Piotr Nowak

(b. 1966) – a philosopher, essayist and professor of the humanities.

He graduated in philosophy from the University of Warsaw, and in 2002 he defended his PhD thesis at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (‘Pytanie o śmierć człowieka. Nietzsche – Heidegger – Arendt – Foucault – Kojève’ [The Death of Man: Nietzsche – Heidegger – Arendt – Foucault – Kojève]). Ten years later, he became a Senior Lecturer, and in 2021, full professor of the humanities. He has spent many years at the University of Białystok.

He has won a scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Study (1998–2000), Intitut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna (1996 – Junior Fellow; 2008 – Andrew Mellon Fellow). He has guest lectured at Roosevelt University (Chicago, 2007) and the University of Chicago (2001). He has been a visiting professor at the European College of Liberal Arts in Berlin (2009), the University of Helsinki (2009, 2013) and the University in Joensuu (2013).

He has explored the philosophical consequences of the passing of time, intergenerational tensions, ancient philosophy, political philosophy and the philosophies of literature and religion. His translations have included Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, Alexandre Kojève, Allan Bloom, Boris Pasternak, Vasily Rozanov, Andrei Biely, Pavel Florensky, Jacob Taubes, Semyon Frank, Alexander Blok and John Stuart Mill. His translations and editing work have filled many gaps for Polish readers, including W. H. Auden’s The Greeks and Us (2017).

He has been honoured with the award of the Rector of the University of Białystok on several occasions, as well as the award of the Rector of the University of Warsaw (1994). In 2019, he received the Wings of Daedalus Literary Award, and in 2023 his ‘Filozofowie (w trzech słowach)’ (Philosophers [In Three Words]) received the Oskar Halecki Award for History Book of the Year. It features biographies of Polish philosophers, including Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Leszek Kołakowski, Józef Tischner, Roman Ingarden and Leon Chwistek. His investigations conclude with a transcript of Nowak’s interview with Zbigniew Janowski on the influence of Marxist ideology and liberalism on contemporary life.

Nowak serves as vice-editor-in-chief at the philosophy periodical Kronos. Metafizyka – Religia – Kultura. He is also a founder and council member for the Count August Cieszkowski Foundation. He worked as co-author of several television programmes on philosophy and culture: ‘Ogród sztuk’ (The Garden of Art, 1996–2007), ‘Kronos’ (Chronos, 2017–24) and ‘Powidoki’ (After-Images, 2019–21).