Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz (in English: Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray ), the national epic poem, was first published in June 1834. It was perceived as a patriotic work, full of very ideal heroes. However, one of the most problem of this poem is love! Pan Tadeusz is the poem about love. There are many kinds of love: erotic love and maritial love, also familiar love (between parents and their children), love for country and others. My article applies not just to love affairs, but the very essence of love. What is love in Mickiewicz’s poem – is it “love that moves the sun and other stars” (Dante)?
In the article the emotion of love is discussed, based on reference books for travelers. Selected phrasebooks for German and Polish users were researched, starting from their first issues dating back to the 16th century to new publications from the early 21st century. The aim of the paper is to establish, whether in the phrasebooks, which in principle present language behavior in typical everyday life situations, love motifs are present, and whether there are any differences in this area in the perspective of time. In addition, picture motifs, which are related to the above mentioned topic, are also briefly discussed here.
The article presents the developmental approach to the Sternberg’s theory which introduces love as the trilayers phenomenon. This approach enables the adoption of a developmental perspective to understand the experience of love. Assuming that individuals develop from biological to social being, the article describes biological, psychological and sociocultural factors that influence three aspects of love. The article also describes interactions between this aspects. This layered approach allows understanding of the infl uence of conation, emotional and cognitive processes on three love layers: intimacy, passion, and commitment. The metaphor of layers helps to understand the diffi culties in forming intimate relationships.
This article refers to the tradition of the ‘spring’ motif in art and literature, especially in the Young Poland period. The issue the author brings under close scrutiny is how the symbolism of spring is used in the dramatic work The Return of Spring by Tadeusz Konczyński. She draws out attention to the portrait of the female protagonist, who shows reminiscence of mythological Venus as well as embodiment of youth, simplicity and spontaneity. Then she proceeds to analyse the symbolism of spring as the time that stimulates the birth of feelings and initiates long-lasting and genuine bonds, which counterbalance “the parlour love” with its pragmatic dimension. The key notion of the symbolics of spring is also incorporated into the opposition: nature-culture. Here it is linked to the vision of the world returning to nature, the world deeply rooted in the traditional system of values, where man may experience spiritual rebirth and regain faith in their existence after a period of life turbulence. After all, spring symbolises creative inspiration. The latter reveals itself both in the context of creating a literary work by the protagonist and in the universal dimension – the act of moulding of one’s self and one’s life. The deliberations lead the dialogue of the the writer’s dramatic work with the tradition of the Young Poland movement.
In this article we analyse the central role that the body plays in John MacMurray’s account of learning to be human. As with Merleau-Ponty, MacMurray rejected mind-body dualisms and argued for the need to understand what it means to be a person. Through our analysis we highlight the key principles that characterize MacMurray’s philosophy in relation to personhood and the body, namely: 1) all human knowledge and action should be for the sake of friendship and 2) human persons exist first and foremost in their bodies as ‘knowing agents’ rather than in their minds as ‘knowing subjects’. We thereafter explain MacMurray’s views on education and how it must support people to live in personal rather than functional relation with each other by attending more to bodily experience and education of the emotions. Accordingly, MacMurray considered that persons can either ‘use’ their bodily senses as mere instruments for functional purposes or they can ‘live’ in their bodily senses by learning to love (not ‘using’ but rather apprehending the real value of) other persons. In conclusion, we suggest that MacMurray’s philosophy can open up a different way of thinking about the educational value of physical activity. For MacMurray shared physical pursuits are especially educational when carried out for their own sake and when all persons’ present experience moments of bodily joy and togetherness and a better understanding of each other.
Apart from many legitimate concerns about ecology, the most important contemporary concern should be of anthropological nature and must address the human being as a person (Benedikt XVI). What is man? Are human beings free? What should human beings do? These Kantian questions also describe the main starting points of Karol Wojtyła’s philosophy in The Acting Person. With regard to the importance of the question (ecology of man) our challenge is divided into three parts. First, man is a person; second, his call is to liberty and last, responsible love is an emanation of personal dignity. In this manner the three important points in Wojtyła’s philosophy (person, liberty, love) are well characterized. The essence of man is his personal dignity as a source for the possibility of free (responsible) decisions – “the act”. The experience of morality is included in the experience of being a person. Wojtyła poses the question “how do I understand who I am throughout my acts?” Like Kant, the author emphasizes the importance of free will, conscientiousness as an obligation, which speaks to the conscious person. I determine myself through my own decision (person´s actions). For Wojtyła, participation in love is the basis of all human personal experiences. “Only persons participate in love”. Participation in the character of the other becomes – in the language of Wojtyła – “the choice of the other person in myself ”.
