Andrzej Rusław Nowicki’s Incontrological Concept of Reciprocity

Abstract

This paper presents the issue of reciprocity in the context of Andrzej Nowicki’s incontrology. Reciprocity is one of the central problems of numerous concepts explaining social relations. In the theory of social exchange reciprocity pertains to exchange. In the philosophy of the encounter (meeting) this is not the case because reciprocity does not signify exchange. What is common in various versions of the philosophy of the encounter is a condition of current reciprocity consisting in mutual and permanent transformation of personalities in people meeting each other. By creating his own concept of the philosophy of the encounter, notably incontrology, Andrzej Nowicki became one of many eminent thinkers focused on reciprocity. Andrzej Nowicki discovered the value of reciprocity; as a historian of philosophy in the philosophies developed by Giordano Bruno, Julio Cesare Vanini or Girolamo Fracastoro and others. The author of incontrology discerned the importance of the notion of reciprocity for the ideas of Władysław Witwicki. He also employed this theory to create his own distinction of the encounters with a portrait.