Jerzy Kmita – humanistic interpretation and socio-regulatory theory of culture

This paper presents two main topics which Jerzy Kmita addresses in his methodological writings. The first one involves the conception of “humanistic interpretation” which Kmita describes as a kind of reasoning and explanation applied within the humanities. The second consists in the so-called “socio- regulatory definition of culture”, according to which culture is identified with a set of intersubjective beliefs guiding and regulating human actions. Based on both methodological concepts, humanities may be defined as a range of academic disciplines which in the course of humanistic interpretation hypothetically ascribe cultural beliefs to social agents in order to explain their behavior