Joanna Schiller

Publications of Joanna Schiller

• [Aleksandr Lwowicz błok (1852 - 1909)--character-sketch of the man and scientist]

  Authors: Joanna Schiller

  Kwartalnik historii nauki i techniki : Kwartal'nyĭ zhurnal istorii nauki i tekhniki -. 01/2009; 54(1):11-33.

  The article is an attempt of a new outlook first of all upon scientific output of many years' (the years 1878 - 1909) lecturer on Russian State Law in the Imperial University of Warsaw--AleksandrThe article is an attempt of a new outlook first of all upon scientific output of many years' (the years 1878 - 1909) lecturer on Russian State Law in the Imperial University of Warsaw--Aleksandr Lwowicz Błok. Historians of literature, researchers of life and output of the scientist's son, an eminent poet-symbolist Aleksandr A. Błok, to a high degree were able to reconstruct lot of life and vicissitudes of the Warsaw professor. Thanks to the preserved university archival materials it was possible to add many details to Błok's biography, especially concerning his professional problems. They were connected with dramatic events in personal life of the professor. According to relations of the part of his university co-workers and students, the circumstances even brought about the symptoms of the mental illness. Prematurely elderly he was a man deeply miserable, lonely and deprived of understanding by associates. Up till now his scientific output has not been described precisely enough. Not numerous memories of his contemporaries (Szymon Askenazy, Nikołaj Dubrowskij) and even inconspicuous modern researches of the Polish (Janusz Woliński) brought about, in the author's opinion, too simplified and schematic character-sketch of Błok as a Russificator and nationalist, mediocre scholar and much worse lecturer. A scientific output of Błok is, indeed, inostensible--he published 2 books only--Master's thesis entitled: Władza państwowa w społeczeństwie europejskim. Poglad na polityczna teorie Lorenza Steina i na francuska rzeczywistość polityczna (1880) [State Authority in European Society. Outlook upon Political Theory of Lorenz Stein and French Political Facts (1880)] and Literatura polityczna w Rosj i o Rosji (1884) [Political Literature in Russia and on Russia (1884)] as an introduction to his course in State Law. Two thirds, so over 20 years of work, he gave to the not accomplished conception of creating a new classification of sciences that together with its assumptions was included in work of Blok's disciple--Jewgienij Spektorski. An attempt of objective, free of emotions look at Błok's output to some extent makes us verify one-sidedly its critical estimate. In Błok's writings one can observe several earlier unnoticed values--author's wide mind horizons, his erudition, interesting but not accomplished research conceptions, competence for analysing difficult issues fringing upon social, political and philosophical thought.