Adam Smith, Mickiewicz i filomaci: wileńska lekcja ekonomii

Abstract

The article examines the influence of economic thought, the political economy of the 18th century, and the beginning of the 19th century on the worldview of the young Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855), Poland’s greatest poet, and his young fellow students at Vilnius University. They began their education by assimilating the ideals of the Enlightenment, including the thoughts of the Physiocrats and Adam Smith, the founder of classical economics. Mickiewicz was interested in Smith’s thoughts, which he learned in translation and, at the same time, a summary made by Jan Znoska, a professor of political economy in Vilnius. Young Vilnius residents were influenced by a few Polish Anglophiles and Scotophiles, and they also assimilated elements of the Scottish school of philosophy. Smith was, for them, synonymous with what was new in political economy and aesthetics. Further development of Mickiewicz’s thought would lead him to completely reject political economy as a tool for the study of Slavic peoples. His interests moved towards German Romantic economics, especially Adam Heinrich Müller, and led to the development of his vision combining theosophy, messianism, and geopolitics.