Gradiva is equivalent of love, an image of love, one which is not only an element of imagination, but also enters into what is real. In other words: the image becomes the reali- ty for a moment. Perversion finds its place. The only possible love, says Barthes, is the impossible love. When someone loved is not available but exists as an image and as the image can last forever. The love-desire is always in mad relation with what’s impossible. But this madness is real in the unreal world of not-being together.
This essay is intended to break through the stagnation and stagnation that dominates the world of today’s philosophy and to draw a new horizon for it. The question of the nature of nothingness influenced the thinkers of different epochs and geographical latitudes, among others. Lao-tzu, Chaung-tzu, Solomon, Buddha, Pascal, Nietzsche, Bergson or Heidegger. It is believed that the philosophy of European culture began with Plato, who first raised the question of the nature of existence. Existence and matter, however, are microscopic dimensions of a fragment of the universe. From the point of view of the average density of the universe, the world we consider as existing is as universal as the 3 ants to the size of our planet. Since its inception, European philosophy has focused on these three ants. We, however, found it more appropriate to focus our cognitive effort not only on the aforementioned ants, but also on the planet on which they live. We think that nothingness should be considered merely as non-existence, in other words a logical counterweight to existence. Nothing on one side contains, and on the other exceeds relative niceness and existence. We called it transcendental or absolute nothingness. Nothingness is also the supreme form of knowledge, which absolute being has manifested to the human race, but also the way leading through infinity and eternity back to absolute being. I have called this relationship ‹the principle of nothingness›.
The article describes six basic colour terms and their connotations concerning love on the basis of love between a woman and a man by prism of Poles and Germans.The analysis covers selected expressions with a colour element connoted a feeling of liking someone combined with sexual attraction to answer following questions: What colour does love have in Polish and German? What are physiological sources of the symbolism of love’s colours in Polish and German culture? Is the perception of love similar or different in both languages?
The metaphorical table and a psychological description of love in Ortega y Gasset can be heard to some degree in the "Hymn about love" written by apostle Paul in the Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor.13,1-13). Both these images are about a very lofty idea which is far away from everyday life. Love is not idyllic, and it often requires sacrifice and devotion.
The paper presents a critical approach to Psychologia kochania by Piotr Olesiński (Warszawa 2018). It discusses the main theses presented in the dissertation and invites to reflection focused on the psychological dimension of love, its role and place in human existence.
The article is devoted to the analysis of the modern experience of love, to which the entire narrative of the Planter of Malata has been devoted. The modern approach to the subject will be understood here as the penetration of the sacred sphere into the domain of the profane. Thanks to this mechanism, it becomes possible to create the expression of an indirect, confused, quasi-sacred experience. Conrad’s protagonist thus sees a woman in terms of “sanctity,” which will be interpreted in terms of “modern idolatry” (J.-L. Marion), eliminating any distance between the worshiper and the object of worship. The main scope of the analyses will concern the consequences that result from the starting point established in this way. Conrad’s text confirms the assumption that “pain is a sign and a means of contact with the divine” (D. Morris), but at the same time indicates many levels at which this process takes place.
The author researches the issue of love in Thomas Aquinas´s Summa Theologiae. He researchs the possibility of upbringing for love, and from what point of view this education is needed. The author concludes that the concept of love is quite different in the Summa Theologiae. In the context of Aquinian ethics, virtue points out that friendly love, as a unique phenomenon of human beings, is not necessary and therefore not only permits but also requires it to be developed through education.
