Kiss Árpádról angolul

„…Free Man, Dedicated to the Problems of Mind…”[1] (On the Intellectual Portrait of Árpád Kiss)  by Endre KISS, Budapest   Our below essay[2] seems to be of personal nature, but it is not the case. It can also seem to be of literary nature, however it is not even accurate. The theses have been proposed through a thorough and exact analysis of Árpád Kiss’ texts. It goes without saying, that this is no coincidence that, when reconstructing the philosophy of the thinker and educator Árpád Kiss, we go further more profoundly into the texts of Truth without Poetry, given that we aim to show in detail the birth of this thinking personality. This applies to such an extent that it could also lay the foundations of the starting point of a general paradigm of the personality development and it requires no great effort. We are also convinced that the discovery of the birth of the personality of the thinker is an organic and natural complement  of the studies,[3] which had been prepared until today  on the activities deployed in the 1940s. Studying the thinking personality, the reflection in the common and indistinguishable field represents a major particular task for any group of intellectuals with regard to personality, self-creation and world vieuw (we give up an exhaustive list). This statement is just of completely abstract level, since a large part of the objectivation, of the reflection and of the creative fields is invested, at this stage, with an extremely “disantropomorphic”, „non personal” character. If we want to concretize, we say that the history of the twentieth century, politics and various dictatorships have allocated only to a small part of intellectuals the extraordinary opportunity to fully put in practice their internal impulses in the realization of the spiritual processes of creation.The pedagogical activity is particularly affected by the parallelism more and more diverging of the expression of the thinking personality and of the anti-anthropomorphic, non personal character of the intellectual production. The pedagogy is especially characterized by the main tendency in the fact, that research and teaching shorten more and more the moment of self-realization[4] of the pedagogue, so that the identification of the own history of thought related to the personality of the pedagogue becomes, in turn, more and more important. The practicing pedagogue[5] will be confronted to a situation more and more particular, even paradoxical because of the changes mentioned of the character of this activity.In the case of Árpád Kiss, the “subjectivity” of the topography from the perspective of the intellectual history and the intelligence and the “objectivity” of the scientific-pedagogical work have extremely agitated relations. The scientific work contains little existential moments, while the striking and omnipresent character of the thinker’s personality and of Árpád Kiss’ thought has not only attracted the interest of his contemporaries, but enticed them to intense[6] reflections.The reconstruction of Árpád Kiss’ thinking represented a prior exhaustive enumeration of the non typical methodological problems and also the anticipation of efforts of expected solutions. The most important of theses methodical decisions consisted in carefully studying the texts, as well as putting in background the apparently personal and close hypothesis, which could be certified in advance also in many cases. The only significant hypothesis in favour of a strict reading consisted in the fact that the reconstruction of such a “philosophy” was possible, that this philosophy existed also in the case where we must mistrust at this stage to put the question how this “philosophy” is related with the scientific work (respectively, whether the foundation and the motivation exist, or just the contrary, if they exist in a juxtaposed situation in a context to be defined later).The explanation of the text will strictly speaking show the central points of Árpád Kiss’ philosophy in several versions. This approach is the saliant and individualized concretization of the general definition of freedom: the freedom of dynamic and situative self-determination, based on freedom related to one’s own life. It’s a process during which freedom becomes apparently tautological, since it is the attitude of freedom necessarily based on freedom. The structure of thinking is characterized by the permanence of the questions that we put ourselves, the final questions of the human freedom may arise on any detail of the everyday life and at any time.[7] The positive experience of his own freedom satisfies straight away also the necessities of the spiritual hygiene. The direct and elementary freedom derived from the free choice related to one’s own life has not obviously been a social or political program, although it was necessary to form freely the relation to everything and as well to these programs. It belongs to the history of the twentieth century, that this freedom expresses continually as a political program, even if we do not want to. It is the great topic of the twentieth century: the modality to live based on the own choice is always confronted to the opened repression of politics that leads to the paradox of the weak hero, the process of permanent liberation[8] inserts in a permanent changing political context[9].In Árpád Kiss’s reflections and thinkings (in this case also in his pedagogy), even the final issues are always present: the relationship between man and nature, man and history, civilization, all related systems of the society, while making a permanent selection of the approach applied there.The Truth without Poetry, if we look at it from the existential perspective of the freedom of the relation to one’s own life, represents the force and consistent character of this tendency as revolutionary[10] The desire for freedom is in background of the autobiography. Such aspects as family, love, social life or society successes will be thematized and juxtaposed at moments of the work and the theory. Those intend to deprive people of the freedom