Law of Nature as Justification for Reforms. Polish Political Thought in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

Introduction In Polish political thought of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth century, a conviction of the excellence of the old political system and laws was predominant. In political treatises, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was described uncritically as a country of ideal golden freedom. For this reason, new ideas and reforms were feared and the sentence was frequently repeated: „omnia mutatio nociva“ (every change is harmful).1 In the face of growing internal battles and increasing interference of other countries in Polish affairs, in the second half of the 18th century, voices calling for reforms were starting to appear.2 In these political writings there is a clear influence of the thoughts of the Enlightenment, a modern concept of the laws of nature formulated by philosophers such as John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau or French physiocrats – François Quesnay or Victor Riquetti de Mirabeau. One of the political currents that referred to the concept of law of nature was that defined in modern historiography as the doctrine of compromise between the nobility and bourgeoisie. Andrzej Sylwestrzak pointed out the specific situation of the Commonwealth, in which the ideologists of bourgeoisie did not intend to unite themselves within their social condition, or cooperate with peasantry, but descending from intelligentsia and petty nobility, they sought cooperation with nobility.3 This gave the Polish political thought of the 18th century a special dimension. The most prominent representatives of this trend are Józef Wybicki, Hugo Kołłątaj, Stanisław Staszic.4 These ideologists believed that to