipated those presented later by György Lukács and Antonio Gramsci.
Leopold Stanisław Leon Brzozowski was born in 1878 in Maziarnia, a village near Chełm. He grew up in an impoverished gentry family, but attended private schools, which allowed him to enroll in the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Warsaw in 1896. In 1897 Brzozowski was involved in student riots against Russian professors teaching at the university. As a consequence, Brzozowski and many other students were expelled from the university for a period of one year. Brzozowski then led the student organization Bratniak, established to maintain financial support for the expelled students. In order to help his father, who suffered from a fatal illness, Brzozowski decided to use the organization's funds. Although he had promised himself to give the money back as soon as possible, his embezzlement was discovered. The arbitration panel of the fellow members excluded Brzozowski from the activities of the organization for three years. In the same year (1898), he was imprisoned as a result of investigations into the secret activities of the Society for People's Education.
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