Rousseauův "sarmatský" moment

Abstract

The study pursues a contextual interpretation of Rousseau’s last political work, Considerations on the Government of Poland, whose conclusions are either neglected in regards to the author’s general reflection on society or are contrasted with his previous works. The main point of this article is to show the indivisibility of Rousseau’s understanding of the specifics of the Polish milieu from his general political theory, towards which, in particular, a parallel analysis of the Polish aristocratic myth and Rousseau’s republicanism also serves. It is precisely the comprehension of the political discourse of the Polish nobility during the 17th and 18th centuries that makes it possible to understand Rousseau’s Considerations not only as a political reflection on a commonwealth in which the Geneva Enlightenment saw the ideals of a lost ancient heritage, but also as part of a long-standing debate in the framework of Polish political thought, in whose context it is possible in Rousseau’s theory to identify the considerable influence of the so-called republican “sarmatism” of the Polish aristocracy.

Keywords

• republicanism
• polish political thought
• jean-jacques rousseau
• bar confederation
• sarmatism
• michał wielhorski