The leading purpose of this paper is to provide an answer to the question whether Karl Marx belongs to philosophy and history of philosophy, and whether placing him in these categories gives a fair picture of what he really intended to achieve. When analyzing Marx’s thought, one should remember that is his own eyes he was not a philosopher but a researcher who goes beyond the horizon of philosophy in order to undertake scientific and not ideological work aimed at organizing political battles of that time. Of course, what a particular thinker believes of himself cannot be an ultimate criterion for interpreting his/her academic output. The doubts are augmented when we consult Leszek Kołakowski’s Main Currents of Marxism – a book that is based on the assumption that “Karl Marx was a German philosopher”, and this starting point supports the critique of Marx’s thought. The problem arises from the fact that Leszek Kołakowski, who was a post-Marxist, despises science and philosophy, and sees myth as the basis of thought dynamics. Thus the question of the adequacy of his presentation of Marx aris es and strengthens the suspicion that Kołakowski did not present the real Marx’s philosophy but rather a myth of Marx’s theory centered on the idea of making people happy against their will and nature.

The myth of Orpheus in the second postwar decade in Italy and Poland – The myth of Orpheus, in the second postwar decade, becomes a paradigmatic tale describing the horror of mourning and separation. Cesare Pavese and Anna Świrszczyńska, in their rewritings, elaborate that mith in a completely original way, tracing a new path of Orpheus’ journey to the underworld.

This article is a review of the book edited by Krzysztof Brzechczyn and Marek Nowak, On the Revolution. Pictures of the Radical Social Change, Poznań 2007.

In the paper, I present the views of Alina Motycka, a Polish philosopher of science who died in 2018. I place Motycka’s scholar activity in a historical context, relative to two traditions of the philosophy of science—its historical version signed by Thomas Kuhn, and the tradition of logical reconstruction of science which in the second half of the twentieth century was revived by the thought of Karl Popper. I believe that this historical situation forms the context in which Motycka shaped her view of the philosophy of science and, because of such a particular context, she has participated in it with her own problematizations. So, what constitutes the originality of her way? Two issues come to the fore here. The first is the reconstruction of the fundamental problem of the philosophy of science, which, according to Motycka, is the question of confronting two scientific theories, of which the earlier (T1) is replaced by a later and competitive one (T2). Motycka shows the inability of the epistemology of the second half of the 20th century to adequately capture this relationship. The reason for this is the lack of intellectual means to problematize the situation T1–T2. The second area of the author's interest is the issue of creativity in science. She was inspired by the theories of Carl G. Jung. In this context, it is of interest to use the philosophy of science of terms such as archetype and myth.

The article is devoted to the reception of Katarzyna Kobro – changes in historiographic approaches to the artist and her biography, as well as references to her in contemporary art projects and curatorial practices. The context of these considerations is the discussion initiated by Linda Nochlin on the issue of mythologizing individual creativity and the question of how feminist thinking helps to modify the older understanding of “artistic greatness”.

The action of Vladimir Khotinenko’s 1612 (2007) takes place in Time of Troubles (1605-1613). Polish hetman’s love affair with Tsarevna is shown in the context of the fi ght for power. Various genre patterns, among others the melodrama code. The historical myths serving the contemporary national propaganda. 1612 allows us to see how Russians use the pop culture to create the myths combining the history with the contemporary political needs.

The article analyzes reflections on the child in the most notable works of the 18th‑century Ukrainian historical narrative: the chronicles of Samovidets, Hryhoriy Hrabianka, Samiilo Velychko, and Istoria Rusiv. These works, being the only historical thought reflections of the Hetman State, had no equal. Later they were to become the basis for constructing the modern vision of the Cossack past on the part of 19th‑century Ukrainian historians, writers, and public figures. The focus is on those plots and contexts where the authors addressed children’s topics. The 18th‑century vision of childhood is investigated on that basis, along with the impact these stories had on later recipients and the formation of modern ideas about childhood in “old Ukraine”. Attempted is also a study of children’s topics as a tool for describing and constructing the past in Baroque rhetoric and historical narratives.

Andrzej Walicki’s book: O Rosji inaczej („On Russia in a different way”, 2019) is a crucial item for the Polish reader, because it treats significant issues in Polish and Russian history, as exemplified by ideology based on philosophy and other pivotal issues of contemporary times. Walicki was a prominent expert on Russian thought and on important phenomena of Russian culture. He was well prepared to raise important questions and offer competent new answers. In his book, Walicki focused primarily on modernism which had influenced the development of socialist thought and on the philosophy of the opposition at the so‑called golden age. The main intention of this paper is to make certain additions to the assessment of these phenomena by the Russian Orthodox thought, and especially by those who sustain the position of the conservative Orthodox Church, regardless of the historical moment of its formulation. Modernism stands in opposition to Orthodox dogmatics, anthropology, ecclesiology and patristics. It has its roots in Byzantine Renaissance that migrated to Italy after the fall of Constantinople. Modernism constitutes an important paradigm of post‑medieval culture. It is active in Western culture and influences Russian culture as well. Obviously, Russian culture is attached to the Orthodox Church in a special way, as the Church constitutes a specific genotype of that culture. Modernist influences that are rooted in this specific soil bring forth completely different upshots in Russia from those that emerge in the West. Essential examples of this phenomenon are absolutism, imperialism or Marxist socialism in their Western and Russian versions. These phenomena concern primarily political matters but they clearly show that the ideals of modernism in Russia assume a religious character. However, they were not inherently religious, and should rather be placed in the sphere of myths.

