This paper combines on the one hand the educational ideals and didactics in the schools of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth reformed by the Commission of National Education (1773), and on the other hand one of the most representative testimonies of the then intellectual culture, i.e. Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire universel raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, published in the years 1751–1780. The activity of the Commission, likewise its preceding reforms carried out in the Commonwealth in church schooling in the mid-eighteenth century, correspond with analogous changes in Europe, their specific example manifestation Encyclopédie. Their spirit was similar, it sought to reconcile modern utilitarianism – appropriate to the needs of absolutist states, which had taken the concern for education from religious groups – with an integral vision of school. In this vision, the fundamental elements was moral formation combined with religious formation. Despite some manifestations of certain rationalism and naturalism, in line with the spirit of the epoch, rather more typical of Encyclopédie than the Commission’s schooling, religion remained the foundation of morality, and the latter was the ground of the social order.
Artykuł omawia ideały wychowawcze w szkołach Komisji Edukacji Narodowej (KEN) w dobie oświecenia na tle europejskim. Wykorzystuje metody historii kultury intelektualnej (intellectual history), które umożliwiają poszerzenie tradycyjnej historii oświaty i wychowania o wymiar społeczno-kulturowy. Działania Komisji, podobnie jak poprzedzające ją reformy przeprowadzone w Rzeczypospolitej na gruncie szkolnictwa kościelnego w połowie XVIII wieku, wpisują się w analogiczne zmiany na gruncie ogólnoeuropejskim. Podobny był ich duch, godzący nowożytny utylitaryzm – odpowiedni do potrzeb absolutystycznych państw, które przejmowały troskę o oświatę od grup wyznaniowych – z integralną wizją szkoły, w której elementem fundamentalnym jest wychowanie moralne zespolone z religijnym. Mimo przejawów pewnego racjonalizmu i naturalizmu w duchu epoki religia pozostała fundamentem moralności, a ta podstawą ładu społecznego. Artykuł potwierdza ideę tzw. długiego trwania (longue durée), ukazując ciągłość wychowawczą w szkole nowożytnej, mimo odmiennych deklaracji ideowych.
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This paper discusses the ideals of education present in the schools of the Commission of National Education (Pol. KEN) in the period of the Enlightenment against the backdrop of Europe. It applies the methods of intellectual history which permit to expand the traditional history of education and formation by the social and cultural dimensions. The activities of the Commission, like the preceding reforms in the mid-eighteenth century Polish Republic (based on church education), are part and parcel of the European reforms. They were similar in terms of their spirit that combined a critical approach to modern utilitarianism—appropriate to the needs of the absolutist states that were concerned about education in the manner of religious groups— with an integral vision of school whose fundamental element was moral formation in combination with religious formation. Despite certain manifestations of rationalism and naturalism in line with the spirit of the epoch, religion remained the foundation of morality, and the latter in turn was the foundation of social order. This paper confirms the idea of the so-called long duration (longue durée), and shows that in spite of different ideological declarations we observe educational continuity in the modern school.
This article seeks to present the philosophizing style of Fr. Idzi Radziszewski, the charismatic founder of the Catholic University of Lublin, by juxtaposing it with a more complete vision of philosophy formulated in the rich literature of Card. Désiré Mercier, the founder of the Institut Supérieur de Philosophie at the Université Catholique de Louvain. The vision of both thinkers unites the autonomously understood types of philosophical, scientific and religious thinking. It shows the creative consequences of this fusion as well as its hypothetical difficulties and threats that have emerged in history. In particular, the intention of both thinkers was indicated to formulate an integral, i.e. maximalistic, philosophy with world-view references, in opposition to the manifestations of positivist reductionism and naturalism. It was pointed out that the type of philosophizing under discussion is a creative manifestation of neo-scholastics.
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Artykuł stara się przybliżyć styl filozofowania ks. Idziego Radziszewskiego, charyzmatycznego założyciela Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego, przez zestawienie z pełniejszą wizją filozofii sformułowaną w bogatym piśmiennictwie kard. Désiré Merciera, założyciela Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, w ramach Université Catholique de Louvain. Wizja obu myślicieli zespala autonomicznie pojęte typy myślenia filozoficznego, naukowego i religijnego. Ukazuje twórcze konsekwencje tego zespolenia oraz jego hipotetyczne trudności i ujawniające się w dziejach zagrożenia. W szczególności wskazano na dążenie obu myślicieli do sformułowania integralnie, czyli maksymalistycznie pojętej filozofii z odniesieniami światopoglądowymi, w opozycji do przejawów pozytywistycznego redukcjonizmu i naturalizmu. Wskazano, że omawiany typ filozofowania jest twórczym przejawem neoscholastyki.
