Ethics of Solidarity

Lecture
The Good Samaritan in a World of Hate
Prof. Michał Bilewicz | social psychologist, sociologist, columnist, habilitated doctor of social sciences, University of Warsaw professor

Conversation
Prof. Michał Bilewicz
Prof. Ewa Łętowska | former Polish Ombudsman, former judge of the Supreme Administrative Court and the Constitutional Tribunal
Basil Kerski | culture manager, editor, political scientist and essayist, director of the ECS
Monika Chabior | Deputy Mayor of Gdańsk for Social Development and Equal Treatment
Moderator | Marek Twaróg, editor-in-chief, Presserwis and Press.pl

Adam Bodnar, PhD hab.
/ SWPS University professor
/ lawyer and university teacher
/ Polish Ombudsman (2015–2021)
/ Vice-President, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (2010–2015)

Żanna Niemcowa
/ Russian journalist, social activist, co-founder of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom
/ daughter of Boris Nemtsov—politician, democracy activist, human rights defender, advocate of liberal economic reforms and opponent of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, shot dead in central Moscow by unknown perpetrators

Hartmut Rosa is a sociologist and political scientist, professor at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena and, since 2013, director of the Max-Weber-Kolleg, Erfurt. He has also been a visiting professor at The New School, New York, for many years. His research focuses on the sociology of modernity, in particular the concept of the good life, social critique, pathologies of modernity, and the relationships between individuals and the world, which he terms ‘relations of resonance.’ Those relations are intended to respond to the sense of alienation in late-modern subjectivity. He is actively engaged in developing the concept of resonance for the education system.

Michael Sandel has been called a ‘rock star philosopher.’ His works on justice, ethics, democracy and economics have been translated into nearly 30 languages. His lecture series Justice broke all attendance records, filling lecture halls at Harvard University, where he is affiliated, and attracting tens of millions of viewers online and on television. His most striking interventions include those on violence against women in India, corruption in Brazil, moral responsibility for the past in Japan, and democracy in the UK.

Shalini Randeria is a professor of social anthropology and sociology, rector of the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna (a research institute founded in 1982 by Krzysztof Michalski and the Rev. Józef Tischner together with Hans Georg Gadamer), and director of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Since March 2017, she has also been director of the Hirschman Centre on Democracy at IHEID (Institut de Hautes Études Internationales et du Développement), Geneva. She specialises in the anthropology of globalisation, law, the state and social movements. Her social research on India covers both postcolonial and contemporary issues. She has taught at many universities, including in Berlin, Zurich, Munich, Paris and Budapest. She has authored many works, none of which have been translated into Polish.

Michel Wieviorka is a French sociologist, professor and director of the Centre for Sociological Analysis at the Paris School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). His research focuses on the legacy of Solidarity, the development of democracy, as well as terrorism and cultural differences in multinational societies. He has authored and co-authored several significant works on Poland and Solidarity. In many of his writings from the 1980s, he referred to Solidarity as a major anti-totalitarian social movement. Respected among French intellectual elites, he helped shape a highly positive image of Solidarity and Poland, and was actively involved in initiatives advocating for the release of political prisoners under General Wojciech Jaruzelski’s regime. Recipient of the Medal of Gratitude from the European Solidarity Centre, awarded for his support of the Polish anti-communist opposition.

Gesine Schwan is a German political thinker and professor of political philosophy at the Free University of Berlin. Her teaching positions included the University of Cambridge and the New School for Social Research, New York. She served as rector of the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). Her academic work explores Europe’s political culture, the development of democracy and European reconciliation after World War II. She promoted internationally the works of Leszek Kołakowski, with whom she shared an intellectual friendship. Eager to read the master’s works in the original, she learned Polish.
Recipient of the Medal of Gratitude from the European Solidarity Centre, awarded for her support of the Polish anti-communist opposition.

Guy Sorman is a French journalist, political commentator and philosopher. He is a regular contributor to the French Le Figaro and the American Wall Street Journal and City Journal. A proponent of classical liberalism, his books advocate for creativity and modern capitalism, with a focus on renewable energy, environmental sustainability and human rights. His works published in Polish include W oczekiwaniu barbarzyńców (En attendant les barbares), 1997, and Rok koguta. O Chinach, rewolucji i demokracji (L’Année du Coq. Chinois et rebelles), 2006.

Adam Boniecki is a theologian, philosopher and Catholic priest of the Congregation of Marian Fathers. He is the senior editor of Tygodnik Powszechny, having previously served as a catechist and academic chaplain. He held the position of the order’s Superior General. In 1964, at the invitation of Bishop Karol Wojtyła, he joined Tygodnik Powszechny in Kraków as an editor. Fifteen years later, at the request of Pope John Paul II, he moved to Rome to oversee the Polish edition of L’Osservatore Romano, later becoming its editor-in-chief. Following the death of Jerzy Turowicz, Boniecki took on Turowicz’s role of editor-in-chief of Tygodnik Powszechny (1999–2011). He chairs the judging panel for the Father Józef Tischner Award. Despite retiring, he remains an active public figure, though his religious order has at times imposed restrictions on his public appearances. He is the author of numerous books, including Lepiej palić fajkę niż czarownice (It’s Better to Smoke a Pipe Than Burn Witches), 2011, and Powroty z bezdroży. Notatki na marginesach Biblii (Returns from the Wilderness: Notes in the Margins of the Bible), 2017.