Sarmatism as Europe’s founding myth

• Authors: Joanna Orzeł

Abstracts

EN

“More and more phenomena are assuming a political dimension, and the surrounding world of politics is beginning to overwhelm us. Despite its grounding in rationality, and despite efforts to adapt it to the changing forms of social life, it systematically yields to derealisation. The key notions in this area, such as liberty, equality, democracy, raison d’état, revolution, counter-revolution, are becoming increasingly disconnected, receive variegated explanations and interpretations in political practice, are readily subject to manipulation.” Cultural myth expresses a collective, emotionally charged belief in the veracity of a conceptual content, a memory, and simultaneously provides a model, a set of rules for social behaviour. Leszek Kołakowski draws attention to the ubiquity of mythological thinking in contemporary culture in which it addresses the universal need to find meaning and continuity in the world and its values. Myth is then a particular mode of perception, cognition, and understanding of reality, part of man’s mentality, his national and cultural identity.

Keywords

EN

Sarmatism; history of Poland; history; cultural memory

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek
• Journal: Polish Political Science Yearbook
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 39
• Pages: 149-157

Dates

published

2010

Contributors

author

Joanna Orzeł

• Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (Poland)

Identifiers

DOI

10.15804/ppsy2010008

Biblioteka Nauki

2026789