The present article examines Józef Tischner’s idea of upbringing (wychowanie) in establishing the new awareness of solidarity among the Polish workers and people through an awakening to conscience. The present moment served as a revolutionary alternative to socialism. I look at Tischner’s critique of Marxism and the central issue surrounding base and superstructure. Then I turn to his recovery of the Polish tradition of ethical ideals, especially in the person of Maximilian Kolbe and John Paul II. The text provides a detailed analysis of the chapter on upbringing in The Spirit of Solidarity. Tischner’s notion that upbringing is a personal bond established in trust to live in hope for improvement in mind and heart is placed in the context
of the solidarity as a social bond establishing an ethical community transcending the political quest for power and the need to find an enemy. The text analyzes the various counterfeit forms of education in order to deepen our awareness of the meaning of authentic upbringing. Salient points of his teaching are discussed in conclusion.

An important trend in Tischner’s philosophical output was the observation of the phenomena that would occur in the current social life of Poles. The trend gained particular significance at the turn of the 1970s and the 1980s, when the processes that finally led to the systemic transformation began. During this period, Tischner made a successful attempt to reconstruct the Polish social ethos. It turned out that its integral element is the presence of utopian projects to rebuild the social order in the country. Tischner stated in his analyses that these utopias play a constructive role in the social life because they motivate people to engage in the political struggle for deep system reforms. The article presents the content of Tischner’s reconstruction of Polish utopias from the 1970s and the 1980s and the correlation between social ethics, ideological discussions, and political practice of the declining period of the Polish People’s Republic.

Moral theology concerns the morality of society and acts of an individual or a group of individuals that constitute that particular society. Morality teaches us to properly respond to God’s calling, so that we can fulfil our ultimate goal. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, regarded as a compendium of the doctrines of the magisterium of the Church, can also serve as a valuable source for teaching moral theology. In the first section (“Man’s Vocation Life in the Spirit”) of the third part (“Life in Christ”) of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we can learn that man has been created “in the image and likeness of the Creator” (chap. 1, art. 1), where solidarity plays a significant role. The present paper analyses this issue.

 In this paper, the concept of solidarity will be introduced as voluntary cohesion, mutual help and support not only within a loose group, but, above all, within the whole human race. Tischner wants to help contemporary man because he is aware that contemporary man has entered a period of profound crisis of his hope. The reflection on solidarity and hope in the philosophy of Tischner represents a neuralgic point which has its justification in Christian thought. Hope is the prospect of something better which, together with mutual support, removes both fear and isolation, and brings about the development of both the individual and the community. The deepest solidarity is solidarity of conscience. The community of solidarity differs from many other communities precisely because it is “for him” that is fundamental. It is only on this
foundation that the community of “we” grows.

Reverend Józef Tischner was undoubtedly one of the most outstanding Polish philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century. What we owe to this student of Roman Ingarden is the flourishing of phenomenology and the philosophy of dialog not only in our domestic philosophical, but also sociological, psychological, and anthropological thought. His philosophy of drama is an original and very important current, which is enriched not only by the “Queen of the Sciences” but also offers great support to the related sciences, particularly sociological sciences. Within them, subjectivity is an extremely important subject of contemplation. This article is a sketch of the analysis of the benefits that a sociologist, researcher of subjectivity, can derive from reading Józef Tischner’s works.

Since its beginnings, philosophy has been associated with a critical quest for answers and has rejected biased and uncritical a priori interpretations. Methodic doubt has thus become not only the ever-present method of philosophy, but also a symbol of defiance against every kind of closed-minded and ideological thinking that has a tendency to simplify explanations and adapt reality to its own projections about the said reality. This type of thinking has always been linked to truth claims made by individual power entities. In the past, we have witnessed twists and abuses of ideology with far-reaching political consequences and yet the problem still persists. Each and every situation affected by crisis is a breeding ground for quick, clear and black and white explanations which attract attention and gain support, since they are generally easy to comprehend. This paper introduces a philosophical context of ideological thinking, in which the “will to power” is typical, as reflected upon by many thinkers, among them Józef Tischner who draws from his personal experience with the Communist regime in Poland.

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