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POLONICA SERIES
No 2
edited by Jędrzej Giertych
ON THE PLURALITY
OF CIVILISATIONS
by
FELIKS KONECZNY
Translated from the Polish
Introduction
by
ANTON HILCKMAN
Professor at the University of Mainz (Germany)
Preface
by
ARNOLD TOYNBEE
LONDON 1962
POLONICA PUBLICATIONS
First Published 1962
by
POLONICA PUBLICATIONS
16. Belmont Road, London, N.15., England
© Polonica Publications
Originally published in Polish in 1935 in Cracow
by Gebethner i Wolf under the title "O wielości cywilizacyj'
1
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
................................................................................................................................
2
PREFACE
...................................................................................................................................
4
by
4
Arnold Toynbee
...........................................................................................................................
4
PUBLISHERS' PREFACE
..........................................................................................................
6
by
6
Jędrzej Giertych
..........................................................................................................................
6
INTRODUCTION
......................................................................................................................
9
by Anton Hilckman
.....................................................................................................................
9
FELIKS KONECZNY
.............................................................................................................
14
AND THE COMPARATIVE SCIENCE OF CIVILISATION
.................................................
14
by Anton Hilckman
...................................................................................................................
14
THE MODERN ROAD OF PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
................................................
14
ON WHAT IS CIVILISATION BASED? — THE QUINCUNX OF EXISTENTIAL
VALUES
...............................................................................................................................
16
THE CENTRAL PROBLEM OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY:
..............................
18
WHERE DOES THE DIFFERENCE OF CIVILISATIONS COME FROM?
.....................
18
RELIGIONS?
........................................................................................................................
18
CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILISATION
..............................................................................
19
CIVILISATIONS
..................................................................................................................
22
LAWS OF HISTORY
............................................................................................................
24
THE ONLY LAW OF HISTORY: CAUSALITY AND FINALITY
....................................
25
UPON THE WEST GERMANY
..........................................................................................
26
CHAPTER I
..............................................................................................................................
30
FROM BACON TO MAJEWSKI
.............................................................................................
30
I INTRODUCTION
..............................................................................................................
30
II A NOTE ON KOŁŁĄTAJ
................................................................................................
46
(Substantially abridged)
........................................................................................................
46
CHAPTER II
.............................................................................................................................
49
NUCLEI OF ALL CULTURE
..................................................................................................
49
I FIRE
....................................................................................................................................
49
II DOMESTIC ANIMALS
....................................................................................................
53
III THE OLDEST ASSOCIATIONS
....................................................................................
60
IV NUCLEI OF TRADITION
..............................................................................................
67
V PREHISTORIC ECONOMY
............................................................................................
70
CHAPTER III
...........................................................................................................................
77
THE TRIPLE LAW
...................................................................................................................
77
I NOMENCLATURE
............................................................................................................
77
2
II THE FIVE TIPES OF CLAN
............................................................................................
78
III FAMLIY LAW
................................................................................................................
85
IV PROPERTY LAW
............................................................................................................
91
V CLAN LAW AND THE TRIPLE LAW
............................................................................
95
CHAPTER IV
.........................................................................................................................
100
ASSOCIATIONS AND SYSTEMS
........................................................................................
100
I SYSTEM IN THE QUINCUNX OF SOCIETY
.............................................................
100
II NATURAL ETHICS
......................................................................................................
103
III THE CONDITION OF COMM.ENSURABILITY
......................................................
107
IV WHAT IS CIVILISATION?
.........................................................................................
111
V HOMO FABER
.............................................................................................................
116
CHAPTER V
...........................................................................................................................
120
CIVILISATION AND RACE
.................................................................................................
120
I RACIAL MIXTURE
......................................................................................................
120
II WHAT RACES ARE THERE?
.....................................................................................
124
III THE SO-CALLED SOCIOLOGICAL RACES
..........................................................
130
IV PSYCHOLOGICAL RESULTS OF CROSSING
.......................................................
134
V THE SO-CALLED HIERARCHY OF RACES
............................................................
137
VI RESULTS
....................................................................................................................
141
CHAPTER VI
........................................................................................................................
143
CIVILISATION AND LANGUAGE
......................................................................................
143
I NOMENCLATURE
........................................................................................................
143
II MULTIPLICITY AND DISAPPEARANCE OF LANGUAGES
.................................
144
III WEALTH AND POVERTY
.........................................................................................
149
IV UNEQUAL CAPACITY
..............................................................................................
152
V RELATIONSHIP TO COMMUNAL MENTALITY
....................................................
156
VI CONCLUSIONS
.........................................................................................................
159
CHAPTER VII
........................................................................................................................
162
CIVILISATION AND RELIGION
.........................................................................................
162
I INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
.....................................................................................
162
II JUDAISM
......................................................................................................................
