Positivism in Poland was a socio-cultural movement that defined progressive thought in
literature and other walks of life in
partitioned Poland after the disastrous
January 1863 Uprising against
Imperial Russia, until the turn of the 20th century and the advent of the
Young Poland movement.
History
In the aftermath of the 1863 Uprising, many Poles abandoned their hopes of regaining Poland's independence from
Russia,
Germany and
Austro-Hungary by force of arms. Together with those hopes they – often reluctantly and only partially – set aside the style of the
Romantic period.
Czesław Miłosz,
The History of Polish Literature, p. 283.
Polish "Positivism" drew its name from the Frenchman
Auguste Comte's philosophy but much of its ideology also from the works of
British scholars and scientists, including
Herbert Spencer and
John Stuart Mill. The Polish Positivists advocated the exercise of reason before emotion. They argued that independence, if it is to be regained, must be won gradually, by "building from the foundations" (creating a material infrastructure and educating the public) and through "organic work" that would enable Polish society to function as a fully integrated
social organism (a concept borrowed from
Herbert Spencer).
Czesław Miłosz,
The History of Polish Literature, pp. 283–84.
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