Etos Górnoślązaka

The author presents four stages of considerations given to the category of ethos perceived as a social phenomenon. 1. The answer to the question: Who an Upper-Silesian was? – a general characteristics of the geographical, historical and social environment in which he/ she functioned; in particular the norms, ethical values and ideal models of culture which were accepted by the Upper-Silesian people are considered. 2. Assessment of their practical realisations. 3. Assessment of the way those norms, values and cultural models influenced the relations among the members of the Upper-Silesian community as well as the relations with the surrounding contexts. 4. Assessment of the role of the ethos in the transformation process which takes place in the Upper-Silesia. Concluding the author emphasises the qualitative modifications which the Upper-Silesian ethos undergoes in modern times.