Jerzy Szacki

Jerzy Ryszard Szacki (6 February 1929 – 25 October 2016) was a Polish sociologist and historian of ideas.Jerzy Szacki, Liberalism after communism, Central European University Press, 1995, back cover

/ref>Nauka Polska, "prof. zw. dr hab. czł. rzecz. PAN Jerzy Ryszard Szacki"

From 1973 he was a professor at the University of Warsaw, and in 1991 became a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is considered one of the most prominent representatives of the Warsaw School of the History of Ideas.

Life

Szacki was born in Warsaw in 1929. After World War II, he worked for the Polish Telephone Authority, first as a locksmith, then at a desk job. In 1948, he began to study sociology at the University of Warsaw. Incidentally, his was the last class to graduate before sociology was declared a "bourgeois" discipline and the sociological departments of Polish universities were closed in 1952. Szacki himself was sent to work in the Wrocław-based train wagon factory Pafawag.

In 1956, when the sociological department in Warsaw re-opened, Szacki returned there to obtain a Ph.D. degree. He wrote his thesis at the "Institute for the Education of Research Staff" ''(Instytut Kształcenia Kadr Naukowych)'', which was attached to the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party and was soon afterwards renamed to "Institute for Social Sciences" ''(Instytut Nauk Społecznych)'', whose director at the time was Bronisław Baczko.

Szacki completed his habilitation at the department of philosophy in 1965. He was appointed "extraordinary professor" in 1973 and "ordinary professor" in 1987, the highest rank in Polish academe. In the meantime, Szacki held various administrative positions at the University of Warsaw, including Vice-Dean of the Department of Social Sciences (1967–1968), Dean of the Department of Philosophy and Sociology (1981–1983), and director of the Institute for the History of Social Thought within the Institute of Sociology (1968–1999). Szacki retired from the university in 1999, but has been teaching at the private university-level Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities since 2003.

Szacki lectured and researched at several universities and institutions worldwide, including the New School for Social Research, the Collège de France, the University of Minnesota, the University of Oxford (All Souls College and the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Vienna).

From 1972 to 1976, Szacki was the president of the Polish Sociological Association, and held numerous further administrative positions, including in the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). From 1974 to 1991, he was editor-in-chief of the ''Polish Sociology Bulletin''.Antoni Sulek, "The Multifarious and Changing Functions of the Polish Sociological Association", ''International Sociology''

Szacki wrote his monumental ''Historia myśli socjologicznej'' ("History of Sociological Thought") in Minneapolis and Oxford. It was originally published in English in 1979; while it failed to make a strong impact on international sociology, it became a popular textbook among Polish teachers and students of sociology, a trend that continued after his death. The updated edition of 2002 was awarded with the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science ''(Nagroda Fundacji na rzecz Nauki Polskiej)'', colloquially dubbed the "Polish Nobel Prize", in 2003.

In the 1970s, Szacki began to maintain contacts with oppositional circles, although he never became an active figure in politics. In 1978, he participated in the informal discussion group '' Doświadczenie i Przyszłość'', which brought together pro- and anti-government intellectuals.

In 1991, Szacki co-founded the Solidarność Pracy (Labour Solidarity), a short-lived social-democratic party formed by left-wing Solidarity members, which merged with the Labour Union ''(Unia Pracy)'' the following year. In 1998, he prefaced a book about the Gdańsk-based milieu of Polish liberals edited by the politician Donald Tusk (then a member of the Freedom Union).

In 1994, Szacki published a book on ''Liberalism after communism'' (original title ''Liberalizm po komunizmie''), which was translated into English and other languages and received favourable reviews in the West. In it, Szacki addresses the challenges faced by liberal democracy in an environment shaped by decades of communism and earlier non-democratic governments - a topic that has occupied much of Szacki's academic publications and popular essays in the general press.

Szacki also translated several classic works from English and French into Polish: Some English-language writings by Florian Znaniecki, a pioneering Polish sociologist, as well as Émile Durkheim's classic work ''Les Règles de la méthode sociologique'', Jean-Pierre Vernant's ''Les origines de la pensée grecque'' and Marcel Mauss's ''Sociologie et anthropologie''.

