The Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski, who spent the last four decades of his life in England and the United States, died today at his home in Oxford, England. He was just a couple months shy of his 82nd birthday. Kolakowski was probably best know for his magisterial three-volume Main Currents of Marxism , published in the late 1970s and a monument to scholarly industry, intellectual penetration, and political common sense. Although Kolakowski had himself been a Marxist in his youth, he came to see, as he put it in the concluding pages of his book, that “Marxism has been the greatest fantasy of our century.” Kolakowski’s contribution to the library of political freedom was immense. So was his contribution to the library of philosophical and religious speculation. I was privileged to study with him in graduate school and I have never met a philosopher possessed of so commanding an acquaintance with the vast panoply of human speculation. Kolakowski was, furthermore, an extraordinarily witty writer, as anyone who has dipped into his tales and fables knows. I will have more to say about this remarkable thinker in another venue, but I wanted to record here my debt to his work and great sadness at the news of his passing.
I agree about his wit. His book Modernity on Endless Trial included a piece called “A General Theory of Not Gardening” that I thought was just about the funniest thing ever.
“The Main Currents of Marxism” is a great and penetrating work. Nobody else summarizes so well so many of Marxism’s Hydra heads.
Farewell, voyager.
“Heraclitus was sometimes called ‘The Weeping Philosopher’, possibly because he often lamented human stupidity” L. Kolakowski
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So begins L.K’s second essay in his inimitable small book “Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing”, a collection of short yet incisive historical/philosophical pieces.
I mention it because, for those (of us) who travel frequently, it makes an excellent travelling companion due not only to its content but also because of its portable size.
It beats anything you could pick up at your local airport bookstore where the fare is likely to be more suited to those for whom L.K’s above comment is most apposite.
++R.I.P Walter Cronkite++
Main Currents of Marxism is an important work, sure, but it has a disproportionate focus on Poland, along with some major gaps.
RIP MR.Kolakowski!!!!!!!!
God bless Him!
“A disproportionate focus on Poland…” Well, if (eventual) The Fall of Soviet Communism were imagined as a Clint Eastwood western on AMC, Poland is where Clint dynamited the trestle.
Kolakowski, a name to be uttered in the same breath as Koestler(with whom I am more familiar); both of these giants essentially dismantled the ideological and utopian fantasy that make up Marxism.
Honorable mention to Orwell, but I just don’t believe Orwell ever had the ability that K, K and Zamyatin (“A Soviet Heretic”) show us.