Philosophical Foundations of Worldview Conflict within Western Thought in the Conservative Perspective

Abstrakt

In the face of growing conflicts in Western societies and the formation of deep political, ideological and worldview divisions within Western civilisation, it becomes legitimate to ask whether we are not witnessing ongoing culture wars? The observed intensifying social dichotomies do not touch only the issue of political sympathies or antipathies, but concern almost all aspects of human life: the concept of nation, attitude to religion, family model, approach to sexuality and even the existence of gender. The purpose of this article is to trace the conservative style of thinking in the context of the culture war, to distinguish the elements of common concepts within this philosophical tradition, as well as the peculiarities of each of the selected authors. The paper has the following order: an introduction devoted to the origins of modern conservatism, allowing to outline the conceptual framework of this style of thinking. It is hypothesized that modern British conservatism arose in response to events associated with the collapse of socialism in Poland and Czechoslovakia, while the philosophical development of Polish conservative thought is inspired by Anglo-Saxon publications. In the first part, the thought of British conservative philosophy on the phenomenon of culture war is described on the example of Roger Scruton’s philosophy, and then compared with American authors Allan Bloom and Gertrude Himmelfarb. The second part of the article is devoted to two Polish authors who have dealt extensively with the subject of culture war – Agnieszka Kołakowska and Anna Pawełczyńska. Finally, the conservative interpretation of the culture war is compared with the liberal and left-wing interpretations in order to point out the links, connections, as well as differences between them.