TWO CULTURES : SOCIAL IDEAS AND SOCIAL PRACTICES IN THE PROJECT “POTENTIALS – NEW FORM OF SOCIAL CAPITAL IN TOWN COMMUNITY PRZASNYSZ”

Abstract

The article consists of two parts. In the first part, the author returns to the classic text by C.P. Snow entitled Two Cultures 1959, and justifies its obsolescence by claiming that in recent decades, the natural sciences have become closer to the traditional humanities and have undergone a kind of 'philosophizing', while knowledge accumulated in the humanities and social sciences is increasingly organized by seeking answers to questions of a practical nature. The author's comment boils down to a statement that this is a very unfortunate course of events because, among other things, before we start answering questions about how to achieve these or other goals, it is good to know that it is worthwhile to achieve them. In short, it is not out of the question that the gradual elimination of classical questions about meanings and values from the humanities and social sciences contributes to highly ambivalent assessments of 'modernity'. In the second part, the author does not ask about the rationale behind the objection to various discriminatory practices, but he does ask how - within the framework of the "Potentials..." project - these mechanisms were tried to be dealt with, using the key elements of the so-called "behavioral economics", and he describes the experiences connected with it.