Agnieszka Michalkiewicz-Gorol

The sketch constitutes an attempt at interpretation and systematization of the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. The author tries to pay attention to several assorted elements comprising the unquestionable phenomenon of popularity of A Game of Thrones and the subsequent books of the cycle. The analysis examines, above all, the eponymous concept of game, transferred by Martin on many levels: a game with the reader, both literary and psychological, including a game played with topoi, myths, genres and allusions to the history and sources of the European culture. The latter ones seem to be particularly interesting in the context of revival of the idea of education in the master-disciple relation or the method of heuresis. It is also worth noticing that Martin has made a book an object – a key, an artifact, a symbol. Another issue that deserves attention is the use of the motif of the Other – the stranger in A Song of Ice and Fire, especially in the context of the American author’s care for setting the novel in the realities of the ancient and medieval world

The sketch A question of questions, or on scholasticism and dialectic in Sebastian Petrycy’s Addenda recalls the figure and achievements of Sebastian Petrycy, the first Polish Aristotelian philosopher, author of the first translation of Aristotle’s works into Polish, this time in the context of analysis of the scholastic scheme of both composition and style of Addenda to Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics. The article emphasizes Petrycy’s innovative solutions in this regard, taking into consideration the literary tradition of scholastic commentaries of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Using the example of selected questions of the Addenda, the multi-layer scholastic structure is analyzed. The article discusses in detail the structure of the Polonica layer, constituting an interesting record of Petrycy’s considerations and observations regarding events or figures of his era. The role of dialectic and induction in construction of scholastic questions by Petrycy is also discussed. It is worth stressing that the author of the Addenda departs from an exclusively exegetic character of his commentaries. Petrycy created a multi-layer text in which Greek, Roman, Biblical and ecclesiastical elements are supplemented with references to his contemporary era. The Aristotelian does not limit himself to translation of the Stagirite’s philosophical substance into Polish. The literary form adopted by Petrycy emphasized the multitude of his interests. The Addenda comprise the substance and reflections constituting an interesting subject of study for a historian of both philosophy and social and political sciences, education or literature.

This outline is an attempt to remember the work of Sebastian Petrycy of Pilsen – Polish Renaissance medical doctor, poet, philosopher and, first of all, a translator of Aristotle’s works to Polish, and the creator of native philosophical terminology within the field of practical philosophy, which in its autonomous pedagogical-philosophical concept, created while working on Stagirite’s works translation, constitutes an axis of the country’s reform on multiple fields. Sebastian Petrycy focussed on practical philosophy, which might have become available to every reader of Przydatki. The Arethological point of view seems to be the essential philosophical and pedagogical perspective for Sebastian Petrycy. Ethics is perceived as a science preparing for good life. Ethics is expected to teach good behaviour, abstaining from evil and supporting will with good manners. It’s worth highlighting the fact that the author of Przydatki believes the concept of arete houses the aspect of a social life’s democratization. Everybody, as Sebastian Petrycy of Pilsen claims, may earn the name of a noble man if they live virtuous lives.

The sketch recalls the personality and literary works of Sebastian Petrycy, a Polish Renaissance writer. The author recalls his volume Horatius Flaccus w trudach więzienia moskiewskiego na utulenie żalów in the context of Petrycy’s philosophical and pedagogical activity, analyzing his ode Studnia kolegiacka. The interpretation of Ode III 13 shows the sources of inspiration of the Renaissance poet. Petrycy, translating Horace’s odes in early 17th century, adapted elements of Aristotelism, Horatianism, stoicism and aretology to Polish conditions. Petrycy also used the rules of rhetoric and parenesis in a strictly humanist stylistics. A significant issue of the sketch are also discussions on the classification of Petrycy’s odes from the viewpoint of theory of literature. The text tries to remind Sebastian Petrycy’s poetry in a different and wider context than the one connected with research on Polish Horatianism, humanist versification or Russo-Polish relations of early 17th century