Professor BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI translated the book "Rousseau and Polish Republicanism" by Professor Jerzy MICHALSKI into English

Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU’s Considérations sur le government de Pologne (1771) was the Genevan philosopher’s last major political work. It is also one of the most often misunderstood of ROUSSEAU’s works, because of the unfamiliarity to most scholars of the Polish context for which it was written. By far the most important work on the subject, based on sources that were hitherto unknown, and a comprehensive knowledge of ROUSSEAU’s oeuvre, was written by the late Professor Jerzy MICHALSKI (1924-2007).

                         

This book demolished various myths concerning ROUSSEAU’s Considérations and shows the deep connections between ROUSSEAU’s ideas and traditional Polish republicanism. However, after being published in Polish in 1977, it made no impression on international ROUSSEAU studies (despite including a summary in French). As a result, grievous errors continue to circulate about the Considérations and their sources.

                            

The Chairholder of the European Civilization Chair at the Natolin (Warsaw) campus of the College of Europe, Professor Richard BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI—who delivered the final Geremek Lecture on "Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Advice to the Poles: Euroscepticism avant la lettre?" on 13 October 2015—has translated into English Jerzy MICHALSKI’s fundamentally important book.

        

It has just been electronically published by the History Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, and can be accessed freely via this link.