Background
Lutoslawski, Wincenty was born in 1863 in Warsaw.
Lutoslawski, Wincenty was born in 1863 in Warsaw.
Taught in Italy, France, England, Switzerland and the USA before being appointed Professor in the University of Vilna (1919).
Main publications:
In languages other than Polish:
(1897) The Origin and Growth of Plato's Logic.
(1898) Üher die Grundvoraussetzung und die Konsequenz der individualistischen Weltanschauung.
(1899) Seelenmacht. Abriss einer zeitgemässen Weltanschauung.
(1907) Between East and West.
(1909) Unsterblichkeit der Seele
and later editions.
(1910) Der wiedergeborene Mensch.
(1917) LEtat national.
(1919) La Conscience nationale.
(1924) The World of Souls.
(1926) Das Geheimnis des allgemeinen Wohlstandes.
(1930) The Knowledge of Reality.
In Polish:
(1900) Z dziedziny nysli [The Supremacy of Thought],
(1903) Eleusis.
(1905) Logika.
(1910) Ludzkosc Odrodzona [Regenerated Mankind],
(1922) Praca narodowa [The Task of the Nation].
(1925) Niesmiertelnosc duszy in wolnosc woli [The Immortality of the Soul and the Freedom of the Will], third edition.
(1926) Tajemnica powszechnego dobrobytu, zarys teorji gospodarstwa narodowego [The Mystery of General Well-being and Sketch for a Theory of National Economy].
Secondary literature:
(1898) Review of 1897 in Mind 7, 26, April: 271 IT. (1925) Review of 1924 in International Journal of Ethics 35, Jan: 208fT.
Lutoslawski first became known in Western Europe as a scholar of Plato. In his book of 1897 he sets out a view of the development of Plato’s logic based on a careful ordering of the dialogues, the ordering itself being derived from stylometric work. The thought of Plato then becomes one of the chief influences on the formation of Lutoslawski’s own philosophy, a pluralistic idealism including the doctrine of metempsychosis and culminating in the politics of messianic nationalism.
Lutoslawski distinguishes four types of worldview which in his view form a progression:materialism, idealism, pantheism and spiritualism.
Beyond these, he argues, lies the highest form of moral development, which is messianism. The messianist is characterized by active love, and. since the most intimate groups of souls are what we call nations, the active love of the messianist takes the form of national consciousness. Lutoslawski’s thought is optimistic, and he argues that ultimately the combined effects of human messianism and divine inspiration will free us from the effects of the Fall and, as with Plato, his work includes a vision of the utopia to come: small states will disappear.
So too will big cities, rendered unnecessary by improvements in communication. Many of the offices of the state will naturally wither. Life will generally be a wellorganized country life, with a notable increase m leisure time, which can be devoted to contact with the thought of others.