REASON, IDEA, PHILOLOGY INTELLECTUAL HISTORY IN LITERARY CONTEXTS (WRITTEN
ON THE MARGINS OF CYPRIAN NORWID’S “MILCZENIE” (“SILENCE”))
The article examines the 19th century evolution of history of ideas and its relatedness to literary studies.
The debate whether philology, philosophy, and history are autonomous humanistic disciplines or
they make up a part of what is informally referred to as “humanities” or “humanistic sciences” lasted
for the whole century. The idea, seen as a notion connected with philosophy of cognition, became the
central part of the debate. In the present paper I suggest an interpretation of Cyprian Norwid’s essay
Milczenie (Silence) as a text designed by the poet to enter this debate.