related to their own lives or to reduce it. The protagonist of the Truth without Poetry always takes decisions in the spirit of his principles, in some cases also even against this one[11]. This does not happen because the protagonist aspires to any obvious advantage related to his altruism, but rather more not to disturb his freedom (that he will have later) (or in order he does not eradicate this freedom) with the souvenir of the betrayal of the freedom. The future of the freedom consists in the present of the freedom. The consistant character issued in the memoirs, quotes unanimously maxims of the genre of life, which almost turn in theory: “You must act to ensure that all your efforts are derived from your well-thought freedom.” [12]Besides freedom, there is a positive element of the self-determination, derived from the freedom, when following the comparison of “homo vulgaris” and “homo sapiens“[13]. Before we dedicate us to a different context of this moment, we have to notice that the requirement of the “increased humanism” represents a permanent element of the demand for freedom and straight away the normative element of the freedom, the freedom to remain close to the homo sapiens. The freedom is not intended to promote and further develop the human genre. The freedom consists in remaining homo sapiens on the basis of one’s own choice and in every situation. This element is very situative; it may lead in different concrete cases to the most various embodiments.[14]The philosophical principle of Truth without Poetry is the permanent freedom related to one’s own life. It is very obvious that this conception is very close to the classical paradigm of the existentialist philosophy. We accept this proximity and consider this basic principle as existentialist not only in general but also in the spirit of the classical paradigm represented by Sartre and Camus in a concrete way[15]. The classical paradigm of the existentialism is characterized – also on the basis of the legitimate criteria of the philosophical typology –  by a vacuum of content and an indecisive attitude[16] that had been deliberately and demonstratively assumed, while the endpoint of the paradigmatic existentialism represents, with Árpád Kiss, a starting point related to the content and the structure. All this means that, in Árpád Kiss’ reflection, this existentialist starting point will be enriched by a serie of definitions of content. There is nothing extraordinary, because the divergence between the existentialist philosophy and the existentialist type of life is equivalent to a natural difference. The starting point of the philosophy expresses the attachment to freedom as an endpoint, the real way of forming one’s own life regarding the attachment to freedom as a natural starting point. In the practice of the real life handling, the final theorical result is then the starting point, a decisive element granting the success of the whole process. This is the reason why I have to decide freely, to avoid hanging from anything at all and that the fact of the dependence does not influence the qualities of the whole decision. This is a specific situativity. This is not the heroic individualism à la Friedrich Nietzsche or Endre Ady, which has therefore great traditions in the Hungarian development, an individualism that was not far from Árpád Kiss taking into account the finest socio-cultural intermediation ways.The formalization of the essential of this attitude reminds us many problems of the categorial formalization of the existentialism regarded as standard and example. We choose through the selection, first we choose the freedom and through it, ourselves. Given the enigmatic capillary structure of the social action, the actions of the freedom based on the choice will have their concrete area of content and their radiation (the approaches taken as basis are similar to each other in a certain extent, the aperçu of these actions does not consist in the divergence of the motives of content, but in that of the methodics of actions).[17]The philosophy free in its “relation to one’s life” also has a specific historical motive (also paradox as we will see it later), which is equivalent to the historical criteria that emerge only rarely, so that the existentialist philosophy only rarely gets its hegemony in the history of the philosophy.[18] It is derived then from historical circumstances and from its complexity, so that in some cases, the relation to one’s own life is the only independent and variable factor linked to the nothingness. What is paradoxical is that, in many cases, the special dimension of the political dictatorship and social factors (or as in the 1940s, in the classical case of France, during the years of the Occupation: the hybrid diversity of the different political and social factors, which followed each other irrationally) leads to the high valuation of the existentialist freedom chosen by ourselves.Conformably to the internal and typological laws of the philosophy, the existentialist philosophy deals only rarely with the traditionally philosophical questions. Árpád Kiss turns his back decisively on the classical starting point also on this point while combining Sartre and Bergson. However, he wants to base his life, his image on the analysis of the history of the existence, the psychology and the methodics, and he submits them to an investigation.