Roczniki Filozoficzne

Volume 12, Issue 1, 1964

Types of Philosophy

The author presents a systematic and synthetic typology of the various conceptions of philosophy. Philosophy is given here a fairly wide meaning, i. e. as the knowledge tending to the final (deepest) explanation of the whole universe, but in its fundamental aspects. The typification proceeds as follows: first, large divisions are determined among the different conceptions of philosophy, then, within these frames, such conceptions are pointed out as are the most representative models of each particular approach to philosophy. The types chosen are those that possess the best the most characteristic features of the group considered. The distinction between the particular types and groups of types has been made according to the following principles: 1) Epistemological viewpoint (including the relation of philosophy to apriorism and empiricism, as well as to rationalism and irrationalism) 2) The attitude of philosophy towards other kinds of knowledge (especially towards scientific and religious knowledge, and to the Weltanschauung and wisdom) 3) The definition itself of the proper object and aim of philosophy (and, consequently, of the methods of philosophical cognition). The author suggests the following concrete syslematics of the conceptions of philosophy distinguished: I. Extra-rational philosophy (not subject to empirical and rational intersubjec- tive determinability): 1. The contemplation, akin to aesthetic and religious, of the deepest nature of the world and of the sense of human life. 2. Extra-scientific specific knowledge of the most essential truths, a) philosophy as wisdom, Weltanschauung; b) Conceptions such as W. James's, H. Bergson's,* c) Conceptions such as W. Dilthey's. G. Simmel's; II. Speculative (a priori, constructive) philosophy: 1. Theory of the relationship between ideas: a) Plato's dialectics; b) Conceptions of the German idealists. 2. Theory of the development of the ideas: a) Neoplatonic ideas; b) Hegel's conception. 3. Formal theory of objects: a) Theory of a priori determined contents, b) ontological hypothetic-deductive interpretation of logical calculus (e. g. H. Scholz). III. Classical philosophy: 1. Conception of ,,essential" philosophy (theory ol the essence of things): a) Conceptions of Aristotle, Duns Scot, Chr. Wolff...; b) Phenomenology. 2. Conception of existential philosophy (theory of being). 3. Neo-scholastic conceptions (of the type represented by the Louvain School). IV. Scientific philosophy: 1. Synthesis completing the results of Sciences, achieved through the creative intuition of the philosopher (e. g. in Brentano, Jeans, Eddington, Cawecki). 2. Inductive generalisation of sciences: a) Marxist ideas; b) positivistic ideas. 3. Philosophy as system of sciences: a) e. g. in Descartes, b) e. g. in cyclopaedic approaches to philosophy. V. Philosophy as meta-knowledge: 1. Meta-science: a) logico-critical science of sciences (Mill, neo-positivists), b) epistemology (some analytical schools). 3. Interpretation of extra-scientific knowledge: a) history and theory of philosophical problematics, b) rational explanation of religio-theological questions.