Axioms and Mystifications, or On Light and the Dark Side of Cognition: A Preliminary Sketch for the Portrait of Julian Ochorowicz
Agata SKAŁA
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin , PolandAbstract
The whole civilized world takes advantage of Julian Ochorowicz’s (1850-1917) technological-scientific thought, but he does not exist in the contemporary consciousness as a genius-constructor and the author of scientific ideas. The aim of the article is to present studies on the character and significance of scientific activity led by this versatile scholar—a theorist of positivism and a writer. During his life Ochorowicz gained recognition of many international psychological societies—in Great Britain, New York, Paris, Köln, Berlin, Budapest, and Leipzig. In Poland the scientific circles treated Ochorowicz’s works (also those concerning new technologies) indulgently or disqualified them and doomed the scholar himself to exclusion. There exists a need to verify false findings concerning the significance of Ochorowicz’s creative works, mistakenly associated with romanticism, charlatanism and lack of scientific correctness. Ochorowicz is very frequently perceived through the prism of occultism and hypnology, first of all connecting the name of the author of the treatise Mental Suggestion with spiritism. The initial recognition shows that Ochorowicz was an advocate of scientism and rationalism. His research findings are strictly scientific.
Keywords:
Julian Ochorowicz (1850-1917), positivism, the ethos of cognition, mediumism, spiritism, axiologyMaria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin
