PHILOSOPHY AND CIVIC HABITUS IN POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

The paper concerns our contemporary democracy which constitutes a system that is conscious of its non-descriptiveness,  fragility of its basis and its internal discrepancies to such an extent that it institutionalizes conflicts. The non-descriptiveness does not constitute the final word of our social order but the first one. I argue that people from the West have serious reasons to put democracy first over despotism and totalitarianism. Having such right is not equal to having knowledge of the final metaphysical foundation. Our opinions and arguments are not the fundament of our society, because no one can be persuaded to a specified practice by means of argumentation. A real support of each political system is the power of habits, customs and many kinds of social automatisms. Our habits are the final and the most important basis of our political order. Such ‘origins’ are dying in the darkness of oblivion. We are not aware of them and we think of them as obvious and natural. On the one hand, philosophy helps us to understand that our habits and social virtues allow for maintaining our social and political stability, but on the other hand philosophy, making us aware of all social and political controversies, may lead to dangerous political destabilization. I will try to discuss this difficult issue in more details

Full text (pdf)

1. Bachelard Gaston, Kształtowanie się umysłu naukowego, transl. D. Leszczyński, Gdańsk, Słowo-Obraz-Terytoria 2002.
2. Bourdieu Pierre, Medytacje pascalianskie, transl. K. Wakar, Warszawa, Oficyna Naukowa 2006.
3. Bourdieu Pierre, Rozum praktyczny, transl. J. Stryjczyk, Kraków Wydawnictwo UJ 2009;
4. Bourdieu Pierre, Zaproszenie do socjologii refleksyjnej,  transl. A. Sawisz, Warszawa,  Oficyna Naukowa 2001.
5. Bourdieu Pierre, Zmysł praktyczny, transl. M. Falski, Kraków, Wydawnictwo UJ 2008.
6. Herbert Zbigniew, Wiersze zebrane, Kraków, Wydawnictwo a5 2008.
7. Macedo Stephen, Cnoty liberalne: transl. G. Łuczkiewicz, Kraków, Znak 1995.
8. Rawls John, Liberalizm polityczny, transl. A. Romaniuk, Warszawa, PIW 1998.
9. Rorty Richard, Obiektywność, relatywizm i prawda, transl. J. Margański, Warszawa, Aletheia 1999.