The article discusses d’Alembert’s conception of science as a manifestation of the Enlightenment culture of science. Albeit the spirit of empiricism, typical of the Enlightenment culture, is indeed dominant in it, also signs of the lasting tradition of the Cartesian rationalism can be seen, along The article discusses d’Alembert’s conception of science as a manifestation of the Enlightenment culture of science. Albeit the spirit of empiricism, typical of the Enlightenment culture, is indeed dominant in it, also signs of the lasting tradition of the Cartesian rationalism can be seen, along with the vision of unification of science understood in the modern way with philosophy, which even accounts for the traces of speculative thinking in physics. Also the effect of the spirit of more geometrico in the form of raison physico-mathématique may be perceived, that requires treating mathematics as a model of unfailing cognition, its systemic perspective, as well as linguistic precision. This, however, does not rule out legitimacy of the use of methods of the kind of cognition that is only probable, including making use of hypotheses. A specific manifestation of the unification of empiricism and rationalism in d’Alembert’s conception of science is also the legitimization of cognition that has an instinctive character, revealed in the Enlightenment owing not only to the Scottish common sense philosophy, but also to the influence of the Cartesian spirit in France of that time, from the perspective of C. Buffer SJ, who was as much an empiricist as a rationalist. An expression of a harmonious combination of these traditions is ultimately a unifying classification of sciences, in which d’Alembert legitimizes not only natural and social sciences, but also elements belonging to classical philosophy (modern Christian Aristotelianism) with references to the world view, like the ones undertaken against the background of the rise of agnosticism that was forced both by the ideal of certain knowledge and by the conception of the nature of science understood in the utilitarian way, of its origin and function. Hence, ultimately connecting d’Alembert’s conception of science with the theory of science characteristic of positivism that sometimes appears in the literature of the subject is illegitimate
The paper describes the conception of logic in Polish didactics authored by the Commission of National Education (KEN), an important educational institution of the European Enlightenment. Since the documents of the Commission refer to a vision of science presented by such influential works then as the Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire universel raisonné [Great French Encyclopedia], the paper compares the requirements from the Commission’s programmer with the encyclopaedic entries that entail logical problems broadly understood. It turns out that the Commission, following the Encyclopédie, not only recommended a list of textbooks of logic but also shared its eclectic vision of logic. Although it is characteristic of modernity to take a relative approach to the importance of traditional logic, transformed into science on method, or literally an outline of epistemology, understood according to É. Condillac as a specific form of metaphysics, nevertheless some elements of logic were eclectically made valid. This logic, from the times of I. Kant, has been defined as formal logic. Practical logical skills were preferred to the knowledge of logical theories. At the same time attention was paid to the meaning of natural logical skills, and drills in logical reasoningwhen studying languages and mathematics. Despite preferences for the analytical method they also noticed the importance of synthetic method. It seems also that although the documents of the Commission do not say anything about the teaching of syllogistic issues, in didactic practice inspired by the Encyclopédie in the schools controlled by the Commission, the room was made to teach these problems. Condillac’s book was preferred in the schools controlled by the Commission, nevertheless, it was not, as in the case of other textbooks, a must on the reading list, an obligatory reading matter, therefore it was not published in Poland. The conception of logic presented by the Commission as modelled on the Encyclopédie managed to avoid the one-sidedness of Condillac’s approach, the approach that in fact eliminated the teaching of logic.
This paper discusses Kołłątaj's contribution to the development of modern reflection on religion. It manifests a stronger tendency towards a rationalistic and naturalistic bias, a fact which leads to the reflection on the nature of religion as such, and not only as one of its confessional forms. The eighteenth century saw also a more empirical approach, which was a result of how science was understood in modernity when it was modelled on natural philosophy. This accounts, on the one hand, for a peculiar pre-positivistic fear of autonomically-comprehended philosophy that may be pursued only within the context of the applied sciences. On the other hand, it emphasised the import_ance of the historical method, which was closer to the mentality of science narrowly understood. Such factors would bear fruit in Kołłątaj's approach to the form of reflection on the cultural and social compound of religious phenomena. The philosophy of God, in its metaphysical form, would largely be replaced by a psychological and historical-cultural reflection on the functions of religion than on the nature of religion itself. Kołłątaj retains, however, the principal theses of the Christian outlook. Yet in view of philosophical minimalism, the justification of their legitimacy is conveyed to theology as the legitimate method of knowledge, although different from science understood by way of scientism. In his approach, religion is not only a result of human reflection on the condition of the cosmos, but it also comes from the Divine Providence revealed to the human being in a strictly religious sense, in the form of religious revelation. It is therefore bound with human nature, made manifest in culture that affects it, but it also equally transcends nature and culture. Eventually, Kołłątaj's conception of religion is a manifestation of what one calls the Christian Enlightenment which functions within the Enlightenment religiosity that is rationalistically and moralistically biased.
