From speculation to revolution: Edward Dembowski’s unrealised potentials on the verge of the Spring of Nations

Abstract

In the article, we reflect on why the philosophy of Edward Dembowski (1822–46), who has been described in historical literature as a Marxist avant la lettre, has theoretically unrealised potential. In order to achieve this goal, we will undertake a contextualist reading of Dembowski's published work, identifying in it a multiplicity of potentialities rather than the prospect of a one-sided development. Thus, we argue that there were at least four seeds that could have flourished in his intellectual biography: (1) Hegelian, (2) a critic of liberalism, (3) a utopian, and (4) a standard-bearer of the Polish revolutionary movement(s). We conclude by arguing that his specific socio-political position in the borderlands of East Central Europe prevented him from realising any of these potentials or developing a framework to unite them into a coherent theoretical position.