Look Who it Was Random video

Aleksander Smolar - Zygmunt Bauman (179/201)

367 views · Published 20 December 2018 · 1:26 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2018 · News & Politics

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To listen to more of Aleksander Smolar’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFwlxPLurqAOCrabBgGrqLA7

Aleksander Smolar (b. 1940) is a Polish writer, political activist and adviser, vice-president of the Institute for Human Sciences and president of the Stefan Batory Foundation. [Listener: Vitek Tracz]

TRANSCRIPT: There were other people to whom I was close. There was one man who had an extraordinary career which nobody could have predicted, and that was Zygmunt Bauman who became a leading intellectual, a sociologist, a philosopher on a global scale, a postmodernist. I have to say that I found Leszek Kołakowski, his philosophy and what he wrote, the questions he asked, the painful answers he gave far more in keeping with my thoughts than the postmodern ideas of Zygmunt Bauman. However, he was an exceptionally courageous and receptive person whose writings and fame increased once he retired to Leeds. He left quite soon for England and became a professor in Leeds. I would visit him there. He was a charming man, extremely helpful and dedicated which was uncommon among Polish émigrés. For example, whenever I needed a letter of recommendation for when I was applying for a job in one or another university or for a grant, I knew that I could always count on him. He was an extremely dedicated, sincere, wise and bright man.

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