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Artykuł omawia dokonanie Kołłątaja, które wpisuje się w rozwój nowożytnej refleksji nad religią. Konstytuuje się ona w kontekście nasilenia się tendencji o charakterze racjonalistycznym i naturalistycznym, co prowadzi do podjęcia refleksji nad naturą religii jako takiej, a nie tylko jako jednej z jej konfesyjnie pojętych form. W wieku XVIII nasili się też podejście bardziej empiryczne, odpowiadające narastającemu wpływowi nowożytnie pojętej nauki, wzorowanej na przyrodoznawstwie. Tłumaczy to z jednej strony swoiście prepozytywistyczną fobię wobec autonomicznie pojętej filozofii, która może być uprawiana tylko w kontekście nauk szczegółowych. Z drugiej strony owocuje to wzrostem znaczenia metody historycznej, bliższej mentalności wąsko pojętej nauki. Czynniki te zaowocują w ujęciu Kołłątaja refleksją nad konglomeratem kulturowo-społecznych zjawisk religijnych. Metafizycznie pojęta filozofia Boga zostanie w dużej mierze zastąpiona przez psychologiczną oraz historyczno-kulturową i historyczno-społeczną refleksję raczej nad funkcjami religii niż nad samą naturą religii. Kołłątaj zachowuje jednak podstawowe tezy światopoglądu chrześcijańskiego, ale wobec minimalizmu filozoficznego uzasadnienie ich prawomocności przenosi do teologii, jako uprawnionej metody poznania, choć różnej od nauki pojętej scjentystycznie. Religia jest w jego ujęciu nie tylko dziełem ludzkiego namysłu nad kondycją kosmosu, ale także owocem Bożej Opatrzności, która objawia Boga człowiekowi w sensie stricte religijnym, w formie objawienia religijnego. Jest więc związana z ludzką naturą, uzewnętrznia się w kulturze, która ma na nią wpływ, ale w równej mierze przekracza naturę i kulturę. Ostatecznie koncepcja religii Kołłątaja jest przejawem formacji określanej jako tzw. oświecenie chrześcijańskie, funkcjonującej w kontekście racjonalistycznie i moralistycznie nachylonej religijności oświeceniowej.
This paper addresses the issue of categorisation of the theory of science worked out by R. Descartes. In as much as it is justifiable to claim that Descartes is a typical rationalist in epistemology and metaphysics, we may still ask whether it is correct to do the same in his theory of science in relation to modern philosophy of nature, of which he was one of its founders. Descartes intended to work out a universal method which was supposed to be certain, easy, fertile, and complete. In principle, this task is satisfied by intuitive and deductive procedures. In practice, however, he had to consent to a multilevel character of certainty of the theses in his system. This concerns especially philosophy of nature. If he had granted experience the principal role in the starting point of physical analyses, or even it was supposed to decided about his choice of one a priori and hypothetical explanation, out of many, then at least in comparison with the certainty of metaphysical truths the theses of physics must of neces- sity remain only hypothetical, excluding only the most general questions. Thus it is also justifiable to think that Descartes had two models of methodology that is, as it were, one official elaborated in the Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Discourse on the Method and in Meditations, and the second one semi-official, formulated in the Principles of Philosophy, where he agreed to use hypotheses. It is therefore difficult to treat his views taken en bloc as a manifestation of radical rationalism connected with equally radical apriorism and nativism, a fact that if further supported by numerous textbooks on the history of philosophy.
