croatian philosophy (i) - pavo barisic

8/15/2019 Croatian Philosophy (I) - Pavo Barisic

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Contents/Inhalt/Sommaire

Croatian Philosophy (I)

3 P. Barišić,Editorial

7 Z. Čuljak, Notes on Contributors

11 F. Marković,Philosophische Schriftstellerkroatischer Abkunft jenseits desVelebit vom XV. bis XVIII.Jahrhunder t

31 K. Krstić,Philosophie in Kroatien

51 D. Pejović,Philosophers of Old Dubrovnik

61 A. Knežević ,

Some Linguistic Remarks AboutCroatian PhilosophicalTerminology

77 F. Šanjek,La portée européenne del’oeuvre scientifique d’Hermannle Dalmate

91 Ž . Dadić,Hermann the Dalmatianas a Scientist

117 V. Filipović,Ansätze und Reichweite derFlacianischen Hermeneutik

127 I. Kordić,Matthias Flacius Illyricusund die Interaktion zwischenAutor und Interpret alshermeneutische Kategorie

147 F. Grgić/J. Talanga,Matthias Flacius Illyricus andSixteenth Century Logic

167 M. Girardi Karšulin,Das Problem der

Renaissancephilosophie alsAntizipation der Neuzeit

177 E. Banić-Pajnić,Andrija Dudić. Treatise onComets - Treatise on Man

189 Lj. Schiffler,The Sources of Petrić’sUnderstanding of Poeticsand Beauty

Book Reviews

215 P. Bariš ić,D. Pejović: Duh i sloboda(Geist und Freiheit)

220 J. Zovko,F. Schlegel:Transzendentalphilosophie

221 B. Dö bert,L. H. Ehrlich, R. Wisser (Hrsg.):

Karl Jaspers Today

223 A. Pažanin,L. Siep: P raktische , Philosophieim Deutschen Idealismus


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Croatian Philosophy (I)

Editorial

Philosophy manifests itself as a thoughtfully interlaced, phenomenon which is simultaneously denoted as individual and universal. Thus its manifestation in some historical period also carries a sign o f concreteness, which is im-

pressed upon it by the spiritual medium o f a determined nation in whom it appears. Philosophy, through a millenia o f cultural history, certainly played a key role in shaping the spiritual substance and national selfconsciousness o f

specific European nations. One should not forget what their universities and, in the first order, chairs o f philosophy meant for the German nation and their

specific idealistic world philosophy, what the critical spirit o f the philosophy of the Enlightenment meant for the French, or for the consciousness o f the

English who manifested their distinctive cultural selfsubstantiality in the em-

piricist consideration of the world, and what, for all this together, signifies the

spiritual foundation of Occidental thinking situated in the Mediterranean at-mosphere o f the thoughtful encounter of Jewish, Greek and Roman wisdom,

from which emerged the spirit o f Christianity and the Western metaphysical tradition. As a conscious cultural spirit, philosophy, is - according to thewords of Croatian thinker Franjo Marković - that inspiration which animatesand directs the ideals of a people’s being towards a communal goal, linkstogether and leads towards progression. It is a formative power, which theculture of a nation, expressed in the objective creations of art and science,in social and political relationships gives a specific, characteristic appearance.As the expression of national self-consciousness, it is the principle of self -

creativity, through which a nation becomes an accountable factor in the societyof mankind and an active collaborator in the history of humanity.1

In the history o f philosophy concepts such as Greek, Roman or Jewish philosophy became general signs with recognizable contents. Speaking on world history, Hegel taking into consideration the essential differences and incommensurability o f the paradigms o f the Western and Eastern traditions spoke of Indian, Chinese and Persian philosophy. During the Middle Ages there existed the legitimate expression Arabic philosophy. From the universal tradition o f Christian philosophy, there branched out in the modem age those

great philosophical traditions which Hegel reduced under the common

denominator o f Germanic philosophies: English (Scottish), French and German philosophy. Here, he proceeds from a very pointed assumption, which he takes from his Eurocentric concept o f the history o f philosophy, namely

iCfr. Albert Bazala, Filozofijski portret Franje

Markovića , Zagreb, 1974, p. 16.


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that there exists only two philosophies: »Greek and Germanic« A controver- sial question, however, is asked in relation to this interpretative model: what o f Spanish, Italian philosophy or the philosophy o f the Scandinavian peoples who completely stand outside this framework? A particular problem for a

survey o f the history of philosophy is the appearance of the traditions o f Rus-

sian, American or Latin American philosophy. The pinnacle o f this problem is the question relating to all those philosophical traditions of small nations,

such as Hungarian, Polish, Austrian, Czech or even Croatian philosophy. Is the syntagm Croatian philosophy at all philosophically legitimate?

Without any pretensions here to enter deeply into the argumentation on the place o f Croatian philosophy and its significance for European thought, I wish only to mention that the thematic block on Croatian philosophy origi-nated in the guidelines of endeavour of the journal Synthesis philosophica,

which promotes and presents different philosophical traditions and the estab-lishment o f dialogue between them. Thus, up till now, in issues 7 and 8 were

published a block on Chinese philosophy, and in issue 11 a block on philo-

sophy in Latin America, while in preparation for following issues are thematic blocks on Russian, Japanese and Jewish philosophy. With this purpose in mind, here, under the common title o f Croatian philosophy, are offered a

selection o f texts on the problematics o f the history o f Croatian philosophy and its individual representatives.

