Bentham's central concern during the 1810s and 1820s was with the codification of the law. Rejecting both the common law and the historical approach to codification, he argued that a code of law should be based on a rigorous logical analysis of the categories of human action, and that each enactment should be followed by the reasons which justified it. Such an `all-comprehensive' code containing an `interwoven rationale' would signal a new era in legislation. Once one state had adopted such (...) a code, other states would be obliged to follow its example, and Bentham would become in effect 'legislator of the world'. Bentham attempted to persuade legislative authorities in the United States of America, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Greece, South and Central America, and elsewhere, to invite him to draft a code of law for them. The works presented in this volume record in fascinating detail Bentham's dealings with such eminent figures as James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Emperor Alexander I, Prince Adam Czartoryski, Alexander Mavrokordatos, Bernadino Rivadavia, and José del Valle. The production of a methodology for codification ranks as one of Bentham's outstanding theoretical achievements. Through the materials presented in this volume he emerges as a seminal figure in the development of liberalism throughout Europe and America in the early nineteenth century. (shrink)

Adam Naruszewicz - the court poet of the last king of Poland was born on 20th October 1733 in Polesie. He studied at Villinus University and in Lyon. Thanks to Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski he established a very close friendship with Stanisław August Poniatowski. In the course of time he started to bring out his political opinions and put some of his plans into practice. He edited Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne - the first Polish literary magazine. Franciszek Bohomolec printed his (...) main works in Dzieła. However, the first publications has already been issued in Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne. As far as literary writing is concerned, Adam Naruszewicz gave his undivided attention to contemporary situation. It was difficulties in the country and on the King’s court that inspired Naruszewicz to express his opinions in public. The resources of contemporary political situation, particularly the times of Barski Confederation, the First Partition of Poland and the dissolution of Delegation Representatives were found between 1768—1775 in Poniatowski’s royal collection. The above events, in Adam Naruszewicz’s poems, are presented in the following order: The Barski and Radom Confederation, the abduction of the King and the Frist Partition of Poland. The plots are very important in poet’s life. The writer perceives and comments on the subject touching various areas. Above all, patriotism and love to the Country are the most important issues in Naruszewicz’s works. (shrink)

According to the title, it is a profile of one of the most outstanding authors in King’s Stanisław August times. This article has been based only on information from letters. Other biographical data about Stanisław Trembecki has knowingly been omitted by the author. It is worth pointing out, that due to the artist’s own negligence, most of the incoming mail has been lost. Thanks to King’s Stanisław August meticulousness almost all letters written to the monarch, during 30 years period, have (...) been preserved. Trembecki was a controversial person, quite often arousing conflicting emotions in researchers and readers. One see in him a talented writer and a participant in Thursday’s dinners, others believe he had no rules and think he was a traitor of his homeland. That is why, this correspondence is a document one of a kind and it allows us to understand better Trembecki’s motives. These are private letters. They have not been written “just for show”, or future readers. Their author does not create his own view. On the contrary, his personal’ thoughts are marginal in the correspondence, his own conclusions and observations are mentioned in passing. The author of the article, spots that the leitmotif of the letters are the poet’s financial Problems. Begging is alternated with bursts of dignity and bitter remarks, as the King does not approve Trembecki’s career plans. The reader may also find comments about the poet’s matrimonial plans, his political activity, people he felt affinity with, as well as his literary activity, impressive library or favorite books. In the correspondence, we can also find a picture оf the royal court. Many well-known historic figures appear, like Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, Adam Naruszewicz or Michał Poniatowski. At the end of the article, the author pointed out linguistic virtues in Stanisław Trembecki’s letters. (shrink)

The philosophy of Scottish Enlightenment became popular in Poland at the turn of 18th and 19th centuries due to its conciliatory nature characteristic for the mentality of our philosophers of that epoch. Th e central for that philosophy category of common sense was not identical with the French bon sens opposed both to fi deism of theologians and to metaphysical subtleties of the 17th century philosophical systems. In the period of breakthrough between the Polish Enlightenment and Romanticism the category of (...) common sense, popular sense based upon common experience and intuition acquired an unusual popularity, since it reconciled two intellectual formations – the disappearing one and the succeeding one.The initiators in spreading Scottish philosophy in Poland were the brothers Czartoryski and the following, associated with them thinkers: Karol Sienkiewicz who propagated pre-romantic Ossianism; Krystyn Lach-Szyrma who propagated the ideas of D. Stewart; Michał Wiszniewski, who was a pupil of Th. Reid, this one considered to be a founder of the Scottish school of common sense philosophy; Jan Śniadecki, who declaring himself for the “Scottish School” criticized both Kant and the French materialists. (shrink)

This book project reshapes the way we think about Enlightenment: rather than viewing it primarily as the era of the emancipation of human reason, it emphasizes the gendered nature of the Enlightenment ideal of human progress and investigates how this ideal oppressed women. I take a critical look at this ideal from within intellectual debates of the time, examining how the restrictive view of women’s socio-political and educational opportunities was challenged by progressive female German and Polish thinkers of the late (...) Enlightenment. The under-studied views of these thinkers exhibit insightful early-feminist arguments against women’s inability to take an active role in the Enlightenment project and the confinement of women to the “private” sphere of the household, in which they take care of men – “public”, free-thinking citizens. (shrink)