Der Artikel bespricht im Geiste der Geschichte der intellektuellen Kultur die Problematik der ideellen Eigenart der Kultur des 18. Jahrhunderts. Entgegen einflussreichen Überzeugungen vieler Historiker, die den dominierenden Charakter der Säkularisierungsprozesse der Kultur der Aufklärung unterstreichen, weist der Artikel darauf hin, dass das Christentum trotz unzweifelhafter Anwesenheit von rationalistischen Motiven ein integraler Bestandteil der Kultur dieser Epoche geblieben sei. Die Untersuchungen, die auf dem Boden der Wissenschaftskultur und des Bildungswesens, also den fundamentalsten Werkzeugen der Verbreitung der zeitgenössischen Kultur, durchgeführt wurden, lassen sogar die Feststellung zu, dass die christliche Inspiration nicht nur ein wesentlicher, sondern sogar ein elementarer Bezugspunkt der Kultur des 18. Jahrhunderts geblieben sei. Daher bildet die sog. religiöse Aufklärung, allen voran die christliche Aufklärung im Sinne der durch die gegenwärtige Historiographie betonten langen Dauer (longue durée) nicht nur eine kulturelle Tatsache, sondern sie konstituiert eine dominierende Strömung (mainstream Enlightenment). Ins Deutsche übersetzt von Anna Pastuszka
EN
This paper has been written in the spirit of the history of intellectual culture, and it discusses the problems of the specific ideological culture of the eighteenth century. Contrary to the influential views held by many historians who stress the dominant process of secularization in the culture of the Enlightenment, the paper indicates that despite rationalist elements Christianity remained an integral element of the culture of this epoch. By virtue of analyses conducted on the grounds of scientific culture and education, therefore the most fundamental tools of popularization of the then culture, we are entitled even to state that Christians inspiration was not only an essential, but actually basic point of reference for eighteenth-century culture. Thus in the spirit of the so-called long duration (longue durée), underlined by contemporary historiography, the so-called religious enlightenment, above all Christian Enlightenment is not only a cultural fact, but it does make up the mainstream Enlightenment. Summarised by Stanisław Janeczek
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Artykuł w duchu historii kultury intelektualnej omawia problematykę specyfiki ideowej kultury wieku XVIII. Wbrew wpływowym przekonaniom wielu historyków, podkreślających dominujący charakter proces sekularyzacji kultury Oświecenia, wskazuje, że mimo niewątpliwej obecności wątków racjonalistycznych chrześcijaństwo pozostało integralnych elementem kultury tej epoki. Analizy na gruncie kultury naukowej i szkolnictwa, a więc najbardziej fundamentalnych narzędzi upowszechniania ówczesnej kultury upoważniają nawet do stwierdzenia, że chrześcijańska inspiracja pozostała nie tylko istotnym, ale wręcz podstawowym punktem odniesienia kultury wieku XVIII. Stąd, w duchu tzw. długiego trwania (longue durée), podkreślanego przez współczesną historiografię, Oświecenie religijne, nade wszystko Oświecenie chrześcijańskie jest nie tylko faktem kulturowym, ale nawet stanowi nurt dominujący (mainstream Enlightenment).
This paper combines on the one hand the educational ideals and didactics in the schools of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth reformed by the Commission of National Education (1773), and on the other hand one of the most representative testimonies of the then intellectual culture, i.e. Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire universel raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, published in the years 1751–1780. It shows continuity with regard to learned culture and the place of philosophy in modern school. In accord with the standards of the Encyclopédie the European school preserved the course of philosophy in the spirit of philosophia recentiorum, at least at the university level. This philosophy took a critical approach in its assimilation of the elements of modern epistemology, especially the accomplishments of modern natural sciences. Such attitude was also typical of the school reformed in the mid-eighteenth century in the Commonwealth, especially by the orders of Piarists and Jesuits. The Commission had introduced independent mathematical and natural subjects, a fact that limited philosophy. In secondary schools philosophy was reduced to logic and practical ethics, and at universities to natural law with social, political, and economic elements. For this reason they even departed from a traditional structure of university, with a propedeuctic faculty of philosophy, when in the spirit of the physiocratic physical and moral orders a two-element structure of universities was established. Despite these changes, philosophical elements can be found even in the didactics of natural sciences in the schools of the Commission. The same tendencies are apparent in the then European school, therefore in the form of interpretations drawing on the category of substance and its properties, or even the conception of the animal soul.
This paper discusses the trends in researches indispensable for an integral approach to the Commission of National Education, an essential cultural and social phenomenon. As it is universally agreed, the Commission was the first European ministry of education. It is necessary to go beyond the circle of studies typical of school structure in its history, i.e. such that concentrates on the presentation how a school structure functions in its formative and didactic aspects, especially the network of schools, population of teachers and pupils, and also didactic aids that were used. Education should be analysed also within the overall cultural formation, a concrete school system, especially that its social role in the Enlightenment went considerably beyond the scope of contemporary education. Accordingly, we are obliged to show, among other things, the European context of the Enlightenment school reforms, commonly linked with the French reforms, and the school standards that preceded the reforms. One should also make a more thorough analysis of textbooks used in this system of education, taking into consideration the then level of learned and philosophical culture, or even traces that the intellectual tendencies that affected formation and education proper of this learned institution.
