Oświecenie i kontroświecenie czasów Królestwa Polskiego. Polemika o. Karola Surowieckiego z ministrem Stanisławem Kostką Potockim

Abstract

By criticizing the world around them, the supporters of the idea of Enli- ghtenment brought about profound transformations in all areas of life. This did not mean, however, that such ideas and transformations gained widespread acceptance. On the contrary, their opponents, who saw decli- ne and demoralization in lieu of ‘enlightenment', developed the Counter- -Enlightenment movement. Critically perceiving modernity, they asked questions about the arbitrariness of human reason, the concept of human nature and human morality, giving answers from the position of Christian apologists. Therefore in the period of the Kingdom of Poland, the Polish anti-Enlightenment movement persevered against eighteenth-century philosophy, opposing everything they considered harmful to modernity and religion. A perfect example of the struggle between representatives of hosti- le ideological factions was the polemics between Father Karol Surowiecki and Stanislaw Kostka Potocki, minister of the Kingdom. Educated in the age of reason and following the assumptions of the Enlightenment, the mi­nister was a symbol of the rational changes in the Second Polish Republic in the second half of the 18th century. On the other side of the barricade stood Father Surowiecki, an anti-Enlightenment Franciscan reformer, fier- cely defending the Church and religion. Their clash perfectly illustrated the incompatibility of their intellectual worlds.