About present realistic philosophy

In today's culture and philosophy, a return to the concept of realistic philosophy is becoming an actual need. The divergence of present philosophical theories has its roots in various interpretations of reality. Deciding which of these interpretations is cardinal and rational may lie in their conformity or nonconformity with the real existing world of people, animals and things.

M. A. Krąpiec is one of, if not the only, creator of the present concept of realistic philosophy, which on one hand synthesizes the tradition of ancient philosophy (Plato, Aristotle) and medieval philosophy (Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas) and on the other hand gives it a new form both in content and methodology. The concept of realistic philosophy is connected with studies and results of the so-called "Lublin school of philosophy", in which along side of M. A. Krąpiec, professors such as Jerzy Kalinowski (justice philosophy), Štefan Swieżawski (history of philosophy), Stanislaw Kamiński (methodology), M. Kurdziałek (history of philosophy), Karol Wojtyła (ethic) and others worked. Krąpiec is connected with the Aristotle and Thomas tradition of thought, which rose in the 19th century in the form of Thomism. J. Maritaine and also É. Gilson contributed to the renewal to the existential concept of existence at the beginning of the 20th century. They concentrated on the problem of existence when interpreting existence (important metaphysical pieces of work by J. Maritain are Sept leçon sur l’être et de premiers principes de la raison spéculative, Paris 1934; Court traité de l’existence et de l’existant, Paris 1947; important pieces of work by É. Gilson concerning the concept of being are Le thomisme, Strasbourg 1919; L’être et l’existence, Paris 1948).

From an epistemological point of view Maritain emphasized the intuitive-intellectual aspect of existence. The necessary condition of metaphysical knowledge was then defined by intuition. It was called eidetic intuition or eidetic memory.

Gilson’s historical study of texts written by St. Thomas is especially inspirational. This brought him to a repeated discovery of the act of existing, by which St. Thomas came to a turning point in the understanding of being and realistic knowledge in metaphysics (He contributed to specifying the terminology of Thomism metaphysics). In the study of existential law he points out important semantic and philosophical differences between being (esse) and existing (existentia). "Existence" involves the basic structural element of being. Existing is the genetic aspect. A second claim concerned the substance character of being. Substance is not a bunch of accidents bound together by some kind of a link, but the unity of existing. All constitutive elements of substance are real in the strength of one act i.e. the existence of substances [look at É. Gilson, Tomizm, Warszawa 1960, page 50.]. But the act of existing is superior to the substance and the structure of substance, which does not deprive the character of that of what it is.

For M. A. Krąpiec, the question of existing or being is the main point in his concept of realistic philosophy [Important pieces of work written by M. A. Krąpiec are Realizm ludzkiego poznania, Poznań 1959; Teoria analogii bytu, Lublin 1959; Metafyzika, Poznań 1966; Jezyk i świat realny, Lublin 1985.]. He accepts two forms of existing: existential, which represents the connection between existing and being; and identifying, which represents the connection between the existence of a transcendental being and state of mind.

Being is needed for the development of consciousness and self-consciousness and not the other way around. Being is the needed cause from which consciousness arose. The second thesis was a direct result of the first, because, as our mind, which is adapted to existence, tells us, "the secondary helps to realize the existence of ones self" [M. A. Krąpiec, Realizm ludzkiego poznania, Lublin 1995, page 369.]. On the other hand, consciousness as in conscientia is an example of reflexive knowledge, secondary to intuitive knowledge, which takes place in spontaneous acts of healthy judgement.

The thesis, on the genetic primacy of being on consciousness and the primacy of existence in being, emphasizes the position of existence in our knowledge, in which it is the pre-reflexive data of intellect. The intellect gradually organizes our whole consciousness. It starts with the phase, in which the intellect acts passively and it is fully absorbed by the presence of an object. It continues in creating a pre-reflexive consciousness also known as a "brightness of consciousness" in the state of inactive reflection in actu exercito, in which the language articulation is the existence court. The whole process of acknowledgment is enclosed the moment the mind refers back to its self based on the active reflection in actu signato. In this way, Krąpiec continued on from  Tomistic realism, which dealt with differences between existence and being. We have already mentioned all basic philosophical statements and basic philosophy depends on these.

Krąpiec focused on an extremely important problem concerning the analogy of being and he derives an interesting solution. He mentions the transcendental-proportional part in existence, which occurs in every particular being. He dealt with laws of existence and methodical process of the metaphysical acknowledgment, where historical and psychological argumentations play a big role. He sets out large aims to the psychology of being, which considers psychology to be an autonomous science. It has its own subject, method and goal of acknowledgment. The goal is the understanding and the wisdom of philosophy. The most important position of metaphysics in the sphere of philosophy, which bases its acknowledgment on the aspect of being, enables the continuation of the independence of the metaphysical relation and its neutrality and universalism.

The concept of the realistic philosophy, formulated by M. A. Krąpiec, shows us the whole image of the world and it makes the philosophical acknowledgment free. It is distinguished by the methodical consequent knowledge realism. We encounter philosophy, which from the beginning “lives” in reality, its subject is the existent reality and by being loyal to reality it makes up the base philosophy.

Today we can observe the continuous process of systematic research and development of the “Lublin school of philosophy” (Ľublinska filozoficka škola). Many now directly acknowledge M. A. Krąpiec with a rich range of publication, for example Z. J. Zdybicka (philosophy of religion), A. Maryniarczyk (metaphysics), H. Kiereś (philosophy of art), P. Jaroszyński (philosophy of culture), W. Dłubacz (philosophy of God) and many more.

Peter Fotta

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