Otto Weininger’s controversial book Sex and Character, first published in Vienna in 1903, is a prime example of the conflicting discourses central to its time: antisemitism, scientific racism and biologism, misogyny, the cult and crisis of masculinity, psychological introspection versus empiricism, German idealism, the women’s movement and the idea of human emancipation, the quest for sexual liberation, and the debates about homosexuality. Combining rational reasoning with irrational outbursts, in the context of today’s scholarship, Sex and Character speaks to issues of (...) gender, race, cultural identity, the roots of Nazism, and the intellectual history of modernism and modern European culture. This new translation presents, for the first time, the entire text, including Weininger’s extensive appendix with amplifications of the text and bibliographical references, in a reliable English translation, together with a substantial introduction that places the book in its cultural and historical context. (shrink)

Nietzsche's unpublished notes are extraordinary in both volume and interest, and indispensable to a full understanding of his lifelong engagement with the fundamental questions of philosophy. This volume includes an extensive selection of the notes he kept during the early years of his career. They address the philosophy of Schopenhauer, the nature of tragedy, the relationship of language to music, the importance of Classical Greek culture for modern life, and the value of the unfettered pursuit of truth and knowledge which (...) Nietzsche thought was a central feature of western culture since it was first introduced by Plato. They contain startling and original answers to the questions which were to occupy Nietzsche throughout his life and demonstrate the remarkable stability and consistency of his fundamental concerns. They are presented here in a new translation by Landislaus Löb, and an introduction by Alexander Nehamas sets them in their philosophical and historical contexts. (shrink)

Bl. Ladislaus of Gielniów is commonly regarded as the first major literary figure in Poland to write in Polish, as well as Latin. He is also the most important writer among the friars of the early Franciscan observant reform movement in Poland, which grew vigorously there after the visit of St. Giovanni of Capestrano in 1453. There, they took on the name of "Bernardines" to distinguish them from the Conventual Franciscans, after the cult of St. Bernardino of Siena, which (...) Capestrano promoted so strongly on all his travels.1 The Bernardine contribution to the development of the Polish literary language was significant, and the Bernardine contribution to the development of popular... (shrink)

The aim of this article is to present the voyages made in the second half of the 14th century by Queen Jadwiga of Poland, the wife of the first Jagiellonian ruler on the Polish throne. Ladislaus Jagiełło ruled over a vast area of the Polish and Lithuanian states, like other European monarchs, through an itinerary system around his realm. Jadwiga accompanied her husband in the performance of his monarchical duties, and sometimes replaced him, but her trips were not only (...) political or representative. The queen also traveled, perhaps even primarily, for family and private functions. During her travels, she most often visited the royal lands of Lesser Poland, and less often went to other regions of the country or beyond its borders. The sources used in this research are narrative and, it should be noted, do not come directly from the period of Jadwiga’s life. These are the Annals of Jan Długosz, written several decades later, which provide information about the time and place of the journeys made by the queen. However, they make it possible to learn – to a far greater extent than other sources – about the circumstances which induced the Queen consort Jagiełło to leave the walls of the Wawel Castle. The study of the subject is also possible thanks to the itinerary of Queen Jadwiga, compiled by Grażyna Rutkowska, which enables analysis beyond the findings concerning the timetable of these trips and corrects the coverage by the Polish chronicler. The literary division of royal travels into “small” and “great” allows us to see the difference not only in territorial range, but above all in the nature and purpose of travels made by the Queen. Jadwiga liked staying in the royal estates of Małopolska using the time for recreation, but when necessary, she also made the effort to travel to more distant towns to join in the implementation of state policy. (shrink)

The Tarnowski family was one of the most distinguished families in the history of the Polish Commonwealth. The times of their glory date back to the reign of Ladislaus the Short, when their progenitor, Spycimir, became one of the most important figures in the country. At the beginning of the 16th century, after losing their native Tarnów, they established a new family estate in Dzików, where they resided continuously until 1944. The story of the Tarnowski Family from Dzików is (...) also the account of their service to the motherland. The aim of this article is to present this service over the centuries, with a particular emphasis laid on their contribution to the defence of freedom of the Republic of Poland. This service resulted from the knightly ethos which was being kept alive in the family, the model for which was the figure of Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski. The attitude of the Tarnowski family, both during the 19th century national uprisings, as well as during the wars of 1920 and 1939–45 are the examples of faithfulness to this ethos and to their own past. The article was based on the published literature about the Tarnowski family and the concept of ethos. The latter was only used as a basis for defining the phenomenon. The archives were also consulted, with a particular stress on the family resources, as they show the most fully and precisely the attitude of the subsequent generations of Tarnowski towards their great ancestor. By means of critical analysis of these sources and the available literature, the author put forward the thesis that the peculiar “cult” of Hetman Jan Tarnowski, cultivated by successive family representatives, was an imperative for subsequent generations of the Tarnowski family to maintain their patriotic attitudes. An important conclusion that emerges from this article is that it shows once again how important the knightly ethos, the faith and other imponderables are in the lives of individuals and communities. (shrink)