Krzysztof Michalski

The Fragility of it All

This article examines the development of Leszek Kolakowskis thought, in the context of changing Polish political landscape; from the early Marxist text, critical of the Catholic Church and its doctrine -- to the late books on Augustine and Pascal and sympathetic analysis of the role of religion in contemporary society. The author attempts to discover a continuity in this development; it may by found, the author argues, in Kolakowskis rationalism, understood first in opposition to religion, but later as fed on religious (or “mythical” as Kolakowski calls it) sources, reasons necessary presupposition.