Ontologia Marcina Śmigleckiego SJ

W artykule przedstawiłem koncepcje ontologiczne Marcin Śmigleckiego (1563–1618), wybitnym teologa i filozofa z Zakonu Jezuitów. Jego najważniejszym dziełem jest Logica, która w Anglii miała kilka wydań. Szczególnej analizie została poddana oryginalna teza Śmigleckiego, że każdemu bytowi realnemu przysługują dwa sposoby istnienia – jako byt aktualny i potencjalny. W tym celu odwołuję się do wypowiedzi we wspomnianej monografii polskiego jezuity, jak i prac innych badaczy jego dorobku filozoficznego. Oprócz pozytywnego wykładu w badaniach jego poglądów filozoficznych, przeprowadzam także ich analizę. Teza jezuickiego filozofa jest uzasadniona poprzez jego analizę logiczną pojęcia danego bytu. Kryterium logicznej spójności przyjmuje u niego postać kryterium ontologicznego. Spójność lub sprzeczność wyraża się, jego zdaniem, poprzez tzw. Essentialia, którą możemy przetłumaczyć jako „cechy wewnętrzne” pojęcia danego bytu. Przyjęcie przez Śmigleckiego kryterium logicznej spójności z jego ontologiczną interpretacją jest bardzo oryginalnym pomysłem, albowiem według polskiego jezuity, sprzeczność w porządku logicznym wskazuje na niemożność istnienia w porządku rzeczywistym. Zatem tym samym spójność w logicznym porządku uzasadnia tezę o istnieniu porządku ontologicznego. Tak więc polski jezuita sformułował ważny wniosek: można przejść od logicznego porządku intelektu do porządku świata empirycznego. Tezę Śmigleckiego wzmacnia fakt, iż o jego stanowisku z uznaniem wyrażał się Leibniz i podobne wnioski w kwestii istnienia bytu realnego wyrażał wybitny filozof epoki nowożytnej Christian Wolff. Lecz aspekt podobieństwa poglądów Śmigleckiego do stanowiska innych filozofów wymaga dodatkowych badań. W artykule są także analizowane pojęcia umysłu i substancji w dorobku polskiego jezuity, które stanowiły główne obszary filozoficznych dociekań w epoce Śmigleckiego. Ważnym wnioskiem jest, iż w jego dorobku pojawiają się nie tylko zagadnienia istotne dla filozofii XVII wieku, lecz także jego twórczość cechuje oryginalność propozycji w ich rozumieniu i klarowność jego wykładu.

Revival of Interest in Wolff's Philosophy. Theis, R., & Aichele, A. (Hrsg.). (2018). Handbuch Christian Wolff. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Review of Theis, R., & Aichele, A. (Hrsg.). (2018). Handbuch Christian Wolff. Wiesbaden: Springer.

The Types of Notions in “German Logic” of Christian Wolff

The article discusses the problem of classification of notions (Begriffe) by Christian Wolff, particularly in his “German Logic”. Wolff divides notions – as well as representations (Vorstellungen) in general – into obscure (dunkel, obscura) and clear (klar, clara). The clear notions are divided into distinct (deutlich, distincta) and indistinct (undeutlich, indistincta or confusa). And the distinct notions are divided again into complete (ausführlich, completa) and incomplete (unausführlich, incompleta), and on the other hand into adequate (vollständig, adaequata) and inadequate (unvollständig, inadaequata). The aim of the paper is to analyse and to explain these types of notions and in this way to point out the crucial significance of this classification for Wolff’s philosophy. The paper shows that the starting point for understanding of Wolff’s theory of notions in “German Logic” is the correct interpretation of his definition of notion in this work, above all the correct interpretation of the word “Sache”. It is further explained, what it means to have a notion of something by an image and to have a notion of something by bare words. And it is also analysed the difference between obscure, clear (but indistinct), distinct, complete and adequate notions.

Ensemble interaction in indeterminate music

Examining ensemble interaction in the music of experimental composer Christian Wolff, this chapter uses as a case study a professional recording session undertaken by the ensemble Apartment House of <em>Exercises</em> (1973–2013), a series of pieces for (mostly) unspecified instrumentation and numbers of players. Wolff’s skeletal notation is deliberately under-determined, acting like something of a puzzle to be solved. Consequently, the players must negotiate a way of working with the notation and with each other, making decisions prior to, and during, the moment of performance. Drawing on interviews and observational studies, the chapter identifies three different forms of interaction in the musicians’ playing as they engaged with Wolff’s notation: working responsively, independently, and emergently. The chapter offers a view of ensemble interaction that is characterized by cooperation, but also uncertainty, surprise, or even complete breakdown.

Christian Wolff über motivierende Gründe und handlungsrelevante Irrtümer

In this paper, I discuss Christian Wolff’s conception of motivating and normative reasons. My aim is to show that in the discussion of error cases, Wolff pursues a strategy that is strikingly similar to the strategy of contemporary defenders of nicht-psychologist accounts of motivating reasons. According to many nicht-psychologist views, motivating reasons are facts. My aim is to show that Wolff’s motivation in pursuing this strategy is very different. The point is that due to his commitment to the Principle of Sufficient Reason, Wolff has to show that error cases are compatible with the PSR. The issue is worth discussing because it is not yet sufficiently explored what motivating reasons are, according to Wolff, and how they relate, in substance, to normative reasons. Methodologically, my approach can be characterized as one of “mutual illumination”: I think it is possible to highlight some crucial ambiguities of Wolff’s conception against the backdrop of the contemporary conception of motivating reasons, but also to question the importance and role of the ontological question of what motivating reasons are in contemporary discussions against the backdrop of Wolff’s position.

A Comparison of Wolff’s and Kant’s Receptions of Emanuel Swedenborg

Kant’s Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766) did not provide the sole perspective through which Emanuel Swedenborg’s work was known in Germany in the eighteenth century. Before Kant, another German philosopher was interested in Swedenborg from a completely different perspective: Christian Wolff. On the one hand, this paper analyzes the meaning of Wolff’s anonymous reviews of Swedenborg’s early writings published in Acta Eruditorum, the authorship of which was only recently discovered, in order to show Swedenborg’s intertwinement with German scholars during the 1720s. On the other, I juxtapose Kant’s and Wolff’s evaluations of Swedenborg’s work at the origins of their different attitudes towards fundamental problems such as the nature of the soul and immortality.

Religião Redimida pela Razão

O artigo pretende fazer ver até que ponto um certo Esclarecimento não é necessariamente um movimento de combate à religião estabelecida. Pode se revestir mesmo de um impulso para salvá-la, por mais que seu projeto não seja religioso, e sim humanista. Mais precisamente, o texto se propõe a mostrar de que modo salvar a religião de si mesma para emancipar a humanidade pela racionalidade e pela educação seria bem o projeto de Lessing, notadamente em Natã, o sábio. Para tanto, contextualiza-se o cenário intelectual alemão cotidiano à época do autor, cenário este pautado por escritos teológicos, não iluministas, passa-se pelas várias teologias existentes à época na Alemanha e também pelo modo como o próprio Esclarecimento assumia ali dimensão teológica, com Christian Wolff. A maioridade iluminista de Lessing é visitada mediante sua vocação plural, seu gosto pelas querelas e sua argumentação sem posições fixas ou demarcadas, assim como pelas noções de educação e de humanidade.