Kosmos Witolda Gombrowicza testamentem filozoficznym pisarza (próba analizy i interpretacji)

Abstract

The subject matter of the article are philosophical motifs of Witold Gombrowicz’s last novel entitled Kosmos. The author tried to show that although his intention was not to create literature exemplifying philosophical assumptions, his novel encompassed a certain vision of reality, which exposed his metaphysical and epistemological views. Gombrowicz presented a particular philosophical ‘experiment’; Witold, his protagonist, is put in a situation, in which all existing views on the reality are rejected, and having reached the state of a kind of ‘tabula rasa’ he is to reconstruct the world intellectually. This leads to the conclusion that each interpretation of reality undertaken by a human being is arbitrary, conventional, and is a ‘falsification’ of the chaos of the world. Kosmos's author develops an idea that the conflict of the human longing for sense, order and harmony with irrational, adventure-like and disorderly reality is inevitable. The author concluded with the statement that Gombrowicz’s philosophical reflection culminates in Kosmos: he left his hopes connected with the categories of ‘youth’ and ‘immaturity’ and arrived at the extremely pessimist position (the world is hostile towards human desires) and relativist (it is not possible to have objective knowledge about the external reality).