This book is an invitation to a spiritual journey through the realms of human consciousness and dilemmas of our existence, an invitation to discover new dimensions of personhood and a wide range of social, cultural, and political interactions. How do I function as a person and what is my place and role in this world? What can I do to enhance my potential and improve this functioning? How can the Other help me and what is the way I can support him in his personal development? Why is freedom inextricably connected with responsibility, and what is the morality of a freed person? These are the questions that I try to answer in the present book, while juxtaposing two models of a person, along with the motivations behind them and the implications they have for our both individual and social life. Traditionally, man perceives himself as a small element of this world, subject to all kinds of laws and restrictions. He accepts both his dependence and the limitations imposed on him. The model that I suggest differs considerably from this scientistic approach. It is a model of a person conscious of his or her subjectivity, who is not afraid to respond to challenges and cope with difficulties that life brings. Such a person is not only able to solve external problems he or she encounters, but is also ready to start working on developing his or her personality. Years of laborious work pay off, and he or she increases his or her potential to act and expands the space of freedom he or she lives in.
Such a person treats him- or herself as a raw material, and in a way creates him- or herself enriching his or her personality. Working intentionally on the process of his or her evolution he or she discovers new dimensions of personhood. This is a new style of life, a new way of acting upon the world and being its part, which the Reader my find intriguing and attractive enough to put into practice. Indeed, one of my main objectives is to encourage those who will reach for this book to verify the validity of the new solutions and interpretations described here in their own lives. Perhaps, it will help them to enjoy their freedom and discover the fullness of their existence.
The beginnings of this book are rather innocent. Each academic year, I prepare inaugural speeches. Having looked through some of these texts, I found it worthwhile to publish a collection of them. This is how the first book, Myślenie według wartości o kształceniu akademickim i sytuacjach społecznych, came into being in 2004, with its English version, Value-Oriented Thinking, published in 2005. Since that time, as the founder and president of the Academy of Humanities and Economics in Łódź, I have continued to deliver inaugural speeches. I prepare myself thoroughly for them, treating each inauguration ceremony with due seriousness, and regarding it as a unique opportunity to share my personal reflections. The ceremony is usually attended by around 700-800 people, including academic and administrative staff members of the Academy. I have a chance to talk to them for about 20-50 minutes. Being acutely aware of the fact that the next opportunity to do so will present itself in the following year, I do my best to use this precious time effectively. I give a lot of thought to the content of the speech and revise it several times, trying to include ideas and issues from new academic areas. Now, after the past five years of working at the Academy, and after adding new texts, it occurred to me that these texts are a sort of chronicle of my spiritual development, a record of my path of thinking about myself, the Academy and the social world surrounding us. This path has its own dynamics. The speeches from the subsequent years are a reflection of my spiritual maturity. Year after year, I have progressed in my development, in gaining deeper awareness of what I am doing. At the same time, the world around me has been changing, and so has the Academy. Each year, this work had a different form, size and tasks to perform. Each year brought new challenges I had to face.
The following chapters of this book are a record of numerous co-existing themes and changes. Firstly, I myself, along with my consciousness and my way of thinking, have changed. Secondly, the change has affected my Academy, which is the product of this evolving consciousness. Thirdly, the environment has changed ? other universities and ministerial authorities in control of higher education institutions. Fourthly, Polish society has undergone changes. Together with other Poles, I have learnt the social life and the life in the global village, which our Earth has come to be. I will refrain from describing the most significant changes in my personal life. Suffice it to say, it has been very tempestuous, and not because I wanted it to be like that, but because it is not possible to separate personal life from professional activity, especially that I spend on average 10-12 hours each day at the Academy. Besides, it is at home that very early in the morning, at weekends and on holidays, I write my texts, committing my reflections to paper.
When I established the Academy, I had already written a book entitled Creative and Harmonious Development of a Human Being, in which I formulated the definition of a creative act. This work confirmed me in my belief that people should prepare themselves for an adult life in a new different way. The preparation for creative problem-solving differs substantially from the traditional old-fashioned style of dealing with problems. During one academic year in the period of the Solidarity movement and in the first half year of the martial law I had a chance to teach a course on creativity. The upshot of this lucky episode was a ministerial reprimand at the end of the course for disregarding the regulations of the martial law ? I ?willfully changed the room in which the classes took place?, as instead of teaching in the room of the Technical University of Łódź, I took the students to the Museum of Art in order to show them transformations of human consciousness using works of art as an example. Then, for ten years I tried to persuade the University authorities to allow me to teach a course on creative activities, but all in vain.
While establishing the Academy, I was deeply convinced that it was necessary to prepare young people in a different way and to teach them not only academic knowledge, but also creative skills. I was something I could not do at my home University.
By this moment, when you are reading this book, my consciousness has been fundamentally transformed. After fifteen years of working at the Academy and teaching creative skills I have realized that a person acting in a creative way changes. Subsequent creative acts as if accumulate in him or her, changing his or her attitude towards life, other people, and his or her work, and add a new spiritual dimension. Hence, while initially, I was interested in the creative act itself, now my attention is focused on a self-aware and intentionally self-creating person and his or her community. Such a person gives a new dimension to the world ? a spiritual dimension.
