J.M. Hoene-Wroński (1776–1853), Slavic messianism and “supreme law”
Abstract
The article deals with the key concepts of the mathematician and philosopher Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński – “messianism” and “algorithmicism”. These concepts were introduced by him into the cultural and scientific circulation of Western Europe, and the common branch of knowledge that unites them can be considered “philosophy of action”. It is emphasised that Hoene-Wroński’s project of “messianism” radically diverges from the so-called Polish messianism developed by Adam Mickiewicz and his followers. In contrast to them, Hoene-Wroński justified his project, firstly, by setting the “universal” task for all Slavic peoples which implied the idea of the key role of Russia in the fate of Europe in general and the Slavs in particular, and secondly, by providing the programme of “messianism” with a purely rational argumentation, which required a radical reform of mathematics. Hoene-Wroński’s project of mathematics reform (interpreted as “algorithmicism”) was presented by him in a number of publications, some of them addressed to the ruling personalities of Europe and the Russian Empire. The author of the article tries to decipher and interpret the tomb inscription (now lost) on Hoene-Wroński’s tomb in the cemetery of Neuilly-sur-Seine, located in the suburbs of Paris. By doing this, he refers to the book by the Russian historian of mathematics Viktor V. Bobynin, in which there is an adequate assessment of the teachings of the Polish-Russian-French thinker. Some other works written by Russian and foreign researchers (Prince Vladimir F. Odoevsky, bibliographer Vladimir M. Anderson, mathematician Stefan Banach, philosopher Valerian N. Muravyov, theologian Hegumen Gennady (Eikalovich)) who were engaged in the study of Hoene-Wroński’s ideas are also mentioned.