In the modern epoch there were many investigations of human spirit for discovering what is certain and permanent. All that started with the new philosophy of Descartes. His thought may be helpful in searching for truth as a nutrition for developing Christian life. The article undertakes the attempt to insight into human self. The considerations start with love, because it seems to be what should drive human spiritual life and lead man to his heart. The second part of the article contains what can be achieved by applying Descartes’ thought for searching for what is true and permanent. The third (the last) part of the paper is dedicated to God and His contribution to human love and cognition, and its consequences.
This paper is a comparative study on the concept of God according to Pope Benedict in his encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est and Pope Francis in his inter-view book The Name of God is Mercy. Their particular concept of God is complementary as exemplified in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
Book review: Stanisław Hałas SCJ, Biblijne słownictwo miłości i miłosierdzia na zderzeniu kultur. Określenia hebrajskie i ich greckie odpowiedniki (Uniwersytet Papieski Jana Pawła II w Krakowie. Wydział Teologiczny. Studia 18; Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Papieskiego Jana Pawła II 2011). Pp. 296. PLN 40. ISBN 978-83-7438-279-3
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Recenzja książki: Ks. Stanisław Hałas SCJ, Biblijne słownictwo miłości i miłosierdzia na zderzeniu kultur. Określenia hebrajskie i ich greckie odpowiedniki (Uniwersytet Papieski Jana Pawła II w Krakowie. Wydział Teologiczny. Studia 18; Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Papieskiego Jana Pawła II 2011). Ss. 296. PLN 40. ISBN 978-83-7438-279-3
The article is devoted to the analysis of Paweł Beręsewicz’s works submitted, awarded with a prize or distinction at the Kornel Makuszyński All‑Poland National Literary Award. The following books by Beręsewicz were analyzed: Jak zakochałem Kaśkę Kwiatek (2005), Ciumkowe historie, w tym jedna smutna (2007), Tajemnica człowieka z blizną (2010), Ściśle tajne (2018). The reading method draws upon the childhood face topic, which was suggested by Grzegorz Leszczyński.
This article explores the potential of digital games to encode references encompassing specific cultural ideas of romantic love within their spatial structures, thus helping guide the player’s interpretation of romance as they interact with and move through those spaces. It undertakes an analysis of romantic subplots in BioWare’s fantasy role-playing games, specifically those which reappropriate the courtly love trope, and discusses elements of that remediation which rely heavily on spatial metaphors and structures, including the shared experience of heroic journey, the role of questing for the development of romance, and spatial positioning of lovers on the game map. Through its analysis, the article explores how digital games can employ spatial rhetoric while approaching topics of love, and how they are equipped to represent the materiality and spatiality of love and love narratives.
Sixtine by Remy de Gourmont marks the refusal of nature and tangible reality and the choice of imagination to the detriment of reality. Its principal character, Hubert d’Entragues is a faithful disciple of idealism of symbolism. Since he chooses to think rather that to live, it is not surprising that the plot of the novel is almost nonexistent. The plot develops around of d’Entragues’ desire to win the beautiful Sixtine, which is in itself condemned to failure since he is doing nothing to reach her and refuses to take any effort. The woman, who could have served as the principal impulse of the plot, is practically inexistent in this story (though it is a passionate story) and is replaced by the ideal woman: the story is doubled by the second story, e.g. a novel written by the character which is a transposition of his “cerebral” relation with Sixtine and a realisation of presence of the latter. Art replaces life and life does not exist in itself. It is shaped by thought. But the chosen absence of any facts of life is fruitful: it gives birth to a novel. It is a story of a prisoner in love with the statute of the Virgin which he sees while taking a daily walk. In this novel the carnal accomplishment is not necessary in order for a true and sincere passion to develop and the satisfaction of desire may destroy the dream and the ideal.
While there are many stories of man, one moment seems to recur in all of them. This is the belief that we need to be able, and want, to look in the mirror of something that is qualitatively larger than us. This is the intention of the tradition whose philosophic patron is Plato. This need for unreality—the need for another world—presumably manifests itself in every area of human activity. One can therefore talk about a specific need for unreality that every real life satiates itself with. I provide examples of this need: science, religion, love, past and future. In the light of eternal life, we would be continually beset by the values for which we would be obliged to sacrifice our lives. In the light of earthly life, such values are inconceivably less frequent. We learn the difficult art of living in a consumer world where we do not have to die.
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