IS OUR TIME THAT OF 'THE DEATH OF UTOPIA'? (Czy zyjemy w epoce 'smierci utopii'?)

• Authors: Tyszka Krzysztof
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article concerns the problem of the crisis of Utopia. Many philosophers and social scientists speak about 'the death of Utopia'. This opinion is closely related to the theory of 'the end of ideology', which was very popular after World War II. Researchers often show that great projects envisaging a radical transformation of society have revealed their destructive power. Moreover, contemporary culture, and especially post-modernist philosophy place emphasis on the temporariness, instability and 'liquidity' of the scheme of social life. So they leave no room for the constitutive elements of Utopian thinking: the overall and enduring projects of the construction of a perfect social order. The article poses the basic question: are Utopian ideas completely absent from the post-modernist vision of society, or do those ideas assume a different character? The author shows some elements of Utopian thinking existing at the level of individual culture. Utopia in its traditional sense has completely disappeared. This does not mean, however, that there is no form of Utopian reflection in contemporary post-modernist society. It appears in a completely new form: the search for a perfect social order has been replaced by a multitude of various ways of looking for a perfect life in the individual dimension.

Keywords

EN

INDIVIDUALISM; POSTMODERNISM; UTOPIA CRISIS OF

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN
• Journal: Kultura i Społeczeństwo
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 83-103
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Tyszka Krzysztof

• Krzysztof Tyszka, Uniwersytet Warszawski, ul. Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09PLAAAA068616