This paper seeks to discuss the problems of John Locke's epistemology. Locke was a characteristic representative of the idea of the Enlightenment. This text focuses on a broader intellectual context of Enlightenment solutions that refer to socio-political issues and to one's outlook. The structure of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding suggests that empiricism results from antinativism, nevertheless the logic of Locke's considerations makes us agree that this solution is a systematic consequence of a more basic reasoning. It is difficult not to appreciate the importance of Locke's reflection with regard to the assessment of human cognitive abilities. His assessment is made evident in the theory of knowledge, the importance of human praxis, and also in the specific character of his theory of science in the sense of modern natural history. This may lead to the distinction of two levels of his reflection on knowledge, i.e. the official level and the non-official level, in the form of normative and descriptive analyses, the analyses that deal with methods applied in scientific practice or beliefs formulated for the sake of practical life. The first level would correspond to 'hard' empiricism, the kind of empiricism characteristic of the 2nd book of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding; the second level is found in book four: rationalism that dominates, however, even over the first approach. In this context there is a need to go beyond the legitimation of only the narrow circles of truths that belong to proper learned knowledge based on empiricism, such knowledge that is objectified and certain. We need to legitimise more modest convictions formulated on a rational basis, convictions with subjectivistic elements (“belief,” “assent”).
PL
Artykuł podejmuje problematykę należącą do epistemologii Johna Locke’a, charakterystycznego reprezentanta idei Oświecenia. Zwraca się uwagę na szerszy kontekst intelektualny tych rozstrzygnięć, mających odniesienia światopoglądowe czy społeczno-polityczne. Choć struktura An Essay Concerning Human Understanding sugeruje, że empiryzm jest konsekwencją antynatywizmu, to jednak logika wywodów Locke’a nakazuje uznać to rozstrzygnięcie za konsekwencję systemową rozważań o bardziej podstawowym charakterze. Nie sposób jednak nie docenić wagi refleksji Locke’a w zakresie oceny ludzkich możliwości poznawczych, uwidaczniającej się na gruncie teorii wiedzy, tyleż w kontekście wyakcentowania znaczenia ludzkiej „praxis”, co też specyfiki jego teorii nauki, pojętej w sensie nowożytnego przyrodoznawstwa. Może to prowadzić do wyróżnienia dwu poziomów jego refleksji nad poznaniem, czyli poziomu oficjalnego i nieoficjalnego, w formie analiz normatywnych oraz opisowych, tj. dotyczących metod stosowanych w praktyce naukowej czy przekonań formułowanych na użytek praktyki życiowej. Poziomowi pierwszemu odpowiadałby „twardy” empiryzm, charakterystyczny dla II księgi An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, zaś drugiemu – właściwy księdze IV – racjonalizm, dominujący jednak nawet nad pierwszym podejściem. W tym kontekście rodzi się potrzeba wyjścia poza uprawomocnienie jedynie wąskiego kręgu prawd należących do empirystycznie ugruntowanej właściwej wiedzy naukowej, zobiektywizowanej i pewnej („knowledge”), w kierunku usankcjonowania skromniej pojętych przekonań, tyleż formułowanych na bazie racjonalnej, co z elementami subiektywistycznymi („belief”, „assent”).
This article discusses the problems of language in John Locke’s thought. In the present studies the dominating considerations focus on the history of epistemology and philosophy of language. This study takes into account a broader intellectual context of the philosophy of language pursued at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. First and foremost it places the problems of language in the context of changes in the teaching of logic and rhetoric. Locke inspired the then beliefs about the significance of language as the tool of science and public discourse, in the questions of education, morality, politics, and religion. The English philosopher emphasized how important was the duty to shape the activity of the human mind, one of which was to develop linguistic skills; such skills are the condition of the reliability of knowledge and argumentative efficacy in social communication.
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Artykuł podejmuje problematykę języka w myśli Johna Locke’a. Dotychczas dominują opracowania tej tematyki z zakresu historii epistemologii i filozofii języka. Niniejsze dokonanie uwzględnia szerszy kontekst intelektualny filozofii języka uprawianej na przełomie wieku XVII i XVIII. Przede wszystkim umieszcza problematykę języka w kontekście zmian jakie dokonały się w nauczaniu logiki i retoryki. Locke inspirował ówczesne przekonania o istotnym znaczeniu języka jako narzędzia nauki i publicznego dyskursu, w kwestiach wychowania, moralności, polityki, religii. W postulat właściwego kształtowanie aktywności ludzkiego umysłu wpisywał obowiązek dbałości o sprawność językową, stanowiącą warunek rzetelności poznania i argumentacyjnej skuteczności w komunikacji społecznej.