Working in the Academy for fifteen years has been the process of transforming consciousness, of moving away from the objectivist way of defining creative processes to the subject-oriented and intentional formation of human community. This is a completely new dimension. While in the beginning I still discovered regularities in the world, now I feel in a position to finish my books with such articles as ?Morality of a freed person? and ?The space of moral reflection of the subject?. In both cases I present the way of functioning of a person who is able to overcome the limitations of determinism or, in other words, to overcome the law of karma. In the course of these fifteen years of work, I have reached a new stage in the development of consciousness. The following chapters are the chronicle of this process.
Inauguration speeches delivered at the beginning of each academic year are also artistic manifestos, which then, throughout the year, guide the creation of the work ? the Academy. They are also confessions meant to show the condition of consciousness, as well as projects and conceptions, according to which the work is to be formed. The value of these speeches is not only theoretical. Their content includes the project to construct the work in a particular academic year. One might think that the development of the Academy involves only quantitative changes. Nothing could be further from the truth. The speeches reflect both the challenges which had to be taken up in a particular period and the spiritual conceptions to be developed in the following year.
The final stage of the process involves more than just developing creative skills. It is the development of the society functioning within the spiritual dimension; the main element of this spirituality being the process of making decisions by a freed person ? a new way of moral functioning conducive to further spiritual development.
Over the course of these fifteen years, the Academy has changed. The first inauguration ceremony took place on 7th October, 1994, with 150 students starting the new academic year. At that time, I was already in possession of the building at 64 Rewolucji 1905 street. Now, the Academy of Humanities and Economics in Łódź has over thirty thousand students. The capital group includes six other academies. In all of them students learn creative skills. This means that we employ a large group of academic teachers giving courses meant to provide students with the skills of key importance ? the interpersonal skills. From the very beginning, the curriculum included subjects meant to enhance students? subjective development. Teaching these subjects is also an opportunity to gain experience as regards both the content and methodology of creativity-oriented education.
This experience enabled me to formulate further concepts of creative thinking. Metodyka pracy z podmiotem [Methodology of Working with the Subject] (2007) is a book arising from the need to educate the teachers of creative skills. This need forced me to compile all my methodological knowledge and write a book showing, among others, how to construct exercises, organize workshops and create a subject-oriented creative project.
On the other hand, the need to teach others innovative management was an inspiration behind the book Subordinate-Directed Management (2005), elaborating on the conception of innovative management, which differs from the traditional style of management. In this book I present such tools as an audit and a strategy to be used in order to facilitate the innovative functioning of the organization.
The evolution of the work ? the growth of the Academy ? and everyday needs to manage it effectively have inspired further development of the conception of creativity. This evolution has been manifested in the development of numerous areas of activity, including: Polish Virtual University, developing the technology and methodology of distance learning. ?Patio Gallery?, where important artistic events take place, and the Publishing House. Hence, various aspects of the development of the Academy give insights into innovative behavior. But for them many problems would not have appeared, and the process of solving the difficulties encountered would not have resulted in a deeper reflection on creative behavior. The work stimulates the development of theory. And vice versa, the latter is conducive to the evolution of the former.
One of the most important conclusions we can draw from our experience is the need for the fundamental reform of curriculum and teaching methodology. So far, the knowledge offered to students has been reduced to the description of the world surrounding us. This knowledge, formulated in accordance with scientific rules, is objective and truth-conditioned. The experience of the Academy allows me to put forward a claim that we need to initiate another way of teaching, education meant to enable one to function as a human being and enhancing the student?s ability to use the knowledge he or she possesses effectively and to solve the problems he or she encounters in a creative way. In fact, the reason why people learn is that they want to be able to solve problems, and deal more successfully with all kinds of difficulties. The other type of knowledge, currently taught only in the Academy of Humanities and Economics in Łódź is thus a necessary element. It is not enough to possess knowledge, but one must be able to use it to cope with all kinds of problems - this is the main goal of education.
In the course of time also the environment of the Academy has changed. The early 1990s, after almost twenty years, saw the emergence of the Polish free market. Poland, with its numerous well-functioning offices, apparently gained its maturity. Higher education also started to undergo changes. Initially, the ratio of young people starting their studies, i.e. the ratio of scholarization was 7%, now it is almost 50%.
It is a regrettable fact that the development of the Academy is treated as a threat to the system of education. What I observe in the academic circles is the lack of sensitivity to the changes in the field of innovativeness, creativity and attempts to teach people how to become subjects.
This collection of speeches and other reflections is the path I have followed from authoritarian to subjective thinking. My experience of working in the Academy has allowed me to recognize this unique process taking place in Poland. I start with a thesis that fundamental transformations have been taking place in Poland, and proceed to discuss this process in detail.
I have found this personal journey from scientistic thinking to subjective thinking both difficult and fascinating. Learning to think in this new way I have changed myself. Coping with problems I have had to think and act, to make an extreme effort, both intellectual and physical. Yet, thanks to the pressure of the environment I have managed to formulate the basic elements of the conception of a subjective person.
This book is dedicated to all those who would like to follow this path, the path leading from authoritarian thinking to subjective thinking, from restrictions to freedom, and in this way gain a better understanding of the changes taking place in the world and within themselves and discover their personhood.
