This article describes a short history of the intellectual contacts of Józef Innocenty Maria Bocheński and Leszek Kołakowski (the youthful, orthodox Marxist criticism of Bocheński’s book Der sowjetrussische dialektische Materialismus written in 1952 and Bocheński’s friendly review of Kołakowski’s book Główne nurty Marksizmu (‘Main Currents of Marxism’) are not analysed here). I focus on a definite polemic that shows differences in their philosophical positions and philosophising styles. It begins with a dispute at a conference in Rapperswil in 1986 over the significance of Erasmus of Rotterdam; its continuation was a critical evaluation of Bocheński’s book Sto zabobonów (‘A Hundred Superstitions’). In his letter to Kołakowski, Jerzy Giedroyc remarked: "It is indeed difficult to destroy the author with greater elegance. I imagine Bocheński’s reaction." Indeed, Bocheński’s reaction was violent. He published two articles in the following year, which were a definite – and usually indirect – polemic with Kołakowski and an attempt to precisely present his own position. This dispute can be treated as an illustration of Kołakowski’s famous distinction of two types of activity in culture: that of a priest and that of a clown.
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