Leszek Kołakowski Knihy

Světově uznávaný autor polského původu rozebírá ve svém díle stále aktuální základní filozofické otázky, přičemž se zabývá především nejobtížněji postižitelným, ale stále znovu se vynořujícím předmětem filozofického zkoumání: absolutnem.

Malé úvahy o velkých věcech byly koncem 90. let vysílány v pravidelném pořadu polskou televizí a současně vycházely v deníku Gazeta Wyborcza. Později byly - pro velký zájem veřejnosti - vydány knižně. Autor se snaží populární, ne však podbízivou formou, objasnit základní filosofické a etické problémy způsobem, který je srozumitelný každému. Kolakowski je jedním z mála moderních filosofů, jemuž se podařilo oslovit širokou veřejnost. Jak sám říká, jeho Malé úvahy o velkých věcech mají jednu nespornou přednost" zaprvé jsou krátké, takže televizní diváci nebudou mít čas během pořadu usnout, a zadruhé v nich nepadne ani slovo o polské politice.... celý text

Known in the English-speaking world mainly as the author of Main Currents of Marxism (1976), and in France as the author of the monumental study Chrétiens sans Eglise (1966), in his Two Eyes of Spinoza and Other Essays on Philosophers Leszek Kolakowski offers the English-speaking reader for the first time a significant selection of his early writings. Originally written in Polish, German, and French, this collection is his first book ever in English on seventeenth-century thought, which subject he has been writing on since "Individual and Infinity: Freedom and Antinomies of Freedom in the Philosophy of Spinoza" was published in 1957. Included in Two Eyes of Spinoza are essays on "The Philosophical Role of the Reformation" and the "Mystical Heresy," on Uriel da Costa, Spinoza, Gassendi, and Pierre Bayle, but also on Freud, Marx, Avenarius, and Heidegger. Also included is Kolakowski's well-known essay "The Priest and the Jester," in which he considers the question of the theological heritage in contemporary thought

This text reflects on the centuries-old debate in Christianity: how do we reconcile the existence of evil in the world with the goodness of an omnipotent God, and how does God's omnipotence relate to people's responsibility for their own salvation or damnation?

Leszek Kolakowski discusses, in a highly original way, the arguments for and against the existence of God as they have been conducted through the ages. He examines the critiques of religious belief, from the Epicureans through Nietzsche to contemporary anthropological inquiry, the assumptions that underlie them, and the counter-arguments of such apologists as Descartes, Leibniz, and Pascal.His exploration of the philosophy of religion covers the historical discussions of the nature and existence of evil, the importance of the concepts of failure and eternity to the religious impulse, the relationship between skepticism and mysticism, and the place of reason, understanding, and in models of religious thought. He examines why people, throughout known history, have cherished the idea of eternity and existence after death, and why this hope has been dependent on the worship of an eternal reality. He confronts the problems of meaning in religious language.

In this collection of essays, Leszek Kolakowski delves into some of the most intellectually vigorous questions of our time.