The Lesser Writings — albeit not valued less. On Humanists’ Sorceries by Jerzy Kmita (part I)

Abstract

Our article, written in the convention of a discussion, addresses the language of the socio-regulatory theory of culture formulated by Jerzy Kmita. It is the well-known fact that this language was rather difficult to understand for those who did not cooperate with Kmita. It has been even said to be a cant. This language was frequently used in books by Kmita, but rarely in his short papers published in the 1970s in “Nurt” and other journals. In Jan Grad’s opinion, the cant was not used too often there, as their goal was to popularize Jerzy Kmita’s project of “scientific humanities”. We try to formulate another point of view on this issue, for we believe that there is a “Kmita’s style” of writing and that his way of writing never ceased to exist, which can be easily noticed in his last book (Jak słowa łączą się ze światem. Studium krytyczne neopragmatyzmu, Poznań 1998). Jerzy Kmita is a Bloom’s strong poet; someone who creates his own vocabulary. The short papers of Kmita are another, but symmetric part of his science discourse as such, the former complement the latter. We also ask the question of origins of Kmita’s way of thinking, considering both the textual and the outer side thereof.