Educating the Polish people – do we need philosophy?

Abstract

The article formulates a thesis that an essential feature of Polish philosophical and social thought is its educational criticism, practicalism, activism and, elitist egalitarianism, its religiousness and reference to various trends in European philosophy in connection with the idea of Slavism. This philosophy focuses on man and his improvement. I see the importance, and indeed the necessity, of developing Polish philosophy in the context of European thought. I believe that it can provide a humanistic basis for the education of Poles. I document my views with selected concepts of Polish philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries.