W prezentowanym artykule autor zastanawia się, czym jest wrogość jako taka, przyjmując, iż ludzie z natury są wobec siebie raczej przychylni, pozbawieni negatywnych odczuć. Nie chodzi o dokładne opisanie kategorii „obcego”, ale ważniejszy jest sam proces, który sprawia, że ktoś zostaje w ten sposób określony. Wrogość jest czymś wtórnym, pochodnym, zatem tym, co przeinacza, przekłamuje prawdę o człowieku. Nie sposób jednak powiedzieć, co tak naprawdę skłania człowieka do tego, by wyzwoliła się w nim postawa wrogości. Jak rozgrywa się ten skomplikowany, jak można mniemać, akt przejścia od traktowania kogoś jako „innego” do myślenia o nim w kategorii „obcego”? Autor próbuje wskazać kilka istotnych wątków, by dojść do konkluzji, iż proces „tworzenia obcego”, choć sam w sobie nienaturalny, stanowi nieodłączny element świata, w jakim żyjemy. Konkluzja ta ma zawsze tragiczny wymiar.

The Making of the Stranger – about the Essence of Hostility. An Attempt at a Philosophical Study

This paper contemplates the concept of hostility working on the assumption that people are by nature friendly and deprived of negative feelings. What it takes to fit the category of ‘stranger’ is secondary to how one becomes one in the in the eyes of other people. It is the process that matters. Hostility is a derivative and a by-product, it twists and distorts the truth about man. It is difficult to pin down what produces or provokes a hostile attitude in people. How does this complex transition from being seen as ‘different’ in the eyes of the beholders to being categorised as the ‘stranger’ play out? The author seeks to draw the reader’s attention to several apparently important themes, only to conclude that the „making of the stranger”, unnatural as it might seem, is inherent to our world. This conclusion is always tragic.

This paper contemplates the concept of hostility working on the assumption that people are by nature friendly and deprived of negative feelings. What it takes to fit the category of ‘stranger’ is secondary to how one becomes one in the in the eyes of other people. It is the process that matters. Hostility is a derivative and a by-product, it twists and distorts the truth about man. It is difficult to pin down what produces or provokes a hostile attitude in people. How does this complex transition from being seen as ‘different’ in the eyes of the beholders to being categorised as the ‘stranger’ play out? The author seeks to draw the reader’s attention to several apparently important themes, only to conclude that the „making of the stranger”, unnatural as it might seem, is inherent to our world. This conclusion is always tragic.