Edward Abramowski

</image> <group> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Relatives</label> <label>Affiliation</label> </group> <group> <header>Biographical information</header> <label>Marital status</label> <label>Date of birth</label> <label>Place of birth</label> <label>Date of death</label> <label>Place of death</label> </group> <group> <header>Physical description</header> <label>Species</label> <label>Gender</label> <label>Height</label> <label>Weight</label> <label>Eye color</label> </group> </infobox>Józef Edward Abramowski (1868 - 1918) was a psychologist, sociologist, ethical philosopher and anarcho-syndicalist. He helped organised cooperatives in Poland and was seen as a 'spiritual leader' of libertarian socialism in Poland, inspiring the Workers' Defense Committee and Solidarity.

Life

Youth

Edward was born to a wealthy family of landlords and spent the first 11 years of his life in Ukraine. He moved to Warsaw, Poland in 1879 and was privately educated, becoming increasingly interested in the philosophies of Marx, Darwin and Spencer, as well as the ideas of socialism.

In 1885, he began physical and biological studies at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. As a student, he organised a socialist youth group and began smuggling in illegal left-wing books from abroad. From 1886 to 1889 he studied philosophy at the University of Geneva. He became increasingly radical, becoming a dedicated speaker and organiser, eventually dropping his studies. Upon his return to Warsaw, he began to spread critiques of capitalism and private property, but became alienated by the socialists movements call for te

SDepression

In 1893, he fell into a deep depression, but began to organise socialists in France, but soon contracted tuberculosis and went to Switzerland for treatment. He resigned from politics as he became increasingly cynical about Marxism and trade unions, but devoted himself towards studying psychology and sociology. He felt marxism lacked an understanding about human subjectivity and the necessity for a change in culture before a change in material conditions, leading him to anarchist conclusions, he returned to Warsaw in 1897 with this task.

Abramowski now considered research reflection, public activity and dissemination of the new idea of ethics to be the most important task. In such works as: Problems of socialism, Individual elements in sociology, Program of lectures on new ethics or Ethics and revolution, he drew attention to the important role of ethical changes in social processes and the necessity of the priority of moral revolution against social changes, self-organization and change of human morality.

In the years 1898-1900, Abramowski conducted a comprehensive activity. He was involved in the work of self-education circles and secret courses spreading independent education and independence, he undertook the initiation of ethically educating groups and promoting the slogans of moral renewal. He also organized communies proclaiming and implementing postulates of ethical life. During this time, apart from social activities, he also developed his psychological interests.

In 1904 he published the dissertation Socialism and the state. An individualized, free and creative person is a basic value for him. This work also includes criticism of state socialism (and the state itself) and the postulate of stateless organization of society in the form of free associations.

Abramowski also collaborated with the Polish People's Union, he wrote a progressive program for the village.

After 1905, especially after the fall of the revolution, he devoted himself to the idea of cooperation, about which he wrote such works as: The principle of cooperative respubles, The importance of sharing for democracy, Social ideas of cooperatism and Cooperative as a matter of liberation of the working people. Abramowski advocated the liquidation of the state and replaced it with a cooperative relationship associating - on a voluntary basis - free producers, responding within the limits of their duties for shaping their own lives and consciously engaging in social life. He contributed to the formation of the Kooperatist Society, he was a co-founder of the cooperative magazine Społem. He also continued the ethical movement in the form of Friendship Associations. Last years of life Abramowski in the last years of his life

In 1907 he co-organized the Polish Psychological Association, of which he became the first chairman. In 1910, Abramowski founded the first psychological studio in Warsaw, which was renamed the Psychological Institute. In 1915 he became the Chair of Psychology at the University of Warsaw. In 1917 he began lecturing on experimental metaphysics.

Death

He became increasingly sick as he aged, and became seriously ill in May 1918, dying on the 21st of June and buried in the Powązki Cemetery.