Leszek Kolakowski, RIP

Wednesday, 22nd July 2009

The philosopher and erstwhile Marxist who found a refuge in Oxford has died at the age of 81. Tony Judt once described his essay "My Correct Views on Everything" as the "most perfectly executed demolition in the history of political argument". (E.P. Thompson being the unfortunate victim.) Christopher Hitchens pays tribute ("One of the most engagingly witty people it was possible to meet. And his wit was deployed to puncture every kind of intellectual fraud or imposture.") More from Harry's Place, while Ragbag -who alerted me to the news in the first place - looks at Kolakowsk's ideas on religion and then gets into a discussion (with, yes, a sane commenter) about philosophers who would make interesting guests on chat shows à la A.J. Ayer. I'm going to veer slightly off-topic, too, by recommending Hopi Sen's sensible thoughts on why politicians and those who follow them need to remember the importance of modesty:

Political parties are complicit in this deception. The party conference brochure is incomplete without the photo of the leader gazing off into the sunlit uplands of a better future. The conference itself cannot go by without a stage set that emphasises some aspect of the Leaders great abilities. “Look, he can speak, without notes!” – “See, he truly is the father of the nation!”. Even when Iain Duncan Smith described himself as a quiet, understated man, his personal modesty was undermined by the massed ranks of the Conservative party repeatedly rising to hail him as a new Robbespierre, a new Danton.