Uwagi nad kwestią autorytaryzmu w myśli Stanisława Staszica

• Authors: Matlęgiewicz Tomasz

Title variants

A few remarks on the authoritarianism in the thought of Stanisław Staszic

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Stanisław Staszic’s philosophical and political thought remains one of the greatest inellectual achievements of the Polish Age of Enlightenment. One of the most important issues is the question of power and handing it to individuals. In the time of reforms in the Polish Republic Staszic claimed that only strong central power was able to deliver the country from destruction and defeat the anarchy of the democracy of the nobility. He was however forced to tone down his opinions to be more agreeable towards the noblemen. After the patitions of Poland he considered Prussia a model of a well‑governed country. But it was not until after the Congress of Vienna, in his main finished work entitled Humankind, that he fully presented his thoughts upon the power. He described the evolution of this system from feudalism and absolutism to constitutional monarchy. Despotism, which was a chance for the Polish Republic in 18th century, ceased to be such a chance after 1815. The future lay in constitutional monarchy with strong but limited power of the monarch. And the Kingdom of Poland’s union with the Russian Empire was to be the beginning of the system and the tsar and king Alexander the First a model of the ruler.

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Gdański
• Journal: Studia Historica Gedanensia
• Year: 2013
• Volume: Volume 4 (2013)
• Pages: 53-67

Dates

online

2013

Contributors

author

Matlęgiewicz Tomasz

• Instytut Historii Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, ul. Wita Stwosza 55 80-952 Gdańsk, Poland

Identifiers

DOI

10.4467/23916001HG.13.004.2658