A Passion for Searching for the Meaning of Life as Understood by Barbara Skarga Cover Image

Pasja poszukiwania sensu życia w ujęciu Barbary Skargi
A Passion for Searching for the Meaning of Life as Understood by Barbara Skarga

Author(s): Wacław Branicki
Subject(s): Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophical Traditions, Special Branches of Philosophy, 19th Century Philosophy, Existentialism, Analytic Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego
Keywords: meaning of life; self-awareness; individuality; loneliness; moral values

Summary/Abstract: The main research question is: what factors allowed Barbara Skarga to maintain a sense of life during her ten-year captivity in a Soviet camp, as well as after returning to her homeland. The method of existential and ethical analysis was used. The reconstruction of her experience and philosophy of life was made on the basis of her letters, autobiographical memories, interviews and essays. Attention was paid to those factors that were important for sustaining and deepening the meaning of one’s life. The most important factors that make it possible to experience the meaning of one’s life are a high level of self-awareness, the ability to constructively experience ontic solitude, the experience of oneself as a unique individuality, the ability to maintain moral agency, the experience of moral values as objectively existing, the experience of gratitude for the gift of being, the practice of unselfish thinking, the awakening of the desire to understand other people, and the experience of goodness as an ideal reality made present in the physical world.

  • Issue Year: 2025
  • Issue No: 69
  • Page Range: 69-90
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Polish
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