The Lesser Writings — Albeit not Valued Less. On Humanists’ Sorceries by Jerzy Kmita (Part II)

Abstract

Our article, written in the convention of a discussion, is the second part of the reflection inspired by Jerzy Kmita’s Humanists’ Sorceries. In this part we talk about his program of humanities and ask what would have happened if we had finished with sorceries in humanities. In our opinion, there is no way out of the common sense, we always, one way or the other, fall into its traps, because nothing in culture is transparent for itself. The only thing we, as humanists, can do is deconstructing as much of our natural/silent shared believes as we are able to. That is the lesson to be drawn from Jerzy Kmita’s works. In the end of our article, we discuss the history of Polish humanities thinking. In our interpretation, we are members and eye-witnesses of pivotal turns in Polish humanities: we face a return to the non-nostalgic history of our schools and to the way of thinking which is basic for our identity both as researchers and human beings.