Together with an introductory exposition of the selection o f articles for this thematic block, it is worthwhile to mention that up till how there does hot exist one exstensive survey o f the history of Croatian philosophy. Due to par-

ticular reasons, a treatment o f this thematic was not desirable for a certain period time. Thus, to this days, as a factographic review o f the history of Croatian philosophy, the renowned encyclopedial article o f Kruno Krstić remains significant, published in 1943, which is here offered in German trans-lation, printed later in reworked versions and Used for years as a point o f departure for the research o f Croatian philosophy. Prior to this, at the very beginning of the thematic block, is inserted the text by Franjo Marković, from 1881, Philosophical Writers of Croatian Origin on the Other Side of Velebitfrom the 15th to the 18th Centuries, which is certainly outdated with respect to today's state o f research. However, we include it here because o f its

programatical importance and turningpoint role in stimulating research of the Croatian philosophical heritage in the previous century and in this century.

More significant research in Croatia began during the seventies o f the twentieth century. In this framework, the significant developmental point was the sym-

posium of the Croatian Philosophical Society during the heated year o f1968, under the title Hrvatska filozofija u prošlosti i sadašnjosti (Croatian Philosophy in the Past and Present), which polarized Croatian philosophical circles to their extremes. On one side, the spokespersons for studying the history

o f Croatian philosophy (Kruno Krstić, Vladimir Filipović, Zlatko Posavac and others) expounded arguments for the need for research and actualizing the reflective achievements and works of more or less forgotten or neglected Croatian philosophers, while on the other side were stressed objections that this deals with an archivistic endeavour which is reduced to registering data

from the past and »selfinfatuation which springs from the ethnicity o f some names from expirated centuries«?


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In the background o f that controversy, however, is also conducted a more deeper theoretical controversy on the relation to national tradition in general and that which is supra-national Namely, during the same year in Zagreb was held a symposium and a thematic block was published in the journal Praxis under the title »National, International, Universal«, where the

spokespersons o f the construction o f a new socialist culture give primacy to the sphere o f the supra-national as a specific link in which the elements o f national and universal are dialectically imbued. Emphasising that the major danger to contemporary cultural development lies in the insistance on the autonomy o f national cultures with the argumentation that this »leads only to their weakening and decline to the provincial level«, the editors o f Praxis

see a solution in the construction o f not only internationalism, but also, above all else, in the creation o f a supra-national cosmopolitan humanism. The incarnation o f this sort o f supranational structure which makes possible cos-

mopolitan humanism is for them precisely the multinational Yugoslavia, and therefore their major endeavour was oriented to the construction o f a generalYugoslav culture. Here, in such an endeavour to construct a supranational Yugoslav model o f culture also layed, altogether immodest, the ambition to offer the world a real solution for overcoming international conflicts: »Onl y by going out more and more into the international plan, Yugoslav culture can

successfully resolve some o f its most acute ’internal’ problems. And only in this way can we also contribute so that contemporary international dissen-

sions are overcome on a worldwide scale, not only by means o f true inter-nationalism, but also supranational cosmopolitan humanism.«

However, now in full swing of historical changes, which accelerates towards the end o f the twentieth century, in similar conditions in which it originated at the beginning o f the century, Yugoslavia as an exemplary supranational

formation disappeared, as did the ’new socialist culture’. Thus, liberated o f supranational restraints, especially during the past several years in Croatia, there has branched out research of one’s own spiritual heritage, which in the Croatian nationalcultural realization and which conceals universal spiritual value.

To end, it is altogether worthwhile to mention that this selection o f texts does not provide a complete survey o f research into Croatian philosophy. However, in this selection are included some more important treatises which enable a more rounded picture of research into the history of Croatian philosophy. On the other hand, this thematic block includes articles written by more than one

generation o f researchers o f Croatian philosophy. This means that there can be found authors who dedicated the major part o f their philosophical engage-

ments to this thematic, as well as younger authors who have just commenced

2 4G. W. F. Hegel, Werke, Theorie-Werkausgabe, Praxis 4/1967, pp. 542-543. The introductory

Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M., vol. 18, p. 131. text and contributions were already printed

earlier in issue 3/1967 of the same journal,

3 under the pointed title »Yugoslav Culture«.

Only last year was an anthology of texts from See also Praxis 4/1968 where texts from the

this symposium published, which was edited symposium »National, International, Univer-

by Zlatko Posavac, Hrvatska fi lozofija u pro š - losti i sadašnjosti. Zbomik iz 1968. godine,Croatian Philosophical Society, Zagreb, 1992, p. 9. See a review of this anthology in Synthesis philosophica 16.


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to treat some aspects o f Croatian philosophy systematically. Therefore, this selection is in some way not only a thematic section o f the history o f Croatian philosophy, but also a presentation o f researchers.

In the continuation will be designated short notes on the authors and texts and their previous publications (where necessary) in the Croatian language,

so that, mainly for earlier original texts, one will have in view a presentation o f the state o f research in the period in which they originated

Pavo Barišić

croatian philosophy (i) - pavo barisic

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