The visions of the natural world built by man also shape our relationship with respect to the environment. In the present paper I would like to demonstrate how these holistic ideas, like the Gaia Hypothesis, affect ethical relations with nature. Do they enhance the need to treat nature in accordance with ethics, are they ethically neutral, or do they convince us that man has no ethical obligations to the environment whatsoever? “The Gaia Hypothesis” can be ambivalent in this respect, but in the end it leaves no doubt that, even though other species do what man does, Gaia (biosphere) has a limited tolerance for negative effects of human activity. And although we are not able to annihilate the life on the Earth, we are certainly capable of destroying the conditions necessary for our subsistence.

A signpost at the crossroads. The life and thought  of Józef Karol Potocki (1854–1898) of Józef Karol Potocki (1854–1898

Józef Karol Potocki vel Marian Bohusz (1854–1898) was very important and influential although forgotten thinker. His ideas of evolutionary socialism and ethnic nationalism were fundamental for both main Polish political formations of the 1st half of 20th century: Polish Socialist Party (and broader Piłsudski’s camp) and National Democracy. The very fundament of Potocki’s world-view was idea of any “cosmic energy” as prime mover of evolution. The evolution leads towards broader and broader, deeper and deeper integration, towards more complex societies. In opinion of Potocki socialism (as a system based on cooperation) would be natural result of this evolution. Historical and cultural heritage transform society into nation – community bonded by biological ancestry, economic cooperation and culture. This ethnic meaning of the Polish nation excluded Jewish minority. On the other hand, the real nation are the working people (especially peasants), not ruling classes. Nation needs an independent state as instrument of autonomous development, therefore Potocki was bitterly anti-Russian. Potocki tried to propagate the idea of a common front of socialists and nationalists for independence. Polarization of Polish public opinion in the end of 19th century made his efforts unsuccessful.