In Quest of the Essence of Love in Franciszek Sawicki

Abstract

In his attempt to explain the essence of love Franciszek Sawicki combines two principally contradictory conceptions: the traditional one according to which the sentiment of love is regarded as an element of the carnal part of the human being, and love is pushed into the sphere of the irrational; the phenomenological one that defines love as a complete, free,

meaningful, and intentional act of response to a value. Now seeking a compromise, he tried to prove that we cannot describe the rich and complex reality of sentiments together with their attendant experiences by means of rigid linguistic and conceptual structures. Man’s emotional life and the phenomenon of love, as the foundation of his existence, are much richer than any mental system that fails to grasp this complexity or to justify it by means of reason. Undoubtedly, Sawicki should be most merited in this area for his attempt to bring back the proper place for the human emotional sphere.