Alfred Skorupka

The author of the article ponders over an unclear and controversial notion of the unity of various religions. He understands this notion as the communion of a spiritual content (e.g. images of the Highest Being that is God, a spiritual development of man, etc.) and the communion of values and actions promoted by universal religions of the world. He considers the issue in question from the point of view of mystics, theology and philosophy (especially the ethics) respectively. In his considerations, the author refers to, among others, L. Kołakowski, F. Koneczny and S.P. Huntington. The article shows the complexity of issues discussed under the label of the „unity of various religions”, as well as numerous ambiguities which have gathered around the subject matter. Undoubtedly, the conflicts between religions cannot be fully disposed of though there is a great need of underlining their common features and values nowadays. It is so, as S.P. Huntington points out, because the contemporary world and each civilization is equally endangered with the development of Barbarism (i.e. terrorism, organized delinquency, drug abuse and other phenomena).

This work presents a construct: a «simple-minded behavior», which consists of the following features: spontaneity, creativity, empathy, trust and emotional response. Simpleminded behavior is characteristic of both a simple-minded man [acc. to J. Bańka] and a selfrealizing man [acc. to A.H. Maslowj. This construct is thus an axis of similarities between philosophy and psychology. This article presents the results of empirical research into simple-minded behavior and a questionnaire of simple-mindedness. The researches proved that simple-minded behaviors are associated with a feeling of inner control. It is likely that simplemindedness is conducive to inner-controllability and vice versa - a feeling of inner control is conducive to simple-minded behaviors.

The present article shows us the concept of the self-realising man as understood by A.H. Maslow, the main representative of the current called humanist psychology. The author states that the ethics of right-mindedness, devised by J. Banka, is the ethics of a self-realising human being. Thus, anyone who follows the principles of this kind of ethics makes the most of his or her possibilities. Such a person should be contrasted with a neurotic, who, in J. Banka’s terminology, is called a “mock-man” (lieczlowiek), who does not satisfy his human needs, does not develop, does not give expression to his or her personality, and prefers to put on “a mask”.It is the author’s intention to emphasise, in the present work, the mutual relations and similarities, existing without doubt between philosophical and psychological concepts.

Artykuł dyskutuje z teorią amerykańskiego politologa Samuela Huntingtona, który w swojej słynnej książce Zderzenie cywilizacji stwierdził, że istnieje cywilizacja islamska. Autor artykułu omawia historiozoficzne analizy islamu, które przeprowadzili: Oswald Spengler, Feliks Koneczny i Arnold Toynbee; wszyscy ci trzej myśliciele twierdzą, że istnieje jedna cywilizacja wiążąca się z islamem. Zdaniem autora artykułu możemy tę cywilizację nazywać orientalną. Artykuł prezentuje również teorię orientalnej cywilizacji wedle wymienionych klasyków historiozofii.

The article compares the ethical views of Tadeusz Kotarbiński and Józef Bańka. The conceptions of ethics of these two thinkers are independent from religion and from philosophical outlooks. The author claims that Bańka’s ethics of simple-mindedness is more eudaimonistic and individualist, whereas Kotarbiński’s ethics of the reliable custodian is more perfectionist and socially oriented. Moreover, Bańka, the author of the philosophy of recentivism, devotes a significant part of his ethical view to the problem of worldly happiness, whereas Kotarbiński, the author of the philosophical reism, has viewed favourably the epicurean idea of happiness as a lack of suffering, alongside the idea that the reliable custodian is capable of assuring people that they can count on his concern. Both analyzed conceptions of ethics are atheistic. However Kotarbiński, the author of Medytacje o życiu godziwym, differs from Bańka in that his views are close to the Christian ethics, especially to the command of the love of one’s neighbour. Both philosophers differ in their attitude towards technology. Kotarbiński is generally in favour of progress and development of humankind, while according to Bańka technology seems to be a grave threat for the moral and psychological constitution of man, therefore it has to be placed under control. The ethics of the reliable custodian is more concerned with the external, while the ethics of simple-mindedness — the internal sphere of human being. The author claims that both systems of ethics may be seen as complementary since they have more in common than oppose each other, and that they are more in agreement than contest each other. Undoubtedly both ethics are pertinent for contemporary man and may serve as an important signpost in human unceasing struggle with serious moral problems

The author presents the model of a spiritual development of man formulated on the basis of "taceodycea". "Taceodycea" is the theory of the silent principle of the existence into which J. Bańka included the interpretation of the present based on the idea of recentivism. In the model presented, referring to various philosophical, psychological and religious conceptions, the author shows the way a human being develops the ability to grasp the mystery of the absolute in the moment of "recens" and in the experience of silence. To do so, the author discusses the stages of a spiritual development like seeing, walking, running, desiring, fearing and loving. The people who are shown against this background are those who are not concentrated on their spiritual development and stop at the stage of walking or not going to church.

The author undertakes a polemic with a concept launched by Samuel Huntington, who, in his book The clash of civilizations, posited the existence of a Latino-American civilisation. Other scholars, such as Oswald Spengler or Arnold Toynbee, however, only refer in their writings to the ancient Indian civilisation in pre-Colombian America, while colonisation of the New World by the Europeans is rather more tied to expansion of civilisation of the West. The Author thus presents arguments both supporting and undermining a thesis that there existed some separate Latin American community. His considerations also refer to the views expressed by Francis Fukuyama and Carlos A. Montaner, who describe the political, social and economic backwardness of Latin American countries compared to the United States and the European Union. Thus, while the Latin American culture is clearly different from the American or the European, nevertheless, from a historiosophic point of view, it is difficult to find in it features which would unambiguously bear testimony to the civilisation of the region’s being distinct from that of the West.

The author of the article ponders over an unclear and controversial notion of the unity of various religions. He understands this notion as the communion of a spiritual content and the communion of values and actions promoted by universal religions of the world. He considers the issue in question from the point of view of mystics, theology and philosophy respectively. In his considerations, the author refers to, among others, L. Kołakowski, F. Koneczny and S.P. Huntington. The article shows the complexity of issues discussed under the label of the “unity of various religions”, as well as numerous ambiguities which have gathered around the subject matter. Undoubtedly, the conflicts between religions cannot be fully disposed of though there is a great need of underlining their common features and values nowadays. It is so, as S.P. Huntington points out, because the contemporary world and each civilization is equally endangered with the development of Barbarism.