The text presents the achievements of Wiesław Juszczak, who died in 2021, as a challenge that has not yet been taken up by the humanities. The reason for this may be the multiformity and thematic richness of his texts, almost always essayistic in nature (in the best, traditional sense), with an outstanding literary dimension, but at the same time a deep and broad scientific background. This applies to both his books on Polish painting around 1900, works on post-impressionists, as well as analyzes of archaic Greek thought about art, religious roots of art from various cultures, unconventional interpretations of Japanese films or Ingmar Bergman’s oeuvre.

Vast research has sought to better understand the origins and development of rape myth beliefs given the problematic influence of such misconceptions throughout global societies and criminal justice pathways. The current research aims to build on this body of literature by examining the contribution that psychopathic personality traits (affective responsiveness, cognitive responsiveness, interpersonal manipulation, egocentricity) and emotional intelligence may have upon rape myth beliefs. Furthermore, this study will investigate the extent to which sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, education), and prior experience of sexual victimisation, contribute to variance in rape myth acceptance scores. In total 251 participants (M Age = 31.66) completed an online, self-report questionnaire which included contemporary measures of psychopathy and rape myth acceptance, never previously tested in combination. Results of a hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicate that egocentricity, age, and gender were significantly associated with rape myth beliefs. Emotional intelligence, as well as affective and interpersonal traits of psychopathy, were not directly related with rape mythology. Findings are interpreted alongside previous research, where we suggest there is an urgent need for larger, nationally representative samples, systematically recruited from the general population to help clarify uncertainty in existing literature emerging from small-scale opportunistic datasets.

The article studies the problem of the Yekaterinoslav urban text formation in Russian literature. The image of the city in the poem by Alexander Pushkin Brothers‑Robbers is analysed; the real (historical) image of Yekaterinoslav is considered in correlation with the image depicted in the poem, determined are the functions of romanticist topoi in the creation of the Yekaterinoslav text, while revealed are the peculiar features of the formation of the urban myth within the Yekaterinoslav text itself. The process of shift from the image of a real Yekaterinoslav city to the image of the ideal (non‑material) one, from a “physical” image to the “metaphysical” is investigated. There is a process of poeticizing a small city in the work of art, representing the primary stage of forming a myth about the city. After analysing the correlation of the Yekaterinoslav myth with the aesthetic constants of romanticism (the motif of freedom and predatory liberty, images of the noble robber and rebellious character, the motif of rejection, correlation with the utopian tradition) we may conclude that within the poetics of the urban text Alexander Pushkin reinterprets and transforms the traditional categories of romanticist poetics. The author’s characterization of the robber character diminishes the romantic ideal, revealing the other, “trivial” nature and interpreting rebellion not as a rejection or desire for freedom, but as a crime. Such a twist in depicting the image of a rebellious character stipulates a different interpretation of the theme of freedom, transforming it into the theme of guilt and punishment. Thus, the motifs of rejection, rebellion and repentance, compositionally uniting the development and understanding of the theme of predatory liberty in the poem, are interpreted in the metaphysical image of the city. Such a function of the city image determines the peculiar narrative structure of the poem at the level of plot, composition and style.

The most prevalent popular and critical images of Bruno Schulz present a Polish-Jewish writer and artist who turned away from politics and history in his creative work only to be devoured by the most violent political and historical forces in his life. This article attempts to reinsert Schulz’s writings into the social and political history of his day and age, focusing on an interpretation of his novella Spring (Wiosna). It argues that Schulz viewed the meaning and progression of history and politics in mythical terms. Accordingly, his stories contain ironic mythologizations of social, political and historical events. In Spring, Schulz captures, or rather constructs, the mythological essence of the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire, producing his own imaginative and contradictory commentary on the history of his native region during his own lifetime.

This is a comparative analysis of the key ideas regarding nation-building in the writ-ings of Adam Mickiewicz and Patrick Pearse, who have gone down to history as icons of the Polish and Irish national revival. In the case of Mickiewicz the article focuses on Dziady – Część III (Forefathers’ Eve – Part III), Konrad Wallenrod, Księgi narodu polskiego i pielgrzymstwa polskiego (Books of the Polish Nation and Poland’s Pilgrimage); the Irish materials include Pearce’s dramas The King and The Singer as well as Theobald Wolfe Tone’s ‘Speech from the Dock’. A trope common to all of them is the concept of ‘a beauti-ful, awesome voice’ / ‘a traitorous song’: literature as a mighty force that can create a community dedicated to the national cause. A comparison of passages that articulate the messianic idea indicates that, though understood by either writer in his own way, they both envision it as a catalyst turning nation-building literature into an apotheosis of martyrdom and death – a process which could be described as axiological metabolism. The article also examines the paradoxes of the projections of the myth of national unity in the work of both writers, especially in Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz and Pearse’s short story ‘In My Garden’.