164
III BRAHMJNISM
...........................................................................................................
169
IV BUDDHISM
................................................................................................................
171
V ISLAM
..........................................................................................................................
173
VI ORIENTAL CHRISTIANITY
.....................................................................................
176
VII CATHOLICISM
.........................................................................................................
179
VIII SUMMARY
..............................................................................................................
183
CHAPTER VIII
.......................................................................................................................
187
ATTEMPTED SYSTEMATIZATION
....................................................................................
187
I PROVISO
.......................................................................................................................
187
II CONTROL OF TIME
...................................................................................................
189
III PRIVATE AND PUBLIC LAW
...................................................................................
193
IV ETHICS AND LAW
....................................................................................................
196
V NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
.................................................................................
200
VI TENTATIVE SYSTEMATIZATION
...........................................................................
204
VII CHANCES AND SYNTHESES
................................................................................
206
VIII CONCLUSION
.........................................................................................................
210
INDEX
....................................................................................................................................
213
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PREFACE
by
Arnold Toynbee
Polonica Publications have done a service to the study of human affairs in publishing
the recent English translation of Feliks Koneczny's greatest work. It is one of several mutually
independent studies of the structure of human affairs on the largest scale that have appeared in
different parts of the Western World within the last two generations. Koneczny published the
original Polish edition of this book after he had turned seventy, and he had the leisure to write
it because he had been compulsorily retired from his chair as a penalty for having been
outspoken in the cause of civic freedom. In short compass, Koneczny has discussed the
fundamental questions raised by the study of civilizations, and he arrives at definite and
valuable conclusions. After sketching the structure of society, he considers and rejects the
thesis that differences in civilization are byproducts of differences in physical race. Indeed, he
rejects the suggestion that these physical differences are in any way correlated with the
spiritual ones. Turning to language, he does conclude that different languages are of unequal
value for serving as vehicles for civilisations, but he refrains from taking these qualitative
differences between different languages as being the explanation of the differences that he
finds in the spiritual value of different civilizations. Turning to religion, he insists on the
mutual independence of the "higher" religions and the civilizations.
Koneczny believed in the possibility, and value, of a general study of human affairs.
His own important contribution to this was the crown of his life-work as an historian. He
approached his generalisations from the four standpoints of a student of East European and
Central Asian history, a Pole. A Roman Catholic Christian, and a Westerner. Since the tenth
century, Poland has been one of the eastern marches of the Western World. Koneczny's
specialist studies as an historian worked together with his national heritage as a Pole to make
him sensitive to the differences between civilizations, and this inspired him to study the sum
of human history from the standpoint of the plurality of civilizations. It also made him an
ardent patriot of the Western World. This did not prevent Koneczny from being also a patriotic
Pole and a devout Roman Catholic Christian. But, for him, Poland's national culture has value
as one of a number of national versions of a common Western or» as he prefers to call it, Latin
culture; and Roman Catholic Christianity has value as being the Western form of Christianity
par excellence.
This has made Koneczny generous-minded towards Protestants. He sees in them, not
dissenters from the Catholic fold but Western Christians who, in ceasing to be Catholics, have
continued to be Western, fortunately for the West and for themselves. The same standpoint has
made it difficult for Koneczny to appreciate Eastern Orthodox, Monophysite, and Nestorian
4
Christianity and the non-Christian higher religions. He appreciates Ancient Rome perhaps
excessively, to the detriment of Ancient Greece. And he is hard on both the Byzantine and the
Turanian (i.e. the Eurasian nomad) civilization. He classifies the civilization of Muscovite
Russia as being Turanian; but, if Russia had been classified by him as being Byzantine, she
probably would not have fared much better.
Every student of human affairs, however eminent, is a child of his own social and
cultural environment, besides being a unique personality with his own individual outlook on
the Universe. He is limited, besides being stimulated, by his own particular historical
standing-ground, which has been imposed on him by the accident that he has been born at a
particular date in a particular place. Naturally, Koneczny's highly individual approach to his
work is partly conditioned — like^ for instance, Danilevsky's and Spengler's and Vico's — by
his cultural environment. It is fortunate that there should have been a number of thinkers
wrestling with the same problem from different standing-grounds in time and space. It is also
fortunate that one of these voices should have been a Polish voice, since Poland has a word to
say to the present-day West, as Mr. Giertych points out in the Publisher's Preface to the
present English translation of Koneczny's major work.
Koneczny achieved all that he did achieve in a life that was stormy and tragic yet long.
This Polish thinker's personal history is an epitome of the Polish nation's history. 'Indomitable'
is the adjective that the name 'Poland' calls up in non-Polish minds.
This foreword can, and should, be brief, because the Publisher's Preface, together with
the illuminating introduction by my friend and colleague Professor Anton Hilckman, are all
that is required for introducing Koneczny's work to the English-reading public.
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