Leszek Kołakowski
Philosopher, historian of ideas (1927-2009) · Poland · On the map · Academics · Died at 81
Leszek Kołakowski was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analysis of contemporary Marxist thought and theory, as in his three-volume history of Marxist philosophy Main Currents of Marxism (1976). In his later work, Kołakowski increasingly focused on religious questions.
Leszek Kołakowski is read about 300 times a day, in 43 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 89 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?A life in dates
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In his 1986 Jefferson Lecture, he asserted that "we learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are".