[19] For Sartre and Bergson, only a possible concretization of the human existence constituted by the act of the free choice, can be in principle interessant.Besides the existentialist starting point, Árpád Kiss renounces in no term to the real psychology (exceptional phenomenon, making also allusions to the traditions. In many cases, it comes also to a confusion, because the existential and psychological moments are mixing, sometimes they overlap). This interest allowed, in the principle, Árpád Kiss’ pedagogical activity. The sharing of the sectors between both approaches did not occur only through the existential part reserved to the thinker Árpád Kiss, but also through the psychology going back to different origins (from Bergson to Fraisse or Piaget) and attributed to the pedagogue Árpád Kiss. Árpád Kiss’real pedagogy is existential about the man who is respectively pragmatic concerning the teaching or sociological concerning the nature of knowledge. It is not by pure chance that the existential moment is seen little, teaching and knowledge (especially “school” and “civilization”) are the center of the attention. It is also no pure chance, that the existential moment is mostly seen in the problematic of the intelligence (as result of a multiple reconstruction) or in an aperçu common with the existentialist philosophy.The vision of the existential philosophy and the multiform scientist psychology are the essential trains of the shaping of personality by Árpád Kiss. This is already a mean for Árpád Kiss to represent a strong existential moment, but rarely expressed and difficult to express and it represents the parallelism of the perfect researcher and the scientist and also of the practical organizer. This relation is theorically passed around as a strict juxtaposition, and in this sense, the whole pedagogical activity is the result of an existential decision. This decision has been taken in Debrecen in the 1940s and it is documented in the Truth without Poetry. This juxtapositive relation, strictly separated in the theoretical perspective, changes in the practice several times. The relations between the existence and the real psychology (pedagogy) form the bases, on several occasions, of Árpád Kiss’ personality as researcher and for his professional activities as well. The time of the identity has its meaning in all extents, it makes us formulate the thinking about the meaning of the everyday work, makes us take the measure of everything at any time. This and several aspects of this coexistence represent “double meaning” elements, that organize each in turn, the spheres of the existence and of the real psyche with different contents[20] It derives from the nature of this juxtaposition that psychology (pedagogy) does not replace the existentiality, the psychological range from Bergson to Piaget has to legitimize in the world of the psychology.In the case of conflict between the terms, the existentiality is naturally superior to the manifest and also legitimate psyschology.<spa
n style=”font-family: ‘Garamond’,’serif’; font-size: 16pt”>[21] In the case of the basic problems of the intellectuels, on the question of the “trahison des clercs” thematized by Julian Benda, no psychology supersedes the existential dimension. As far as the formation of our relation to our own life is concerned, we are also free over the psychology. But the existence forms a part of the history of its own psyche and of the one of the others’ psyche. The opposite is also accurate: the psyche will be the product of the existential choice. The recognition of the existential aspect in the process of education and teaching can significantly increase its effectiveness. This aperçu gives us the opportunity to clarify constantly our relation to any essential object on the start line of the freedom. This is therefore a specific psychic activity.Previously, we characterized Árpád Kiss’thinking through the parallel axes Goethe-Rousseau and Bergson-Proust.[22] When we follow our way of thinking, it becomes clear that the Goethe-Rousseau axis represents the substance of the relation to his own life, and the result of the existential choice. The axis Bergson-Proust is near the literarized and aesthetized starting point of the existential thinking, without being identical with it. With all this, we could confirm the thesis about the existential and essential starting point of the thinking and of the personality. We would not name Árpád Kiss’ pedagogy “existential pedagogy” in a pure form, because the existential contents do not emerge with him in the pedagogy, but in the thinking that precedes the pedagogy and gives its bases. (This does not prevent from searching the existential „secondary” elements in the deployed teaching corps).After having discovered the symbiotic juxtaposition of the existential and scientist dimension, we can experiment to define Árpád Kiss’ personality and thinking through more concrete and richer dimensions.The decisive starting point of this thinking is the existential self-determination, the attitude to determine freely and constantly the relation with his own life. The existential starting point did not have to be confronted with dogmatic rivals since Árpád Kiss, from the beginning, refused the great ideologies.[23] Naturally, all this could also happen differently. In that case, we could have seen a different philosophical situation[24] The classical humanism of the “increased humanism”[25] has represented the first criterion of content of the existential starting point (it has been noticed that it has been of course a part of the spiritual tradition and the universe surrounding Árpád Kiss, this starting point has been inserted in this thinking independently of that, as a result of the free self-determination). Árpád Kiss has been characterized versus the historical processes and the future possibilities of the social existence by a strong scepticism[26], this is the reason why he had a strong need to define his positive thinking on the existentialist basis, particularly on the basis of his own freedom. His relations with the outside world and with others were characterized by the comprehension and by a certain creative tolerance.The structure allows us to characterize also this thinking in philosophical terms.The basic feeling that defines freely Árpád Kiss’ thinking and social  existential life is classically humanist and the positive practice is scientist, which led him to dedicate himself to pedagogy and similar sciences. An organic part of this structure of thinking consisted in an existentialist type of absurd[27] skepticism[28] (nonsense coming from the context of the history and the society, the constitutive skepticism deriving from the context of the social existence) and in the pietism[29] of the personal relationship to others.