Karol Libelt (1807-1875) was a Polish philosopher, writer, political and social activist, social worker and liberal, nationalist politician, president of PTPN.

Libelt took part in the failed November Uprising against Russia in 1830. Since 1839 he became the head of a secret committee started to organise yet another uprising against the partitioning powers, which was nick-named the Libelt Committee - Komitet Libelt). For taking part in the 1846 uprising he was sentenced by the Prussian authorities for 20 years of imprisonment in a fortress. However, he was released in 1848 and returned to Poznań, where he took part in various secret organisations supporting the independence of Poland (Polish National Committee and Revolutionary Committee ). During the Spring of Nations he was chosen as one of the members of the Frankfurt Parliament; he also took part in the Slavic Congress in Prague in June 1848.

In 1849 he was elected the member of Prussian parliament became the director of a liberal Dziennik Polski (Polish Daily) newspaper. The following year Libelt started to organise various scientifical and social organisations in Greater Poland, among them the Society of Friends of Sciences in Poznań, which became a de facto university. Between 1868 and 1875 he was also the head of that society and gave lectures on æsthetics .

In his philosophical works, Libelt described the so-called Polish messianism , or a belief that the history of the world would be redeemed by the Polish people, who gained moral excellence because of the suffering of their motherland. He believed in existence of a super-rational cognitive power, visible through art. He is known internationally mainly because of the word intelligentsia coined by him in one of his books (Filozofia i krytyka - Philosophy and Critics).

See also:

• Poznan Society of Friends of Arts and Sciences

References

• Witold Jakóbczyk, Przetrwać na Wartą 1815-1914, Dzieje narodu i państwa polskiego, vol. III-55, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warszawa 1989