In the last few decades one can observe two mutually opposed tendencies in the world's socio-political systems. One is an expansion of the state in a totalitarian manner with attempts to subordinate the individual, all social groups and the whole society to the state; this tendency gave rise to such 20th socio-political systems as German national socialism, Marxist-Leninist socialism, and Chinese communism. The other tendency is an expansion of individualism to forms of unlimited liberalism in economy, anarchism in political life and unbridled freedom in the field of ethics. Both tendencies are developed to varying degrees in particular states, but on a global scale they have caused acute crises in social life perceived as a whole. An analysis of these crises indicates that at their basis lies a misapprehension of the mutual relations between the individual and the society, as well as between the society and the state, wrongly understood both by many politicians and by average citizens. An improper interpretation of these relations spawns many errors and false solutions in politics and economics, in neighborhood life and the family, and in raising and educating the younger generation.
These problems have recurred frequently in discussions taking place during the seminars sponsored for a number of years in Washington, D.C. by the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy: social topics as "Relations Between Cultures", "Urbanization and Values", "The Place of the Person in Social Life" and "Freedom and Choice in a Democracy". The participants in the seminars represented various sciences, world views, backgrounds and countries of origin including Africa, South America, Asia and Europe. Poland was represented by a series of professors including Professor dr. hab., Leon Dyczewski, Dr. Leszek Paga, and Professor dr. hab., Walerian Slomka and Dr. Jaolwiga Rakowska from the Catholic University of Lublin.
Poland has been the site of very interesting and extremely important events and changes which have attracted the attention of all, especially the Americans and Africans. The former were mainly interested in the disintegration of the socialist system and the consequences of this process; the latter in turn wanted to find out if it was at all feasible to purge a system of mistakes and distortions. All the transformations achieved in Poland under the initial inspiration and influence of the social movement know as Solidarnosc were regarded as a process of the liberation of Poland and other countries from the Marxist-Leninist socialist systems. The conviction that this was the last stage of this system in its prevailing form and the beginning of a whole new era for Central and Eastern Europe generated the idea of organizing a Polish-American symposium.
From the discussions of Professors George F. McLean, John Kromkowski, Paul Peachey, Dean Hoge and Leon Dyczewski, the subject of "privacy" and "publicness" in modern society emerged as a topic for a Polish-American symposium. This was based on a number of reasons:
a) Although more easily accessible to empirical analysis, the subject of the mutual relations between "privacy" and "publicness" is a corollary of the problem of relations between the individual and society, as well as between society and the state. Thus, dealing with the questions connected with "privacy" and "publicness" in modern society touches problems which today are most urgent and significant.
b) In spite of the differences between their state systems, in both societies, Polish and American, there occur identical abnormalities between "privacy" and "publicness", including such fundamental phenomena as a weakening of involvement in public life and its far reaching formalization, as well as escape into private life. Sometimes these phenomena assume almost pathological forms. For instance, it may happen that the same individual lives as if in two independent worlds, private and public. In one of them such a person is dynamic and creative, respecting obligatory norms and manifesting a friendly attitude towards others; in the other world the same individual is passive and aggressive, uninterested in the affairs of others and uninvolved in purposes which transcend personal aims. This raises questions about the factors which condition the improper functioning of "privacy" and "publicness" in modern society, and about the extent to which such conditioning is determined by systemic and non-systemic elements.
c) A discussion about these problems among Polish and American scholars, representing different backgrounds and different experiences in social life, could be expected to result in new theoretical solutions as well as in suggestions for social policy and social activities directed towards a more harmonious interconnection between what is private and what is public in modern society.
The problems of "privacy" and "publicness", thus perceived, were to be analyzed in the lives of a local society and of a neighborhood, in marital and family life, in the systems of education and upbringing, and in the economic and political realms of life. Analysis of the problems in question in these domains of social life in societies characterized by different systems and pasts promised to be productive. The symposium was therefore planned as international and interdisciplinary, for it was projected that, looking from the points of view of their different experiences, the participants would mutually stimulate one another to seek more inventive solutions for linking harmoniously these two aspects of social life.
This first Polish-American symposium took place in Kazimierz Donly on the Vistula in the Center of Creative Reflection of the Catholic University of Lublin. The organizers of the symposium were the departments of Sociology and Political Science and the Council for Research, Values and Philosophy Catholic University in Washington, D.C. ( P. Peachey, J. Kromkowski, G. McLean, respectively) and the Social Department of the Social Science Faculty of the Catholic University of Lublin (L. Dyczewski, M.Tarnowski). It was the first joint symposium by the scholars in the social sciences of the two universities, which for years have maintained scientific contacts and cooperation. The collaboration between the two institutions of higher education has been crowned and deepened by this meeting, which provided the participants with an outstanding opportunity to exchange results of specific studies, theories, social ideas, personal views and different scientific approaches.
The present volume constitutes the fruits of this symposium, though only partly so, because it does not include the contents of the very rich discussions which clearly predominated during the sessions. The papers were presented and their main theses served as the subject of lively and creative debates.
In presenting this work we hope that the reader will find much comparative material on mutual relations between what is private and public in the lives of Polish and American societies. This should stimulate further theoretical analyses, research and activities leading to a more productive relation between the two spheres of social life. Such a search is particularly needed by Poland where our public life is being built on principles entirely different from those applied thus far: all is being created anew and approaches developed could well point the way for Eastern Europe for centuries to come.
We hope also that the present publication will contribute to closer cooperation between Polish and American social scientists. This would be especially valuable because the exchange of experiences, conceptualizations and concrete suggestions in this field is needed for the creation of a more humane, that is, a personal society which can give rise to ever improving conditions for the personal development of its members.
The Catholic University of Lublin
Lublin, Poland