Poland, philosophy in

2. The modern period

Owing to lively contacts with Italian centres of learning, the beginnings of Renaissance humanism were evident in Poland as early as the first half of the fifteenth century (see Humanism, Renaissance). Early humanism was characterized primarily by its literary character. The writings of Aristotle continued to be the basic texts in philosophical education in Poland. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, however, a renewed interest in ancient texts became widespread, and teaching and commentaries on Aristotle began to change noticeably. At the University of Cracow, Renaissance Aristotelianism prevailed under the influence of Jan Schilling (d. 1518) and Grzegorz za Stawiszyna (d. 1540) who both sought to explain Aristotle using Aristotle himself rather than scholastic commentary.

Humanism brought a philosophical method different from that of scholasticism, based on a broad range of ancient texts. Philosophy was now primarily regarded as an instrument for perfecting individuals as citizens and thus for perfecting society. The works of Erasmus of Rotterdam played a significant role in this process. However, the eclecticism of Renaissance philosophy became prevalent at the University of Cracow from the end of the second half of the sixteenth century (this model also dominated in the first fifty years of the influential Zamość Academy from its foundation in 1595). The curriculum began to incorporate a broader spectrum of ancient writings, including Plato, the Stoics, the Neoplatonists and St Augustine. Cicero was especially popular.

While particular emphasis was placed on practical disciplines, the most interesting results were achieved in logic. In his Commentariorum Artis Dialecticae (1563), for example, Jakub Górski (d. 1585) examines Stoic dialectics in conjunction with Aristotle’s logic, closely connecting logic and rhetoric. He discusses proofs with the help of probability arguments, limiting the discussion, however, to the most well-established proofs. Adam Burski (d. 1611) offers a rich anthology of ancient texts from the history of logic in his Dialectica Ciceronis (1604). It expounds on ancient dialectics, comparing and contrasting the logic of the Stoics with that of Aristotle.

The spirit of the Reformation, both positive and negative, prevailed in the extensive social and political writings which started in the 1540s. These were characterized by the fusing of religious and the political ideas. Republican and democratic currents of thought were decisively dominant, and the ideology of an absolute monarchy had few or no representatives in sixteenth-century Poland. Of the numerous political writers at this time, two expressed their views in the context of broader philosophical theories. Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (d. circa 1572) was the author of the foundational work De Republica Emendanda (1551–4) which contained proposals for the reform of social customs, the law, the church, education and the army. Although a proponent of strong monarchy, he subordinated royal power to the rule of law, advocating that the king should be chosen by representatives of all classes. He proposed the creation of a criminal code which was to be binding on all and stressed the values of Christianity, while striving for union between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. The resulting united Polish Church he envisaged as dependent on the king and on an ecumenical council which would exercise supreme power. Modrzewski’s works were translated into several languages. In contrast to this his contemporary, Stanisław Orzechowski (d. 1566), identified Polish national traditions with Catholicism and stressed the importance of the clergy and the superiority of their way of life, thus inaugurating the Counter-Reformation in Polish political writing.

Poland was not unaffected by the rebirth of Thomism (and, to a lesser extent, Scotist philosophy) throughout Europe in the second half of the sixteenth century which was closely connected to the post-Tridentine reform movement in the Roman Catholic Church. At the turn of the seventeenth century, the Dominican and the Jesuit models of Thomistic philosophy as a commentary on Aristotle had become prevalent all over Europe. The former model, cultivated at the University of Cracow and the Zamość Academy, stressed the necessity of remaining faithful to the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, while the latter followed Suárez in emphasizing the need to update them, and was endorsed at the Jesuit-run Vilnius Academy. The Franciscans, meanwhile, philosophized in the spirit of John Duns Scotus.

A new dimension was added with the advent of Protestant Aristotelianism – Protestants did not have their own university in Poland, although they operated five schools where the level and range of philosophy taught was not fundamentally different from their university counterparts. (The Czech philosopher Comenius taught at one such school in Leszno from 1628 to 1656.) Political philosophy in the seventeenth century generally followed the republican-democratic trends of the previous century. However, absolute monarchy was advocated in some quarters.

The first half of the eighteenth century saw a continuation of the Scholastic Aristotelianism of the Dominicans and opposition to modern theories by figures such as Jerzy Gengel (d. 1730) and Adam Malczewski (d. 1754). By mid-century, however, characteristic perspectives of Enlightenment philosophy (the so-called philosophia reccentiorum) had penetrated Poland, primarily from Germany and Italy. This connected certain threads of Aristotelian philosophy with selections from Descartes, Gassendi, Locke, Newton and Leibniz. Epistemological and methodological concerns were primarily taken up in logic, limiting and sometimes even eliminating formal logic. Questions about world view (Weltanschauung) were prominent in metaphysics, while the teaching of natural law developed in ethics (see Natural law). The duty of taking part in social and political life was emphasized, as well as the essential role of Christianity in forming an authentic moral culture. Aristotelian philosophy of nature was limited or even abandoned in favour of the modern natural sciences. As the evolution and development of the Polish Enlightenment was carried out by the Catholic clergy, especially the religious orders and to a lesser extent the Protestant clergy, the typical anti-religious tendencies did not feature initially. By the end of the century, however, French and English influences had seeped through to inspire a more radical Enlightenment programme of rationalism, empiricism and naturalism (see Enlightenment, Continental).