In 2004, Szacki was honoured as a Righteous Among the Nations. As a teenager during World War II, Szacki had helped his mother Barbara Szacka (who was also honoured) hide and support a pregnant Jewish woman named Irena Hollender, who had escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto. In Nazi-occupied Poland, hiding Jews was an offence punishable by death.Yad Vashem
Righteous Among the Nations Honored by Yad Vashem, By January 1, 2009
(under "Szacka, Barbara; son Jerzy)
at Yad Vashem website

Szacki was married to fellow sociologist Barbara Szacka. He died on 25 October 2016.''Gazeta Wyborcza'', "Prof. Jerzy Szacki", 2003-10-24

/ref>

Works

*1958: ''Historia jedynego romansu. Opowieść o Mochnackim'' Mochnacki">he history of a romance: A tale about Maurycy Mochnacki, Mochnacki Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna.
*1962: ''Ojczyzna, naród, rewolucja: Problematyka narodowa w polskiej myśli szlacheckorewolucyjnej'' [Fatherland, nation, revolution: The national issue in the Polish Nobles' revolutionary]. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.
*1964: ''Durkheim''. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna.
*1965: ''Kontrrewolucyjne paradoksy: wizje świata francuskich antagonistów Wielkiej Rewolucji, 1789-1815'' ounter-revolutionary paradoxes: The world-views of the French antagonists of the Great Revolution, 1789-1815 Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
*1968: ''Utopie'' topias Warszawa: Iskry.
*1971: ''Tradycja: przegląd problematyki'' radition: A survey of the topic Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
*1977 (ed.): ''Czy kryzys socjologii?'' ociology in crisis? Warszawa: Czytelnik.
*1977 (ed.): ''Idea społeczeństwa komunistycznego w pracach klasyków marksizmu'' he idea of communist society in the works of Marxism's classics Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
*1979: ''History of Sociological Thought''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
*1980 (2nd edition 2000): ''Spotkania z UtopiÄ…'' ncounters with Utopia Warszawa: Iskry / Wydawnictwo Sic! (2nd edition).
*1981: ''Historia myśli socjologicznej'' istory of Sociological Thought Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. (new edition 2002, .
*1984 (ed. with Joanna Kurczewska): ''Tradycja i nowoczesność'' radition and modernity Warszawa: Czytelnik. .
*1985 (ed. with Edmund Mokrzycki, Maria Ofierska): ''O społeczeństwie i teorii społecznej: księga poświę̨cona pamięci Stanisława Ossowskiego'' n society and social theory: A book dedicated to the memory of Stanisław Ossowski">Stanisław Ossowski">n society and social theory: A book dedicated to the memory of Stanisław Ossowski Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. .
*1986: ''Znaniecki''. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna.
*1991: ''Dylematy historiografii idei oraz inne studia i szkice'' [Dilemmas of the history of ideas and other studies and sketches]. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
*1994: ''Liberalizm po komunizmie''. Kraków: Znak.
(English translation: ''Liberalism after communism''. Budapest, New York: Central European University Press, 1995. .
*1995 (ed.): ''Sto lat socjologii polskiej: od Supińskiego do Szczepańskiego'' ne hundred years of Polish sociology: From Supiński to Szczepański Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. .
*1997 (ed.): ''Ani książe, ani kupiec: obywatel. Idea społeczeństwa obywatelskiego w myśli współczesnej'' either prince nor merchant: The citizen. The idea of civil society in contemporary thought Kraków: Znak.

See also

* Warsaw School
*Zygmunt Bauman
*Florian Znaniecki
*Piotr Sztompka

Notes

Further reading

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Szacki, Jerzy
1929 births
2016 deaths
Polish sociologists
Polish Righteous Among the Nations
University of Warsaw alumni
Academic staff of the University of Warsaw
Writers from Warsaw
Academic staff of SWPS University