O naturze duszy. Witkacy czyta „Emancypantki” Bolesława Prusa
On the Nature of Soul. Witkacy’s Reading Bolesław Prus’ “Emancipationists”

Summary/Abstract: Bolesław Prus in his novel “Emancipationists (Emancypantki)” placed a philosophical lecture on the sense of existence. One of his protagonists, professor Dębicki, searching for evidence for the existence of soul, discusses the various views of contemporary sciences and philosophy and against such a background he suggests his own system of ideas in mathematics and physics based on a combination of science and religion. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz read the novel written by his father’s friend in his youth, and in his philosophical and literary papers he adopted a number of subjects from Dębicki’s lecture, especially the problem of “I – not I” expressed through introspection, the issue of the borderline between perception of oneself and perception of the world, and internal and external sensations. The lecture might have attracted Witkacy’s interest also due to thorough philosophical considerations within the framework of the popular novel. He expanded such a strategy of developing philosophy also outside purely scientific field, namely in his own novels and dramas.

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