The aim of the considerations is to compare the methods of identifying principles and metaphysical separation. The first is related to Consequential Thomism, the second to Existential Thomism. Each of these methods is adapted to the theory of cognition that characterizes its versions of Thomism. The method of metaphysical separation became interested in the 1930s. It was fully developed in the works of Mieczysław Albert Krąpiec and was refined by Andrzej Maryniarczyk. The concept of this method is more elaborate than the concept of the method of identification of principles, which was announced in 1987 in the publications of Mieczysław Gogacz. The last one is characterized mainly by formulated postulates regarding the research procedure. The first one has a clear and complex structure. In the descriptions of the method of metaphysical separation, attention is drawn to its connection with guaranteeing the realism of the theory of being. In the case of the method of identifying the principles, realism is indicated and the objective order of the structure of being is guided in research. It seems that they cannot be combined due to the doctrinal differences between the concept of cognition in Consequential and Existential Thomism.
This article introduces the life and work of Mieczysław Albert Krąpiec (1921-2008)—a Polish philosopher, theologian, humanist, co-founder of the Lublin Philosophical School, rector of the Catholic University of Lublin, initiator and chairman of the scientific committee of The Universal Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Krąpiec created a coherent philosophical system that, by a metaphysical explanation, encompassed the whole of reality that is accessible to human cognition. According to the author, Krąpiec’s philosophy is the greatest achievement in classical philosophy in Poland and in the world in the twentieth century, both with respect to its comprehensive scope and its meritorious importance; for the vision of the world that it reveals shows not only the human person’s unity and harmony with the reality that surrounds him, but also his openness to a connection with the transcendent Absolute.
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