Letter to Władysław Tatarkiewicz written 09.01.1969

Roman Ingarden
Cracow, Biskupia 14

Cracow, 9 January 69

            Dear Władysław,

                                  first of all, thanks again for the Christmas wishes you sent us; meanwhile, I apologise for having not yet sent wishes to the two of you myself. I was very busy, though, finishing one more extensive paper, and moreover I felt rather poorly in December. Now I’m belatedly sending my best wishes for a Peaceful New Year to both of you dear people.

            I’m also writing because I wanted to communicate with you regarding the matter of convening the General Assembly of the Aesthetic Section of the Polish Philosophical Society. This concerns the election of a new board, which evidently should be done every three years; however, I let this get away from me, and it ought to be done, even if belatedly. However, in this connection, there’s a certain doubt which arises in my mind in association with the facts from previous years. The point is that the Aesthetics Section functions exclusively in Cracow. Nowhere else have there been any meetings, or any so-called ‘life’ at all. There was a time when Pelc came here for several of the Cracow meetings, because he had [O1] some business here, and subsequently wanted to gather material in order to write polemics against me, although that didn’t help him much. In any case, the existence of a general Polish Aesthetic Section is really a kind of fiction. At bottom, it’s nothing but a problem, sending invitations to meetings and postal costs ‒ especially since the Board of the OTF[O2]  refused at once to grant subsidies to the Aesthetic Section. The costs [O3] of transcribing tape-recorded protocols are covered by the regular Polish Philosophical Society subsidy. Nor, internationally speaking, does it matter, since, for example, the committee of aesthetics congresses did not consider it appropriate to address itself to the Section, etc. Perhaps, then, the nationwide characterisation of the Section should be abandoned and the name changed to the Section of the Cracow Branch of the Polish Philosophical Society? What do you think about this?[O4]  If you think it’d be advisable to retain this characterisation, in that case the General Assembly of the Section should be organised in the coming weeks, but in Cracow, because that’s where 90% of the members live. Meanwhile, I’d also like to know what date you might be able to come to the General Assembly, at which time we’d ask you for a lecture, maybe the same one as at Wawel, because ‒ as I was told ‒ a number of my acquaintances were, like me, unable to obtain tickets.

            I’d be grateful for your gracious reply. I’m supposed to be in Warsaw on 24 May, at some kind of seminar at the Higher School of music, but I’ll be busy there for four hours in the morning, and I’ll return immediately in the afternoon, because I have to be in Cracow on the 25th, so I doubt we’ll see each other this time.

Cordial greetings

                                                                                         Your Roman

Nota bene: Dr Krzemień invited me to give a lecture to the Aesthetics Group of the Polish Academy of Sciences[O5]  this month; I told him that I could come 23 January; he was supposed to call me on Tuesday, but so far I’ve had no news.

[O1]Oryg: miaę, chyba miał
[O2]chyba Ogólnopolskie Towarzystwo Filosoficzne, tj. Polish Nationwide Philosophical Society [??] ale może też być po prostu PTF, lub Polish Philosophical Society
[O3]oryg: Koszty, chyba koszty (bez dużej litery)
[O4]Oryg: nie ma znaku zapytania
[O5]Oryg: Pan, chyba PAN